I agree that Zuck was not in his dorm room thinking about manipulating politicians, but the NSA figured out a long time ago that IBM/MS/Google/FB/Twitter could do a huge part of their job for them.

FB was not flush with cash in its early days. It was competing against a myriad of firms as Social Media was evolving. I remember when I created my account and basically left MySpace. I also remember when FB stopped seeming to care about money and their business model. Everything pointed to a deal with the NSA. Need to build a new server farm close to a major internet node in a foreign country? Just do it, Mark!

Ever wonder how Twitter loses money just about every year but never goes out of business? Or how Alphabet can afford to let YouTube and many other products lose huge amounts of money? The list goes on.

Things are not always what they seem.

Cancel culture arrives in EF.

Seems they have not yet resolved that challenge.

I remember in the early days of Amazon how they returned a loss year after year.

There was even a joke that the domain amazon. com was going to be taken away from them and replaced by amazon.org because they were a non-profit.

The investors who put up with that so patiently must have had nerves of steel and faith in something that the rest of us didn't see.

But history proved them right and look how many people are saying, if only I had bought Amazon back then.

Wowsers! Never mind tech savvy, just deep pockets required! Sounds like Elon Musk is about to be announced as the new owner of Twitter. He stepped up his interest due to his concerns over freedom of speech and over censorship.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61215197

Never thought it would actually happen

Still, many comments on this thread saying Twitter is a private company that can do as it pleases. Still think the same?

Nothing to do with "cancel culture", but I believe we are at a point (long past actually) where social media needs to be regulated. Not for the issue of controlling content, but for the algorithms to spread it. And Musk is the last guy I want to be in control of companies like Twitter.

Regulation is going to happen anyway, wheels were set in motion when they banned Donald Trump. As I said at the time, with so much power you can't be removing world leaders without serious consequences. Behave like a publisher, get treated as a publisher. It'll be interesting to see how Elon Musk navigates what's coming.

The same situation as when we buy cars on credit, "the bank" is the real owner. I don't think government regulations will matter more than banker's "suggestions" to ensure cash flow to pay the debt. Being a bit of a cynic, I don't expect any government interference until a significant part of the debt is paid. US government is not going to do something that hurts the banks. So, if this is what's really happening...expect twitter to be managed by bankers. If Mr. Musk strays a bit too much from the agreed path, early debt payment is triggered, same as car loan/leasing

https://www.forbes.com/sites/derekba...h=16c9a7fc2213

PS. we'll find out how woke are bankers

Indeed, short term we shouldn't see too much change. Longer term though, who knows?

FWIW I think regulation is the worst way to go although it's an inevitability now, on the other hand I think tech censorship has gotten out of control and needs to be wound in.

Best solution would be for everyone to grow up and stop calling for anything and everything they don't agree with to be banned!

If Musk's bid is successful it will likely destroy Trump's social media venture "Truth Social" which was anyway struggling.

Stock tied to Donald Trump’s social media venture falls 18% after Twitter said to be nearing a deal with Musk

When it's about Mr. Musk oneself must ask: what is this guy pointing at in order to make me forget about X?

It seems this time X is the infamous 2018 tweet about Tesla being bought by Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. Since there seems to be no facts behind the tweet, the lie has interesting financial consequences. Text behind paywall, but audio available.

So, free speech and twitter are the least important here. Securities fraud is the real issue.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...?sref=iW3WrQuv

PS. I bet 2 beers Mr. Musk will try to buy a private settlement if the grip of the lawsuit gets tighter.

So, he has a new toy! First it was batteries. Then it was Mars. Then it was tunnels. now its..

And Matt Levine from Bloomberg is such a word whisperer

This is financial gossip and I love it, but I guess we should be talking about this somewhere else, not in the Cancel Culture thread. There you have it, Musk's advisers presented to lenders ideas on how twitter will be run after acquisition and how to boost revenue. Sorry, "free speech" is not something lenders care about.

https://www.bloomberg.com/account/ne...source=NLshare

I think free speech is a large part of what contributes to Twitters success. It remains the de facto town square where people of differing views can communicate (although as a debating tool it's not very good). It's the reason why competitors haven't been able to match Twitter. If Elon Musk rediscover what made Twitter a great platform in the first place then I think the profits could follow.

Two issues I see that stand in the way see regulation, for example the so called "Online Safety Bill" that is currently in preparation in the UK and that I completely oppose, which will limit the moderation controls that can be loosened.

Second is demographical, Twitter like Facebook is approaching 20 years old. Young people aren't particularly attracted to it, grannies and grandads use these platforms, they're not cool. I was on a flight recently and a young girl next to me spent almost the entire time editing together a TikTok video. With growth and regular users static, I wonder if this isn't the real reason Elon Musk was brought on board?

Seems this "free speech" will not be free in the financial sense

Google brought in $257 billion last year, Facebook brought in $117 billion — and Twitter did $5 billion.

I foresee some firings, including presumably the content moderation team, to improve the profitability plus some form of "pay to tweet" to increase the revenue.

As marton mentioned, regulating speech is quite profitable for google and facebook. Maybe free speech is what makes twitter yield lower revenue.

Also, twitter use is a problem in China. I'm waiting for the headlines of twitter sharing once again user data with Chinese police to crack down on opposition. Remember this:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53308582

Of course, Mr. Musk is a great businessman and sharing user data with authorities to gain access to the Chinese market would be an awesome deal. Imagine if twitter gains something by suppressing criticism to Chinese government around the world. Not sure how freedom fits on this, but cash flow is cash flow.

All above could the hallucinations of an alcoholic consultant, or simply because facebook tried it first. Publicly they failed, but looking at their yearly revenue and still generating revenue in China through some resellers/subsidiaries...maybe it worked.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38073949

Indeed, age is inevitable. If the 20 years old of facebook and twitter matter, the stereotypical 50+ YO divorced dad matters too.

facebook and tweeter skew male (~55%), but there's still some balance. Tesla is totally a sausage fest (~80% male customers). Now that you mentioned the young girl on your last flight, will Mr. Musk attract or show the door to her as customer? Because the guy is not going to shut up as the last twitter board/managers. Maybe that powerpoint Musk's advisers showed to bankers had 1 slide about "Mr. Musk will make an effort to not upset women".

Well, I'm enjoying the mud bath in the pig pen

Google and Facebook have more facets to their businesses though whereas Twitter remains broadly what it was when it was first launched.

I think the fact that Tech Giants were/are willing to entertain talks and deals with dictators with dreadful human rights records just highlights the hypocrisy in matters like the Trump ban.

Indeed, there is some grim satisfaction to be taken in watching some of the Twitter meltdowns of the past 24 hours!

The elephant in the room is that they left the accounts of outright terrorists open, including IS and Taliban.

Wake up at the back there! Regulation is more than inevitable, it is already in place.

The EU Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act which were politically approved in the last weeks go after social media companies’ moderation and safety policies.

looking at the people who are making such reactions seems to show just how necessary the move was!