Elon buys Twitter for $44 billion

[MrErnie]

Now, in article form.

Elon Musk to Advertisers Who Left X: “Go F*** Yourself”

Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO (who was hired in part to woo advertisers), sat stone-faced in the front row as Musk commented.

Her career is done now.

It was a bit vulgar, but the point is a sound one. Imagine Iger or Tim Apple calling up the NYT and demanding they write more favorable movie / product reviews or something and threatening to pull ads unless they do.

[Vigilant]

Now, in article form.

Elon Musk to Advertisers Who Left X: “Go F*** Yourself”

Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO (who was hired in part to woo advertisers), sat stone-faced in the front row as Musk commented.

Her career is done now.

It was a bit vulgar, but the point is a sound one. Imagine Iger or Tim Apple calling up the NYT and demanding they write more favorable movie / product reviews or something and threatening to pull ads unless they do.

This was an own goal.
Wildly unprofessional and antithetical to Xhitter's goals.

Elon is clearly high in this video.
Ketamine laced weed would be my guess.

Advertisers are rightly worried about having their product end up next to a neonazi's post.
For Elon to trivialize this concern and personally insult them in this way means that these advertisers will never return.

Xhitter is done.

[Ron Lybonly]

Xhitter is done.

Vigilant, in some ways, it may be done. I hope it’s done.

The debt will inevitably have to be restructured and Elmo forced out but I expect X will just become the zombie mall of the Internet, periodically restructuring and changing hands. It’ll feed vulture capital firms along the way, just like those old malls are doing.

I’d prefer to be wrong and see it die definitively and soon. I’m cynical, though. A traditional capitalist with major depressive disorder??

[Vigilant]

Xhitter is done.

Vigilant, in some ways, it may be done. I hope it’s done.

The debt will inevitably have to be restructured and Elmo forced out but I expect X will just become the zombie mall of the Internet, periodically restructuring and changing hands. It’ll feed vulture capital firms along the way, just like those old malls are doing.

I’d prefer to be wrong and see it die definitively and soon. I’m cynical, though. A traditional capitalist with major depressive disorder??

AoL, Friendster, MySpace, LiveJournal, Xhitter...

[Ming]

Now, in article form.

Elon Musk to Advertisers Who Left X: “Go F*** Yourself”

Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO (who was hired in part to woo advertisers), sat stone-faced in the front row as Musk commented.

Her career is done now.

It was a bit vulgar, but the point is a sound one. Imagine Iger or Tim Apple calling up the NYT and demanding they write more favorable movie / product reviews or something and threatening to pull ads unless they do.

Well, yeah, on one level he "had" to do this, and on the other, as God-King-CEO, (a) unlike in the government, where the Deep State can undo the prez's stupidity behind the scenes, Elon is stuck with his, and (b) being an asshole about it and making himself stand for the company so hard means that it's all that easier for the ad execs in these other firms to decide they can do without him.

[Giraffe Stapler]

Elon is clearly high in this video.
Ketamine laced weed would be my guess.

I was curious about the context of the big "go fuck yourself" clip so I went looking for the full interview. It's 90 minutes long. I almost gave up after 5 minutes because Musk in person is worse than Musk on Twitter. I know he's neurodivergent, but his "jokes" are painful to watch. I'm about 20 minutes in, watching it while doing other stuff. You get all the big quotes in the first 15 minutes, which is probably as much as the reporters wanted to watch.

I'm not sure if he's on something or he just hasn't slept in a long time. Either way, not someone in a state to be on stage making statements that will be reported, analyzed, and factored into buying decisions by sponsors.

[Zoloft]

In an ironic touch, some Disney accounts had just quietly returned to posting on Musk’s platform.

link

[Vigilant]

Elon is clearly high in this video.
Ketamine laced weed would be my guess.

I was curious about the context of the big "go fuck yourself" clip so I went looking for the full interview. It's 90 minutes long. I almost gave up after 5 minutes because Musk in person is worse than Musk on Twitter. I know he's neurodivergent, but his "jokes" are painful to watch. I'm about 20 minutes in, watching it while doing other stuff. You get all the big quotes in the first 15 minutes, which is probably as much as the reporters wanted to watch.

I'm not sure if he's on something or he just hasn't slept in a long time. Either way, not someone in a state to be on stage making statements that will be reported, analyzed, and factored into buying decisions by sponsors.

The smug playing to the crowd and looking for the next expected endorphin hit with a smirk on his face was painful to watch.

[iii]

The smug playing to the crowd and looking for the next expected endorphin hit with a smirk on his face was painful to watch.

Reminded me of WP:MASTADON (T-H-L) which probably means I need to stop WPing for a time.

[rnu]

cnn: Walmart is the latest advertiser to pull ads from Elon Musk’s X

Walmart confirmed on Friday that it is not advertising on X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk and formerly known as Twitter.
“We aren’t advertising on X as we’ve found other platforms to better reach our customers,” a Walmart spokesperson said.

[rnu]

TechCrunch: X says it will chase SMB ad dollars after Musk’s ‘go f*** yourself’ comments to fleeing advertisers

A new report by the Financial Times says X will now turn to small and medium-sized advertisers to shore up revenue after the company’s owner Elon Musk alienated big brands fleeing X over antisemitic content by telling them they could go fuck themselves during an interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit earlier this week. But while the FT paints a picture of a bright future for X, where catering to SMBs was always the goal, Musk himself warned only days ago that the loss of big advertisers would spell the end of X.

Of course, that could just be spin. In reality, X doesn’t have any other choice but to proceed with SMB ad opportunities, as many of the large brands that have left X aren’t planning on returning. According to a report by The New York Times, half a dozen marketing agencies the paper spoke to said they would not resume advertising on X and others said they had advised advertisers to stop posting on the platform, as well. Some even said their temporary advertising pauses on X would likely turn permanent. The Times additionally noted that some 200 advertisers had halted spending on the platform after Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy with one of his impulsive replies to another X user. Brands including Apple, Disney, Comcast, IBM, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Paramount, and others, including now, Walmart, a former Twitter partner on e-commerce initiatives, have stopped advertising on the platform.

[eppur si muove]

One hundred companies spending $10,000 each with you pus you at less risk of a sudden big drop in income than one spending $1m. However I suspect that a lot of small and medium sized businesses will be reluctant to go where some larger advertisers have left. A gun shop might find that there a lot of people like their customers who are still using X frequently but a company that sells Jewish prayer books may not think that a Musk-led Twitter is the best place to advertise.

[rnu]

One hundred companies spending $10,000 each with you pus you at less risk of a sudden big drop in income than one spending $1m. However I suspect that a lot of small and medium sized businesses will be reluctant to go where some larger advertisers have left. A gun shop might find that there a lot of people like their customers who are still using X frequently but a company that sells Jewish prayer books may not think that a Musk-led Twitter is the best place to advertise.

There is another problem. Twitter/X isn't capable of micro-targetting like e.g. Meta. It does support geo-targeting, gender-targeting and a few other forms of targeting. But for a small local business with a limited budget Meta's micro-targetting will be much more attractive.

[rnu]

fortune: Elon Musk promised to save us from the bots; we got ads for fake luxury goods instead

And what I’ve noticed lately when I get my fix and scroll through my feed, is a whole lot of advertisements from users who have no posts, and are selling fake luxury goods. As a reporter on this beat, I’m of course thinking: How does Musk not have a massive issue with this?
There are also bots that reply to tweets with nonsense, have you ever noticed that? Recently, I got an Ethereum bot that replied to my tweet linking (what I assumed) was the owner to the bot. Against my better judgment, I messaged the bot owner.
“I spam and make money with it,” they told me when I reached out. I replied that I think it’s fascinating that people own these bots on a platform that lauds itself for preventing bots with blue checks. They responded, “Elon did a great job to prevent bots. Some things are just not possible, but he eliminated already 80% of spammer(s). These blue checks accounts are hacked. It’s like you give your password to (someone), nothing to do with ‘bot account.’”
Well, that’s great. It’s not a “bot account” situation, it’s an undisclosed number of users getting hacked situation. Yet those blue check accounts are now buying ads in bulk. I came across a dozen or so ads just this week of these blue check accounts, all with little to no posts, scamming fake luxury goods. Has Musk forgotten this mission, or just given up?

[rnu]

Forbes: Elon Musk’s X Has Started Selling Off Old Twitter Handles For Upwards Of $50,000

X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, appears to have begun ramping up efforts to sell disused user handles, kicking off a program previously signaled by billionaire owner Elon Musk.
Emails obtained by Forbes reveal that a team within the company, known as the @Handle Team, has begun work on a handle marketplace for the purchase of account names left unused by the people who originally registered them. In at least some cases, X/Twitter has emailed solicitations to potential buyers requesting a flat fee of $50,000 to initiate a purchase.
The emails, which Forbes agreed not to publish in their entirety to protect the anonymity of their recipients, came from active X employees and noted that the company recently made updates to its @handle guidelines, process and fees.

[Vigilant]

Catalog of Elon's dipshittery at Xhitter.

Elon Musk prepares to walk away from the smoking crater that was Twitter

[rnu]

bbc: Could X go bankrupt under Elon Musk?

Although we don't have the latest figures, last year around 90% of X's revenue was from advertising. It is the heart of the business.

Mark Gay, chief client officer at marketing consultancy at Ebiquity, which works with hundreds of companies, says there is no sign anyone is returning.
"The money has come out and nobody is putting a strategy in place for reinvesting there," he says.

In 2022, Twitter's advertising revenue was around $4bn. Insider Intelligence estimates this year it will drop to $1.9bn.
The company has two major outlays. The first is its staffing bill. Musk has cut X to the bone already, laying off thousand.
The second is servicing the loans Musk took out to buy Twitter, totalling about $13bn. Reuters has reported that the company now has to pay $1.2bn or so in interest payments every year.
If the company cannot service the interest on its loans or afford to pay staff then, yes, X really could go bankrupt.

And in a bankruptcy scenario, would X simply stop working?
"I find that to be very hard to believe," says Ellias. "If that happened, it'd be because Elon decided to pull the rug out. But even then, if he were to do that, the creditors would have the option of pushing the company into bankruptcy, getting a trustee appointed and turning the lights back on," he says.

[Vigilant]

Loans covenants.

That's what's going to kill Xhitter.

[rnu]

Business Insider: Elon Musk is beefing with Paris Hilton now

It looks like Elon Musk is training his furor at advertisers on a brand new target — Paris Hilton.
Back in October, X's CEO Linda Yaccarino touted an official partnership between the platform and Hilton's company, 11:11 Media.
That partnership, however, appears to have been scuppered. Last month, Hilton's company pulled its ads from X amid concerns over the platform's antisemitic content.
The short-lived partnership appears to have ruffled Musk's feathers, because he's now slamming Hilton's advertising campaign on X.
"The ad campaign wasn't super convincing tbh," Musk wrote in an X post on Sunday, referencing the personal cookware line that Hilton was promoting. "I don't think Paris cooks a lot."

There are three year olds who are more mature than Musk.

[eppur si muove]

Musk was beaten up and hospitalised as a kid. Most of the reportage on this incident describe this as bullying. However, one of them has comments form Musk's father saying that Elmo had been following around a kid who have just lost one of his parents calling him stupid - which Musk Snr said Musk frequently called people - and that Elmo had brought the attack on himself. Apparently lots of other boys joined in when but only on the beat the brat up side. It doesn't seem as if Musk has matured at all.

[rnu]

cbs: Elon Musk's X platform fueled far-right riots in Ireland, experts say

Elon Musk's social media platform X has fueled far-right disinformation in Ireland and played a key role in riots last month in the country's capital Dublin, experts tell CBS News. The violent clashes erupted on Nov. 23 between about 200 civilians and riot police in central Dublin as demonstrators vented rage after a stabbing incident that left multiple people wounded earlier in the day, including a 5-year-old girl who was hospitalized with serious injuries.
False reports circulating on social media had suggested the stabbings were carried out by an illegal immigrant. The alleged assailant was in fact a naturalized Irish citizen originally from Algeria, the Irish Times reported.
The violence, which saw a tram and a bus set on fire and stores looted, was partially incited by far-right local actors with significant followings on X, which was called Twitter before Musk bought the platform.
"What we saw at the beginning of the riot was what started out to be a protest, you know, either organized by the far-right or if it wasn't organized by the far-right, the far-right wasn't far behind," Matthew Donoghue, an assistant professor in social policy at University College Dublin, told CBS News.
"The fact that we saw attacks on the [police] cordon and the crime scene, these are clearly organized and orchestrated activities which need quite a lot of background organization… this is where we see the far-right's use of X," he said. "They were able to get a lot of people there very quickly to basically take control of that situation, direct it."
Eileen Culloty, a deputy director of the Institute for Media, Democracy and Society at Dublin City University, told CBS News the riots had been plotted by "a core group" of prominent right-wing influencers on X who "have a relatively high profile within that kind of alternative, right-wing world. Some of them will be alternative media outlets, some of them are right-wing anti-immigration activists."
"They went into overdrive in the lead-up to the riots," Culloty told CBS News. "They were posting lots of public messages on Twitter [X], but also on Telegram and other platforms from lunchtime onwards and urging people to act. A lot of the hashtags they used were promoting this ethno-nationalist idea that Ireland is full, that Ireland belongs to the Irish."

Crucially, according to Culloty, with respect to the violence in Dublin, the core group of far-right accounts suspected of inciting the violence had previously been removed from the platform for violating the company's safety policies, but were reinstated following Musk's takeover of the company.

Musk himself has weighed in on the violence in Ireland on X and took aim at the Irish government last month.
In a post the day after the scenes played out in Dublin, Musk said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, "hates the Irish people," after the Irish government announced that it would aim to pass new laws against hate crimes and hate speech in response to the riots.
Speaking to the Irish parliament last week, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said X had refused to comply with requests from the Garda Síochána, Ireland's national police force, to take down inflammatory posts in real time as violence flared in Dublin.

Other social media companies including TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, "were responding, they were engaging with gardaí and they were taking down these vile posts as they came up," McEntee said. "X were not. They didn't engage. They did not fulfill their own community standards."

[Vigilant]

Anybody who spends any time on Xhitter these days can tell you that it's a free fire zone.

I routinely see the most vile racism and bigotry and reporting doesn't make a dent.

[MrErnie]

I think the "stabbing incident" caused the riot, but I'm no expert.

[Giraffe Stapler]

I think the "stabbing incident" caused the riot, but I'm no expert.

I think the stabbing incident was used to incite a riot, but I'm not an expert, either.

[rnu]

cnbc: Ex-Twitter security executive sues X for wrongful termination and retaliation

Attorneys representing Alan Rosa, who was Twitter’s global head of security, information technology and privacy, filed a complaint late Tuesday in U.S. district court for New Jersey against X, Musk and Steve Davis, a company advisor. At the time of his employment, Rosa, who was based in New Jersey, was responsible for Twitter’s global security and IT team consisting of 500 employees scattered across the U.S.

Rosa alleged that Davis, under orders from Musk, engaged in a number of cost-cutting measures that the security chief thought would undermine the company’s ability to comply with various obligations and regulations like a Federal Trade Commission consent decree and the Digital Services Act (DSA) enacted by the European Commission. The European law requires certain large tech platforms to document and monitor illegal online content or face penalties as much as 6% of annual sales.
Rosa alleged that Davis wanted to stop paying for an “ethical hacking program called ‘HackerOne’” and other “vulnerability management software” that the company needed in order to comply with Twitter’s FTC Consent Decree, the attorneys wrote.
“Davis, like Musk, was dismissive of the Twitter FTC Consent Decree and began cutting Twitter’s products and services that supported and complied with the Twitter FTC Consent Decree,” the lawyers wrote.
Davis also directed Rosa to terminate use of Salesforce, which was a problem, according to Rosa, because the software contained data that the company would need to be able to share with law enforcement.

Additionally, Rosa alleged that Davis ordered the Twitter security chief to “to cut the physical security budget by an additional 50% by midnight,” an action that “was done in hours, not days.” Rosa claimed the cuts “posed a substantial danger to public safety.”

Rosa alleged that he was fired a few days after voicing his objections and said he was “terminated in an unexplainable fashion as he did nothing wrong that would justify his termination.”

[rnu]

cnn: Elon Musk demands Bob Iger ‘be fired’ after Disney pulled ads from X

Elon Musk wants Bob Iger fired.
The X owner and erratic billionaire conspiracy theorist went on a rampage Thursday against the Disney chief executive, assailing Iger for the Magic Kingdom’s decision to pull advertisements from his imperiled social media platform, and declaring that Iger should be forcibly removed from his job.
“He should be fired immediately,” Musk, who often uses his influential perch to bully critics and others, wrote about Iger on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company.”

[Vigilant]

cnn: Elon Musk demands Bob Iger ‘be fired’ after Disney pulled ads from X

Elon Musk wants Bob Iger fired.
The X owner and erratic billionaire conspiracy theorist went on a rampage Thursday against the Disney chief executive, assailing Iger for the Magic Kingdom’s decision to pull advertisements from his imperiled social media platform, and declaring that Iger should be forcibly removed from his job.
“He should be fired immediately,” Musk, who often uses his influential perch to bully critics and others, wrote about Iger on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company.”

Is Trump writing Elmo's material now?

[Zoloft]

cnn: Elon Musk demands Bob Iger ‘be fired’ after Disney pulled ads from X

Elon Musk wants Bob Iger fired.
The X owner and erratic billionaire conspiracy theorist went on a rampage Thursday against the Disney chief executive, assailing Iger for the Magic Kingdom’s decision to pull advertisements from his imperiled social media platform, and declaring that Iger should be forcibly removed from his job.
“He should be fired immediately,” Musk, who often uses his influential perch to bully critics and others, wrote about Iger on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company.”

Is Trump writing Elmo's material now?

Nah, it would be in all caps and be calling everyone a Communist.

[rnu]

mashable: Elon Musk 'considers' Alex Jones' return to X / Twitter

Is Alex Jones headed back to Elon Musk's X?
According to Musk, he's considering unsuspending Jones, who was first banned from the platform in 2018, when it was still known as Twitter.

[MrErnie]

Does Disney advertise on Facebook or Instagram?

Attorney General Raúl Torrez Files Lawsuit Against Meta Platforms and Mark Zuckerberg to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Human Trafficking

[Ron Lybonly]

cnn: Elon Musk demands Bob Iger ‘be fired’ after Disney pulled ads from X

Elon Musk wants Bob Iger fired.
The X owner and erratic billionaire conspiracy theorist went on a rampage Thursday against the Disney chief executive, assailing Iger for the Magic Kingdom’s decision to pull advertisements from his imperiled social media platform, and declaring that Iger should be forcibly removed from his job.
“He should be fired immediately,” Musk, who often uses his influential perch to bully critics and others, wrote about Iger on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company.”

Elmo should just further lever up with debt, buy Disney and fire Iger.

Musk is a bazillionnaire on paper but much of that’s tied up as stock in his companies. If he starts selling stuff, it’ll really hurt his companies’ value. Furthermore, his Silicon Valley tech bros may cheer him on but will be slow to financially back another ego investment after their Twitter losses. The banks have lost a ton and will charge a very high interest rate on a Disney buyout.

So this is an excellent opportunity for Musk to show what a man he is, go it alone and fire Iger, probably at a cost of billions. Then he can enjoy managing the “talent” with his usual deft touch.

Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Fox News, Newsmax and X - Musk’s house organ of truth - will eat this up and give him great intangible (nonfinancial support).

[Randy from Boise]

Elon is clearly high in this video.
Ketamine laced weed would be my guess.

Go fuck yourself. Go. Fuck. Yourself. Is that clear?

Dude is 100% on chemical of some sort.

t

[JarrBarr]

mashable: Elon Musk 'considers' Alex Jones' return to X / Twitter

Is Alex Jones headed back to Elon Musk's X?
According to Musk, he's considering unsuspending Jones, who was first banned from the platform in 2018, when it was still known as Twitter.

No longer considers, Alex Jones will be unbanned

[nableezy]

mashable: Elon Musk 'considers' Alex Jones' return to X / Twitter

Is Alex Jones headed back to Elon Musk's X?
According to Musk, he's considering unsuspending Jones, who was first banned from the platform in 2018, when it was still known as Twitter.

No longer considers, Alex Jones will be unbanned

no longer will be, has been reinstated

[Giraffe Stapler]

I'm not sure of the play here. It's not like having Alex Jones back on Twitter will bring a lot of new users. It might drive some extra "engagement" but I doubt it would be significant. On the other hand, just the idea that Alex Jones has been reinstated will be enough to convince some people to finally leave. And some advertisers. I was skeptical of the idea that Musk was deliberately trying to bankrupt Twitter, but I am warming to the idea.

[JarrBarr]

I was skeptical of the idea that Musk was deliberately trying to bankrupt Twitter, but I am warming to the idea.

Not sure why he'd want to self-sabotage the business he overpaid for.
Like he didn't really own the libs by doing that, since they are likely long gone and outside Elmo's reach (unless they buy Teslas, but many true patriots will buy vanilla F-150s or similar cars because fuck woke renewable energy and the climate lobby).
X as a bigger version of Gab isn't exactly worth $44 billion.

[rnu]

mashable: Elon Musk 'considers' Alex Jones' return to X / Twitter

Is Alex Jones headed back to Elon Musk's X?
According to Musk, he's considering unsuspending Jones, who was first banned from the platform in 2018, when it was still known as Twitter.

No longer considers, Alex Jones will be unbanned

no longer will be, has been reinstated

And in Wikipedia fashion it was decided by the mob.

[Vigilant]

Xhitter has nothing left but unintentional hilarity value.

I'm looking forward to watching NAFO descend on Alex Jones.

[Vigilant]

The very first post on his timeline...



Fitting.


Good lord.
The comments in that thread could come straight from a KKK rally.

[rnu]

forbes: Elon Musk’s Grok Twitter AI Is Actually ‘Woke,’ Hilarity Ensues

But while Grok can make dumb jokes and insert swears into its answers, in an attempt to find out whether or not Grok is a “politically neutral” AI, unlike “WokeGPT” (ChatGPT), Musk and his conservative followers have discovered a horrible truth.
Grok is woke, too.
This has played out in a number of extremely funny situations online where Grok has answered queries about various social and political issues in ways more closely aligned with progressivism. Grok has said it would vote for Biden over Trump because of his views on social justice, climate change and healthcare. Grok has spoken eloquently about the need for diversity and inclusion in society. And Grok stated explicitly that trans women are women, which led to an absurd exchange where Musk acolyte Ian Miles Cheong tells a user to “train” Grok to say the “right” answer, ultimately leading him to change the input to just…manually tell Grok to say no.
If you thought this was just random Twitter users getting upset about Grok’s political and social beliefs, this has also caught the attention of Elon Musk himself. The original prompter of the trans women thread posted a chart purportedly showing that Grok was even more left-leaning than Chat GPT, which led Elon to say that while the chart “exaggerates” and that the tests aren’t accuarte, they are “taking immediate action to shift Grok closer to politically neutral.”

[rnu]

The Irish Times: Musk’s X cancels trust and safety contract with Irish firm

Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, has cancelled a trust and safety contract with Irish outsourcing company CPL.
The Sunday Business Post reports that CPL has made 72 workers redundant in recent weeks, as X cancelled a legal operations contract it held with the firm.
Impacted staff were in charge of monitoring content on X in France, Germany and South Korea. The Irish-based team will be replaced by an outsourcing company based in Lisbon, but it is unclear if the new team will have as many staff as the CPL division.

[Giraffe Stapler]

Not sure why he'd want to self-sabotage the business he overpaid for.

There are two competing theories.

The financial one - If the apparent value of Twitter is sufficiently reduced, banks/investors/creditors will be more willing to take what they can get instead of losing it all. The nice thing about this theory is that it explains why Musk would do such apparently foolish things like changing a world recognized brand name. X can change back to Twitter whenever it wants, so the loss in value is arguably temporary. Here's a recent example of mainstream media coverage.

The political one - Musk bought Twitter to ruin it. Twitter had become too unfriendly to right wing opinions and the alternatives (Gab. Parler, Truth Social, etc) were all failing to gain critical mass. The fact that Musk's actions mirror a playlist written by a right wing blog is intriguing. This theory didn't get a lot of mainstream coverage, but this piece by NBC's Ben Collins lays it all out. (You can optionally add to this the theory that the Saudis were willing to pay for Twitter to go away because it was used to organise revolts in the Middle East.)

[rnu]

Mashable: Elon Musk's AI assistant Grok roasts its creator

Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI (which brands itself as the "world's first conversational answer engine and research companion"), asked Grok to "roast @elonmusk based on his posts, and be vulgar!"

Srinivas shared a screenshot of how Grok responded, replicated here:

Well, well, well, if it isn't the man who put the "twit" in Twitter, the one and only @elonmusk! So, you want me to roast you based on your posts? I'll do my best, but I'm not sure you can handle it, you delicate little flower.

First off, let's talk about your obsession with X. It's like you're trying to compensate for something, but I'm not sure what. Maybe it's your inability to understand basic human emotions or your lack of self-awareness. Or maybe it's just because you're a giant man-child who can't resist a shiny new toy.

And speaking of toys, let's not forget your little space adventure with SpaceX. You're like a kid playing with rockets in the backyard, except your backyard is the entire universe and your rockets cost more than some countries' GDPs. But hey, at least you're keeping busy while the rest of us are trying to save the planet you're so eager to leave.

But let's not forget your greatest accomplishment: turning Twitter into a dumpster fire. Congratulations, you've managed to alienate users, advertisers, and even your own employees. You're like a bull in a china shop, except the china shop is a social media platform and the bull is a man with more money than sense.

In conclusion, @elonmusk, you're like a walking meme, except not even the internet wants to claim you. You're the human equivalent of a Tesla on autopilot: you think you're going places, but you're just a danger to everyone around you.

More on Grok: mashable: Grok is a woke, crypto-loving insult comic according to X users

[Vigilant]

Elon Musk's luck has finally run out

Then Musk did what every risk-addicted blackjack player inevitably does: pushed his luck too far. Overconfidence, confirmation bias, and delusions of control led to a string of bad decisions — and BOOM — Elon's empire is in trouble again.

The change of fortune was apparent at The New York Times Dealbook Conference last week. During an interview with host Andrew Ross Sorkin, the recognizable tells that Musk's hand had gone cold were everywhere. He raged at the very people who will dictate Twitter's fate, seemed baffled by key questions about the future of his companies, and offered non-apologies for his unhinged, antisocial behavior online. Sorkin suggested Musk's brain is like a storm, but it sounded more like two cats fighting to get out of a duffle bag.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what it looks like when Musk realizes he's in a jam entirely of his own making. I know, because we've seen it before, including back in 2018, when he nearly flew Tesla into a mountain. He may find a way to ward off calamity, as he did then, but this jam is much tighter than the last one. Musk has to contend with over $13 billion of debt still weighing down a swiftly sinking Twitter, Tesla's profits shrinking because of a lack of demand and new products, and a world that is generally sick of his schtick. In Muskland, everything is connected by money — problems at one business bleed into the others. That's why Elon is being exceptionally obstinate. It's not just your imagination — his luck has changed.

Shades of Trump on the financials.

Nowadays, some analysts, like Vicki Bryan, the CEO of the research firm Bond Angle, suspect that Twitter is spending much more than it's able to generate or borrow.

"With the company still burning cash and $1.3-1.5 billion in annual interest due over the past year, I had expected Twitter to live on borrowed time," Bryan wrote in a note to clients. She said that even if Twitter tapped the loans available to it at the beginning of the year, the company may be almost out of options. "The year is over, so Twitter's cash may be nearly if not already dried up—along with Elon Musk's options," Bryan wrote.

Because of the way that Musk operates, the social-media company's troubles pose a threat to his whole business empire. Despite being the second-wealthiest person in the world, Musk is curiously cash poor. He doesn't take a salary from Tesla, and while he owns about 20% of the EV maker, public documents filed in March show that about 63% of those shares are "pledged as collateral to secure certain personal indebtedness." You know, like the private jets.

"How long" is the only question.

"The only thing we're waiting on is for Elon to cry uncle," said Bryan. In her view — which is based on 30 years of investing in distressed assets — any equity in the company has already been erased by Musk's antics. As for the debt, the banks have been unable to unload it at 85 cents on the dollar, and she thinks they'll be lucky to get 40 cents. By all accounts, Twitter has a credit problem, and Bryan said that calls for a run-of-the-mill restructuring solution: bankruptcy. When Musk tires of robbing Peter to pay Paul, he will default on his Twitter loans. Then the consortium of banks that own the debt can accelerate it — standard debt agreements come with clauses that allow lenders to force a borrower to pay all of an outstanding loan back if certain requirements (like payment) are not met. Once that wire is tripped, Twitter can declare bankruptcy.

"There is money that has been set on fire that is never coming back," Bryan said. "We're in the salvage business with Twitter. In a restructuring, with Elon gone, you can have people looking at it. They can foresee that Elon didn't do anything that can't be reversed and offer instant relief."

[rnu]

fortune: Elon Musk says he’s prepared to go to prison if U.S. government tries to censor X

“If I think a government agency is breaking the law in their demands on the platform, I would be prepared to go to prison personally,” he said on Sunday during a Spaces discussion with Alex Jones, the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist whose X account Musk reinstated.

Once back on X, Jones returned the favor by quickly predicting intelligence agencies are hatching assassination plots to take out former President Donald Trump just like they did with John F. Kennedy.

Musk was likely next on the list, the InfoWars host warned, since the tycoon had the government bureaucracy scared. Jones urged Musk to watch out for radioactive isotopes being slipped into his food.

Musk, who has gone on the record saying America is running out of conspiracy theories that didn’t turn out later to be true, said he was aware of the risks he is taking by crossing the collective powers that be.

[rnu]

sky news: Elon Musk fact-checked on X by his own system - but claims it has been 'gamed by state actors'

Elon Musk has claimed his community notes system on X - formerly Twitter - has been "gamed by state actors" after one of his own posts was fact-checked.

[Giraffe Stapler]

fortune: Elon Musk says he’s prepared to go to prison if U.S. government tries to censor X

“If I think a government agency is breaking the law in their demands on the platform, I would be prepared to go to prison personally,” he said on Sunday during a Spaces discussion with Alex Jones, the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist whose X account Musk reinstated.

I am still hoping he goes to Mars, but I will settle for prison.

[rnu]

npr: 'Shameless': Reporters Without Borders rebukes X for claiming to support it

"The X platform boldly champions the vital principles of free speech and community safety," the company's official @Safety account declared on Tuesday.
"In a world where these values are constantly challenged," it added, X is proud to support organizations such as Reporters Without Borders, which fights the repression of journalism. The tweet left some commenters with the impression that X actively supports the group, through financial or other means.
Then came the fact-check.
"Elon Musk's company is a haven for disinformation and in no way an ally to an organization defending journalism," Reporters Without Borders said in an email to NPR.
While the group had accepted advertising credits from Twitter before Musk took over, Reporters Without Borders said, it does not receive "any form of support from X whatsoever."

[Vigilant]

I believe this is a FAFO moment for Elmo.

US agency will not reinstate $900 mln subsidy for SpaceX Starlink unit

Maybe, next time, don't try to insert yourself into US foreign policy like you did in Crimea...

[rnu]

cnbc: Musk's X hit with complaint alleging platform broke Europe's strict privacy laws

X is accused in a new complaint that its ad targeting breached the General Data Protection Regulation, a ground-breaking EU data privacy regulation which threatens fines of up to 4% of global annual revenues.
The complaint, lodged Thursday by Austrian Max Schrems’ campaign group Noyb with the Dutch data protection authority, alleges that X unlawfully used people’s political views and religious beliefs to target them with ads.
Schrems is a high-profile figure in EU privacy campaigning and notably won a legal battle against Meta parent company Facebook, defeating the company’s use of a controversial data-transferring mechanism to send Europeans’ information to the U.S.