Wingnut billionaire and maker of exploding cars Elon "Space Karen" Musk is getting desperate to get revenue and eyeballs for Twitter, which he has been driving into the ground. After walking away from a pledge to moderate content by appointing an advisory council, Musk's policies are causing hate speech purveyors and right wing conspiracy mongers back on the social media service. Now he's going a step further in offering "amnesty" to some of the worst of them, per the Associated Press:
"New Twitter owner Elon Musk said Thursday that he is granting 'amnesty' for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation.
The billionaire’s announcement came after he asked in a poll posted to his timeline to vote on reinstatements for accounts that have not 'broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.' The yes vote was 72%.
'The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,' Musk tweeted using a Latin phrase meaning 'the voice of the people, the voice of God.'" (our emphasis)
Great Caesar Musk has spoken in Latin again, no less! Let more deranged ruffians in, as long as they don't mock or criticize Caesar Musk!
"Musk used the same Latin phrase after posting a similar poll last last weekend before reinstating the account of former President Donald Trump, which Twitter had banned for encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Trump has said he won’t return to Twitter but has not deleted his account.
Such online polls are anything but scientific and can easily be influenced by bots." (our emphasis)
The fake bot polls and Musk's ruthless firing of staff and bullying others to leave, notably those who have monitored content for hate speech and bigotry, are having disturbing consequences:
"In the month since Musk took over Twitter, groups that monitor the platform for racist, anti-Semitic and other toxic speech say it’s been on the rise on the world’s de facto public square. That has included a surge in racist abuse of World Cup soccer players that Twitter is allegedly failing to act on.
The uptick in harmful content is in large part due to the disorder following Musk’s decision to lay off half the company’s 7,500-person workforce, fire top executives, and then institute a series of ultimatums that prompted hundreds more to quit. Also let go were an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation." (our emphasis)
Meanwhile, Tesla's value is imploding, having lost billions in market capitalization in the past year as he distractedly tinkers with his latest toy, which he seems perversely determined to break.
BONUS: Neither fish nor fowl, but foul --
Amazing how often “I am neither left nor right” is followed by someone revealing they are extremely far right pic.twitter.com/C2TjDMVFBL
— Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN (@JoshuaPHilll) November 25, 2022
I have a feeling that Twitter is going to feel irreplaceable for a while & then one morning we'll wake up & marvel at how quickly it was replaced. It'll be a pity for those of us who have spent many years building a community here. Super annoying in fact. But it's tech, Jake.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) November 25, 2022
(photo: Britta Pederson/AP)
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