Article: Elon Musk Offers To Buy Twitter

[Reality]

 

[CyberB0b]

Also, I'm skeptical you're going to see massive change. Left unchecked, Twitter would be an even bigger cesspool and users would likely tune out. He's supposedly going to crack down on bots, which would be a positive but I don't think he's just going to open the platform for anything and everything. There are certainly things that don't need two sides, and don't even need one side. Advocating violence shouldn't get a pass and I would love to see people that dox others be removed for good.

Unfortunately, the marketplace of ideas where the cream rises to the top hasn’t really worked. We’ll see how that plays out. On the bot front, they’ll end up charging micro transactions for different roles. Something like a $1 fee to be able to post replies. Small cost for a legitimate user, and really expensive for a spam operation.

 

[triplets_93]

After Elon takes over, I predict, some Twitter "heads are gonna roll..."

 

[shabazz]

The more I hear, the more I think I’ll ultimately just stop using Twitter altogether.

……I was just thinking that I now may have reason to join!

 

[WoodysGirl]

I'm on twitter to follow sports news and random entertainment. As long as that's still popping, it'll stay good for me.

 

[Reality]

These made me laugh ..

 

[speedkilz88]

 

[Reality]

 

[Reality]

When a tweet poll goes very different than you expect ..

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

“Matters vital to the future of humanity” are not hotly debated on Twitter. Theories/opinions are pushed without meaningful dialogue in 140 character snipes. And when did to town square settle anything other than opposing sides yelling at each other? Maybe Elon changes the platform dramatically, so it remains to be seen.

The problem isn’t necessarily Twitter, it’s the uneducated people that use it who are swayed by uninformed opinions that didn’t have this sort of platform before the advent of social media.

 

[Doomsday]

People should be celebrating the fact that he wants to make the algorithm public so there is transparency.

That is a lot more than we will ever get from Google/YouTube, Facebook, etc.

 

[Hoofbite]

People should be celebrating the fact that he wants to make the algorithm public so there is transparency.

That is a lot more than we will ever get from Google/YouTube, Facebook, etc.

That's provided you can even understand the algorithm as it's presented. Translating code to everyday verbiage isn't exactly easy, and when you factor in the reality that people don't really care if it doesn't impact them, it's probably wasted effort.

I wonder how much "free speech" will come into play when Tesla employees start throwing around the word "union" on Twitter.

 

[RJ_MacReady]

Copium levels are still pretty high, it seems.

 

[Reality]

People should be celebrating the fact that he wants to make the algorithm public so there is transparency.

That is a lot more than we will ever get from Google/YouTube, Facebook, etc.

The problem is the word "algorithm" is thrown around like its a super secret formula when it comes to tech.

In reality, there are few true algorithms and instead, the casual word "algorithm" being regularly mentioned simply refers to "how the system works".

I mention this to point out that revealing the algorithm (or code) itself is unlikely to explain or divulge anything of importance, because an algorithm or source code is only as good as the data it collects, uses and/or learns from.

For example, imagine if the police were told "a man with green hair robbed a bank". You might think "very few people have green hair, we just need to look for anyone with green hair in the area."

However, now let's say at the same time of the bank robbery, there was a punk rock concert in town and hundreds of people attending had green hair. Suddenly, that "system" for finding the bad guy is no longer viable.

The problem with the systems that sites use to auto-moderate or at least auto-flag-content-for-review is they are only as good or bad as the data it has access to and the number of datapoints it has to check.

The other, and more significant flaw in moderation algorithms is they can be heavily influenced by intentionally or mistakenly entered configuration data.

For example, let's say I setup CowboysZone to trigger moderation checks for the word "homer". My intention may only be to have the staff look at any post with the word "homer" because sometimes posts with that reference in them are part of personal insults or attacks. However, suddenly a discussion about "Homer" from The Simpsons starts triggering moderation requirements as well as any mention of anyone named Homer or even lighthearted self-labeling use such as "we have our homer favortism".

Now, your first thought may be, "Any moderator who looks at a post about Homer Simpson would know it's okay", but you would be wrong. A site like Twitter has many different moderators as well as many different levels of moderators including many who have likely been told if they approve something that is later removed, it will impact their performance review. What do you think those moderators are going to think and do? They are going to think, "The system would not have flagged it if it was okay and it is better to be safe than sorry so I will confirm the post deletion and user warning."

I posted all of this to say that sharing algorithms, even open sourcing them, is pointless. What they need to share is what content they are censoring and why they are doing it.

 

[nobody]

When a tweet poll goes very different than you expect ..

While ending world hunger would be fantastic, it's unlikely to ever occur because of all of the corruption. Literal tons of food and other supplies are shipped to poor countries which then get confiscated by corrupt governments or groups and not distributed like it was intended. Even the richest man in the world is powerless against that level of d-baggery.

 

[DoctorChicken]

We’ll see how much Elon cares about free speech when people are saying perfectly legal things that paint him in a negative light, of which there are plenty to say. Elon has thrown plenty of hissy fits in the past.

 

[nobody]

We’ll see how much Elon cares about free speech when people are saying perfectly legal things that paint him in a negative light, of which there are plenty to say. Elon has thrown plenty of hissy fits in the past.

It'll be interesting to see for sure.

 

[Captain-Crash]

maybe he can buy the Cowboys too.

 

[dsturgeon]

It should work out well for Twitter. Tesla sold 30,000 more cars from one year to the next and somehow turned it into around 8billion more in profits. It seems like money is getting funneled through space x much like how amazon was going bankrupt until they got all the government and cia cloud server etc contracts, and then they were able to take off to take over the world.

 

[dsturgeon]

Blackrock Inc, State Street Corp, and Vanguard group own twitter along with a large part of everything. I think Vangaurd is the top shareholder in twitter. I have not done the research but I bet 1 or all 3 of those investment groups are heavily invested or the majority owners of all of Musks ventures.

If you research those companies it is astounding the control and power they have over everything, and they are the major shareholders in each other companies, and so on. It is a deep rabbit hole. I their worth is far into the trillions.

It is not only businesses and major corporations, but I believe blackrock is buying up large amounts of real estate including housing and whole house divisions all over the US.