Two weeks ago, Elon Musk made an offer to “buy Twitter,” or rather, become the majority shareholder of Twitter, a public company. He offered $43 billion of his Ponzi-scheme’d money and Twitter was like “lol, probably not but we’ll think about it.” They thought about it and decided to f–king sell Twitter to Elon Musk, a complete loon, for $44 billion.
Twitter’s board has accepted an offer from billionaire Elon Musk to buy the social media company and take it private, the company announced Monday. The stock closed up 5.64% for the day after it was halted for the news.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement included in the press release announcing the $44 billion deal. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
The cash deal at $54.20 per share is valued at around $44 billion, according to the press release. Twitter will become a private company once the deal is complete.
Keep this in mind: at first, Twitter offered him a seat on the board with one of the few preconditions being “he’s got to pass a background check.” Elon withdrew from the offer of a board seat and then just bought Twitter outright. Did he ever pass a background check? Would he pass one?
So, yeah, basically the only social media platform I use on a daily basis is now a private playground for some billionaire douchebag. I expect he will allow all of the Nazis to come back (many of them never left) and I also expect to see the troll bot farms ramp up even harder than before. I’ll likely still stay on Twitter because of work, but yeah… this is a kick in the nards. Musk Twitter is going to suck so hard.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.
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- USA Rights Only, Berlin, Germany – 20191112- Elon Musk poses for pictures as he arrives at the Das Goldene Lenkrad award ceremony. -PICTURED: Elon Musk -PHOTO by: Steffens/DDP/INSTARimages.com -ddp_11431749 This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded
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- Elon Reeve Musk Auto Build – THE GOLDEN STEERING WHEEL – Main Reception – Berlin – 12.11.2019,Image: 540924644, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: AndreasSuhrU / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- (200107) — SHANGHAI, Jan. 7, 2020 () — Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 7, 2020. U.S. electric carmaker Tesla officially launched its China-made Model Y program in its Shanghai gigafactory Tuesday, one year after the company broke ground on its first overseas plant. The first batch of China-produced Model 3 sedans was also delivered to its non-employee customers at an opening ceremony for the program. (/Ding Ting),Image: 562871736, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS excluding China – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Ding Ting / Avalon
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- (FILE) Elon Musk acquires 1,200+ ventilators from China to help alleviate coronavirus COVID-19 shortage. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has acquired a trove of ventilators from China and shipped them to the U.S. for distribution to hospitals in need during the coronavirus. BEVERLY HILLS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – FEBRUARY 22: Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, Inc. and SpaceX Elon Musk arrives at the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 22, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 563994638, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- 01 December 2020, Berlin: Elon Musk, head of the space company SpaceX and Tesla CEO, comes to the Axel Springer Award ceremony. Musk will accept this year’s Axel Springer Award.,Image: 572867757, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Britta Pedersen / DPA Picture Alliance / Avalon
It will become the safe space for incels, transphobes, homophobes, Nazis, and misogynists. He will run it into the ground. I took a break from Twitter and will continue to do so. It was already a dangerous environment for black women and will just get worse.
The racists are already calling Musk African-American, knowing full well that designation is uniquely and solely reserved for Black American descendants of chattel slavery. And they do this to traumatize Black Americans further, wounding an already attacked and wounded people whose identities they erased, stole, and co-opted, in that order. Musk is a South-African American, if anything, and barely human at that.
He’s a pro-Aparthied baby whose wealth was founded on exploitation of Blacks. No hero.
Guessing he’s the new Peter Thiel
Beautifully said ThatsNotOkay.
I left. We all should. Another social media platform will swoop in and it won’t skip a beat. Twitter will turn into parlor and I’m over it.
Agreed. I’m already deleting my account, which is more difficult than anticipated.
It will be a sh1tshow in no time. I am looking forward to whatever is gonna be its replacement.
Yes, same! I deactivated my account, but it was not easy to find that functionality. They made it really tough. That always feels so shady, when they purposely make it hard to figure out how to leave or cancel something.
Counter Social or “Coso” is a terrific alternative and lots of us are moving there!
I opened an account on Counter Social yesterday, as 1000s did, crashing their system off and on all day, but I’ll stay on Twitter to see how it goes. At least the deal will take the rest of the year to complete, so (in theory) the coconuts can’t use it to f*ck up the midterms. 🤞🏼 More than the hostile, crazy environment Musk is likely to create on Twitter, I fear the use/misuse of all the user data that he can sell or manipulate. Canceling your Twitter account doesn’t delete your data, but it will prevent you from accessing it. So, before doing so, use the Twitter archive function to keep a copy of your own data.
Hadn’t thought about selling user data. That’s why he is willing to authenticate everyone.
Unfortunately Counter Social is owned by a George Zimmerman groupie who is super MAGA so probably not a great space either. I will stay for now but yes I expect Twitter 2 will pop up soon
C-Shell
Thanks for the tip off on CS! I did delete my twitter and removed the app with permissions. I never allowed my bday and used a throwaway email that is do with all apps to reduce junk mail. Whatever data is left says I’m an 88 year old with a different ethnicity and country so they can take that and sell it.
@Liz Version 700 – I saw a tweet by the Counter Social owner admitting that he used to be a Fox News junkie and MAGA but that changed a few years ago. He’s a Bot Sentinel investor and Christopher Bouzy has stood up for him claiming he’s not racist. I’m still not sure what to make of it though.
The found of Counter Social has said that he has grown since he posted his thoughts on Zimmerman and no longer holds the same views. Not saying he’s an angel but he has acknowledged that it was problematic.
I have a Counter.social account, for a little while now. It’s my escape hatch now from Twitter, where I still maintain an account – for now. One thing I’ve noticed is that the interactions on coso social are much nicer. The guy who runs it is pretty serious about keeping out the trolls and russian bots. It’s kind of fun when someone tries to go after his network and he diverts their attempts to Mossad to foul them up right back.
If the sale closes, I’ll be right behind you.
👆🏻THIS. Stop using the platform. There is a reason why the other platforms started by right wingers have all failed. It is because normal thoughtful people are the ones who make Twitter a success. When normal people are missing there is no interest with the MAGA crowd. They want to create chaos and bully. When people don’t make themselves available MAGA only have others like themselves to interact with. I am 52 years old. There was a time before twitter and there will be a time after twitter. We should be the ones to pull the plug in its importance. Do to Twitter what the Robinhood investors did to the hedge funds with GameStop
I’m staying. We can’t cede ground to Nazis, but I do understand if folks don’t feel safe. If they start charging, I will go. But FYI, Counter Social’s honcho is a George Zimmerman supporter. So while the deal has been reached for the Twitter sale, it isn’t done. There’s always hope Elon screws it up or backs out. It isn’t a good deal for him, but he is also fundamentally stupid. And don’t forget that even if you delete your account, they still have your data. It doesn’t go with you.
Wasn’t it Reddit investors? Not Robinhood? I believe robinhood actually banned trading of GameStop.
I agree. If enough people deactivate, then the deal might even fall through. Elon is depending on $25 billion dollars of loans, but if enough people leave, it brings into question whether lenders will get return on investment.
The block button is critical to whether I stay there or not in the near future. Also, if that infantile billionaire tries to make everyone pay or lets loose the hounds of hell on that site, I’ll likely bail out.
I also deleted my account.
I still remember when people thought K-mart and Sears were to big to fail. Twitter can go the way of myspace and I hope it does. I’m sick of these rich white men that borrow more than they have and then file for bankruptcy when they get in too deep. When Trump was in office I would say to my MAGA family that Trump is the biggest Welfare queen that ever lived. We spend far too much in taxes bailing out billionaires with giant egos and it is so frustrating.
Deleting my account right now. I’m so done with these bored billionaires who should not exist.
Musk is the poster child for why billionaires should not exist.
That is so disappointing and i am closing my account
I deactivated my Twitter account back in January (a decision I feel has improved my quality of life, lol) so the first glimmer I got of the sale was when my email started buzzing me about people following my Mastodon account, which I haven’t touched since 2018. I was so confused, but then when I saw a news alert it all made sense.
People are already trying to re-establish their communities on a different platform, and I hope they succeed (but I suspect they won’t – at least, not on Mastodon).
I am part of the #RecoveryPosse community on Twitter (for recovering alcoholics) and most of us are moving to Counter Social!
I love Spotify premium too much to stand on my beliefs and cancel it in the face of Bro Rogan but I’ll be good and got dammned If I let this herb get one second of my time. Immediately deleted Twitter. Keep your flaming Voldemort cars and fly yourself directly into the sun, thanks.
I have tweeps who are staying, and tweeps who are leaving. I get both decisions. But I read it won’t even be official for about 6 months. I’m staying unless the times comes that it gets bad enough for me to leave. I’ll see what happens. It’s never been a utopia for black women, let’s face it. How much worse can it get? Well we’ll see. I personally believe it poses a larger threat to democracy. I can block liberally, and I always have. I don’t have a large enough account to have to worry about doxxing and real life threats. But if the nazis currently active in our country are permitted to overrun the place, it will pose a greater threat to democracy.
I would argue any presence or association with a threat to democracy or a haven to hateful groups is bad. You’re still accessing the app and that supports the business that supports the hate groups. I also believe blocking does nothing because the messages will get into your feed some way as it will be the majority or what brings people in.
I’m not hanging around until it affects me in a negative way. Because it will. Trump will return with the rest. There will be no restrictions.
I’ve had one foot out the door for a while now. A tried apps to limit my use. Didn’t work. I deleted my app from my phone. Helped a little bit I just logged into the desktop version. I checked in less but I still would check it the moment I woke up and before I went to bed. It was like drinking a cup of shit laced stress to start the day. Of course there was lots to make me laugh but the negatives outweighed the positive. Hand down terrible for my mental health. And productivity.
The fact that right wing loons were cheering this acquisition, expecting Trump to return, laughing at “woke tears”…I couldn’t bear it. I have zero faith that any changes Elon makes will improve shit. I fully expect it to de-evolve even further into a complete cesspit. A new circle of hell Dante’s Inferno never anticipated.
Long story short, it was the final kick in the pants to get me to deactivate. 30 days until it permanently deletes!
Didn’t Trump just say he wouldn’t return no matter who owns it? Of course, he says a lot of things.
Psssh! Trump will be back the second he’s allowed to be. He won’t be able to resist it.
Pfft! The one thing you can completely trust about Trump is that he’s a liar. He’ll be back on first thing.
Yes! I have given up on social media sadly. Twitter was already full of aggressive trolls, although it had some beautiful moments too.
“It was like drinking a cup of shit laced stress to start the day.“ — perfect description
How does one person taking over like a dictatorship equal increased freedom?
I lost a lot of followers yesterday, as did many others, so it seems the mass exodus has begun.
Elon is just such a slimy character that one can only assume he will ruin this platform and/or turn it into a ponzi scheme somehow. Just like the social media graveyards of yore, Twitter will be replaced by something new and better in due time, and I hope it costs this DB billions!
Is Jack Dorsey ok with this !?
Oh yeah. Reports say he’s making a billion dollars on this sale. He tweeted that he finds Musk is going to “extend the light of consciousness”.
A billion dollars makes you talk like that. Garble.
I heard that Jack is on the Board and it was a unanimous decision. I have to say I will probably leave when he gains ownership. I left Facebook and haven’t looked back.
So, buying Twitter, and at that price, is not financially sound. It’s a bad deal for Musk. It’s very clear that he’s buying it to mine the data, and to use as his personal propaganda tool. See the difference in Trump’s influence during and post-Twitter and you will understand how powerful that will be.
An amoral man, the wealthiest in the world, with one of the most powerful communications tools in the world under his absolute control. What could go wrong?
I’ve moved to Coso, or Counter Social. It’s great so far!
Wow! Another day, another big win for the .01%! Congrats, Elon…Epstein’s looking down smiling on ya, bud!
^^^Comments like this are what was great about Twitter. I want to retweet “Epstein’s smiling down on you”! Instead maybe I’ll just use it in a conversation today. Sorry I can’t really credit you but thanks for it!!
Of course, go ahead. The more people deriding this the better. The .01% are exploitative psychopaths, only in solidarity with themselves and their interests, and a common scourge on humanity. Billionaires should not exist.
I’m reducing my usage on that app and hope to be done with it personally by June. It was already a hellscape but it will be even more toxic.
My opinion?
Why do the worlds wealthiest humans spend huge amounts of money but rarely do humanitarian services with the cash?
Mackenzie Bezos (The very good hearted Ex-Mrs. Jeff Bezos) sorry, I’m not certain that is her current or correct name, is the rare exception.
Yachts, huge multiple mansions, etc. Clooney, Oprah, Mark Cuban, anyone with a net worth of $50+million.
Now Musk has spent a dollar amount I can not get my head around, to own Twitter.
Maybe, solve the world hunger problem, or clean up the planet, or advance medical care, or, or, IDK, pick one!
Musk got bank loans to pay for Twitter. He didn’t outright pay with his own cash. You make great points, but to rich White men, poverty and world hunger don’t matter. Free speech is way more important !
Except free speech in the U.S. isn’t even remotely in danger. Faux News has convinced the uneducated that consequences equal oppression, but I have yet to hear of anyone being persecuted by the government for exercising their freedom to speak out against the government. I don’t know how well the South African billionaire understands this, but providing a platform for hate speech that encourages violence against members of our society isn’t protected by the Constitution.
This is also untrue. Elon Musk does not care about free speech. He terrorizes people who disagree with him.
Elon is not a good person. Hope everyone leaves Twitter
I think Musk is a tax-dodging smarmy asshole. But I think the Board thing was not about the background check. I am wholly confident that he has had to pass those at some point.
I think he didn’t want to join the Board because that would have prevented him from buying more stock. That’s a decision motivated by business.
I agree that Musk’s decision not to join the Twitter board was probably not based on the background check, but I don’t think it was just a business decision about the stock. If he became a member of the board he couldn’t badmouth Twitter or post Hitler memes, and acting like an emotionally stunted seventh grader is clearly what he enjoys most. If he owns the platform outright he has no responsibility to anyone else and no need to moderate his behavior.
Musk is basically Veruca Salt with less charm.
This makes me so angry. Twitter was my favorite sm platform. First Wordle and now this.
Poor Twitter employees.
I suppose most of them are remote at this point, so it probably won’t be a big issue for SF based employees when he relocates the HQ to Texas, but we know he’s not a big fan of worker’s rights in general.
I know it’s futile, but Twitter is not a “de facto town square” and it doesn’t have anything to do with free speech. It drives me insane that every news org just credibly repeats that BS rationale. This is a huge part of why we have the problems we do; words mean something and we shouldn’t just accept it when people make specious arguments based on a willful misunderstanding of basic concepts.
Also Musk really doesn’t seem to have matured past his preteen years. It seems like his primary goal in life is just to annoy other people. Backup goal is to live out his edgelord fantasy. He bought Twitter’s shares for 54.20 apiece. (Not even a good joke – the 420 reference is obscured by the 5. Plus ooooh a 420 reference, how edgy. /s) He’s a ridiculous man whose claim to fame is mostly BS. He bought Tesla and the “founder” title. Just like Cult45, he’s a charlatan.
I’ll stay, at least for a little while. I don’t necessarily trust that this deal is actually going to go through. Besides, I deleted my Facebook this year (lots of people talking about moving to Insta like Zuckerberg isn’t evil too) so I want to keep some amount of connectivity.
This is a huge part of why we have the problems we do; words mean something and we shouldn’t just accept it when people make specious arguments based on a willful misunderstanding of basic concepts.
💯💯💯💯💯💯
Everyone reading this has the power to not use Twitter anymore. Yes, you.
exactly
So Twitter will become another “Chan.” Chitter? Chatter? MuskaTwitter?
He joked about buying Facebook next and deleting it lol. I doubt that would happen, but hey did anyone think he’d be able to buy Twitter?
Remember when this country had anti-monopoly laws?
At this point I am thrilled that some racist mod kicked me off the twatter for having the screen name “TooManyKarens” back in 2020.
Isn’t this a pre-emptive move so that when Trump runs again his Tweeting rights can’t be revoked?
Yes.
Wouldn’t be the first time a platform is mass-abandonned.
Ell, guess I’m leaving Twitter. Not that I used it much! Many people are commenting that finally there will be freedom of speech and that Trump’s account can be activated again. Sad world we’re witnessing these days… Or maybe it was always like this, we just didn’t see it dlir didn’t want to see it…
By “enhance” does he mean “destroy?” I’m just wondering because English in different countries can have different meanings (remember how William was “bored” with racism and Americans had a fit about it)?
The problem with any digital media or platform is that, while it is an alternate reality, in reality, it has to as closely MATCH reality as possible.
News must be sourced and cited and credible; photos shouldn’t be all shopped; and speech shouldn’t be unchecked.
That’s right I said it– also in REALITY, you can NOT just walk around harassing people, yelling hate, telling lies and being racist, sexist etc without CONSEQUENCES but also not without CHECKS (be it a wiser person, a fist, a police officer, or your employer etc).
Like it or not, we have social customs, courtesy, manners and all kinds of restrictions on our behaviors and our speech even to the point of laws and legal punishments if you cross a boundary. Because we cannot function in a mass of millions of people without some sort of order in place.
The internet, as much as we’d like it to represent a utopia of human liberty and innovation, will never be better than the human product that it is– filled with human weakness and human evil tendencies.
As such, it is just another reality, coded into algorithms and as such, it should always be held up to the same standards as reality.
“Can you say this to anyone’s face and not get punched or arrested?” is the litmus test and no amount of “but free speech!” is gonna change the reality of the necessity of civil decorum. We already have people getting arrests, restraining orders, getting fired, getting divorced, and punches to the eye for acting the fool in reality. The internet should (and can) be no different.
Several years ago I lasted less than a week on Facebook. I realized that it often made me unhappy and it definitely affected my stress level. Since then I sometimes visit Twitter to see specific things and I have read Celebitchy for years. I will now leave Twitter because I’m pretty sure it will stress me out and make me unhappy. But I’ll stick here! I love Celebitchy for many reasons, one of which is that it got me through the Trump years. The photo choices alone are another reason, along with the quick action on trolls. We may have more bad weather ahead, but these writers will be ready for it!
To quote an anonymous black woman yesterday, “ain’t no white dude forcing me to leave Twitter!” If this sale goes through, and that’s a big if, our voices are needed to counter the other side. I’ll stay. My feed is curated so I don’t get the idiots. I also don’t engage dumb folks. I block or mute them.