All the goings-on with Twitter

[ShiftyMutt]

Musk is just dangerous. Deranged and dangerous.

[John Q. Public]

The world's richest seventh-grader didn't want his airplane tracked so he made a rule that bans a whole lot of common activities.

• Flight tracker info
• The President's public schedule
• Notices and ads for public meetings, conferences and concerts
• Photos with location data not turned off
• The frickin' Santa Tracker
• Many more, I'm sure

[John Q. Public]

The United Nations has joined the European Union in condemning Twitter's decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm.

Reporters for the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post were among those locked out of their accounts.

The UN tweeted that media freedom is "not a toy" while the EU has threatened Twitter with sanctions.

~snip~

Earlier on Friday, EU commissioner Vera Jourova threatened Twitter with sanctions under Europe's new Digital Services Act which she said requires "the respect of media freedom and fundament rights".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63996061

The latest issue is that some reporters apparently retweeted a post that said he'd stopped at a gas station in S. Pasadena. Others had written articles critical of Musk. Around a dozen journalists and Keith Olbermann were banned.

[John Q. Public]

One of the banned reporters on Post.news

[John Q. Public]

Elon announces that "likes" and "blocks" by people with $8-a-month blue check marks will count more than those by regular users and those with actual, earned blue checks and reveals that "shadowbanning" might be an actual thing. But it's caused by users' bias and not Twitter's.

It seems that likes, blocks and re-tweets count in the algorithm's promoting and demoting users' posts. And, apparently there are a whole lot of people who've blocked Junior, Carlson and all their RWNJ friends. And the more people who block you, the less your tweets are weighted.

One caveat, though - it only happens on the default "Home" setting, on which the algorithm shows you posts it thinks you might want to see as well as posts by people you follow. It doesn't happen if you use the "Latest Posts" setting, which only shows you tweets and re-tweets by people you follow - and is the setting used by most people who don't want a bunch of uninteresting junk showing up in their feeds.

As with the morons who leave their "bad language" filter on and complain that they don't see tweets with bad language, it's a matter of not knowing how to use the site rather than some nefarious thing the site does.

[John Q. Public]

Musk, who banned journalists for supposedly "posting his assassination coordinates" posts his "assassination coordinates."

[John Q. Public]

Twitter bans linking to competitors (not unexpected), leaves Reddit, Tiktok and renowned internet powerhouse OCConnect off the list.

[John Q. Public]

I think the guys in the front are admiring their new trading card collections.

[Professor Fate]

Twitter bans linking to competitors (not unexpected), leaves Reddit, Tiktok and renowned internet powerhouse OCConnect off the list.

But did he make the link to OCConnect re-route users to Pornhub? Nah...nobody would be that petty, right?

[John Q. Public]

He should have.

[John Q. Public]

Either Tesla's Board or Elon's backers with the bone saws have spoken.

[John Q. Public]

Jesus! Tesla stock has dropped by more than Bitcoin has.

[John Q. Public]

Congratulations are in order!

[John Q. Public]

Consider this a plug for Post.news if you want, but they're doing something I've long thought was the best way to see that newspapers get paid for their work. Micropayments! You want to read an article, you pay for it instead of spending $100/year on a subscription to a paper in Ohio you have no use for.

The way it works sounds a little sketchy/crypto-y but the way I understand it, you get "points" for posting (which is also a good idea) and the news source can charge points to read its article. Each point is worth a penny. The only use I've seen of it so far was a Reuters article I could live without that they wanted 2 points to read. I'm not sure how those points translate to money in reporters' pockets but it sounds like a good start. The only thing paywalls have achieved has been to keep people from being informed.

[John Q. Public]

[John Q. Public]

I'm surprised you can do it, but blocking Elon seems to be a movement.

#BlockElon trending at #2 behind the Bucks-Celtics game.

[ventura]

Something I hope we could all get behind in our divided country. A message from a truly great man of impeccable integrity. People like Taibbi, Brand, and Greenwald are true liberals seeing the signs of the times and courageously warning us. And being canceled.

https://ronpaulinstitute.us6.list-manag ... 6b3df96a1d

[John Q. Public]

Okayyy....

[Wabash]

People like Taibbi, Brand, and Greenwald are true liberals seeing the signs of the times and courageously warning us. And being canceled.

What is a "true" liberal?

[ventura]

Yeah that wasn't very precise. "Liberal" in the context I was using it is being open minded and listening to different opinions. In the case of my link, giving serious consideration to Dr. Paul's fascism charge in connection with the Twitter deal.