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Cont: Musk buys Twitter II

To be fair I am also concerned. Concerned about how people with severe mental illness get so much attention yet don't get medical attention.
Is your concern for Elon Musk or Tucker Carlson or another cohort?

I am seeing everyone on X without pause. All NZ politicians past and present. I would have no idea what their stream of consciousness encourages them to emit without X.
 
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Is your concern for Elon Musk or Tucker Carlson or another cohort?

I am seeing everyone on X without pause. All NZ politicians past and present. I would have no idea what their stream of consciousness encourages them to emit without X.
What are you gibbering about now?
 
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The Problem is not that Musk Advocates Free Speech.
Problem is he is such a blatent hypocrite about it.
'"Free Speech For Me, Not For Thee" is very common nowdays. And sad to say, you find it all over the political spectrum.
 
The Problem is not that Musk Advocates Free Speech.
Problem is he is such a blatent hypocrite about it.
'"Free Speech For Me, Not For Thee" is very common nowdays. And sad to say, you find it all over the political spectrum.
So I see him making an honest attempt, but you see a dishonest attempt.
What is his number one offence in this?
I find it easier to take him at face value and read what interests me on the platform.
 
Because all you ever do is read things you already agree with. Your opinion is worthless.

He blocks speech he doesn't agree with but allows actual literal nazis to spread hate. While I don't disagree that Nazis should be allowed to talk provided they are not encouraging violence or spreading outright lies etc etc. but not if you are also blocking other people from speaking for saying things you don't like.
 
the way musk handled the turkish election censorship request is a pretty good place to start to examine his hypocrisy
 
the way musk handled the turkish election censorship request is a pretty good place to start to examine his hypocrisy

Another thing to consider when it comes to how much one values Free Speech is how one reacts to criticism of oneself.

Banning people for criticizing Musk, as has happened on Twitter, is one of the pretty clear signs that it's not actually Free Speech that Musk wants or supports, whatever facade he may put up. That kind of thing is actually pretty much the opposite of Free Speech. Similarly, Musk removing community notes from his profile because they kept demonstrating how full of **** a lot of the things he said are is a clear sign that he does not value Free Speech (or truth!).

It's certainly the easier path to just take a person at their word, in general, but choosing not to apply critical thinking is a very dangerous choice to make in general. Even moreso when there's lots of excellent reason to not take them at their word, as there is for Musk.

Samson, it's entirely fine to be pleased that Musk supports certain positions and beliefs that you hold. Please don't mistake that for him being some noble and righteous crusader who is trustworthy and honest and ignore the huge pile of evidence showing that he's not even remotely such.
 
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Another thing to consider when it comes to how much one values Free Speech is how one reacts to criticism of oneself.
It's natural for people to react badly to criticism of themselves, so I wouldn't be surprised if Musk broke his own rules in that regard. If so then he deserves to be called out on it. However that doesn't mean X is not achieving its goal of being a free speech platform.

Banning people for criticizing Musk, as has happened on Twitter,
Forgive me, I'm lazy. Can you provide examples of these people who are banned for criticizing Musk?
 
It's natural for people to react badly to criticism of themselves, so I wouldn't be surprised if Musk broke his own rules in that regard. If so then he deserves to be called out on it. However that doesn't mean X is not achieving its goal of being a free speech platform.

That's a strange distinction to try to draw? Twitter served better as a free speech platform before Musk. That Musk hasn't removed free speech from it entirely isn't some grand defense for how pro-free speech Musk is. The structural changes Musk's made, from all the screwing around with checkmarks, limiting access to tweets, the various mass firings, and so on undermine its ability to serve as a free speech platform far, far more than unbanning a few unrepentant people that broke the rules will ever make it better for free speech. Financially running Twitter into bankruptcy isn't somehow protecting its ability to promote free speech, either.

Forgive me, I'm lazy. Can you provide examples of these people who are banned for criticizing Musk?

As a mitigating factor, they've mostly been temporary bans.

Elon Musk Accused Of ‘Silencing His Critics’ As X Suspends Journalists

If one were quite biased in favor of doing so, you could buy the "It was an accident!" excuse, even if that would suggest that X is having some rather serious problems. It's not really something new, though.

Twitter Bans Accounts Mocking ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk

More could likely be said, but meh.
 
That's a strange distinction to try to draw? Twitter served better as a free speech platform before Musk. That Musk hasn't removed free speech from it entirely isn't some grand defense for how pro-free speech Musk is. The structural changes Musk's made, from all the screwing around with checkmarks, limiting access to tweets, the various mass firings, and so on undermine its ability to serve as a free speech platform far, far more than unbanning a few unrepentant people that broke the rules will ever make it better for free speech. Financially running Twitter into bankruptcy isn't somehow protecting its ability to promote free speech, either.



As a mitigating factor, they've mostly been temporary bans.

Elon Musk Accused Of ‘Silencing His Critics’ As X Suspends Journalists

If one were quite biased in favor of doing so, you could buy the "It was an accident!" excuse, even if that would suggest that X is having some rather serious problems. It's not really something new, though.

Twitter Bans Accounts Mocking ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk

More could likely be said, but meh.
The accounts Dorsey banned broke rules that Big Brother wrote. I mean that seriously after just doing 1984 on audiobook and recognizing Jack Dorsey, but not Elon Musk.
 
The accounts Dorsey banned broke rules that Big Brother wrote. I mean that seriously after just doing 1984 on audiobook and recognizing Jack Dorsey, but not Elon Musk.

Feel free to make a case as to why you think so. I, personally, don't think that there's much meaningful connection between the Big Brother figure and Dorsey that isn't shared with Musk and/or isn't more aptly attributed to other larger factors. Of some note, Musk also has a cult of personality that's done much to lift him up, like the Big Brother figure has. I've never heard of a cult of personality when it comes to Dorsey.

Even if we just granted that point to you, though, as noted, Musk's systemic changes have had dramatically greater negative effects on the platform's ability to serve as a free speech platform than unbanning those accounts even could remotely make up for.
 
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Feel free to make a case as to why you think so. I, personally, don't think that there's much meaningful connection between the Big Brother figure and Dorsey that isn't shared with Musk and/or isn't more aptly attributed to other larger factors. Of some note, Musk also has a cult of personality that's done much to lift him up, like the Big Brother figure has. I've never heard of a cult of personality when it comes to Dorsey.

Even if we just granted that point to you, though, as noted, Musk's systemic changes have had dramatically greater negative effects on the platform's ability to serve as a free speech platform than unbanning those accounts even could remotely make up for.
The subject is interesting, I need time like Bilbo.
 
The accounts Dorsey banned broke rules that Big Brother wrote. I mean that seriously after just doing 1984 on audiobook and recognizing Jack Dorsey, but not Elon Musk.
What is this gibberish supposed to mean?
 
What is this gibberish supposed to mean?
Jack Dorsey banned them, Elon Musk freed them.
Freedom of speech.
He put the thought police back in their box. This is a huge and important event in civilisation.
 
As a mitigating factor, they've mostly been temporary bans.
That's disappointing. I was hoping for something more substantial.

If one were quite biased in favor of doing so, you could buy the "It was an accident!" excuse, even if that would suggest that X is having some rather serious problems.
“We do sweeps for spam/scam accounts and sometimes real accounts get caught up in them,” Elon Musk wrote on X, responding to the temporary ban of at least 8 accounts, including those of a handful of journalists."

I wouldn't call that 'rather serious problems'. Here's a serious problem that Twitter had before Musk bought it:-

In September 2016, Twitter shares rose 20% after a report that it had received takeover approaches. Potential buyers were Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Verizon, and The Walt Disney Company. Twitter's board of directors were open to a deal, which could have come by the end of 2016. However, no deal was made, with reports in October stating that all the potential buyers dropped out partly due to concerns over abuse and harassment on the service.


Aridas said:
“Yes, I could have ended world hunger instead of buying Twitter,” wrote Klein to his 2.3 million followers, after changing his username to “Elon Musk” and his profile picture to a depiction of the billionaire.

I can see how something like that might run afoul of suspension algorithms.

Twitter was banning people for dubious reasons long before Musk took over. Here's a small selection of notable members who were banned in 2021.
Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) President of the United States

Ben Garrison (@GrrrGraphics) American alt-right political cartoonist

Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS) Chinese government agency

Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (@Tokyo2020jp) Official Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Organization

Many Twitter accounts who posted the word "Memphis"
Lee Hurst (@LeeHurstComic) English comedian

Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) American sports journalist

James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) American right-wing political activist and founder of Project Veritas

Official account of the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir (@OfficeOfLGJandK)

Naomi Wolf (@naomirwolf) American feminist writer

The Chaser (@chaser) Australian comedy group and satirical news publication

David Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) Founder of sports and pop culture blog Barstool Sport

Anne-Marie Brady (@Anne_MarieBrady) Chinese politics Professor at the University of Canterbury

Karoline Leavitt (@kc_leavitt) Communications director for US Rep. Elise Stefanik
The large proportion of high profile political conservatives who were banned, many of them permanently, is concerning, as are the numerous accounts that were banned for no apparent reason.

But everyone has forgotten about them as we rush to accuse Musk of personally banning accounts that 'mocked' him. Perhaps he did - though we have no actual evidence for this accusation. But perhaps - at least in some cases - there were legitimate reasons for those accounts being suspended (eg. faking another person's account). But we will ignore that possibility because it doesn't fit our narrative.

Aridas said:
More could likely be said, but meh.
'Meh' indeed.
 
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