Apple Has Threatened To Withhold Twitter From App Store, Elon Musk Says 410
In a series of tweets Monday, Elon Musk said Apple had mostly stopped advertising on Twitter and had threatened to withhold the Twitter app from the App Store. Musk said the iPhone-maker won't disclose why it is making the threat.
If they do then they need to cut off china apps as (Score:4, Insightful)
If they do then they need to cut off china apps as well.
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"Musk said the iPhone-maker won't disclose why it is making the threat."
So, you cannot really jump to this conclusion just yet, which was already a stretch.
Re:If they do then they need to cut off china apps (Score:5, Insightful)
It's almost certainly to do with the lack of moderation on Twitter. Same thing that got Gab kicked off.
Twitter doesn't really have a moderation team anymore, they were all fired or quit. On top of that Musk unbanned all the formerly banned accounts (except for ones he had personal issues with).
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This. Apple would kick any high-profile app with user-generated content that had a moderation system that was publicly going into a fail-open mode.
Re:If they do then they need to cut off china apps (Score:5, Insightful)
It's almost certainly to do with the lack of moderation on Twitter. Same thing that got Gab kicked off.
Twitter doesn't really have a moderation team anymore, they were all fired or quit. On top of that Musk unbanned all the formerly banned accounts (except for ones he had personal issues with).
Twitter IS being moderated. There are still people getting locked or kicked off. They're just not getting kicked for Muh Hate Speech.
The hypocrisy of Apple never ceases to amaze me. They'll kick American companies out of their app store for "lack of moderation", and yet eagerly do business with China and the Gulf Arab states, to the point of quickly acceding to their censorship demands. So this stuff isn't principle. It's PR. It's virtue signaling.
Re:If they do then they need to cut off china apps (Score:5, Insightful)
People are getting banned for annoying Elon Musk, sure. And for really blatant stuff like posting full length copyrighted movies.
That's not what Apple is concerned about. 4chan and 8chan do that kind of "moderation". Gab did too.
Apple is concerned about allowing people like Nick Fuentes, a guy who is a proud Nazi, back on. They are concerned that people who were kicked off for harassing other users are back again. Unsurprisingly, Apple doesn't think it's users being harassed in an app that came from their app store is a very good user experience.
Personally I prefer Android, where I can choose to side load apps if Google doesn't approve of them. But I can't blame Apple for being consistent about their policy either.
Re:If they do then they need to cut off china apps (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple is concerned about allowing people like Nick Fuentes, a guy who is a proud Nazi, back on. They are concerned that people who were kicked off for harassing other users are back again. Unsurprisingly, Apple doesn't think it's users being harassed in an app that came from their app store is a very good user experience.
It is none of Apple's concern who Twitter allows on its platform. Maybe it's time for a law aimed at Apple and Google that states if the application doesn't break the law then that application must be allowed. That or maybe the app stores on both platforms should be regulated as monopolies.
I personally don't care which happens as long as ether google or apple can't remove an application just because they don't like it.
The famous ones are (Score:3, Interesting)
And the small timers are everywhere. You can basically say whatever you want as long as you don't care about building up a following over time you can get away with anything. The whole platform is filled with racist comments right now.
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Twitter doesn't really have a moderation team anymore, they were all fired or quit. On top of that Musk unbanned all the formerly banned accounts (except for ones he had personal issues with).
Maybe he's planning to do moderation using polls -- like he did for "deciding" whether to un-ban accounts. There will be a poll displaying the questionable tweets asking everyone on Twitter to read them and vote on if they should get moderated/blocked. Problem solved. :-)
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(except for ones he had personal issues with)
This is was the biggest WTF. Puts Trump up for vote. Just whatevers Ye. Tells Alex Jones to pound sand. There's zero consistency in this all. If Musk was putting it all up for vote, fine. If Musk was telling them all they're getting their accounts back, fine. If he told everyone that he needed for everyone to wait till a new mod team was formed, fine. But it's just whatever the fuck hair tickles Musk's asshole at this rate. That's not free speech, that's just being a capricious dickhead.
It's his fu
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I don't want to defend Apple, but I can understand why with their walled garden offering they want apps to at least have some kind of moderation policy that is minimally enforced.
As for Twitter, things have gotten pretty bad. The neo Nazis are back, and Musk is being an edgelord by flirting with them. Twitter never had a left wing bias, quite the opposite in fact. Why do you think Trump loved it? It wasn't because he liked having his ideas challenged by opposing views.
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How about warnings when starting an application/game/whatever, kind of like we have them for movies?
Rated FBI for False Basic Information.
Rated CIA for Content Intentionally Abnormal.
Re: If they do then they need to cut off china app (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: If they do then they need to cut off china app (Score:5, Informative)
Quite the opposite. Liberals argue that hate speech should not be considered respectable right-wing dialogue and thus should not be controversial to ban (from privately-owned platforms, no less). Conservatives say that conservative voices are being silenced, without evidence and generally correlating with bans of prominent purveyors of hate speech, but then they vacillate when asked to clarify whether hate speech should be considered respectable right-wing dialogue or not.
Re: If they do then they need to cut off china app (Score:5, Informative)
You are free to question the role of trans athletes in sport on Twitter. But you are not allowed to deadname or condone calls to violence against trans persons on the old Twitter.
Questioning the lab origin of COVID was removed from Twitter in the early months of the pandemic because it was being used to promote violence against Chinese (or Chinese-looking) people.
The Hunter Biden laptop story was flagged as political misinformation because at the time there was no substantiated evidence.
As you can see in all of these examples, it is not the conservative or liberal position that led to the Twitter punishment - they all had extenuating issues. This is what makes moderating so difficult and expensive.
Re: If they do then they need to cut off china ap (Score:5, Insightful)
That's why the right wants forced speech on privately-owned platforms and is fine with clear 1A violations like Ron DeSantis' retaliation against Disney, right?
Re: If they do then they need to cut off china ap (Score:5, Insightful)
That's why the right wants forced speech on privately-owned platforms and is fine with clear 1A violations like Ron DeSantis' retaliation against Disney, right?
Pretty sure that if Disney thought they had a 1A case, they would have taken the state to court. They didn't. Because it wasn't a 1A violation. It was the loss of a special tax district that was enacted at the pleasure of the state, and could be ended in the same manner. It wasn't an executive order. The creation and repeal of the district was done through legislation in the Florida state house. So there's not a lawyer in the country that would file a lawsuit for Disney on this. What are they going to do? Ask a judge to make the state of Florida re-enact the special tax district? That's a separation of powers violation, and it's not going to happen.
Re: If they do then they need to cut off china ap (Score:5, Informative)
It's very hard to argue it's not a 1A and an Article 1 case.
The action obviously occured as a response to speech the Government disagreed with, and it was enacted in a way that singled out Disney's special district in a state with almost 1,300 corporate controlled special tax districts.
Re: If they do then they need to cut off china ap (Score:5, Insightful)
Ron Desantis did not try to regulate speech at Disney, he only removed their quasi-government status.
Of course he didn't try to regulate their speech. That would be insane, because it would be illegal.
What he did was punish them for their speech. Which is also illegal, but requires a more nuanced understanding of 1A than people like you are capable of bringing forth.
Are you pro companies taking over the government functions?
No, I'm not. But Florida is, since many corporations are still allowed to. As long as they don't say things the Florida government doesn't like.
As of this writing, there are 1,288 corporate-run special tax districts in Florida.
You can't church this up. I'd drop it. You're just going to look worse the harder you push.
What DeSentis and the FL legislature did was a thinly veiled attempt at a Bill of Attainder designed to Punish constitutionally protected action.
Quit trying to invent justifications for it- call it what it is.
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What on earth are you smoking? Ron Desantis did not try to regulate speech at Disney,
You're right. He tried to regulate speech in public schools and colleges. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/p... [pbs.org]
Quote from the judge: Our professors are critical to a healthy democracy, and the State of Florida’s decision to choose which viewpoints are worthy of illumination and which must remain in the shadows has implications for us all,” Walker wrote. “If our ‘priests of democracy’ are not allowed to shed light on challenging ideas, then democracy will die in darkness.
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Active threats of harm, calls for physical attacks on individuals or groups, and doxxing-type behavior to enable such attacks. All of those are trivially within the bounds of "not protected speech", and all of which Twitter has now restored. There are some grey areas that need discussion, but Twitter has gone to absolutist position that anything goes.
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Your source for this claim is Elon Musk himself, a guy who has been phoning around advertisers trying to get them to come back to Twitter.
I suspect the reason is that he has simply redefined hate speech to exclude enough stuff to get the numbers down.
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"Musk said the iPhone-maker won't disclose why it is making the threat."
He should just buy Apple and fire the people responsible for this asinine decision.
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It's similar to the "China virus".
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So.... distractions from the real problem?
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What are "china apps"
Things like Tik-Tok.
Elon The Incompetent (Score:4, Interesting)
This could have been a moment that showed how Twitter under Elon Musk is still a relevant breaking-news source, still a place where free speech demonstrations reach the masses, and thus, still the only place to track escalating protests like these. Instead, a flood of useless tweets effectively buried live footage from protests. This blocked users from easily following protest news, while Twitter seemingly did nothing to stop what researchers described as an apparent Chinese influence operation.
For hours, these tweets dropped Chinese city names (where protests occurred) into posts that were mostly advertising pornography and adult escort services. And it worked, preventing users attempting to search city names in Chinese from easily seeing updates on the protests. The tweets were posted from a range of Chinese-language accounts that hadn’t been used for months or even years. The tweets began appearing early Sunday, shortly after protesters started calling for Communist Party leaders to resign.
Re:Elon The Incompetent (Score:4, Insightful)
This could have been a moment that showed how Twitter under Elon Musk is still a relevant breaking-news source, still a place where free speech demonstrations reach the masses, and thus, still the only place to track escalating protests like these.
Twitter has *NEVER* been a "relevant breaking-news source". Twitter's design makes it impossible to have a meaningful conversation or convey any substantial amount of information in a meaningful way.
Twitter is a vanity platform, nothing more. 99% of Twitter is people with inflated egos shouting their stupid opinions at the world.
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Twitter is a "public square" only in the sense that the experience is like having the public gather in the square and yell random shit at each other, and then repeat it ad nauseam. It's kind of like karaoke night at a dumpy roadside bar.
Re:Elon The Incompetent (Score:5, Funny)
Twitter is a "public square" in the sense that everyone's allowed to crap in the middle of it, take pictures of the turd, show it off to people who then post pics of their own turd for comparison.
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We're still waiting to see how much of Twitter is bots and automated content. 99% egotists is overstated, I bet. 99.5% of live users, yes, but that may be as little as 70% of the total content.
And we need not flog the dead horse of follower bots. That's advertising revenue, and lo and behold, advertisers bailing. Huh.
News Link (Score:2)
This is an important story that is not getting enough coverage.
Link [techcrunch.com]
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Apparently, Twitter was deleting 4000 accounts a second to combat the waves of spam that the Chinese were sending to Twitter this weekend. Impressive, but not good enough.
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Apparently, Twitter was deleting 4000 accounts a second to combat the waves of spam that the Chinese were sending to Twitter this weekend. Impressive, but not good enough.
Not good enough on the Twitter or China side? :-)
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Given Musk
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Gonna need more than just Musk's word (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Gonna need more than just Musk's word (Score:5, Informative)
This is ringing a bit like the "agreement" Musk claims "activists" (whatever that means) broke
“A large coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by starving us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition,” Musk tweeted. “They broke the deal.”
Meanwhile none of the "activists" like the NAACP seem to recall agreeing to anything (and why would they?)
Suffice it to say whether you are pro or anti Musk (which at this point is just silly that;s its come to that. talk about a case of main character syndrome) the man himself must be treated at as an unreliable narrator.
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None of that answers the question of why they would make any kind of agreement about advertisers on Twitter directly with Musk. There is really zero incentives for them to make such an agreement and even less to do so in a verbal only, behind closed doors manner. Really even if they were cautiously amicable to give Musk some time and benefit of the doubt they could have easily crafted a carefully worded PR release in response to the meeting, but nothing of the sort exists, only a he-said, she-said of comm
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Meanwhile, he apparently sleeps with guns [twitter.com] too. He just seems unhinged.
Re:Gonna need more than just Musk's word (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm no Musk fan, but he has toy guns on his nightstand, I hardly see how THAT makes him unhinged.
I can see many other signs, but a non-firing model flintlock and a scifi toy gun are not really raising any flags in my mind.
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I'm no Musk fan, but he has toy guns on his nightstand, I hardly see how THAT makes him unhinged. I can see many other signs, but a non-firing model flintlock and a scifi toy gun are not really raising any flags in my mind.
Except maybe in the taste department. I mean come on Caffeine free Diet Coke?
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He probably orders steaks well done with ketchup too.
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Hey! I object to that association. I like my steaks medium-rare, I don't believe ketchup should be used as anything but an ingredient on the way to something better, and I also like caffeine-free diet coke. For my rare afternoon soda, that's the one. I don't have the young man's capacity to drink caffeine and sleep well anymore.
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He posts like a teenage edgelord. Gun by the bed, repeatedly mentioning neo Nazi memes, all the usual 4chan stuff.
It's a billionaire thing. The ones who aren't self made, who never had to really grow up to get on in life.
Re:Gonna need more than just Musk's word (Score:4, Funny)
Lol, he's beginning to sound like Howard Hughes complete with a piss bottle.
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What's unhinged about sleeping with your gun(s) nearby?
I would venture to guess a LOT of perfectly legal, sane gun owner sleep with their guns nearby.
If you don't have kids, you don't need to locked far away in a safe...hell, I like to have mine for quick access if I hear a bump in the night.
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These honestly do not look like real guns; one is an antique flintlock pistol and the other I'm not sure but looks fake, it could be a replica of a pistol from Blade Runner. So probably no real risk, but given what a mess Twitter is adding speculative fuel to the dumpster fire that is his current business dealings doe
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How can you live your life in fear like that?
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Musk... (Score:5, Insightful)
He is 44 Billion in the hole and unable to even make the interest repayments.
His biggest problem is that he ended up believing his own BS and thought he was invincible.
Twitter is an open sewer and its loss will only be of benefit to the world.
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He is 44 Billion in the hole and unable to even make the interest repayments.
Based on the way he's been talking about things, the debt seems to be owned by Twitter, not Musk personally. The end game here is Twitter filing for bankruptcy, not Musk.
It seems quite likely that he's trying to see to it that Twitter goes bankrupt quickly to get this over with and get it off his hands. Get as much of the debt discharged in bankruptcy court as possible and limit his losses. The last thing he wants is to pay interest on those loans long term.
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What an Elon ass kisser you are. He fucked up and overpaid for a company that has never made a profit. Now advertisers are fleeing and he's calling back people who were just fired. He won't go bankrupt but his stocks certainly aren't doing well. https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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If Musk has not declared personal bankruptcy by 2024 and is still solvent and in control of SpaceX and Tesla at that time will you admit you were wrong and change your method of forming opinions? Or will you excuse it away?
Those don't seem like the right criteria. You really need to have a condition in there about Twitter turning a profit and being worth more than Musk paid for it, or at least being worth the same as Musk paid for it.
I remember when Musk first started trying to buy Twitter and I said that Musk would soon be experiencing buyer's remorse and I was pooh-poohed here on Slashdot. Sure enough though, he tried to weasel out of the deal before it even went through. He may be attempting whatever he can to make lemonad
Buy Apple next ? (Score:3)
He should take over apple. He gets his phone and the apple adverts in the process.
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He couldn't afford to buy Apple.
He could barely afford to buy Twitter.
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The largest leveraged buyout in history was $32 BILLION dollars and you think Elon can do one for $2 TRILLION?
You are either very bad at math, or crazy.
Doesnâ(TM)t musk have a phone? (Score:2)
Isnâ(TM)t that why he bought Twitter and fired everyone? Because he is the one, the one that is the one?
I understand why Musk sees this as a threat. He is a narcissist and everything is about him. Someone says Tesla is not the best car, and he and all his minions think they have to fight.
But this is business, and Twitter is no longer a viable or platform. It has many legal challenges, and everyone loves to sue
Re: Doesnâ(TM)t musk have a phone? (Score:2)
I heard that musk was going to make and market a better phone. Why does he need Apple?
My recollection is that he said phones are old tech and there's no way he'd make one. Though he recently said he might do it if Apple and Google ban Twitter.
Wow, Apple is real dumb (Score:4, Funny)
Imagine telling the guy who owns the world's largest microphone that you are going to do a couple things that he will dislike, and not telling him how to avoid this outcome.
If what Musk says is true, Apple must be run by an impetuous CEO who gives insufficient thought to how using the company to express his whims will effect the business!
I don't believe him. (Score:4, Insightful)
While Apple has a pretty bad track record of transparency to developers when it comes to rejecting apps... Mr. Musk's credibility is now basically zero.
Admittedly, this is just my opinion... but when it comes to Elon, I don't know there's enough salt available. A grain isn't going to cut it.
Musk let Nick Fuentes (Score:2, Insightful)
The only reason it's not already down is because it's Musk, and he has a lot of money and power. Anyone else would've had their app yanked that day.
Re: Musk let Nick Fuentes (Score:3)
Re:Musk let Nick Fuentes (Score:5, Informative)
Nonsense. He was never let back onto Twitter:
White nationalist Nicholas Fuentes was re-banned from Twitter on Saturday after he and other right-wingers jumped the gun by creating new Twitter accounts, hoping to return to the platform now owned by Elon Musk. Fuentes, who created the new account @spookygoblin8 earlier in the week, is the latest in a very long line of far-right users who have resurfaced on the platform, only to be tossed off again. Fuentes didn’t immediately return The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/... [thedailybeast.com]
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a literal, mask off Nazi back on his platform.
For reference, here's a link to Nick Fuentes's twitter account. [twitter.com] Go check it out!
Why do you care? (Score:5, Interesting)
a literal, mask off Nazi back on his platform. This shouldn't be a surprise. What did he think would happen when he let literal Nazis back on?
That's a lie, Nick Fuentes is not back on twitter (as of the time of writing), and why do you care?
Why do you care that *other* people can see what Nick Fuentes says?
Block him and move on.
Re:Why do you care? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing Hitler said ever hurt anybody, right? Words don't have consequences, propaganda doesn't exist.
If only I were alive to block Hitler, the holocaust would never have happened. The "alleged" holocaust, of course.
Twitter is turning into 4chan (Score:3, Insightful)
The banks that put up the other $20 billion for the purchase are already trying to sell the debt for 70 cents on the dollar. They're expected to get 50 or 60 cents if they're lucky.
Build his own phone (Score:4, Insightful)
He already tweeted that if twitter was pulled from app stores then he would build his own phone. https://finance.yahoo.com/news... [yahoo.com]
Ask Microsoft how well that went over.
and when the EU forces side loading? (Score:2)
and when the EU forces side loading?
This is extraordinarily dangerous (Score:2, Insightful)
Centralizing power to control what is allowed to be executed on general purpose computers owned by half of the country should be illegal. Apple has no inherent right to dictate terms to third parties.
Re:This is extraordinarily dangerous (Score:5, Informative)
I am no Apple fan, but yes... Apple does have the right to run its software ecosystem the way it sees fit.
If you don't like it (and I don't) then don't use Apple products. Android phones still permit you to install software from third-party repositories.
twitter wants 30% of blue checks (Score:2, Insightful)
It's obvious why...
Apple is willing to host any application for almost nothing in the app store. However, they require applications that sell goods (such as $8 blue checks subscriptions) to be sold through the app store giving Apple 30%.
That by itself is reasonable. But it is questionable when you consider that Apple will not let anyone distribute applications outside the app store.
Lemme get this straight (Score:2)
Two rich boys who are also incredibly obnoxious pricks bicker over who has the bigger dick... and I should care why?
News for Nerds (Score:3, Funny)
Thank you, Slashdot, for bringing us the important coverage we need to know, like "Uncertain threats made about an app for a social media site for unknown reasons".
I thought Elon was smart (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess he had to learn the hard way that racists and Nazi's aren't good for business. I must say I am having a certain level of Schadenfreude with this saga however.
Hopefully he doesn't drag out the road to bankruptcy too long.
Apps are stupid (Score:3)
Why do I need an app for everything? Just make a web site, like your grandfathers used to do it.
Apps because APPS! (Score:2)
There's a pattern here... (Score:4, Insightful)
It was clear people were moving away from using CD ROMs. Apple removed the CD ROM drives from their laptops. Lots of whiny people complained. The world had changed. They got over it.
It was clear people were moving away from using headphones with 3.5mm jacks. Apple removed the 3.5mm jack socket from their phones. Lots of whiny people complained. The world had changed. They got over it.
It was clear people were moving away from using USB A plugs. Apple removed the USB A socket from their laptops. Lots of whiny people complained. The world had changed. They got over it.
Now something that Elon doesn't understand has happened. Apple (may have) removed the Twitter app from their app store. Lots of whiny people are complaining. Perhaps the world has changed and Elon didn't notice.
Or maybe it's just that the app is stuck in the review process, like happens to lots of apps, and it will be approved shortly, and there's nothing sinister going on at all.
Sadly it seems that Elon has joined the snowflake chorus of people who think that whenever something doesn't go the way that they wanted it must be a conspiracy. It very seldom turns out to be the case. Hopefully he'll get over it. In the mean time, who uses Twitter anymore anyway?
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Or perhaps they're all lizard people hell bent on world domination so they can use us as food animals, and Elon is the only human who knows the truth.
There's exactly as much evidence to support that as there is your scenario.
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There's exactly as much evidence to support that as there is your scenario.
Sure, if you ignore history.
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AND History isn't proof.
Re:Will they really not disclose the reason, or... (Score:4, Informative)
Please. [psychologytoday.com]
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Or make up what you want to be true.
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Possibly, but his scenario is far more likely or at least possible. Occam's Razor and all that good shit.
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I want Elon inside me.
FTFY
Re:Last straw (Score:5, Insightful)
So, the suicide nets and protests at foxconn weren't the last straw? Or the butterfly keyboard fiasco? It's going to be twitter? Well, bravo to you...
Number without baseline (Score:3)
So, the suicide nets and protests at foxconn weren't the last straw? Or the butterfly keyboard fiasco? It's going to be twitter? Well, bravo to you...
While the suicide nets at Foxconn were an interesting news article, it was fake news.
Comparing the rate of suicide in the general population with the rate of suicide at Foxconn showed that the rate at Foxconn was much less.
You were misled by having a number cited without a baseline for comparison.
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You're exactly right (Score:2)
A shady conman whose only skill was self-promotion and stealing ideas from people smarter than him? Yep, I guess he is this generation's Steve Jobs.
Re: Surely Apple's (supposed) thinking ... (Score:2)
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Musk has reset the standard of speech back to legal speech.
Quote-of-the-year.
Re:Pretty obvious why: (Score:4, Insightful)
If Democrats had a monopoly on Free Speech, then Donald Trump would never have become President. The man created a president campaign out of free speech.
Definition of a Magaidiot: Someone that will deafen you with complaints that people are silencing him.