Is X.com's Downfall Since Musks Takeover Proof That Platforms Need Regulation?

[Consept]

Before Musk took over Twitter was a very popular social media platform and was the go to source of news for a huge amount of people. Elon Musk criticised Twitter as a platform that didnt allow free speech, was too left biased and he believed he could do a better job and so proceeded to buy the platform for $44 billion and took it private. His assumed goal would be to allow free speech and make it a more balanced site. 

Since his take over he has reinstated many previously banned accounts, he has allowed all kinds of 'free speech' to proliferate regardless of whether it was fake, hateful etc, there is a massive problem with bots. The biggest hypocrisy is that Musk himself is completely and unashamedly on the right, some would say maga right as he himself propagates conspiracy theories and actively and very regularly promotes Trump.  

Now all this is what it is and if you want to be a free speech absolutist you could make the argument that Musk should be allowed to say whatever as he also has free speech rights, i would obviously argue this point as I think the owner of a platform should be as neutral as possible otherwise its just a propaganda machine for one side. But the bottom line is this has not worked as a business or even as a platform. In 2 years, by most estimations X has lost between 70-80% of its value, even an internal leaked memo from X has shown that its lost over half of the value it was bought at. Ther ad business is down 60% from advertisers dropping out, the US daily users has dropped 23%, global 15%. Whole countries like Brazil have banned X a trend that will no doubt spread if he doesnt follow each countries rules. Essentially this is a lesson in how to tank a company. 

As well this has affected the dialogue around politics to the point where you have conspiracies such as man made hurricanes started to influence an election, actually being debated and taken seriously. Musk and Trump have legitimately set America back years as well as dividing a nation and occupying a lot of minds with absolute garbage. 

However it was an interesting experiment in whether you could actually have unregulated free speech, simply put it doesnt work. If a platform started out with unregulated free speech it would never get to the popularity of Twitter without severely evolving. Musk buying Twitter is interesting because its imposing these libertarian ideals onto something already hugely popular, to see if it could maintain or even increase popularity, none of this happened obviously. 

Maybe X will make a comeback I dont know, but what i think will happen is it will shrink to just a usership of the maga right, essentially becoming a 'truth social'. Its interesting also that Musk even thought this would work or maybe he just didnt care if it would. 

 

[Leo Gura]

We knew long before Musk that all these platforms and tech companies need regulation.

[Staples]

The purpose of Elon buying Twitter was not to make the platform better. It was to give him a Murdoch-like media platform to fling his agenda on.

For that purpose he succeeded massively.

[Whitney Edwards]

Lmao x banned. Lol. Didn't see that coming.Musk's prediction went wrong I guess. 

[Consept]

24 minutes ago, Staples said:

The purpose of Elon buying Twitter was not to make the platform better. It was to give him a Murdoch-like media platform to fling his agenda on.

For that purpose he succeeded massively.

That is true but i would argue that even that is not really a success. What Murdoch did very well was tread the line where he would work within the regulations of a particular country and so the media output, although biased, could get out to a lot of people because the bias could be somewhat hidden, or at least not as blatant and off the rails as something like Musks posts. This meant that Murdoch could keep a massive audience and put out his agenda in a sometimes subtle way, thus he could actually convert people from the other side. Also he was a good business man, so his platforms could stay relevant and be successful for years. 

With Musk this is definitely not the case, hes so partisan, that he actually works to engage the other side to vote against Trump. As well the business model is not sustainable and its haemorrhaging users and value at a crazy rate. I think his genuine belief was that his leadership would take twitter up a level and improve upon it, mainly by getting rid of the 'woke mob'

[What Am I]

Isn't there a distinction to be made between Elon Musk currently being heavily biased to the right and the platform itself being designed in a manner to where it's similarly biased? Musk may be speaking out as an individual, but does that really suggest the underlying code of X is non-neutral?

[Leo Gura]

3 minutes ago, What Am I said:

but does that really suggest the underlying code of X is non-neutral?

Lol

That asshole hardcoded X to promote his own stupid tweets.

If you think X code is neutral, you are in deep trouble.

[What Am I]

2 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Lol

That asshole hardcoded X to promote his own stupid tweets.

If you think X code is neutral, you are in deep trouble.

Well I'm more so asking the question. Is that really the case? Do we have evidence now that X is working in the background towards Musk's own desired ends? I've been out of the loop, but didn't he make part of the underlying algorithm open-source?

[Leo Gura]

1 minute ago, What Am I said:

Do we have evidence now that X is working in the background towards Musk's own desired ends?

Yes we do. If you want it you can search for it. Many stories have been published on this matter in the last year.

[What Am I]

2 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Yes we do. If you want it you can search for it. Many stories have been published on this matter in the last year.

Well shoot lol. Sorry to hear it. If this is indeed true and not just conspiratorial thinking, then he really did go against his original mission statement.

[Leo Gura]

His mission statement is to be a techno lord. He's right on target.

Edited October 16, 2024 by Leo Gura

[Whitney Edwards]

 

[What Am I]

1 minute ago, Leo Gura said:

His mission statement is to be a techno lord. He's right on target.

I must have missed when he made that announcement.

[Leo Gura]

6 minutes ago, What Am I said:

I must have missed when he made that announcement.

You literally did.

Techno King.

Edited October 16, 2024 by Leo Gura

[Something Funny]

8 minutes ago, Buck Edwards said:

 

0:00 - 0:03 what have my ears ever done to you?

[Staples]

32 minutes ago, What Am I said:

Musk may be speaking out as an individual, but does that really suggest the underlying code of X is non-neutral?

I never had a twitter account. Two months ago, I downloaded X just to try it out. I wasn't following anyone or gave the X algorithm any indication what my interests were. Eight out of the first ten posts were about Elon or related to one of his companies.

X is a propaganda machine. X is engineered that way.

Edited October 16, 2024 by Staples

[What Am I]

15 minutes ago, Staples said:

I never had a twitter account. Two months ago, I downloaded X just to try it out. I wasn't following anyone or gave the X algorithm any indication what my interests were. Eight out of the first ten posts were about Elon or related to one of his companies.

X is a propaganda machine. X is engineered that way.

It's possible. It'd be nice if we had some tangible evidence besides anecdote though. I think it's very easy for a mob to get whipped into a frenzy and then be prone to exaggeration as they metaphorically burn their target in effigy. I've always found that part of human nature annoying.

[Whitney Edwards]

39 minutes ago, Something Funny said:

0:00 - 0:03 what have my ears ever done to you?

 

[Consept]

1 hour ago, What Am I said:

Well I'm more so asking the question. Is that really the case? Do we have evidence now that X is working in the background towards Musk's own desired ends? I've been out of the loop, but didn't he make part of the underlying algorithm open-source?

There's a lot of things he's done to give himself an unfair advantage in terms of attention. His tweets are promoted more than anyone else - "The engineers fixed “the problem” by tweaking the code to automatically “greenlight” all of Musk’s tweets. “The algorithm now artificially boosted Musk’s tweets by a factor of 1,000,” reported The Verge, “a constant score that ensured his tweets rank higher than anyone else’s in the feed.”" https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/elon-musk-x-twitter-donald-trump-b2586440.html#:~:text=The engineers fixed “the problem,anyone else's in the feed.”

So his voice is amplified artificially 1000x more than anyone else. It wouldn't surprise if Trumps and others likes are too but I'm speculating. He's also made it so that even if you block him, you'll still see his tweets, you just can't engage with them. So literally if you're on X there's no way that you wouldn't see his tweets. 

Now this may make sense if he was just giving technical updates for users or news about X as it may important for users to know. But he's not he's tweeting out, in some cases, very far right misinformation, or just inflammatory posts like the one saying the UK is on the brink of civil war, during a time of unrest. Imagine now if there was a civil war, would he have played a part in pushing it that way?

Also he's not trying to hide this, it's all in plain sight, so no it's not a conspiracy or anecdotal it's literally what's happening. 

[gettoefl]

Love X myself. Followed the same 80 people plus or minus for years. Put them in a list. Just gives me their tweets. Take 25 minutes per 24 hours. Couldn't do without it. I don't tweet but add a word or two from time to time. I believe, if you can't say it in a tweet, you do not understand it. And further, nobody wants more than a tweet of information from you period except your spouse or your lawyer in which case alas you have no choice.

https://x.com/i/lists/1235640524729614336

Edited October 16, 2024 by gettoefl