Elon Musty changing Twitter branding and logo to "X"

[All Along The Watchtower]

Atlas is superior to “X” and it’s not even close.

[heatcharger]

Atlas is superior to “X” and it’s not even close.

People have interests that may be irrelevant to you but are important to them.

[John Dule]

Twitter isn’t as much a “town square” as it is a place to scream into the void and wait for the void to scream back

cc: Irony Oremine

Nobody who posts on Atlas can claim to be better than anyone who posts on X.

This site may be dumb at times, but at least the length of the responses and the particular issues it discusses raises the level of discourse above 240 characters of retardation. The users who drag us down to Twitter's level typically get banned quickly.

The forum’s most beloved character is a homeless black guy who posts incoherent nonsense, and we love him. And I haven’t even mentioned BRTD…

I disagree that discourse is significantly better on here than X. Memes and dunks are rewarded with likes on both platforms, encouraging users to post more of them. But luckily on both Atlas and X you have users who are interested in niche topics willing to share information about it. Both sites are valuable for this reason.

This is a substantive, well-argued post. It is too long to have been written on Twitter.

[quesaisje]

Exciting news for political X's core demographic: Gavin McInnes has returned to the platform.

[quesaisje]

X CEO Linda Yaccarino forced to share stage with ex-Twitter-executive-turned-gadfly Yoel Roth:

Musk suggested on Twitter that Roth had advocated for sexualizing children — a completely unfounded claim — which led to death threats and his address being posted online. “I had to sell my house. I had to move,” Roth said. He encouraged Yaccarino to think about how Musk could turn on her, too, and said the site was bleeding users and advertisers.

[..]

[Yaccarino] wrote off Roth’s claims about the platform’s performance as outdated (“I work at X, he worked at Twitter,” she said); she said the Anti-Defamation League — which Musk is threatening to sue — pays too much attention to the antisemitism on X and not enough to the improvements the platform has made; and she argued that despite the panic around advertisers fleeing, most of the big ones are coming back.

Yaccarino also speculated that the platform could become profitable in 2024 and claimed that, despite recent lay-offs, "there is a robust and growing team at X that is wrapping their arms around election integrity."

X also has removed its tool for reporting "electoral misinformation":

The move has fuelled concern ahead of a key Australia referendum to give Indigenous people more rights as well as the 2024 US presidential elections.

The tool, available in the US, Australia and South Korea since 2021, was expanded tothree other countries last year - Brazil, the Philippines and Spain.

It allowed users to select "Report Content", then "It's misleading", and then "Politics".

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

These people have rocks for brains.
https://twitter.com/robloxfemboy/status/1707978296292495431?t=cLCZXNCySWdWsEB-XB...

[quesaisje]

More exciting and relevant X content is on its way:

The company formerly known as Twitter has made a special revenue sharing deal with Paris Hilton and her media company, 11:11. It even includes a custom hashtag for a word that Hilton has been trying to popularize since at least 2019: “sliving.”

"Greatly improve the esthetics" - X to remove all headlines from links because owner perceives them as clutter:

Back in August, Musk confirmed the change was in the works: “This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics.”

The change will alter the way media companies and publishers share content to X, since without the headline appearing below the image, a post will lack context

[emailking]

That seems...problematic. But maybe I misunderstand it. I still see what I think are headlines in X posts of articles.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Don't know what the correct thread is to post this, but apparently in response to Musk' recent endorsement of the AfD in an "X" post, several German federal ministries and government officials have created accounts on Jack Dorsey's alternate platform Bluesky today.

(https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/mehrere-ministerien-eroeffnen-konten-bei-x-konkurrent-bluesky-100.html)

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

The Arab oil barons cannot repossess this site soon enough.

[quesaisje]

Forgive me for continuing to bump this discussion, but the constant changes to a site that was fundamental to breaking news for years are fascinating.

It's a strange time for social media, politics, and journalism, and Musk's takeover of Twitter adds a layer of human drama to whatever we should this transition. We could have similar threads on Reddit or Meta but they wouldn't attract even half of the attention.

X to hide most engagement metrics on timeline:

The retweet and like buttons have long been a fixture on Twitter/X. But it looks like Elon Musk wants to hide them, forcing users to go through an additional tap to access them. [...]

“Next, we'll remove all the action buttons with their superfluous interaction counts from the main timeline. Just view count will show, unless you tap into a post,” [Musk] wrote. “This will greatly improve readability.”

X introduces block-proof ad format:

Multiple X users have reached out to Mashable over the past few days to report seeing a new type of ad in their For You feed that they had not previously come across on the platform. These new X ads don't allow users to like or retweet the ad posts. In fact, the new ad format also doesn't disclose who is behind the ad or that it is even an advertisement at all.

X moves to introduce paid membership tiers:

No pricing information has been announced for the new membership tiers. However, according to details previously discovered in the X app, the entry-level Basic plan will not reduce the number of ads that users see on the platform, while the Standard tier will show half as many ads — one of the benefits that premium subscribers currently enjoy. The top Plus premium offering will remove ads entirely.

[...]

Yaccarino [...] repeated claims from last week’s Code event that around 90 percent of X’s top advertisers have returned to the platform. These claims have been tempered by nonprofit media watchdog Media Matters, which yesterday said that the advertisers do seem to have returned, but they’re spending significantly less than pre-Musk Twitter — 90 percent less, according to its research.

SEC to force testimony after Musk ignores subpoena in investigation into his purchase of Twitter stock:

The SEC told the court it "seeks Musk's testimony to obtain information not already in the SEC's possession that is relevant to its lawful investigation. The SEC has followed all appropriate administrative steps required in seeking Musk's testimony. In the face of Musk's blatant refusal to comply with the SEC's subpoena, the SEC now asks the Court to intervene and compel Musk's compliance."

Finally, there's Yaccarino's interview at the Code 2023 conference last week. There are some headlines about this in an earlier post, but the full forty-minute interview is so catty and hilarious that it's worth watching (watching specifically - there's a lot of amusing body language) as straight entertainment:

Transcript

There are more substantive bits to glean from this, too. I think that Yaccarino is being as direct as possible in describing what Musk hopes to do with Twitter here:

Part of my old remit was to oversee not only the advertising revenue for [NBC] but to look after all of our enterprise relationships. [...] I fell in love with [Twitter] because we all knew the trajectory. [Television] was growing but this [holds up phone], powered by now X, was the only mechanism that could take the premium content business live. Global events, news. When I used to sit in my office and watch you on television it was the only thing that could put you live in culture, where it happens in the moment.

I don't like what Musk has done with the platform once known as Twitter, but the vision described here seems more in tune with reality than the (frankly, conspiratorial) piece from Ben Collins of NBC News that's been widely circulated over the past few days.

[DaleCooper]

I wish that all these people who claim to hate Twitter would stop using Twitter. Imagine how much we would laugh at a group of geeks if they were writing op-eds about how LinkedIn ruined their lives and the new LinkedIn recommendations system was "destroying the public square," but with Twitter we just accept the notion that this is the most important platform in the history of the human race in spite of all the evidence that Twitter drama is completely unrepresentative of the real world. Even when it comes to political disinformation I can't imagine that Twitter is worse than Facebook or Tik Tok. Why are we accepting the framing of these smart-phone addicted "journalists" (LOL!) on this issue?

[quesaisje]

Lots of X meta-commentary over the past few days - including articles in Rolling Stone and The Atlantic written by and for hysterical social media addicts - but not much of substance. I'm disappointed that there hasn't been more coverage of how Twitter's changes have affected reporting on the Israel-Hamas War.

One exception to share - NPR says that leaving Twitter had essentially no effect on its traffic:

A memo circulated to NPR staff says traffic has dropped by only a single percentage point as a result of leaving Twitter, now officially renamed X, though traffic from the platform was small already and accounted for just under two percent of traffic before the posting stopped. [...] While NPR’s main account had 8.7 million followers and the politics account had just under three million, “the platform’s algorithm updates made it increasingly challenging to reach active users; you often saw a near-immediate drop-off in engagement after tweeting and users rarely left the platform,” the memo says.

This is consistent with what others in the business have been saying about social media and journalism. Whatever advantages there are to being active on various platforms, driving traffic back to reporting on your website is not among them.

With that said, I don't follow NPR's national reporting on account of their... limited range of interest, something that wasn't improved by cuts to their newsroom this year. Would be interested in hearing impressions from someone who tracks them more closely if anyone here does.

[heatcharger]

I wish that all these people who claim to hate Twitter would stop using Twitter. Imagine how much we would laugh at a group of geeks if they were writing op-eds about how LinkedIn ruined their lives and the new LinkedIn recommendations system was "destroying the public square," but with Twitter we just accept the notion that this is the most important platform in the history of the human race in spite of all the evidence that Twitter drama is completely unrepresentative of the real world. Even when it comes to political disinformation I can't imagine that Twitter is worse than Facebook or Tik Tok. Why are we accepting the framing of these smart-phone addicted "journalists" (LOL!) on this issue?

Congrats on hitting 10,000 posts!

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Musk's latest target: sex workers & porn:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/13/sex-work-x-premium-subscription-twitter-blue-nudity-porn-ban/

Under Musk’s leadership, X has become increasingly hostile toward nudity and explicit content. This week, X started flagging NSFW posts as “sensitive material,” as Rolling Stone reported, and restricting flagged accounts to limit their reach. Sex workers said their engagement tanked and their accounts no longer show up in X’s search, even if they weren’t notified about being flagged. In screenshots shared with Rolling Stone and posted online, X told flagged accounts that their posts may be obscured with a warning to prevent people from seeing sensitive content, and that they may also be excluded from the For You and Following timelines, recommended notifications and trends.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Musk's latest target: sex workers & porn:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/13/sex-work-x-premium-subscription-twitter-blue-nudity-porn-ban/

Under Musk’s leadership, X has become increasingly hostile toward nudity and explicit content. This week, X started flagging NSFW posts as “sensitive material,” as Rolling Stone reported, and restricting flagged accounts to limit their reach. Sex workers said their engagement tanked and their accounts no longer show up in X’s search, even if they weren’t notified about being flagged. In screenshots shared with Rolling Stone and posted online, X told flagged accounts that their posts may be obscured with a warning to prevent people from seeing sensitive content, and that they may also be excluded from the For You and Following timelines, recommended notifications and trends.

If porn goes I will have no reason to return to the site

[quesaisje]

That Tech Crunch article is ridiculous. The Rolling Stone piece is even worse.

Most social media platforms have stricter rules about porn than Twitter does. Most advertisers want to see less of it. Many users want to see less of it. A large portion of spam content and bot accounts on the platform - maybe a majority - are peddling smut.

A responsible journalist could have discussed these considerations. Instead, "trends reporter" (read:social media addict) Morgan Sung interviews several dominatrices and represents their opinions as fact. It's like writing a story about the drug trade and only taking the opinions of dealers into account.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

That Tech Crunch article is ridiculous. The Rolling Stone piece is even worse.

Most social media platforms have stricter rules about porn than Twitter does. Most advertisers want to see less of it. Many users want to see less of it. A large portion of spam content and bot accounts on the platform - maybe a majority - are peddling smut.

A responsible journalist could have discussed these considerations. Instead, "trends reporter" (read:social media addict) Morgan Sung interviews several dominatrices and represents their opinions as fact. It's like writing a story about the drug trade and only taking the opinions of dealers into account.

Most social media platforms aren't run by self-labeled "free speech absolutists". Most social media platforms aren't driving their users away while desperately trying to stem their financial hemorrhaging. Whether you like it or not, sex does sell. And the Norwegian Blue-site has had a sensitive content filter since before Musk bought it.

Musk is certainly free to target sex workers while he helps his fellow Nazis, but doing so remains both hypocritical and foolish.

[Bojack Horseman]

There has got to be somebody or some entity that can buy out Musk’s majority shareholder status and end this insanity. If Elon Musk wants to be obsessed with the letter X, the place for that is Sesame Street. If he wants to be a Nazi, the place for that is 4chan.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

X illegally fired worker who opposed Musk's return-to-office order: NLRB

What they're saying: "The complaint alleges that a high-ranking official at Twitter/X told staff 'If you can physically make it to an office and you don't show up, resignation accepted,'" according to an NLRB spokesperson in a statement to Axios.

    In response, the NLRB says an employee tweeted and posted in a Slack channel urging colleagues not to resign in order to prompt Twitter/X to fire them instead.
   
According to Bloomberg, the tweet read: "Don't resign, let him fire you. You gain literally nothing out of a resignation."

The complaint alleges that X "unlawfully discharged the employee for exercising their right to protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act," per the NLRB.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

There has got to be somebody or some entity that can buy out Musk’s majority shareholder status and end this insanity.

It doesn't work that way because Twitter/X is no longer a publicly traded company. When Musk bought it out he bought all the shares and all shareholders were paid more than their shares were worth. Now the only way to get it away from Musk is if he agrees to sell it or if he takes it public again. He might eventually have to do that of it keeps hemorrhaging money, but I don't think anyone is going to be willing to pay what's needed to get a majority share if he does considering how much of a white elephant it is. Look at how much Musk has lost over it already.

[quesaisje]

That's correct. And if the reported details into how Musk structured the equity financing that he needed to complete the deal are correct, even his funders would not be able to take it from him. Unless there's an opening for federal anti-trust action, the bird isn't getting pried from his hands.

What's more plausible is that he gets bored with it and moves on if he doesn't have anything to show for his efforts after a few years.

[DaleCooper]

X illegally fired worker who opposed Musk's return-to-office order: NLRB

What they're saying: "The complaint alleges that a high-ranking official at Twitter/X told staff 'If you can physically make it to an office and you don't show up, resignation accepted,'" according to an NLRB spokesperson in a statement to Axios.

    In response, the NLRB says an employee tweeted and posted in a Slack channel urging colleagues not to resign in order to prompt Twitter/X to fire them instead.
   
According to Bloomberg, the tweet read: "Don't resign, let him fire you. You gain literally nothing out of a resignation."

The complaint alleges that X "unlawfully discharged the employee for exercising their right to protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act," per the NLRB.

All return-to-office plans are scams. It's about control, not productivity.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

That's correct. And if the reported details into how Musk structured the equity financing that he needed to complete the deal are correct, even his funders would not be able to take it from him. Unless there's an opening for federal anti-trust action, the bird isn't getting pried from his hands.

What's more plausible is that he gets bored with it and moves on if he doesn't have anything to show for his efforts after a few years.

What's going to happen is that some combination of fines, judgements, and unpaid debts are going to put "X" out of business, and he's going to spend the rest of his life whining how "I was this close to turning it around so the evul librul Deep State shut me down".

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Australia fines Musk's X platform $386,000 over anti-child abuse gaps

An Australian regulator has fined Elon Musk's social media platform X A$610,500 ($386,000) for failing to cooperate with a probe into anti-child abuse practices, a blow to a company that has struggled to keep advertisers amid complaints it is going soft on moderating content.

The e-Safety Commission fined X, the platform Musk rebranded from Twitter, saying it failed to respond to questions including how long it took to respond to reports of child abuse material on the platform and the methods it used to detect it.

Though small compared to the $44 billion Musk paid for the website in October 2022, the fine is a reputational hit for a company that has seen a continuous revenue decline as advertisers cut spending on a platform that has stopped most content moderation and reinstated thousands of banned accounts.