Elon Musty changing Twitter branding and logo to "X"

[quesaisje]

X looks to reinvigorate political advertising on the platform as the 2024 campaign approaches:

According to three people with knowledge of the situation, Madrazo [Yaccarino's son] has been tasked with outreach to Republican digital advertising firms and spenders. Jonathan Phelps, a Pandora and Univision veteran who also joined X in recent months, is handling the platform’s (far less promising) outreach to Democrats. Working occasionally out of Tesla’s D.C. offices, the duo are hoping to resuscitate a line of cash at a moment when the company is desperate for new revenue.

[...]

X stopped allowing political ads in 2019, [but] the company announced in January that it would ease restrictions on political ads, saying that “cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics.”

While the political ad team often met or overperformed expectations, political advertising wasn’t a major moneymaker for Twitter. In 2018, the company brought in just $3 million for political ads. But Yaccarino and newly appointed lead revenue executive Rob Hayes have lofty goals. X executives have told people they hope the political ad team could bring in around $100 million during a presidential election year, according to one person with knowledge of the company’s plans.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

X looks to reinvigorate political advertising on the platform as the 2024 campaign approaches:

According to three people with knowledge of the situation, Madrazo [Yaccarino's son] has been tasked with outreach to Republican digital advertising firms and spenders. Jonathan Phelps, a Pandora and Univision veteran who also joined X in recent months, is handling the platform’s (far less promising) outreach to Democrats. Working occasionally out of Tesla’s D.C. offices, the duo are hoping to resuscitate a line of cash at a moment when the company is desperate for new revenue.

[...]

X stopped allowing political ads in 2019, [but] the company announced in January that it would ease restrictions on political ads, saying that “cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics.”

While the political ad team often met or overperformed expectations, political advertising wasn’t a major moneymaker for Twitter. In 2018, the company brought in just $3 million for political ads. But Yaccarino and newly appointed lead revenue executive Rob Hayes have lofty goals. X executives have told people they hope the political ad team could bring in around $100 million during a presidential election year, according to one person with knowledge of the company’s plans.

If you'd asked me a year ago what influence the now-dead birdsite would have on the election, "CEO's son selling the GOP ads on a 8chan clone" would not have been my guess.

[The Mikado]

Nobody on this forum is using X less than before the Musk purchase. The app has gotten better at delivering content users want to see, making it more engaging than ever.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/27/media/elon-musk-x-ads-reliable-sources/index.html

Nobody is using it less...except the people who have stopped entirely.

In recent days, a number of prominent media brands have not only paused their paid marketing campaigns on the embattled Elon Musk-owned social platform, but have ceased posting on it altogether, going silent on the once essential site that sought to be the world’s “digital town square.”

The flagship accounts belonging to Disney, Paramount, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN’s parent company) have not posted on the platform in roughly 10 days, following Musk’s disturbing endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which he still has not apologized for.

But sure it's doing just fine. The fact that these recent advertising cancellations will cost them 70 million over the remainder of 2023 alone is totally irrelevant.

[quesaisje]

There have been plenty of advertiser departures over the past few weeks, but high-profile users aren't making much fuss.

I haven't noticed anyone more notable than Anne Hidalgo (who called X a "global sewer") announcing that they are through with the platform.

Another departure that will be interesting to some here is Peter Zeihan, who says that he's leaving both because (A) X is no longer useful for gathering information (it's still doable, it's just that there is so much low-quality information, even in curated feeds, that it takes too much time) and (B) X is no longer useful for creating meaningful engagement with followers, both because high quality engagement is dropping and what remains must be retrieved from a deluge of spam from accounts promoting crypto or porn.

There have been a couple of notable articles - Wired had a tedious interview with Twitter's former head of trust and safety, and Taylor Lorenz tried to convince Washington Post readers that new organizations are moving to Reddit - but they were dumb and I will not be linking to them in this post.

Here's a more damning observation: The last few X posts that I've seen shared elsewhere look like the stuff of LinkedIn or Facebook. 

[emailking]

Well Andrew Weissmann recently floated an inquiry on X whether it was time to leave. The general consensus in responses was no because everyone just scatters. He's still posting so I'm glad, I want to see what he was to say. Whole situation just sucks.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Musk considers bringing Alex Jones back for Sandy Hook anniversary

Elon Musk said Thursday that he’d consider letting Alex Jones back onto X, nearly a year after vowing he wouldn’t reverse a ban on the conspiracy theorist best known for claiming that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

“Will consider,” Musk said in a Thursday post on X, in response to a user who mentioned the idea of Jones coming back. “In general, since this platform aspires to be the global town square, permanent bans should be extremely rare.”

Musk said that if someone “does say something false on this platform,” the comment will be corrected by the Community Notes feature, “whereas that would not be the case elsewhere.” He then signaled his intent to hold a poll on X about whether Jones should return.

Poll was started today. Sandy Hook was December 14th.

[Person Man]

Musk considers bringing Alex Jones back for Sandy Hook anniversary

Elon Musk said Thursday that he’d consider letting Alex Jones back onto X, nearly a year after vowing he wouldn’t reverse a ban on the conspiracy theorist best known for claiming that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

“Will consider,” Musk said in a Thursday post on X, in response to a user who mentioned the idea of Jones coming back. “In general, since this platform aspires to be the global town square, permanent bans should be extremely rare.”

Musk said that if someone “does say something false on this platform,” the comment will be corrected by the Community Notes feature, “whereas that would not be the case elsewhere.” He then signaled his intent to hold a poll on X about whether Jones should return.

Poll was started today. Sandy Hook was December 14th.

This isn’t just immoral but demented. Like cognitively impaired.

[emailking]

Reinstate is winning 70-30 so I guess that's happening. I voted no.

[Yoda]

Musk considers bringing Alex Jones back for Sandy Hook anniversary

Elon Musk said Thursday that he’d consider letting Alex Jones back onto X, nearly a year after vowing he wouldn’t reverse a ban on the conspiracy theorist best known for claiming that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

“Will consider,” Musk said in a Thursday post on X, in response to a user who mentioned the idea of Jones coming back. “In general, since this platform aspires to be the global town square, permanent bans should be extremely rare.”

Musk said that if someone “does say something false on this platform,” the comment will be corrected by the Community Notes feature, “whereas that would not be the case elsewhere.” He then signaled his intent to hold a poll on X about whether Jones should return.

Poll was started today. Sandy Hook was December 14th.

Alex Jones is a truly vile, evil, subhuman character. What he put those parents through is unforgivable. He has a spot in hell waiting for him.

Musk, if he brings him back, will show that he is no less a piece of s***. So glad I left that hell site when I did.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Reinstate is winning 70-30 so I guess that's happening. I voted no.

You realize he just does whatever he wants, regardless of what the poll says, right?

[emailking]

Final is 70.1% to 29.9%, and he said Vox Populi, Vox Dei.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

I’m honestly just there for nsfw content and to post atlasOOC at this point, and more and more of the former is moving to bluesky.

[emailking]

I’m honestly just there for nsfw content and to post atlasOOC at this point, and more and more of the former is moving to bluesky.

I just did an X advanced search on AtlasOOC and was disappointed to see only one post with the word unironically.

[emailking]

Elon Musk Says Far-Right Firebrand Alex Jones Will Be Reinstated on X/Twitter

Elon Musk, continuing his campaign to make X a “free speech” refuge even to the detriment of the company’s business interests, said he is reinstating the account of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Twitter banned Jones in 2018, along with his Infowars program. Last year Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion to families of Sandy Hook victims over his lies about the 2012 school shooting, which left 20 kids and six adults dead.

Musk said X/Twitter was reinstating Jones after Musk fielded a poll on the subject to his more than 165 million followers. A majority of respondents (70% of almost 2 million votes) were in favor of the move.

“The people have spoken and so it shall be,” Musk posted late Saturday evening.

Musk posted earlier Saturday, “I vehemently disagree with what [Jones] said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not? That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money.”

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/alex-jones-reinstated-x-twitter-elon-musk-1235832005/

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Final is 70.1% to 29.9%, and he said Vox Populi, Vox Dei.

As long as the results are what he wanted to do anyway.

[emailking]

He did that though, lol.

[Person Man]

Final is 70.1% to 29.9%, and he said Vox Populi, Vox Dei.

As long as the results are what he wanted to do anyway.

He’s basically the world’s Sir Woodbury.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

He did that though, lol.

Not in any meaningful sense.  He still runs Twitter and just put some meat puppet in as as CEO in name only.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

He did that though, lol.

He said he eventually planned to step down a month before he ran the poll.  He installed Yaccarino as a figurehead (anyone who thinks she's actually making the decisions likely thinks Donald Trump never lies) six months later.  The polls are meaningless theatrics.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

Alex Jones, Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and Vivek Ramaswamy are currently hosting a Twitter space call right now discussing politics. It shows you how strong the alternative-Libertarian movement has become.

[Person Man]

Alex Jones, Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and Vivek Ramaswamy are currently hosting a Twitter space call right now discussing politics. It shows you how strong the alternative-Libertarian movement has become.

By “libertarian” they mean alt-right which focuses more removing current obstacles to their agenda rather than the agenda itself.

[President Johnson]

Reinstate is winning 70-30 so I guess that's happening. I voted no.

Are many of these votes even real? I actually doubt, or X is just full of right-wing trolls. Unbanning Jones is another nail in the site's coffin.

[emailking]

Reinstate is winning 70-30 so I guess that's happening. I voted no.

Are many of these votes even real? I actually doubt, or X is just full of right-wing trolls. Unbanning Jones is another nail in the site's coffin.

Don't know. The vote to reinstate Trump was a lot closer though. Part of it may be so many people have left now and those still at X are disproportionately far right.

[Ferguson97]

Alex Jones, Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and Vivek Ramaswamy are currently hosting a Twitter space call right now discussing politics. It shows you how strong the alternative-Libertarian movement has become.

The fact that you view these people positively says everything we need to know about your moral character. The fact that you think they're "libertarians" says everything we need to know about your intelligence.

I genuinely couldn't think of a less appealing group of people if I tried.

[DaleCooper]

Alex Jones, Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and Vivek Ramaswamy are currently hosting a Twitter space call right now discussing politics. It shows you how strong the alternative-Libertarian movement has become.

It actually shows how weak it is. A hated billionaire (whose reputation is getting worse by the day) is chatting with a completely irrelevant wash-up, a soon-to-be-imprisoned sex offender, and a Republican polling in the single digits in his primary. People like this are ensuring that whatever their political movement is will never be electable in the United States.