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follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
@oneunderscore__
Oct 4, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
For those of you asking: Yes, I do think this site can and will change pretty dramatically if Musk gets full control over it.

No, there is no immediate replacement.

If it gets done early enough, based on the people he's aligned with, yes, it could actually affect midterms.
If Musk is really taking this site private, there are no real guardrails anymore. Rulemaking can be capricious.

He can elevate any idea or person he wants through recommendations and UX choices and there will be no oversight on this as a private company.
We know from Musk's private texts he talks with people who want to let Trump back on and make a "Blake Masters type" a "VP of enforcement."

Masters is a far-right Senate candidate backed by Facebook founder and Trump donor Peter Thiel.
In those Musk texts, the redacted senders and recipients lay the groundwork for a "war" and "battle" after Musk takes over Twitter — a "coordinated pressure campaign" that will lead to deplatforming of political enemies. Image
What does this look like in the short term?

Abandonment of traditional moderation policies. Stuff like Pizzagate — pushed by bots and liars — will be protected. Disinfo campaigns will top trending topics and drive news cycles.

Authoritarian governments will have a field day.
In the longterm, Musk's plans for this website are a suicide bomb.

Very few people want to use a moderation-free app saturated with lies by design. We know this from the dozens of Twitter clones who've tried and failed.

But he seems deadset on taking bad advice from bad people.
In conclusion, Elon Musk's Twitter purchase will have to be heavily financed by someone else in order for him to complete it.

In May, according to an SEC filing, Musk's Twitter buy was most heavily subsidized by Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud.

sec.gov/Archives/edgar… Image

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More from @oneunderscore__

follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
Nov 16, 2024
Hi friends!

I wanted to give a quick update on The Onion’s purchase of InfoWars, which we can’t wait to relaunch as the dumbest site on the internet.

Long and short of it: We won the bid and — you're not going to believe it — the previous InfoWars folks aren't taking it well.
On Thursday, the person overseeing the auction told us that The Onion’s bid for InfoWars, along with the Connecticut Sandy Hook families, won.

We haven’t heard anything that changed that — except, of course, from the guys currently running InfoWars, doing InfoWars stuff.
There was a status conference with the judge overseeing the auction on Thursday shortly after we were deemed winners.

The judge had some questions about process and assets. We’re glad he’s doing that, since our bid with the families is clearly the best and transparency is even better.
Read 7 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
Oct 27, 2023
Didn’t see much mainstream credentialed press covering this, so I’m at Grand Central. Definitely still hundreds here at this protest calling for a ceasefire.
A lot of people still inside Grand Central Terminal, cops saying the whole terminal is shut down, telling people to head up to 125th St to take the trains headed out of the city. Every entrance blocked off.
Not a ton of people dipping off from the outside. Occasional person will yell occasional pro-Israel (or just general frustration at shutting down the terminal) at the crowd, but it’s very calm right now, at least on the outside.
Read 12 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
Oct 6, 2023
This is:

1) An article of my recent Bluesky posts, so be careful out there.

2) Very weird, and seems to shame me for disclosing that I have depression from the work that I do. Image
Actually a profoundly disgusting thing to do, @arielzilber and @nypost. You should be really ashamed of yourselves.
@arielzilber @nypost I do have depression from getting bombarded with nonstop death threats from actual neonazis.

I see a therapist for it and it helps. It's helped me cope with a very difficult job.

My current editor and colleagues on this beat have helped me through it, and I'm grateful.
Read 5 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
Oct 3, 2023
What’s going on with Elon Musk, and why is he doing this to Twitter?

I spent the last few months digging into it.

I found a pretty big clue.
New from me:

What was Elon Musk’s strategy for Twitter? A game plan published by a fired Trump White House staffer provides a clue.

nbcnews.com/tech/was-elon-…
I'll be talking about Elon and this story on @maddow tonight at 9 p.m.

There's so much to talk discuss. Join us!
Read 5 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
May 25, 2023
How stores work.
Yes, this video is about how dumb the Target controversy is, how much the people pushing it are actively lying to people, and how some mainstream outlets are eating it all up.
Featuring this very good tweet.
Read 4 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
May 12, 2023
Thread of new reporting:

For the last couple of weeks, if you searched "cat" on Twitter, the search box would autocomplete to "cat in a blender."

The video you would see when you clicked through appeared to show a kitten being slaughtered.

How did this happen? I found out. Image
Last week, a London mom named Laura Clemons came home to her son asking her if she had Twitter.

When she asked why, her 11-year-old son said, “There’s something about a cat in a blender.” He'd heard about it on the playground.

She went on Twitter and saw... exactly that.
Clemons reached out to Twitter on May 3, asking how preteens on the playground all knew about the animal torture video on Twitter.

She received no response. Image
Read 8 tweets

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