- As set forth in detail below, CCDH, on several occasions since at least March 2021, has intentionally sought and obtained unauthorized access to data sets regarding X that were provided by X Corp. to Runtime Collective Ltd., T/A Brandwatch (âBrandwatchâ) pursuant to written agreements. Those data sets were and are accessible only via secure login credentials that Defendants (except for the third party who is included as a Doe Defendant and improperly shared its login credentials with CCDH) were never authorized to have. CCDH, in turn, and on at least two occasions after accessing that data without authorization, quoted the unlawfully accessed data incompletely and out of context to create unsubstantiated and incorrect assertions about the presence of hate speech on X.
- CCDH, as a registered user of the X service, also breached its agreement with X Corp., i.e., the Terms of Service (âToSâ), which expressly prohibit âscrapingâ without Xâs âprior consent.â CCDHâs February 9, 2023 report admits to scraping X to obtain data for the report, in which CCDH uses its manufactured and inaccurate narrative to openly call for companies to not advertise on X, claiming they would otherwise be âbankrolling the spread of hate and disinformation on Twitter.â
I have renamed this topic âTwitter, Elon Musk, and đâ to better reflect items discussed here, which have ranged far and wide from the original topic about Muskâs acquiring Twitter shares with the goal of a take-over. This will be the first in a series of renamings of vintage threads whose longevity has outlasted their original titles.
Itâs on!
Iâm not very excited by this. The novelty value is far outweighed by the civic actions these two titan$ take on behalf of liberty. Z has shown himself clearly by financing, letâs generously say - questionable vote harvesting in the 2020 election. M, by contrast, has at least said some things against censorship and has launched a possibly important lawsuit against purveyors of censorship justifying themselves as preventing so-called âhate speechâ.
A better heavyweight match, IMHO, would be for him to take on the monopoly Visa, which crushes non-progressives financially. This behemoth and others have been de-banking (and closing credit card accounts) individuals and organizations for purely political reasons. As @CTLaw has pointed out previously and left un-prosecuted, only because those affected are uniquely conservatives. Such acts are already illegal on various bases and ought to be litigated as well under public accommodation law. This kind of financial warfare is as un-American as it gets and unfair by almost any legitimate standard. Such power in the hands of monopolies is an egregious evil, at least if one envisions a decent, civil society which can function financially and economically. Visa needs to be crushed. I am presently composing a post which will tell the story of how Visa tries, unscrupulously, to get out from under making good on its ârewardsâ (read water torture) programs. But that is a lesser and separate issue.
Want to bring back to your attention Elonâs earlier presentation to Ron Baronâs investor conference at the end of last year. His segment pretty much outlined most of what heâs done with Twitter â X
This was covered in Johnâs post from Nov 2022 Elon Musk at the Baron Capital Investment Conference
Vaught tweeted a letter from the social media siteâs management saying that the 16-year-old account would have its handle replaced with a new one, offering â@musicfan,â â@music123,â or â@musicmusic.â
Twitterâwhich rebranded to âXâ in Julyâsaid in its email to Vaught: âThe user handle associated with the account @Music will be affiliated with X Corp.â It isnât the first time the newly rebranded company, under the control of tech billionaire Elon Musk, had seized a valuable Twitter name.
Just last week, a San Francisco-based photographer named Gene X Hwang had the handle âXâ taken by Muskâs company, telling The Telegraph: âThey just took it essentiallyâkinda what I thought might happen. They did send an email saying it is the property of âxâ essentially."
The companyâs email to Vaught contained a similar tone: âWe appreciate your loyalty and want to minimize any inconvenience this may cause,â the email stated. âAt this time we will be changing this handle to @musicfan.â
Shouldnât this be in the âCrazy Yearsâ thread?
A few suggestions for the headline, courtesy of St. Chat, assuming the âfightâ would take place at the Colosseum:
- Colosseum Clash of Titans (ahem)
- Battle in the Basilica (not technically true, but who cares)
- Toga Tumble (there is a tie-in opportunity with letâs say more mature content)
- Forum Face-off: the Monumental Melee
And my number 1 personal preference: Rome Ruckus of the Tech Titans
Elon Musk has announced his intention to remove the âBlockâ feature from đ.
The app store policies are not as clear on the issue as the User Context seems to imply. Here are the policies.
It is not clear from reading them that the âMuteâ function, which will remain, is insufficient to comply with the required functionality.
User reaction seems overwhelmingly negative. Here is one poll, which is less one-sided than most Iâve seen.
Many people donât understand the distinction between Block and Mute on Twitter/đ:
- Block means a blocked account cannot see your posts, and you cannot see their posts.
- Mute means you do not see posts from the muted account, but they can still see your posts.
The principal argument by those opposing the removal of Block is that it prevents stalkers from seeing their targetsâ posts, to which they may then append replies or, if that is prohibited, screen shot and include in their own posts. With Block, they never see these posts (unless they set up another account to follow them).
I have not seen the argument in favour of removing Block. I canât see how would benefit đ in terms of billing advertisers.
Someone in authority at X must really not want X to succeed as âthe platformâ. There is no developer free tier âhello worldâ app and the most basic questions are going unanswered regarding this at the developer forum. This is how you fail to get network effects.
Fire the CTO.
PS: Another unforgivable atavism about X is that none of the LLMs know a damn thing about its current API â so the absence of anyone to answer questions at the community forum could be solved by throwing hardware at the problem. But NOOooo⌠X is above using LLMs or something.
Bloomberg attack on Musk, asserting people are dumping Teslas because of him:
They donât report control for what people traded the Tesla for. If somebody trades it for an ICE car but blames Musk, they are lying. If someone buys an EV in a segment that Tesla does not serve, they are likely lying. the one person they cite said:
âWeâre a perfect example of the damage to the brand,â one commenter wrote. âHave 3 Teslas. Instead of buying a 4th one, we didnât buy a new S to replace our original S, canceled our order on a Y, and have a deposit in on the Rivian SUV instead. A good friend of ours was going to buy a Tesla, but just couldnât stomach it because of Elon Musk. Ended up buying another car.â
No. Perhaps a more âperfect exampleâ would involve an actual Model Y (small-mid raised hatchback posing as a cross-over) competitor from Kia, but the Rivian R1S which is a largish truckish SUV for which there is no Tesla competition on the horizon. A âperfect exampleâ would involve someone buying an inferior vehicle in the same class as the one they canceled the order for.
It is a bummer when you buy a car as part of your virtue signaling routine only to find the founder of the company doesnât agree with you on every political position. If only this guy could find a car designed and built in the Ukraine, all would be right in the world again.
The ebbs and flows of virtue signaling can be hard on a guy. One really needs to stay on top of the âcurrent thingâ.
And the current thing keeps changing so fast! Transmogrifying!
X v. Bonta over AB 587:
Allegedly one of the reasons behind the bandwidth issues during the DeSantis âspacesâ: