Support NeoGAF

[Star-Lord]

Elon Musk becomes Twitter's biggest shareholder - BBC News

Tesla boss Elon Musk has bought almost a tenth of the social media platform's shares, worth $3bn.

www.bbc.co.uk

Elon Musk has taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter, according to a US securities filing. The news sent Twitter shares soaring about 25% in pre-market trading.

The Tesla founder bought 73,486,938 Twitter shares on 14 March, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The stake is worth $2.89bn (£2.20bn), based on Twitter's closing price on Friday.

Musk is a regular Twitter user with more than 80 million followers, although recently he said he is giving "serious thought" to building a new social media platform. Late last month Musk asked his followers whether they thought the social medial platform encouraged free speech.

 

[RoboFu]

Nice! That’s one way to change the zeitgeist.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Twitter is not a public square.

 

[Punished Miku]

That's funny. I just saw a video last night on youtube talking about how he was considering building his own social media platform. One of the hosts said, "well why not just buy Twitter and change it that way?"

 

[DeepBreath87]

Twitter is not a public square.

It serves as one as much as anywhere else.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

It serves as one as much as anywhere else.

It is a business.

 

[AJUMP23]

It is a square where only certain ideas are allowed and your movements are tracked and ads are served disguised as content.

 

[Whitecrow]

It is a business.

Plagued by infeccious tumoral cells called users.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Plagued by infeccious tumoral cells called users.

So the gov't should just make public all business entities with 'bad' user bases? To what end?

 

[RoboFu]

Twitter is not a public square.

Which is exactly why he is buying shares.

 

[p_xavier]

Musk seems the only freethinker left in corporate America, good move by him.

 

[DeepBreath87]

So the gov't should just make public all business entities with 'bad' user bases? To what end?

The government has nothing to do with this story.

Twitter serves as a public square more than anywhere else. Whether it is publicly owned or not is irrelevant. I’m not happy about it, but unless you can provide a better example, I think you don’t really have an argument.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

The government has nothing to do with this story.

There is no guarantee of 'free speech' within business, it only protects from the government. Twitter is a business, not a free speech zone. To make Twitter a free speech zone would require government intervention.

 

[DeepBreath87]

There is no guarantee of 'free speech' within business, it only protects from the government. Twitter is a business, not a free speech zone. To make Twitter a free speech zone would require government intervention.

Or shareholders that prioritize free speech.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Or shareholders that prioritize free speech.

Which will scare away ad buyers.

 

[ManaByte]

Twitter employee walkout soon.

 

[///PATRIOT]

There is no guarantee of 'free speech' within business, it only protects from the government. Twitter is a business, not a free speech zone. To make Twitter a free speech zone would require government intervention.

You sound like those wokes that loved it when their enemies were banned from Twitter, then gaslit the shit of everyone with that bullshit of "only the government can do censorship" "twitter is a business" "it's just how capitalism works"

No dude, what Twitter does to one group is pretty amoral and wrong, go touch some grass.

 

[WoJ]

Good for Musk. Seeing as he is now their largest shareholder I hope he burns the culture their to the ground.

 

[Windle Poons]

Twitter is not a public square.

It’s more like a public lynching.

 

[Azurro]

Which will scare away ad buyers.

Woke people foaming at the mouth haven't done so before, I don't see why this would do it.

 

[Tieno]

it's his marketing platform too, so makes sense.

 

[ManaByte]

Good for Musk. Seeing as he is now their largest shareholder I hope he burns the culture their to the ground.

Nah, the danger hair infants will still find a reason to ban him.

 

[Star-Lord]

Twitter is not a public square.

Disagree. Everyone always has something to say on there, and guaranteed it will be the polar opposite to how you feel about a particular topic. I think that’s what is meant by a public square.

 

[Dream-Knife]

Disagree. Everyone always has something to say on there, and guaranteed it will be the polar opposite to how you feel about a particular topic. I think that’s what is meant by a public square.

Usually if it's the prevailing opinion on Twitter you know the exact opposite is the correct answer.

 

[Rat Rage]

The one who controls social media, controls the world! So let's go and buy some more shares, guys!

Let's buy everything: Twitter, TikTok, Discord, Facebook, Youtube - that's one hell of a propaganda bundle!

Listen to me closely: The world needs NON-PROFIT SOCIAL MEDIA. Basically everything above but open source and non-profit.

If I wasn't that stupid and knew how... I'd program it myself!

 

[InfiniteCombo]

You sound like those wokes that loved it when their enemies were banned from Twitter, then gaslit the shit of everyone with that bullshit of "only the government can do censorship" "twitter is a business" "it's just how capitalism works"

No dude, what Twitter does to one group is pretty amoral and wrong, go touch some grass.

Which is weird to me because Maiden Voyage doesn't seem like a woke dude... Unless I've been reading him wrong this whole time.

 

[12Goblins]

maybe he'll shut it down

 

[GymWolf]

Can he actually change the politics and wokeness of twitter with a mere 10% of ownership?

 

[DeepBreath87]

Can he actually change the politics and wokeness of twitter with a mere 10% of ownership?

Depends. He’s the largest shareholder, I believe, so he will have some amount of influence.

 

[Lord Panda]

That’s excellent news. Now he just needs to buy out Resetera, and get rid of the furry infestation going on over there.

 

[InverseAgonist]

Can he actually change the politics and wokeness of twitter with a mere 10% of ownership?

I assume he's bought himself a board seat or two....

 

[ParaSeoul]

Waiting for people to get banned for saying negative things about him.

 

[ManaByte]

Depends. He’s the largest shareholder, I believe, so he will have some amount of influence.

It’ll be Elon vs the woke cancel gestapo who are led by the Twitter employees themselves.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

That’s excellent news. Now he just needs to buy out Resetera, and get rid of the furry infestation going on over there.

Please don't. They need to be contained somewhere.

Waiting for people to get banned for saying negative things about him.

Eh, I think he's pretty used to people saying negative things about him. He doesn't seem like he lets it get to him that much.

 

[DeepBreath87]

It’ll be Elon vs the woke cancel gestapo who are led by the Twitter employees themselves.

Yeah. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a large corporation that was about to change course once it’s been captured by these lunatics.

 

[ParaSeoul]

Eh, I think he's pretty used to people saying negative things about him. He doesn't seem like he lets it get to him that much.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk got into a bizarre argument on Twitter after being called out for not crediting the artist behind a piece of video game fan art

After posting an image of fan art from a video game without credit, some folks began calling out Tesla CEO Elon Musk for not sourcing the artist.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[Kraz]

Twitter is not a public square.

Unsure why anyone who wants less enforcement would want it to be a public square beyond appealing romantic ideas. Squares appear very well regulated by the establishment of the community after looking up what one was.

It seems closer to mailbox flyers where everyone stands around the mailbox. Less regulated and can create mobs.
There's the tabloid types of people still vulnerable to celebrity, misinformation/disinformation, getting hysterical then acting on impulse makes regulation something of a necessity to keep people safe until education catches up. The last few years of heavier moderation have helped, even the war in Ukraine. A few more years one way or another should help. They divide between the educated and none may grow even wider socially if it isn't uniform.

Nations having their own socials with co-existing international networks seems like it could be part of the solution.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

All the ree people right now. The thread over there is about what you would expect.

 

[DeepBreath87]

Unsure why anyone who wants less enforcement would want it to be a public square beyond appealing romantic ideas. Squares appear very well regulated by the establishment of the community after looking up what one was.

It seems closer to mailbox flyers where everyone stands around the mailbox. Less regulated and can create mobs.
There's the tabloid types of people still vulnerable to celebrity, misinformation/disinformation, getting hysterical then acting on impulse makes regulation something of a necessity to keep people safe until education catches up. The last few years of heavier moderation have helped, even the war in Ukraine. A few more years one way or another should help. They divide between the educated and none may grow even wider socially if it isn't uniform.

Nations having their own socials with co-existing international networks seems like it could be part of the solution.

Considering they are banning and censoring things that are true, I don’t think things are “better”. Unless by better you just mean they are banning people you don’t agree with.

 

[Kraz]

Considering they are banning and censoring things that are true, I don’t think things are “better”. Unless by better you just mean they are banning people you don’t agree with.

There's the odd mistake as with any system and the human element. Nothing drastic has happened since it's not a sole source of information.

 

[prinz_valium]

Elon now owns 9.2% of my Twitter profile. That's more than me. I only own 0.00092% of my Twitter profile.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk got into a bizarre argument on Twitter after being called out for not crediting the artist behind a piece of video game fan art

After posting an image of fan art from a video game without credit, some folks began calling out Tesla CEO Elon Musk for not sourcing the artist.

www.businessinsider.com

I was aware of that episode.

If he starts wanting to ban people he would just be a giant hypocrite. And Elon Musk is a lot of questionable things -- a weirdo, a troll, etc -- but "hypocrite" does not seem to be one of those things, at least from what I know about him.

 

[chromhound]

Wont be surprise if he buys more share

 

[///PATRIOT]

Wont be surprise if he buys more share

Hope so. His flaws are miles better than the forced progressive shit, culture war and democrat leaning the current board and CEO enforce on the site.

 

[Boss Mog]

Great news! Why build something from the ground up and put in all the work to make it competitive in hopes of someday toppling current big tech companies when you have the money to gut them from the inside.

 

[EverydayBeast]

I promise you if you give musk his own country it’ll be the greatest thing ever.

 

[Zeroing]

Twitter is not an ancient Greek forum where the great minds gathered and discussed philosophy, science and arts.

No idea why people see any value on twitter at all.

 

[AJUMP23]

Twitter is not an ancient Greek forum where the great minds gathered and discussed philosophy, science and arts.

No idea why people see any value on twitter at all.

news comes quickly if inaccurately.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Which is weird to me because Maiden Voyage doesn't seem like a woke dude... Unless I've been reading him wrong this whole time.

I don't think the internet as a whole needs to be a free speech zone, nor do I want the government more involved in it than they need to be. If that makes me woke, then I guess I'm woke.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

You sound like those wokes that loved it when their enemies were banned from Twitter, then gaslit the shit of everyone with that bullshit of "only the government can do censorship" "twitter is a business" "it's just how capitalism works"

No dude, what Twitter does to one group is pretty amoral and wrong, go touch some grass.

You know nothing about me, dude. I don't pay attention to Twitter, nor do I have online 'enemies'. Your post comes off like a spoiled child tantruming over an imaginary "enemy" that doesn't actually exist. Social media in general has been an absolute cancer to humanity. Your response here is a great example of how it damages people's ability to hold a conversation--you're literally arguing points I have never stated.

If anyone needs to touch grass here, it's you.