Taibbi leaves Twitter

[jon-nyc]

Interesting.

Musk had receipts where Taibbi said he was a substack employee. Musk said “correct your article”.

[George K]

Jesus...

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/10/after-matt-taibbi-leaves-twitter-elon-musk-shadow-bans-all-of-taibbis-tweets-including-the-twitter-files/

=-=-=-=-=-

After Matt Taibbi Leaves Twitter, Elon Musk ‘Shadow Bans’ All Of Taibbi’s Tweets, Including The Twitter Files
from the a-show-in-three-acts dept

Mon, Apr 10th 2023 09:15am - Mike Masnick
The refrain to remember with Twitter under Elon Musk: it can always get dumber.

Quick(ish) recap:

On Thursday, Musk’s original hand-picked Twitter Files scribe, Matt Taibbi, went on Mehdi Hasan’s show (which Taibbi explicitly demanded from Hasan, after Hasan asked about Taibbi’s opinions on Musk blocking accounts for Modi in India). The interview did not go well for Taibbi in the same manner that finding an iceberg did not go well for the Titanic.

One segment of the absolutely brutal interview involves Hasan asking Taibbi the very question that Taibbi had said he wanted to come on the show to answer: what was his opinion of Musk blocking Twitter accounts in India, including those of journalists and activists, that were critical of the Modi government? Hasan notes that Taibbi has talked up how he believes Musk is supporting free speech, and asked Taibbi if he’d like to criticize the blocking of journalists.

Taibbi refused to do so, and claimed he doesn’t really know about the story, even though it was the very story that Hasan initially tweeted about that resulted in Taibbi saying he’d tell Hasan his opinion on the story if he was invited on the show. It was, well, embarrassing to watch Taibbi squirm as he knew he couldn’t say anything critical about Musk. He already saw how the second Twitter Files scribe, Bari Weiss, was ex-communicated from the Church of Musk for criticizing Musk’s banning of journalists....

Again, this shouldn’t be a surprise, even though the irony is super thick. Early Twitter Files revealed that Twitter had long used visibility filtering to limit the spread of certain accounts. Musk screamed about how this was horrible shadowbanning… but then proceeded to use those tools to suppress speech of people he disliked. And now he’s using the tool, at max power, to hide Taibbi and the very files that we were (falsely) told “exposed” how old Twitter shadow banned people.

This is way more ironic than the Alanis song.

So, yes, we went from Taibbi praising Elon Musk for supporting free speech and supposedly helping to expose the evil shadowbanning of the old regime, and refusing to criticize Musk on anything, to Taibbi leaving Twitter, and Musk not just unfollowing him but shadowbanning him and all his Twitter Files.

In about 48 hours.

Absolutely incredible.

Just a stunning show of leopard face eating.

Not much happened then on Sunday, though Twitter first added a redirect on any searches for “substack” to “newsletters” (what?) and then quietly stopped throttling links to Substack, though no explanation was given. And as far as I can tell, Taibbi’s account is still “max deboosted.”

Anyway, again, to be clear: Elon Musk is perfectly within his rights to be as arbitrary and capricious as he wants to be with his own site. But can people please stop pretending his actions have literally anything to do with “free speech”?

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Jesus...

This is hilarious. Elon doesn't know how to manage this at all, it's complete chaos.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Jesus...

This is hilarious. Elon doesn't know how to manage this at all, it's complete chaos.

Still doing better than the initial assholes who created the platform.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Jesus...

This is hilarious. Elon doesn't know how to manage this at all, it's complete chaos.

Still doing better than the initial assholes who created the platform.

Well, they did create the platform and also made it massively popular. So, from a business perspective, no he isn't. He's taken over something that had serious flaws and created massive additional amounts of bad publicity. He's also lectured us all about freedom of speech whilst silencing anybody he didn't like, seemingly on a whim.

Don't I remember you singing the praises of Twitter pre-Musk?

[Renauda]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Jesus...

This is hilarious. Elon doesn't know how to manage this at all, it's complete chaos.

It’s comforting to know that Musk was born in a foreign country to non American parents.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Renauda said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Jesus...

This is hilarious. Elon doesn't know how to manage this at all, it's complete chaos.

It’s comforting to know that Musk was born in a foreign country to non American parents.

God, imagine the outcry if George Soros bought Twitter. It would be wonderful.

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

God, imagine the outcry if George Soros bought Twitter. It would be wonderful.

Well, he already owns the _____________________________________

Insert whatever pisses you off here:

[Horace]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Renauda said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Jesus...

This is hilarious. Elon doesn't know how to manage this at all, it's complete chaos.

It’s comforting to know that Musk was born in a foreign country to non American parents.

God, imagine the outcry if George Soros bought Twitter. It would be wonderful.

I can't even remember if I'm supposed to like or hate Elon.

But I do remember that he's said things that would be in support of the fundamental principle of free speech.

I don't remember Soros saying such things.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Jesus...

This is hilarious. Elon doesn't know how to manage this at all, it's complete chaos.

Still doing better than the initial assholes who created the platform.

Well, they did create the platform and also made it massively popular.

A popular platform that rewards antisocial personality disorders, creates kangaroo courts of public opinion that destroy careers, and publicizes home addresses and family photos of people who say the wrong thing to whatever mob you're talking about. Twitter is Community Stasi. So, from a digital hellscape perspective, it's hard to do worse.

He's also lectured us all about freedom of speech whilst silencing anybody he didn't like, seemingly on a whim.

Oh come on, only nutters actually believed his nonsesnse. I'm just glad he's keeping the dumpster fire going. Maybe it'll all burn down.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Renauda said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Jesus...

This is hilarious. Elon doesn't know how to manage this at all, it's complete chaos.

It’s comforting to know that Musk was born in a foreign country to non American parents.

God, imagine the outcry if George Soros bought Twitter. It would be wonderful.

I can't even remember if I'm supposed to like or hate Elon.

But I do remember that he's said things that would be in support of the fundamental principle of free speech.

Whilst investing heavily in China, avoiding criticising their despotic regime, and banning people who he doesn't like on Twitter.

Talk is cheap.

I don't remember Soros saying such things.

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/how-open-society-foundations-are-defending-free-speech-hungary

[Horace]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Horace said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Renauda said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Jesus...

This is hilarious. Elon doesn't know how to manage this at all, it's complete chaos.

It’s comforting to know that Musk was born in a foreign country to non American parents.

God, imagine the outcry if George Soros bought Twitter. It would be wonderful.

I can't even remember if I'm supposed to like or hate Elon.

But I do remember that he's said things that would be in support of the fundamental principle of free speech.

Whilst investing heavily in China, avoiding criticising their despotic regime, and banning people who he doesn't like on Twitter.

Talk is cheap.

I don't remember Soros saying such things.

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/how-open-society-foundations-are-defending-free-speech-hungary

Sorry I can't. What do the words at that link mean to you?

Please put something into your own words.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Please put something into your own words.

It looks like Soros' foundation is suing for freedom of speech.

If I'm honest, I know absolutely nothing about George Soros. The only time I hear anybody talk about him is here, and it's always conservatives saying he's behind something or other, with nefarious intent to overthrow the American Way. It all sounds like utter bollocks to be frank, but what do I know?

[Horace]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Horace said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

Please put something into your own words.

It looks like Soros' foundation is suing for freedom of speech.

If I'm honest, I know absolutely nothing about George Soros. The only time I hear anybody talk about him is here, and it's always conservatives saying he's behind something or other, with nefarious intent to overthrow the American Way. It sounds like utter bollocks to be frank, but what do I know?

Well he's an avatar, and he doesn't even know it. Yes he does distribute his money to support causes the extent of which he does not realize. I don't know how he made his money. It's not actually important. He's the guy who got lucky.

He has made known his causes, and those causes have made known their effects.

[Copper]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

I know absolutely nothing about George Soros

A WW II Nazi collaborator.

his family survived the war by purchasing documents to say that they were Christians. Later that year at age 14, Soros posed as the Christian godson of an official of the collaborationist Hungarian government's Ministry of Agriculture, who himself had a Jewish wife in hiding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros

[jon-nyc]

@Horace said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

I don't know how he made his money. It's not actually important.

He ran a hedge fund. His big career making trade was betting heavily on the British Pound falling out of the ERM.

He made over a billion pounds on that trade. I remember him on TV saying “normally markets and trades are very diffuse, and if you gain a lot you can’t point to any individual or institution that lost an equivalent amount. But in my case there was a single corresponding loser: the Bank of England”

[Doctor Phibes]

@jon-nyc said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Horace said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

I don't know how he made his money. It's not actually important.

He ran a hedge fund. His big career making trade was betting heavily on the British Pound falling out of the ERM.

He made over a billion pounds on that trade. I remember him on TV saying “normally markets and trades are very diffuse, and if you gain a lot you can’t point to any individual or institution that lost an equivalent amount. But in my case there was a single corresponding loser: the Bank of England”

So I'm the one who should have a beef with him, not you lot. He probably cost me 500 quid back in the 90's. I remember the people with mortgages freaking out, as there was no such thing as a fixed interest rate mortgage over there.

On the positive side, I bought a house a couple of years later very cheaply, so he probably saved me 500 quid there.

[Renauda]

@Copper said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

I know absolutely nothing about George Soros

A WW II Nazi collaborator.

his family survived the war by purchasing documents to say that they were Christians. Later that year at age 14, Soros posed as the Christian godson of an official of the collaborationist Hungarian government's Ministry of Agriculture, who himself had a Jewish wife in hiding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros

You ought to notify the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies and Simon Wiesenthal Centre in the US that Soros was a collaborator. I’ll bet they will thank you for your revelatory information.

[Copper]

@Renauda said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Copper said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:

I know absolutely nothing about George Soros

A WW II Nazi collaborator.

his family survived the war by purchasing documents to say that they were Christians. Later that year at age 14, Soros posed as the Christian godson of an official of the collaborationist Hungarian government's Ministry of Agriculture, who himself had a Jewish wife in hiding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros

You ought to notify the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies and Simon Wiesenthal Centre in the US that Soros was a collaborator. I’ll bet they will thank you for your revelatory information.

He owns both.

[Renauda]

@Copper

You should notify those institutions in any case. After all they may not be woke to the facts like you.

While you’re at it, by all means do notify the Israeli Embassy in Washington. They too will thank you.