Elon Musk purchases a near 10% in Twitter for $3B

[albaPhenom]

So a week or so back he posed the question a question asking "Do we need a new platform?", questioning their commitment to free speech.

Speculation began that he might buy Twitter but it seemed one of these social media rumours without any substance. Seems we need to take Elon Musk a bit more serious when he makes these seemingly outrageous troll tweets because he has a habit of following through with them.

Today it was revealed he bought a 9.2% share making him Twitters largest shareholder.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...est-shareholder-taking-9-2-stake-company.html



They will freak if Musk buys another 10% tranche in a week or so.

I personally think Twitter is one of the worlds biggest cancers, I'm a centre-left leaning liberal but a lot of Twitters pandering to the Woke "loony left" crowd annoys the life out of me, so this move amuses me a bit.

BUT, I also think Twitter is vital at spreading misinformation and foreign propaganda so I'm also a little concerned over the prospect of a "leash off" version of Twitter.

What do you all think?

 

[The Samaritan]

More money than sense.
I recall ITV paying hundreds of millions for Friend reunited or something like that. Then dot com bubble burst and it went belly up, itv lost every penny and more the millions they squandered 120 odd million in early 2000's - the 120 million equates to about 200 mill now and that is a lot of money in anyone's books

I guess this purchase is not to do with money-making but with feeling big and spouting their agenda.

 

[Deleted member 18243]

If Elon Musk was Bill Gates's son he would be called Elon Gates.

 

[albaPhenom]

More money than sense.
I recall ITV paying hundreds of millions for Friend reunited or something like that. Then dot com bubble burst and it went belly up, itv lost every penny and more the millions they squandered 120 odd million in early 2000's - the 120 million equates to about 200 mill now and that is a lot of money in anyone's books

I guess this purchase is not to do with money-making but with feeling big and spouting their agenda.

The purchase is more than likely to do with taking a principled stance on Twitter as one of if the not thee foremost social media platform for social and political commentary.

Musk often makes decisions which don’t seem to be based on what is likely to be most profitable but what he wants to do and what he feels strongly about. You can see this in decisions he’s made in his companies and so far is paid off.

He’s an incredibly unique character is Elon Musk, the richest man in the world but doesn’t seem to care much for money or material possessions… money is only a facilitator for him to make moves and bring into being the things which he feels passionately about.

 

[motorbiking]

Twitter seems to be nothing more than a dynamic press release platform. Nobody outside the political/media bubble uses it. increasingly Linkedin is taking the business/professional share of the announcements and telegram, tiktok etc the social influencers.

I'm not sure Musk will get a return on that investment. But I've been very wrong about many of his visionary investments.

 

[Notch7]

If Elon Musk was Bill Gates's son he would be called Elon Gates.

Very good

 

[Notch7]

Elon Musks tweets are mostly sh1tposting….which makes sense as apparently over 50% he does whilst on the toilet

 

[ajohn]

All of the mass internet based media provide political power to users that choose exploit it. I don't see as owning some of it alters that but it might provide a route to changing how it works. Maybe he and possibly some others have ideas. There is a growing call for more control of mass media.

 

[albaPhenom]

Twitter seems to be nothing more than a dynamic press release platform. Nobody outside the political/media bubble uses it. increasingly Linkedin is taking the business/professional share of the announcements and telegram, tiktok etc the social influencers.

I'm not sure Musk will get a return on that investment. But I've been very wrong about many of his visionary investments.

Each Social Media platform is aimed at a particular niche of the market, FB is aimed a social networks, Insta is aimed at showing off, LinkedIn is purely a business platform, Youtube for media sharing, TikTok is a hybrid of Youtube and Insta, while Twitter is aimed purely at commentary which often times means political commentary... although it actually works well for keeping up to date on your particular interest. For example my main sport is Boxing so I follow all the oxers, trainers, promoters, sanctioning bodies and I therefore have access to instant news and I can track all the squabbles and drama between certain parties.

But it's a mistake to try to diminish or disregard the importance of these platforms in the modern world. These are massively powerful, they have shaped elections and even wars in various countries, they are used as a weapon by other countries to promote agitprop in their enemies societies and their ability to spread misinformation is unlimited.

Twitter is the most toxic platform in my opinion due to quirks in how it was created and evolved. The character limit reduces most peoples points to it's most basic for, you can't have a meaningful debate on Twitter due to this which often makes interactions over politics quickly descend into vitriol and insults.

The hashtag system works to quickly spread particular debates far and wide very fast but anyone who is anywhere close to impartial can see that Twitter is not unbiased curator of views and opinions, depending on where you stand politically, this will either be considered a good thing or a bad thing.

Elon Musk is a free speech advocate and obviously sees this as a bad thing, hence his interest in the platform.

He posed a question of whether there was a need for a new platform (often the defence for shutting down POV is "well make your own Twitter if you don't like it). some people have tried to make a new platform but it is incredibly difficult to gain any traction at all when you already have a default platform in whatever niche ... seems like he has realised this himself and decided "I'll just buy yours then", make no mistake, Musk is not buying this to sit idly by and see whether his stock prices rises or not... he intends to make changes to the culture.

 

[The Samaritan]

Sadly, "free speech" to many is if it suits their agenda, fact!

.

 

[albaPhenom]

Elon Musks tweets are mostly sh1tposting….which makes sense as apparently over 50% he does whilst on the toilet

Definitely true but recently he's posted things which seem ****posty (like asking his Twitter followers if he should sell of a percentage of Tesla to pay X amount in taxes due to criticism he received) and then he's done exactly what he has tweeted.

He got into a back and forth with a UN World Food delegate a little while ago over a challenge to donate $6 billion to charity, not long after he made a mystery donation to a charity of, yes you guessed, approx. $6 billion.

Disregard his ****posts at your peril.

 

[ajohn]

Twitter is the most toxic platform in my opinion due to quirks

I came across an article about the bloke who started it. He doesn't like it. I suspect this goes back to various commercialise aspects of the web As some one who used it in the UK when it was first introduced I'm inclined to agree. What has happened since - that's life. At least it's faster now. In the early days it became unusable when certain parts of the USA woke up.

The freedom they enjoy appears to go back in time, A usa suffragette who came to the uk found a defamatory book about her in the British Library and demanded that it was removed. A court case decided that a library can not be expected to verify all information in the books they have. Other new sources - they just mention who said what ever it is or that it can't be verified etc. Not much difference really.

LOL I KNOW HOW TO SHOUT.

 

[The Samaritan]

Never read the bloke and never heard of him until he took off in that funny thing. I thought credit to the old guy for getting several over Mr Richard Branston.

 

[transam]

It buys him a seat on the board

he could actually buy Twitter he had the cash

but he is happy for a seat on the board

 

[albaPhenom]

It buys him a seat on the board

he could actually buy Twitter he had the cash

but he is happy for a seat on the board

Sure I read that it gives 4x the stake that Jack Dorsey (creator and previous CEO) holds … which is mental.