See post 1709, reported in the media that he had gotten around the ban anyway.
Obviously not effective enough, he’s caved to the Brazilian Supreme Court.
“Now, X’s lawyers said the company had done exactly what Mr. Musk vowed not to: take down accounts that a Brazilian justice ordered removed because the judge said they threatened Brazil’s democracy. X also complied with the justice’s other demands, including paying fines and naming a new formal representative in the country, the lawyers said.”
2 Likes
Can’t get that sweet advertising revenue if you’re skirting legal rulings
1 Like
Is X getting ant ad revenue?
I keep seeing X ads to pay a subscription to be a premium X user of the platform.
They’re pumping out a metric shitload of ads, presumably they’re getting SOME revenue from them?
Though admittedly, the crypto scammers and small farm supply stores whose ads i see on there now probably don’t pay as well as Disney and Nike and all the other big advertisers that pulled out of Twitter cos of Musk’s policies (and personality)
I read ‘Character Limit - How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter’ over the weekend. It’s a new book about the history of the takeover and Musk’s management of twitter. As the title suggests, it has a fairly obvious editorial agenda, but it’s an interesting read nonetheless.
What really struck me was how much of a sliding doors moment was Musk’s win in the defamation lawsuit brought by the Thai cave rescue diver guy. It was a fairly open-shut case (Musk called him ‘pedo guy’ and repeatedly implied or alleged he was a child molester based entirely on the fact that the guy lived in Thailand, purely out of pique that the diver said Musk’s cave-submarine brainfart was dumb). There was no evidence whatsoever to support this, but the diver’s lawyer managed to alienate the entire jury by being an abrasive ■■■■, then asking for the biggest defamation payout in history by a looooong way, and the jury ended up finding for Musk just as a ■■■■ you. I think this was the moment he really started to believe that he was an untouchable genius.
7 Likes
I have only seen cypto adds etc. None of the big companies anymore. Or reliable breaking news accounts, which back in the day, were very helpful.
I read, if Trump is elected, Musk will run the government efficiency review. Whole there is always areas for greater efficiency, if he does to the US civil service what he did to twitter, he will destroy it.
5 Likes
He’s a genius. Advertisers are fleeing. Users are fleeing.
6 Likes
Despite the Twitter journey being an absolute ■■■■■■■■■■■, SpaceX is truly remarkable. They’ve added 1 million Starlink customers over 130 days, bringing them to 4 million worldwide. Air France and United airlines have signed up for ~$100m internet deals. More bandwidth has been approved for the Starlink network.
3 Likes
Agreed. SpaceX are great.
Tesla have an interesting time ahead of them but have done great things.
X kind of comical and an interesting insight into how social media brainworms and urges have really made a home in Elon’s mind.
1 Like
Verizon and AT&T are not happy with the increase. They are going to get decimated and they know it.
Starling now available to Yemen of all places.
SpaceX and Tesla need nothing more to be said.
The next few years with Neuralink especially and XAi are going to be transformative.
What Musk and his companies are achieving is remarkable (not including X as he didn’t create it.
To have 1 such company is amazing but to have that many crazy.
2 Likes
7 Likes
Not trying to…
I’m just trying to get a read on the guy.
His social views are abhorrent, but he’s entitled to them.
Following them blindly because of hero-worship says way more about ‘followers’ than him.
But the man himself…business-wise.
I get that he bought into PayPal early and made a lot of money.
I get that he bought into Twitter (for twice its value) and lost a lot of money.
But that doesn’t matter because it bought him reach and what have you.
But the SpaceX stuff is obviously brilliant and the satellites (which I don’t completely understand but seem equally amazing and disturbing).
Is he…Steve Jobs, or just a brave investor?
Again, keeping his abhorrent personal views out of it.
1 Like
Starlink and his satellite program is brilliant. It solves major connection issues especially due vast distances.
However, there is a lot of discussion about the amount of ‘stuff’ now orbiting earth and the pollution this may cause.
I’m concerned about control.
Perhaps I’m being silly about that.
Regardless, it’s not a criticism of the man, which is what I’m asking about.
Genius? Sometimes savvy investor?
What?
I honestly don’t know.
Starlink and its associated satellites give a single company a lot of control. Yes, that is concerning.
2 Likes
I think he has a very strong talent of seeing the direction that technology can head and the risk appetite to make it happen. He’s good at the technical and absolutely disastrous at the social.
He wasn’t responsible for the success of PayPal. He changed the company plan months before launch from a financial transactions offering to a full service provider of every global financial hub thing. Which he named X. He wanted to replace the global banking sector, which was a huge pivot as you can all imagine. Then when he flew out on his honeymoon, the board met and voted him out of the CEO position because he was about to blow up the company, as they only had a few months burn rate of seed capital remaining. PayPal success was despite his best efforts. He didn’t understand that his vision was not compatible with the market, even if he could make it technically work, which at the time he couldn’t.
His disastrous takeover of Twitter was because of a dumb joke, followed by a complete lack of understanding of human social dynamics. He has catastrophically destroyed Twitter’s credibility with advertisers, pushed a significant amount of the user base away from the platform, reduced moderation by over 99% and thus exposed itself to billions in EU fines. He threw away billions in dollars in equity of one of the top 10 brands in the world over a 20 year old grudge about his failed X software. He’s an ego driven narrowly talented man with the social intelligence of a house brick.
11 Likes
1 Like
He was considered a quirky genius up until a few years ago.
Just like Trump was considered a brilliant businessman & loveable media personality up until 2015.
DoD is trusting him with launching the US spy satellites and dedicated Starlinks for US military comms. There are also the rumored laser satellites they have engaged for him to build and deploy (who knows if they is actually true tho).
The current US admin however is not taking up his offer to provide partially subsidised Starlink access and is going ahead with spending $42billion on providing fiber to rural areas.
Same with the Tesla superchargers where subsidies would of resulted in a lot more of them being operation instead of the billions they administration has spent for 7 of them being operational.
A change in admin would no doubt increase the US depandancy on his companies. It’s a legitimate question on if this is a good thing for one person to have so much control / input / influence.
And that doesn’t even take into account XAi or neuralink and what that would mean in terms of his control or influence going forward.