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Monday, May 2, 2022

Progressive panic over Musk's Twitter purchase

Elon Musk Buys Twitter, Twitter's Biggest Egos Melt Down | Reason - Liz Wolfe:  

April 25, 2022 - "SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk [has] arranged $46.5 billion in financing to follow through on his unsolicited offer to Twitter's board to buy the social media site from them. This afternoon, the board accepted Musk's offer to buy the company for $54.20 a share. Long a Twitter power user/troll/loudmouth, Musk bought a 9.2 percent stake in the company last month, becoming the largest shareholder, before deciding he'd rather have the whole thing.

"Cue hysteria! Musk haters have taken to the site to declare that Donald Trump will now probably win the 2024 election, that Musk's bid is really about white power, that Section 230 must be reformed, and that, yes, Musk's new policies will be lethal."
Read more: https://reason.com/2022/04/25/elon-musk-buys-twitter-twitters-biggest-egos-melt-down/

Amid Twitter's Musk meltdown, Mark Hamill pledges to stay on 'no matter who owns it' | Yahoo News -  Christie D'Zurilla, LA Times:

April 26, 2022 - "When word exploded online Monday that Elon Musk had struck a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion ... many users announced they were leaving the social platform. Star Wars" luminary Mark Hamill was not among them. 'No matter who owns it, no matter who's on it, I'm staying to engage with you ...' the actor wrote Monday afternoon. Soon after, Hamill tweeted, "Weird. I just lost more than 8,000 followers in the last couple of hours. Was it something I said?' Same. Was just wondering the same thing," replied actor Josh Gad.... Commentator Keith Olbermann chimed in, 'I'm down about the same (proportionately) — around 1800'... Gary Whitta, a screenwriter with a "story by" credit on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," replied, 'Happening to many. Prevailing theory is that it’s people canceling their accounts following the Musk buyout'....

"'Ah he got twitter,' actor Jameela Jamil tweeted Monday. 'I would like this to be my what lies here as my last tweet'.... Bette Midler tweeted Tuesday, '"'Free (hate) speech is the (destruction) of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of (pedophilia, racism, & facism) humanity are promoted,' Mr. Musk said in a statement announcing the deal." There. I fixed it.'

"Actor-activist Alyssa Milano let others speak for her, retweeting people who argued that social media platforms should be 'owned and operated as public utilities' and warned that billionaire ownership in key industries was 'what oligarchy looks like.' By Tuesday morning, the #LeavingTwitter hashtag had been hijacked by people who found it amusing that Musk's move had people pledging to leave the platform."
Read more: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/amid-twitters-musk-meltdown-mark-174938482.html

The Left’s Twitter meltdown proves Elon Musk’s point | The Telegraph - Madeline Grant: 

April 27, 2022 - "Over the years, linguistic hyperinflation has enveloped virtually every aspect of the online world, with Twitter at the forefront. Words like 'fascist' and 'racist' have been overused to the point of meaninglessness. Rather than being a worthy concept in itself, 'free speech' is sometimes represented as little more than a sinister pretext to engage in 'hate speech'. Perhaps because the two definitions are often used interchangeably, Elon Musk – a free speech 'absolutist' who made his fortune in electric cars, and donated a chunk of it to Obama’s re-election campaign – is often, absurdly, described as a 'far-Right' figure.

"Twitter also favours explosive over-reaction, one reason for the deranged response to the announcement of Musk’s takeover – as if this were digital armageddon, the end of the world as we know it.... Amnesty International deplored the move from its official account, tweeting 'Two words: toxic Twitter'.... Vivian Schiller, Twitter’s former head of global news, treated listeners of the Today programme to a dystopian vision of the platform’s future, describing her 'existential dread' at the takeover....

“'I fear this free speech bid is going to help this hell platform reach its final form of totally lawless hate, bigotry, and misogyny', lamented actress Jameela Jamil in a valedictory tweet.... 'Freedom of speech is vital, but free speech does not mean a free pass for hatred', said [London mayor] Sadiq Khan. President Biden’s team are reportedly worried that Donald Trump might be readmitted and will use his beefed-up Twitter following to secure the next election....

"Perhaps the most hilarious reaction is from those who piously characterise Twitter as some sort of noble public square when in reality it is a character-limited social media platform, where petty one-upmanship and unsolicited intimate pictures abound.... On occasion, Twitter stifles free speech – de-platforming Trump, yet allowing Taliban leaders to tweet, for example. During the pandemic, social media moderators often used their powers to silence particular viewpoints. On Facebook especially, proponents of the Covid lab leak theory were, for some time, labelled spreaders of “misinformation” until the US Government acknowledged the evidence in their favour. Shouldn’t we welcome someone who wants to spend their own money unwinding these sorts of attitudes?"
Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/04/27/lefts-twitter-meltdown-proves-elon-musks-point/

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