I’m not really on social media, Hubski excepted—if that even counts, so I’ve mostly not followed this saga. However I found this to be a pretty fascinating read. Seems to me that twitter would be better as a non-profit foundation. It’s such a powerful platform that I think actually does some good here and there, which differentiates it from every other platform. But it needs public input to be its best self.
Imperial Germany funded Lenin. They funded insurgencies in India and Ireland and also tried to bring Mexico into the war but the US and England weren't weak like Russia. So Lenin rode to Moscow on an official German train with official German marks. The goal wasn't to make Russia German, the goal was to fuck Russia up severely enough that the Eastern Front would cease to be a problem and allow Germany to bring their full might to bear on Western Europe. Lenin was a shitty politician. He was a legit criminal. But because he was extremely driven and extremely ruthless, and because Russia was extremely weak, he managed to replace the Tsar and consolidate power in himself, replacing every functionary and diplomat with loyalists. The end result was extremely shitty for Russia in general and the world as a whole, but f'n great for Lenin and a spectacular payoff for the Kaiser. The most important social network in Saudi Arabia is Twitter. The guy who ran point on Khashoggi started out as a ham-handed hacker with money and then became "lord of the Flies" as MBS' social media manager. al-Qahtani hired moles inside Twitter in order to unmask and prosecute dissidents. MBS consolidated power by locking up everyone with money and influence and then blackmailing them to get out. This includes Al Waleed bin Talal. Does Musk think he's carrying MBS' water? of course not. Look how edgy he is. No, no. He owes his entire self-esteem to the Saudis, Qatar, Larry Ellison, A26Z (of course), Sequoia (of course) and the money changers. It helps him make independent decisions. Twitter matters to journalists, and only to journalists. Musk hates journalists. Musk also thinks he knows everything because he surrounds himself with people who tell him he knows everything. M Night Shamalyan wrote The Sixth Sense seven times before he figured out Bruce Willis was dead, and from that point forth he was surrounded by people who told him he knows everything so he comes up with movies about evil trees now. Musk has also never truly faced consequences. Paypal was de-facto illegal but also useful, so the laws changed. Self-driving cars are de-facto illegal but also useful, so the laws are changing. He is a man who has built a career on unearned charisma and he has staked his future on a platform where charisma goes to die. The VCs? of course they'll go for that shit. They're fucktards and it's other peoples' money. The banks? Of course they'll go for that shit. They're making interest on it and the amount they make it he succeeds is only slightly more than they make if he fails. Binance? Crypto lives on twitter. What MBS gets? I mean fuck. It isn't even his money.
What they get: As part of the deal, anyone who invested $250 million or more gets special access to confidential company information. But giving that privilege to foreign investors is raising flags with Biden and U.S. officials. Of particular interest is whether that includes access to personal data about Twitter’s users since several of the entities are entwined with governments that have a history of cracking down on dissidents on Twitter and other online platforms.
To add to your point: Someone was like "Do you really think the Saudis would invest billions into a project that they knew would become unprofitable or even tank completely, just to destabilize the USA?" (to say nothing of getting insider intel on Saudi dissidents), and I just started laughing.
It's not to destabilize the USA, though, it's to increase surveillance over domestic dissent. People forget: Khashoggi wasn't even a particularly fierce critic of MBS. He professed enthusiasm for the man with regularity. But he disagreed... and he prrrrrrrrobably belonged to the CIA so... MBS reshuffled the deck. I think MBS regards the USA the way a rodeo clown regards a bull. The bull is the entire reason he's in the ring, is predictable but not entirely, and is largely busy with someone else's crap, but every now and then you have to dance in front of it so you can keep on keepin' on.
That's a good take. We have public spaces where free speech is protected. Why is it so hard to imagine extending that into the realm of the internet? Only because we are living through an era of hypercapitalist privatization. A few days ago, it was "People don't actually want to stop working at 65, so we should only offer Social Security payouts at an older age". Rick Allen, the shitbag behind that notion, will face zero electoral consequences, of course. Anyway. With notable exceptions, Twitter gave us plebs a chance to have their voices heard by the actual people verified via the checkmark system. Elon had no idea that this was perhaps the primary allure of Twitter, and abruptly monetized the checkmark system. So funny.
I think we're on the tail end. If I can come up with a decentralized blockchain-based social media infrastructure, anybody can come up with a decentralized blockchain-based social media infrastructure. The whole issue is that the market has grossly mispriced social media companies until very recently because the market has grossly mispriced online advertising until very recently. Facebook (and to a lesser extent, Twitter) are demonstrating the gap between prices charged and value realized and as soon as the air comes out of that balloon, there will be space for actual community-subsidized, micropayments-driven online commons to emerge. The shit's too important to leave up to entitled rich sociopaths, but in general capitalist systems require a crash before they can rebuild into something more sensible.Why is it so hard to imagine extending that into the realm of the internet? Only because we are living through an era of hypercapitalist privatization.