A lot to pay to kill off a web site

In rhyming slang we can now listen to it go pitter patter.

And in homage to the man, last one out is a p...o.

Is he really offering the $54.20 that your subtitle says? I'd say he's being robbed, even without the suffix that I think is missing.

It's $54.20 a share, FWIW

C.

Glad he has the stones and cash to keep free speech alive. This is a brave man and he should be supported by anyone worried about free speech.

I know they are a private company BUT they have protection against getting sued so it's a bogus claim to leave them alone the market will solve the issue.

If there legal cover is removed then yup let the market solve the problem.

BTW getting taken over by a rich man is also a market solution.

There are rather greater threats to 'free speech' than Twitter. Those that chose to offer an alternative social media option appear to be less free and even more hateful.

No, if you have a few billion free to help free speech you can find a long queue of more deserving cases worldwide fighting to have their voices heard and not suppressed - or worse - by governments, corporations and billionaires with rather thin skin.

If he truly believed in free speech, he wouldn't have cancelled the order of a reporter who was sceptical of Elon's claims.

He's just a butthurt hypocrite with a lot of cash to wave around.

"If he truly believed in free speech, he wouldn't have cancelled the order of a reporter who was sceptical of Elon's claims."

... or the employee that was brutally honest about how well FSD works.

Meanwhile, in other news, the EU's creating it's DSA with in-built censorship. Or mechanisms to counter 'fake news'.

So even with Musk in charge, governments could still ban tweets and tweeters. At least state broadcasters are reporting Russian regime change plans now, but other tweets on the subject might still be forbidden. Also unclear if mentioning junkie's laptops would be permitted or not.

But such is politics. At least wiki remains a 'safe' space, with the history eraser having been applied to Rosemont Seneca, and one of Biden's friends & business partners, Devon Archer.

Twitter is only important in the minds of its users, most of the world doesn't use it and doesn't give a shit.

Talking of giving shits, being free to write whatever you want on Twitter is the same as being free to shit in the ocean.

is doing this to stroke his inflated ego. He'll tire of it soon enough.

If he allows Donald 'the election was stolen from me' Trump and Margorie 'I don't recall, I can't remember' Taylor-Greene back onto the platform, my guess is that millions will vote with their feet and leave.

That will dilute his move to restore free speech. The people who run GAB, Gettr and all the other right wing sites will not be happy with Mucky boy. TheRealDonald has said that he won't be going back on Twitter...

Personally, I hope he loses a packet. That will piss Muck off no end as he wants to cosy up to Trump so that when Trump become POTUS again, he can get into his inner circle.

US Politics are the swamp that Donald failed to drain.

US Politics are the swamp that Donald failed to drain

You mean raised the moat around so it could be filled with a lot more creatures than previously.

No, he drained the swamp to replace the mosquitoes with face eating leopards.

So i take it musk will defend my right to say he's a sociopathic libertarian weird person? (edit to remove insult that while true at one stage of his development, being a deuterostome, is not true any longer)

Icon because I am feeling more inclined to identifying with that chap the closer I edge to 50

Welcome to the world you've just bought yourself that is shortly going to be testing that claim to destruction.

Let's all have a bet on how long it will take before his absolutism mysteriously disappears when he realises how much shit he's invited upon himself.

Could Elon be a fake and crush free speech any way? Perhaps.

But if no action take the free speech is NOT happening on twitter. So toss this plate of noodles and sauce against the wall and see what sticks. In my opinion no downside.

"Could Elon be a fake and crush free speech any way? Perhaps."

It shouldn't be tough to find a copy of Tesla's employee agreement online. The one where employees are told they will be sacked and sued if they say anything negative about the company and can only bring labor actions via arbitration and not in a proper court. That really sets the scene when it comes to Musk and free speech. As a nano manager, he would have edited and signed off on that employee agreement.

Either he's just posturing and what he really wants is absolute free speech FOR HIMSELF and not much changes for anyone else, or he'll open the floodgates and let back on all the people forced over to extremist wastelands like Gab after being banned from Twitter for making threats etc.

If they bring back a lot of those people Twitter will be sued anytime threats of violence from someone who was previously banned are acted on - and he'll be personally deposed since he's made it abundantly clear in a very public way his acquisition was mostly about making that change.

Since I don't use Twitter I don't really care either way - either Musk loses big or Twitter turns into an extremist wasteland. Either way I'll have my popcorn and be laughing from the sidelines. The only winner is likely to be China, as Tik Tok is the most likely destination for Twitter refugees.

Which is funny as your not going to get much free spech on Tik Tok

TikTok has a lot of censorship and limits on what you can say and post on their service.

Show too much skin? video gets pulled.

Say certain words? Video gets pulled.

say certain concepts that are critical to china's government? video gets pulled.

videos get pulled too much? BANNED.

Hardly anyone gets banned on any social media platform, so they won't notice any difference other than Tik Tok not allowing violent threats where Twitter probably soon will be welcoming to them.

"TikTok has a lot of censorship and limits on what you can say and post on their service."

So pretty much the same as YouTube then?

I don't use Twitter, never got why SMS + interwebs is a compelling idea, but if Musk does buy it, I predict that instead of being able to milk boomers and older millennials for another decade, maybe two, Twitter will instead crash and burn within a few years under Musk's "leadership."

Frankly, if Musk has the time and energy to devote to running Twitter along with all his other ventures, maybe he should spend a little more time at the Fremont, CA, USA Tesla plant where racism and sexism are still rampant. It's his legal obligation as CEO to make sure that these things do not happen under both US and California State law, yet he's off whinging because someone on Twitter wasn't nice to him.

My guess is that he'll build another GigaFactory in Texas (where he still can't sell his crap directly to punters) and gradually shut down Freemont. That will solve the labour issues in one fell swoop.

He'll do anything he can to make himself even richer. Then he can buy a whole country.

Muskovia where everyone pays homage to the emperor on a daily basis and only Tesla's are allowed.

He could move to Russia, should be some REALLY cheap labor there now among those who are unable to flee Putin's mismanagement and warmongering. I'm sure like Trump Musk admires dictators because he wishes he was one.

"My guess is that he'll build another GigaFactory in Texas (where he still can't sell his crap directly to punters) and gradually shut down Freemont."

Having a car plant in California was a stupid move to begin with. I won't be surprised when it is shuttered although Tesla will have to relocate S and X production somewhere if they intend to keep those models. Tents in the parking lot of the Austin plant?

"Twitter will instead crash and burn within a few years under Musk's "leadership.""

Or the employees at Twitter will be coopted (Elon hates that word) to staff a production line at the Tesla plant when they get behind on the next model like he did with people from Solar City and the Model 3.

....Twitter is about to get even meaner and nastier...

Only thing I use Twitter for is customer support. It seems to be the only way to get any action out of most companies nowadays.

That and bitching about the UI failure that's Google Maps - which appears to be a never-ending wellspring of material.

Might sign up. Just to see how many people call him a pee dough after what he said to that british cave guy in Thailand.

When you're a rich enough pothead to spend billions to buy a company and insert a 420 joke. $54.20. Is this guy 13 years old?

Tweets are for twits,

LinkedIn is for losers,

Your Facebook page

Get's me down.

Tweets are for twits,

LinkedIn is for losers,

Your Youtube comments make you look like a clown ...

Compared to today's "social" media, Usenet's alt. hierarchy was almost high-brow.