So we don't have to suffer Xitter

Given that Elon wants X/Twitter to embrace payments and banking then trying to satisfy regulators around the world is worse than a nightmare. Dedicated banks have difficulty. Hence making X/Twitter a US-only corp has attractions if he wants to move fast and break things.

Not that he hasn't done too badly on that front so far.

>Elon wants X/Twitter to embrace payments and banking then trying to satisfy regulators around the world

That's the nice thing about being a dynamic hyper move-fast-and-break-things Silicon Valley company with a cool name = you can ignore regulations

> Hence making X/Twitter a US-only corp has attractions if he wants to move fast and break things.

> Not that he hasn't done too badly on that front so far.

I agree, He's doing a wonderful job of breaking things that weren't broken to begin with.

Perhaps the Internet could be improved by having two tiers of access: read only for everyone and the ability to comment/submit content for people who meet thresholds for IQ, tolerance and decency.

and the ability to comment/submit content for people who meet thresholds for IQ, tolerance and decency.

Do you mean people who are above or below such thresholds?

Below, obviously.

That would spoil Twatter/X for many

Why should the rights of those who want to parrot racism, homophobia and transphobia while helping Russia spread misinformation be respected?

"Why should the rights of those who want to parrot racism, homophobia and transphobia while helping Russia spread misinformation be respected?"

Do you know anyone on this planet that does not fit into one of those phobias ? Can you prove to the rest of the world, and everyone that has differing viewpoints from your own, that you are neither racist, homophobic or transphobic ?

I would be that you can't because the very definitions vary depending on who you discuss with.

not sure about you, I don't have any of those particular phobias and my friends don't, why would I be friends with people with those phobias?

I am a bit claustrophobic due to some trauma early in life. but it manageable.

as for "definitions vary" there might be minor differences, but the basics are clear unless you talking about arseholes who try to pretend they aren't in those groups

Except for Emacs users, and Python programmers who use tabs, and people who put C braces on their own line, and people who but the desktop dock on the right, and Belgians

I don't have any of those particular phobias

You are claiming categorically not to be racist, then? Are you white?

I don't have any of those particular phobias and my friends don't ...the basics are clear unless you talking about arseholes who try to pretend they aren't in those groups

Oh, the irony.

Why should the rights of those who want to ${THING_I_DONT_LIKE_TODAY} be respected?

Because rights are supposed to be universal and apply not only to most virtuous saint but the biggest, most unpleasant arsehole on the planet equally. If they don't they're not rights, they're privileges.

now your falling into the tolerance of intolerance issue.

Because once you start deciding who has rights based on whether they agree with you, you're halfway down a slippery slope and descending fast.

I have long thought that Mumsnet proves how wrong it was to give women the vote ... while the rest of the internet proves how wrong it was to give anyone the vote. Well, except me, obviously.

The more I hear, the more I'm convinced that Musk is totally unhinged.

As for being 'detached from reality' by working from home - All my colleagues work in a town some 450Km away from where I live. Consequently, I spend every working day working from the distraction free comfort of my home. I frequently receive compliments on my work from my immediate manager and my colleagues and always meet my deadlines. It works perfectly for me and I know many others who work from home and enjoy the same great working environment and collaboration with their colleagues.

As the article rightly points out, the only person who is detached from reality is Elon Musk himself.

Seeing what is left of Twitter close down in the EU would be something I'd only know about from the press. I certainly wouldn't miss it!

I was more thinking of "please let the door hit you on the way out" because it might expedite his exit.

--> Icon: One can only hope it'll happen sooner than later.

"This was particularly in light of renewed hostilities between Israel and Hamas, and the potential disinformation campaigns that had begun swirling online"

Only a few minutes ago I was reading about the media pushing about some hospital in Gaza being blown to pieces by Israel bombing and killing 500 people being incorrect. Apparently it was a terrorist rocket misfiring into the hospital car park and not even leaving a crater (dunno if it killed anyone).

Not defending X but as for media lies there have been a lot for a while!

Stay away from The BBC and The New York Times (and all the rest of them to be honest)

Or at least spread your news consumption across more platforms, including dipping into Al Jazeera and SubStack newsletters + others.

Although none of them seem to be saying "I support neither terrorists or war criminals", they are all on one team or the other.

As for Xitter, it's polarising but with the volume turned up to 11. Stay well away.

Only a few minutes ago I was reading about the media pushing about some hospital in Gaza being blown to pieces by Israel bombing and killing 500 people being incorrect. Apparently it was a terrorist rocket misfiring into the hospital car park and not even leaving a crater (dunno if it killed anyone).

Allegedly. But this is the problem with 'misinformation'. We don't know what happened there, and probably can't trust any of the official sources. IDF tweeted a post showing some images, but people quickly pointed out those were from last year, and IDF withdrew the tweet. But that's the problem with 'fake news' and propaganda during conflicts.

We know something exploded at the hospital causing a lot of casualties, but we don't know what or why. So there's been a lot of finger pointing, and some of the 'fact checking' has been rather implausible. Actual fact checking would require a proper investigation, but that's hard to do in the middle of a conflict, especially when there's also strong incentives to hide evidence. It's been the same situation with the Ukrainian conflict where claims of deliberate missile strikes on civilian targets have turned out to be errant air defence missiles.

Stuff happens, accidents happen, but unless they're investigated properly, trust in the media and governments declines.. Not that there's much trust to begin with.

Prior to 2020 and Covid I had broad trust of western governments and mainstream news. I just wasn't looking closely enough, but now I've seen evidence of some of the lies and corruption it's hard to un-see it. They all seem to have a preferred narrative that they are following, and struggle to see both sides in anything. It's really hard to know the truth of anything, especially in the fog of war. When there's war involved it might be we'll never know. But war is big business for some. And wealthy donors get to sway corruptible politicians.

Pharma is also big business, but people don't seem to like me pointing that out.

Big snake oil is far worse.

"Big Snake Oil"? Do you mean Homeopathy or Supplements?

>"Big Snake Oil"?

Jörmungandr = ever wondered why the Norwegians seem to have so much oil ?

Yes, and bee stings, ivermectin (unless you are a horse), real water, Goop products, church of bleach, ...

Whilst there is and always has been a degree of bias to the traditional news outlets (indeed it is impossible to be perfectly unbiased), a big part of the trust issue to my mind is that many people are no longer satisfied unless they’re being told exactly what they want to hear. It’s very easy to head off into the internet and have your biases confirmed. Cynical politicians exploit this.

I think you'll find the UK's Online Safety Bill will be a similar problem for Musk, since it's got many of the same requirements as the EU's Digital Services Bill.

Let's see if he'll go ahead. If he does it'll force the Twitterati to find an alternative, given these people NEED an online way to express their vacuous thoughts something will quickly gain critical mass in Europe, and that'll be the end of Twitter/X.

I'd take endless amounts of "vacuous" commentary being readable by those who want to read it over a bill that puts that much power in the hands of the state. That is to say nothing of the wider atrocities it will enable in time.

> that puts that much power in the hands of the state

I'd rather see that much power in the hands of states, than a megacorporation beholden to shareholders and super-rich individuals.

>I'd rather see that much power in the hands of states, than a megacorporation beholden to shareholders and super-rich individuals.

At least it forces them to buy the politicians. Unless they are a media company - in which case the politicians have to pay them

As the article notes, Tesla's Q3 earnings call was yesterday. And they were OK - by the standards of a car company they were good. They are selling a lot of cars, earnings were >$20Bn. But they missed the predictions by a tiny bit, and are they really good enough to justify the high share price? Who cares - Elon's shot his mouth off, and so everyone talks about him again. Oddly, this seems to keep happening every time there's some less-than-stellar news about Tesla.

By the standards of a car company, a steady decline is "good" - car usage is dropping in most Western countries.

By the standards of Tesla, the results were a disaster.

Margin dropped 10% YoY

Expenses increased 44% YoY

Income from operations droped 52% YoY

These are some pretty terrible numbers. And remember: Tesla is meant to be growing 100% each year - that's the justification for the insane share price, so what happens when their stock has essentially been flat since December 2020? Worse still, Musk admitted in the earnings call that the Cybertruck is going to take 18 months to reach profiability (that's 18 Musk months, which could mean 10 years by past evidence). They're a car company that essentially has only one model.

No Tesla isn't worth the huge amount its share price indicates which says its worth more than several other car companies combined that sell vastly more cars every year such as Volkswagen + BMW + Ford.

By all accounts even though Tesla cars are priced in the same region as luxury cars such as as Mercedes or Audi the build more like they are a mid tier priced car. Badly fitting panels, dodgy paint, cheap feeling interiors and loads of teething issues that mean they are often need to go back to the garage for repairs are often gripes that Tesla owner report after buying.

And then there feature such as 'full self driving' which is supposed to be rolled out with a software update to the existing cars. Which no doubt some thought it meant you can buy a Tesla now and in a few years you will be able to just tell it where to take you and then have a nap and wake up at your destination, but this is never going to happen as Tesla choose confusing terms such as Autopilot and Full self driving for what still amounts to just driver aids.

Don't threaten me with a good time, Space Karen.

Musk, of all living, er, humans, calling anyone or anything "detached from reality" is beyond ironic ...

TwiX being dead in the water is indeed a good thing IMHO, but I hope they get him out of Tesla and SpaceX before he causes damage beyond repair for those companies, too.

I hope they get him out of Tesla and SpaceX

That's what they did by letting him have Twitter :).

I used to follow a few folks on Twitter but after the wall went up meaning you have the sign-up and sign-in simply to read posts i have not been back. So for me it is not going to be a disadvantage if Xitter is lost from UK/EU due to safety concerns, and it will make for an interesting exercise in business management for future students to ponder.

Popcorn time?

Oh yes please do! Don't hesitate, go, go, go!

I think more effective comments might be: "Musk doesn't have the nerve to dump the EU." or "Musk lacks the technical ability to shutter X in Europe."

If/when no more X in the EU ... how should Thierry Breton ... "tweet" / communicate? He has 131.4K Followers

Reddit? Facebook? Can we have a vote / suggestions on this?

Who is Thierry Breton?

Who cares?

Very interesting precedent if X pulls from the EU because of DSA: do other VLOPs consider the same? Or do they need the money, unlike His Holy Musk?

What does the US have to do to get him to pull Twitter from that market? I will do absolutely everything I can to make sure it happens.

Well, it's not as if the EU legislation is a secret.

The US of A are more than welcome to use them as a template ;-)

Misinformation? Like all the MSM screaming about Israel bombing a hospital?

Oh, not actual misinformation, just opinions the elites don't like. Got it.

Sounds like you've had a little too much to think.