Twitter and Musk

TreeFrogTrader said:
You purposely missed my point completely.

My point was that you somehow made it look like Elon's little blue tick feature enabled the Taliban to use twitter. But in fact they have been on there for years while Presidents, doctors etc who disagreed with the Beltway were banned. I am not going to go bad guy by bad guy on this twitter thing but it is well established that all of the scumbags of the international community were using it- long before Elon came along- and that was not an issue for your ilk.

As I have said many times, Elon would be okay if he were still a democrat. That is the root cause of all your histrionics.


ESOC Working Paper #30 - Powered by Twitter? The Taliban's Takeover of Afghanistan

https://esoc.princeton.edu/WP30
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gwb-trading said:
It appears you miss the point completely. The U.S. government and the western world does not have a problem with the Taliban and ISIS being on social media. It merely provided lots of data for intelligence agency to target the networks and their leaders -- and it is impossible to effectively stop these characters from being on the Internet. If they are banned from Twitter then they will just join some other network like Parler or Truth Social.

The U.S. and western governments do have a problem with these sanctioning individuals transacting business on social networks such as Twitter such as paying the platform for services. These monetary transactions violate the law. And seeing that Musk's future plans including allowing Twitter users to send money to one another via the platform -- this means that Twitter will become a platform allowing the illegal funding of terrorists.
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Looks the Blue Check marks for the Taliban leaders are being revoked after Twitter was criticized by multiple governments for doing business with sanctioned individuals. I wonder what Musk did with the eight dollar payments he collected and if he will be forced to turn the money over to the government. I know Musk is hard up for money at Twitter but doing business with terrorists is sinking to a new low.

Twitter Blue Checks Purchased By The Taliban Are Being Removed After BBC Report
https://www.mediaite.com/tech/twitt...e-taliban-are-being-removed-after-bbc-report/
 
Musk caught in yet another lie... just one of many. Who does this guy think he is? George Santos.

Davos organizers: Musk wasn’t invited despite what he says
https://apnews.com/article/elon-mus...ropean-union-7a82416400545f313ff46c0180e606d7

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The World Economic Forum says billionaire Elon Musk wasn’t on the guest list for the annual meeting of business executives, global leaders and cultural trend-setters in Davos, Switzerland — despite what the Twitter owner claims.

Notables from European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen to actor Idris Elba are gathering in the ritzy Alpine town this week to talk about global issues ranging from war to climate change and technology’s effects on security.

Musk wasn’t there, though he says he was invited. Forum spokesman Yann Zopf knocked that down Tuesday, saying the last time the Tesla CEO got an invitation was “not this year and not recently — last time in 2015.”

Musk said in a tweet Dec. 22: “My reason for declining the Davos invitation was not because I thought they were engaged in diabolical scheming, but because it sounded boring af lol.”

He didn’t specify when he got the invitation, but the tweet’s timing suggested it was for this year. Musk did not immediately respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment Tuesday.

Organizers did extend invitations to Musk, as the boss of Tesla, to join a few times in the 2010s — the last being in 2015 — but he never registered or attended the annual meeting, Zopf said.

The gathering has been criticized for a lack of concrete action that emerges after a series of sessions and speeches, while the forum itself has been the target of online conspiracy theories from those who believe the meeting involves a group of elites manipulating global events for their own benefit.

Multibillionaire Musk, one of the world’s richest people, can certainly afford to attend Davos.

Forum members pay between 120,000 to 850,000 Swiss francs ($130,000 to $921,000) for annual memberships depending on the level of affiliation they want.

Many executives trek to Davos to ride the coattails of the meeting and hobnob with corporate executives who flock to town, at times taking potshots at the forum from the sidelines. For example, Richard Branson, the British tycoon behind Virgin, has reputedly come to town several times without attending the meeting itself.

Musk might be a bit busy to be palling around with the powerful in snowy Switzerland anyway.

While still grappling with the fallout from buying Twitter last year for $44 billion, Musk is facing trial over his tweet about taking Tesla private in 2018.

Jury selection begins this week and he’ll have to explain his actions under oath in court in San Francisco after tweeting that he had lined up the financing to pay for a $72 billion buyout of the electric carmaker, which never happened. It culminated in a $40 million settlement with U.S. securities regulators that also required him to step down as the company’s chairman.

He’s also planning to step down as CEO but remain owner of Twitter, which he succeeded in taking private last summer but has alienated some users and advertisers with chaotic job cuts and changes to content moderation policies.
 
We already knew that 72 of the top 100 advertisers have stopped running ads on Twitter. Now it is clear that revenue is down at least 40%.

Twitter revenue reportedly down 40% just when Elon Musk’s first major interest payment is due
https://fortune.com/2023/01/18/elon-musk-twitter-sales-revenue-interest-payment-loans-debt/

Of course the Tesla news coming out about faked full self-driving tests is not helpful for Musk's trial where he stands accused on claiming on Twitter he had the money to take Tesla private when he did not. It demonstrates the pattern of fakery and lies from Elon.

Top Tesla engineer confesses he staged an inaccurate self-driving video at Elon Musk’s bidding
https://fortune.com/2023/01/18/elon-musk-tesla-lawsuit-fsd-video-autopilot-ashok-elluswamy/
 
Remember when Musk said no more layoffs. Yeah, he was lying. He is about about chop 50 more Product team members.

Elon Musk's Twitter Reportedly Isn't Done Laying Off Workers
https://www.benzinga.com/news/23/01...itter-reportedly-isnt-done-laying-off-workers

Elon Musk-led Twitter reportedly has plans to terminate 50 workers in its product division in the coming weeks.

What Happened: The layoffs will come in the coming weeks, reported Insider, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Twitter employees expect that the company’s plans to close many international offices and smaller offices within the United States will lead to more pink slips, according to the report.

While Musk had reportedly said no further layoffs were planned, the employees are taking his words with a pinch of salt.

"He just says stuff that sounds right at the time,” a person familiar with Twitter told Insider.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.

Why It Matters: Should the layoffs take place, Twitter’s headcount will fall under 2,000, according to Insider.

Twitter laid off thousands of workers in November in departments across the company, a move that was justified by its then-new owner Musk, who said, “Unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4 [million]/day.”

Twitter has been bleeding advertisers since Musk took over with several high-profile companies pausing promotions on the platform fearing a rise in hate speech and false information.

On Saturday it was reported that Musk got a favorable court ruling against a group of dismissed employees that sued Twitter over their severance compensation.

Read Next: Elon Musk's Trial Over 2018 Tesla Tweet Leaves Prospective Jurors Sharply Critical Of Billionaire: 'Off His Rocker'
 
gwb-trading said:
Remember when Musk said no more layoffs. Yeah, he was lying. He is about about chop 50 more Product team members.
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He wants to move more employees out but has had to deal with some of the legal action and see how that is shaping up. Probably he felt good about a recent ruling so is carrying on.


Musk Gets Favorable Court Ruling In Suit Against Twitter: What It Means For Company's Laid-Off Workers

https://www.benzinga.com/government...ing-in-suit-filed-by-laid-off-twitter-workers
 
TreeFrogTrader said:
He wants to move more employees out but has had to deal with some of the legal action and see how that is shaping up. Probably he felt good about a recent ruling so is carrying on.


Musk Gets Favorable Court Ruling In Suit Against Twitter: What It Means For Company's Laid-Off Workers

https://www.benzinga.com/government...ing-in-suit-filed-by-laid-off-twitter-workers
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Musk is probably not feeling very good about the legal action he is facing this week.

Elon Musk might lose billions over Tesla ‘funding secured’ tweet
https://news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-might-lose-billions-074259021.html

Tesla chief Elon Musk may lose billions in a securities fraud trial underway in San Francisco over his past tweets about taking his electric car company private.

In the notorious 2018 tweet, Mr Musk had said he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420”, adding that he had “secured” funding for the bid.

In the current lawsuit, shareholders who traded Tesla stock in the days following the tweet are suing the world’s second richest person for billions of dollars in damages.

The shareholders’ lawyers say Mr Musk’s tweets led to “regular people” losing “millions and millions of dollars,” The Verge reported.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules note that publicly traded companies must not announce their financing plans if their executives do not intend to complete it, or if they lack a “reasonable belief” that it will be completed.

So the Trial’s outcomes seemingly depend on the language and intent of Mr Musk’s tweet.

Mr Musk had explained in a 2018 blog post that he had strongly expressed his support for “funding a going private transaction” for Tesla at a meeting with Saudi officials.

“I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving. This is why I referred to “funding secured” in the August 7th announcement,” he explained.

In the days following his infamous tweet, Mr Musk accused the governor of the Saudi kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) of throwing him “under the bus.”

The Tesla titan’s lawyers reportedly argue that he did want to take the EV company private and that funding “wasn’t going to be an issue,” but the potential investors in Saudi Arabia had backed out.

In April last year, however, US District Court Judge Edward Chen had however said Mr Musk’s tweets were “false and misleading” adding that the Tesla boss “recklessly made the statements with knowledge as to their falsity.”

Tesla’s share price in the 10-days following the tweet had even changed by about $14 billion, indicating the Tweets had an effect.

Mr Musk’s lawyers say he had chosen his words – “funding secured” – poorly in his Tweet, arguing they were his “informal, sporadic thoughts,” but added that his words “did not matter” ultimately.

The Tesla chief’s lawyer Alex Spiro reportedly said tweets “don’t move the market.”

Tesla and Mr Musk could lose billions of dollars if the jury rules against him, according to The Verge.

While the trial could last about three weeks, the parties may also agree to settle at any time as do a large number of securities fraud trials in the US.
 
As outlined by Bloomberg in the article below, Musk has a lot to lose if he skips the upcoming debt payment. He likely can raise the cash to cover this payment -- if he desires to -- but who knows about the next. The greater concern among the banks holding the debt and the groups holding the equity like the Saudis is that the impulsive Musk simply decides to skip the payment in the same way he is skipping on paying rent and the bills of vendors.

Elon Musk has ‘more to lose’ if he tries to skip Twitter debt payment
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...twitter-debt-payment/articleshow/97113536.cms
 
gwb-trading said:
As outlined by Bloomberg in the article below, Musk has a lot to lose if he skips the upcoming debt payment. He likely can raise the cash to cover this payment -- if he desires to -- but who knows about the next. The greater concern among the banks holding the debt and the groups holding the equity like the Saudis is that the impulsive Musk simply decides to skip the payment in the same way he is skipping on paying rent and the bills of vendors.

Elon Musk has ‘more to lose’ if he tries to skip Twitter debt payment
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...twitter-debt-payment/articleshow/97113536.cms
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We know you are wishing him the worst.

It's what you do.
 
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