It can be replaced, however as those who've attempted to start their own social media platform (e.g. Trump) have shown, it's not exactly easy. The concept is simple, but getting people to bite is another thing completely. Still, never underestimate the power of young people. MySpace faded because the younger generation migrated towards Facebook. It's not inconceivable that some kid will come up with something that attracts the younger generation to use it and before they know it, they'll be swimming in a pool of money.
Apparently it's easier to just buy an established one. Musk already has a history of abusing twitter to manipulate the stock market and people in general. I think Musk is a big proponent of "free speech" twitter, meaning no attempt to stifle misinformation. Generally speaking, a wide open, but widely trusted, platform like twitter is the authoritarian movement's dream. They've been clawing for it for a long time, and Musk seems like just the guy to hand it to them under the guise of "free speech".
I want to add that that this doesn't happen because of Musk's attachment.
Amazingly, the South Dakota House of Representatives voted Tuesday to impeach Ravnsborg, 36-31. It heads to trial in the Senate where Republicans hold 32 of 35 seats.Exactly nobody is surprised. The party-line vote (6-2) of the Select Committee on Investigations to not recommend impeachment will be considered by the full South Dakota House of Representatives (with 88.5% Republican control) at a later date.
State AG Who Killed a Man Manages to Dodge Impeachment
Jason Ravnsborg is now not likely to face any consequences after a special investigative committee of the South Dakota House of Representative voted against his impeachment.www.thedailybeast.com
The case of the football team trapped in a Thai cave about 7-8 years ago, Musk called an English diver involved in the rescue effort a paedophile in a tweet. If I remember, Musk had a proposal about how to rescue them and those involved in actually doing it disagreed with his method and got really butthurt about it.
Whoosh.
It definitely seems to leave a real sour taste in many's mouths, though. I've seen others share the stance that he's rich enough to make this sort of giant move, manipulate the market, then make millions off it w/ maybe some tiny fine that's nothing more than a slap on the wrist. But, if the common man tried to make a similar move, then there would be actual repercussions.
Yeah, sour taste, but what's the cause of action here? Whether it's civil or criminal, what is it? Is that actually reasonable?
****in' A right, Musk isn't interested in free speech. Musk is interested in affecting consequences (specifically a lack thereof) for some speech. He's okay with consequences for other speech, though, even going so far as proposing actual consequences for it.
I really hope this guy doesn't end up running twitter. Granted I don't really like twitter, but this is not a good direction for any of us.Yeah, there are no free speech (which the First Amendment guarantees) implications for Twitter's actions, whether or not Musk is at the helm, but this is keyed into Musk's free speech absolutist shtick. He frequently conflates free speech infringement and action by Twitter.
I used to think Twitter was awful. I've come to recognize it as mostly mirroring real-world interactions, the obvious exceptions being anonymity which, when chosen, allows people to be more awful to others than they're likely to be in the real world (yeah, there are exceptions where people are just as awful in the real world), and the "algorithm" (BOO!!!), which, while not a bad thing in and of itself, does feed people things to which they maybe shouldn't have such easy access, all for profit because it keeps eyes on the screen for that much longer. I no longer feel any particular way about Twitter itself, even as I disagree with some of the things its runners do.
