Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.
By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.
What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.
I don’t have an active Twitter account, so I really have no skin in this game. But I’m interested in what those of you are on Twitter think about Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media site and of his subsequent actions at Twitter.
In short order, Musk dissolved Twitter’s board of directors, named himself CEO, fired top officials such as the chief executive and chief financial officer, took the company private, fired half of its employees, and has started charging $8 a month to have a “verified” account.
So here is my provocative question for this week.
Whether or not you have a Twitter account, how do you feel about Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the changes he’s made so far. Do you care one way or the other? If you currently are on Twitter, do you plan to continue actively using it?
If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.
This, That, and the Other 
I do have a Twitter, he keeps suspending accounts that mock him. He is the lamest. I honestly think he didn’t want too run it, but his ego wouldn’t let him back out.
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More like his lawyers. He had no chance of winning the court challenge by the board on his reneging on his offer. Now he’s stuck with it and we all pay.
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It freaking sucks!
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I luv Elon Lolsy. He’s gonna take me to Mars
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Hahahaha
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Yep, I do luv Elon. bugger bugger shit shit
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Don’t laugh. He’s promised me free champagne. Cos I told him I luv him…….I gotta tread carefully though cos he’s a bit temperamental as you know……..
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I think I have a twitter account!! He became the dictator of the company. No one is going to pay 8 dollars for a social media account . That he has to realize. 😃
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I have an account that I rarely use other than to check on events around the world. Right now it seems a mess and is very polarized politically. From early observations, it looks like the platform is becoming a home base for very right leaning conservatives. The rules of decency (it was always precarious) have flown out the window and I doubt we will ever see them return. Twitter will survive I think, but it will be a very different place. The idea of free speech is a joke when Musk himself is spreading conspiracy theories. Many fled and have taken up roost at Tribel or at Mastadon. I opened a Mastadon account, – I like the idea of a distributed architecture – but I do not understand it yet. I have not left Twitter yet, but that is my intention.
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Great points, Maggie. I have my hands full with my blog on WordPress. I don’t think Twitter or any other similar social media platform is in the cards for me.
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I luv Elon Fan…..
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From what I heard and read it’s just going to be another ultra conservative site instead of its original format. I used to be on Twitter years ago and then I gave it up because it was just like a place where everybody complained never had anything informative to say. Like a huge gossip site. I have no desire to get back on Twitter and I would never pay to be on it. It’s weird when one of the richest people in the world decided to be so greedy as to ask people to pay to voice their opinion.
>
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I have a Twitter account which I only got to promote my writing, but I hate it in concept, and I can never get it be useful, let alone that I don’t really want to promote myself anyway. (Which is why I’m not selling any books, but that’s another story.) Twitter’s full of stuff I don’t want to see, and I don’t want to spend any time in life reading little bits of inane things people write. I’d rather see what YOU PEOPLE write. Plus, my spouse is always coming to the dinner table in a bad mood because of stuff she read on Twitter. Therefore, I’m THRILLED that Elon Musk is going to kill it.
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I agree. I’d much rather spend my time reading what my fellow bloggers have written than waste my time reading the vitriol and garbage on Twitter.
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I have no twitter account and no intention of opening one. I don’t like the way he deals with people, and think he is an arrogant individual who happens to be mega rich.
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Agreed.
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He is an example of what libertarian (extremist impracticality not thought out in most cases) sophomoric ranting and trolling leads to. I think I have two Twitter accounts. The first one comes from when I was taking a public administration course, years ago; I did manage to tweet something, maybe two things. I lost track of how to access my account, and didn’t care anyway. For some reason — maybe to try and participate in a competition show while I was watching over my mother — I set up another account last year. I found the platform completely non-intuitive, and I just couldn’t do anything with it. Now, with his non-verifying verification scheme, it’s going to be yet more than before one of the worst kinds of internet hell-scapes. He’s already tried to hire back people he fired, because he’s a dumbass who couldn’t think ahead as to what is actually involved in this endeavor. Maybe that’s the best part about his buying Twitter… that it’s showing he’s not brilliant, just rich.
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I think Dorsey is smart for getting out.
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https://people.com/human-interest/twitter-founder-jack-dorsey-apologizes-layoffs-elon-musk-takeover/
~
Meanwhile, Dorsey is in the process of producing a new social app called “Bluesky,” which he hopes will be “a competitor to any company trying to own the underlying fundamentals for social media or the data of the people using it.”
Dorsey, who stepped down as Twitter CEO in Nov. 2021, once seemed supportive of Musk’s decision to purchase Twitter.
Back in April, when Musk first agreed to buy the company, Dorsey said the billionaire was “the singular solution I trust” for the company, despite believing no one person should own or run Twitter.
“I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,” he wrote, adding, “Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is ‘maximally trusted and broadly inclusive’ is the right one.”
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https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/01/tech/twitter-jack-dorsey-elon-musk#:~:text=The%20transfer%20means%20that%20Dorsey,Talal%20and%20Qatar's%20Investment%20Authority.
Dorsey rolled over his more than 18 million shares in Twitter (a roughly 2.4% stake) into the new Musk-owned company as an equity investor, rather than receiving a cash payout, according to a Thursday securities filing.
The transfer means that Dorsey effectively contributed just under $1 billion to Musk’s $44 billion Twitter purchase. It also makes him one of the largest investors in the new company, behind Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Qatar’s Investment Authority.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/29/dorsey-wanted-musk-on-twitter-board-but-directors-were-risk-averse.html
~
The two billionaire entrepreneurs had been discussing Dorsey’s idea that Twitter should be “an open source protocol” funded by a foundation, rather than a company. Musk responded that the idea was “Super interesting.”
Dorsey said he planned to “do this work and fix our mistakes” once he was off the Twitter board in mid-May, saying that becoming a company was Twitter’s “original sin.”
“I’d like to help if I am able to,” Musk replied.
Dorsey told Musk he’d wanted to talk with him about the idea “after I was all clear,” adding that he’d even tried to get Musk on the board, “back when we had the activist come in.” Dorsey said that at the time, “our board said no” to the proposal. While Dorsey didn’t specify what he meant by activist, the company was in a battle in early 2020 with activist investment firm Elliot Management….
….
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I wonder if this money afforded Dorsey an escape from a non-compete burden (aside from a chance that Elon’s company may or may not increase in value or, alternatively, go bust). If you have a few billion, you can let one go, I guess.
https://www.siliconvalley.com/2022/11/01/musks-twitter-investors-include-saudi-prince-dorsey-and-qatar/
Twitter’s co-founder and former chief executive officer rolled over just more than 18 million shares, or about 2.4% of the public company, worth about $978 million at the merger price. That gave him shares of Musk’s X Holdings I Inc., which controls Twitter.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizahaverstock/2021/11/29/heres-how-jack-dorsey-has-gotten-so-rich-hint-its-not-from-twitter/?sh=6317943d3793
Dorsey will remain Square’s CEO, and he’ll also stick around on Twitter’s board of directors until his term expires in May 2022.
Done.
And, directly from google:
Net worth
4.2 billion USD
2022
….
Jack Dorsey: Bitcoin
He revealed in 2019 he spends thousands of dollars to buy bitcoin weekly. Dorsey’s company Square bought $170 million worth of bitcoin earlier this year.
Nov 10, 2021
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https://cointelegraph.com/news/powers-on-why-the-sec-cftc-or-ftc-needs-to-check-in-on-elon-musk-s-frenzied-crypto-tweets
Remember, it was JPMorgan’s chairman, Jamie Dimon, who famously said a few years ago that BTC was a fraud. Yet, JPMorgan has been developing its own digital coin, JPM Coin. When the prices went down, JPMorgan again blasted the asset class.
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Justice Comes For Crypto Billionaire After FTX Collapse
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Tucker Carlson Goes Full Crypto Bro
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This is America: … BUSTED … in Slaughterhouses
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-10/musk-tells-twitter-staff-social-network-s-bankruptcy-is-possible?leadSource=uverify%20wall
Musk Warns Twitter Bankruptcy Possible If Cash Burn Lingers
‘Chief Twit’ used B word in first address to Twitter employees
Investors were already offering distressed prices for loans
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At just under a minute past halfway through this video segment, the interest PER YEAR on the Musk company loan (the richest man in the world taking a less than favorable interest loan) for Twitter is compared to the (lesser) revenue (not the yet smaller number for profit) per year at its height.
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Elon Musk’s Ego-Trip As Twitter CEO Just Got More Embarrassing |
while I’m not sure a sociopath-egotist can really be “embarrassed”
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/10/exodus-twitter-elon-musk-possible-bankruptcy
The duo leading the live stream, Roth and Wheeler, have now both left the company.
“So the two people Elon brought forward to talk with advertisers in an attempt to convince them to keep partnering with the company just quit,” tweeted Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change. “Companies that stay with Twitter at this point will be tied to these dangerous and unhinged policy changes.”
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/musk-sells-another-batch-tesla-133550154.html
[after saying he wouldn’t]
… with some employees not being entirely clear on whether they are still employed [with Twitter] or not.
The deal has also sparked concern among some Tesla shareholders that the CEO is spreading himself too thin and would have to get rid of even more of his stock. He still owns about 14%, according to Bloomberg data.
Of the $36 billion worth of shares Musk has sold, around half of that has come since he went public with the Twitter buyout plan, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Tesla’s stock decline has dragged down Musk’s fortune to $179.5 billion from $340 billion at its height, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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Elon Musk Probably Violated EU
Privacy Law With Twitter Layoffs
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https://fortune.com/2022/11/11/twitter-lawyer-employees-ftc-privacy-jail/
After losing thousands of employees and top compliance officials at Twitter, Elon Musk’s deputies are racing to contain heightened concerns that staff will be held liable for security lapses.
~
While rare, there have been instances of personal liability for executives at companies from security breaches. Former Uber security head Joe Sullivan was found guilty in San Francisco federal court in a case that stemmed from a 2016 hack — details of which he tried to keep hidden. Part of the charges against Sullivan related to the fact that Uber is under an order with the FTC and required to disclose breaches.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/10/twitter-security-resignations/
In an internal Slack message shared with The Washington Post, an employee said the quick release of products and changes without effective security reviews was “extremely dangerous” for users. The message said engineers would have to take on the burden of certifying that the products complied with FTC agreements, putting them at substantial personal legal risk.
The Slack message posted a link to Whistleblower Aid, a law firm that represented former security head Peiter Zatko when he filed a complaint this year with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal officials citing alleged violations related to the FTC. The Washington Post previously reported that his complaint described inadequate logging of access to sensitive data and widespread use of out-of-date software.
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Seventy-five percent of Twitter
employees quit after … Ultimatum
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Laptop Class Hysterical After Elon Musk Reinstates Trump’s Twitter Account • five hours ago
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https://www.musicradar.com/news/trent-reznor-joe-bonamassa-jack-white-twitter-instagram
[Musicians] withdrawing from social media channels
… published about 17 hours ago
…. Why don’t you be truthful? Tell it like it is… you come into a ton of money, see e tax bill, despise paying your fair share…. You intend to give platforms to known liars and wash your hands like pontius pilate and claim no responsibility? ….. this is straight up you trying to help a fascist have a platform so you can eventually get your tax breaks. ……..
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I gave up my Twitter accounts in 2017 and made WP accounts. Musk looks as dickish and twatish in that photograph as trump does in all of his – the arrogance of Musk is enough to put me off ever thinking Twotter ot Twatter is any form of serious social platform media.
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Interesting election. I think Trump isn’t going to bolster Musk’s big buy. He should have waited for Black Friday. Maybe he could have gotten a big discount if he has waited.
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I made a twitter account when I started blogging. My post are automatically shared on it. I seldom have time to go on it and only do it if I have a lot of notifications. What Musk is doing on it is probably within his rights. But I personally f don’t like these self-centered billionaires who don’t give a damn about common people.
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Good heavens Fan, I think Marleen must be retired like me…..😜
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For now 😏
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Enjoy it while it lasts Marleen. It seems you are making good use of it with our fried Fan. Keep it up…..😜
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I’d like to learn how to nab scammers (taking advantage of ordinary people rather than millionaires in “Ponzi” schemes). I’m not sure this kind of detective work is much of a thing, right now… which is why I want to do it. I’ve been heard of municipalities being involved, as rings, taking advantage of citizens through back door off-book shady non-government characters [by which I’m not speaking of NGOs while they can be questionable]. {Related to that in a different way, I’m very interested in the shenanigans of wealthy “geniuses” (a neoliberal/libertarian concoction) getting huge favors through our government(s).}
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Somewhere in the middle of my paragraph:
I’ve even heard of municipalities …
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I luv Elon Fan. He’s taking me to Mars. Discount cos I told him I luv him (and spreading my luv on FCS)
I wrote him a ditty (free rocket drinks it’s earned me)
Free speech (firm believer am)
So I Twitter joined
From day 1 with Elon mate
I hate speech all around
Thankyou for this freedom Elon………
Your welcome Don. (ain’t he nice Fan)……
I’m over the moon Don he said……..
Sure are Eel (slap slap) ….to Mars
He didn’t get it Fan?……..😜
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😂
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I do really luv him…..and he luvs me…..he said so
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I do have a twitter account but I hardly ever use it any more! As for his take over? I don’t care, but why is it the rich always get richer, making up rules as they go? I’ll never get it. Xx
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I Think Elon Musk Is a member of Occult/Practiced Witchcraft
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Might very well be.
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I have a Twitter account… I think I have reposted two things and that is it in all the years I have been on it. I do read Tweets occasionally (especially from the Puns and One Liner account) but I maybe go into Twitter 2 to 3 times a month is all. I probably wont change any of my actions now that Elon has taken over.
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I Think Elon Musk Is a Entitlement Brat
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I agree!
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