Beautifully posed, Caroline! Musk will never get these questions in an interview as he will choose his fora for maximum ease. If he were confronted with any of these questions, he would likely just cut off the interview because his fragile ego can not handle the push back. That said, any lawyers out there who need to depose Musk, these are some great deposition questions! Now that would be an entertaining transcript to read.
Hell yeah, another great piece, thank you! A couple more for ya
11) Given that the Saudi and Qatari sovereign funds are owners of Twitter, with combined position reportedly worth over $2 billion, shouldn’t Twitter be labeled as state affiliated media given current policy?
12) What private data is Twitter sharing with those foreign autocratic states who are shareholders?
I submit that you make a mistake in taking Twitter seriously at all. It, like all other corporate controlled social media, is a tool of the owners. Any utitlity for "users" (aka donors of free data), is subordinate to the interests of the owners. Musk, the vain and unaccountable, treats Twitter like his personal play thing and will not be held to any account for his promotion of violent antisocial right wing trash. With the choice of Taibbi as his puppet, Musk got his money's worth.
I agree with the vast majority of what you wrote here, but I would argue that many of your points — eg, Twitter being an unaccountable corporate machine that feeds on our data, with no regard for the wellbeing of its users — is exactly *why* we have to take it seriously. It’s among the most influential social media platforms in the world, so even if its owner is not a serious person, I would advise caution in not taking the platform (and its effects) seriously.
The thing is, all of corporate controlled social media (which is all social media - including the new Substack thing) is there to data mine users under the extremely thin pretext that they offer users something of value. Simply put, they don't - what they take from their users is where the value lies - our data and with it, the opportunity to manipulate our behavior without our knowledge. Twitter is newsworthy at this time because of the narcissistic clown that is running it. It is really interesting to note the hissy fit our government has taken over data mining of Tik Tok, and have nothing to say about exactly the same thing going on with American companies. Stunning hypocrisy.
Beautifully posed, Caroline! Musk will never get these questions in an interview as he will choose his fora for maximum ease. If he were confronted with any of these questions, he would likely just cut off the interview because his fragile ego can not handle the push back. That said, any lawyers out there who need to depose Musk, these are some great deposition questions! Now that would be an entertaining transcript to read.
Thank you! I’m hoping someone, somewhere will see this and consider asking him a few of these questions on my behalf.
I value your perspective on many topics. This is clearly top of the line quality.
Thank you, I really appreciate that!
This is brilliant. Almost cathartic. Thank you so much.
Thank you for reading! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. It was cathartic to write.
Thoughtful, as ever, Caroline — Thanks for this.
Thank you for reading!
You rule. xo
You’re great ❤️
Hell yeah, another great piece, thank you! A couple more for ya
11) Given that the Saudi and Qatari sovereign funds are owners of Twitter, with combined position reportedly worth over $2 billion, shouldn’t Twitter be labeled as state affiliated media given current policy?
12) What private data is Twitter sharing with those foreign autocratic states who are shareholders?
*Chef's kiss, no notes
I submit that you make a mistake in taking Twitter seriously at all. It, like all other corporate controlled social media, is a tool of the owners. Any utitlity for "users" (aka donors of free data), is subordinate to the interests of the owners. Musk, the vain and unaccountable, treats Twitter like his personal play thing and will not be held to any account for his promotion of violent antisocial right wing trash. With the choice of Taibbi as his puppet, Musk got his money's worth.
I agree with the vast majority of what you wrote here, but I would argue that many of your points — eg, Twitter being an unaccountable corporate machine that feeds on our data, with no regard for the wellbeing of its users — is exactly *why* we have to take it seriously. It’s among the most influential social media platforms in the world, so even if its owner is not a serious person, I would advise caution in not taking the platform (and its effects) seriously.
The thing is, all of corporate controlled social media (which is all social media - including the new Substack thing) is there to data mine users under the extremely thin pretext that they offer users something of value. Simply put, they don't - what they take from their users is where the value lies - our data and with it, the opportunity to manipulate our behavior without our knowledge. Twitter is newsworthy at this time because of the narcissistic clown that is running it. It is really interesting to note the hissy fit our government has taken over data mining of Tik Tok, and have nothing to say about exactly the same thing going on with American companies. Stunning hypocrisy.