i'm picturing the Eric Andre meme with Elon saying "why did the woke mob do this?"
General Elon Musk Fukkery Thread
- Thread starter Armchair Militant
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ADevilYouKhow
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KalKal
Superstar
You can tell your grandkids that you drove the same car that the famous hero "Bladerunner" drove
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-main-character-blade-runner
X runs 'timeline takeover' ad promoting anti-trans film | TechCrunch
Thursday on X (Twitter), all users saw the same pinned topic under the "What's happening?" sidebar. As part of a "timeline takeover" -- which gives
techcrunch.com
X runs ‘timeline takeover’ ad promoting anti-trans film
Amanda Silberling@asilbwrites / 7:50 PM EDT•November 2, 2023Comment
Image Credits: TechCrunch
Thursday on X (Twitter), all users saw the same pinned topic under the “What’s happening?” sidebar. As part of a “timeline takeover” — which gives advertisers “priority access to logged-in users’ first impression of the day” — conservative media nonprofit PragerU is promoting the hashtag “#DETRANS” to advertise its new film about “the stories of detransitioners.”
PragerU, which is not a university, aims to “preserve American ideals.” The organization has been criticized for doubting climate change and downplaying the realities of slavery. In a press release, PragerU noted that it chose X specifically for its ad campaign “as it is one of the least censored social media platforms” after being purchased by Elon Musk.
Image Credits: An example of how the advertisement appears on X
The film purports to feature young people who sought gender affirming care, but now regret doing so. PragerU calls the short documentary its “most important” video yet, but extensive research shows that detransitioning is incredibly uncommon. In a 2021 review of 27 studies, with almost 8,000 transgender patients, less than 1% of people who underwent any type of gender-affirmation surgeries expressed regret.
In spite of research indicating that these procedures are often life-saving and rarely result in regret, right-wing figures continue to drum up panic around gender-affirming care for LGBTQ+ people. In 2023 alone, state legislators have introduced over 400 anti-trans bills.
“Health care for transgender people is mainstream, best practice care that’s supported by every major medical association and world health authority,” a spokesperson for GLAAD said in a statement. “PragerU’s false and harmful propaganda cannot stand a chance against the facts and evidence. Twitter/X’s attempt to make money from extremists and their grotesque obsessions shows how desperate they are to recoup the billions lost since the change in ownership, since few credible advertisers want to be anywhere near such trash.”
The PragerU campaign comes at a troubled time for X’s ad business. X CEO Linda Yaccarino claims that the company will be profitable by 2024, but other evidence shows that the platform’s advertising business continues to suffer. Insider Intelligence estimates that X will make $1.89 billion from ads this year, a 54% decrease from 2022. Reports from Similarweb, a market intelligence firm, show that X’s traffic and monthly active users have also declined.
PragerU said it spent $1 million in total to promote the “DETRANS” documentary, a portion of which went toward its “timeline takeover” on X. So, for a front-and-center, day-long ad placement, X is earning a maximum of 0.053% of its estimated annual advertising earnings.
Despite pushback from some users on X, the company confirmed that PragerU’s advertisements do not violate platform guidelines.
“The video doesn’t target trans people in a manner that would constitute a violation of our policies, but is primarily focused on transgenderism,” a representative from X told TechCrunch via email. “The video does depict trans people which may have been done without their consent, but given that the imagery seems to be taken from public sources (e.g. TikTok or IG videos), the right to privacy policy may also not apply in this case.”
The ad on X cannot be dismissed, even if a user has the advertiser PragerU’s account blocked. Typically, ads on X can be reported, but this one cannot be flagged. The documentary in question is being used to solicit donations to the non-profit media group, as well as signatures for a petition about protecting kids from “radical ideas about gender” and “transgender ideology.”
“X is a place that promotes freedom of expression on all topics and interests, so long as people act within the bounds of the law, that means we do not attempt to take sides or settle debates,” the X representative added. “Our goal is to facilitate dialogue in a way that people and organizations of all sides feel is unbiased, safe and transparent.”
PragerU is also advertising its documentary on Meta and Google, albeit in a far less prominent placement. The organization claimed that it sought a similar “takeover” ad placement on YouTube, which is part of Google, but was denied.
“The ads in question do not violate our ads policies and are currently running across our platforms,” said Google spokesperson Michael Aciman. “In accordance with our YouTube ad requirements, since 2021, ads related to political topics are ineligible to run on the YouTube Masthead.”
Since Musk’s purchase of Twitter (now X), the platform has acted as a vehicle for his personal interests. In the past, X has banned journalists reporting on Musk, blocked links to competitor platforms, changed platform policy to censor a bot that published public information about his private jet and singled out news outlets like NPR and The New York Times with sanctions.
Musk has demonstrated a particular animus toward the LGBTQ+ community. Over the last year, Musk has repeatedly mocked transgender people, and even removed an old Twitter policy that prohibited the targeted deadnaming or misgendering of transgender people. As recently as this week, Musk has posted that he believes the word “cis” is a “heterosexual slur,” a personal position that reflects changes made to the company’s content moderation policies under his leadership.
Update, 11/3/23, 10:50 AM ET with comments from an X representative and a spokesperson for GLAAD.
Elon Musk’s X Has Started Selling Off Old Twitter Handles For Upwards Of $50,000
Rumored to be in the works for the past year, the initiative appears to have begun rolling out recently, with email solicitations being sent to potential buyers.
www.forbes.com
FORBESINNOVATIONVENTURE CAPITAL
EDITORS' PICK
Elon Musk’s X Has Started Selling Off Old Twitter Handles For Upwards Of $50,000
Alex KonradForbes Staff
Senior editor covering venture capital and startups
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexko...d-twitter-handles/?sh=211716545bcf#open-web-0
Nov 3, 2023,08:11pm EDT
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Rumored to be in the works for the past year, the initiative appears to have begun rolling out recently, with email solicitations being sent to potential buyers.
X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, appears to have begun ramping up efforts to sell disused user handles, kicking off a program previously signaled by billionaire owner Elon Musk.
Emails obtained by Forbes reveal that a team within the company, known as the @Handle Team, has begun work on a handle marketplace for the purchase of account names left unused by the people who originally registered them. In at least some cases, X/Twitter has emailed solicitations to potential buyers requesting a flat fee of $50,000 to initiate a purchase.
The emails, which Forbes agreed not to publish in their entirety to protect the anonymity of their recipients, came from active X employees and noted that the company recently made updates to its @handle guidelines, process and fees.
An automated response from X’s press email account to Forbes as of publication time said only: “Busy now, please check back later.”
Musk’s company has been rumored to be planning to put such a program into effect for months. As early as November 2022, Musk posted on the social media site that a “vast number” of handles had been taken by “bots and trolls” and that he planned to start “freeing them up next month.” (In response, a user suggested a “Handle Marketplace” where people could sell accounts to each other, with the site pocketing a fee; Forbes couldn’t determine whether such a practice is now in place.)
By the next month, X employees were already discussing the sale of X/Twitter handles, per a January report by The New York Times, with Musk posting that he planned to free up as many as 1.5 billion usernames “soon.” In May, X began purging defunct accounts from its site.
As of Friday evening, X’s username registration policy posted on its website still stated “unfortunately, we cannot release inactive usernames at this time.” Its “inactive account policy,” meanwhile, warned users to log in every 30 days to avoid being considered inactive, but also said X was not currently releasing inactive usernames.
Musk might want to consider using his own service to purchase at least one account soon: @handle itself, which hasn’t posted since 2019. Fittingly, its last post hinted at a relaunch, but its associated website had long since gone defunct.
On Instagram, Palestinian journalists and digital creators documenting Gaza strikes see surge in followers
One journalist has added more than 12 million followers. The work highlights some of the challenges and dangers of covering the conflict.
www.nbcnews.com
On Instagram, Palestinian journalists and digital creators documenting Gaza strikes see surge in followers
One journalist has added more than 12 million followers. The work highlights some of the challenges and dangers of covering the conflict.
Civilians conduct a search-and-rescue operation Tuesday under the debris of destroyed building after Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat Camp in Deir al Balah, Gaza. Mustafa Hassona / Anadolu via Getty Images
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Nov. 3, 2023, 6:00 AM EDT
By Jason Abbruzzese, David Ingram and Yasmine Salam
Before early October, Motaz Azaiza’s Instagram account documented life in Gaza to about 25,000 followers with a mix of daily life and the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
That began to change in the days after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel and the retaliation on Gaza. Since then, more than 12.5 million people have begun following Azaiza’s feed, which has become a daily chronicle of Israeli strikes.
Many other journalists, digital creators and people active on social media based in the region have seen a similar uptick in followers. Plestia Alaqad, a journalist whose work has been featured by NBC News, has gained more than 2.1 million, according to the social media analytics company Social Blade. Mohammed Aborjela, a digital creator, gained 230,000. Journalist Hind Khoudary drew 273,000 in the last five days of October. Photographer and videographer Ali Jadallah added more than 1.1 million.
Those surges have made Instagram, an app generally associated with lighthearted social media posts and lifestyle influencers, a suddenly crucial view into Gaza. The app has previously been embraced by some journalists, most notably photojournalists, but the sudden increase in followers appears to have no precedent.
The posts can at times be difficult to absorb. Most if not all appear to be firsthand videos rather than recycled content: People pulled from rubble, children crying over the bodies of their parents, and to-camera accounts of what the journalists are seeing and feeling.
The unfiltered coverage, as seen in the Instagram post below, adds a unique element to the broader journalistic efforts to capture what's happening in Gaza.
It’s a role that Instagram may not fully embrace (parent company Meta has broadly moved away from the news), but it appears the company is doing little to discourage the growth of the accounts. The app has rules against graphic content but does make exceptions for posts that are “newsworthy and in the public interest.” Some posts are initially covered by a “sensitive content” warning.
Instagram and other social media apps have come under some scrutiny over concerns that pro-Palestinian voices have been censored or suppressed. Meta confirmed in October that the company had accidentally limited the reach of some posts but said the problem was a bug that did not apply to one specific type of content and denied any censorship.
Meta also worked with the people behind the account Eye on Palestine after the company said it had detected a possible hacking attempt. That account had already been among the most-followed accounts focused on Palestinians before the war, with about 3.5 million followers. The account is back online after a multiday outage and now has more than 7 million.
The emergence of Instagram also comes as the social media platform X, once the go-to destination for journalists and witnesses to breaking news, has come under fire for its shortcomings around misinformation related to the conflict. Telegram is also a popular app for unfiltered updates but has a relatively small user base in the U.S.
A Meta spokesperson declined to make anyone from Instagram available for an interview.
Foreign journalists covering the Israel-Hamas war are facing enormous challenges obtaining firsthand information, and that dynamic is having a deep effect on the world’s understanding of what’s happening especially in Gaza, according to organizations that monitor press freedom.
The obstacles for reporters are wide-ranging even for a war zone. These include physical danger to journalists, lack of access to Gaza itself and the logistical challenges of operating within Gaza such as electricity and internet blackouts.
Many major media operations including NBC News have sent reporters to Israel to cover Hamas’ attack and the ongoing conflict, during which more than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed and more than 200 have been taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. More than 9,000 people have been killed in Gaza from the Israeli counteroffensive, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Few foreign reporters are believed to be in Gaza, according to journalists outside the territory. Israel and Egypt control entry to Gaza and have not allowed in foreign journalists, according to a petition this week signed by nearly 100 French journalists demanding access to the strip, France 24 reported Tuesday.
Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor of Middle East studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar who closely follows social media, said the accounts are important “precisely because of the chaotic and toxic information environment that is so heavily mediated and sanitised.”
“It is so hard for anyone to get into Gaza that these journalists using Instagram are one of the only windows into bearing witness,” he said in a text message.
Those challenges were most apparent last Friday when a near-total communications blackout and Israeli bombing made it almost impossible to tell what was happening in Gaza. Also Friday, Reuters reported that Israel’s military had told international news organizations that it could not guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in Gaza.
As communication systems were gradually restored, voices from Gaza began to cut through the silence on social media.
A video of Khoudary and Azaiza uploaded on Saturday served as a sort of public service announcement confirming they were alive. Many commenters expressed their concern, worried that their lack of posts meant they had been hurt or killed. Neither responded to interview requests.
They both said they were struggling to get in touch with family members in other parts of the Gaza Strip.
“We don’t know where our families are and we don’t know if they’re ok and we really need to know what they’re going through because yesterday was a very bad night,” Khoudary said. “It was one of the deadliest nights on the Gaza strip.”
More than 30 journalists and media workers have been killed in the conflict as of Tuesday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom organization based in New York. Another nine journalists were reported missing or detained, it said.
Sherif Mansour, the Middle East and North Africa program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said any journalist working in Gaza is in danger.
“In a way, the people who are needed the most are the ones who are most vulnerable right now,” Mansour, who is based in the U.S., said in a phone interview.
He said that Hamas has contributed to the censorship of journalists within Gaza including through harassment.
“It’s basically hard to get by or be able to do work, but there has always been enough people trying to tell the story,” he said.
A regular stream of videos and images has made it out of Gaza, but the spread of misinformation and unverified claims — often in the form of legitimate content that is old or inaccurately described — has added to the challenge of verifying information from the region. On Instagram, many of the Palestinian journalists are verified, which means Instagram confirmed the identity of the person behind the account.
Jones noted that declining trust in the media has pushed some people to seek information directly from firsthand sources.
“They are also providing unfiltered coverage that has a raw and authentic quality, and the current distrust of the mainstream media is not helped by the more sanitised (for understandable reasons) content,” he wrote.
CORRECTION (Nov. 3, 2023, 9:30 a.m. ET): A pervious version of this article misstated Marc Owen Jones’ position at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. He is an associate professor, not assistant.
Lolbertarians living up to the name.
"But what if the child consents?"
AStrangeName
Member of Snitch Syndication
You know shyt has gotten really bad when meme accounts have to call shyt out and be the voice of reason.
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
Elon Musk's pessimism about the Tesla Cybertruck was very much warranted
Even in Matte Black, the angular Tesla pickup truck looks full of flaws
qz.com
The author, Daniel Golson, was at the event and got an up-close look at the Cybertruck that was driven by Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen. Based on what Golson saw, the matte-black-wrapped Cybertruck is either a long way from being production-ready, or it’s just going to go into production anyway regardless of all of its flaws. Odds are, it’s the latter. From InsideEVs:
Elon Musk's pessimism about the Tesla Cybertruck was very much warranted
Even in Matte Black, the angular Tesla pickup truck looks full of flaws
The author, Daniel Golson, was at the event and got an up-close look at the Cybertruck that was driven by Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen. Based on what Golson saw, the matte-black-wrapped Cybertruck is either a long way from being production-ready, or it’s just going to go into production anyway regardless of all of its flaws. Odds are, it’s the latter. From InsideEVs:
shyt looks rushed together. This will be a great experiment on the TESLA Stock next year, because this might be the first ever car that bombs quickly.
Btw, Breaking Twitter is a very entertaining book detailing the behind the scenes fukkery during Must’s takeover of Twitter. If there was a person who needed to get their jaw rocked, it’s this disgusting Boer.