In the past week the mainstream media and U.S. government interests have collectively been in a state of apoplexy as Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter and began announcing changes.
As a result of the management change, there have been some new discoveries about the internal operations of the social media platform that are worth highlighting. [Background Context Here] Additionally, it seems likely that Musk’s focus on the technology side of the operation might soon lead to [¹]interesting discoveries. However, let’s start by reviewing information discovered in the management change.
First, it is important to recognize that Twitter is simply a massive global commenting and information sharing system. Twitter, the platform itself, does not provide any content, all content (comments, pictures, videos, links to articles etc) is provided by the users of the platform. In essence it is a big chat room or commenting system. The main point to remember is that Twitter does not provide any content, the platform simply provides the hosting system for the conversation itself.
♦ “Verification” – Individual accounts on Twitter could request to be ‘verified’ by Twitter to validate their identity as a specific user of the platform. This is the “blue check” process that assigns a blue check badge to the user upon verification.
Apparently, the verification badge morphed into some form of enhanced credibility for the user almost like a tiered social system or class system. The ‘Blue Checks’ considered themselves more important than the average user and that verification system then became something of a status symbol.
Inside the administration system of Twitter, the assignment of the verification badge became a tool for the Twitter admins to elevate some user accounts as more important than others.
However, apparently with the new management in place, it has been discovered that verification badge status was also for sale. For a secret fee, if you knew the right people, you could purchase a verified status. Of course, no one ever knew this before, and it seems very sketchy. [See comment above left]
Knowing that some users purchased their verification status, the apoplexy over Elon Musk deciding to allow any user to verify their status for an $8/month fee, now takes on a new perspective.
Obviously, the verified users who purchased their elevated status would feel ripped off if anyone could now get verified, that’s issue #1.
Issue #2 is the diminished level of importance of a ‘blue check’ badge or credential if it is available to anyone. The internal class system is removed.
This is the second point of contention amid those who are not happy with the verification proposed by Elon Musk. It sounds absurd, but the level of anger over this leveling of the caste system has led to claims of widespread verification status being called a national security threat.
Apparently, many of the ‘Blue Checks’ on Twitter are really full of themselves, and do not like the idea that under new management any of the unwashed masses could gain a verification badge. Combined with the knowledge that U.S. government and intelligence officials were part of the background Twitter discussion prior to Elon Musk, it would appear the ‘blue check’ system was akin to a verified user license, ID or passport.
It all sounds really weird, but that’s the type of internal dynamic that was ongoing within the platform.
♦ Next up, speech control. We discover from the people who were notified of their job loss, that Twitter had individual specialized groups or units within the admin functions who monitored the conversation.
There was a “climate change unit”, a “human rights” unit, a “public health” unit and various other moderation divisions within the platform.
These “units” are groups of people who monitored the public discussion with special interest. Again, for emphasis, Twitter never provided any content, so the workers in these units were simply conversation monitors or moderators who were tasked with reviewing, approving or removing comments (user content) specific to their unit specialty. This is where the censorship stuff originated.
If you posted a comment about the subject of climate change, your comment was subject to review by internal Twitter monitors who were authorized to control the comment itself. The same outlook applied to a host of subjects as defined by the Twitter organization. There are thousands of these conversation monitors, each with a specific subject they are assigned to monitor. Again, it sounds absurd, but that is what was taking place.
It is not yet fully understood how many different subjects were monitored by specialized thought police, but it seems to be a rather extensive network of very costly employees as moderators depending on the subject matter of the conversation being controlled. This reality explains why opinions or comments that ran counter to the ideological orthodoxy of the monitors were removed.
Again, a bizarre moderation system akin to conversation monitors being placed in the workplace lunchroom, each assigned to look out for discussion of topics they were assigned to control, and then correcting anyone who spoke about an issue in violation of the acceptable company opinion. It’s all just bizarre, but thousands of those jobs were what Elon Musk removed in last week’s wave of layoffs.
The removal of these conversation monitors, public comment moderators, is another big point of contention by the leftists who now fear that anyone will be able to speak on the platform without being censored or controlled.
The media and government officials are worried about seeing comments from government skeptics, election deniers, climate change deniers, or people in other countries with different social outlooks toward sex, gender, traditional marriage, religion or geopolitical worldviews that run counter to the interests of the United States government. This seems to be the foundation of the Intel Community claim about a national security threat created by the removal of moderators.
This level of conversational control explains why the U.S. government held a vested interest in Twitter as a global communication platform. Example: a Russian national might start to compare the FBI to the FSB, plant seeds of intellectual inquiry amid the U.S. reader/user and stir up discontent on a larger scale. Thousands of Twitter moderators were assigned to filter through the commenting system while various flags and algorithmic warnings were created to facilitate tight control.
The entire moderation system sounds like an Orwellian construct because it is.
Removing this level of control over the platform is what has made Twitter’s new owner and CEO Elon Musk a threat to the global order of things.
We’ll keep watching….
[¹My prior suspicions about the data-processing operating costs, govt subsidies and the specifics of the user container system Twitter operates to categorize accounts under the false financial justification of managing simultaneous user data processing demand, looks like it is going to be publicly confirmed very soon. The groupings of the user accounts into specifically tagged containers are the root of the Twitter engagement disparity that people have wondered about for years.]
This comes as no surprise Sundance.
For years a green extremest called William Connoly has been removing anti global warming realists from Wikipedia. He apparently together with some little helpers is what is known as a senior editor on that site.
I remember a few years ago, they determined the average age of these Wikipedia editors. It was really young, like early or mid 20’s.
it’s been known for years Wikipedia was just another fake news media outlet, not dissimilar to snopes, but the real disappointment is the loss of potential for these sites.
these revelations about twitter come as a shock, even though they probably shouldn’t.
there’s no telling what might be uncovered at DB, and Dorsey is apologizing to his former employers?
Only to anyone who was paying attention. I used to laugh at people who made ridiculous assertions and backed up their claims with a Wikipedia reference–as though that meant something. Those people are still out there but they’re no longer amusing.
Wiki is an extremely useful reference tool for non-controversial, technical discussions in math, statistics, chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, and the like where it has the earnest input from dedicated amateurs without “oversight” by political moderators. Also for non-controversial, historical facts (who was 8th governor of Nebraska, what is the 6th amendment to the Constitution, when did the draft start for WWII).
Maybe. The point is that, knowing the obvious bias of those with editing power, you cannot be certain that anything you’re reading is actually true.
I took an online graduate degree program in the early 2000’s from a respected university. Their policy strictly forbade all students from using Wikipedia as reference for ANY submitted work for grade. It would mean an automatic zero grade.
They knew even 15+ years ago that Wikipedia was biased and poorly researched.
..but the real disappointment is the loss of potential for these sites
So true Alfred. Wikipedia is a site not to be trusted, but it could have been, and the world would be a better place if it was.
I was something to watch during the BHO administration as whole entries where slowly changed and dumbed down. As examples, the entries for Aulinsky’s Rules for Radicals, and the clinical definitions for narcism and narcissistic sociopath where widdled away. The reality is they probably received hits in the early BHO regime that where a statistical anomoly, and then they figured out that people where comparing their entries to Barrack Obama and his regime.
Next came the hit enteries on anyone that disagreed with their policies.
Wikipedia is a propaganda organ of the Left.
Wikipedia jokes have been common sitcom fodder for years. No one takes them seriously.
Your comment makes me wonder if maybe the “books found in the library” is a distraction to keep us looking from where the really bad materials are being distributed.
Do not use the public schools.
Also the schools set up a google account in your child’s name and therefore have a near cradle to grave data set of you child and you have nothing to say about it.
All by design. The progressive dumbing down of the next generation is well underway since before COVID. It may have been exacerbated by COVID but it has been going on for a couple decades and common core curriculum, which was adopted by every state (as the federal government attached $$$$ to anyone who adopted the curriculum and what school system in America doesn’t want more $$$) common core is dumbing down on steriods!
My religion teacher in college for New Testament and Old Testament would allow any translation in class except for two that will remain unspecified. He would translate the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament on the fly. Some of the better discussion were the ones around the reason for the differences in good translations. For example, the word often translated “servant” in the New Testament is actually the Greek word for “slave.” The original English translations wanted to avoid appearing to promote slavery at a time in which anti-slavery movements were growing with many them coming out of Christianity. Later translations kept the change to avoid confusion and maintain the consistency.
I typically will refer to Encyclopedia Britannica (on-line) rather than trust Wikipedia.
Yet even EB is suspect, at times.
Hard copy older books on history are also preferable.
Buy old encyclopedias before they are gone.
Posts were not only deleted by force (You are blocked until you delete a post), users (like myself) were permanently banned for posting links to published articles in major newspapers that ran contra to their Covid narrative. I was banned for sharing a story in the Boston Herald that Covid numbers were no longer going to be published by the State signaling what looked like an end to the epidemic. Evidentially, the last thing the “covid” group wanted was an end to the epidemic which meant and end of their moderation power.
…not to mention their 12 hour work week….from home.
One of our Aussie politicians (Craig Kelly) on Facebook was accused of anti covid stuff. I checked out his page and it was not his opinion – he just shared a bunch of articles from medical journals. Apparently medical journals are ‘misinformation’. The media mocked him a lot and eventually Facebook banned him. It was completely wrong.
I think we will find that few comments were removed. They were just throttled down so no one would see it. It would not come in your regular Twitter feeds. But, the person making those comments would never know his comment was disappeared because they could see it.
I believe that is the information control business model.
It’s the same on Facebook. You can see what you posted when you post it but no one else can see it on their main page (if it’s something FB doesn’t like) and it only appears on your personal page. There’s no way friends are going to go to every friends personal page to see what they posted they depend on your posts showing up on the their main page.
I can see all the gearing up to answer this with questions of why are you on FB? I’m not anymore, but for those who were never on FB you’ve missed a lot. While President Trump was still on FB you could see all of his comments twitter and other wise on a daily basis. You could see all his released video’s from White House office visits by foreign dignitaries, briefings and updates from cabinet members like HUD, groups invited to the White House, daily briefings with the press, pictures and remarks from his foreign visits, etc. all in one place, then you could share it or recommend they add it to their friend list so they could get it first hand. The pictures of him and Melania on foreign visits were amazing. It’s so sad all of America couldn’t have seen and heard what 4 years of a Trump presidency were really about. The MAGA train would be twice as large.
I was temporarily banned for reposting the NY Posts article on Hunters lap top — It happened within minutes of me reposting it and I was banned for 10 days. I recall feeling quite violated that my right to free speech was suppressed KNOWING that it was a true story — I watch it all being released on GNews which is now NOT available at the app store — Funny that… NOT!
Good thing Musk found these speach control police, there would be overlap with his implanted Neurolink chip that will be doing that anyways. Thanks Elon, you are quite a swell guy.
Bogus accusation. Neuralink cannot implant thoughts. It reads synapse firing in regions to control computer interfaces. This tech can be used to help paraplegics communicate. This type of shade is just left wing BS transferred to this side of the aisle. If ya’ll wanna act like that do so but I ain’t gonna back your BS and call it out. If yer gonna hit someone with scurrilous insults then have a foundation of truth and just do not make crap up on the fly to sound like yer smart. You obviously have no idea what the tech is capable of or how the brains neurons and synapse firing mapping work. What you suggest is impossible.
What you suggest is impossible.
Please add “today” to your statement. Our lives are full of previously impossible things.
That said if technology were available to allow me to recall the sum of human knowledge unrestricted I would sign up today. However I am aware any such tech would also be used to brainwash me just as tawtter and f’kbook are used to day so thanks, but no thanks.
Thanks for the article.
A minor suggestion, related to this:
“The media and government officials are worried about seeing comments from government skeptics, election deniers, climate change deniers, or people in other countries with different social outlooks …”
If not directly quoting or satirizing the left, please don’t use the word “denier.”
Due to its obviously negative use in the term “Holocaust denier,” it is used by the left as a loaded pejorative to reduce credibility of their critics. Just as in the examples you used. So please don’t voluntarily use newspeak unless you are making fun of it.
Seriously? Have you learned nothing from reading this article and all that Sundance writes? Self censorship to avoid censorship is as wrong as censorship. Grow some balls and just say what you want to say.
Totally agree. Own the label. Never fear the label, The power of the “N-word” has been magnified tenfold by being deemed unspeakable. Like Voldemort.
They are just names…own them and they won’t own you.
About three years ago when my three grandsons were in high school,
they hung out in a group consisting of whites, asians, blacks, indians, etc.
All good kids; no thugs; solid middle class, etc.
I was at my daughter’s house one day when a group of about 8-10
were playing basketball on the sport court. I overheard them calling
each other “Niggah”. I called them out on it. They collectively told
me “its okay, we all call each other that” and the black kids told me
“its dope”. First time I heard that expression LOL.
So, while the adults are wringing their hands over the “N” word
the kids just changed the spelling and got on with life.
“I am DENYING that I am a denier, and therefore forbid anyone from using the word denier to describe me!
lol
“Grow some balls and just say what you want to say”
I got some great advice from a cop in the 60’s, when being attacked and beaten for having an opinion was not uncommon.
“Son, you wouldn’t get beaten as much if you didn’t run your mouth so much”
Back then, violence was an acceptable, and often used, consequence of speech. I haven’t forgotten that. We still see it today when the Communist mercenaries attack protestors, often with the support of police, essentially the same dynamic I witnessed, and dealt with, in the 60’s.
Learn how to fight and kill. Everything has consequences. I wish it were different but if wishes were horses we’d all be cowboys. Hence, I moderate my speech here and will often include content to the effect that ‘the community guidelines limit any further response‘. That’s it.
Actually, I agree with you. The derogatory term ‘denier’ is used to insinuate that the critics who oppose the false prophesy are actually wrong. In most of these leftist views the people they called deniers are expressing the true view. It is a huge example of gaslighting. In Star Trek, The Next Generation there are a series of episodes where Captain Picard is tortured by his Cardassian jailer for refusing to number the lights he was told was present as opposed to the real number he could see. Picard was tortured for being a ‘denier.’
I appreciate the sentiment to ‘own the term denier and use it with pride’ since that signals refusal to comply, but the fact is that ‘we’ are not the ‘deniers’ of the truth. The climate change, global warming, open border, pedophile, vaccine, or [insert your favorite] RELIGION is professing a false prophesy and we need to acknowledge that. These people are the true ‘deniers.’
Thank you!
Ha ha! I’m an Election Denier!!! I am also Ultra MAGA!!! They call me a Racists because I am MAGA!!! I am transphobic because I do not want men in women’s sports!!! I am a climate change denier because I think that plants need CO2 in order to do photosynthesis and generate O2 for me to breathe!!! Denier, denier, denier!
If you throw it back into their faces often enough then they leave and go hug each other in their safe spaces.
Fascism is a leftist dogma.
Hitler called himself a socialist. Mussolini was a major figure in the Italian socialist party.
Calling fascists far right is a dodge played by leftists.
There is leftism and there is America.
The glorious notion that every man is equal and every man has a right to his opinion is America.
Of course, of course a leftist institution like Twitter would strenuously object to equality and democracy.
Don’t play word games. Choose your side, and the choice is stark.
Fascism. The problem is that everywhere you search on the internet for a definition of Fascism you will today find it defined as a FAR RIGHT authoritarian style of government.
I searched yesterday because my husband believes it is a far right thing
I have always thought the definition of Fascism is the marriage of corporations and government.
I think the definition has been hijacked by the leftists..another projection
the left hijacks everything and twists it around to suit their purpose which is
indoctrination of the “not paying attention” crowd.
A century ago, Republicans were about local government and individual freedoms. That included the rights to start a business and trade freely with minimal regulations. That evolves into a corporatist mindset once you grow, where the temptation to use government to prevent competition (infinite copyright extensions, required licensing, compliance, regulatory capture from ex employees). So there is a potential for fascism to evolve from the right as companies infiltrate governments.
But if fascism starts from socialist left, the government is infiltrating businesses as a public-private partnership, for the greater good of course. Grants, no bid contracts to pre-qualified businesses, arcane tax law for “non profits” are ways to ensure that the business level continues to exist all while it is really controlled by an intertwined government.
I guess he would know.
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
― Benito Mussolini
CONmunism is a CON, and follows the patterns and practices of any CON.
That includes periodic repackaging, when enough people learn that “its a CON, don’t fall for it!”
What we are seeing now is a re-branded, repackaged version, coming out of WEF, to try for a Global CONmunist government.
A ‘street con’ attempts to manipulate the mark, in order to seperate the Mark from their $.
CONmunism uses mass manipulation, to seperate the populace of marks from their $, liberty autonomy and soveriegnity, relinquishing it to a small group that then hoard and fight over the spoils.
There IS NO IDEOLOGY involved; the espoused ideology is like the streetcons ‘patter’ it distracts the mark, confuses his thinking so that he doesn’t see through the manipulation.
Argueing over definitions and distinctions between “Marxism, Conmunism, Socialism, Fascism etc. is a distraction.
IMHO
We should all keep and buy old dictionaries. As we go to various garage sales and thrift shops, we should buy history books too.
Remember when you wanted to know something, you had to go to the library? The internet at first was amazing. Information at our fingertips instantly!
Now we are feeling the effect of the ephemeral nature of all things digital, and how subject to manipulation it all is. The root of the manipulation is an erosion of virtue and the craven desire for control and power.
Ask people to define fascism. They usually can’t, neither can they define communism. This can be a conversation starter for those who are open minded and willing to admit they use words without being able to define them.
Next stop: digital, programmable currency. First they steal the truth and the facts, then they plan to steal our money.
The greatest loss is the discoveries not made on the way to finding what you were looking for. There were many times I would pull the World Book out to find a specific reference and spend hours reading about things for which I was not searching.
And this from 2009, a LAW to remove all children’s books from libraries due to lead content prior to 1986. https://www.cleveland.com/health/2009/03/libraries_pull_old_childrens_b.html Yes, garage, estate sales and thrift shops, are a good way to preserve old books, such as history books, dictionaries, children’s books and the true good written words. It all relates to the end goal of rewriting history, not removing miniscule lead content.
“Fascism is a leftist dogma” (ideology)
Correct. Increasingly leftwing ideologies involve increasingly centralized government and increasing authoritarian / totalitarian control. The endpoint would be an all-powerful dictator, emperor, or monarch with unilateral political and judicial authority over everyone in the kingdom / nation.
Fascism is just to the right of Communism, since with communism the State owns all industry. Since globalist multinational corporations are essentially dictating their demands to the current U.S. government, we are currently experiencing a de facto corporate fascism. Both privately-owned corporations and the federal government are colluding to make policies that the federal LEOs and Judiciary are enforcing. The Judiciary enforces mostly by silence – refusing to hear appealed complaints against laws and policies or actions that are unconstitutional but in alignment with the fascist goals.
Increasingly rightwing ideologies involved increasingly DE-centralized government, increasingly smaller government with increasingly less control over individuals and businesses. The endpoint is no government, which is by definition, anarchy.
I went through the verification process several years ago. Didn’t think much of it until I went to close my account and discovered I was blue checked.
Never used it and decided it was time to shut it down.
I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.
– Groucho Marx
It sounds like the Dr. Suess story of the star-bellied sneeches.
LOL, i was thinking the same thing. Leftist progs need Dr. Seuss level books to read…. stunted adolescents, all.
Dr Seuss (pen name of Theodore Geisel) was quite the racist socialist while he was alive. A renowned leftist political cartoonist and satirist, he was anti-isolationist, which landed him in the pro war camp. During WW2, he was head of the animation group in the First Motion Picture Unit, directing propaganda cartoons for the Air Force. After WW2, he turned to writing children’s books, as you noted, with heavy environmentalist anti-corporation theming in his stories.
Funny thing, his political leanings had no influence on me. As a kid I loved Dr Seuss books and had many of them. The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who, Horton Hatches the Egg, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, McElligott’s Pool….. some of the best nonsensical story books that kids could laugh about and enjoy reading the made-up rhyming words.
I could never get behind the notion of being involve with something run by a guy with a filthy looking beard. Dorsey’s appearance gives me the creeps. I still won’t be a part of it with Musk at the helm, but as long as he carries through with his stated goal of offering a “free speech platform” for all, I’ll be happy to see the business succeed.
Rush Limbaugh called Dorsey, “The Rasputin looking guy”.
I miss Rush.
.
Who came up with the rule that blue check verification required, in addition to proof of identity, that the user be “notable”.
How offensive. Not being a twitter user, I always assumed that it was merely verification of identity so that it could not be coopted by someone else.
.
Hmm, well although i like India and Indian immigrants, they apparently do still have a caste system there? With Parag Agrawal(Hindi) running the company, it’s not surprising that it contains a sort of caste system.
Notable.. that is the perfect description. I heard that you had to prove you had been mentioned somehow in a few places, along with have a number of followers. I never really understood it.. but I felt there was something really shady.
The elimination of half the employees and locking out everyone else over the weekend was done to do a deep dive on all their accounts and PCs.
It was also done to sniff out all the bots and who controlled them.
I called it on Mr. Musk keeping all the chaff on staff but locked out for the 60 days required by the WARN Act.
It’s about to get very real for a bunch of folks who worked or are still working for the Twit.
The biggest threat that Musk poses, besides his tilting in the direction of free speech, is that he is someone who, himself and through long time and trusted employees from his other ventures, can get to the bottom of the computer codes. That was a huge problem that dogged our side after the 2020 election. Throw in the fact that he wants to make Twitter an actual business, with an awareness of payroll, and that’s the end of all the equity hires. I’ve ran my own businesses now for nearly 40 years. It gives you a different perspective on a lot of things. Friday is not payday. Friday is a day of responsibility. Pass or fail. Your people need their money. And then it resets. And you do it again the next pay period. Musk understands this. He’s moving very fast, which means he’s given this a lot of thought. I would be shocked if this thing weren’t righted in a matter of months.
If one has never made payroll one shouldn’t IMO be in charge of anything.
Just think if we had a social credit score forced on us.
Anyone believe leftists would act any different if they had a higher social credit score than you?
Remember how Rush lampooned the ribbon thing? Everyone in Hollyweird had to wear a ribbon of some kind to signify they cared about something more than you.
Leftists would be collecting points on all kinds of things like they do now with their various causes, beliefs and delusions, and would be so smugly telling everyone how great they are.
Blue checks and social credit scores are no different.
It reminds me of high school, where the so-called “popular” kids ignored or teased the less popular. They do love their cliques!
Ditto, except reminds me of elementary school, when some of the kids had Izod shirts with the loop on the back, and they were a little more special than the kids wearing Garanimals.
Yeah… Us lowly kids used to call those loops “Fruit Loops”! For a reason.
The new prime minister of India has association through either his wife’s family or
a previous position he held for that very thing. I glossed over the article I read so
do not have more details.
.
I never paid much attention to twit before..
From the “Terms of Service” https://twitter.com/tos:
Our Privacy Policy ( https://www.twitter.com/privacy ) describes how we handle the information you provide to us when you use our Services. You understand that through your use of the Services you consent to the collection and use (as set forth in the Privacy Policy) of this information, including the transfer of this information to the United States, Ireland, and/or other countries for storage, processing and use by Twitter and its affiliates…
.
.
Do users ever read this stuff? Yikes…
https://about.twitter.com/en/who-we-are/twitter-for-good
.
I’m a civil engineer. I use AutoCAD as a drawing software tool.
I bought two licenses from them. One for me and another for a contract engineer.
The parent company called me one day and insisted that they needed to scan my computer for unauthorized versions of their software. I refused. They continued to insist and pointed to page 54 in the agreement I clicked on to install the program.
Sure enough. They could deactivate my program. (It’s now an online program).
Interestingly, they only had my contact information because I had purchased their product. They never contacted my contract engineer.
What a terrible way to treat a customer.
I passed their test, but I have my suspicions that information may have been inappropriately perused or some tracking code put on my computer.
That’s bizarre. Why scan a customer who paid for the product to find the same product they paid for? I ran my shop back in the 90’s on MiniCAD and can’t say I ever had any issues. It was expensive, as was the computer it ran on, but they were a stand alone system that never touched the internet nor contained any other data than drafting and design data for shop jobs.
Glad I left the business world behind when Covid hit. FUBAR.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That’s our mission.
7:25 PM · Nov 6, 2022
*****
𝐊𝐲𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐦
@kylegrantham
And to do this, I’ll let anyone to gives me money appear to be a legitimate source of news, rather than just ensuring all legitimate sources of news are confirmed to be who they say they are
***
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Replying to
@kylegrantham
You represent the problem: journalists who think they are the only source of legitimate information. That’s the big lie.
8:18 PM · Nov 6, 2022
This puts down the lie here that the new boss, Musk is just an extension of the old bosses, Dorsey/Agrawal/Gadde promulgated by many of the ideologue armchair Einsteins.
I wonder how much information Elon Musk now legally owns simply because these idiots put it on the company’s servers.
Elon has big plans for Twitter…
Administrative State will not be happy…
Twitter discussion starts about half way through…
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1589483884001255425.html
Just a reminder that if you post a link, this site requests you give context for the link.
Yes, context helps. Also, embedding the link helps to take the reader to a new tab or window without leaving CTH…
Relevant quote:
“In less than an hour, @elonmusk got the Left to oppose permanent bans for something that has always been against ToS.”
If the US +/other Intelligence Agencies using Social Media were fundamental in events like The Arab Spring, then they are worried about a similar thing occurring here.
Also, I can’t remember what documentary on covert activity it was this is from – but – it had a former agent talking about CIA efforts in Guatemala. He said he was highly skeptical when he was told they were going to use —- dummy radio traffic — simulating this or that fictitious Rebel Leader leading this or that fictitious operation against the Government — in order to fool the Guatemalan people into thinking the Gov was weak + facing fatal opposition — so more + more of them would jump on the bandwagon against the Government until it toppled…. and that is what happened…
Our government would want to prevent foreign intelligence services from seeking to manipulate the public mind against the nation’s interests.
The problem for them is — we also know they want to have Control to limit the ability to real citizens to communicate about real crimes + shortcomings of the Government itself…
Blues need to check their privilege.
Another improvement will be the ability to turn non blue checks off.
Imagine the majority of Twitter users opt into Musk’s system of $8 verification. You make a post that goes against the government narrative and the DARPA engine flags it immediately and a hoard of no name accounts (also no verification) begin countering your viewpoint instantly.
Who’s to say we can’t just select an option to block all non verified users from commenting on our posts. It would mean instant troll removal and it would keep anyone who hides their identity from attempting to hijack a post.
No wonder why author Steven King was really angry that “Blue check” is $8 for everyone specially for the déplorables and thoses who lived on the plantation …
The elites , snobs…
The blue-check-mark has been essential to the success of Twitter. I was an early adopter of Twitter and I remember in the early days Twitter relied on celebrities to act as influencers to get people on to the platform. I first heard about Twitter from Larry King who was in the early days a major influencer (as hard as that may be to believe today). I signed up because of Larry King and I even received my first DM from Larry (and it was for real from Larry!) ! Another early major influencer getting people to sign up was Ashton Kutscher (again hard to believe today).
Without the blue-check-mark verification there was no way of knowing that you were reading a tweet from a famous person or an imposter. The ability to read the personal thoughts of famous people and to follow their daily routines as well as having the ability to reply and get responses back from them is what made Twitter so popular. During the 2016 campaign Donald Trump retweeted a tweet that I had sent to him! Not only that he made reference to it the next night at a rally! I had tweeted to Trump a big lie that Megyn Kelly had said and the next night at the rally Trump remarked “I get tweets from my people..Mr. Trump Mr. Trump they lie they lie”. Needless to say I was pretty pumped over that which explains why twitter is so addictive.
Of course today there is some degree of snobbery attached to the blue check marks but I don’t see how Twitter could succeed without a verification system. Charging people $8 a month for the blue check seems like a good idea on the surface but I see problems with that. Many of the people with blue checks are responsible for the very financial success of twitter. For example if Donald Trump was still on the platform would it really make sense to charge him $8 a month for his blue check mark? Of course not! If I was Elon I would be paying Trump a small fortune to send out tweets!
I think a better idea for Elon would have been to bring in a VIP badge. For $10 a month anyone could have a bright gold colored VIP badge which would let others know that they are financially supporting the platform. The VIP badge could come with other features such as an edit feature and a few extra character limit. I think this would be an extremely successful revenue generator. There are currently about 250 million active users on Twitter. If 10% of them opt for the VIP badge that’s $250 million a month in extra revenue!
This of course is just one idea for generating revenue. Another one would be for Twitter to set-up an alternative to go-fund-me. These online charities get most of their online referrals from Twitter so why shouldn’t Twitter get into the action?
Great post… I felt like an insider for a second or two… only on Sundances’ site.
Isn’t that exactly what Musk is proposing? He is just redefining the Blue Check. In your words, VIP with enhanced features. I get your point about the “Influencers” bringing other people to the platform, but that seems more like a Marketing operation. So part of a contractual agreement between the Influencer and the Company, like a real business would have, would be “VIP” access as a perk of the partnership. I’m not sure this isn’t part of Musk’s plan.
I never really thought about it before but similarly-I just learned that on-hold phone systems can move callers up and down the wait time .They can look up your number, do a review of caller, decide likelihood to purchase product, level of complaints or problems and so on. When they say there is such and such of a wait- it’s not true. It’s based on the company preselected determining factors- ie. Your Social Credit Score.
Wo. That sort of thing could be applied to surgery wait times.
To everything -Yikes!
I’m an Airbnb host. I have no issues with their host customer service. My call wait time is less than a minute and I usually go along with their suggestions and decisions..Many other hosts have massive problems with CS, long wait times, no follow up, etc. I’m thinking that the hosts that have issues are flagged as being pain in the butt hosts.
Warning! Musk just let loose thousands of thought control freaks into the environment who will not be happy until they land in another position where they once again have access to the control of your thoughts.
I’m not to worried because they’ll never find another job with all the perks and non-work. I can feel the disappointment mounting already. 🙂
Branch 4 will find contract work for them elsewhere. Information mercenaries at this point in the war are more valuable than the ones with guns and explosives.
…leveling of the caste system…
Interesting choice of the word ‘caste’. 🤔
Especially since a lot of these tech people are imported from India on visas and ate usually Hindu…which has a caste system…
I have heard this is exactly how the public sector bureaucracy in India behaves. You don’t get a driver’s license unless you grease the palm of the guy who lets you see the guy, as well as the guy who gives you the license. We’ve been importing 3rd world corruption.
Decades ago I sold products to a contractor in Mexico.
It took six to nine months for the Purchase Order to be approved by the
government with bribes being paid along the way (not by us, by
the contractor purchasing the product).
Si Senor. La mordita.
Mexico and all Latin countries are corrupt, according to our western way of thinking.
That is ” just how it is done down here, Senor.”
My apologies if you are not a man.
Andrew Wilkow said
If you bring there, here.
Here, will become there.
Truer words have never been spoken.
Didn’t most of us know or suspect that what was happening on Twitter was phony, fake, cooked, manipulated, censored, a tool for government propaganda, and with followers purchased to make it look like certain people were more “listened to” than they actually were, it would stand to reason that the blue check marks were as phony as the rest of Twitter.
When the “truth monitors” are exposed and their bias’ known, we will gain some clarity of our governments too.
Twitter folks “governed” this site.
And in a very non-transparent way.
Look and sound familiar?
These subject monitoring groups are a play right out of the Chicom playbook. Years ago the parent company of WeChat hired several thousand “auditors” to monitor every WeChat conversation. I remember a story in the financial press about the auditors’ role, and how the author danced around the obvious dangers presented by it. No dancing by Sundance here. (And no job offers from Bloomberg, CNBC etc.) Yeah – let’s all keep watching.
its not just twitter
Certain youtubers are having meltdowns over this. Now it seems obvious why. I wonder if there was backroom dealing and that they knew about this stuff. Public exposure will probably end their “internet careers.”
I don’t think we should be surprised if it turns out that YouTube is the same way.
Youtube is the one to monitor if you want to see true fraud on an ongoing basis.
ANY late night talk show host/ propagandist ALWAYS has hundreds of thousands,
sometimes MILLIONS of “likes”. Particularly if they are doing a routine on who
ever is eligible for the two minute hate.
Compare the proportions on just those against damn near anything else. There
used to be a posting group called “The Viral Group” or something similar, that only
posted late night talk show propaganda. Would love, love, love, love to see just how
many bots they’ve used .
The blatant censorship on Youtube is why Rumble is doing so well.
Never would have happened without Trump, and our support of him.
These revelations are all good things.
The administrative and heavy handed state will be dismantled brick by brick.
“some pigs are more equal than others.”
This is beyond me ,.. sounds totally weird , like a glorified Beverly Hills High School on steroids – the so called /self acclaimed ‘cool kids “ with their pricey “blue monograms” – ok , good for them , I guess and then the “speech monitors “- that is more interesting – we have all seen the pictures of these 20 something weird , nerdy -retro hippy types working there, probably in these judging departments . Tweeter Must have had hundreds of these self affirming nerds playing “computer emperors”. Anyway , anybody on Tweeter must now realize how monitored and reviewed they were at all times , comforting ?(not) … Sort of an ‘oh really “ moment …
Wonder how long before Musk gets framed for a crime.
They have tried but it didn’t stick. Whatever one may think of EM battle him at your own peril.
Did these secret fees go into private bank accounts, and if so, will there be prosecutions for embezzlement?
The same and worse is happening at Facebook/Meta, Wikipedia (as mentioned), our search engines. Printed paper, original ideas, thoughts, and access to information (history, knowledge, instructions, philosophy) is all being controlled.
In addition the climate shaping goals of character, benevolence, purpose of being, benevolence, spirituality — all being purposefully shaped — uncannily like Orwellian 1984.
I applaud Musk, and we need many more. We need to be awakened more.
Our children and young adults and culture are being transformed faster than we can catch the bastards and awaken people to what is happening, much less effectively fight them.
We on the right don’t have a clear mission, vision, set of principles. As soon as we start to develop one, we are accused by the enemy of being totalitarian dictators.
How do we preserve a government and society that respects freedom without destroying it, when the enemy has no respect for spirituality, values, freedom, or the individual? That is the handicap of those in the fight for good.
Twitter should bring back the red dot on your forehead.
Why in the hell was anyone wasting his/her time with this rigged system?
How about visits to NPR and PBS several times per day to complete the job?
American Thinker had to shut down its previously excellent comment section because it was attacked and overrun with trolls and bots. They would invade and derail the threads to the point the comments became worthless and they had to shut it down. It was not moderated and got attacked.
The unseen moderators of this site, The Conservative Treehouse, are what makes it excellent and coherent. There has to be some kind of troll/bot filter, like an entrance fee or moderators to keep the conversation from being drowned out by bad actors.
American Thinker’s comments section was shut down after the 2020 election due to a threatened lawsuit by Dominion, as I recall.
Nearly all conservative comments sections are overrun with trolls, bots and spam.
Conservative Treehouse being one of the few exceptions.
Thanks, I didn’t know that.
Adding the # made it easy to be monitored by the appropriate unit.
Blue check extortion money?
I wonder what the job description applications for these units looked like. would being teacher’s pet, name taker, and hall monitor be things to be proud of on a resume?
“…a national security threat.”
Yeah, joe will let illegals pour through our borders, he’ll cause our economy to crash, he’ll let debauchery run rampant. . . but let everyday people have a stupid blue check on a stupid social media platform and the sky is gonna fall.
“…public comment moderators…” = Karens who get paid
The best parts of “Western” thought were founded in rigorous debate. No debate and it is back to the Dark Ages. Likely we are already there.
Google and Fecebook makes Twitter look like a bunch of children.
“Users” or bots left? Anyway, with 400 million users, who cares? Propaganda for your typical morons who never investigate to find reality:
Twitter may have lost more than a million users since Elon Musk took over
Estimates from Bot Sentinel suggest that more than 875,000 users deactivated their accounts between October 27 and November 1, while half a million more were suspended.
November 3, 2022
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/03/1062752/twitter-may-have-lost-more-than-a-million-users-since-elon-musk-took-over/
Leftie there says:
Manoel Ribeiro, an academic at EPFL Lausanne in Switzerland who studies niche internet communities including the alt-right and how they are affected by moderation policies and algorithms, agrees. “There seems to be indeed an attempt from many to migrate to other platforms, such as Mastodon,” he says.
“Seems to be”? You don’t know? And what is Mastadon?
July 6, 2019
Mastodon attempts to censor free speech social network Gab by blocking its domain
Twitter stats:
https://backlinko.com/twitter-users
Just one of many interesting stats found at the link:
206 million users access Twitter daily. 75% of them are not based in the US.
The Intel Community thinking free speech is “a national security threat” confirms what we already know.
Enemies from without have nothing on them.
Sundance describes a crowd of folks to whom the Constitution of the United States would be a national security threat.
“…looks like [Sundance’s very astute observations are] going to be publicly confirmed very soon. ”
That is when the crapola is really going to hit the fan.