Everything I have outlined about Twitter is going to surface as accurate over time. There are two major elements: (1) DHS govt influence, now evidenced in the Twitter Files, and (2) the Twitter financial issues, which explain the recent hiring of Linda Yaccarino, which are soon to surface.
Yesterday, Elon Musk responded to criticism of Twitter censorship, vis-a-vis government demands, with this Tweet: “Please point out where we had an actual choice and we will reverse it.”
The Musk supporters are saying Musk has to comply with government demands if their national laws require it. However, that angle doesn’t take into consideration the choice that Musk/Twitter always have.
If the platform content is not approved by a government, and that govt then demands removal or censorship of that content, Twitter always has two options. One, to comply with the demand and block or restrict the user content (which is the direction they have taken) – or two, stop allowing the platform to operate in the country demanding the censorship. It is the latter option that everyone always avoids mentioning.
However, the issue appears to be bigger and goes to the heart of the second aspect of Twitter we have noted.
Twitter is not viable as a business model under the construct of its creation. Twitter operates on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud and Google Cloud.
Both big tech monopoly systems are extremely expensive, and as a result Musk is stuck in contracts with AWS and Google that are major financial drains. Twitter does not operate any server infrastructure; the only asset that Twitter has on the tech engineering side is the software to operate the platform.
Absent any hardware infrastructure, Musk is vulnerable to the excessive costs of AWS & Google.
Keep in mind that all cloud-based systems are arguably U.S. government subsidized and end in server farms built and owned by the U.S. govt. Send something to a cloud-based system, or operate your tech through a cloud-based system, and you are essentially operating on govt hardware.
[This is the background #2 issue to Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop.]
As you can see from this article in March 2023 [MUST READ], Musk was behind in his payments to Jeff Bezos (Amazon, AWS) but up to date on his payments to Google.
In essence, even as the article admits, Elon Musk is making payment decisions based on determinations of how best to avoid advertising revenue interruptions. Keep this in mind.
As you can see in the article, Musk is on the hook for contracts with AWS through 2025. As written, “AWS is not willing to renegotiate the five-and-a-half year contract it signed with Twitter in 2020.” That is before Musk took ownership. “That contract required Twitter to pay $510m over that period. It was signed when Twitter was expecting to move its main timeline over to AWS, but that never occurred (instead it hosts Twitter Spaces and other services), meaning that Twitter is not fully making use of the contract.” So, Jeff Bezos (AWS) has a hook into Musk for roughly $100 million a year.
Additionally, “Twitter uses Google Cloud to a greater degree, with its own five-year contract worth $1bn. While Twitter is also looking to reduce its Google Cloud costs.” That puts Musk on the hook for $200 million a year to Google, and Google controls the vast majority of advertising revenue on the web.
Each system, AWS and Google, represents a threat vector for Twitter (Musk), insofar as Twitter cannot operate without the cloud services each provider contributes to the data processing.
Absent his own data processing systems, Musk is vulnerable to the AWS/Google demands -$300,000,000/yr just for them. Again, keep this in mind.
This is all part of the financial section I have written about extensively, and it has an impact on the content.
With this information as the overlay, how much freedom does Musk actually have with the platform when he is dependent on Google and Amazon to operate? The same Google who controls the majority of his revenue (advertising) controls his data processing. See the problem?
On content, look at what AWS did to Parler as an example of what they could do to Twitter if Musk is not compliant. On revenue, consider how Google already has influence over the monetization of any platform on the internet, combined with terms and conditions for content control they can exert through their revenue power.
♦ Amazon (AWS, CIA, U.S. Govt) then becomes the primary control lever for rules and guidelines on content – the government compliance stuff. How does it surface? Musk saying he must censor Turkish political opposition parties.
♦ Google then becomes the primary control lever for Twitter revenue. How does that surface? Musk hiring Linda Yaccarino as CEO of Twitter.
Can you see it now?
Do the irreconcilables start to reconcile?
Does Elon Musk saying, “Please point out where we had an actual choice and we will reverse it,” start to make sense now?
Given that Musk is on the hook for $300 million/yr, and that’s just one expense, I suspect Musk is closer to bankruptcy with Twitter than most people think.
The operating costs are too extreme for the business model. They always were; however, I suspect the USG was indirectly subsidizing Twitter through data processing when Jack Dorsey had ownership.
The subsidy would be part of the private-public partnership, where the USG was benefitting from their ability to control public information and public opinion.
With the USG control via DHS and FBI now in sunlight (Twitter Files), the financial side has always been the second -and hidden- big picture element around Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop.
Bottom line, Musk has to make decisions through one prism, THE ECONOMICS. Musk’s decision-making, pro freedom or not, is constrained by this financial dependency. Hence, a lot of the platform censorship elements remain (including some personnel) and now the outreach to appoint Google/WEF approved Linda Yaccarino in an effort to enhance the revenue.
As the end dates of the contract terms with AWS and Google start to come closer, decisions will have to be made if Musk wants a sustainable platform. Either he builds out new hardware (extremely costly and likely cost prohibitive), or he looks for an existing platform that he might be able to merge with and operate.
If you are a platform owner of reasonable scale, and you control your own servers and data-processing, watch out for David Sacks (repping for Elon) to tap you on the shoulder. Twitter is in a bind, or Musk needs to sink buckets of money he doesn’t have into building something. The financial viability is now the primary prism, not principles of free speech.
On the content side, Elon Musk needs content providers, which explains the thirst for Tucker Carlson and even the DeSantis launch to gain some operational impact. That’s likely where his key tech advisor David Sacks again comes into play. On the type of content, that’s where Linda Yaccarino steps in as the Google/WEF bridge to approved content revenue.
#MeanTweets
Elon gets triggered pretty easily. Not good.
.
I would like to know the backstory and deals behind how a guy who lost money for years with his idea for an on-line bookstore, and then somehow got a patent monopoly for a shopping cart that arguably hse should not have got, became a global billionaire.
Similarly, how did the government embrace a new search engine platform written by a bunch of geeks at Stanford and how and when did that preferred and hidden relationship come into being with taxpayer funds.
.
more b.s. from the shut up and take it crowd
It’s actually not that hard to stand up your own large scale server farm with redundancy. When I looked at the financials just prior to Musk’s purchase, I was astounded to see Server infrastructure reported as a “cost of sales” as something like 26% of revenue (if memory serves). IT infrastructure cost for an ordinary corp is normally buried in G&A expense totaling less than 10-15% of revenue maximum. This cost might be higher for a SAS form, but I dont get 26% of revenue. Nobody could ever make twitter profitable with an expense that high. I remarked at the time that this massive expense was waaay out of line and listed fixing it as one of twitter’s top 10 problems. Musk is nuts if he doesnt do something about that expense.
If I were Musk I’d immediately reduce server capacity until people start complaining about performance. Then I’d keep cutting. And I’d also start negotiating with Amazon/Google and simultaneously start raising more capital and looking at a buildout plan.
Biden Authorizes Order That Will Ban Independent Media in America
President Biden on Thursday authorized a plan to ban “all independent media websites” in America, in order to “protect Americans from hate.”
The highly illegal and unconstitutional move is part of the White House’s new “National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.”
https://thepeoplesvoice.tv/biden-authorizes-order-that-will-ban-independent-media-in-america/
So does this mean there is an independent media and a controlled media ? Can White House press conferences be banned to protect Americans from hate ?
NOW I finally get it. Wow. That’s a lot of money.
Do you know how big the GAB network is? It is supposed to be fully independent.
Sundance learned all about this when word press tried to cancel CTH
Twitter’s problem is supporting hundreds of millions of simultaneous users online
Only AWS, Google and MS Azure can support that scale
Twitter crashed when hosting just three or four hundred thousand users at once a week ago. They certainly cannot handle hundreds of millions.
Not unless those hundreds of millions are spread out over the whole 24 hour day. I don’t think any hundreds of millions, or even tens of millions, would be hitting enter all at the very same moment.
Just as people making comments here on CTR don’t all make their comment(s) simultaneously. There are around 370 comments on this article, but they were made over hours.
correct…also we are referring to a specific domain of the twitter host server space(s).
twitter spaces…which is still remains in beta. It’s rather new and was never used before for GLOBAL scale audio AND VIDEO.
twitters spaces is very different that the text limited html part.
having said that. I remain unconvinced twitter spaces fell over due to large number wrt desaster’s office gamble.
nope..I’m more convinced the numbers were so low it would be embarassingly stupid to allow the show to happen. So they just blamed some technical glitches.
I mean it could have been a twitter spaces failure..I’m just not convinced that is the likely reason.
Disaster just isn’t that popular. He is on standard media maniacs and normal website, because users don’t have to do anything…just visit or read the news or watch it. But with twitter spaces, you have to sign in and you have to do this live before the show. The reality is that even if the backend is fixed to support enormous volumes of simultaneous audio and video…does not change the reality that last mile problems will be involved..and that is not something that twitter can control. What this means is that in order to something like twitter spaces to have global saturation,,,,twitter will have to solve last mile problems..which is unlikely…no one has the ability to do that at scale. remembering that most twitter users are doing this on mobile devices…isp plus a large volume on mobile cell networks. twitter spaces also do not have adequate push ads either to support growth.
tldr: twitter spaces is a live social media app driven hosted service. Twitter does not have the capacity to publish and serve audio AND video on that platform. It’s still in beta…this is very different from classic html hosted webpages, which are not “live”, and do not host audio and video formats…only external links, which has almost zero impact on performance and bandwidth capacity.
God Bless America
“nope..I’m more convinced the numbers were so low it would be embarassingly stupid to allow the show to happen. So they just blamed some technical glitches.”
Im inclined to agree.
I’ve had reliable broadband since y2k and the free time to use it. I remember well Twitter’s launch and all the talking heads begging listeners to follow on twit. I did briefly but my take was who cares about a bunch of snarky 2 sentence replies. Facebook never turned my crank either.
Twitter lived longer than the hula hoop but it is not a piece of the rock and the next great thing will disappear the birdie…buh bye
Just Twitter Spaces. The rest of Twitter worked fine.
Twitter Spaces (audio platform) and as SD pointed out… there were over 3M who chimed in for a BBC event prior to this one with no issues.
So maybe a disgruntled Twitter employee literally overloaded?
I do not think we know what actually happened.
I also like the theory that very few found a DeStablishment event worth the time.
I read that they did actually handle about 3 million in some recent event.
My guess is that there was active sabotage by one or more leftist employees who haven’t yet gotten the memo that DeSantis support is part of the oligarch plan for 2024.
And Google, MS Azure at least, maybe AWS too, all have huge Server Buildings in Wyoming between Laramie and Cheyenne just across the border from Colorado. Wyoming has the cheapest electricity rates in the entire USA. WY is allowed to mine coal and use its oil and natural gas deposits….for now.
Could he partner with GAB? This was my question all along.
I don’t think it would be a wise move for Andrew Torba to collaborate with Musk. JMHO 🤷♀️
Agreed. Kinda like when Ted Turner collaborated with Aol/Time Warner and lost control of his company.
He wouldn’t anyway.
Why not Rumble? I bought some RUM @ $8.50 and baby needs new shoes come on 😉
I don’t think gab is profitable either. If you could peek behind the scenes gab would probably look a little spooky also. Maybe a different team though.
As I recall, Torba publicly (@a account) offered to let Musk buy in to gab for 1 or 2 billion $$. A. Torba stated he needed an “uplink?” to be completely independent and Musk could provide that. Starlink maybe??
Our ClintonFoundationTimeline website was on Amazon’s Cloud in 2017 and within 3 months, it just disappeared from public view. I asked my techy to look into why it just disappeared and he said everything on the backside was still there and he couldn’t explain it. So I contacted AmazonCloud’s tech service and they said I had to join their service for $30 a month before I could find out why it disappeared. I was already paying a techy, so needless to say, we switched to another server provider. It was after that happened that I realized the CIA (Amazon) probably didn’t like our website that was chronicling their crimes and we stuck out like a sore thumb.
You also have to realize that Comcast controls a lot of the internet routing / pipe work of the internet. I’ve been aware that they’re involved with throttling too
CON-cast sabotaged me personally many times trying to get onto their local call in political shows. This was all the way back in the late 90’s, early 2000’s they were jacking me.
Con-cast is still sabotaging other cabal companies as well as its customers. Claiming easements, digging up personal property, walking away from unfinished work is their main achievement.
I’ve been on Twitter 19 years. Made many good friends in the US and abroad. There was a time that I averaged 450,000-500,000 impressions a month. Since Biden it has gotten much worse. Was better for a few months when Musk bought it. Now my content is filtered heavily, Not allowed to present article links on most subjects.
I will ride this out and see what happens.
Sorry to hear about your experience with Amazon. There is a real horror story you might not have heard about from them.
Amy Nelson and her husband (who worked for Amazon)
Amy Nelson (2 months ago)
https://rumble.com/v26q6rc-amy-nelson.html
Amy Nelson The Battle Against American Oligarchy (1 Month ago)
https://rumble.com/v2ajxe9-amy-nelson-the-battle-against-american-oligarchy.html
MOST RECENT
Amy Nelson – The Update (Apr 19, 2023)
https://rumble.com/v2j1xma-amy-nelson-the-update.html
Amy talked about her daughter, the bank, and blindfolded faith in one of your links. My parents didn’t blindfold me, that helped me understand the systemic corruption and the conspiracy of “silence” that Amy talked about.
I have an active account I haven’t logged into for 16 years. I check once in a while, just for lulz.
The Texas UniCons are going after AG Paxton for suing Brandon the same way Amazon is targeting it’s critics.
“It sure looks like a uniparty when I’m on the TX House floor. I’ve been there 5 sessions and it’s uniparty run… Everyone thinks Texas is super super conservative… We have a uniparty…”
Texas Insurrection
https://rumble.com/v2r1com-grant-stinchfield-tonight-show-5-30-23.html
Which, of course, begs the question: why on earth did Musk decide to buy Twitter???
Now THAT is the $64,000 dollar question as we used to say in the old days!
Seneca: With inflation, questions now cost $1,347,243.
LOVE^^^^^
Back in my day it was the $64 question.
The CBS television game show in the latter 1950s was named “$64,000 Question”. That’s where the saying originated.
Which was a fortune back then.
to drive his brand without censorship…to control one of the largest social media platforms which equals influence and results in more reaching power.
it’s an intelligent choice…even if elon never makes his money back, he can use twitter in ways to protect his image…twitter was a royal pain in his ass….with all the radicals daily moving to crush all of this companies with all manner of allegations of problems, criminality, nazism, mysogyny, racism, trade and money failures, safety allegations..you name it…every day, there would be something new that would go viral about bad man elon.
having control over that means elon doesn’t have to deal with a vast mountain of people who were creating problems out of vapor mostly..and promoting them.
it is very interesting also that elon knew early on that most of these critics and radicals were paid political employees at twitter promoting it…and those were the first people he fired when he took over.
I’ve changed my views about elon and twitter 2.0 because the facts show he is unreliable. But the facts also remain clear that twitter was the single biggest problems to elon and his companies.
just my opinion.
You bring up some really great points.
Yes he does. Always has the scoop.
I’m in the attaboy club, too! Retiger reads tea leaves well
I’m not sold on Elon being Boy Wonder – Tesla is toast and twitter won’t turn a profit, perhaps Starlink can carry everything but if sl goes too good uncle sugar will raid it and get the cream $$$
Several times I have come across your comments and they are always well worth the time it takes to read them, I feel smarter when I finish, Thank you!
MySpace was trashing Murdoch until he bought it.
Then that social ghetto curiously became the go-to for… “pedophiles pedophiles pedophiles”… according to liberal media. Buh-bye Tom, hello Mark. Fakebook built Building 8 for national security grifters after that. More recently, when the FBI visited Mark and told him to kneel like the BLM snitch-clique, he volunteered $400M for ballot submission assistance.
Sounds like a Six Ways to Sunday extortion racket, but it’s just the cost of doing business with the Corporate Investment Agency. You get the protection you overpay for. My opinion only.
“The government picks winners and losers.”
–Charlie Ergen (EchoStar/Dish)
Is Strzok’s wife still at the SEC?
With Politicized Lending, Biden Aims to Revive ‘Operation Choke Point’
realclearmarkets.com/articles/2021/02/17/with_politicized_lending_biden_aims_to_revive_operation_choke_point_660612.html
You assume he had a choice…perhaps it was an offer he couldn’t refuse
Part of the entire ruse, limited hangout. Musk bringing on the wef bitch should have made everyone sure of the sauce
🎯🎯🎯
YGL 2008 Official List [World Economic Forum] Elon Musk is One of the Member in 2008 | Mr, Elon Musk Was Officially added into the Young Global Leader. : World Economic Forum : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Ah, perhaps…. Still, we all see now!
I think so also, Elon has to have alies within the USA government, perhaps sectors of the deep state saw Twitter out of control “woke activists” and their string holders as endangering the whole purpose of it. Elon looked like the perfect candidate to get rid of dead wood.
Impulse, and then he regretted it. Couldn’t get out of it.
So we could all see the “magic”? That is what I want to believe anyway….
We have to be turning a corner somewhere here!
May be an offer Elon couldn’t refuse.
When it comes to the wealthy elite I always look for the Why–The Motive!
Never joined twit, the last couple of months could read anything and comments were fun for all to see. Today, no searching, only can view 5 comments and the MEATBALLS are everywhere.
I am so pleased that President Trump never took the bait.
It’s a trap.
Thanks for this overview.
Seems Musk was somewhat naive and/or really didn’t understand the depths and layers of government control.
So in the end, the idealist hope of free speech (that Musk was hyping at one point) once again is stifled by government censorship.
No doubt he bitterly regrets getting involved in the first place. A tremendous financial drain and not even the product he expected. As well, his compliance and partnership with the government in other things didn’t buy him any favors. And he likely isn’t trustworthy in their eyes anymore.
It’s not like he’s a rocket scientist or something that double and triple and quadruple checks different scenarios before engagement, eh?
Probably a fair amount of conditioning that large pursuits opaquely founded upon federal subsidy look really, really attractive.
Thanks, that made me laugh. This is a good day to appreciate my uncle, who was a rocket scientist – astrophysicist; spoke 6 languages, started in Germany (1940’s), worked aerospace companies and The Mountain in CO. He had high clearance so when we were little kids (5 & 6) we would give him beer and try to get “secrets” out of him. He never talked; good Air Force man. Blessings to all today.
Some of you people, I swear …. He started SpaceX without a lead chief rocket engineer. He interviewed everyone he could find for the job, but none of the good ones would join, and the bad ones would be useless. So he read several books and made HIMSELF the chief rocket engineer. SpaceX now dominates the aerospace industry worldwide. How does that square with “rocket scientist double- and triple-checks different scenarios before making decisions”? He’s no different than Trump: driven by instincts.
I understood the comment as ironic, meaning that no way Elon, being a rocket engineer, went blind and naive into the Twitter deal.
🙂 🙂 🙂
He understands. He’s controlled, space x and Tesla are underwritten by govt too
He paid twice what it was worth for a reason.
Gubmint subsidy.
Underwritten by which government, the Chinese Communist Party or The United States Government?
Hmm. Probably both.
Serious question…. If Twitter doesn’t have any hardware infrastructure, the tool that runs their whole service, and all they own is software…. THEN what did Musk pay $44 BILLION for?
The product? Information? This presumes customary business norms apply and this wasn’t simply another government op.
it cost Musk 44 billion to continue to do easy business with the government
pay to play…
He is in on it. The Grand stage is played out for us so they can control those who allow them to. It’s all about the $$$$ those given the huge money making industries must play along in the game of control. Since WW2 Technology has taken off. The government + those behind the govt. The Principality the powers of the air. After the war effort those in the upper parts of government figured out how the communication between dimensions is conducted. Trading human lives souls for Technology secrets that were used prior to the great flood. The govt. perfects them then allowed to be used by people like Elon. IBM is a good example of a company utilizing this method. Bill Gates mom was president she gave Bill the Technology used by Microsoft allowing govt. Control. Crazy times we live.
-1
Surveillance list.
Info about people ALL around the world, the source journalists check before writing the news, the power to control public opinion, …
There’s mo doubt you know of what you speak having gone through this recently when WordPress got down & dirty.
This person speaks from experience.
This makes me feel better about Elon himself… that he may really be a friend of free speech, an enemy of censorship as we’ve believed and hoped. But even if true, that doesn’t help much, does it? I mean, unless Musk can come up with the money to build his OWN infrastructure — which would probably require a few like-minded friends (ARE there any?) to do the same — what can be done? I can only think of one other option: Once Donald Trump is back in office, he goes full benign dictatorship on the entire Deep State. Much easier said than done, of course. 🙁
Hi, jello–it’s all a little crazy-making, isn’t it? Hope your day is fine!
Hi Sharon! Yep… and if it wasn’t for being able to hang out with you guys I would probably have gone literally insane a long time ago! 😉
All of Musk’s businesses are tied closely to the government. The electric car industry only exists because of government subsidies for ‘green” industry. And his spaceship business likewise depends on government approval.
They are tied closely to the CHINESE goverment, I know that. Tesla is totally funded by Sequoia Capital, which is Chinese.
The CCP or other Chinese? Every country in the world at this point has a “Deep State”. It is difficult to figure …..
Internet search “chinese communist party tech company takeover”… there’s no such thing as “other Chinese”…
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/China-People-s-Congress/China-to-move-finance-and-tech-under-direct-party-oversight
“China’s legislature is set to approve an administrative overhaul this week that would put public security, financial regulation and technology — areas now handled by the state — under direct Communist Party control.”
I have seen what the “China’s people ‘s Congress did/does to actual Chinese People: 10 minute cities but you are welded into an apartment building with 5 thousand units and no one can leave the building…..ever again.
Elite Capture?
Woke ESG
biggs.house.gov/media/videos/featuring-marlo-oaks-woke-esg
It’s almost like Congress being ‘guided’ by the Council On Foreign Relations, ‘special interest groups’ & “foreign lobbies”.
Congress acts as directed, not by the people, but by money and those who control money. Same applies here. China owns so much here now because of the treasonous Free Trade deals, that they can guide policies, launch directives like Dr Fauci’s “Covid Policies” and not be criticized in Hollywood, like the remake of Red Dawn, which is about the silly premise of North Korea invading America, NOT China who N Korea is a proxy of.
Very good to see your mention of “Red Dawn” (the remake) . . . I hought that was so crazy too. North Korea? Then read the original idea for the remake was to have the PRC doing the invasion but that was nixxed.
The original “Red Dawn” (1984) starring Patrick Swayze had the USSR doing the invading, with the help of Cuban forces.
Ty suejeanne, it is so obvious, all one has to do is look, most people do not. The excellent mini-series “AmeriKa” was hijacked because it came way to close to the truth. It’s a worthy purchase. Much to see and hear if you watch it.
Cuba is still a player in the invasion of the USA from Mexico.
Venezuela started sending oil to Cuba after Russia cut them off. Cuba sent their public health pimps to Venezuela. Cuba’s CovIntern has an overseas medical program.
See, Combating Trafficking of Cuban Doctors Act of 2021
I do hope Trump owns the platform computers that run Truth Social. Little by little Truth Social is improving. Still, Twitter dominates but we need an MAGA outlet.
I believe RightForge still hosts Truth Social. Their information and history and current status can be investigated. I’m glad PDJT chose not to re-join Twitter after Musk bought it. Wise choice IMO.
That is coming but not there yet
Tucker should go to Rumble. Twitter aka the hand of the govt will throttle and censor him too much.
My thought too. Why would Tucker involve himself with MORE censorship? Disappointing to say the least.
I think he’s just “engaged” in Twitter until his contract stuff with Fox is worked out… he can’t do any deals until then. He may certainly ruffle some feathers in the meantime, though.
First they came for Tucker? They’re not after Tucker? ymmv
Former Newsmax Host Grant Stinchfield Claims He Was Fired for Refusing to Attack Tucker Carlson
news.yahoo.com/former-newsmax-host-grant-stinchfield-221316406.html
Musk is building his own internet, via Starlink, complete with a cloud to run it. Twitter is just one gateway onto it.
Also of significant importance, why did Musk remain silent about this issue?
He undoubtedly discovered that Twitter was financially insolvent while reviewing Twitter’s financials. If you review the timeline of events leading up to his purchase, he even said “pending financial disclosure,” and mentioned that he had received insider information that pointed to shady accounting practices. He also attempted to renegotiate the price.
Everything indicates that he was strong armed into silence and completing the deal. In effect, he’s never been in charge.
Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop
2.0
so Musk admits he is the governments bitch
nothing we didn’t know already
but now he cannot hide it anymore.
he is just another grifter that needs to go away..
There is a third (preferable) option. Don’t do anything in response to governmental demands to censor and let the country demanding censorship try to block twitter. With VPN’s twitter users in foreign countries will most likely be able to get past any attempts to block the website.
With the RESTRICT Act incoming. folks using VPNs to access information deemed unfriendly to the Derp State will see one imprisoned for 20 years.
This doesn’t seem to pass the smell test. As of 5/29, Musk is worth over $192 Billion. So $300 million is pocket change.
He could easily drop $5 Billion and host Twitter in-house.
I don’t think $ is the issue, maybe more like threats against his family…
‘Worth’ and ‘value’ on paper doesn’t necessarily translate to ‘cash on hand’ to spend.
Where is the money from?
I remain baffled why Twitter is so important to so many people.
Marshall McLuhan, as usual when the topic is media, is a source of great insight. He made a vague prediction of the coming of the internet in the 1950s, and Twitter comes close to realizing his “global village”.
Privacy has certainly declined in importance to people as Marshall predicted.
I fear democracy has shrunken in urgency now that people can broadcast their opinions to literally the world. For many, a one-Party bureaucratic State to manage our affairs will suffice.
“For many, a one-Party bureaucratic State to manage our affairs will suffice.”
…ergo, the CCP that runs China and the mafia that currently runs Russia.
The reason many of us are not on Twitter.
lol
This is what happened to tens of millions of Trump supporters .
They will let me back on now that Elons job was to block Truth Social etc.. but any comments I make will not be read or seen.
If you want to talk about Election Fraud, Fake Pandemics, Fake Wars in Ukraine, and Hunter Bidens Laptop, then you should open an account on Truth Social. In other words, they wont let me throw sand at the machinery. Those who refrain from posting any facts related to this can stay on by the good graces of the DHS within Elons Magic Coffee Shop.
I was permanently “banned” by a lefty leaning lawyer of the PowerLine blog. The fella is the single moderator and a happy banner when you critique his post. An anti-Trumper of course.
I was banned there about four or five years ago. Haven’t been back there since.
So what about Truth Social? Is it doomed?
Twitter allows some Conservatives to rant on their platform while cutting out millions of disinfranchised Trump supporters. The Trump base. So those that are allowed to continue their ranting foolishly forget about this underlying dynamic because there is an illusion of free speech.
I meant financially – if it isn’t AWS or google then who is hosting TS? Will TS need to stay smaller than Twitter to be able to afford to support the activity?
I believe they own their own equipment. Notice how Elon is provided a path to excuse away all his blatantly anti-Conservative actions? Why not just ask Trump how to lower the over head?
Billionaires screwing billionaires. Musk should just bankrupt it and walk away. Otherwise he’s just another pawn in the game.
It seems to me he’s “just another pawn in the game,” maybe even a willing one!
Many a tear has to fall…
But it’s all…
In the game 🙂
My Time…. Thanks.
Indeed.
Hmmm, what would a successful businessman contemplate in a situation such as this? With just a wee bit of common sense thrown in to boot.
And I read that the EU’s “disinformation ” goons are threatening Twitter for pulling out of an Aug. 23 deadline to audit themselves. Seems redundant since Google and AWS already are participating.
Elon did a lot of good by releasing the Twitter Files and I have to give him a lot credit for that because absolutely nobody else would have done it.
He is in a damned if do/damned if you don’t situation. Everything else aside, thanks for trying Elon.
44 billion and no steering wheel.
In God We Trust
The 21st Century isn’t turning out as I had hoped.
Any candidate (RFK) who runs on climate cooling/warming/change is either stupid or into money laundering.
God, I pray that you help me put on the armor of God and thank you for sending your Son.
Its “RFK Jr”
Acme Corporation –The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that features prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote animated shorts as a running gag. The company manufactures outlandish products that fail or backfire catastrophically at the worst possible times.
Can we finally admit that public-private partnership is fascism with only a distinction over which side holds the power in a given scenario?
The new word is ‘corporatism’ when the private companies control the government, as opposed to Fascism which is the opposite.
Two sides of the same coin, though!
The man who (literally) wrote the book agreed.
“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
– Benito Mussolini
I have a question: If Musk owns Twitter, and presumably the technology, programs, algorithms…couldn’t he simply shut down the current version, and start it up anew on an alternate server–perhaps his own? That would be brilliant!
“…start it up anew on an alternate server–perhaps his own? ”
Musk owns the software. Google and Apple own the hardware and Musk is paying them hundreds of millions to lease server resources and services from them. IIRC, Sundance goes a bit further and alleges that government server resources are the engine behind Twitter.
In any event, it takes time and a host of financial resources to build such a system …and since Google also currently controls most of the net’s ad revenues, they have an intense corporate interest in not allowing him to successfully compete. Ergo, Musk’s choices are dramatically limited by the financial, software, and hardware infrastructure he inherited. In the meantime, he must keep paying the bills.
For what it’s worth, Musk’s record of accomplishment speaks for itself. The ‘grifter’ label some want to tag him with is nonsense. While the woke bureaucrats at NASA are focused on putting the first woman and black on the moon, Musk is focused on putting mankind on Mars and beyond …at a far lower cost. Tesla Model Y is now outselling Toyota and everyone else, and Starlink has begun mass marketing its terminals in Home Depot and Best Buy.
Musk is human, so are Trump and Sundance. I’d not want it otherwise.
NASA is focused on Climate Change just like the EPA, The WHO, The United Nations, Bill Gates……..
Musk is a technocratic, baphomet wearing globalist… period. He is not a vanguard of freedom… period.
gov’t subsidy Elon is not as much the champion of freedom he’s made out to be.
sad but true.
Very enlightening article.
There are many websites listing stats on social media users with varied conclusions–aka are potentially unreliable.
According to “Statista’s” facts on “Social Networks,” Twitter is ranked 15th on the list of monthly active users on Social Media. It has 556 million while the top ranked social media outlet Facebook has 2. 95 Billion users. If you add Zuckerberg’s $200 million election influencing payment to the Dems, he might have the most influential site of all.
You Tube is 2nd at 2.05 Billion users. Truth Social is not on the list but MarketWatch (April 2022) claimed it had 513,000 active daily users and 2 million active monthly users. Anybody have reliable updated figures?
Several of the (Conservative minded) people I know, that are actively involved in politics, are not Twitter users at all. They still interact on Facebook with their shared or connected groups and sites. I’m not sure what this chart means in terms of overall political influence but a CTH assessment of it would be informative. I have no idea which sites are reliable.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
Twitter is perfect for Musk. It looks to me like all of his business models depend on government subsidies.
get off twitter you are just sadomasochists and participating in the destruction of the Constitution and individual rights.
How does the government using our taxes to suppress free speech not violate the 1st amendment?
No one is claiming that it does not violate the 1st amentment, are they?
Why it needs to go to the Supreme Court but someone needs to sue first.
What would the Supremes do? Chuck Schumer threatened them by name in public and nothing happened to Schumer. At least Kavanaugh and maybe Gorsuch had to leave town due the goons screaming on the sidewalks in front of their homes.
Hope Tucker knows about this. Thanks, Sundance.
It’s not just twitter.. Google and AWS have been spreading for years and has become the backbone for a lot of infrastructure items. Seems most people still can’t read between the lines. I was already sick of Google when Covid hit but when my kids had to setup their own google account for Google classroom for their remote learning I was done and told my wife this has to stop. I don’t like where this is going.. I don’t care how hard it’s going to be, I want them out. Google is not our friend. While we home school now the majority of lazy Americans may not realize it but it’s only going to get worse. While it’s positive to see that 10s of thousands removed their kids from the public school system millions remain.
AWS and Google advertising isn’t required to make a profitable business, it never was.. However it’s quicker and easier than building something new. But it also comes with strings attached. When I was growing up kids all got money from Mommy and Daddy, however they have plans for how you’re going to spend that money. Same for AWS and Google, everything comes with a price my friends..
It was the same thing when everyone went on lockdown and small businesses everywhere dried up. Now you’re stuck with big companies controlling so much of your lives. It’s obvious these businesses use AWS/Google or have taken money from investment firms that then require they comply with corporate agendas (ie, wokism, anti-Americanism). I’ve spoken about this for years now and I’m just going to keep on being a broken record. If we don’t build anything new then all we have left is the continued systematic destruction of one business after another. Until the only businesses left are large woke corporations headed by the same large investment firms pushing the wokeism you hate.
Cancel culture is a double edged sword and backfire it has. The greatest strategy is to get your enemy to destroy itself. It’s designed so that you destroy all the companies you built. All the big names that represent American ideals and wealth. As each of them take money from these investment firms they will turn against American ideals. It makes perfect sense that you will want to destroy them as anyone would. This is the other side of AWS and Google. They represent the gate keepers… They can help you build your new business but it’s going to have the same core and over time if that business picks up enough customers it’s reach will be tasked to push the same agenda over and over again.
The local farmers have it right to separate themselves from the big box stores and focus more on farm to home business models bypassing the big box businesses however how many of them are still making the mistake of using AWS and Google to make things easier. Too many are taking the quick/easy path using woke technology and infrastructure and it will only burn them and their customers down the road.
We need to rebuild our small businesses. We need to rebuild our own infrastructure independent from AWS and Google. We need these businesses and infrastructure to work against their systems. To work against their agenda. But most importantly we need these businesses to invest in the community and we need the community to invest back into these businesses. Otherwise corporate investment firms will continue to rule over everything with their lure of easy money.
I fully agree with your analysis.
From another angle, centralization of authority and function remove control from the former mercantile class (main street), taking away our element of choice to the degree we use their economies of scale. It’s bad news.
We’ve surrendered creativity and resourcefulness for ever-diminishing marginal savings, while the technorati use that “efficiency” to multiply spans of control. This might seem like an extreme generalization, but it only takes three generations to move from the adoption of assembly line manufacturing to a real-life Soylent Green.
Yes I have argued against the consolidation in the corporate world for years. Now we are left with a few large corporations and fewer opportunities for competition. This is the case in too many industries and I believe it is by design.
Where in years past these large corporations would be broken apart to create more competition, now it seems they are protected by Justice and it doesn’t matter if Democrats or Republicans are in charge. And when politicians are bought and paid for from the thousands of lobbyist donating to their campaigns, don’t expect to see any changes.
RINO’s want to see this as much as Democrats and I think it’s all by design. What we experienced during Covid is the result of large multinational corporations and politicians working hand in hand for years to create the Fascism we faced. This has been by design in my opinion and I pray every day for a MAGA revolution that will finally break up this corrupt relationship for good. Otherwise we become CHINA.
The change has to come from us… It has to come from the community.. Or the whole plan falls apart.
Rumble. Truth Social.
Rumble has been appreciated in these dark times. Although I try to post links from them they don’t show up well in internet posts. Not their fault and it doesn’t stop me from posting their links. As for Truth Social.. Thanks but I don’t subscribe to echo chambers. Doesn’t matter what side it’s on. I bathe in the narrative of the enemy. I fight them on the ground and in the comments.. If I want hope porn or to feel good basking in the lies and rhetoric of the GOPe or Q-tards, I might stop by from time to time but it does nothing for me or my purpose. I’ve been here doing my thing for decades.. Trump is new and welcome however I do not hang on Trumps words or actions. Nor anyone else’s. I am not the alpha… I am not here to start a new beginning.. I am the omega… I am here for the end.
Truth Social is far from an echo chamber. It is quite lively with debate in the comments.
Doesn’t this raise the larger question of why Musk didn’t do the necessary due diligence before purchasing Twitter.
He’s a smart man who has owned several companies so this definitely isn’t new for him.
I’m more than confused on the why Must went through with the purchase.
It’s kind of annoying watching people analyze Musk like he’s an ordinary businessman. He’s literally doing things industry leaders said were impossible (reusable rockets, mass-produced EVs, AGI, etc.). Sundance has two blind-spots with Musk: 1. He doesn’t know Musk’s history aside from what makes the mainstream news, 2. He hasn’t watched dozens and dozens of long-form interviews of Musk from before he bought Twitter.
Musk wants to build X.com, the “everything app” like WeChat in China. He has the world’s brightest engineers building custom chips and servers at Tesla — as powerful as the world’s best super computers. All of these points are missing in this article’s analysis of what’s possible for Twitter.
So Sundance, does he start approaching Andrew Torba and GAB beginning shortly to try and see about a merger before we get to 2025? Torba has the platform and infrastructure that does not have to deal with Goggle or AWS! Musk can then tell Bezos and Pichai to take a damn hike!!! 🤔
I love this chat space! Love it! I read here every day. I’m confused. Even in reading what Sundance has to say about Elon, I remember just yesterday that there was praise for him. You guys flip flop alot.
Who r “you guys” and who are u ?
Either he builds out new hardware (extremely costly and likely cost prohibitive)
I do this for a living.
While I believe you’re 100% correct about Twitter being subsidized by the US government under Dorsey’s tenure, much of your financial analysis of cloud costs is not accurate. Much depends on the nature of the long term contracts Twitter has with AWS and Google; they’re certainly getting discounts outside the realm of what the typical AWS or GCP consumer can access. But a number of medium-sized SaaS companies have lately made news by migrating back to self-hosting from cloud hosting because self-hosting is cheaper.
Twitter could absolutely pivot away from cloud hosting, economically; it’s the legal costs of breaking the contracts that matter.
They got Elon by the nuts.
Imagine paying 44 billion for a company you can’t own.
Did he actually play with his own money, and was his quote on money“ actually here? I seem to remember Bezos getting five or $600 million from the US government as a contract And at the same time turned around and bought the Washington post.
Sorry, Just noticed my oral input was changed, correction:
Did he actually pay with his own money and was his “own money” actually his?