this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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Elon Musk, the owner of X, criticized advertisers with expletives on Wednesday at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Huh. I wonder why Saudi Arabia isn't demanding their $22B back.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Because they didn't do it as an investment. Destroying the platform was the point.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Exactly what I was implying. If destroying the platform wasn't the point, then they'd want to know why they're not seeing a return on their investment. The public story is that it was an investment.

[–] tehcooles 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Legitimately curious because I'm OOTL: why would Saudi Arabia want to destroy Twitter? My (admittedly uninformed) instinct says it would be a waste of their large investment and control over a platform ripe with potential for them to control narratives over their shitty PR for human rights abuses and other shit. Would it just be to prevent negative coverage of their actions from spreading?

Again, not arguing, just legitimately curious. I figured Twitter's downfall would be really bad for them since they have sway over Musk and a vested interest in the platform.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Twitter was at the heart of the Arab Spring uprising a few years ago. Letting people under your control communicate with each other quickly and concisely does not work well for dictators. The Saudis are dictators who want to control the people under them.

For them, 20 billion spent on some stupid revenge. Porn doesn't really make an impact. On the bottom line.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hold up, what does SA have to do with musk buying Twitter? Did they actually pay him?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

"Kingdom Holding Company and the private office of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal will maintain their stake in Twitter after Musk took control of the social media company."

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Twitter was unparalleled in the reach it had. It has been used to organize protests, riots and overthrow governments. There still isn’t a viable alternative that can reach 80%+ of a population.

Twitter was also used frequently to expose poor working conditions and other abuses of power, especially in middle eastern countries

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

But that's not Tru Freedums! Tru Freedums is being able to say the n-word and be respected for it!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Twitter was the only mainstream social media that seemed to have any semblance of ethics.

Musk is also a wild card, and adding to the instability of Western society is advantageous. It's another direction we get pulled, another thing to be upset about, another distraction.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I guess they failed. Twitter is still just as massive as it was before.

Take a look at how many posts on lemmy and even mastodon are just screencaps of tweets.

Ya'll are addicted to that shit, lol.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but now they can be sure that anyone arranging an Arab spring in the kingdom of Saud will be banned within the hour.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Why? Does twitter ban users if the Saudi government demands it?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's the implication, you know because of the investment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is there evidence of it happening?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm addicted to drama and elon provides plenty of that. I haven't had a Twitter account in about 10 years and I only used it as a teenager to look for porn.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Have you seen thunderf00t's anthology on Musk?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

I suspect it's doing exactly what they want it to do. The platform isn't destroyed, only it's ability to make money through conventional advertising. It's still full of strongly conservative viewers running businesses with plenty of cash. It's primed to be a disinformation delivery system.

Right now if he was able to liquidate holdings, he could pay them back in full and still be #2 richest and still be above Bezos by 43 billion

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

They'll get some of it back when they sell his kidneys