"Free speech absolutist" allegedly fires employee for raising security concerns.
Apparently Elon's version of free speech doesn't extend to employees who raise concerns about information security:
"Alan Rosa, who was Twitter’s global head of information security, filed the lawsuit late on Tuesday in New Jersey federal court, alleging breach of contract, wrongful termination and retaliation, among other claims. X Corp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Rosa claims that late last year, after Musk acquired the company, he was told to cut his department’s budget for physical security by 50%...
"Rosa says he objected because the cuts would put Twitter at risk of violating a $150m settlement it entered into earlier in 2022 with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which claimed Twitter had misused users’ personal information. The agreement required Twitter to implement privacy and information security controls to protect confidential data.
"He was fired days after raising those concerns, according to the lawsuit. Rosa is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and legal fees."
It’s a shame that people like Elon are associated with the “free speech” movement. The right to free speech is something people fought and died for, and have risked their lives to protect decade on decade. It’s a gift previous generations have given to us. And now it’s almost seen as a dirty word. Which is exactly what those in power want.
Free speech and an unrestrained press protects all of us from government over-reach, it is a primary defense against the growth of fascism, it is the engine that drives the next stage of social and cultural evolution. Ideas considered abhorrent now may be commonplace in the future. Think of what people would had said if you had advocated for legal homosexuality in the 1950s, you’d be right if you’d think they’d use any exemption possible in free speech protections to try and throw you in jail, in fact they did, and people are calling for less free speech than we had then.
You are a human. It should be a universal human right to think whatever you want to think and say whatever you want to say, and the government has no place putting anything other than extremely clear and limited restrictions on it. Society is free to punish you, but it’s a power we cannot hand over to the government.
Paris mayor quits X platform, calling it a 'gigantic global sewer'
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Monday announced she was quitting the X platform formerly known as Twitter, calling it a "gigantic global sewer" that was "destroying our democracies" by spreading abuse and misinformation.
@Free_Press Love the alt text here. In addition to being disgusting scum anti-semite, racist, pro Putin traitor, he's also a dweeb. Cowboy hat on backwards. Stupid fuckwad
The same day that Elon Musk fired the entire Twitter team concerned with fighting election disinformation, he also endorses a post where people are being encouraged to vote for the far-right German AFD party. The AFD thanked him for his endorsement and for disbanding the team that was fighting election disinformation.
#Elon says a lot of things. Whether he follows through is anyone’s guess. A lot of users have left #Twitter / #X, and charging those who remain may hurt ad revenue. Also, the hate speech problem isn’t due to bots. It’s a human problen that’s a consequence of not doing moderation. And, it’s a problem that #Musk insists doesn’t exist; he’s suing the CCDH for insisting he does. https://www.axios.com/2023/09/19/musk-x-twitter-charge-all-users-monthly-subscription-fees
@bretcarmichael he doesn’t think it exists because he doesn’t see it as a problem. Hate speech is not a bug to him, but rather a feature to drive engagement
@XEJKnol I feel like the people that are still there will be willing to pay to stay. If they haven’t left yet it’s because they WANT to be there. In any event, we are ready if a new tide comes in
Prominent "free-speech absolutist" threatens to sue Jewish anti-hate group because it engaged in free speech he didn't like.
"Elon Musk has threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League after accusing the civil rights group that campaigns against antisemitism and bigotry of trying to “kill” his X social media platform.
"The owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, said the ADL was trying to shut down his company by 'falsely accusing it and me of being antisemitic'."
If your list of enemies includes the ADL, then there's a more-than-reasonable chance that you're an anti-semite.
@AlexSanterne@academicchatter I see that according to the article, Mastodon is the most popular alternative. They also link to an article on how to migrate to Mastodon.
LinkedIn was # 2 which makes sense I guess, but not my favourite.
That’s true. I’m unemployed, I’d probably take a job working for him. Doubt it would last long because I have a dumb mouth that can’t stay shut when it should
Certainly not a fan (more like lesser of evils) regarding Meta and Microsoft, but I would like them to take legal action against Musk's new X.
Since high school in the 1980s I have been fan of the Los Angeles based punk band "X" and it would be some kind of wonderful if they could find a way to sue Musk and X the corporation also ;-)
#Meta objective with #Threads is to attract the VIP accounts on #Twitter. Nothing else.
These accounts are 'broadcasters' in nature, they have many times more followers than people they follow, and they generate a lot of traffic.
These accounts and their traffic are 'low hanging fruit' since #Musk decided to make Twitter unbearable for its users and even risky for its own sponsors to continue paying for adds.
But Meta, with all its shortcomings, is the best positioned to grab those accounts. They have solid infrastructure, good developers, decent discrimination of bots vs humans... and even an acceptable moderation (despite the terrible mental health toll on their overseas moderators).
Now, there are basically 4 types of these VIP accounts:
1.- VIPs who are already in #Instagram - no major action needed, just the ability to post text-only instead of pictures and video. Many people already do that my posting text-made-pictures or neutral pictures with interesting captions.
2.- VIPs who are already discontented with all commercial social media platforms abusing and polluting their content with adds and other algorithm-driven content before it reaches to their audiences - these are potential candidates to once and for all decide to run their own websites or #Fediverse sites and connect directly to their audiences. They need a quick connection to their followers though, so the action here is to provide them with a quick access to the massive crowd of Instagram and they will be very happy.
3.- VIPs (high traffic generators) who are controversial standers, whose posts are sometimes even illegal... but juicy because they attract a lot of clicks. To grab these Meta needed a way to not be seen as the host, curator or publisher, but still being able to 'pipe' their traffic. Any ideas? - Yes, tell them to run their own instance and apply 2.-
4.- VIPs who are already VERY pissed with all commercial social media and have chosen to make the Fediverse their new home by joining some instance, and they are very happy with smaller audiences, our blocking and defederating patterns and our conversational way of socialising - These are very few and they will never join nothing that smells like Meta, so no action is possible.
We must note that none of these people with millions of followers can ever join any of our instances or they will immediately make them crash, so they need something rock solid and scalable.
So now I understand what all the Meta joining the Fediverse is all about... just using it temporary for grabbing those accounts.
Of course, the next action will be to tinker with their implementation of #ActivityPub a little bit, just enough to making it incompatible with the rest of the Fediverse... we've been there before.
And after all that, we will continue happily ever after as two different universes as we have always been. 😎
Elon Musk just gave you a huge raspberry and middle finger regarding how many tweets you can view on Twitter.
Even my Ukrainian friends are searching for a replacement.
"Now that Twitter doesn't allow to see many tweets, I've started re-reading The Road to Unfreedom by @TimothyDSnyder."
MIGHT I SUGGEST YOU RECOMMEND MASTODON TO YOUR FRIENDS?
Unlimited access to posts AND it's in English too!