Elon’s Binary Fate

Is there a 60/40 chance that Elon Musk steps down as Twitter CEO today? Who's to say? ICYMI: Yesterday, @elonmusk tweeted out a yes/no poll asking, "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll." By the time you read this, we may have heard from Elon. Continue Reading →

The Boy Who Cried Checkmark, Part Deux

It seems that Elon is so mad about the Apple App Store's 30% commission that he is raising the price of Twitter Blue on iOS devices to cover the cost. Although the service is on hold right now, when it resumes, reports say it will cost $7 if you subscribe on the website and $11 if you subscribe using the Twitter iOS app. Continue Reading →

Twitter Content Moderators Reassigned

According to transparency.twitter.com, "Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy." I'm not sure when this was posted, but I learned about it this morning. Continue Reading →

The Boy Who Cried “Check Mark!”

Will you get a gray, gold, or blue check mark? No, it's not your 4th grade spelling test, but instead Elon's new idea for verification: gray for governments, gold for companies, and blue for people and bots and trolls. Oh, wait. Maybe he won't verify the bots… but how will he know? Elon has not shared how he plans to make this work better than his initial attempt at verification (which was an epic fail). Continue Reading →

The Ultimate Content Moderation Challenge

CNN obtained an internal memo to Meta's (formerly Facebook's) content moderation team that noted that “political speech is ineligible for fact-checking. This includes the words a politician says as well as photo, video, or other content that is clearly labeled as created by the politician or their campaign.” The memo was in direct response to requests for guidance from Meta's internal and external fact checkers. Continue Reading →

Election Bots Out in Force

Social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok are all over the news today. Facebook is continuing to implode and is about to lay off a lot of staff. I've been writing about Twitter every day. TikTok, because it is owned by a Chinese company, is under intense scrutiny after admitting that its workers can see the data they collect. Continue Reading →

Did Elon Send You a Personal or Work Email?

Welcome back to the "Elon Channel," where it's "All Elon, All The Time." Today is pink slip day – with an Elon twist, of course. If you wake up to a work email, you still have a job. If Twitter HR sends an email to your personal email address… you're fired. This is twisted. Continue Reading →

Twitter’s Ad Model is in Real Trouble

Welcome to day five of the "Elon Channel," where it's "All Elon, All The Time." After taking over as Chief Twit (his words, not mine), Elon wrote, "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences." He followed that with, "Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world." I won't pretend to guess what Elon was thinking when he wrote these words, but his actions betray any hope of Twitter regaining the trust of major advertisers. Continue Reading →