And the new boss has questions.
I wish I could, @elonmusk, but the settlement with @Twitter prevents me from doing so. However, in the near future I hope and expect to have more to report. https://t.co/vela05eY1K
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) July 6, 2022
Just listened to a long discussion about this on Tim Pool’s podcast last night. Many of the folks were suggesting that the U.S. Security State is behind a lot of the cancellations on Twitter. At one time I would have thought this far-fetch. Nowadays I’m not so sure.
Hold it. You’re allowed back on twitter but your “settlement” prevents you from talking about it?
What kind of “settlement” would that be? Are we doing NDAs now?
I used to follow Berenson because I thought he was a straight shooter but this kind of …oh what’s the word…stinks.
It was suggested on the aforementioned show that a National Security Order was thrown at Twitter to suppress Berenson. If so, that would explain why he can’t directly talk about it.
Hell, that’s even worse.
In other words… YES!
Were I to guess, I’d say that Musk is attempting to limit the damage on future litigation. In other words, fraud towards advertising parties on Twitter. By inflating the numbers of users, they set their flat rate advertising fees. If those numbers were false (which in all likelihood, they were) then Twitter would be subject to massive civil and criminal litigation (which would result in eventual dissolving of the company).
While I have no problem with that happening, it would appear that Musk is actually going to make a go of it. A blanket NDA in such a situation would benefit both sides since they could sell it to him then submarine the company by making the previous public knowledge. At the same time, in order for Twitter to perfectly open with a potential purchaser, they would have to bring out all their dirty laundry or face future civil litigation by the buyer. Think “Lemon Law.”
So, yeah, an NDA makes sense for both sides. Personally, I’d prefer to see the whole platform 86’d.
Musk is basically telling Americans that the US government is breaking the law and pressuring companies to violate people’s 1st Amendment rights. The Biden admin is outsourcing censorship.
“You censor the people we hate and we won’t prosecute you for fraud regarding your bot numbers.”
Everyone in the Swamp has dirt on everyone else.
That is why Trump was so dangerous, they didn’t have dirt on him.
A company cannot violate the 1st amendment
They have in the past so this isn’t a big surprise.
I think you are missing the point. The 1st amendment only applies to the government. Only if the company is performing work under contract normally performed by the government could the 1st amendment possibly apply to them. This does not apply to Twitter.
You’re correct. But there are now 5.5 serious rights-oriented supreme court justices who might take umbrage with the federal government outsourcing censorship as dick smacky described it.
Perhaps. Snowden revealed that service providers like Verizon et al. tripped over themselves in their rush to hand over customer data to the NSA back in the day. Can’t say to a certainty anything came out of it other than Clapper lying about it.
But a fascist government can co-opt companies to do so.