New York Post, October 2021 – A former federal election official on Thursday called the $400 million-plus that Mark Zuckerberg spent to help finance local elections a “carefully orchestrated attempt” to influence the 2020 vote…
Reuters, July 2022 – Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) has cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30% this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Thursday, as he warned them to brace for a deep economic downturn.
Good and hard.
Rick McGinnis: I’m sure it’s not just because I have COVID as I write this, but I’ve found it hard to escape the sensation that modern life – society, culture, whatever you want to call it – is a lot less fun that it used to be…
Partisan pollsters as well.
There are sharp political divides on perceptions of this matter. As in the United States, where right-of-centre politicians cheered Musk’s potential acquisition, a majority (63%) of past Conservative Party voters on this side of the border believe it will be beneficial to free speech were the sale to go through. Three-quarters (74%) of past Liberal voters and seven-in-ten (70%) who voted NDP worry about the proliferation of abusive speech.
and
Two-in-five (38%) women under the age of 35 say the negative impacts of social media on their mental health is why they quit a platform. Three-in-ten (31%) men that age say the same. However, for young men, more (37%) are likely to say they didn’t agree with the content or opinions on the platform and that’s why they left:
Is it social media affecting their “mental health” or is it more like uncomfortable truths?
The most singular aspect of the rise of Woke mumbo jumbo is its relationship with the astonishing technological development that sustains it; enabling what may be called a ‘sword and sorcery’ regime. Quasi-theocracies are upheld by technology so advanced it appears to be magic, at least to the general public, who have only a vague and awestruck knowledge of the mechanisms involved. “This man is woman,” a counter disinformation bureaucrat might intone, and all would nod in asset. Those in the virtual crowd who disagree will remain mute, for they know that with a gesture, the functionary can zap any dissenter with cancelation, so that he can be excluded from the metaverse entirely, through a process few understand but all fear.
Meanwhile, a former CBC columnist tugs at her strings.
THEY CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH: The head of Facebook’s fake science fact check group, Science Feedback, is ‘hiding in Paris, terrified of appearing in court’
… Dr. Jeremy Faust has been studying the outbreak in Europe and discovered that all 89 confirmed cases have something in common.
In the way that SUVs are known for plowing into parades, this virus may originate in saunas.
After yesterday’s tell us something we already know drop by Veritas, this is more like it.
[Alex Martinez, Lead Client Partner for Twitter]: “Right now, we don’t make profit. So, I’m going to say ideology, which is what led us into not being profitable.”
Martinez on free speech: “The rest of us who have been here believe in something that’s good for the planet and not to give people free speech.”
Martinez on censorship: “People don’t know how to make a rational decision if you don’t put out — correct things that are supposed to be out in the public, right?”
Martinez on Musk: “Elon Musk as a person is whatever. I don’t, like, he’s a loony toon. He has, he has Asperger’s.”
Martinez on Musk: “He has Asperger’s… So, he’s special. We all know that. And That’s fine. So here, no wonder he’s going to say some f***ing crazy sh*t because he’s special.”
Happy job hunting.
Exposing Twitter as a cesspool of censorious communists is like secretly filming a highway billboard. But they did it anyway.
A senior engineer at Twitter has admitted the social media giant has a strong left-wing bias and they routinely censor conservatives.
Siru Murugesan was recorded saying the company culture is extremely far left where workers are ‘commie as f**k’ and they ‘hate, hate, hate’ Elon Musk’s $44billion takeover.
In a shockingly frank conversation, filmed over several encounters, he said the firm ‘does not believe in free speech’ and even started to turn him left-wing when he joined.
Veritas video here.
20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.
My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate.
Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%.
This deal cannot move forward until he does.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022
Help yourself to a refreshment. Enjoy the show.
The Trash is hereby notified that the taking-of-itself-out shall begin immediately.
JUST IN – Elon Musk says he would reverse Trump's suspension from Twitter, adds that the ban was "morally wrong" and "flat out stupid."
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) May 10, 2022
Elon Musk didn’t kill himself.
Matt Taibbi: On drinking the delicious tears of blue-check hypocrites, who’ve suddenly discovered the perils of a privatized speech landscape.
Good podcast.
Fox News- Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover is a ‘Berlin Wall’ moment: Tech Titan David Sacks
— Katewerk (@katewerk) April 26, 2022
Looks like it’s a done deal. Open thread on Musk buying twitter.
WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH JACK DORSEY IS A VOICE OF SANITY.
You really are off into the farthest corners of la la land.
Globe and Mail- What a tangled Web the Trudeau government is weaving
It was such a lovely idea, the internet. A borderless, bodiless refuge for free expression, beyond the censor’s reach; a place of infinite capacity and zero cost, where anyone who wanted to express themselves could, in whatever medium, at whatever scale; where a book or a song or a film could be distributed with equal ease, to one person or billions; where artists had the world for an audience, and audiences could choose from among all the world’s creators. Who wouldn’t want such a thing?
Governments, that’s who. The Trudeau government, in particular, seems to see the internet not as an opportunity, a chance to stand down the immense regulatory army that has hitherto stood watch over the Canadian media, but as a challenge.
