Musk thinks he can sue the ADL for $22 Billion

Not a bad look to those whose view he cares about.

And I share your frustration with the ADL. But he's not criticizing the organization's stated views - he is saying they secretly control the advertising market. (I know you understand the distinction - just putting it out there). Hmmmm - Jews secretly in control - that's not the kind of charge that has ever led to anything bad, has it?

But as Ronan set out, many will fear to offend him because he has so much power over world affairs, including the Ukraine War

 

Never heard of Mossberg or of Keith O'Brien, but this is related to the thread.

Legendary Tech Writer Deactivates Twitter Account, Pens Brutal Takedown of Elon Musk’s Leadership

Walt Mossberg, one of the most respected veteran tech writers in the U.S., announced on Tuesday he was leaving Twitter, now known as X. Mossberg, who retired in 2017, made the announcement on Meta’s Threads and offered a scorching takedown of Elon Musk’s latest foray into boosting the far-right – his attacks on the Anti-Defamation League.

***

Musk sparked a firestorm of controversy over the weekend by boosting calls from Irish white nationalist Keith O’Brien, who goes by Keith Woods online, to ban the ADL from Twitter. O’Brien, who self-identifies as a “raging antisemite,” joined other far-right agitators, many of whom were previously banned from Twitter and had their accounts restored under Musk’s leadership, to get the #BanTheADL to trend globally in recent days.


Musk then publicly accused the ADL of being one of “the biggest generators of anti-Semitism” on Twitter and threatened to sue the civil rights organization for defamation.

 

Anecdotally, Twitter is cited on here far less frequently when compared to the past.

 

High stakes hand of poker...if both parties go all in, then the best hand wins. Is a counter-suit in order?

 

And here he is sound like a state education official in Florida talking about teaching "both sides" of the morality of slavery, this time about the Uyghurs

 

Jon Hamm as the Elon type! Wow. 30 minutes in, it works.

 

Slightly off topic but more evidence Musk has no idea what’s he’s talking about when he makes financial projections. 55m in profit on $1.5B is a little underwhelming given the time he’s had to ramp up. That’s got to hurt the valuation.

Starlink earns $1.4 billion after Elon Musk projected $12 billion

 

Elon must need a funding source for when the banks that financed $13B of his Twitter deal try to foreclose on the Tesla shares that he pledged as collateral. Enter the ADL.

 

Reminds me:

Alyssa Milano Returned Her Tesla for a Volkswagen EV, Disapproves of Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover

https://x.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/1596502100066045952?s=20

The irony kills me.

 

Free speech includes anti-semitic rhetoric, and it includes anti-white rhetoric.

Promoting a free speech environment is a net win compared to someone with an ego problem picking and choosing what speech is good and what speech is bad.

Of course everything has limits, but the former Twitter wasn't even remotely interested in the spirit of free speech. Musk is.

 

I really don’t think he cares that much about free speech. I think he felt he was treated badly by liberals on Twitter and this is all a way in his egotistical mind to get back at them. Free speech is his excuse.

As to ego picking and choosing, he had Twitter staff change the algorithm to make sure his personal tweets were showing up more in people’s feeds. No ego there. He wants free speech. His speech.

 

Couldn't agree more.

Twitter has become a vanity project - his actions speak loudly to magnifying his own views and control. He's a walking meme at this point because he's at odds with what he claimed was important.

Almost everyone can be relied upon to act in their own best interests when push comes to shove. Elon is no different.

 

Its funny how liberals are so conceited, they think promoting a free speech environment is specifically about “getting back at them.”

Not everything is about liberals guys. Some things are just inherently good.

 

Is he now? False claims about "doxxing" to shut down reporters covering him personally, doing the bidding of governments in shutting down dissidents, banning those critical of Twitter's business decisions, throttling competitors, banning people for saying cisgender, and suing somebody for making a true claim that anti-Semitism has increased on the platform and advocating for advertisers not to support it.

Can you tell me which of those best shows his real commitment to free speech as a concept rather than someone with an ego problem picking and choosing what speech is good and what speech is bad?

Elon Musk, King of Censorship: 10 Times the 'Free Speech Absolutist' Silenced Twitter Users

 

Yep, as Musk is being praised here for his unfettered support of free speech, it is worth noting again that the subject of the thread is that Musk is threatening to sue someone for billions because ... they said something.

 

Yes, one can support free speech and also support defamation laws.

The First Amendment does not prohibit defamation laws or lawsuits.

What's also ironic is the Anti-Defamation League defaming Elon Musk.

 

I do think he's developed a grudge against the left. I mean, he's basically switched sides. Perhaps one could separate whatever his "free speech" views and moderation policies are from what's clearly been a political shift on his part. But he's been accused of sexual harassment and racism, which must have impacted his views on what he deems "woke." He is troubled about having a trans daughter (who won't speak to him at least partly because of tension over that). He severely downplayed Covid early on, making some very aggressive declarations that were widely ridiculed by the medical establishment and Democrats. I think a lot of this tended to push him into the arms of the right. He seems to increasingly embrace and amplify conspiracy theories, but I don't know enough about his past to know if that's necessarily new for him.

 

This doesn't prove the point you think it does.

Even if that's true, and no evidence to my knowledge says that it is, it's more likely that many posters have taken their ball and gone home than that Twitter is actually a worse platform.

 

Defamation is not protected speech under the First Amendment.

 

Can you support free speech and willingly comply with China's laws and censorship to make money (not to mention all the EUs regulations on content)?