Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

[bilateralrope]

They won't care why, but they will very much care that it was missed.

Don't know how they handle this in Europe, but in the US failure to pay wages is a form of theft. I'm assuming the Europeans are not any more charitable in their view of the situation.

From what I've been reading elsewhere, people are talking about government agencies getting involved to get the money paid instead of employees having to file a lawsuit like you did. Also some talk of criminal penalties, because missed payroll also means missed tax payments.

[bilateralrope]

Musk faces fines if Twitter’s gutted child safety team becomes overwhelmed

Already overworked child safety team went from 20 to less than 10 members.
ASHLEY BELANGER - 11/30/2022, 6:40 AM

A few weeks ago, Twitter CEO Elon Musk asked his remaining staff for a show of loyalty by prompting them to click a "yes" link in an email. By clicking yes, the employees were telling Musk that they agreed to work longer hours—if they could keep their jobs. It was Musk’s way of seeing who on his existing team was truly ready to fall in line behind his “hardcore” efforts to build Twitter 2.0. Musk quickly learned how unattractive his offer was when an overwhelming number of employees did not click yes, and among those rejecting Musk’s severe terms was apparently almost half of Twitter’s global team dedicated to preventing child sexual exploitation on the platform.

Three people familiar with Twitter’s current staffing told Bloomberg that when 2022 started, Twitter had 20 team members responsible for reviewing and escalating reports of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM). Today, after layoffs and resignations, there are fewer than 10 specialists forming what Bloomberg described as “an overwhelmed skeleton crew.” It seems that despite Musk continually tweeting that blocking CSAM is Twitter’s top priority and even going so far as inviting users to tweet CSAM directly at him, Musk may already be losing his battle to keep the material off Twitter.

“Musk didn’t create an environment where the team wanted to stay,” sources told Bloomberg.

The staff that Musk lost, according to Bloomberg, included child safety experts and former law enforcement officers in the US, Ireland, and Singapore. Sources said that this team was already working longer hours—before Musk asked employees to commit to more hours—just trying to keep up with the constant flow of user reports and legal requests.

These people removed the CSAM, assisted in law enforcement investigations, and—relying on human reasoning instead of artificial intelligence—identified accounts grooming minors or promoting attraction to minors as healthy.

Although Twitter recently removed some known hashtags used to spread CSAM, the move was not a complete or permanent solution because hashtags change, and so does the coded language that abusers use to skirt automated content removal. Because the removal of these hashtags happened after Musk’s takeover, it’s easy to credit him with the decision and see it as his commitment to blocking CSAM. However, sources told Bloomberg that the decision to remove the hashtags happened before Musk came on board.

According to Wired, there’s only one child safety team member left to handle all the reports coming from the Asia-Pacific region. This means Twitter has one expert who understands both regional laws to coordinate with law enforcement and evolving code words used in languages other than English in that region to evade detection.

In the early morning hours today, Musk was awake and tweeting, insisting that removing CSAM from Twitter “will forever be our top priority.”

It’s a responsibility that he can't dodge. Unlike blocking hate speech and misinformation—which can, in some cases, violate Twitter rules—Musk is legally required to block CSAM on his platform.

That means his “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach” promise (planning to contain non-criminal hate speech and information simply by not promoting it to Twitter users) is not an acceptable strategy for dealing with CSAM. Especially in Europe, lawmakers are cracking down on CSAM, with new laws dictating how platforms approach online child safety. Musk could continue losing money on Twitter if he risks fines, which could be as high as 10 percent of Twitter’s revenue, for breaking child safety laws. The UK’s Online Child Safety Bill even threatens to block platforms regionally in serious cases where CSAM cannot be adequately controlled.

Musk also seems to know that he cannot afford for Twitter to be dropped by the Apple App Store, which former head of Twitter Trust & Safety Yoel Roth wrote in The New York Times could happen if Twitter doesn’t prioritize protecting kids on the platform.

Twitter didn’t respond to Ars’ request for comment, but The Verge reported earlier this year that Twitter itself concluded in April that “Twitter cannot accurately detect child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity at scale.” In September, Reuters reported that some brands were dropping Twitter specifically because Twitter placed their ads next to CSAM. David Maddocks, the brand president of Cole Haan, summed up advertiser concerns to Reuters, saying, "We're horrified.”

Experts told Wired that child safety organizations help social media platforms like Twitter automatically detect and remove a lot of CSAM, but the technology can’t replace human moderators who have access to more data than outside organizations.

In September, when Twitter still had a spokesperson, Celeste Carswell told Reuters that Twitter was “investing more resources dedicated to child safety, including hiring for new positions to write policy and implement solutions.” Ars couldn’t find any current job listings for child safety positions, so the only update since then seems to be the slide Musk recently shared from a Twitter 2.0 position that broadly claimed, “We’re recruiting.”

Another issue that could sink Musk's Twitter on its own if he continues to mismanage it. Though I really hope something else kills Twitter before CSAM does.

[Solauren]

I wonder how unhinged Musk will get if Apple delists Twitter.

I'm picturing it, with Musk tearing at his hair, screaming, and then a voice going 'Mortal Kombat'.....
I don't know why....

[Solauren]

From what I've been reading elsewhere, people are talking about government agencies getting involved to get the money paid instead of employees having to file a lawsuit like you did. Also some talk of criminal penalties, because missed payroll also means missed tax payments.

If that happens in Canada, it will be followed up by an Audit, possibly going back as far as 7 years.
And unless Musk and the previous directors signed some very specific paperwork, any irregularities found prior to purchase, he'd be on the hook for.

[Broomstick]

They won't care why, but they will very much care that it was missed.

Don't know how they handle this in Europe, but in the US failure to pay wages is a form of theft. I'm assuming the Europeans are not any more charitable in their view of the situation.

From what I've been reading elsewhere, people are talking about government agencies getting involved to get the money paid instead of employees having to file a lawsuit like you did. Also some talk of criminal penalties, because missed payroll also means missed tax payments.

I was just a lone individual (there were other people affected, but none of us acted in a coordinated fashion). That's very different than hundreds or even thousands of employees from one company facing this problem.

What it comes down to is that failure to pay people for their work is frowned upon pretty much everywhere.

[Gandalf]

This is one of the strangest news sagas I've ever had the chance to experience in real time.

Musk is acting like a bad poker player who seems to just keep raising in the hopes that he can buy his way out of strife. Poker employs at its core a lot of risk management and calculation, and Musk shows no real rationality here.

[aurobora]

Elok Musk definitely knows something

[Solauren]

This is one of the strangest news sagas I've ever had the chance to experience in real time.

Musk is acting like a bad poker player who seems to just keep raising in the hopes that he can buy his way out of strife. Poker employs at its core a lot of risk management and calculation, and Musk shows no real rationality here.

This his actually reading to me like Musk had no real idea what he was getting into, and is trying to force things to how he things they should have been to start.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Concern as Twitter stops enforcing policy against Covid-19 misinformation.

Unannounced change in rules was made last week as health experts stress importance of combating disinformation

Tue 29 Nov 2022 22.16 GMT
Twitter will no longer enforce its policy against Covid-19 misinformation, raising concerns among public health experts that the change could have serious consequences if it discourages vaccination and other efforts to combat the still-spreading virus.

Eagle-eyed users spotted the change on Monday night, noting that a one-sentence update had been made to Twitter’s online rules: “Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.”

By Tuesday, some Twitter accounts were testing the new boundaries and celebrating the platform’s hands-off approach, which comes after Twitter was bought by Elon Musk.

“This policy was used to silence people across the world who questioned the media narrative surrounding the virus and treatment options,” tweeted Dr Simone Gold, a physician and leading purveyor of Covid-19 misinformation. “A win for free speech and medical freedom!”

This policy was used to silence people across the world who questioned the media narrative surrounding the virus and treatment options.

Twitter’s decision to no longer remove false claims about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines disappointed many public health officials, however, who said it could lead to more false claims about the virus, or the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

“Bad news,” tweeted epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, who urged people not to flee Twitter but to stay and stand up for accurate information about the virus. “Stay folks – do NOT cede the town square to them!”

The virus, meanwhile, continues to spread. Nationally, new Covid cases averaged nearly 38,800 a day as of Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University – far lower than last winter’s rate but a vast undercount because of reduced testing and reporting. About 28,100 people with Covid were hospitalized daily and about 313 died, according to the most recent federal daily averages.

Cases and deaths were up from two weeks earlier. Yet a fifth of the US population has not been vaccinated, most Americans have not gotten the latest boosters and many have stopped wearing masks.

Musk, who has himself spread Covid misinformation on Twitter, has signaled an interest in rolling back many of the platform’s previous rules meant to combat misinformation.

Last week, Musk said he would grant “amnesty” to account holders who had been kicked off Twitter. He has also reinstated the accounts for several people who spread Covid misinformation, including that of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose personal account was suspended earlier this year for repeatedly violating Twitter’s Covid rules.

Greene’s most recent tweets include several questioning the effectiveness of masks and making baseless claims about the safety of Covid vaccines.

Since the pandemic began, platforms like Twitter and Facebook have struggled to respond to a torrent of misinformation about the virus, its origins and the response to it.

Under a policy enacted in January 2020, Twitter prohibited false claims about Covid-19 that the platform determined could lead to real-world harm. More than 11,000 accounts were suspended for violating the rules, and nearly 100,000 pieces of content were removed from the platform, according to Twitter’s latest numbers.

Despite its rules prohibiting Covid misinformation, Twitter has struggled with enforcement. Posts making bogus claims about home remedies or vaccines could still be found, and it was difficult on Tuesday to identify exactly how the platform’s rules may have changed.

Messages left with the San Francisco-based social media company seeking more information about its policy on Covid-19 misinformation were not immediately returned on Tuesday.

A search for common terms associated with Covid misinformation yielded much misleading content, but also revealed automatic links to helpful resources about the virus as well as authoritative sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr Ashish Jha, the White House’s Covid-19 coordinator, said on Tuesday that the problem of Covid misinformation is far larger than one platform, and that policies prohibiting Covid misinformation weren’t the best solution anyway.

Speaking at a Knight Foundation forum on Tuesday, Jha said misinformation about the virus spread for a number of reasons, including legitimate uncertainty about a deadly illness. Simply prohibiting certain kinds of content was not going to help people find good information, or make them feel more confident about what they are hearing from their medical providers, he said.

“I think we all have a collective responsibility,” Jha said of combating misinformation about Covid. “The consequences of not getting this right – of spreading that misinformation – is literally tens of thousands of people dying unnecessarily.”

[LadyTevar]

The more I read of Musk's attempts to keep Twitter going, the more I hear Megatron's voice "Coronation? THIS IS BAD COMEDY!"

[Solauren]

The more I read of Musk's attempts to keep Twitter going, the more I hear Megatron's voice "Coronation Starscream? THIS IS BAD COMEDY!"

Odd, I was hearing Starscreams voice going "Who disrupts my Coronation?"

also, fixed the quote for you.

[bilateralrope]

EU threatens Musk with Twitter ban as firm defends new approach to moderation

Twitter claims "none of our policies have changed" after abandoning COVID policy.
JON BRODKIN - 12/1/2022, 10:05 AM

A European regulator today reportedly threatened Elon Musk with a continent-wide ban on Twitter if the company fails to enforce content moderation rules required by the Digital Services Act. Also today, Twitter claimed it hasn't changed any policies—even though it stopped enforcing rules against COVID misinformation.

"As we carry out this work, we want to assure you of a few things: First, none of our policies have changed," Twitter wrote in a blog post titled, "Twitter 2.0: Our continued commitment to the public conversation."

Twitter made this claim just a week after the major reversal in how it handles COVID misinformation. "Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy," Twitter said. We wrote about the change yesterday.

A very literal interpretation of Twitter's "none of our policies have changed" claim might say it's technically accurate—instead of rewriting the COVID misinformation policy, Twitter just stopped enforcing it. But that's a big change in how content is moderated, and the reversal of the ban on former President Donald Trump and other controversial users signals a different approach to rules enforcement under Musk's ownership.

Today's "Twitter 2.0" blog post went on to say that "Our approach to policy enforcement will rely more heavily on de-amplification of violative content: freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach."

EU warnings

Meanwhile, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton warned Musk about complying with European Commission rules in a video meeting. "There is still huge work ahead, as Twitter will have to implement transparent user policies, significantly reinforce content moderation and protect freedom of speech, tackle disinformation with resolve, and limit targeted advertising," Breton told Musk, according to a Reuters article.

"Musk and Breton agreed the EU will carry out a 'stress test' at Twitter's headquarters in early 2023 to assess Twitter's compliance with EU rules," Reuters wrote.

According to the Financial Times, "Breton told Musk that Twitter must adhere to a checklist of rules, including ditching an 'arbitrary' approach to reinstating banned users, pursuing disinformation 'aggressively' and agreeing to an 'extensive independent audit' of the platform by next year."

The Financial Times cited "people with knowledge of the conversation," while the quote in the Reuters article came from a readout of the conversation provided by Breton. "Musk was warned that unless he stuck to those rules Twitter risked infringing the EU's new Digital Services Act, a new law that sets the global standard for how Big Tech must police content on the Internet. Breton reiterated Twitter could face a Europe-wide ban or fines of up to 6 percent of global turnover if it breached the law," the FT article said.

Musk reportedly told Breton that the Digital Services Act is "very sensible." One of "the EU's demands is that Musk provides clear criteria on which users are at risk of being banned," the FT wrote. With Trump, Musk restored the account after polling Twitter users.

Twitter: Moderation team “strong and well-resourced”

Twitter's blog post tried to ease concerns that a lack of staff will prevent proper content moderation. "Our Trust & Safety team continues its diligent work to keep the platform safe from hateful conduct, abusive behavior, and any violation of Twitter's rules. The team remains strong and well-resourced, and automated detection plays an increasingly important role in eliminating abuse," the company said.

As previously reported, layoffs and resignations gutted the Twitter team responsible for policing child sexual abuse material.

Twitter's former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth yesterday said he resigned because Musk rules by "dictatorial edict," and that mass layoffs and resignations harm Twitter's ability to block harmful content. Roth said automated systems cannot entirely replace human review and that he doesn't think Twitter has "enough people left at the company who can do that work to keep pace" with malicious campaigns.

Roth also said the COVID "policy change is really bad and damaging."

I wonder if the EU will block Twitter before the servers fail on their own.

[Dominus Atheos]

As bilateralrope posted earlier in the thread, the dumbass has been having a bizarre one sided feud with Apple this past week after they threatened him with delisting Twitter from the app store. Everyone assumed this was over content moderation standards, which sounded weird to me because apple isn't usually known for making big business decisions over moral stands when little to no money is involved.

Turns out they were feuding over the very well know 30% cut apple takes from all in-app purchases, including stupid blue checkmarks for $8.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/202 ... pple-fees/

If Musk’s feud with Apple continues heating up, it could mean that the No. 1 smartphone, which more than half of Americans use, would only be able to access Twitter through a web browser.

Soon after Musk got the news from Apple, he began looking into what it costs him to offer Twitter Blue as an in-app purchase in Apple’s App Store. That seems to be the first moment he realized that Apple takes a 30 percent cut of in-app purchases

I'm picturing the dumbass sitting in his office and waiting for mountains of $8, and then looking and seeing only payments of $4.90 and then losing his shit and screaming "shut it all down (twitter blue) and tell apple give me my money or we'll leave their app store!'

Elon Musk is a dumbass.

[bilateralrope]

Everyone assumed this was over content moderation standards, which sounded weird to me because apple isn't usually known for making big business decisions over moral stands when little to no money is involved.

Didn't Apple remove Parler from the app store for the same kind of content that Musk has allowed onto Twitter ?

Also there is the fact that Apple pulled their advertising from Twitter, which was about 4% of Twitter's ad revenue. So Musk is probably upset about that, along with all the other advertisers that have fled Twitter.

[Ralin]

I'm picturing the dumbass sitting in his office and waiting for mountains of $8, and then looking and seeing only payments of $4.90 and then losing his shit and screaming "shut it all down (twitter blue) and tell apple give me my money or we'll leave their app store!'

Elon Musk is a dumbass.

He probably personally worked out the math of how many subscribers paying eight dollars each he needs to cover the yearly loan payments when he came up with the idea and didn't take Apple's cut into account before launching it. All without consulting anyone.

EDIT:

It has also been pointed out that Apple could royally fuck over Tesla just by virtue of how many of their customers use iOS to unlock their cars.

[bilateralrope]

It has also been pointed out that Apple could royally fuck over Tesla just by virtue of how many of their customers use iOS to unlock their cars.

I can't see Apple doing that, as it would go really badly for them in the lawsuit(s) claiming that they have a monopoly with the app store. At most they might kick Twitter off the app store for not moderating user content as the app store rules require, but I'm thinking they will wait until the EU takes action.

[Zaune]

Frankly, given that the iOS app store is the only method for installing third-party software that doesn't void your warranty, I hope they both get screwed over by this one.

[Lost Soal]

They've got a very easy defence if they do boot twitter.
The website is not blocked, users can put it in favourites, set as homepage and easily access it with a single press of an icon. Apple should not be held liable for twitter users being stupidly lazy.

[Ralin]

They've got a very easy defence if they do boot twitter.
The website is not blocked, users can put it in favourites, set as homepage and easily access it with a single press of an icon. Apple should not be held liable for twitter users being stupidly lazy.

Yeah except that's not an app and that's what you expect to use to access a social media site via a smart phone or tablet. Expecting normal levels of convenience isn't being 'stupidly lazy.'

[madd0c0t0r2]

They've got a very easy defence if they do boot twitter.
The website is not blocked, users can put it in favourites, set as homepage and easily access it with a single press of an icon. Apple should not be held liable for twitter users being stupidly lazy.

Yeah except that's not an app and that's what you expect to use to access a social media site via a smart phone or tablet. Expecting normal levels of convenience isn't being 'stupidly lazy.'

i really hate apps. but then I also hate apple and twitter, so I don't really have a dog in that fight

[bilateralrope]

They've got a very easy defence if they do boot twitter.
The website is not blocked, users can put it in favourites, set as homepage and easily access it with a single press of an icon. Apple should not be held liable for twitter users being stupidly lazy.

Apple has booted social media apps off the app store before for not being sufficiently moderated. For example, Parler was booted for the same users that Musk has allowed back onto Twitter. So Apple getting rid of the Twitter app shouldn't hurt them in court.

[Solauren]

Apple can also argue them blocking Twitter is simply blocking it from their subnetwork within the internet.

If a court over-rules THAT, they just killed the concept of network security.

[LaCroix]

He probably personally worked out the math of how many subscribers paying eight dollars each he needs to cover the yearly loan payments when he came up with the idea and didn't take Apple's cut into account before launching it. All without consulting anyone.

That has to be a back of the napkin calculation.
Ignoring any other lliabilities, the cost saved by firing half the staff and the loss in ad revenue, assuming he left the revenue exactly stable (a BIIIIG assumption), he still burdened the company with a 1.2 BILLION in annual debt payment for the financing he pushed onto their books...

So he assumed that 150 MILLION (roughly 11 million, as it is monthly) people, out of a total user base of ~300 million, and a daily active base of 160 million would spend 8$ a month for a blue check? A service that had less than half a million users when it was still free?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well if he puts the price up to $10, we'll know why.

[LadyTevar]

The more I read of Musk's attempts to keep Twitter going, the more I hear Megatron's voice "Coronation Starscream? THIS IS BAD COMEDY!"

Odd, I was hearing Starscreams voice going "Who disrupts my Coronation?"

also, fixed the quote for you.

I left the name out deliberately

So, who's betting Apple wins this round?