I exist on Twitter just to follow a set group of users whose views I value. I'll stay on Twitter as long as there's something of value there for me. I use an app on my tablet which does not display any of the annoying Twitter ads so Twitter gets no revenue from me.
I thought I would share Mike Dunford's tweet thread on this issue -
The texts from the thread -
Here's my very rough thinking on the Musk/Twitter purchase.
1: This is a heavily financed deal, for a company that's worth nothing remotely close to the price being paid.
2: A lot of that is apparently secured by Tesla stock, which is also widely viewed as overvalued.
3: Presumably, the funders would like a reasonable shot at getting their money back at some point.
4: That, in combination with some of the shifts we've seen in Musk's statements on things like ads, moderation, makes me wonder if the've put some protective measures in place.
5: When it comes to content moderation, and particularly to the First Amendment thing, there's a relevant fact:
Most Twitter users are not in the United States.
6: As far as the USA is concerned, Musk can moderate - or not - to his heart's content. That's not true in other jurisdictions.
7: And, frankly, from a purely business perspective, the vast majority of the potential for growth is in non-American markets.
So it's basically same as it ever was - the question is whether Musk is willing to run his net worth into the ground by trashing Twitter. Or if he's going to move with - if not caution, some prudence - in trying out different things.
x5
