X -Where Twitter goes to die.

[neonzx]

how apt:

The building that Twitter occupies was once known as the Furniture Mart, a showroom for home furnishings.

I guess we now know why Elon walked in holding a bathroom sink. He thought he was buying a totally different type of company.

[bob]

The Twitter bedrooms are just a tiny part of the problem with that building
The tech HQ was never zoned for office space, and a shady deal saved the owners $25 million.
https://48hills.org/2022/12/the-twitter ... -building/

Yeah; how Twitter ended up in that building is a microcosm of how San Francisco sold its soul to temporarily be the King of Tech.

An interesting tidbit in that story is how Twitter used to feed its employees, so they had no* incentive to leave the building (read: spend money in the neighborhood). But part of Musk's slashing was to cancel Twitter's food-services contract. So the few employees remaining and sleeping in unused conference rooms aren't even getting free food (or, at least, the good stuff they were used to).



* Booze; Twitter didn't (legally) provide booze, so Twerps at three-margarita lunches were a common enough sight at the local eateries.

[pipistrelle]

Not impossible speculation is almost all of those who are left are the people on visas, who are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. How much do they have in the way of rights?

[bob]

Not impossible speculation is almost all of those who are left are the people on visas, who are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. How much do they have in the way of rights?

Good point. They would be, generally speaking, on H1-B visas or the like, meaning their visas are tied to their employment. There's only a relatively small window (60 days, IIRC) to land a new job, or else the old visa expires.

In theory, someone could whistleblow and aim for a whistleblower visa.

[neonzx]

Not impossible speculation is almost all of those who are left are the people on visas, who are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. How much do they have in the way of rights?

Good point. They would be, generally speaking, on H1-B visas or the like, meaning their visas are tied to their employment. There's only a relatively small window (60 days, IIRC) to land a new job, or else the old visa expires.

In theory, someone could whistleblow and aim for a whistleblower visa.

Correct, I was going to reply similar. H1-B work visas are of limited scope (yes, they get abused sometimes). But if the sponsor terminates the employment or employee leaves, there is no real recourse to my IANAL knowledge.

[Suranis]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that you get three months to find a new employer willing to sponsor you, but then you are out of there. But its such a vague memory that I could be talking out my ass.

Well, more than usual.

[pipistrelle]

Not impossible speculation is almost all of those who are left are the people on visas, who are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. How much do they have in the way of rights?

Good point. They would be, generally speaking, on H1-B visas or the like, meaning their visas are tied to their employment. There's only a relatively small window (60 days, IIRC) to land a new job, or else the old visa expires.

In theory, someone could whistleblow and aim for a whistleblower visa.

Correct, I was going to reply similar. H1-B work visas are of limited scope (yes, they get abused sometimes). But if the sponsor terminates the employment or employee leaves, there is no real recourse to my IANAL knowledge.

IF this is the case (that a lot of the remaining people are on visas, and that's an IF), the conditions sound like indentured servitude. Not true slavery assuming they're getting paid, but working under unsafe and unreasonable conditions because they have little choice.

[raison de arizona]

Once you cease to be employed, you have a maximum 60-day grace period in which to either get another employer to sponsor you for H-1B employment, arrange for another visa status allowing you to stay in the U.S., or make plans to head home.

https://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us ... s-job.html

[neeneko]

Good point. They would be, generally speaking, on H1-B visas or the like, meaning their visas are tied to their employment. There's only a relatively small window (60 days, IIRC) to land a new job, or else the old visa expires.

In theory, someone could whistleblow and aim for a whistleblower visa.

Not sure there is anything to whistleblow though. The modern tech industry is utterly dependent on this borderline indentured servitude. If someone complained about twitter, you would have endless friend of the court briefs from some very large companies explaining how this is normal and intended by congress and how the US would no longer be exceptional if it had a fair labor market in tech.

[bob]

Not sure there is anything to whistleblow though.

Hence the prefatory "In theory." As in, I don't expect anyone to actually be able to do this. Just acknowledging there are, in theory, options beyond staying, leaving, or finding a new sponsor.

[bob]

[pipistrelle]

Andrew
@AcunaAndrew
Replying to
@stevanzetti
and
@CocoaFox023
How long until Jack is banned for questioning King Elmo
2:34 PM · Dec 9, 2022
from Riverhead, NY

[RTH10260]

Elton John quits Twitter

Fri, December 9, 2022 at 7:17 PM

Dec 9 (Reuters) - British musician Elton John quit Twitter on Friday, the latest high-profile celebrity to leave the social media platform following its acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk.

John, who is currently on his last-ever global tour, blamed Twitter's recent policy change as a reason for quitting.

"All my life I've tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world," John tweeted to his 1.1 million followers.

"I've decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked."

The 75-year-old activist and singer of hits such as "Tiny Dancer" and "Rocket Man" joins a long list of celebrities who have quit Twitter recently including supermodel Gigi Hadid, writer Shonda Rhimes and former White Stripes guitarist Jack White.

"I love your music. Hope you come back. Is there any misinformation in particular that you're concerned about?" Musk said in a reply to John's tweet on Friday.

Since the Tesla Inc top boss took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal, a series of changes including charging users for a "blue tick", the roll-back of a policy aimed at tackling misinformation related to COVID-19 and reinstating some previously suspended accounts, including that of former U.S. President Donald Trump, has attracted widespread backlash.




https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/1-el ... 41103.html

[pipistrelle]

"I love your music. Hope you come back. Is there any misinformation in particular that you're concerned about?" Musk said in a reply to John's tweet on Friday.

[Kendra]

Good for Sir Elton

I have been a huge fan since Yellow Brick Road was vinyl.

[Gregg]

Hotel Musk - promotional pics in the article, bookings thru Twitter Human Resoures

Elon Musk accused of turning Twitter offices into bedrooms
San Francisco investigating Twitter after complaint says it converted rooms in its HQ into sleeping quarters

As of Monday, the office has “modest bedrooms featuring unmade mattresses, drab curtains and giant conference-room telepresence monitors” with four to eight beds a floor, employees told Forbes. The changes appear to be part of Musk’s plan for “hardcore Twitter” in which he’s demanded workers dedicate “long hours at high intensity” after he fired nearly half the company’s workforce.bedrooms

4-8 beds per floor (building floor I presume). That's not many considering the number of even remaining employees.

Is there a reservation system, including a check-in/check-out time so the next employee in the queue can take a nap?

Is housekeeping included? Fresh towels upon request. Wait, there are no showers?

I was going to ask about room(food) service, but we already know that was kicked to the curb.

Hotel Musk sounds like an amazing destination.

He fired anyone that might possibly be in charge of this, so he outsourced it to Corrections Corporation of America.

[Gregg]

Not impossible speculation is almost all of those who are left are the people on visas, who are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. How much do they have in the way of rights?

Somewhere akin to indentured servants, 12th century feudal peasants and outright slaves. It is not, except in special cases, legal to have them whipped but you can do it yourself if you are the registered owner.

[Volkonski]

Andrew
@AcunaAndrew
Replying to
@stevanzetti
and
@CocoaFox023
How long until Jack is banned for questioning King Elmo
2:34 PM · Dec 9, 2022
from Riverhead, NY

The North Fork!

[pipistrelle]

This opinion piece was posted on counter.social (now I have three things to follow. Blergh).

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opi ... -rcna61025

Elon Musk’s basic misunderstandings of free speech are a problem for all of us
Musk (and those who have somehow been persuaded that he knows what he’s talking about) could use a crash course in what does — and doesn’t — violate the First Amendment.

Let’s start with the so-called “Twitter Files.” Thursday, we got a second installment of the files courtesy of Bari Weiss. Last week Musk, together with Matt Taibbi, released the first installment: a trove of documents supposedly demonstrating that Twitter had inappropriately suppressed material relating to Hunter Biden’s laptop in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election at the request of individuals associated with the Biden campaign. In his own tweets reacting to Taibbi’s thread, Musk made two claims about the First Amendment. First, he wrote that “Twitter acting by itself to suppress free speech is not a 1st amendment violation, but acting under orders from the government to suppress free speech, with no judicial review, is.” Second, in response to another tweet about one of Taibbi’s supposed bombshells, Musk rhetorically asked “If this isn’t a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, what is?” In both cases, Musk’s claim is that the Biden campaign’s requests to have tweets taken down constituted not just a violation of the First Amendment, but an egregious one. In every possible respect, Musk is dead wrong.

[raison de arizona]

NEW: Elon Musk is threatening to sue Twitter employees who leak confidential information to the press. He's asking staffers to sign a pledge indicating they've understood. Here's the email:

As evidenced by the many detailed leaks of confidential Twitter information, a few people at our company continue to act in a manner contrary to the company's interests and in violation of their NDA. 1/

This will be said only once: If you clearly and deliberately violate the NDA that you signed when you joined, you accept liability to the full extent of the law & Twitter will immediately seek damages. 2/

Musk says occasional slip ups are understandable "but breaking your word by sending detailed info to the media" with the intent to harm Twitter "will receive the response it deserves."

Employees have by 5pm today to respond.

(I am choosing not to post the actual email as it's clear Twitter is doing everything it can to catch sources)

https://twitter.com/ZoeSchiffer/status/ ... 8100894721

[neonzx]

So he is all-in for free speech, except for his employees with ironclad NDAs, Got it.

And it is so easy for someone to pass privileged information info in a manner that nobody at Twitter is going to be able to trace it. Joke's on you, Elon. Treat your employees like crap and it blowz back on you.

[RTH10260]

So if some employee does not return Elons call for sworn allegiance to the master he will punish them by firing squad ? And loose some more employees he still relies on to run the company?

[pipistrelle]

a few people at our company continue to act in a manner contrary to the company's interests

[MN-Skeptic]

Good grief! If Musk had read the whistleblower’s report before buying Twitter, he never should have bought it. This Twitter thread highlights some of the worst incidents at Twitter. Well worth the read!

[RTH10260]