Elon f*cks Twitter

[GoblinCampFollower]

I log into the site formerly known as Twitter now and again, but I hadn't realised how bad it's become

Logging Off the Sewer

My Break-Up with Musks's Hellsite - and an Invitation to Starve the Beast

www.bearlypolitics.co.uk

https://archive.ph/PB2Pd

It's been this bad for a while. There are really only 2 reasons to still be on twitter.

1) It's the best place to call an actual, self declared nazi sympathizer a wanker.

2) consume their server bandwidth without giving them any money.

 

[Isabeau]

There are no good reasons.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Pretty horrifying stuff. After skimming the report, my impression it that it focuses on stuff that's uncontentiously antisemitic rather than attacks on Israel and Zionism.

A Home for Hate — Center for Countering Digital Hate | CCDH

CCDH’s new AI-powered research shows that antisemitism is thriving on Musk’s X - despite violating the platform’s hate speech policies.

counterhate.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Calls for violence and antisemitic abuse targeted at British Jews on X platform following Manchester Synagogue Attack — Center for Countering Digital Hate | CCDH

New CCDH research found that after the Manchester Synagogue attack, Jewish voices expressing grief & solidarity were met with a flood of antisemitic hate on X.

counterhate.com

 

[Free]

New X Feature Reveals Many MAGA Patriots on X Are Not Even Based in The U.S.

Users are able to spot the deceit thanks to a new feature rolled out over the weekend

gizmodo.com

Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s X began rolling out a new feature called “About This Profile,” and chaos ensued.

With this feature, users are now able to see more information about other people’s accounts, like how many times they have changed their usernames, when they joined the platform, and where exactly they are based.

The last of those features has caused quite the stir. Users have increasingly found that a lot of the ostensibly America-loving MAGA influencer accounts were actually not even based anywhere in the United States.

Not just MAGA "influencers"...

 

[Free]

Missed this information about the above.

 

[Free]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Elon Musk's X fined €120m over 'deceptive' blue ticks

The European Commission says the social media site is opening its users up to scams and impersonations.

www.bbc.com

 

[Free]

Deceptive blue ticks. Sounds like a clan of moderately evil superhero clones.

 

[Free]

I was not aware of this effort. I'm not sure what benefit there is by now to "reclaiming" the name.

Twitter comeback bid draws lawsuit from Elon Musk’s X Corp

“Huge uphill battle” to obtain and use Twitter name.

arstechnica.com

On Tuesday, X Corporation, formerly known as Twitter, sued “Operation Bluebird,” the new startup that is seeking to reclaim the allegedly abandoned Twitter trademark and relaunch a new social media network under that name.

In its 43-page lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Delaware, X Corporation alleges trademark infringement, adding that despite Bluebird’s “purported plan, it cannot bring Twitter ‘back’—Twitter never left and continues to be exclusively owned by X Corp.”

One of Bluebird’s leaders, Michael Peroff, told Ars in an email that Operation Bluebird was “fully expecting” a lawsuit from X Corporation and that “we planned for it.”

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Imran Ahmed's struggle against Musk and Trump

Fighting the merger of money and power

nickcohen.substack.com

Evernote Link

The petty obsessiveness of the Trump administration was on full display. Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, whom naïve Americans once considered a decent conservative, continued his abasement before the MAGA cult by including an old friend and contact of mine, Imran Ahmed, on his sanctions list.

It was a sinister decision that spoke volumes.

Imran is not a powerful politician or regulator. His crime, and the crime of his colleagues at the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), was simply to monitor tech companies – not to punish tech companies, notice, but to expose the disinformation they facilitate.

Now he will have to leave Washington, like a political exile, and return to the UK.

Imran’s case illustrates better than any I know how we are moving into a world where plutocratic and political power are merging.

Media owners like Musk facilitate propaganda that suits right-wing and – let’s face it – extreme right-wing politicians. They then use the power of the state to punish anyone who threatens the tech plutocrats’ business interests by holding them to account for frauds, child pornography, and incitements to violence.

 

[Free]

The Financial Times provides a rundown of the folk running X (into the ground):

Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter

(And for if/when the gift token expires)
Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter (archive.today)

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The Guardian: ‘Add blood, forced smile’: how Grok’s nudification tool went viral

As people slowly started to understand the full potential of the tool, the increasingly degrading images of the early days were quickly superseded. Since the end of last week, users have asked for the bikinis to be decorated with swastikas – or asked for white, semen-like liquid to be added to the women’s bodies. Pictures of teenage girls and children were stripped down to revealing swimwear; some of this content could clearly be categorised as child sexual abuse material, but remained visible on the platform.

The requests became ever more extreme. Some users, mostly men, began to demand to see bruising on the bodies of the women, and for blood to be added to the images. Requests to show women tied up and gagged were instantly granted. By Thursday, the chatbot was being asked to add bullet holes to the face of Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by an ICE agent in the US on Wednesday. Grok readily obliged, posting graphic, bloodied altered images of the victim on X within seconds.

ETA (from a link in the FT article Free posted)

Robert Smith (@bondhack.ft.com)

Went to check if this screenshot (posted by @aric.bsky.social) was real (it is) and then made the mistake of also scrolling through Grok's replies on X. Still constantly cranking out sexualised images of young girls. Beyond bleak.

bsky.app

 

[Cristiano]

 

[Cristiano]

Elon has some 'splaining to do about more than kiddie porn:

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Grok Is Being Used to Mock and Strip Women in Hijabs and Saris

A substantial number of AI images generated or edited with Grok are targeting women in religious and cultural clothing.

www.wired.com

Evernote Link

 

[Free]

There's a lawsuit afoot, and Musk takes the stand!

Musk testifies tweet that led to $44 billion lawsuit "may not have been my wisest"

Elon Musk takes the stand in a San Francisco courtroom.

arstechnica.com

Elon Musk has acknowledged that the tweet at the center of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit over his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter “may not have been my wisest” as the world’s richest man defends himself from allegations of market manipulation in court.

He told a San Francisco jury on Wednesday that his post was not intended to manipulate Twitter’s stock price in the midst of the takeover battle.

A group of Twitter investors has alleged they lost money after Musk threatened to walk away from the deal to gain leverage during takeover talks, despite being aware he would be legally forced to complete the $44 billion buyout.

 

[Casey Pelous]

There's a lawsuit afoot, and Musk takes the stand!

Musk testifies tweet that led to $44 billion lawsuit "may not have been my wisest"

Elon Musk takes the stand in a San Francisco courtroom.

arstechnica.com

"Oh, well heck, if it wasn't his wisest, case closed and our apologies to the defendant, based on the precedent set in Madeupstuff vs. Pulledouttadabutt."

 

[Free]

The free Grok ride is over...

Elon Musk Just Made a Small Change That Speaks Volumes About His Desperation

Elon Musk has quietly made a small but noteworthy change how his Grok chatbot functions on X, his social media site.

futurism.com

Starting last week, Grok stopped taking questions that free users asked in posts on Musk’s social media site, X, where the chatbot is integrated. Instead, it now states that “Ask Grok” is only available to Premium and Premium+ subscribers, paid tiers that the site heavily pushes.

 

[Free]

Oops.

Elon Musk misled Twitter investors, jury finds

A San Francisco jury concludes Musk’s claims in 2022 were damaging to a group of Twitter investors.

www.bbc.com

Elon Musk was misleading in his public statements during a crucial period of his 2022 Twitter takeover, a jury has found.

After two days of deliberations, a jury in San Francisco federal court decided in a unanimous verdict against the tech titan, who was sued by a group of Twitter investors arguing they had relied on his statements.

While testifying in court earlier this month, Musk argued that he did not mislead investors and that people simply read too much into his public comments and tweets.

The jury instead found that certain of his public claims of problems in Twitter's user metrics, and that he was possibly backing out of the $44bn acquisition deal, were intentionally misleading.