Musk’s ruinous Twitter game is a slow-motion car crash we can’t take our eyes off of
No Elon, you can’t fire anyone in Ireland by email.
It’s not just any sense of decency speaking, it’s the Irish High Court.
A few days ago, the billionaire’s attempt to fire Irish Twitter boss Sinéad McSweeney for not responding to his “hardcore” with-us-or-against-us email was overturned in the High Court dismissed here.
McSweeney also received a restraining order preventing the Tesla loudmouth — or any of his VC kitchen cabinet thugs — from telling others that she was no longer a vice president.
Nobody seems able to predict what Musk will do from one day to the next. For example, I got a happy preview of Musk’s journal last week.
- Monday: Publicly demolish ex-manager of Twitter
- Tuesday: Start a war with Apple and threaten to launch a phone
- Wednesday: Reconciliation with Apple
- Thursday: Promise AI brain implants in six months
- Friday: tease someone to get 100,000 likes
Many see Musk as a breath of fresh air, someone unafraid to challenge the waking climate they believe is stifling culture
All run-of-the-mill behavior.
Easy to handle by any competent lawyer, right?
There are quite a few tech CEOs who support Musk. At a midweek crypto event in Dublin, I spoke to one or two who admitted they are enjoying some of its “pushback.”
They see a breath of fresh air in Musk, someone unafraid to challenge the waking climate they believe is stifling culture. And firing people more easily, they say, is a painful but necessary part of being able to act quickly and innovate.
One person who doesn’t necessarily agree is EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton. He held a video call with Musk during the week, in which he said Twitter could be fined or even banned in Europe if certain carry-on items are continued.
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Musk tweeted a picture of his gun by the bed later in the week. Photo: Elon Musk/Twitter
On the list of no-nos: Musk’s plan to en masse unban bans on all accounts penalized for horrible behavior. This, Breton says, could very well run afoul of new European digital services law, which tightens standards expected of social media platforms.
A video released of the encounter showed Musk in a suit and tie, looking intently. He knows that the EU is not playing around.
Google has been fined around 8 billion euros by the European Commission in recent years. Even in tiny Ireland, Meta has been fined €900m by a single data regulator.
The fines associated with Musk acting out the extremes of his obsession with libertarian free speech in the US total up to 6 percent of annual global sales.
In the case of Twitter, that would be up to 300 million euros.
Or it would have been last year — since then it’s lost up to 50 percent of its ad revenue due to Musk’s antics.
Apple, the company’s largest advertiser over the past year, has siphoned almost all of its advertising budget from the company. This infuriated Musk.
He then lashed out at Apple for 24 hours, claiming Apple had been involved in “secret suppression,” charging a “secret” 30 percent fee on app revenue, and threatening to kick Twitter out of the App Store “but will take us.” don’t say why”.
All along, he’s publicly baited Tim Cook as some sort of speech-suppressing conspiracy leader.
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Musk has publicly baited Tim Cook as some sort of speech-suppressing conspiracy leader. Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Aside from the ridiculous claim about the “secret” 30 percent fee (which has been the industry standard for over a decade, if not without controversy), Musk’s accusations that Apple’s “hatred” of free speech is a reason for the ads pullback Both Twitter and Apple’s threats to ban Twitter from the App Store “without explanation” were either blind or cynical misinformation.
He knows, or should know, that Apple is the most conservative company out there. Why on earth would Apple keep advertising there when Musk, who tweeted a picture of his bed gun during the week, appears to be encouraging extremists in the name of free speech?
And if these extremists are really getting extreme, why wouldn’t Apple Twitter’s security moderators say they’re approaching a line in the sand?
You can’t rip off a company and risk it becoming a vassal to extremists and illegal content and expect everyone to keep hosting your content
One irony here is that it’s possible that Apple actually had an explanation for what Twitter had to do to overcome Apple’s objections. But Apple had no one to send it to; Most Twitter employees have been fired.
Nor does Twitter’s reputation that the department responsible for combating child sexual abuse material on the platform (sometimes labeled “child pornography” by Irish courts) has reportedly been reduced to a single person.
That’s not Apple’s problem, it’s Twitter’s. You can’t rip off a company and risk it becoming a vassal to extremists and illegal content and expect everyone to keep hosting your content.
As it turns out, Musk and Tim Cook met to sort out what was going on. Ironically, Cook fit in as well as Musk; Despite Musk’s insults and tantrums, Cook doesn’t want to hold grudges there for long. Apple has major regulatory battles (with regulators) over its App Store, which walks on thin ice when it comes to its 30 percent revenue.
But it won’t help Twitter’s bottom line. Musk has destroyed the company’s commercial operations, at least for now.
Unfortunately, it’s a slow-motion car crash that we can’t quite look away from.
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/musks-ruinous-twitter-dalliance-is-a-slow-motion-car-crash-we-cant-quite-take-our-eyes-off-42193033.html Musk’s ruinous Twitter game is a slow-motion car crash we can’t take our eyes off of