News About Twitter

[GURPS]

SFGate magazine ran an article yesterday headlined, “Twitter, Headquartered in San Francisco, Announces Mass Layoffs Amid Alleged Elon Musk Crisis.” Apparently, the deal with Musk is on hold, if not on life support, and meanwhile the social media giant seems to be having trouble making ends meet.

The news is that Twitter laid off a third of its “talent recruitment team,” which I think is just a fun way of describing the human resources department. This follows news of a hiring freeze announced back in May. A company spokesperson told SFGATE that the newest layoffs are just a way for the company to “refocus its business needs” during a “lean period.”

One possible read is that Twitter was already on the ropes back when Musk made his offer, and its board saw the deal as a lifeline, so they could dump a crashing company on the next sucker, but the canny billionaire figured it out after reviewing their financials before taking possession. Maybe.

But I can’t help but think of another article I saw recently in Blaze Media, headlined, “Exposé Reveals Twitter, Other Social Media Platforms Routinely Hire Former Feds: It’s a ‘Revolving Door.’”

The story explains that tiny MintPress News has just released an investigative report on hiring practices in Silicon Valley, particularly at Twitter, finding that many social media companies have filled some of their most influential positions with former members of federal agencies, especially the intelligence services, including the FBI, CIA, and the military.

So. Weird.

Former FBI agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley told Mintpress that there’s now a “revolving door” between federal agents and the companies they are supposed to be policing. And it’s not just the U.S.’s federal government. In 2019, news broke that Gordon Macmillan, Twitter’s editorial head for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, was a current member of the British Army’s notorious 77th Brigade, which is “dedicated to online warfare and psychological operations.”

Gosh. Who could have predicted this unlikely turn of events?

So, another read on the shrinking “talent team” is that Twitter doesn’t NEED recruiters anymore. They have so many CIA, FBI, NSA, and foreign intelligence agents wanting to work there, they don’t even have to advertise, much less do interviews and stuff.

We need to come up with a new, more descriptive name for Twitter. Or maybe a different logo. Instead of the little bluebird, think about a stool pigeon or something. Maybe one of our graphic artists can come up with something good for them.

And we need a better term than “regulatory capture.” This trend is a kind of reverse regulatory capture, where government agencies capture businesses.

☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Friday, July 8, 2022 ☙ PAIN RX 🦠

Another Trump ally assassinated; Twitter hires feds, fires recruiters; 20 states ban Zuckerbucks; Uruguay judge halts jabs for kids; Fed forecasts ‘some pain’; bad polls for Dems; much more ...

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[Kyle]

 

[Gilligan]

I never got a Twitter account. Guess I never will.

 

[GURPS]

Elon Musk Terminates Twitter Purchase Deal, Citing Material Breach of Agreement by Company Refusing to Provide Access to Data​

It appears that Twitter Inc did not want to reveal how Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop was able to sustain operations, at an extremely high cost, without making money. That’s the essential source of the issue.

The social media company did not want anyone looking at the data stream inside the communication platform. Musk was not allowed to authenticate the number of real users and identify the number of ‘spam’ or ‘bot’ accounts within the platform.

From the SEC Letter: […] ” Specifically, in the Merger Agreement, Twitter represented that no documents that Twitter filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since January 1, 2022, included any “untrue statement of a material fact” (Section 4.6(a)). Twitter has repeatedly made statements in such filings regarding the portion of its mDAUs that are false or spam, including statements that: “We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our mDAU during the quarter,” and “After we determine an account is spam, malicious automation, or fake, we stop counting it in our mDAU, or other related metrics.”

Mr. Musk relied on this representation in the Merger Agreement (and Twitter’s numerous public statements regarding false and spam accounts in its publicly filed SEC documents) when agreeing to enter into the Merger Agreement. Mr. Musk has the right to seek rescission of the Merger Agreement in the event these material representations are determined to be false.

Although Twitter has not yet provided complete information to Mr. Musk that would enable him to do a complete and comprehensive review of spam and fake accounts on Twitter’s platform, he has been able to partially and preliminarily analyze the accuracy of Twitter’s disclosure regarding its mDAU. While this analysis remains ongoing, all indications suggest that several of Twitter’s public disclosures regarding its mDAUs are either false or materially misleading.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Finally! Yesterday, a Louisiana federal judge ordered Joe Biden, federal agencies, and Twitter to turn over records showing government collaboration with Twitter about “disinformation,” which would be a clear violation of the First Amendment. The government isn’t allowed to interfere with free speech — even indirectly. It’s not a minor case, either — the plaintiff is the State of Missouri.

This case is long overdue.

☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Wednesday, July 13, 2022 ☙ IT’S DOOMSDAY AGAIN 🦠

Electoral doomsday for dems; an nuclear-level fear-porn PSA in NYC; cracks in the Ukraine alliance; judge orders discovery into federal Twitter meddling; New Zealand covid numbers; and much more...

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[GURPS]

Physician Threatens To Sue Twitter Over Suspension For Tweeting Scientific Article On COVID-19 Vaccine Lowering Sperm Counts (UPDATED)​

Andrew Bostom has retained the attorney who represented Alex Berenson in his lawsuit that resulted in his return to Twitter: “Dr. Bostom did not violate Twitter’s policy…. We trust that our client will not have to resort to the courts, and that Twitter will reinstate his account as requested .”



Bostom explained that his tweet was an accurate reflection of the Israeli study as described in the linked scientific article, so Twitter’s claim that he shared “false or misleading information” was itself false and misleading:

Again, quoting their publication, verbatim, based upon what the authors defined, a priori, as the primary statistical analysis (i.e., “ [a] 1) generalized estimated equation model (GEE) was used for repeated measures analysis,” which is indeed the most appropriate method!):
“sperm concentration was significantly lower due to decrease of -15.4% (confidence interval -25.5%–3.9%) compared to [Time zero/baseline] T0 (p=0.01). Moreover, [total motile count; how sperm moved] TMC percentage change reduction of 22.1% was significantly lower compared to T0 (confidence interval -35% – -6.6%, p=0.007) as well. Although concentration and TMC were reduced also on T3, these values did not reach statistical significance.”
If anything the text of my 6/19/22 tweet understated the evidence of a possible longer term, ~ 5-month follow-up decline, calling it a “rebound” when “concentration and TMC were reduced also on T3, [though] these values did not reach statistical significance.” In other words, the trend was toward a persistent decline, although it did not “reach statistical significance,” but may well have been evident, and “statistically significant,” merely by studying more subjects.
Finally, my offending tweet added the truthful observation that no data were presented on the effects of booster vaccinations, and asked whether boostering might cause another cycle of decline in the sperm counts and functional measures only studied in relation to the initial vaccination.
My suspension is yet another example of Twitter’s arbitrary, Lysenkoist breaches of informed public discourse on covid-19. The suspension must be reversed, and my account restored fully intact, immediately.

 

[GURPS]

Twitter resumes purge of scientists, critics of gender ideology after Musk pullout​

While it has publicly demanded Musk complete the deal, Twitter could also try to compel him to pay the $1 billion back-out penalty if it wanted to preserve its flexibility to crack down on purported COVID-19 misinformation, abusive behavior and "hateful conduct."

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, suspended for several months for calling hydroxychloroquine a "safe drug," said he noticed a "remarkable uptick in followers" to his account after Musk announced his intended purchase.

"I think Twitter is nervous" following its legal settlement with newly reinstated former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson, who showed "Twitter wasn't even following its own rules," Fitton told Just the News.

The number of spam accounts is "just a subset" of potential fraud, as evidenced by Twitter's alleged refusal to disclose information about its suspension processes during Musk's due diligence, according to Fitton.

"They're lying to Congress," shareholders, regulators and users, he alleged.

Ivy League epidemiologist Andrew Bostom woke up Wednesday to learn his account had been suspended for the second time in a month for purported COVID misinformation.

Twitter had reinstated Bostom hours after receiving a July 14 legal warning letter from former Trump administration lawyer James Lawrence, who also represented Berenson and recently added deplatformed user Daniel Kotzin as a client.

 

[GURPS]

Twitter threatened with class-action suit for censoring doctors who question COVID vaccines​

But with federal acknowledgments that the vaccines play only a marginal role in mitigating COVID infection and transmission, and emerging evidence that their protections against hospitalization and death were oversold, the corporations are facing potential legal challenge, with repercussions for their bottom lines.

One Ivy League epidemiologist is predicting insurers will go after vaccine makers for misleading them about "all-cause mortality" in clinical trials, while another told Just the News his lawyer will soon threaten to file a class-action suit against Twitter.

Andrew Bostom, a longtime member of the Brown University medical faculty until last year, said he would be the named plaintiff in such a suit. He was suspended by Twitter twice in a month for sharing research on vaccine side effects.

Genomics researcher Kevin McKernan, who has endured repeated lockouts for questioning the evidence behind COVID vaccine claims, told Just the News he's deciding between two attorneys, including former FDA Chief Counsel James Lawrence, who's representing Bostom and previously got journalist Alex Berenson reinstated through litigation.

"Engaging [Twitter] before I'm actually banned will likely lack standing" to sue, McKernan wrote in an email. "Also keeping a close eye on Andrew Bostom." Twitter didn't respond to queries about the legal threats.

Twitter also recently suspended MIT senior research scientist Stephanie Seneff, who studies "the role of nutrition and environmental toxicants on human disease." She's the corresponding author on a new peer-reviewed paper on "innate immune suppression" by mRNA COVID vaccines.

 

[GURPS]

Elon Musk Response to Twitter Lawsuit Shares Some Inconvenient Facts About Spam Bots​

What did Musk’s analysis find? He says the data shows there are twice as many spam bots as Twitter claims there are: [emphasis mine]

Based on that analysis, Musk alleges that during the first week of July, spam bots accounted for 33% of visible accounts on the platform and about 10% of Twitter’s monetizable daily active users, or mDAU. (Twitter, for its part, has consistently reported that spam and fake bot accounts make up less than 5% of its mDAU.)

Musk also writes that Twitter still hasn’t given his team the full information they need to analyze “the methodology it follows to determine its mDAU count,” among other data needed to figure out the company’s value to potential advertisers. And execs might have an incentive not to help clarify things:

“Twitter also does not publish the methodology it follows to determine its mDAU count, or how it excludes nonmonetizable accounts from that metric,” Musk’s answer states. “Thus, it is extremely difficult for any third party to completely recreate Twitter’s mDAU calculations.”
Musk’s answer alleges Twitter leadership has incentives to report “high mDAU numbers to stoke investor interest” and because its executive compensation structure is based partly on mDAU.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Twitter Is Objectively Pro-Groomer​

Pro-groomer social media platform Twitter has permanently suspended the Gays Against Groomers organization from their account.


Describing themselves as “a coalition of gays against the sexualization and indoctrination of children,” Gays Against Groomers was founded earlier this year by Jaimee Michell. A gay woman who describes herself as “based” and “strayed” from woke culture, Michell has compared “gender-affirming” surgery on minors to the works of Nazi butcher Dr. Josef Mengele.


That’s probably because Michell is unafraid to speak hard truths. She told OAN last month:

I created the coalition because, you know, there are many of us within the gay community that have been speaking out against what’s happening now to children in our name for a long time. But we never had a unified voice. We never had a unified front to really tackle this stuff head-on. So, I thought it would be a very powerful thing to do to band together and unite behind this message that we oppose it, that we don’t want anything to do with these people. And it’s very important.

I contacted Michell to find out how many followers her organization lost with the suspension, but haven’t heard back from her yet. Their backup account — however long it lasts — is here and after a few hours already has 6,400 followers. Growth of the suspended account had been described in one recent article as “viral.”

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

With the rise of pornography apps and sites like Only Fans, Twitter was presented with a way to do that. In this way, Twitter users could charge subscriptions to allow their followers to see their naughty bits for a fee. It would appear that Twitter was well into considering this option, but something happened on its site that involved a minor not long ago.


According to the The Verge, Twitter created a “Red Team” specifically designed to “to pressure-test the decision to allow adult creators to monetize on the platform, by specifically focusing on what it would look like for Twitter to do this safely and responsibly.”

What they found was that “safely and responsibly” wasn’t something that Twitter could do seeing as how the company doesn’t effectively police harmful sexual content. As The Verge reported, the Red Team found some major flaws in Twitter’s system when it comes to nudity and sex:

“Twitter cannot accurately detect child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity at scale,” the Red Team concluded in April 2022. The company also lacked tools to verify that creators and consumers of adult content were of legal age, the team found. As a result, in May — weeks after Elon Musk agreed to purchase the company for $44 billion — the company delayed the project indefinitely. If Twitter couldn’t consistently remove child sexual exploitative content on the platform today, how would it even begin to monetize porn?

So Twitter shelved the project…and nothing else.

As The Verge reported, Twitter still hasn’t taken any meaningful steps to counter the problem of pornography on its website and stop the uploading of things such as child porn and revenge porn. Twitter will go above and beyond to stop speech they don’t like, but angrily uploading naked pictures of your ex or distributing underage nudes is still slipping by the censors.

Twitter's Refusal to Take Down Child Porn Might Have Lead to Stopping Its Foray Into Its Own Porn Venture

redstate.com

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

 

[stgislander]

I would think this would help make Elon's case.

 

[Kyle]

instead the free world was infected by authoritarianism.

 

[GURPS]

Judge Shoots Down Twitter’s Attempt To Access Elon Musk’s Emails​

“Musk had ‘unrestricted’ personal use of his Tesla email account, that ‘no one’ at Tesla can access those emails without Musk’s consent or ‘to the extent legally necessary,’ and that ‘nobody’ at SpaceX can access his email account without Musk’s express consent,” McCormick remarked based on affidavits from lawyers and information technology professionals at the two companies. “These additional facts make Musk’s expectation of privacy objectively reasonable. Twitter’s motion is denied.”

Email policies at SpaceX and Tesla, however, make clear that “employees have no privacy interest in their work emails” and note that the firms “reserve the right to monitor those emails,” according to McCormick. The rule that applies to Musk, therefore, appears to be an exception.

“A cynic might doubt that Musk-specific policies exist at SpaceX and Tesla. … Still, to this jurist, the evidence rings true,” McCormick continued. “The court has little doubt that neither SpaceX nor Tesla view him as on par with other employees, that he has the power to direct operational decisions, and that nobody at either company would access his information without first obtaining his approval.”

 

[Sneakers]

Musk is now offering $44 mil to buy Twitter just to make the legal stuff go away.