Elon Musk

[Nudga]

Could it be that he's mining the bots and weeding them out?

Could be he is just a narcistic egotistic with more money than sense?

I see very little evidence for your theory - but quite a lot to back up mine.

Not really a theory, was just a question. I can't stand the Kitson to be honest, controlled opposition.

[DonnyOsmond]

Sounded like he was encouraged to take more of a back seat at Twitter by the execs at Tesla because their own stocks have been tanking over the last few weeks.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Sounded like he was encouraged to take more of a back seat at Twitter by the execs at Tesla because their own stocks have been tanking over the last few weeks.

Certainly have. Down from $309 in Sept to $137 today. I heard an investor on the radio on Monday saying it was because Tesla doesn't have a functioning CEO, because Musk is indulging his inner man-child on Lib-baiting on Twitter.

[danumdon]

Its always been the case that "freaks of nature" like Musk need careful handling, these types tend to crash and burn if they don't have strong background mentors, board or executive to control their "negative aspects"

With the correct people around them they can be a force for good, in this case its proving quite difficult and possibly terminal for both him and his organisations, with all the ramifications to follow.

IF, he's clever enough and the spectrum urges are tamed and managed then some good may appear from the chaos.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Sounded like he was encouraged to take more of a back seat at Twitter by the execs at Tesla because their own stocks have been tanking over the last few weeks.

Certainly have. Down from $309 in Sept to $137 today. I heard an investor on the radio on Monday saying it was because Tesla doesn't have a functioning CEO, because Musk is indulging his inner man-child on Lib-baiting on Twitter.

Now down to $122 dollars. 60% drop in Tesla share price since the man-child started demonstrating to the world on a daily basis what goes on in his head.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Like a hyperactive f**king teenager.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1610416059940495363?s=20&t=1SaWTacqHX-9-xZ2CFtHIg

What a d**khead.

[Superspy]

Glad I sold out my Tesla shares when I did. Won't be touching that with a barge pole again for a while.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Re-tweeting anti-Semitic alt-right shite today.

He's either so stupid he doesn't realise how stupid he is. Or he's deliberately doing this.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I wonder.

Is THIS the reason Musk has thrown in his lot with the batshit Right?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64293744

He could lose most of what is left of his fortune over this.

I wonder if he's trying to re-cast himself as the darling of the batshit right, so that he's got political protection if the Republicans win the Presidency next year? Maybe a way of insulating himself against these losses.

[BillyStubbsTears]

The prick is at it again, spreading Russian propaganda.

https://mobile.twitter.com/DmitryOpines/status/1622511780399312896

[ncRover]

How’s Mastodon doing in relation to Twitter nowadays then?

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Looks like he's doing his best to finally kill twitter off. Used to think he was shrewd, becoming to wonder...

[BillyStubbsTears]

He's playing at being powerful. He's a funking idiot who has struck lucky in the past but who is making what should be the greatest communication tool humanity has ever produces into an impending disaster.

[ncRover]

I don’t understand why it’s fashionable to want to see him fail.

Twitter has grown as a platform and I think improved since he came in. There was an outcry at him cutting 50% of staff but it obviously didn’t need them all.

He’s also purged the platform of bots. Which is a good thing, no?

The fact-checking “community notes” is balanced and appears on all sorts of misleading tweets from across the political spectrum. Even though you claimed there was no such thing as left-wing disinformation, BST. 1 example:

https://twitter.com/jwsal/status/1669280472667488256?s=46&t=Uj9lS9cW2ksdznjWwHqrkQ

All of the things people hysterically said would happen haven’t (the platform and society turning in to a racist, sexist, extremist hellhole and getting overtaken by Mastadon). And the reaction to this is hysterical because it’s cool to hate on Elon.

We can revisit this thread in a few months when Twitter is absolutely fine again. Had something like this happened a few years ago people would have just been like “oh a technical issue” and not thought anything of it.

[ravenrover]

What has he done to Twitter this time?
On hols so off it till I get home

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

NC I agree it's a bit of a thing to want him to fail. But restricting it's usage to the general population removes the one strong usp it has - mass, realistic information. Take that away there isn't a product.

[ncRover]

NC I agree it's a bit of a thing to want him to fail. But restricting it's usage to the general population removes the one strong usp it has - mass, realistic information. Take that away there isn't a product.

are you saying its restricted to the general population in this temporary moment or in general?

https://twitter.com/misteryrobozo/status/1675217396670291971?s=46&t=Uj9lS9cW2ksdznjWwHqrkQ

[drfchound]

NC I agree it's a bit of a thing to want him to fail. But restricting it's usage to the general population removes the one strong usp it has - mass, realistic information. Take that away there isn't a product.

are you saying its restricted to the general population in this temporary moment or in general?

https://twitter.com/misteryrobozo/status/1675217396670291971?s=46&t=Uj9lS9cW2ksdznjWwHqrkQ

Whenever people post links to Twitter I am now unable to read them, whereas in the past I could do.
Do I now need a Twitter account to be able to read stuff that has been posted on there?

[glosterred]

NC I agree it's a bit of a thing to want him to fail. But restricting it's usage to the general population removes the one strong usp it has - mass, realistic information. Take that away there isn't a product.

are you saying its restricted to the general population in this temporary moment or in general?

https://twitter.com/misteryrobozo/status/1675217396670291971?s=46&t=Uj9lS9cW2ksdznjWwHqrkQ

Whenever people post links to Twitter I am now unable to read them, whereas in the past I could do.
Do I now need a Twitter account to be able to read stuff that has been posted on there?

For those that cannot access the link this is a copy of the tweet

Some people asked me to share what I just shared in a space about the rate limits.  I don't work for Twitter but, I do architect IT cloud solutions as my day job.

It is temporary.  Twitter's rate limiting is not what everyone is thinking it is.  It is not to punish non-paying users. 

"Data scraping" is a big deal. This is where automated systems load the website or app and pull your tweets/data.  It's a huge security issue.  Automated systems are pulling every tweet/word/user account information to store in an unknown database somewhere else.

This could be state actors like China, the US Government, Australia, or other bad political actors like PAC's that are trying to gain access to everyone's information to analyze and use for nefarious things.  Manipulating what is said on the site can be done at scale with data scrapping. 

It could also be used to figure out the identity of Anons or to punish people in their country for what they tweet. Looking at you #Australia and #Canada and #UnitedKingdom

The temporary measures of limiting tweets is to protect users just as much as it is to protect the entire Twitter network from going down. They are currently scrambling to get ahead of this and tune their network security to block it from happening again. 

It's also important to note that twitter has 500,000+ servers.  That's not free.  In cloud data centers, the companies that use them have to pay for what is called "ingress and egress" of data going "in and out" of the servers.  A data scrapping event that is large enough for them to start limiting means that it was a MASSIVE event that could be considered an attack on the site.  It would also put massive load on their servers and cost them so much money it could threaten the site's financial ability to keep running.  It could be on purpose to put twitter out of business from cost alone.   

Many people are misunderstanding why @elonmusk wants people to pay for twitter or for the twitter API (a programming interface that can pull data for other sites and apps).

The reason he wants people to pay is because if China or porn companies want to create massive bot farms of fake accounts, it is currently free.  These bad actors are highly skilled and operate like a business.  They have professional staff that continuously change their tactics and Twitter engineers have to fight 24/7 to stay ahead of them.  If they have to pay for every account or pay to use the API, it would cost them A LOT of money.  This limits the amount of people who could create bots, put automated porn on here, and the hacking/scrapping/DDOS attacks on the site.  It protects you.

It also guarantees twitter will continue to exist without bloating it with tons of ads.  This is all a part of the plan to create a free-speech place we can enjoy without being controlled by outside actors or advertising companies.  I know $8 is a lot to some people but, it is for many reasons.  None of the reasons are to hurt or punish people. 

#TwitterDown #TwitterLimits #SolutionsArchitect #CloudSecurity #FreeSpeech

[BillyStubbsTears]

NC I agree it's a bit of a thing to want him to fail. But restricting it's usage to the general population removes the one strong usp it has - mass, realistic information. Take that away there isn't a product.

are you saying its restricted to the general population in this temporary moment or in general?

https://twitter.com/misteryrobozo/status/1675217396670291971?s=46&t=Uj9lS9cW2ksdznjWwHqrkQ

Must just be a coincidence how Musk suddenly prioritises protections against data scraping on the very day that Twitter's contract with Google Cloud expires...

[ncRover]

NC I agree it's a bit of a thing to want him to fail. But restricting it's usage to the general population removes the one strong usp it has - mass, realistic information. Take that away there isn't a product.

are you saying its restricted to the general population in this temporary moment or in general?

https://twitter.com/misteryrobozo/status/1675217396670291971?s=46&t=Uj9lS9cW2ksdznjWwHqrkQ

Must just be a coincidence how Musk suddenly prioritises protections against data scraping on the very day that Twitter's contract with Google Cloud expires...

Article from June 21st

https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-resumes-paying-google-cloud-bloomberg-news-2023-06-21/

[BillyStubbsTears]

NC I agree it's a bit of a thing to want him to fail. But restricting it's usage to the general population removes the one strong usp it has - mass, realistic information. Take that away there isn't a product.

are you saying its restricted to the general population in this temporary moment or in general?

https://twitter.com/misteryrobozo/status/1675217396670291971?s=46&t=Uj9lS9cW2ksdznjWwHqrkQ

Must just be a coincidence how Musk suddenly prioritises protections against data scraping on the very day that Twitter's contract with Google Cloud expires...

Article from June 21st

https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-resumes-paying-google-cloud-bloomberg-news-2023-06-21/

Does that have anything to do with the contract ending?

[ncRover]

NC I agree it's a bit of a thing to want him to fail. But restricting it's usage to the general population removes the one strong usp it has - mass, realistic information. Take that away there isn't a product.

are you saying its restricted to the general population in this temporary moment or in general?

https://twitter.com/misteryrobozo/status/1675217396670291971?s=46&t=Uj9lS9cW2ksdznjWwHqrkQ

Must just be a coincidence how Musk suddenly prioritises protections against data scraping on the very day that Twitter's contract with Google Cloud expires...

Article from June 21st

https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-resumes-paying-google-cloud-bloomberg-news-2023-06-21/

Does that have anything to do with the contract ending?

Yes the contract is getting paid, you’ve been done by some misinformation it would seem Billy.

It was reported the contract was going to end 30/06/23 due to unpaid bills earlier this month potentially causing platform instability.

Bloomberg reported on 21/06/23

“Twitter has resumed paying Google Cloud for its services, patching up a relationship that became strained after Elon Musk acquired the social network and stopped paying Google and various other companies”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-21/twitter-resumes-paying-google-cloud-patching-up-relationship?utm_medium=social&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-tech&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=tech&sref=10lNAhZ9#xj4y7vzkg

[BillyStubbsTears]

It was reported the contract was going to end 30/06/23 due to unpaid bills earlier this month potentially causing platform instability.

That's not correct. The contract was up for renewal on 30 June. That renewal date was contractually fixed a long time ago and has nothing to do with Twitter paying or not paying Google earlier last month.

[ncRover]

Bloody hell you struggle so much to admit when you’re wrong it’s a bit scary.

Ok, you prove that this problem is due to Twitter not paying Google. Even though I’ve given you evidence that they are paying them again prior to the date of the contract renewal from numerous sources including Bloomberg and Reuters.

There’s another article here from a tech writer along with the previous one underneath.

https://www.engadget.com/twitter-has-supposedly-started-paying-its-google-cloud-bill-again-213824844.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGKNEvZBaor8RNCLmmACqTFH4G8PxM1YWaQQVvaJqIlpu3QYEzV0_haKSnN1kW0nHL6Hh1umvF5uxfDF_Ly7X09uyCUrFlP3OP7V0cRQFEv8uYXr6lpEj_VfXV_hG3FwOApaLMW-JEDp2ZTJXRoLjgOiN5k2PkU7oyFP7Lw5t5Gn

[wilts rover]

If Musk is concerned about 'data-scraping' surely he would prioritise the people who pay him money in limiting the amount of info they put out there so it doesn't get swept? But he appears to be putting them at more risk by allowing them more tweets?

As for the he has paid the contract with Google and there is nothing to worry about - why has he been trying to move off Google Cloud?

Twitter signed a contract with Google in 2018 and expanded its GCP footprint in 2021. Twitter was reportedly due to pay Google some $300 million in 2023, as part of a multi-year deal worth around $1 billion, that was up for renewal at the end of June.

Reports said Google could not get through to Musk to discuss the unpaid bills, and went as far as attempting to reach him through his other firm, SpaceX, also a GCP customer.

Twitter has reportedly been ‘scrambling’ to cut costs by moving services off Google Cloud before the contract ends on June 30, but this process was taking longer than expected. Systems under threat of being cut off included those dedicated to fighting spam and removing content featuring child sexual abuse, extremism, and gore.

The Information previously reported that the company has been seeking to renegotiate its contract with Google in recent months, following similar renegotiation attempts with Amazon and Oracle last year.

Since he took over Twitter for $44 billion last year, Elon Musk has been looking to reduce the company’s IT footprint and costs, by reducing both cloud and on-premises IT resources.

The company has closed one of its three US data centers and reportedly exited another – with Musk’s other company Tesla taking vacated space in at least one of the sites. It has also cut back on server capacity, and fired IT and software workers that kept the service online.

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/twitter-pays-google-cloud-bill-fixes-relationship-report/

[wilts rover]

Bloody hell you struggle so much to admit when you’re wrong it’s a bit scary.

Ok, you prove that this problem is due to Twitter not paying Google. Even though I’ve given you evidence that they are paying them again prior to the date of the contract renewal from numerous sources including Bloomberg and Reuters.

There’s another article here from a tech writer along with the previous one underneath.

https://www.engadget.com/twitter-has-supposedly-started-paying-its-google-cloud-bill-again-213824844.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGKNEvZBaor8RNCLmmACqTFH4G8PxM1YWaQQVvaJqIlpu3QYEzV0_haKSnN1kW0nHL6Hh1umvF5uxfDF_Ly7X09uyCUrFlP3OP7V0cRQFEv8uYXr6lpEj_VfXV_hG3FwOApaLMW-JEDp2ZTJXRoLjgOiN5k2PkU7oyFP7Lw5t5Gn

Has the contract been renewed from 1st July?

[BillyStubbsTears]

NC

I'm really not sure what part of this you are struggling with. Take a big deep breath and think about what we know.

1) The contract was always up for renewal on 30 June.

2) Yes, Twitter stopped paying earlier in June. The contract end date wasn't caused by this. Quite possibly it was a negotiating tactic. We don't know.

3) Apparently Twitter started paying again about a fortnight ago. That doesn't change the fact that the contract was up for renewal on 30 June.

Do you disagree with any of that?

If not, please rein in the insults.

[ncRover]

I wouldn’t say that was an insult.

No but then it literally says in that last link:

“Twitter has resumed paying its Google Cloud contract, according to Bloomberg.”

Why would the contract not get renewed by Google if Twitter were paying it again?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Do you really need me to explain the logic again?

Twitter was in a contract until 30 June. They were contractually obliged to pay until at least 30 June.

They stopped and then re-started paying in mid June.

None of that changes the fact that the contract was due to end on 30 June.

I really don't understand what you're not getting here.