JustSteev
Mike Masnick ✅I see another influx to Mastodon in our future...
Half Cocked Law@mmasnick You could have fooled me that they hadn't already implemented this requirement for recommendations.
Thomas@mmasnick “This is the only realistic way to ensure my AI bots answer polls in such a way that the outcome is always favorable to me.”
Brian Fitzpatrick@mmasnick Also, this dude continues to try the stupidest shit that isn't going to solve anything.
El Duvelle@mmasnick Hopefully for #Maystodon ! (Not a thing yet, but will be!)
Whitney McNamara@mmasnick The guy genuinely believes that there's no space between "I need money" and "there's no other realistic option," doesn't he?
Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾@mmasnick Prob a dumb question but what's stopping bots from getting that blue check mark?
@liztai absolutely nothing.
@mmasnick Well that sounds like a brilliant plan then! 🙃 😆
Alex Zani
Sasha Fox@AlexandreZani @mmasnick @liztai Individuals? No. Corporations, billionaires, states; it's nothing for them. 10,000 bots is what, $80k?
And that suddenly becomes a much more worthwhile investment, because they represent a much larger percentage of accounts when it's "only accounts paying for Twitter Blue" as compared to "all twitter accounts"
@AlexandreZani @mmasnick @liztai Fill the "For You" recommendations with propaganda to reach a large number of people for a small cost.
Nicole Parsons@AlexandreZani @sashafox @mmasnick @liztai
The Republican billionaire donors funding fascism think that $1.1 billion on the 2022 midterms is a pittance.
They're preparing to spend any amount to end American democracy.
Dan@AlexandreZani @mmasnick @liztai why would it be their money? They just have to grab stolen credit cards (or if a government entity - generate them).
I mean think about how many scammers pay for ads now. This is cheaper than that. By a lot.
Heck, I won’t be surprised if his ad revenue drops because of this.
The Republican billionaire donors, foreign & domestic, funding Trump already have a system of money laundering in place via GoFundMe, GiveSendGo, PayPal, cryptocurrency, credit card fraud, payment processors, straw donor bank accounts.
Examine a large scale pattern of micropayments from small dollar donors from megachurches and nonprofits. As long as they're below the threshold, the source doesn't need to be recorded for the FEC.
Musk's most recent scam just adds to the repertoire of grift.
TeamRose@Npars01 seems more than possible…
But probable…
Who are we kidding…
It’s an FFING certainty!🧾
ig88@Npars01 that right there is a solid business model.
It used to be illegal to engage in foreign threat funding for terrorism since 9/11.
OPEC+ got smart.
Now they fund far-right conservative political parties instead, & are able to attack democracy with impunity, using corrupt Republican & Tory politicians.
The political violence gets whitewashed by the political party.
Moneyed oil interests can keep their hands clean as they support genocidal war in Ukraine & unresponsive & anti-democracy elites in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia etc
OPEC triggered a global recession in the 1970's as punishment for supporting Israel & are going to do it again.
OPEC financed decades of terrorism with airplane hijackings & bombings over Israel. Saudi Arabia funded 9/11.
OPEC got $3 billion a day profits for 50 years.
After the Arab Spring, OPEC joined Russia & switched tactics & started funding election interference.
These 20 companies are prepared to fry the planet & democracy.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions
Steve Geee 🤘@mmasnick the gradual transition to fully paid account access.
Aram Zucker-Scharff@mmasnick God Elon keeps saying the dumbest shit
Taco Blacc@mmasnick The more obviously weird stuff he does with it the more I suspect his real goal was to destroy it
Gojira1000@psychoalpastor @mmasnick Naw, he's not that smart. He paid too much for it, failed to weasel out and figures he can still have it make money as some libertarian Parler. He's just wrong and dumb.
Dr James J TeethHe really does suck at advertising.
posiputt@mmasnick I wonder if he may even be sincerely convinced that paid-for votes or visibility are a means of democratization. maybe he just is not able to fathom that anyone could lack the means to participate that way. the rich kid kind of thinking, because they never ever meet anyone who is not also rich, so they grow up to think of this as the default. so poverty has to be one's own fault. just eat less avocado toast. buy fewer cars. just stop being poor. and pay for twitter blue.
@mmasnick I see a very large influx of crypto bot accounts paying $8 from stolen credit cards to guarantee above the scroll placement on the 15th.
Adam Shostack 
@mmasnick or you could drive users away, reducing the value of running a botnet?
Norman
Jesse Harris@mmasnick And here I was wondering what happened in the last couple of weeks to spike signups to over 300K/week again.
Eric Wedaa@mmasnick thank goodness I'm already here!
jrm
Brandon Sellers@mmasnick I literally just downloaded this app because of this 😂
podkaynelives
Iron Curtain (Chiptunes)
Robert Stribley@mmasnick Does he really not get that he’s setting the platform on fire? Is it intentional? Or is he really this dumb? Both?
Musk's purchase of Twitter was funded by oil oligarchs and their financiers at this time for a reason.
Big Oil is funding anti-democracy movements around the globe.
Twitter makes the perfect disinformation platform for a Jan 6 do-over. Twitter is replacing Facebook in time for the 2024 election.
Lady Artemis@mmasnick "Only people who agree to pay me can vote in the polls about whether I stay as ceo or not"
It's really funny to learn that he's still this mad about that.
Ursa@mmasnick
Twitter, soon:
Twitter, soon:
Logan Severance@mmasnick The “verification” process for Twitter is literally “do you have a valid credit card”. At least other companies like Meta required some form of ID for verification (although that comes with its own issues) I really don’t think this is gonna stop a lot of bot/spam accounts. Additionally, I love that all major policy changes were supposed to be voted on in the future.
HeroOfDermwood@mmasnick So, is this in response of that poll he posted asking if he should resign as head of Twitter?
BoredomFestival@mmasnick <Narrator Voice> It was, indeed, a hopeless losing battle
Derek Bruff
Sean@mmasnick Why is anyone still on that manipulative and racist platform?
Babs 💙🐝⌛️🦋🔻@mmasnick What's funny is I was on Twitter earlier. Musk has super-boosted his account but I still didn't see it on my Home page. And I was looking at the For You view. The first I heard of this announcement was here on Mastodon through your post.
Walker Boh🛡@mmasnick yeah I thought exactly the same thing when I read it...
Chris@mmasnick absolutely crazy to not be able to vote on a poll without paying a subscription
neutrino78xhmph. Well the paid blue accounts all agree with everything he says, so I don't really see a point to the polls at that point lol
Jay 🆘@mmasnick @tchambers Incredible. This is because he knows polls are more likely to go his way if only Blue subscribers can vote in them, right?
Chance The Lawyer ⚡︎@mmasnick the ides of April
Richard Penner@chancerydaily @mmasnick
April 13 is the ides of April.
Mark David Johansen@mmasnick Oh well. Anyway, I haven’t used the For You tab except when I’ve been fooled by a swipe too far, or Twitter pushes it to me. I switch it right back to Following.
System IV, Building K@mmasnick “OMG, I have complete and total control of this platform and its accounts and I don’t know how to manage these accounts on this platform.”
anon maskodon@mmasnick I made a mastodon in preparation for twitter's downfall. I don't see bird site going away anytime soon, but it's definitely in its decline under musk's ridiculous money-solves-all management