Lauren WeinsteinApr 5, 2023

**** Elon's Soviet style post-event alteration of Twitter policy to attack NPR ****

Let's be clear what just happened. Elon Musk apparently was unhappy about at least one NPR story. So he arbitrarily slapped NPR with the "state affiliated media" label usually reserved for propaganda outlets under government editorial control like Russia's RT and the Chinese Communist Party newspaper. NPR only gets a tiny percentage of its funding from the government, which conservatives have long been trying to zero out completely. Voice of America, BBC, and "Stars and Stripes" are not so designated, despite being under government editorial control.

Worse, Elon *retroactively* moved after the fact to specifically remove NPR from the section of Twitter policy that explained that outlets like BBC and NPR were not considered to be government-affiliated media.

He continues to respond to official queries with a poop emoji.

No media organization or advertiser is safe dealing with him. Nor is the U.S. government. End these relationships as quickly as practicable, before you regret being in bed with his twisted sensibilities.

Show threadJL RobersonApr 5, 2023
@lauren The amazing thing about #ElonMusk's power over free speech: if you leave his club and go talk in a different one, he cannot stop you.
Musk only has power over free speech insofar as people GRANT it to him, and his is not the only platform. Really, it's trash now. If everyone credible leaves him, he just eats 44 billion dollars he paid for a blog with the biggest comments section, him and his Nazis alone
Show threadLauren WeinsteinApr 5, 2023
@jlroberson Most users there can't leave. There is nowhere with similar reach or as easy to use where they can go. Mastodon isn't it, obviously.
Show threadJL RobersonApr 5, 2023
@lauren I disagree, obviously.
Show threadLauren WeinsteinApr 5, 2023
@jlroberson I've basically stopped recommending new people sign up here. I'm tired of hearing back about onboarding problems (even from highly technical people) and the HATE spewed on people here who don't fit "the preferred profile". Not to mention the technical problems that there's no interest in actually fixing. Mastodon is a toy. A *fun* toy to be sure. But just a toy.
Show threadserklarvel
@lauren @jlroberson every week, #mastodon gets 300 thousand users and they are at least smart enough to understand what an instance is. It's a good and sizeable community. Texas Observer was saved by Mastodon users, for example.
Apr 5, 2023 at 6:39pmMastodon for Android