Mastodawn

Lisa Chetelat Sep 1, 2023

A man in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to death for his tweets, and surprise: Elon Musk is NOT funding his legal bill as promised because there's a good chance that the necessary data to identify this man came from the second largest shareholder of Twitter: the Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Musk has been awfully silent about this as you can't really make your “freedom of speech!!” argument when you assist with killing a retired teacher for the regime critic posts they made on your platform, only possible because that regime owns a huge chunk of “your” platform.

Elon Musk Silent on Man Sentenced to Death for His Tweets

The incident is the latest test of the limits of Elon Musk's support for free speech.

Newsweek

Erik Uden 🚩Sep 1, 2023

Mastodon has no profit motive, Mastodon has no shareholders. Why people choose a platform that needs to make money and make their shareholders happy to focus their obsession with a grotesque misunderstanding of “freedom of speech” around is, to put it best, beyond me.

Sven Michels Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden easy to use. You don't need to understand anything, you just use it. An issue a lot FOSS People and Tools have to learn, still.

MutualityWSDEs Sep 1, 2023

@sven @ErikUden

Nonsense to claim Twitter doesn't have to be learned.

Sven Michels Sep 1, 2023

@MutualityWSDEs @ErikUden i wonder where or who said "doesn't have to be learned". Its about the complexity that usually is higher with FOSS and do use it "right". And its often neglected that people have those issues.

MutualityWSDEs Sep 1, 2023

@sven @ErikUden

FOSS etc is definitely often harder to use but to say Twitter doesnt need to be understood/learned before using is wrong.

Also, Signal Messenger is as easy to use as WhatsApp but people don't even try it, so I don't think ease of use is necessarily or even significantly the barrier - we all know all sorts of people who have learned IT-related things that 20-30 years ago, we would have said was beyond them.

Mainly our grand/parents.

Sven Michels Sep 1, 2023

@MutualityWSDEs @ErikUden again: where or who said "Twitter doesnt need to be understood/learned"? Only you bring up that point all the time. I said its easier(!), that's all. Please stop making up such things.

MutualityWSDEs Sep 1, 2023

@sven @ErikUden

"You don't need to understand anything, you just use it."

What's this in reference to?

Sven Michels Sep 1, 2023

@MutualityWSDEs @ErikUden yeah, you don't have multiple "servers", no issues with "go to original page to see more", no "global trends". You go to a page, sign up, post stuff, world can see. Because "world" is in this case only twitter/a single platform. And this is a huge difference from Mastodon for example. Especially in the peak times of people switching, there was a lot to explain.

furina 💧⚖️Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden Well said - Elon’s twitter is nothing but a tapestry of lies.

CrazyMyra Sep 1, 2023

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/09/twitter-saudi-arabia-dissident-spying

Ex-Twitter employee found guilty of spying on Saudi dissidents

Ahmad Abouammo found to have given users’ personal information to Mohammed bin Salman’s aide

The Guardian

Karl Louis Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden As long as X has better functionality, better GUI and much more users there won't be a shift to Mastodon.

Jonathan Schofield Jul 18, 2024

@karllouis @ErikUden but it doesn’t. It has *different* functionality that is more popular for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with being ‘better’

levampyre Sep 2, 2023

@ErikUden This sounds a lot like victim blaming. A person is going to get killed and you're basically saying: "Well, they should have used Mastodon." Really!?

Erik Uden 🚩Sep 2, 2023

@levampyre That's not my point at all - I'm talking about the weird freeze peach libertarians who think Twitter is the epitome of freedom when as per examples like this one can obviously see how that's not the case.

Never would I blame someone for getting killed when all they did was opening an account on a social network. The same could've happened on Mastodon if the admins had given into the pressure, my point is only that it's more likely on for-profit social networks as shareholders can have ulterior motives like this.

I'm trying to tell a cautionary tale, not claim the victim is at fault.

Erik Uden 🚩Sep 1, 2023

I just saw someone posted this on Reddit!

Thanks to whoever did this! Please repost my posts, I'm very thankful they get exposed to a larger audience. Also nice design there

Elon Musk is NOT funding his legal bill as promised.

Posted in r/WhitePeopleTwitter by u/AlphaXChance • 19,881 points and 697 comments

reddit

Joshix Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden du bist echt famegeil

joosteto Jul 16, 2024

The post has now been deleted by the user

Hugo Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden Terrible news.
Nobody should use Twitter anymore.

Oral Rob Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. Freedom of speech is when I get to be racist online. Not when I'm protected from persecution for my speech.

(Tone indicator: joking)

Inga stands with 🇺🇦 🇵🇸Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden we will fund your legal bill¹

¹ only if you're a Nazi or a transphobe on the West

xs4me2 Sep 1, 2023

Indeed, they virtually own the platform now...

Where are the protests at the Saudi embassies?

Världens bästa Kille™Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden I’m no lawyer but shouldn’t he (or his estate) be able to sue Musk in American court?

Erik Uden 🚩Sep 1, 2023

@thelovebing by passing over data to the Saudi regime knowing it may lead to his prosecution / execution? I'm not a lawyer either but it sounds like a gross violation of various data privacy acts!

Världens bästa Kille™Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden nah, because he promised to cover legal fees but didn't and maybe this guy will die because of it. But now I realize that may only be applicable if this guy actually asked for help.

XorOwl Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden this could have used a content warning

admiralteal Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden Ah, but you see, that's not his employer. He's retired. Musk's offer doesn't extend to retired people. He thinks you should've kept working.

Erik Uden 🚩Sep 1, 2023

@admiralteal hahahahah

Yeekasoose Sep 1, 2023

Anyone who believes Musk bought Twitter to promote free speech is downright delusional. The opposite is true.

Erik Uden 🚩Sep 1, 2023

@Yeekasoose I find this situation so funny because people like us precisely predicted what was gonna happen, all alt-right trolls and frozen peaches thought Musk would save the world or some shit, then precisely what we predicted happened, and somehow we're still the delusional ones.

So, yeah, you can't help Musk fans. To a degree I'm extremely thankful for Musk to exist, because it's just another easy filter for whose opinion to ignore. It's such an instant idiot indicator that it makes conversing with people a lot easier. You think Musk is awesome? How about we never talk again? Heh

Yeekasoose Sep 1, 2023

Never ceases to amaze me how many of the fanboys copied his pivot to the far right without as much as a second thought.

@ErikUden @gavinkarlmeier

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden the Saudis OWN that man, the man who calls himself 'the Richest on Earth'

Glenn Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden Elon Musk believes in freedom of speech in a libertarian sort of way. In other words, "I may not agree that what I am saying is true, but I will defend my right to say it to your death. Otherwise, you are on your own."

SteveBologna Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden Melon husk is a direct threat to normalcy, decency and is the poster boy for oligarchs and what they can get away with. Absolutely screw him, his poorly constructed cars, his social media company, and jam a space X up his ass. He’s a Russian shill

Frank Verhoeven Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden *Technically* the man isn’t employed by his hangman so Elmo is *technically* not obliged to help him?

imajeff Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden I agree Elon can't be held to past words. It helps to remember 3 things: (1) Take responsibility for yourself (no limit to whom I speak).. (2) Elon is a businessman.. (3) Elon is autistic (up to you to understand literally what that means concerning every conflict between himself and humans)

Musk explains the small print of his defense promise to X users.

BoredomFestival Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden technically, he did say "employer", not "autocratic rulers of your country"

Rora Borealis Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden Zero surprises here, unfortunately.

WinzWeb Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden I think you are twisting the story. It's a case of 2015, case of blasphemy. It's pending review. It's not a case of employer-employee relation. It's a case for Amnesty and Human Rights.

sparseMatrix 📻Sep 1, 2023

Saudi Arabia owns Musk at this point.

Don't tell his fanbois though.

🏳️‍⚧️NotPike🍀Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden So what you're saying is Musk is full of shit?

Interesting... 🤔

Erik Uden 🚩Sep 1, 2023

@notpike yeah, I'm really surprised as well! Who could've seen this one coming, heh...

🏳️‍⚧️NotPike🍀Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden yep 😅

Hugo Slabbert ⚠️Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden waiting for Elon to come back with "I said if your employer treats you unfairly. I never said we'd defend you if your government tries to kill you over something you said on here!"

Erik Uden 🚩Sep 1, 2023

@hugo he would so say this to escape from the situation from a semantics difference in his words.

ten white women in the suburbs Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden money is a form of free speech so murder also is i guess?

miket330 Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden like trumplethinskin he talks a good game

Fuck it, it's a meme acc now Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden According to Musk, freedom of speech does not mean freedom of everything fucking else.

KristFist Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden #perspective

TheHerpaDerpaSherpa Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden God the world is a terrible place. Everywhere, all at once, all the time

Erik Uden 🚩Sep 1, 2023

@TheHerpaDerpaSherpa it's only getting worse from a utilitarian perspective! I'm very sure rich people like Musk love the state of the world and are quite happy with how power and wealth is distributed (as it's mainly on their end ;)

TheHerpaDerpaSherpa Sep 1, 2023

@ErikUden I'm well off and it's still depressing. I can't elect candidates who will change people's lives for the better, my kids have a dismal and declining future im store and human misery abounds while those around me do nothing. You have to be a special kind of asshole for the happiness of others to not matter to you. I think "special kind of asshole" is a prerequisite for becoming a billionaire

Mye Sep 2, 2023

@ErikUden there is a very small asterisk in the tweet pointing on very fine fine print that visible only to Musk.

nojhan, à gauche de Devadata Sep 2, 2023

@ErikUden Not even critics they actually made, critics they just retweeted.

Kaito Sep 2, 2023

@ErikUden I certainly don't feel good that a government that kills people for having 'different thoughts' funds this machine.

RobertSE Sep 2, 2023

@ErikUden @ankedb

ProScience 🇪🇺Sep 2, 2023

In least unsurprising news a known lying full blown fascist who's spreading misinformation acts like a full blown fascist, lied and spread misinformation.