Many ardent supporters of free speech were alarmed when Elon Musk appointed former NBC Universal executive and WEF darling Linda Yaccorino as the new CEO of ...

AI summary:

Elon Musk’s stance as a champion of free speech faces scrutiny due to his Twitter platform’s direction. While Musk’s purported dedication to transparency is questioned, his efforts to shape Twitter into an all-encompassing control hub have raised alarms about heightened surveillance and control. Appointing a content suppressor further fans doubts. While Musk has supported censored individuals, he’s also accused of exacerbating divisions. Kanye West’s return involves adhering to restrictive rules, sparking worries about constrained expression. The notion of Musk as a free speech advocate is contested, with his actions and intent arousing skepticism. Amidst a shifting Twitter landscape, suspicions grow regarding Musk’s role in fostering genuine expressive freedom.

    • CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.netEnglish
      7·
      11 months ago

      It’s literally how he makes his money.

      Make huge unbelievable claims -> Claims get circulated by media -> Media gets recirculated by investors -> Stock is pumped up and sold -> Repeat

          • SkySyrup@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            11 months ago

            I suppose, but a manager could have done the same thing. He is doing it because he thinks he can get into the history books.

            • p1mrx@sh.itjust.works
              1·
              11 months ago

              When has a “manager” ever persuaded world-class engineers to stop what they’re doing and build something cool? Who cares about words in a history book, when you have a fleet of autonomous fire-breathing metal monsters?

              I think Elon’s been a total douche since the “pedo guy” comments, but that doesn’t invalidate his past accomplishments.

              • SkySyrup@sh.itjust.works
                1·
                11 months ago

                fair. But as far as I understand, he hasn’t done anything significant by himself since SolarCity (if the boring company doesn’t count, because wtf why would you just move traffic underground I could rant about this for hours sorry)

  • Hyperreality@kbin.social
    101·
    11 months ago

    He sued Top Gear for being critical of the tesla roadster in 2008. (And before someone pipes in about that being justified despite them losing twice, because you inadvertently bought the tesla spin on that case back when people didn’t yet realise Musk was full of shit, please do a bit of research.)

    He lied about founding tesla and continually lied about the actual founders. When they sued for libel in 2009, Musk settled.

    He banned the guy who posted publicly available information about his private jet on twitter.

    The list goes on.

    Musk has never been free speech. He has always been a cunt.

      • moomoomoo309@programming.devEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        Okay, that one is hard to grok either way. Confinity and x.com merged, the resulting company, still Confinity, made Elon the CEO, where he was 6 months later fired for incompetence. Elon was the founder of x.com, but not Confinity, so it’s more about how pedantic you want to be than anything else. Did the Confinity people found paypal, was it Thiel, under whom the name paypal came about, was it Musk? There’s not really a clear answer one way or the other.

  • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
    7·
    11 months ago

    For every person claiming to be a supporter of free speech as a general principle, and who’d defend it even for their opponents; count at least nine people who babble about it only when personally convenient, who’d happily silence their opponents when given the chance.

    Little Musk is part of the nine.