I’m not very savvy when it comes to social media, but I do quite enjoy Twitter and as a big Tesla and Space X fan, I respect much of what Elon Musk has professionally accomplished. Here are my thoughts on Musk and Twitter, especially as it pertains to travel blogging.
Elon Musk, Twitter, And Travel Blogging
Musk is a visionary, the Howard Hughes of our day. Eccentric indeed, but the sort of dreamer that has great potential and has already done so much good (just ask Ukraine about Starlink). Now comes a test for Musk, though. Will he torpedo Twitter or make it a more robust marketplace of exchange?
I’m not going to wade directly into the political debate. I did see that United Airlines and others have pulled advertising from Twitter and I note the controversy behind the mass firing of so many employees, despite Twitter being unprofitable. I will not directly address the former President returning to Twitter.
Practically, though, I do hope some changes are implemented.
First, I am still wondering why my post was censored concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Twitter’s deplorable ministry of information team never responded to my multiple inquiries seeking justification and explanation for my suspension. Ideas should be freely expressed, even if some deem them violent or offensive. In the marketplace of ideas, truth can be overshadowed by lies, but that is the risk we take that is far better than an oligarchy determining which viewpoints are valid.
Practically, one tool to avoid bots and other agents who auto-post on Twitter with malicious intent is to limit the number of tweets per hour, say anywhere from 5-10. That diminishes the ability of bots to post hundreds or even thousands of times per hour.
Second, I do welcome the proposed change on verifying accounts (the blue checkmark). Up until 2019, it was easy to verify your account with the submission of photo ID and other verifying credentials. I do not like the current arbitrary system of determining which accounts are “noteworthy” and not really offering clear metrics on which accounts are worthy of a checkmark. The blue checkmark should represent a “real” account, not just those that Twitter feels are worthy. It matters because blue checkmarks absolutely carry more credibility than a non-verified account (and I think that is less the case on Instagram or Facebook).
What are bloggers? They are not journalists (at least I do not claim to be one) and yet we are often newsmakers, with blogs breaking stories and mainstream outlets covering them later (sometimes giving us credit, but often not). Blogging serves an important niche and nicely encapsulates our new Information Age. While there are distinct drawbacks to everyone having a platform and folks being able to retreat to their corners of the internet for highly-filtered information, I will continue to use Twitter because I like the format and the premise of exchanging ideas in a pithy, concise manner.
CONCLUSION
I wish Elon Musk all the best at Twitter. He has a got a big job ahead of him and his draconian changes may well backfire and destroy much of the value of the platform. I hope that is not the case. Twitter, like other social media platforms, is a two-edged sword, with the potential for great good and great harm. I will not walk away because Twitter is a pathway to Live and Let’s Fly for many readers. But let’s hope that Twitter does not soon resemble to UK Daily Mail comments section…
be nice if they could get a handle on this issue. Exclusive: Brands blast Twitter for ads next to child pornography accounts https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-brands-blast-twitter-ads-next-child-pornography-accounts-2022-09-28/
@ECH: a bunch of woke brands are saying they are leaving Twitter because of Musk. They have no idea what a trash that platform has been and they were happy to advertise there. Musk said he will happily expose all these brands leaving the platform so we all can see how fake they are. Nothing has been touched yet and they are all melting down but not before Musk acquired it. Bunch of disgraceful people.
yes, Santastico, it’s truly a hellscape. What boggles my mind is how few parents know that Twitter allows hardcore XXX porn, unlike Facebook and Instagram. Bet they wouldn’t let their kids use Twitter if they knew that. But overall, the former leadership is despicable. truly insane:
As ‘censor chief’ Vijaya Gadde is fired, read how Twitter had refused to take down child porn even as victim’s parents begged for its removal. On Friday (October 28), the Head of Legal Policy, Trust, and Safety at Twitter, Vijaya Gadde, was booted out of service by the company’s new owner Elon Musk. Gadde, who spent 11 years at the social media giant, had earned the distinction of being the ‘censor chief‘ of Twitter. She was responsible for terminating the Twitter account of US President Donald Trump and killing the ‘Hunter Biden story’, which impacted voting in the 2020 US elections. However, during her tenure, Twitter failed to remove videos of child sexual abuse despite repeated requests by the minor victim and his parents. https://www.opindia.com/2022/10/censor-chief-vijaya-gadde-is-fired-how-twitter-refused-to-take-down-child-porn/
Fantastic post Matthew! I agree with everything you said. Twitter has become a cesspool under the woke censorship where they controlled what people could see based on their political view. I am open for free speech as long as it is fair, respectful and the truth. No fake news should be allowed no matter what political affiliation it comes from. People think they can hide behind a computer screen and a fake name and write whatever they want and that should not be the case. What is funny is that Musk hasn’t touched Twitter yet (nothing has changed) and the snowflakes are all melting in advance. Grow up, get a job and stop whining. BTW, regarding the people that will be laid off and all the crying, the former CEO of Twitter came out today to apologize for growing the company too fast and hiring more people than needed. He screwed up. Not Musk.
Jack may be apologizing now but he was signing Elon’s praises earlier this year: “Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.” https://twitter.com/jack/status/1518772756069773313
@ECH: Jack and the team he built at Twitter were the most obnoxious people on Earth. They thought they were kings, untouchables. Their Censor Chief was disgraceful. What a terrible example she was by the young generation by simply deciding what was aligned with her communist views and if not simply canceling them. She was the example of indoctrination that the left loves to impose on people that are more inclined to be manipulated. Musk did his homework before buying Twitter. None of those guys he booted on day 1 should be surprised they were gone.
“the most obnoxious people on Earth”
When, on your days off?
Trust me. I have friends and family members that interviewed for jobs at Twitter. That came out every single time during their interviews. Some got offers and said “no thanks”. Horrible culture.
So you say.
Remember Aaron… no matter what the situation, santastico has friends that are involved in one way or another
And family…and he has lived there or visits that at least every other month…and has worked in that industry…
Your statement that Twitter censored based on political view is absolutely 100% not true. You are absolutely 100% straight up lying.
Nobody’s arguing that twitter needed to be right-sized… the execution of that is simply atrocious.
So what was it about my post that was worthy of suspending me? I linked to it above.
@Ryan: what did you expect? Musk coming to every employee that would be fired and apologizing for them in advance? Giving them 1 week in a resort for them to recover? Pay for a psychologist? Anyone that worked in that rotten environment should be prepared for this. These are whining snowflakes that are always finding drama in everything. They were a fake company, manipulative and liars. Everyone working there knew it. It is similar to working with something illegal and the be surprised when the police bursts int the place and they go to jail. There were no saints working there. What is unfortunate is that the top guys will leave with million$ and million$ in severance and stocks while the others won’t. You work in a shady business, it is your fault and your should expect the outcome.
Calm down, snowflake, you’re practically a puddle at this point.
How can they be a fake company? Did Musk pay fake millions to acquire it? Also, from a legal standpoint, what was illegal about them?
Nobody is saying Musk has to do any of things you say, but maybe a bit more time between being told they are being fired and actually being let go might have been a bit better.
When a company that has a business to share information, manipulates what information they want people to see, that’s fake to me. People working there knew what was going on so no surprises here.
Regarding your comment “but maybe a bit more time between being told they are being fired and actually being let go might have been a bit better.” Have you ever worked for Corporate America? If not, let me tell you that what happened at Twitter has been common practice for many many years in many of the companies you know and buy products from. The difference is that nobody talks about it. I can tell you several examples of friends that did absolutely nothing wrong to show up at their jobs and realize their badges had been deactivated. When they asked security to check what was going on they were told someone from HR would meet with them. A box with their personal belongings was handed out to them and an envelope with their rights and next steps regarding their severance, COBRA insurance, etc… was also delivered. That was it. I had friends that naively only used their corporate cell phone as their own cell phone and when fired lost all their personal contacts that were stored at the phone since when they were told they were being fired their phones were confiscated. Thus, there is nothing new happening at Twitter. That’s called Corporate America, like it or not. Now, I am saying it is right. I am just saying that it nothing new.
So…it’s basically fake to you. By your definition then, snowflake, most businesses must be fake.
Thanks for stating what all already know about corporate America, Captain Obvious. There are just as many instances and examples were people are given sufficient time when they are let go, and had Musk wanted to, he could have done the same.
False the facts show this has happened.
Lefties like you choose to ignore reality and angry your echo chamber and propaganda machine are no longer under your control.
Are you really that pathetic that you have to spend your life spreading vile lies on a travel blog. Enjoy your life on earth, cause its gonna get really hot when you pass on.
Shush pedo.
BRAVO!
People who use woke as a pejorative in that way tend to be supporters of homophobic, racist, misogynistic, etc views.
You’re not open to free speech, you’re open to hate speech.
For all your ranting, you come as a huge whiny snowflake yourself.
” be supporters of homophobic, racist, misogynistic, etc views.”
you say that like it’s a bad thing?
If you’re paying attention you’re all of those and more.
Hate speech is free speech and you’re the snowflake it’s showing more and more. We won and will continue to remake this country.
“you say that like it’s a bad thing?
If you’re paying attention you’re all of those and more.”
Of course it’s a bad thing. You’re contradicting yourself by not saying it’s a bad thing, then accusing me of being those bad things, when we all know who the degenerate on here is, and it’s me.
“Hate speech is free speech and you’re the snowflake it’s showing more and more. We won and will continue to remake this country.”
Hate speech is vile speech only supported by vile people such as yourself. What exactly have you won, by playing dirty? And God help the people of this country after you are done remaking it.
Woke is dying all around the country even hollywood is backing away from it because of their recent failures.
Affirmative action is about to be banned so the last vestiges of systemic racism in this country are gone with it.
When the GOP retakes the government next week we can start working on dealing with the gender politics problem and the attacks of women that causes. (by women I of course mean human females)
“Woke is dying all around the country even hollywood is backing away from it because of their recent failures.”
Nah, there will always be people to counter hateful racist homophobic misogynistic Antisemites such as yourself.
“Affirmative action is about to be banned so the last vestiges of systemic racism in this country are gone with it.”
Wow, you really are that delusional, aren’t you?
“When the GOP retakes the government next week we can start working on dealing with the gender politics problem and the attacks of women that causes. (by women I of course mean human females)”
Too bad you don’t count as a human being. The GOP “retaking” America will be one of the biggest disasters to hit America in a long time.
My thoughts on Twitter Blue subscription: I am curious as to how twitter can verify all of the accounts that sign up for twitter blue. Can one guarantee through the new scheme that anyone with a blue checkmark is exactly who they say they are (similar to the level of checks banks go through to validate who you say you are)? If that is not the case, doesn’t “paying for a blue checkmark” devalues the platform in general and make it easier for bad actors? I almost think that there are people on twitter that add a tremendous value to Musk and his platform that should have a checkbox of a different sort.
Personally, I am not optimistic due to the combination of 1) the explosion of racial slurs and nazi memes on the platform after Musk’s takeover 2) Musk vastly overpaying 3) the s* show in terms of how he handled the layoff’s of half its staff and people having to work long a** hours following the takeover for a chance to keep the jobs ….
There is a real societal cost to disinformation that I personally believe is being undervalued. At the same time, there is a real societal benefit to speech and the free flow of ideas. Reasonable people can disagree on where and how to draw that line.
All that being said, though your politics and mine do not agree, you have a great blog, i generally enjoy reading your content and I wish you nothing but the best.
Good comment. Thanks. But I am curious what you think my political views are, since I’ve never been overt about them.
I misspoke when i used the words political. I made some assumptions that you have a more conservative bent in life (maybe it was your comment on the Flight Attendant where you didn’t like content where people where lying to the cops (flight attendant was one of my favorite shows on HBO.. and I appreciate that type of content).
I could care less what your political / social views are.. as long as you keep providing a great travel blog.
If i had to guess… Libertarian …
I laugh at Kirby. He is to the left of the Soviet Union I’m a global services but cringe whenever United opens its mouth as a corporation
Well, if this isn’t a timely and relevant article about traveling, I don’t know what is…
“Second, I do welcome the proposed change on verifying accounts (the blue checkmark). Up until 2019, it was easy to verify your account with the submission of photo ID and other verifying credentials. I do not like the current arbitrary system of determining which accounts are “noteworthy” and not really offering clear metrics on which accounts are worthy of a checkmark. The blue checkmark should represent a “real” account, not just those that Twitter feels are worthy. It matters because blue checkmarks absolutely carry more credibility than a non-verified account (and I think that is less the case on Instagram or Facebook).”
Yeah but then anybody can pay money and pose as you with a blue checkmark…
To be clear, I hope it is not that easy. Multiple forms of ID should still be required.
Not sure how Amazon does it but you can read the reviews on their pages and several are shown as “Verified accounts”. I am sure there will be a way to get it done and avoid fake accounts. Have you opened an account to trade bitcoin? You have no idea of the verification process there. It can be done.
Twitter, Amazon, and Bitcoin are not the same thing.
Amazon verifies because they know if you actually bought the product you are reviewing. I would say making a fake account is free speech. Don’t infringe on my right to impersonate someone and make inflammatory comments, after all where does it say in the constitution that I can’t do that?
Twitter is a good idea but it has become a partisan swamp. Strange that only now there are concerns about its content yet none about how Twitter is used and manipulated. I wonder why ?
So has the comments on Live and Lets Fly (become a partisan swamp). There are very good reasons to stay on twitter. And there are very valid reasons not too. There are very good reasons to ready Matthew’s blog (his content) and there are very good reasons to ignore it (the hate spread by certain people in his comments section). Stricter moderation has big downsides … but more and more i find that I have better things to do with my life than interact with hate. Its tricky. And reasonable people can disagree on the balance.
So Live and Lets Fly, like Twitter.. both have some great content.. some of which i really enjoy.. but i ask myself is it worth wading through the hate. Sometimes I can stomach what some folks here comment and other times i can’t.
More and more I find reddit to be a far superior social media experience. I can find travel related content and don’t have to deal with people spreading unrelated shit. Yeah, the fascists have won (Santastic, John Dogas, etc) Yeah, the travel related subs on reddit aren’t free speech, but they make for a vastly superior experience by allowing me to ignore the trash of humanity.
Elon is the chaotic neutral force we need to shake up leftist echo chambers like Twitter. Just seeing the left melt down over this warms my heart.
Every Social Media company currently faces and will face the same problem as it grows: Moderation. The amount of content uploaded per minute boggles the mind. The inevitability of social media platforms used to further political agenda using misinformation and manipulation of facts and context is a guarantee.
Keeping aside Musk’s accomplishments, it’s naive at best and laughable at worst to believe this purchase was for “Free Speech”, it’s a pure power play. Consider the fact that the world’s richest man has unmoderated access to EVERYONE’s DMs.
Free speech is welcome on twitter, but accounts that parody or make fun of Elon Musk are getting blocked. Sure thing Elon.
He’s a jerk, that much is clear. You cite Ukraine and Starlink – I recommend digging into the games he played even with all of that. You’re kidding yourself if you think he’s out there doing good for mankind.
The guy is a genius, probably the genius of our times. That doesn’t make him a good man or a good leader.
As for twitter and censorship – he can now do what he wants with it, and it’s up to people if they care or not, Simple. That’s free enterprise and private ownership at work. He wasn’t, nor was twitter, under any obligations to pander to a-holes peddling conspiracy theories or anyone else. So he’s free to do his thing, and we’re free to make our own decision. But actions have consequences – he has no right to then get all snowflake and whiny about advertisers not wanting to play along. Or should they not be free to make their own decisions?
As for the blue checkmark, I think you’ve missed the point. Paying $8 doesn’t matter. If I can open an account under the handle MatthewKlint, and get a blue checkmark, and spew hate speech – are you okay with people thinking i’m you because I have a blue checkmark?
Again, Elon is free to do this, but the holier than thou stuff is just plain BS.
The firings though – I wonder how many of those people have been celebrating getting highly paid and working 10-20 hour weeks doing not much for a long time. Read the tech forums and it’s full of them. Twitter could probably do with a 50% haircut. I’ve got no beef with that, though I think he’s done it in a stupid way, but what do I know?
How would they get verified unless they faked ID or shared my name?
Not that difficult to steal one’s identity. We are all making assumptions about what the blue checkbox means.
We can only speculate about what it will mean, but currently there is a rigorous identification check. Not sure why that will change—what will change is this process will be available to all. Who is going to take the time to steal my identity?
With all the staff being fired, there might be less people available to do all those rigorous identification checks.
Not only will there be less staff to do verifications, it’s pretty clear to me that musk values the $8 much more than acting in good faith. Your tune may change when there’s a verified account with your name spewing racial slurs all over Twitter. There’s a lot of bad actors licking their chops waiting to take advantage of a lack of moderation
Here’s the assertion:
“The new Twitter Blue does not include ID verification – it’s an opt-in, paid subscription that offers a blue checkmark and access to select features. We’ll continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types.”
However, as of today, it sounds like Elon has been told how stupid this was, and has announced a designation called “Official” which will include ID verification
“Not all previously verified accounts will get the “Official” label and the label is not available for purchase. Accounts that will receive it include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures.”
The blue mark is going to be an irrelevant joke, except for the suckers who think it means something going forward.
Until Elon makes another u-turn of course.
I really don’t understand the concern for the Twitter employees who are or will be fired. They are the antithesis of pro freedom and routinely used their positions to push Twitter in a draconian direction. They are the worst humanity has to offer as opposed to the best. Musk did not have responsibility to keep the filth and cancer that were those Twitter employees pushing bias, hate, and bigotry toward pro freedom people, Christians, those who support bodily autonomy in the form of wanting medical freedom from forced vaccination of a new risky vaccine, and those who state facts about gender ideology and drag shows for 7 year olds on school trips.
United shows how the management of nearly every large public company is controlled by leftist political partisans. The rights of conservative pro freedom shareholders are violated. Red states should be using their power to pass laws that ban management of public companies with shareholders in their state from using capital and earnings to push political propaganda and policies instead of focusing solely on making money for shareholders.
What kind of nonsense propaganda is this? As if 99% of Twitter employees were responsible for the decisions the company made.
Amazing how comments like this are only appearing after Musk bought the company and started firing people…almost like people are copying and pasting it from some playbook.
On twitter verification: ‘Twitter employees were selling verification for upwards of $15,000’, Elon Musk agrees to investigate allegations of pay-to-play. https://www.rebelnews.com/elon_musk_agrees_to_investigate_allegations_of_pay_to_play
Thank God for websites like this, for posting unsubstantiated claims from an anonymous person and treating it as fact…
Try Googling. Claims are reported by many other sites. https://www.entrepreneur.com/en-in/news-and-trends/elon-musk-confirmed-employees-at-twitter-previously-charged/438604
Him providing just a “Yup” isn’t exactly all that.
Glad I read this trash take of yours so I can gain a few minutes each day back by no longer clicking on your posts from the boarding area landing page
Twitter may struggle but it was bloated as a business model before Musk bought it. The draconian bans on tweets like the one you mention are why Twitter was so very bad. Too many people use Twitter and many won’t quit the platform so pulling ads from there isn’t really that wise. I could pick any of them but Audi is a good example. I’m an Audi owner that had my Twitter account (from 2007) put into Twitter jail in 2020 for little to no reason on a news comment. Now that I’m back on Twitter I wasn’t looking for a Twitter ad to encourage me to buy another new Audi but I will see ads for other cars now instead of theirs.
Merely commenting on the execution of the layoffs, apparently Twitter is trying to rehire some people they “mistakenly” let go. WOW
All these people saying twitter is a leftist echo chamber are laughable. Twitter is probably the biggest reason Trump won in 2016. I’m sure those same people are going to be silent as it becomes a right wing echo chamber as it’s clear that the only free speech musk will allow is speech he agrees with.
And saying he’s the howard Hughes of our time is equally laughable. This is a guy that has paid to be referred as the founder of all his companies which he most certainly did not found. Except maybe the boring company, which is total waste of time
Ryan, HAve you been under a rock??They did suspend along political lines..Esp is on the right side of the political stance!!! Get the facts!!
Just because MAGA. A*+hats got suspended for what they said or Kanye got suspended for anti semitic crap doesn’t mean they suspended along political lines. It means that right wingers violated their terms of service. Speech has consequences and the MAGA right seems to more people that want to stay stuff on Twitter that violates their tos. The center and the left don’t violate twitters tos in the same fashion.
Understand the difference before you go making statements. Prove with facts before you go spreading misinformation
Let me be unequivocally clear: YOU are lying.