Thursday 8 August 2024

Problems pile up for Musk

Elon Musk is a megalomaniac and is getting himself ever deeper into trouble. Being the world's richest man has gone to his head and he thinks it gives him special rights. He has taken to attacking the British prime minister with accusations that he's soft on crimes committed by immigrants and is presiding over a two-tier justice system. This will come as a surprise to the black population who are subjected to stop and search powers far more frequently than the white population. For now, Starmer is wisely ignoring him for the moment, but the FT are reporting that Twitter is not cooperating by taking down harmful content, so it may just be a matter of time.

The era of self-regulation for social media companies is drawing to a close and Musk must share the majority of the blame.

He is now suing advertisers for boycotting Twitter. The CEO, Linda Yaccarino released this extraordinary video:

Her 'open letter' to advertisers can be seen HERE.

AP has the details HERE. Musk is accusing giants of the advertising world like Mars and Unilever of depriving his company of billions of dollars in advertising revenue after they withdrew from Twitter over its increasingly toxic reputation. Musk allowed men like Trump and Tommy Robinson back on the platform for peddling hate and lies.

The lawsuit is bound to fail but even if successful (anything is possible at the moment in the USA), I don't see how it's going to force advertisers to place business with Twitter against their own express wishes.  His message to advertisers last November was rather different:

He's completely deranged.

This move is a last-ditch effort to save the company which has lost 72% of its value since the self-styled genius bought it for $44 billion in October 2022.

In  Michigan, a political action committee backed by Musk is being investigated by the Michigan secretary of state’s office amid efforts to collect voter data using a website that purports to help voters register to vote but only directs then to official sites in non-swing states.

Now MPs on the science, innovation, and technology select committee are said to be interested in having Musk appear before them to answer questions about the role of social media platforms like Twitter and their role in fuelling unrest in the UK.

Some consumer organisations in the EU are alleging Twitter's artificial intelligence (AI) tool is in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and they have filed a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) last Monday. 

He is embroiled in so many controversial things yet finds the time to read and re-tweet with his own inane comments, all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories posted by knuckleheads on his SM platform. This is apart from the deluge of misinformation being circulated and amplified by Twitter, much of it from him.

He is living proof you don't need to be smart or clever to be rich.

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