Why or why not, are you Excited about Twitter being freed?

[The Folk Prophet]

3 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:

Are you talking about the flight tracker, the one that takes publicly available information and republished it.  All it did was look at the airport flight logs of departing and arriving aircraft and tallied it to match Elon Musk's tail.  It shortened a task from 2 minutes to a few seconds. 

Apparently it was hacked Privacy ICAO Address that isn't meant to be publicly available. As @Carborendum points out, the fact that it was made publicly available doesn't mean it SHOULD have been publicly available, or that Elon is wrong in this instance.

 

[Carborendum]

3 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:

Are you talking about the flight tracker, the one that takes publicly available information and republished it.  All it did was look at the airport flight logs of departing and arriving aircraft and tallied it to match Elon Musk's tail.  It shortened a task from 2 minutes to a few seconds. 

Really?  That's easy for a historian to say.  But have you tried it?  Does it take you 2 minutes?  Do you even know where to get it?  I doubt it. 

I "tally numbers" all the time.  And it takes more time than you'd think.  And I'm pretty good at math.

Even if it does only take 2 minutes, that is enough time for security (or even your average human being) to be aware of a threat.  2 seconds?  Not so much.

That is why Musk specifically talked about "real time" information vs "slightly delayed" information.

[Carborendum]

There's one more aspect about this doxing thing that is being ignored:  Politics.

Old-guard Twitter were banning due to political motivations, often at the behest of government agents.

Elon is banning because of a perceived (and apparently very real) physical danger to him and his family.  It has nothing to do with politics except that all the people rooting for this tracking bot are on the left.  And these individuals would LOVE to see Elon be attacked and/or killed.

[LDSGator]

https://news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-twitter-suspends-another-195922824.html

 

Now it seems he’s blocking people out of spite. Which is fine, it’s his platform. I’d do the same thing too.  But don’t claim to be a free speech absolutist if you’ll do this. 
 

If George Soros bought Twitter and did this, I’m very skeptical that we’d all be this sympathetic. 

Edited December 17, 2022 by LDSGator

[LDSGator]

The doxxing issue is fascinating to me because I’m still not sure “releasing” something that is public record and easily accessible is considered “doxxing”. Also, with Musk being a celebrity it complicates it a little bit more. You can’t call for attention than hang up when you get attention you don’t like. 

[LDSGator]

…and it looks like Musk has lifted the ban on the guy who “doxxed” him. 
 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-allows-return-of-some-suspended-twitter-accounts-who-allegedly-doxxed-his-location?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=benshapiro&fbclid=IwAR3ne0kqpa_N_wUi6sYtYdOlC5I0NmXXQ3GT-dZQCE4ImlO7jo8J6ufCwPA

[Grunt]

Interesting reports coming out now of govern't officials and agents under the employ of Twitter.  All rumors, but we'll find out if the data is released.  This could be a nightmare of epic proportions.

[Ironhold]

5 hours ago, LDSGator said:

The doxxing issue is fascinating to me because I’m still not sure “releasing” something that is public record and easily accessible is considered “doxxing”. Also, with Musk being a celebrity it complicates it a little bit more. You can’t call for attention than hang up when you get attention you don’t like. 

The issue is that the information was:

1. Of a high-profile individual

2. Released with possible malicious intent

3. Had the potential to put them in danger

Knowing what plane a person is on and where that plane is going can leave them vulnerable to some very, very bad things. 

[LDSGator]

5 hours ago, Ironhold said:

owing what plane a person is on and where that plane is going can leave them vulnerable to some very, very bad things. 

Thanks, I had no clue. I thought bad things only happened on the ground. 9/11? All made up. Korean Airline 007? Same thing. 
 

Now go tell that to the FAA. Who publishes this stuff. Which I’ve been watching all day off and on. It’s actually quite fascinating. 
 

And If he is so worried about his safety, maybe he shouldn’t post things like this: 

I’m not a personal security expert but announcing you won’t be leaving a non moving building for 24+ hours seems far more dangerous than some kid tracking your plane. 

Right, it's all about “privacy” and “doxxing.” He’s lying to you. 

Edited December 18, 2022 by LDSGator

[NeuroTypical]

I used to think "the folks in power usually end up doing the same things" was a decent principle that was usually right.

Then Elon bought Twitter and talked hugely about freedom of speech but not necessarily freedom of reach, and I was enthusiastic and hopeful.

Now Elon is off banning people for exercising freedom of speech, and I'm back to thinking that principle is usually right.  Went from 76.2% a fan of Elon to a 64.5% fan.

[JohnsonJones]

On 12/17/2022 at 7:49 AM, Carborendum said:

Really?  That's easy for a historian to say.  But have you tried it?  Does it take you 2 minutes?  Do you even know where to get it?  I doubt it. 

I "tally numbers" all the time.  And it takes more time than you'd think.  And I'm pretty good at math.

Even if it does only take 2 minutes, that is enough time for security (or even your average human being) to be aware of a threat.  2 seconds?  Not so much.

That is why Musk specifically talked about "real time" information vs "slightly delayed" information.

 

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a835af

 

His tail number is N628TS

This took me about 60 seconds to find and paste.  This is not the Musk tracker as far as I can tell and just a public tail tracker.

Edit:  If the site is what it appears, now that I know what the tail is, it may take all of 5-10 seconds.

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by JohnsonJones

[Carborendum]

On 12/17/2022 at 8:34 AM, The Folk Prophet said:

Apparently it was hacked Privacy ICAO Address that isn't meant to be publicly available. 

Sorry, I didn't see this.  You're absolutely right.  It was NOT publicly available.  The journalists are lying*.

This guy cracked the code to specifically identify Elon's PRIVATE info.

The fact that Elon tolerated it as long as he did shows just how dedicated he was to Free Speech.  It was only after his CHILD had his life threatened that he chose to say "Enough is Enough!"

* There was a comment that someone made that it is possible that when Elon found out how easy it was to crack, he wondered why he was paying for the non-existent privacy, and so his info became public.  Still looking that up.

Edited December 19, 2022 by Carborendum

[NeuroTypical]

Whelp, there's always this...

 

[The Folk Prophet]

11 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

Whelp, there's always this...

 

I think he should step down.

[LDSGator]

11 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

Whelp, there's always this...

 

I have never seen a CEO/business owner do this.  I just can’t shake the feeling that he’s playing with people and laughing at how stupid we all are. 

[Traveler]

On 10/31/2022 at 3:23 PM, Godless said:

Cynical as always, Carb. But I don't think you're being cynical enough in this instance. Do you really think a company like Target cares if one or two stores (which are probably insured) out of 1,900+ gets trashed by rioters? No one in corporate America is scared of the so-called "woke mob". They don't care about black lives, trans lives, MAGA lives, or blue lives. They care about money and power, and generally speaking, the conservative GOP is more in line with that specific interest. Companies will roll out the black squares and rainbow flags as needed, but look at where their political contributions are going. A lot of them are still lining conservative pockets because they're the ones that will keep the corporate tax burden at a minimum. Politicians know this, so they usually won't make a big fuss about corporate virtue signaling so long as the checks keep coming. Off the top of my head, I can only think of three instances where public outcry was strong enough to force corporations to make a significant power move:

1. FedEx threatening to remove its name from the Washington Commanders' stadium (and the recurring fee to keep it there), and lets face it, that was a loooong time coming.

2. Apple and Google deplatforming Parler. The place was practically a crime scene after 1/6, can you blame them?

3. Twitter banning Trump. And it took him essentially cheerleading domestic terrorists for them to do it.

So no, I don't think Musk is going to have any trouble finding corporate sponsors, and I don't think those sponsors are going to make a huge fuss over how he runs things. I don't think the exodus from Twitter (Twexit?) is going to be as big as some people are making it out to be. I also don't think that Musk will let Twitter turn into Gab. Those are the only two things that could maybe get corporate sponsors nervous. They'll gladly turn a blind eye otherwise while publicly pretending to be "woke".

I would point out a few things.  Companies (corporations) are not living or thinking things.  They are human constructs run by humans.  I have a brother that was (retired like me) inner circle corporate management.  I like to tease him about corporate corruption – and he always reminds me that corruption is not a characteristic of corporations – rather it as a characteristic of humans.

I also think you are misrepresenting (by generalizations) the GOP and conservatives as caring more about money and power than human life (including unborn human infants) in general.  I would say with very rare exceptions that anyone that makes running for elected office their life’s work (Republicans and Democrats) have grossly distorted human values.  Apparently, I am not the only one thinking elected officials are scum.  I have seen many surveys that rank elected political officials below used car salesmen as per honesty and reliability.    It was Nixon that was behind the Watergate break in and the Clintons that weaponized the use of the FISA court for political advantage (POWER).  And yet the greater threat of the two has had zero ramifications on the perpetrator.   This seems to indicate to me that even though there is corruption in both parties – the Democrats have learned how to get away with their corruption much better than the Republicans and thus are likely a greater threat as per “cheerleading” domestic terrorists.

 

The Traveler

[Traveler]

2 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

I think he should step down.

I am thinking that in these last days - it would be better if every one steped up.

 

The Traveler

[The Folk Prophet]

2 hours ago, Traveler said:

I am thinking that in these last days - it would be better if every one steped up.

 

The Traveler

Haha. Punny.

[LDSGator]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/20/elon-musk-actively-searching-for-a-new-twitter-ceo-sources-say.html
 

The circus continues. 

[Vort]

Musk's poll was silly, because he knew full well how it would come out and would not have committed to such inevitable results unless he wanted that outcome anyway. Which he did, and I don't blame him. He should be taking care of SpaceX and Tesla and seeing to Boring Co., not dinking around CEOing Twitter. Nevertheless, I voted in his silly poll, and I actually voted for him to stay, maybe just to be contrary but also because I think that when it comes to protecting open speech on public platforms, if not Elon, then no one.

[The Folk Prophet]

5 minutes ago, Vort said:

I think that when it comes to protecting open speech on public platforms, if not Elon, then no one.

I expect he'll hire a CEO with the same priorities he has. Because, of course he will. Those priorities were his whole point in purchasing the thing.

[Carborendum]

2 minutes ago, Vort said:

Musk's poll was silly, because he knew full well how it would come out and would not have committed to such inevitable results unless he wanted that outcome anyway. Which he did, and I don't blame him. He should be taking care of SpaceX and Tesla and seeing to Boring Co., not dinking around CEOing Twitter. Nevertheless, I voted in his silly poll, and I actually voted for him to stay, maybe just to be contrary but also because I think that when it comes to protecting open speech on public platforms, if not Elon, then no one.

I had heard that Lex Fridman was offering to run it for free.  I'd be 100% for that rather than Jack Dorsey (also being considered).

[LDSGator]

1 hour ago, Vort said:

should be taking care of SpaceX and Tesla

Exactly. He’s a visionary and he should be doing things at SpaceX and Tesla. He’s too good and too brilliant to be fiddling around with Twitter. 

[Ironhold]

Whether anyone wants to admit it, Musk *did* expose how corrupt individuals within the FBI and other departments manipulated sympathetic or ignorant Twitter employees into censoring material inconvenient to the Biden campaign (now administration) and other groups. 

Musk also restored the accounts of numerous individuals whose accounts were terminated under questionable circumstances while making it clear that "journalists" like Taylor Lorenz and other bad actors would be held accountable for their misdeeds. 

This alone did a pretty good job of disrupting the status quo, although how long the effects will remain in place is unknown. 

[NeuroTypical]

There are ways to stay positive.

Elon gave us a precious, precious gift that will stand forever in the annals of good things.  He strode into the woke capital of woke America, fired almost half of 'em and watched a bunch more quit in a zealously idealistic huff, and the place never even experienced a single hiccup in downtime.