Mike Masnick ✅

Okay, so people are encouraging me to post more here, but maybe to ignore the replies... So I'll post my latest on Elon/Bill Ackman and their rather confused take on free speech that seems focused on punishing journalists for reporting on things these billionaires don't like. https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/10/free-speech-absolutist-elon-musk-temporarily-bans-journalists-as-free-speech-absolutist-bill-ackman-threatens-slapp-suit-against-journalists/

I wrote about why Mehdi Hasan's takedown of Matt Taibbi actually destroys the entire foundation of the story Taibbi is trying to tell about the Twitter files. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/07/mehdi-hasan-dismantles-the-entire-foundation-of-the-twitter-files-as-matt-taibbi-stumbles-to-defend-it/

Literally swiping money from charities. Just straight up evil villain shit.

I've boosted a few others pointing out this article, but I gotta say, I find it absolutely hilarious that Taibbi went from Musk bootlicker to effectively off the site and shadowbanned in 48 hours... especially since one of Taibbi's big (misleading and misunderstood) scoops was about Twitters visibility filtering... https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/10/after-matt-taibbi-leaves-twitter-elon-musk-shadow-bans-all-of-taibbis-tweets-including-the-twitter-files/

I had some thoughts about @nilay_patel's interview with Substack's Chris Best.

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/14/substack-ceo-chris-best-doesnt-realize-hes-just-become-the-nazi-bar/

It's been six months since Elon took over Twitter. I have some thoughts on the "Twitter diaspora" and the current decentralized alternatives: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/28/six-months-in-thoughts-on-the-current-post-twitter-diaspora-options/

I wrote about how some investigations by the January 6th committee effectively present the flip side of the Musk "Twitter Files" and actually show how Twitter effectively bent over backwards to give conservatives extra rights to violate the rules on the site. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/01/13/the-anti-twitter-files-january-6th-committee-report-shows-how-twitter-leaned-over-backwards-to-protect-trump-conservatives/

Today's dumbest, most annoying story is that telco lobbyists have successfully fed a completely bullshit story to right wing rags about how Gigi Sohn supports "sex trafficking" because she's on EFF's board, and EFF is (correctly) against FOSTA (which a court is likely to declare unconstitutional) https://www.techdirt.com/2023/01/27/new-dumb-attack-against-gigi-sohn-tries-to-shame-her-for-being-on-the-effs-board/

Interesting timing of Twitter changing its logo to the Doge dog... just as Elon is trying to get out of a (stupid, likely to fail) lawsuit arguing that he pumped & dumped dogecoin.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/3/23668356/twitter-doge-bird-logo-retweet-labels-following-timeline

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-crypto-dogecoin-tesla-1850293273

Hey @Popehat@mastodon.social, would you have had some useful legal advice for Alec Baldwin?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/opinion/alec-baldwin-rust-5th-amendment.html?smid=tw-share

I am sorry to say that I have had to call out Lizzo. I wish this were not the case, but she's now supporting dangerous legislation. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/19/yo-lizzo-youve-been-lied-to-kosa-will-harm-kids/

I feel like every ridiculous politician who calls the internet "the wild west" should be challenged to a duel.

Just started playing with @adamghill@indieweb.social's https://fediview.com/ and it's very much the kind of thing that I was planning to write about next week regarding things I was hoping to see developers creating for mastodon... (a very simple algorithm for finding useful posts that you control, rather than the platform)