The least shocking thing the world’s richest exploding carmaker did today was show up in Qatar with slumlord-millionare-turned-Saudi-butcher-enabler Jared Kushner to watch the World Cup Final.
Perhaps because Twitter keeps swerving into oncoming traffic even more than a Tesla in self-driving mode, neither Musk nor his human rights-violating investors looked too happy to be hanging out together.
Meanwhile back at Twitter HQ, the fast-imploding hellsite announced a new set of rules designed to turn what Musk once imagined as a “digital town square” into a high-security prison.
Not content with falsely designating links to Twitter’s rapidly growing open-source rival Mastodon as “malware,” Musk today announced confusing new rules that ban “promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter… at both the Tweet level and the account level.”
No more “follow me on Facebook.”
No more “join me on Mastodon.”
No more “see link in bio.”
Here’s what the new rules say:
And here are the punishments for breaking them:
Reaction on Twitter was swift and harsh:
Summer Lopez, Chief Program Officer, Free Expression at PENAmerica tweeted:
Nora Benavidez, Senior Counsel/Director, Digital Justice & Civil Rights@freepress tweeted:
John Scott-Railton, Sr. Researcher @citizenlab, tweeted:
And followed up with Musk’s own words from June:
Since I discussed the wisdom of “Staying or Going” with @LOLGOP earlier this week, I’ve already launched (perhaps just in time) my @TheDailyEdge account on Mastodon.
You can follow me there at: https://universeodon.com/@TheDailyEdge.
Meanwhile, let’s see how long keeping my own “link in bio” on Twitter allows me to survive on Twitter.
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