The IT Nerd

Last night, Elon Musk banned a number of journalists from Twitter. That of course set the Internet alight and sent people running to Mastodon. He did a whole lot more than that as well, but I will get to that in a separate story later today. But in that story, I said this:

Given the attention that this is getting, I believe that a number of things are likely to happen: 

• The EU will see this and make moves to make his life miserable. 
• Departures to Mastodon will accelerate. 
• I would not at all be surprised if Capitol Hill gives him a call and asks him to explain himself in front of a Congressional Hearing.

Well, the EU has chimed in and fired a warning shot across Elon’s bow:

Elon Musk’s decision to suddenly ban prominent tech journalists from Twitter is fanning a fierce backlash in Europe.

Germany warned of the impact on press freedom, while a senior EU official said Twitter must comply with the bloc’s rules or face possible sanctions. 

“Freedom of the press cannot be switched on and off as you please,” Germany’s foreign ministry tweeted on Friday. “As of today these journalists are no longer able to follow us, to comment or criticize. We have a problem with that @Twitter.”

Věra Jourová, the European Commission’s vice president for values and transparency, said the “arbitrary suspension” of journalists was “worrying,” and she indicated that the company could face penalties as a result.

“The EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our #MediaFreedomAct,” Jourová said in a post on Twitter, adding that Musk “should be aware of that.” 

“There are red lines,” she continued. “And sanctions, soon.”

The EU doesn’t fool around with this sort of stuff. If they say they’re going to do something, they will do it. And it will hurt Elon because EU sanctions tend to be really painful. The thing is, he had to have known that something like this would have happened if he went about banning journalists on Twitter. Though, he has proven to be a “ready, fire, aim” sort of person who doesn’t think through the consequences of his actions before he does something. And it looks like that’s about to come back to bite him. Which means it really sucks to be Elon as it looks like he’s going to get slapped pretty hard.

I hope it was worth it Elon.

In a move that I guarantee is going to end badly for Elon Musk, multiple news outlets are reporting that Twitter has suspended the accounts of a number of journalists. From CNN:

Elon Musk’s Twitter banned Thursday the accounts of multiple journalists covering the technology industry without explanation.

Accounts belonging to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, the New York Times’ Ryan Mac, and the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and several other tech journalists were all abruptly suspended.

“Elon says he is a free speech champion and he is banning journalists for exercising free speech. I think that calls into question his commitment,” Harwell told CNN.

The account of progressive independent journalist Aaron Rupar was also banned. Rupar told CNN he has received no communication from Twitter about the ban. “Nothing,” he said in a phone call.

From NBC:

The accounts of Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster had all been suspended as of Thursday evening.

The Twitter account for Mastodon, a platform billed as an alternative, was also suspended early Thursday evening.

Musk indicated that the suspensions stemmed from the platform’s new rules banning private jet trackers, responding to a tweet from Mike Solana, vice president of venture capital firm Founders Fund, who noted that the suspended accounts had posted links to jet trackers on other websites.

“Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not,” he added in another tweet.

Finally from Reuters:

Twitter Inc on Thursday suspended the accounts of several journalists, including ones from the New York Times and the Washington Post, with the site showing “account suspended” notices for them.

Reuters could not immediately ascertain why those accounts were suspended. All the suspended reporters have in recent months written about Twitter’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, and changes at the platform since he bought it.

Responding to a Tweet on the account suspensions, Musk tweeted: “Same doxxing rules apply to “journalists” as to everyone else,” a reference to Twitter rules banning sharing of personal information, called doxxing. 

He added: “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.”

The message here in my mind is clear. If you criticize Elon Musk, you will get suspended from Twitter. And he’s using the suspension of the account that tracks Elon’s jet as cover for what is basically an attempt to silence people. Which goes against his claims of being a free speech fanboy.

Given the attention that this is getting, I believe that a number of things are likely to happen:

• The EU will see this and make moves to make his life miserable.
• Departures to Mastodon will accelerate.
• I would not at all be surprised if Capitol Hill gives him a call and asks him to explain himself in front of a Congressional Hearing.

In terms of that second point, departures to Mastodon have begun:

The circled area is a spike in Mastodon account creations in the last hour which is around the time that this news broke. That’s the law of unintended consequences working against Elon. Stay tuned to see what happens in regards to the other two points.

At this point, it’s becoming clear that staying on Twitter is a non-starter. But clearly, if you stay on Twitter, you’re enabling Elon. While I have been cross posting to Twitter and Mastodon, I believe that my days on Twitter are over. I’ll make a separate announcement about that in the next day or so. But if I were you, I would make your plans to depart Twitter for greener pastures.

As the days go on, it’s clear that Elon Musk is desperate to somehow find some way to turn Twitter into a good news story as everything that is coming from the troubled social media platform is bad news. Or worse news. Elon’s latest signs of desperation come in a pair of areas. Let’s start with the privacy one:

Twitter is working on plans to force some users to agree to data sharing or lose access to the app in a bid to save its ad business, according to Platformer.

Elon Musk’s platform, like Google and Facebook, currently allows users to opt out of personalized ads, but this option could soon disappear.

Many users never turn this feature off in the first place, but the company is also considering forcing users to share more data, which can then be sold to advertisers, Platformer’s report said.

This includes sharing user locations and phone numbers for targeted ads, even though the latter is necessary for two-factor authentication.

And:

The plans could hit a snag in Europe, because EU rules say that users have the legal right to withdraw data-sharing permissions at any time.:

Under one plan being considered, users could only opt out if they subscribe to Twitter Blue — which costs at least $8 a month. But that would breach Apple’s rules which outlaw apps from forcing a choice between payment and advertiser tracking.

So Elon is so desperate to make a buck that he’s willing to pick a fight with both Apple and the EU. Plus I am pretty sure the FTC would be knocking on his door to have a word with him as this is the sort of thing that got Twitter into trouble before with them. Then there’s the fact that now this is out, it will send even more Twitter users to the exits who are sick of Elon and his haphazard leadership style. Which of course will give advertisers less incentive to advertise on the platform, taking money out of Elon’s pockets in the process.

Elon’s desperation is also starting to show in terms of him risking the wrath of the legal gods:

Musk appears to be gearing up for legal battles at Twitter, which he purchased in October for $44 billion, according to seven people familiar with internal conversations. He and his team have revamped Twitter’s legal department and pushed out one of his closest advisers in the process. They have also instructed employees to not pay vendors in anticipation of potential litigation, the people said.

To cut costs, Twitter has not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its global offices for weeks, three people close to the company said. Twitter has also refused to pay a $197,725 bill for private charter flights made the week of Musk’s takeover, according to a copy of a lawsuit filed in New Hampshire District Court and obtained by The New York Times.

Twitter’s leaders have also discussed the consequences of denying severance payments to thousands of people who have been laid off since the takeover, two people familiar with the talks said. And Musk has threatened employees with lawsuits if they talk to the media and “act in a manner contrary to the company’s interest,” according to an internal email sent last Friday.

The aggressive moves signal that Musk is still slashing expenditures and is bending or breaking Twitter’s previous agreements to make his mark. His reign has been characterized by chaos, a series of resignations and layoffs, reversals of the platform’s previous suspensions and rules, and capricious decisions that have driven away advertisers.

If Elon wants to get sued out if existence, this is a great way to do it. Not paying your rent and not paying severance at the very least will be expensive. And I am pretty sure that in the worst case, some government or law enforcement agency would investigate this to see if it’s illegal. Also, if you read this story, he’s dumped significant parts of his legal team. Some of whom have bailed him out of trouble before. That’s a sign that Elon doesn’t like the counsel that they’re giving him as he strikes me as the type who only wants to hear answers that he likes.

Finally, banks are having trouble with Twitter’s debt. Big trouble:

Some of the banks that lent Elon Musk $13 billion to buy Twitter are preparing to book losses on the loans this quarter, but they are likely to do so in a way that it does not become a major drag on their earnings, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Banks typically sell such loans to investors at the time of the deal. But Twitter’s lenders, led by Morgan Stanley, could face billions of dollars in losses if they tried to do so now, as investors shy away from buying risky debt during a period of economic uncertainty, market participants said. In addition, Twitter has seen advertisers flee amid worries about Musk’s approach to policing tweets, hitting revenues and its ability to pay the interest on the debt.

Banks still have to mark the loan to its market value on their books and set aside funds for losses that are reported in quarterly results. In the absence of a price determined by actual sales of the debt, however, each bank can decide how much to write it down based on its market checks and judgment, according to the three sources who are familiar with the process of determining the value of such loans.

Elon’s issues aren’t going to help this situation that his lenders find themselves in. I would watch this as banks do not like to lose money and that may add to Elon’s problems. Of which there are many.

Like I said yesterday, I think we are in the endgame when it comes to Twitter. I think it’s just a matter of time until the final nails in the coffin are hammered in.