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NAACP Derrick Johnson calls for total advertising boycott on Twitter after meeting with Elon Musk
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running a company in a racist, misogynist way is totally within character for him. He has a history and it's good to see advertisers pulling away.
ancianita
(43,307 posts)Advertisers can pull away because of the messaging the platform allows. If the business model for the platform policy is to allow freedom of speech, then allowing toxic speech will cost that business advertisers.
This Musk isn't into platform moderation, and he'll pay for it. Is he biased? Yes, but he's also technically correct to have a business model policy of allowing free speech.
It's what Tweeters do on that platform, how big the boycott is, and how many net advertisers are retained, that will determine how profitable his business model is.
Justice matters.
(9,787 posts)The whole ads thingie is way overrated.
Capitalist advertisers take a big chunk of "portions" of their customers' money (since they add it to their sale prices) and give it to the already high-tech zillionaires for nothing. (Well, as far as I'm concerned.)
Customers actually pay the price of those ads since it's included in the sale prices.
ancianita
(43,307 posts)All true. Thanks for pointing out how we can change what AI shows us. 
IronLionZion
(51,271 posts)for people who don't pay for star membership, they see ads to use this site.
Justice matters.
(9,787 posts)But I never saw a post stating they bought what the ad(s) show(s).
Cattledog
(6,656 posts)He's gonna kick 50% of his employees to the curb to try and make up for his stupid decision. F*#k his business model.
PatrickforB
(15,426 posts)blocking free speech from the left while leaving free speech from the right intact.
That said, the question arises, for me at least, asking where's the line?
For example, is anti-Semitic 'free speech' ok? Like Hitler's favorite newspaper the Volkischer Beobachter?
How about racial and ethnic slurs? Are they OK?
This is why I'm always banging on (to use a Brit term) about the need for a modern Fairness Doctrine to replace the one the snake Reagan killed back in 1987.
According to that doctrine, each local area HAD to have a locally owned news station that reported the news in a factual, unbiased way. This was imposed after WWII because Congress was horrified at the thought of propagandists like Goebbels taking over here in the USA. The Fairness Doctrine was to prevent that.
After Reagan let it die, and cable TV and telecommunications were deregulated, we saw the metastitization of right wing hate-talk radio on AM and some FM frequencies, the rise of Fox, and other cable 'news' channels. The problem was that instead of news being beholden to the rule of law and truth as defined under that law, it was now beholden to shareholder profits in the form of ratings. Witness how they are always talking about the ratings of Hannity or Fox and Friends, Rachel and so on.
Most of where we get our 'news' is corporate owned, and publicly held corporations are ONLY responsible for shareholder profits - by legal doctrine (Dodge Bros v Henry Ford, MI Supreme Court 1919 - the doctrine of Shareholder Primacy).
This is all part of a slow coup set up by the Powell Manifesto of 1971 - a memo requested of Lewis Powell, the Nixon Supreme Court pick, who laid out this plan enabling a right-wing propaganda apparatus here in the USA. Seems corporations in the 60s were horrified at the women's movement, the anti-war movement (remember Vietnam was fought so the MIC could increase shareholder profits), the civil rights movement, and finally Nader's 'Unsafe at Any Speed,' which FORCED auto manufacturers to put seatbelts in cars (funny how they had to be forced to do that!). They felt an urgent need for a Republican news organ that would spew out their corporate perspective on reality.
This is why we have what we have. Now we are at the abyss. If the American people are as stupid and ignorant and selfish as I suspect they are (as has been proven time and time and time and time again), and the GOP wins the House and Senate, the oligarchs will position the final nail in the coffin of democracy here in 'Murika to be driven in '24. After that there will be no more elections, and we will be on the same trajectory as Germany was in 1933.
ancianita
(43,307 posts)We are in a capital strike and a corporate war against those who want to have a say in how their country is run. Whitehouse and Snyder have both warned about a slow roll corporate scheme to capture government by either buying it or capturing it through state voter nullification.
Re your last paragraph... I agree that we will be down, but we won't be out.
Unions will refuse to be broken. We have a DEEP bench of lawyers who have already won a lot of state cases re states' voter nullification schemes. There is still a world of hackers out there who'd create havoc for those no-more-elections fascist bag men who'll play at democracy and run the country like fascist Big Corps wants. There will be states turning blue that will re-establish elections again until we send reps to Congress that will legislate under the 12th and 14th Amendments.
If our military sees that what happens is a coup -- and Biden could tell them that until Jan 20, 2025 -- it might actually protect and defend the Constitution and civil law because the military wants to vote, so it will move to remove vote nullifiers. If there's a Republican president -- which 81 million won't have voted for, it could refuse to follow orders under some declaration of martial law. It could rerun the 2024 election. Congress could then pass a new Fairness Doctrine as law.
It could get crazy and violent, and corporate anti-democracy mafia gangs won't go down without a fight, but neither will the liberal half of the country nor a supportive military. The military is indeed watching.
PatrickforB
(15,426 posts)ancianita
(43,307 posts)ancianita
(43,307 posts)Keep your passport renewed.
https://pro.internationalliving.com/p/HTMOOTUS_22_WEB/PILVYB00/?h=true
luvallpeeps
(1,286 posts)No fairness doctrine and citizens united are the two biggest things (in my opinion) that need our attention. Propaganda and money. Older people believe Fox news is actually news. They never look for the truth because they’ve been brainwashed.
certainot
(9,090 posts)the talk radio monopoly that makes most republicans electable. that some of these elections are close after what the republicans have done and allowed would be impossible if not for their radio advantage.
a couple of years ago the MIT media lab used AI to automatically record, transcribe and analyze billions of words of talk radio (non political). that prototype or some other allows an org or media co to analyze a lot of that talk radio and make it available so it can finally be factored into modern politics. that's been the difference - it couldn't be read so it was invisible. retroactive study of previous recordings will show how we got here.
AI also allows anyone anywhere to list advertisers on this stations with very little listening, as described at fakenewsradio.org
once that content becomes analyzed and quantified there are very few advertisers and university and pro sports teams that will be able to keep using them. once a team or two starts looking for alt stations others will follow.
look at some of the universities supporting multiple exLimbaugh all-republican stations in very important states - penn st 11, u of fla 10, mich st and u of mich 18, ohio state 6, georgia and ga tech on 12, u of az and asu on 5 RW stations, and so on ...... more than 260 major republican stations depend on 87 unis listed at fakenewsradio
the radio ad industry will have to break up the monopoly somehow or lose a lot of advertisers
without the talk radio advantage the country will go 10 points left, and this GOP and fox will fall apart
then we can get a new fairness doctrine
PatrickforB
(15,426 posts)talked about college sports teams (big money there!) being carried on these radio stations that also carry the right-wing hate-talk shows.
I would like to thank you for the link to fakenewsradio.org. I went on there and it is all right there in its shocking and ugly reality. I will be pursuing this, even though my interest level in ANY sports, let alone college sports, is casual (nil) at best.
Second, I have a dear friend who believes, as you do, that if the Republicans win both houses there will be such publicity around things like Social Security and Medicare, abortion access, 'drill baby drill' policies, and climate denial that people will rise up and throw them out of office. I call this the 'Pearl Harbor' theory - awakening the giant.
Whatever happens, certainot, we will live through it and it will play out in species-wide terms right in front of us.
Sometimes, I wonder about Marx. Certainly, if you read him you find yourself saying, "those darned capitalists!" But I suspect he was wrong by a couple of centuries with his thesis-antithesis-synthesis theory of socioeconomic conflict. I don't have many answers about what this end-stage capitalism that is squeezing us mercilessly every day of every week will evolve into, but the evolution will continue whoever wins the elections. This is certain, because what we have now is not sustainable.
I'm not so shallow as to call for popcorn to eat while I watch, because there is so much suffering in the world. Around eleven people die of hunger related issues every minute, did you know? And the Somalis, who were peaceful fisherfolk, are pirates now because the 'fishing industry' trawled all the fish out of their waters, and then European corporate interests dumped toxic waste in those waters so the fish can't return. Yet, now we have 'cute' vids on YouTube about ships shooting high pressure water at the Somali pirates, and we have the temerity to blame them for piracy when our own economic violence contributed to their demise.
It is sick. But the collective psychic energy of greed rules our entire economic system, and those at the top are working feverishly to foment the energies of hatred, racism and so on so that we will be divided and so unable to end the awful economic violence of this end-stage capitalism that allows shareholder profits to supercede even the preservation of our planet for human habitation.
Anyway, best to you! We will see how it plays out.
And again, thank you for the link.
certainot
(9,090 posts)authoritarianism is measured with the Uncertainty Avoidance Index sometimes.
and here's another reason i'm optimistic.
the sex on the wrong brain theory suggests authoritarianism and a lot of other crap like the related attack on women's reproductive rights can be reduced with a simple sex ed lesson.
humans have been learning sex with the wrong hand, connected to the left side of the brain, and associating impatient satisfaction-demanding reproductive impulses with brain functions that require patience and objectivity.
he website describes sex on the wrong brain, or sowb, as a heritable mental disorder that has steered human evolution and fueled authoritarian civilizations for centuries.
sex on the wrong brain increases greed and materialism (math, numbers, comparison etc + sex) and fuels the certainty versus uncertainty dynamic that drives authoritarianism (sex + logic, rational thinking, problem solving, etc wants quick easy answers and certainty). the irrational need to avoid uncertainty and construct and rationalize non-existent certainty is what religions and empires are built on, fueling ignorance, intolerance, and fear.
sexual repression and the control of women and reproductive rights are essential for authoritarianism because that increases frustration and hence, sex on the wrong brain.
that's why we've had a spike in racism, authoritarianism recently - the pandemic locked a lot of people up and they had a lot of leisure time at home with their computers, etc
it wasn't a big deal for most of human evolution but in recent centuries humans had to start repressing sex and that's when it started getting bad in those parts of the world. the 'new world' was 'low sowb', as in columbus meets the natives. old world civilizations use/used social structure, religion etc to select for people more susceptible to particular preferred symptoms, and 'new world' descendants might have relatively less sowb.
the website also claims females have less sowb generally because of anatomical considerations. the book explains that with comedy.
PatrickforB
(15,426 posts)with their left hand, all would be well? This is an interesting site. Another good link!
That struck me as funny. We are really hung up about sex.
I look at our culture in terms of the old Greek elements. We're all fire (drive, focus, passion, will, gluttony and amassing wealth) and air (words, words, words - talk radio, cable TV, social media). What we don't have enough of is water, which is love, relationships, respect for each other and for the earth.
For us it is all about measurement - if we cannot see it, measure it, count it, then it doesn't exist. This, I think, is why the evangelicals have made the mistake of equating success in religion with the number of new converts.
certainot
(9,090 posts)interesting that in neuroscience studies related to sex it seems the researchers often make sure all the participants are right handed. not sure what range of research that applies to. there's probably a basic rule.
i forgot about the greek elements. they had numerous gods so it split up the certainty and maybe that helped with the democracy..... they were isolated and surrounded by waters full of fish so they may have enjoyed a fair bit of peace until things got crowded and the boats got larger.
the koran mandates 'man can only have sex with his wife and that which the right hand possesses'. the scholarly interpretations of what the right hand possesses always involve slaves and captives but what about the guys who can't afford wives or slaves, etc? it's basically giving them an excuse - if they can't abstain they better use their right hand.... so was there knowledge of sex on the wrong brain in those days and the other major religions just left it out? a fandy interpretation of it gives us the taliban, iran, book haram, etc.
and i wonder if original left handed people were a lot more different and todays left handed people survived because their ancestors survived because they were able to blend in.
re republicans - it could take some work to reverse some of that well-established wiring. but maybe shrooms or cannabis could help though..... cannabis and shrooms go way way back and may have been recognized as medicine to reduce sowb.
PatrickforB
(15,426 posts)shrooms is on the ballot this time around. Lots of young votes. I don't know anyone who voted against Prop 122.
moniss
(9,056 posts)he is using the idea of a free flow of commentary (different in important ways than freedom of speech) to mask his purpose to even further weaponize Twitter for an agenda. I would challenge the idea that Twitter is about an exchange of ideas. Perusal of most comment sections that have loose moderation pretty quickly reveals the organized hateful personal attacks against any commenter who doesn't "follow" the center-right/conservative/GQP etc. talking points on any subject.
The goal of Musk is to hammer in the MAGA/billionaire class propaganda and hammer out those who disagree. It is happening and will happen in greater force through cutting moderation while knowing all along about the well organized/orchestrated personal attacks that will take place and the hammering home of an agenda of propaganda.
This article is enlightening and exemplifies how the fig leaf of "caring" is used and weaponized by Musk and his people.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/tesla-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-investigation-elon-musk-1234590697/
ancianita
(43,307 posts)Democrats around three days before election day. Before that, voters get suppressed and purged; after that, voters get nullified.
JI7
(93,617 posts)Demsrule86
(71,542 posts)worse. He said if you want to learn about Jews...look up Kanya who is still there apparently...He allows this speech while taking down anything critical of the right wing. Twitter is now destroyed IMHO.
ancianita
(43,307 posts)Last edited Sat Nov 5, 2022, 05:25 PM - Edit history (1)
why, even after enjoying his art for thirty years, fans still had to let Kanye go.
Only to us is Twitter destroyed. Objectively, it will survive as a platform for toxic bigotry and prejudice.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Trump's social media & a number of other right wing platforms embraced that business model too & how is it doing?
Technically correct means, "drives the highest profits over time". Lack of moderation was shown *decades ago* to drive away users.
ancianita
(43,307 posts)by consensus. The NAACP leader's call to boycott is all well and good.
Because of its scale of use, however, (80% of its user base is not in the U.S.) it can drive away U.S. users and still hold, like the Internet in general. Lots of toxic users drive away non-toxic users, yet still attract different ad buy and new users.
The idea that Musk's business model will fail because of both is yet to be proven. By monetizable account users, it's ranked #15 above Reddit, which is a year older. Facebook, the #1 platform, has also been losing user accounts.
One perspective:
192 million people use Twitter every day
436 million people use Twitter every month
21% of U.S. adults are on Twitter
Twitter mDAUs are up YOY at 192 million
42% of online adults in Canada use Twitter
Twitter can help increase purchase intent by up to 34%
Twitter Topics is followed by 70 million accounts
80% of Twitter use happens via mobile
Twitter was founded in 2006 and turns 16 in 2022
Carousel ads have a higher CTR
Twitter ad revenue increased by 15%
66% of companies with over 100 employees are using Twitter ads
Twitter is popular in not only North America but also in Japan, India, and Germany.
B2B marketing is huge on Twitter
https://thesmallbusinessblog.net/twitter-statistics/
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Entire work groups are gone and from what I've been hearing from locals who work there (in the SF office, I'm in the Bay Area), they are confident the remaining people + whoever is willing to be hired now will have an awful time just keeping the systems functional.
(Also, mostly off-topic, but ugh, I hate it when stats pages jump between percents and counts.
42% of online Canadian adults = around 14 million people.)
ancianita
(43,307 posts)Not off topic at all. I can't stand percentage stats, either, when they're not related to raw numbers. I like raw numbers. Percentages are mind tricks by media, I get that. It's why even Pew research reports bug me. Corporate media love percentages, knowing that people will often see them as numbers, and it's why people get distorted impressions of so-called problems, or the scale of things.
Here are raw numbers that show the scale of Twitter users (not necessarily accounts) in other countries.
The list below the link is just the top 20. Looks like a lot. But when account holders/posters leave, or influencers and their following leave, these numbers either drop or move to follow other posters. These numbers probably even show bot use. Even raw numbers don't tell the platform content landscape. But they do provide a sense of scale.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/twitter-users-by-country
China 1,425,887,337
India 1,417,173,173
United States 338,289,857
Indonesia 275,501,339
Pakistan 235,824,862
Nigeria 218,541,212
Brazil 215,313,498
Bangladesh 171,186,372
Russia 144,713,314
Mexico 127,504,125
Japan 123,951,692
Ethiopia 123,379,924
Philippines 115,559,009
Egypt 110,990,103
DR Congo 99,010,212
Vietnam 98,186,856
Iran 88,550,570
Turkey 85,341,241
Germany 83,369,843
Thailand 71,697,030
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)You have to dig into each paragraph to find the twitter users count for each country.
ancianita
(43,307 posts)At least the site isn't some MSM site.
in2herbs
(4,390 posts)not Musk or corps to regulate twit. If people quit en-masse TODAY how would Musk act tomorrow?
Eyeball_Kid
(7,604 posts)If Twitter were to dissolve tomorrow, so that there's NO MORE TWITTER, its advertisers would not see any corresponding loss of sales or profits-- of enough significance that it would justify advertising on Twitter.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Most are mutuals.
People *are* leaving.
But also, advertisers are extremely sensitive to having their name tarnished.
Emrys
(9,101 posts)(a) lashing out at the usual suspects/scapegoats, and (b) in denial, convincing himself and trying to convince others that if he just keeps beating on, it will all come good in the end.
Never mind Chief Twit, he's the Chief Underpants Gnome.
dalton99a
(94,138 posts)
Demsrule86
(71,542 posts)NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Mines in countries in the southern part of Africa, in countries that were colonized are/were economically & socially not dissimilar to plantations in the American South.
Elon has shown that he does not reject that social structure.
Iwasthere
(3,512 posts)
Lonestarblue
(13,480 posts)They don’t care about democracy because their decision makers know that they have enough money to leave the country if it all goes to hell here. Meanwhile, they just count then profits.
republianmushroom
(22,326 posts)
Cha
(319,082 posts)Mr. Evil
(3,457 posts)Never! If I see something that interests me I'll search for their website and go there directly.
Way back in the day when I clicked on a RawStory ad I was immediately entrapped in a redirect hell. I had to do a hard shutdown, upon reboot run an antivirus full system scan and even had to go into the registry to delete several entries and values.
Some ads are legit but, some are placed on websites by third party entities that also have a nefarious agenda. Even to this day on certain sites I get a 'suspicious connection blocked' popup.
My advice is don't click on ads.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Especially smaller sites where that ad income is what allows the site to stay up.
But even then I disable all cookies , scripts, etc.. The site can have the revenue but I'm not giving the advertisers my computer.
Delphinus
(12,522 posts)something we can all do? Block ads at the home network level? I guess that implies we have to have a home network (we don't), but we do have Norton and our router might offer some options?
catsudon
(904 posts)of course everyone should already have ad blockers on their browser (adblock plus + ublock origin)
for network blocking, i use host files to apply to my router.... eh something like this : https://jrswab.com/blog/block-ads-on-entire-network
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)The blocking is done by adding a device to the network that handles all requests for network addresses instead of your Internet service provider. That device allows legit traffic through (or more accurately, provides an address for the destination) and blocks destinations on the blocklists, which are typically populated with tens of thousands of ad servers. It also has don't-block lists for sites you want to let through even though they may serve ads (my view is that not all ads are evil and some are necessary to keep many sites running).
paleotn
(22,218 posts)He put Twitter in hock up to its eyeballs to make the deal. He's on the hook for a cool $1 billion a year just in interest. Twitter may not be able to cover that even in a good year. Thus, the massive cost reductions. Firing a shit ton of employees and floating all kinds of fee for service schemes. And now this and advertisers leaving in droves.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/technology/elon-musk-twitter-money-finances.html
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)then bails out when the company is no longer viable by having it declare bankruptcy.
Why does everyone assume he even wants to make a direct profit on Twitter via ad sales? There are so many other ways to profit from it. One big one is a decade-plus of data on many users. The GOP & other fascist government entities have already shown they'll pay a pretty penny for data they can cross reference to obtain info on specific individuals & how they are connected to other specific individuals. I would note that Saudi Arabia was the second largest investor financing this deal.
boston bean
(36,931 posts)
uponit7771
(93,532 posts)
Farmer-Rick
(12,667 posts)Just because Musk got born into a filthy rich family, he gets to buy twitter.
Twitter was an evolving social platform that seemed to be finding its own. It was trying to improve and be fair. Hundreds of millions of people used it.
Along comes 1 man, Musk with his free money he got for being born, and boom it's totally destroyed.
As it seemed to be evolving into a fair and peaceful platform, I was considering joining. Now, I will never become a member and it seems that Twitter may not even be around in a few years.
What gives Musk the right to destroy a platform so many people used and enjoyed? What gives only him the right to decide what happens on Twitter? Why does our economic system allow for money makes right, or more aptly inheritance makes right? In a democracy shouldn't everyone get to decide? Why does capitalism trump democracy?
It's only his inherited wealth that lets him destroy a profitable and once evolving social platform hundreds of millions of people enjoyed. But only one person destroyed.
Bye bye twitter, capitalism was the death of you. This is how capitalism destroys markets and a thriving economy.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Extract all value, leverage with debt, bail out, move on....
Although in this case there's the added return on investment of destroying the largest platform used by anti-fascists to find each other, communicate, organize and introduce their normally separate subcultures to each other.
IronLionZion
(51,271 posts)if it's deplorables, then they might advertise things deplorables will buy.
Meowmee
(9,212 posts)Anything that disagrees with him is not free speech and you’ll get banned. Who wants to be part of a cesspool of hate run by a narcissist loon with ulterior motives? And lets not forget the new porn videos… will there be trafficking as well?
It seems people should do everything they can to tank twitter for him… trash it completely and start something new with rules in place which do not allow hatred and misinformation.
samsingh
(18,426 posts)