I only know twitter exists because the journalists I read seem obsessed with it. Normal people not so much.
3
Twitter is a disaster. It’s a horrible product that is destructive. It needs to be run out of business. Please quit twitter.
3
Twitter has its problems, but I'm 100% certain vulture capitalists like Elliott would only make things worse (while taking a hefty fee for themselves, of course).
The worst of the worst.
1
Nailed it. It’s bizarre that Twitter isn’t making big bucks—as a platform that’s not only quoted multiple times in every article about a famous-person death or event, but is also the sole source of many more stories.
Part of it is that the ads it runs are laughable. Pseudo-scientific “genetic testing” scams and moronic WSJ fluff about whether women should wear makeup at the gym? Oh please.
I’m on Instagram solely to follow photographers, and yet I’ve clicked on—and bought via—far more ads (the same was never true of Facebook, though I deleted that a long while back).
I kinda like Jack Dorsey and think he has more integrity in his little finger than Zuckerberg has in his entire family, but he needs to perk up.
1
Trumpist billionaire takes over Twitter?
What could possibly go wrong?
16
Couldn't happen to a better, worthless 'woke' platform that skews left, relishes in finding people to pillory and adds nothing to the national dialogue.
Enjoy retirement, Jack. You've built what is the most ugly of social media sites, where you can create a profile, hide behind a photo and just insult whomever doesn't agree with you.
2
Twitter is for birdbrains. Read real news: NYtimes, WaPo, McClatchy, MSNBC, The Guardian, FiveThirtyEight,Politico,watch Rachel Maddow, and read the sources she uses.
2
This will keep me up at night.
Yes, Mr Dorsey will soon be ousted by a private equity investor and a few other stockholders that control the board.
No different than what happened at yahoo when Carl Icahn began circling like a shark smelling blood.
Mr Icahn was close to being appointed to Mr Trumps cabinet.
Mr Dorsey is a dead manager walking
1
I hope that someone indeed will finally make Twitter into what it should be: GONE.
Alas, some dreams aren't meant to be. I don't expect even Michael Dell himself, let alone the Twitter-loving media, to shut that ToS-reporter-blocking bigoted soapbox of the loser down and give the money to the shareholders. They SHOULD, if only to end the stupid hashtag fad at LONG, LONG last, but won't.
2
Here in Hove, and around the world, the to and fro, and the landing upon curious facts, makes twitter very enjoyable, much more so than the lumpen facebook. It must not go the way of Ben and Jerry's into the corporate mawl.
6
Can the current board quickly adopt an altered share voting structure to protect Dorsey and prevent an evil Trump disciple from turning Twitter into a playground for the propaganda of the rich?
As a non-tweeter I recognize the good things about this inanely named social media platform. But the bad far outweighs the good when you consider how Trump has used it as a cost-free propaganda machine to corrode, both the news and the country's political discourse, ramping up hyper-partisanship, legitimizing slander and demeaning not only his enemies but the office of the presidency. Notwithstanding the First Amendment, Twitter is a menace.
Kara,i hate it when you are right. Capitalism rules the roost. It was great while it lasted, free expression and no Political ad. Democracy is messy, investors don't like that. But to Jack we say thank you.
There are very good people on both sides.
1
Kara,
You and Scott are appalled by FB!!
The right wing propaganda machinery and machinations will come full circle with Twitter being unleashed just in time for the 2020 election cycle.
Surreptitiously suppressing the Democratic platform while putting a nuclear fueled jet engine behind Trumps feed.
1
Elliott is doing a policial LBO of Twitter so Trump can use it after November (assuming he loses- which after last night is likely.) Otherwise , he will be nixed from the platform, as he currently uses it, and can sell his con on FoX.
Twitter is our nation's septic tank of public discourse. It's best to not swim around in it lest one desires to become covered in other people's waste masquerading as valuable thought.
1
Dump Twitter. It’s an old folks site for the angry, the divisive, and the vindictive. Never joined, never will. The company has money but no cohesive guidance. Like most new money there is no morality just excess. Like Facebook it’s fueled an addiction with people spending a third of their time on their phones. It fuels the news cycle paranoia generating hysteria. Ten people dead from the corona virus- forget the death toll from tornados, guns, opioids, and the flu. A pandemic - just means the virus is in countries across the globe. Measles and smallpox are more deadly. Misinformation abounds led vin by the Twiiterer in Chief.
1
Twitter is everything bad in the world: shortening attention spans, anonymous cruelty, addiction, vacuous killer of productivity.
It's a chaotically inefficient platform for information dissemination.
It's only real value is entertainment.
And even there, it is sorely lacking.
The world would be a better place without Twitter.
1
Uber capitalism killed the value of Google as a useful search tool and made Facebook an advertising cesspool. Don't do the same to Twitter.
More limits are needed to curb the excesses of market capitalism. It shouldn't only be about money.
1
Kara, just think of Twitter as Craigslist…
A beyond-national-scale hyperconnected flea market – but for bold new thoughts instead of faded old lawn furniture…
PS
If anyone – besides Newmark and Omidyar – can figure out how to extract value from the used lawn furniture market, it’s Singer…
I wish I’d spent more time on Twitter, said nobody ever on their deathbed.
1
The platform has been live for over 13 years...and still without an edit button. He should be fired for that alone.
1
I'm pretty sure Mr. Dorsey won't be in a 'dire situation'. Everything is relative.
2
Really? Nothing on the fact a conservative billionaire and Trump ally is trying to take control of an unfortunately vital political ecosystem? This is purely following in footsteps of what's gone on in Hungary's press. Twitter is already the far right (and nation-state's) playground for fueling disinformation, using not just bots, but curated personas for spreading hatred far and wide. I'd be glad to get rid of Dorsey, he's as much of a "thought leader" as the next vacuous libertarian billionaire who was in the right place at the right time, but lets lose the tunnel vision that this is merely a case of "comeuppance".
1
It should NOT be a "powerhouse". Dorsey should immediately suspend the account of the fraud in the WH.
No president should have an active twitter account.
That's for openers.
Good. This will probably kill Twitter, and it should. It's too bad, it was a great tool that really opened up the world in so many ways. But Dorsey's unwillingness to do anything about the weaponization of their platform for right wing trolls; and the constant stream of rape and death threats that women and POCs and anyone who supports us endure daily just to use it have already taken their toll. With or without Dorsey, Twitter is finished.
1
The fat cats are having hissy fits over how many billions of dollars are being missed by the lack of capitalistic aggression at the trump propaganda platform. How much is enough?
Hopefully the media keeps ignoring the Twitter world and spare us the stream of conscience grunts from a self absorbed subscriber base.
Relax. Breathe, Ms. Swisher. The majority of Americans are NOT on Twitter, despite their pumped up numbers filled with fake troll and bot accounts and foreign third parties trying to act as "influencers." We're not paying attention to them - as the voting in the Democratic primary showed yesterday. We're smarter and more determined than any silly trolls, bots and foreigners attempting to change our votes. Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on me. We're not gonna be fooled again.
2
A take over of twitter by an arch conservative backer of President Trump would just be another slide towards the abyss of Tyranny as self interested stockholders morph twitter into their own personal Fox News like twitter machine. Oh wait, it’s already a shout machine for conservatives to bully and whine...why not make money on it? After all, isn’t it the Trumpian Way? To profit from naked self interest and incessant boot licking of our Dear Leader?
Every progressive or centrist (or sane) Twitter user should immediately and publicly threaten to stop using the service if it is taken over by this right wing idealogue. Alternative platforms (like Mastodon) exist but they haven't had traction because of Twitter's user base. If that user base boycotts and/or migrates, Twitter's value will tank and investors who aren't moved by social conscience or civic virtue will at least respond to a hit on their bottom line.
If there ever was one,
NOW
Is the time we, as a nation, need a unifying leader……..
Something Donald Trump is clearly NOT……….
1
I think I can handle whatever is coming from twitter without bracing myself
#1 Twitter is just another "Here's my opinion" outlet. It's not really doing any of us any good and it's a waste of time.
#2 The (big-money) cat will always eat the mouse.
Dear Jack Dorsey,
Take the money and run!
All the best,
MT
I knew about none of this until now. If what you're saying is that if Dorsey goes, Twitter will become a venue for EVEN WORSE public incivility, fear mongering and conspiracy theorizing, then that guy has to whatever is necessary to fend off a takeover. The world cannot afford a Twitter run by a Trumpist.
Happy to join Mr. Dorsey's next startup and leave the rightwing takeover on the Twitter platform. Wait for me Jack!
I despise Twitter. Enabling a president to lead by tweet with malice, anger and lies 24/7 is an abomination.
I guess that soon after Elliott Management buys out Twitter and outs Jack Dorsey, when the Twitter in Chief sends out his latest rants, his Tweets will be accompanied by tons of attached ads like barnacles.
1
As an employee of an organisation that was targeted by Mr Singer & Elliott Management in the not too distant past, I can say this with relative certainty: Jack Dorsey is toast. There are no lengths to which Elliott will not go to get what they want.
Cash out now Jack, while you still can, and use your billions to do some real good in the world.
Hard to say what I really feel about Elliott Management without violating the spirit and dignity of the NY Times comment section.
I hope these tech giants fight back against these vile hedge funds by publicizing all the expletive things they do, like seizing an Argentinian sailing vessel. These hedge funds are truly parasites of the world economy.
Tesla is the premium automobile, that has more cache than a Porsche. Twitter is a dumpster fire, professionals shun it, the young have moved to Instagram and other visual platforms.
Media types seem to love it, and Mr Dorsey Neo-hippee shtick.
Personally - I'd love to see Trump on Instagram- can you imagine the off the chart crazy pictures he'd be posting at 4:00am.
Should Twitter be a powerhouse? Really? Should any social media? Look, I am very aware of the uses of Twitter in the modern age -- it's great for news in fast-changing situations, getting reports from on-the-ground people in countries with censored media, and the like. But the abuses. Oh man, the cancel culture, the Twitter wars, the bots, the avalanche of sheer dreck, the pile-ons of shaming and two minute hates, the spread of rumor and fear ... In a complicated age with complicated and nuanced social problems can we try a longer-form method as our next powerhouse instead? One with editorial oversight?
14
No problem. Twitter is no longer a tech company. It should move HQ to New York and be managed by some dusty old suits from a PE firm.
Make a bold move @jack. Convert twitter into not for profit enterprise like Wikipedia. I am sure @elonmusk will help.
1
Apparently, the hedge fund maw is nondiscriminatory; it will eat the good and evil alike, and poop out the same greenbacks to its masters.
But, of course, it could be argued that such lack of discrimination--it the original sense of the word, the ability to make distinctions as to value, is the greatest evil of all, for it leads to a populace that knows the price of everything and the worth of nothing.
1
Who Cares? Seriously, run the company well, or get out of the way. If you want to keep control, don't sell it away. Pretty simple. One has to wonder if it is a healthy corporate environment to have these tech gurus with their cult-like totalatarian followings anyway. It's just a company providing a service. We have become so used to this "phenomenon" that we never stop to ponder: how would we would feel if the creator of windex was treated this way?
There is a lot going on here but first, going public is usually a money-grab deal with the devil. There might be money but there is also torture. Second, Twitter should not have allowed Trump or other evidence-lacking conservatives to destroy the platform. People follow Trump but the company's shares still lag. Third, Tesla is not Twitter. There is plenty to innovate with vehicles in contrast to a social media platform. The idea that Wall Street wants more from a platform that has always been limited is insane.
I have never had a Twitter account and somehow I seem to be getting along just fine. Wonder how that could possibly be...
I know it is too much to hope for, but in my fantasy world, Twitter just collapses and dies.
We'd all be better off.
So for less than double what he has already spent, Bloomberg could have gained this amount of leverage at Twitter? And ...
Darling 'left wing' Twitter didn't take down that post defaming Pelosi.
It failed to define this as a form of political advertising.
IMHO Singer is a perfect fit.
I had a twitter account for a bit but when I started seeing how toxic it was I deleted my account. I hear positive stories that come out of it once in a while but those stories are very few and far in between, maybe they do not get reported enough or because I am removed from it I do not see them. Either way I am not impressed with this platform at all, I am all for free speech but just having a president using the platform for policy and such, in my view of the world, it is inappropriate and unwise. I am also out of Facebook as of a few years ago because with this administration it became full of vitriol, half truths, untruths, and again, too few positives for me to enjoy it. I try to say to myself, well, those things really do not affect your life at all so who cares, at the same time I feel that many others do suffer because of things that are said or because they are bullied there. I thought social media was meant to be a place for humans to connect with each other but I no longer thing that is what it is all about. Get off your phones and computers once in a while and go outside to delight in the sky, the outdoors, the animals and all the things your eyes will not be able to see once we are removed from this earth.
Lamenting about who will run Twitter is akin to picking the right lawn care company to make your crabgrass flourish. The discussion should be centered around stamping out the scourge that is social media in general, with Twitter at the top. Naive? Sure. It isn’t going away; far from it. But the harm done by social media has overshadowed its benefits at least since Donald Trump's candidacy began. The world would be better off without it.
1
Paul Singer is described in other news reports as a "Republican megadonor." Any speculation that he or his firm are setting right some management misalignment at a giant communications outlet is a distortion. This is not a business story; this is an autocracy story.
I am going to go through life having watched every Seinfeld episode and missing out totally on Twitter....
Did I make the right choice?
This column should be on the front page with huge headlines. This is one of the scariest things I have heard in this already terrifying social and political landscape. Everyone in the country should read it.
1
It's an understatement that Twitter has not been managed properly. The board has shown no interest questioning Dorsey's business sense leading the company forward. They have given no direction formulating objectives increasing share owner value. Do they actually know what's going on? I strongly doubt it, no interest shown.
For starters, Dorsey needs to be removed along with the head of Marketing and HR. In the past few years the brightest have left, frustrated of the ineptness of management. Politics aside and looking at the potential growth of earnings, Mr. Singer sees value and growth. Twitter is a diamond in the rough that needs to be cut and polished. The board is unaware and indifferent to Twitter's potential.
The flock of Tweeps are paid lavishly. Most won't leave since they can't find employment that matches their stipend and bonus. Employees that have left are quite aware that if Twitter had the right management it would prosper. Twitter is Dorsey's toy. He is chooses to be oblivious of the turmoil within and its growth potential.
I applaud Mr. Singer for his abilities on seeing value in the company. He knows if competent management were installed, Twitter would flourish.
Politics is not the name of the game in this venture. It has been known for some time that Twitter has to clean and refresh its Nest.
1
Paul Singer is a big time Republican supporter and donor. This is not about creating shareholder value - it's about Trump Republicans controlling one of the most important media/tech companies.
Trump who rules by Twitter edicts is vulnerable to Twitter changing its policies against harassment and bullying, or false information, so their strategy is to try and control Twitter.
1
Of course its "all about money", and that money backs Trump. Democrats need to learn that Wall Street does not have their interests in mind. Case in point: the attempted scuttling of the insurgent campaign of Bernie Sanders, and now this takeover of the one media platform that the Oligarchs (Bloomberg, Bezos, Slim, Singer) don't already control.
Raise your champagne glasses!
1
Being ousted from a company you start and then take public is as old as Edison being dumped from General Electric.
1
Just close the company. It's only doing harm.
I'm relatively new to Twitter. I don't care about Mr. Dorsey's personal habits. I don't care about the stock price. I care about Mr. Singer turning Twitter into a 45 re-election platform. There are many wonderful aspects of Twitter (the Vegan Community, The Auschwitz Memorial Account, the Animal Rescue accounts and individuals) in and amongst the mud slinging and reactive hate comments. The devolving discourse becomes a game of cowards as most of these people would never be so confrontational face-to-face. Should Singer and Elliott remove Mr. Dorsey and turn Twitter into a vehicle for political ads and 45, I'll have no problem deleting my account.
1
Trumps tweets drown out mine. It is a form of repression of one’s freedom of speech. If one person gets to bellow like a fog horn so loudly no one else can be heard, that’s repression.
Twitter must pull the plug on Trumps tweets.
The idea that this is not primarily a right wing move to take over a major media platform strikes me as naive. The right has shown that it will stop at nothing to maintain power and taking over media outlets is right out of the dictator’s playbook.
2
Right Wing = Capitalist Class. That's the deal.
"Facebook’s valuation has doubled, for example, while Twitter’s has only grown 10 percent, since 2015, when Mr. Dorsey took over." -- The mentality that is literally killing our planet in one sentence.
1
I’ll admit it: while I hate Twitter, I also love it. If you look past (or unfollow) toxic feeds, there can be a lot of instant humor along with a fair amount of news (I actually see breaking news on my Twitter feed that I don’t see elsewhere, especially for media outlets I don’t follow directly). Do the President and the BernieBros use it to their own ends? Yes. But, does “shutting the platform down” make us all that much better when there are any number of other toxic outlets (Reddit)? No.
And, money calls the shots. If Twitter was ripe for takeover by a fund like Elliott, well that’s the way the system works. Sorry (it’s apparent this election season we could all use a “Capitalism 101” teaching session somewhere). Dorsey has not monetized his creation like Zuckerberg has his. Elon Musk finally quit spending all his time with Joe Rogan and went back to work. The guy at WeWork was “found out” and run off (and so was Travis Kalanick at Uber). Not all founders are business geniuses (and, actually Square is a much better idea as a moneymaker than Twitter...that’s an unsung hero for many small business people).
Good news. Jack has created a platform, intentionally or not, that has dragged our country into the gutter. It gives Trump his loudest microphone for hate and lies, and it's Russia's primary means for disrupting our election. It's a source for anxiety and, at times, a weapon. People have been arrested for what they say on Twitter.
Maybe this new joker will make it even worse, make explicit the far-right agenda Twitter now tacitly advances. If so, good news. Twitter has been the silent poison at the center of American discourse for nearly ten years--if making it worse causes its demise, I say good riddance. Maybe a service that demands people mind their manners will take its place. Maybe the next Twitter won't allow Trump to spew hate and lies all day long.
Reading about Twitter reminds me of the lyrics to "Deteriorata," the parody of "Desiderata": "You are a fluke of the universe.
You have no right to be here." Whatever the results of the financial infighting, it seems very unlikely that it will become any less corrosive, destructive, and inflammatory. I hope its stock value goes to zero.
Twitter's user base is wildly unrepresentative of the real world, yet journalists continue to cover it as if it matters. It doesn't. I see no downside to its self-destruction.
1
if right-wing ideologues take over twitter, i'll do what i did when sinclair took over a newspaper i subscribed to for its sports coverage: cancel it.
We were all so much better off before Twitter.
3
Why would I possibly care what happens at Twitter? Reading Twitter is like opening hundreds of fortune cookies because a few of them contain something interesting. Who has that much time to waste? Thank God there are newspapers (online and offline).
1
The governance failures of the Twitter board called me to call for firing the board in 2010. Dorsey packed it with sycophants. Proper governance would never have agreed to a part-time CEO.
Twitter and Facebook are complicit in the takeover of this country by a pack of criminals. Personally, I hope they end up losing money and shutting down.
I'm closing my account. I've had enough.
"And even though it is likely that Mr. Singer’s deep support for Mr. Trump will be used to call Elliott’s move as a conservative takeover of a social media giant with a huge role to play in the upcoming election, the fact is that this is all about money...."
I suspect this has more to do with it that Kara wishes to see. Twitter is Trump's communications platform. Dorsey and those liberal techies over there are too unpredictable as Trump headlines what will probably be the nastiest presidential election in history. Republicans don't have the majority of the country's voters and they need to keep their message tight and controlled to keep the base scared and angry.
Trump controls Fox, but he doesn't have enough control over his real megaphone, Twitter. His wealthy GOP supporters will see to that, though.
1
Twitter is a digitized megaphone that generates ad revenue. Don't conflate with other new economy companies like Tesla, Synergy Pharma, or other companies that create jobs and products with enduring value. The narrative in the editorial is precisely why some tech firms (WeWork, etc), are overvalued - because there is not a tangible underlying. value. Good luck to the hedge fund that is circling Twitter - they can enact discipline and a new perspective before Twitter circles the drain.
1
I'm curious if all the fuss about Twitter's "low" stock price/valuation is fueled by the fear that many of the others are overvalued despite little or, in many cases, no profits. It's almost like investors are afraid that they're all in too deep with companies that make no money and that the Ponzi scheme of trading in subscribers' personal information may come crashing down if we admit that Twitter has an appropriate valuation and the rest are vastly inflated.
1
Cue all the comments from people saying they aren't on Twitter, don't care about Twitter, think Twitter is evil, and so on. Twitter is Twitter, it is not Facebook or MySpace or Geocities for all that matters. It is a resource for real-time news and commentary in a world that is more connected and more reactionary than ever before. It is an invaluable resource for news, for good and bad. While it is far from perfect, there is no reason to expect it to "go away" any time soon.
3
@pittsburgheze -- Your definition of "news" must be very different from mine. I don't call the lies of Trump news, I call them lies. And, the blathering of celebrities who spread misinformation about health issues is not news either. Neither are the rantings of White Supremacists and antisemitics, misogynists, conspiracy mongers, end-of-the-worlders and other assorted nutcases and freaks that have found a home on twitter. There are plenty of sources for real news that disseminate actual news. Twitter is not that.
Being way past the age where needing a Twitter "sugar high" of attention is a daily addiction, nothing Twitter has done, or has become, is of any appeal to me — not advertising, not personal or work connections, not thoughtful criticism, and certainly not snappy snark. Even worse, hearing Twitter and Trump lumped together countless times a day makes my ever engaging with that platform a revolting thought. Dorsey let the company drift into being a bright, shiny object — my proposal would be that it just disappears.
1
I first met Jack Dorsey at a large meeting of technology journalists. That was very early on in twitter's life; in fact, Mr. Dorsey showed me how to put twitter on my computer so I consider myself an early adopter. Back then, he and his cofounders were firm believers in working for the betterment of society. I hope Dorsey hasn't changed too much because I want to argue that the best thing he could do for us all would be "to tank" the company - to dump twitter so it no longer was viable. Doing so would not only cripple Trump but also might wipe the slate clean for all of us.
8
For right now, the tyranny of capitalism has only a few remaining democratic checks on it's 'all-out' abuse of less powerful communities.
If democracy continues to be eroded around the globe, ALL communities lose.
JP Morgan and Chase Bank can help reverse that trend --- if they recognize their larger responsibility for creating a sustainable future on planet earth.
"A few are guilty, all are responsible."
1
Like Facebook, Twitter sold our privacy out a long time ago.
4
I just checked Twitter's current market capitalization, 28 billion. Apple and Microsoft are both 40 times that. Facebook 20 times. Intuitively, given the prominence of the platform, the company is hugely underperforming and may in fact be threatened by future rivals with a more dynamic platform.
So, I can see why big money is coming for Dorsey. If nothing else, this is an underperforming asset which means it has a future value that reflected in its share price. I'm not a tech guru or visionary but Twitter, one would think could greatly expand the functionality of its app and this wouldn't be a major financial undertaking. Many thousands of highly skilled software developers can be put to use in hours or days to build the app. Think of all the ways we now communicate and visualize Twitter as above all else a communications platform. A transformation of Twitter can also be envisioned by all other major communications firms. Social media, seemingly ubiquitous is in fact in its infancy. We are just getting started. So Dorsey may indeed lose is job and it may not be a tragedy.
Should Twitter disappear or "evolve" from its present form, the adults in the room could care less. It's a platform for the unwashed and uneducated who require instant gratification. Really, Twitter is the best argument to retain the old fashioned print media.
22
@Mike
That is so dead on perfect. Thanks!
Twitter has its good points and it’s bad points. It’s the platform of choice for our divisive name calling president, it also provides information. If it’s monetized it might become the next My Space. Corporate raiders don’t care, never have.
4
Twitter is little more than a platform for distribution of stream of consciousness nonsense and has been exploited for the widespread and deliberate dissemination of misinformation, misdirection and misinterpretation. Kind of like Fox News.
There is nothing anyone, and I mean anyone - is "tweeting" that I care about. If a group of investors sees value in this business model, good on them. Let them throw money at it.
More nefariously, it is likely the fund managers see the potential in the ability to deliberately mislead the "followers" and are happy to risk or squander the investors cash on the misadventure. The payout isn't cash. It is in the "influence"
8
Twitter now seems to be the official first-line communications channel for the leaders of many countries and for government agencies at every level. As such it's as integral to life and national security as the water supply. That's why this layman has the sense that Twitter should be removed from the capitalist food chain and both protected and regulated. I realize that might be wrong and/or impossible. But the idea that such a unique and fundamental global utility will be controlled by whatever narrow interest has the most money scares me.
11
I logged off Twitter for the last time two years ago and have not missed in in the slightest, nor have I become less informed to quick breaking news. The notion that Twitter is integral to life is decidedly false. You’ve been duped into believing one needs an app, which is nothing more than a cesspool of screaming headlines, populist groupthink, and incivility.
1
I agree with this. In fact, my husband & I think that Michael Bloomberg should buy Twitter outright and enforce its regulations. At least one party would be ‘banned’...he who shall not be named!
This is the worst of capitalism, it's predatory side. Anything can be justified in the name of a buck more in the stock price. Even Kara Swisher buys in to that. So let Singer's hedge fund prevail in the name of the market and capitalism while h
e and other hedge funds get away with one of the biggest loopholes in the tax code, the treatment of carried interest at a preposterously low tax rate.
6
Twitter’s potential is largely unrealized: 360 - 480 characters; visuals that match instagram; analytics that take advantage of user classification; content analysis of verbatim expression. The platform could take our pulse — and maybe it will — but there is little imagination which is sad given the importance of what Jack Dorsey has done with Medium and Blogger to offer us the means of expressing ourselves. It’s early in the life of these new media, and we don’t really understand their potential. As a student of the media for the past 50 years, I still see the money making the call.
1
Where to start.
Cryptocurrency was initially a reward for developers to build blockchain technology.
Cryptocurrency has moved on to IPO's, speculation, and primarily: money laundering, drug dealing, tax avoidance, or any illicit act meant to avoid banking laws.
The arguments supporting cryptocurrency are told by babes with such sincerity it is sad that they have either been duped, or they are corrupt enough to know better and advance lies.
Twitter, Trump, Bernie Bros, the GRU, and hate are all synonymous.
The most important thing Elliot could do would be to gain control of Twitter, throw off anyone involved in hate speech - including the illegitimate President - or shut down and play beautiful music.
Jack Dorsey moving on to cryptocurrency is akin to the spread of the coronavirus, another plague upon the Earth.
When the US is one again led by law, the Constitution, freedom, and corruption is fought rather than protected by the Justice Department, cryptocurrencies will be seen as the vice they are to society and outlawed.
Sovereign digital currencies can be issued instead, and do everything cryptocurrencies can do except further crime, and meet all tax record keeping, anti-money laundering and legal requirements.
11
What makes anyone think that a corporation with a Board of Directors is going to make human decisions about hate speech? Corporate boards tend to try and keep things the same.
11
As an independent author, I've been able to build up a following on Twitter and find a sense of community there. (I also find it very politically stimulating.)
I've been on it since 2010 and will miss it terribly if the hedge fund guy ruins it.
10
And they most certainly will.
1
When (not if) control of Twitter changes because of a takeover by a hedge fund/private equity firm there is one guarantee.
It will become even more obnoxious and toxic than it already is.
31
surprised it took this long. won't be long before Twitter is replaced by some other communications technology. ask yourself - has Twitter really built a defensive moat capable of fending off future competitors? regarding Elon Musk, to his absolute credit, making cars is 10x harder than running a social media platform. Tesla could easily be around 100 years from now. Twitter 5, maybe 7?
6
customers and employees can more easily replace twitter than any FANG technology
Activist investors targeting infrastructure for politics will find themselves boxed out by the kind of special share arrangements that protect google and facebook, but also made Uber toxic. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander — but not for the goslings.
Hopelessly hoping Dorsey leaves Twitter with the businessmen and a year or two later and does what Dom Hoffman did, but I expect Dorsey might just bail out entirely. The beauty of old Twitter was it was so limited people used it very differently to how it’s used now, sort of like sending an sms back in the early 00s, in fact that’s along the lines of how it started.
(Hoffman was a co-founder of Vine which was acquired and shut down by Twitter, he recently released byte app which is an iteration of Vine).
1
There's money in heartlessness—as Paul Singer, Facebook and other Trump supporters know all too well.
I would neither use nor invest in Twitter (it strikes me like holding the mortgage on the Death Star: it only makes a good return if it destroys whole worlds) but if Twitter isn't worth more than it was in 2015 then, unlike Tesla when people were saying Apple should buy it to ensconce Elon Musk there for life, it's likely still financially doable for Salesforce to buy it up as a jewel (shudder) in its crown, and Mark Benioff, who's always struck me as decidedly unevil as CEOs go, could let Mr. Dorsey roam third world countries as he pleases, which I'm sure isn't to no good outcome.
Though I shouldn't think Jack Dorsey would need me to seriously advise avoiding them in a global pandemic.
8
"And others take aim at his unusual quirks — ice baths, silent mediation retreats to places like Myanmar, fasting, to name a few — even though zeroing in on personal habits is exactly no one’s business." So, in a "silent mediation retreat," I presume everyone just quietly and surreptitiously moves to the middle? If so, it's not working...
2
“even though zeroing in on personal habits is exactly no one’s business.”
Really?
Cite the proof.
Because some people sure do preach sure answers to questions I have never seen evidence of sure answers too.
And sure answers that if true would require very different beliefs from the person assuring us than the person has.
The lack of explosive growth at Twitter is due to many factors"....
To me, this is one of the fundamental problems with our approach to the economy. Everything must keep on expanding exponentially and infinitely! The only thing that matters is the stock performance of a company. This is not a sustainable model but it's the only one that's allowed to exist in our society. Bigger is always better. Maybe Mr. Dorsey put in a "weak effort in advertising", but maybe he didn't want tweeters (or whatever they are called - I am not one of them) to have to deal with endless advertisements the way they do everywhere else!
43
@drn
Are you aware that the U.S. population has increased steadily for the past 200 years? Do you now understand why companies must grow to survive? Example: If Apple and makes 50 million iPhones and then the population grows and eventually requires 100 million iPhones, the company will not survive making only 50 million.
@Jose Pieste
Why not? Fewer people would have them, and the price would be high. Like Hermes Kelly bags.
I’m sure DRN understands population growth.
Do you understand that you can now not watch a YouTube video without three commercials at the beginning and one smack dab in the middle for good measure.
All for the almighty dollar.
I think that was the point DRN was making.
I've already ditched my Facebook account, won't go near Instagram. If Twitter turns into another FB, I'll live without "unsocial" media altogether.
36
As much time as everyone spends on the social media or phones in general it might be a blessing in disguise.
The question should be asked (and won't be) "Does a democratic republic need Twitter?" Much the same could be asked of FB, but I'll stick with Twit. You might say that Twitter fosters an exchange of ideas, which is healthy. Unfortunately, it's clearly become a digital swamp. It's more of a war zone than Vietnam when I was there.
The problem with 24/7 communication, everybody connected, everybody on, is that there's no time given for thoughtful consideration. Is what I'm about to send to 20,00 people factual? Does it serve the common good? Twitter fails this standard. It may well be time for major change.
29
No one had said it better than Alex De Tocqueville,"As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?"
67
It's hardly a characteristic of America alone. Especially in the modern world.
1
@Kevinlarson
Or, as Calvin Coolidge put it: "The business of America is business."
1
Twitter is a unique platform that isn’t Facebook and it certainly isn’t one of Musks’s enterprises. For good or bad, Twitter is Twitter not because it is innovative platform, it has intrusive advertising or because of its glitzy presentation. It is Twitter because it is a direct, uncluttered and informative.
Twitter has made progress in beating back the most abusive users and its decision to refuse political advertising made little sense business-wise, but a lot of sense for its users.
If Paul Singer tries to change the Twitter culture for the sake of a buck he will have made a poor investment. Whenever Twitter’s fractious but loyal followers see a change coming they go on-line and beat it back ferociously. If Twitter changes into Facebook the leading influencers will leave in droves.
It would be hard to change it without destroying it. I think Dorsey knows this.
131
@Don Collins
"If Twitter changes into Facebook the leading influencers will leave in droves."
What will it take to make Facebook users leave in droves?
Seriously though, Singer doesn't want it for the influencers, he wants it for the influencees. He wants a delivery system for Fox News-type commentary generated by Trumpist pundits but mostly tweets and retweets by groundlings in a true echo chamber where they can work themselves into a frenzied mob divorced from reality in a way not easily transcribed.
The benefits to buying Twitter rather than just creating "Red Twitter" is the broader-audience exposure to hook in the sorts of Twitter users that might or might not hear about such a transfer yet have no idea what it means, or might know but, like the users of the aforementioned Facebook, just fool themselves into believing they'd be immune to propaganda. (That's the thing about propaganda, nobody ever thinks they'd be highly suggestible to propaganda.)
3
@Don Collins
Your description of Twitter for me (I don't/have never used it....therefore I am unbiased!) sounds like a sinking ship where a bunch of people keep bailing the water out of it so it can keep sailing.
At the same time describing Twitter as direct, uncluttered and informative, you say it has intrusive advertising with a glitzy presentation.....that just sounds like a different TV channel to me. Is that innovative?
@Don Collins
He won’t change it for a buck. He will change it into an organ of Trump’s re-election campaign.
5
The thing that still amazes me is just how many people believe that Twitter has a left wing bias.
Far right wing propagandists have been so good at coordinating bullying and harassment campaigns on the platform that it’s caused dozens of prominent women to completely remove themselves from social media. And the far right wing propagandists have faced no consequences of that. None.
Also, the CEO, Jack Dorsey, was vacationing in a country that was literally in the middle of committing a genocide while he was there.
What Republicans are doing, and they’re great at it, is called gaming the referees. It’s a sports term. For instance, a hockey player might constantly and incessantly complain about being cross-checked, regardless of the fact that no cross checking happened. Then, after 48 minutes of constant complaining, the ref calls an opposing player for a penalty on a play that wasn’t really cross checking, but was close enough to call it just to avoid the appearance of turning a blind eye.
And that’s what Republicans have done with Twitter. Despite the fact, easily verifiable with massive amounts of quantifiable evidence, that there is absolutely no liberal bias at Twitter, many people believe there is. And it’s not because of any real liberal bias. It’s because Republicans spent so much time complaining and yelling about it that people eventually began to ignore the real right wing bias.
297
@Austin Ouellette Yep, The Big Lie, is a favorite Republican tool to gain and to stay in power. It was before Trump, and it will outlive him. When your platform is more power and wealth to the corporations and the super rich and nothing else, you have to do something to keep the masses voting for your, hmmm, kept legislators.
16
@Austin Ouellette Simple: Right-wing politics in the US (and, well, the west in general) as far as I can tell has been founded - primarily - on lies, for at least the last couple of decades.
So... in the (far too rare) occasion that they get called out on it, they feel mistreated because of people with moderate-left and left leaning policies don't get called out as much.
The problem is: While, of course, there are lies and embellishments being used by the left as well as the right, the "left" (gonna put it in quotation marks, because what's "left wing" in the US barely qualifies as centrist here in europe) still agrees to at least a couple of proven facts.
So... yeah, that will make it seem like Google and others have a left-wing bias, in so far as they have a bias for verifiable facts vs lies/make-believe.
16
@Austin Ouellette
Exactly correct. Republicans used the same victimhood play against "the media," which gave us the cautious both-siderism and false equivalences from organizations terrified of being accused of left-wing bias.
4
Anyone remember Classmates or MySpace? A corporate takeover of Twitter will lead to mass exodus. Facebook is already staring at declines in engagement and stagnating revenues. Social media is an idea whose time has an end.
173
@Marston Gould wrote, "Social media is an idea whose time has an end."
We can hope!
54
....maybe because there's nothing social about it?
4
@Marston Gould
I hope so. I celebrate the day I quit Facebook like the day I quit smoking. Both were hard. But I gained my mental and physical health back in both instances. Not to mention a lot of time and true friends. My real friends and I now talk and socialize in person.
Was never on Twitter; it sounded too juvenile to me. But then again so did Facebook. I miss the cat and baby pix though....
3
Every time I read another article about Twitter I'm more relieved that I am not a member, or subscriber, or tweeter, or whatever they're called. It's bad enough I come across Trump's inane tweetings in publications like the NYT. I don't care in the least who's ousted at the company and who takes it over, or anything about it. Twitter has contributed to the breakdown of civil discourse in this country in a huge way. I'd be happy if I read it was going to be shut down. We'd all be better for it.
236
@Ms. Pea
Agree; we can all survive without the snark and meanness on Twitter. Personally, I believe all these sites with unedited posts repeating smears etc. should be regulated as is the press. They are coasting on "free speech" established for good purpose. Zuckerberg finally had to face Congress to explain the hate posts allowed on FB. Twitter is even worse than FB.
20
@Ms. Pea Agree. The only reason twitter continues really is journalists, in my opinion. They are on there in droves and their frequent columns and articles about it continue to make it sound "relevant." This one is yet another of countless examples. To be sure, for journalists twitter naturally of interest - it's basically a sort of crowd-based wire service, which journalists love, they can't get enough of that kind of thing. They confuse the notifications for "breaking news" lol. So, unsurprisingly, the journalists keep talking it up - they fall for the "if I'm using it and my friends are it must be important!" fallacy. But it's all noise. The fact is only 1 in 5 Americans is on the platform - most people do not use twitter and do not care about it. Most of the noise comes from 30-40 year old white guys. A small number of people (and millions of bots!) generate a huge number of tweets. So it's really all hat and no cattle. The amount of noise on twitter is unbelievable. It's really a huge illusion and I'm surprised so many smart people fall for it. I left ages ago and cannot believe I ever paid it any mind.
8
@Linda Miilu @Ms. Pea
It’s funny that @Ms. Pea gives opinion on something she has no experience with. Funny as in feel concerned when you express strong but uninformed opinions.
Like all tools, Twitter has good/bad. It’s exactly like a phone where you can choose whom you converse with. I see tweets from the interesting and reputable (non-crazy, not mean) I ‘follow’. Twitter is an amazingly valuable resource.
2
No one should ever expect to be immune from the tsunami of hedge fund money. This isn’t about profit this is about using Twitter to help people like Singer extend power over the larger community. It’s should be surprise that 90% of media is owned by a very few people.
I think we’re well past the tipping point for Democracy.
84
@Jim LoMonaco
Unfortunately, yes. And no one questions the expectations. When was the last time any consumer-accessed investment account posted a 10 percent return in the same time frame?
6
@Jim LoMonaco
Warren would probably love to crush that guy. He is a parasite. She would be relentless. God I hope she gets the chance under a Biden administration. Im trying to get excited about Biden, I really am. Sigh.
3
If a right-wing billionaire is trying to gain control of Twitter and force Dorsey out, it's because they want Twitter more highly politicized.
Kind of like finding out today that Facebook is using Tucker Carlson founded website The Daily Caller to prove whether things are true or false on that platform. The fix is in folks.
30
Who will bring back reasoned, extended discussion and make it the powerhouse it once was? (As opposed to 140-character soundbites.) #BringBackRealCommunication
9
The most powerful person in America is the one with the power to suspend Trump from Twitter.
35
What on earth makes you assume twitter isn't a powerhouse? The White House and its right wing allies use it incessantly to spread lies, anti-science activists are spreading dangerous nonsense about epidemics, foreign powers use it to attempt to disrupt civil society. Powers that be preserve us from its gaining yet more power!
5
Mr. Singer, let's have a word: Myspace!
Got it? If we users leave, you only have an brandname with sentimental value.
10
So, Kara, Twitter's value is to be weighed against the globally damaging greed of zuckerberg? No thanks.
6
Fox News. Talk Radio. Why not add Twitter to the right-wing echo chamber? How quickly do you think a new CEO will let political advertising back onto the app?
5
The point of this article seems to be that it is unfortunate a good heart won't keep Dorsey in control. For evidence of a good heart, we are told that he takes cold baths and his employees like him.
I'm trying to understand why I should care about this one way or another. Is business all about money? Sure. But ultimately the money is about who provides people with tools they find useful.
Dorsey is CEO of a publicly traded company. Shareholders expect CEO's of public companies to deliver results.
If the CEO doesn't, he's gone.
Next!
1
I have never been a twit nor booked face. I suspect that I miss nothing, since everyone is so happy about it (sarcasm). I doubt I would fall for the propaganda stuff, but I am sure many do since many seem to believe cable news of some kind. Or even, take the NYTs at their word. I would guess that twitter and facebook are real wastes of time. But then, wasting time is what many consider to be freedom. It all seems really boring, like a video game.
My guess is that with Dorsey there still the full propaganda benefits of a brainwash outlet like twitter are not achieved for our owners. They will increase their fake news and brainwash stuff further and many will love it.
1
Tesla is not Twitter and the two should not be compared. One is American manufacturing producing state of the art technology that can benefit the planet eventually, while the other is merely a platform that has proved to be divisive, corrosive and easily manipulated. People don't yell at other in public anymore. They use Twitter instead. Instant abuse, repeatedly hourly. Useless technology, in my opinion.
93
@Rick Morris gotta quibble with telsa as "state of the art technology" -- telsa strung together 5,000 laptop batteries and put them in a car. yes, that's sooo much better than internal combustion, but it's not state of the art.
1
@Rick Morris
Go ahead and delete the "in my opinion" part. Twitter is 100% worthless technology.
1
I have never used, nor do I ever plan to use Twitter. It would be much better if we got back to making things and fixing healthcare and infrastructure for starters.
28
I don't have to brace myself. I never bought the whole lemming-rush into social media. I'm still alive, and get the info and opinion I need in more than 280 characters.
20
The fact that Twitter has not gone whole hog into selling itself to the advertisers is precisely the reason that I prefer it. The more intrusive and insistent that the ads become, the less time I spend with a platform. Dorsey has found the right balance at Twitter. I hope that’s not destroyed in the name of greed.
10
Right wing control of FB and Twitter? That can’t be good. I have very little to do with both platforms. Twitter is already so vicious that I avoid it. FB sells our most private info to the highest bidder.
19
Paul Dinger happens to be a Republican mega-donor and a Trump supporter. Care to bet that ads bashing Joe Biden will soon be pushed to all Twitter patrons, while ads that don’t support Trump will be suppressed?
After all, whenever Republicans accuse folks of something - it’s something they plan on doing (or are already doing) themselves.
163
At 67 I have found generally republicans agree: if it’s worth having it’s worth stealing. I am not a republican. Sadly in this age cheating seems to be ok with a lot of folks.
24
@Kate Bix
Maybe this is the only way the Republicans can win? They are sitting on, or refusing to pass, any kind of election security laws. They have canceled Republican primaries. Why not add this to the mix?
For what it's worth, I am not a Republican, and I am most certainly not OK with the cheating.
11
My personal feeling is that for whatever good it may have done, Twitter has been a net negative. It has amplified Trump's bulldozer of a bullhorn, enabling him to engage in extra-legal activity and subvert while enhancing the power of his office. It has also amplified false news and helped to destroy the social contract as it is supposed to exist. If for no other reasons, I wouldn't mind seeing Twitter and a lot of other "social" media disappear. I have no regrets for not participating in it; I only regret that exists and has perverted the national discourse. (Others will disagree; it's still their right in America, I think.)
91
@CP
"I wouldn't mind seeing Twitter and a lot of other "social" media disappear. I have no regrets for not participating in it; I only regret that exists and has perverted the national discourse."
.
Hear hear!
13
@CP
The problem is that it won’t disappear. It is going to become under the control of people who want to use it to advance a Trump’s candidacy while suppressing his opponent’s candidacy.
8
@CP
I don't know what good Twitter is alleged to have done. There are general convictions that it has raised awareness for things, been used to raise money, and that people are supposed to be able to use it to find support. What I've seen is that raising awareness isn't effective, it's not required to raise money, and it certainly feels like more people are bullied and harassed than supported. I myself have a very common psychological disorder, but when I tried to find a support group, it turned out to be a support group for people who have to live with people like me. It was one of the most painful experiences I've had trying to find support, and I have social media to thank for it. Social media talks a good game, but it's just people being horrible to each other so corporations keep making that paper.
1
Facebook is proof that what is profitable and what is good for society aren't correlated. In fact, they may be negatively correlated.
I fear that the "solution" to make Twitter more profitable will be to make it even more toxic and divisive, so as to promote more "engagement" in the platform in order to keep eyeballs glued to the screen and the ads that Twitter brings up. It's the digital equivalent of Purdue Pharmaceuticals promoting more OxyContin in order to increase profits.
When will we ever learn that "profitable" is NOT the same as "good for society"?
236
@Scott It's not that people don't know. As long as there's profit in it, they don't care.
17
@Scott
If everyone stopped clicking on ads, then it would quickly become unprofitable.
@Scott
For profit prisons.
For profit military.
For profit medical.
1
There is a plenty of opportunities in the market for Elliott and why are they picking on Twitter despite the uphill battles with replacing Dorsey or forcing other changes? I believe the goal is to change Twitter into a subtle propaganda machine over the next few years as there is absolutely no competition for Twitter right now and this is exactly where the Truth is out. Money has no power and everyone gets more or less equal voice the moment political ads are stopped and that is exactly what Twitter did.
43
@forall It could go that way, OR they could spin it into the best customer service and echoing platforms on earth. I don't think keeping it "as is" or worse is going to drive the number of users up.
Maybe his group will finally have the courage to have verified users, no trolling, and the ability to like and dislike a tweet on its platform. They may lose a ton of users, but they don't seem to contribute to the growth of the product anyway.
6
@KSav Don't be naive, please. Hedge funds are after profits, not customer satisfaction.
10
@KSav
The principals in this effort appear to be Trump supporters. I doubt they will pass up an opportunity to convert it into the social media version of the Fox echo chamber, suppressing information that will hurt Trump, and pushing conspiracy theories that will hurt Trump’s opponent. Of course, what I just wrote also sounds like a conspiracy theory. I dunno...
9
Not everyone is susceptible to this particular form of addiction. Nor does everyone believe that it is either inevitable or appropriate that the best use of commercial success for any business, internet or otherwise, is to 'maximize shareholder value'. That particular approach to business is proecisely the attitude which has brought our society to its current state of dysfunction: a playground for the exceedingly wealthy and widespread misery from many, many others.
77
@richard
The moment you take you business public and get a whole bunch of shareholders then you lose the ability to be "not everyone"
There is a whole blanket of legally-required fiduciary duties associated with running a public company or sitting on the board of a public company.
And your personal concerns about 'disfunction' no longer play a role in how 'your' public company is run when it is actually owned by people like me.
7
@SteveRR My concerns, as a tweep, do play a role. I can chose to delete all my contents and cancel my account anytime. If dissatisfaction with changes reaches a critical mass, Singer's got nothing. So, he should treat very carefully.
1
@SteveRR - when was the last time you heard of a board member going to trial for failing his or her "fiduciary duties?" the board members of Enron, AIG, Tyco, Lehman, Boeing perhaps? nope. none of them. why? there are really no fiduciary duties of a modern corporate board.
sure, you can be arrested for the usual downmarket crimes -- murder, child abuse, hit and run -- but the silk sock white collar crimes are not really crimes, but unfortunate misunderstandings and oversights.