Twitter Today: Elon says “Free Speech” will cost $8, fires almost every content moderator, advertisers flee in droves and Grimes wants child support NOW!
What a time to be alive.
I mean that.
Who’d have thought we’d get to live to see a time when a “free speech absolutist” would charge you $8/mo for that privilege?
Who would have expected a guy who spent 44 billion to be able to tweet like an asshole, can’t afford child support.
I love 2022.
What’s happening with Twitter Today!?
Elon decided last week that Verified badges will be handed out for $8 a month, effectively creating an alt-right Twitter that sits above those who still think free speech is free.
Why is he doing this?
Verified users will get preferred treatment, video, and audio exceptions, and their content will be seen and promoted before content belonging to the unverified peasants. The latter won’t pay $8 to the free speech absolutist, so they’ll be effectively shadow-banned. In contrast, Eon’s Alt-Right minions pay for fake accounts with verified checkmarks to turn Twitter into a two-tiered flame thrower of disinformation.
Elon wants to troll or goad you into paying for this, and that’s all he’s been doing for the past seven days. WHY? Advertisers and brands are running away from Twitter to the point where Elon is scared and angry, and I fucking love it.
Except, now Elon has a problem:
Twitter lost 60% of its advertising revenue last week. Online ad agencies pulled all their ads due to “brand Safety issues” for a minimum of one week.
That prompted Angry Elon to SHAME future advertisers and blame online activists (total bullshit) for the immediate financial crush resulting from his firing of 65% of Twitter’s workforce last week. Including Cam Gordon, head of Twitter Canada, who’s a GREAT human being.
This past week, my 7.5 years leading communications for @TwitterCanada came to an end. A trillion thanks to all the 🇨🇦/🌏 colleagues, journos, partners & pals. You’ve all helped make this the ride of a lifetime. ✌️ https://t.co/UXWE6g5wde
— Cam Gordon (@cam_gordon) November 5, 2022
You catch more flies with honey that shit sandwiches
We do a lot of business in the digital space. Shaming clients publicly into giving us money while publicly shaming our employees is a bad strategy and has never worked for us, but maybe it will for Elon. it doesn’t give potential clients and employees a very stable feeling.
Brand’s want safety and stabilty attatched to their UA and awareness campaign. Not a right wing supercharged website that rewards racist asshole theater.
Always pay Yout Child Support No Matter How Many Illegitimate Kids You Seed
Things went south for Elon when Grimes, his ex-GF and baby daddy to two of her kids, let it leak that Elon has stopped paying child support to Grimes, and she’d like it if he threw some financial support behind his bastard seeds.
Actions and words are not the same.
Elon’s words are awkward as fuck, and they don’t match his actions.
You can’t be interested in supercharged moderation and fire all your moderators.
You can’t be interested in helping advertisers, then mock them.
You can’t be a free speech absolutist and charge people $8 for it while disincentivizing REAL free speech.
Elon is monetizing free speech and rewarding assholes who think like him with preferred Twitter status.
And All Grimes wants is for Elon to pay for his bastards.
As I said. What a time to be alive.
DB
Dean Blundell
Dean Blundell is a Canadian radio personality. Best known as a longtime morning host on CFNY-FM (The Edge) in Toronto, Ontario. In 2015 he was named the new morning host on sports radio station CJCL (Sportsnet 590 The Fan). Dean started his career in radio in 2001 and for nearly 20 years been entertaining the radio audience. Dean’s newest venture is the launch of his site and podcast which is gaining tremendous momentum across North America.
