{"id":29498,"date":"2023-10-30T11:54:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T18:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=29498"},"modified":"2023-10-30T11:54:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T18:54:59","slug":"one-year-after-elon-musk-bought-twitter-his-hilarious-nightmare-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/10\/30\/one-year-after-elon-musk-bought-twitter-his-hilarious-nightmare-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"One Year After Elon Musk Bought Twitter, His Hilarious Nightmare Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">I underestimated Musk\u2019s lust for tormenting himself, and us.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/jonschwarz\/\">Jon Schwarz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>October 27 2023, 6:00 a.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1663261740-elon-musk-fun-tp.jpg?resize=1200%2C800\" alt=\"Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla, speaks to members of the media following Senate bipartisan Artificial Intelligence (AI) Insight Forum on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. The gathering is part of the Senate majority leader's strategy to give Congress more influence over the future of artificial intelligence as it takes on a growing role in the professional and personal lives of Americans. Photographer: Al Drago\/Bloomberg via Getty Images\" class=\"wp-image-449220\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Elon Musk speaks to members of the media following the Senate AI Insight Forum on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 13, 2023.&nbsp;Photo: Al Drago\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AFTER ELON MUSK<\/strong>&nbsp;finalized his purchase of Twitter on October 27, 2022, I wrote&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/10\/28\/elon-musk-twitter\/\">an article<\/a>&nbsp;in which I warned, \u201cWe need to take seriously the possibility that this will end up being one of the funniest things that\u2019s ever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, I have to issue an apology: I was wrong. Musk\u2019s ownership of Twitter may well be \u2014 at least for people who manage to enjoy catastrophic human folly \u2014&nbsp;<em>the<\/em>&nbsp;funniest thing that\u2019s ever happened.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s take a look back and see how I was so mistaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musk began his tenure as Twitter\u2019s owner by posting this message to the company\u2019s advertisers, in which he said, \u201cTwitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise. \u2026 Twitter obviously cannot be a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences! In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Dear Twitter Advertisers <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GMwHmInPAS\">pic.twitter.com\/GMwHmInPAS<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1585619322239561728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 27, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musk had to say this for obvious reasons: 90 percent of Twitter\u2019s revenues came from ads, and corporate America gets nervous about its ads appearing in an environment that\u2019s completely unpredictable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I assumed that Musk would make a serious effort here. But this was based on my belief that, while he might be a deeply sincere ultra-right-wing crank, he surely had the level of self-control possessed by a 6-year-old. He does not. Big corporations now comprehend this and are understandably anxious about advertising with a company run by a man who, at any moment, may see user @JGoebbels1488 posting excerpts from \u201cThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion\u201d and reply \u201cconcerning!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">MOST READ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/27\/secret-military-base-israel-gaza-site-512\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/27\/secret-military-base-israel-gaza-site-512\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/8086163.jpg?resize=440%2C440&amp;w=1200\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/27\/secret-military-base-israel-gaza-site-512\/\">U.S. Quietly Expands Secret Military Base in Israel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/27\/secret-military-base-israel-gaza-site-512\/\">Ken Klippenstein, Daniel Boguslaw<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/26\/artforum-artists-gaza-ceasefire-martin-eisenberg\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/26\/artforum-artists-gaza-ceasefire-martin-eisenberg\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1666978728.jpg?resize=440%2C440&amp;w=1200\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/26\/artforum-artists-gaza-ceasefire-martin-eisenberg\/\">Bed Bath &amp; Beyond Scion Pressured Artists to Retract Gaza Ceasefire Call in Artforum Letter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/26\/artforum-artists-gaza-ceasefire-martin-eisenberg\/\">Daniel Boguslaw, Natasha Lennard<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/29\/william-nordhaus-climate-economics\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/29\/william-nordhaus-climate-economics\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1047733276-ft.jpg?resize=440%2C440&amp;w=1200\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/29\/william-nordhaus-climate-economics\/\">When Idiot Savants Do Climate Economics<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/10\/29\/william-nordhaus-climate-economics\/\">Christopher Ketcham<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The consequences of this have been what you\u2019d expect. The marketing consultancy Ebiquity represents 70 of the 100 companies that spend the most on ads, including Google and General Motors. Before Musk\u2019s takeover, 31 of their big clients bought space on Twitter. Last month,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/twitter-deeper-trouble-advertisers\">just two did<\/a>. Ebiquity\u2019s chief strategy officer told Business Insider that \u201cthis is a drop we have not seen before for any major advertising platform.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why Twitter users now largely see ads from micro-entrepreneurs who are, say, selling 1\/100th scale papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 models of the Eiffel Tower. The good news for Twitter is that such companies don\u2019t worry much about brand safety. But the bad news is that their annual advertising budget is $25. Hence, Twitter\u2019s advertising revenue in the U.S. is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/technology\/us-ad-revenue-musks-x-declined-each-month-since-takeover-data-2023-10-04\/\">apparently down<\/a>&nbsp;60 percent year over year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>https:\/\/o.prod.theintercept.com\/checkout\/template\/cacheableShow?aid=hsZyoAWmIE&#038;templateId=OTEXERHVRCE9&#038;templateVariantId=OTVEIU52VT7IF&#038;offerId=fakeOfferId&#038;experienceId=EX3LBE28N473&#038;iframeId=offer_d95877cf7d9b23ea09ec-0&#038;displayMode=inline&#038;pianoIdUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fid.tinypass.com%2Fid%2F&#038;widget=template&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also never imagined it possible that Musk would rename Twitter \u2014 which had become an incredibly well-known brand \u2014 to \u201cX\u201d just because he\u2019s been obsessed with the idea of a company with that name since he was a kid. It\u2019s as though he bought Coca-Cola and changed its name to that of his beloved childhood pet tortoise Zoinks. The people who try to measure this kind of thing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/6297303\/twitter-x-rebrand-cost\/\">claim<\/a>&nbsp;that this has destroyed between $4 and $20 billion of Twitter\u2019s value. (As you see in this article, I refuse to refer to Twitter as X just out of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bWXazVhlyxQ&amp;t=252s\">pure orneriness<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another of my mistaken beliefs was that Musk understood the basic facts about Twitter. The numbers have gone down somewhat since Musk\u2019s purchase of the company, but right now, about 500 million people log on to Twitter at least once a month. Perhaps 120 million check it out daily; these average users spend about 15 minutes on it. A tenth of these numbers \u2014 that is, about 12 million people \u2014 are heavy users, who account for 70 percent of all the time spent by anyone on the app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musk is one of these heavy users. He adores Twitter, as do some other\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/schwarz\">troubled souls<\/a>. But this led him to wildly overestimate its popularity among normal humans. A company with 50 million fanatically devoted users could possibly survive a collapse in ad revenue by enticing them to pay a subscription fee. But Twitter does not have such users and now never will, given Musk\u2019s relentless antagonizing of the largely progressive Twitterati.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/10\/28\/elon-musk-twitter\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/10\/28\/elon-musk-twitter\/\">Related<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/10\/28\/elon-musk-twitter\/\">By Buying Twitter, Elon Musk Has Created His Own Hilarious Nightmare<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So how much is Twitter worth today? When Musk became involved with the company in the first months of 2022, its market capitalization was about $28 billion. He then offered to pay $44 billion for it, which was so much more than the company was worth that its executives had to accept the offer or they would have been sued by their shareholders. Now that the company\u2019s no longer publicly traded \u2014 and so its basic financials don\u2019t have to be disclosed \u2014 it\u2019s more difficult to know what\u2019s going on. However, Fidelity Investments, a financial services company, holds a stake in Twitter and has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/twitter-fidelity-musk-value-08c64f3bda6c3070fef0d33f247501a3\">marked down<\/a>&nbsp;its valuation of this stake by about two-thirds since Musk bought it. This implies that Twitter is now worth around $15 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The significance of this is that Musk and his co-investors only put up $31 billion or so of the $44 billion purchase price. The remaining $13 billion was borrowed by Twitter at high interest rates from Wall Street. In other words, Musk and company are perilously close to having lost their entire $31 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the end, I did not understand Musk\u2019s determination to torment himself by forcing his entire existence into an extremely painful&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Procrustes\">Procrustean bed<\/a>. The results have been bleak and awful for Twitter and the world, but not just bleak and awful: They have also been hilarious. Anyone who likes to laugh about human vanity and hubris has to appreciate his commitment to the bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/jonschwarz\/\"><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/jonschwarz\/\">Jon Schwarz<\/a><a href=\"mailto:jon.schwarz@theintercept.com\">jon.schwarz@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Schwarz\">@Schwarz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I underestimated Musk\u2019s lust for tormenting himself, and us. Jon Schwarz October 27 2023, 6:00 a.m. (TheIntercept.com) Elon Musk speaks to members of the media following the Senate AI Insight Forum on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 13, 2023.&nbsp;Photo: Al Drago\/Bloomberg via Getty Images AFTER ELON MUSK&nbsp;finalized his&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/10\/30\/one-year-after-elon-musk-bought-twitter-his-hilarious-nightmare-continues\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[249,529],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29499,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29498\/revisions\/29499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}