When Twitter Loses $4 Million a Day and Moderation is Closed Down

If you want to know why…

It’s been really interesting learning all about Twitter from the staff who used to work there. For the most part, the fired staff are saying how lovely the place was, how kind, how wonderful the people were, etc. There was one post that said it was a terrible place to work because nothing every got done, and he had been there seven years.

So when it comes to the fact that Twitter is apparently losing $4 million a day, I can understand why Musk fired half the staff. That’s especially so when I saw the video below.

Let’s talk about Social Media in general

In November 2020, I answered a question on Quora, and it gained traction quickly. Six months later, in May, 2021, it had accumulated 230.1K reads, 7,778 upvotes, 60 shares, and 568 comments. A year later, it was still going strong, and I think it had accumulated something like 600,000 reads by the time it was banned.

Yup, a year after the post had been accepted and applauded, it was suddenly removed — no reason given, except that it was hate speech.

Then, in May, 2022, another post of mine was deleted — also for being hate speech. The post had been circulating for a few months. The article had 36.9K reads, 2,612 upvotes, and 10 shares. Again, it was deemed hate speech. It wasn’t hate speech. It was critical speech. The Cambridge dictionary defines hate speech in the following manner, “public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation”. While the post wasn’t flattering towards America, it certainly wasn’t hate speech. I’ve posted the contents in the link below, so you can judge for yourself.

I tried explaining that to the moderators — to no avail. They removed the post.

I left Quora. I wasn’t being paid. Ironically, they have approached me in the past about using several of my articles for publication in their other magazines. I asked for payment. They explained to me that they didn’t pay their writers — ever. When I declined permission, they told me that they didn’t have to ask me, that they could just use it because it was in the terms and conditions that they could use it, change it, do what they liked with my copy, and they didn’t need my permission to do so.

I closed my Quora account. Screw 600,000 reads per month.

Banned on Twitter

I think I’m on my forth Twitter account. I’ve never enjoyed the site, but I used to have friends there from Google Plus days, so for a while, I kept it longer than usual.These days, I have no problem deleting it and then starting again. I keep tabs on it to see what is happening and what people are saying. Occasionally I post something.

A few months ago, I was banned for three days on Twitter because I said that Liz Truss was stupid. I called her a Bimbo Barbie. I had been back on Twitter for two weeks. I was stunned. Everybody else was calling Liz Truss stupid, and some far worse things were said about her. But I was banned for calling her a Bimbo Barbie and stupid? Despite my querying it, I was told it broke the rules, and no further explanation was given.

I also had a friend from Google Plus days who was banned for a few days every month or two. When one looked at her posts, they weren’t hate speech. They were just critical. Some of them were quite funny. Eventually, Gwenny left Twitter. She passed a few months ago. I think she would have been pleased to see Elon Musk get rid of the moderation team. Both Gwenny and I shared a leaning towards the left.

I disagree with Elon Musk’s take on freedom of speech

In America, probably as a result of civic education, freedom of speech is much misunderstood. It is not the right to say anything one likes. It means that people can talk against the government (and the church) without being incarcerated. It has nothing to do with what one says in private or public to anyone else.

In reality, there is no such thing as saying whatever one likes. If one defames someone’s character, one can be sued for defamation of character or for libel. It happens all the time. Didn’t Johnny Depp just have that case against Amber Heard?

There is also the ideal that journalism is based on factual reporting. It is most unfortunate that journalist students are now taught that there is no such thing as unbiased journalism. That is simply not true. That is like saying that it is impossible for a science paper to be unbiased. Our entire modern world is based on the fact that both science and technology are based on facts. Ask any coder what happens if you put in the wrong code…

When people begin to lie in news reports, in political rhetoric, in social interactions, it eventually destroys communities, nations, and societies. It is highly destructive, and that is why one cannot just say anything. In reality, freedom of speech was never about saying anything one likes, and that is where Elon Musk and many other people get it wrong.

The bias of moderators

We live in a time of high emotional immaturity. There is little resilience to the slings and arrows of rejection, insult, or criticism. If a post is not flattering, then it must be hate speech. If a post makes people feel inadequate, it must be hate speech. If a post touches on someone’s ego, it must be hate speech.

Here’s the thing. Moderators, on every single site I have ever been on, ban people and remove posts when they don’t like what is written. It has nothing to do with whether the post is factually accurate or not, whether it is racist or not, or some other criteria.

The definition of hate speech has expanded to include anything that someone dislikes or objects to.

In addition to moderators, posts are flagged when a lot of people object to it. For instance, after going for nearly a year, my post on Trump was suddenly banned. It wasn’t that it was hate speech. It just made a mockery of Donald Trump. Somewhere, a lot of Trump supporters decided to flag it, and it was duly removed.

Elon Musk has implemented a policy that only the person who is insulted or harmed in any way can report a tweet. Those who take offense against it will be treated less seriously. I think that is a good thing. There is a very definite methodology on the web that if you want to take someone down, you get together with other people, and you all complain about it.

A lot of innocent people have been banned for no other reason than that moderators have suddenly been inundated with hundreds or thousands of complaints about someone. There hasn’t been anything wrong with their posts — just an objection to what they were saying.

I’ve seen careers destroyed, good writers vanish from sight, and, as I’ve been heavily impacted by this ever since I started writing on the web (1999), I’m in a state of mixed emotions and dual opinion about moderation. I’ve also had devastating attacks on my character by thousands of people, and it definitely turned me from a very positive, reasonably happy person to the human I am today.

A Truthdig Director and Facebook America Expats Moderators

Five months ago, I moved into the cottage I am currently staying in. The previous tenant was a director of Truthdig.

To cut a very long story short, things were not quite the way they were said to be, and things ended very badly between the previous tenant and I. The landlord sided with me. We got the cottage, but the previous tenant never received the refund of his/her rental deposit, nor did she/him ever collect his/her built-in Ikea cupboards.

What this person did do is tell the moderators that my daughter was a scammer, and so they banned her from the American expat group. Then those moderators contacted other American expat groups, told them that both my daughter and I were scammers, and therefore we would forever be banned from American Expat groups.

Despite the fact that my daughter provided scanned and photographic evidence of what really happened, those moderators were so under the thumb of this person that nothing my daughter said was acceptable. Not a single moderator dared to go against a director of Truthdig.

My opinion is that moderators are little people, and that they’re also probably bullies who love to exert power over people they don’t like, or who have offended them in some way. I do not believe for one moment that moderators are fair, rational minded people. I have never seen any evidence of it.

The real problems are hate speech and misinformation

Note that I have never been banned for misinformation, and nothing |I have ever said could be construed to encourage murder and mayhem. What I said has generally been a criticism of someone or something that a group of people resented. Neither I, nor many other people, should have been banned for this.

On the other hand, the degree of misinformation and vile comments on social media can be overwhelming. Research at one of the universities a while ago indicated that trolls were awful people in real life. The internet just made it more public.

The truth is that there are some terrible people in the real world, and the internet allows everybody on. The internet is merely a reflection of who and what some are. In real life, we frequently don’t know who our friends are. Trump was a huge wake-up call. We found out that those we thought shared our ideals most certainly did not.

I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this. I have no trust of moderators. They often take their own petty resentments out on others, and they are influenced by a lot of misinformation themselves. They also have creeds and beliefs. Moderators are not impartial.

I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this. I have no trust of moderators. They often take their own petty resentments out on others, and they are influenced by a lot of misinformation themselves. They also have creeds and beliefs. Moderators are not impartial.

Twitter and truth

I cannot find a single redeeming feature about Twitter. I follow the Covid posts as there is now nowhere else to find the figures. There are some highly qualified doctors and scientists there, and I need to know whether it’s safe or not (it’s not).

For the rest of it, as far as I’m concerned, it adds nothing of value. People dig and swipe at each other all day long. They enjoy it. I don’t. I just want the facts, the bare facts, and nothing but the facts. Everything else can go on holiday to Mars and stay there.

According to various recent newspaper articles, 10% of Twitter users are responsible for 80% of the tweets. That’s quite an imbalance, and this means that those 10% of tweeters are influencing a lot of people.

A while ago, Elon Musk asked his millions of followers whether he should sell some of his Tesla shares in order to pay tax or invest in something else (I can’t remember what). There was an overwhelming ‘yes’ response. Of course, there was. He manipulated his followers to give him permission to do what he needed to do — sell some Tesla shares before the company crashed. He also pretty much encouraged people to buy Doge coin. Remember?

Musk also wants to pause the long-form writing project dubbed “Notes” as well as a just recently revealed crypto wallet. Both of those features have been long-requested by the blogging types and crypto bros, respectively. Source

To my way of thinking, those 10% are using Twitter as a market place, and all the rest of them are merely the buyers of all these goods. Some of those buyers get ripped off good and well. Some of them get misinformed a lot.

My question is: Where is Twitter when it comes to truth?

Audi, General Motors, General Mills and Pfizer were among those who halted advertisements, amid concerns Musk will scale back misinformation and security protections on the platform. Advertising accounts for 90% of Twitter’s revenues. Source

Truth, in terms of Twitter, is where the money is. Truth lies with the person who pays the most. And right now, companies know that they are paid the most by their consumers. They do not want to lose their consumers, and if consumers aren’t going to go near Twitter, then the corporations are going to follow the consumers.

Elon Musk has a problem.

Me?

I’m in two minds. One part of me is extremely pleased to see the moderation team go. I’ve had a gutful of pettiness, unfairness, bias, and whatever drives these people. On the other hand, having been on the receiving end of hateful comments for a very long time, I do not want to be on that platform if it starts up again. Then, again, the question is where to go.

Will Twitter bankrupt Elon Musk?

Despite his slavish following, Musk is not a brilliant inventor. He simply takes other people’s work and ideas, gets goverment funding for them, and then promotes them over and over again. He is another Steve Jobs — an ounstanding marketer to people who need an idol.

I’m not sure if Twitter will ever be a going concern, but I can’t help it if the thought of Musk losing his millions gives me a quiet grin. Perhaps the same will happen to other billionaires.

I’m no fan.

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