Elon Is Scared Poopless Of Us
Elon Is Scared Poopless Of Us
Unlike every other (far larger & richer) social media site, Elon has declared war on Substack and anyone who dares post here as well as on Twitter. His bullying will continue until morale improves.
Elon Musk has directed Twitter to start blocking links to any Substack post, including Bond Angle.
So, if you click on any of my report links from Twitter, you get this warning saying the link was unsafe, which it isn’t.
Efforts to like, reply, or share a tweet that includes a Substack link are also blocked.
This is just the latest of so many hissy fits from Elon over the years.
Like when he called the cave diver hero who actually rescued trapped kids a “pedo” because he upstaged Elon’s bogus stunt to steal the limelight during the crisis.
Or when he tried to destroy whistleblowers calling out dangerous risks at his companies, like Tesla.
Or when he trolled Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with his “funny” Hitler joke:
Or like telling the Securities and Exchange Commission to do him a sexual favor…
…Because the agency convicted him of securities fraud for his fake Tesla buyout claim and then went after him for failing to honor his settlement (see Tesla: Musk Fought the Law, the Law Won, So What?).
Elon always has been quite the delicate flower, as I noted again in Dear Elon: There's Nothing Funny About Hitler, 2/17/22.
Buying Twitter has let him weaponize his grievances like never before.
Media Matters reported that at least half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers stopped ads during Elon’s first two weeks—the number is likely much higher now—over concerns about brand safety. Like having their ads featured next to hardcore antisemitism and porn. Apple AAPL -3.09%↓ and Google GOOG -2.47%↓ may stop distributing Twitter’s app, citing failures in content moderation controls versus their standards…
Elon responded, as he typically does when challenged, with threats to vital advertisers and distributors which may determine Twitter's survival.
Not smart. Twitter is not some vital industry juggernaut able to dictate terms, as Elon thinks he is. It’s not even the biggest or richest social media platform.
Elon Is "Saving" Twitter To Death, 11/28/22
Oh, he was only warming up by biting the hands that feed Twitter. He also has banned from Twitter waves of journalists and anyone, really, who covers him unfavorably. Just like he said he would. Wait.
Right. He recently dropped the Twitter-verified blue check from the New York Times, which he particularly despises. He labeled NPR as a "state-affiliated media”, which is false, while ignoring actual state-affiliated media like military paper Stars & Stripes and public broadcast station Voice of America (VOA). After a fierce backlash he changed NPR’s label to “government funded”, even though it actually is 99% funded by donors—not the government.
Funny, that's much lower versus, say, Tesla TSLA 0.00%↑ and SpaceX, which he has not labeled on Twitter as “government funded” even though both have relied on government funding and tax breaks for their very survival:
What gets lost in the legends of Musk and Tesla is how much he benefited from lots of help and fortuitous timing on his road to success. Tesla was remarkably indulged for the 18 long years it took to finally generate a profit, thanks to billions of dollars in tax breaks and energy-credit subsidies, lax regulatory oversight, an obedient board, favorable lending terms, and an always welcoming stock market. These advantages at home, landmark support for electric-vehicle-market development in Europe and China, and a lack of real competition kept Tesla afloat as it clawed its way to viability.
Vicki Bryan, Elon Musk gambled big on Twitter. Tesla is going to pay the price, 12/5/22
Meanwhile, Elon’s been restoring Twitter accounts for far right extremists and hatemongers—like him—who previously had been banned because of their dangerous content.
Elon is not the “free speech absolutist” he claims to be—as I projected a year ago when he started this whole Twitter debacle:
Nor has Musk seemed willing to fight for anyone’s free speech except his own, however wrong or false or horrific, especially if that speech came from his critics or regulators or journalists or Tesla employees calling out concerns about safety or persistently toxic working conditions, for example. He even shut down Tesla’s public relations department in 2020.
Elon Buying Twitter? Probably Not), 4/14/22
Elon hates competition in his so-called “digital town square” as much, if not more than critics—competition he actually is fueling as he drives users and critical advertisers away from Twitter.
So when Substack announced a new feature called “Substack Notes”, which will enable users to post similarly to other social media, Elon became enraged. He’s trying to block out any reference or evidence of Substack on Twitter.
No other social media sites block or restrict posts from elsewhere, including much larger and more profitable sites which manage to get by just fine without so much as a pout.
Elon is gonna Elon. But we don’t have to put up with it. Many already have made the leap to Mastodon, Spoutible, Post.News, and others I’m still finding out about, to help market the valuable work we do here to make a living. Looks like I will too. (I’m already on LinkedIn).
Stay tuned.
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