Who should take over Twitter when it collapses?

[druidity33]

Can the government claim it as a public resource? Maybe a non-profit funded by transparent foundations? Can it somehow be made open source? Maybe make it a cooperatively owned business? A worker owned coop? A worker owned non-profit coop? A Union worker owned non-profit coop?

Just thinking ahead...

[Effete Snob]

1. Lol

Its creditors. Same as any other failed company.

Why should Twitter be any different?

[druidity33]

6. What value do its creditors get for shutting it down? nt.

[druidity33]

7. Or is shutting it down the point? nt.

[Effete Snob]

9. Operating it under a receivership

We aren’t communists yet, so failed businesses don’t magically become public property. Typically they are put into a receivership to attempt continued operation under a restructured debt plan. Barring that they are sold off.

[druidity33]

34. You don't think the government or a non-profit would pay for it?

A receivership? Sold off? So someone like Bain Capital? It'll become a slice and dice. So we should let it fail because sure, you know, we're not communists. It's people like you who tell me "You're dreaming"... and i say "No, i'm visioning." I would never have been able to organize a Union shop if i listened to the many people who told me it wasn't plausible or worth it. You remind me strongly of those "reasonable" people. I've never gotten anything from you but a cut down. I've mentioned it before, but your name is as fitting as they come... and yeah, i know the reference from which it came and how proudly you wear it.

[Effete Snob]

36. Well allrighty then

Dash off that letter to Speaker McCarthy on that bill to buy Twitter. I promise I won't get in your way.

[druidity33]

40. Exactly what i was talking about...

pithy and opaque. Thanks for your support! So sorry to not have your level of understanding of "how things work".

[Effete Snob]

58. On the subject of "how things work"

When a platform like Twitter is privately owned, then the owners can decide what sort of speech they will tolerate and what sort of speech they will not.

However, when a forum is operated by the government, then all First Amendment speech MUST be allowed, because the government presumptively cannot censor speech.

What that means is that "hate speech" must be allowed. Contrary to the notions of some here, what is variously called "hate speech" by several definitions is not illegal.

So, in a government-run twitter, if someone wants to simply call people the n-word, support nazism, etc., then not only would it be unlawful for the government to censor or ban that sort of thing, but those people would have a right to sue the government if they were banned.

But, sure, I just have my head up my ass and we'll see a government-run twitter any day now...

How happy you must be to have found an enemy of all that is decent without even having to leave this site. Congratulations.

[druidity33]

65. SO a non-profit wouldn't work?

How about an international consortium of journalists? Like the AP times 10? Or a worker owned co-op? It's interesting how you completely ignored every other option i proposed just to piss on the one you knew you could piss on. Like i said, opaque.

I do not consider you an enemy... just a negative Nelly.

[Irish_Dem]

2. I have a little spare time. How hard could it be?

Mostly cat videos right?

[live love laugh]

27. LOL

[Kennah]

37. That's Facebook

[Irish_Dem]

42. I'm not on FB.

I don't know where all the cat videos come from here on DU.
I thought from twitter?

[Amishman]

3. Let it burn

Twitter and Facebook are cancers on our society. We'd be better off without them.

[TheBlackAdder]

60. Twitter is Intellectual Property and Intellectuals. Purge the talent and the company is worth 💩

[Quixote1818]

4. Maybe all the talent will go to Mastodon and Mastodon will end up the power player? nt

[ananda]

31. I joined Mastodon ...

because Jeff Tiedrich did.

[Caliman73]

43. I hope not, about the Power Player thing...

We don't need any Power Players with regards to social media. We need responsibly run organizations who allow for the free expression of ideas but who also try to maintain an atmosphere free from trolling, hate speech, and misinformation. We do not want one or two companies to be "in charge" of access to the tools of expression and information.

I have no problem with Mastodon. I just don't want it to become the next Twitter or Facebook.

[druidity33]

50. Hear here!

maybe Mastodon could buy out Twitter and incorporate their platform... somehow. OK, that probably wouldn't work. But i'm surprised at how few DUers are picking up on the possibilities here. Twitter might literally be available in a fire sale in the very near future. Who's going to be willing to take it on?

[OAITW r.2.0]

5. I will.

Pay me $50,000 USD.

Hire back the coders and moderators.
No BS allowed as >news> content.
Promise not to monetize this important international communications problem.

Need $1MM USD to hire smart people that want to make it happen.

[pwb]

8. Let it settle to the level that it will.

Like AOL and Yahoo something else will come along. It is a stretch calling it a public resource IMO. More a societal nuisance to many?

[BlueIdaho]

10. When the bonfire dies down

Rake the coals.

[womanofthehills]

62. Except- activity on Twitter is at an all time high

According to Elon. I think it’s like when everyone went after Rogan, he got millions of new viewers.

[BlueIdaho]

64. "According to Elon"

What else is he going to say? He paid far too much and then turned it into “Shitter 2.0” so now he’s trying to get it looking good enough to sell.

[emulatorloo]

11. Costco

[DBoon]

15. I was going to say Walmart

[RainCaster]

12. Peewee Herman?

There are many homeless people in Seattle who have better people skills than Muskrat. Let's see if they can get 'er done.

[FelineOverlord]

13. George Soros

And he should impose a No Fascists Allowed TOS.

[Celerity]

55. he doesn't have enough money on his own

https://www.forbes.com/profile/george-soros/

[FelineOverlord]

57. I know

But the MAGATS would totally freak out! 😂

[usedtobedemgurl]

14. Jeopardy's Amy Snyder....

She says they were going to spend her million plus in a house, but they think they may save it and buy Twitter in a few months!!!!!!

[PXR-5]

16. Maybe My Space will buy it or they can merge (lol)

[Bobstandard]

17. Bidders will include China, Russia, Saudi Arabia

Each of them probably are probably already bankrolling Musks takeover, so they'll have an inside line on getting full control. Each is probably scheming on that at this moment.

[womanofthehills]

61. Saudi Arabia has been invested in Twitter for 10 yrs

Nothing new here

[usonian]

18. Hollywood?

I was working in San Francisco (long time ago) and there was a hellish noise.

Turns out Nash Bridges was filming in an excavated lot (soon to become a building, no doubt replacing an older one).

The show stared Don Johnson and Cheech Marin as two Inspectors with the San Francisco Police Department's Special Investigations Unit (SIU).

And, of course, many movies were filmed or set in San Francisco. Recommended by me: Vertigo, High Anxiety, Bullitt, Mrs. Doubtfire, A View to a Kill, Birdman of Alcatraz, Milk, Star Trek, The Joy Luck Club, The Pursuit of Happyness, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Game, Maltese Falcon, The Parrots of Telegraph Hill, and MANY MORE. IIRC, The Birds was filmed in Bodega Bay, just north of SF.

I offered my daughter a trip to various movie locales in SF. But she was very young and didn't know any of the movies.

HOLLYWOOD, GRAB IT!

[LeftInTX]

22. The Towering Inferno, Dirty Harry and Bullitt

I really didn't feel the Towering Inferno was very SF.(just a big building that happens to be in SF).., but Dirty Harry and Bullitt definitely were....

[usonian]

24. I left 2 of those out.

Dirty Harry was pretty iconic. That football field was Kezar Stadium, I recall. But Clint went off the deep end.
I was going to say something about the Towering Inferno. I took a closer look at the burning building and it was so obviously a scale model, of the "Godzilla" class. Hardly the Bank of America building it was supposed to represent.

I am not going to look it up right now, but it *could* have been filmed entirely somewhere else.

There are many others! How do you classify "Foul Play"?. So 100% San Francisco (some fake Pope at the opera? And the Mikado?). It's obviously a spoof on itself. Burgess Meredith and his pet snake and all. Oh well.

[LeftInTX]

25. Towering Inferno was filmed in SF, but the entire movie certainly wasn't.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072308/locations?ref_=ttfc_sa_4

With all the special effects, much of it had to be filmed in a studio and a studio lot.

I was one of my favorite films...

[usonian]

26. Those stairwell scenes were pretty scary.

Oh, and that elevator, and some other rescue stuff.
The building looked like the BofA building, but that has interior elevators, I recall. Hey, it's fiction.

[tinrobot]

19. The same people who took ovr MySpace

[JHB]

30. Rupert Murdoch?

[Lucid Dreamer]

20. An undertaker. n/t

[Takket]

21. Nancy Pelosi

[Whatthe_Firetruck]

23. Oh, no...

You don't want government involved. Don't they know enough about us without peeking into the user files of politically incorrect commentors?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

28. IDK, but if there's a gov't bail out of any kind...

... then Democrats will probably be blamed for it, even if the GOP corporate cronies initiate it.

Not that I anticipate such an action for social media.

[Skittles]

29. I'm sure Putin is in line

[Emrys]

32. Nobody wants to go with the obvious best option?

The DU crew should do it! They have a great track record and plenty of experience.

We could crowdfund.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

33. Earlg.

[druidity33]

35. Best option i've heard yet...

I'm sure he could gather the appropriately skilled crew. He has all of us!

[Kennah]

38. Some guy with a bonesaw

[First Speaker]

39. The Republic of Fredonia

[druidity33]

41. Wait, isn't that in Western NY? nt.

[Polybius]

44. It's not going anywhere

In fact, it's more active now than ever before.

[WarGamer]

46. exactly... I don't get all this "reeeee Twitter is failing" stuff.

[druidity33]

48. Yeah, car crash mode. Are you...

a betting person? Because i'd place a small wager on Twitter not existing by the new year. At least not with the same owner and in the same manner.

[Polybius]

51. I'm not, but if I was I'd take that bet

Twitter will be around for decades to come. Musk might hire someone to run it, but he'll still own it.

[druidity33]

53. Ha! OK. bookmarking. nt.

[Polybius]

56. Lol if I'm around in 40 years and Musk is still boss I'll say "Ya see!

[WarGamer]

45. Musk OWNS Twitter.... it doesn't BELONG to anyone else.

[druidity33]

47. I'm just saying when it fails completely...

and, you know, he declares bankruptcy and tries to wipe his hands clean. He won't really own it then, will he?

[iemanja]

49. He'll try to sell it

Though he'll get pennies on the dollar.

[ecstatic]

52. maybe Microsoft? nt

[druidity33]

54. No thanks...

but they have the money it's true. Conflict of interest probably?

What about the AP? Or some international Press consortium?

[gulliver]

59. Man, I sure wish I could get Twitter stock or call options

I think Musk will turn it around, most likely. I think he's going to fail at full driving automation (it's impossible short of general AI), but Twitter's trivial by comparison. Look how fast the little orange feller set up his Truth Social knockoff.

[BlueIdaho]

63. Twitter had significant problems before Elon showed up

Now that he has mangled it even further I wonder if the brand name has much value left. Along with new security and user protection policies a rebranding is likely necessary. Elon’s great new Shitter 2.0 is starting to look like a ghost town.

Time for something better?