As if he was taking advantage ~$11 million from Twitter Blue at the price of losing tens of millions in opportunity costs from advertisers no longer seeing the long-term viability of the platform was not a good enough idea, the “man” “running” Twitter has a new idea. I put the man and the leader in scary quotes because as time goes on I suspect more and more that Elon Musk is actually three kids in trench coats playing at being a responsible person. You do not believe me ? Tell me that’s not something Vincent Adultman would do “Elon thought it was a good idea to threaten to give anyone the pseudonym of a major news agency as punishment. From NPR:
Elon Musk has threatened to reassign NPR’s Twitter account to “another company”.
In a series of emails to this reporter, Musk said he would transfer the network’s main account on Twitter, under the handle @NPR, to another organization or person. The idea shocked even longtime observers of Musk’s impulsive and erratic leadership style.
Handing over established accounts to third parties poses a serious risk of identity theft and could jeopardize a company’s reputation, social media experts have said.
“If this is a sign of things to come on Twitter, we may soon see an even faster pullback from media organizations and other brands that don’t think it’s worth the risk,” said Emily Bell, a professor at the Columbia Journalism School. who studies social media. “It really is an extraordinary threat to make.”
Even if you bracket the speech-chilling effects such an action would have on news companies using the platform, it’s just bad business, man. You don’t have to be a journalism professor who studies social media to see that Bell makes a lot of sense. You could also be a former Twitter executive:
A former Twitter executive was taken aback by the remark, telling NPR that such a threat should be alarming to any company operating on the site, as it indicates that it may be necessary to acquiesce to Musk’s every whim in order to to avoid being usurped.
For most of its 17-year history, Twitter has had rules that maintained some level of order and gave individuals and organization some control over their presence on the platform.
And while current players are just NPR and Musk’s wrath, it’s worth wondering how the stability of Twitterscape will bode well for law firms. Take for example, Hogan Lovells‘ $8 subscription for two-factor authorization. Will they continue if, due to Musk’s stupidity, the only users left after the exodus are the bots and musketeers trying to blow him up? What if King Twit continued to charge $ marks1,000 per month for higher verification levels? Godspeed to the partner who has to tell his client that the company still needs to be reimbursed for his Twitter Gold subscription after Elon decided to give Cravath the handle @HoganLovells because he thought it was funny.
Elon Musk threatens to reassign @NPR on Twitter to ‘another company’ [NPR]
Chris Williams became social media manager and associate editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the team, he moonlighted as an underage Memelord™ in the Facebook group. Law school memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University at St. Louis School of Law. He’s a former boat builder who can’t swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy and humor, and has a love for cycling that sometimes annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet to @WritesForRent.
