Elon Musk to step down as Twitter CEO: Help us pick his replacement Elon Musk has made good on his promise to abide by the results of a Twitter poll that asked whether he should quit as CEO of the microblogging service – and delivered a resounding “YES” vote. The site’s owner made the medium the message by announcing his decision with a tweet. I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone …
Musk says that the FBI and other dodgy organisations used to have a big say in what was pulled.
Who do I (dis)trust the most Musk or US spooks? It's a hard question!
Russia certainly used to have a much more obvious contribution the the unwanted junk tweets I got. They may just be doing it better now. Are they behind the increase in fairly toxic right wingers?
"Musk says..."
Nah, Musk is just retweeting what several (4 so far) journalists have said.
So, it's not a case of do you trust Musk or the FBI. And you are right, that's a hard question. It's a question of do you trust those 4 journalists, who are quoting sources (from within Twitter) pretty extensively. This is a pretty big scoop for them, and would be career ending if they had just made it all up (and why would they!?).
I think this is as big as Watergate and as bad as the McCarthy trials, it's just that we're in the middle of it right now and most people have not realised how bad it is. Also, most of the media are pretty much ignoring it, which means many people will pretty much ignore THEM going forward, as they are becoming irrelevant.
I must be a fool then. I guess that Hunter Biden laptop, which had details of his business dealings with that Ukrainian oil company are just a fever dream that I had. And Zuckerberg even admitted that the FBI came to him and warned him about it. (although not directly, but gave enough of a hint that they knew exactly what to censor as soon as it came in)
That article, while interesting, is basically making the argument that the FBI we're just making suggestions. As any member of the public would do. So, you think Twitter are going to treat a "suggestion" from the FBI in the same way that they would any other member of the public? What would YOU do if they FBI came to you with "suggestions"? Would you treat it in the same way as if some random stranger asked the same thing?
And we've got to ask ourselves what exactly was Hunter Biden doing working as a consultant for a Ukrainian oil company, and getting paid quite handsomely for? Did he have oil sector experience? Experience of running large companies? So, what exactly were they paying for? Was it influence on his father, the Vice President of the USA?
So, I'm thinking your Techdirt story us just another "nothingburger" by the dem friendly press. It doesn't offer any particular take-down of The Twitter Files, just another attempt to play it down, to get people to look the other way.
I guess the CIA and the FBI have never been caught doing very naughty things in past decades, or if they have they have probably cleaned up their act now.
Oh, please.
Look, Hunter Biden is a consultant. Whether he's any good at it or not, I don't know. But he's also the son of a prominent politician, and I wouldn't be the least surprised if he leveraged that fact to get some better gigs than would otherwise have come his way.
I know I would, in his place. Compare, for instance, Harry and Meghan. Or every living member of the Trump family, including Donald J.
Do we see constant demands to rummage through the contents of all their laptops? No, because it's a blatantly unreasonable demand in itself.
Yet we keep hearing this refrain "Hunter Biden's laptop", presumably an effort to repeat the success of "Hillary's emails" at implanting some minor distraction at the heart of a campaign as if it were one of the biggest issues facing the country. It's not. Just give it a rest.
"Just give it a rest."
They can't. It's all they've got.
If you really want 'em to shut up, ask 'em about the chain of custody. Or lack thereof.
The Biden laptop is a non-issue, and always has been, simply because of the lack of a clear chain of custody. It is not admissible as evidence in any court in the US. Won't stop the anti-American folks in charge of the next Congress from wasting the next two years trying to prove otherwise, though.
Head in sand seldom sees the light.
“Chain of custody” risk is obliterated with emails, as sender & receiver BOTH generally log or journal all communication, unless Hunter was emailing himself in a drunk or drugged stupor…which is where you may be to reject such evidence out of hand.
I tend to agree with some of what you say, but it *may* point to political corruption and so it should be examined in a fair, non-partisan, non-histrionic and transparent way. It also has to be mentioned that it's not like these kind of events are the bag of just one side: Any ideology or poltiical party can have such a scandal.
The only thing for me which is alarming is the media's reaction and the deep politicalisation (and resulting polarisation) surrounding it. You can't mention the bl**dy thing without people assuming that you're on one side of US politics or the other and then watching them go thermonuclear.
Out of curiosity and boredom, I clicked on this link to see what it was. Twitter started to ask me questions about my (old, seldom used) account, then sent me an e-mail with an alert about whatever.
I decided that I wasn't that curious, and realized (again) that I don't really care about most of the information on Twitter and just came back to El Reg.
I guess I just don't see the value of it as a medium for communication.
The huge problem with that laptop is even if it was Hunter Bidens at some stage, its passed through so many hands with their own agenda that the only material that can be confirmed to is that which matches stuff previously hacked from his email account. Which anyone could have put on there.
Why did Guiliani wait so long before handing it over to the FBI? What happened during the period he allegedly lost it? Why would Hunter Biden hand his laptop over to a hole in the wall computer repair shop on the other side of the country without leaving any contact details? The story has more holes than a BTR-D that's been used as target practice by a A-10.
No mate. These people are not engineers. They can't cut code. They can't understand coders.
There is only one man fit for the role with unquestionable experience and know-how to create a better Twitter. I don't speak lightly - he was identified by no less than a leading right wing columnist. I give you [drum-roll]
The one and only JOHN MASTODON.
[His credentials can be found here: https://boingboing.net/2022/12/18/]
I must be disconnected from reality!
Reading through the article, seeing the approaching poll, I was lured into thinking of possible candidates. When I saw the first suggestion my dentures were across the room before I could help myself!
Simon! You *&!~*^£#!!
Thank you sir! Season's best wishes!
"When I saw the first suggestion my dentures were across the room before I could help myself!"
Same here :-|
(Not, not a proper "smiley" since it looks awful with no teeth in)
I am also rather flabbergasted by the poll results so far. El Reg claims that it's readership is primarily North American these days, hence their change in house style. The poll results seem to indicate that either not be true or BoJo has cracked the US market in his search for fame.
"I wish Musk would just stick to what he is good at."
What would that be? I've seen no evidence of anything but luck to date ...
"Rockets"
US Government (CIA/NSA?) front. Musk is not really in charge, he just thinks he is.
"Cars"
Bought, not built. Seems to have run it's course.
I had to use all of my resolve to not suggest The Dildo, thanks for being there for me!
I had the thought of suggesting (I'm reckoning) her protégé, Michelle Donelan - Online Safety Bill: nonsense and wasting tax revenue. If only sensible replacements for positions such as hers could be found... [enter stage left] Father Dougal McGuire!
forget Liz Truss, the obvious choice! She's not that busy and has such tremendously good judgement!
There's also:
That fantastic businessman and epitome of good sense, Mike Lindell (MyPillow)!
Jair Bolsonaro - he's available, and rightwing enough for our Elon!
Any one of the Kardashians, pick 'n mix. They're becoming a bit passé these days so it would be good for their brand(s).
This tells us a lot about just how successful sociopaths (both seem to exhibit some aspects and possibly even narcissistic, though BoJo and Trumpy are better examples) can be because they're prepared to fight harder than anyone else for personal advancement.
Anyway, does anyone really care anymore? Just like with the FIFA Bribery World Cup™, I'm bored now.
"The parallels between Liz and Musk in their management styles, consensus building, and short-sighted policies has been astounding this year."
Musk seems to be keeping his distance from Amber Heard these days. Might there be an open for Liz in Musks boudoir?
(Try not imagine any offspring they may produce!)
It is obvious that Twitter future CEO cannot possibly be one of those. You didn't consult HR, did you? Just how privileged all these heterosexual white males (mostly - see Holmes, Elizabeth) are? This will certainly cause a twitstorm if the procedure is disclosed in Twitter Files!
No, no, the perfect candidate is Sam Brinton. Gender-fluid, US administration experience, an expert on nuclear waste disposal (what is Twitter if not nuclear waste or something equally toxic and dangerous?), and a proven record of no morals or scruples even when picking up other people's luggage at airports is concerned. Likely explainable by lifelong lack of privilege, of course. And - how could I forget! - foolishness!
Ouch. Just noticed[*] that the above link is from NY Post. Here is a version that can even be tweeted.
[*] You don't really think that I needed to look the name up and NY Post was the first on Google, do you?
You shouldn't judge them too harshly for luggage 'theft'. They may have dysphoria and something that can help enormously is sharing personal items recently used by someone of the non dysphoric cis gender. This might include clothing (especially undergarments), sanitary products and bedding. The smells, textures and the sense of the energy of another sex is an absolute balm for dysphoria in some.
If they don't have access to an individual of the desired sex, they may resort to what society terms 'theft' but if we could destigmatise this behaviour it would result in less gender fluid and trans individuals being criminalised for something they can't control. Given the chance I think most cis people wouldn't mind sharing their personal items before they're returned. It could even be incentivised with free laundering. The only crime Sam really committed was living in an intolerant time.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we in the LGBT community refer to as a truckyvestite. And that got into a government department dealing with glowy nuclear stuff?
Can you imagine twatter under its command - the twink'ari...
Can we run votes on all the social media sites, to remove them from existence with immediate effect.
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The poll was just to make himself look good "see I went along with the results of the poll" if he loses, or "the people really want me to stay CEO, but I have other companies to run" if he wins. It was all about stroking his ego, nothing more.
The question is, who the hell that is competent would want that CEO job knowing that Musk will be constantly second guessing and going behind your back leaving you to defend the company to the press?
If he doesn't care about qualifications then sure, pay me a couple million bucks salary and I'll let him make me look like a fool for a year until he gets decides he needs more self aggrandizement and fires me publicly on Twitter. I'll walk away with millions more in a golden parachute and be fine with it! I'd treat it like I'm playing a part in a movie, and have a front row seat to Twitter's demise - even have a hand in it if I'm lucky!
Twitter was barely profitable before Musk. With $13B of debt it cannot be profitable at current interest rates.
There are caveats with working for Elon. Start with payment in advance. Next watch out for the consent decrees. Twitter has avoided some consequences of past actions by promising to play nice in future. There are regular forms to file with the courts that state Twitter is complying with the agreements. Signing a provably false statement on one of those forms equals "Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200". Finally, after you get fired Elon's lawyers will blame you and demand you pay damages. Proving your innocence will be expensive. On top of that there are still truck loads of Elon fans ready to turn up on your doorstep if he makes some baseless accusation against you.
I think the actual required qualifications are promptly terminal cancer and no friends or family that Elon can strike back at.
True. Its clear the investors have told him to find someone else to run it or they'll pull their money. And the poll was to make him look good.
It will be a shit job. It will be for show only, Elon will still be running it all from the side, they'll just be a puppet CEO. It will be someone who's willing to take a hit for cash, knowing full well he'll throw them under the bus at some point. He'll hit them with an NDA so they can never mention this after he fires them.
He truely is a cunt.
Arguably even more, surely? Presumably there are actual technical duties involved with the "software and servers teams", and Elom is even less qualified to run them than he is at directing corporate policy and strategy.
Unless of course it's "run" as in "... into the ground", then he's definitely got experience with it.
Actually some friends who live in the Eureka state tell me he wasn’t too bad as Governor. Since leaving office he went up in their estimation further after his videos on the 6th January riots and the Russian war in Ukraine…….And that’s from two dyed in the wool democrats.
I was thinking Joe "Tailgunner" McCarthy.
"Twitter is infested with Commentards. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to Saint Elon as being members of the Commentardariat and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy here at Twitter."
Or maybe J Edgar Hoover ... that fetching little black dress would help pacify at least some of the crowd.
1. im cheap, just give me a few million a year. I will even take dollars so thats a saving.
2. I hate twitter. I will gladly run it into the ground for you.
3. Fuck people who disagree with you. amirite?
4. Abolish HR so 3. doesnt get problematic. I dont think you thought of that cost saving measure.
5. I will happily clean up crap and kowtow to your whims.
Nadine “is Twitter in receipt of public money” Dorries? Somebody sent me a video they’d edited together of her appearances at the select committee whilst in the role. It was amongst others a combination of the don’t know how C4 is funded……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve63pA573ZA
And her getting it right at another session only to have the committee remind her it was them who told her this. Can’t find the video of that appearance though.
I hear the Musk Rat has already found his replacement, after a brief search trying to identify the closest match for stupidity and emotional intelligence.
Congratulations, Mr Blobby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1pJ4dluj0U
Cancelling my new Mastodon account immediately.
I can't believe you all missed the obvious candidate. Ye is so obviously magnificent and wonderous and so full of himself that Ye could do anything Ye set Ye's mind(?) to. Oh wait, isn't Ye banned from Twatter for being a twat? Perhaps Ye would be the ideal candidate simply BECAUSE he is banned from posting?
I have to agree with some of the commentards on here that there is a certain joy (schadenfreude) to be had from watching the demise of Twatter. I take back my previous comments about too many Musky articles on El Reg. Bring 'em on! It's like watching an episode of Destroyed in Seconds only it's gonna take months/years.
I nominate anybody from the right.
Somebody that is pro-free-speech but also pro-revenge - somebody who is perfectly happy to bang on about free speech with one hand and ban leftists with the other, just for fun.
Somebody who is going to get the astroturf campaigns such as FBPE off Twitter.
Please.
I cannot believe that the Outstanding Luttuce who ousted Liz "I cannot believe its not Lettuce" Truss did not get on the list.
I cannot think of a single better item that could get all the calls right and put the "Software and Server" Tech lead in his place.
The Lettuce is Dead . Long Live the CEO Lettuce.
Musk's AI robot must surely fit the bill.
Once it gets the hang of dumb obedience, it can be rolled out across the org - from the top.
Other candidates I might shortlist, but not yet mentioned, include:
* Nigel Farage - a Brit whom some Americans have actually met.
* Dogbert - an experienced manager
* Catbert - another experienced manager
* Boston Dynamics Spot - an AI robot Dogbert, what's not to love!
Jacob Rees-Mogg (most Americans will know him as Scrooge)
Every tweet with be legible, properly punctuated (no Oxford commas), and in neat handwriting... and in triplicate.
Twitter will interface with the Telegram network (initially semaphore only, but electric telegraph is planned. Delivery by messenger boy)
Transgressors will be publicly flogged
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Thinking about how Elon's running it, I guess we need someone with a firm hand, who slaps down any dissent at first sight and has a knack for making sure that noses are kept to the grindstone at all times.. A big plus would be the ability to get rid of anyone causing trouble permanently, while ensuring that nobody admits to noticing they're gone or talks about them.
Only one candidate: Fatty Kim. He also has a sideline in rocketry, so something to chat to the boss about by the water cooler as a bonus.
I vote for Iago, Jafar's offsider from Aladdin.
"Personality. Iago is very stingy and typically allies himself with whoever benefits him the most. He's characterized with a frequent useage of biting sarcasm as well as a sharp wit."
Having his tweets read in the voice of the late Gilbert Gottfried is a bonus.
"I will ignore the poll for as long as I like and even if I eventually pick a successor they will be my puppet and I will do all the terrible stupid things that I've always done. Oh and I'll start charging $$$ if you want to participate in my stupid polls in future."
The sooner Twitter runs out of money, or the loans are called in, the better.
I personally think the shallow candidate pool of disgraced politicians / con artists in the poll is a bit too samey in its groanworthiness.
Musk is probably tiring of internet polls by now, so my guess is he'll consult his "magic mirror".
"Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the foolishest CEO of all? Amazing! I can see me!"
He might quickly hire and fire a few CEOs before he follows this magical prediction for appearances sake, but there's no way he'll ever let it appear that someone did a much better job of it than he did.
Since Musk always seems to make the worst choice with no consideration of the future, the new Twitter CEO will be Gwynne Shotwell, the Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX. She will do a fine job, just as she has done with SpaceX. Meanwhile, at SpaceX, the only Musk organisation so far untouched by this rolling disaster....
This is exactly like the 1980s when everybody set up their own BBS. Inevitably several were operated by similar asshole sysops.
BBSes gave way to “News” groups, which by the way are still active on the internet, and just as spammed out as ever. Then that all gave way to IRC or internet relay chat servers. Which at last gave way to dedicated web sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Incidentally, Twitter is a much simpler service than any of the BBSes of yore, anybody could duplicate it easily enough.
"Quick, send in the clowns
Don't bothеr, they're herе."
The list of candidates brought Sondheim's lyrics to mind.
That Scott Morrison was proposed as chief twit I think has merit as he or any of his motley crew would make the current CEO look good. "I don't think, I know."
I would suggest any of the following, who all have the power to be a selfish despot:
Ernst Stavro Blofeld, ably assisted by either "Hello Kitty" or "Grumpy Cat"
Auric Goldfinger, assisted by Siri or Alexa (to do the translations)
Francisco Scaramanga, helped by any of Frodo's friends or Warwick Davis/Verne Troyer (depending on availability)
Max Zorin, with 2nd in command being Natalie Wood (oops !!)
Dr. No (just so Musk knows that he is no longer the boss)
but we all know there can be only one
To run twitter
El-reg's very own BoFH with his faithful PFY sidekick
Opps Mr Musk... that 23rd floor window I did report for being loose and unsteady, but we will state it was an accident when you tripped on that bag of corpse grade quick lime, rolled across the floor incidently wrapping yourself in the carpet before plummeting out of the aforementioned window into the back of the company van never to be seen again.
This sucks. I'm not out of popcorn yet, and Twitter is no where near the smoldering corpse phase.
Where's the carnage? The multiple failures on Wall Street as all the dominoes fall? The bailout by the US Government? I paid good money to watch this failure and hate to be shortchanged by Musk bailing out now. The captain must go down with his ship, but the ship's got to earnestly start sinking first. So far it's only been hurt feelings, drama, and waffling on accounts being banned/unbanned/banned/unbanned. That's just a normal day on the Internet. Where's the video of $44,000,000,000 irretrievably going up in smoke?
I think he is the best for the job:
* has the gigantic ego (but unfortunately lacks the IQ/intelligence)
* thinks he owns everything and can do whatever he likes with it all
* successfully brought Greece in position 108 globally for freedom of the press issues
* has a proven record of not standing even mildly "uncomfortable" questions from journalists
* has a proven record (family tradition, following his father) of eavesdropping on everyone's communications, no matter the medium
* is expert on the blame (the others) game
* he is a master of the highest level in using QAnon-style arguments, un-truths, and aphorisms against the opponent of the moment
Elon Musk (like him or hate him) has just purchased Twitter for an enourmous amount of money - waaaay more than it's worth, imo.
As such, he's still going to be mostly in control and after paying such an amount, one can argue that should be the case. So you could argue "why bother?".
Beyond the pressure from investors from his other companies, this will hopefully give a buffer so that there is less knee jerk/arbitrary-seeming decision-making which can be Elon Musk's style.
A style which, it has to be noted, has got him to where he is. However, social media/forums/etc really need calm, measured policy-making and a measure of pursuasion, not stick.
As such, having someone sit between Elon Musk and policy might be a good thing, depending on the individual, as they will need a backbone and be able to tell truth to power.
They pay should be nice though.
To summarise: it is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarise the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. — Douglas Adams
<downvoteBait>Oddly enough, Musk might have been the best man for the job.</downvoteBait> If, that is, he had the bandwidth and could perhaps keep his impulses under control. What a spectacularly flawed man! Listening to them airing technical dirty laundry in public, Twitter starts to look like a version 1 product, and any fule no that version 1 is mostly people just trying to get stuff to work any way they can. Getting that under control takes someone who can absorb the technical side and then make coherent decisions. Musk can at least be that man.
Getting the politics of the business under control and the advertisers back on board is another matter. On top of that, you’ve got the problem that most of the best engineers have probably gone. The sackings were very indiscriminate and that is a tragedy. A business the size of Twitter is always going to have plenty of passengers and I suspect it’s down to HR not being competent enough to have a list of those ready to go. Edit: Oh, and the passengers would have been first to sign that pledge. Anything to keep the gravy train on track.
With all that in mind… Gates, if he were ten years younger and not busy saving the world. Or perhaps a pointy haired CEO and an iron CTO. That would be Torvalds, if were not running the world already. Busy man. Trust me, Torvalds is looking down on us has a plan for all of us.
Perhaps saving Twitter should fall to a brain trust of industry luminaries?
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