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This week, Elon Musk has added to his already sizable legal problems with two cases on both sides of the courtroom. On the plaintiff side, he has sued the Global Alliance for Responsible Media over them encouraging advertisers to pull ads from Twitter over hate speech and bigotry on the site. On the defendant side, Michigan AG Dana Nessel has opened a criminal investigation into his PAC over their voter registration website violating state laws.

The lawsuit against GARM is part of a larger attack on free speech by redefining "censorship", where the right wing is framing groups disavowing hate and disinformation as such:

Musk’s weird new tactic does have some legal backing, thanks to a report from the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. The report concerns the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an effort from the World Federation of Advertisers and World Economic Forum that pushes to reduce “harmful content on digital media platforms.” No one wants their brand showing up right next to hate speech on social media, so GARM tries to reduce the chances of that happening.

The Committee on the Judiciary, apparently, has decided that that’s bad actually. The Committee refers to GARM’s actions — which, as a reminder, consist of “withholding ad dollars until platforms do Literally Anything about hate speech and misinformation” — as “seek[ing] to control online speech.”

An example is made in the report of GARM’s response to Spotify, a GARM member, platforming Joe Rogan’s podcast despite his batshit views on Covid-19 vaccination. As GARM attempts to minimize disinformation, the group apparently brought this contrast up to Spotify — a move that the Committee calls “attempt[ing] to pressure Spotify into censoring Joe Rogan due to his views.”

In regards to the criminal investigation, Musk's voter registration site would extract user information in violation of MI law, as the site was pulling data from swing state users while hiding the legal details in white text at the bottom of the page.

posted by NoxAeternum (68 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite

This is a good explanation of the election laws being violated:

First, Michigan has a law (designed to hurt Democrats incidentally) that sharply restricts voter sign up drives. There's quite a few elements to this but the important one is that you need to use the state form (paper or offline) and the voter has to fill it out themselves without assistance. You also can't retain information so you need to get contact information through other means and can't double dip a registration drive. Both workers and registrants can't be given any consideration (even just free snacks and water is illegal). The registration drive can't endorse any candidate or proposition, but this one is a fuzzier area I'll come to. Violations of this law are felonies.

Second, 14 days before any election all registration has to be in person at your local clerk. In my area this is at the township office, some places its only at the county seat or courthouse. This adds difficulty but also ensures that recent registrations show up on the rolls in time.

So the laws broken:

Right off, APAC is using its own online form. Even if they are feeding that information directly to the official form on the Secretary of State website this is a felony.

Second, when you fill out the form there's hidden text saying you're agreeing to various forms of contact. Making this invisible may be illegal outside of election law but this makes it clear APAC is retaining this information for campaign use, which is a felony.

Now, gray area, APAC is endorsing Donald Trump. However it doesn't appear to be doing this on the exact same page as the registration drive. Many PACs and candidates have a register to vote page and this has never been treated as a violation of that rule so long as they properly link to Michigan.gov/vote and don't collect information.

But now the second law: this page came into existence inside the 14 day window before Michigan's congressional primary coming up this week. The online form is taken down and the link to the offline form is a 404 error (though the PDF is still there in the big database of government forms if you're brave enough to dive into a sea of unsorted bureaucracy). You can't run a registration drive at this time merely because you can't actually register at this time except by presenting yourself to your local clerk in person. Violation of this law isn't technically a crime, but as this is an online drive it's not possible to violate this one without also violating the other, which is as already covered a felony.

posted by NoxAeternum at 12:40 PM on August 6 [30 favorites]

So who would take the rap for this? Musk?
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:59 PM on August 6

The first time I heard of this (local news broadcast), it said that Musk had setup a voter registration site that didn’t actually register the voter, it just looked like it did. Is this what is happening?

So, the issue is that it's supposed to pass you through to the MI Department of State's registration site...which is currently down because we're in the two week period prior to an election where registration has to be done in person.
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:12 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]

The pervasive stink of something smoldering slowly, to eventually burst into incinerating flame.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:15 PM on August 6 [3 favorites]

A thing that I mentioned in a prior Harris megathread.

Here's a truth about online voter registration

It's a fucking pain in the ass

I am equally willing to believe that there is no nefarious data harvesting operation happening here and it's really just the straight up incompetence of trying to rush getting a website out there to do online voter registration and then fucking it up because Elon thinks, "how hard can it be? I build fucking rockets! Website forms are a solved problem!"

A thing that I learned when getting into political tech in 2019 was that all of us tech folks really had to leave our "move fast and break things" attitudes at the door next to the sign that said, "FEC Jail is Real Jail."

Which is to say, even if they are incompetent, and they didn't do have any plans for data harvesting or voter suppression, they should still go to jail.
posted by bl1nk at 1:36 PM on August 6 [18 favorites]

So, the issue is that it's supposed to pass you through to the MI Department of State's registration site...which is currently down because we're in the two week period prior to an election where registration has to be done in person.

MI online voter registration is up and running. It just has a disclaimer up top saying that if you register now, you won't be eligible to vote in the primary. Vote.org and Iwillvote.com both redirect users to the MI Secretary of State site after collecting similar contact info (name, address, DOB, email, phone). The specific thing that Musk's PAC is in violation of is that it seems to have wanted to have some kind of form or iframe that would've done the same thing after collecting your contact info but it just errors out and shows white space.

The current americapac home page currently just has some static text and zero voter registration functionality, probably because of this litigation. But also, because this PAC is apparently staffed by taskrabbits, the original voter registration page is still online, and you can just hit the page directly. The page does zero validation so you can tell it that you're Elon Musk at elonmusk@gmail.com and give it the address of a random motel in Michigan and it'll take you to that blank page.
posted by bl1nk at 1:44 PM on August 6 [5 favorites]

...while hiding the legal details in white text at the bottom of the page.

Who green-lit this? This is like a 14-year-old's idea to get away with something... "we're (quote fingers) "required" to do this, but we'll put it in white so no one can see it!"

How on earth did they think it wouldn't be discoverable if someone looked into the page? It's baffling - do they really think we-are-so-smart-and-they're-so-dumb?
posted by Silvery Fish at 1:48 PM on August 6 [9 favorites]

By providing your telephone number and email, you consent to receive emails, calls, and text messages from America PAC, including pre-recorded messages and via automated methods. Msg & data rates may apply. Msg frequency may vary. Reply STOP to opt-out and HELP for help. View Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions for more info. Message & Data Rates May Apply. Reply HELP for help. Reply STOP to opt out.

With Elon, it's best to assume both stupidity and malice.
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:53 PM on August 6 [38 favorites]

And Yaccarino has put out a video defending the GARM lawsuit.
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:57 PM on August 6

He also sued OpenAI and Sam Altman yesterday. As his lawsuit put it: “Elon Musk’s case against Sam Altman and OpenAI is a textbook tale of altruism versus greed.”
posted by senor biggles at 2:01 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]

Does this asshole have a litigation fetish or something? Maybe the natalism stuff is just a cover for his desire to get off via the inevitable custody cases.
posted by terretu at 2:01 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]

vote.org literally has the same opt-in language. Yes, it's shitty to hide this text and likely illegal. But harvesting contact info for voters to do mobilization, followup in case you don't finish registering, and potentially get fundraising spam is, like, table stakes unfortunately in most successful third party voter registration websites.
posted by bl1nk at 2:02 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]

Does this asshole have a litigation fetish or something?

He has around 10-20 active lawsuits as either plaintiff or defendant, like his attempt to kill the National Labor Relations Board.
posted by NoxAeternum at 2:04 PM on August 6 [4 favorites]

And Yaccarino has put out a video defending the GARM lawsuit.

Tie yourself to the glass mast of the glass sinking ship!
posted by Artw at 2:07 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]

Does this asshole have a litigation fetish or something?
No, just unlimited resources and a nasty case of Dunning–Kruger. He doesn't suffer any real consequences from his poor decisions, so he is empowered to keep making them. You can see why he likes Trump.
posted by Popular Ethics at 2:08 PM on August 6 [13 favorites]

Is there any realistic possibility of sanctions for the lawyers who are filing such an idiotic lawsuit?
posted by ElKevbo at 2:15 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]

Seriously, suing your advertisers? I'd just laugh it off but the suit is in Texas and the Attorney General there (Paxton) has done Musk's bidding plenty of times before. So this civil lawsuit might well soon be coupled with a State of Texas investigation.

OTOH, last time Paxton used state powers to investigate people on Musk's enemies list it got laughed out of court. The civil suit is ongoing though and Media Matters is no doubt wasting a lot of time and money fighting the SLAPP.
posted by Nelson at 2:27 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]

There's still room on my bingo card for "Sues and appeals to sympathetic Supreme Court to gain 'natural born citizen' status."
posted by k3ninho at 2:31 PM on August 6

And Musk responds to Yaccarino's video, saying "we tried peace for 2 years, now it is war".
posted by NoxAeternum at 2:44 PM on August 6

And continuing on with Musk's legal woes, the UK government would like a word with the man over Twitter's role in the race riots last week.
posted by NoxAeternum at 2:48 PM on August 6 [11 favorites]

And continuing on with Musk's legal woes, the UK government would like a word with the man over Twitter's role in the race riots last week.

I have been running through hypotheticals about what would happen if he went so far as to break some of the anti- incitement of terrorism laws. Would/could he be arrested? How would that work? It would certainly be nice to know that noone is above the law.
posted by EllaEm at 3:03 PM on August 6 [3 favorites]

@ kateconger.bsky.social:
Linda Yaccarino is currently leading an employee all-hands to talk about the lawsuit. She started by telling everyone that X is still a member of GARM.
posted by Artw at 3:03 PM on August 6

And continuing on with Musk's legal woes, the UK government would like a word with the man over Twitter's role in the race riots last week.

In the Bangladesh thread someone linked to a Spectator article about the situation there. When I read it that article had a big, prominent link with a big, prominent photo of Musk stroking his chin in a classic 'thoughtful genius' pose. The headline: "Elon Musk slams Starmer over Facebook hate charge" (the link is to an archive.is snapshot). The content is some arch, winking bullshit that definitely doesn't paint Musk as in anyway complicit in the riots.
posted by trig at 3:07 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]

Musk is well known for championing free speech but only if you agree with him. SLAPP suits have essentially zero downside because he has infinite money and lots of upside for him.

Now if someone can wrangle a felony trial with him as the defendant that would be a serious penalty. Having to sit in court day after day. Having his travels curtailed. Musk knows more than anyone the value of time.
posted by Mitheral at 3:09 PM on August 6 [5 favorites]

Has anyone been keeping track of how all the workers'-rights lawsuits against Musk/Twitter have been panning out? I've seen this (Elon Musk beats $500m severance suit over mass Twitter layoffs), which is not heartening.
posted by trig at 3:12 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]

Wow, that video from the CEO is koolaid-drinking horse shit and pandering of the lowest, most obvious kind.
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:18 PM on August 6 [5 favorites]

> “We tried being nice for 2 years and got nothing but empty words,” Mr. Musk wrote Tuesday in a post on X. “Now, it is war.”

Um, it was less than a year ago that he told advertisers to go fuck themselves. Is he also bad at calendars?
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 3:48 PM on August 6 [26 favorites]

“I hope they stop. Don’t advertise,” Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin.

I hope the defendants’ lawyers just print this out, font size 50, and turn it in to the judge by itself.
posted by Slinga at 5:17 PM on August 6 [15 favorites]

Musk is well known for championing free speech but only if you agree with him

This is also one of Metafilter (as a community with rules written, unwritten and unspoken) traits

It's actually rather hard to find free speech supporters of different, let alone, opposite, kind.

But hating on Musk is a sacred MeFi experience, so I don't wanna be trampled here
/s
posted by Green-eyed grenade at 5:32 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]

I'm surprised his custody battles aren't part of this discussion. That's back in court this week because he's been withholding the kids from their mother.
posted by cheshyre at 5:42 PM on August 6 [3 favorites]

To be fair, Musk is pretty hateful, judged by his actions.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:46 PM on August 6 [4 favorites]

I'm surprised his custody battles aren't part of this discussion. That's back in court this week because he's been withholding the kids from their mother.

I would absolutely bet they aren’t going well based on his tantrums.
posted by Artw at 6:21 PM on August 6

the suit is in Texas and the Attorney General there

It's not so much the AG he's thinking of as one truly shitty Trump appointee judge (it's a favorite district for anyone or any corporation with MAGA inclinations to file in to get truly absurd, precedent-defying rulings), and the complicit Fifth Circuit.

(thanks again to all you people who didn't want to vote for Hillary for some strange reason, literally the consequences of your short-sighted and misogynist behavior will jam up the wheels of justice for decades to come)
posted by praemunire at 6:29 PM on August 6 [8 favorites]

This is also one of Metafilter (as a community with rules written, unwritten and unspoken) traits

It isn't though. We have explicit limits on speech here enforced programically and by policy enforced by active moderation. Even back when it was mathowie's rodeo he openingly controlled who and what could be posted. Musk though constantly claims to be a free speech absolutionist to the point he blew 40 billion on a tantrum but he uses his control of twitter to choose who can speak on that platform and who they can speak to.

hating on Musk is a sacred MeFi experience, so I don't wanna be trampled here

Musk is a transphobic, misogynistic, union busting, antiworker, racist oligarch hypocrite who has disowned his own children and is actively using his position to push an agenda that is bad for anyone who isn't the same. Can't imagine why any one would hate on him /hamburger.
posted by Mitheral at 7:49 PM on August 6 [55 favorites]

A better point of comparison might be Twitter pre Musk, which had content moderation and a functioning trust and safety team which, while far from perfect, would actually occasionally take action against hate groups and spreaders of misinformation. This is good and normal. What’s happen since is most of that is gone, Nazis have run absolutely wild on the place AND Musk will occasionally lean in get rid of people he doesn’t like, usually people who bother Nazis. I think most reasonable people can see the problem with that.
posted by Artw at 9:04 PM on August 6 [16 favorites]

I wonder why Yaccarino keeps sticking her hand out in that video? Was it filmed in 3D? Is she a theatre school drop-out? It's really quite odd.
posted by senor biggles at 9:12 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]

And because reality loves to cross the fucking streams, Musk has announced he will interview Trump on Monday.

This just has "trainwreck" all over it.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:16 PM on August 6 [3 favorites]

I’d say whatever new drugs he’s on are bad, but honestly he’s always like this there days.
posted by Artw at 9:20 PM on August 6 [3 favorites]

It seems he's crawled deep into a k-hole and has no plans to come out.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:37 PM on August 6 [4 favorites]

Musk is just Ford 2.0, a maker of shit cars, and funder of fascist leaders.

I wanted to say that on twttr but my account is still useful there (and I've already wished the guy a launchpad explosion). Also I still buy diesel and there's nothing more evil than an oil company. But we can still do good things within a shitty system, no need to search around for the perfect pinhead to dance on.
posted by unearthed at 10:14 PM on August 6 [5 favorites]

For the longest time, I have thought promising to buy Twitter was the worst he could do. Space Karen just proved me wrong.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:25 PM on August 6 [6 favorites]

Oops, I mean "dumbest thing he could do", not "worst thing he could do".

Consequences of late night insomaniacal commenting.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:55 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]

do they really think we-are-so-smart-and-they're-so-dumb?
Do you really need to ask that?

As always, rich arseholes will find ways to define the opinions of others as being illegal simply because they differ from their own opinions. 'Free speech for everyone like me' could be their catchcry.
posted by dg at 10:57 PM on August 6 [3 favorites]

I wonder why Yaccarino keeps sticking her hand out in that video? Was it filmed in 3D? Is she a theatre school drop-out? It's really quite odd.

It looks to me like she worked with some Toastmasters consultant on how to look more "natural" while public speaking, but like Musk, she's terrible at everything.

These sorts of over-rehearsed speeches always make me think of this scene from Garden State.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 6:31 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]

Musk’s website is treating registration requests differently depending upon if it thinks it’s a pro- or anti-Musk/Trump state that request is coming from.

It’s not some innocent mistake or silly error: it’s the definition of voter suppression.
posted by teece303 at 7:27 AM on August 7 [5 favorites]

And because reality loves to cross the fucking streams, Musk has announced he will interview Trump on Monday.
This just has "trainwreck" all over it.

Yup, this will be a nightmare. Invite Kanye and we'll have the trifecta of shit all together!
Possibly this will be the stupidest, most incoherent interview of all time.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:37 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]

I'm a little confused as to the outcome of the GARM lawsuit. Let's say that the fifth circuit does it's normal shit and Musk buys five votes on the USSC. What then? GARM retracts it's oppositions, sure. Does that mean that advertisers are now forced to spend money advertising on xitter?

Musk is an emotional man baby with the emotional regulation skills of an 8 year old. There is no coherent legal strategy, just the money to hire lawyers.

In any functioning system of juris prudence he gets laughed out of court. It’s not clear if that applies in the Federalist Society American court system.
posted by teece303 at 8:28 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]

Does that mean that advertisers are now forced to spend money advertising on xitter?

Free speech means forcing you to speak in certain places and in certain ways, clearly. (See also: you must praise Trump; you must do it enthusiastically.)
posted by trig at 8:40 AM on August 7

The intent of the lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media is to harm the organization, an offshoot of the World Federation of Advertisers. Even if Twitter wins everything a bunch of advertisers are not going to be forced to tithe to Musk in perpetuity. But it might destroy the organization

More realistically, if the lawsuit goes to court it will have a chilling effect not only on GARM but other industry organizations too. That's how SLAPPs work. It's a strategic lawsuit against public participation. The lawsuit itself is enough to harm organizations.

It's also possible that the lawsuit will be thrown out immediately by a judge. Any reasonable judge looking at a comment like Musk saying "I hope they stop. Don’t advertise" or "go fuck yourselves" might just laugh the complaint out of their court. That's where jurisdiction shopping comes into play. It's no accident this lawsuit was filed in Texas. Although surprisingly Wichita Falls, not Amarillo, see this reddit discussion for some details on the individual judges. (Amarillo is the court of Judge Kacsmaryk, the same one who tried to ban abortion pills for the whole US.)
posted by Nelson at 9:00 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]

Although surprisingly Wichita Falls, not Amarillo,

That's because they found a wind farm in in Wichita Falls that one of the defendants has an interest in, which they're using for their claim of jurisdiction, similar to how Johnny Depp used the fact that the Washington Post has server farms in Virginia to sue in a more SLAPP-happy jurisdiction.

(One court reform we need is that there should be no single jurist districts.)

I'm a little confused as to the outcome of the GARM lawsuit.

It's about rewriting the meaning of censorship so that right wing assholes can claim it when people respond unsurprisingly to their conduct. And sadly, this is a rabbit hole that both sides have fallen into (see the response of PEN America and the NCAC to Simon and Schuster dropping the Roth biography when it came out the writer was a rapist and groomer for how it works in the other direction.)
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:43 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]

(For those interested, the filing is available here.)
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:04 AM on August 7

That's because they found a wind farm in in Wichita Falls that one of the defendants has an interest in

Yeah, that part is laughable. They name a Danish windmill company as the defendent on the theory they buy advertisements and also own part of a wind farm near Wichita Falls.

Defendant Ørsted A/S (“Ørsted”) is a Danish renewable energy company with its headquarters in Fredericia, Denmark. ... Through one or more wholly owned American subsidiaries, Ørsted holds substantial investments in the United States, including a wind farming facility located in the Wichita Falls Division of this District. Ørsted expends substantial sums annually on the promotion of its products and services over the internet including on social media platforms. Ørsted became a GARM member no later than June 2022.

Pretty sure they could have found a similar pretense in Amarillo if they wanted. Not that it matters much either way, northern Texas in general will serve their purposes for finding friendly judges.
posted by Nelson at 10:44 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]

I find it amusing that Musk is suing Mars. I guess he gave up going there.
posted by SPrintF at 11:35 AM on August 7

WaPo: Elon Musk’s X accused of bias after pro-Harris accounts labeled as ‘spam’
A string of incidents raises questions about whether X is restricting accounts that oppose Musk’s political views, or just mishandling a rush of political speech.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:43 AM on August 8 [3 favorites]

And as he's suing over lost ad revenue, Musk makes the highest sub tier ad-free. This, along with his comments to advertisers, would have his suit laughed out of any legitimate courtroom. Which is why he went venue shopping to get a conspiracy theorist for the judge.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:56 AM on August 8

Jesus Christ.

Advertisers axe corporate responsibility scheme after lawsuit from Musk’s X

Advertising Coalition Shuts Down After X, Owned by Elon Musk, Sues

While the World Federation of Advertisers denied that GARM’s work had run afoul of the law, it said that the nonprofit did not have the financial resources to continue operating while it fights X in court.

posted by trig at 12:45 PM on August 8 [4 favorites]

Musk is going to think he won but having your ad appear next to Nazi talking points being bad for business hasn't changed and the advertisers are still going to curb their spending on Twitter.
posted by Mitheral at 12:55 PM on August 8 [1 favorite]

Also, from the "Advertisers axe corporate responsibility scheme after lawsuit from Musk’s X" article:

A committee within the US Congress held a hearing in July on “collusion in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media”, targeting advertising firms for “anticompetitive collusion in online advertising”

What committee was this? The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by... Jim Jordan (R-OH).

(In the process of looking this up I found out that the Judiciary Committee uses its official, presumably taxpayer funded webspace to republish, conveniently in one place and presumably with copyright waivers, a collection of totally not-inflammatory articles from totally neutral, objective, and independent publications like Fox News, Breitbart, The Washington Examiner, and so on under the heading In The News. Here's a Breitbart report on the hearing. These are all published under a .gov url and look very official at first glance, with the Judiciary Committee logo all over. Is this normal? Do all committees do it? Just the GOP-led ones? I don't have time to look into this right now but it's insane, right?)

Okay, I did look into it very slightly: all I could find from the Democratic part of the House Judiciary Committee is a set of its own PR releases, mostly just printing official statements by its ranking member (Jerrold Nadler).

Anyway, here was Nadler's response to the GARM hearing ("... this hearing has nothing to do with antitrust law, since the Majority’s allegations wither under even the most basic antitrust analysis. This is, instead, another dangerous effort by the Majority to bully companies into promoting and supporting far-right extremist views—views that brands, understandably, do not want to be associated with. ...")
posted by trig at 1:20 PM on August 8

SLAPPs land fast.

While the World Federation of Advertisers denied that GARM’s work had run afoul of the law, it said that the nonprofit did not have the financial resources to continue operating while it fights X in court.

The shutdown probably won't help Twitter's ad business, I think companies can come to their own conclusions about advertising there without a consortium's help. But GARM had a much larger mission

GARM was set up in the wake of the Christchurch Mosque shootings in which the killer livestreamed the attack on Facebook. This followed a slew of high-profile cases where brands’ advertisements appeared next to illegal or harmful content, such as child pornography and content promoting terrorism. This included the 2017 London Times exposé entitled “Big brands fund terror through online adverts.”

So good job, Twitter lawyers, you just brought us took us back to the good ol' days of ads for cars and vitamins appearing next to CP and terrorist propaganda.
posted by Nelson at 3:55 PM on August 8 [6 favorites]

Hopefully the failure of GARM means the Harris administration just passes some brutal rules about the fake “platform” designated social media companies and makes X untenable. I think these large platform owners should be responsible for every individual ad. This would force them to run fewer, less-targeted ads, which is great for privacy. There’s be a temporary tech crash in the market, but that’s been a bullshit economic sector for a long time and has been rewarding people who tend to be even worse than the classic industrialists. At least Ford built something useful instead of a bullshit Online Disinformation Machine.
posted by caviar2d2 at 3:17 PM on August 10

At least Ford built something useful instead of a bullshit Online Disinformation Machine.

Ford built one of those too - it was called the Dearborn Independent.

And in further legal news, the EU has pointed out that Twitter's lack of moderation is violating EU law. This, of course, has resulted in a measured response from the man.
posted by NoxAeternum at 2:36 PM on August 12 [1 favorite]

I was expecting the poop emoji again.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:10 PM on August 12

And in a surprising move, Musk's attempt to judgeshop has failed as Reed O'Connor does the ethical thing and recuses on account of holding Tesla stock.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:11 AM on August 13 [2 favorites]

What? Admitting a wrong? Backing off? Even in the face of lots of news coverage about how you're partisan and unethical and a motion filed against you by a plaintiff? What a RINO.
posted by trig at 12:38 PM on August 13 [1 favorite]

Elon Musk beats $500m severance suit over mass Twitter layoffs

Meanwhile, in Ireland: Ex-Twitter worker wins £470,000 for unfair dismissal over Musk ‘hardcore’ email
posted by trig at 2:35 PM on August 13 [1 favorite]

X CEO calls for ad industry reset

Once we find out everything that happened, why it happened, what influenced this activity, there needs to be ecosystem-wide reform and a complete reset for the entire industry.

Sure, Jan.
posted by Nelson at 4:43 PM on August 13

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