A Trio of Twitler Travesties.

[usonian]

Twitter will begin manually authenticating Blue, Grey, and Gold accounts as soon as next week
https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/25/23477550/twitter-manual-verification-blue-checkmark-gold-grey

Elon Musk says that Twitter’s check mark program could return on Friday, December 2nd, with a new procedure to verify individual identities in order to resolve impersonation issues. Musk described the new manual authentication process as “painful, but necessary.” Verified check marks will also be expanded with additional colors — gold for companies, grey for the government, and the original blue for individual accounts.

As it turns out, offering so-called verified check marks for an $8 monthly subscription without actually verifying identities wasn’t a brilliant idea. After Musk ignored warnings from Twitter’s own trust and safety staff, the platform’s paid Twitter Blue subscriptions rolled out and quickly resulted in some ‘verified’ accounts impersonating notable public figures and brands, driving away advertisers from the “high-risk” platform. Musk has since said that the company wouldn’t relaunch Twitter Blue until “we’re confident about significant impersonations not happening.”

Musk had previously said that Twitter “will probably use different color check for organizations than individuals,” though this is the first time he’s offered details. “All verified individual humans will have [the] same blue check, as boundary of what constitutes ‘notable’ is otherwise too subjective,” Musk said in a tweet. “Individuals can have [a] secondary tiny logo showing they belong to an org if verified as such by that org.”

The Twitter CEO says he’ll offer a longer explanation about how everything will work at some point next week.

That's all.

Guess it goes along with these:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/24/23476655/elon-musk-general-amnesty-mass-unban-twitter
Elon Musk just decided to bring the worst people on the internet back to Twitter

snip

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has decided to offer “general amnesty” to suspended accounts starting next week — a gentler way of saying that he’s decided to welcome back some of the site’s worst and most toxic people. It’s the second major moderation decision he’s made since taking over after unbanning former President Donald Trump; both decisions were made after Musk ran an informal poll from his personal Twitter account.

The decision to reverse years of moderation work at Twitter effectively trashes Musk’s original promise: to create a diverse council that would help adjudicate serious moderation decisions. Musk backed away from that idea by later blaming “political/social activist groups” for breaking an alleged “deal” — a claim nobody has verified and that advertisers deny. Twitter has spent many hard-earned years clipping users from the service, and many of the bans it has issued have been related to horrendous abuse, harassment, and misinformation.

It’s still not clear which accounts will be allowed back. Musk said accounts that have “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam” would not be granted “amnesty”. But doing something illegal is an extremely high bar for moderation since most people don’t break the law by simply being awful people. Even Musk has expressed some bare-minimum standards beyond breaking the law; while he has spent a lot of time engaging with right-wing complaints, he has signaled opposition to the idea of letting someone like Alex Jones back on his website.

Nonetheless, a blanket restoration of most suspended accounts will likely have immense and widespread unintended consequences — particularly in regions where Twitter’s moderation and compliance capacities have been eviscerated by the company’s new leader.

And this:
https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-scoop-twitters-ongoing-cruel
The Scoop: Twitter’s ongoing cruel treatment of software engineers
Twitter has become the most toxic workplace amongst any major tech company in 2022. But why is Elon Musk treating developers in an unusually cruel way?

snip

We have to ask the question: why is Elon Musk creating what seems to be the most toxic working environment among major tech companies in 2022? For the fourth week in the row, Musk keeps turning up the heat and finding new, cruel ways to make it clear to current software engineers that their jobs are not secure. First, there were ~50% layoffs, where external engineers from Tesla and SpaceX had the final say on who stayed or went. Next, it was firing people who criticized the leadership, even if it was done internally on Twitter’s Slack. Then, it was making the remaining employees pledge to work long hours. And now, it’s firing based on arbitrary coding reviews without any feedback.

Why put people through multiple rounds of firings? Why keep laying people off three days after Musk said layoffs were completed?

(the article gives lots of examples of brutal and unexplained firing notices)

I don’t have the answers, but what Musk is doing is managing through fear. Software engineers now know that the only way they can be safe is to submit code that counts as “hardcore,” every single week.

What is satisfactory code in Musk’s opinion? No one can tell.

I *STRONGLY* object to the cruel treatment of engineers and others.
And I let the governor know in no uncertain terms.
https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/

[Takket]

1. musk has no clue what he's doing and it is up to his actual engineers to make it all work

[tishaLA]

2. The new verification thing's another Elmo shitshow

It's going to be a fiasco and he'll get even more attention, which seems to be all he wants, when it goes horribly.

And then people like Milo and Laura Loomer etc al will be back and verified, too. I finally deleted my account this AM and I'm kinda angry because I've really enjoyed Twitter.

[GoCubsGo]

3. Bob Cesca had some interesting insight into this shitshow on his latest podcast.

"Elon is deliberately driving away Normals and "hall monitors" in time for the 2024 election. Russia and the Saudis want liberals off Twitter..."

https://www.bobcesca.com/the-bob-cesca-show-11-22-22/

His take on the Special Counsel and the Hunter Biden "laptop" are also worth the listen.

[Midnight Writer]

4. The "Hunter Biden Laptop" segment starts at 59:50 for those interested.