1. Substack links were never blocked. Matt’s statement is false.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2023
2. Substack was trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone, so their IP address is obviously untrusted.
3. Turns out Matt is/was an employee of Substack.
April 8, 2023
Let's just drop in for a moment on the massive squabble between Matt Taibbi and Elon Musk.
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Doesn't sound massive nor a squabble.
Just a free exchange of ideas/information.
A corporate conflict, perhaps espionage, ignored by mainstream journalists, and a minor nuisance elevated by users to preposterous proportions.
I don't know about the rest of it, but Elon is right about Substack attempting to "bootstrap" their user base. Yeah, that's not ethical.
With friends like Musk, who needs enemies?
Taibbi carried his water and gave Musk credibility last fall ... but that was last fall and this is now.
Such a business genius.
I will always trust Elon Musk when it comes to free speech. He has out 44 billion dollars worth of skin in the game.
Matt Taibbi fighting with Elon Musk.
Donald Trump fighting with Ron DeSanctimonious.
Steve Scalise fighting with Mitch McConnell.
Matt Gaetz fighting with Kevin McCarthy.
Liz Cheney fighting with Jim Jordan.
Adam Kinzinger fighting with Josh Hawley.
The Bulwark, fighting with The Federalist.
I could happily keep working on this list all day.
In my home state of Michigan, I could build a hundred more lines to a MI-GOP “___ fighting with ___” list.
Of all of the things that Trump has done in his life, “the ruination of the Republican Party” is the one that is the most significant and the one he has done with the most effectiveness.
Taibbi and Musk were never natural allies. Taibbi has always been a creature of the Left. The same type of falling out has occurred among those who were thrown together as the "dark web". It's a bunch of natural opponents being lumped together because they support what used to be commonly accepted "liberal" values.
Not much of a squabble. A claim and a counter-claim. Presumably the points (was Substack banned, did they try to hijack Twitter's data, is/was Taibbi an employee of Substack?) could easily be proven by either party.
Afraid of Substack!
My investment is rocking
Unless the richest man in the world destroys Substack
that's not cool
What's probably more interesting (I think?) is Taibbi's fight with MSNBC.
As rich as Elon Musk is, he only owns one tiny bit of the mainstream media.
Massive corporations owns network TV, including ABC, CBS, and NBC. There's a right-wing network on cable TV, of course, called FOX.
What I would love to see is independent media challenge this Pravda media. What I'm hoping is that Substack will be the future of independent journalism and out-of-the-box thinking and writing. We'll see!
Oh goodness. There's nothing quite like Twitter in real time for getting your rep stripped. Hope this all comes out clean in the wash.
May All Be Well.
May All Thrive Now.
Boy that Taibbi/MSNBC exchange got me hot.
The outrage is not what Twitter did (or did not do).
The outrage is what the government did.
It's against the law for the FBI or the CIA or any government agency to censor speech. It's a clear and specific violation of our free speech clause, and our First Amendment. It's a law violation!
Taibbi's not a lawyer -- and obviously not used to confrontation with other journalists -- but the real outrage is our government attempts to censor, not what Twitter does or does not do.
And media flacks should be called Pravda media while they continue to support government censorship of American citizens. That's how you talk to them when they do this.
Musk is never going to make enough money to break even on Twitter. This smacks of desperation.
I don't think it is between Taibbi and Musk. It's between Musk, as owner of Twitter, and Substack.
Common mdes of Twitter: Incensed, World Weary, Rolling Eyes. One of the reasons Musk is a good tweeter is that he's usually not any of those.
Somebody is obviously wrong. Musk and Tabbi need to talk to each other.
"Elon is right about Substack attempting to "bootstrap" their user base. Yeah, that's not ethical."
It's not evident to me that ethics comes into play. "Ethics" is where we recognize that there are people in a position to do harm if they are so inclined, by violating a trust, and we can think of no more effective means of stopping them. Presumably, what Musk means by "bootstrap" (didn't we have this discussion here once before?) is that Substack is trying to get his users to at least try their competing service. This would only be unethical if they were taking advantage of a form of access they had been granted on the condition that they not use it in that way. But then it would also be illegal, if there were a contract, and Musk would have legal recourse.
"... you know that thing where the left eats its own?"
Weinstein is such a squish. He still does not grasp that it is the nature of the Left to eat its own, as soon as it becomes useful to do so. He wants to believe that it is possible to be a Leftist, as he thinks he is, and still behave like a human being. He does not see that the Left is in opposition to all existing power structures, including democracy, the family, respect for persons, adhering to contracts, keeping promises, and simple human decency. What does not serve the Left serves the Right. What serves the Right must be destroyed. Any scruple in that pitiless struggle is not merely weakness, it is treason.
St Croix.
Fox is not right wing. They are more like trans-right. Left wing but dressing up and pretending to be right wing.
For a recent example, fox had exclusive access, we were told, to 40m hours of 1/6 footage.
With great fanfare, they showed less than 5 minutes.
Since then, nothing.
I pay no more attention to fox than I do to CNN msnbc or the rest.
I still have some hopes for CNN. Fading hopes, but still...
It's owned by John Malone who has a long history as a liberal (a/k/a libertarian) not just talking the talk like Murdoch but walking the walk.
Time will tell. He may just be waiting for CNN to hit rock bottom before rebranding.
John Henry
Reposting here: Got this note yesterday afternoon from Matt Taibbi.
Earlier this afternoon, I learned Substack links were being blocked on Twitter. Since being able to share my articles is a primary reason I use Twitter, I was alarmed and asked what was going on.
It turns out Twitter is upset about the new Substack Notes feature, which they see as a hostile rival. When I asked how I was supposed to market my work, I was given the option of posting my articles on Twitter instead of Substack.
Not much suspense there; I’m staying at Substack. You’ve all been great to me, as has the management of this company. Beginning early next week I’ll be using the new Substack Notes feature (to which you’ll all have access) instead of Twitter, a decision that apparently will come with a price as far as any future Twitter Files reports are concerned. It was absolutely worth it and I’ll always be grateful to those who gave me the chance to work on that story, but man is this a crazy planet.
Have a great weekend, everyone. I’m off on vacation with my kids next week, but I’ll check in. Best and take care, Matt
Sorry if I’m breaking a rule. You can leave it out I understand.
Also, I wish people would email each other. Lack of discretion in these instant public spats.
Musk is never going to make enough money to break even on Twitter. This smacks of desperation.
Desperation from one of the five richest men in the world who is destined to become the richest man in history?
I've got no idea how Musk will make a profit on Twitter.
Otoh, 500-1000 new us car brands have been launched. Most using fairly standard designs and technology. 3 survive. 4 if you count Chrysler.
Plus Tesla. Using technologies not tried together previously
No private company has been able to do anything with space. Everyone said only govt could go to space.
Space X has launched more than half of everthing in orbit ever in the past few years. Virgin Atlantic is bankrupt. Blue origin is circling the drain.
Don't bet against Musk and Twitter
John Henry
I, for one, prefer Matt's recent "Fuck you" column to MSNBC.
Elon made the Twitter code open source so people could understand how it works - and it seems Substack started downloading it wholesale to build a Twitter clone for themselves. I'm waiting for Substack to say what they were thinking, which may be that their read of "open source" means it's free for the taking.
Dumb Lefty Mark: "With friends like Musk, who needs enemies?
Taibbi carried his water and gave Musk credibility last fall ... but that was last fall and this is now.
Such a business genius."
LOL
Dumb Lefty Mark earning his moniker each and every day.
This is a straightforward tech company vs tech company dispute which non-techies Weinstein and Taibbi did not fully understand and misinterpreted. Big whoop.
And Taibbi simply provided the indisputable documented proof of the totalitarian actions of Mark and Chuck's beloved censorious bureaucrats.
Further, Dumb Lefty Mark remains desperate for his previous doomsday predictions for Twitter, bordering on apocalyptic, to come true! (Spoiler: they never will)
Dumb Lefty Mark and LLR-democratical and Violent Homosexual Rape Fantasist Chuck continue being precisely who they are.
Meanwhile, the rest of us watch in great anticipation of SpaceX's first orbital launch for Starship which will revolutionize, AGAIN (the reusable Falcon system was the first), spacelaunch services.
120m tall and capable of 100 -150 tons to orbit per launch when fully tested out using Musk's revolutionary, AGAIN, rapid iteration design/testing methodology
Which will result in astonishing reductions in cost per kg of payload to orbit. Falcon has already achieved that and Starship will dramatically bend that curve even further.
As an example, the current projected volume of Starship would match the entire International Space Station volume at a cost of just $2 - $5 million per launch. With a taller faring it would provide a payload volume that is 20% more than the ISS.
For comparison purposes, the ISS took over 40 launches for payload delivery and assembly and cost......$150 BILLION!
It is projected SpaceX will capture 90% or more of all global payloads to orbit within 24 months!
What was it Dumb Lefty Mark said sarcastically?
Oh, thats right: "Such a business genius."
I can only imagine Violent Homosexual Rape Fantasist Chuck and Dumb Lefty Mark are livid at Musk singlehandedly handing the US supremacy in space launch operations over the ChiComs.
Mark and Chuck can explain for themselves why that might be....but I bet it would be easy for anyone to guess on their own.
This is the one and hopefully only time in my entire life that I will ever agree with Chuck, but he's right about this, when he writes:
"Of all of the things that Trump has done in his life, “the ruination of the Republican Party” is the one that is the most significant and the one he has done with the most effectiveness."
Trump was an excellent President. I voted for him twice, and I will vote for him again if he is on the ballot. But ever since he lost to old senile, drooling, dementia Joe, he and his followers are hell bent on leading our country to ruin unless we all follow him in lock step.
loudogblog: "Somebody is obviously wrong. Musk and Tabbi need to talk to each other."
No, they dont.
Thus is a tech/business dispute. Obviously go with Musk over the reporter and the professor.
Can somebody throw a bannana pie in Bert Weinstein's face? what a pompous Ass. Who is "We" kemosabe? No one elected him to anything. Nor do I think he "suffered" because he defended Musk.
Lets hear that Tabbi is NOT an employee of Substack. Lets hear Substack deny Musk's charges. Musk paid $Billions for Twitter. You didn't buy it. I didn't buy it. And bert weinstein sure as hell didn't buy it. He wasn't even complaining that much about Pre-Musk twitter.
BTW, Musk's not running charity, and he has no reason to help build other people's platforms at the expense of twitter.
There are two issues as far as I know:
- One is tweets are having issues being embedded in substack articles.
- The other is tweets with substack links are no longer allowed.
My take:
- Twitter does not want to give traffic to a competitor.
Regardless of the time, i.e. now since he’s become popular on the right or back when he was popular w/ left folks, I have no idea why anyone would put up with Taibbi’s over the top, hyperbolic prose.
It’s so awful.
IMHO.
Anywho, it sometimes seems like he gets good stories. But as I look back, time seems to make his stuff look like it’s more hat and less cow, or whatever it is that Texas people say. Maybe w/o all the initial hype-man writing style it’d be easier to notice that his stuff is not so amazing even from the start.
I dunno.
P.S. Just now Taibbi noticed that Musk is using his Twitter control to silence speech. Sheesh!
“Twitter is now redirecting searches for “Substack” to “newsletter.””
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/8/23675398/twitter-is-now-redirecting-searches-for-substack-to-newsletter
This is a nothingburger. As long as Musk keeps shooting rockets into space I'm happy.
This would only be unethical if they were taking advantage of a form of access they had been granted on the condition that they not use it in that way.
I think that was the point of Musk’s 2nd point.
It’s fake. Taibbi is pretending to be independent of Musk, Twitter, etc. I imagine they designed this “squabble” together.
Weinstein's complaint seems to miss the essential point that the Twitter/Substack issue is about marketing and money, not "censorship."
It is not a good thing that Taibbi and Musk are at odds about it (or maybe it is--what the hell do I know), but it isn't about censorship.
I hope that all involved succeed, and work out whatever it is that they need to work out.
Why does everybody seem to think that Musk is obligated to give his money away?
This sounds like a playground squabble.
"I'm rubber.
You're glue.
What bounces off of me,
sticks to you!!"
Presumably, what Musk means by "bootstrap"
My impression was that Substack was trying to copy content to put up on Notes. Not illegal, but certainly a abuse of twitter bandwidth.
I didn't think substack was anything like Twitter. I thought substack was a subscription blogging platform.
Visiting a blog is like being in someone's living room while Twitter is like bumping into people on the street.
So I don't get this rivalry.
Chuck fighting with the image in his mirror, manages to insert President Trump into his body everyday LOL
Blessed Easter to the rest of you!
Looks like @elonmusk lied about #MattyDickPics as well. Taibbi contracts with Substack to host his blog; he is not a Substack employee.
Looks like they fixed it. For now, anyways.
A "massive squabble"? These two words do not seem to me to go together. The squabble seems trivial compared to the "massive" violation of fundamental rights Musk and Taibbi and Weiss and Shellenberger have revealed. The squabble is only "massive" in being a massive distraction from all that. Will it work?
Does Musk really control Twitter? It’s not clear he does.
St. Croix wrote: "... the real outrage is our government attempts to censor, not what Twitter does or does not do."
Twitter has, and will continue, to partner with your government to censor Twitter posts. This is happening today. Nothing about what Twitter is doing in partnership with the federal government has changed. The US federal government is Elon Musk's largest employer and the source of most of his vast wealth (through Tesla credits and SpaceX contracts).
Twitter today still, at the request of Democrats, censors Twitter posts. They do it by ELIMINATING the reach of those posts. Those posts aren't mentioned, you cannot re-tweet them, Twitter never recommends them to others, etc. All actions taken to reduce the visibility of that Tweet.
Twitter is a censor machine. That's all it does is censor. Even under Musk ownership.
What Lyle Sanford, RMT said 👆🏽
lonejustice: "This is the one and hopefully only time in my entire life that I will ever agree with Chuck,..."
LOL
Suuuuuuuuuuuure.
Did you ever apologize for your moronic claim that Trump completely made up the idea of an indictment as a grift?
Crazy World: "Chuck fighting with the image in his mirror, manages to insert President Trump into his body everyday"
LLR-democratical Chuck seems to spend an astonishing amount of time thinking about men inserting things into other mens bodies.
NTTATWWT.....
Mr. D: "Does Musk really control Twitter? It’s not clear he does."
Yes, which is why Twitter is projected to hit break even in his first year after being an entity that lost billions annually and served the democraticals every political whim.
Yep, Drago, Twitter is truly thriving now. Thats why you spent your post talking about SpaceX, because Twitter has so much good news to talk about.
Just wait until the EU lawsuits start.
Blogger Sprezzatura said... I have no idea why anyone would put up with Taibbi’s over the top, hyperbolic prose.
He’s liked on the right because he’s one of a very small number of lefties willing to call bullshit on their own side. He’s not liked by the left for the same reason.
Describing Goldman-Sachs as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” is brilliant wordsmithing.
"Ethics" is where we recognize that there are people in a position to do harm if they are so inclined, by violating a trust, and we can think of no more effective means of stopping them
@Jupiter >> Thanks for this succinct formulation involving power, reltionship, action and effects - are you the author?
I find this is much more concretely contextual in detail than
... [Ayn Rand] action flow reversed? ...
“Rights” are a moral concept — the concept that provides a logical transition from the principles guiding an individual’s actions to the principles guiding his relationship with others — the concept that preserves and protects individual morality in a social context — the link between the moral code of a man and the legal code of a society, between ethics and politics. Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.
Every political system is based on some code of ethics. The dominant ethics of mankind’s history were variants of the altruist-collectivist doctrine which subordinated the individual to some higher authority, either mystical or social.
"Ethics" is where we recognize that there are people in a position to do harm if they are so inclined, by violating a trust, and we can think of no more effective means of stopping them
@Jupiter >> Thanks for this succinct formulation involving power, reltionship, action and effects - are you the author?
I find this is much more concretely contextual in detail than
... [Ayn Rand] action flow reversed? ...
“Rights” are a moral concept — the concept that provides a logical transition from the principles guiding an individual’s actions to the principles guiding his relationship with others — the concept that preserves and protects individual morality in a social context — the link between the moral code of a man and the legal code of a society, between ethics and politics. Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.
Every political system is based on some code of ethics. The dominant ethics of mankind’s history were variants of the altruist-collectivist doctrine which subordinated the individual to some higher authority, either mystical or social.
Mark: "Just wait until the EU lawsuits start."
Yeahhh! Sicc 'em! Bad Elon!
Does it ever bother you that you are bootlicking the absolute power of the State? Sure--Musk is incredibly wealthy. But his entire wealth is roughly the annual budget of the EU.
"Describing Goldman-Sachs as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” is brilliant wordsmithing."
Also, he came up with "Flathead" for Thomas Friedman. For that alone, as with Johnny Damon for hitting that Grand Slam in Game 7, I will be forever in his debt.
Dumb Lefty Mark: "Yep, Drago, Twitter is truly thriving now. Thats why you spent your post talking about SpaceX, because Twitter has so much good news to talk about.
Just wait until the EU lawsuits start"
Dumb Lefty Mark saying dumb lefty stuff, again.
Its been pointed out many times but then you are an exceptionally dumb lefty, so I'll repeat the obvious for the umpteenth time: After losing billions per year, under Musk in his first year, Twitter will hit the critically important business turnaround goal of break even this year.
Thats after shedding 5,000 "workers"/censors/totalitarians without losing a single operational beat AND beginning to completely rework the entire code/stack and already releasing blocks of code as Open Source.
There are also clear foundational steps being taken to expand the breadth of twitter services/product offerings/capabilities.
According to you, NONE of that was possible.
Your moronic and sarcastic "such a business genius" comment warranted a comprehensive response and since I've already laid out the clear twitter advances multiple times I didnt think I needed to repeat it again, thus the SpaceX example of why you are an idiot.
But again, mea culpa. I failed to remind myself how dumb you really are.
Lets see now, what exactly was Dumb Lefty Marks solid gold "detailed" "business"-level "prediction" for twitter vomited up by him last fall?...
.....hmmmm, oh, thats right: by early 2023 "cracks would begin to appear"!
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Gee, I feel as though I am drowning in an ocean of Dumb Lefty Mark business "accumen"!
Whatever works to change the narrative...
Well, we can be sure of one thing: Making the most out of some kind of trivial disagreement between Musk and Taibbi will certainly help draw attention from, and start making the least of, the exposure of a massive attempt to censor thousands of people's free ideas at the hand of the Federal Government, via several nasty government-funded cutouts, quite a few NGO's, and some truly vile people. And furthermore, to structure our society in a way that is not at all based on free choice, free expression, and the exercise of liberty.
Noah Berlatsky roasts Musk on Twitter.
LLR-democratical and Violent Homosexual Rape Fantasist Chuck: "Noah Berlatsky roasts Musk on Twitter"
Would that be Noah Berlatsky the NBC contributor and communications director for Prostasia, a controversial group accused of 'normalizing pedophilia'? A not-for-profit group that is reportedly attempting to legitimize pedophilia under the guise of helping children?
Another lunatic lefty Oberlin grad, by the way. No wonder fake conservative Chuck would be listening to that psycho.
This is the final onion layer peel-back that would explain just about everything Chuckles has ever written at Althouse blog.
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