September 12, 2023

"X, Elon Musk’s social media platform formerly known as Twitter, appears to be attempting to limit its users’ access to The New York Times."

"Since late July, engagement on X posts linking to the New York Times has dropped dramatically. The drop in shares and other engagement on tweets with Times links is abrupt, and is not reflected in links to similar news organizations including CNN, the Washington Post, and the BBC...."


We're told this might have something to do with "a broad shift in platforms over the last five years... toward a splintering in which Facebook has largely gotten out of the news business, Twitter has shifted increasingly toward becoming a conservative media company, and Google and Apple are the remaining the platform giants interested in distributing other outlets’ news."

That's so sloppily written I feel insulted putting my time into trying to understand it. There's been a "shift" in which "Twitter has shifted." The double "shift" tells you no one serious is proofreading over there. And what's the "splintering"? It sounds exciting, but the sentence just goes on to make vague, questionable assertions. My impression was that Twitter (AKA X) has stopped censoring conservative speech. If you think it now looks like "a conservative media company," perhaps you're observing how important censorship has been to the dominance of liberal speech in social media.

The next sentence in that Semafor article is: "X recently objected to a California law requiring the disclosure of content moderate, for instance, by citing first amendment protections for its editorial decisions." What is "content moderate"? A typo? 

There's a link to a Bloomberg article. I'm not able to read the whole thing, but it begins: "Elon Musk’s X Corp. sued California to undo the state’s law aimed at exposing sources of hate speech and disinformation by requiring social media companies to explain how they moderate their content."

So Semafor wrote "disclosure of content moderate" to mean disclosure of how content is moderated! I'd like Semafor to disclose how it goes about slapping articles together. 

68 comments:

Kai Akker said...

"Twitter appears to throttle New York Times"

LOL, if only. But maybe someone smart and sufficiently brave finally renders a loonnnng-overdue verdict on a propaganda producer with no scruples.

"Increasingly archaic." Suspect he is as correct about that as he has been on many other calls. I don't think the adverb is necessary, myself.

Kate said...

For how long will "X, formerly known as Twitter" be required? Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce. Elliot Page, formerly known as Ellen. The deadname "Twitter" shouldn't be remembered according to today's rules.

Mary Beth said...

I'd blame AI for poorly written articles, but I think AI could do better.

Rich said...

There are some legitimate criticisms of the ADL. I tend to agree that they’re too aggressive, and too quick to equate policy criticisms of Israel with antisemitism.

But about the point you’re suing them for calling you an antisemite, you’ve mucked up. And if you’re blaming Jews for antisemitism, well, I gotta say that kinda proves the ADL’s point.

Rich said...

A short time delay is certainly not a huge deal, but it does, again, show how Musk is willing to weaponize the tools at his disposal to try to hurt those he dislikes, and does so in a way that is both transparently obvious and silly, but which seems less likely to be immediately noticed. Whatever you thought of old Twitter’s moderation practices, they were at least actually based on policy, and not whatever personally irked Jack Dorsey or the trust & safety team.

tim maguire said...

Sounds like one of those boiler-room operations where AI writes the first draft and they pay someone $20 to clean it up.

iowan2 said...

It sounds exciting, but the sentence just goes on to make vague, questionable assertions.

You have just described 90% of all "reporting"

vague, questionable, assertions. Then other media outlets, use the vague, question assertions as a source for their own vague, questionable assertions.

JAORE said...

"Whatever you thought of old Twitter’s moderation practices, they were at least actually based on policy, and not whatever personally irked Jack Dorsey or the trust & safety team".

Sure, sure. But, by all appearances, the policy was written around what irked the Jack and the censorship team.

rehajm said...

Right now there are hundreds of searchable news articles from liberal media confirming the company does not target based on political proclivities…

WK said...

I thought the access to the New York Times was limited through their paywall.

gilbar said...

in The Good Old Days, the NYT's could just copy and paste from JournoList to get the party line.
Then, later; the NYT's could just copy and paste from Twitter..
But WHERE are the NYT's people supposed to get the party line from NOW? It's HARD!

Another old lawyer said...

Does the NYT need any help in working to limit its distribution and number of readers? It seems to be doing a fantastic job all by itself.

Mark said...

Free speech absolutist lol

Kai Akker said...

The data in the Semafor chart contradict the claim that it is unique to the NYT (and the corollary presumption that Elon has singled NYT out for being increasingly archaic and boring. Alas, probably not.)

The chart shows both the Wapo and the WSJ as falling significantly in their links shared by readers, also. Not quite as dramatically as the NYT links-shared tally, but similarly. The chart also covers only about four months, so the data could be more weather than climate.

Still, the chart DOES show that something happened among readers of these major media players in the early summer. June for the other papers, late July for the NYT.

Did anything happen over that period that would account more logically for the readers' disenchantment? Well, Biden was gaffe-ing all over the place in those months and seemed, to me, to have ended any debate about his mental condition. And what about late July, when the NYT numbers fell? Hunter Biden's hearing testimony came in late July. Did NYTimes readers finally reach the point where even their states-of-denial had been rudely ended by reality?

That might explain this not-so-isolated behavior better than psychologizing about Musk. Right as he is about the quality of what the NYT puts out, the chances are that something else explains this great turnoff.

Temujin said...

All social media can censor or throttle down all things conservative, and that gets nary a mention, or if it is mentioned, it's scoffed at. Laughed at. Ridiculed. But throttle down the NY Times and it gets noticed by...um...Semafor?.

Standing up for The Times. Good God, Man...someone has to do it!

Kai Akker said...

The other big story in that data is that Politico, a therapy site for leftists, outscored all the "major media" newspapers and their sites. Who says America is not a religious nation?

tim maguire said...

Rich said...Musk is willing to weaponize the tools at his disposal to try to hurt those he dislikes.

Althouse presponds, "If you think it now looks like "a conservative media company," perhaps you're observing how important censorship has been to the dominance of liberal speech in social media."

rwnutjob said...

The free speech drove off blue check leftists.
They are naturally getting less clicks.
This ain't rocket surgery.

Leland said...

I suspect that X now puts other content providers on equal footing with the NYT and people are voting with their clicks to read what others have to say.

Bob Boyd said...

The Regime: "X bad."

Your moral and intellectual superiors: (In harmony) "X bad."

The Regime: "Musk bad."

Your moral and intellectual superiors: (In harmony) "Musk bad."

gilbar said...

iowan2 said...
You have just described 90% of all "reporting"
vague, questionable, assertions. Then other media outlets, use the vague, question assertions as a source for their own vague, questionable assertions.

yep, this is The Basis of all "reporting"
Sally Wacko, an adjunct professor at a community college says something...
NYTs (Paper1) reports: "Experts say something! Dr Wacko said..."
Papers 2 through 5 report "NYTs reported, that "Experts say something! Dr Wacko said...""
the WaPoo reports "NUMEROUS press reports alert public to something!"

And the whole thing SOUNDS like there is something!, but in reality it's just Sally Wacko

Aggie said...

Sorry, but didn't Musk actually publicly state that he was discouraging the wholesale linking to other sites, as a form of direct competition taking advantage of Twitter's / X's platform to advertise their own wares and re-direct attention away from Twitter / X?

Also, it's a little meaningless to harp on the NYT's perceived slights without a fair comparison to its competitors. Have they suffered a downturn as well?

wild chicken said...

Oh hell, I just realized I'd been getting my local crime news through Facebook and it's been throttled lately.

It's all sunshine and unicorns now.

Cappy said...

So what? It's a private company. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

robother said...

Unhand that Gray Lady, you Musky lout! Ere I use my semaphore to flag down an officer of the law.

Hassayamper said...

Whatever you thought of old Twitter’s moderation practices, they were at least actually based on policy, and not whatever personally irked Jack Dorsey or the trust & safety team.

Hah! That's pretty rich, Rich.

Oligonicella said...

Rich said...

"But about the point you’re suing them for calling you an antisemite, you’ve mucked up."

Not if they're lying.

Oligonicella said...

Rich said...

"But about the point you’re suing them for calling you an antisemite, you’ve mucked up."

Not if they're lying.

Oligonicella said...

Rich said...

"whatever you thought of old Twitter’s moderation practices, they were at least actually based on policy, and not whatever personally irked Jack Dorsey or the trust & safety team."

Gas. Enough gas to light Buffalo.

GRW3 said...

Most likely, this is the result of canning some previous Twitter rule that automatically promoted NYT posts. Maybe the others too.

Oligonicella said...

Althouse:

"If you think it now looks like "a conservative media company," perhaps you're observing how important censorship has been to the dominance of liberal speech in social media."

Now apply that sentence to viewing the NYT as useful, unbiased news worthy of trust.

pacwest said...

r nutjob nails it:
The free speech drove off blue check leftists.
They are naturally getting less clicks.
This ain't rocket surgery.


I think this probably falls under the heading of you can't handle the truth. Confirmed for us by Rich.

cf said...

NYT & its Pol Pot Leftie offshoot NPR have systematically scripted lies to the american public since the ObamaNation was won.

They deserve to be hung from lampposts.

Good for Elon.

Brian said...

and not whatever personally irked Jack Dorsey or the trust & safety team.

You owe me a new keyboard. Coffee all over the place.

That's a hell of a take. You outdid yourself. The Twitter files proves the trust and safety team at Twitter were personally irked, like a lot.

Tully said...

My primary assumption is that the drop in NYT engagement is due to a major reduction in bot accounts with boosted visibility.

It's amazing how charging for a blue checkmark can ecimate the robot armies.

Jim Howard said...

I know from following Professor Ann that the NYT firewalls almost all of their content. Why would I link to a site that is almost certainly to block most people from viewing their content?

Placing their content in a walled garden is their right for sure, but they shouldn’t whine about the consequences of their on rules.

Joe Smith said...

There's been a "shift" in which "Twitter has shifted."

How is this hard to understand?

It's like when the political parties switched platforms in the '60s/''70s and now Democrats are the good guys and the 'new' Republicans are the ones who enacted Jim Crow, slavery, the KKK, etc.

This isn't difficult.

Joe Smith said...

'For how long will "X, formerly known as Twitter" be required? Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce. Elliot Page, formerly known as Ellen. The deadname "Twitter" shouldn't be remembered according to today's rules.'

Exactly...this whole 'used to be' thing was silly a month ago.

Yancey Ward said...

I am guessing the NYTimes had a deal with the old Twitter management to actively promote their content, most likely paying Twitter a fee for doing so. When Musk took over and stopped censoring conservatives so much, the NYTimes' management/ownership probably stopped paying the fee, and Twitter has stopped providing the promotions to their content. The other, less successful lefty media outfits are probably still paying or never paid in the first place, thus their reach never changed.

Levi Starks said...

Maybe they’re just no longer boosting the NYT?
Is that a possibility?

Misinforminimalism said...

You know who limits users' access to the New York Times? The New York Times.

Putting out teaser content for free on X is just advertising. I can't advertise in the NYTimes for free, I don't see why their inability to do the same using someone else's platform is anything I should care about.

Rich said...

The real irony is how truly thin-skinned a loudmouthed billionaire ‘free-speech absolutist’ can be when it comes to someone else's free speech.

Drago said...

The New Soviet Democraticals move samlessly from their Musk/Ukraine serial lies (see Rich's hilarious LLR-like spinning from yesterday's Ukraine thread) to today's serial lies re: X.

Along with the serial attacks on Alito and Thomas and the continuing completely corrupted lawfare attacks on Trump and extended conservatives/populists nation and the American people directly, the New Soviet Democraticals have signalled clearly they will pull out ALL remaining speedbumps on the way to total authoritarian control as polls now show democraticals 38 points underwater with independents...and that means all the relevant independent subgroups.

And, as always, when Dumb Lefty Mark pipes up on a Musk thread you just know hilarity is sure to follow!

Drago said...

Levi Starks: "Maybe they’re just no longer boosting the NYT?
Is that a possibility?"

That is precisely what is happening.

Without dem/lefty billionaire boosting and corrupted government directed censorship of alternatives, the content landscape levels out and those darn deplorables and normals end up "voting with their content selection feet" and fleeing the New Soviet Democratical Rhetorical Plantation.

This has angered the far left legacy media "gods"/Overseers with their fake self-applied "misinformation/disinformation" "expert" titles and they want Musk out before 2024 kicks off.

Rich said...

Putin praises Elon Musk as an "outstanding person," just days after Musk acknowledged preventing Ukraine from using his company’s Starlink satellite network for an attack on Russian warships.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-12/putin-praises-outstanding-musk-while-vowing-more-moon-missions

North Korea’s Leader Arrives in Russia as Nations Seek Closer Military Ties
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/09/12/world/russia-ukraine-news

Putin can talk a lot about how miserable the counteroffensive is or what great nuclear arsenal Russia has. Here is the fact, the truth not even the Kremlin can deny (albeit they will try): Russia needs help from North Korea.

Drago said...

Tully: "My primary assumption is that the drop in NYT engagement is due to a major reduction in bot accounts with boosted visibility."

The destruction of many of the lefty controlled bot accounts and closing off the ability of MS (OpenAI) and Google (Deep Mind) to scrape all of X content for their own purposes really sent our very own Dumb Lefty Mark over the Spittle-Flecked Ranting cliff.

That was just before Dumb Lefty Mark was dancing on the mythical X grave when that super-duper Zuckerburg "killer app" (wink wink) Threads was launched.

LOL

Yeah.

That chatter lasted about 2 weeks.

chuck said...

There is an active anti-Musk campaign going on, there will be a lot more of this in our immediate future. Except for noting its existence, I have an automatic "don't care" response.

Moneyrunner said...

No, Rich, the ADL’s problem is that it accuses its political opponents of Antisemitism.

Moneyrunner said...

Rich, claims that old Twitter’s moderation practices were based on “policies.” As if “policies” are developed by an unbiased, inhuman being. “Policies” untouched by human hands, human heads, human hearts or political orientation. “Policies” that banned the truth.

Mark said...

Drago, remember when Musk said they would have positive cash flow in Q2?

Now Musk claims the ADL destroyed the value of X, which is currently worth 10% of what he paid.

Smashing success for Elon!

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"Althouse, Ann Althouse’s social media platform, appears to be attempting to limit its users’ access to The Reader's Digest."

Ann, why do you hate people in uniform?

It's fascinating to see them come at Musk from every conceivable direction. And all at once. Guy should announce he's running for president. Hilarity ensues.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"Blogger WK said...
I thought the access to the New York Times was limited through their paywall."

BINGO!

Why does the NYT discriminate against the indigent?

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"And the whole thing SOUNDS like there is something!, but in reality it's just Sally Wacko"

And Rich.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"There is an active anti-Musk campaign going on, there will be a lot more of this in our immediate future."

He's their replacement for the Koch brothers.

Tim said...

It is more likely that there was a preference algorithm for the NYT, which has now been eliminated. The Old Gray Mare ain't what she used to be.....and she never was what was claimed.

rehajm said...

…besides Musk foiling the scrapers, didn’t everyone on the left announce their departure from Twitter, launching the ‘This isn’t the airport…’ meme?

So nobody there reads NYT but these twits just can’t seem to put two and two, so they blame Musk…

Two-eyed Jack said...

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of tweets were deboosted and were suddenly silenced."

Nancy Reyes said...

The problem with these papers is that, if you see the story in a tweet, and try to pull up the entire article to read the details, you get a notice you have to subscribe to them if you want to read the story.

I am retired and can't afford that.

So instead I check out a similar story on Al Jazerah, the BBC, or the UK Guardian, which do allow me access.

stlcdr said...

More conservative - normal person - tweets are available leaving NYT a lower percentage?

Gahrie said...

It's fascinating to see them come at Musk from every conceivable direction. And all at once. Guy should announce he's running for president. Hilarity ensues.

He can't. He wasn't born in the U.S.

Drago said...

Mark: "Drago, remember when Musk said they would have positive cash flow in Q2?

Now Musk claims the ADL destroyed the value of X, which is currently worth 10% of what he paid.

Smashing success for Elon!"

LOL

The long term value of X is based on alot more than just the social media interaction side of the operation and they are close to break even now.

Non debt spend is what? $1.5B? Down from $5B to $5.5B? Interest on debt around $1.5B?

So, $3B operating and debt servicing?

Sounds very manageable as the future is being built and internal ops continue to be refined.

And its still been less than a year since the acquisition!

How much was twitter losing oer year BEFORE the Musk purchase? A minimum of $3B oer year...and accelerating.

A remarkable operational turnaround...while still delivering new capabilities and restructuring the entire code!

Jack Dorsey certainly must think the long term play looks sweet since he rolled over his full 2.4% of twitter into X and has kept it there.

But what does he know, right Mark?

And so the advertising dollar spend drop off, driven primarily by angry lefties like those idiots that have destroyed the ADL as leftists destroy everything, in the near and mid-term will be a blip as X continues to be developed into a platform for a range of other apps, services and capabilities as well as integral data/information feedstock for xAI, Optimus development and who k ows what else.

But it gets even better.

Combined with DOJO compute capabilities and the switch to full video driven neural net FSD development over at Tesla, the synergistic possibilities are endless.

Quick aside: Optimus will be the original colonizing agents on Mars using the AI capabilities from all combined Musk enterprises, including the Boring Company. I wonder if Dumb Lefty Mark understands why...

...LOL. No I don't!

Dumb Lefties like Mark can't see any of that...but the smarter lefties can and they are so frightened by the level of potential and even likely Musk success that can be envisioned for a non-lefty controlled asset like Musk that they have triggered brand new Lefty hoaxes and lies across the board in order to set up and rig new "investigations" in kangaroo courts which will be used to try and strip Musk of his businesses.

Dumb Lefty Mark thinks this blippy thing at X is some sort of cosmic business "win" for the New Soviet Democraticals when he can't even see the full business landscape right in front of his face!

Which is the very reason he is a very Dumb Lefty.

Here's an FYI: Current estimated Musk net worth: $242B. A mere $71B more than the number 2.

Oh no!! Where ever will X come up with another $500M or $1B over the next 12 months to make up any short term shortfall?

All is lost! Abandon all hope! We are doomed!

LOL

And what's the latest valuation trend for Tesla and SpaceX and Starlink showing?

Something tells me Musk and his integrated operating companies vision will be just fine.

Dumb Lefty Mark on the other hand?

Well, he can always hang out over at Threads with the other 45 lefty losers who didn't have the sense to recoil from the creepy entreaties of one Mark Zuckerburg!

Drago said...

rehajm: "…besides Musk foiling the scrapers, didn’t everyone on the left announce their departure from Twitter, launching the ‘This isn’t the airport…’ meme?"

Yes.

According to Dumb Lefty Mark and the Usual Lefty Suspects, X is already long dead and its all over! Threads has already won!

You should go back and read Dumb Lefty Mark's moronic over the top praise for Zuckerburg blackmailing his instagram users into using Threads...and then the lefties abandoned Threads in just weeks because who wants to hang around a crew of Dumb Lefty Marks writing Dumb Lefty Mark things?

Apparently, not even most Dumb Lefty Marks.

That's got to feel weird!

LOL

The lefties are so angry at their own failures that they are now trying to lay their failed Forever Wars/Color Revolution/Corrupt Money Laundering "military operation" in Ukraine onto Musk.

But that latest hoax doesnt seem to be sticking. They will have to come up with something else.

Cameron said...

"Whatever you thought of old Twitter’s moderation practices, they were at least actually based on policy, and not whatever personally irked Jack Dorsey or the trust & safety team."

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH

Rich said...

The adoration of empathy-light smart kids backfired on us repeatedly. Starting in the 1960s (McNamara's whizkids) smartness has gradually replaced wisdom as our main expectation from leaders.

Rich said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

Rich: "The adoration of empathy-light smart kids..."

LOL

I can't say I'm surprised in the least with your last comment.

Respect for visionary business genius and a willingness to stand up for objective truth has nothing to do with "adoration of empathy-light smart kids".

But you're scraping the bottom of the rhetorical barrel now so its all you've got left.

Thoughts and prayers.

Rich said...

Comrade Drago: Is this parody? How could your comment even pass through Althouse’s editorial process? Have you been hacked?

Drago said...

Rich: "Comrade Drago: Is this parody? How could your comment even pass through Althouse’s editorial process? Have you been hacked?"

LOL

Now you're just repeating your comments from other threads!

Too funny.

Lets just pull the comment and response over from the other thread and then we'll just point and laugh at you!

---------

Rich: "Comrade Drago, your comments read like parody. How could this even pass through Althouse's editorial process? Has Comrade Drago been hacked?"

Very good!

Given the complete collapse of your New Soviet Democratical talking points, which was inevitable, you worked in both typical "LLR" angles in your response:
- Russia Russia Russia
- Criticism of Althouse moderation

LOL

It doesn't get any more "LLR"-y than that now, does it?