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Elon Musk: Officially a fraud and piece of shit. Official or unofficial war criminal?


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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/twitter-employees-stopped-musk-from-violating-privacy-settlement-ftc-says/

 

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Twitter employees prevented Elon Musk from violating the company's privacy settlement with the US government, according to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.

After Musk bought Twitter in late 2022, he gave Bari Weiss and other journalists access to company documents in the so-called "Twitter Files" incident. The access given to outside individuals raised concerns that Twitter (which is currently named X) violated a 2022 settlement with the FTC, which has requirements designed to prevent repeats of previous security failures.

Some of Twitter's top privacy and security executives also resigned shortly after Musk's purchase, citing concerns that Musk's rapid changes could cause violations of the settlement.

 

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FTC staff deposed former Twitter employees and "learned that the access provided to the third-party individuals turned out to be more limited than the individuals' tweets and other public reporting had indicated," Khan wrote in a letter sent today to US Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Khan's letter said the access was limited because employees refused to comply with Musk's demands:

 

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The deposition testimony revealed that in early December 2022, Elon Musk had reportedly directed staff to grant an outside third-party individual "full access to everything at Twitter... No limits at all." Consistent with Musk's direction, the individual was initially assigned a company laptop and internal account, with the intent that the third-party individual be given "elevated privileges" beyond what an average company employee might have.

However, based on a concern that such an arrangement would risk exposing nonpublic user information in potential violation of the FTC's Order, longtime information security employees at Twitter intervened and implemented safeguards to mitigate the risks. Ultimately the third-party individuals did not receive direct access to Twitter's systems, but instead worked with other company employees who accessed the systems on the individuals' behalf.

 

Spoiler

Jordan is chair of the House Judiciary Committee and has criticized the investigation, claiming that "the FTC harassed Twitter in the wake of Mr. Musk's acquisition." Khan's letter to Jordan today argues that the FTC investigation was justified.

"The FTC's investigation confirmed that staff was right to be concerned, given that Twitter's new CEO had directed employees to take actions that would have violated the FTC's Order," Khan wrote. "Once staff learned that the FTC's Order had worked to ensure that Twitter employees took appropriate measures to protect consumers' private information, compliance staff made no further inquiries to Twitter or anyone else concerning this issue."

Khan also wrote that deep staff cuts following the Musk acquisition, and resignations of Twitter's top privacy and compliance officials, meant that "there was no one left at the company responsible for interpreting and modifying data policies and practices to ensure Twitter was complying with the FTC's Order to safeguard Americans' personal data." The letter continued:

During staff's evaluation of the workforce reductions, one of the company's recently departed lead privacy and security experts testified that Twitter Blue was being implemented too quickly so that the proper "security and privacy review was not conducted in accordance with the company's process for software development." Another expert testified that he had concerns about Mr. Musk's "commitment to overall security and privacy of the organization." Twitter, meanwhile, filed a motion seeking to eliminate the FTC Order that protected the privacy and security of Americans' data. Fortunately for Twitter's millions of users, that effort failed in court.

While no violation was found in this case, the FTC isn't done investigating. When contacted by Ars, an FTC spokesperson said the agency cannot rule out bringing lawsuits against Musk's social network for violations of the settlement or US law.

"When we heard credible public reports of potential violations of protections for Twitter users' data, we moved swiftly to investigate," the FTC said in a statement today. "The order remains in place and the FTC continues to deploy the order's tools to protect Twitter users' data and ensure the company remains in compliance."

The FTC also said it is continuing attempts to depose Musk. In July 2023, Musk's X Corp. asked a federal court for an order that would terminate the settlement and prevent the FTC from deposing Musk. The court denied both requests in November. In a filing, US government lawyers said the FTC investigation had "revealed a chaotic environment at the company that raised serious questions about whether and how Musk and other leaders were ensuring X Corp.'s compliance with the 2022 Administrative Order."

We contacted X today but an auto-reply informed us that the company was busy and asked that we check back later.

 

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I’m surprised the discovery of Adrian Dittmann being one of Elon’s sock accounts is not bigger news. The fucker called into Alex Fucking Jones pretending to be someone else and now Elon’s doubling down instead of admitting the truth or saying “I was hacked” to cover up for drug fueled Tweets replying to himself. He must think the general public are as stupid as his disciples who pay for FSD but are still waiting for a finished product and won’t dare to bitch about how they’ve been hoodwinked for thousands of dollars.

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2 minutes ago, MrBig said:

He must think the general public are as stupid as his disciples who pay for FSD but are still waiting for a finished product and won’t dare to bitch about how they’ve been hoodwinked for thousands of dollars.

He's largely correct in that respect.  Stupidity is our greatest natural resource.  We may indeed have an infinite supply.

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41 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

He's largely correct in that respect.  Stupidity is our greatest natural resource.  We may indeed have an infinite supply.

The things we know are finite; the things we don’t know are infinite. This used to make me believe knowledge is unlimited and we should strive to learn more. Now when I hear this it makes me believe there’s an infinite supply of stupid idiots who are easily manipulated by rich psychotic assholes.

To most people, the shit Elon is pulling is in the far away distance, but as a resident of Austin (and Central Texas in general) I am worried about the bullshit he is doing with his wastewater disposal in the Colorado River. He is such a liar that he cannot be taken seriously and I hope there is a continuous monitoring system in place to ensure they are complying with TCEQ regulations and not just dumping utter shit into the river. 

I’m also worried about the environmental impact his boring and drilling is doing to the surrounding areas. It took nearly a decade to get the crappy Mopac toll built because of some endangered species spider caves, but Elon is free to drill as much as he wants outside of Austin with no oversight. Local residents have complained about his activities close to their land but nobody really cares to address their concerns relating to infrastructure when it comes to anything Elon Musk does. 

 

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1 hour ago, MrBig said:

The things we know are finite; the things we don’t know are infinite. This used to make me believe knowledge is unlimited and we should strive to learn more. Now when I hear this it makes me believe there’s an infinite supply of stupid idiots who are easily manipulated by rich psychotic assholes.

To most people, the shit Elon is pulling is in the far away distance, but as a resident of Austin (and Central Texas in general) I am worried about the bullshit he is doing with his wastewater disposal in the Colorado River. He is such a liar that he cannot be taken seriously and I hope there is a continuous monitoring system in place to ensure they are complying with TCEQ regulations and not just dumping utter shit into the river. 

I’m also worried about the environmental impact his boring and drilling is doing to the surrounding areas. It took nearly a decade to get the crappy Mopac toll built because of some endangered species spider caves, but Elon is free to drill as much as he wants outside of Austin with no oversight. Local residents have complained about his activities close to their land but nobody really cares to address their concerns relating to infrastructure when it comes to anything Elon Musk does. 

 

Oh, you're right to suspect that laws and regulations mean jack shit to Elon.  He is the embodiment of Wilhoit's law:

"There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

Elon is most-favored by the local powers-that-be.  He is protected by the law.  He is not bound by it.

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2 hours ago, MrBig said:

The things we know are finite; the things we don’t know are infinite. This used to make me believe knowledge is unlimited and we should strive to learn more. Now when I hear this it makes me believe there’s an infinite supply of stupid idiots who are easily manipulated by rich psychotic assholes.

To most people, the shit Elon is pulling is in the far away distance, but as a resident of Austin (and Central Texas in general) I am worried about the bullshit he is doing with his wastewater disposal in the Colorado River. He is such a liar that he cannot be taken seriously and I hope there is a continuous monitoring system in place to ensure they are complying with TCEQ regulations and not just dumping utter shit into the river. 

I’m also worried about the environmental impact his boring and drilling is doing to the surrounding areas. It took nearly a decade to get the crappy Mopac toll built because of some endangered species spider caves, but Elon is free to drill as much as he wants outside of Austin with no oversight. Local residents have complained about his activities close to their land but nobody really cares to address their concerns relating to infrastructure when it comes to anything Elon Musk does. 

 

100% to all of what you said. He's probably doing some fucked up shit down on the Laguna Madre with Space X as well.

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On 2/21/2024 at 6:05 PM, safe sex said:

And he very much has the attitude that what he's doing is going to change the world so the consequences don't matter

Yeah and his version of saving the world is even shittier than the ending of True Detective’s.  

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5 hours ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Imagine being one of the most powerful people on the planet and becoming a useful idiot for a disingenuous political culture war. 

The Google election stuff is not culture war BS. Our wealthiest plutocrat, a key defense and tech contractor, is setting the stage to prod along a constitutional crisis and the installation of a non-elected leader. 

Edited by 956 Worldwide
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14 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:


and he’s been posting all kinds of rants about Google, and is back in Qanon territory

 

In his (very) limited defense, google does suck. I've been experimenting with a search engine called Kagi. It's ad-free so requires a sub. but it's lightning fast and highly customizable. Trial plan offers 100 free searches. If you don't mind being the customer rather than the product (paying less than $5 per month compared to giving your value to google or bing or duckduckgo) I encourage anyone to check it out.

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On 2/23/2024 at 5:34 PM, Chopper said:

In his (very) limited defense, google does suck. I've been experimenting with a search engine called Kagi. It's ad-free so requires a sub. but it's lightning fast and highly customizable. Trial plan offers 100 free searches. If you don't mind being the customer rather than the product (paying less than $5 per month compared to giving your value to google or bing or duckduckgo) I encourage anyone to check it out.

I really need to give kagi a go. Keep seeing it get wildly positive reviews over at HN

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On 2/21/2024 at 4:47 PM, MrBig said:

I’m surprised the discovery of Adrian Dittmann being one of Elon’s sock accounts is not bigger news. The fucker called into Alex Fucking Jones pretending to be someone else and now Elon’s doubling down instead of admitting the truth or saying “I was hacked” to cover up for drug fueled Tweets replying to himself. He must think the general public are as stupid as his disciples who pay for FSD but are still waiting for a finished product and won’t dare to bitch about how they’ve been hoodwinked for thousands of dollars.

Elon has learned over and over again that there are no consequences for him, so why would this be any different? 

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5 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Elon has learned over and over again that there are no consequences for him, so why would this be any different? 

Somehow this went viral. Tesla ordered $6k worth of stuff from a small bakery then didn't pick up the items and refused to pay. Offered the bakery owner a factory tour instead. Once it went viral, Elmo said he'd pay it. But will he?

image.png.a39260a3cbd28613b8f3530d56a2adc5.png

 

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So, Elon bought a laptop today, and he's puzzled over Microsoft's terms of use when setting up a new device:
 
 
So, he started to use Twitter as tech support, and says he reached out to the CEO of Microsoft:
 
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Wait…so it’s ok when his platform mines all kinds of shit and applies arbitrary moderation, boosting, and banning. And his cars? They require you to place your left nut in a vise to activate any number of features, like “starting the engine,” and “stopping.” But when the Microsoft suite requires you to set up a Microsoft account, that’s a bridge too far.

Remember the only rule for plutocrats: rules for thee, not me.
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10 minutes ago, Clintonaldo said:

Who predicted this????? Oh yeah, me along with a lot of you. He doesn’t need any government clearance. 
 

https://news.yahoo.com/tech/chinas-master-plan-crush-elon-112201103.html

LMAO from that article 

"The thought that Chinese-quality engineering and design are not as high quality as the legacy carmakers — that should be put to bed," Tu Le, the founder of Sino Auto Insights, a consultancy focusing on the Chinese EV market, told me. "Right now, the legacies don't have competitive products. There's a vacuum. If China EV Inc. were allowed to enter the US today or next year, the legacies would be gutted."

We are witnessing a shock to the global automotive order unseen since Japan barreled into the market in the 1970s. China's EV ascendance has sparked a fight that is forcing companies to stretch the limits of their technological capability and policymakers to reimagine the ideological underpinnings of decades of trade strategy. What's at stake is nothing less than a US industry worth $104 billion, about as much as Angola's national GDP, and all the 3 million jobs that come with it.

"It's a global game. It has been a global game," Le said. "Motherfuckers just haven't been paying attention."

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3 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

LMAO from that article 

"The thought that Chinese-quality engineering and design are not as high quality as the legacy carmakers — that should be put to bed," Tu Le, the founder of Sino Auto Insights, a consultancy focusing on the Chinese EV market, told me. "Right now, the legacies don't have competitive products. There's a vacuum. If China EV Inc. were allowed to enter the US today or next year, the legacies would be gutted."

We are witnessing a shock to the global automotive order unseen since Japan barreled into the market in the 1970s. China's EV ascendance has sparked a fight that is forcing companies to stretch the limits of their technological capability and policymakers to reimagine the ideological underpinnings of decades of trade strategy. What's at stake is nothing less than a US industry worth $104 billion, about as much as Angola's national GDP, and all the 3 million jobs that come with it.

"It's a global game. It has been a global game," Le said. "Motherfuckers just haven't been paying attention."

How about "Hey, you haven't been paying attention that we're not going to buy your stupid EV cars because they're just rolling ChiCom personal data collection machines"?

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1 hour ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Boston Dynamics already selling these to many, many large customers from many industries.  The smoothness of stairs is crazy. The value is immense. They are "only" $75,000 base which when you think of what they are doing is really cheap.

 

That's not bad for a quadruped.

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47 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

"The thought that Chinese-quality engineering and design are not as high quality as the legacy carmakers — that should be put to bed," Tu Le, the founder of Sino Auto Insights, a consultancy focusing on the Chinese EV market, told me. "Right now, the legacies don't have competitive products. There's a vacuum. If China EV Inc. were allowed to enter the US today or next year, the legacies would be gutted."

"It's a global game. It has been a global game," Le said. "Motherfuckers just haven't been paying attention."

CNN needs to up their reporting, since clearly, motherfuckers just haven’t been paying attention.

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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:


They require you to place your left nut in a vise

Jokes on you and Elon. I don't have that accessory.

1 hour ago, Hank Kingsley said:

LMAO from that article ...

..."It's a global game. It has been a global game," Le said. "Motherfuckers just haven't been paying attention."

I've been saying this for a looong time. China has invested a lot of money into their science/tech infrastructure (not going to touch upon info theft) and the U.S. has been coasting and cutting for decades. Chickens roosting yada yada....

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