1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 2 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:14,400 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:17,080 Speaker 1: Johnathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:19,959 Speaker 1: and how the Tech are You? You know, tech Stuff 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:24,960 Speaker 1: has a long history with Twitter. Way back when I 6 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:27,800 Speaker 1: was a writer for how Stuff works dot com, I 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: became one of the first employees to establish a Twitter account, 8 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:35,280 Speaker 1: and I would use that account to share articles I 9 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:37,840 Speaker 1: had written, as well as you know, make goofy jokes 10 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:40,960 Speaker 1: and share photos of pets and tacos and that kind 11 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:43,839 Speaker 1: of thing. And my use of Twitter actually got me 12 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 1: an award at work because I had found a new 13 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:51,559 Speaker 1: form of outreach. I didn't set out to win an award. 14 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,120 Speaker 1: This just kind of happened because I was just using Twitter, 15 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 1: and I honestly was really worried because the thing I 16 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 1: was doing on my own for funzies is likely to 17 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:04,120 Speaker 1: become a mandated part of our work, which meant my 18 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,800 Speaker 1: co workers who had no interest in creating Twitter accounts 19 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:10,240 Speaker 1: might find that they were obligated to. So whoop. See, 20 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: this is why we can't have nice things now. When 21 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:17,680 Speaker 1: we launched the podcast text Stuff, Twitter was front of mind. 22 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: We actually did an episode about Twitter on our twelfth episode. Ever, 23 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:25,919 Speaker 1: this was back when Chris Palette was my co host, 24 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: and then six years after that, Lauren Vogelbaum and I 25 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: would do an episode called The Twitter Story back in 26 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:37,560 Speaker 1: the early Feen, I should add, and this was back 27 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: when she was my co host. But a lot has 28 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:43,960 Speaker 1: happened since two thousand fourteen, not the least of which 29 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,000 Speaker 1: is the ongoing drama between Elon Musk and Twitter, which 30 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,920 Speaker 1: we will get to. I mean, for one thing, now, 31 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,640 Speaker 1: I have no co host, so today I thought we'd 32 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,120 Speaker 1: do an update on what's been going on now. I'm 33 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:59,160 Speaker 1: also gonna do a rundown of the early history of Twitter, 34 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 1: so that way you don't have to seek out those 35 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: older episodes if you don't want to. However, I want 36 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: to say I'm not gonna go over everything we covered 37 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: in those previous episodes. I'm gonna hit kind of the 38 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,120 Speaker 1: highlights at Twitter. But if you want to learn more, 39 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 1: including some of the pivotal moments in history that Twitter 40 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:20,120 Speaker 1: played a part in, I recommend going back through the 41 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: archives and checking out those episodes, particularly The Twitter Story, 42 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 1: which published I think maybe February four Okay, once upon 43 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: a time, you had a fellow by the name of 44 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,000 Speaker 1: Noah Glass who built a tool that would let you 45 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:40,120 Speaker 1: convert a phone message into an MP three file, and 46 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:42,560 Speaker 1: you could host that MP three file on a service 47 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:45,360 Speaker 1: on the Internet. And this was the core focus of 48 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:48,560 Speaker 1: a company that was called Odeo o d e O. 49 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:52,400 Speaker 1: Odio brought on a guy named Evan Williams to become 50 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:56,359 Speaker 1: the CEO. Williams had co founded Blogger, so he already 51 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: had a winning record in startups, if by winning record 52 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: you mean creating a tool that would later get bought 53 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:05,280 Speaker 1: by Google and being a little snarky. But Blogger is 54 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:07,600 Speaker 1: actually still around today. It's one of the few things 55 00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:11,240 Speaker 1: Google purchased that it did not subsequently shut down just 56 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: a few years later. In fact, I don't really have 57 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: it in this episode, but Google did purchase a Twitter 58 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:21,919 Speaker 1: like service called Jaku and then subsequently shut that down, 59 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: so that happens a lot anyway. Evan Williams brought over 60 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: biz Stone from Google to join Odio, and another person 61 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:34,680 Speaker 1: who was working at Odeo as a web developer was 62 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 1: named Jack Dorsey. And obviously these folks would become very 63 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:42,680 Speaker 1: important in the history of Twitter. One of the company's 64 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: first big projects was to build out a podcasting platform. 65 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: So podcasting at this time was still a pretty young 66 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: art form, and the leaders at Odeo saw an opportunity 67 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: to become kind of the dominant podcasting platform in the space, 68 00:03:56,280 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: to allow people to discover and subscribe to podcast easily, 69 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: and they launched their platform, and then shortly after, Apple 70 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: launched its own podcast section in iTunes, and that was 71 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:13,720 Speaker 1: pretty much curtains for Odio's product. Apple already had incredible reach, 72 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: I bought owners were reliant on iTunes in order to 73 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:20,200 Speaker 1: add new content to their devices, and so incorporating a 74 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:24,040 Speaker 1: podcast subscription feature into iTunes kind of shut the door 75 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:27,640 Speaker 1: down on everybody else at that time. I mean, we 76 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:33,159 Speaker 1: do call them podcasts after all. Odios podcast platform, technically 77 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:37,240 Speaker 1: launched ahead of iTunes, went live earlier in two thousand five. 78 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: But even after Odio flipped the switched on, there was 79 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: a big problem because no one was using Odio, Not 80 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: even Odio employees were using it. They had built a tool, 81 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 1: but they hadn't convinced anyone that the tool was, you know, 82 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: worth using. Jack Dorsey meanwhile, was contemplating a different course altogether. 83 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: Dorsey thought it might be interesting to create a service 84 00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: that would let people post status updates in real time, 85 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:03,760 Speaker 1: sort of like a very stripped down social media platform, 86 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: one where you could just post your stats update and 87 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 1: push it out to folks in your social circle, like 88 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:13,400 Speaker 1: the people in your contact list. For example. Maybe for 89 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:15,520 Speaker 1: you might be thinking about you want to go bowling, 90 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:17,039 Speaker 1: and you want to see if any of your friends 91 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:19,400 Speaker 1: are down, so you could send out a what would 92 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: be more or less a group text message using the service, 93 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 1: saying going bowling, want to join, and then waiting to 94 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: see if anyone responds. Now, according to Dorsey, he had 95 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:31,479 Speaker 1: actually been mulling this over for several years already. He 96 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 1: wanted a tool that would let folks update their status 97 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:37,680 Speaker 1: in real time using a mobile device. Now, remember this 98 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:41,800 Speaker 1: was before iPhones and therefore before the smartphone phenomenon, at 99 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 1: least among the mainstream. Back in the early to mid 100 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 1: two thousand's, most devices that would qualify as a smartphone 101 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 1: were in the hands of executives and maybe a few 102 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:54,000 Speaker 1: curious early adopters, and they looked, you know, more like 103 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:58,839 Speaker 1: the old BlackBerry. Phones often had physical keyboards. Dorsey wanted 104 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: to create something that would work with simple cell phones 105 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:05,280 Speaker 1: because that's what most people had. Dorsey eventually teamed up 106 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,240 Speaker 1: with Noah Glass and they brought in a contract developer 107 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:11,679 Speaker 1: named Florian Webber, and together they fleshed out this idea 108 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:15,440 Speaker 1: and began to build what would become Twitter. You would 109 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:18,520 Speaker 1: have the platform that would support status updates. You could 110 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:22,200 Speaker 1: follow folks that you knew, so you could essentially subscribe 111 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:24,880 Speaker 1: to them and then keep up with what was going 112 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:27,040 Speaker 1: on in their lives. So when they posted an update, 113 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:29,799 Speaker 1: you could get an alert. You can get a text 114 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:33,240 Speaker 1: message telling you about that update that actually has the 115 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:37,080 Speaker 1: update in it. You could still text person to person obviously, 116 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: but this would let folks communicate one too many, not 117 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:45,000 Speaker 1: just one to one. So the team presented the idea 118 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: to Odio's leadership and and this was in two thousand six, 119 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: and originally they were going to call it Twitter with 120 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:56,240 Speaker 1: no vowels so t W T t r UH, and 121 00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:58,560 Speaker 1: they got a tentative go ahead from Odeo, which was 122 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:02,480 Speaker 1: mostly in crisis mode over its primary product not going anywhere. 123 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:06,159 Speaker 1: On March twenty one, two thousand six, Jack Dorsey would 124 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:09,200 Speaker 1: send the first message on Twitter, and just like with 125 00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:12,480 Speaker 1: the first video of YouTube, the actual historical first is 126 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:16,760 Speaker 1: a bit underwhelming, He wrote, quote, just setting up my 127 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: Twitter again t W T t R. Now a quick 128 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:23,800 Speaker 1: reminder for folks who may have forgotten. Way back in 129 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 1: the earliest days of Twitter, there was a one hundred 130 00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:31,200 Speaker 1: forty character limit on messages. And you might wonder why. Well, 131 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 1: the whole service was built on top of the SMS 132 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,560 Speaker 1: texting service, and SMS could only carry messages of up 133 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:41,400 Speaker 1: to one hundred sixty characters in length. Twitter allowed just 134 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:44,600 Speaker 1: a hundred forty because it would reserve twenty characters for 135 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:48,040 Speaker 1: user handles and that kind of thing. Using SMS was 136 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 1: important for Twitter because all the work building out the 137 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:54,600 Speaker 1: technology to actually make texting possible had already been done. 138 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: Twitter didn't have to invent that it existed. Twitter's technology 139 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:01,920 Speaker 1: could be on top of that foundation. Twitter would go 140 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: on to build both a web based interface and also 141 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 1: allow users to interact with Twitter purely through texting on 142 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:11,720 Speaker 1: their cell phones. This would also mean that early Twitter users, 143 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:14,600 Speaker 1: depending on how they enabled Twitter and how they used it, 144 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: would have to keep in mind that they could get 145 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:20,120 Speaker 1: charged for texting due to Twitter activity. Uh and it's 146 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:22,000 Speaker 1: not so much the case today, but back in the day, 147 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:27,240 Speaker 1: like cell phone companies, carriers would find lots of creative 148 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:31,680 Speaker 1: ways to charge you, including if you used too many 149 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:35,120 Speaker 1: messages in a month. In July of two thousand six, 150 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 1: Twitter again still t w t t R, launched sort of. 151 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 1: It was a pretty small launch and that most of 152 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: the users were either Odio people or Silicon Valley folks 153 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: like investors and people who worked at other tech companies. 154 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:53,720 Speaker 1: In September of two thousand and six, Evan Williams would 155 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:57,960 Speaker 1: buy back the stake that various investors had in Odio. 156 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:01,000 Speaker 1: So Williams was saying that Odio's podcast platform was a 157 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:04,640 Speaker 1: bust and that very few people, maybe around five thousand, 158 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:08,440 Speaker 1: had even registered with Twitter. So he was saying, rather 159 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 1: than have your investment become a loss, I will buy 160 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:17,080 Speaker 1: back your investment now. Later speculation suggested that Williams could 161 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 1: see where Twitter was going, and so he wanted to 162 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:22,720 Speaker 1: get ahead of it in order to really profit off 163 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:25,080 Speaker 1: of it. Like he would spend the money now to 164 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:28,480 Speaker 1: buy back these investments, but then once Twitter took off, 165 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:31,080 Speaker 1: he would really be making bank. Now. I don't know 166 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,000 Speaker 1: about that. It's possible, but then nothing in tech is 167 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:37,079 Speaker 1: a sure bet, and that sounds like a really hefty 168 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:39,480 Speaker 1: gamble to me, but it might have been the case, 169 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:41,800 Speaker 1: and if it was a gamble, it did pay off. 170 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: Around this time, Noah Glass got fired from Odio. Now 171 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:50,760 Speaker 1: apparently Glass and Evan Williams had opposing personalities, and Glass 172 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:53,120 Speaker 1: would later say that he had actually been planning to 173 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:57,559 Speaker 1: spend Twitter off from Odio and then lead Twitter himself. 174 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:01,240 Speaker 1: That obviously never happened. Instead, Video changed its name to 175 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:06,360 Speaker 1: Obvious Corporation and it prepped for two thousand seven. That's 176 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: when the platform made a big appearance at south By Southwest. 177 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:14,560 Speaker 1: That's obviously this this huge event that happens in Austin, Texas, 178 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:20,840 Speaker 1: and if it revolves around three major topics. There's music, 179 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 1: so all these different bands from around the world come 180 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 1: to Austin and play shows. There's movies, so you've got 181 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:32,160 Speaker 1: lots of studios and independent filmmakers showing films at south 182 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:36,640 Speaker 1: By Southwest. And then there's interactive or technology, and that's 183 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:40,640 Speaker 1: what you know Obvious Court was going to. And so 184 00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:43,880 Speaker 1: Twitter made an appearance and it won an award and 185 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:46,440 Speaker 1: got a lot more coverage. So while the service had 186 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:49,240 Speaker 1: been up for a little less than a year, you 187 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:51,840 Speaker 1: could argue that March two thousand seven was the real 188 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:54,160 Speaker 1: starting point for Twitter, because it was at south By 189 00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:57,920 Speaker 1: Southwest that the tech world in general really latched onto 190 00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:01,280 Speaker 1: it and it began to grow rap and a month later, 191 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:06,560 Speaker 1: Obvious Corporations spun off Twitter as a standalone company. Dorsey 192 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:10,480 Speaker 1: would end up serving as CEO of Twitter and Evan 193 00:11:10,559 --> 00:11:13,400 Speaker 1: Williams would be Chairman of the board. Twitter would go 194 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:16,559 Speaker 1: on to raise nearly six million dollars in initial funding 195 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:20,560 Speaker 1: with investors, and for many many years, Twitter, getting a 196 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:24,000 Speaker 1: fresh influx of investor cash would be how the company 197 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:27,679 Speaker 1: would stay in business. It actually became something of a 198 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:30,680 Speaker 1: running joke that Twitter would be a tool that everyone wanted, 199 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:33,839 Speaker 1: everyone used, but it had no real way to make 200 00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:36,520 Speaker 1: any money. So the only way it could stay in 201 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:39,240 Speaker 1: business is if it asked investors to pour more cash 202 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:42,120 Speaker 1: into it. Something else that would become a running joke 203 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:45,800 Speaker 1: with Twitter for a few years anyway, involved its web interface, 204 00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:48,200 Speaker 1: so this was still kind of coming together in two 205 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:50,760 Speaker 1: thousand seven and two thousand eight. But the web interface 206 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:53,880 Speaker 1: would let you scroll through tweets and post new tweets 207 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:56,319 Speaker 1: without having to use your phone. You could navigate to 208 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:58,120 Speaker 1: the web page into it. You can still do that today. 209 00:11:58,160 --> 00:12:00,200 Speaker 1: In fact, a lot of people do how of her. 210 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:04,200 Speaker 1: Twitter was really growing very quickly, and sometimes stuff broke, 211 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,720 Speaker 1: particularly during you know, busy moments, like if there was 212 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:09,840 Speaker 1: a big cultural event that a lot of people were 213 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 1: reacting to that could really tax Twitter's servers, and when 214 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 1: that happened, web users would frequently encounter an error page 215 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 1: that had a cartoon whale on it. It was a 216 00:12:20,559 --> 00:12:23,120 Speaker 1: cartoon whale being lifted into the air by a bunch 217 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:25,800 Speaker 1: of little birds. It was artwork that was created by 218 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:29,440 Speaker 1: an artist named ye Inglu for a stock art site. 219 00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:32,000 Speaker 1: Lou had originally created the image for a birthday card, 220 00:12:32,400 --> 00:12:36,040 Speaker 1: and she called the image lifting a dreamer. But on 221 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:39,680 Speaker 1: Twitter this image had a different name. It became known 222 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:42,520 Speaker 1: as the fail Whale, and back in the old days, 223 00:12:42,559 --> 00:12:44,839 Speaker 1: he saw it fairly frequently if you were an avid 224 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:48,000 Speaker 1: Twitter user. If you're not familiar with the fail Whale, 225 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: chances are your experience with Twitter started after the year 226 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:54,679 Speaker 1: two thousand and thirteen, because that's when Twitter finally discontinued 227 00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:58,960 Speaker 1: the use of the image. In October two thousand eight, 228 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:02,200 Speaker 1: Jack Dorsey would stepped down as CEO of Twitter for 229 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:06,000 Speaker 1: the first time, but not the last time. Evan Williams 230 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:08,680 Speaker 1: became the new CEO and Dorsey became the new chairman 231 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:10,520 Speaker 1: of the board, which meant that the two of them 232 00:13:10,559 --> 00:13:14,960 Speaker 1: just did the old switchero. Apparently working for Dorsey could 233 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:19,200 Speaker 1: be a bit challenging, according from insider reports on Twitter, 234 00:13:19,679 --> 00:13:22,480 Speaker 1: so there appeared to be an impetus for this change. 235 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:26,440 Speaker 1: In January two thousand nine, Twitter would make world headlines 236 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:30,320 Speaker 1: because a tweet actually broke a news story before any 237 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:32,720 Speaker 1: major media outlet could do it, and that news story 238 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: was the crash landing of US Airways Flight fifty nine 239 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,959 Speaker 1: into the Hudson River. The plane had collided with a 240 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:43,280 Speaker 1: flock of birds shortly after it took off from LaGuardia Airport, 241 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:48,440 Speaker 1: and pilots Jeffrey Skiles and Chesley Sully Sullenberg glided the 242 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:52,280 Speaker 1: plane into the Hudson. All passengers and crew survived. A 243 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:55,920 Speaker 1: few folks received some serious injuries, but other than that, uh, 244 00:13:55,960 --> 00:14:00,360 Speaker 1: it was remarkably safe, and the message on Twitter got 245 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,040 Speaker 1: boosted and seen before any official news outlets could get 246 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:05,680 Speaker 1: word out, and it became obvious that Twitter could play 247 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:08,959 Speaker 1: a critical role in covering important events in real time, 248 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:11,800 Speaker 1: not just an app that let you say what you 249 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:15,200 Speaker 1: were having for lunch. Okay, we're gonna take a quick 250 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:24,600 Speaker 1: break here. When we come back, we will continue Twitter's history. 251 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,720 Speaker 1: We're back. So in two thousand nine, Jack Dorsey co 252 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:35,040 Speaker 1: founded another company, and this company is a payment processing service, 253 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:37,760 Speaker 1: with the big selling point at the time being that 254 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:41,080 Speaker 1: you could get an attachment for a mobile device that 255 00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:45,680 Speaker 1: would let you swipe credit cards and process the fees 256 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:49,440 Speaker 1: right there, which drastically reduced the infrastructure you needed in 257 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:51,800 Speaker 1: order to have a point of sale that could accept 258 00:14:51,840 --> 00:14:55,920 Speaker 1: credit cards. So this is when suddenly merchants who would 259 00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:58,360 Speaker 1: go to like festivals and stuff would be able to 260 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:01,840 Speaker 1: easily accept credit cards because using a mobile device that's 261 00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:06,160 Speaker 1: connected to the cellular network, using this add on and 262 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:09,960 Speaker 1: then swiping a card, they could actually process payments without 263 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,720 Speaker 1: having to get the old carbon copy stuff out. That 264 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:16,880 Speaker 1: company is of course named Square, and while it's not 265 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:20,200 Speaker 1: directly tied to Twitter, Square would have a huge impact 266 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:25,280 Speaker 1: on Twitter's history. Later on, in October, Evan Williams would 267 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 1: step down as CEO to focus on product strategy, and 268 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:34,080 Speaker 1: former CEO of Twitter, Dick Costello would take over and 269 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:41,200 Speaker 1: remain CEO until now. In Twitter would launch Vine, which 270 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:44,000 Speaker 1: is a short form video app, or was a short 271 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,920 Speaker 1: form video app. They'll let users post videos that were 272 00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:51,840 Speaker 1: just six seconds long. And you know, their original intent 273 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:54,680 Speaker 1: was just to create a video version of a tweet, 274 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 1: like something that's very short and very timely that you 275 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:02,520 Speaker 1: could then share online. However, people took to Vine in 276 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:06,240 Speaker 1: order to build stories and very short films and making 277 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:10,920 Speaker 1: a really good Vine became a real art form and 278 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:13,880 Speaker 1: and a lot of people use it for storytelling or 279 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,560 Speaker 1: more accurately, joke telling. And Vine would stick around for 280 00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:19,960 Speaker 1: a few years, but Twitter would ultimately shut it down 281 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:24,600 Speaker 1: in and I'll talk about why that happened and a 282 00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:30,480 Speaker 1: little bit. In November, Twitter held its initial public offering 283 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:32,560 Speaker 1: or i p O. Now, in case you're not familiar 284 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: with that term, that's when a privately held company transitions 285 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:41,000 Speaker 1: into becoming a publicly traded company with shares trading on 286 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:44,320 Speaker 1: a stock market somewhere. This lets anyone who has the 287 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 1: cash become an investor by buying up a share or 288 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:51,760 Speaker 1: maybe a few shares or maybe a few thousand shares 289 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,360 Speaker 1: before the stock market opened. The offer price was to 290 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:57,800 Speaker 1: be around twenty six dollars per share, so part of 291 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:00,080 Speaker 1: the process of the I p O is that a 292 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:03,720 Speaker 1: company has to kind of figure out what they think 293 00:17:04,320 --> 00:17:07,879 Speaker 1: a share price is worth. And this is supposed to 294 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:09,719 Speaker 1: be based upon the value of the company, and you're 295 00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:12,000 Speaker 1: supposed to take all these different things into account. There's 296 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:15,600 Speaker 1: a very long process for doing it. So in Twitter's case, 297 00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:19,840 Speaker 1: they thought this merit's a twenty six dollar price for 298 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:24,040 Speaker 1: a share of stock of Twitter. Instead, due to intense 299 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:28,919 Speaker 1: interest in the market, when sales opened up, those shares 300 00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:32,480 Speaker 1: were moving at forty five dollars per share. At the 301 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:34,800 Speaker 1: end of the day, it closed just slightly lower than that, 302 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:38,160 Speaker 1: at forty four dollars ninety cents per share, and still 303 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:41,560 Speaker 1: much higher than twenty six bucks. Right now, if you're curious, 304 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:44,879 Speaker 1: the day I'm recording this episode, Twitter is currently trading 305 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:48,960 Speaker 1: in around thirty three dollars and fifty cents to thirty 306 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:51,359 Speaker 1: three dollars and sixty cents per share, somewhere around in 307 00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:54,359 Speaker 1: that range. So still higher than what the opening offer 308 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:57,040 Speaker 1: price was going to be, but lower than what the 309 00:17:57,080 --> 00:17:59,840 Speaker 1: actual price of Twitter stock was for that first day 310 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:03,760 Speaker 1: of trading. Not Over time, Twitter's stock price would grow 311 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:07,520 Speaker 1: um not steadily. There were times where it would dip 312 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:09,280 Speaker 1: a bit and then it would grow a bit. It 313 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:12,399 Speaker 1: hit a high, but not an all time high, in 314 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:15,280 Speaker 1: December of two thousand thirteen, when it closed at a 315 00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: price of seventy three dollars and thirty one cents per share. 316 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:24,800 Speaker 1: Really amazing, Like when you consider that's one month after 317 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:30,439 Speaker 1: it started trading, that's phenomenal. However, in February two thousand 318 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:34,199 Speaker 1: and fourteen, Twitter reported that its growth had slowed, with 319 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:39,800 Speaker 1: an increase of just five additional users. So the way 320 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,879 Speaker 1: that these metrics work, it's not just that you have 321 00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:45,800 Speaker 1: to keep growing in order to be perceived as valuable. 322 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:50,080 Speaker 1: You need to be growing at an increasingly faster rate 323 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:54,440 Speaker 1: for the market to consider your company as still being valuable. 324 00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:58,480 Speaker 1: When your growth begins to slow, investors get nervous because 325 00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:00,640 Speaker 1: they're worried that's just a matter of time before that 326 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:04,400 Speaker 1: growth number levels out and then begins to be a 327 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:08,160 Speaker 1: lost number instead of a growth number. So you never 328 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:11,600 Speaker 1: want to see the growth rate decrease. At best, you 329 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:14,000 Speaker 1: want to level it out, but you don't want to 330 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:17,760 Speaker 1: see it go down from one year to the next anyway. 331 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:21,280 Speaker 1: The stock price began to decline starting around early two 332 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:25,199 Speaker 1: thousand fourteen, and by May fourteen, it was down to 333 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:29,439 Speaker 1: thirty dollars fifty cents per share, less than half of 334 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:32,800 Speaker 1: what it had been at its earlier peak. But then 335 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:35,440 Speaker 1: two years later, on May twenty six, two thousand sixteen, 336 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:38,480 Speaker 1: it would be all the way down to fourteen dollars 337 00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:43,000 Speaker 1: and three cents per share. Yikes, um, and a lot 338 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:45,280 Speaker 1: of stuff was going on to make this happen. Right, 339 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:50,080 Speaker 1: The stock price was reacting to lots of investor worries. 340 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:54,640 Speaker 1: Whenever Twitter would say that they hadn't met their revenue goals, 341 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:58,760 Speaker 1: or that their growth rate was lower than expected, or 342 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:04,240 Speaker 1: that user engage it wasn't on the incline, then you 343 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:07,879 Speaker 1: would see a loss of investor confidence and ultimately a 344 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:12,440 Speaker 1: drop in share price. Now, over time, that price would recover. 345 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:15,400 Speaker 1: It was in the teams for a really long time, 346 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:17,560 Speaker 1: but eventually it would grow back into the twenty and 347 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,639 Speaker 1: thirty dollar range and then higher. So by two thousand eighteen, 348 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:23,520 Speaker 1: the price would still be fluctuating, but generally was on 349 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:25,919 Speaker 1: a path of growth, and by March first, two thousand 350 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:29,000 Speaker 1: twenty one, the price hit its all time high of 351 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:34,800 Speaker 1: seventy seven dollars sixty three cents per share. All right, um, 352 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,000 Speaker 1: we're now past the point where the old Twitter Story 353 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:40,920 Speaker 1: podcast left off, because, like I said, we recorded that 354 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,919 Speaker 1: in the winter often like the early winter. February I 355 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:48,840 Speaker 1: think is when we recorded it. So let's talk about 356 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:54,040 Speaker 1: stuff that happened after February fourteen. If we go to 357 00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:58,359 Speaker 1: the end of that year, December, Twitter released some anti 358 00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:01,760 Speaker 1: harassment tools, so it was bowing to pressure to do 359 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:06,040 Speaker 1: something about the intense abuse some users were receiving for 360 00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:09,000 Speaker 1: having the audacity to do radical things like being a 361 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,639 Speaker 1: woman or you know, having an opinion that was different 362 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:15,200 Speaker 1: from other people. I'm being more than a little snarky here, 363 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,800 Speaker 1: but we have to remember, Okay. August of two thousand 364 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,800 Speaker 1: fourteen was when we had the beginning of gamer gait, 365 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:27,160 Speaker 1: which was a truly awful campaign in which angry people, 366 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:32,359 Speaker 1: mostly men and mostly straight, began to target mostly women 367 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:36,960 Speaker 1: in the video games industry. Now not exclusively, there were 368 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,480 Speaker 1: other people who were targeted to the way this was 369 00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:43,040 Speaker 1: framed was that it was a crusade to weed out 370 00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:49,000 Speaker 1: corruption and misinformation in the video game industry and video 371 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,160 Speaker 1: game journalism, the idea being that video game reviewers were 372 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:57,160 Speaker 1: frequently compensated in some way or had some vested interest 373 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,800 Speaker 1: in how games were doing, and that that was guiding 374 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:05,320 Speaker 1: their their what they would write about games. Like in 375 00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:07,879 Speaker 1: some cases it was just that someone didn't like a 376 00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:12,800 Speaker 1: game that you know, the rabid fan base absolutely loved, 377 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:17,640 Speaker 1: and that that was akin to committing treason, and so 378 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:21,919 Speaker 1: this rabid group of fans would want to punish the 379 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:24,960 Speaker 1: person who wrote something critical about a game they loved. 380 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:28,520 Speaker 1: So again, a lot of the people who are targeted 381 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:30,640 Speaker 1: in gamer Gate were women, and some of those women 382 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,160 Speaker 1: were journalists who covered video games. Some of the women 383 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:37,080 Speaker 1: were developers in the space or publishers, and the gamer 384 00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:40,639 Speaker 1: Gate jerks would use all sorts of abusive tactics, including 385 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:44,680 Speaker 1: but not limited to, dockx ing and swatting their targets. 386 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:47,359 Speaker 1: So dockx ing is when you reveal a person's personal 387 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:51,439 Speaker 1: information online, so it's someone else like someone else's info, 388 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:55,920 Speaker 1: and you're sharing it online. Swatting is when you use 389 00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:00,840 Speaker 1: personal information to call in a police act and on 390 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:05,320 Speaker 1: a target. So you would give your targets home address 391 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:09,520 Speaker 1: and say that there was something really like critically dangerous 392 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:12,040 Speaker 1: going on there in order to get police to send, 393 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:15,480 Speaker 1: you know, people, perhaps even a whole swat team to 394 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:17,880 Speaker 1: go and check in on that target, and it's all 395 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:21,080 Speaker 1: in an effort to harass, terrorize, or otherwise disrupt the 396 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:26,240 Speaker 1: target's life. So this was happening with gamer Gate a lot. 397 00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:30,840 Speaker 1: And while the supposed reason for gamer Gate was to 398 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:35,680 Speaker 1: try and uh and hold the video game industry accountable, 399 00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:40,600 Speaker 1: what it really was about was these these people who 400 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:44,320 Speaker 1: were who felt ownership over an industry that they did 401 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:49,040 Speaker 1: not own, and having an ax to grind against anyone 402 00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:53,439 Speaker 1: who had a different opinion than themselves and using whatever 403 00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:58,800 Speaker 1: tactics they could to make that person's life miserable. So, uh, 404 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:00,560 Speaker 1: I know there are people out there still to this 405 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:03,639 Speaker 1: day who will argue that that's not really what Gamergate 406 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,240 Speaker 1: was about. Gammer Kate was about the games, and I'm 407 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,000 Speaker 1: just here to tell you that's not true. It's it 408 00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:11,680 Speaker 1: was never true. There might have been people who were 409 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:15,320 Speaker 1: concerned about the games industry who got lumped into gamer Gate, 410 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,120 Speaker 1: but that's not what gamer Gate was about. Gamer Gate 411 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:23,600 Speaker 1: was about organized, intense harassment of people who did not 412 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:26,680 Speaker 1: deserve to have that kind of abuse heaped upon them. 413 00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:30,200 Speaker 1: So Twitter, several months after gamer Gate had just got going, 414 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:33,120 Speaker 1: release some tools that were intended to help people who 415 00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:37,040 Speaker 1: had become targets of abuse, So this was one small 416 00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:40,520 Speaker 1: slice of what was going on in the world at 417 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:42,800 Speaker 1: that time in an effort to try and protect people 418 00:24:43,119 --> 00:24:46,199 Speaker 1: who otherwise we're finding themselves on the receiving end of 419 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:51,800 Speaker 1: some truly awful behavior. Twitter would then continue to make 420 00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:56,240 Speaker 1: acquisitions and grow. Uh. It bought the live streaming video 421 00:24:56,359 --> 00:25:00,000 Speaker 1: service Periscope, which is an interesting story all in its own, 422 00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:02,720 Speaker 1: but we're gonna skip over it because that could merit 423 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,760 Speaker 1: an entire episode by itself. In the spring of Twitter 424 00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:10,800 Speaker 1: also announced it would begin using targeted advertising, so using 425 00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:15,800 Speaker 1: data gathered from Twitter to let advertisers target specific audiences 426 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,800 Speaker 1: for specific types of ads. This was a critical part 427 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,520 Speaker 1: of Twitter's revenue strategy because the company at this time 428 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:24,879 Speaker 1: was still mostly known as that huge tech company that 429 00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:29,199 Speaker 1: wasn't really making money through its business, even though it 430 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,560 Speaker 1: was a publicly traded company. In fact, Twitter wouldn't even 431 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:36,440 Speaker 1: have its first profitable year until a bit later, until ten, 432 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,120 Speaker 1: so this is not we're talking about. It would still 433 00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:42,560 Speaker 1: be three years before Twitter would turn a profit. So 434 00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:46,840 Speaker 1: back to Twitter's performance was again lackluster in terms of 435 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:50,040 Speaker 1: growth and user engagement, so we saw the stock price 436 00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:53,160 Speaker 1: continued to kind of languish and that would keep going 437 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:55,560 Speaker 1: for the next couple of years. That explains how that 438 00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:57,880 Speaker 1: stock price went from being in the sixty and seventy 439 00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:00,359 Speaker 1: dollar range to drop all the way down like the 440 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:05,560 Speaker 1: fourteen to eighteen dollar range. In the summer of Dick 441 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:09,400 Speaker 1: Costello would step down as CEO and Jack Dorsey would 442 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:13,200 Speaker 1: come back to serve, at least initially as an interim 443 00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:17,199 Speaker 1: CEO while the company looked for a permanent replacement. Eventually 444 00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,520 Speaker 1: that permanent replacement ended up being Jack Dorsey, so he 445 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:23,760 Speaker 1: we just accepted that he was CEO. Twitter share price 446 00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:27,560 Speaker 1: actually had a small recovery once that news published that 447 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,120 Speaker 1: Dorsey had come back. This idea of a company's founder 448 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:36,480 Speaker 1: having the right uh perspective and right knowledge to lead 449 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:43,119 Speaker 1: the company forward. So in November of the Twitter was 450 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,480 Speaker 1: once again rocking the boat. So up to that time, 451 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:49,960 Speaker 1: if you enjoyed someone's tweet, you could favorite it and 452 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 1: that would create a little star connected to that tweet. 453 00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,879 Speaker 1: But all of that change because favorites would become likes 454 00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:00,920 Speaker 1: and stars would become hearts. Suspicions immediately on the lepre 455 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:04,199 Speaker 1: con Lucky, the mascot for Lucky Charms as being behind this. 456 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,480 Speaker 1: That's a bad joke. But the fact that this was 457 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:12,200 Speaker 1: even newsworthy seems ridiculous today. But I do remember back 458 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:15,760 Speaker 1: in the day when this happened, people were talking about 459 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,240 Speaker 1: it a lot, and yes, some people were upset by it, 460 00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:21,800 Speaker 1: which seems silly. However, for Twitter, it seemed to work because, 461 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:27,480 Speaker 1: according to Twitter's metrics, user engagement increased after Twitter rolled 462 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:31,000 Speaker 1: out this change. So maybe that actually encouraged people to 463 00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,560 Speaker 1: interact more on Twitter. Uh, it might just be one 464 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:40,920 Speaker 1: of those little psychological triggers that gets people interested. It's 465 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:45,119 Speaker 1: kind of weird. In t s, Twitter had a massive 466 00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:49,280 Speaker 1: rollout of its recommended tweets offering, which meant by default, 467 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:52,640 Speaker 1: Twitter feeds would no longer be listed in reverse chronological order, 468 00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:57,760 Speaker 1: at least not not completely. Instead, you would get tweets 469 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,119 Speaker 1: that were held for you. Say that you were looking 470 00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:03,760 Speaker 1: at Twitter on Monday and then you don't look at 471 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,760 Speaker 1: it again until Thursday. Twitter would actually present to you 472 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:08,960 Speaker 1: some of the things you missed while you were gone, 473 00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:11,920 Speaker 1: and not in the order in which they were posted, 474 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,000 Speaker 1: so that you know, you would see stuff that presumably 475 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:19,119 Speaker 1: you would have wanted to have seen. Well. Uh. That 476 00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:22,879 Speaker 1: would also sometimes include tweets from people you don't follow, 477 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,199 Speaker 1: so you might get some tweets from folks that you 478 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,679 Speaker 1: know you never followed them, but maybe they kind of 479 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:34,560 Speaker 1: relate to stuff you do follow. Um. Anyway, this meant 480 00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,040 Speaker 1: that you could no longer just log into Twitter and 481 00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:39,960 Speaker 1: read in reverse chronological order all the stuff that the 482 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,240 Speaker 1: people you follow had posted, and that upsets some folks 483 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:48,120 Speaker 1: like me because it made it trickier to to actually 484 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: follow what was going on, and you might be tempted 485 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 1: to respond to something, not realizing that in fact the 486 00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:57,440 Speaker 1: message you're responding to was posted hours or maybe even 487 00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:00,280 Speaker 1: days earlier, and you think, oh, this was just posted 488 00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:04,040 Speaker 1: because it's high up on my Twitter feed. Now, Twitter 489 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:07,800 Speaker 1: did include away for users to go in and opt 490 00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:12,080 Speaker 1: out of the recommended tweets approach and go back to 491 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:16,080 Speaker 1: reverse chronological but Twitter also said hardly anyone did that, 492 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:20,000 Speaker 1: probably because it requires effort, and we know that a 493 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,000 Speaker 1: lot of Twitter users were upset at the change, but 494 00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 1: even more of them were too lazy to change it back. 495 00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:29,640 Speaker 1: And I include myself in that two sixteen wasn't necessarily 496 00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,040 Speaker 1: a great year for Twitter, though. This was again where 497 00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,800 Speaker 1: those stock prices were really low and the company would 498 00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 1: end up laying off nearly ten percent of its workforce. 499 00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:43,240 Speaker 1: Several high ranking Twitter executives also chose to exit stage 500 00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 1: left at this point, like people in leadership positions were 501 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,360 Speaker 1: jumping ship, and it led to speculation that the company 502 00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:53,680 Speaker 1: was in some serious trouble. But Twitter was able to 503 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:57,680 Speaker 1: weather the storm. So even though it looked bad, Twitter 504 00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:00,680 Speaker 1: was able to get through it. Okay, we're getting up 505 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:04,160 Speaker 1: to seventeen. Let's take another quick break. We'll be back 506 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:15,760 Speaker 1: and we will continue Twitter's more recent history. Okay, so 507 00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:19,720 Speaker 1: now we'll skip over to November two thousand seventeen. Twitter 508 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:23,320 Speaker 1: expanded the character limit from a hundred forty characters to two, 509 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,680 Speaker 1: and Twitter would also allow users to display names that 510 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:30,720 Speaker 1: would be as long as fifty characters in length. At 511 00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:34,120 Speaker 1: this point, Twitter was no longer beholden to SMS limitations 512 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,760 Speaker 1: like that had been the foundation for Twitter in the past. 513 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:41,040 Speaker 1: That was no longer the case, and Twitter was now 514 00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:45,000 Speaker 1: using its own internet based distribution system. So at least 515 00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,680 Speaker 1: that meant that you could have more space, and Twitter 516 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,480 Speaker 1: decided to double the amount of space that people would have, 517 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,680 Speaker 1: or the number of characters they could use in their 518 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:57,480 Speaker 1: messages for the short term, most tweets would remain around 519 00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:00,480 Speaker 1: a hundred forty characters or fewer, with only twelve percent 520 00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:04,280 Speaker 1: of messages going beyond a d forty characters at least 521 00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,160 Speaker 1: as far as h as late two thousand eighteen. According 522 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,400 Speaker 1: to tech Crunch, that was the case, but for the 523 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:15,240 Speaker 1: more loquacious among us, the chatty cathy's such as yours truly, 524 00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:18,960 Speaker 1: Twitter was generous and gave us the ability to create 525 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,640 Speaker 1: an entire thread of tweets all at once and then 526 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:27,720 Speaker 1: post them simultaneously to Twitter. So instead of posting a 527 00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:31,480 Speaker 1: message and then following it up a few seconds later 528 00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:33,720 Speaker 1: with another one, and then maybe like half a minute later, 529 00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:36,600 Speaker 1: another one, you could craft all of them in a 530 00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:39,760 Speaker 1: thread and post the entire thread at the same time. 531 00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:41,920 Speaker 1: I've used that feature several times to take a more 532 00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:46,240 Speaker 1: expanded approach to addressing a topic, and I've read lots 533 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,280 Speaker 1: of other really great Twitter threads about all sorts of stuff, 534 00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:54,160 Speaker 1: from thoughts about tech to rapidly changing political situations. Now 535 00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,560 Speaker 1: in the summer of Twitter made a change that affected 536 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:01,120 Speaker 1: some folks way more than others. And only Sometimes Twitter 537 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: locks out or suspends an account for some reason, maybe 538 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:09,840 Speaker 1: the person violated Twitter's policies. Maybe Twitter figures out, oh, 539 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:12,520 Speaker 1: this account is a fake account, like there's no one 540 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:16,040 Speaker 1: behind it. It's just it's just taking up a spot. 541 00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,000 Speaker 1: So for whatever reason, Twitter will lock those out or 542 00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:22,120 Speaker 1: suspend them, and until the summer of two thousand eighteen, 543 00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:25,560 Speaker 1: if some of those locked out accounts happened to be 544 00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:29,160 Speaker 1: following you, they would actually count towards your follower accounts, 545 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:33,240 Speaker 1: so you can see how many people follow anyone on Twitter. However, 546 00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: Twitter decided to clean house in the summer of eighteen, 547 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:39,560 Speaker 1: and from that point on, any account that had received 548 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:43,040 Speaker 1: a suspension or lockout would no longer show up in 549 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:47,680 Speaker 1: follower counts. So a lot of accounts across Twitter lost 550 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:51,800 Speaker 1: thousands or tens of thousands of followers as a result, 551 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:54,360 Speaker 1: because it turned out a ton of the the quote 552 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:59,800 Speaker 1: unquote people following that account had been locked out or suspended. Now, 553 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:03,120 Speaker 1: one reason for this move is that it was a 554 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:08,120 Speaker 1: fairly common practice for folks to purchase Twitter followers. See, 555 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,800 Speaker 1: follower accounts are kind of like a status symbol, and moreover, 556 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:15,040 Speaker 1: they can translate into lucrative deals for people who are 557 00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:18,480 Speaker 1: seen as influencers. So if I were trying to make 558 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:22,080 Speaker 1: a living as an influencer. I need brands to see 559 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:25,960 Speaker 1: me as having a ton of followers, because you know, 560 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,720 Speaker 1: what good is an influencer if you don't have anyone 561 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:33,080 Speaker 1: to influence. So those follower accounts are kind of like 562 00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:36,600 Speaker 1: a resume when you are shopping around with brands to 563 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,320 Speaker 1: figure out if you could be an ambassador for that brand. 564 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,640 Speaker 1: And so people would buy up Twitter followers in an 565 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,240 Speaker 1: attempt to kind of make them seem more relevant and 566 00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 1: more influential. But Twitter would often do these big sweeps 567 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,120 Speaker 1: to detect accounts that were just junk or spam accounts, 568 00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:55,920 Speaker 1: and once identified, those accounts would no longer factor into 569 00:33:56,360 --> 00:34:00,560 Speaker 1: follower counts on influencer page, and so it became something 570 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:04,840 Speaker 1: of an embarrassment to see a person's follower account drop drastically, 571 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:09,240 Speaker 1: the implication being that most of the followers were actually 572 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:12,279 Speaker 1: spam or junk. This would not be the last time 573 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,799 Speaker 1: we would see activity like this. In fact, recently there's 574 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:18,760 Speaker 1: been a massive uh issue with fluctuations and follower accounts 575 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,799 Speaker 1: due to what Twitter calls quote an increase in new 576 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:25,799 Speaker 1: account creation and deactivation end quote. A lot of that 577 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:29,560 Speaker 1: has happened around the Elon Musk situation, which I promise 578 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,520 Speaker 1: we will get to. It might be this, this episode 579 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:35,080 Speaker 1: might be a long one, but we will get to 580 00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:38,719 Speaker 1: Elon Musk. Anyway, let's get back to our timeline. So 581 00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:45,120 Speaker 1: Congress called several tech leaders, including Jack Dorsey from Twitter, 582 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,080 Speaker 1: to have here before Congress to talk about the issue 583 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:54,000 Speaker 1: of election meddling in the election. Also, conservative leaders were 584 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:58,600 Speaker 1: accusing Twitter of shadow banning. So that's when a platform 585 00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:02,600 Speaker 1: de emphasizes a particular accounts output so that it doesn't 586 00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,719 Speaker 1: have as great a reach as it's supposed to. So 587 00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:08,719 Speaker 1: let's give a hypothetical. Let's say that I have a 588 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:13,120 Speaker 1: hundred thousand followers, but then Twitter has shadow banned me. 589 00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,880 Speaker 1: My posts might only reach a small percentage of my followers, 590 00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:19,720 Speaker 1: maybe even less than five percent of the people following 591 00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:23,800 Speaker 1: me would see my message. The other of followers wouldn't 592 00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:27,560 Speaker 1: see those posts, even though they were following me. Twitter, 593 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:31,080 Speaker 1: for the record, denied that it had ever used shadow banning, 594 00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:35,680 Speaker 1: and those accusing Twitter were primarily conservative politicians who claimed 595 00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:39,320 Speaker 1: that platforms like Twitter and Facebook had an inherent bias 596 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:42,399 Speaker 1: against conservatives, something that I feel I need to point 597 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:46,840 Speaker 1: out has been refuted numerous times in two thousand, nineteen, 598 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:50,719 Speaker 1: Twitter revealed that it had investigated issues with fake accounts 599 00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:54,000 Speaker 1: linked to foreign agents that were engaged in conversations around 600 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:59,440 Speaker 1: US politics and social movements. Essentially, Twitter acknowledged that there 601 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,360 Speaker 1: were missing forformation campaigns that we're playing out over Twitter, 602 00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:05,320 Speaker 1: and the accounts were mostly linked to places like Iran 603 00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:10,040 Speaker 1: and Russia. Dorsey would again appear before Congress in twenty 604 00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:14,480 Speaker 1: at a hearing called Breaking the News, Censorship, Suppression, and 605 00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:19,200 Speaker 1: the Election. This time, conservatives went after Twitter even harder, 606 00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:22,920 Speaker 1: arguing that there was this bias on Twitter, despite you know, 607 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,120 Speaker 1: not actually having evidence to show that there was bias. 608 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:30,520 Speaker 1: Twitter was, however, taking action against accounts that were actively 609 00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:35,919 Speaker 1: spreading misinformation, particularly about the coronavirus, because by now we're 610 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:39,480 Speaker 1: into the actual pandemic, and some of the accounts that 611 00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:44,160 Speaker 1: were pushing misinformation happened to belong to high profile conservative figures, 612 00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:49,760 Speaker 1: including then President Donald Trump. Now even the President wasn't 613 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:52,960 Speaker 1: excused from Twitter's content policies, and so the platform had 614 00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:58,680 Speaker 1: labeled some posts containing misinformation and otherwise restricted the spread 615 00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:02,960 Speaker 1: of that misinformation, which fueled these accusations of this anti 616 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:07,839 Speaker 1: conservative bias, where it really it was an anti misinformation policy, 617 00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:12,400 Speaker 1: not an anti conservative bias. Twitter had also restricted the 618 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:15,640 Speaker 1: spread of tweets from the media outlet The New York Post, 619 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:19,600 Speaker 1: which had published articles about Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, 620 00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:23,560 Speaker 1: and the claims against Hunter Biden had not been verified 621 00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:27,080 Speaker 1: by any other trusted media outlet, so Twitter was taken 622 00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:30,440 Speaker 1: the stance that since the claims appeared to be unsubstantiated, 623 00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: they would therefore qualify as misinformation. But those actions were 624 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,239 Speaker 1: enough to fuel the conservative claims that Twitter was anti conservative, 625 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:40,560 Speaker 1: which is a narrative that continues to this day. And 626 00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:44,480 Speaker 1: then a year later, in one Dorsey once again got 627 00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:47,920 Speaker 1: called to testify in front of Congress, virtually at this 628 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,360 Speaker 1: point because we're still talking pandemic here. This time the 629 00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:54,799 Speaker 1: subject was about the insurrection in the United States on 630 00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:58,240 Speaker 1: January six, two thousand twenty one, which included the storming 631 00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:02,040 Speaker 1: of the US Capitol Building. Congress wanted to know what role, 632 00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,719 Speaker 1: if any, social media played in the radicalizing and organizing 633 00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:08,759 Speaker 1: of groups that were involved in the violent acts of 634 00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:12,400 Speaker 1: that day. We're still learning facts relevant to the questions 635 00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:16,080 Speaker 1: asked back then during those those Congressional hearings, and that's 636 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:18,920 Speaker 1: been more than a year since then, and to jump 637 00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:20,920 Speaker 1: off on a little bit of a tangent, I think 638 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:25,760 Speaker 1: it's entirely fair to say that social networks facilitate radicalization 639 00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:29,719 Speaker 1: and in some cases even promote radicalization. We've talked in 640 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:34,360 Speaker 1: the past about how various recommendation algorithms can reinforce radical 641 00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:37,239 Speaker 1: messages and create a situation in which a person is 642 00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:43,719 Speaker 1: presented with radical viewpoints repeatedly, thus reinforcing these beliefs. And 643 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:47,040 Speaker 1: this doesn't happen in a vacuum. Of course, I would 644 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:49,719 Speaker 1: never go so far as to say that social platforms 645 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:54,880 Speaker 1: are solely responsible for radicalization. That would be untrue, but 646 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:57,280 Speaker 1: it does seem fair to at least say that social 647 00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:01,319 Speaker 1: platforms play a part in this, and depend upon the 648 00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:05,600 Speaker 1: recommendation algorithms being used, it could be an important part 649 00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:12,200 Speaker 1: of radicalizing and recruitment. Anyway, back to Twitter. In late one, 650 00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:15,839 Speaker 1: Jack Dorsey stepped down as Twitter CEO. The company's chief 651 00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:21,400 Speaker 1: technology officer, parag Agreval, replaced Dorsey, and you might wonder, Okay, 652 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:24,359 Speaker 1: so why did Jack Dorsey step down? Now? He said 653 00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:26,880 Speaker 1: it was because Twitter was ready to move beyond the 654 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:31,680 Speaker 1: vision of its founders, but he was also still helming 655 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,919 Speaker 1: Square he was still acting as CEO of Square, which 656 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:36,759 Speaker 1: was something that was requiring a lot of his time 657 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,440 Speaker 1: and focus, and that meant that Twitter would end up 658 00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:42,600 Speaker 1: being treated like a redheaded stepchild, as they say, with 659 00:39:42,719 --> 00:39:46,320 Speaker 1: Dorsey not devoting at least his full attention to help 660 00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:50,560 Speaker 1: grow the company. So people were saying that Dorsey wasn't 661 00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:54,200 Speaker 1: giving Twitter the amount of attention needed to make Twitter 662 00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:58,120 Speaker 1: a success. Instead, he was dividing his attention between Twitter 663 00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:01,840 Speaker 1: and Square, and so do or See ended up stepping 664 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:04,720 Speaker 1: back and saying, all right, I'm gonna just focus on Square. Also, 665 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:06,960 Speaker 1: it's possible that he was tired of being called up 666 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,760 Speaker 1: to appear in front of Congress at that point, because 667 00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:12,520 Speaker 1: he had had to do it three times in four years, 668 00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:16,040 Speaker 1: and that's a lot. And then we get to this 669 00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:20,359 Speaker 1: year two and Elon Musk's announcement that he intended to 670 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:25,279 Speaker 1: purchase Twitter. Uh Now, before that even happened, news broke 671 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,360 Speaker 1: that Musk had purchased nine point two percent of Twitter's 672 00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:32,520 Speaker 1: stock on April fourth, two thousand twenty two. At that time, 673 00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:36,719 Speaker 1: that made him the largest single shareholder in Twitter. That 674 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:40,080 Speaker 1: revelation led to Twitter shares jumping in value, and on 675 00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:44,120 Speaker 1: Friday April one, Twitter was trading at thirty nine dollars 676 00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:47,480 Speaker 1: thirty one since per share, so that's before the announcement. 677 00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:50,920 Speaker 1: Then on Monday, April four, when news broke that Elon 678 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,160 Speaker 1: Musk had made this huge purchase, the closing price was 679 00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:57,040 Speaker 1: up to forty nine dollars nine cents per share, So 680 00:40:57,040 --> 00:41:02,000 Speaker 1: I went from thirty nine thirty one to that's a 681 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:06,000 Speaker 1: significant jump. It really shows how people were thinking, if 682 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:08,440 Speaker 1: Musk is buying this much, something must be going on 683 00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:11,720 Speaker 1: with Twitter. And immediately there were discussions about whether Musk 684 00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:14,279 Speaker 1: was angling to get a seat at the board of 685 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:18,280 Speaker 1: directors or maybe even preparing for an actual takeover of Twitter. 686 00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:21,600 Speaker 1: Speculation reigned for more than a week before it became 687 00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:25,040 Speaker 1: clear that Musk really was moving to purchase the company, 688 00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:28,160 Speaker 1: and it would take another week before that would really 689 00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:32,479 Speaker 1: start to settle into something certain and we would learn 690 00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:38,160 Speaker 1: of the terms. On April twenty two, uh, we learned 691 00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,720 Speaker 1: that Musk had agreed to buy out shares of Twitter 692 00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:43,400 Speaker 1: at fifty four dollars twenty sins per share, which was 693 00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:47,320 Speaker 1: significantly higher than what he would have paid for those shares, 694 00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:50,520 Speaker 1: and after some debate at the board level, Twitter had 695 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:53,520 Speaker 1: agreed to that price. It seemed at first that the 696 00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:56,600 Speaker 1: company was going to resist Elon Musk's move. It went 697 00:41:56,680 --> 00:42:00,200 Speaker 1: so far as to put a poison pill plan in ace. 698 00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:03,400 Speaker 1: That's a lot of alliteration, um. A poison bill is 699 00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,640 Speaker 1: a strategy to try and head off a hostile takeover. 700 00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:09,000 Speaker 1: A hostile takeovers when someone convinces shareholders to make really 701 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:12,480 Speaker 1: big changes to a company's ownership by going over the 702 00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:15,240 Speaker 1: head of the board of directors. So instead of arranging 703 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:18,239 Speaker 1: things through the board of directors, you go and you 704 00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:21,080 Speaker 1: try and buy up enough shares to force a shareholder 705 00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:24,319 Speaker 1: vote to potentially change the ownership of the company. That's 706 00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:28,680 Speaker 1: that's a hostile takeover. A poison pill is a way 707 00:42:28,719 --> 00:42:31,960 Speaker 1: for a company to affect share price or the number 708 00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:34,120 Speaker 1: of shares in such a way that it makes a 709 00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:39,000 Speaker 1: hostile takeover impractical or impossible. Anyway, all of that ended 710 00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:42,160 Speaker 1: up being moot because Twitter's board ultimately agreed to Elon's 711 00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:46,200 Speaker 1: terms on April uh. The deal meant that Musk waved 712 00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:48,400 Speaker 1: his right to due diligence, which is sort of like 713 00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:52,000 Speaker 1: agreeing to buy a house site unseen and just hope 714 00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:55,160 Speaker 1: that you didn't overpay for whatever you bought. There's also 715 00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:57,200 Speaker 1: a clause in the deal that states if Musk were 716 00:42:57,239 --> 00:42:59,840 Speaker 1: two back out of the deal, which could only have 717 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:04,600 Speaker 1: and if there were a situation that fundamentally meant Twitter's 718 00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:08,799 Speaker 1: value would be drastically different from what it should be, 719 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:11,040 Speaker 1: then Musk would still be on the hook to pay 720 00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:14,440 Speaker 1: a one billion dollar exit price. So, in other words, 721 00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:18,439 Speaker 1: first the deal has to be untenable because of some 722 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:23,560 Speaker 1: fundamental reason, then Musk would be allowed to back out, 723 00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:25,400 Speaker 1: but you have to pay a billion dollars to do it. 724 00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:28,560 Speaker 1: As it turns out, that part is going to be 725 00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:32,600 Speaker 1: really important now. Since the day that the news broke 726 00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:35,239 Speaker 1: that Musk was gonna try and buy Twitter, hardly a 727 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:38,200 Speaker 1: day has gone by without more Musk and Twitter news. 728 00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:42,239 Speaker 1: It's frankly exhausting. Part of the problem is that Musk 729 00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:45,799 Speaker 1: initially talked about how his goals involved making Twitter a 730 00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:49,360 Speaker 1: platform for free speech, with Musk implying that some of 731 00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:54,840 Speaker 1: the criticisms about Twitter's content moderation policies were merited. So again, 732 00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,080 Speaker 1: this starts to play into that perception that Twitter has 733 00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:03,520 Speaker 1: this anti conservative bias or that it made a mistake to, 734 00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:06,600 Speaker 1: you know, limit the spread of misinformation about stuff like 735 00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:11,040 Speaker 1: COVID and election manipulation and that sort of thing. So 736 00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:14,880 Speaker 1: Musk's message seems to indicate that his version of Twitter 737 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:19,520 Speaker 1: would reverse some of these actions, making it a true 738 00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:23,520 Speaker 1: free speech platform, which by the way, it can't actually do, 739 00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:26,319 Speaker 1: at least not all over the world because there's some 740 00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:31,320 Speaker 1: places that have very strict content policies, you know, like India. 741 00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:36,120 Speaker 1: So some of the things that people have guessed Musk 742 00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:40,160 Speaker 1: might do include some controversial moves, like even reinstating former 743 00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:43,600 Speaker 1: President Trump's account. One thing I didn't cover is that 744 00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:47,360 Speaker 1: President Trump lost his account in the wake of the 745 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:54,280 Speaker 1: January six insurrection in um he continuously violated Twitter's policies, 746 00:44:54,320 --> 00:45:00,480 Speaker 1: and Twitter then banned his account. So there's been some 747 00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:05,160 Speaker 1: speculation that Musk would reverse that decision, but obviously we 748 00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:07,200 Speaker 1: can't speak to that one way or the other because 749 00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:10,399 Speaker 1: it hasn't happened yet. Okay, we're gonna take one last break. 750 00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:12,719 Speaker 1: When we come back, I'm gonna talk more about this 751 00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:25,600 Speaker 1: Musk Twitter situation. Okay, So, another big thing that Musk 752 00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:29,319 Speaker 1: talked about early on when it became known that he 753 00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:33,600 Speaker 1: was he was moving to purchase Twitter was his goal 754 00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:38,000 Speaker 1: to wipe out bots on Twitter spam bots and junk bots. 755 00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:41,440 Speaker 1: He identified that as one of the big problems on Twitter, 756 00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:46,880 Speaker 1: one of the problems being this, uh, this, this position 757 00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:50,279 Speaker 1: on free speech, like being anti free speech, and and 758 00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:54,640 Speaker 1: Elon Musk's eyes. The other one being that there was 759 00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:56,759 Speaker 1: there were too many bots on Twitter and need to 760 00:45:56,760 --> 00:45:59,160 Speaker 1: be cleaned out. There need to be a verification process 761 00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:02,360 Speaker 1: to make sure that whomever holds a Twitter account is 762 00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:06,160 Speaker 1: in fact a human being. Now, later on, he began 763 00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:08,479 Speaker 1: to use the bots as a reason that he wasn't 764 00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:11,320 Speaker 1: so sure that the deal should go through, which again 765 00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:14,920 Speaker 1: is confusing because at the very earliest stages he was 766 00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:18,880 Speaker 1: saying one of his goals was to clean up Twitter 767 00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:21,719 Speaker 1: from bots, like that was one of the reasons he 768 00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:24,880 Speaker 1: wanted to purchase it. So it's somewhat confusing that a 769 00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:26,640 Speaker 1: bit later he's like, hey, hey, I don't think I 770 00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:29,560 Speaker 1: want to buy this anymore. There are bots on it, 771 00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:33,120 Speaker 1: and and and meanwhile I'm sitting here saying, you knew 772 00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:35,160 Speaker 1: there were bots on it, that was one of the 773 00:46:35,200 --> 00:46:39,000 Speaker 1: reasons you said you wanted to buy the thing. Um, 774 00:46:39,080 --> 00:46:42,640 Speaker 1: But hey, you know, who am I to judge? I 775 00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:47,759 Speaker 1: guess anyway, I found it really frustrating because you know, 776 00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:50,759 Speaker 1: it seemed like he was going backward and saying like, oh, 777 00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:53,400 Speaker 1: I didn't realize there were bots here. So he began 778 00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:56,640 Speaker 1: to demand information on how many bots are actually on Twitter. 779 00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:00,880 Speaker 1: Twitter came back and said that, according to their estimates, 780 00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:05,080 Speaker 1: fewer than five percent of all monetize herbal accounts on 781 00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:09,560 Speaker 1: Twitter or bots. Musk disputed that. He just said that's 782 00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:13,000 Speaker 1: not true. He didn't present evidence of that not being true, 783 00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:15,279 Speaker 1: but he said that's not true, and he suspected the 784 00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:18,640 Speaker 1: number was much higher. Uh, and by much higher, it 785 00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:22,680 Speaker 1: went anywhere from to more than nine percent in some accounts, 786 00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:26,719 Speaker 1: which more than seems more than a little unrealistic to me, 787 00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:31,320 Speaker 1: but whatever. Anyway, Twitter would go on to actually send 788 00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:34,680 Speaker 1: raw data to Musk's team. They said, you know, we 789 00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:37,719 Speaker 1: told you what our methodology was, we told you what 790 00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:41,759 Speaker 1: we found. You said, that's not true. So here's the 791 00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:44,680 Speaker 1: raw data. You figure it out, You come up with 792 00:47:44,719 --> 00:47:49,759 Speaker 1: your approach to determine how many bots are on the platform, 793 00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:53,120 Speaker 1: and you let us know what you found. Now. Most recently, 794 00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:56,040 Speaker 1: Musk has indicated that he wants out of this deal 795 00:47:56,760 --> 00:47:59,399 Speaker 1: due to the bot issue, which again I'm not really 796 00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:02,080 Speaker 1: sure what's that actually going on here, but his legal 797 00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:05,560 Speaker 1: team may have to argue that reason in court because 798 00:48:05,600 --> 00:48:08,800 Speaker 1: Twitter's board of directors have indicated that they're holding Musk 799 00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:12,759 Speaker 1: to his agreement that they will sue him. They will 800 00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:15,560 Speaker 1: take him to court over this matter if he tries 801 00:48:15,600 --> 00:48:17,640 Speaker 1: to back out of the deal, and if a court 802 00:48:17,719 --> 00:48:22,960 Speaker 1: decides that the bought issue is not crucial to Twitter's 803 00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:26,839 Speaker 1: value right, that it doesn't meet that bar that must 804 00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:29,000 Speaker 1: be met in order for Musk to be able to 805 00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:31,959 Speaker 1: back out of the deal, well, then Musk is gonna 806 00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:33,400 Speaker 1: have to go through with it. He's gonna have to 807 00:48:33,680 --> 00:48:36,360 Speaker 1: bite the bullet and purchase the company for like forty 808 00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:41,320 Speaker 1: four billion dollars, which is what he agreed to. The 809 00:48:41,360 --> 00:48:47,320 Speaker 1: activity has led to massive speculations about what Musk's motives 810 00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:51,120 Speaker 1: have been, and theories have been posted everywhere from like 811 00:48:51,239 --> 00:48:55,160 Speaker 1: sub Credits and Twitter to mainstream media. So let's run 812 00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:58,600 Speaker 1: down a couple of the big hypotheses of what's quote 813 00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:03,080 Speaker 1: unquote really going on here now. One is that Musk 814 00:49:03,200 --> 00:49:06,520 Speaker 1: actually wanted to buy Twitter, that that he was sincere 815 00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:10,160 Speaker 1: in his desire to purchase the platform, but then a 816 00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:14,959 Speaker 1: downturn in the economy made that more expensive than Musk 817 00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:20,440 Speaker 1: was comfortable going with the value of Twitter's stock dropped, 818 00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:24,719 Speaker 1: and so did Tesla's stock value. Now a lot of 819 00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:28,640 Speaker 1: Musk's personal wealth is tied in with Tesla stock. Like 820 00:49:29,719 --> 00:49:33,040 Speaker 1: Musk is the world's richest man, but it's not like 821 00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:36,280 Speaker 1: he has billions of dollars in a bank vault Allah 822 00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:38,839 Speaker 1: Scrooge mc duck. Most of his money is tied up 823 00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:43,680 Speaker 1: in stocks, including Tesla stocks. So some have said that 824 00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:46,800 Speaker 1: Musk wants out of the deal because his personal wealth 825 00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:50,120 Speaker 1: has already taken a heck of a clubbing due to 826 00:49:50,239 --> 00:49:53,800 Speaker 1: Tesla's stock performance, because that that stock price of that 827 00:49:54,080 --> 00:50:00,719 Speaker 1: company has gone down significantly since the spring. Also, not 828 00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:03,479 Speaker 1: all the cash to buy Twitter is actually coming from 829 00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:06,400 Speaker 1: Elon Musk himself. In fact, most of it is coming 830 00:50:06,600 --> 00:50:09,560 Speaker 1: from other sources. He had to secure a few financial 831 00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:12,799 Speaker 1: partners to get funding, so of a lot of this 832 00:50:13,040 --> 00:50:16,840 Speaker 1: is him putting up stock as collateral in order to 833 00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:21,080 Speaker 1: get the funding necessary to make this purchase. And again, 834 00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:25,040 Speaker 1: if the stock price for Tesla is going down, then 835 00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:29,560 Speaker 1: it requires more shares of Tesla to meet that collateral, 836 00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:32,880 Speaker 1: which means he's putting up even more of his personal 837 00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:37,360 Speaker 1: wealth up as a in a way to guarantee alone. 838 00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:41,000 Speaker 1: Rich people, by the way, mostly are buying things on credit, 839 00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:43,960 Speaker 1: and they're using the wealth they have and things like 840 00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:48,279 Speaker 1: stocks as collateral, so they're not they live in a 841 00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:51,760 Speaker 1: totally different world that I live in. But anyway, once 842 00:50:51,800 --> 00:50:54,319 Speaker 1: things are going boldly in the stock market, that makes 843 00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:59,239 Speaker 1: this more uh personally costly for Elon Musk. It means 844 00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:03,080 Speaker 1: he has to dedicate more of his personal assets towards 845 00:51:03,239 --> 00:51:06,239 Speaker 1: establishing the collateral he needs in order to get the 846 00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:10,120 Speaker 1: loans he needs. So it's harder for him to get 847 00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:13,680 Speaker 1: the money together to buy Twitter, and that that might 848 00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:16,839 Speaker 1: be making must have second thoughts that he wants out 849 00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:18,640 Speaker 1: of the deal because he doesn't want to commit that 850 00:51:18,719 --> 00:51:23,239 Speaker 1: much of his own personal wealth to the to the endeavor. 851 00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:27,239 Speaker 1: But there's another hypothesis as well, and this one says 852 00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:31,400 Speaker 1: that Musk never intended to buy Twitter in the first place. Instead, 853 00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:34,279 Speaker 1: he just wanted to have a reason to liquefy some 854 00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:38,880 Speaker 1: of his stocks in Tesla without triggering a larger negative 855 00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:43,400 Speaker 1: reaction to him doing that. And here's the thinking. So 856 00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:45,839 Speaker 1: when a leader sells off a big old chunk of 857 00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:49,759 Speaker 1: stock in the company that they lead, other investors might 858 00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:52,000 Speaker 1: see that as a sign that the leader has lost 859 00:51:52,080 --> 00:51:55,960 Speaker 1: confidence in their company. So the investors then may also 860 00:51:56,040 --> 00:51:59,080 Speaker 1: move to sell off their shares. That results in a 861 00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:03,080 Speaker 1: stock price drop, perhaps even a drastic one. So then 862 00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:06,160 Speaker 1: the question is, how can a leader liquefy a significant 863 00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:08,759 Speaker 1: amount of stock to the tune of more than eight 864 00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:11,440 Speaker 1: billion dollars in the case with Elon Musk and Tesla 865 00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:16,960 Speaker 1: without causing that kind of panic among investors. Well, according 866 00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:21,800 Speaker 1: to this hypothesis, Musk's approach was to make it appear 867 00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:25,840 Speaker 1: as though he were going to purchase Twitter. And obviously, 868 00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:28,239 Speaker 1: in order to purchase Twitter, he would have to fund 869 00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:32,640 Speaker 1: that purchase. And you know the overall price when you 870 00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:35,320 Speaker 1: add up those fifty four dollars twenty since per share 871 00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:38,160 Speaker 1: would be around forty four billion dollars. So as part 872 00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:41,440 Speaker 1: of that, Musk would need to liquefy some of his 873 00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:45,080 Speaker 1: stock in Tesla in order to have cash as part 874 00:52:45,200 --> 00:52:47,960 Speaker 1: of his offer to Twitter. So the sell off of 875 00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:50,840 Speaker 1: Tesla stock would thus be seen as a business move 876 00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:55,800 Speaker 1: for Musk to acquire another company, not that Musk wanted 877 00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:58,920 Speaker 1: to sell his shares or had somehow lost confidence in 878 00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:02,160 Speaker 1: Tesla itself, Because while he was selling a lot of 879 00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:06,319 Speaker 1: stock he still owns, more like he still owns of 880 00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:11,200 Speaker 1: all the shares in Tesla. So maybe, say the speculators, 881 00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:15,160 Speaker 1: Musk was looking to cash in on eight point four 882 00:53:15,200 --> 00:53:19,560 Speaker 1: billion dollars worth of Tesla stock without tanking share prices 883 00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:22,440 Speaker 1: of Tesla, and he used Twitter as kind of a 884 00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:25,160 Speaker 1: cover story with the intent of never going through with 885 00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:29,800 Speaker 1: the deal. But if that is the case, he made 886 00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:34,960 Speaker 1: some pretty darned stupid business decisions when he was forging 887 00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:38,480 Speaker 1: that deal with Twitter, because backing out is not an 888 00:53:38,520 --> 00:53:41,080 Speaker 1: easy thing to do, and if even if he does 889 00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:43,680 Speaker 1: manage to back out, he's going to have to pay 890 00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:48,600 Speaker 1: a billion dollar fee. So maybe he was willing to 891 00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:51,360 Speaker 1: spend a billion in order to cash out eight point 892 00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:54,879 Speaker 1: four billion, But if so, this was a dumb way 893 00:53:54,880 --> 00:53:58,160 Speaker 1: to do it, because if his lawyers can't convince a 894 00:53:58,239 --> 00:54:02,560 Speaker 1: court that sacking out is justified, he's still going to 895 00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:05,719 Speaker 1: have to go through with the purchase, or what I 896 00:54:05,719 --> 00:54:08,399 Speaker 1: think is more likely is go through a much more 897 00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:12,640 Speaker 1: expensive settlement where he'll pay out not the full forty 898 00:54:12,640 --> 00:54:14,600 Speaker 1: four billion dollars, but it's going to be more than 899 00:54:14,640 --> 00:54:17,719 Speaker 1: the one billion fee he would have incurred if he 900 00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:21,040 Speaker 1: could back out. Musk is currently showing a lot of 901 00:54:21,080 --> 00:54:23,959 Speaker 1: bravado in the face of threats from Twitter to bring 902 00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:26,520 Speaker 1: the case to court. Musk says this is going to 903 00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:29,200 Speaker 1: vindicate his claims that Twitter is going to be forced 904 00:54:29,280 --> 00:54:34,880 Speaker 1: to reveal actual bot statistics in a courtroom. Like he says, 905 00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:38,440 Speaker 1: I asked Twitter to give me real statistics on bots. 906 00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:41,200 Speaker 1: Twitter refused. Twitter then says it's going to take me 907 00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:43,400 Speaker 1: to court. But in court, it's going to have to 908 00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:45,960 Speaker 1: show those bots statistics, so I win. Ha ha ha 909 00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:49,279 Speaker 1: ha ha. Now I'm no legal expert. I don't know 910 00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:50,960 Speaker 1: if that's going to be part of the case. I 911 00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:53,440 Speaker 1: don't know if Twitter can just say, hey, we sent 912 00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:57,080 Speaker 1: Musk everything. We sent him the fire hose of data. 913 00:54:57,280 --> 00:55:00,120 Speaker 1: He's complaining about nothing, So make him go through through 914 00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:02,640 Speaker 1: with the deal and make him buy us, and that 915 00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:07,560 Speaker 1: might be what the court decides. So yeah, this isn't over. 916 00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:11,880 Speaker 1: I don't know whether Musk will end up owning Twitter 917 00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:15,880 Speaker 1: or not at this point. Um, I definitely think it's 918 00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:18,400 Speaker 1: going to go to court. I don't think Musk is 919 00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:22,000 Speaker 1: gonna win. So either he's going to have to pay 920 00:55:22,040 --> 00:55:25,160 Speaker 1: a big settlement to get out of this, or he's 921 00:55:25,160 --> 00:55:27,240 Speaker 1: going to have to bite the bullet and purchase Twitter. 922 00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:31,080 Speaker 1: I don't see it going another way. Now I could 923 00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:35,360 Speaker 1: be wrong. Maybe a court will find that Musk's reasons 924 00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:38,960 Speaker 1: for backing out are legitimate and they meet the qualifications 925 00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:41,799 Speaker 1: required by the deal, and he'll only owe the one 926 00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:44,920 Speaker 1: billion dollars and then that will be that. Um, I 927 00:55:44,960 --> 00:55:46,920 Speaker 1: think Twitter is going to take a big hit in 928 00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:50,279 Speaker 1: its value if that happens. So we'll have to see 929 00:55:50,320 --> 00:55:53,399 Speaker 1: how this plays out. But yeah, that's the update on 930 00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:58,000 Speaker 1: Twitter's tumultuous history. A lot has happened in just the 931 00:55:58,080 --> 00:56:00,040 Speaker 1: last few months, in fact, that you could argue with 932 00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:03,160 Speaker 1: that Twitter's history got way more complicated since April of 933 00:56:03,200 --> 00:56:06,400 Speaker 1: this year than in the rest of its history combined. 934 00:56:06,440 --> 00:56:09,239 Speaker 1: And I think you'd have a pretty strong argument there. 935 00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:14,400 Speaker 1: I'm sure once this comes to some sort of definitive end, 936 00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:17,400 Speaker 1: whatever that may be, I will come back and revisit it, 937 00:56:17,440 --> 00:56:20,279 Speaker 1: maybe do a much shorter kind of update episode. But 938 00:56:20,360 --> 00:56:25,160 Speaker 1: I wanted to do this to talk about it because, um, yeah, 939 00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:29,080 Speaker 1: it's it's a weird situation and Twitter has been such 940 00:56:29,080 --> 00:56:33,080 Speaker 1: an important component in tech and in journalism and an 941 00:56:33,160 --> 00:56:36,920 Speaker 1: activism as well as in you know, not great stuff 942 00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:43,479 Speaker 1: like in organized campaigns of harassment and election meddling and 943 00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:46,360 Speaker 1: misinformation campaigns like Twitter has been at the center of 944 00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:49,520 Speaker 1: all this. I think it would be foolish to say 945 00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:52,760 Speaker 1: that Twitter is not important. I think it's not foolish 946 00:56:52,800 --> 00:56:57,000 Speaker 1: to say Twitter is in trouble because it hasn't like 947 00:56:57,640 --> 00:57:01,600 Speaker 1: it's not growing really and it's not becoming more relevant. 948 00:57:01,640 --> 00:57:06,160 Speaker 1: It's not like it's increasing user engagement either. But you 949 00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:09,719 Speaker 1: can still see where it plays an important part. The 950 00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:12,960 Speaker 1: question is isn't an important enough part for it to 951 00:57:13,080 --> 00:57:17,280 Speaker 1: justify its existence? And I just don't know, Like when 952 00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:20,400 Speaker 1: when the world eventually boils down to how much money 953 00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:24,640 Speaker 1: did you make? It starts getting pretty complicated. Okay, that's 954 00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:27,160 Speaker 1: it for this episode. Hope you enjoyed it. If you 955 00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:29,400 Speaker 1: have anything you would like to send me, well, why 956 00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:31,200 Speaker 1: don't you send it on Twitter. I'm just gonna talk 957 00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:33,560 Speaker 1: about Twitter on this one. You could do that by 958 00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:38,240 Speaker 1: sending a message to tech Stuff HSW on Twitter, and 959 00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:47,680 Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again really soon. Tech Stuff is 960 00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:50,840 Speaker 1: an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from my 961 00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:54,560 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 962 00:57:54,680 --> 00:58:00,240 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Two