After Dave Rubin spent two days at Twitter talking to the people who make it ‘run’ (yes, including Elon Musk), he put this thread together about what is really happening at the Tech Giant and yes, it is very very very eye-opening.
Take a gander.
Spent last two days at Twitter in SF talking to engineers, product managers and yes, @elonmusk. Learned a ton about what’s going on. Before I share, want to note that after couple hour meeting I asked Elon what I could share and he said, “anything that’s true.”
🧵time…
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
And Elon was cool with him sharing the truth, which says a lot.
Take note, as they fix the code more problems arise …
“A Fractal Rube Goldberg Machine.”
That’s what @elonmusk called Twitter. As they fix the code more problems arise. A delicate balance he likened to a Jenga tower. One wrong move the whole thing collapses. They’re working nonstop, and both times I met him were after midnight. pic.twitter.com/ZwETEarvgp
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Sounds like the days of start-ups to us.
Keep going.
I met with several engineers who were doing a deep dive on why my account and so many others seem to be absolutely crushed after that two or three week return to normalcy when Elon first took over. They still have more questions than answers, but they did learn a bunch of stuff.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Some of us are definitely getting crushed … this is where it gets good.
Accounts aren’t just hit with labels that are obvious to insiders. They now found more “secret” labels which are causing shadowbans. My account was hit with all three; “Recent abuse strike,” “Recent misinformation strike”, “Recent suspension strike.”
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Recommended
Wow.
Not just typical censorship but secret labeling censorship that they have to dig around to find.
Evil people were doing evil things at Twitter, guys.
It’s unclear so far what these strikes actually do, but for sure they suppress views and recommendations, they are trying to figure out to what extent. I also had many innocuous tweets labeled NSFW or NSFA (not safe for ads) which affect visibility in the timeline.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Wow wow.
Also, there’s an entire KeyWord database so that machine learning makes sure not to promote violence, porn etc., but it’s a mess of overreaching words. Literally the word “gay” was on the KeyWord list which would make you not advertiser friendly and harm the tweet in the algo.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Because of course.
Backing up for a sec, they found the “recent suspension strike” on my account most interesting because it was fro July 2022, when I was suspended for calling out @jordanbpeterson’s unjust suspension. So though suspension was reversed the action on the account remained.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Almost a year … who knows how long these suppressions, throttles, and shadowbans go back.
Elon was bringing people in and out constantly and seems to be aware of pretty much every issue. He thinks maybe the entire code has to be torn down and start from scratch. At the end last night he said that the whole situation is “a flaming dumpster rolling down the street.” pic.twitter.com/bTdNmbX5Ks
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Flaming dumpster fire rolling down the street.
That reads.
So I assure you they are aware of the problems and Elon and engineers are there all night trying to untie this crazy knot. Some changes they’ve made, like the “For You” tab, have confused people and hurt engagement for accounts who have gotten the NSFA label without knowing.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
They also don’t know for sure why things got so much better once Elon made the acquisition and why it seems far worse now. Some is probably related to excitement around Elon himself, which also coincided with World Cup, but that doesn’t explain why it feels so off right now.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Bingo.
Will share more in bit but have to catch a flight.
On a personal note Elon is funny as hell, laughs a ton and it’s just really obvious he cares about Twitter because he cares about free speech and the bigger problems facing the world. He doesn’t need this headache, he chose it.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Also huge shout out to @davidsacks who is helping Elon clean up this mess because he believes in the fight for free speech as much as Elon does. And massive thanks to the engineers who iopened up their computers, showed me literally everything I asked for, and were total pros.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Love that.
Thanks, David!
Oh, one either thing for now…
Elon really lit up when we talked about the shifting political landscape and how anyone non-woke is now “far right.”
That notion is deeply connected to how screwy thing got at Twitter and he’s working to fix it despite the huge challenges ahead.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Boom.
Since there are so many who are ‘non-woke’ we suppose that means that the ‘far right’ is huge.
Heh.
And frankly they gotta get that company out of SF… https://t.co/5FbcSibQRe
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Yes, they freakin’ do. We hear Texas is nice.
Virginia is also on its way to being less of a crap hole.
Just sayin’.
What’s also really crazy now having seen under the hood is that Jack Dorsey repeatedly said they don’t shadowban. The entire machine behind Twitter is designed to shadowban. It’s almost as if that was the primary goal rather than the product itself.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Jack Dorsey was a liar.
Perfect illustration of how crazy things are. A friend just sent the to me, watch the RT’s go up and then suddenly go down. @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/3Q0T7AcEMs
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 26, 2023
Accurate thread
— Mr. Tweet (@elonmusk) January 26, 2023
Sounds like Elon is on the move to making Twitter great again.
Or would that be great for the first time?
We’re all watching.
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