Darnell (Seize The Day)

Image Credit: Via Jewish Colorado & ADL

Forget the Fediverse being a credible threat to X (formally Twitter)! Allegedly, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is killing off the company (at least according to Elon Musk).

Our US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter! (Via Elon Musk on X)

To clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism, it looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League … oh the irony! (Elon Musk on X)

Interesting.

In our case, they would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion. (Elon Musk on X)

Based on what we’ve heard from advertisers, ADL seems to be responsible for most of our revenue loss.

Giving them maximum benefit of the doubt, I don’t see any scenario where they’re responsible for less than 10% of the value destruction, so ~$4 billion.

Document discovery of all communications between The ADL and advertisers will tell the full story. (Elon Musk on X)

Advertisers avoid controversy, so all that is needed for ADL to crush our US & European ad revenue is to make unfounded accusations. They have much less power in Asia, so our ad revenue there is still strong.

This “controversy” causes advertisers to “pause”, but that pause is permanent until ADL gives the green light, which they will not do without us agreeing to secretly suspend or shadowban any account they don’t like.

That is the relationship they’ve had with X/Twitter for many years. Presumably, they have that with all western search or social media orgs. (Elon Musk on X)

For the sake of argument, let us assume that ADL is annihilating X. If this is the case, then why does Elon Musk tolerate ADL using X‽ Musk has embraced banning ADL on X but has never followed through with that threat.

Elon Musk’s actions demonstrate fear of the anti-hate organization, as he can remove ADL from X but hesitates. Compare & contrast that with Mark Zuckerberg, who used Meta’s power to silence two governments who threatened revenue streams on Facebook & Instagram & came out victorious against one of them.

Originally published on February 17, 2021 at 10:31AM PT:

In response to Australia’s proposed new Media Bargaining law, Facebook will restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content.

Update on February 22, 2021 at 8:20PM PT:

We’re pleased that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with the Australian government and appreciate the constructive discussions we’ve had with Treasurer Frydenberg and Minister Fletcher over the past week. We have consistently supported a framework that would encourage innovation and collaboration between online platforms and publishers. After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognize the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them. As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days. (Meta Newsroom)

Image Credit: Patrick Lamontagne, discovered via Peak

Zuckerberg is employing the same strategy against Canada right now to protect Meta’s revenue streams.

In order to comply with the Online News Act, we have begun the process of ending news availability in Canada. These changes start today, and will be implemented for all people accessing Facebook and Instagram in Canada over the course of the next few weeks. (...)

News publishers and broadcasters outside of Canada will continue to be able to post news links and content, however, that content will not be viewable by people in Canada. (Meta Newsroom)

Ironically, Elon Musk has posted about how Facebook is allegedly caving to various anti-hate groups to show how much power they have in the advertising industry. Still, he missed this key sentence in this long paragraph (provided for context).

It remains to be seen whether Facebook will really be dented, either financially or as a brand. The company declined to comment for this article except to point to a statement issued in response to the boycott, saying Facebook “invest[s] billions of dollars each year to keep our community safe and continuously work[s] with outside experts to review and update our policies,” and that it is taking steps to address hate. The statement added, “we know we have more work to do.” So far, the company hasn’t made major concessions, though. And while its stock price has dipped sharply, Zuckerberg — who has long defended the platform as a space for free expression — reportedly has said advertisers would be back “soon enough.” Analysts likewise say Facebook can weather the storm; most of its ads come from small and medium-size buyers, not the large corporations making boycott headlines, and Bloomberg researchers predicted Monday that the boycotts could cost Facebook only $250 million in ad sales — a sliver of the company’s $77 billion in annual revenue. (Via Politico, Note: Emphasis mine)

Say what you want about Zuckerberg, but he knows how to eliminate threats to his Meta Empire via international ban hammers or placating foes via no-action press releases.

Elon Musk, on the other hand, whines about the abuse ADL applies on X, & tries to whip up a social frenzy, which ultimately benefits ADL (as it makes the organization even more popular amongst progressives).

Elon Musk’s ad revenues are crashing right now, & his solution is to spend money on lawyers (who are expensive) to “silence” ADL in a courtroom who will predictively side with the latter‽

It appears to be an odd strategy unless Elon Musk is seeking a way of blaming X’s failures on an outsider (via bankruptcy perhaps‽) to justify renegotiating X’s pending debts.

Discovered via: Forbes

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