Summary
Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) has filed a court motion claiming ownership of all X accounts, arguing they cannot be transferred, in an effort to block The Onion’s purchase of InfoWars, Alex Jones’s conspiracy outlet.
The sale was part of a $1.4 billion judgment against Jones for defaming Sandy Hook families.
X’s filing asserts that users only hold a non-transferable license to their accounts, despite Musk’s prior actions threatening to reassign handles.
Critics view Musk’s move as aiding far-right figures like Jones and aligning with his MAGA agenda.
Man.
He’s like if Dr. Evil and every bond villain were combined into one, then poorly written in a Sci-fi channel special as the wealthiest man in the world.
He doesn’t actually do anything but be rich and say stupid shit, and for some reason people keep going along with it
Feels like a great time for a competitor to explicitly state that you in fact, do own your account on their site. Nuance to that as tech bros is always gonna be tech bros (and blue sky is also tech bros, just with temporary infective to say “nah man, it’s cool baby…” for the time being while they build market share). But basically stating that you have full ownership and responsibility to manage your account, and that management transfers along with any kind of power of attorney shift or through any other related court actions
My tinfoil take: There’s something in the Twitter DM between him and Alex Jones that NEEDS to stay private.
And you think the twitter CEO can’t delete that?
Just a reminder… melon head is a junkie. Everything he says is a drugged up delusion. Nothing to see here, just walk on by.
You could say he’s under the influence, but as much as I dislike the guy and want him to fail, I cannot discount that he knows what he’s doing. He’s a billionaire, that bought a media company to further his business and personal interests. Just like Bezos. He feels he swung the US election and is fuelled by hubris and self-importance. A right winger using his media company to help out right wingers. Was it his choice or a favour for Donny, who knows. I do suspect Tesla and SpaceX are going to get a nice smooth run in terms of contracts, funding and legal disputes
Dude is wanna be CEO of two companies, has no involvement in five other companies, has twelve kids with his employees he doesn’t take care of, and now wants to help run the US government when he couldn’t run a McDonald’s. He is spread thinner than a jar of mayonnaise on a thousand loaves.
He has a team of handlers whose job is to literally keep him away from anything important. Not only does he not know what the fuck he is doing he is failing his kids, companies, and humanity.
He bought a company with other peoples money and let them turn it into a propaganda machine to extort and sell influence around the world through deception and lies. He is Alex Jones Jr. with more money and more reach.
A self admitted drug addict that thinks he knows more about manufacturing than any human alive. Once you peel back the lies and deception you have a Nepo baby manchild sexual assaulting conman.
But sure he has a lot of money. I guess that is all it takes for some people to drop trough, spread them cheeks, and get ready for daddy Muskrat.
So he’s going to take his ball and go home…?
More like, he’s taking his ball, and you go home.
Ok then. Close the account.
Technically he’s right. It’s like the access card to a shitty gym, the card is their property, provided to you as long as you fulfill your part of the agreement.
Except that this time, the gym is owned by a megalomaniac madman. I’d let him keep the card and let him waddle in the filth of his own making all by himself.
No, the X terms of service specifically state that you retiain ownership and rights to anything you post. X just takes free license to your posts so that it can show it to the world.
There are Intellectual Property Licenses in these Terms: You retain ownership and rights to any of your Content you post or share, and you provide us with a broad, royalty-free license to make your Content available to the rest of the world and to let others do the same. Conversely, we provide you a license to use the software we provide as part of the Services, such as the X mobile application, solely for the purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of the Services.
That’s not the same as saying you own the account.
You retain rights to your content, but not to the account itself.
Which isn’t a bad thing. Platforms should be able to terminate accounts that break the law, for example.
Elon’s looking like he’s got a Michael Jackson style chin implant.
Mean the one I deleted a while ago?
naw. the one you thought you deleted a while ago.
You mean the one Elon uses now?
Weird, because their help articles suggest giving account handles over in the case of trademark infringement. https://help.x.com/en/search-results?limit=10&offset=0&q=Trademark&searchPath=%2Fcontent%2Fhelp-twitter%2Fen&sort=relevance
Those were written by sane people before Muskrat took over and fired everyone that had any ounce of integrity.
You don’t expect Elon to read things, do you? He has important one-word tweets to post!
Regimental…
Yeah. This won’t hasten the exodus to Bluesky or anything
It won’t. People on on twitter cause they say the engagement isn’t the same everywhere else. But I think its just bots.
I’ve started noticing embedded bluesky posts in news stories instead of embedded tweets. I think it might.
does this mean whoever bought dril’s account has to give it back
Does this come as a surprise to anyone?
I just need someone to explain to me how this doesn’t mean he’s liable for anything posted on every account. If he has ownership of the account then the liability rest with him. So the meteoric rise of child pornography on Twitter would seem to indicate to me at least that Elon Musk is liable for child pornography. Not to mention hate speech and credible threats.
I believe the argument being used is roughly analogous to lending something to someone.
If you borrow a lawnmower, it doesn’t get auctioned off when you go bankrupt. You get to use it however you like and if you commit a crime with it you’re responsible. It’s still ultimately owned by the person who leant it to you.
Doesn’t it expose them to at least a little bit of liability? Especially if they loaned it out to a child or something.
Rich people aren’t liable for their actions.
The same provisions that protect internet providers when subscribers use their service to break the law, probably. As long as they pretend to be a communications provider and self-regulate, they’re shielded from liability.
In this case, the account/handle could be argued to be equivalent to an IP address, which is something owned by the provider and not the user. If Felon Musk tried to claim copyright of user-submitted content as well as their accounts, that would be what opens up a large can of liability worms (by turning them into a publisher).
The problem with citing those Provisions is those companies have never claimed direct ownership of said accounts. This is an entirely new legal argument.
It’s pushing existing boundaries, but I wouldn’t call it an entirely new argument. Twitter’s lawyers could (and probably would) argue that a Twitter account is analogous to something that is already well-established as being both property of the service provider and insulated enough that it doesn’t make the service provider liable for content published through it.
My previous example of “Twitter account = IP address” is probably the easiest to explain through analogy.
An IP address is an addressable identifier. /
An account is an addressable identifier.Verizon owns their IP addresses. /
Twitter owns their accounts.Subscribers can communicate under one of Verizon’s IP addresses. /
Users can communicate under one of Twitter’s accounts.Verizon can not be held liable in civil court for actions performed with one of their IP addresses. /
… (this is the argument Twitter could make)A sane court would probably find that the second point isn’t comparable because an account uniquely identifies a specific entity whereas an IP address is shared, but we don’t exactly live in times where sanity is a given. Alternatively, they could argue that “Twitter handle = IP address” and “Twitter account = subscriber account”.
In any case, we won’t find out until when/if it makes it to court. Though, if it does, that might actually be one and only time I don’t side against the MPAA or RIAA.
He didn’t think that far ahead.
He didn’t think
He doesnt think
Sure, but that doesn’t mean he owns any trademarks that might appear within those account names, like, say, Infowars or some such. He can give the account to whoever he wants. But he can’t protect them from being sued for trademark infringement if they use it.
Only if they sue because they are pretending to be infowars. I can register “google” as a username all I want and they can’t actually stop me as long as I don’t pretend to be them or use their logo.
What if they put a blue tick on it?
Straight to jail.
