Elon Musk buys Twitter for $54.20 per share in takeover deal worth $44BN

[CF DolFan]

You literally can't imagine someone asking, "Does this mean ISIS is going to be unbanned from Twitter?"
Like, it's so obvious to you that free speech applies to neo-Nazis, but not jihadists that you cannot even conceive that being an issue.

No, I did not. In my mind any organization designated as a "Terrorist Organization" by the State Department would be banned from not ony Twitter but doing business with any American company. This is one of those things that I see as a given although time has taught me there are different views. Again ... that's why I asked the question to you guys.  I honestly don't understand how allowing people who disagree with you to have a voice and the fact something I say may hurt your feelings ... aka refusing to refer to you as Mrs. when in fact you are a male does not change that. It goes both ways. You can call me a girl or refer to yourself as it if you want. Heck ... you are free to make fun of religion which in reality is about the worst personal insult you can do to anyone in my opinion.

On the flip side if I threaten you because you call yourself an it, girl, boy, etc .... then I need to be shown the door. At least that is how I see it working.   

[Spider-Dan]

So if Biden's State Department declares the Proud Boys a "terrorist organization," they can then be banned from Twitter.  And if President Alex Jones declares BLM a "terrorist organization," they can be banned.  Basically, you're just saying the government should be the one to decide who gets free speech on Twitter.

[Dave Gray]

Side note:

Elon Musk is so rich that it's hard to understand motivations.  Normally, a business buyout is some kind of play to make money, but here, you just have no idea why he's doing it.

[Spider-Dan]

This is a symptom of a bigger problem.

In order to finance this purchase, Musk took on $25 billion in debt financing; debt that will require over $1 billion/year in interest alone.
Twitter's total revenue in 2020 was $3.7 billion, but its operating income was only $27 million.  If a good chunk of Twitter's largely left-leaning staff moves on, and Twitter is already operating deep in the red on debt servicing alone, this would essentially be a fatal wound to the company.

Now, for decades we've been living in a world where companies like Mitt Romney's Bain Capital have made a very lucrative business out of "buying" a company with heavy debt financing, bleeding it dry by raiding company assets like pension funds, then leaving it to die in a ditch while the lifelong employees are thrown out on the street and lose their pensions they had been working for most of their lives.  But over the last ten years or so, we've seen a new development: a wave of libertarian techbro billionaires now have the power to simply erase large companies from existence.  Musk's former partner at PayPal, Peter Thiel, chose to erase Gawker from existence because they "outed" him as gay.  And now Musk has gotten mad at Twitter and decided to buy it on a whim.  If he ends up buying Twitter just to drag it behind a fence and slip a knife in its throat... then oh well, that money was nothing to him anyway; he still has hundreds of billions more.

Too bad that the inevitable Tesla stock crash hasn't happened yet.  Hopefully that day comes before Elon Musk trades in more of his fantasy Tesla stock for some real power.

[CF DolFan]

So if Biden's State Department declares the Proud Boys a "terrorist organization," they can then be banned from Twitter.  And if President Alex Jones declares BLM a "terrorist organization," they can be banned.  Basically, you're just saying the government should be the one to decide who gets free speech on Twitter.

Short answer is yes to using the terrorist list. No, I don't think the goverment should be the one who decides what gets posted on twitter including Trump, Biden, Obama, Reagan etc. I can't see an administration designatiing a group as terrorist just to keep them off of twitter but I don't really truth the government either.

[Dave Gray]

I don't know Musk's intentions, like I said, but there's a reason these big tech companies put limitations and bans in place to begin with.   He's going to have to deal with that in some form, just like everyone did before.  When you just let whoever say whatever without consequence, the wheels fall off -- that could be that the platform is no longer interesting or viable, that sponsorships and ads dry up -- whatever.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Short answer is yes to using the terrorist list. No, I don't think the goverment should be the one who decides what gets posted on twitter including Trump, Biden, Obama, Reagan etc. I can't see an administration designatiing a group as terrorist just to keep them off of twitter but I don't really truth the government either.

Trump designated Antifa as a terrorist organization.  That was clearly just a political move as Antifa never engaged in anything remotely terror related.  Blocking traffic or defacing a monument to a confederate soldier is NOT terrorism.  Storming the US capital to reverse an election you are not happy with, IS TERRORISM. 

Trump was removed from Twitter after using Twitter to encourage a self-coup d'état. 

I am all for banning anyone who supported, participated or encouraged the overthrowing of the democratically elected government of the USA.  (That is a significant portion of the Republican party.) 

[CF DolFan]

Trump designated Antifa as a terrorist organization.  That was clearly just a political move as Antifa never engaged in anything remotely terror related.  Blocking traffic or defacing a monument to a confederate soldier is NOT terrorism.  

You try and make it sound so wholesome ... hahaha.  I get that it's an idea and NOT a complete organization but some members regularly wear black clothing, ski masks, scarves, sunglasses, and other crap to conceal their faces while they use improvised explosives and other homemade weapons against American citizens and police. I left out they also regularly use bricks, pipes, hammers, homemade bombs, chemical irritants, balloons filled with paint and ink, semi-automatic rifles, and one guy even attempted to ignite a 500-gallon propane tank on people. I'm not sure what you label that but I'll lose no sleep over them being labeled terrorist just as I wouldn't for the KKK.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

You try and make it sound so wholesome ... hahaha.  I get that it's an idea and NOT a complete organization but some members regularly wear black clothing, ski masks, scarves, sunglasses, and other crap to conceal their faces while they use improvised explosives and other homemade weapons against American citizens and police. I left out they also regularly use bricks, pipes, hammers, homemade bombs, chemical irritants, balloons filled with paint and ink, semi-automatic rifles, and one guy even attempted to ignite a 500-gallon propane tank on people. I'm not sure what you label that but I'll lose no sleep over them being labeled terrorist just as I wouldn't for the KKK.

Yes, on concealing themselves yes.  They have defended themselves against violent white supremist terrorist such as the ones who murdered Heather Heyer.  But as for the rest that is just Laura Ingram fiction. 

The KKK on the other hand has a history of terrorism going back over hundred years and including thousands of murders.  The KKK has murdered more Americans than Al-Qaeda, it is unquestionably a terrorist organization. 

[Spider-Dan]

Using "officially designated terrorist" is a convenient metric for conservatives, as the US establishment is terrified of labeling any domestic right-wing activity as "terrorism."  Somehow, they're always lone wolves with mental health issues.

Around 2009, DHS released a report warning that right-wing domestic terrorism was the biggest looming threat, and Republicans screamed so loudly that the Obama Administration walked it back.  And since that time, the biggest threat in this country has been... right-wing domestic terrorism.

So yeah, it's completely on brand for conservatives to cheer on Twitter bans for "terrorist organizations," as that label will never be officially applied to neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, QAnon, the Boogaloo Boys, etc.  Only brown groups will be labeled "terrorists."