Does it feel like your X account belongs to you and you can do whatever you want with it? That’s not true, according to a new court filing from the social media company formerly known as Twitter. It’s an argument that X is making in order to throw a wrench in The Onion’s recent purchase of InfoWars, the conspiracy theory media company run by Alex Jones. And it’s a great reminder that you don’t actually own what you think you own in the digital age.

  • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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    1 hour ago

    Good thing I did jackshit with my Twitter account and had it fully deactivated. It was hacked and posted some spam ads that I knew nothing about.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    5 hours ago

    Not supporting Musk here, but there is some truth to the claim in the headline.

    One major danger we currently have is everyone thinking that social media platform accounts are property. They simply aren’t – at least, not yours. If the company decides to terminate your account, they can do that. It will be supported by the TOS. You do not own it.

    You also don’t own data you put on it. Post a bunch of photos to FB? They own them and can do whatever they want with them.

    The danger is that these things are so ubiquitous they appear like information utilities, but they are not. They are corporate services wholly owned by their respective corporations. It is something that makes federated systems stand out from the crowd (not that you own an account there either, but there at least is not a single centralized corporate owner).

    More people need to be made aware of this.

  • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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    8 hours ago

    Elon Musk parody accounts no longer required to advertise themselves as parody, since they really are Elon Musk now.

  • Cornpop@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    He does though. Read the fine print. You are just allowed to use it. Not really surprising.

  • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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    13 hours ago

    The Onion should allow Musk to block the sale of the Twitter handle, then sue Alex Jones for falsely advertising the sale of an account he can’t sell and sue Twitter for infringing on their trademark of the InfoWars brand.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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      33 minutes ago

      Alex Jones had no say in what was being sold. The Court seized his assets and sold them to pay the people he owes.

    • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      You mean rich spoiled man-children who are nothing more than insecure adolescent tweens going through puberty and having sexually frustrated tantrums because girls just laugh at them, and their narcissism is so all-consuming that their only emotion is disdain and goal in all the world is more and more self-gratification and the insatiable pursuit of total control of everything, because they know deep down they will never ever be the recipients of genuine respect or admiration.

      Yeah that’s what I thought you said. Slight faux pas.

  • hypeerror@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    So if X-itter accounts were to threaten persons or places that were in the interest of the state to protect that responsibility lies on Musk?

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Gee wizz, I don’t think you understand Capitalism at all. Musk gets the profits and you get the liability.

      • hypeerror@sh.itjust.works
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        23 hours ago

        If only he were also trying to sue advertisers that no longer want to do business with him. It would be the perfect storm of what is good comes to me and what is bad is yours.

        • oyo@lemm.ee
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          7 hours ago

          I still don’t understand how the fuck that worked. Why would any company risk doing business with shxitter after that?

  • the_tab_key@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    I hadn’t logged into Twitter in years. Just signed in to delete my account. He can have it back.