There’s going to be a Twitter Files where Matt Taibbi exposes this in long form tweets, right?
Wait, they changed the name. It will have to be called the X Files now. I’m sure that won’t be problematic.
Removed by mod
It won’t, not to Elon. He’ll just take it over and claim ownership like he did with Tesla and whoever had @X and tunnels under the ground and dank memes and the severance plans of Twitter employees, etc etc etc.
Sounds like Twitter needs some obstruction of justice charges and for some people to get arrested.
Can they get Twitter, too? Obstruction of justice or messing with evidence or something like that?
They were already fined a pittance, so the chances of escalating are basically zero.
I agree it should perhaps have started off a little higher, but the fine was set so the amount added would double for every day they didn’t comply.
- day 1: $50,000
- day 2: +$100,000 ($150,000 total)
- day 3: +$200,000 ($350,000 total - this is what they paid)
- day 4: +$400,000 ($750,000 total)
- …
- day 7: +$3,200,000 ($6,350,000 total)
- day 14: +$409,600,000 ($819,150,000 total)
- day 28: +$6.7 trillion ($13.4 trillion total)
The day 3 fine wasn’t all that bad for them, but it wasn’t a fine they could just eat if they delayed as long as they wanted. Definitely not a “cost of doing business” fine, that’s for sure.
It is a cost of business fine at $350k.
Yes, the escalating fine is great and got compliance. I was commenting on the fact that since they eventually complied and paid a small fine, they won’t be charged with anything further even knowing the delay was intentional.
If they wanted to, yes.
If Musk had anything to do with it personally, can he be charged?
You can drag your feet as long as you can pay a lawyer to find a reason to stand up and argue. Somehow that’s not generally obstruction of justice. See how Trump has always evaded jail with this tactic.
Not for their argument they can’t.
They seem to have been arguing about the non-disclosure to the public/Trump, not the actual delivery of the tweets.
If they’d delivered the tweets/drafts, they would have complied with no downside, and still been able to fight the non-disclosure. (Or just do what they did anyway, and tell people about it)
The answer isn’t a solid no. I’d say doubtful though.
Requesting the drafts is interesting. I wonder if they thought they were being clever by sharing an account and communicating via draft messages.
Sneaky but not sneaky enough
I think what this is going to reveal (along with the location data) is that multiple people had access to the account and wrote/released “his” tweets. It would hardly be a surprising revelation given his background as a reality TV star (where shows have large writing staffs) and the fact that he didn’t write (or even read) his own autobiography.
I wonder if Elon’s tweet will apply here:
If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill, No limit. Please let us know.
Obviously I expect Elon is full of shit and won’t actually do this (or do it 1-2 times then get bored) but it would be funny to watch 2 assholes (Elon/Trump) fight over it.
Does the Wayback Machine keep track of twits…I mean tweets too?