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Spartanfred104 t1_j1ao52t wrote

Lol, no shit.

268

LesbianCommander t1_j1bxlon wrote

Can we all just acknowledge how stupid this entire thing has been?

Elon: "Twitter can't be trusted, it has a huge bot problem and the fact that that can influence elections is bad. I will buy Twitter and get rid of the bots."

Elon: "Actually, I don't want to buy Twitter, Twitter lied to me about how many real users are on the platform. I wasn't given enough information on just how big the bot problem was."

Elon: "I was forced to buy Twitter, I will now do everything based on Twitter polls. Like asking if I should step down as CEO. Even though I initially said they can't be trusted."

Elon: "I lost the CEO Twitter poll, and then replied to a person who claims it was botted by saying 'interesting' as if I didn't know Twitter polls could be botted."

https://i.redd.it/6gzvva9c8z6a1.png

119

The_Running_Free t1_j1c8cf3 wrote

I mean, I voted and I didn’t like or RT. Am i a bot? lol

20

crayonflop3 t1_j1d5erl wrote

I mean he is showing you all how rigged it is. Lefties screamed that was all conspiracy theory but here you all are claiming it’s known and he’s stupid for it. Sounds like rank hypocrisy, but I’d expect nothing else from crazy koolaid drinking libs

−34

Tostino t1_j1dmoqr wrote

Oh man, I wish you could see what you look like from the outside looking in.

19

crayonflop3 t1_j1e3xmu wrote

Yeah and I wish you could see how ridiculous and hypocritical you woke libs are. Christ, this place worshipped musk before he “came out” against your tribe’s bullshit.

−17

LesbianCommander t1_j1e87qi wrote

So he knew it was rigged, but used it anyways. To what end?

Show it was rigged? No one is walking away with that being the message.

Why did the "Bring back Trump" vote go in favor of bringing back Trump then? Were the Dem bots suddenly NOT against Trump?

Why did Musk, who knows the votes are botted, then offer Trump a return? Shouldn't he have done the opposite to spite the vote bots?

4

ade_of_space t1_j1eevjw wrote

Because now that he owns twitter, he is the one that can act on bots.

That is also why he act surprised when people mention bots, because it is an act.

The fact he accused twitter to be responsible for the bots..
Yet he was dead silent after buying his way into the seat of those that he had previously accused of being responsible for the bots.

Simply because accusing bots would unavoidably ends up accusing himself if we follow the trail.

Those polls he "lost" had always convenient margin but more importantly, he never lost a poll that actually had an important impact:

-The journalist ban lift: he was still forced to do it as before the poll happened, he was under the threat of a massive fine from the European Union for threatening press/free speech

-The resignation: he was already searching for a ceo since long, it just happened that he made the poll after Tesla threatened to replace him as a CEO due to his absence and tomfoolery

His polls has been a farce that he used to trick people into thinking how democrat he is, like a banana republic trying to appear democratic by helding sham poll.

It doesn't take much to see the ruse, it isn't even a good or clever ruse but if it is enough to fool the average/slightly below average citizens then that is enough to fool half the population.

1

Carthonn t1_j1bp3ks wrote

Like I know the internet is dumb but have we achieved a new level of stupid? Spending $45 billion on a company that’s just people arguing over nonsense that isn’t profitable while issuing polls to make policy decisions is unimaginable stupidity.

Whatever happens, just remember you aren’t Elon Stupid. In the Stupidity Hall of Fame 90% of the Hall will be dedicated to Elon. That guy is a fucking moron.

33

CatProgrammer t1_j1d0gn6 wrote

He didn't even originally intend to buy Twitter, he was just trying to manipulate the stock but was so stupid he got locked into it.

19

GreatFairyDavi t1_j1dgzat wrote

I didn’t know this and that is absolutely rich

4

CatProgrammer t1_j1dhdne wrote

It's not a definite thing, but it matches his previous pattern of activity, especially when you factor in how he offered so much more than the actual estimated value of Twitter. He even tried to back out by claiming there were more bots than he was told but wasn't successful because the contract he signed didn't allow that as an option, I believe.

9

GreatFairyDavi t1_j1dhh5w wrote

Oh that’s

Glorious

That’s beautiful

That’s what you get for trying to manipulate stocks and pretend your a good freedom fighter

3

naginagina t1_j1dw0f1 wrote

I know nothing about the law, but wasn't it because he waived due diligence or something?

2

CatProgrammer t1_j1dyv8x wrote

Going by r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/w19d6j/twitters_filing_in_delaware_court_shows_musk_was/ you do due diligence before signing any contracts to begin with.

2

gnometrostky t1_j1azklk wrote

Breaking news, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west!

14

greenbayva t1_j1bakb0 wrote

You are a witch! All your science and facts won’t help you in in the fires of hell ya demon!

3

RS_Mich t1_j1bdhaq wrote

This is written for readers who have little idea how social media and the internet actually work and think there’s a human doing all these activities.

4

Layer_4_Solutions t1_j1f8kb9 wrote

But who is buying votes to decide which side of the tweet views are shown on?

1

MortWellian OP t1_j1akjiy wrote

Archive here. Seriously, don't trust online polls.

> With less than $100, one can buy tens of thousands of votes for Twitter polls using bot-for-hire manipulation services, according to the nonprofit digital rights group Accountable Tech. The finding, first reported by Bloomberg, could spark new concerns about Musk’s reliance on the tool to chart the future of one of the world’s most influential social media companies.

Edit: Should note that this new research is after Elmo said he had cleaned up the bot problem, something that was already hard to believe with all the firings.

94

distantapplause t1_j1bbnms wrote

Who was 'trusting' Twitter polls anyway? Anyone who knows literally the first thing about survey methodology knows that 'my followers on Twitter' is only a representative sample of my followers on Twitter and nothing more.

44

MortWellian OP t1_j1bcnv2 wrote

A lot of his fan boys, and tbh I kind of think he drank his own koolaid with his love of polls.

Very true, that he's now going with "only blues" voting he's just reinforcing the echo chamber of his threads.

23

Brothernod t1_j1bpayp wrote

For all we know he’s leaning on the polls with his own bots.

7

MortWellian OP t1_j1btzlb wrote

Maybe? I'm just guessing by the leave/go post that he has little to know control on how polls break with getting spanked hard. Also not sure how well bots scale to the numbers that took that poll, how many would he have to use to keep it to a 15% loss?

I keep coming to things like his interpretation of Freedom of Speech and the reporters are still being blocked from posting. The man has his blindspots and I think he was honestly shook by the outcome rather than his bot army was that overwhelmed.

3

Brothernod t1_j1bulge wrote

I don’t know, and this is all pure conjecture, but I found the difference between the reinstate trump poll and the new ceo poll to be interesting.

Coupled with the rumors of him getting spanked by his Saudi Investors at the World Cup just a day before the poll, it felt like he had to go and was just trying to save face.

He played the exact same game when he did a poll about selling stock and paying taxes on it a couple years ago when he was really just trying to prevent a sell off while he cashed out.

3

MortWellian OP t1_j1bx5rh wrote

He did say in Nov (iirc) publicly he was planning the hand off, I thought he was going that route myself, but this report reminded me that after going quiet he said “maybe we might still have an itsy bitsy bot problem on Twitter.”, I'm just not getting it was a war of bot armies, but pure wild ass guessing on my part as well.

1

GibbonFit t1_j1c3ejd wrote

Dude, you can totally trust online polls aren't being manipulated. Pepsi was clearly in the wrong for refusing to name the new flavor of Mountain Dew "Hitler did nothing wrong." Does anyone actually believe that online polls are manipulated? Smh.

3

shawnp84 t1_j1c8ca1 wrote

I honestly think Elon did! I thought he would just laugh off not winning the poll about him resigning, but he just went silent for hours before throwing out reasons why the results were invalid. lol

How can someone this rich be so insecure?!

2

nzodd t1_j1c9pqp wrote

Honestly you have to be severely mentally ill to amass that much money in the first place, willing to lie, cheat and trample all over other people, sun up to sun down, solely for your own personal gain without shame or remorse. Dark triad personality disorders are rife in upper management. His father was an apartheid-era gem mine owner for Christ's sake, this is who these people are.

5

CatProgrammer t1_j1d0j8x wrote

Most rich people are at least cognizant enough to not act like dumbasses in public. Or if they do to not do it in a way that's easily documented, or to have PR people to smooth things over, or to do all sorts of other things that Musk is not doing.

2

darkingz t1_j1c2g4n wrote

I didn’t even know Elon was even doing polls at the beginning and only started hearing about them when they started to get more unhinged after the trump one. So, that plus the short voting time is even clearer he means to sample only when he’d think he’d get the best response.

1

GreatFairyDavi t1_j1dhe9c wrote

I take polls for my business and that’s what I try to explain the other day to a friend that I am only receiving about 30% of voting from people paying for the service and stuff and that it’s hard to trust polls because it’s such a fragment of info

1

this_1_is_mine t1_j1c32fw wrote

*elmu

Even Elmo would not be around this clown.

1

MortWellian OP t1_j1c49ap wrote

I don't know why that nickname appeals to me, think it's mostly a knock that he shouldn't be taken nearly as seriously as he thinks he should be.

1

Maleficent_Moose_802 t1_j1einmt wrote

Actually, you shouldn’t trust anything online. Polls or political / scientific comments or news. You may even assume I am a bot, or a dog.

1

Timlang60 t1_j1ezpor wrote

To be fair, that was a mistake anyone of his intelligence level could make. It was fair for him to assume that the people in the Bot Control department were controlling the bots. Simple misunderstanding, could happen to anyone. /s

1

SsiSsiSsiSsi t1_j1alxjn wrote

Twitter: The valueless shitheap you always imagined it to be.

71

night_dude t1_j1bb2lz wrote

Actually it's just not polls or voting that make Twitter valuable. But Elon has no idea what it is/was that made Twitter valuable - or he just doesn't like it - so he has set about destroying it.

5

Science_Fair t1_j1apo1d wrote

Remember when Elon tried to use bots to get out of the Twitter purchase? Pepperidge Farms remembers….

Does he even give a rats ass about the bots now that he owns the company? Doubtful

58

unresolved_m t1_j1b70wj wrote

The only thing he cares about at this point is owning the libs. He will tank both Tesla and Twitter to achieve that result.

20

makeitmorenordicnoir t1_j1clsfn wrote

At this point Pepperidge Farm is more reliable than LastPass…..

We live in a twilight world…..

3

Puzzleheaded_Poet_81 t1_j1at2x5 wrote

Lol, and Elon still couldn't win his own poll.

35

passinghere t1_j1c7yjt wrote

Unless his plan was to lose as he hates all the reality he's catching as the public CEO so he can claim to be "following the will of the people" and then simply install a pet puppet as CEO to take all the shit while Musk still controls everything via his pet puppet CEO.

17

CatProgrammer t1_j1d0nex wrote

You'd think that, but the whole "only Twitter Blues" can vote thing indicates losing that poll was somehow still a hit to his ego.

6

raven080068 t1_j1ams7h wrote

But muskrat said he was getting rid of the bots

21

unresolved_m t1_j1b738c wrote

About as trustworthy as Trump.

5

bitbot t1_j1cf10m wrote

You mean Drumpf. We only use childish nicknames here.

2

digitaljestin t1_j1b7p1f wrote

Who the fuck cares? Deciding something important with an online poll is peak stupidity.

15

kkehoe5 t1_j1brpr1 wrote

I mean we kind of do that when picking which politicians should be in charge, just in person.

4

witqueen t1_j1asp16 wrote

I read this as, Musk doesn't like result of poll telling him to step down, must have been bots.

14

wigg1es t1_j1b7kl6 wrote

Knowing nothing else about this author, this article definitely has a pro-Elon tilt to it.

6

MortWellian OP t1_j1atoja wrote

My personal take is after he said he took care of the bots and decided to use polling for his policies, turns out bots are still a problem. Think the "only blues can vote now" was his reaction to that poll.

0

wastingtoomuchthyme t1_j1ar5du wrote

Why even use bots?

He controls the software and the results of any poll on Twitter..

The whole use of bots things meaningless because he can have it say whatever he wants it to say because he pays the people that manage that software..

10

wigg1es t1_j1b73qm wrote

The article is implying that Elon lost his poll because other people used bots to vote against him and cause him to lose the poll.

1

azdood85 t1_j1bpf0d wrote

Wasnt the whole point of him taking over was to take care of the bots and misinformation?

Somehow has managed to do absolutely nothing towards those goals?

Sounds like he needs a "Poor" in his performance review.

8

DinoDad13 t1_j1c2h90 wrote

Elon's poll:

> Should Congress approve the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill?

Which he followed up with

> .@SenSchumer & @LeaderMcConnell , the public has spoken.

>They are overwhelmingly against this giant spending bill.

I'm going to assume he didn't restrict voting to U.S. citizens.

8

janoDX t1_j1exama wrote

I was able to vote, I live in Chile.

1

titaniumweasel01 t1_j1b1xzl wrote

Elon sweating as he has to decide to share the story to claim that all the polls that didn't go his way were fraudulent, or pretend the story doesn't exist so that he can keep acting like he solved the Twitter bot problem.

6

lad1701 t1_j1ba547 wrote

The bots are coming from inside the house

4

nzg412 t1_j1bp2rj wrote

THE MANAIC IN THE MAILBOX!!!

2

sigmabody t1_j1b850h wrote

You gotta laugh a little at articles like this, which pretty much entirely miss the forest for the trees. Elon literally owns Twitter. He (or anyone he directs) could literally change the results of any poll on Twitter to reflect any outcome he wanted. For some unfathomable reason, many people, including actual journalists, just assume (without basis) that the polls are somehow not artificially manipulated in the first place, which would make all discussion of bots and outside influence entirely moot.

The platform itself isn't neutral and/or unbiased. Bots and outside manipulation is pretty much immaterial; who cares about bots, when the results can just be (and are likely) just set to reflect the opinion of the platform's owner(s).

3

kkehoe5 t1_j1bry96 wrote

I’m sure if anyone at Twitter got wind of this actually happening, they’d whistle blow so hard to the cable news networks.

2

sigmabody t1_j1bu1fo wrote

Really? You think within the ~1k people left there, all of whom fall into either the group of hardcore Elon believers who would sacrifice everything to work 80+ hours a week for him, or the group who are literally too scared of losing a visa and being deported to leave even with all the crazy mandates, there's going to be someone who is going to complain to the media that *gasp* the poll results might not be entirely accurate, and not just because of bots?

I might have some beach front property to sell you in the midwest, and I'll even discount it below the historically hot current property market...

2

dead_alchemy t1_j1btm82 wrote

Too many counter examples of polls going against the wishes of the poller to assume this is a wide spread practice.

What makes you think it is likely? Aside from a sense of cynicism. Talking evidence.

2

sigmabody t1_j1c2e9b wrote

I have no inside evidence of what's going in within Twitter (thankfully).

However, based on a pattern of behavior, I would have absolutely no reason to believe Elon would not alter any poll where the result might be significant to him (and to be clear, to date, there have not really been any such). I also think people read significance into decisions which really don't have much (eg: whoever would be the CEO of Twitter would report to the owner anyway, so whether or not that's Elon is largely immaterial to how Twitter would be run). It's not that I think there's a magnitude of evidence to suggest alteration of any poll is likely per se; it's that I think there's a complete lack of evidence that it wouldn't happen (if meaningful), and there's no reason to assume or ascribe some fantasy of integrity and/or impartiality within Twitter at this point. It's honestly laughable.

3

dead_alchemy t1_j1ch4hh wrote

Ok, fair enough, narrowed down to “this particular company with this particular guy” I can only plead no contest.

2

hitsujiTMO t1_j1cvrf7 wrote

So he can easily buy votes and still lost?

3

cybercuzco t1_j1az79h wrote

Duh, he’s the one purchasing the votes.

2

RonyTheTiger t1_j1b8jp0 wrote

Also, polls are arbitrary and non-binding. Musk just does whatever satisfies his ego while trolling and shitposting for literally hours a day.

2

FPOWorld t1_j1bjuqp wrote

Elon Musk: I can’t buy Twitter because of all the bots

Also Elon Musk: the Twitter poll asking if Apple should disclose all censorship actions it has taken says they should… “the people have spoken”

Turns out he’s not that smart after all ☠️

2

mrtouchybum t1_j1c902r wrote

Breaking news: my dick is small

2

shark1818 t1_j1ckp1z wrote

This is a hilarious title for an article. How can you not understand this was a bot identification all along. And he planned to step down as CEO a long time before he ever made that poll.

2

Jesse_is_a_wizard t1_j1d87wm wrote

anyone with half a brain whos been on the internet for more than 5 minutes in the last 15 years would see this as extremely fucking obvious

2

Kevenz t1_j1dglpe wrote

Stupid way to run a company regardless.

2

Live-Ad6746 t1_j1dgzv2 wrote

Twitter is 4chan now and deleting your account is the best move you can make

2

sputnikv t1_j1f5bms wrote

Being a proponent of Twitter being run by polls all the while acknowledging the existence of poll manipulating bots is profoundly stupid. It’s so dumb that were it not for Musks’ idiotic responses to losing the poll, one might think he had intended on losing as part of some, at best, mediocre strategy to exit his role with some degree of grace. Nope.

2

lanahci t1_j1apyai wrote

Are people just now realizing this? This has been an issue since MySpace.

1

tlsr t1_j1atyju wrote

He should know this. After all, he made some bold claims about the number of bots and fake accounts twitter has.

1

adamsky1997 t1_j1axvvq wrote

Stalin had a saying "no matter who votes, what matters is who counts the votes". All this "research" is a waste of time

1

gnudarve t1_j1b1wou wrote

Shooting from the hip.

1

TrialAndAaron t1_j1b6ref wrote

I’m sure he can just modify the polls too. Lol

1

tektektektektek t1_j1b84lx wrote

I'm surprised Musk doesn't just order the counter to be manipulated directly on the database. Who is going to check?

It's not like it is a lottery overseen by a commission that verifies it is being conducted fairly.

Or maybe Musk deliberately wanted the Twitter using public to feel they were in control and he wanted to leave the CEO position the whole time.

1

spinereader81 t1_j1ba7bz wrote

Gee, if you can't trust the results of a social media polls, what can you trust?!

1

PhantomVisions t1_j1be1q8 wrote

I'm going to be *really* surprised when this is rolled back in a week

1

rawrc t1_j1blbli wrote

WHAT??? NO!!😲😲😲

1

AshDenver t1_j1bvwgr wrote

Really? No! That can’t possibly be true!

1

mia_elora t1_j1c8snh wrote

I figure he's already brought the bots out, at this point.

1

Cheap_Phrase9912 t1_j1cgcr8 wrote

Whaaat? I thought online polls were super safe? This is breaking news!

1

ArtDod t1_j1crbtl wrote

Let's be open to the possibility that Musk already knows votes could be bought.

Not suggesting he did it but being open to the possibility, given his last polls have gone to his liking (I would reckon), including the decision to step down as CEO while suggesting he will still micromanage everything.

1

Crovali t1_j1ctoki wrote

Force people to pay to vote, complain that the polls are botted to call for a repoll, acquire currency, polls don’t count for shit.

1

TheGlumSinger t1_j1d8739 wrote

Even the bots he controls want him to quit Twitter, maybe AI is getting sentient!

1

sten45 t1_j1di31z wrote

So bots are the reason Calvinball twitter is not a good way to run a platform.

1

trustifarian t1_j1dqkih wrote

At risk? I thought that was the whole point.

1

owlpellet t1_j1e8ztl wrote

They're also at risk of some Twitter exec just changing the damn results but we have to read about them anyway.

1

y2knole t1_j1ea789 wrote

nEw ReSeArCh ShOwS!!!

No fucking shit. LOL

1

chubba5000 t1_j1edzz9 wrote

Would charging a nominal fee for accounts that have voting power resolve this?

1

paradox398 t1_j1egrk1 wrote

twitter influencing votes is provable by 2020 election results

1

Netherspark t1_j1eoazq wrote

At this point Elon Musk likely controls more Twitter bots than anyone else.

It's already been established that around 70 million of his own followers are bots.

1

fgdfghdhj5yeh t1_j1erg6u wrote

This doesn't take research to find out.

1

Seallypoops t1_j1eywzf wrote

This just in man obsessed with bots and voter fraud does nothing to deter bots and voter fraud

1

Squidysquid27 t1_j1f3gb4 wrote

I'm sorry guys. I'll admit it. I voted No on his poll asking if he should step down as CEO. It's a cold, cold winter and I am really enjoying the 🔥

1

coontietycoon t1_j1fi9v9 wrote

I remember back it the day when everyone understood that internet polls were worthless and stupid.

1

DragoonDM t1_j1j2f3m wrote

I'm reminded of the "Time 100" online poll that Time Magazine held some years back, which a group from 4chan gamed to such a degree of specificity that they not only made moot the winner, they arranged the top 21 winners to make an acrostic.

https://techcrunch.com/2009/04/27/time-magazine-throws-up-its-hands-as-it-gets-pwned-by-4chan/

If you put a poll online, even a totally meaningless popularity contest, people are gonna take that as a challenge. All the more so if the poll actually has some tangible impact on something.

1

kkehoe5 t1_j1brg5p wrote

I know he’s not that smart to do it, but I want to think he’s doing all these polls to get tons of engagement. This way Twitter can go over all the voting data and determine the bot accounts and delete them.

But he’s just a crazy dude making up polls to show the illusion of user control.

0

Significant-Grand-37 t1_j1cepe3 wrote

Elon claims he got rid of robots stupid article comes out saying maybe the poll was rigged with bots, which one is it. He had numerous polls was it just the one he didn’t like the results of that were rigged?

Supposed to handle the misinformation on the site and deal with hate on the platform; plot twists it’s gotten worse a lot of truly awful people rolled out of the woodwork when he let some of those sterling personalities loose on the rest of us.

I have seen a huge uptick in server issues, stuttering pages not loading, tooooooons of random spam messages from throwaway accounts. It hasn’t improved a bit since Musk took over.

0

Deviatedspectre t1_j1b9v2p wrote

Musk surely knows everything has a price. Maybe he knew how the vote would turn out. The guy is pretty smart.

−1

blake182 t1_j1cnb8n wrote

Do you think his polls are a honeypot to flush out the bots? Honest question.

−1

TheBronAndOnly t1_j1au3n0 wrote

Only allowing verified users to vote on important polls would be a direct fix for this

−4

fargmania t1_j1bi6kt wrote

"important polls". You forgot the quotes, because internet polls are about as important as staying on the phone after you speak to a customer service rep to take the automated survey.

2

TheBronAndOnly t1_j1cglys wrote

That's a weird take. If a poll leads to action being taken, then its importance is determined by the impact of those actions - not the format for te poll - surely?

0

zeegreman t1_j1ca48a wrote

Fun fact: Reddit is 90% bots. Echo chambering Democratic propaganda and woke-ism.

−4