[joshmanders]

> "He bought the man, it is his property now. He can do with him as he wishes" - legal ownership can still be wrong.

Jesus do you even read the words you just typed? Someone bought a company that was hemorrhaging money, he let go of the fluff and you're equating it to slave ownership?!

[Karunamon]

It is somewhat telling that those who used to dismiss all complaints about Twitter's moderation practices with a variation of the "private companies can do whatever they want" canard, are not really repeating that one anymore, or worse, seem to have abandoned that principle outright and are now complaining that the owner is, indeed, doing whatever he wants.

Twitter was a $4 million a day money pit at the time of its acquisition. It has had 2 profitable years in its entire life. Corporations are not charities and it absolutely beggars belief that people seem to think radical changes were not both necessary and inevitable.

[zimpenfish]

> Twitter was a $4 million a day money pit at the time of its acquisition.

Do you have a source for that? They lost $221M in 2021[1] which is ~$600k/day (and that was after a $800M lawsuit settlement which would have put them at ~$580M profit for 2021.)

[1] https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-posts-loss-2021-stock-1301280...

[Karunamon]

Twitter hasn't even been acquired for a month yet, how are numbers from nearly 2 years ago even relevant?

Straight from the horse's mouth: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1588671155766194176

[zimpenfish]

Ok, do you have a source that isn't someone known for playing fast and loose with facts, especially financial ones? Anything pre-takeover that suggests they were losing $4M a day? Because it is almost certain that the $4M a day he quotes is likely only due to the $1B a year debt interest Musk himself saddled the company with.

Or do you think it is even slightly plausible for a company to go from a profit of ~$570M to a loss of ~$1.4B in under a year?

[Karunamon]

Pre-takeover is irrelevant. The statement I said was "at the time of acquisition". If you don't want to take the word of the person who likely has the greatest insights on the financial status of a nonpublic company they own, welp, don't know what to tell you.

And regardless of the rate of loss, the fact remains that twitter, throughout its entire history, has been a money-losing operation. Even taking the literally 2 years they were in the black, that doesn't wipe out the other unprofitable years. This seems like one hell of a nit to pick.

[kemayo]

Is this the moment to snarkily bring up "corporations are people, my friend"? :D

[parineum]

"Corporations are people" is the plural of "a corporation is people". It has nothing to do with assigning person hood to a corporate entity. "Corporations are people" is in reference to the 1st amendment free speech rights that the _people_ who make up a corporation still maintain when they are acting as a group.

Consider not eating up the soundbites of politicians without understanding the context.