The sequence of events from Elon Musk acquiring Twitter to now is an incredible journey.

• Elon Musk bought a social media company for tens of billions, attempted to back out of the deal but couldn’t because of his ineptitude by signing away the ability to reneg on the deal.^[1](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/technology/twitter-musk-lawsuit-reasons.html)

• Then there was the freedom of speech advocacy from Musk where he ultimately unbanned racists and then began sharing bigoted Tweets. But it’s only freedom of speech for his bigoted supporters, when authoritarian governments ask Musk to censor people/tweets he abides by their requests.^[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/27/twitter-has-complied-with-almost-every-government-request-for-censorship-since-musk-took-over-report-finds/)

• The site becomes inundated with the alt right, it’s become rife with bigotry.^[3](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/elon-musk-ron-desantis-2024-twitter/674149/)

• There was the whole verified blue check mark debacle where verification became something you could pay for, with people making fake “official” accounts. For example a fake account impersonating a pharmaceutical company caused their stock to drop abruptly following a satirical tweet.^[4](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2022/11/12/fake-eli-lilly-twitter-account-claims-insulin-is-free-stock-falls-43/)

• Twitter engages in mass layoffs and multiple things break on the site. There are also reports that they can’t pay rent in certain locations across the globe. Twitter is hemorrhaging advertisors, as they record a 59% reduction in advertisement sales.^[5](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/technology/twitter-ad-sales-musk.html)

• Elon Musk posts tweets seemingly apologizing for some of the changes and says he will follow the will of the people by posting polls for users to vote on policy changes. Musk asks if he should step down, to which the majority vote in favour of his removal. He then goes on a tirade about bots after losing in the poll. He goes on to say that only paid subscribers will be permited to vote in future polls. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.^[6](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/20/elon-musk-breaks-silence-after-10-million-twitter-users-vote-for-him-to-step-down)

• The crème de la crème is Elon Musk implementing a new restriction where you have to be logged in to see tweets and restricting the number of tweets you can view. Inadvertently DDOSing his own site.

1. New York Times - Why Elon Musk Can’t Back Out of Buying Twitter, According to Twitter

2. Forbes - Twitter Has Complied With Almost Every Government Request For Censorship Since Musk Took Over, Report Finds

3. The Atlantic -Twitter Is a Far-Right Social Network

4. Forbes - Fake Eli Lilly Twitter Account Claims Insulin Is Free, Stock Falls 4.37%

5. New York Times - Twitter’s U.S. Ad Sales Plunge 59% as Woes Continue

6. The Guardian - Elon Musk breaks silence after 10 million Twitter users vote for him to step down

XBMC

Wow that takes me back lol

This isn’t entirely the fault of the FTC, much of the underlying problems are because of the courts.

The FTC under Biden has been going after many different industries, from aviation to publishing, while the DoJ has been trying to stop mergers in fields such as healthcare and food. Both the FTC and DoJ have lost many cases in the courts in recent years. For example, the DoJ went after chicken producers for price fixing, but the jury ruled that they were innocent. Both the DoJ and the FTC lost over half a dozen cases just last year.^[1](https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-keeps-losing-antitrust-court-battles-few-expect-pullback-2022-10-04/)

It’s become pretty common for companies to prepare for litigation, they no longer believe that cooperating with antitrust agencies to negotiate a settlement is feasible under the current administration.

The current administration is litigating most mergers, and has had some success. For example the DoJ successfully stopped both Lockheed Martin and NVIDIA from buying competitors while the FTC blocked healtchare company mergers in some states.

But now the Supreme Court has passed a decision that would allow companies to shop for judges so that they can challenge the constitutional authority of federal regulators like the FTC and EPA.^[2](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/antitrust/federal-agencies-face-constitutional-fights-after-high-court-loss)

1. Reuters - U.S. keeps losing antitrust court battles but few expect pullback

2. Bloomberg Law - Federal Agencies Face Constitutional Fights After High Court Loss

Thank you for the transcription, human volunteer :)

The sequence of events from Elon Musk acquiring Twitter to now is an incredible journey.

• Elon Musk bought a social media company for tens of billions, attempted to back out of the deal but couldn’t because of his ineptitude by signing away the ability to reneg on the deal.^[1](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/technology/twitter-musk-lawsuit-reasons.html)

• Then there was the freedom of speech advocacy from Musk where he ultimately unbanned racists and then he began sharing bigoted Tweets. But it’s only freedom of speech for his bigoted supporters, when authoritarian governments ask Musk to censor people/tweets he abides by their requests.^[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/27/twitter-has-complied-with-almost-every-government-request-for-censorship-since-musk-took-over-report-finds/)

• The site becomes inundated with the alt right rife with bigotry.^[3](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/elon-musk-ron-desantis-2024-twitter/674149/)

• The whole verified blue check mark debacle where verification became something you could pay for, with people making fake “official” accounts. For example a fake account impersonating a pharmaceutical company caused their stock to drop abruptly following a joke tweet.^[4](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2022/11/12/fake-eli-lilly-twitter-account-claims-insulin-is-free-stock-falls-43/)

• Twitter engages in mass layoffs and multiple things break on the site. There are also reports that they can’t pay rent in certain locations. Twitter is hemorrhaging advertisors, as they record a 59% reduction in advertising revenue.^[5](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/technology/twitter-ad-sales-musk.html)

• Elon Musk posts tweets seemingly apologizing for some of the changes and says he will follow the will of the people by posting polls for users to vote on policy changes. Musk asks if he should step down, to which the majority vote in favour of his removal. He then goes on a tirade about bots after losing in the poll. He goes on to say that only paid subscribers will be permited to vote in future polls. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.^[6](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/20/elon-musk-breaks-silence-after-10-million-twitter-users-vote-for-him-to-step-down)

• The crème de la crème is Elon Musk implementing a new restriction where you have to be logged in to see tweets. Inadvertently DDOSing his own site.

1. New York Times - Why Elon Musk Can’t Back Out of Buying Twitter, According to Twitter

2. Forbes - Twitter Has Complied With Almost Every Government Request For Censorship Since Musk Took Over, Report Finds

3. The Atlantic -Twitter Is a Far-Right Social Network

4. Forbes - Fake Eli Lilly Twitter Account Claims Insulin Is Free, Stock Falls 4.37%

5. New York Times - Twitter’s U.S. Ad Sales Plunge 59% as Woes Continue

6. The Guardian - Elon Musk breaks silence after 10 million Twitter users vote for him to step down

I love exploring all the communities. It’s been a fun ride so far and a super positive experience!

Hey this is pretty cool, maybe I’ll get back into gaming during my summer vacation. Thanks for sharing!