Will Elon Musk Turn Twitter Into Yahoo Mail?

On with Kara Swisher

New York Magazine

News Commentary, News, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Twitter rose to prominence as a global public square that helped enable the Arab Spring, but Elon Musk has changed all that. The platform is complying with governments more, and a murky algorithm and blue check jungle makes it feel less relevant and less reliable than ever before. Nayeema and Kara break down how the fruit has fallen and where it may eventually land (Yahoo Mail, anyone?) with Zoë Schiffer, managing editor of Platformer, and Ryan Mac, The New York Times’s tech and accountability reporter, who was among those banned by Musk back in December. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram — yes, Instagram, it’s better than Yahoo Mail — we’re @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Magazine in the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is on with Keraswisher, and
0:11.3	I'm Keraswisher.
0:12.9	Just kidding, I'm Neymaraza.
0:14.3	Yeah, I'm Keraswisher, and I get to be a guest today.
0:17.3	Nobody is Keraswisher, but Keraswisher, just so you're aware.
0:20.0	No, you keep Keraswisher, I'm very happy being Neymaraza, and it's wonderful to have
0:24.0	you on as a guest today.
0:25.0	We're going to talk about Twitter, and while we're sometimes low to cover it, we get
0:29.4	the emails and the reviews that are like, stop talking about Elon.
0:32.6	And by the way, again, may I stress, he's an important figure in tech right now, and
0:36.4	across the world, whether it's cars or space or Starlink, Ukraine, he's very important.
0:42.1	So I'm sorry if you're tired of him, so we're way, but here we are.
0:45.4	Alas, and it's critical this week, as Elon has put supposed free speech absolutists,
0:50.2	got tangled up with the Turkish elections at the behest of Turkey's president Erdogan
0:54.3	who's been in power for, oh, I don't know, a mere 20 years.
0:57.8	It's similar to actions the company has taken in India, the UAE, Germany, he is complying
1:02.8	with governments more than ever before, according to certain reports.
1:06.0	And it begs the question, are Twitter's town square days over?
1:09.1	Yes.
1:10.1	This is a company that really rose to prominence during the Arab Spring, and now that
1:12.8	DNA seems to be completely gone.
1:15.0	Yeah, that's gone.
	...

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