Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts

Tuesday, 7 November 2023

Elon Musk places free speech above financial profit

Elon musk is brave. As you know he owns Twitter X. He is a great supporter of free speech. He says that unless you can accept someone you don't like saying something you don't like you don't have free speech. 

He is obviously anti-the cancel culture movement. And thank God for that. Indeed, free speech is more important than perhaps anything else and is protected by the American constitution. All democracies should have free speech but the woke movement and the cancel culture movement and, in this instance, financial profit curtailed it.

Elon Musk. Image credit see base of article.

But Elon Musk has reinstated a couple of Twitter users who were banned. One is Tommy Robinson who was suspended in 2018 and the other is Katie Hopkins who was banned in 2020. They both thanked him on Twitter and Musk explained their reinstatement in a post: "Why are their account handles on this platform? Free speech is allowed, provided laws are not broken."

He has continued to restore controversial accounts. But this is despite the fact that there was an exodus of advertisers from his platform because of...free speech leading to controversial tweets. This tells me that he places free speech above financial profit. Twitter X is struggling to make a profit.

Tom Robertson is a very controversial figure. He founded the English Defence League which is a far-right group. He stepped down from that in 2013. And Hopkins is also very controversial. She is also a right winger perhaps an extreme right-winger and very outspoken. She has compared migrants to cockroaches and in 2017 said on the platform that "we need a final solution" after the bombings in Manchester.

Perhaps Musk believes that in due course, over time, advertisers on Twitter X will come back as they realise that free speech is so important. It is very shortsighted of advertisers and very stereotypical of them to withhold their business from a platform that advocates free speech.

Image credit: By (U.S. Air Force photo by Trevor cokley) - https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7132411/usafa-hosts-elon-musk, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134662229

---------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Sunday, 9 July 2023

Twitter allows adverts alongside pictures of animal cruelty and injuries whereas Google does not

Twitter has different policies to Google AdSense on the images and videos which they say are acceptable. And Twitter is a platform for advertisers. Fundamentally there is no difference between Twitter and any other website. There is content in the form of words, images and videos alongside advertising. That applies to all websites with advertising.

Twitter allows adverts alongside pictures of animal cruelty and injuries whereas Google does not
Twitter allows adverts alongside pictures of animal cruelty and injuries whereas Google does not. Image: MikeB

Update: In the Times today, it reports that advertising revenue on Twitter is about 50% less than it was before Musk's buyout and that's partly due to a lack of moderation of tweets as advertisers don't want their adverts to be alongside crappy tweets. Point made.

So why the huge difference in policy between Google AdSense and Twitter? Twitter allows almost anything on animal cruelty. There is too much of it for animal advocates. Certainly, for me. It is horrible. But their advertisers don't complain. There are some really horrendous images which would certainly be in breach of Google AdSense policies on content alongside their adverts.

To be clear: Google won't allow images and videos of animal cruelty and grizzly images of injured animals of the kind you see on Twitter as they are in breach of their policy.

I don't have the answer as to why their policies are so different. Someone has made the better decision but I don't which of the two it is. Perhaps both are wrong.

In order to fight animal cruelty there needs to be some imagery of cruelty against animals to help get the message across. But it is needs to be moderated. Perhaps Google is too strict and Twitter too liberal.

Comments welcome. Sorry, this is so short and inconclusive.

Update: News from The Guardian newspaper:

Twitter faces a landmark legal challenge after the social media giant failed to remove a series of hate-filled tweets reported by users in what could be a turning point in establishing new standards of scrutiny regarding online antisemitism.

Same issue really: unregulated or not moderated adequately. This may be due to Musk sacking thousands of Twitter employees as the business was failing dramatically when he bought it (by mistake!). 

Wednesday, 10 May 2023

Cat-liking journalist killed by Russian missile when covering the Ukraine war

The tweet is very sad. Arman Soldin was an AFP journalist. And it would appear that he was an ailurophile - a cat lover or at least a cat liker. According to the Defense of Ukraine tweet (a great Twitterer by the way) he was killed by a Russian missile attack on Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region of Ukraine. 

Arman Soldin an AFP journo was killed by the Russians in Ukraine
Arman Soldin an AFP journo was killed by the Russians in Ukraine. Image: Twitter.

The Defense of Ukraine tweeting authors always spell 'Russia' without capitalising it. I believe this is a deliberate sign of disrespect and I agree with them. No one should respect Russia anymore. 

Putin says that the West wants to destroy Russia and that the West has started the war. It is complete mumbo-jumbo. He is constantly feeding misinformation to the citizens of Russia. He calls black, white and white, black. He is a consummate liar and I think that he believes his lies. If he could have made friends with the West it would have protected Russia. His actions are jeopardising Russia; making it more vulnerable

The Defense of Ukraine tweet concludes: "Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and coworkers. He dedicated his life to informing the world about the truth. His legacy, as well as his cause, will live on."

RIP Arman. God speed. And I love the ginger tabby cat on your shoulder. I hope the cat was not with you when the missile struck. I wonder what happened to this cat?

UPDATE from CBS: "The French judiciary has launched a war crime investigation into the death of AFP reporter Arman Soldin who was killed in Ukraine, anti-terror prosecutors said Wednesday."

Soldin, 32, died when he and his AFP colleagues came under fire by Grad rockets on Tuesday while they were with Ukrainian troops near Chasiv Yar, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. According to the AFP, other reporters with Soldin were not injured in the attack.
 
Hundreds of thousands of animals have been 'murdered' by Putin's forces during this illegal invasion. It is horrible and tragic. Not enough has been mentioned about them.

And many thousands of domestic cats have become feral. They've become homeless as their owners have been killed in their flats. There is a girl who looks after them where she lives. Heroic.

Here she is: 11-year-old girl feeds abandoned cats in devastated Ukraine. The girl's name is Veronika Krasevych. Such an adult character and approach to animal welfare from such a young girl. She sounds like an adult when she talks about cats.

11-year-old girl feeds abandoned cats in devastated Ukraine. The girl's name is Veronika Krasevych.
Video screenshot.

Saturday, 19 November 2022

Twitter on the brink of shutdown and it's going to affect animal rescue!

I'm being very speculative in this short article, but it occurred to me that Elon Musk's approach to staff management at Twitter may have a very detrimental effect upon animal welfare across the planet. 

He's been brutal in his takeover of Twitter which has resulted in some reports suggesting that up to 75% of employees have refused to take up his offer of working long hours and providing 'exceptional performance'. To him, only that would qualify as a 'passing grade' in his words.

Twitter has seen mass resignations following an email from Mr Musk, it has been claimed. Image: Getty Images.

And therefore, there's been a mass exodus of employees. It appears that he is risking losing his $44 billion which was the price of Twitter. Apparently, he overpaid quite substantially for the social media website which is relatively small compared to websites such as Facebook. 

As I understand it, it's about 10th in the league of social media sites by size. But it is influential, and a lot of animal welfare operations rely on it for effective communication and promotion.

Elon Musk seems to be unconcerned because he said that: "We just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage". But a lot of engineers have walked out and there is a possibility that understaffing Twitter will gradually undermine the functionality of the website. 

Things will start to go wrong because not enough engineers and developers are around to fix the ongoing problems.

It appears that Elon Musk has decided that Twitter is populated by lazy staffers. He wants to weed out anybody that he considers by his standards to be lazy and not contributing enough but is he being too brutal and direct?

He's offered three months' severance for those employees who want to leave. Over the weekend he is closing down the Twitter offices. Why is he doing this? I've heard on the news that he is frightened of a disgruntled employee sabotaging Twitter.

One employee, a tech writer called Gergley Orosz said that: "[It] sounds like playing hardball does not work. Of course, it doesn't."

It would be disappointing to lose Twitter. Firstly, I don't mind in the slightest, but it would negatively impact animal welfare I believe.

Saturday, 19 February 2022

Chris Packham appeals to Gary Lineker on Twitter to get involved in the Zouma cat kicking incident

 Here is the tweet by Chris Packham directed at Gary Lineker.

Note: This is an embedded tweet. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

It is not clear to me what he specifically wants Gary Lineker to do. My guess is that he wants Lineker to put pressure on West Ham administration to punish Zouma more and perhaps terminate his contract with West Ham if it is feasible as per the terms of Zouma's contract.

We are still waiting for the RSPCA to reach a decision on what to do: prosecute Zouma or not. They are taking far too long over this. The evidence is in the video. It is plain for all to see. I guess they need to interview Zouma and the other people in the video. But the sluggishness of their investigation indicates a lack of commitment to prosecute.

Chris Packham publicly communicating with Gary Linker on Twitter
Chris Packham publicly communicating with Gary Linker on Twitter. Screenshot

They are probably scared to make a decision as the case is so high profile. It was viral news for days. The cats are still with the RSPCA as far as I am aware. They should be taken from him permanently and rehomed.

The cat he kicked was a Bengal cat I believe. We don't know what filial. If the cat is a high filial such as and F2 the incident supports the desire of Packham and others to change the licensing laws on keeping high filial wild cat hybrids so that the licensing of these exotic cats is refused by the local authorities. This would stop the ownership of high filial wild cat hybrids in the UK by the backdoor.

Packham sees wild cat hybrids as damaging the conservation of the wild cats as the breeders need servals to create F1 Savannah cats and Asiatic leopard cats to create F1 Bengal cats. It is the importation of these wild cats into the UK which damages their conservation.

Friday, 8 October 2021

The world is a cat playing with Australia (tweet)

You might have seen it: an image in a tweet in which the artist has drawn the outline of a cat covering all the countries of the world (almost) while Australia is a ball that the cat is playing with. It's quite clever. An interesting aspect is that the cat's backside it in the exact same spot where the United States is! I disagree completely with the implication because I really like the United States. A different culture to the UK but by and large a good one and I love the space and the size of the country. And they love cats except for a few miscreants who like to shoot them.

The world is a cat playing with Australia (tweet)
 The world is a cat playing with Australia (tweet)

But this drawing can't be true because there is nothing in the news or anywhere else which indicates that the world is playing with Australia. Australia fits in quite nicely with the world. You could argue that China is playing with Australia as reflected in the dispute between these countries over China's treatment of the Uighur Muslims. There is friction between them. That's about the only idea that comes to mind in terms of one country playing with another.

TWO AUSTRALIAN CAT STORIES:

Actually, that's incorrect because I've just thought about Russia playing with Europe over their supply of natural gas. They are jerking Europe around by reducing supply which forces the price up and then saying that the price could come down if Europe agreed to a new gas pipe line which they are constructing and which is controversial. Russia wants to control gas flows to Europe to have some leverage on political decision-making in Europe and particularly in Germany. But that is a boring political topic and nothing to do with cats whatsoever.

If you are trying to figure out what sort of cat that this person is drawn you would have to say that it is a random-bred cat with a cobby body meaning quite stocky. The British Shorthair comes to mind actually but this is a purebred cat. I am trying to weave into this article something to do with cats!

There is one last observation that I have. The tail is far too short for any cat other than one of those semi-tailless cats that you see in Asia padding around the streets. They do have a lot of Siamese-type cats and other types of cat with short and/or kinked tails. This supports the story that the first Siamese cats to be imported into England had kinked tails. They were sick cats with worms apparently.

The cat fancy in the West selectively bred out of the Siamese cat the kinked tail but if you feel a Siamese cat's tail you might be able to detect the vestiges of that famous kink.

Thursday, 5 August 2021

Put pretty, androgenous Korean boys with pretty, popular cats and you get this

If you Google "cats" on Twitter you are invariably flooded with a plethora of pictures of pretty, androgenous Korean boys and cats. The boys are always smiling, clearly jovial and happy while someone else films them so that they can post the video on Twitter to bore their fans. I'm being cynical and sarcastic. 

But we see an awful lot of these sorts of images and I think the producers of these videos and still photos somewhat cynically join together two popular aspects of entertainment namely pretty boy bands from South Korea (if that is what they are because I'm guessing) and beautiful domestic cats. 

It's a great combination for young women and teenage girls. I guess these images and videos are exclusively targeted at young women and girls. Arguably it's an exploitation of the cat but it is so mildly done and inconsequential that I don't think anybody could criticise anybody for these images.

Put a pretty boy with a pretty cat and you get this
Put a pretty boy with a pretty cat and you get this. Image: Twitter.



I can't deduce anything from this Twitter tweet other than it is what it is. It's a form of entertainment and publicity. The boy band wants to publicise their presence. I am sure that boy bands are very competitive. They are created by producers who put together a band of attractive, androgenous boys as a product to sell to the public. They have a shortish lifespan. They are transient.


A cat or two has been added in this one to spice up the image of the band. Two of the photos show a Scottish Fold, a cat breed that I have said should not be created for health reasons. Taylor Swift made the Scottish Fold popular. I am afraid that she made a mistake. She has a huge number of followers on her Instagram (166m) and Twitter feeds (88.5m). Therefore, what she does has great influence among youths who are easily influenced.

Tuesday, 16 February 2021

The Oval Pawffice is a cool Twitter feed for Bidens' two dogs and cat

Well this is cool. I'll guess and say that the President's wife started this Twitter feed. He's been far too busy so that was an easy guess. The Twitter feed is all about the two dogs and the one cat (new arrival) who live with the President and his wife, Jill. She is the love of his life.


It has 193k followers. They have a mug! That's cool too. It's $14.99! 

Presidential mug showing his 2 dogs
Presidential mug showing his 2 dogs Champ and Major. Photo: Pawffice!

This is a nice photo too:


Major one of President Biden's 2 dogs looking out of the window of the Oval Office
Major one of President Biden's 2 dogs looking out of the window of the Oval Office while the President signs some executive orders. Photo: Twitter feed.


The photo below is of the new President and his two dogs Champ and Major. I think it was taken on the White House lawn. Not sure.

President Biden with his two dogs on the White House lawn
President Biden with his two dogs on the White House lawn? Photo: The Bidens from their Twitter feed.

I wonder if their new cat gets along with the dogs and vice versa. It is a tricky one and no reports on this.



Monday, 18 May 2015

Revocation of Kristen Lindsey's Veterinarian's License

Complaint about vet who killed cat will take up to three years to process

This is a cross-post. The link above discusses the same topic. Don't hold your breath! I expect that you are familiar with the now infamous veterinarian Kristen Lindsey who proudly declared to the world in a Twitter feed, with a photo of her holding a cat with an arrow through his head, that she enjoyed killing him. If you haven't heard about her this link will fill you in.

A complaint was made to the Texas Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners (the Board) requesting (I presume) the revocation of her license. The response was standard and it indicated that the whole evaluation process of her right to practice veterinary medicine and what they intended to do would take up to three years.

This is a lengthy timetable. Perhaps that is convenient for the Board because the longer it takes the more likelihood there is of it being kicked into the long grass and forgotten.

People have short memories and nowadays short attention spans as well. Three years is more than adequate for this grizly episode to be buried. That would be a shame because Lindsey has declared that she takes pleasure in killing animals and in this instance she allegedly killed a neighbor's cat with an arrow who happened to wonder into her backyard. Her mum took the photo of her. At the time the photo was taken it is said that the cat was still alive with an arrow right through his head.

She is not fit to be a vet in my opinion. The selection of vet students arguably needs to be reviewed.

Here is a photo of the letter from the Board.

Friday, 12 December 2014

Facebook becoming unfashionable among younger users

This is hardly about cats but it is, perhaps, indirectly about cats. Internet users appear to be falling out of love with Facebook and Twitter. This may be because the majority of users on Facebook are younger people and they have taken to using new services such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Ofcom, the regulator of telecoms and media in the UK, said that the portion of people who checked their social networks weekly had fallen from 65% a year earlier to 56% in October 2014.

Apparently Facebook and Twitter are also on the wane in the United States and Japan together with China. The rate of decline in those countries is slower than in the UK.

It appears that Facebook has become unfashionable with younger people which indicates that it is more fashionable with older people and with respect to this it may be the case that middle-aged and older cat lovers now spend more time on Facebook than they did on cat websites.

A lot of Websites have a Facebook presence and it is almost as if that the people who would have visited the website now visit Facebook instead. The idea of a website having a large Facebook presence is to promote the website but the danger is that people migrate to Facebook instead.

The way Facebook has dealt with this is is to buy up companies such as Instagram, which appeal to the younger market.

Instagram, which is a photo sharing network, say that they have 300 million users which overtakes the number of Twitter users (284 million).

Featured Post

i hate cats

i hate cats, no i hate f**k**g cats is what some people say when they dislike cats. But they nearly always don't explain why. It appe...

Popular posts