New: Musk's X filed a highly unusual objection in The Onion's bid to buy InfoWars, arguing that X has “superior ownership” of all accounts on X and shouldn't be given to The Onion. A stark reminder you do not own your social media accounts, political move www.404media.co/xs-objection... - ThreadSky

josephcox.bsky.social • 90 days ago

New: Musk's X filed a highly unusual objection in The Onion's bid to buy InfoWars, arguing that X has “superior ownership” of all accounts on X and shouldn't be given to The Onion. A stark reminder you do not own your social media accounts, political move https://www.404media.co/xs-objection-to-the-onion-buying-infowars-is-a-reminder-you-do-not-own-your-social-media-accounts/

Comments

bweatherson.bsky.social•90 days ago

Wouldn't this have absurd consequences if applied across the board? No bankrupt company with an X/Twitter account could be the subject of a forced sale in bankruptcy. Since almost all companies have X/Twitter accounts, this would affect a lot of cases.

nonajabiznez.bsky.social•90 days ago

The only thing in question are the X accounts, not the rest of the business.

partyglouberman.bsky.social•90 days ago

If he owns all accounts on Twitter then I didn't really say all that stuff, he did. Sweet.

emuhp.bsky.social•90 days ago

Means he can get fired on your behalf. Even sweeter

meson.ninja•89 days ago

it's the dumbest dystopian future that we deserve

peter-butler.bsky.social•90 days ago

>> Meta, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, and ByteDance have run up astronomical valuations by more or getting people to fill their platforms with content for free, and have created and destroyed countless businesses, business models, and industries

Bears repeating

royherdman-adk.bsky.social•90 days ago

The Onion should just close all InfoWars account and turn the bots and troll loose on Xhitter

spacebanjo.bsky.social•90 days ago

What an appalling human being Musk is.

meidastom.bsky.social•90 days ago

Elon Musk is a trash individual.

whateer2023.bsky.social•90 days ago

Could Sandy Hook family bring in X as a co-defendant of Alex Jones, and seeking penalty from X as well?

constantmalachi.bsky.social•90 days ago

I feel like the right wing is running the playbook of do whatever you want and then throw it to the courts, while simultaneously stacking the courts with sycophants.

Is there a name for a government run by the justice system? Cause that seems to be their aim.

shadenightingale.bsky.social•89 days ago

Judicial sovereignty?

tarkio.bsky.social•90 days ago

If they prevail, wouldn't The Onion just say "Fine, you can't use our registered trademark on your site"? I'm assuming InfoWars has a trademark, I guess.

fancycwabs.bsky.social•90 days ago

If I’m reading the internet right, anyone using the infowars brand on Twitter other than The Onion would be unlawful impersonation, and would be prosecutable as a felony in Texas, sending the person who committed it (I presume Alex Jones) to prison for up to ten years.

sandibachom.bsky.social•90 days ago

They own all their tapes and shows and supplements

undeadlobster.bsky.social•90 days ago

Did the Onion also buy the rights to Alex Jones’ name and likeness?

tarkio.bsky.social•90 days ago

I'm talking about the InfoWars name and all intellectual property. I am not a lawyer, and am usually about 3/4 of a tank full of shit.

jayalltheems.bsky.social•90 days ago

our petroleum-free future: cars that run on poop

undeadlobster.bsky.social•90 days ago

Same but it would be hilarious if jones had to license the sound of his own voice from the onion

tarkio.bsky.social•90 days ago

He testified that Alex Jones is a character. So can that character be separated from him?

I fear that walking any further down that path leads to me scrolling sovereign citizen sites and murmuring approvingly.

flintironstag.bsky.social•89 days ago

How did we come back to the Hulk Hogan's conceptual penis question?

amyhoy.bsky.social•89 days ago

shades of john fogerty, who won. i’d guess jones would too, if he sued

but presumably the onion deal included the trademark.

thispersonstinks.bsky.social•90 days ago

That was the case with Stephen Colbert and “Stephen Colbert.” I remember with his first year at CBS, Colbert couldn’t use the character since it was owned by Viacom/Comedy Central.

mooiest.bsky.social•89 days ago

That was only in his custody case

y2yasmine.bsky.social•90 days ago

Oh 100% if Disney has anything to say about it. TL:DR Robin Williams couldn't act, speak, or be anything like Aladdin's "Genie" forever because they owned the character. Onion SHOULD be able to do that with "Alex Jones, the character"

feefers.bsky.social•89 days ago

I believe they were offered and refused

undeadlobster.bsky.social•89 days ago

“We have Alex Jones at home”

originalaurelia.bsky.social•90 days ago

Yes

fosterinunity.bsky.social•89 days ago

I'd be interested to know if X has ever contested the ownership of an X account transferring or being sold before. What's at stake here is who owns the handle for future use (X specifies content belongs to the user). Handles must have transferred before. Court will ask why X is only interested now.

todancebeneath.bsky.social•90 days ago

Idiotic.

cannibalgnome.bsky.social•90 days ago

In that case, I hope that the plaintiffs that successfully sued Alex Jones and Infowars file suit against Elon Musk and Twitter as well

lessafetoday08.bsky.social•89 days ago

Alex Jones is an evil, fat, f**k. The world will be a better place when he is gone.

kbgpolitics.bsky.social•90 days ago

Xcrement.

chuckolalala.bsky.social•90 days ago

Everyone should quit using X anyway.

colleenmr.bsky.social•90 days ago

joejustice4all.bsky.social•90 days ago

Elonazi wants to take over all media. Like the Orange Peel, his diaper fills when someone says something bad about him.

dewline.bsky.social•89 days ago

...the HELL he says!

justbluejean.bsky.social•89 days ago

The Onion has been around decades longer than X or Twitter. X doesn’t own The Onion anymore than I do.

Elon is just pissed he didn’t come up with the idea.

Stupid.

glairedaggers.bsky.social•90 days ago

Doesn't the case X is citing actively disprove their own assertion?? The case they refer to is one in which the CEO of a bankrupt company was not allowed to keep the account as it was ruled to *belong to that company* (not to Twitter, nor the individual)

glairedaggers.bsky.social•90 days ago

Like.... If anything wouldn't that case support Alex Jones *not* being allowed to keep that account?

majingojira.bsky.social•90 days ago

Ownership, but no responsibility for what is posted there.

Yeah, that's Conservatism in a nutshell.

mherz.bsky.social•90 days ago

Another reason not to use or advertise on Xtweeter. In any case X owns the platform but not the company.

votenanocratic.bsky.social•89 days ago

He took @x and other related when he bought it and he took @America or something this election. Once I heard he lawyers in the courtroom it was obvious none of those handles would go to adversaries.

fanaticrealist.bsky.social•90 days ago

Surely that would make Xitter jointly liable for any of Jones' and InfoWars' defamatory statements on the platform.

voteblue4vr.bsky.social•90 days ago

Interesting that he thinks that he owns the handle for huge businesses like Disney.
Wonder what the Disney lawyers would say about this?

oldpig.bsky.social•89 days ago

So, X is responsible for content?

fagankara.bsky.social•90 days ago

Is he arguing that the Onion can’t use Infowars account on TwiX?

shotal3.bsky.social•90 days ago

So Musk is just basically trying to take over the country with his money

mr-vee.bsky.social•90 days ago

...sound like something out of the Onion :)

onajkojikuca.com•90 days ago

When life imitates art

benbradley.bsky.social•89 days ago

When you can't tell the difference, it's Poe's Law.

swhiker.bsky.social•89 days ago

Another wave of people fleeing Musk’s crappy X app then.

deabreu-lucas.bsky.social•90 days ago

he will have his mind blown when he figures out that the onion has a whole site of their own

shablopligh.bsky.social•89 days ago

Meanwhile, the Bluesky team makes it so user-friendly that we’ll never want to leave, but we easily can if we want, with all our data

calliebreeze.bsky.social•90 days ago

📌

northsquatch.bsky.social•89 days ago

The onion and all non Maga accounts should delete their X profile and stop inflating elons wealth

wendella.bsky.social•90 days ago

I mean, this logic gives Elon the right to reject any sale, trade, or transfer of any entity anywhere that has an account on X.

Ambitious. X really IS the everything app!

taylorbizzle.bsky.social•89 days ago

lol superior ownership, what a dillweed

theyellowfinch.bsky.social•85 days ago

Outrageous presumption on elon musk's part.

nancym1.bsky.social•90 days ago

Then why didn’t Musk speak ip when it was for sale as part of the InfoWars package? Why only speak up now?

qhstone.bsky.social•90 days ago

Only because he's mad that The Onion won the auction, especially with their new ownership and management.

d-reezy.bsky.social•89 days ago

RepubliKKKans are huge hypocrites. How often do they accuse Dems of using companies in political ways yet here they are doing it out in the open, unabashed.

undeadlobster.bsky.social•90 days ago

Article should have cited what Elon did with @x and @america and probably others

He just took them

qhstone.bsky.social•90 days ago

I'm pretty sure he stole the @grok account too.

pizzaiollie.bsky.social•89 days ago

Didn’t he recently steal the doge handle also?

qhstone.bsky.social•89 days ago

Probably.

undeadlobster.bsky.social•90 days ago

He probably ran through user account and private messages like he was on super market sweep

avoidingpublic.bsky.social•89 days ago

😂

ztopia.bsky.social•90 days ago

Just how many accounts does InfoWars actually use on X to disseminate “information”?

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see the Onion post the same thing to all of them at once, exposing them?

thefitlife.bsky.social•90 days ago

So they want to be excluded from Section 230 and be held liable for everything posted on their platform 🤷‍♂️

x-tweeter.bsky.social•90 days ago

X may control handles, but the Infowars trademark is registered for multiple classes of goods and services including digital media, broadcasting, and entertainment including political and social commentary. Anyone else using the handle for those purposes is begging for a hilarious infringement suit.

wowlock.bsky.social•90 days ago

Wtf an Twitter account has to do with a business ownership? Does Musk think he owns NBA etc too because they have a Twitter account?

blue82.bsky.social•89 days ago

Um...the Onion diesnt need the social media accounts.

entropyfueled.bsky.social•90 days ago

I am certain that if someone posts copyrighted material and then a copyright owner sues X because they own the accounts and thus do not fall under Section 230 safe harbor, the X legal team will have thought of this...

skewer0846.bsky.social•89 days ago

Section 230 has no effect on intellectual property like copyright. I'm not sure if it would have an effect on DMCA safe harbors though.

votenanocratic.bsky.social•89 days ago

I imagine if Global Tetrahedron is denied the handles ostensibly included in the auction, they can sue to make sure no one else is allowed to have them and no one ends up getting them. Or Elon just lets the losing bidders have them anyway and sees if he gets sued for it.

daybreaker.xyz•90 days ago

The X legal team has probably been reduced to a single lawyer who barely graduated from Liberty university.

gearoidmm.bsky.social•90 days ago

that's what I was thinking. Does section 230 apply if they claim complete control over the accounts?

tuttyfrutty.bsky.social•90 days ago

This is the million dollar question.

arcani.bsky.social•90 days ago

Section 230 has no reference to or dependence on theories of account ownership and was specifically created to allow platforms post hoc editorial control without publisher-style liability, so it doesn't seem likely that would be relevant.

entropyfueled.bsky.social•90 days ago

You might be right, I was thinking it would trigger indirectly, however. In the case where account changes hands, then X blocks posting, wouldn't that be editorial control just like LiveJournal fell victim to when they lost their safe harbor?

paul.bsky.social•90 days ago

Probably a similar scenario to when the @POTUS account changes hands.

arcani.bsky.social•90 days ago

That's a good point. I’m not familiar enough with the LiveJournal case to have an opinion on whether it would apply, but I can see the general argument on the relevance kc exercising that kind of control.

entropyfueled.bsky.social•90 days ago

My understanding is that the crucial point was that 'post hoc' control you mentioned. That is OK. But blocking posting before (in LiveJournals case they wanted to block pro-anorexia content) made them liable for every post that DID go through which lost them safe harbor protections.

laughlines.bsky.social•90 days ago

Well in reverse... The Onion could say that if you own Info wars's account then you should also be legally liable for the misinformation that was spread, no?

essbeck.bsky.social•90 days ago

No, the words and liability is attached to the person that wrote the stuff.

Also the liability have already been tried once right ?

trans.bsky.social•90 days ago

@bencollins.bsky.social - you have a chance to do the funniest thing ever to Elon Musk & twitter

trans.bsky.social•90 days ago

Sandy Hook parents et al. vs. Musk

liliana.transsexual.gay•90 days ago

That's gotta be one of the clearest examples of good vs evil there is

tinkerspider.bsky.social•90 days ago

I get out my pan and oil & start to make sum pocorn

skywitches.net•90 days ago

To wit: publish a schedule of statutory royalty fees for unlicensed commercial usage of the Intellectual Property and send invoices for the uses on a monthly basis, and when not paid in a timely fashion, sell them on to the worst debt collectors in the world

skywitches.net•90 days ago

Musk can pay the Sandy Hook families

laughlines.bsky.social•90 days ago

I see you have a bit of an evil streak in you. Not a bad idea.

dknecht77.bsky.social•90 days ago

Now this is a really good idea.

laughlines.bsky.social•90 days ago

Common sense approach to me 😁

entropyfueled.bsky.social•90 days ago

Obviously yes, if X owns the accounts then X is legally liable for everything posted. Legal exemptions for platforms are based on the users having almost all the control over their accounts, but if the platform claims it, well, there might be Consequences...

zuyadragon.bsky.social•90 days ago

actually that's a brilliant point and might very well be a functional nuke to what's left of the twitter value.

silovik.bsky.social•90 days ago

except US is a broligarchy now and anything Musk does won't have any real consequences

laughlines.bsky.social•90 days ago

Sadly, this is correct.

ljlawyers.bsky.social•90 days ago

Seems like just another contract for the bankruptcy court to accept, reject, or modify. Hope it takes the opportunity to f*** Elmo.

khunjon.bsky.social•89 days ago

That would be one hell of a legal precedent

edgcc.bsky.social•90 days ago

...and a clear reminder that X is responsible for the things that are posted on that platform. Just saying...

cats-wink.bsky.social•90 days ago

The power is in the weaponization of legal fees. Elon will weaponize legal fees against all anti-Trump resistance.

kbgpolitics.bsky.social•90 days ago

As Trump has done for decades before him. It's how he got out of paying his debts. Bankrupt people via the courts until they couldn't afford to pay the legal fees to defend themselves. Dunno why the press never made this character flaw a larger issue back in 2015. Talk about a shitty human being.

kbgpolitics.bsky.social•90 days ago

Lord knows the press gave Trump enough free coverage over his "birther" bullshit against Obama. But never covered this to the degree it deserved.

In case anyone is still wondering why so many are turning against the corporate press and media.

gramu-5.bsky.social•89 days ago

💯

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