[liberationtech] Saudi Prince invests $300mn in Twitter
Parker Higgins
parker at eff.org
Mon Dec 19 12:06:45 PST 2011
My sense is that IF there is any correlation between #Occupy* and
hair-trigger bans, it is very likely to be an institutional (and
unintentional one) as a result of OWS account behavior style.
Obviously, Twitter's "anti-spam" methods aren't targeting spam, as such;
they're targeting historically spam-like behavior. High frequency
@-replies which include multiple popular hashtags, sort of the hallmark
of OWS tweeting, could potentially be one of those behaviors.
So: if there's a problem, it looks like an engineering one and not a
political one. Just my 2¢.
Parker
On 12/19/11 11:53 AM, Jillian C. York wrote:
> I'm sorry, but I call bullshit on the targeting of #Occupy. I haven't
> seen one legit incident yet, and this is something that a) I'm sensitive
> to and b) I track closely.
>
> The Trending Topics algorithm is, in my opinion, wonky and in need of
> serious rethinking, but blatant censorship it is not.
>
> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 11:50 AM, planetary <planetary at plntry.net
> <mailto:planetary at plntry.net>> wrote:
>
> There are certainly fewer visible incidents one could point to with
> Twitter, but are they really more virtuous, or better at concealing
> suppressive behavior?
>
> There is considerable sentiment within the #Occupy* movement that
> Twitter has targeted its users, with increasing reports of incidents
> on hair-trigger account bans and the ongoing concern about the
> trending topics representation. Considering the difficulty of
> substantiating any bias there, one tends to wonder, how much of that
> difficulty really provides cover for a cleaner public image for Twitter?
>
> These are potentially explicable as functions of complex policies
> and algorithms, but if it has the same effect of suppressing
> visibility of certain grassroots movements, how intentional does it
> have to be?
>
> Would love to get some real comparative data on this. A project
> we're contributing to for #Occupy might just help...
>
> On Dec 19, 11, at 11:43 AM, Jillian C. York wrote:
>
>> Well, because Facebook has a fairly poor track record on privacy
>> and free expression. They've earned the scrutiny. Thus far,
>> Twitter has not.
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 11:38 AM, Luke Allnutt <AllnuttL at rferl.org
>> <mailto:AllnuttL at rferl.org>> wrote:
>>
>> Bet there would be a lot more outrage if it was Facebook
>> though. :)
>>
>>
>>
>> On 19 Dec 2011, at 20:34, "Jillian C. York"
>> <jilliancyork at gmail.com <mailto:jilliancyork at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>> Oh also? This is--on the surface--just as alarming and I
>>> don't remember half the fuss:
>>> http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/01/twitter-dst-confirm/
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 11:32 AM, Jillian C. York
>>> <jilliancyork at gmail.com <mailto:jilliancyork at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Ha, you think that's bad, you should see how many calls
>>> I've gotten asking what effect Kim Jong-Il's death with
>>> have on the North Korean Internet!
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Brian Conley
>>> <brianc at smallworldnews.tv
>>> <mailto:brianc at smallworldnews.tv>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I agree with Jillian. Slow news day on the markets?
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 11:21 AM, Jillian C. York
>>> <jilliancyork at gmail.com
>>> <mailto:jilliancyork at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Honestly? I trust that this will have less than
>>> zero effect on Twitter's policy. Twitter has
>>> stood up to a whole lot of other powerful
>>> players, including the US and UK governments.
>>> Saudi's powerful, but we're talking about a share
>>> of under 5%. Try as they might, Kingdom Holding
>>> will likely have minimal effect.
>>>
>>> Is it icky? For sure, but so are a lot of deals.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 3:26 AM, Daniel Isaiah
>>> Ong <danielo at cs.stanford.edu
>>> <mailto:danielo at cs.stanford.edu>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Thoughts?
>>>
>>> http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/saudi-prince-invests-300-million-in-twitter/?hp
>>>
>>>
>>> Saudi Prince Invests $300 Million in Twitter
>>>
>>> BY MARK SCOTT
>>> <http://dealbook.nytimes.com/author/mark-scott/>
>>>
>>> LONDON — The Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal and
>>> his investment company, Kingdom Holding, said
>>> Monday they had bought a “strategic stake” in
>>> the social media site Twitter for $300 million.
>>>
>>> The investment represents roughly 3 percent
>>> stake of the company, based in San Francisco,
>>> which was valued at $8 billion in August.
>>>
>>> In a statement, Prince Walid, who owns 95
>>> percent of Kingdom Holding, said the purchase
>>> was part of a strategy “to invest in
>>> promising, high-growth businesses with a
>>> global impact.”
>>>
>>>
>>> Article Tools
>>>
>>> *
>>>
>>> E-mail
>>> <http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/saudi-prince-invests-300-million-in-twitter/?hp>
>>> * Print
>>> <http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/saudi-prince-invests-300-million-in-twitter/?pagemode=print>
>>> * Recommend
>>> * Share
>>> o TUMBLR
>>> o DIGG
>>> o LINKEDIN
>>> o REDDIT
>>> o PERMALINK
>>> o
>>> * Twitter
>>>
>>> Despite ongoing volatility in the financial
>>> markets, investors have shown continued
>>> interest in Internet companies. Last week,
>>> the social network gaming company Zynga
>>> raised $1 billion in an initial public
>>> offering, while Groupon, the daily deals
>>> site, raised $700 million from the markets in
>>> early November.
>>>
>>> Kingdom Holding stock was up about 6 percent
>>> in midday trading in Riyadh.
>>>
>>> Prince Walid, who also own stakes in U.S.
>>> blue chip companies such as Citigroup,
>>> General Motors and Apple, is the nephew of
>>> Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah. He also is one
>>> the of the Arab world’s richest men, with
>>> assets worth an estimated $21 billion,
>>> according to Arabian Business magazine.
>>>
>>> The investment in Twitter comes after the
>>> company’s co-founder Biz Stone announced in
>>> June that he would be stepping back from the
>>> fast-growing social media. Twitter’s other
>>> co-founder, Evan Williams, was replaced by
>>> the current chief executive Dick Costolo last
>>> year.
>>>
>>> Despite the management shake-up, Twitter has
>>> continued to gain traction, particularly in
>>> the Arab world, where it was credited with
>>> playing a role in the recent popular
>>> uprisings across North Africa and the Gulf.
>>>
>>> Arabic is now the fastest growing language
>>> used on Twitter, according to the data
>>> intelligence company Semiocast.
>>>
>>> The volume of Arabic messages, for example,
>>> has multiplied by 2,146 percent in the 12
>>> months ending in October, according to
>>> figures from Semiocast. That makes Arabic the
>>> eighth most used language on the site.
>>>
>>> “We believe that social media will
>>> fundamentally change the media industry
>>> landscape in the coming years. Twitter will
>>> capture and monetize this positive trend,”
>>> Ahmed Reda Halawani, Kingdom Holding’s
>>> executive director of private equity and
>>> international investments, said in a statement.
>>>
>>> The website currently has over 100 million
>>> active users, and raised approximately $400
>>> million of new capital last summer. That
>>> investment was led by DST Global, the
>>> investment firm headed by the Russian
>>> billionaire Yuri Milner.
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>> --
>>> jilliancyork.com <http://jilliancyork.com/> |
>>> @jilliancyork | tel: +1-857-891-4244
>>> <tel:%2B1-857-891-4244> | google voice:
>>> +1-415-562-JILL
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Brian Conley
>>> Director, Small World News
>>> http://smallworldnews.tv <http://smallworldnews.tv/>
>>> m: 646.285.2046 <tel:646.285.2046>
>>> Skype: brianjoelconley
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> jilliancyork.com <http://jilliancyork.com/> | @jilliancyork | tel:
>> +1-857-891-4244 <tel:%2B1-857-891-4244> | google voice:
>> +1-415-562-JILL
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
>
> --
> jilliancyork.com <http://jilliancyork.com> | @jilliancyork | tel:
> +1-857-891-4244 | google voice: +1-415-562-JILL
>
>
>
>
>
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--
Parker Higgins
Activist
Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://eff.org
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