[liberationtech] Saudi Prince invests $300mn in Twitter

Mon Dec 19 12:07:33 PST 2011

Agree that there is zero compelling evidence of a targeted initiative.  We are thinking about building an incident reporting system (unless y'all know of one already? please say yes) that could build some real data around this in the hopes that it would ultimately give more real shape & actionability to the concerns. 

Would much rather see that group focus on organizational issues and bigger picture threats than fighting phantoms. Especially when there is a case to be made that it results from an unnecessary overreliance on commercial media for base comms that will never provide the accountability they demand in the first place.   Ironically it consumes more chatter on social media than actual energy in the movement, FBOW.

The point on effective censorship stands though - lack of transparency on algorithms and some potential tendencies of such algorithms could have censorious effect that ideally would be addressed given the material reach  & authority that Twitter as a service provides. 

On Dec 19, 11, at 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> 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> 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> 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> 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> 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> 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> 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
>>> 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
>>> 
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>>> 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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>>> -- 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> jilliancyork.com | @jilliancyork | tel: +1-857-891-4244 | google voice: +1-415-562-JILL
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> jilliancyork.com | @jilliancyork | tel: +1-857-891-4244 | google voice: +1-415-562-JILL
> 
> 
> 

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