[liberationtech] Saudi Prince invests $300mn in Twitter

Fran Parker lilbambi at gmail.com
Mon Dec 19 13:19:23 PST 2011 

Maybe not #Occupy or #OWS but what about #Manning? Someone told me 
recently that #Manning was being blocked. Is that possible?

BTW: Twitter unblocked @d_seaman and apologized. And actually came back 
and said he actually got suspended twice and the second time was a 
glitch bug thing that they are working on.


On 12/19/11 2:53 PM, 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 TwitterBY 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
>>>>>>>        - TUMBLR
>>>>>>>        - DIGG
>>>>>>>        - LINKEDIN
>>>>>>>        - REDDIT
>>>>>>>        - PERMALINK
>>>>>>>        -
>>>>>>>     - 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 | @jilliancyork | tel: +1-857-891-4244 | google
>>>>>> voice: +1-415-562-JILL
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> Brian Conley
>>>>> Director, Small World News
>>>>> http://smallworldnews.tv
>>>>> m: 646.285.2046
>>>>> Skype: brianjoelconley
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> jilliancyork.com | @jilliancyork | tel: +1-857-891-4244 | google voice:
>>>> +1-415-562-JILL
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> 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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>
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