Twitter seems to have this nebulous stature where it’s incredibly important to the media class and the groypers, but if you try to discuss it outside those spheres it is dismissed as an internet echo chamber regardless of the actual harm being done (CSAM here, white supremacy there, seditious conspiracy, etc). Part of the issue is just that Twitter doesn’t have that many relative users and so the only way these things escape to public consciousness is via screenshots on more popular platforms.
I feel you've missed the bigger picture, which is not about Elon Musk's political influence, but rather that pedophilia, as it manifests online in 2026, is utterly normalized and has no moral or political weight whatsoever. See also, the Epstein files non-event.
Thanks for the post, Max. Oh, thank goodness Ofcom are going to step in. I mean, what will they end up doing? Fining Musk £50,000 or something? It's a complete joke. I don't know why the UK government is so desperate to engage with him and his businesses. Thankfully I left X behind a couple of years ago, and I'll certainly never be going back.
I’ve always seen the musk capture of twitter as a thiel-style catch and kill takeover to muzzle criticism and speech. Enjoy reading your takes on these guys and find your gawker experience helpful in drawing this parallel.
Pornography predates the age of electricity much less the age of the internet and AI. In the US, it has proliferated since the debatable Supreme Court cases of the 1960s. To some extent, as the Court noted, it is the price of freedom of speech.
To the extent that the current lamentable use of AI to create CSAM is illegal, it needs to be prosecuted by the appropriate authorities. Whether or not a social medium like X can be legally compelled to censor it will be determined by the courts within the context of applicable law.
I would say that it is in X’s enlightened self-interest to police itself, as the situation invites legislative and regulatory overreach as we are seeing globally that infringes on political free speech.
Might be worth rereading this post...Did you miss "X’s clear legal liability in leaving C.S.A.M. and other “nonconsensual… intimate visual depictions of individuals” up on its site" and the link to the "Take It Down" act?
On what grounds do you assert X legal liability for user-generated content? My understanding is that US law specifically holds such platforms harmless from such liability.
X is legally required to have a standardized removal process that can be initiated by the subject, but per the Guardian article, removal of several images only occurred after the publication contacted X for comment.
Per the law:
"Separately, covered platforms must establish a process through which subjects of intimate visual depictions may notify the platform of the existence of, and request removal of, an intimate visual depiction including the subject that was published without the subject’s consent. Covered platforms must remove such depictions within 48 hours of notification. Under the bill, covered platforms are defined as public websites, online services, or applications that primarily provide a forum for user-generated content."
Enforcement of the statute is up to the FTC, which is notoriously understaffed and lax in statute enforcement.
The statute does not include a private right of action.
An agency’s decision not to enforce a statute is presumptively unreviewable.
It is unlikely that states could compel federal action.
Therefore, according to my research, it is unlikely that Musk/X can be compelled to comply.
However, my original point stands. It is in their interest to do so to forestall more onerous legislation and regulation.
Advocates may be well advised to point this out to appropriate corporate counsel and shareholders. It doesn't appear that anyone else can have much influence.
Our entire society is purpose-built to allow billionaires to do absolutely whatever they want with no meaningful restrictions, regulations, not even o much as finger wagging disapproval from our institutions. Just ‘yes sir, of course sir, immediately sir’
The wider non-response is all the more striking since, at the same time, actual adult content sites are being increasingly age-gated and gaming platforms are aggressively scrubbing adult/queer/transgressive material to avoid violating the standards of credit card processers responding to right-wing fearmongering. It's hard to read it as anything but moral degenerates like Musk lording their immunity and power over everyone else.
I'm completely unsurprised; this has been the dream of a number of people since photoshop. I wonder what an intelligent and effective way to deal with this could be; so many poorly-defined things, multiple countries, differing standards of obscenity, and legal questions. However, what we will get is some hysteria, inadequate flailing, and blame games.
It comes down to our culture's schizophrenic attitude towards sex. We cannot actually acknowledge it honestly, so it creeps in around the edges. People claim to hate pedophilia, but only to the extent they can use it to bring the Internet under their control, weaponize it against outgroups, or engage in virtue signalling.
Capital is shifting: Investors are moving money away from traditional cloud/software providers and toward AI infrastructure and chipmakers. NVIDIA, for example, has surged to a $4 trillion valuation, highlighting how hardware is seen as the most profitable edge in the AI era.
Software companies under pressure: IT services firms like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, and HCLTech have seen heavy sell‑offs as fears of AI disruption spook investors.
Massive spending wave: Hyperscalers are driving a $650 billion AI‑led capex cycle in 2026, fueling data centers, fiber, and power infrastructure. This benefits backbone players but leaves traditional digital/software firms struggling to adapt.
The idea that “the product isn’t the cars, it’s the people” is provocative. It suggests Musk’s companies function less as businesses and more as schools, factories doubling as classrooms where engineers learn lessons that can’t be patched or debugged. If true, Musk’s legacy may be less about what he built and more about who he trained, and whether those engineers can carry forward a culture of tackling the hardest physical problems.
Is Musk’s true role that of an industrial educator, reshaping the trajectory of American engineering ambition? Or is this narrative overstating the influence of one man on a much broader shift toward hard‑tech innovation?
No is going to do anything cause there are other pressing matters. That's just the reality we live in, unfortunately. Of all the people whom I would like to take him down, it just didn't happen. If this was comic book, things might go differently.
There’s nothing wrong with Elon Musk, who has proved to be a shining light and saviour of free speech across the world, as authoritarian dictators like the little gimp Two Tier have tried to silence criticism and dissent.
Twitter seems to have this nebulous stature where it’s incredibly important to the media class and the groypers, but if you try to discuss it outside those spheres it is dismissed as an internet echo chamber regardless of the actual harm being done (CSAM here, white supremacy there, seditious conspiracy, etc). Part of the issue is just that Twitter doesn’t have that many relative users and so the only way these things escape to public consciousness is via screenshots on more popular platforms.
im assuming at least some of the reluctance is related to the military's increasing reliance on SpaceX infrastructure
I feel you've missed the bigger picture, which is not about Elon Musk's political influence, but rather that pedophilia, as it manifests online in 2026, is utterly normalized and has no moral or political weight whatsoever. See also, the Epstein files non-event.
People only care about subjects when they are personally touched or can use them as weapons against their enemies.
Thanks for the post, Max. Oh, thank goodness Ofcom are going to step in. I mean, what will they end up doing? Fining Musk £50,000 or something? It's a complete joke. I don't know why the UK government is so desperate to engage with him and his businesses. Thankfully I left X behind a couple of years ago, and I'll certainly never be going back.
I don’t think Musk and his hundreds of millions of supporters worldwide will lose any sleep over losing your kind from X.
I’ve always seen the musk capture of twitter as a thiel-style catch and kill takeover to muzzle criticism and speech. Enjoy reading your takes on these guys and find your gawker experience helpful in drawing this parallel.
Ironic considering there entire subjects that could not be discussed when the DNC owned it.
Pornography predates the age of electricity much less the age of the internet and AI. In the US, it has proliferated since the debatable Supreme Court cases of the 1960s. To some extent, as the Court noted, it is the price of freedom of speech.
To the extent that the current lamentable use of AI to create CSAM is illegal, it needs to be prosecuted by the appropriate authorities. Whether or not a social medium like X can be legally compelled to censor it will be determined by the courts within the context of applicable law.
I would say that it is in X’s enlightened self-interest to police itself, as the situation invites legislative and regulatory overreach as we are seeing globally that infringes on political free speech.
Might be worth rereading this post...Did you miss "X’s clear legal liability in leaving C.S.A.M. and other “nonconsensual… intimate visual depictions of individuals” up on its site" and the link to the "Take It Down" act?
On what grounds do you assert X legal liability for user-generated content? My understanding is that US law specifically holds such platforms harmless from such liability.
X is legally required to have a standardized removal process that can be initiated by the subject, but per the Guardian article, removal of several images only occurred after the publication contacted X for comment.
Per the law:
"Separately, covered platforms must establish a process through which subjects of intimate visual depictions may notify the platform of the existence of, and request removal of, an intimate visual depiction including the subject that was published without the subject’s consent. Covered platforms must remove such depictions within 48 hours of notification. Under the bill, covered platforms are defined as public websites, online services, or applications that primarily provide a forum for user-generated content."
What jurisdiction enacted that law?
As I mentioned in my first reply, there is a link in the section from Max's post that I quoted. Please click on it.
It will take you to a bill on congress.gov that became law in the US last May.
Lmao you're working real hard to deflect attention away from your hard drive buddy
Wtf are you talking about?
By making the AI facility a paid for subscription service only means that its users can be identified and traced if necessary.
Enforcement of the statute is up to the FTC, which is notoriously understaffed and lax in statute enforcement.
The statute does not include a private right of action.
An agency’s decision not to enforce a statute is presumptively unreviewable.
It is unlikely that states could compel federal action.
Therefore, according to my research, it is unlikely that Musk/X can be compelled to comply.
However, my original point stands. It is in their interest to do so to forestall more onerous legislation and regulation.
Advocates may be well advised to point this out to appropriate corporate counsel and shareholders. It doesn't appear that anyone else can have much influence.
So you're saying this is US law?
Our entire society is purpose-built to allow billionaires to do absolutely whatever they want with no meaningful restrictions, regulations, not even o much as finger wagging disapproval from our institutions. Just ‘yes sir, of course sir, immediately sir’
The wider non-response is all the more striking since, at the same time, actual adult content sites are being increasingly age-gated and gaming platforms are aggressively scrubbing adult/queer/transgressive material to avoid violating the standards of credit card processers responding to right-wing fearmongering. It's hard to read it as anything but moral degenerates like Musk lording their immunity and power over everyone else.
This is clearly one of those pieces whose goal is merely to smear the other team without reflection.
Tribal politics is brain rot.
I'm completely unsurprised; this has been the dream of a number of people since photoshop. I wonder what an intelligent and effective way to deal with this could be; so many poorly-defined things, multiple countries, differing standards of obscenity, and legal questions. However, what we will get is some hysteria, inadequate flailing, and blame games.
It comes down to our culture's schizophrenic attitude towards sex. We cannot actually acknowledge it honestly, so it creeps in around the edges. People claim to hate pedophilia, but only to the extent they can use it to bring the Internet under their control, weaponize it against outgroups, or engage in virtue signalling.
Elon Musk is the new Geoffrey Epstein. Think about it.
Capital is shifting: Investors are moving money away from traditional cloud/software providers and toward AI infrastructure and chipmakers. NVIDIA, for example, has surged to a $4 trillion valuation, highlighting how hardware is seen as the most profitable edge in the AI era.
Software companies under pressure: IT services firms like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, and HCLTech have seen heavy sell‑offs as fears of AI disruption spook investors.
Massive spending wave: Hyperscalers are driving a $650 billion AI‑led capex cycle in 2026, fueling data centers, fiber, and power infrastructure. This benefits backbone players but leaves traditional digital/software firms struggling to adapt.
The idea that “the product isn’t the cars, it’s the people” is provocative. It suggests Musk’s companies function less as businesses and more as schools, factories doubling as classrooms where engineers learn lessons that can’t be patched or debugged. If true, Musk’s legacy may be less about what he built and more about who he trained, and whether those engineers can carry forward a culture of tackling the hardest physical problems.
Is Musk’s true role that of an industrial educator, reshaping the trajectory of American engineering ambition? Or is this narrative overstating the influence of one man on a much broader shift toward hard‑tech innovation?
No is going to do anything cause there are other pressing matters. That's just the reality we live in, unfortunately. Of all the people whom I would like to take him down, it just didn't happen. If this was comic book, things might go differently.
There’s nothing wrong with Elon Musk, who has proved to be a shining light and saviour of free speech across the world, as authoritarian dictators like the little gimp Two Tier have tried to silence criticism and dissent.
The fake Oct. 7 videos were made by and for the same audience.