Disney Almost Bought Twitter in 2016 (twitter.com) 16
This fall saw the release of an autobiography by former Disney CEO Bob Iger (2005 to 2020) titled The Ride of a Lifetime.
And Friday Bloomberg reporter Kurt Wagner shared an interesting excerpt (spotted by blogger John Gruber) in which Iger reveals he saw Twitter as "a potentially powerful platform for us, but I couldn't get past the challenges that would come with it." The challenges and controversies were almost too much to list, but they included how to manage hate speech, and making fraught decisions regarding freedom of speech, what to do about fake accounts algorithmically spewing out political "messaging" to influence elections, and the general rage and lack of civility that was sometimes evident on the platform. Those would become our problems. They were so unlike any we'd encountered, and I felt they would be corrosive to the Disney brand. On the Sunday after the board had just given me the go-ahead to pursue the acquisition of Twitter, I sent a note to all of the members telling them I had "cold feet", and explaining my reasoning for withdrawing. Then I called Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO, who was also a member of the Disney board. Jack was stunned, but very polite. I wished Jack luck, and I hung up feeling relieved.
Blogger John Gruber speculates that a Twitter owned by Disney "would be a very different Twitter today."
And Friday Bloomberg reporter Kurt Wagner shared an interesting excerpt (spotted by blogger John Gruber) in which Iger reveals he saw Twitter as "a potentially powerful platform for us, but I couldn't get past the challenges that would come with it." The challenges and controversies were almost too much to list, but they included how to manage hate speech, and making fraught decisions regarding freedom of speech, what to do about fake accounts algorithmically spewing out political "messaging" to influence elections, and the general rage and lack of civility that was sometimes evident on the platform. Those would become our problems. They were so unlike any we'd encountered, and I felt they would be corrosive to the Disney brand. On the Sunday after the board had just given me the go-ahead to pursue the acquisition of Twitter, I sent a note to all of the members telling them I had "cold feet", and explaining my reasoning for withdrawing. Then I called Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO, who was also a member of the Disney board. Jack was stunned, but very polite. I wished Jack luck, and I hung up feeling relieved.
Blogger John Gruber speculates that a Twitter owned by Disney "would be a very different Twitter today."
Imagine (Score:1, Troll)
Imagine how different the world might be if Disney owned the platform favoured by Trump and Russian bots.
Re: (Score:2)
No difference, the White-House is ran by Goofy and Mickey Mouse already.
Re:Imagine (Score:4, Insightful)
And seems to be challenged by Sleepy and Snow White (to be named later...)
Re: (Score:1)
After all that invented drama, I'll fucking take Sleepy.
What difference? (Score:3, Insightful)
Would Twitter start silencing conservatives? Or capriciously imposing moderation depending on corporate interests?
Oh wait.
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Nothing, absolutely nothing is allowed to tarnish the image of the mouse. If a person or a bot posted something that even skimmed close, that account would be blocked. I suspect that many, many accounts would be blocked during the acquisition, for historical posts.
Very soon, it not be the platform favoured by Trump and Russian bots - but something would replace it.
Re: (Score:2)
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If they had, they'd actually own #MayTheFourth... (Score:3)
Autobio... really? (Score:3)
Iger has a bio named "Ride of a Lifetime"... that kind of title seems to indicate his life is near it's end. If so, long live Eisner!
Weird acquisitions (Score:3)
I never understood EBay purchasing Skype. That one was very, very weird. What exactly did EBay think they'd get from acquiring a platform that allowed people to communicate directly when their own business was based on being a pseudo anonymised market place where they got their cut by keeping folk apart until the bidding was over. Microsoft's, later, acquisition made perfect sense.
Disney buying Twitter is in the same league of weirdness. Twitter, and the other social media platforms, are looking more and more like political hot potato's so I can't see anyone other than another social, or news, media platform being willing to take it on.
Disney-Twitter would be very different (Score:2)
because it would be dead. The level of censorship needed to maintain the Disney image bland, politically-correct and squeaky-clean would've driven users away.
Trump saved Twitter (Score:2)
Family friendly (Score:1)