“I will not express my opinion, but I have promised to conduct this survey. Should Assange and Snowden be pardoned?” So Elon Musk returned to probe the mood of the Twitter audience a few days ago. The new owner of the social network, opening the votes of a new poll, asked users if the founder of Wikileaks and a former employee of the US National Security Agency should be forgiven. Assange helped release classified documents about war crimes committed by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
17 counts of indictment hang over him, each worth 10 years in prison, for a total of around 175 years in prison, for revealing, via the Wikileaks platform, state secrets about the so-called US "wars on terror" in the Middle East exposing the crimes against humanity committed by the West in Afghanistan, precisely, and Iraq.
And speaking of revealed secrets, Musk kept an old promise and unveiled the "Twitter Files" which tell how the previous management of Twitter has come to the conclusion of limiting and blocking access to the New York Post article on "secrets ” contained in Hunter Biden's personal computer - from his private life to his foreign affairs - in the days leading up to the 2020 elections. The Tesla owner does not publish the documents directly but grants access to Matt Taibbi, the ever-critical journalist of online and media censorship, with which it implies that it has collaborated in the evaluation. Taibbi in a long series of tweets describes the contents of the cards viewed, attaches some of them and reaches his conclusions. In tweet number 18 he states: "Twitter has taken extraordinary measures to suppress the story" of the computer of Hunter Biden of the New York Post "by removing links and warning about what could be 'unsafe'. They have also blocked its direct transmission via message, a tool reserved for extreme cases such as child pornography". The documents shed light on the internal Twitter debate on blocking the article, highlighting the dissent and confusion over a decision later defined as wrong by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
The US administration did not like some of the businessman's tweets about the war in Ukraine that were too close to Putin and is considering checking his activities.
The US government is considering subjecting some of Elon Musk's companies to a national security check. These include Twitter and the satellite network Starlink.
As reported by Bloomberg, the need arises from concern over the tycoon's recent threat to interrupt Starlink satellite services in Ukraine.
The Biden administration also did not appreciate some tweets by Musk deemed favorable to Russian President Putin.
And while the doubts on the part of the US government are dissolving, Musk is preparing a cleaver cut on Twitter's workforce: his intention is to reduce the staff by 75%, going from the current 7,500 jobs to around 2,000.
We ebook writers are not considered. Not only are ebooks still a small slice of the publishing market but they are also marginalized when it comes to large publishing. We are not valued, we are not interviewed, we are not really considered, despite our valid presence in the field of female fiction. It is absurd that in 2020 ebooks are still outside the publishing environment and competitions. When I read about some expensive creative writing courses I feel like screaming. I was for a short internship at Holden where I discovered “The Book Industry” and I refused to be part of it. I could have had contracts with big publishers but I said no. I could also have had the “push” from Camilleri, my fellow countryman, but I also refused this. And all this to help small publishers who have never even thanked me. I fight against the windmills every day because I’m not on facebook, I’m not on twitter, I’m not on intagram and tik tok … practically I don’t exist except on wordpress where I manage blogs. I’ve never written for money. I have not agreed to advertise on my blogs and I have never asked anyone to review me and I have never advertised myself. I’m naive in a world of hungry wolves trying to excel. And I see every day that people no longer reads many books, no longer leaves the house, does not want real relationships but only virtual ones and I … I am the opposite of this and I am isolated for my different ideas.
THE PRODIGY OF IDEAS 