Elon Musk has no easy way out of his fight with the European Commission, which is investigating whether his social-media site X breached rules designed to limit illegal content and disinformation. The billionaire is facing determined adversaries in the relevant Commissioners Thierry Breton and Margrethe Vestager, who have a new legal tool. Musk may eventually conclude that pulling the plug makes sense.
The Commission last month issued a preliminary finding, opens new tab that X had breached the Digital Services Act (DSA), a sprawling new piece of legislation, opens new tab that aims to combat harmful online content. Among other things, Brussels took issue with the site’s blue user checkmarks, which it fears bestow a false credibility on some accounts. X said it disagreed with the Commission’s assessment. Another investigation, into the way Musk’s site moderates disinformation and illegal content, is ongoing.
Breton took the unusual step of reminding Musk publicly about the DSA on X, causing consternation in Brussels but also highlighting the Frenchman’s commitment to the case. The ultimate possible penalties include fines equivalent to 6% of revenue.
SpaceX is cool. I wish Shotwell was calling all the shots and Musk departed the company. Clearly, Shotwell is running a competent company despite Musk’s involvement
SpaceX is polluting like a motherfucker, breaking ecological laws all over the place, and the only reason they don’t get hammered is because they’re in fucking Texas. It’s the same for anything safety related in the company as well. This is the guy who “didn’t like yellow” so he demanded that all warning signs not be as visible. SpaceX is a fucking OSHA inspectors god damned nightmare. Once again, jack shit happens because he’s in Texas and the Governor and AG are outright protecting him.
Can we stop sucking the dick of tech companies that fuck up the planet, ignore safety laws, and are raping the public for a quick buck?
Fuck Musk, Fuck SpaceX, and fucking grow up, none of these people are good people if they’re willing to sell their souls and lives to these assholes to get the job done. Especially when they’re willing to ignore safety rules at the expense of their own workers to do it. They can all die in a fucking fire for all I care. (And if they have their way with safety rules, it will fucking happen!)
EDIT: Also, pro-tip: We’re never actually going to fucking Mars. We can barely function in a biosphere actually specifically attuned to us. If you’re all in on this Mars shit, you’ve been taken for a ride by a fucking charlatan. It’s literally unsurvivable and we don’t have the technology to change that. We can’t even terraform our own planet, with life and water on it. We could be actually spending money on fixing our biosphere but I guess rich asshole ambitions to be the King of Mars plays better than fucking reality to a lot of chumps.
If you’ve never read up on the Biosphere 2 experiment, you should.
We tried living in a dome on this planet and it rapidly devolved into a low-oxygen roach infested infighting mess.
And people think we’re even REMOTELY close to doing it on a planet that’s actually deadly outside of the dome? Hah.
We literally just lived through a pandemic where the best place to avoid getting the disease was being outside in fresh air away from other people.
An outbreak of something like COVID in a tin can on Mars? You’re asking for mass death, just straight asking for it.
The good news is that wouldn’t happen!
If someone coming from Earth had a contagious disease, everyone would die on the ship flying to Mars, thus resolving that particular problem!
(/s if it’s not abundantly clear)
This is such a hilarious misunderstanding. Like the earth was created for people to live in. When in fact the earth was teaming with life way before humanity existed, and we are the ones that are attuned to this ecosphere. Not the other way around.
Douglas Adams described it brilliantly:
hey now, spacex is also left alone because they’re darpa contractor
SpaceX is blocking access to a public beach because Musk is still involved. Hell, SpaceX is in Texas because of Musk. SpaceX’s work culture is because Musk is a prick.
Everything you mentioned about SpaceX is really Musk. As I said, SpaceX would be better without Musk.
And mars is pipe dream.
But science is cool. Being able to do zero gravity experiments is cool. SpaceX has the only reliable rocket right now - and it’s beating the competition by a healthy margin
Also, I’m glad that you are in a position to turn down jobs. Some people aren’t.
you’ve got to stand up for your morals and your self-respect eventually though.
That’s fair.
If you’re working at SpaceX, you’re not exactly struggling to find a job because you’re not easily replaced. You’re not flipping burgers, or some other job that is coded as “low skill labor.” They don’t hire janitorial directly, they contract out those kind of jobs.
But sure, somehow engineers at SpaceX aren’t on a position to turn down jobs. Get the fuck out of here with this shit.
Also, I’d prefer science that actually helps our biosphere, which last I checked, lots of that science can be done on terra firma. Very little of it needs to be done in space. It’s a lot of waste for somewhere that doesn’t help us survive as a species in the short-term and only maybe helps us survive in the long-term. Space science can fucking eat it.
There’s lots of public sector jobs. Oh no! They pay less. Whatever will these people do with… less money! Seriously give me a fucking break.
It isn’t so much that public sector jobs pay less, it’s that they pay so little (even with locality adjustments) that you can’t afford to live near them: Oh, and you have to live near them, because the government as a whole maintains a raging hate-on for telework/WFH.
So your argument is against spaceflight in general? Modern technology, like the computer or phone you’re using now to post, wouldn’t exist without spaceflight.
ARPAnet literally was developed without spaceflight what the fuck are you talking about mate lmao
IBM has been making computation devices since 1911… 8 years after the first human flight on a plane. They made punch-cards for the Nazi’s to track people for fucks sake.
…but sure, they wouldn’t exist without spaceflight.
Indirectly ARPAnet was partially created to respond to threats from spaceflight, specifically nuclear ICBMs. However we don’t even need to argue that one because there’s a much more direct link I’m referring to.
Why is it the computer that you’re posting from isn’t the size of a large room or even a full sized refrigerator? Miniaturization is the answer. Why did miniaturization of computers happen? Spaceflight.
“NASA gave IBM $26.6million to build a computer capable of running the necessary programs, and the specifications were brutal. IBM had to create a system capable of proving the feasibility of docking in space, all packed into a box no bigger than 19in high, 15in wide, 13in deep, and weighing less than 60 pounds.”
source
That’s what the fuck I’m talking about mate.
H1B
So the H1B system is a mess entirely of it’s own and that happens to folks who came via H1B visas at any job.
You’re not convincing me that we should feel bad for these specific people at SpaceX because of a systemic issue. I feel bad for them due to the nature of the system, not because they chose to work at SpaceX, specifically. That was still a choice, and while they’re still in their parent country, still a decision they can say “no” to. It’s a choice borne of exploitation at its core, and the fact that SpaceX employs so many H1B workers should be viewed as another negative against the company instead of another reason to let the company off the hook.