Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Relationship Between Microsoft and Twitter (Possibly Takeover) Keeps Identi.ca Strong

Steve Ballmer as a bird



Summary: Rumours of a Microsoft acquisition of Twitter are the result of meeting/s between their respective CEOs; Microsoft already pays Twitter for promotion

FOR THOSE who do not know this yet, Twitter monetises the platform with a(n anti-)feature called "Promoted". In simple terms, it means that companies/people/accounts can pay Twitter to have their output 'promoted' in more pages, which violates the natural synthesis of the site/platform.



Microsoft is of course one of those companies which pay Twitter to have its account promoted. Several of us Free software enthusiasts have reported in recent weeks that Microsoft is being 'promoted' to us. It is not pleasant, especially if this is something which Microsoft pays Twitter to do and Twitter also accepts. It disregards the users. And speaking of Twitter, Microsoft has a real crisis in the platform's natural content. "Research In Motion Beats out Microsoft on Twitter" says this report.

Top 10 Companies on Twitter for 2010:

1. Apple 2. Google 3. Twitter 4. Uniqlo 5. Research In Motion 6. Microsoft 7. Facebook 8. Nintendo 9. Sony 10. BBC


As we explained before, Microsoft had begun AstroTurfing in Twitter. To recap, here are some posts on the subject:



Users of Twitter may wish to watch out because Microsoft and Twitter CEOs are allegedly having breakfast: "Microsoft and Twitter CEOs, Steve Ballmer and Dick Costolo are said to have been seen taking breakfast together and this sparked rumors that a possible takeover of Twitter by Microsoft or another deal would be imminent. There are no clues about the nature of that discussion, but both companies have refused to comment, hinting to business and not personal discussion. It is also unknown how frequently the two CEOs have met."

This is not some isolated rumour. In the previous post we showed how Microsoft tried to buy Facebook and new articles about the possibility that Microsoft would like to buy Twitter are aplenty [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. It was the same when Adobe's CEO met Ballmer. People hastily jumped to the conclusion that takeover was negotiated (or at least a partnership) but in this case, an acquisition is not likely because Twitter previously expressed desire to be dissociated from Microsoft and its bad behaviour (in a leaked document/E-mail we covered here). Microsoft's Twitter Astroturf will probably be sufficient for now. That, dear readers, is why at the very least as a safety net we recommend opening and using an Identi.ca account. More and more of us in Techrights and TechBytes are opening accounts there and mashing them up with IRC (the best of both worlds). Identi.ca is not dominated by companies and celebrities; in Identi.ca, 'celebrities' are users like Tim Berners-Lee and Free software is the main theme.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Rejecting 'Snoop-Phones' and Turning "Old" Phones (or Tablets) Into Freedom-Respecting Appliances
Paul Fernhout (pdfernhout.net) wrote back to Akira Urushibatathis this past weekend
Apple is the Company of Dictators and Worse
Apple is just another greedy corporation in search of sweatshops and even pedophiles (especially the high-profile ones)
Counting Unhatched Eggs Is Not Counting Chickens
Everything here will persist as normal
The "Infinite Bread"
The biblical story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 has software parallels
In Many Cases and in Many Different Ways, Technology Became Less Durable and Less Reliable Over Time
The "modern" things are more complex. And complexity is a foe or reliability and repair-ability.
Microsoft's LinkedIn is Losing Money, Traffic, and Hope; Now It Wants to Sell Its Users' Lifeblood (and Data)
Let this be a reminder of what social control media really is about
Microsoft Lunduke: Freedom of Speech Means Spreading What I Have to Say and Banning People I Disagree With
4Chan is one he aims for and he is siccing 4Chan trolls at people he doesn't like
 
When Prominent GNU/Linux Distros Are Run by Spies
What has Microsoft Canonical become?
More Publishers and Companies Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux", Not "Linux"
It's not to see InstallAware saying GNU/Linux this week
Google News is Now Promoting a Parasitic Slopfarm Called "findarticles.com", Where Plagiarism of "Linux" Articles is Rampant
Does Google even care about the slop epidemic? Google itself is a vendor of slop now (and it calls it "Gemini")
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Links for the day
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What is the value of Google News if so many results in it are fake 'articles?
Our Uptime This Year Was Better Than AWS (Also a Lot Cheaper)
We never used "the cloud"
Amazon Web Shenanigans
An ongoing, experimental endeavour
Death of Elias Diem: FSFE mailing list archives hidden
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/10/2025: Louvre Museum Reveals Weakness, About 7 Million Protest US Turning Into Oligarchy/Monarchy
Links for the day
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we reported this issue about 40 days earlier and nobody did anything about it
Richard Stallman to Give Another Talk Today in Bavaria (Bavarian Academy of Science)
Tomorrow at 6 PM he speaks in Munich
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Barry Kauler's Puppy Linux is in the community's hands. He now focuses on EasyOS and more.
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If the Web gets polluted or flooded by slopfarms such as these, and Slashdot then sends traffic so these slopfarms (Slashdot probably doesn't do this intentionally), then real writers with real knowledge of GNU/Linux will lose the spark for publishing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 19, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 19, 2025
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Ritual Defamation Cult has turned its attention over to Framework
Liberation From 'The Feed'
They rank things based on the editor's choice/ideology (he or she knows the sponsors, hence the masters)
Microsoft's Killing of Vista 10 Seems to Have Resulted in More Articles About GNU/Linux (But Also FUD)
We not only saw a rise in traffic, we also saw a remarkable rise in the number of articles
Today (a Day Before Richard Stallman Talk at TUM) There's a Patent Propaganda Event at TUM
Perhaps an opportunity for Dr. Stallman to rebut this "invention to patent" nonsense/fantasy (conflating monopolies with innovation)
OpenSource or "Open Source" as a Brand is Dying, Let's Get Back to Talking About Software Freedom
Those of us who actually want to reform the industry and put users in control of their systems/devices will recognise that "Open Source" was selling a lie or got-co-opted by liars
19 Years in Numbers: Techrights' Anniversary Countdown and Retrospective
In 2019 we began improving our workflows and, accordingly/predictably, we became a lot more productive
Slop Turns People Off (LLMs Lack Intelligence, They're Just Plagiarism Powerhouses That Fail to Deliver Any Real, Measurable Value)
"More" (or "MOAR") isn't always better
IBM Red Hat Has Re-calibrated or Adjusted to Bubble Economics, False Promises, and Slop/Plagiarism
This won't end well
Fake Numbers, Fake Claims, Fake Economy, and Media Grifters That Prop Up Fraud
Grifters like The Register MS won't be looked upon kindly after the bubble implodes
For Some, the GNU Web Site is Not Accessible This Week
They seem to have gone into some kind of lock-down mode
Richard Stallman Back at the "Rudolf-Diesel" Hörsal "MW 2001" in About 40 Hours
He spoke there before; there's a very high seating capacity there
Symptoms of Upcoming Microsoft Layoffs in XBox
A crashing franchise
Psychiatrist confession: Germanwings crash & Debian toxic culture recognized before suicides
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/10/2025: Scentjacking 101, Slop Hype Boosters, and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Slopwatch: The Serial Slopper, LinuxSecurity, and Google News
Let's hope slopfarms die as soon as possible
Links 19/10/2025: Cambodia Scam Centres, Slop Hurting Wikipedia Traffic
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there's nothing unreasonable about it
A List of 63 Known Gemini Clients (Software to Browse Geminispace Content With Gemini Protocol)
Not counting browser plugins for Web browsers
Gemini Links 19/10/2025: "Firma Odin Is Transforming" and Bot Attacks While "AFK"
Links for the day
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Inane garbage disguised as "journalism"
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some weeks ago
All the Latest Half Dozen Articles by Mehedi Hasan (UbuntuPIT) Only Admit at the End That He's Using LLM Slop
Disclosure is OK, but the practice of using slop is not
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Each year it gets worse
Over at Tux Machines...
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