Elon’s new competition

Hey y’all, it’s Austin Carr in Boston. The reaction to Elon Musk’s Twitter deal coming from Truth Social is getting covfefe. But first…Today [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey y’all, it’s Austin Carr in Boston. The reaction to Elon Musk’s Twitter deal coming from Truth Social is getting covfefe. But first… Today’s must-reads: • Facebook said [1 million accounts may have been compromised]( • Binance may spend [over $1 billion on deals]( this year • A new Mario movie may find success in Hollywood [where others failed]( Pepe approved It’s looking increasingly likely that [Elon Musk will actually buy Twitter]( Inc., and lots of people have thoughts. That’s especially true among members of Truth Social, the conservative network ostensibly created to eliminate the need for Twitter. Truth Social, owned by the Trump Media & Technology Group, came about because of [perceptions of right-wing censorship]( and liberal biases at Twitter and Facebook — and mainly because former US President Donald Trump got banned from both. But since Musk has suggested [vaguely]( that he plans to make Twitter an online bastion of free speech, the future of Truth Social is in doubt. For as much as Truth Socialites claim to hate Twitter, they seem pretty obsessed with it. In my travels through Truth Social over the last few days, I came across the profiles of @TwitterRefugee23, @mistertwitterquitter and @twittersbad, names exuding a kind of ex-lover, trust-me-I’ve-moved-on vibe. Much of the reactions to the deal I saw — and there were many — read as punitive proposals to Musk. There were, of course, plenty that were of the trolling variety. Lots of Truthers advised Musk to fire every Twitter employee, including its chief executive officer, Parag Agrawal. One image on the site shows [Pepe the Frog](, an adopted symbol of the far right, slicing the head off the Twitter bird using a sword. Others depict Musk ordering the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to clean the toilets or whipping an embodiment of Twitter as an audience of the Facebook and Instagram logos and, oddly enough, the media reporter Brian Stelter look on in fear. (Like Musk, Truth Social users have a soft spot for hyper-absurd memes.) There were plenty of suggestions for Musk to “delete” Twitter altogether. At the same time, an overwhelming number of Truth Social posts celebrated the deal and cheered for Musk’s success. Much of the chatter centers on Musk’s ambitions to open the site to unedited discourse or, put another way, to force the user base to swallow a gigantic red pill. One person suggested the combination of a Musk-owned social network and the SpaceX satellite internet service Starlink would ensure customers the safety to say whatever they want. “Musk + Twitter + Starlink = True Freedom of Speech,” the user wrote. The far-right commentator Dinesh D'Souza — who is still on Twitter — recommended that Musk partner with Rumble, the Peter Thiel-backed video site that D'Souza calls a “genuine free speech platform,” albeit one [riddled with conspiracy content](. And, of course, they want an end to Trump’s Twitter ban, which [Musk has said he would do](, though he also said he believes Trump will remain “[exclusively](” on Truth Social. “The deal exists for one reason,” [truthed]( a Truther. “The one that ‘Trumps’ them all.” Musk has become something of a [hero on the right]( for his provocateur spirit and his tweets about the radicalization of the Democratic Party. That reputation has largely held, even after Musk and Trump traded barbs in July, when the former president called Musk a “bullshit artist” and Musk said Trump should “sail into the sunset.” Musk has repeatedly mocked Trump’s social network, too. In an [interview]( published Friday with the Financial Times, Musk called Truth Social “a rightwing echo chamber” and said, “It might as well be called Trumpet.” The Truth Social brainstorm produced a handful of practical suggestions for how Musk should run Twitter. One suggested the site should move to a decentralized protocol, as Dorsey and Musk had considered and Musk ultimately rejected, according to text messages made public in the Twitter-Musk lawsuit. Another questioned the merits of Musk’s plan to transform Twitter into a so-called [everything]( app like China’s WeChat. Several others want Musk to get rid of Twitter’s fact checkers and remove or overhaul the checkmarks for verified users like celebrities and politicians. The ideas were actually pretty similar to the ones Musk was getting privately from friends and acquaintances in those [text messages](. Among the various feature requests floated on Truth Social, perhaps the simplest one that would endear Musk’s Twitter to the users of Trump’s social network: They want him to turn the blue Twitter bird red. —[Austin Carr](mailto:acarr54@bloomberg.net) The big story Homebuyers, already suffering from heightened interest rates, now have to worry about hackers affecting their house purchases. [Hackers have been targeting wire transfers]( for down payments, intercepting millions of dollars in the process. What else you need to know Amazon is shutting down tests of its home delivery robot as the e-commerce giant [winds down experimental projects](. The Biden administration announced new restrictions on China’s access to US semiconductor technology, [escalating tensions between the world’s largest economies]( as they race to win the future of AI and supercomputers. Google will open its first data center in Japan next year as part of its [increased investment in the world’s third-biggest economy](. India’s central bank is working to phase in a [digital currency known as the e-rupee](. Follow Us More from Bloomberg Dig gadgets or video games? [Sign up for Power On]( to get Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more in your inbox on Sundays. [Sign up for Game On]( to go deep inside the video game business, delivered on Fridays. Why not try both? Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights.​​​​​​​ You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Fully Charged newsletter. 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