As I mentioned several times, I was out of town yesterday. Late last night, someone messaged me the latest to come out about Twitter’s failed sale. I have to admit, this made me laugh more than it probably should have. I’ll explain why after I give you the “news” blurb.

From Business Insider

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff finally killed all rumors of a potential Twitter acquisition on Friday when he told the Financial Times that it’s “not the right fit” for his company.

Benioff said a lot of things, like that Twitter’s price, and work culture, contributed to his decision to walk away from a deal. Part of it also likely had to do with the pressure from investors, as Salesforce stock plummeted after it was reported to be interested in buying Twitter.

But according to CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer, Salesforce was turned off by a more fundamental problem that’s been hurting Twitter for years: trolls.

“What’s happened is, a lot of the bidders are looking at people with lots of followers and seeing the hatred,” Cramer said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” citing a recent conversation with Benioff. “I know that the haters reduce the value of the company…I know that Salesforce was very concerned about this notion.”

This whole “Twitter is made of harassment” meme is kind of stupid, in my opinion. Yes, due to the nature of the platform, it’s much easier to troll someone directly and pretty much know that they’ll see it (although there are ways to keep from seeing all your mentions). But people fuck with folks they don’t like on every single social media platform where they are able. Guess what? People fuck with those they don’t like in real life as well. This isn’t about Twitter’s design so much as it is a basic fact of human nature. Why must the media scapegoat Twitter over places like Facebook? Why do they talk about this nonsense at all?

Oh yea, I forgot. They need “narratives” they can go back to time and time again. I can’t even claim to be immune to that myself. There are certain drums I like to beat on a lot, too. But that’s all this is, a recurring theme they seize upon in order to receive clicks from idiots. I get mad at Twitter’s leadership all the time, but I feel for them on this one. There’s no telling how much damage the mendacious media has done to their brand with this harassment nonsense.

 

UPDATE: TRR contributor Christi Junior raised an important point, one that I forgot to bring up myself. It’s not just about clicks. It’s also about censorship.

https://twitter.com/ChristiJunior/status/788532455405973504