Does it feel like your X account belongs to you and you can do whatever you want with it? That’s not true, according to a new court filing from the social media company formerly known as Twitter. It’s an argument that X is making in order to throw a wrench in The Onion’s recent purchase of InfoWars, the conspiracy theory media company run by Alex Jones. And it’s a great reminder that you don’t actually own what you think you own in the digital age.

  • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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    3 hours ago

    The Onion should allow Musk to block the sale of the Twitter handle, then sue Alex Jones for falsely advertising the sale of an account he can’t sell and sue Twitter for infringing on their trademark of the InfoWars brand.

  • hypeerror@sh.itjust.works
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    13 hours ago

    So if X-itter accounts were to threaten persons or places that were in the interest of the state to protect that responsibility lies on Musk?

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Gee wizz, I don’t think you understand Capitalism at all. Musk gets the profits and you get the liability.

      • hypeerror@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        If only he were also trying to sue advertisers that no longer want to do business with him. It would be the perfect storm of what is good comes to me and what is bad is yours.

  • the_tab_key@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    I hadn’t logged into Twitter in years. Just signed in to delete my account. He can have it back.

  • superkret@feddit.org
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    14 hours ago

    I mean, if someone lets me into their house, points me to a whiteboard with a pen and tells me to write whatever I want so the other people in the house can read it…
    Do I own the whiteboard? Or the pen? Or have control over any of it?

    No. The owner of the house can lock me out and wipe off or change what I wrote at their leisure.

    • Taleya@aussie.zone
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      1 hour ago

      A better analogy is i hand you a bullhorn and you shout at randos.

      Do i own your words, even though it’s my bullhorn? No.

      • superkret@feddit.org
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        40 minutes ago

        Depends, actually.
        If you lend it to me privately, no. If you hand it to me on a stage, kinda yes.

    • Hawke@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      You do have some control, in the form of copyright. Also the analogy doesn’t hold up well since you’re not using their “pen” and they only let you reach inside through the window. And the audience is outside the house.

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        And to continue that analogy- Twitter didn’t assign the name, the user created it so they hold copyright on the name.

      • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        Except when you enter the home, you accepted the TOS that transfers copyright to the owner of the home.

        • Hawke@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          Nope.

          as a user, “you retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. What’s yours is yours you own your Content (and your photos and videos are part of the Content),” although you also grant Twitter a license to use the content, which authorizes it “to make your Content available to the rest of the world and to let others do the same.” Based on this language, other twitter users are also licensed to copy and redistribute your posts by “retweeting” them.

          https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/tweets-protected-copyright/

          • JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            Really ? I think you’ll find that clause means you do not own copyright to anything you post on X.

            • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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              32 minutes ago

              Really? How do you get that from “you retain your rights and give Twitter a license to use your content”? Retaining rights literally means not giving them up.

          • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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            12 hours ago

            Congratulations on reading the twitter TOS. Now tell me if it is legal for a company to lay claim on copyright via a TOS.

              • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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                12 hours ago

                I thought we were talking about who legally can lay claim on copyrights in the hypothetically house with a whiteboard? i’m not the one lost with the program.

                • trolololol@lemmy.world
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                  2 hours ago

                  You see, x is the pen, Infowars is the ink and we’re the contents of the water bowl all along

                  Skibidi dibidi bop

  • hightrix@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    He does. Same with any other platform you do not “own” your account. You have credentials to login to an account you created.

    This should not be news to anyone. This applies to all social media, all entertainment, and every other account you use online.

    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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      9 hours ago

      Which is why it’s really important to have some trust /reputation if using these services.

      Why anyone would use a service run by a fascist entitled madman who literally represents the very worst version of humanity is beyond me and they deserve whatever they get.

    • bizarroland@fedia.io
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      10 hours ago

      I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted, you are correct.

      The platform owns the platform.

      You have given the platform permission to use anything on the platform however they want.

      They own the content you put on the platform.

      • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        They own the content you put on the platform.

        This will depend on the terms of service agreement. Some of them try to get away with this, while others just give themselves an irrevocable license to use content you publish on their platform.