Business

Bloomberg News reports: The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asked Tesla Inc. for more information about one of its vehicles colliding with a fire truck in a fatal crash in the San Francisco Bay area. The agency reached out to the manufacturer after the incident in Contra Costa County during the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. The county fire department …

Bloomberg News reports: The new Meta Verified service for Facebook and Instagram will allow users to join celebrities and other public figures in having a blue check that confirms their identity, starting from $11.99 per month, the company said in a statement. The Meta Verified feature may add $2 billion to $3 billion to Meta’s annual sales, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst …

Axios reports: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Sunday that it will be testing out a monthly subscription service that allows users to verify their accounts. The move is aimed at “increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post announcing the news. It will allow users to verify …

Reuters reports: Twitter said on Friday it will allow only paid subscribers to use text messages as a two-factor authentication (2FA) method to secure their accounts. After March 20, “only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method,” the company tweeted. Two-factor authentication, meant to make accounts more secure, requires an account holder …

The Street reports: If there’s one thing Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known for, it’s jumping into the comments on Twitter specially when someone is criticizing him. In his latest social media appearance, Musk popped up after The Washington Post shared a story that insinuates that Musk’s changes to Twitter after his purchase of the social media platform in October …

The New York Times reports: Tesla is recalling more than 362,000 cars equipped with its Full Self-Driving driver-assistance system after government regulators found it increased the risk of accidents. The company’s technology, which can steer, accelerate, brake and change lanes on its own, allows vehicles to travel above legal speed limits and through intersections in “an unlawful or unpredictable manner,” …

Axios reports: Twitter on Wednesday updated its advertising policies to allow cannabis ads to run on its service in states where cannabis is legal, in accordance with federal guidelines. The policy represents the biggest step forward that any major tech company has made toward allowing cannabis advertising where it’s legal in the U.S. Twitter will only accept cannabis advertisers that …

The New York Times reports: Hundreds of Ohio residents gathered in a school gym on Wednesday night to demand answers about the ongoing fallout from a derailed train carrying hazardous chemicals, transforming what had been billed as an informational meeting into a heated town hall where officials with the railroad company didn’t even show up. The mayor pleaded with the …

Platformer reports: Biden’s tweet, in which he said he would be supporting his wife in rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles, generated nearly 29 million impressions. Musk, who also tweeted his support for the Eagles, generated a little more than 9.1 million impressions before deleting the tweet in apparent frustration. In the wake of those losses — the Eagles to the …

Yahoo Entertainment reports: As Netflix begins its crackdown on password sharing, the streaming giant’s Canadian division has introduced a new way to stop people from sharing. Netflix Canada confirmed via a release on its website stating the new procedure. Users will have to set a primary location where anyone living in that household can access Netflix. Any additional users on …

The BBC reports: Adidas has warned of a potential major impact on its profits after ending its partnership with rapper and fashion designer Kanye West last November. The firm’s new boss said it could lose hundreds of millions of dollars this year if it decides not to sell its stock of Yeezy sneakers. The sportswear giant cut ties with West, …

Lever News reports: Before this weekend’s fiery Norfolk Southern train derailment prompted emergency evacuations in Ohio, the company helped kill a federal safety rule aimed at upgrading the rail industry’s Civil War-era braking systems, according to documents reviewed by The Lever. Though the company’s 150-car train in Ohio reportedly burst into 100-foot flames upon derailing — and was transporting materials …

Platformer reports: On Tuesday, Musk gathered a group of engineers and advisors into a room at Twitter’s headquarters looking for answers. Why are his engagement numbers tanking? “This is ridiculous,” he said, according to multiple sources. “I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.” One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers …

Reuters reports: A federal judge in Chicago has dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit accusing Walmart of deceiving shoppers by selling Fudge Mint cookies that lacked fudge and mint. In a decision on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland said no cases showed that consumers expect “fudge” to contain milkfat. The judge likened the case to lawsuits where courts found …

The New York Daily News reports: Mayor Adams and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg put illegal cannabis shops on notice Tuesday that they will face eviction if they continue to break the law. Adams, Bragg and several other top elected officials announced that prosecutors will now rely on a decades-old public nuisance law to evict businesses selling marijuana without a license. …

The New York Times reports: Over 120,000 views of a video showing a boy being sexually assaulted. A recommendation engine suggesting that a user follow content related to exploited children. Users continually posting abusive material, delays in taking it down when it is detected and friction with organizations that police it. All since Elon Musk declared that “removing child exploitation …

Variety reports: Elon Musk’s Twitter needs cash — and now the mega-billionaire wants companies and brands to fork over $1,000 monthly to get verified check-marks on his social network. Twitter is asking organizations to pay $1,000 per month, plus an additional $50 monthly for each affiliated sub-account, to maintain the gold check-mark verification badges the company introduced in December, replacing …

Bloomberg News reports: A jury cleared Elon Musk of claims by Tesla Inc. investors that he defrauded them when he tweeted 4 1/2 years ago that he was considering taking the company private and had “funding secured” to make the deal happen. The verdict in San Francisco federal court rejects allegations that the electric-car maker’s CEO violated securities laws and …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Federal Trade Commission is preparing a potential antitrust lawsuit against Amazon that in the coming months could challenge an array of the tech giant’s business practices as anticompetitive, according to people familiar with the matter. The commission in recent years has been examining Amazon practices including whether it favors its own products over competitors’ …

CNBC reports: Netflix’s plan to stop users from sharing their passwords with each other is starting to take shape. The streaming giant, which last month announced that it will soon begin the preliminary rollout of its strategy, has updated its FAQs page with some details about what users can expect. The main hurdle that Netflix will place in front of …