Business

CNET reports: The Twitter account encouraging people to join rival social network Mastodon has been suspended, the latest in a string of accounts suspended this week. The usual feed for @JoinMastodon was replaced Thursday with a message the account had been suspended for violating Twitter rules. It wasn’t immediately clear which rules the account broke. Neither Twitter nor Mastodon representatives …

Mediaite reports: Elon Musk tweeted that “legal action is being taken” against 20-year-old Jack Sweeney, who ran the now-banned Twitter account that tracked Musk’s private jet. Presumably, Musk plans to sue him. Since taking over Twitter, the billionaire has pledged to make the platform safe for “free speech.” On Wednesday, Twitter changed its terms of service to prohibit flight-tracking on …

Fortune reports: Elon Musk, who lost his No. 1 spot on Bloomberg’s ranking of the world’s richest people this week, unloaded Tesla Inc. stock for the fourth time this year. Tesla’s chief executive officer sold almost 22 million shares of the electric-car maker for $3.58 billion, a filing showed late Wednesday in the US. The transactions happened between Dec. 12 and Dec. …

Axios reports: Twitter has clipped the wings of the account that actively tracked Elon Musk’s private jet, the owner of the account said Wednesday. The suspension raises questions about Musk’s commitment to free speech on Twitter. Musk said in early November that his “commitment to free speech” included the account following his plane. Florida college student Jack Sweeney, the owner …

The Daily Beast reports: Elon Musk, who implored his army of Twitter followers to vote Republican in the 2022 midterms, did not vote in the election, state records show. “Based on our records, we do not have any indication that Mr. Musk participated in the November 2022 Election in Cameron County,” the county’s election administrator told The Daily Beast. The …

The New York Times reports: Over the past two weeks, Elon Musk has shaken up Twitter’s legal department, disbanded a council that advised the social media company on safety issues and is continuing to take drastic steps to cut costs. Mr. Musk appears to be gearing up for legal battles at Twitter. He and his team have revamped Twitter’s legal …

CNN Business reports: Sears Hometown Stores Inc., a franchise-owned unit of Sears, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Sears spun off Sears Hometown in 2012 to give the parent company a much-needed infusion of cash. The average Sears Hometown store is only 8,000 to 10,000 square feet, a fraction of the size of the average full Sears, which is …

Via press release from the SEC: The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Samuel Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), the crypto trading platform of which he was the CEO and co-founder. Investigations as to other securities law violations and into other entities and persons relating to the alleged misconduct are ongoing. …

The Washington Post reports: Twitter on Monday night abruptly dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, the latest sign that Elon Musk is unraveling years of work and institutions created to make the social network safer and more civil. Members of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council received an email with the subject line, “Thank You,” that informed them the council was …

ABC News reports: Sam Bankman-Fried, the embattled former CEO of cryptocurrency giant FTX and trading firm Alameda Research, has been arrested in the Bahamas on criminal charges, the Bahamas Attorney General’s Office announced Monday. The arrest “followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition,” …

The Hill reports: Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Sunday suggested the platform will dramatically increase character limits on tweets from 280 to 4,000. “Elon is it true that Twitter is set to increase the characters from 280 to 4000?” one user tweeted at the social media platform’s new owner. “Yes,” Musk responded. Such a change would shift Twitter away from …

Gizmodo reports: Elon Musk, the billionaire who wants nothing more in life than to be adored by legions of fans, was loudly booed by a crowd in San Francisco on Sunday night after he was invited onstage by comedian Dave Chappelle. And the footage is pretty rough, even if you don’t particularly like Musk. “Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise …

Bloomberg News reports: Elon Musk posted tweets including an excerpt of Yoel Roth’s doctoral dissertation Saturday that suggested the former Twitter executive is an advocate for child sexualization — a baseless trope that leaves Roth susceptible to online abuse. “Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his PhD thesis,” tweeted …

The Hill reports: Twitter announced it will relaunch its subscription service on Monday, although prices will be higher for Apple users in an apparent jab at the tech giant’s fees on in-app purchases. The social media company said users can subscribe to Twitter Blue, which includes a blue checkmark, editing abilities and 1080-pixel video uploads, for $8 per month if …

Via email from the Family Research Council: Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen and Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions related to a proposed merger between two of the nation’s largest grocery chains. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) cautioned Kroger against expecting “Republican senators to carry the water for them” while pursuing corporate policies that promote …

Bloomberg Law reports:  The mass layoffs and constructive discharges that have hit Twitter Inc. since Elon Musk bought the company have impacted female employees to a significantly greater degree than male workers, a new class lawsuit charges. That women were more affected by Musk’s immediately laying off more than half of Twitter’s workforce and his “quickly implemented new policies” is …

Axios reports: Miami’s Mayor Francis Suarez (R) this week urged Elon Musk to relocate Twitter’s headquarters to his city.”[Elon Musk] it’s TIME to move @twitter headquarters to Miami. It’s not about politics, it’s about the soul of our country,” Suarez tweeted. The invitation comes after Musk expressed frustrations over San Fransisco, where Twitter is headquartered, after city officials started investigating …

The Daily Beast reports: Elon Musk lost the title of world’s richest person on Wednesday, according to Forbes’ billionaire rankings. The Tesla CEO lost $3.4 billion of his net worth overnight as the electric car company’s stock plummetted. So far this year, Musk has lost more than $100 billion to the carmaker’s tanking stock, though previous losses didn’t affect his …

Reuters reports: Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a medical device company, is under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and sources familiar with the investigation and company operations. Neuralink Corp is developing a brain implant it hopes will help paralyzed …

Axios reports: The New York Times on Tuesday unveiled a unique version of its weekday print paper featuring more than two dozen ads from just one advertiser — General Electric. It’s the first time in the paper’s 171-year history that any advertiser has gotten to own all of The Times’ print real estate exclusively — in addition to most of …