Social Media

Apple Resumes Ads On X After Stopping Due To Musk

Mac Rumors reports: Apple this month started advertising on X for the first time in more than a year. The company had stopped advertising on the social media platform in November 2023 following controversial remarks made by its owner Elon Musk. Apple is one of many major brands that have paused advertising on X at least once, with others including …

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Trump Dismisses Lawsuit Over 2021 Ban By Twitter/X

Axios reports: President Trump voluntarily dismissed his legal battle with X regarding the social media platform’s permanent suspension of the president’s account following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. X, which Elon Musk primarily owns but was then the publicly-traded Twitter, banned Trump for what it described at the time as a “risk of further incitement of violence.” Each …

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German Court Orders X To Hand Over Election Data

Politico Europe reports: A German court handed Elon Musk’s X a legal defeat, ruling that the platform must immediately provide researchers with access to data on politically related content ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 election. The court decision, seen by POLITICO, was issued Thursday and marks one of the first major judicial tests of the European Union’s Digital Services …

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Zuck Orders Staff To Embrace Trump “Partnership”

The New York Times reports: In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with Meta employees on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, defended recent changes he had made to loosening restrictions on online speech and ending diversity initiatives, and doubled down on embracing President Trump’s new administration. “I want to be clear, after the last several years, we now have an …

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Meta To Pay Trump $25M For Suspending Him In 2021

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Trump has signed settlement papers that are expected to require Meta Platforms to pay roughly $25 million to resolve a 2021 lawsuit Trump brought after the company suspended his accounts following the attacks on the U.S. Capitol that year, according to people familiar with the agreement. Of that, $22 million will go to a …

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TikTok Users Say Anti-Trump Posts Are Being Censored

Reuters reports: TikTok users who once saw the app as a haven for free speech say they see signs of censorship after the platform, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, was revived by an executive order from President Donald Trump.  Content creator Pat Loller, 36, said a satirical video he created in response to billionaire Elon Musk’s hand gesture at …

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NPR: White House In Talks For Oracle To Run TikTok

NPR reports: The Trump administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app’s global operations, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks. Under the deal now being negotiated by the White House, TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance would retain …

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Wall Street Banks To Sell “Albatross” X’s Debt At A Loss

The Wall Street Journal reports: Banks are getting ready to sell billions of dollars in debt borrowed by Elon Musk’s X, bringing Wall Street a step closer to exiting the nerve-racking deal that financed the social-media company’s buyout. Morgan Stanley bankers have reached out to investors ahead of a planned sale next week of up to $3 billion of debt …

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Meta Suspends Accounts Of Abortion Pill Providers

The New York Times reports: Instagram and Facebook have recently blurred, blocked or removed posts from two abortion pill providers. Instagram also suspended the accounts of several abortion pill providers and hid the providers from appearing in search and recommendations. The actions ramped up in the last two weeks, and were especially noticeable in the last two days, abortion pill …

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Cotton: TikTok Hosts Will Face “Ruinous Liabilities”

Just in from Sen. Tom Cotton: Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska) issued the following statement in response to the news that Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft were among the U.S. companies to remove TikTok from their app stores in accordance with the bipartisan law passed by Congress. “We …

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TikTok To Restore US Service, Credits Glorious Leader

NBC News reports: TikTok said Sunday that it would be restoring service to U.S. users after blocking it the evening before. In a statement, TikTok said its video platform was coming back online after President-elect Donald Trump provided assurances necessary to the company’s service providers. Just hours before the move from TikTok, Trump posted to Truth Social calling for the …

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TikTok Shuts Down In US, Removed From App Stores

CBS News reports: TikTok voluntarily shut down service in the U.S. just hours before a Sunday deadline. Users in the U.S. who opened the app late Saturday night were greeted with a message with the headline, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.” “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” the message reads. “Unfortunately, that means you can’t …

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TikTok Says It Will “Go Dark” For US Users Tomorrow

The New York Times reports: TikTok said late Friday that its service would “go dark” for its 170 million American users on Sunday because of a ban in the United States over fears that its Chinese ownership poses a threat to national security. The company said in a statement that “unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January …

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Zuck Collaborated With Voldemort On Meta Changes

TechDirt reports: Remember how Zuckerberg was “done with politics”? Remember how he promised that he was going to stop doing what politicians demanded he do? Now it turns out that he not only did his big set of moderation changes to please Trump, but did so only after he was told by the incoming administration to act. Even worse, he …

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BREAKING: Supreme Court Upholds Ban On TikTok

NBC News reports: The Supreme Court on Friday delivered a blow to TikTok by upholding a law that could potentially lead to the video-sharing social media platform being banned in the United States. The justices rejected a free speech challenge filed by the company, meaning the law is set to go into effect on Sunday as planned. The bipartisan law …

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AP: Biden Administration Won’t Enforce TikTok Ban

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden won’t enforce a ban on TikTok that is set to take effect a day before he leaves office on Monday, a U.S. official said Thursday, leaving its fate in the hands of Trump. Congress last year, in a law signed by Biden, required that TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance divest the company by …

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TikTok CEO Shou Chew To Sit On Inauguration Dais

The New York Times reports: The chief executive of TikTok plans to attend President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration and has been invited to sit in a position of honor on the dais, where former presidents, family members and other important guests traditionally are seated, two people familiar with the plans said Wednesday. The invitation to the executive, Shou Chew, went …

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TikTok Preps To Shut Down For US Users On Sunday

Reuters reports: TikTok plans to shut off its app for U.S. users on Sunday, when a federal ban on the social media app could come into effect, The Information reported on Tuesday, unless the Supreme Court moves to block it. If TikTok shuts off for all U.S. users, the outcome would be different from that mandated by the law. The …

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Meta Says End To Fact-Checking Is Only For US, Brazil Says Meta Allowing Hate Speech Violates Brazilian Law

Reuters reports: Brazil’s government said on Tuesday it is “seriously concerned” about Meta Platforms’ recently announced changes to its hate speech policy, adding that it believes they do not comply with the country’s legislation. The Brazilian government ordered the social media company, which also owns Instagram and Threads, to explain its plans, which President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had …

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Bloomberg: China In Talks To Sell TikTok To Elon Musk

The Guardian reports: Chinese officials have reportedly held preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok’s operations in the US to the billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app be unable to avoid an impending ban. Beijing officials prefer that TikTok remains under the control of Chinese parent Bytedance, but have discussed other options including a sale to Musk, …

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