Social Media

NBC News reports: NBC News found that at least 150 paid “Premium” subscriber X accounts and thousands of unpaid accounts have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content on X in recent months, often in apparent violation of X’s rules. The paid accounts posting the content all consistently posted antisemitic or pro-Nazi material. Examples included praise of Nazi soldiers, sharing of Nazi …

TechCrunch reports: Elon Musk is planning to charge new X users a “small fee” to enable posting on the social network and to curb the bot problem. While replying to another user, Musk later added that new accounts would be able to post after three months of creation without paying a fee. As is the case with a lot of …

The Atlantic reports: The flow of traffic to Donald Trump’s most loyal digital-media boosters isn’t just slowing, as in the rest of the industry; it’s utterly collapsing. The Daily Caller lost 57 percent of its audience; Drudge Report was down 81 percent; and The Federalist lost a staggering 91 percent. What’s going on? The obvious culprit is Facebook. For years, …

Ars Technica reports: X will soon stop allowing users to hide their blue checkmarks, and some users are not happy. Previously, a blue tick on Twitter was a mark of a notable account, providing some assurance to followers of the account’s authenticity. But then Elon Musk decided to start charging for the blue tick instead, and mayhem ensued as a …

Rolling Stone reports: A judge on Friday moved to halt an investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) into the liberal watchdog journalism organization Media Matters, issuing a preliminary injunction in the case. Calling Media Matters a “radical left-wing” and “anti-free speech organization,” Paxton claimed to be investigating “potential fraudulent activity” by the group under Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices …

The Huffington Post reports: Elon Musk was deposed last month over his role in allegedly promoting a false conspiracy theory that a 22-year-old Jewish man participated in a neo-Nazi brawl. Musk tried to keep the deposition from going public, and perhaps for good reason: It did not go well for him. “There’s some risk that what I say is incorrect, …

“As you move forward here, we’re looking at the entire ecosystem. What does it take to make sure that we protect people in the United States and around the globe from these tyrants of big tech who want to silence them? So we’re looking at the whole ecosystem. “Whether that’s through acquiring technology, whether that’s through building technology, those are …

Reuters reports: Elon Musk is challenging a decision by a Supreme Court justice in Brazil who ordered his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to block certain accounts, and he called on Sunday for the judge’s resignation. Musk said X was lifting all the restrictions decided by Justice Alexandre de Moraes on certain undisclosed accounts in Brazil and …

The Associated Press reports: Elon Musk’s X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has named a new head of safety nine months after the last executive to hold the position departed from the social media company. X said that company veteran Kylie McRoberts will oversee the global safety team. The platform also announced that Yale Cohen, who previously worked for …

Agence France-Presse reports: A digital tool considered vital in tracking viral falsehoods, CrowdTangle will be decommissioned by Facebook owner Meta in a major election year, a move researchers fear will disrupt efforts to detect an expected firehose of political misinformation. The tech giant says CrowdTangle will be unavailable after August 14, less than three months before the US election. The …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas’ top campaign finance watchdog gave initial approval last week to a proposal that would require social media users to disclose if they are being paid to share or create political advertisements. The Texas Ethics Commission’s action comes just months after The Texas Tribune reported that a secretive and politically-connected company, called Influenceable LLC, paid internet …

CNBC reports: TikTok has launched a $2.1 million advertising campaign with a clear message for senators in tough reelection fights this year: Block the House bill that could effectively ban the app in the United States. “Think about the 5 million small business owners that rely on TikTok to provide for their families,” one purported TikTok user says in the …

The Associated Press reports: As Donald Trump’s social media company begins trading publicly Tuesday, would-be investors might ask themselves if the stock is too pricey and potentially too volatile. Trump Media debuts with a stock price near $50 and a market value of about $6.8 billion. Many of Digital World’s investors were small-time investors either trying to support Trump or …

The Tallahassee Democrats reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis Monday signed into law sweeping social media restrictions that also requires age verification to access pornographic websites in Florida. The measure would take effect at the beginning of 2025 – if it survives expected lawsuits from the nation’s largest tech companies. In that case, minors under 16 would be barred from social media …

CNN Business reports: A federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s X that had targeted a watchdog group for its critical reports about hate speech on the social media platform. In a blistering 52-page order, the judge blasted X’s case as plainly punitive rather than about protecting the platform’s security and legal rights. “Sometimes it is …

The New York Times reports: Jeff Yass, the billionaire Wall Street financier and Republican megadonor who is a major investor in the parent company of TikTok, was also the biggest institutional shareholder of the shell company that recently merged with former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company. A December regulatory filing showed that Mr. Yass’s trading firm, Susquehanna International …

NBC News reports: In February, X had 27 million daily active users of its mobile app in the U.S., down 18% from a year earlier, according to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm based in San Francisco. The U.S. user base has been flat or down every month since November 2022, the first full month of Musk’s owning the app, …

The Guardian reports: Investors approved plans to take Donald Trump’s social media platform public on Friday, netting the former president a paper fortune of $3bn. Trump Media & Technology, the firm behind his minnow social network Truth Social, has spent years fighting to land on the stock market via a so-called “blank check” merger with a shell company. It finally …

The Washington Post reports: As Congress considers legislation that could ban TikTok in the United States, lawmakers are receiving a surge of threatening messages connected to popular video app. U.S. Capitol Police are investigating an “uptick” in reports of “threats and concerning messages” linked to the TikTok discussions, according to a law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of …

Wired reports: X has locked and suspended the accounts of journalists and researchers who shared the alleged identity of a neo-Nazi cartoonist known as Stonetoss after the cartoonist appealed to site owner Elon Musk. The incident, critics say, highlights once again how Musk has not only welcomed extremists onto his platform but has repeatedly boosted their conspiracies, engaged with their …