Social Media

Mediaite reports: Elon Musk says he’s ready to rumble. In a screenshotted text sent to his biographer Walter Isaacson, Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to an MMA fight on Monday. And — per the text — he’s even willing to cede the home octagon advantage. “Wanna do a practice bout at your house next week?” Musk asked. Zuckerberg — evidently sick …

Gizmodo reports: Are you not entertained?! Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s will they/won’t they continues, and it appears that the long awaited fight between the two tech billionaires could take place in Italy. Musk tweeted this morning that he spoke to the Prime Minister of Italy and the Minister of Culture to hold the brawl in Italy. The fate of …

The Hill reports: Tesla and X owner Elon Musk is mulling the suggestion of having a “noble,” debate instead of a cage fight with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Musk responded to a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that suggested the idea of a cage match debate, to which Musk said, “That sounds like a good idea …

Politico reports: Special Counsel Jack Smith sought and obtained a search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account, @realdonaldtrump, in January, according to newly revealed court documents. Twitter’s initial resistance to complying with the warrant resulted in a federal judge holding the company in contempt and levying a $350,000 fine. The federal court of appeals in Washington, D.C. recently upheld that …

Reuters reports: Iraq’s official media regulator on Tuesday ordered all media and social media companies operating in the Arab state not to use the term “homosexuality” and instead to say “sexual deviance,” the regulator said. The Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (CMC) said in a statement that the use of the term “gender” was also banned. It prohibited all phone …

The Associated Press reports: Elon Musk says he may need to get surgery before a proposed “cage match” with Mark Zuckerberg. “I’m getting an MRI of my neck & upper back tomorrow,” Musk wrote Sunday night. “May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week.” The two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to an in-person face-off in late …

The Insider reports: Elon Musk appears to be pressing ahead with his plans to fight Mark Zuckerberg. The billionaire wrote on X – formerly Twitter – on Sunday that their highly anticipated cage fight will be live-streamed on X. Musk did not provide further details on when this would happen and Zuckerberg is yet to weigh in on his comments. …

Bloomberg News reports: Elon Musk has offered to fund the legal bills of any users of his social network, X, who’ve been discriminated against by their employer because of their actions on the platform. The proposal comes with “no limit” on costs and X Corp. will “go after the boards of directors of the companies too,” he said in messages …

Ars Technica reports: About a week after X commandeered the popular @X account from longtime Twitter user Gene X Hwang, another user has reported that X has taken over his popular account, @music. “16 years ago, I created @music and have been running it ever since,” Jeremy Vaught, director of engineering at the nonprofit Life Happens, posted on X. “Just …

The Verge reports: If you go to Threads.net to access Meta’s popular Twitter clone, you’ll still find a spinning placeholder galaxy — but that should change in the next few weeks, according to a new tweet from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Search and web coming in the next few weeks,” he tweets, saying he’s “excited about the team’s pace of shipping.” …

New York City’s NBC affiliate reports: A famous video game influencer known for streaming on Twitch is in custody after a giveaway event attracting thousands of young people sparked pandemonium in Manhattan’s Union Square. The Friday afternoon event advertised by Kai Cenat, one of the most popular streamers online, grew out of control well before its scheduled 4 p.m. start …

Gothamist reports: New Yorkers were urged to stay away from Union Square on Friday evening after thousands of people flooded the area to see influencer Kai Cenat, as part of a giveaway for video game devices. The warning issued by the city on Friday afternoon also told New Yorkers to expect traffic delays and a police presence in the park. …

The Verge reports: Twitter Blue, which Elon Musk is currently rebranding to X Blue, now includes the option to hide the notorious blue checkmark. Twitter Blue subscribers recently started noticing the “hide your blue checkmark” option on the web and in mobile apps, offering the ability to hide that they’re paying for Twitter and avoid memes about how “this mf …

Forbes reports: Elon Musk’s X Corp. sued a nonprofit group that monitors online hate speech, accusing it of falsely describing the social media platform formerly known as Twitter as being “overwhelmed with harmful content.” In the lawsuit, filed late Monday in San Francisco federal court, X Corp. claims The Center for Countering Digital Hate is illegally “scraping” its servers and …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: After Elon Musk flouted permit rules and angered nearby residents with a massive, flashing “X” atop his social media company’s San Francisco headquarters, workers were seen dismantling the sign Monday. At 9 a.m., SFGATE saw two workers in lifts detangling wires from the structure’s metal frame and pulling away its light-up panels. By noon, the …

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk has over the last year threatened legal action against tech competitors, employees and people who use Twitter, which he owns. Now he is also taking aim at an organization that studies hate speech and misinformation on social media. X Corp., the parent company of the social media company, sent a letter on July …

The Insider reports: San Francisco authorities say they still can’t access X, formally Twitter’s, headquarters to inspect Elon Musk’s new sign. According to complaints filed by the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, the company denied a San Francisco city representative access to the building on Friday and Saturday when they attempted to inspect the new light-up structure. A Twitter …

The Daily Beast reports: Kanye West’s account on X, aka Elon Musk’s newly-rebranded Twitter, was reinstated on Saturday months after the rapper was suspended for violating company policy with an antisemitic post. While West, who goes by Ye, won’t be able to monetize his account, X brought back his profile after “receiving reassurance that he wouldn’t use the platform to …

The Associated Press reports: The city of San Francisco has opened a complaint and launched an investigation into a giant “X” sign that was installed Friday on top of the downtown building formerly known as Twitter headquarters. City officials say replacing letters or symbols on buildings, or erecting a sign on top of one, requires a permit for design and …

Reuters reports: Meta Platforms executives are heavily focused on boosting retention on their new Twitter rival Threads, after the app lost more than half of its users in the weeks following its buzzy launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Thursday. Retention of users on the text-based app was better than executives had expected, though it was “not perfect,” said …