Social Media

Bloomberg News reports: Meta Platforms Inc.’s new social media app Threads has garnered 70 million users in just two days after its launch, a sign of enthusiasm that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said was “way beyond our expectations.” Threads launched on Wednesday as an alternative to Elon Musk’s Twitter, which had 237.8 million users as of July 2022, but …

Semafor reports: Twitter is threatening legal action against Meta over its new text-based “Twitter killer” platform, accusing the social media giant of poaching former employees to create a “copycat” application. A lawyer for Twitter, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg accusing the company of engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and …

CBC News reports: More than 30 million people have signed up to Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter, within the first few hours of its launch, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said late Thursday morning. The number is likely to grow quickly as more Instagram users and social media fans open accounts on Threads. The app is the biggest challenger yet to …

Bloomberg News reports: Mark Zuckerberg posted his first tweet in more than a decade, a playful jab at Elon Musk on the day the Meta Platforms Inc. founder rolled out a much-anticipated Twitter substitute. Meta’s Instagram officially unveiled Threads Wednesday, considered the most potent threat yet to the struggling social media service Musk owns. Hours later, Zuckerberg tweeted a photo …

Axios reports: The Biden administration is appealing a court ruling that would limit government officials and agencies from communicating with social media companies on content moderation, according to court filings Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday in relation to an ongoing lawsuit from Republican attorneys general filed by Louisiana and Missouri that alleges the …

Reuters reports: Meta Platforms on Wednesday launched a direct challenge to Twitter with Threads, garnering millions of users in hours as it sought to take advantage of its rival’s much-weakened state after a series of chaotic decisions from owner Elon Musk. Those quick to join the new platform included celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez as well as …

TechCrunch reports: Days after requiring users to log in to view tweets, Twitter has silently removed these restrictions. This means you can open Twitter links in a browser without an account. When Twitter started enforcing the login requirement, Musk said that he took these “temporary” measures to prevent data scraping. The company hasn’t made any official announcement about allowing users …

Bloomberg News reports: Meta Platforms Inc.’s Threads app — the social network rolling out this week to take on Twitter Inc. — won’t be offered in the European Union as the company works out how data sharing between the new platform and its Instagram app will be regulated. Meta is waiting for more guidance around the Digital Markets Act, new …

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge on Tuesday blocked key Biden administration agencies and officials from meeting and communicating with social media companies about “protected speech,” in an extraordinary preliminary injunction in an ongoing case that could have profound effects on the First Amendment. The injunction came in response to a lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana …

Axios reports: Digital World Acquisition Corp., the special purpose acquisition company that inked a deal to acquire former President Trump’s media and tech company, said on Monday that it has struck a tentative settlement with securities regulators. The SEC’s probe into the merger, which would result in Trump’s Truth Social becoming a publicly traded company, has delayed the deal considerably. …

The Associated Press reports: Meta is poised to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter — a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. A listing for the app, called Threads, appeared on Apple’s App Store, indicating it would debut as early as Thursday. It is billed as a “text-based conversation app” that is …

The Daily Beast reports: Elon Musk, of his various unconventional and controversial policy preferences, seems to have added a new one to his list: limiting voting to parents. The father of 10 responded to a Twitter user on Saturday who commented on Musk’s affirmation that “the childless have little stakes in the future” by saying, “Democracy is probably unworkable long …

The New York Times reports: If you thought that a cage fight between two of the world’s richest men was just a far-fetched social media stunt, think again. Over the past 10 days, Mr. White said he, Mr. Musk and Mr. Zuckerberg — aided by advisers — have negotiated behind the scenes and are inching toward physical combat. The preferred …

USA Today reports: Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Saturday announced “temporary limits” on the number of tweets users are able to read, an announcement that comes amid reports of users having difficulty accessing the site. Verified accounts “are limited to reading 6000 posts/day,” while unverified accounts were limited to 600 per day, Musk’s tweet said. New and unverified counts will …

The Verge reports: If you currently try to access Twitter without logging in to your user account, you may find you’re unable to see any of the content that was previously available to the wider public. Instead, you’ll likely be met with the Twitter window that asks you to either sign in to the platform or create a new account, …

The Associated Press reports: A tech industry trade group sued Arkansas on Thursday challenging a new state law that requires parental permission for minors to create social media accounts. NetChoice, a group whose members include Facebook parent Meta, TikTok and Twitter, filed a federal lawsuit over the measure signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in April. The law requires …

Mediaite reports: The proposed fight between billionaire rivals Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg may take place in Rome’s Colosseum, according to both Musk and a new report. “Some chance fight happens in Colosseum,” Musk tweeted on Thursday. “Need to work on my endurance,” he added in a follow-up post, which included a clip of the Colosseum fight from Monty Python’s …

Reuters reports: Elon Musk said on Saturday he will start training if the mixed martial arts cage fight he has provoked with fellow billionaire media mogul Mark Zuckerberg takes shape. Twitter owner Musk tweeted on Tuesday he was up for a cage match in Las Vegas with Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent Meta, who has trained in jiu-jitsu. “I haven’t …

Bloomberg News reports: A British man was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in a social media hack that included hijacking Twitter accounts of top US political and business leaders, and for cyberstalking and threatening several individuals. Joseph James O’Connor, 24, pleaded guilty in New York last month to taking part in numerous online schemes, including a …

CNBC reports: While a standard UFC pay-per-view costs $80, UFC president Dana White said he would charge $100 for the Musk-Zuckerberg bout. The previous biggest pay-per-view ever was Conor McGrergor-Floyd Mayweather in 2017,  White said, which brought in more than $600 million in revenue. The two executives, who have a history of bad blood, likely aren’t looking to add to …