Social Media

Turkish NBA Star Blasts Musk For Election Censorship

The Washington Post reports: Twitter was blocking some posts in Turkey ahead of the country’s high-stakes election Sunday, the American-based social media company announced Friday night. The company tweeted in English and Turkish that it has “taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey” beginning Friday but added the blocked content would remain available in the rest of …

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Musk Censors Erdogan’s Opposition Ahead Of Election

Mediaite reports: “Free Speech Absolutist” Elon Musk is being skewered for bowing to the whims of the Turkish government by agreeing to censor some posts ahead of the country’s elections. Twitter Global Governance alerted users today, “In response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to …

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YouTuber Faces 20 Years For Deliberate Plane Crash

The New York Daily News reports: A YouTuber and former X Games snowboarder has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge after he intentionally crashed a plane on camera in a bid to up his follower count, prosecutors announced. Trevor Daniel Jacob confessed to authorities that he planned to crash his plane in a video he made. He later …

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The Cult Melts Down Over “Woke” New Twitter CEO

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk is in talks to hire Linda Yaccarino, the chair of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, as chief executive of Twitter, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The talks are at an advanced stage, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversations are confidential. Ms. Yaccarino …

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Musk: New Unnamed Twitter CEO Will Take Over Soon

CBS News reports: Elon Musk on Thursday tweeted that he’s found “a new CEO for X/Twitter,” adding, “She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” Musk said that he’ll transition to executive chairman and chief technology officer of the social media network. Musk, who bought Twitter last year, didn’t disclose the name of the new CEO. The billionaire has said for …

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Rand Paul: GOP Could Lose Elections Over TikTok Ban

Politico reports: Rand’s got a new stand: Banning TikTok will backfire on the GOP with young voters. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who’s shown repeatedly that he’ll stretch chamber rules to their limits in order to be heard, is warning the rest of the GOP about the electoral price it might pay for yanking one of their favorite apps. As the …

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Election Offices Face Spoof Accounts Under Musk Rule

The Associated Press reports: Tracking down accurate information about Philadelphia’s elections on Twitter used to be easy. The account for the city commissioners who run elections, @phillyvotes, was the only one carrying a blue check mark, a sign of authenticity. But ever since the social media platform overhauled its verification service last month, the check mark has disappeared. That’s made …

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Twitter Restores Free API Access For Govt Accounts

Fortune reports: In an about-face, Twitter says it has restored free access to a key tool for verified government and “publicly owned” services so they can tweet weather, transit and other alerts after New York City’s transit agency said earlier this week it would no longer use the platform for its service advisories. Last month, the company announced a new …

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Musk To NPR: Start Tweeting Or I’ll Give Handle Away

NPR reports: Elon Musk has threatened to reassign NPR’s Twitter account to “another company.” In a series of emails sent to this reporter, Musk said he would transfer the network’s main account on Twitter, under the @NPR handle, to another organization or person. The idea shocked even longtime observers of Musk’s spur-of-the-moment and erratic leadership style. Handing over established accounts …

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9M Watched Pirated “Super Mario” Movie On Twitter

Forbes reports: If you were wondering what getting rid of the vast majority of Twitter staff, including moderators, might do to the site, here’s one bit of anarchy for you. After attempting something similar a few days ago, the account “vids that go hard” with 1.1 million followers has posted the entirety of the Super Mario Bros. Movie, yes the …

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Latest Twitter Rival Has Waiting List Of 1.2 Million

The Insider reports: A new invite-only Twitter alternative just lured in Twitter celebs Dril and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — and people are scrambling to follow them. The Jack Dorsey [photo] backed platform, Bluesky, is a Twitter clone with a very similar format to its established rival. Bluesky has been available on Apple’s app store since February but recently added an Android …

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NYC Transit Steps Back From “Unreliable” Twitter

New York City’s ABC affiliate reports: The MTA is the latest organization to take a step back from Twitter. Although the MTA will still be active on Twitter, it will no longer provide service alerts and information through the platform. “The MTA has terminated posting service information to Twitter, effective immediately, as the reliability of the platform can no longer …

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EU Names Platforms Subject To Stricter Content Rules

TechCrunch reports: The European Union has confirmed the names of over a dozen platforms that will face the strictest level of regulation under its recently rebooted and expanded ecommerce rules, aka the Digital Services Act (DSA). The list is a mix of familiar digital services, from social media apps to search engines and app stores — with no real surprises. …

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SCOTUS To Decide If Public Officials Can Block Critics

Courthouse News reports: The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear two cases arising from public officials blocking critical commenters on their social media accounts, after the Sixth and Ninth Circuits reached different conclusions on whether the constituents’ free speech rights were violated. The first case involves two elected members of the Poway Unified School District Board of Trustees in San …

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Twitter Now Allowing Genocidal Russian Propaganda

NPR reports: Dmitry Medvedev, a leading government official and former president of Russia, took to Twitter earlier this month to denigrate Ukraine in a post using language reminiscent of genocidal regimes. And Twitter didn’t stop him. In his 645-word tweet titled, “WHY WILL UKRAINE DISAPPEAR? BECAUSE NOBODY NEEDS IT,” Medvedev called Ukraine a “Nazi regime,” “blood-sucking parasites” and “a threadbare …

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PREDICTABLE: Twitter Sees Fresh Wave Of Imposters

The Hill reports: New York officials and government offices faced a slew of fake accounts impersonating its official City of New York account, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D). One of the parody accounts impersonating Hochul claimed that she is running as a Republican for the governor’s race, while numerous accounts impersonating …

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Elon Musk Forces Blue Checks Onto Prominent Critics

The Huffington Post reports: Twitter billionaire owner Elon Musk faced mockery after he boasted about paying from his own pocket for NBA superstar LeBron James, horror author Stephen King and “Star Trek” legend William Shatner to be verified on his social media platform. James, King and Shatner had all publicly rejected the idea of signing up for the website’s new …

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Twitter Finally Axes All “Legacy” Blue Check Marks

The Verge reports: Elon Musk is finally confiscating your blue checkmark. Well, that’s unless you pay the ransom for “Twitter Blue” — a toll booth designed to ignore people’s contributions to the platform except for the fact that they are all equally paying customers. Business and government organizations can still apply for verified status, but let’s be real: all of …

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Musk Threatens To Sue Microsoft Over Data Usage

The Verge reports: Elon Musk is threatening to take legal action against Microsoft over claims that the company “trained illegally using Twitter data.” The billionaire’s statement came in response to a tweet noting that Microsoft’s advertising platform announced it would stop supporting Twitter, reportedly due to Twitter’s changes requiring payment to access its API. Musk’s threat is vague but appears …

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Twitter Drops Policy Against Anti-Trans Harassment

The Associated Press reports: Twitter has quietly removed a policy against the “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals,” raising concerns that the Elon Musk-owned platform is becoming less safe for marginalized groups. Twitter enacted the policy against deadnaming, or using a transgender person’s name before they transitioned, as well as purposefully using the wrong gender for someone as a …

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