Social Media

Pro Publica reports: Politicians haven’t stopped deleting some of their most cringeworthy tweets, but Politwoops, our project that has tracked and archived more than half a million deleted tweets from candidates and elected officials since 2012, is no longer able to track them. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the platform has disabled the function we used to track deletions …

The Verge reports: Meta now has a team dedicated to building tools powered by artificial intelligence, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a post on Monday. This could eventually include “AI personas” designed to help people in “various ways” in addition to new AI tools across its apps and services. More specifically, Zuckerberg says the company is working on AI “experiences” …

The New York Times reports: Twitter laid off at least 200 of its employees on Saturday night, three people familiar with the matter said, or about 10 percent of the roughly 2,000 who were still working for the company. Elon Musk has steadily pared back its work force from about 7,500 employees as he has sought to reduce costs. The …

The Washington Post reports: Accounts pushing Kremlin propaganda are using Twitter’s new paid verification system to appear more prominently on the global platform, another sign that Elon Musk’s takeover is accelerating the spread of politically charged misinformation, a nonprofit research group has found. The accounts claim to be based outside of Russia, so they can pay for verification without running …

Bloomberg News reports: The new Meta Verified service for Facebook and Instagram will allow users to join celebrities and other public figures in having a blue check that confirms their identity, starting from $11.99 per month, the company said in a statement. The Meta Verified feature may add $2 billion to $3 billion to Meta’s annual sales, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst …

Axios reports: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Sunday that it will be testing out a monthly subscription service that allows users to verify their accounts. The move is aimed at “increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post announcing the news. It will allow users to verify …

Reuters reports: Twitter said on Friday it will allow only paid subscribers to use text messages as a two-factor authentication (2FA) method to secure their accounts. After March 20, “only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method,” the company tweeted. Two-factor authentication, meant to make accounts more secure, requires an account holder …

The Street reports: If there’s one thing Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known for, it’s jumping into the comments on Twitter specially when someone is criticizing him. In his latest social media appearance, Musk popped up after The Washington Post shared a story that insinuates that Musk’s changes to Twitter after his purchase of the social media platform in October …

Axios reports: Twitter on Wednesday updated its advertising policies to allow cannabis ads to run on its service in states where cannabis is legal, in accordance with federal guidelines. The policy represents the biggest step forward that any major tech company has made toward allowing cannabis advertising where it’s legal in the U.S. Twitter will only accept cannabis advertisers that …

Platformer reports: Biden’s tweet, in which he said he would be supporting his wife in rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles, generated nearly 29 million impressions. Musk, who also tweeted his support for the Eagles, generated a little more than 9.1 million impressions before deleting the tweet in apparent frustration. In the wake of those losses — the Eagles to the …

The Independent reports: Sitting together and chatting shortly after Rihanna’s halftime show were media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Fox empire – this year’s broadcaster of the Super Bowl – and Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, SpaceX and Tesla. As the fans waited for play to restart and the footage was broadcast, commentator Kevin Burkhardt – a Fox employee …

Platformer reports: On Tuesday, Musk gathered a group of engineers and advisors into a room at Twitter’s headquarters looking for answers. Why are his engagement numbers tanking? “This is ridiculous,” he said, according to multiple sources. “I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.” One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers …

From the Justice Department: Daniela Rendon, 31, of Miami made her appearance in federal magistrate court today and was charged with fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief loans and grants under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Relief Program. According to the indictment, Rendon submitted fraudulent applications seeking COVID-19 relief funds from the Small Business Administration and PPP. …

Fox News reports: Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., is standing by the photo of him and his wife hunting that reportedly got him suspended from Twitter Monday night, as #FreeSteveDaines began to gain popularity among conservatives on social media. “My wife is a great shot. What can I say?” Daines told Fox News Digital. “The Senator thinks it’s preposterous that a …

The New York Times reports: Over 120,000 views of a video showing a boy being sexually assaulted. A recommendation engine suggesting that a user follow content related to exploited children. Users continually posting abusive material, delays in taking it down when it is detected and friction with organizations that police it. All since Elon Musk declared that “removing child exploitation …

Variety reports: Elon Musk’s Twitter needs cash — and now the mega-billionaire wants companies and brands to fork over $1,000 monthly to get verified check-marks on his social network. Twitter is asking organizations to pay $1,000 per month, plus an additional $50 monthly for each affiliated sub-account, to maintain the gold check-mark verification badges the company introduced in December, replacing …

ABC News reports: Sen. Michael Bennet, D-CO, sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday calling on their companies to remove TikTok from their respective app stores, citing concerns about how TikTok handles the data of American users. “Like most social media networks, TikTok collects vast and sophisticated data from its users,” Bennet …

The Independent reports: Twitter CEO Elon Musk has addressed his participation in a conspiracy theory about a home invasion at the residence of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul, in which Mr Pelosi was brutally attacked. But he has done so indirectly — in a tweet reply to a woman most famous for accusing former President Bill Clinton …

The Huffington Post reports: Twitter reinstated and then quickly re-banned the account of Nick Fuentes, the prominent white supremacist who most recently made headlines for joining the antisemitic presidential campaign of rapper Ye. After a year-and-a-half exile from the platform, Fuentes’ account returned Tuesday morning. By Wednesday, it was banned again. Twitter representatives have not yet explained the reinstatement nor …

Mediaite reports: Elon Musk’s Twitter reinstated avowed Neo-Nazi and white nationalist Nick Fuentes on Tuesday. Twitter banned Fuentes in December of 2021 for violating rules against hate speech and had a new account re-banned soon after Musk took over Twitter in late October. Fuentes made headlines around the world in late November when he accompanied antisemitic rapper Kanye West, now …