Social Media

The Verge reports: Parlement Technologies began laying off workers in late November, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. These layoffs continued through at least the end of December, when around 75 percent of staffers were let go in total, leaving approximately 20 employees left working at both Parler and the parent-company’s cloud services venture. A majority of the …

The Daily Beast reports: Twitter has reinstated the account of Ron Watkins, administrator of the site 8kun, after permanently banning him after he peddled lies about the Jan. 6 insurrection stoked by QAnon conspiracies. As Twitter under Elon Musk continues its head-first dive into unsuspending just about every banned account—Alex Jones notwithstanding—Watkins’ return aligns with Musk’s own recent foray into …

The Washington Post reports: Records of 235 million Twitter accounts and the email addresses used to register them have been posted to an online hacking forum, setting the stage for anonymous handles to be linked to real-world identities. That poses threats of exposure, arrest or violence against people who used Twitter to criticize governments or powerful individuals, and it could …

Politico reports: Twitter plans to lift its restrictions on political ads, saying it would immediately allow issue-based paid content on the platform while political advertisements will return “in the coming weeks.” The announcement comes as advertisers have fled the platform in droves after Elon Musk’s takeover last October, which was followed by a spike in hate speech and the reinstatement …

Politico reports: Elon Musk calls his next idea the “X App.” And if Musk-owned Twitter has already been a challenge for Washington’s politicians and regulators, the disruption caused by the X App could easily dwarf it. The idea is a Western version of WeChat, the Chinese super-app that more than a billion people use for messaging, payments, shopping, rideshares, gaming, …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Twitter Inc. was accused of not paying its rent in a lawsuit filed by the landlord for one of its offices in San Francisco. The landlord, Columbia Reit-650 California LLC, alleges that the social-media company has failed to pay $136,260 of rent due on the office space at 650 California St., according to the lawsuit …

Axios reports: Fidelity slashed its carrying value of Twitter by 56% during the first month of Elon Musk’s ownership, according to a new disclosure. Fidelity was among the group of outside investors that helped Musk finance his $44 billion takeover of the social media site, by purchasing equity. Fidelity’s Contrafund valued its Twitter shares at $53.47 million on Oct. 31, …

The New York Times reports: Over the past few weeks, Twitter had stopped paying millions of dollars in rent and services, and Mr. Musk had told his subordinates to renegotiate those agreements or simply end them. The company has stopped paying rent at its Seattle office, leading it to face eviction, two people familiar with the matter said. Janitorial and …

Axios reports: Twitter users around the world reported problems accessing the website and other technical glitches on Wednesday night. In the first widespread outage since Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late October, over 10,000 users in countries including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand reported outage issues, starting in …

The Guardian reports: Twitter has restored a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and support groups after its CEO Elon Musk was criticised over their removal. Musk, who did not initially respond to requests for comment about the removal, had tweeted: “False, it is still there.” The feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, placed a banner at the top of search results …

The New York Times reports: The truth is that many of the best electric wheels on the market today are not made by Musk. The new competition makes Musk’s recent role as the town crier for the redpilled online right especially puzzling and, for his car company, perilous. Tesla’s new vulnerability is a surprising development. Musk’s chaotic and polarizing tenure …

Reuters reports: Twitter Inc removed a feature in the past few days that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, according to two people familiar with the matter who said it was ordered by new owner Elon Musk. The removal of the feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, has not been previously reported. It had …

Reuters reports: Facebook owner Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users’ personal information. The proposed settlement would resolve a long-running lawsuit prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as …

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he would resign as Twitter’s chief executive when he found “someone foolish enough to take the job,” two days after he had asked his 122 million Twitter followers whether he should step down as the leader of the social media site and a majority of respondents answered yes. Mr. …

CNBC reports: Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk is searching for a new CEO of the company, sources told CNBC’s David Faber. Musk, who acquired the company for $44 billion in October, has previously said his position as CEO would be temporary.  However, on Sunday, he wrote in a tweet that “there is no successor.” On Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, …

Elektrek reports: Elon Musk appears to be backing out from abiding by the results of a Twitter poll voting him out as head of the social media platform. Musk first responded “interesting” to a comment by Kim Dotcom suggesting that the “deep state” rigged the poll with bots. He then responded the same thing to a theory that the number …

The Washington Post reports: An unofficial poll that Elon Musk commissioned said he should step down from the helm of the social network, a referendum that Musk promised to follow after broad criticism of his stewardship of the company. The poll closed early Monday morning after twelve hours of voting, with 57.5% of more than 17 million responses calling Musk …

NBC News reports: Twitter will no longer allow users to promote their accounts on at least seven other major social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, the platform announced Sunday. The new policy comes after many users began posting links to their accounts on other sites following Elon Musk’s takeover as CEO of Twitter and the platform’s subsequent …

The Daily Beast reports: Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz was suspended from Twitter late Saturday, the latest prominent journalist to get the boot. Lorenz was apparently suspended for “violating the Twitter rules,” though it wasn’t immediately clear which one. Shortly before the ban, Lorenz had tweeted directly at Musk seeking comment for a story. “When I went to log in …

Mediaite reports: Fox Business host Dagen McDowell said Elon Musk spent $44 billion on a “money-losing sewage lagoon.” Appearing on The Five, McDowell also called the platform a “heap of crap” and said Musk is now liquidating Tesla stock in order to keep afloat. She said the banning of reporters is only newsworthy because the journalists get to be “the …