Social Media

NYT: Twitter No Longer Paying Rent For Its Offices

The New York Times reports: Over the past two weeks, Elon Musk has shaken up Twitter’s legal department, disbanded a council that advised the social media company on safety issues and is continuing to take drastic steps to cut costs. Mr. Musk appears to be gearing up for legal battles at Twitter. He and his team have revamped Twitter’s legal …

Read More »

Bipartisan Bill Would Ban TikTok In The United States

CNBC reports: A new bill from a bipartisan group of lawmakers, if passed, would ban TikTok in the U.S. after years of broad concern across the Trump and Biden administrations about potential Chinese government influence on the company. The new bill, introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., would ban “all transactions …

Read More »

Twitter Axes Council Tasked With Fighting Hate Speech

The Washington Post reports: Twitter on Monday night abruptly dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, the latest sign that Elon Musk is unraveling years of work and institutions created to make the social network safer and more civil. Members of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council received an email with the subject line, “Thank You,” that informed them the council was …

Read More »

Twitter To Raise Character Limit From 280 To 4000

The Hill reports: Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Sunday suggested the platform will dramatically increase character limits on tweets from 280 to 4,000. “Elon is it true that Twitter is set to increase the characters from 280 to 4000?” one user tweeted at the social media platform’s new owner. “Yes,” Musk responded. Such a change would shift Twitter away from …

Read More »

Musk Gets Loudly Booed At Dave Chappelle Show

Gizmodo reports: Elon Musk, the billionaire who wants nothing more in life than to be adored by legions of fans, was loudly booed by a crowd in San Francisco on Sunday night after he was invited onstage by comedian Dave Chappelle. And the footage is pretty rough, even if you don’t particularly like Musk. “Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise …

Read More »

Musk Implies Gay Former Twitter Exec Is A Pedophile

Bloomberg News reports: Elon Musk posted tweets including an excerpt of Yoel Roth’s doctoral dissertation Saturday that suggested the former Twitter executive is an advocate for child sexualization — a baseless trope that leaves Roth susceptible to online abuse. “Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his PhD thesis,” tweeted …

Read More »

Elon Musk: “My Pronouns Are Prosecute/Fauci”

Newsweek reports: Twitter CEO Elon Musk declared on Sunday that his “pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” taking aim at the top immunologist. Musk’s early morning tweet about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the soon-to-be retired chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, is the latest case where the billionaire has won praise from conservatives on the social media platform. In his tweet, the billionaire, …

Read More »

Twitter To Relaunch Sales Of Blue Check “Verifications”

The Hill reports: Twitter announced it will relaunch its subscription service on Monday, although prices will be higher for Apple users in an apparent jab at the tech giant’s fees on in-app purchases. The social media company said users can subscribe to Twitter Blue, which includes a blue checkmark, editing abilities and 1080-pixel video uploads, for $8 per month if …

Read More »

Texas Is Fourth State To Ban TikTok From Govt Devices

The Texas Tribune reports: Gov. Greg Abbott banned the social media platform TikTok from government-issued cellphones and computers on Wednesday, becoming the latest GOP governor to target the video-sharing app over cybersecurity fears. Abbott cited concerns that TikTok posed a threat to state information given that the app is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. Republican governors in South …

Read More »

Elon Musk Sued For Gender Bias In Wave Of Firings

Bloomberg Law reports:  The mass layoffs and constructive discharges that have hit Twitter Inc. since Elon Musk bought the company have impacted female employees to a significantly greater degree than male workers, a new class lawsuit charges. That women were more affected by Musk’s immediately laying off more than half of Twitter’s workforce and his “quickly implemented new policies” is …

Read More »

Elon Musk Dethroned As World’s Wealthiest Person

The Daily Beast reports: Elon Musk lost the title of world’s richest person on Wednesday, according to Forbes’ billionaire rankings. The Tesla CEO lost $3.4 billion of his net worth overnight as the electric car company’s stock plummetted. So far this year, Musk has lost more than $100 billion to the carmaker’s tanking stock, though previous losses didn’t affect his …

Read More »

Musk: Kanye Was “Definitely Inciting Me to Violence”

Fox News reports: Elon Musk revealed he “personally wanted to punch” Kanye West after the rapper posted a photo of a swastika to Twitter. “How are you going to balance the level to which we speak about the freedom of expression on Twitter?” Musk was asked during a Live Q&A regarding “Twitter files,” which revealed how the tech giant censored …

Read More »

James Woods: I’ll Sue DNC For Destroying My Career

Mediaite reports: Actor and outspoken conservative James Woods is promising a lawsuit against the DNC following revelations from Elon Musk about Twitter’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story. Matt Taibbi shared one internal communication that included a James wood tweet apparently sent to the company “from the DNC.” “Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the …

Read More »

Twitter’s Advertising Revenue Continues To Crater

The New York Times reports: The World Cup has historically been a boon for Twitter, bringing in record traffic and an influx of advertising dollars. But this time, when the global soccer tournament started on Nov. 20, Twitter’s U.S. ad revenue was running at 80 percent below internal expectations for that week, three people with knowledge of the figures said. …

Read More »

Macron Warns Musk: You Must Comply With EU Rules

Politico Europe reports: Twitter needs to comply with EU rules on content moderation and other online policies, French President Emmanuel Macron told Elon Musk in a meeting on Friday. “Transparent user policies, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech: efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations,” Macron said after what he …

Read More »

Shapiro: Kanye West Shouldn’t Be Banned From Twitter

“Is what Ye is doing tantamount to incitement? I don’t think so. ‘Cause I have a very strict legal standard for incitement. “So do I think that Ye actually should be banned from Twitter? I think the answer is no. I don’t think that Ye should be banned from Twitter. In fact, I think the more that Ye has exposed …

Read More »

Literal Nazis Flock Back To Twitter Under “Amnesty”

NBC News reports: A “general amnesty” has restored hundreds of accounts of right-wing activists and QAnon adherents, according to data reviewed by NBC News. The reinstatement of far-right accounts has coincided with a series of bans of left-wing accounts, leaving users unsure of how the company is now applying its rules. Patrick Casey, a white nationalist, and Andrew Anglin, a …

Read More »

Hate Speech Soars On Twitter After Musk’s Takeover

The New York Times reports: Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day. Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, …

Read More »

Kanye West’s Deal To Buy Parler Has Been “Terminated”

ABC News reports: Kanye “Ye” West is no longer acquiring Parler, the right-wing-friendly “free speech social media” platform. The announcement of the termination of West’s deal to buy Parler, a copycat of Twitter, came shortly after West appeared on Infowars, the show hosted by conspiracy-monger Alex Jones — where, among other things, West expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and made …

Read More »

Fuentes And Alex Jones Tweet From Kanye’s Account

Media Matters reports: In the midst of an unhinged and antisemitic rant by Ye — the rapper formerly known as Kanye West — the musician handed his Twitter account with over 32 million followers to white nationalist Nick Fuentes, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander; all of whom are banned on the platform. Ye now …

Read More »