Social Media

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 …

Reuters reports: Elon Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day over a controversy on publishing public data about the billionaire’s plane. The reinstatements came after the unprecedented suspensions evoked stinging criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations from several parts of the globe on Friday, with some saying the microblogging platform …

Semafor reports: The managing director of Elon Musk’s family office is seeking new equity investors for Twitter as users revolt, advertisers flee, and debt payments loom, according to people familiar with the fundraising effort. Musk’s money manager, Jared Birchall, reached out to potential investors this week, offering shares of Twitter at the same price, $54.20, that Musk paid to take …

Gizmodo reports: Twitter Spaces, the audio feature that allows people to participate in group chats using the social media platform, has been disabled and it’s not clear whether it will ever return. The move comes after Elon Musk joined a group chat hosted by BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos on Thursday night, where the Twitter CEO spoke incoherently about his new …

The Associated Press reports: A German official who won a defamation case against Twitter this week dedicated his legal victory to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert targeted by the microblogging site’s new owner, Elon Musk. A Frankfurt regional court ruled Wednesday that Twitter has to remove false or defamatory tweets about Michael Blume, who is the …

The Washington Post reports: Twitter suspended the accounts of more than half a dozen journalists from CNN, the New York Times, The Washington Post and other outlets Thursday evening, as company owner Elon Musk accused the reporters of posting “basically assassination coordinates” for him and his family. Musk tweeted late Thursday that the suspensions would last a week, although several …

CNET reports: The Twitter account encouraging people to join rival social network Mastodon has been suspended, the latest in a string of accounts suspended this week. The usual feed for @JoinMastodon was replaced Thursday with a message the account had been suspended for violating Twitter rules. It wasn’t immediately clear which rules the account broke. Neither Twitter nor Mastodon representatives …

CNN Business reports: The Senate passed legislation Wednesday evening to ban TikTok from US government devices, in a move designed to limit perceived information-security risks stemming from the social media app. The vote by unanimous consent approved the bill authored by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley. The move marks lawmakers’ latest step against the short-form video app that has become popular …

Mediaite reports: Elon Musk tweeted that “legal action is being taken” against 20-year-old Jack Sweeney, who ran the now-banned Twitter account that tracked Musk’s private jet. Presumably, Musk plans to sue him. Since taking over Twitter, the billionaire has pledged to make the platform safe for “free speech.” On Wednesday, Twitter changed its terms of service to prohibit flight-tracking on …

Fortune reports: Elon Musk, who lost his No. 1 spot on Bloomberg’s ranking of the world’s richest people this week, unloaded Tesla Inc. stock for the fourth time this year. Tesla’s chief executive officer sold almost 22 million shares of the electric-car maker for $3.58 billion, a filing showed late Wednesday in the US. The transactions happened between Dec. 12 and Dec. …

From the Justice Department: A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas returned an indictment that was unsealed yesterday charging eight men with conspiracy to commit securities fraud for a long-running, social media-based “pump and dump” scheme. According to court documents, Edward Constantinescu, aka Constantin, 38, of Montgomery, Texas; Perry “PJ” Matlock, 38, of The Woodlands, Texas; John …