Social Media

The Insider reports: A fake image of an explosion near the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., may have been created by artificial-intelligence tools. But that didn’t stop it from being spread by dozens of accounts on social media — and the stock market briefly dipped as the fake news spread. An image appearing to show a massive cloud of smoke near …

The Deep Dive reports: Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) filed a lawsuit in a Florida civil court against The Washington Post, allegedly claiming the media outfit defamed the company in one of its articles. The firm is seeking $3.78 billion in damages. The news firm allegedly “published an egregious hit piece that falsely accused TMTG of securities fraud and …

CNBC reports: Meta has been fined a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) by European privacy regulators over the transfer of EU user data to the U.S. The decision links back to a case brought by Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems who argued that the framework for transferring EU citizen data to America did not protect Europeans from U.S. surveillance. …

The Associated Press reports: In an interview this week, Twitter owner Elon Musk said users making false claims of stolen elections “will be corrected” on the platform. Prompted by a CNBC reporter for extra assurance that would happen, Musk responded, “Oh yeah, 100%.” Yet many such claims have thrived on Twitter in the week since former President Donald Trump spent …

Reuters reports: Five TikTok users in Montana who create content posted on the short-video app filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the state’s new ban on the Chinese-owned platform. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte on Wednesday signed legislation to ban TikTok in the state, effective Jan. 1. The five users seek to block the law, which makes it …

Bloomberg News reports: The US Supreme Court left in place a broad liability shield for social media companies for content posted by users, insulating Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google LLC from claims that they provided assistance to Islamic State terrorists. Acting in a case involving Google, the court said it wouldn’t rule on efforts to limit the immunity internet …

The Associated Press reports: Montana became the first state in the U.S. to completely ban TikTok on Wednesday when the state’s Republican governor signed a measure that’s more sweeping than any other state’s attempts to curtail the social media app. The measure is expected to be challenged legally and will serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America that …

The Times Of Israel reports: Hours after tweeting that George Soros “hates humanity,” drawing rebuke from Israel’s Foreign Ministry and many others, Elon Musk bashed the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), appearing to draw praise from a series of white supremacist accounts on Twitter, which he owns. On Tuesday afternoon, Musk tweeted: “ADL should just drop the ‘A,’” meaning that the group, …

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk made a series of attacks on George Soros overnight, tweeting that the Jewish-born investor and liberal philanthropist, who often is subject to virulent antisemitic conspiracy theories, hates humanity and “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization.” Musk, who has overseen an increase of antisemitism and other hate speech on Twitter since he bought …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …