Social Media

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 …

New York City’s ABC affiliate reports: The MTA is the latest organization to take a step back from Twitter. Although the MTA will still be active on Twitter, it will no longer provide service alerts and information through the platform. “The MTA has terminated posting service information to Twitter, effective immediately, as the reliability of the platform can no longer …

TechCrunch reports: The European Union has confirmed the names of over a dozen platforms that will face the strictest level of regulation under its recently rebooted and expanded ecommerce rules, aka the Digital Services Act (DSA). The list is a mix of familiar digital services, from social media apps to search engines and app stores — with no real surprises. …

Courthouse News reports: The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear two cases arising from public officials blocking critical commenters on their social media accounts, after the Sixth and Ninth Circuits reached different conclusions on whether the constituents’ free speech rights were violated. The first case involves two elected members of the Poway Unified School District Board of Trustees in San …

NPR reports: Dmitry Medvedev, a leading government official and former president of Russia, took to Twitter earlier this month to denigrate Ukraine in a post using language reminiscent of genocidal regimes. And Twitter didn’t stop him. In his 645-word tweet titled, “WHY WILL UKRAINE DISAPPEAR? BECAUSE NOBODY NEEDS IT,” Medvedev called Ukraine a “Nazi regime,” “blood-sucking parasites” and “a threadbare …

The Hill reports: New York officials and government offices faced a slew of fake accounts impersonating its official City of New York account, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D). One of the parody accounts impersonating Hochul claimed that she is running as a Republican for the governor’s race, while numerous accounts impersonating …

The Huffington Post reports: Twitter billionaire owner Elon Musk faced mockery after he boasted about paying from his own pocket for NBA superstar LeBron James, horror author Stephen King and “Star Trek” legend William Shatner to be verified on his social media platform. James, King and Shatner had all publicly rejected the idea of signing up for the website’s new …

The Verge reports: Elon Musk is finally confiscating your blue checkmark. Well, that’s unless you pay the ransom for “Twitter Blue” — a toll booth designed to ignore people’s contributions to the platform except for the fact that they are all equally paying customers. Business and government organizations can still apply for verified status, but let’s be real: all of …

The Verge reports: Elon Musk is threatening to take legal action against Microsoft over claims that the company “trained illegally using Twitter data.” The billionaire’s statement came in response to a tweet noting that Microsoft’s advertising platform announced it would stop supporting Twitter, reportedly due to Twitter’s changes requiring payment to access its API. Musk’s threat is vague but appears …

The Associated Press reports: Twitter has quietly removed a policy against the “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals,” raising concerns that the Elon Musk-owned platform is becoming less safe for marginalized groups. Twitter enacted the policy against deadnaming, or using a transgender person’s name before they transitioned, as well as purposefully using the wrong gender for someone as a …

“It remains to be seen as to whether this was financially smart. Currently, it is not. We just revalued the company at less than half of the acquisition price. My timing was terrible for when the offer was made because it was right before advertising plummeted. “So I must be a real genius here. My timing is amazing since I …

Roll Call reports: Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rep. Daniel Crenshaw of Texas lead a group of more than a dozen GOP members of the House and Senate agitating for a congressional rule change to ban members from using the app in an official capacity as members of Congress, though they could still use it for personal or …

The Daily Beast reports: A teaser trailer of Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s upcoming interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson was released Sunday—which features Musk making the extremely serious (and currently unsubstantiated) allegation that various unnamed government agencies had full access to Twitter users’ direct messages before his takeover. “The degree to which various government agencies effectively had full access …

CBS News reports: Montana became the first state in the nation Friday to pass a bill banning TikTok from operating in the state, a move that’s bound to face legal challenges but also serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America that many national lawmakers have envisioned. The Montana House voted 54-43 to send the bill to Republican Gov. …

ABC News reports: Parler, a social media platform popular among conservatives, will temporarily shut down after being acquired by the hedge fund Starboard, the company said on Friday. The acquisition comes months after the failure of a bid for the app’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, undertaken by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. Starboard pulled down the app …

Yahoo News reports: The San Francisco district attorney blasted comments tweeted by Elon Musk after Cash App founder Bob Lee was stabbed to death in the street earlier this month. Lee, 43, was killed in the Rincon Hill neighborhood of San Francisco around 2:30 a.m. on April 4. A day later, Musk took to Twitter to lament how violent repeat …

Axios reports: PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, following Elon Musk’s decision to label the outlet “government-funded news.” PBS joins NPR, another major editorially independent outlet that receives some government funding, in halting its Twitter activity in light of the new label. Twitter added a “government-funded” label to PBS’ main Twitter account last weekend, …