Social Media

Reuters reports: Twitter said on Friday it will allow only paid subscribers to use text messages as a two-factor authentication (2FA) method to secure their accounts. After March 20, “only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method,” the company tweeted. Two-factor authentication, meant to make accounts more secure, requires an account holder …

The Street reports: If there’s one thing Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known for, it’s jumping into the comments on Twitter specially when someone is criticizing him. In his latest social media appearance, Musk popped up after The Washington Post shared a story that insinuates that Musk’s changes to Twitter after his purchase of the social media platform in October …

Axios reports: Twitter on Wednesday updated its advertising policies to allow cannabis ads to run on its service in states where cannabis is legal, in accordance with federal guidelines. The policy represents the biggest step forward that any major tech company has made toward allowing cannabis advertising where it’s legal in the U.S. Twitter will only accept cannabis advertisers that …

Platformer reports: Biden’s tweet, in which he said he would be supporting his wife in rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles, generated nearly 29 million impressions. Musk, who also tweeted his support for the Eagles, generated a little more than 9.1 million impressions before deleting the tweet in apparent frustration. In the wake of those losses — the Eagles to the …

The Independent reports: Sitting together and chatting shortly after Rihanna’s halftime show were media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Fox empire – this year’s broadcaster of the Super Bowl – and Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, SpaceX and Tesla. As the fans waited for play to restart and the footage was broadcast, commentator Kevin Burkhardt – a Fox employee …

Platformer reports: On Tuesday, Musk gathered a group of engineers and advisors into a room at Twitter’s headquarters looking for answers. Why are his engagement numbers tanking? “This is ridiculous,” he said, according to multiple sources. “I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.” One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers …

From the Justice Department: Daniela Rendon, 31, of Miami made her appearance in federal magistrate court today and was charged with fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief loans and grants under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Relief Program. According to the indictment, Rendon submitted fraudulent applications seeking COVID-19 relief funds from the Small Business Administration and PPP. …

Fox News reports: Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., is standing by the photo of him and his wife hunting that reportedly got him suspended from Twitter Monday night, as #FreeSteveDaines began to gain popularity among conservatives on social media. “My wife is a great shot. What can I say?” Daines told Fox News Digital. “The Senator thinks it’s preposterous that a …

The New York Times reports: Over 120,000 views of a video showing a boy being sexually assaulted. A recommendation engine suggesting that a user follow content related to exploited children. Users continually posting abusive material, delays in taking it down when it is detected and friction with organizations that police it. All since Elon Musk declared that “removing child exploitation …

Variety reports: Elon Musk’s Twitter needs cash — and now the mega-billionaire wants companies and brands to fork over $1,000 monthly to get verified check-marks on his social network. Twitter is asking organizations to pay $1,000 per month, plus an additional $50 monthly for each affiliated sub-account, to maintain the gold check-mark verification badges the company introduced in December, replacing …

ABC News reports: Sen. Michael Bennet, D-CO, sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday calling on their companies to remove TikTok from their respective app stores, citing concerns about how TikTok handles the data of American users. “Like most social media networks, TikTok collects vast and sophisticated data from its users,” Bennet …

The Independent reports: Twitter CEO Elon Musk has addressed his participation in a conspiracy theory about a home invasion at the residence of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul, in which Mr Pelosi was brutally attacked. But he has done so indirectly — in a tweet reply to a woman most famous for accusing former President Bill Clinton …

The Huffington Post reports: Twitter reinstated and then quickly re-banned the account of Nick Fuentes, the prominent white supremacist who most recently made headlines for joining the antisemitic presidential campaign of rapper Ye. After a year-and-a-half exile from the platform, Fuentes’ account returned Tuesday morning. By Wednesday, it was banned again. Twitter representatives have not yet explained the reinstatement nor …

Mediaite reports: Elon Musk’s Twitter reinstated avowed Neo-Nazi and white nationalist Nick Fuentes on Tuesday. Twitter banned Fuentes in December of 2021 for violating rules against hate speech and had a new account re-banned soon after Musk took over Twitter in late October. Fuentes made headlines around the world in late November when he accompanied antisemitic rapper Kanye West, now …

Reuters reports: U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican and China hawk, said on Tuesday that he would introduce a bill to ban the short video app TikTok in the United States. TikTok, whose parent is the Chinese company ByteDance, already faces a ban that would stop federal employees from using or downloading TikTok on government-owned devices. TikTok said in a …

Courthouse News reports: Texas and Florida are behind the two laws now before the high court. The laws sprang up after former President Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter and suspension from Facebook. While the sites frame their actions as editorial discretion, lawmakers in the states have likened it to unconstitutional censorship. After considering challenges to the the laws at their …

The Washington Post reports: The Jan. 6 committee spent months gathering stunning new details on how social media companies failed to address the online extremism and calls for violence that preceded the Capitol riot.But in the end, committee leaders declined to delve into those topics in detail in their final report, reluctant to dig into the roots of domestic extremism …

The BBC reports: The Taliban have started using Twitter’s paid-for verification feature, meaning some now have blue ticks on their accounts. Previously, the blue tick indicated “active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest” verified by Twitter, and could not be purchased. But now, users can buy them through the new Twitter Blue service. At least two Taliban officials and …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge on Friday rejected Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s bid to move or delay a trial over a misleading tweet about a potential buyout of the electric automaker, setting the stage for the mercurial billionaire to be thrust into a legal drama amid the turmoil of his Twitter takeover. Musk’s attorneys last week asked Chen …

Business Insider reports: Elon Musk is closing many international Twitter offices as he continues to cut costs and try to find ways the company can make money. At least a dozen international offices are closed or in the process of closing, according to two people familiar with the company and messages seen by Insider, along with several more in the …