Social Media

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 …

Axios reports: Twitter has clipped the wings of the account that actively tracked Elon Musk’s private jet, the owner of the account said Wednesday. The suspension raises questions about Musk’s commitment to free speech on Twitter. Musk said in early November that his “commitment to free speech” included the account following his plane. Florida college student Jack Sweeney, the owner …

The Daily Beast reports: Elon Musk, who implored his army of Twitter followers to vote Republican in the 2022 midterms, did not vote in the election, state records show. “Based on our records, we do not have any indication that Mr. Musk participated in the November 2022 Election in Cameron County,” the county’s election administrator told The Daily Beast. The …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …