Social Media

CNBC reports: A leader of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said he has asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over China-related data security concerns. The wildly popular short video app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which faced U.S. scrutiny under President Donald Trump. Brendan Carr, one of the FCC’s commissioners, shared via Twitter a …

The Associated Press reports: The AP obtained a screenshot on Friday of one Instagram post from a woman who offered to purchase or forward abortion pills through the mail, minutes after the court ruled to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. “DM me if you want to order abortion pills, but want them sent to my address instead of …

Vice News reports: Facebook is removing the posts of users who share status updates that say abortion pills can be mailed and in some cases temporarily banning those users. When exactly Facebook started removing these and similar posts is unclear. But Motherboard confirmed Facebook removed such posts on the same day that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the …

USA Today reports: Twitter’s board has recommended unanimously that shareholders approve the proposed $44 billion sale of the company to billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesday. Musk reiterated his desire to move forward with the acquisition last week during a virtual meeting with Twitter employees, though …

Ars Technica reports: A tracking tool installed on many hospitals’ websites has been collecting patients’ sensitive health information—including details about their medical conditions, prescriptions, and doctor’s appointments—and sending it to Facebook. The Markup tested the websites of Newsweek’s top 100 hospitals in America. On 33 of them we found the tracker, called the Meta Pixel, sending Facebook a packet of …

The Hill reports: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced on Thursday that he joined former President Trump’s Truth Social platform, saying in a tweet that he would be using it to call out and debunk “Republican lies.” “I just joined Trump’s Truth Social. Going to be on there calling out Republican lies. This could get…interesting,” he wrote on Twitter. “My …

Business Insider reports: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told workers on Monday that the company will be hosting another all hands meeting, this time with a guest speaker fielding questions: Elon Musk. In a brief email viewed by Insider, Agrawal said the virtual meeting with Musk will take place Thursday. Twitter workers will be able to submit questions for him to …

The Washington Post reports: Facebook prohibits gun sales on its service. But buyers and sellers can violate the rule 10 times before they are kicked off the social network, according to internal guidance obtained by The Washington Post. The policy, which has not previously been reported, is much more lenient than for users who post child pornography, which is illegal, …

The Washington Post reports: After a weeks-long impasse, Twitter’s board plans to comply with Elon Musk’s demands for internal data by offering access to its full “firehose,” the massive stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the …

CNBC reports: Elon Musk’s efforts to arrange new financing that will limit his cash contribution to his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc have been put on hold because of the uncertainty surrounding the deal, people familiar with the matter said. Musk has been threatening to walk away from the deal unless the social media company provides him with data …

The Associated Press reports: Elon Musk is threatening to end his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter, accusing the company of refusing to give him information about its spam bot accounts. Lawyers for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the threat in a letter to Twitter dated Monday that the social platform included in a filing with the Securities and …

CNBC reports: Sheryl Sandberg is stepping down from her role as Chief Operating Officer at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. Sandberg joined Facebook in early 2008 as the No. 2 to Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, and helped turn Facebook into an advertising juggernaut and one of the most powerful companies in the tech industry, with a …

USA Today reports: The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked Texas from enforcing a law banning social media giants like Facebook and Twitter from moderating content – an outcome critics said would have forced “extremist” material onto the platforms. The Supreme Court’s decision blocks enforcement of the law temporarily while the underlying case continues in lower federal courts. The 5-4 order …

The Associated Press reports: Twitter shareholders have filed a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of engaged in “unlawful conduct” aimed at sowing doubt about his bid to buy the social media company. The lawsuit filed late Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claims the billionaire Tesla CEO has sought to drive down Twitter’s stock price …

The Hill reports: Facebook is denying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) allegation that the gunman who killed 21 people, including 19 children, at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday posted publicly about the attack on its platform. Abbott said during a press conference Wednesday that the gunman, Salvador Ramos, posted three times before the shooting at Robb Elementary School in …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: A federal appeals court ruled Monday it is unconstitutional for Florida to prohibit social media companies from banning politicians, dealing a blow to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to combat what he declares to be online censorship. A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction blocking key parts of Florida’s social media …

ABC News reports: Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine has sued Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly failing to protect consumer data following the Cambridge Analytica data leak. “The evidence shows Mr. Zuckerberg was personally involved in Facebook’s failure to protect the privacy and data of its users leading directly to the Cambridge Analytica incident,” Racine said in a statement …

Vice News reports: The Daily Wire spent tens of thousands of dollars promoting misleading news about the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial on social media, the Citizens and VICE World News can reveal. The conservative outlet, founded by Ben Shapiro, is currently the second most popular news publisher on Facebook. It has so far spent between $35,000 and $47,000 …

Yahoo Finance reports: Twitter said it plans to complete its $44 billion merger agreement with Elon Musk, even as the Tesla CEO appears to dither on the deal. “Twitter is committed to completing the transaction on the agreed price and terms as promptly as practicable,” it said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing published Tuesday night, referring to Musk’s …

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk said Tuesday his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter “cannot move forward” until the social media company’s CEO shows proof that less than 5 percent of the platform’s users are fake. The Tesla chief executive’s tweet comes a day after he said he might try to renegotiate to pay less and accused Twitter of …