Social Media

Fox News reports: Elon Musk revealed he “personally wanted to punch” Kanye West after the rapper posted a photo of a swastika to Twitter. “How are you going to balance the level to which we speak about the freedom of expression on Twitter?” Musk was asked during a Live Q&A regarding “Twitter files,” which revealed how the tech giant censored …

Mediaite reports: Actor and outspoken conservative James Woods is promising a lawsuit against the DNC following revelations from Elon Musk about Twitter’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story. Matt Taibbi shared one internal communication that included a James wood tweet apparently sent to the company “from the DNC.” “Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the …

The New York Times reports: The World Cup has historically been a boon for Twitter, bringing in record traffic and an influx of advertising dollars. But this time, when the global soccer tournament started on Nov. 20, Twitter’s U.S. ad revenue was running at 80 percent below internal expectations for that week, three people with knowledge of the figures said. …

Politico Europe reports: Twitter needs to comply with EU rules on content moderation and other online policies, French President Emmanuel Macron told Elon Musk in a meeting on Friday. “Transparent user policies, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech: efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations,” Macron said after what he …

“Is what Ye is doing tantamount to incitement? I don’t think so. ‘Cause I have a very strict legal standard for incitement. “So do I think that Ye actually should be banned from Twitter? I think the answer is no. I don’t think that Ye should be banned from Twitter. In fact, I think the more that Ye has exposed …

NBC News reports: A “general amnesty” has restored hundreds of accounts of right-wing activists and QAnon adherents, according to data reviewed by NBC News. The reinstatement of far-right accounts has coincided with a series of bans of left-wing accounts, leaving users unsure of how the company is now applying its rules. Patrick Casey, a white nationalist, and Andrew Anglin, a …

The New York Times reports: Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day. Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, …

ABC News reports: Kanye “Ye” West is no longer acquiring Parler, the right-wing-friendly “free speech social media” platform. The announcement of the termination of West’s deal to buy Parler, a copycat of Twitter, came shortly after West appeared on Infowars, the show hosted by conspiracy-monger Alex Jones — where, among other things, West expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and made …

Media Matters reports: In the midst of an unhinged and antisemitic rant by Ye — the rapper formerly known as Kanye West — the musician handed his Twitter account with over 32 million followers to white nationalist Nick Fuentes, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander; all of whom are banned on the platform. Ye now …

Axios reports: Elon Musk took to Twitter on Wednesday in an attempt to lower the heat in a fight he picked with Apple on Monday. “We resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the [Apple] App Store,” Musk claimed in a tweet, after thanking Apple CEO Tim Cook for taking him around Apple headquarters Wednesday. “Tim was clear …

Platformer reports: On Monday morning, a revenue analyst for Twitter in Europe shared some disheartening news. “We are seeing a significant decline in bookings,” the analyst posted in Slack, before sharing the numbers. Twitter’s ad revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is down 15 percent year over year, he said, and weekly bookings are down 49 percent, …

Just in press release: Today, Governor Kristi Noem signed Executive Order 2022-10, which bans the Chinese social media platform TikTok for state government agencies, employees, and contractors using state devices. This order is in response to the growing national security threat posed by TikTok due to its data gathering operations on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “South Dakota …

“These [coronavirus] experts were wrong and you had people on Twitter that were calling that out and Twitter, the old regime and Twitter, their response was to try to just suffocate the dissent and Elon Musk knows that’s not a winning formula. “He’s providing free speech and so if Apple responds to that by nuking them from the App Store, …

The Confider reports: After peaking in August, Truth Social, the right-wing Twitter knockoff created by former president Donald Trump, has experienced two straight months of decline in unique visitors. According to Comscore data reviewed by TheRighting, a watchdog that reports on and analyzes trends in right-wing media, Truth Social went from 4.02 million visitors in August to 3.38 million in …

CNN Business reports: Twitter said it will no longer enforce its longstanding Covid misinformation policy, yet another sign of how Elon Musk plans to transform the social media company he bought a month ago. In 2020, Twitter developed an extensive set of rules that sought to prohibit “harmful misinformation” about the virus and its vaccines. Between January 2020 and September …

The New York Post reports: Twitter CEO Elon Musk posted a photo of his “bedside table” on Monday featuring a few odd decorations – including a pair of non-firing guns, a Buddhist amulet and a multiple cans of Diet Coke. The billionaire’s photo included a non-firing replica of George Washington’s flintlock pistol, lying in a wooden box whose open lid …

The Washington Post reports: Twitter’s radically reduced anti-propaganda team grappled on Sunday with a flood of nuisance content in China that researchers said was aimed at reducing the flow of news about stunning widespread protests against coronavirus restrictions. Numerous Chinese-language accounts, some dormant for months or years, came to life early Sunday and started spamming the service with links to …

NPR reports: Half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers appear to no longer be advertising on the website. A report from Media Matters for America states that these 50 advertisers have spent almost $2 billion on Twitter ads since 2020 and more than $750 million just in 2022. Seven additional advertisers have slowed their advertising to almost nothing, according to the …

Reuters reports: Twitter Inc is planning to roll out its verified service next Friday with different colored checks for individuals, companies and governments, after a botched initial launch led to a surge in users impersonating celebrities and brands on the platform. Chief Executive Elon Musk on Friday allotted colors for the categories – gold for companies, grey for governments and …

The Hill reports: Elon Musk on Thursday said “a general amnesty” for suspended Twitter users will begin next week after he posted a poll over whether the platform should take action to restore affected accounts. “Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?” Musk asked in …