Social Media

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 …

The Daily Mail reports: Elon Musk has joked that ‘owning the libs’ isn’t cheap after claiming to put his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on hold. ‘Owning libs’ is internet slang used by conservatives that refers to defeating or embarrassing liberals in arguments. On Friday morning, Musk threw his Twitter takeover bid into chaos by tweeting that the deal was …

CNBC reports: Elon Musk announced Friday that his Twitter deal is on hold until he receives more information about how many fake accounts there are on the social media platform. Twitter’s stock plummeted 18% following the announcement. A spokesperson for Twitter did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. Tesla CEO Musk announced last month that he intends …

Axios reports: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey says he agrees with Elon Musk that former President Trump should have his Twitter account reinstated. Dorsey was CEO of Twitter when the ban was put in place. Dorsey called the ban a mistaken “business decision,” and reiterated Musk’s belief that permanent bans are inappropriate in cases outside of illegal activity or spam. The …

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk said he would reverse Twitter’s ban on former president Donald Trump. Musk, the Tesla CEO who is soon to own Twitter, said it was a mistake for the website to ban the former president. Musk spoke virtually at a Future of the Car event hosted by the Financial Times. “I think it was a …

CNBC reports: A judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by former President Donald Trump seeking to lift his ban from Twitter. The social media giant had banned Trump on Jan. 8, 2021, citing the risk of the incitement of further violence on the heels of the Capitol riot by a mob of supporters of the then-president two days earlier. Trump, …

Variety reports: Devin Nunes, the former congressman who is now CEO of Donald Trump’s social-media rival to Twitter, claimed that his new boss “encouraged” tech mogul Elon Musk to acquire Twitter, to “take on these tech tyrants.” Musk says that’s false. “I’ve had no communication, directly or indirectly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will be exclusively on …

The New York Post reports: Donald Trump quietly “encouraged” Elon Musk’s takeover of social media giant Twitter ahead of the $44 billion deal, according to the boss of his own social-media app Truth Social. “President Trump, basically before Elon Musk bought it, actually said to go and buy it because the goal of our company is really to build a …

Axios reports: Elon Musk just reported some new friends — equity partners for his Twitter takeover, including some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. Musk has raised $7 billion in funding for his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, according to a filing released by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. Musk said in the filing that he has …

The Hill reports: Elon Musk said on Tuesday that Twitter could start charging a “slight cost” for government and commercial users in comments that come just over a week since he reached a deal to buy the social media platform. “Ultimately, the downfall of the Freemasons was giving away their stonecutting services for nothing,” Musk tweeted initially. “Twitter will always …

Mediaite reports: BlazeTV host Steve Deace complained Monday on Twitter that something he posted on TRUTH Social was immediately censored. Deace claimed to have posted a Truth — the platform’s term for users’ posts — only for it to be slapped with a “sensitive content” warning. Mediaite viewed the Truth Deace had posted. It reads: “Transgenderism is a mental illness …

Axios reports: Elon Musk is likely to find out that there’s not a big market for his campaign for more free speech on Twitter, according to an Ipsos poll shared exclusively with Axios. Most Americans don’t have a problem with Twitter or other social media companies removing posts that include misinformation, promote violence or pose a risk to the public, …

So this blew up Twitter overnight: Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday suggested that his political stand over the years has shifted towards the right. While the buyout has garnered a lot of interest and predictions on the future of Twitter, Musk tweeted a political cartoon originally created by Colin Wright without any context. Tim Urban, a writer …

Fortune reports: Elon Musk has been busy selling Tesla shares as he prepares to pay for his $44 billion Twitter bid, but he has no further stock sales planned, the billionaire said late Thursday. In five separate Form 4 filings to the SEC published on Thursday, Musk revealed he has already unloaded a combined total of 4.41 million shares on …

Bloomberg News reports: Elon Musk may soon own Twitter Inc. but the billionaire won’t be able to shake his “Twitter Sitter.” A judge on Wednesday rejected Musk’s request to ditch his 2018 deal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that required a company lawyer to screen all his Tesla Inc.-related tweets. The Tesla CEO, who appears to have clinched …

Reuters reports: Tesla Inc lost $126 billion in value on Tuesday amid investor concerns that Chief Executive Elon Musk may have to sell shares to fund his $21 billion equity contribution to his $44 billion buyout of Twitter Inc. Tesla is not involved in the Twitter deal, yet its shares have been targeted by speculators after Musk declined to disclose …

Mediaite reports: The host was censored on the platform last month after he called Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine – a transgender woman – a man. Carlson’s account was locked, and would remain that way until he deleted the tweet. Fox News made it clear that Carlson would do no such thing. The host announced he was back on …

Reuters reports: Twitter’s servers, staff and customers are almost entirely out of President Xi Jinping’s reach. But Tesla produces half of its automobiles in Shanghai, where it enjoys tax breaks, and depends on local suppliers for critical components. It seems likely that Twitter, under its new owner, will relax bans on political speech. Former President Donald Trump may get his …