Social Media

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 …

The Insider reports: Elon Musk fired several dozen Twitter employees overnight on Wednesday, most of whom were engineers, two people familiar with the company’s actions told Insider. The firings came as a surprise inside Twitter, the people said. Musk said in an all-hands meeting earlier this week that there would be no more layoffs at the company. The employees fired …

The New York Times reports: Before Elon Musk bought Twitter last month, the company’s executives had racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel invoices that the social media service planned to pay. But once Mr. Musk took over the company, he refused to reimburse travel vendors for those bills, current and former Twitter employees said. Mr. Musk’s staff …

The Independent reports: Elon Musk has appeared to mock anti-racism initiatives by Twitter’s own staff, as well a Black Lives Matter more broadly. Mr Musk appeared to laugh at T-shirts that had been made by Twitter’s internal business group for Black employees. He then criticised Black Lives Matter protestors. He said that the shirts stemmed from the protests in Ferguson, …

The Washington Post reports: Dozens of top Twitter advertisers, including 14 of the top 50, have stopped advertising in the few weeks since Musk’s chaotic acquisition of the social media company, according to The Post’s analysis of data from Pathmatics, which offers brand analysis on digital marketing trends. Ads for blue-chip brands including Jeep and Mars candy, whose corporate parents …

The Verge reports: Elon Musk told Twitter employees on Monday that the company won’t relaunch its paid verification subscription, Twitter Blue, until “we’re confident about significant impersonations not happening,” according to a recording of his remarks obtained by The Verge. Musk said last week that his $8 per month Blue subscription would be made available again on November 29th. But …

Mediaite reports: Elon Musk restored Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) non-congressional Twitter account on Monday. Greene celebrated the news. Greene’s non-congressional account was permanently suspended in January due to allegedly spreading disinformation about Covid-19. “We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” a Twitter spokesperson told New York Times reporter Davey Alba …

TechCrunch reports: Facebook is notifying users that it will remove four information fields from profiles starting next month. These fields include religious views, political views, addresses and the “Interested in” field, which indicates a user’s sexual orientation. The change will go into effect on December 1. A spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch in an email that the reason behind …