Social Media

Axios reports: Brazil’s top judge lifted restrictions on the bank accounts of Elon Musk’s Starlink and X on Friday after more than $3 million dollars in fines were transferred, multiple outlets reported. It’s the latest in the standoff over misinformation vs. freedom of speech between Musk and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who the billionaire has accused of acting as a …

Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate reports: A federal judge has blocked one of Utah’s new laws on youth social media access from going into effect. In an order issued late Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby agreed with NetChoice, a coalition of tech and social media companies, to halt Senate Bill 194 from being enforced. That law required age-verification …

The Associated Press reports: Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov promised to step up efforts to fight criminality on the messaging app, his first public comments since French authorities handed him preliminary charges for allegedly allowing the platform’s use for criminal activity. In a Telegram post late Thursday, Durov defended himself against the French judicial investigation, suggesting that he shouldn’t …

Reuters reports: A conservative party in Brazil is seeking to reverse a judge’s ban on Elon Musk’s X platform, potentially escalating the months-long feud over censorship and hate speech in South America’s largest country. Partido Novo’s challenge of the decision by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes barring the popular social media site will be taken up by another top …

Reuters reports: Elon Musk’s social media platform X won on Wednesday an appeal to partially block a California law requiring social media companies to publish their policies for combating disinformation, harassment, hate speech and extremism. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a lower court judge’s decision declining to pause enforcement of …

Politico reports: Hackers apparently breached the social media accounts of Lara and Tiffany Trump on Tuesday, distributing what the former president’s son said were two fake posts touting a family cryptocurrency venture. The posts on the social network X appeared to come from the accounts of Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, and Tiffany, the younger of …

The Associated Press reports: A Brazilian Supreme Court panel on Monday unanimously upheld the decision of one of its justices to block billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X nationwide, according to the court’s website. The broader support among justices undermines the effort by Musk and his supporters to cast Justice Alexandre de Moraes as an authoritarian renegade who is …

The Washington Post reports: His and his partners’ overall stake has shed $24 billion in value — a vaporization of wealth that has little parallel outside the realm of economic or industry-specific crashes, or devastating corporate scandals. Among those shouldering the burden: Saudi and Qatari business leaders and royalty; Silicon Valley venture capital and tech investors; and Twitter co-founder and …

The Guardian reports: Millions of Brazilian X users found themselves unable to access the network on Saturday morning as internet providers and mobile phone companies began to enforce the ban. When the Guardian tried to access the network on its computer and mobile phone, it received a message reading: “Seems like you lost connectivity. We’ll keep retrying.” Large numbers of …

Law & Crime reports: In a 16-page ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee who previously sided with Musk on discovery and who reportedly owns Tesla stock, wrote that a review of the “relevant case law” led him to the conclusion that Media Matters, its president Angelo …

The New York Times reports: Brazil blocked the social network X on Friday after its owner, Elon Musk, refused to comply with a Brazilian judge’s orders to suspend certain accounts, the biggest test yet of the billionaire’s efforts to transform the site into a digital town square where just about anything goes. Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, …

CNBC reports: Elon Musk ramped up his online attacks on Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes on Thursdayl. X Global Government Affairs issued a statement on Thursday evening ahead of an anticipated suspension of its platform in Brazil. Among other things, the company said X plans to publish all of de Moraes’ demands, which it believes to be illegal, …

Mediaite reports: Social media platform X slapped a “warning” on links to NPR’s follow-up reporting on the Trump campaign’s altercation in Arlington National Cemetery, stalling users who click on the story and suggesting the link is “unsafe” or “spam.” The warning appeared on links posted soon after the story was published by the article’s author, NPR journalist Stephen Fowler. The …

Axios reports: A Brazil Supreme Court judge warned Elon Musk Wednesday that he would have X suspended in Latin America’s largest nation if the billionaire didn’t name a legal representative for the platform in the country within 24 hours. Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ summons alerting Musk that X has until about 8pm local time Thursday (7pm ET) to comply with …

NBC News reports: Pavel Durov, the CEO and co-founder of the news and messaging app Telegram, has been charged in France with enabling various forms of criminality in the app, French prosecutors said Wednesday. One of the charges — complicity in administering an online platform permitting illicit transactions by an organized group — carries a maximum penalty of 10 years …

NBC News reports: Before Telegram’s CEO was arrested in France, the app had gained a reputation for ignoring advocacy groups fighting child exploitation. Three of those groups, the U.S.-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and the U.K.-based Internet Watch Foundation, all told NBC News that their outreach to Telegram about child …

Via email from Gab CEO Andrew Torba: Over the weekend Pavel Durov the CEO of Telegram, a chat messaging app, was arrested. Durov’s detention at Bourget airport in France on August 24, 2024, marks a significant escalation in the ongoing battle between governments and tech platforms over content moderation and free speech. His arrest follows just weeks after one million …

Reuters reports: Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg said senior officials in the Biden administration had pressured his social media company to censor COVID-19 content during the pandemic, adding that he would push back if this were to happen again. In a letter dated Aug. 26, Zuckerberg told the judiciary committee of the U.S. House of Representatives that he regretted not …

CNN reports: Pavel Durov is a lot of things to a lot of people. Programming prodigy. Billionaire entrepreneur. Kremlin stooge. Free-speech fighter. Biological father to at least 100 kids. Durov, the elusive founder of Telegram who was detained in France over the weekend, cuts the figure of a mysterious, globe-trotting tech bro with Mark Zuckerberg’s prodigiousness, Jack Dorsey’s bizarre lifestyle …

Reuters reports: Pavel Durov, the Russian-French billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV and BFM TV said, citing unidentified sources. Durov was travelling aboard his private jet, TF1 said on its website, adding he had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France as part of …