Social Media

The Washington Post reports: The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has removed the gold “verified” badge from the New York Times’ account amid ongoing complaints about the news organization from X owner Elon Musk. The badge was the only symbol distinguishing the Times’ 55-million-follower account from impostors amid two major global conflicts in Israel and Ukraine. X …

Axios reports: President Biden’s campaign has surpassed former President Trump’s in followers on Truth Social. The Biden campaign pithily announced it was joining his likely 2024 presidential race competitor on Trump’s Twitter-like platform, as they both vie to appear extremely online. “The U.S. presidential campaign is playing out in real time on Truth Social,” Truth Social said in an email …

Reuters reports: Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, said on Tuesday it will test a new subscription model under which it will charge $1 annual fee for basic features. The new subscription termed as “Not A Bot” will charge users for likes, reposts or quoting other accounts’ posts, and bookmarking posts on the web version of the platform. …

The Hill reports: The Biden campaign Monday joined Truth Social, the platform founded by former President Trump, pushing its message on a platform largely dominated by the former president and his followers. “Well. Let’s see how this goes. Converts welcome!” the campaign wrote in its first post on the platform under the handle @BidenHQ. The campaign followed up with another …

Via press release from the European Commission: Today the European Commission services formally sent X a request for information under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This request follows indications received by the Commission services of the alleged spreading of illegal content and disinformation, in particular the spreading of terrorist and violent content and hate speech. The request addresses compliance with …

Reuters reports: The X social media platform has removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts and taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content since the militant group’s attack on Israel, its chief executive Linda officer Yaccarino said on Thursday. The move came in response to EU industry chief Thierry Breton’s 24 hour-ultimatum to Elon Musk to …

The Guardian reports: The EU has issued a warning to Elon Musk over the alleged disinformation about the Hamas attack on Israel, including fake news and “repurposed old images”, on X, which was formerly known as Twitter. The letter arrives less than two months after sweeping new laws regulating content on social media seen in the EU came into force …

Wired reports: On Monday night, what is left of the trust and safety team at X (formerly Twitter) announced the measures it was taking to try and put the genie back in the bottle and curb the virulent spread of disinformation around the Israel-Hamas war on its platform. The statement, issued three days after the conflict began, reads: “As the …

The Washington Post reports: As false information about the rapidly changing war between Gaza Strip militants and Israel proliferated on the social media platform X over the weekend, owner Elon Musk personally recommended that users follow accounts notorious for promoting lies. “For following the war in real-time, @WarMonitors & @sentdefender are good,” Musk posted on the platform formerly called Twitter …

Mashable reports: X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, has begun serving its users with a weird new ad format and it’s one of the company’s least transparent products yet. The rollout of these ads also provides the public with a hint regarding just how much the company is struggling to attract advertisers. These new X ads don’t …

Reuters reports: Billionaire Elon Musk is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over his 2022 purchase of social media giant Twitter, according to a Thursday court filing in which the agency sought to compel Musk to provide testimony. The investigation concerns whether Musk broke federal securities laws in connection with his 2022 purchases of stock in Twitter, …

The Guardian reports: X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has stopped showing headlines for links posted on the site, after site owner Elon Musk said it would make posts look better. Links posted on Twitter now appear as the image included in the article, as well as text in the left-hand corner of the image noting the domain of …

Reuters reports: X is still worth something, but not for the people running it. Boss Linda Yaccarino is set to present her plans for the social network formerly known as Twitter to bankers holding nearly $13 billion of its debt, the Financial Times reported. Looming over talks is the likelihood that X’s value is substantially less than even that figure. …

Reuters reports: Meta Platforms is exploring options to introduce ad-free subscription plans for Instagram and Facebook users in Europe, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The proposal is an attempt by Meta to circumvent European Union regulations that threaten to curb its ability to personalize ads for users without their consent and hurt its major revenue source. …

Vice News reports: A young man falsely accused of being a federal agent posing as a neo-Nazi by Elon Musk and a bunch of other right-wing trolls has launched a lawsuit against the one-time richest man in the world. Earlier this year, college student Ben Brody, 22, had his life turned upside down when he was accused of being a …

NBC News reports: The Supreme Court on Friday waded into the divisive issue of online censorship by agreeing to decide the constitutionality of laws in Florida and Texas that seek to prevent social media companies from banning users for contentious rhetoric. The laws, backed by Republicans, have been characterized by their supporters as hitting back at alleged censorship of conservative …

USA Today reports: GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy defended his decision at Wednesday’s debate to join TikTok earlier this month, saying he was making a bid for youth voters. Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney asked the entrepreneur why he decided to join the Chinese-owned platform that has been banned on federal government devices. “I have a radical idea for …

The Guardian reports: Since 2021, users on X in countries including the US, Australia and South Korea had been able to flag tweets that they believed contained misleading information for review by staff at the company – separate to other processes the company has in place to report abuse or hate speech. The feature had been available in the US, …

First, a reminder about Twitter’s excellent security: A British man has pleaded guilty over his role in schemes to hack the Twitter accounts of celebrities including Joe Biden and Elon Musk, as well as stealing $794,000 in cryptocurrency. Joseph James O’Connor, 23, entered his guilty plea in a New York court after being extradited from Spain on 26 April. He …

From the editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal: I’ve never seen more dehumanizing vitriol and hostility directed at journalists at any time in my career. And that was before this weekend. Before an unspeakably awful video of a heinous crime went viral on social media. Before the Las Vegas Review-Journal and one of its finest reporters were somehow caught up …