Social Media

EU Issues Stern Warning To Twitter Over War Disinfo

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 …

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Musk Continues To Amplify Israel-Hamas War Disinfo

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 …

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Musk Promotes Fake News Accounts As War Sources

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 …

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Twitter Rolls Out Unmarked Ads That Can’t Be Blocked

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 …

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SEC Sues Musk To Compel Testimony On Buying Twitter

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, …

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Twitter Removes Headlines From Linked News Articles

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 …

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Reuters: Banks Might “Take Back The Keys” To Twitter

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. …

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Meta May Charge EU Users For Ad-Free Subscriptions

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. …

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Musk Sued For Falsely Naming Man As Neo-Nazi

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 …

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SCOTUS To Hear Challenge To Social Media Moderation

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 …

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Ramaswamy: Ban Minors From Social Media Platforms (Which I’m Using To Reach Out To “Young Americans”)

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 …

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Twitter Scraps “Report Election Disinformation” Feature

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, …

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Hacker Takes Over Trump Junior’s Twitter Account

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 …

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Newspaper Editor: Elon Musk Unleashed “Fire Hose Of Hatred” And Antisemitic Death Threats On Our Writers

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 …

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YouTube Suspends Monetization For Russell Brand

The Guardian reports: YouTube has suspended Russell Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform following allegations of rape and sexual assault in a massive hit to his finances. The video-sharing and social media site said it had suspended Brand’s channel from the YouTube partner programme after serious allegations against him, meaning his videos are no longer able to be …

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Musk Floats “Small Monthly Payment To Use X System”

Mediaite reports: Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter/X, is floating an idea that he’s had before, but never mentioned publicly, to remedy the problem of social media bots: charging people to use social media. It’s not the first time Musk has proposed making people pay to use X, which has, according to multiple reports, descended into a chaotic haven for …

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Tim Cook: Apple Torn About Pulling Ads From Twitter

The Messenger reports: Apple execs are engaged in an ongoing internal debate over ads for the company’s products and services on X, formerly Twitter, as a result of antisemitic content on the platform, Apple boss Tim Cook said in a new interview with CBS News. Speaking with John Dickerson, Cook said continuing ads on the platform was “something that we …

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Twitter Yanks Blue Check From Striking Auto Union

The Intercept reports: After members of the United Auto Workers walked off the job at midnight, Twitter stripped the union of its account verification without notice, according to a UAW official. The account, as of publication time, lacked verification — but its blue check was restored shortly after the story began circulating widely. The move by Elon Musk followed the …

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EU Fines TikTok $368M Over Children’s Privacy Rights

The Guardian reports: TikTok has been fined €345m (£296m) for breaking EU data law in its handling of children’s accounts, including failing to shield underage users’ content from public view. The Irish data watchdog, which regulates TikTok across the EU, said the Chinese-owned video app had committed multiple breaches of GDPR rules. It found TikTok had contravened GDPR by placing …

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Anti-Hate Group: Twitter/X Allows 86% Of Hateful Posts

The Center On Countering Digital Hate reports: New research by CCDH shows that X (formerly Twitter) continues to host nearly 86% of a set of 300 hateful posts after a week since we reported them. As of September 7th 2023, tweets promoting and glorifying antisemitism, anti-Black racism, neo-Nazism, white supremacy and/or other racism were still up. CCDH also found dozens …

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