Twitter boss says he has ‘no mercy’ for those who capitalise on deaths of children, citing loss of son in 2002
Elon Musk has said he will not reinstate the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Twitter, saying he has “no mercy” for people who capitalize on the deaths of children for personal fame.
Twitter permanently suspended the accounts of Jones and his Infowars website in September 2018 for violating the platform’s abusive behavior policy.
Continue reading...‘The people have spoken,’ says site’s owner, having acknowledged during online poll that automated bots were voting too
Elon Musk has reinstated Donald Trump’s Twitter account after users on the social media platform voted by a slim majority to lift a ban on the former US president.
Trump’s account was suspended in 2021 after the January 6 Capitol riot, for violating Twitter guidelines and because of the risk of “further incitement of violence”.
Continue reading...Furor over platform’s verified profiles may have done some good, but challenges still plague the site after a mass worker exodus
Against warnings that Twitter is on the verge of collapse, the social media platform hadn’t died Saturday – at least not yet. But things aren’t necessarily going well for new owner Elon Musk’s goal to re-engineer the company to his tastes and with it the larger, potentially quixotic, goal of re-setting standards of social discourse online.
But while reports of chaos at the company multiply, not all interactions have necessarily proved negative. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly said last week that a tweet by an imposter account over insulin pricing in the US that caused the company’s stock to plunge “probably highlights” a need to bring down the cost of the drug.
Continue reading...Social media giant ill-equipped to deal with traffic spikes after cuts imposed by Elon Musk, according to former employee
Twitter stands a 50% chance of a major outage that could take the site offline during the World Cup, according to a recently departed employee with knowledge of how the company responds to large-scale events.
The former employee, who was granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of what was discussed, has knowledge of the workings of Twitter Command Centre, the platform’s team of troubleshooters who monitor the site for issues such as traffic spikes and data centre outages.
Continue reading...Reports show nearly 1,200 workers left company after demand for ‘long hours at high intensity’, while Musk starts poll on whether to reinstate Donald Trump
Elon Musk emailed Twitter staff on Friday asking that any employees who write software code report to the 10th floor of the office in San Francisco in the early afternoon, according to multiple news reports.
The billionaire said in a follow-up email, “If possible, I would appreciate it if you could fly to SF to be present in person,” adding he would be at the company’s headquarters until midnight and would return Saturday morning, Reuters reported. The engineers should report at 2pm on Friday.
Continue reading...Users on gamer-focused platform manage to respond to posts despite government blocking all comments
The UK Treasury has opened an account on Discord to a torrent of abuse from users of the gamer-focused chat app – abuse they managed to send despite the government blocking all comments on the service.
As Twitter’s future looks increasingly uncertain, prominent users are preparing alternatives, directing followers to Facebook and Instagram accounts, handing out their Mastodon addresses, and setting up servers on chat apps such as Discord.
Continue reading...Before Elon Musk took over the badge was granted to celebrities and journalists verified by the platform to prevent impersonation
Twitter’s relaunched premium service – which grants blue check verification labels to anyone willing to pay $8 a month – was unavailable on Friday after the social media platform was flooded by a wave of impostor accounts approved by Twitter.
The latest move caps a chaotic start for the new subscription service, one of the first major changes made by Elon Musk after taking over the company two weeks ago.
Continue reading...President had been asked if he thought the new Twitter boss was a threat to US national security
Joe Biden thinks Twitter boss Elon Musk’s relationships with other countries is “worthy of being looked at”.
Biden was asked at a news conference on Wednesday whether he thought Musk was a threat to national security and if his acquisition of Twitter with help from a Saudi Arabian conglomerate should be investigated by the US government.
Reuters contributed to this report
Continue reading...As the brand-new CEO experiments with changes at the company, major brands pause spending on the platform
Elon Musk sought to reassure advertisers on Twitter on Wednesday that his chaotic takeover of the social media platform won’t harm their brands.
But his effort came after a day of changes to the platform’s account verification systems, and an acknowledgement from Musk that some “dumb things” might happen as he transforms the company.
Continue reading...Guardia Civil first to be convicted after alleging video showed a Moroccan migrant raping a woman
A police officer who deliberately posted a misleading video clip of a sexual assault to try to stir up hatred against migrant children has become the first person in Spain to be handed a jail sentence for using social media to publish and spread fake news.
A court in Barcelona on Tuesday convicted the Guardia Civil officer of an offence against fundamental rights and public freedoms and sentenced him to 15 months in prison and a fine of €1,620 (£1,410).
Continue reading...High-profile names, including grandson of military dictator, complained they were being denied free speech
Elon Musk has promised to investigate why several far-right personalities in Brazil were removed from Twitter after some high-profile names, including the grandson of a former military dictator, complained they were being denied free speech.
Twitter Brasil suspended profiles of three rightwing politicians recently elected to congress: Carla Zambelli, Gustavo Gayer, and Nikolas Ferreira, a 26-year-old who won 1.5m votes and has 2 million followers.
They and other supporters of the extremist president Jair Bolsonaro were removed from the platform in the past week in response to an undisclosed legal demand.
All criticised the decision, as did Paulo Figueiredo Filho, the grandson of João Figueiredo, Brazil’s military president between 1979 and 1985, and now a commentator for the rightwing media operation Jovem Pan.
“Hey @elonmusk, your company has been imposing a draconian ideological censorship of the Brazilian people’s right to free speech,” Figueiredo tweeted. “We are at a critical moment in our history! Wtf is going on?? We thought you bought Twitter exactly for this reason! Rise and lift the censorship NOW!”
“I will look into this,” Musk replied.
Figueiredo, whose account with 946,000 followers is still active, did not respond to a tweet asking for comment but he did reveal that his Telegram account had been suspended.
His grandfather was the last military president before Brazil returned to democracy after a 21-year dictatorship that saw hundreds of people killed and thousands more tortured and jailed.
Users adopt Musk’s name after he announces suspension of accounts pretending to be someone else
Elon Musk has banned a US comedian’s Twitter account after taking on users who impersonate him on the platform.
Twitter’s new owner announced an immediate ban on accounts pretending to be someone else without flagging them as parodies. The move resulted in the removal of an “Elon Musk” account held by the comedian Kathy Griffin, who had changed her account name to match that of the Tesla chief executive.
Continue reading...Platform’s new owner tells video-makers he’s planning ‘creator monetization for all forms of content’
The anarchic behaviour of YouTubers draws huge online audiences and has turned stars such as MrBeast and Logan Paul into the best-paid entertainers of the internet age. Now Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, wants a piece of this lucrative action and will attempt to lure video creators on to the social media platform.
In a series of messages, Musk engaged with video-makers, saying he was planning “creator monetization for all forms of content”, and that his company could “beat” the 55% cut of advertising revenue that YouTube gives its top entertainers.
Continue reading...Social media firm sets deadline for workers to name person to represent them at job consultations amid layoffs
Twitter staff who face losing their jobs in the UK have been given three days to nominate a representative for a formal consultation about their employment.
An email sent to staff from Twitter’s HR department on Saturday said they had until 9am on Tuesday to nominate any current employee. Staff can nominate themselves.
Continue reading...As anger builds, Dorsey says ‘I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation – I grew the company too quickly’
Former Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey has gone on the platform recently acquired by billionaire Elon Musk to apologize for the state of the site, which has laid off thousands of workers.
On Saturday Dorsey published a series of tweets in response to the layoffs across Twitter’s workforce, which began on Friday. As many as half of the company’s 7,500 staffers could be axed since Musk acquired the company for $44bn last week.
Continue reading...Internal chaos at the company – and the decimation of its staff – has created ideal conditions for falsehoods and hateful content
The mass layoffs at Twitter that diminished several teams, including staff on the company’s safety and misinformation teams, could spell disaster during the US midterm elections next week, experts have warned.
The company has laid off around 50% of its workforce, according to news reports; a figure that Musk and others have not disputed, amounting to an estimated 3,700 people.
Continue reading...Elon Musk says setting up process over those barred, including Donald Trump, will take ‘at least a few more weeks’
Banned Twitter accounts including Donald Trump’s will not be reinstated until after the US midterm elections at least, the platform’s new owner, Elon Musk, has said.
The Tesla chief executive’s statement came as a study revealed that Twitter had taken down six disinformation networks on the platform linked to China and Iran that had been tweeting about the 8 November elections.
Continue reading...Musk, despite his wealth, good fortune and global influence, is not a serious person – but he is toying with dangerous ideas
It took less than 48 hours for Elon Musk to reveal just how dangerous his new toy can be to this world. Replying to a tweet from former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the man worth more than $210bn with more than 112 million Twitter followers spread a dangerous conspiracy theory intended to distract people from an attempted political assassination just one week before a major US election.
Clinton had warned that “the Republican party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories”, in response not just to the attack on home and spouse of Nancy Pelosi but a slew of attempted kidnappings and threats against elected officials who have stood up to the Trump agenda and the attempted overthrow of the US government in January 2021.
Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
Continue reading...World’s richest person plans revamp of social media platform, asking users if he should bring back Vine
Elon Musk is considering charging Twitter users $20 (£17.30) a month or $240 a year for a blue tick on their account, as the world’s richest person prepares an overhaul of the social media platform.
The Tesla chief executive is planning changes to Twitter’s Blue subscription service, according to the tech newsletter Platformer, including raising the $4.99 a month fee to $19.99. Users verified by the platform – who carry a blue tick flagging them as an authentic source – would have 90 days to sign up to Blue or lose their check mark.
Continue reading...Post comes days after Musk takes over social media platform amid concern that hate speech will run rampant under his leadership
Elon Musk was criticized on Sunday after posting a baseless conspiracy theory about the assault of Paul Pelosi to Twitter – the social media giant he took over several days ago with a promise to impose less restrictions on its content.
Paul Pelosi, husband of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer at their California home on Friday. The attacker, identified by authorities as David DePape, allegedly said “Where is Nancy?” during the attack; president Joe Biden said that she appeared to be the intended target.
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