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☆ SlamBall: The sport ahead of its time is making a long-awaited comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Thomas Schlachter | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“SlamBall is special because it’s a brand that has lived on in social media in a really powerful way. Making its comeback for a 2023 summer league, SlamBall will be back on TV screens, via ESPN, and hopes to attract new viewers. The sport has lived on via social media clips of crazy moves. SlamBall LLCDreams becoming reality“I had this recurring dream all the time,” Gordon says of the origins of the sport. “Social media didn’t exist, Twitter didn’t exist, TikTok didn’t exist.”With incredible dunks like George Byrd's on Kevin Cassidy, SlamBall has huge viral potential.

Persons: Mason Gordon, SlamBall, ” Gordon, ”, Gordon, “, Gerard Gordeau, Taylor Wily, Markus Boesch, Stan “, ” Fletcher, Fletcher, ‘, Stan, Jim Heath, “ I’m, Fletcher’s SlamBall, Michael Jordan, Julius “ Dr, J ” Erving, Mike Tollin, SlamBall’s, Ben Peppi, George Byrd's, Kevin Cassidy, Pat Ecclesine, BringBackSlamBall, Pat Ecclesine ‘, “ There’s, it’s Organizations: CNN, NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, CNN Sport, ESPN, UFC, Mandalay Sports Media, Twitter, ’ Locations: Las Vegas, Los Angeles

☆ Twitter’s future is in doubt as Threads tops 100 million users
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The results underscore the risk Meta poses to Twitter’s business and raise questions about how, or if, Twitter can stem its losses. Twitter traffic had already been trending downward for months, according to data from the internet infrastructure company Cloudflare and the web analytics firm Similarweb. “Twitter traffic tanking,” Prince said as he posted the chart. A Twitter rival but not quite a Twitter replacementFueling Threads’ rapid growth has been Meta’s use of Instagram as a springboard to sign up new users, along with what many Threads users have identified as a dissatisfaction with Twitter. But after a Threads user pointed out that the new app was not featured in Twitter’s trending topics tab, Zuckerberg replied “Concerning” with a crying-laughter emoji.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Twitter didn’t, Cloudflare, Matthew Prince, ” Prince, Similarweb, ”, David Carr, We’ve, Alex Stamos, —, Stamos, ” Stamos, Kim Kardashian, Jeff Bezos, Axios, Adam Mosseri, Mosseri, Musk Organizations: Washington CNN, Twitter, Meta, Elon, CNN, “, Stanford Internet Observatory, Facebook

☆ Twitter hit with $250 million lawsuit from music publishers over alleged copyright infringement
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington CNN —Music publishers sued Twitter for more than $250 million in damages on Wednesday, alleging that the social media platform “breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators.”The lawsuit alleges that for years, Twitter has allowed users of its platform to share copyrighted songs without a license. Twitter’s alleged permissiveness around users sharing copyrighted songs, combined with the social network’s promotion of tweets with copyrighted music, has unlawfully helped fuel the company’s growth, according to the National Music Publishers’ Association, whose members include Universal, Sony and Warner Music Group. “Providing free, unlicensed music gives the Twitter platform an unfair advantage over competing platforms, such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and others.”Twitter’s competitors, the music publishers said, all pay licensing fees to rightsholders for the ability to use the copyrighted music. The lawsuit cites the sweeping layoffs under Musk’s ownership that have eliminated entire teams at Twitter. It also highlights Musk’s own views on copyright, including a screenshot of two of his tweets from prior to the acquisition.

Persons: Elon Musk, Twitter’s, Mariah Carey’s, Mark Ronson’s, ”, Bruno Mars, Snapchat, Twitter didn’t, ” Musk Organizations: Washington CNN — Music, Twitter, Elon, National Music Publishers ’ Association, Universal, Sony, Warner Music Group, Facebook, YouTube, Copyright, Federal Trade Commission, Court, Middle, Middle District of Locations: Funk, Middle District, Middle District of Tennessee

☆ US senators question Twitter's FTC compliance under Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The lawmakers asked Musk and Yaccarino to respond to a series of questions about Twitter’s FTC obligations and whether the layoffs and resignations have hindered its ability to comply. Elon Musk under TwitterSince purchasing Twitter, Musk has said he’s laid off more than 6,000 employees, or roughly 80% of the company’s pre-acquisition headcount. Twitter is already under investigation by the FTC for possible breaches of its consent orders. But as both the FTC and now the senators have indicated, Twitter’s behavior under Musk is also covered by the consent agreements. House Republicans have alleged that the FTC probe is intended to “harass” Musk and represents an example of the “weaponization” of the US government.

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Ella Irwin, Twitter’s, “ Mr, ”, Massachusetts Democratic Sen, Elizabeth Warren, Elizabeth Warren ; Oregon Democratic Sen, Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, Hawaii Democratic Sen, Mazie, Twitter didn’t, Twitter, he’s, Peiter “ Mudge ” Zatko, Zatko Organizations: Washington CNN —, Twitter, Federal Trade Commission, CNN, Massachusetts Democratic, Elizabeth Warren ; Oregon Democratic, Hawaii Democratic, FTC, Washington Post, House Republicans Locations: Elizabeth Warren ; Oregon

☆ Twitter debuts a mid-tier data access plan, to almost immediate backlash
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington CNN —Twitter unveiled a new data access tier on Thursday aimed at attracting startups, after its decision to erect a paywall for developers and researchers prompted widespread backlash. An enterprise plan starts at $42,000 a month and can cost as much as $210,000 a month. Public institutions such as New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority have made headlines for pulling their real-time service alerts from Twitter over the paywall. The replies to Twitter’s announcement are filled with complaints that “the jump to 5k is too much,” as one user responded. “That’s cool, but you already killed most Twitter apps by now,” another user said.

☆ Supreme Court Says Twitter Didn’t Aid Terrorism
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Jan Wolfe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ She was weeks away from maternity leave at Twitter. Then Elon Musk took over
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

Twitter now reportedly has fewer than 2,000 employees following more cuts late last month, down from around 7,500 before Musk took over. CNN“We were on the Twitter-coaster, the Elon Musk chapter, for seven months,” Ali said. De Caires is one of the former Twitter employees taking legal action against the company following mass layoffs after Musk took over. Jeff Chiu/APInstead, Twitter employees say they heard very little from their new leader in the days immediately after his takeover. Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan is representing around 1,500 former Twitter employees taking legal action against the company following Musk's takeover.

☆ Hackers post email addresses linked to 200 million Twitter accounts, security researchers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Email addresses linked to more than 200 million Twitter profiles are currently circulating on underground hacker forums, security experts say. The apparent data leak could expose the real-life identities of anonymous Twitter users and make it easier for criminals to hijack Twitter accounts, the experts warned, or even victims’ accounts on other websites. The trove of leaked records also includes Twitter users’ names, account handles, follower numbers and the dates the accounts were created, according to forum listings reviewed by security researchers and shared with CNN. Troy Hunt, a security researcher, said Thursday that his analysis of the data “found 211,524,284 unique email addresses” that had been leaked. The account data could also be valuable to hackers who can use the information as part of password-reset attempts and account takeovers.

On Tuesday, Tate tweeted at Thunberg, referring to his “33 cars” and their “enormous emissions.”Thunberg responded on Wednesday, making a joke about Tate’s genitals. After Tate’s arrest, posts quickly went viral, speculating that the pizza boxes in the video had been an important factor in locating Tate. But Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for DIICOT, refuted that the pizza boxes had anything to do with Tate’s arrest. On Twitter, many responded to Tate’s days-old Twitter feud with Thunberg with jokes about the interaction and Tate’s arrest. In the video, Afualo said she saw the news about Tate’s arrest.

Meanwhile, Twitter’s resources to fight child sexual exploitation content online (and what is sometimes called child pornography or child sexual abuse materials) are thin, following layoffs, mass-firings and resignations from the company. Child sexual exploitation content has remained a problem for Twitter, though most major social media platforms continue to deal with it in some form or another. Moderation of this content usually relies on a combination of automated detection systems and specialized internal teams and external contractors to identify child abuse content and remove it. “So, I mean, that is disheartening.”It’s unclear how many Twitter employees remain to work on child safety issues. A search on LinkedIn for current Twitter employees who say they work on child safety turned up only a few accounts.

☆ The Twitter Blacklisting of Jay Bhattacharya
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Justin Hart | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Jay Bhattacharya , a professor of medicine at Stanford University, was a latecomer to Twitter, joining in the summer of 2021. In his first tweet, he linked to a recent article he had written that discussed age-based mortality risks and natural immunity, among other topics. But it’s possible that many on Twitter didn’t see his message. This week Twitter released a set of internal emails and documents from before Elon Musk’s takeover of the company in October. One of the revelations was that Dr. Bhattacharya, among many others, had been censored and shadow-banned (tweets hidden in various ways) by Twitter.

Black users have long been one of Twitter’s most engaged demographics, flocking to the platform to steer online culture and drive real-world social change. But a month after Elon Musk took over, some Black influencers are eyeing the exits just as he races to shore up the company’s business. And while there is no hard data on how many Black users have either joined or left the platform over that period, some prominent influencers say they’re actively pursuing alternatives. Some signs indicate a slowdown among Black Twitter users that predates Musk. “It’s crippling to the economies of cities when Black folks leave, platforms when Black folks leave, entertainment sites when Black folks leave,” she said.

☆ E.U. warns Musk to beef up Twitter controls ahead of new rules
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Musk has signaled an interest in rolling back many of Twitter’s previous rules meant to combat misinformation, most recently by abandoning enforcement of its COVID-19 misinformation policy. He already reinstated some high-profile accounts that had violated Twitter’s content rules and had promised a “general amnesty” restoring most suspended accounts starting this week. Along with European regulators, Musk risks running afoul of Apple and Google, which power most of the world’s smartphones. Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen walked back her statements about whether Musk’s purchase of Twitter warrants government review. She declined to confirm whether CFIUS is currently investigating Musk’s Twitter purchase.

☆ Layoffs Create Pitfalls for Finance Executives Looking to Cut Costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Jennifer Williams-Alvarez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

They are increasingly looking to layoffs as a way to preserve capital, alongside other measures, such as hiring freezes. Finance chiefs play a key role in this by determining which costs to cut and setting companies’ financial targets, said advisers who work with companies during staffing cuts. Tech business HP Inc., ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. and tool-and-appliance maker Stanley Black & Decker Inc. have announced layoffs in recent months. Finance chiefs are increasingly part of the initial discussions about whether job cuts are needed, said Hardik Sheth, a partner at Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm. Some employees at Twitter, which recently cut roughly half of its workforce, are now pushing back against the dismissals.

☆ Twitter could be a new wild card for the midterms
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN Business —For years, Twitter has been a leader in countering misinformation and protecting elections. But concerns are growing that tumult inside Twitter in the first week after it was acquired by Elon Musk could weaken its safeguards for elections, just before the midterms are set to take place. Musk promised not to alter any of Twitter’s content policies until after the midterms. He tweeted: “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” and without warning. The shakeup at Twitter has turned the company itself into an election wildcard.

But the new era at Twitter could also be an opportunity for the company to redefine its brand for the better. But it remains unclear what Twitter under Mr. Musk will actually be, Mr. Calkins said. Twitter before Mr. Musk weathered a number of controversies that rattled some advertisers and users. But this is a potential inflection point for Twitter, Mr. Miller said. “I think the brand is irrevocably damaged, actually, unless and until Musk finds somebody else to run Twitter,” Mr. Kwittken said.

☆ Elon Musk Closes Twitter Deal, Immediately Fires Top Executives
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Lauren Thomas | Alexa Corse | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Elon Musk fired several Twitter Inc. executives after completing his takeover of the company, according to people familiar with the matter, capping an unusual corporate battle and setting up one of the world’s most influential social-media platforms for potentially broad change. Mr. Musk fired Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal after the deal closed, the people said. Mr. Musk also fired Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top legal and policy executive, and Sean Edgett, general counsel. Spokespeople for Twitter didn’t comment.

☆ Elon Musk Twitter Deal Completed, CEO and CFO Immediately Fired
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Lauren Thomas | Alexa Corse | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Elon Musk Buys Twitter, Fires CEO and CFO
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Lauren Thomas | Alexa Corse | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Elon Musk completed his takeover of Twitter Inc. Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter, capping an unusual corporate takeover battle and setting up one of the world’s most influential social-media platforms for potentially sweeping change. Mr. Musk fired Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal after the deal closed, the people said. Spokespeople for Twitter didn’t comment.

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