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☆ Why Elon Musk Is Really Taking Twitter Out of San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-12 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

From the front door of X, which is closing up shop in San Francisco on Friday, Market Street runs straight through downtown to the bay. Now, as X leaves its spot, Market Street is still suffering from all the same problems it had before Twitter. After handing over millions of dollars in tax breaks to one of the world's wealthiest corporations, San Francisco has nothing to show for it. AdvertisementI keep remembering a work trip I took to San Francisco in 1999, a few years before I moved here. "Our focus remains on working with and supporting the many businesses that call San Francisco home," the statement reads.

Persons: Daniel Burnham, Elon Musk, Twitter, Ted Egan, Bon Marché, Paula Smith Arrigoni, restaurateurs, Dolby, Twitter didn't, Egan, Uber decamped, Musk, San Francisco, Adam Rogers Organizations: Twitter, Central Market, Anadolu, Getty, AQ, Area, Coalition, Apple, New York Times, San, Sony, Microsoft, Ikea, London Breed, Business Locations: San Francisco, Austin, South Park, California, Brisbane, Texas, scuzzy, gentrify, Alta, Oro, Bon, Kaya, Bay, Oakland

What's next: Media Matters filed a motion to dismiss Musk's lawsuit in March, but a judge has yet to rule. VCG/GettyGovernment lawsuits and investigationsSEC investigation into Musk's Twitter takeoverThe issues: The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Elon Musk's Twitter purchase. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty ImagesPersonal lawsuits against MuskTornetta v. MuskThe issues: Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta sued Musk and Tesla in a class action lawsuit regarding Musk's compensation package, which was worth $55.8 billion at the time. Several lawsuits also allege Musk discriminated against them because of their race, gender, or disability in choosing to fire them. The executives were set to receive golden parachutes, but claim Musk and X have not paid them out.

Persons: —, Elon Musk, Musk, Claire Boucher, Grimes, Alex Spiro, Sam Altman, Donald Trump, Spiro, Anna Webber, Angelo Carusone, What's, Gina Carano, Schaerr Jaffe, Tesla, Musk's, Elon, SEC hasn't, Elon Musk's, who've, Owen Diaz, Matt Winkelmeyer, Richard Tornetta, Kimbal Musk, He's, Boucher, Benjamin Brody, Brody, Brody reverberated, Ben Brody, didn't, Robert Kaiden, Kaiden, he's, Agrawal, Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, Twitter Vijaya Gadde, Sean Edgett, Segal, hadn't Organizations: Service, SpaceX, Business, OpenAI, SEC, Trump, Trump —, Elon, Variety, Media, X Corp, Disney, National Labor Relations Board, UAW, Tesla, Getty Government, Twitter, Securities, Exchange Commission, Justice Department, Reuters, Traffic, Administration, NHTSA, Apple, NLRB, Musk's SpaceX, US, Employment Opportunity, Musk, Nazi, Litigation Locations: Texas, Texas and Missouri, America, Nazi Germany, California, Delaware, San Francisco

☆ Elon Musk attacked my article accusing him of gaming Twitter's algorithm for more attention. In some ways, it gave him exactly what he wanted.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Zoe Schiffer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Advertisement"Yes, Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first," the Platformer headline read. "After his super bowl tweet did worse numbers than President Biden's, Twitter's CEO ordered major changes to the algorithm." In December 2022, a former Twitter employee had been sentenced to three years in prison for spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia. AdvertisementBy the end of the week, did anyone even remember there had been a Super Bowl? From EXTREMELY HARDCORE: Inside Elon Musk's Twitter, by Zoe Schiffer, published by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

Persons: —, Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Elisabeth Murdoch, Musk, Biden, I'm, Jill Biden's, Jill Biden, Joe Biden, I'd, Elon, Zoe, Yang, Casey Newton, Biden's, Newton, who'd, Barack Obama, Twitter, Zoe Schiffer Organizations: Service, Farm, Super, News Corp, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Business, Eagles, Twitter, Elon Musk, Google, Washington Post, Engineers, UPS, Elon, Penguin Publishing, Penguin Random Locations: Glendale , Arizona, Arizona, Oakland, Santa Barbara, Saudi Arabia

☆ Twitter gave Elon Musk the @e handle after becoming its biggest shareholder, book says — but he doesn't seem to use it
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk was given the @e handle shortly after becoming Twitter's biggest shareholder, a new book says. Musk doesn't appear to have engaged with the account beyond changing the name to John Utah. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementTwitter's trust and safety head was asked to transfer ownership of the @e handle to Elon Musk in April 2022, according to a new book by Zoë Schiffer. Schiffer, managing editor of the tech newsletter Platformer, previously said in an X post that Musk had acquired the @e handle .

Persons: Elon Musk, Zoë, Yoel Roth, John Utah, —, Zoë Schiffer, Twitter's, Leslie Berland, Musk, Schiffer, Roth Organizations: Service, Elon, Twitter, Business

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter X rebrand is actually quite popular among users
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

When Elon Musk unveiled the X rebranding of Twitter earlier this week, howls of complaint echoed across the social-media platform. CivicScience conducted an online survey after the X announcement and got more than 5,000 responses, including over 1,000 responses from Twitter users. Results from a recent CivicScience survey CivicScienceThere's even some positive news regarding Threads, Meta's recently launched Twitter rival. There are roughly 250 million daily average users of Twitter, and CivicScience's poll got results from a few thousand people. 40% of daily Twitter users and a 51% of weekly users are not currently interested in using X with its expected new features, "so the move is likely to be disruptive," CivicScience reported.

Persons: Elon Musk, CivicScience, Meta's, Musk Organizations: Twitter, CivicScience, Morning

☆ After creators flocked to Instagram Threads, Meta's challenge is to keep them from fleeing
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

The one major app that's eluded him: Twitter. Threads skyrocketed out of the gate in large part because it was easy for existing Instagram users to create accounts on the new messaging service and connect with their established following. watch nowCurrently, Threads users are unable to search for topics or hashtags that represent hot topics. That could entice some people to use Twitter over Threads, said Tameka Bazile, who works in artist relations and marketing at Time. Like with Threads, creators will wait to see how Twitter works for their peers before "spending much more time making content there," Kaletsky said.

Persons: Jaap Arriens, Brian Moller, Prince, he's, Moller, It's, Elon, Mark Zuckerberg pounced, He's, Caspar Lee, There's, Lee, Adam Mosseri, Jack Whitehall, Musk, Thilina, Marcel Floruss, Floruss, Floruss isn't, Chas Lacaillade, Lacaillade, Tameka Bazile, Bazile, they've, Twitter hasn't, Brendan Gahan, Mekanism, Gahan, Sasha Kaletsky, Kaletsky, Jack Appleby, Appleby, Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Gary Vaynerchuk Organizations: Nurphoto, Getty, YouTube, Twitter, Meta, Instagram, Rocket, Ventures, LinkedIn

☆ Laid-off Twitter staff in Africa say they've been 'ghosted' and haven't received their promised severance pay months later, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The workers Twitter laid off in Africa claim the company "ghosted" them, CNN reported. The ex-employees told CNN they still haven't been given the severance pay they were promised. The workers that Twitter laid off in Ghana claim that they've been "ghosted" by Elon Musk's social-media company and haven't received their promised severance pay, CNN reported. But communications with the company have since stopped and they're still waiting for severance pay, the laid-off staff told the outlet. "They literally ghosted us," one of the laid-off employees told CNN.

Persons: Elon Musk, they've, Elon Musk's, haven't, Musk, they're, Twitter didn't, he's Organizations: Twitter, CNN, Elon, Morning, Staff Locations: Africa, Ghana

☆ Even Meta and Twitter employees are surprised by the fast growth of the new Threads app
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Meta employees had relatively low expectations for Threads, the text-based Instagram offshoot that was released Wednesday evening to compete with Twitter. Even Twitter employees were not particularly worried about yet another competitor showing up. He said in his Threads post that the growth was "insane." Threads is 'serious competition'A private worker poll on Blind seen by Insider showed that nearly 70% of about 200 Twitter employees responded "yes" to the prompt "Threads, RIP Twitter?" Meanwhile, remaining Twitter employees are "just trying to keep their heads down and work on payments and video," one of the people familiar with the company said.

Persons: Adam Mosseri, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Mosseri, I'd, Zuckerberg, Musk, tweeting, Linda Yaccarino, Yaccarino, Mark Mahaney, Mahaney Organizations: Meta, Twitter, Facebook, Elon, Evercore ISI Locations: China, jumpstart

☆ 'Concerning': Mark Zuckerberg trolls Elon Musk on Threads with one-word responses, just like the Twitter owner
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared to make fun of Elon Musk for the second time this week. He responded to Threads posts with one word – "concerning" – in the same way Musk often tweets. Mark Zuckerberg appeared to take another jab at Elon Musk on Threads, his new Twitter rival. The Twitter owner has responded to tweets with "concerning" at least 26 times, Insider found after reviewing his past replies. A few hours after the rollout of Threads, Zuckerberg appeared to mock Musk when he tweeted for the first time in a decade and posted a Spider-Man meme.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Elon, Nikita Bier, Philip Fung, Musk Organizations: Morning, Twitter, Meta

☆ Threads might be annoying Elon Musk no end – but he's still $137 billion richer than Mark Zuckerberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk's net worth is more than double Mark Zuckerberg's, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk has become $106 billion richer this year and is now worth $243 billion. Zuckerberg is worth $106 billion after adding $60 billion to his total this year as Meta stock rose. Musk's net worth soared by $106 billion this year to $243 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Zuckerberg, however, got just $60 billion richer, with his net worth now standing at $106 billion.

Persons: Elon, Mark Zuckerberg's, Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, tweeting, Meta, Musk Organizations: Bloomberg, Twitter, Meta, Tesla

☆ Twitter's desktop app sees surge in outages as Meta's Threads takes off
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

In this photo illustration, Threads logo seen displayed on a smartphone with the Twitter profile of Elon Musk in the background. Twitter is experiencing a wave of outages just as Meta's brand new rival Threads service is racking up tens of millions of signups. Many Twitter users have reported outages over the past 24 hours, with problems seemingly skyrocketing around 9:30 a.m. About 70% of the Twitter outages appear related to its desktop service, Downdetector noted. Meanwhile, the Threads app has recorded 70 million signups just a day after its official release as of Friday morning, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post.

Persons: Elon Musk, Downdetector, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Linda Yaccarino Organizations: Elon, Twitter, Meta

☆ Twitter metrics claim 1 billion people saw this meme-inducing tweet — and some people are calling foul on the numbers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A tweet has officially achieved 1 billion views in the era of Twitter's views count features. When the tweet broke one billion views on Thursday, its author vowed to celebrate with a bottle of "good champagne." It's unclear if the popular tweet that started so many conversations on the app is the first one to reach one billion views. When the views feature first launched in December, user @russotalks attempted to get a tweet to one billion views. "can we get this tweet to one billion views," it read.

Persons: Elon Musk, —, Kim Kardashian, tamsully12, didn't, Twitter didn't Organizations: Twitter, Morning, Twitter fam, DMs, Reuters Twitter

☆ Instagram's algorithms are promoting accounts that share child sex abuse content, researchers find
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Instagram's recommendation algorithms have been connecting and promoting accounts that facilitate and sell child sexual abuse content, according to an investigation published Wednesday. Meta's photo-sharing service stands out from other social media platforms and "appears to have a particularly severe problem" with accounts showing self-generated child sexual abuse material, or SG-CSAM, Stanford University researchers wrote in an accompanying study. Stamos, who is now director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, said the problem has persisted after Elon Musk acquired Twitter late last year. "They then cut off our API access," he added, referring to the software that lets researchers access Twitter data to conduct their studies. Earlier this year, NBC News reported multiple Twitter accounts that offer or sell CSAM have remained available for months, even after Musk pledged to address problems with child exploitation on the social messaging service.

Persons: Instagram, Alex Stamos, Stamos, Elon Musk, CSAM, Musk Organizations: Stanford University, Wall Street Journal, Stanford, Policy Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Stanford Internet Observatory, Elon, Twitter, NBC News, YouTube

The sudden departure of Twitter executives tasked with content moderation and brand safety has left the company more vulnerable than ever to hate speech. Following Irwin's departure, the company's head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Musk has dramatically downsized the company's workforce and rolled back policies that restricted what kinds of content could circulate. Twitter, under Musk, is the fourth most-hated brand in the U.S. according to the 2023 Axios Harris reputation rankings. Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has recently played down concerns about the prevalence of hate speech on Twitter.

Persons: Ella Irwin, Brown, Maie, It's, Elon Musk, Musk, Harris, it's, Linda Yaccarino Organizations: Twitter, Elon, NBC News, NBC Universal, SpaceX, CNBC Locations: U.S

☆ Mark Cuban says he could get people to pay $100 for Twitter's blue checkmarks—Elon Musk's strategy is a 'huge mistake'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"There were 100 ways [Musk] could have asked legacy checks for $100," Cuban wrote. When rolling out the subscription service, Musk removed blue checkmarks from previously verified users, and made them available to anyone willing to pay. It's unclear whether he's paying for Twitter Blue or Musk is covering his subscription. Musk's implementation of Twitter Blue could make both elements harder for many users, particularly when they're no longer sure who they're actually speaking with. "Twitter still is the best game in town for so many different types of communications," Cuban wrote.

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter is now recommending Kremlin-linked accounts to users after restricting them last year, tests suggest
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter appears to be amplifying tweets of Russian state accounts after suppressing them last year. The Telegraph created a new account and was recommended the Kremlin-linked accounts, it reported. Elon Musk has been lifting most restrictions on accounts labelled harmful under previous management. Twitter had more broadly limited the reach of state-affiliated media since 2020, by not recommending them to users and labelling them as state-affiliated. The world's second-richest man reinstated Donald Trump's Twitter account in November to this end, although the former president has still not posted any new tweets.

☆ Mark Cuban tells Elon Musk he's losing up to 1,000 followers a day despite paying for Twitter Blue
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Mark Cuban asked Elon Musk for help because he's losing followers on Twitter. The "Shark Tank" star said he starting paying for Twitter Blue after losing up to 1,000 followers a day. Twitter Blue subscribers are meant to get more visibility and promotion on their tweets. Twitter Blue was launched in December following Musk's $44 billion takeover a few weeks earlier. His research indicated that about half of Twitter Blue subscribers had less than 1,000 followers, while about 17% of subscribed accounts had less than 100 followers.

☆ Harvard expert 'takes issue' with Mark Zuckerberg's Meta layoffs: Cutting jobs over email is 'absolutely horrific'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

As Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to let go of 10,000 more workers in his company's latest round of layoffs, a Harvard University expert says she "takes issue" with the way some of them are being conducted — namely, over email. A bevy of ex-Meta employees have spoken with media outlets or posted on social media about getting laid off via email in recent weeks. Jennifer Haynes, a former Meta technical recruiter, filmed herself checking her email and learning that she'd been laid off in real time. On March 13, one day before Zuckerberg's layoffs announcement, a share of Meta stock was worth $180.90. This story has been updated to reflect that similar reports of recent layoffs though email have emerged from Amazon and Twitter.

☆ The college student who tracks Elon Musk's private jet says the Tesla CEO only seems to care about tracking planes if it affects him
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The student who tracks Elon Musk's jet said the Tesla CEO only seemed to care about being tracked himself. Jack Sweeney told Insider he reported a tweet that had the live location of several public figures. Sweeney warned the account owner that he'd report the tweet: "If I get banned for posting live, so will others." "Either Twitter moderation is bad at its job or they only care about the live location rule when it's in Musk's interest," he added. "The account tweeted a famous person's live location of their jet but hasn't been taken down – the only difference is it's not Musk."

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter Blue is breaking European rules about unfair business practices by failing to show its full cost to consumers right away, EU agency says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk's Twitter Blue subscription is a flagship project to make the company profitable. But the advertised subscription prices in the European Union don't factor in taxes. Specifically, the advertised subscription prices don't factor in taxes, which violates consumer-protection laws in the 27-country union, a spokesperson for the watchdog said. Twitter Blue is one of Musk's flagship projects designed to make the social-media company profitable. Insider tested the Twitter Blue subscription process in the UK and, through a VPN, in Belgium and Germany.

☆ A Twitter employee says staff have grown 'numb' to outages because they've become 'so frequent'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter staff have grown "numb" to outages because they're "so frequent," an employee told Platformer. In a report published late Monday, Platformer quoted a current Twitter employee as saying: "This type of outage has become so frequent that I think we're all numb to it." A current employee told the news outlet that the engineer made a "bad configuration change" that "basically broke the Twitter API." The mistake took out many of Twitter's internal tools as well as the company's API, leaving owner Elon Musk furious, per the report. A former employee told Insider in November that with so few employees left to share critical work, "Twitter is done."

☆ Twitter's latest outage was reportedly caused by a single engineer's mistake. One employee says the platform is so brittle, 'everything breaks' if engineers change something.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A mistake by a single Twitter engineer prompted Monday's service outage, Platformer reported. Twitter owner Elon Musk has cut thousands from Twitter's headcount since acquiring the company. In a reply to investor Marc Andreessen, Musk said: "A small API change had massive ramifications. Musk has cut thousands from Twitter's headcount since completing his acquisition of the company in October. Twitter insiders previously told Insider's Kali Hays that although a complete failure of Twitter was unlikely, technical issues could pile up to the point that the site could no longer function reliably.

☆ A Twitter engineer says at least 2 bodyguards accompany Elon Musk around Twitter HQ — even to the restroom
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk is accompanied around Twitter HQ by at least two bodyguards, an engineer told the BBC. The bodyguards even accompany Musk to the restroom, the engineer said. Musk's use of bodyguards inside Twitter's HQ, in San Francisco, suggested a lack of trust in the company's employees, the engineer told the BBC in a report published Sunday. Musk's father Errol said in January that he feared for his son's safety even though he was protected by "100 security guards." He was responding to Twitter user who suggested he should "add more security guards to your team."

☆ Supreme Court considers whether Twitter can be held liable for failing to remove terrorist content
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that will help determine whether social media platforms can be held liable for aiding and abetting terrorism for failing to remove content and accounts promoting it. The case revolves around a specific international terrorist act, and contends that Twitter should be held accountable for not taking aggressive enough action against that content on its platform. Justice Elena Kagan at one point asked Waxman whether Twitter could be held liable if it actually didn't enforce any policy against terrorist content on its site. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked if it would be illegal to sell Osama bin Laden a phone without knowing it would be used for a terrorist specific terrorist act. Schnapper said it would not be necessary to prove the phone was used for a specific terrorist act, because it "aids the terrorist enterprise."

☆ Elon Musk says Twitter will take legal action against a 'disgruntled employee' who the CEO says leaked false information to suggest his tweets were boosted
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk said Twitter was taking legal action against a worker who the CEO said leaked false info. He said the worker was the source of a Platformer report, which said Musk's tweets had been boosted. A Twitter user asked Musk on Friday whether the Platformer report was false. He did not name the employee against whom he said Twitter was taking legal action. Casey Newton, a journalist at Platformer, told Insider: "Elon's tweet is completely false.

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