He rose to power by exploiting online platforms — so what happens now that he’s lost?
Elon Musk seems to think people will pay $20 per month to stay verified on Twitter. He’s directed engineers to finish building a paid verification system by next week — they’ll be fired if they don’t, per a new report from my colleague Alex Heath.
Technoblade, a popular Minecraft YouTuber, died at age 23 in June due to cancer. His channel just turned nine yesterday, and YouTube posted a video to celebrate Technoblade’s impact on the platform.
The video, appropriately titled “Technoblade never dies” after his famous catchphrase, already has over 4 million views and counting. You might also might notice a neat little Easter Egg if you type “Technoblade” in YouTube’s search bar.
The Washington Post did an experiment trying to get its videos suppressed on TikTok and did not find much of anything. Still, it’s a good experiment, and a reminder of how bewildering it is to have no clear information about how these algorithms work or how they’re acting on a specific piece of content.
Liz Lopatto is laying out all the details we know about Elon’s Twitter takeover right now, so read that or check below for the rundown of every ridiculous thing that happened in this deal over the last six months.
Then, take a break. We expect to see official paperwork arrive tomorrow, plus we’ll have more coverage and a special episode of The Vergecast in the morning.
“There isn’t enough demand to keep it going, probably a combination of an overall decline in demand for virtual events and its niche featureset, and it requires ongoing support and maintenance that’s hard for me to provide on my own,” Baio said in a blog post. I had a lot of fun with an early version.
