Mia Sato
We’re waiting on Elon Musk.
The room here at DealBook is packed for the last session of the day — and perhaps the most anticipated one. Nobody has come up in more sessions throughout the day than Musk. X CEO Linda Yaccarino is here, too.
Twitter - X
Twitter was never the largest social network, but it remained one of the most influential as a home to celebrities, journalists, and influencers of all sorts and the go-to network for breaking news. Since Elon Musk purchased it, Twitter’s employee count has dropped by more than half, advertisers have tightened budgets, and it’s charging money for access to verified checkmarks and Tweetdeck. Oh, and now it’s called X instead of Twitter.
Mia Sato
On Disney pulling ads from X.
Disney is one on a growing list of companies that have stopped advertising on X, formerly known as Twitter, following antisemitic posts from Elon Musk.
During his interview at the DealBook 2023 event, Bob Iger didn’t comment on whether Disney would ever go back to advertising on X, but he had this to say about the decision:
By him taking the position he took, we felt that the association with that position, and Elon Musk and X, was not a positive one for us.
David Pierce
This is why I hate five-star ratings!
Tobias van Schneider has it exactly right: a five-star rating is actually four options that all mean “this sucks,” varying levels of “it’s good” between 4.1 and 4.9, and then 5 stars just means you’re a liar. This is... not a good system, and it’s the same confusing mess everywhere on the internet!
Mia Sato
Checking in from DealBook.
I’m here in New York at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, an annual gathering of some of the most powerful people in the world.
Over the course of the day we’ll be hearing from people like Bob Iger, David Zaslav, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and FTC chair Lina Khan — and we’ll close out the day with an interview with Elon Musk. Check back in for news as the day goes on.
Thomas Ricker
Paris Hilton pulls Twitter ads, but the NFL is staying.
Hilton’s entertainment company has pulled an advertising campaign from Elon Musk’s X over concerns about antisemitism and pro-Nazi content on the site previously known as Twitter, but the NFL is sticking around because its “fans are clearly there.” Guess we know who has more integrity.
Amrita Khalid
Adi Robertson
Wes Davis
Congress subpoenaed Linda Yaccarino and other social media CEOs after they refused to cooperate.
The Washington Post reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee dispatched subpoena-armed US Marshals to CEOs Linda Yaccarino of X (formerly Twitter) and Jason Citron of Discord for December 6th testimony about online child sexual exploitation. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was also subpoenaed but without the use of Marshals.
Lawmakers expect Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew to testify voluntarily as Congress continues to try to child-proof the internet with regulation.
In rare show of force, senators enlist U.S. marshals to subpoena tech CEOs
[The Washington Post]
Wes Davis
X, formerly Twitter, turns to political ads to shore up its ads business.
Company CEO Linda Yaccarino has tasked her son, Matt Madrazo, with getting the ads. Semafor’s sources say he’s been quietly probing Republican political ad firms ahead of the 2024 elections, while former Pandora veteran Jonathan Phelps tries for Democrat spenders.
Twitter bets big on ... CEO's son
[www.semafor.com]
Jacob Kastrenakes
Jay Peters
X is backing one of the smallest-stakes legal fights imaginable.
The Financial Times reports that X is representing a university student who got in trouble for claiming on X that an event was open and had free food. The event was actually a closed conference.
X owner Elon Musk claimed in August that the company would “fund your legal bill” for users that feel they “were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform,” so it seems the company is starting to do so in one of the dumbest possible cases.
Elon Musk’s X defends US university student in trouble over posts
[Financial Times]
Alex Heath
Sam Altman has thoughts on Grok.
The CEO of OpenAI has weighed in on the new chatbot from Elon Musk— on Musk’s own social platform, no less!
For those who don’t know the backstory here, Musk was instrumental in the creation of OpenAI but walked away from it and is now trying to compete with ChatGPT. (And GPTs are custom AI bots that OpenAI just started letting ChatGPT subscribers create.)
Jay Peters
X added chat to live streams on the web.
X (formerly Twitter) has been steadily improving its features for live streams and broadcasts. Based on this screenshot, chat looks a lot like it does on Twitch.
X is also going to let you add timestamps to posts containing video.
Thomas Ricker
Stay classy, Elon.
From Kara Swisher’s interview with Ben Mezrich, author of Breaking Twitter:
In the book, there’s a scene when Musk signs the papers to take over Twitter, the first thing he screams out is, “Fuck Zuck! Fuck Zuck!” — which I haven’t seen reported anywhere else.
Not reported, but easily imagined.
Ben Mezrich on the Musk and Zuck Messiah Complexes
[Intelligencer]
Wes Davis
Elon Musk says xAI’s chatbot will be an X subscriber exclusive.
He says users will need a $16-a-month X Premium Plus subscription to access “Grok,” and that it will get real-time information from posts on X.
Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI but left in 2018 over the company’s for-profit shift, and has called ChatGPT “WokeGPT.” He launched xAI earlier this year. Musk’s posts come a few days ahead of OpenAI’s first developer conference on Monday.
Jay Peters
X has reportedly started trying to sell user handles.
Forbes obtained emails that indicate that X, formerly Twitter, has started to work on a marketplace to buy handles that are no longer in use. Also, “in at least some cases, X/Twitter has emailed solicitations to potential buyers requesting a flat fee of $50,000 to initiate a purchase,” Forbes reports.
That’s one way to make more money, I guess.
Alex Heath
During an employee all-hands, Musk said that Twitter became X to replace YouTube, LinkedIn, FaceTime, dating apps, and even your bank.
Alex Heath
Ariel Shapiro
Spooky! Elon Musk returns to Joe Rogan’s podcast to talk nonsense.
The boys are back in town, baby. Musk appeared on a special episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the first two hours of which are available on X (usually, the interview would be exclusive to Spotify, aside from clips). It’s mostly just bros being bros, but if you thought we were going to get out of this unscathed, Musk does throw in a little Soros conspiracy theorizing.
Alex Heath
One of Elon Musk’s investors thinks X is worth 65 percent less than when he bought it.
Fidelity, which put $300 million into Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter a year ago, thinks the company is about 65 percent less valuable now, according to Axios. That implies a valuation of between $15 and $16 billion, or the incineration of over $28 billion in enterprise value.
Musk didn’t acknowledge X’s financial state during a rare all-hands meeting with employees last week, though he did brag about some other numbers: he said that X is seeing roughly half a billion posts and over 100 billion impressions per day.
Inside X’s first all-hands meeting
Alex Heath
Wes Davis
X will demonetize posts corrected by Community Notes.
Elon Musk says the change is meant to “maximize the incentive for accuracy over sensationalism.”
A study earlier this month found X Premium verified users were getting heavy engagement as “superspreaders of misinformation” about the Israel-Hamas war.
David Pierce
Today on The Vergecast: Apple events go prime time, and Twitter wannabes go 90.
We have some pretty good costume ideas for Apple’s Scary Fast event on Monday. We also have big ideas about the future of Threads, Mastodon, and year two of Elon Musk’s Twitter. And during one of the ad breaks, we watched the entire Blade: Trinity trailer. For some reason. It’s The Vergecast!
Alex Heath
Elon Musk wants more bad news.
This was his advice to employees during his first companywide meeting since renaming Twitter to X: “In any given meeting, make sure there is at least one piece of bad news. You can have more than one piece of bad news. If you’re in a meeting with me, always bring up at least one bit of bad news or more than that.”
I have more from inside X’s first big all hands with Musk and Linda Yaccarino in this week’s Command Line:
Inside X’s first all-hands meeting
Alex Heath
It’s been a year of personal grudges, harebrained rebrands, and jolting policy shifts. And those aren’t even the worst parts.
Jay Peters
Alex Heath and Jacob Kastrenakes
Alex Heath
Thomas Ricker
Twitter’s decline in charts.
X marks the spot, now located far below where it was last year ever since Elon Musk started meddling. The WSJ maps the decline in terms of active users, app downloads, ad money spent, and perceived value using lots of easy to understand charts.
Alex Heath and Jay Peters
Jay Peters