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.
The platform era is ending. Rather than build new Twitters and Facebooks, we can create a stuff-posting system that works better for everybody.
Tesla Owners Silicon Valley posted a video of an apparently bullet-pocked Cybertruck driving on a highway at night.
Musk replied to a repost of it, claiming that the dents were from “the entire drum magazine of a Tommy gun” and “no bullets penetrated into the passenger compartment.”
I’m going back to sleep.
The DOJ was granted (PDF) a stay of an injunction barring DHS, CISA, FBI, and other federal officials from contact with social media platforms about content moderation. The judge who wrote the injunction this summer claimed their requests about posts containing covid misinformation amounted to a violation of the First Amendment.
An appeals court limited the terms of the ban last month but paused the process to see if the Supreme Court would weigh in. Now it will hear the DOJ’s appeal, over dissent from three justices (Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch).
Bloomberg had the story a few weeks ago after listening in on a call between X CEO Linda Yaccarino and Twitter debt holders. Premium plans currently start at $8/mth ($84/yr) and show about 50 percent fewer ads. X is also testing charging every new user $1/year just to post because you gotta make up for a plummet in ad revenue somehow.
X is now filled with contextless links to articles after Elon Musk removed headlines from link preview cards earlier this month. But some Substack links now include the headline right in the image (spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra).
I was able to replicate it below with a newsletter I follow — it’s a good idea! So far it seems limited to Substack blogs with a custom domain, and the headline doesn’t appear in the image on other platforms like Facebook.
The money to protect Europeans from the spread of harmful content comes from the 19 companies identified as very large online platforms, divvied up based upon the number of users they have but not more than 0.05 percent of profits.
This methodology results in X, formerly known as Twitter, and Amazon not contributing a penny, while Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. together would pay about €31 million — almost three-quarters of the total.
Or so say Bloomberg sources. Official numbers will be announced in November.
It’s been almost a year since Elon Musk took over Twitter and, well, a lot of things have happened since then. Now, after previously diving into the backstories of dating apps, Meta, and Tesla, the Vox Media podcast Land of the Giants launches a new season about Twitter, its richest user, and “why Twitter’s cultural and political influence far exceeds its size,” hosted by Peter Kafka.
New episodes will arrive weekly starting on October 25th, and you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or other podcast apps.
The New York Times reported today that Australia’s government is charging Elon Musk’s platform $610,500 AUD (about $384,000 USD) for not answering all of its questions about how it handles child abuse imagery.
The regulator reportedly didn’t get enough detail from Google either, but while it only got a warning, “X’s lack of a response was more extensive.”
You can now ask people who want to join your X community to answer that question, and moderators can use your response to decide if you should be let in. (I’m not a huge fan of X’s “gatekeeping allowed” marketing language announcing the feature, though.)
Nieman Reports has the story and more details about the memo.
NPR left Twitter (now X) in April after the platform labeled NPR as “US state-affiliated media.” (X got rid of those labels entirely shortly after, apparently at the suggestion of Elon Musk’s biographer, Walter Isaacson.)
Reuters reports that X (fka Twitter), YouTube, and Telegram were sent notices by India’s federal Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) requesting prompt and permanent removal of any child sexual abuse material.
“If they do not act swiftly, their safe harbour under section 79 of the IT Act would be withdrawn and consequences under the Indian law will follow,” India’s junior minister for Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, was quoted as saying in the statement.
None of the platforms have been able to entirely block that material, but some may have more trouble with the request than others.
KTLA has had a look around Meta’s X/Twitter competitor and points out that several major brands, including the BBC, CBS, and the NFL, have quietly stopped posting on Threads from their main accounts. Those that have continued are seeing limited engagement, which makes sense given how overall user numbers have dipped (Meta, obviously, is reportedly working hard on changing this).
We haven’t updated this timeline of ill-fated celebrity “creative directors” for tech companies in several years, but something about today’s calorie-free Paris Hilton / X announcement really cements my belief that we’re just reliving 2015 on the internet in every way.
Inspired by X CEO Linda Yaccarino flashing her home screen during her Code Conference interview, many of my colleagues at The Verge have been sharing their own home screens on Threads.
The fools! Now I’ve collected them and put them into a gallery here for all to see. (Don’t worry, I included my own.)
Anyway, did you get in on this bit? Share a link to yours in the comments! Or don’t. I’m not your boss.
During her bizarre interview at the Code Conference yesterday, Yaccarino held up her iPhone to the audience while seemingly indicating that it was supposed to represent X. I was sitting near the front of the stage and squinting to try and see what was on it.
Thanks to the magic of video and this screengrab from my colleague Vjeran, we have the goods. X doesn’t appear to be on her home screen but, incredibly, Facebook and Instagram are. I also spot Signal — Elon Musk’s messaging app of choice — and the Holy Bible, which really is the original super app if you think about it. (Also, Settings in the dock? What are you doing, Linda!)
