Tag: Elon Musk

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Entire Super Mario Bros. Movie illegally posted to Twitter

Over nine million Twitter users illegally watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie this weekend. The unauthorized posting of the film was uploaded on Friday and stayed up until Sunday.

Posting a film in this fashion is a major copyright infringement. In most cases, social media companies are quick to take down illicit movie posts before they amass a substantial number of views.

In the case of Twitter, however, there has been concern surrounding incidents like this in the wake of Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform. Under Musk’s new direction, Twitter Blue users can now post videos of up to 60 minutes in length. On top of this, Musk has significantly scaled back the company’s trust and safety and compliance teams in a bid to increase revenue.

It’s possible that these decisions have collectively enabled bad actors to take advantage of the current status quo. Whether Twitter will respond with any additional policy changes remains to be seen.

Via: The Verge

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Twitter to begin allowing cannabis companies to advertise freely

Elon Musk thinks 4/20 is funny.

This makes it not much of a surprise to hear that Twitter will begin allowing cannabis companies to advertise freely on the platform, as confirmed in a recent press release.

This guideline change comes after Twitter became the first major platform to allow cannabis advertisements earlier this year. Previously, the company was prohibited from showing weed products in its ads or promoting the sale of any cannabis products. They could, however, link ads to websites selling the products.

The press release goes on to say that companies “may also continue responsibly linking to their owned and operated web pages and e-commerce experiences for CBD, THC, and cannabis-related products and services.” The site also made changes for medical licensees and opened up additional recreational markets.

Twitter may now have a leg up on other sites like Google and Meta that still prohibit ads related to cannabis and cannabis-related products.

Musk is no stranger to cannabis culture, both by indulging himself on Joe Rogan’s podcast (although we’re pretty sure that was a one-time thing) or through multiple jokes throughout his many companies.

The CEO even set 4/20 as the date to remove legacy blue checks for users on Twitter and test the launch of SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy rocket.

It looks like cannabis ads on Twitter may be the greenest Musk sees after the CEO lost billions in his net worth after a hectic 24 hours this month.

Source: Twitter Via: Wion

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Tesla’s newly released Impact Report sheds light on its carbon footprint

Tesla has released its 2022 Impact Report, and with it comes a clear picture of the electric vehicle company’s carbon footprint. This marks the first time the company has revealed its supply chain emissions, making its overall carbon footprint more prominent than previously reported.

Last year, Tesla did disclose the amount of greenhouse gas pollution generated from direct operation and customers charging their EVs. This accounted for the equivalent of around 2.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

What Tesla didn’t mention was considered indirect emissions, which often count for a substantial portion of a company’s carbon footprint.

In 2022’s Impact Report it was revealed that the EV company produced the equivalent of roughly 30.7 million tons of carbon dioxide through its supply chain emissions.

That’s 28.2 million tons more than reported last year without including indirect emissions.

A company’s carbon footprint is often broken down into three Scopes. The first is direct emissions from its own facilities, the second is emissions from its electricity use, such as heating and cooling, and the third is all other indirect emissions from supply chains, including the lifecycle of the products a company makes.

It’s not uncommon for companies to only release Scopes 1 and 2, making carbon footprints seem smaller. Tesla followed this practice initially, as its Scope 1 and 2 emissions only add up to around 610,000 metric tons of CO2 last year.

This practice could be coming to an end, however. The SEC proposed rules last year that would not only force all public companies to share their Scope 1 and 2 emissions, but large companies would also be required to report their indirect Scope 3 emissions in some instances. The new rule was slated to be enforced in October of 2022 but has since been delayed.

CEO Elon Musk revealed a self-titled “Master Plan” for Tesla last month, which included reaching “sustainable energy for all of the earth,” so hopefully, he’s able to include lowering his own company’s carbon footprint into the plan as well.

The first line of Tesla’s 2022 Impact Report reads, “A Sustainable Future is Within Reach.” Now, with the company’s official emission numbers having been revealed, the question becomes, is that sustainable future as close as Tesla thinks?

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Tesla Via: The Verge

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Elon Musk might have a second Twitter burner account

Elon Musk might be the owner of yet another Twitter burner account, according to Platformer managing editor Zoë Schiffer.

The account in question is the handle “@e.” Musk used his newfound power and influence as owner and CEO of the company to forcibly take over the handle, reports Schiffer in a Twitter post.

Taking a look at the “@e “account itself, there’s not a whole lot going on. The username reads “John Utah,” and there are no tweets published from the user. The account currently follows three others — Elon Musk, NASA, and LAist.

Single letter Twitter handles are highly sought after because of how easy to remember they are. The reason for Musk wanting this one in particular is unknown.

The news comes right after a previous report broke of Musk using a burner account, which he may have accidentally leaked to the world himself.

Source: @ZoeSchiffer Via Gizmodo

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Twitter begins labelling tweets that have restricted visibility

Twitter has announced that notification labels for restricted Tweets is now live on the site. News of this latest update comes courtesy of the Twitter Safety account.

Tweets that are deemed to violate the company’s hateful conduct policy will now include a label to denote that this has occurred. Impacted tweets will now display a pop-up that reads “visibility limited: this Tweet may violate Twitter’s rules against Harmful Conduct.”

Twitter has infamously taken a more hands-off approach to its content moderation since being taken over by Elon Musk in April of last year.

You can read more about Twitter’s current enforcement philosophy here.

Source: Twitter Via: Engadget

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Elon Musk burner Twitter account possibly leaked

A new post by Elon Musk is making the rounds on Twitter – but not for the reason he probably expected. In a screenshot sent out by the owner and CEO of the company, it appears he is logged into a secondary account in addition to his public one.

The post was intended to showcase the in-app monetization settings for content creators. However, it didn’t take users long to point out the display photo of Musk’s three-year-old son up at the top.

After some investigating, users were able to identify the profile as @ErmnMusk. The join date reads “November 2022,” and the account name is “Elon Test.”

Most of the tweets appear to be pretty mundane, simply asking users to follow the account. It’s the “replies” section that is raising some eyebrows, with references to night clubs among other more colourful things.

It is unconfirmed whether or not this account is actually Musk’s burner account. Nevertheless, the account has already amassed 32 thousand followers since yesterday.

You can check out the possible burner account here.

Source: Twitter Via: TechCrunch

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Tesla to begin exporting Model Y from Shanghai to Canada

Tesla is expected to start exporting a version of its Model Y electric vehicle to Canada, marking the first time the company will ship cars from China to North America.

The move is set to connect the EV company’s most cost-efficient factory globally to its largest market, with the Model Y holding the title of Tesla’s best-selling model worldwide.

The news comes from a production memo obtained by Reuters after Tesla’s recent announcement of a new and more affordable Model Y variant for Canadian customers. The EV was ruled to be $10,000 CAD less than the current long-range version. The SUV-styled crossover is set to be delivered between May and July of 2023 and will start at $59,990 CAD.

Many suspect that, based on the similarity between the Canadian and Chinese Model Y specs, the refresh will feature LFP batteries made at Giga Shanghai.

Production of the soon-to-be Canadian Model Y began earlier this month at Tesla’s Shanghai factory with a quota of around 9,000 vehicles for this quarter. It’s been rumoured that the build quality from the company’s Shanghai factory is superior to that from the Fremont, California factory, meaning that the new Model Y could exceed some expectations in the Canadian market.

Vehicles produced in the Chinese factory also benefit from a cost reduction, with CEO Elon Musk previously highlighting that the Shanghai plant had the “lowest cost structure” of the company’s factories.

The potential move from Tesla marks another high point for the company after recently being found not at fault in a Model S Autopilot crash lawsuit.

Header image credit: Tesla

Source: Reuters Via: Tesla North

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Epic Games CEO rages over people making fun of Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney had a bit of a meltdown over the weekend regarding Elon Musk’s recent removal of legacy Twitter verification.

On April 22nd, Sweeney took aim at those who were supporting the ‘#BlockTheBlue’ campaign, in which people would block accounts that paid for Twitter Blue, calling them “losers and goons.” Strangely, Sweeney — a billionaire thanks to the likes of Fortnite and Epic’s ubiquitous Unreal game development engine — then proceeded to make a reference to his high school experience. “They’re [#BlockTheBlue supporters] the cool kids from junior high who worked to exclude we nerds from cool kid events, plus the losers who joined in to gain cred,” he tweeted.

Given that Sweeney is 52, it’s unclear why he’s trying to draw parallels to actual bullies from 30-plus years ago to people who are now simply taking issue with Twitter Blue. He also got upset when people replied with a popular meme laughing at those who subscribed to Twitter Blue.

For many, the issues with Twitter Blue stem from how it’s defeated the purpose of verification by allowing any random person to just pay to acquire a checkmark. When Twitter Blue checkmarks launched last year, we quickly saw parody accounts impersonate the likes of Nintendo, Valve and even Musk himself. In the era of misinformation, verification has also been especially important to help identify the correct figures in their respective fields, be they actors, politicians, media or medical professionals. For some, “BlockTheBlue” also helps avoid Musk’s avid cult fans who viciously attack others for daring to criticize the billionaire.

Later in his thread, Sweeney went on to say that “an online community like this should be a meritocracy, where everyone has an equal chance, and merit is earned rather than anointed by a corporation.” (It’s unclear how paying for a checkmark equates to “earning” merit.)

“Then someone well-meaningly built a system for preventing impersonation through verification. But they broke the meritocracy with a policy deeming verification only for elite “noteworthy” users, while letting Twitter employees hand out verification to their friends as a perk,” Sweeney added. “At peak, friends of friends of Twitter employees were brokering verification.”

Admittedly, Sweeney does have a point in that there were issues regarding who could be verified prior to Musk’s takeover. For example, celebrities like Canada’s own Seth Rogen blasted previous CEO Jack Dorsey for the platform’s verification of “white supremacists.”

However, Sweeny would later questionably say that the “Key point is, this had NOTHING to do with verifying identity documents to prevent impersonation. They didn’t do that. Twitter employees just clicked a few buttons and you were verified.” Twitter’s own Community Notes feature quickly fact-checked this tweet by pointing out that the legacy verification system did, in fact, require identity verification like government ID or official websites that list your Twitter handle.

Sweeney was also corrected for claiming that Twitter had an “unwritten practice of using verification to condition user speech,” including un-verifying controversial Black supremacist Louis Farrakhan. Community Notes pointed out that one of the requirements for having a blue checkmark was to not have had 12-hour or 7-day lockout from your account for violating rules. In 2018, Twitter said Farrakhan broke its rules by making an anti-Semitic tweet.

It’s also interesting to see Sweeney liken the pushback against Twitter Blue to a bullying “pressure campaign,” as that’s exactly what he attempted to do through Fortnite a few years back. Amid Epic’s highly publicized battle with Apple over the latter’s App Store policies, the Fortnite developer ran a controversial ad in the game to galvanize its millions of young players to fight the iPhone maker. Elsewhere, Sweeney himself made a highly questionable comparison between the Epic-Apple dispute and the civil rights movement.

But apparently, Sweeney draws the line at those making fun of a fellow billionaire and his fans.

Source: Tim Sweeney

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Twitter Blue checkmarks brought to accounts of some dead celebrities

In the latest strange twist of events, Twitter appears to have re-verified the accounts of several dead celebrities on its platform. The Elon Musk-owned social media site is displaying blue checkmarks on the accounts of Kobe Bryant, Chadwick Boseman, and Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson blue checkmark

When clicking on the verification icon, the prompt reads “this account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.” This implies the celebrities posthumously spent $8 ($10 CAN) to have the symbol put on their accounts.

It is possible that a Twitter Blue subscription may have been purchased by the person in charge of a deceased celebrity’s likeness. However, many critics believe it is a tone-deaf example of Musk attempting to promote Twitter Blue on the platform. This comes not long after Musk admitted to paying for several blue checkmarks on behalf of several celebrities.

This latest controversy comes amid the transition away from the legacy blue checkmark system on Twitter. The relaunch of Twitter Blue continues to be marred with controversy.

Source: Business Insider

Image credit: Twitter

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Elon Musk loses billions in net worth after a hectic 24 hours

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Elon Musk has reportedly seen his net worth crash by $12.6 billion after a chaotic 24 hours for Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk’s problems began on the morning of April 20th, with Tesla publishing disappointing first-quarter results. The EV company reported a nearly 20 percent decline in gross margins after aggressive price cuts to its vehicle lineup in recent months. This saw the company’s share price drop by 9.8 percent.

Just a few hours later, Musk’s other company, SpaceX, saw one of its test launches of the Starship spacecraft end in a self-described “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” The Starship made it off the ground in what looked to be a success before combusting into a ball of flames just four minutes after takeoff. Musk, who has a substantial 42 percent stake in SpaceX, said another test launch would take place in a few months.

If you’re following along, that’s a 9.8 percent Tesla share price drop, and one exploded test-launch rocket, all before lunch.

To make matters worse, Thursday was not kind to Musk’s latest venture as Twitter’s CEO either. April 20th was also the day that legacy accounts across the site began to see their verified blue checkmarks disappear after Musk confirmed the change a week prior. The decision was made in an effort to get users to sign up for Twitter Blue, a subscription that costs $8 per month. Only select accounts, such as William Shatner and LeBron James, held on to their check marks after the CEO confirmed that he would be fronting the bill for select accounts with notable followings.

This decision was met with backlash from media organizations and the overall Twitter populace, with many concerned that the removal of verified accounts would lead to a spread of misinformation.

Despite a “bad day at the office” for Musk, he remains the second richest person in the world, sitting just behind Bernard Arnault. The recent loss does not eclipse the $26.8 billion dollar increase in Musk’s wealth following Tesla’s 33 percent share price rebound in January 2023.

Perhaps jokingly, the billionaire ended his day with this tweet.

Source: Bloomberg Via: The Verge