Tag: Elon Musk x Twitter

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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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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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Musk fires Twitter Blue head Esther Crawford, promises rewards for those who remain

Esther Crawford was responsible for various projects at Twitter after Elon Musk took over the company. But under Musk’s rule, no one is safe.

According to Zoë Schiffer, the managing editor at Platformer, Crawford lost her job at the company over the weekend. She was responsible for Twitter Blue and, as The Verge reports, oversaw the platform’s upcoming payments platform.

The publication also reports that other members of the product team were also let go, and there’s speculation Musk is getting ready to hire an entirely new team. Schiffer tweeted the latest round of layoffs impacted roughly 50 employees and follow several dismissals from a week prior.

Martijn de Kuijper, a senior product manager and founder of Revue, is among those laid off. Revue is a newsletter tool Twitter acquired in 2021.

More recently, Musk has reportedly announced the company will give remaining employees “performance-based stock and compensation awards,” Schiffer tweeted.

“He acknowledged that the recent round of layoffs were difficult and said Twitter employees who are still at the company are highly regarded by those around them.”

Source: @ZoëSchiffer Via: The Verge 

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Elon Musk lays off a fresh set of employees after saying dismissals were done

Employees who once successfully avoided major layoffs at Twitter were not safe from future cuts, despite promises from company CEO Elon Musk.

After Musk laid off employees across its headquarters in November, those who remained were told there would be no more layoffs, according to The Verge. But recent events show that hasn’t been the case.

The publication reports the company laid off dozens from Twitter’s sales and engineering departments, including one employee who was responsible for engineering the platform’s ad business.

Musk has also reportedly given employees one week to fix ad targeting in Twitter’s main feed. The Verge reports Musk wants Twitter’s ads to work like Google search ads, focusing on keywords instead of user activity.

One of the laid-off employees is Marcin Kadluczka, an engineer manager for monetization. The Verge reports Kadluczka “reported directly to Musk,” and he issued his one-week deadline just prior to laying off employees.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: The Verge 

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Elon Musk says Twitter isn’t ready for a new CEO just yet

It looks like Elon Musk is staying on as Twitter CEO for another year, at the minimum.

In a video appearance at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Musk said “the end of the year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company.”

As Bloomberg reports, this means Musk will lead the company for at least another year.

“I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place in that the product roadmap is clearly laid out,” Musk continued in the video.

The statement follows reports Musk has been looking for a new CEO for the company for the past couple of months.

Musk also conducted a poll in December asking Twitter users if he should step down from the top job. A majority wanted him gone.

Some of the dislike for Musk likely comes from his erratic changes to the social media platform. Mass layoffs, API changes, and buying verified statuses are part of his many moves since buying the company last year. But it’s possible more changes will come.

Twitter is “still somewhat of a startup in reverse,” Musk said, adding more needs to be done to get it to a “stable position.”

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Via: Bloomberg

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Twitter dangling free ads in plea to attract advertisers

Since Elon Musk took over the platform last year, Twitter has been in a downward spiral of changes.

These changes contributed to several advertisers backing out from displaying their ads on Twitter. But now, in a desperate plea to win back advertisers, Twitter appears to be offering free advertisements.

According to emails reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Twitter is offering to match advertisers’ spending up to $250,000, provided they spend half a million dollars on ads by February 28th.

The offer comes with Super Bowl right around the corner. The WSJ reports that the sports event is Twitter’s biggest revenue-generating day of the year. “Advertisers in recent years have flocked to Twitter during the Super Bowl to generate buzz around their big game marketing efforts.”

Several advertisers, including GroupM, which manages ads for Google, L’Oréal, Bayer, Nestle and others, took part in a mass exodus by advising clients against advertising on the platform, citing moderation concerns. Marketing agency Cosette also offered the Government of Canada similar advice.

In what seemed to be an attempt to gain ground, SpaceX took out advertising space. Like Twitter, Musk also serves as the CEO of SpaceX, which typically doesn’t purchase large advertising campaigns on the platform.

It’s yet to be seen if Twitter’s “special offer” will be beneficial.

All the details on the ongoing Twitter saga are available here.

Source: Wall Street Journal 

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Ottawa resident charged with making threats on Twitter

A 19-year-old Ottawa resident has been arrested for posting threats on Twitter.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) say they were first made aware of the threats on November 8th. The tweets targeted Parliament Hill, the Department of Defense, and the Chinese and American embassies in Ottawa.

The RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) arrested Daniel Houde. He is charged with several counts, including knowingly uttering a threat to damage property.

Not sure if this is the digital town square Elon Musk envisioned when he bought the social media platform, which reported a spike in hate speech soon after the acquisition.

Source: RCMP

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Musk’s hunt for a new Twitter CEO has been ongoing

Elon Musk has served as Twitter’s CEO, or Chief Twit, since he bought the company in October. But now, Musk is reportedly looking for his replacement, unnamed sources tell CNBC.

The publication states the search began before Musk posted a poll on Sunday, asking users if he should step down as CEO. The poll received 17.5 million votes, with 57.5 percent of respondents answering “yes.” 

While Musk promised to “abide by the results of this poll,” he has a history of not following through on tweets. Following the results, Musk, in true fashion, said he’ll restrict who can vote in polls. 

It’s unclear what requirements candidates need to successfully receive a shot to be Twitter’s CEO.

Image credit: Shuttertstock 

Source: CNBC