Elon Musk‘s X on Thursday has lost its bid to change a California law on content moderation disclosure by social media companies.
10.12.2023 - 06:55 / variety.com
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk, continuing his campaign to make X a “free speech” refuge even to the detriment of the company’s business interests, said he is reinstating the account of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Twitter banned Jones in 2018, along with his Infowars program. Last year Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion to families of Sandy Hook victims over his lies about the 2012 school shooting, which left 20 kids and six adults dead.
Musk said X/Twitter was reinstating Jones after Musk fielded a poll on the subject to his more than 165 million followers. A majority of respondents (70% of almost 2 million votes) were in favor of the move. “The people have spoken and so it shall be,” Musk posted late Saturday evening.
Musk posted earlier Saturday, “I vehemently disagree with what [Jones] said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not? That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money.” As Musk alluded to, his reinstatement of Jones will not help his company persuade big marketers to buy ads on X. Last month, advertisers including Disney, Apple and Comcast/NBCUniversal halted ad spending on X over Musk’s support of an antisemitic conspiracy theory (which Musk later apologized for).
At the New York Times’ DealBook Summit, Musk lashed out at fleeing advertisers, telling them, “Go fuck yourself.” Jones and Infowars were banned by Twitter, along with YouTube, Facebook, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, in 2018. The platforms cited violations of their hate-speech and harassment policies. Musk’s decision to let Jones back on Twitter came after he
.Elon Musk‘s X on Thursday has lost its bid to change a California law on content moderation disclosure by social media companies.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Canceling a SiriusXM subscription isn’t just annoying — it’s illegal, according to a lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general. New York Attorney General Letitia James this week filed a lawsuit against SiriusXM, accusing the satellite radio and streaming audio company of “trapping consumers” in subscriptions and “maintaining deliberately long and burdensome cancellation processes.” An investigation by James’ office found that SiriusXM “forces its subscribers to call or chat online with an agent to cancel a subscription, then deliberately draws out those interactions as part of its strategy to prevent subscribers from canceling.” The lawsuit alleges that SiriusXM violated state and federal laws concerning subscriptions that renew automatically by failing to provide subscribers with a cancelation mechanism that is “simple, timely and easy to use.” In addition, the suit alleges that SiriusXM engaged in fraud and deception by misleading subscribers seeking to cancel their accounts.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Aylo, parent company of Pornhub and other sex sites, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors to settle a charge it profited from deals with porn producers who were involved in sex trafficking. Under the settlement announced Thursday, Canada-based Aylo agreed to pay a criminal fine and forfeiture totaling $1.845 million to the U.S.
Elon Musk‘s X/Twitter is back up after going down tonight all over the world.
Elon Musk‘s X could become the first platform to fall foul of the European Union‘s new Digital Services Act.
Ellise Shafer During the final “Last Week Tonight” episode of the year, John Oliver devoted an entire 30-minute segment to rehashing the past 12 months in the life of Elon Musk, billionaire and CEO of X (formerly known as Twitter). Musk has had a particularly fraught 2023, which started with the removal of verified status from legacy blue-check holders and ended with him telling advertisers, who began to pull their spending from X when Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory, to “go fuck yourself.” Oliver began his roast by calling Musk “a man who can pull off pretty much any bad-guy-in-a-movie look.” As different images of Musk flashed by on the screen, Oliver threw out some comparisons.
John Oliver decided to focus on Elon Musk on Last Week Tonight‘s last new episode of 2023. The comedian roasted the billionaire by recounting all the controversies he’s been involved in this past year and said he “could pull off any bad guy in a movie.”
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In case you didn’t get enough of Elon Musk in “Elon Musk,” the 688-page authorized biography of the tech mogul penned by Walter Isaacson, here comes a new podcast from Isaacson talking about his experience spending two years shadowing the world’s richest person to research the book. The “On Musk” podcast, produced by iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope, premieres Dec. 12 on the iHeartPodcast Network (at this link) and all major podcast platforms, with all four episodes available at launch.
Leave The World Behind, the film is a new post-apocalyptic thriller from Sam Esmail – the creator of the hit series Mr Robot – and reached the top of its most-watched charts shortly after its release on Netflix on Friday (December 8).It follows the narrative of a society which begins to unravel and descend into chaos after technological infrastructure begins to malfunction and shut down. It is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and is an adaptation of the 2020 novel of the same name, written by Rumaan Alam.However, based on a new post he shared on X/Twitter, it seems that Elon Musk may have misunderstood the meaning of one of the scenes in the film – and the internet has been quick to criticise him for the blunder.The moment concerns a scene with Teslas in the film, where characters played by Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are chased by the malfunctioning cars which are moving without drivers.
Taylor Swift’s fans are defending the singer following Elon Musk’s reaction to seeing her latest recognition as Time Magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year. The acclaimed musician received the coveted title after the success of her Eras Tour, the premiere of her film, which resulted in record-breaking numbers, and the domination of the Billboard charts with her hit songs.TAYLOR SWIFT SHARES THOUGHTS ON BEYONCÉ COMPARISONSSAGITTARIUS CELEBRITIES: TAYLOR SWIFT, BRITNEY SPEARS, BRAD PITT AND MORETAYLOR SWIFT, YE, AND KIM KARDASHIAN’S DRAMA EXPLAINEDThe CEO of Tesla took to Twitter to congratulate Taylor after learning about the recognition, however, he also decided to give her a piece of advice from his own experience.
Elon Musk is sparking controversy once again.
custody battle with the boy’s mother, singer Grimes.Three-year-old X Æ A-Xii sat atop his dad’s shoulders as the pair watched the Army Black Knights close out the final game of the season with a 17-11 victory over the Navy Midshipmen.“ARMY NAVY,” Musk tweeted, along with a video showing a view from the top of the stadium.In a subsequent reply, the Tesla CEO indicated he was team Army.Musk appeared all smiles as he carried the oldest of his three children with the “Oblivion” singer throughout Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts.The father-and-son duo also posed with the Army Mules mascot and sat with the Army crowd.The outing comes just two months after Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, sued Musk for parental rights of their three children.Musk, 52, and Grimes, 35, share X Æ A-Xii, who was born in May 2020, and Exa Dark Sideræl, who was born via surrogate in December 2021.It was only confirmed in September that the pair secretly had a third child, a boy named Techno Mechanicus, whom they call Tau.
Elon Musk has jokingly warned Taylor Swift that her popularity could decline after being named Time’s Person Of The Year for 2023.In response to Swift’s post on X announcing she had won the accolade (December 6), Musk congratulated the pop singer before posting a cautionary reply.“Some risk of popularity decline after this award,” Musk wrote. “I speak from experience lol.”The SpaceX founder was named Time’s Person Of The Year in 2021 for his influence “on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too,” in a statement from the magazine at the time..@samlansky has such a wondrous way with words, and I’ve loved reading his pieces for over a decade.
Elon Musk takes a lot of space in the world. The South African-Canadian-American citizen is involved in all manner of companies dictating the future of the planet, whether we’re talking about X, the social media and tech platform previously known as Twitter, or SpaceX, the spacecraft manufacturer that hopes to colonize Mars. He comes from a family of interesting people, filled with entrepreneurs and business owners.
Elon Musk has struck up a feud with… Paris Hilton!? What the heck?
After stunning the business world by telling any marketer pausing their advertising on X (formerly Twitter) over antisemitic content to “go f–k yourself,” Elon Musk closed the week by taking more swings.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk this week angrily told big advertisers like Disney and Apple who have halted spending on X/Twitter to “go fuck yourself.” Bill Ackman, head of investment holding company Pershing Square Holdings and an investor in X, believes Musk has a point — opining that large marketers employ a double standard in reacting to Musk’s combative rhetoric and “free speech” stance. “I thought @elonmusk’s interview with @andrewrsorkin was one of the great interviews ever,” Ackman wrote in a post on X Thursday evening, referring to Musk’s appearance the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Linda Yaccarino, who’s already facing an uphill battle in winning over advertisers to X, has her work cut out for her to restore trust with big marketers after her boss profanely dissed those who had suspended advertising from the platform. Almost six months into her gig as CEO of X, Yaccarino continues to try to clean up PR messes created by Elon Musk, the shoot-from-the-lip megabillionaire and self-appointed defender of free speech who owns the company formerly known as Twitter.
Elon Musk made plain his view of the widespread advertiser withdrawal this month from X, formerly Twitter.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of X (formerly Twitter) says his opposition to President Biden in his re-election bid is mainly due to his bitterness over a White House snub in 2021.