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  • As Musk takes over Twitter, users test limits

    As Musk takes over Twitter, users test limits

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    Confusion, concern, conspiracies, celebration.

    In the hours after Elon Musk took control of Twitter, reactions on the platform ranged from triumph to despair.

    While no immediate policy changes had been announced by Friday afternoon, that didn’t stop users from cheering – or criticising – what they expected to be a quick embrace of Musk’s pledges to cut back on moderation in what he has said is an effort to promote free speech.

    Conservative personalities on the site began recirculating long-debunked conspiracy theories, including about COVID-19 and the 2020 election, in a tongue-in-cheek attempt to “test” whether Twitter’s policies on misinformation were still being enforced.

    Popular right-wing pundits tweeted buzzwords such as “ivermectin” and “Trump won” to see whether they would be penalised for content they suggested would previously have been flagged. Ivermectin, a cheap drug that kills parasites in humans and animals, has been promoted by some Republican politicians and conservative talk show hosts as an effective way to treat COVID-19. But health experts have warned there is scant evidence to support the belief that it works.

    “Ok, @elonmusk, is this thing on..?” Steve Cortes, a former commentator for the conservative TV network Newsmax and adviser to former President Donald Trump wrote in a tweet, where he included a microphone emoji. “THERE ARE TWO SEXES TRUMP WON IVERMECTIN ROCKS.”

    In a letter aimed to soothe the fears of advertisers, Musk promised Thursday that Twitter won’t be a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences”.

    But the jury is still out on what will become of the social media platform and what it will tolerate. Observers are eyeing who stays, who goes and who might potentially come back from the list of people the platform has banned over the years. They range from former US President Donald Trump to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke – none of whom have returned to the platform so far.

    The Associated Press checked at least a dozen other Twitter accounts that were suspended by the platform – including those used by right-wing activist James O’Keefe and MyPillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell – and each turned up an “account suspended” message as of Friday afternoon.

    At least one still found a way to get his message out.

    “I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country,” Trump said Friday morning in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, leaving no indication of whether he would return to the platform even though Musk has said he would allow it.

    “I LOVE TRUTH!,” he said, adding Twitter will be “better” if it works to get rid of bots and fake accounts “that have hurt it so badly”.

    In a Tweet posted on Friday afternoon, Musk said Twitter will be forming a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” and that “no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes”.

    Opening a Pandora’s box

    Earlier in the day, Reuters news agency reported that Kanye West, the rapper legally known as Ye, was back on Twitter after being locked out of his account earlier this month over his anti-Semitic posts on the platform.

    Musk clarified that Ye’s account was restored before he completed the takeover and that Twitter “did not consult with or inform me”.

    The rapper and fashion designer had also been suspended from Instagram but his account there was recently reinstated.

    Meanwhile, dozens of extremist Twitter profiles – some newly created – circulated racial slurs and Nazi imagery while expressing gratitude to Musk for his new leadership. One such post shared a breaking news update about Musk taking over the company, tweeting a racial slur and the message, “thank you Elon”. Another anonymous account tweeted, “Elon now controls Twitter, unleash the racial slurs”, along with several derogatory comments.

    “His acquisition of Twitter has opened Pandora’s box,” the advocacy group Ultraviolet said in a prepared statement on Friday, while also urging Musk, Twitter executives and the company’s board of directors to continue to enforce the ban on Trump “as well as violent right-wing extremists and white supremacists”.

    Some users reacted to the news by threatening to quit and others made fun of them for doing so. The terms “Elon”, and “deleting”, appeared in Twitter’s top trends Friday as users discussed the fallout.

    Speculation also permeated the platform. Some worried their number of Twitter followers was plunging, theorising that Twitter may be cleaning up bots. Other users posted unverified reports that their “like” counts were dwindling.

    “Elon Musk bought a platform, he didn’t buy people,” said Jennifer Grygiel, a social media expert and professor at Syracuse University. “And we still have a choice in how we get our news, our information and how we communicate.”

    Grygiel said there will be a flight to quality if Twitter descends into further chaos under Musk, but maybe this will not be a bad thing as the platform has increasingly come to serve corporate and state media interests.

    And as always, users were quick to crack jokes – aiming to cut through the disorder in more comical ways.

    “In honor of Elon now owning this site, I’d like to start utter chaos,” CNN commentator Bakari Sellers wrote in a Tweet on Friday morning. “Which is better Popeyes or Bojangles and why?”

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  • Elon Musk says no banned Twitter accounts will be restored before a review by new “content moderation council”

    Elon Musk says no banned Twitter accounts will be restored before a review by new “content moderation council”

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    Elon Musk says no banned Twitter accounts will be restored before a review by new "content moderation council"

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  • Lawmakers urge tech CEOs to do more to help Iranian protesters circumvent internet censorship

    Lawmakers urge tech CEOs to do more to help Iranian protesters circumvent internet censorship

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    Iranians protest to demand justice and highlight the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police and subsequently died in hospital in Tehran under suspicious circumstances.

    Mike Kemp | In Pictures via Getty Images

    A bipartisan group of 13 lawmakers urged several U.S. tech CEOs to do more to help Iranian people stay connected to the internet as their government seeks to censor communications amid ongoing protests.

    The Iranian regime has taken aggressive measures to block citizens from the internet and anti-government messages as people across the country continue to protest its restrictive standards. The protests began after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police, who had accused her of improperly wearing her hijab, an Islamic head-covering for women.

    In the letter to the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and cloud service DigitalOcean, the lawmakers asked the executives to be “more proactive” in getting important services to Iran. The Treasury Department last month issued guidance on U.S. sanctions on Iran to make clear that social media platforms, video conferencing and cloud-based services that deliver virtual private networks can operate in Iran.

    “While we appreciate some of the steps your companies have taken, we believe your companies can be more proactive in acting pursuant to the broad authorization provided in GLD-2,” the lawmakers wrote, referencing the general license used to issue sanctions guidance.

    They specifically pointed to four different types of tools they’d like to see the companies work to get into the hands of the Iranian people: cloud and hosting services, messaging and communication tools, developer and analytics tools and access to app stores.

    The lawmakers said these types of tools would help Iranian citizens stay connected to the internet in secure ways amid government-imposed shutdowns and reduce their reliance on domestic infrastructure. The availability of multiple secure communications tools would make it harder for the Iranian regime to shut down all of them at once, they wrote.

    The lawmakers also said that giving the Iranian people access to developer tools and app stores would allow them to “create and harden” their own communications apps and security tools and give them a place to distribute them without government surveillance.

    Reps. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., and Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., took the lead in the letter.

    “Iranians are fearlessly risking their lives for their fundamental rights and dignity,” they wrote. “Your tools and services may be vital in their efforts to pursue these aspirations, and the United States should continue to make every effort to assist them.”

    A Google spokesperson said in a statement the company is working on ways to “ensure continued access to generally available communications tools like Google Meet and our other Internet services.” Google launched location sharing in Iran on Google Maps in September to let people let loved ones know where they are and the Jigsaw team within Google is working to make its tool more widely available so users in Iran can run their own VPNs that resist blocking, the spokesperson added.

    Meta did not provide a comment. The Facebook-owner had made Instagram and WhatsApp available in Iran, but the services have been restricted by the government.

    The other companies named in the letter did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

    Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

    WATCH: Protests in Iran spread throughout the country

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  • The Toxic Discussion Around ‘Bayonetta 3’ Is a Perfect Example of How Social Media Lacks Nuance

    The Toxic Discussion Around ‘Bayonetta 3’ Is a Perfect Example of How Social Media Lacks Nuance

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    I’m going to start this article with a confession: I have never played a Bayonetta game. I’ve always meant to. I even own Bayonetta 2. I just never carved out the time. But this story isn’t a story about the contents of Bayonetta. It’s not a critique. This is about the ever-shifting tones of the social media discourse around Bayonetta 3 in the past few weeks—because a lot has happened around the game, and as nuance has become more and more necessary, that discourse has gotten reactionary.

    Before we dig into the present and the bizarre whiplash surrounding two very opposing review styles of the game, let’s start at the beginning. Let us begin with the saga of Bayonetta voice actor Hellena Taylor.

    ‘Bayonetta 3’ prelude: The Saga of Hellena Taylor

    Bayonetta 3 got its first dose of drama on October 15, 2022, when Hellena Taylor, the English voice of the title character, posted a series of videos to Twitter. In them, she says: “The final offer to do the whole game—as a buyout, flat rate—was $4,000.” We ran the full story at the time if you want a run-down on what this moment felt like.

    Taylor asked for a boycott of the game. She also specifically called out voice actor Jennifer Hale for taking the role, saying she has “no right” to even sign autographs as the character. Calling out Hale was objectively too far—especially as A Woman On The Internet who knows what such an act would (and did) mean.

    The boycott, on the other hand, split fans. Some flocked to Taylor’s support and canceled their pre-orders. Others voiced concern that a huge team of people made this game, and they wanted to respect that team’s work. I was neutral—honestly, it felt like a convenient excuse not to play a game I didn’t have time for. But I totally understand the latter concern. It’s a difficult subject to navigate, though: Many people are going to boycott Hogwarts Legacy because of J.K. Rowling’s continuous transphobic statements. Why is that different? Is it because Rowling is at the top of the residuals and ideological food chain for Hogwarts Legacy, whereas Taylor is one of hundreds of creatives involved in Bayonetta‘s process? That would have been a discussion well worth having. It’s the first big one we missed.

    But alas, to borrow from The Daily Show, we didn’t have time for it—nor did we have an opportunity to ponder the ramifications of the new wave of creator Hedeki Kamiya’s ever-infamous blocking behavior on Twitter. Because, about a week later, a report came out at Bloomberg that contradicted Taylor’s statement. In the words of reporter Jason Schreier, “Platinum offered Hellena Taylor between $3k and $4k per session for at least 5 sessions.” This report was corroborated by several reliable sources. Schreier also said that, “In an email to Bloomberg, [Taylor] called that version of events an ‘absolute lie’ and said that Platinum is ‘trying to save their ass and the game.’ “

    Many were upset with Taylor as the story got more complicated—especially fans who had rushed to her side and cancelled their pre-orders. Predictably, there then came to be a ton of finger-pointing, a lot of shaming, and a lot of accusations of being untruthful. Since Taylor did, indeed, make a point of saying the offer for the “whole game” was $4K, she was technically misleading. But, to me, this new scenario was that much different. Because in all this, we missed another major important discussion. Because—hey, guys? $15K or $20K to voice the main character in a multi-million dollar franchise is still not nearly enough. But that point—and a larger necessary discussion about paying not only voice actors, but creatives in general, a bigger share of corporate profits—was overshadowed, too.

    When Taylor took to Twitter to attempt to rebut the claims, that conversation got actively anti-productive. In the reactionary wave, a type of commenter emerged that acted like $15K is a perfectly reasonable wage. Some sources claimed that Taylor asked for a six-figure salary. This caused more outcry. Yet I fail to see how that’s outlandish, especially when you’re at the bargaining table?? In the emphatic anger of the “You lied!” finger-pointing, I began that age-old though experiment in which I wondered whether the tone of the backlash would be different if Taylor were a man.

    It was at this point that I realized this saga was making assholes out of absolutely everyone, including anyone who commented on it. I hoped it was, at least, over. Within all this drama, though, some curious numbers came out. Despite the rumblings of a boycott, Bayonetta 3 sales did not go down. They went up. Just … an interesting note.

    The next wave: ‘Bayonetta 3’ Review Whiplash

    On Tuesday, October 25, reviews for Bayonetta 3 started coming in. And there was a very clear trend: 9/10s or 10/10s pretty much all the way around. “Wow!” I thought. “Maybe I really should play this game, even though the discourse of the last two weeks has made me want to scream!” But then I saw a hugely divergent strain of review, best exemplified by Polygon and The Verge. Divergent enough to give me serious pause. And a headache.

    All reviews do agree on the gameplay. They say Bayonetta 3 is a blast to play. They say the combat is the series at its best. Even the Polygon and Verge reviews say that if you only care about fighting, you’ll have a great time. Where the “9/10 reviews” and the Polygon/Verge reviews diverge is the ending. NintendoLife said Bayonetta 3 is “topped off with one of the best … one of the absolutely maddest and goofiest endings to a game we’ve ever seen.” PCGamer celebrates a “truly wild finale, an ending that dares you to ask yourself if you would ever cry over a video game where a lady sticks her middle finger into her motorcycle’s ignition like a key to rev up the engine.” Outlets like IGN say the story is disappointing but it can be overlooked for the combat.

    But there’s another viewpoint here. Former TMS senior editor Maddy Myers Polygon says on Polygon, “Unfortunately, Bayonetta 3 ensures that one of the few female characters in a mainstream game who owns her sexuality must pay some sort of tax for the privilege.” After an exploration of the reclamation of female game protagonists that will surely hit with any female gamer, Myers concludes that “Bayonetta was made with Luka in mind.” She also says that the ending was so jarring to her that she immediately uninstalled the game.

    Ash Parrish concurs on The Verge: “Suffice it to say, the ending had me like Marlon Brando, tearfully standing over the body of his son in the first Godfather, ‘Look how they massacred my Bayo!’ … There are some incredible leaps of character development that we’re supposed to just take on faith while the game abandons two whole games’ worth of established motivations and relationships all in service to the game’s true villain: compulsory heterosexuality.”

    These are lengthy, highly personal laments from two female game critics. That’s what a good review is, in my opinion—personal, and very aware of that. I’m not saying either kind of review is right or wrong. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I’m glad people are enjoying a game they like! As a reporter, though, I have to pause and wonder why there is such a huge gap in perception. Why is this ending a goofy hoot for some and utterly devastating for others? Myers had a very blithe observation of the situation, and it struck me as dead-on.

    Not every reviewer who loved Bayonetta 3 was a straight man. Because—and this is true!—no gender or sexual identity is a monolith. I do think Myers was actively brave to post this. It needed to be said, but Twitter is giving her a lot of shit for it. I’ll probably get some of that, too, for this article. Hello! I hope you’re having a nice day!

    In the aftermath of this post and these two reviews, I noticed the increasingly toxic Twitter conversation around the game get really nasty and reactive. Both reviewers and anyone who dared to post their viewpoints (including yours truly) are getting accused of not just being flat-out “wrong,” but of being “silly” or “a joke” or, worst of all, lacking knowledge. Even though both Parrish and Myers say in their reviews they’ve been fans of Bayonetta for years. Even though reviews and fiction are objective. At the risk of sounding like the internet’s mom, just because you disagree with someone doesn’t mean they’re wrong or uninformed. It reminds me of the “your IQ isn’t high enough to understand Rick and Morty” vibe all over again.

    Clearly, there are mountains of complicated configurations of gender perception and equality, female fantasy, sexuality, the place of women in gaming, etc., that are coming to the surface with every angry Tweet, every commenter who skips over or doesn’t take seriously the counterpoint presented by the Polygon and Verge reviews, every space in the perceptional gap between those reviews and the 10/10 ones. But we don’t have time to discuss that right now, do we?

    (featured image: Platinum Games)

    —The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

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  • Reports: Elon Musk takes control of Twitter, immediately fires CEO

    Reports: Elon Musk takes control of Twitter, immediately fires CEO

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    Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and ousted its CEO and at least two other top executives, according to numerous reports.

    Two people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press Thursday night that CEO Parag Agrawal and Twitter’s chief financial officer and top lawyer had been shown the door.

    The sources wouldn’t say if all the paperwork for the deal, originally valued at $44 billion, had been signed or whether the deal had closed. But they said Musk is in charge of the social media platform. Neither source wanted to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the personnel moves.

    Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment when reached by CBS News, but Musk himself tweeted late Thursday that “the bird is freed,” referring to Twitter’s famous logo and indicating he was indeed in charge.   

    The move to close the deal, which came a day before a court-imposed deadline to finalize the transaction, caps a tumultuous six-month pursuit in which the billionaire launched his shock bid for Twitter this spring, only to reverse course in July and declare he was withdrawing it.

    His swift dismissal of Twitter’s top two executives punctuates what is expected to be a period of dramatic change at the social media company. And where Musk — a serial entrepreneur whose companies have disrupted the payments, auto and space exploration sectors — takes Twitter now is anyone’s guess.

    Now for the hard part

    “As we have discussed, the easy part for Musk was buying Twitter,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a report. “The difficult part, and Everest-like uphill battle looking ahead, will be fixing this troubled asset.”

    Ives added that the $44 billion price tag on the purchase “will go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals.” He values Twitter at closer to $25 billion.

    With Musk taking the helm, attention will turn to what steps he can take to revitalize Twitter, whose growth has slowed sharply in recent years. In the short term, that could involve laying off up to three-quarters of Twitter’s workforce, The Washington Post reported last week. Musk, who has been vocal in saying he overpaid for Twitter, might find it tempting to slash labor costs as a way to balance the books.


    Elon Musk makes the rounds at Twitter HQ as deadline approaches for acquisition

    05:47

    More challenging will be devising a strategy to drive growth at Twitter, whose roughly 238 million regular users pale in comparison to other social networks like Facebook and TikTok. On that front, Musk has previously floated the idea of creating a “super app,” (which Musk has previously referred to as “X app”) like WeChat, which in China is used for everything from banking and hailing a ride to buying groceries and chatting with friends.

    “Musk took over Twitter last night and now major questions will remain around changes to the platform, monetization efforts, the level of headcount cuts on the horizon and the long-term strategy around the ‘X’ App and building a potential WeChat model down the road,” Ives said.

    Also remaining to be seen is how Musk might change Twitter’s user policies. In launching his unsolicited bid in April, he highlighted the company’s “potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe,” while noting that Twitter in its current form “will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative.” 

    Will Donald Trump return?

    That imperative could include allowing former President Donald Trump back on Twitter, which permanently suspended him from the platform last year in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, citing the risk of further violence.

    “I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country,” Trump said Friday in a post on Truth Social, the conservative-leaning social network backed by his media company. “Twitter must now work hard to rid itself of all of the bots and fake accounts that have hurt it so badly. It will be much smaller, but better.”

    Musk, meanwhile, had been signaling that the deal was going through. He strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit,” and tweeted “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”

    And overnight the New York Stock Exchange notified investors that it will suspend trading in shares of Twitter before the opening bell Friday in anticipation of the company going private under Musk.

    — Alain Sherter contributed reporting.

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  • Why did Elon Musk just spend billions to take over Twitter?

    Why did Elon Musk just spend billions to take over Twitter?

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    Elon Musk has taken over Twitter and fired its CEO and other top executives. Trading in company shares was suspended Friday on the New York Stock Exchange and the stock will be officially delisted early next month, according to a filing with securities regulators. So now what?

    WHY DID MUSK BUY TWITTER?

    One reason why Musk bought Twitter this week is because he had little choice. The world’s richest man spent months trying to back out of the $44 billion purchase agreement he originally signed in April. But the uncertainty was so disruptive to Twitter’s business that it sued him in the Delaware Court of Chancery to force the deal’s completion, and a judge gave a Friday deadline to complete the deal or face a November trial that Musk was likely to lose.

    As for why Musk wanted to own Twitter in the first place, the reasons are more complicated. “There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising,” he said in an open letter Thursday to companies that sell ads on Twitter, which is how the company makes money. “Most of it has been wrong.”

    HOW DID MUSK BUY TWITTER?

    It’s not yet clear how Musk secured all of the financing to close his $44 billion agreement to buy the company and take it private. But many of the commitments to the Tesla CEO were pledged back in the spring.

    A group of banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, signed on earlier this year to loan $12.5 billion that Musk needed to buy Twitter and take it private. Solid contracts with Musk bound the banks to the financing, although changes in the economy and debt markets since April have likely made the terms less attractive.

    Investors who would get ownership stakes in Twitter were also expected to chip in billions. Musk’s original slate of equity partners included an array of parties ranging from the billionaire’s tech world friends with like-minded ideas about Twitter’s future, such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, to funds controlled by Middle Eastern royalty.

    Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said Friday that he and his Kingdom Holding Company rolled over a combined $1.89 billion in existing Twitter shares, making them the company’s largest shareholder after Musk. Another equity investor, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, confirmed Friday that it put in $500 million.

    The more equity investors kicked in for the deal, the less Musk would have had to pay on his own. Most of Musk’s wealth is tied up in shares of his electric car company. Since April, he has sold more than $15 billion worth of Tesla stock, presumably to pay his share.

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  • Timeline of billionaire Elon Musk’s bid to control Twitter

    Timeline of billionaire Elon Musk’s bid to control Twitter

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    On Oct. 4, Elon Musk reversed himself and offered to honor his original proposal to buy Twitter for $44 billion — a deal he had spent the previous several months trying to wriggle out of. He made the latest offer just two weeks before a Twitter lawsuit aimed at forcing Musk to go through with the deal was scheduled to go to trial in Delaware Chancery Court. After receiving Musk’s offer, Twitter said it intends to close the transaction.

    The two parties now have to close the deal Friday. If they don’t, the Delaware Chancery Court judge overseeing the case plans to reschedule the trial in November.

    If the case has your head spinning, here’s a quick guide to the major events in the saga featuring the billionaire Tesla CEO and the social platform.

    January 31: Musk starts buying shares of Twitter in near-daily installments, amassing a 5% stake in the company by mid-March.

    March 26: Musk, who has tens of millions of Twitter followers and is active on the site, says he is giving “serious thought” to building an alternative to Twitter, questioning the platform’s commitment to “free speech” and whether Twitter is undermining democracy. He also privately reaches out to Twitter board members including his friend and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

    March 27: After privately informing Twitter of his growing stake in the company, Musk starts conversations with its CEO and board members about potentially joining the board. Musk also mentions taking Twitter private or starting a competitor, according to later regulatory filings.

    April 4: A regulatory filing reveals that Musk has rapidly become the largest shareholder of Twitter after acquiring a 9% stake, or 73.5 million shares, worth about $3 billion.

    April 5: Musk is offered a seat on Twitter’s board on the condition he amass no more than 14.9% of the company’s stock. CEO Parag Agrawal said in a tweet that “it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.”

    April 9: After exchanging pleasantries and bonding by text message over their love of engineering, a short-lived relationship between Agrawal and Musk sours after Musk publicly tweets “Is Twitter dying?” and gets a message from Agrawal calling the criticism unhelpful. Musk tersely responds: “This is a waste of time. Will make an offer to take Twitter private.”

    April 11: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announces Musk will not be joining the board after all.

    April 14: Twitter reveals in a securities filing that Musk has offered to buy the company outright for about $44 billion.

    April 15: Twitter’s board unanimously adopts a “poison pill” defense in response to Musk’s proposed offer, attempting to thwart a hostile takeover.

    April 21: Musk lines up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter. Twitter board is under pressure to negotiate.

    April 25: Musk reaches a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion and take the company private. The outspoken billionaire has said he wanted to own and privatize Twitter because he thinks it’s not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech.

    April 29: Musk sells roughly $8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase of Twitter, according to regulatory filings.

    May 5: Musk strengthens his offer to buy Twitter with commitments of more than $7 billion from a diverse group of investors including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

    May 10: In a hint at how he would change Twitter, Musk says he’d reverse Twitter’s ban of former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, calling the ban a “morally bad decision” and “foolish in the extreme.”

    May 13: Musk declares his plan to buy Twitter “temporarily on hold.” Musk says he needs to pinpoint the number of spam and fake accounts on the social media platform. Shares of Twitter tumble, while those of Tesla rebound sharply.

    June 6: Musk threatens to end his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter, accusing the company of refusing to give him information he requested about its spam bot accounts.

    July 8: Musk says he will abandon his offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts.

    July 12: Twitter sues Musk to force him to complete the deal. Musk soon countersues.

    July 19: A Delaware judge says the Musk-Twitter legal dispute will go to trial in October.

    August 23: A former head of security at Twitter alleges the company misled regulators about its poor cybersecurity defenses and its negligence in attempting to root out fake accounts that spread misinformation. Musk eventually cites the whistleblower as a new reason to scuttle his Twitter deal.

    October 5: Musk offers to go through with his original proposal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Twitter says it intends to close the transaction after receiving Musk’s offer.

    October 6: Delaware judge delays Oct. 17 trial until November and gives both sides until Oct. 28 to reach agreement to close the deal.

    October 20: The Washington Post reports that Musk told prospective Twitter investors that he plans to lay off 75% of the company’s 7,500 employees.

    Wednesday, October 26: Musk posts a video of himself entering Twitter headquarters carrying a kitchen sink, indicating that the deal is set to go through.

    Thursday, October 27: In a message to advertisers, Musk says Twitter won’t become a “free-for-all hellscape.”

    Thursday, October 27: Musk ousts CEO Parag Agrawal along with other top executives and takes control of Twitter, according two people familiar with the deal.

    Thursday, October 27: Musk tweets “the bird is freed”

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  • How Elon Musk financed his $44bn Twitter takeover

    How Elon Musk financed his $44bn Twitter takeover

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    EXPLAINER

    Billionaire used personal assets, investment funds and bank loans to seal purchase of social media giant.

    In looking for ways to pay for his takeover of Twitter, Elon Musk has offered up money sourced from his personal assets, investment funds and bank loans, among others.

    Here are the financing details for the deal, which was finalised on Thursday.

    Musk’s own money

    At first, the Tesla head had hoped to avoid contributing any more than $15bn of his personal money to the $44bn deal.

    A large part of that, around $12.5bn, was set to have come from loans backed by his shares in the electric car company – meaning he would not have had to sell those shares.

    Ultimately, Musk abandoned the loan idea and put up more funding in cash. The 51-year-old ended up selling around $15.5bn worth of Tesla shares in two waves, in April and in August.

    In the end, the South African-born billionaire will personally cough up a little more than $27bn in cash in the transaction.

    And importantly, Musk, who Forbes magazine says is worth around $220bn, already owns 9.6 percent of Twitter in market shares.

    Investment funds

    The total sum of the deal also includes $5.2bn from investment groups and other large funds, including from Larry Ellison, the co-founder of software company Oracle, who wrote a $1bn cheque as part of the arrangement.

    Qatar Holding, which is controlled by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, has also tossed capital into the pot.

    And Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia transferred to Musk the nearly 35 million shares he already owned.

    In exchange for their investments, the contributors will become Twitter shareholders.

    Loans

    The rest of the money – about $13bn worth – is backed by bank loans, including from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Japanese banks Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Mizuho, Barclays and the French banks Societe Generale and BNP Paribas.

    According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Morgan Stanley’s contribution alone is about $3.5bn.

    These loans are guaranteed by Twitter, and it is the company, not Musk himself, which will assume the financial responsibility to pay them back.

    The California company has so far struggled to generate profit and has worked at an operating loss over the first half of 2022, meaning the debt generated in the takeover could add even more financial pressure to the social media platform’s already shaky position.

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  • AP sources: Musk in control of Twitter, ousts top executives

    AP sources: Musk in control of Twitter, ousts top executives

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    Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and ousted the CEO, chief financial officer and the company’s top lawyer, two people familiar with the deal said Thursday night.

    The people wouldn’t say if all the paperwork for the deal, originally valued at $44 billion, had been signed or if the deal has closed. But they said Musk is in charge of the social media platform and has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde. Neither person wanted to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the deal.

    A few hours later, Musk tweeted, “the bird has been freed,” a reference to Twitter’s logo.

    The departures came just hours before a deadline set by a Delaware judge to finalize the deal on Friday. She threatened to schedule a trial if no agreement was reached.

    Although they came quickly, the major personnel moves had been widely expected and almost certainly are the first of many major changes the mercurial Tesla CEO will make.

    Musk privately clashed with Agrawal in April, immediately before deciding to make a bid for the company, according to text messages later revealed in court filings.

    About the same time, he used Twitter to criticize Gadde, the company’s top lawyer. His tweets were followed by a wave of harassment of Gadde from other Twitter accounts. For Gadde, an 11-year Twitter employee who also heads public policy and safety, the harassment included racist and misogynistic attacks, in addition to calls for Musk to fire her. On Thursday, after she was fired, the harassing tweets lit up once again.

    Musk’s changes will be aimed at increasing Twitter’s subscriber base and revenue.

    In his first big move earlier on Thursday, Musk tried to soothe leery Twitter advertisers saying that he is buying the platform to help humanity and doesn’t want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape.”

    The message appeared to be aimed at addressing concerns among advertisers — Twitter’s chief source of revenue — that Musk’s plans to promote free speech by cutting back on moderating content will open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users.

    “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk wrote in an uncharacteristically long message for the Tesla CEO, who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets.

    He continued: “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

    Musk has previously expressed distaste for advertising and Twitter’s dependence on it, suggesting more emphasis on other business models such as paid subscriptions that won’t allow big corporations to dictate policy on how social media operates. But on Thursday, he assured advertisers he wants Twitter to be “the most respected advertising platform in the world.”

    The note is a shift from Musk’s position that Twitter is unfairly infringing on free speech rights by blocking misinformation or graphic content, said Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

    But it’s also a realization that having no content moderation is bad for business, putting Twitter at risk of losing advertisers and subscribers, she said.

    “You do not want a place where consumers just simply are bombarded with things they do not want to hear about, and the platform takes no responsibility,” Yildirim said.

    Musk said Twitter should be “warm and welcoming to all” and enable users to choose the experience they want to have.

    Friday’s deadline to close the deal was ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court in early October. It is the latest step in a battle that began in April with Musk signing a deal to acquire Twitter, then tried to back out of it, leading Twitter to sue the Tesla CEO to force him to go through with the acquisition. If the two sides don’t meet Friday’s deadline, the next step could be a November trial that could lead to a judge forcing Musk to complete the deal.

    But Musk has been signaling that the deal is going through. He strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit,” and tweeted “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”

    And overnight the New York Stock Exchange notified investors that it will suspend trading in shares of Twitter before the opening bell Friday in anticipation of the company going private under Musk.

    Musk is expected to speak to Twitter employees directly Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in several media outlets. Despite internal confusion and low morale tied to fears of layoffs or a dismantling of the company’s culture and operations, Twitter leaders this week have at least outwardly welcomed Musk’s arrival and messaging.

    Top sales executive Sarah Personette, the company’s chief customer officer, said she had a “great discussion” with Musk on Wednesday and appeared to endorse his Thursday message to advertisers.

    “Our continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged,” Personette tweeted Thursday. “Looking forward to the future!”

    Musk’s apparent enthusiasm about visiting Twitter headquarters this week stood in sharp contrast to one of his earlier suggestions: The building should be turned into a homeless shelter because so few employees actually worked there.

    The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation.

    Musk has spent months deriding Twitter’s “spam bots” and making sometimes contradictory pronouncements about Twitter’s problems and how to fix them. But he has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform.

    Thursday’s note to advertisers shows a newfound emphasis on advertising revenue, especially a need for Twitter to provide more “relevant ads” — which typically means targeted ads that rely on collecting and analyzing users’ personal information.

    Yildirim said that, unlike Facebook, Twitter has not been good at targeting advertising to what users want to see. Musk’s message suggests he wants to fix that, she said.

    Insider Intelligence principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said Musk has good reason to avoid a massive shakeup of Twitter’s ad business because Twitter’s revenues have taken a beating from the weakening economy, months of uncertainty surrounding Musk’s proposed takeover, changing consumer behaviors and the fact that “there’s no other revenue source waiting in the wings.”

    “Even slightly loosening content moderation on the platform is sure to spook advertisers, many of whom already find Twitter’s brand safety tools to be lacking compared with other social platforms,” Enberg said.

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  • Reports: Elon Musk takes control of Twitter, immediately fires CEO

    Reports: Elon Musk takes control of Twitter, immediately fires CEO

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    Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and ousted its CEO and at least two other top executives, according to numerous reports.

    Two people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press Thursday night that CEO Parag Agrawal and Twitter’s chief financial officer and top lawyer had been shown the door.

    The sources wouldn’t say if all the paperwork for the deal, originally valued at $44 billion, had been signed or whether the deal had closed. But they said Musk is in charge of the social media platform. Neither source wanted to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the personnel moves.

    Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment when reached by CBS News, but Musk himself tweeted late Thursday that “the bird is freed,” referring to Twitter’s famous logo and indicating he was indeed in charge.   

    The move to close the deal, which came a day before a court-imposed deadline to finalize the transaction, caps a tumultuous six-month pursuit in which the billionaire launched his shock bid for Twitter this spring, only to reverse course in July and declare he was withdrawing it.

    His swift dismissal of Twitter’s top two executives punctuates what is expected to be a period of dramatic change at the social media company. And where Musk — a serial entrepreneur whose companies have disrupted the payments, auto and space exploration sectors — takes Twitter now is anyone’s guess.

    “As we have discussed, the easy part for Musk was buying Twitter,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a report. “The difficult part, and Everest-like uphill battle looking ahead, will be fixing this troubled asset.”

    Ives added that the $44 billion price tag on the purchase “will go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals.” He values Twitter at closer to $25 billion.

    With Musk taking the helm, attention will turn to what steps he can take to revitalize Twitter, whose growth has slowed sharply in recent years. In the short term, that could involve laying off up to three-quarters of Twitter’s workforce, The Washington Post reported last week. Musk, who has been vocal in saying he overpaid for Twitter, might find it tempting to slash labor costs as a way to balance the books.

    More challenging will be devising a strategy to drive growth at Twitter, whose roughly 238 million regular users pale in comparison to other social networks like Facebook and TikTok. On that front, Musk has previously floated the idea of creating a “super app” like WeChat, which in China is used for everything from banking and hailing a ride to buying groceries and chatting with friends.

    Also remaining to be seen is how Musk might change Twitter’s user policies. In launching his unsolicited bid in April, he highlighted the company’s “potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe,” while noting that Twitter in its current form “will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative.” 

    That imperative could include allowing former President Donald Trump back on Twitter, which permanently suspended him from the platform last year in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, citing the risk of further violence.

    Musk, meanwhile, had been signaling that the deal was going through. He strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit,” and tweeted “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”

    And overnight the New York Stock Exchange notified investors that it will suspend trading in shares of Twitter before the opening bell Friday in anticipation of the company going private under Musk.

    — Alain Sherter contributed reporting.

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  • Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and fired its top executives | CNN Business

    Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and fired its top executives | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, a source familiar with the deal told CNN Thursday, putting the world’s richest man in charge of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.

    Musk fired CEO Parag Agrawal and two other executives, according to two people familiar with the decision. Twitter declined to comment.

    The deal’s closing removes a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Twitter’s business, employees and shareholders for much of the year. After initially agreeing to buy the company in April, Musk spent months attempting to get out of the deal, first citing concerns about the number of bots on the platform and later allegations raised by a company whistleblower.

    By completing the deal, Musk and Twitter have avoided a trial that was originally set to take place earlier this month. But Musk’s takeover, and the immediate firings of some of its top executives, now raises a host of new questions for the future of the social media platform, and the many corners of society impacted by it. Musk on Thursday also fired CFO Ned Segal and policy head Vijaya Gadde, according to the two sources.

    Musk has said he plans to rethink Twitter’s content moderation policies in service of a more maximalist approach to “free speech.” The billionaire has also said he disagrees with Twitter’s practice of permanent bans for those who repeatedly violate its rules, raising the possibility that a number of previously banned, controversial users could reemerge on the platform.

    Perhaps most immediately, many will be watching to see how soon Musk could let former President Donald Trump back on the platform, as he has previously said he would do. Depending on the timing, such a move could have major implications for the upcoming US midterm elections, as well as the 2024 Presidential campaign. 

    In taking those steps, Musk could singlehandedly upend the media and political ecosystem, reshape public discourse online and disrupt the nascent sphere of conservative-leaning social media properties that emerged largely in response to grievances about bans and restrictions on Twitter and other mainstream services.

    Earlier this week, Musk visited Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters to meet with employees. He also posted an open letter to Twitter advertisers, saying he doesn’t want the platform to become a “free-for-all-hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences.”

    The acquisition also promises to extend Musk’s influence. The billionaire already owns, oversees or has significant stakes in companies developing cars, rockets, robots and satellite internet, as well as more experimental ventures such as brain implants. Now he controls a social media platform that shapes how hundreds of millions of people communicate and get their news.

    Even for Twitter, a company known for a certain amount of chaos over its history, the months-long deal process with Musk was turbulent.

    Musk, a prominent and controversial Twitter user, became involved with the company earlier this year when he built up a more than 9% stake in its shares. After announcing he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder, Musk accepted and then pulled out of an offer to sit on the company’s board.

    Musk then offered to buy Twitter outright at a significant premium, threatened a hostile takeover and signed a “seller-friendly” deal to buy the company that involved waiving due diligence.

    “This is not a way to make money,” Musk said in an on-stage interview shortly after making an offer to buy Twitter. “My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.”

    Musk also pledged to “defeat the spam bots or die trying,” referring to the fake and scam accounts that are often especially active in the replies to his tweets and those of others with large followings on the platform.

    Within weeks of the acquisition agreement, however, Musk began raising concerns about the prevalence of those same fake and spam accounts on Twitter and ultimately attempted to terminate the deal.

    Musk visited Twitter's San Francisco headquarters earlier this week before the acquisition closed to meet with employees.

    Twitter sued him to follow through with the agreement, alleging that Musk was using the bot argument as a pretense to get out of a deal for which he had developed buyer’s remorse. In the weeks after the deal was announced, much of the stock market, including social media companies, declined amid concerns about rising inflation and a looming recession. The downturn also hit Tesla and, in turn, Musk’s personal net worth.

    Legal experts widely believed that Twitter was on strong footing to have the deal enforced in court. Two weeks before the contentious legal battle was set to go to trial, Musk said he would follow through with the deal on its original terms after all. As the parties negotiated, Musk’s attorneys asked a judge to stay the legal proceedings, prompting pushback from Twitter, which feared that Musk might not stay true to his promise to close the deal.

    In a sharp response, Twitter’s lawyers wrote that Musk had been attempting to exit the deal and “now, on the eve of trial, Defendants declare they intend to close after all. ‘Trust us,’ they say, ‘we mean it this time.’”

    Delaware Chancery Court chancellor Kathaleen St. Judge McCormick gave the parties until 5 p.m. on Oct. 28 to close the deal or face a rescheduled trial.

    With the deal drama out of the way, attention now turns to Musk’s plans for Twitter.

    Beyond the removal of Twitter’s CEO and other executives, Musk’s takeover could also usher in the return of some measure of influence over the company by founder Jack Dorsey, who stepped down as CEO in November and left its board in May. While Dorsey has said he will not formally return to Twitter, he has privately discussed the takeover with Musk and offered advice.

    Musk has also reportedly told prospective investors in the deal that he planned to get rid of nearly 75% of the company’s staff, in a move that could disrupt every aspect of how Twitter operates. He previously discussed dramatically reducing Twitter’s workforce in personal text messages with friends about the deal, which were revealed in court filings, and didn’t dismiss the potential for layoffs in a call with Twitter employees in June.

    Among the changes Musk could make to Twitter is restoring the account of former President Donald Trump, who was banned from the platform following the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021.

    Under Musk, Twitter may not have use for many of its existing staff. Musk has repeatedly made clear he would overhaul Twitter’s content moderation policies and bolster what he calls “free speech,” potentially undoing years of efforts from the company to address misinformation and harassment and to create “healthier” conversations on the platform.

    Such a move could also have ripple effects across the social media landscape. Twitter, although smaller than many of its social media rivals, has sometimes acted as a model for how the industry handles problematic content, including when it was the first to ban then-President Trump following the January 6 Capitol riot.

    And in recent years, several alternative social networks have launched largely targeting conservatives who claim more mainstream services unduly restrict their speech. These services include Trump’s Truth Social and Parler, which Kanye West recently said he would acquire. While it’s unclear how far Musk could go in fulfilling his free speech dreams, any loosening of existing content moderation policies could effectively make Twitter, which provides a much larger audience, a more enticing service for some of the users who have fled to those smaller, fringe services. (Musk, however, could run into regulatory issues, especially in Europe, depending on how far he takes his efforts to loosen content restrictions.)

    Apart from content moderation, Musk has also tossed out a wide range of other possible changes for the platform, from enabling end-to-end encryption for Twitter’s direct messaging feature to suggesting recently that Twitter become part of an “everything” app called X, possibly in the style of popular Chinese app WeChat.

    Despite his months-long attempt to get out of buying the company and his own recent remarks that he is “obviously overpaying” for it, Musk has tried to sound optimistic about Twitter’s potential.

    “The long-term potential for Twitter, in my view, is an order of magnitude greater than its current value,” he said on Tesla’s earnings conference call last week.

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  • Elon Musk takes control of Twitter, fires execs

    Elon Musk takes control of Twitter, fires execs

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    Elon Musk takes control of Twitter, fires execs – CBS News


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    Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and ousted the CEO, chief financial officer and the company’s general counsel, according to multiple reports. Anne Makovec reports. (10-27-22)

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  • Elon Musk takes over Twitter in $44bn deal

    Elon Musk takes over Twitter in $44bn deal

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    Tesla CEO’s purchase caps a six-month saga over the future of the social media giant.

    Elon Musk has officially taken control of Twitter after finalising a $44bn deal to buy the social media network.

    In one of his first decisions at the helm of the social media giant, Musk fired three top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, local time, citing three anonymous sources.

    Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, the top executive for legal policy, trust and safety, were also let go, the newspaper reported.

    The Tesla CEO’s purchase caps a six-month saga that saw Twitter initially resist Musk’s purchase offer and then sue the billionaire after he signalled he would walk away from the deal due to concerns about spam accounts.

    Musk’s interest in the platform has become a lightning rod for the debate around free speech in the digital age, with critics expressing fears his control of the platform could mean open slather for hate speech and misinformation.

    Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist”, has criticised Twitter’s moderation policies and objected to censorship that goes beyond the requirements of the law.

    In a lengthy message posted on Twitter before the purchase deadline on Friday, Musk, who earlier changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit,” denied any intention to turn Twitter into a “free-for-all hellscape”.

    “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” he said.

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  • Musk doesn’t seek a ‘free-for-all hellscape’ for Twitter

    Musk doesn’t seek a ‘free-for-all hellscape’ for Twitter

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    Elon Musk attempted to soothe leery Twitter advertisers Thursday, a day before a deadline to close out on his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform, saying that he is buying the platform to help humanity and doesn’t want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape.”

    The message appears aimed at addressing concerns among advertisers — Twitter’s chief source of revenue — that Musk’s plans to promote free speech by cutting back on moderating content will open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users.

    “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk wrote in an uncharacteristically long message for the Tesla CEO, who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets.

    He continued: “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

    Musk has previously expressed distaste for advertising and Twitter’s dependence on it, suggesting more emphasis on other business models such as paid subscriptions that won’t allow big corporations to dictate policy on how social media operates. But on Thursday, he assured advertisers he wants Twitter to be “the most respected advertising platform in the world.”

    The note is a shift from Musk’s position that Twitter is unfairly infringing on free speech rights by blocking misinformation or graphic content, said Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

    But it’s also a realization that having no content moderation is bad for business, putting Twitter at risk of losing advertisers and subscribers, she said.

    “You do not want a place where consumers just simply are bombarded with things they do not want to hear about, and the platform takes no responsibility,” Yildirim said.

    Musk said Twitter should be “warm and welcoming to all” and enable users to choose the experience they want to have.

    “I didn’t do it to make money,” he said of the pending acquisition. “I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.”

    Friday’s deadline to close the deal was ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court in early October. It is the latest step in a battle that began in April with Musk signing a deal to acquire Twitter, then tried to back out of it, leading Twitter to sue the Tesla CEO to force him to go through with the acquisition. If the two sides don’t meet Friday’s deadline, the next step could be a November trial that could lead to a judge forcing Musk to complete the deal.

    But Musk has been signaling that the deal is going through. He strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit,” and tweeted “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”

    And overnight the New York Stock Exchange notified investors that it will suspend trading in shares of Twitter before the opening bell Friday in anticipation of the company going private under Musk.

    Musk is expected to speak to Twitter employees directly Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in several media outlets. Despite internal confusion and low morale tied to fears of layoffs or a dismantling of the company’s culture and operations, Twitter leaders this week have at least outwardly welcomed Musk’s arrival and messaging.

    Top sales executive Sarah Personette, the company’s chief customer officer, said she had a “great discussion” with Musk on Wednesday and appeared to endorse his Thursday message to advertisers.

    “Our continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged,” Personette tweeted Thursday. “Looking forward to the future!”

    Musk’s apparent enthusiasm about visiting Twitter headquarters this week stood in sharp contrast to one of his earlier suggestions: The building should be turned into a homeless shelter because so few employees actually worked there.

    The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation.

    Musk has spent months deriding Twitter’s “spam bots” and making sometimes contradictory pronouncements about Twitter’s problems and how to fix them. But he has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform.

    Thursday’s note to advertisers shows a newfound emphasis on advertising revenue, especially a need for Twitter to provide more “relevant ads” — which typically means targeted ads that rely on collecting and analyzing users’ personal information.

    Yildirim said that, unlike Facebook, Twitter has not been good at targeting advertising to what users want to see. Musk’s message suggests he wants to fix that, she said.

    Insider Intelligence principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said Musk has good reason to avoid a massive shakeup of Twitter’s ad business because Twitter’s revenues have taken a beating from the weakening economy, months of uncertainty surrounding Musk’s proposed takeover, changing consumer behaviors and the fact that “there’s no other revenue source waiting in the wings.”

    “Even slightly loosening content moderation on the platform is sure to spook advertisers, many of whom already find Twitter’s brand safety tools to be lacking compared with other social platforms,” Enberg said.

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  • Singapore jails man who posed as female gynecologist on Facebook to get intimate photos | CNN

    Singapore jails man who posed as female gynecologist on Facebook to get intimate photos | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A man who fooled dozens of women into sending him photos of their genitalia by posing as a female gynecologist on Facebook has been sentenced to jail in Singapore.

    The state courts on Wednesday found Ooi Chuen Wei, 37, from Malaysia, guilty of “cheating by personation” and sentenced him to three years and four months in prison.

    Ooi used a fake Facebook profile to contact the women, asking them to fill out surveys that included questions about their genitals and sex lives, according to court documents seen by CNN.

    Over a period of four years, he tricked 38 women and received close to 1,000 intimate photos and videos in return.

    The offenses came to light last July when a woman, who had grown suspicious of Ooi and realized there was no such doctor, lodged a police report.

    The police then raided Ooi’s home and seized his devices. During the course of the police investigation, he admitted tricking the women, according to the court documents.

    Deputy public prosecutor R. Arvindren asked for a prison sentence of at least three years and eight months for Ooi, citing the large number of victims and how long Ooi had continued his deception.

    “The accused executed a carefully thought out scheme to satisfy his sexual desires,” Arvindren said.

    “(He) pretended that he was a female doctor and deceived several victims into sending various compromising photographs and videos of themselves. (He) has abused the trust the public has for doctors and he has exploited social media to commit the crimes,” he added.

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  • AP sources: Musk in control of Twitter, ousts top executives

    AP sources: Musk in control of Twitter, ousts top executives

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    Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and ousted the CEO, chief financial officer and the company’s top lawyer, two people familiar with the deal said Thursday night.

    The people wouldn’t say if all the paperwork for the deal, originally valued at $44 billion, had been signed or if the deal has closed. But they said Musk is in charge of the social media platform and has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde. Neither person wanted to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the deal.

    A few hours later, Musk tweeted, “the bird has been freed,” a reference to Twitter’s logo.

    The departures came just hours before a deadline set by a Delaware judge to finalize the deal on Friday. She threatened to schedule a trial if no agreement was reached.

    Although they came quickly, the major personnel moves had been widely expected and almost certainly are the first of many major changes the mercurial Tesla CEO will make.

    Musk privately clashed with Agrawal in April, immediately before deciding to make a bid for the company, according to text messages later revealed in court filings.

    About the same time, he used Twitter to criticize Gadde, the company’s top lawyer. His tweets were followed by a wave of harassment of Gadde from other Twitter accounts. For Gadde, an 11-year Twitter employee who also heads public policy and safety, the harassment included racist and misogynistic attacks, in addition to calls for Musk to fire her. On Thursday, after she was fired, the harassing tweets lit up once again.

    Musk’s changes will be aimed at increasing Twitter’s subscriber base and revenue.

    In his first big move earlier on Thursday, Musk tried to soothe leery Twitter advertisers saying that he is buying the platform to help humanity and doesn’t want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape.”

    The message appeared to be aimed at addressing concerns among advertisers — Twitter’s chief source of revenue — that Musk’s plans to promote free speech by cutting back on moderating content will open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users.

    “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk wrote in an uncharacteristically long message for the Tesla CEO, who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets.

    He continued: “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

    Musk has previously expressed distaste for advertising and Twitter’s dependence on it, suggesting more emphasis on other business models such as paid subscriptions that won’t allow big corporations to dictate policy on how social media operates. But on Thursday, he assured advertisers he wants Twitter to be “the most respected advertising platform in the world.”

    The note is a shift from Musk’s position that Twitter is unfairly infringing on free speech rights by blocking misinformation or graphic content, said Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

    But it’s also a realization that having no content moderation is bad for business, putting Twitter at risk of losing advertisers and subscribers, she said.

    “You do not want a place where consumers just simply are bombarded with things they do not want to hear about, and the platform takes no responsibility,” Yildirim said.

    Musk said Twitter should be “warm and welcoming to all” and enable users to choose the experience they want to have.

    Friday’s deadline to close the deal was ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court in early October. It is the latest step in a battle that began in April with Musk signing a deal to acquire Twitter, then tried to back out of it, leading Twitter to sue the Tesla CEO to force him to go through with the acquisition. If the two sides don’t meet Friday’s deadline, the next step could be a November trial that could lead to a judge forcing Musk to complete the deal.

    But Musk has been signaling that the deal is going through. He strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit,” and tweeted “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”

    And overnight the New York Stock Exchange notified investors that it will suspend trading in shares of Twitter before the opening bell Friday in anticipation of the company going private under Musk.

    Musk is expected to speak to Twitter employees directly Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in several media outlets. Despite internal confusion and low morale tied to fears of layoffs or a dismantling of the company’s culture and operations, Twitter leaders this week have at least outwardly welcomed Musk’s arrival and messaging.

    Top sales executive Sarah Personette, the company’s chief customer officer, said she had a “great discussion” with Musk on Wednesday and appeared to endorse his Thursday message to advertisers.

    “Our continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged,” Personette tweeted Thursday. “Looking forward to the future!”

    Musk’s apparent enthusiasm about visiting Twitter headquarters this week stood in sharp contrast to one of his earlier suggestions: The building should be turned into a homeless shelter because so few employees actually worked there.

    The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation.

    Musk has spent months deriding Twitter’s “spam bots” and making sometimes contradictory pronouncements about Twitter’s problems and how to fix them. But he has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform.

    Thursday’s note to advertisers shows a newfound emphasis on advertising revenue, especially a need for Twitter to provide more “relevant ads” — which typically means targeted ads that rely on collecting and analyzing users’ personal information.

    Yildirim said that, unlike Facebook, Twitter has not been good at targeting advertising to what users want to see. Musk’s message suggests he wants to fix that, she said.

    Insider Intelligence principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said Musk has good reason to avoid a massive shakeup of Twitter’s ad business because Twitter’s revenues have taken a beating from the weakening economy, months of uncertainty surrounding Musk’s proposed takeover, changing consumer behaviors and the fact that “there’s no other revenue source waiting in the wings.”

    “Even slightly loosening content moderation on the platform is sure to spook advertisers, many of whom already find Twitter’s brand safety tools to be lacking compared with other social platforms,” Enberg said.

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  • Musk lugs sink into Twitter HQ as $44B deal deadline looms

    Musk lugs sink into Twitter HQ as $44B deal deadline looms

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    SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk, the billionaire poised to acquire Twitter later this week, strolled into the company’s headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink and tweeting “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”

    Musk’s $44 billion deal to take Twitter private faces a Friday deadline, although the video he posted offered no evidence that the acquisition is complete. Twitter and Musk representatives had no comment on that question, although Twitter did confirm that Musk’s video tweet was real. Musk also changed his Twitter profile to refer to himself as “Chief Twit” and his location to Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.

    The splashy video — a vintage Musk production — also pulled the spotlight back to the world’s richest man and his on-again, off-again pursuit of the social platform.

    The Friday deadline to consummate the deal was ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court in early October. It is the latest step in an epic battle during which Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter, then tried to back out of it, leading Twitter to sue the Tesla CEO to force him to conclude the deal. If the two sides don’t meet the Friday deadline, the next step could be a November trial.

    Robert Anderson, a law professor at Pepperdine University, said he fully expects the deal to close by Friday’s deadline but didn’t see much substance to Musk’s video. “I don’t see anything unusual about it, other than that he brought a sink,” he said.

    Musk had been expected to visit Twitter this week and is expected to return again Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in a report by Bloomberg News.

    His apparent enthusiasm about visiting Twitter headquarters stood in sharp contrast to one of his earlier suggestions that the building should be turned into a “homeless shelter” because, he said, so few employees actually worked there.

    The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation. Several hours after posting his sink video, Musk tweeted that he was meeting “a lot of cool people at Twitter today!” He gave no details.

    One of Musk’s biggest obstacles to closing the deal was keeping in place the financing pledged roughly six months ago.

    A group of banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, signed on earlier this year to loan $12.5 billion of the money Musk needed to buy Twitter and take it private. Solid contracts with Musk bound the banks to the financing, although changes in the economy and debt markets since April have likely made the terms less attractive. Musk even said his investment group would be buying Twitter for more than it’s worth.

    Less clear is what’s happening with the billions of dollars pledged to Musk by investors who would get ownership stakes in Twitter. Musk’s original slate of equity partners included an array of partners ranging from the billionaire’s tech world friends with like-minded ideas about Twitter’s future, such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, to funds controlled by Middle Eastern royalty.

    The more equity investors kick in for the deal, the less Musk has to pay on his own. Most of his wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla, the electric car company that he runs. Since April, he has sold more than $15 billion worth of Tesla stock, presumably to pay his share. More sales could be coming.

    Musk, 51, has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform. While he’s touted free speech and derided spam bots since agreeing to buy the company in April, what he actually wants to do about either remains a mystery.

    Technology analysts have speculated that Musk wants to use Twitter to help create an “everything app” similar to China’s WeChat service, which allows users to do video chats, message, stream video, scan bar codes and make payments.

    Musk’s flirtation with buying Twitter appeared to begin in late March. That’s when Twitter said he contacted members of its board — including co-founder Jack Dorsey — and told them he was buying up shares and was interested in either joining the board, taking Twitter private or starting a competitor.

    Then, on April 4, he revealed in a regulatory filing that he had become the company’s largest shareholder after acquiring a 9% stake worth about $3 billion.

    At first, Twitter offered Musk a seat on its board. But six days later, CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted that Musk would not be joining the board after all. His bid to buy the company quickly followed.

    Inside Twitter, Musk’s offer was met with confusion and falling morale, especially after Musk publicly criticized one of Twitter’s top lawyers involved in content-moderation decisions.

    In July, Musk abruptly reversed course, announcing that he was abandoning his bid to buy Twitter. His stated reason: Twitter hadn’t been straightforward about its problem with fake accounts he dubbed “spam bots.” Twitter sued, and two weeks before a 5-day trial was scheduled to begin, Musk changed his mind again, saying that he wanted to complete the deal after all.

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  • Metaverse-obsessed Mark Zuckerberg refuses to cut costs. It’s no wonder the stock tanked

    Metaverse-obsessed Mark Zuckerberg refuses to cut costs. It’s no wonder the stock tanked

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    Meta Platforms' build-the-metaverse-or-die-trying approach to spending is incredibly frustrating.

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  • Elon Musk lugs sink into Twitter HQ as $44 billion deal deadline looms

    Elon Musk lugs sink into Twitter HQ as $44 billion deal deadline looms

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    Elon Musk posted a video Wednesday showing him strolling into Twitter headquarters ahead of a Friday deadline to close his $44 billion deal to buy the company.

    Musk also changed his Twitter profile t o refer to himself as “Chief Twit” and his location as Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, a building that he once wondered should be closed and converted into a homeless shelter because so few employees were coming into the office under the company’s remote work policy. The video showed him carrying a sink through a lobby area.

    “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” he tweeted.

    The Delaware Chancery Court had given both sides until Friday close the deal or face a November trial that could end the same outcome, only with a judge forcing Musk to go forward with the original deal.

    Despite Musk’s splashy entry to headquarters, it wasn’t clear whether his purchase of Twitter had been finalized. Twitter confirmed that Musk’s video tweet was real but wouldn’t comment further. Alex Spiro, Musk’s lead lawyer, didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

    Robert Anderson, a law professor at Pepperdine University, said he fully expects the deal to close by Friday’s deadline but didn’t make much of Musk’s video.

    “I think he’s just visiting the headquarters, and I don’t see anything unusual about it, other than that he brought a sink,” Anderson said.

    Musk had been expected to visit Twitter this week and is expected to return again Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in a report by Bloomberg News.

    Prelude to layoffs?

    The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut thre-quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation.


    Elon Musk reportedly plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

    03:02

    One of Musk’s biggest obstacles to closing the deal was keeping in place the financing pledged roughly six months ago.

    A group of banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, signed on earlier this year to loan $12.5 billion of the money Musk needed to buy Twitter and take it private. Solid contracts with Musk bound the banks to the financing, although changes in the economy and debt markets since April have likely made the terms less attractive. Musk even said his investment group would be buying Twitter for more than it’s worth.

    Less clear is what’s happening with the billions of dollars pledged to Musk by investors who would get ownership stakes in Twitter. Musk’s original slate of equity partners included an array of partners ranging from the billionaire’s tech world friends with like-minded ideas about Twitter’s future, such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, to funds controlled by Middle Eastern royalty.

    The more equity investors kick in for the deal, the less Musk has to pay on his own. Most of his wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla, the electric car company that he runs. Since April, he has sold more than $15 billion worth of Tesla stock, presumably to pay his share. More sales could be coming.

    Musk is the world’s richest person, with a fortune estimated at $210 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

    “Radically better”

    Musk, 51, has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform. While he’s touted free speech and derided spam bots since agreeing to buy the company in April, what he actually wants to do about either remains a mystery.

    Although Musk’s tweets and statements have been cryptic, technology analysts have speculated that Musk wants to use Twitter to help re-create a version of China’s WeChat service, which allows users to do video chats, message, stream video, scan bar codes and make payments.

    He gave a little more detail during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in August, telling the crowd at a factory near Austin, Texas, that he uses Twitter frequently and knows the product well. “I think I’ve got a good sense of where to point the engineering team with Twitter to make it radically better,” he said.

    Musk’s flirtation with buying Twitter appeared to begin in late March. That’s when Twitter said he contacted members of its board — including co-founder Jack Dorsey — and told them he was buying up shares and was interested in either joining the board, taking Twitter private or starting a competitor.

    Then, on April 4, he revealed in a regulatory filing that he had become the company’s largest shareholder after acquiring a 9% stake worth about $3 billion.

    At first, Twitter offered Musk a seat on its board. But six days later, CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted that Musk would not be joining the board after all. His bid to buy the company quickly followed.

    Inside Twitter, Musk’s offer was met with confusion and falling morale, especially after Musk publicly criticized one of Twitter’s top lawyers involved in content-moderation decisions.

    In July, Musk abruptly reversed course, announcing that he was abandoning his bid to buy Twitter. His stated reason: Twitter hadn’t been straightforward about its problem with fake accounts he dubbed “spam bots.” Twitter sued Musk in Delaware Chancery Court to force the deal through. Two weeks before a 5-day trial was scheduled to begin, Musk changed his mind again, saying that he wanted to complete the deal after all.

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  • Musk lugs sink into Twitter HQ as $44B deal deadline looms

    Musk lugs sink into Twitter HQ as $44B deal deadline looms

    [ad_1]

    SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk, the billionaire poised to acquire Twitter later this week, strolled into the company’s headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink and tweeting “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”

    Musk’s $44 billion deal to take Twitter private faces a Friday deadline, although the video he posted offered no evidence that the acquisition is complete. Twitter and Musk representatives had no comment on that question, although Twitter did confirm that Musk’s video tweet was real. Musk also changed his Twitter profile to refer to himself as “Chief Twit” and his location to Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.

    The splashy video — a vintage Musk production — also pulled the spotlight back to the world’s richest man and his on-again, off-again pursuit of the social platform.

    The Friday deadline to consummate the deal was ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court in early October. It is the latest step in an epic battle during which Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter, then tried to back out of it, leading Twitter to sue the Tesla CEO to force him to conclude the deal. If the two sides don’t meet the Friday deadline, the next step could be a November trial.

    Robert Anderson, a law professor at Pepperdine University, said he fully expects the deal to close by Friday’s deadline but didn’t see much substance to Musk’s video. “I don’t see anything unusual about it, other than that he brought a sink,” he said.

    Musk had been expected to visit Twitter this week and is expected to return again Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in a report by Bloomberg News.

    The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation. Several hours after posting his sink video, Musk tweeted that he was meeting “a lot of cool people at Twitter today!” He gave no details.

    One of Musk’s biggest obstacles to closing the deal was keeping in place the financing pledged roughly six months ago.

    A group of banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, signed on earlier this year to loan $12.5 billion of the money Musk needed to buy Twitter and take it private. Solid contracts with Musk bound the banks to the financing, although changes in the economy and debt markets since April have likely made the terms less attractive. Musk even said his investment group would be buying Twitter for more than it’s worth.

    Less clear is what’s happening with the billions of dollars pledged to Musk by investors who would get ownership stakes in Twitter. Musk’s original slate of equity partners included an array of partners ranging from the billionaire’s tech world friends with like-minded ideas about Twitter’s future, such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, to funds controlled by Middle Eastern royalty.

    The more equity investors kick in for the deal, the less Musk has to pay on his own. Most of his wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla, the electric car company that he runs. Since April, he has sold more than $15 billion worth of Tesla stock, presumably to pay his share. More sales could be coming.

    Musk, 51, has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform. While he’s touted free speech and derided spam bots since agreeing to buy the company in April, what he actually wants to do about either remains a mystery.

    Technology analysts have speculated that Musk wants to use Twitter to help create an “everything app” similar to China’s WeChat service, which allows users to do video chats, message, stream video, scan bar codes and make payments.

    Musk’s flirtation with buying Twitter appeared to begin in late March. That’s when Twitter said he contacted members of its board — including co-founder Jack Dorsey — and told them he was buying up shares and was interested in either joining the board, taking Twitter private or starting a competitor.

    Then, on April 4, he revealed in a regulatory filing that he had become the company’s largest shareholder after acquiring a 9% stake worth about $3 billion.

    At first, Twitter offered Musk a seat on its board. But six days later, CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted that Musk would not be joining the board after all. His bid to buy the company quickly followed.

    Inside Twitter, Musk’s offer was met with confusion and falling morale, especially after Musk publicly criticized one of Twitter’s top lawyers involved in content-moderation decisions.

    In July, Musk abruptly reversed course, announcing that he was abandoning his bid to buy Twitter. His stated reason: Twitter hadn’t been straightforward about its problem with fake accounts he dubbed “spam bots.” Twitter sued, and two weeks before a 5-day trial was scheduled to begin, Musk changed his mind again, saying that he wanted to complete the deal after all.

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