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  • Federal judge is forcing Musk to talk with the SEC again over his purchase of Twitter

    Federal judge is forcing Musk to talk with the SEC again over his purchase of Twitter

    Elon Musk has been ordered by a federal judge to testify once again as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues its investigation of Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. The court gave Musk and the SEC one week to come up with a date and location for both sides to meet. If neither side can agree to a date and time for the interview, the judge said that she would hear from both parties and come up with a date and time for them.

    The SEC sued Musk last October in an attempt to force the multi-billionaire to testify about the purchase of Twitter which he made in 2022. Musk, who famously renamed Twitter “X,” had failed to show up during a scheduled meeting with the SEC in September which was related to the agency’s probe of the transaction. Twitter was a publicly-traded company before Musk took it private which means that any deep dive into the transaction by the government would start with an SEC investigation. In filling out the required paperwork for his purchase of Twitter, the question is whether Musk followed the letter of the law or included misleading statements with his submissions.

    Musk accused the SEC of harassment as he attempted to prevent the regulatory agency from interviewing him again about the Twitter acquisition. He complained that the SEC had already spoken with him twice. Judge Beeler said that the SEC, seeking relevant information from Musk, did have the authority to subpoena him.

    The SEC and Musk have battled before. In 2018, Musk posted a tweet that said, “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” The tweet led Tesla’s shares to soar 11% that day, but no deal was ever announced. The SEC, Musk, and Tesla agreed to a settlement. Musk and Tesla paid $20 million in fines, and Musk had to leave his post as Tesla chairman although he retained the CEO job. The settlement also required that any tweet Musk sent out with material information about Tesla had to be approved by the SEC in advance.

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  • Twitter Blue subscribers now have up to one hour to edit tweets, possible mailing list functionality

    Twitter Blue subscribers now have up to one hour to edit tweets, possible mailing list functionality

    The new Twitter Blue, rebranded and relaunched upon Elon Musk’s takeover of the popular social networking site, launched late last year with some exclusive features for its subscribers. One of these features is the ability to edit your sent tweets, albeit only for a limited time, a limit which has now been increased.
    Previously, the amount of time Twitter Blue subscribers had to edit a sent tweet was within 30 minutes of posting. This was considered a reasonable amount of time to fix a spelling mistake or to quickly fix any grammar issues noticed after the fact.
    However, there are instances in which you won’t notice a mistake until someone points it out, and that can happen at anytime and not just within a half hour window. To help with this, Twitter has recently announced a change in their policy pertaining to the editing of tweets and has extended this time frame to a full hour.
    This change is also reflected on Twitter’s Help Documentation, explaining how editing tweets actually work. To the surprise of many, editing tweets does not extend to replies, but only to original tweets and quote tweets.
    Edit Tweet: This highly requested feature gives you a 1 hour window to make a limited number of changes to published Tweets. Use it to make updates, tag someone, or reorder the media you attached. Edit Tweet currently only applies to original Tweets and quote Tweets.
    Meanwhile, Musk continues to experiment with new features within the platform. The latest announced via a tweet, seemingly in response to Twitch’s new controversial guidelines restricting streamers and causing a lot of backlash within that community and criticism from Musk himself.
    Though no further details have been shared on this announcement, it is safe to assume that this will function as sort of a mailing list for creators to keep of their subscribers should they ever want to leave the platform. It is unclear at this point how the opt-in process will work, but one could discern that it will be something that can be done in-app either while subscribing to a creator or anytime thereafter.
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  • Is it already ‘game over’ in the metaverse for Bondee, Singapore’s avatar-based app?

    Is it already ‘game over’ in the metaverse for Bondee, Singapore’s avatar-based app?

    After garnering two million downloads within two weeks of its launch, Bondee’s Gen Z users have got past the novelty factor. Bondee’s is a story of social media hype punctured by a sharp truth that the loyalty of digital natives is hard-earned, experts say

    The rise of Singapore-based metaverse newcomer Bondee was impressive: two million downloads within two weeks of its launch on Apple’s App Store.

    But that initial hype was short-lived as Singapore’s social media users quickly dropped the home-grown avatar-based app, retreating from yet another attempt by makers of the metaverse to capture the long-term loyalty of Gen Z in Southeast Asia.

    Yet Bondee’s moment in the sun may reveal the challenges that the region’s metaverse developers face, experts say, with none so far hooking a crowd large enough to trouble social media giants, such as Meta which has ploughed billions of dollars into the digital future.

    Bondee’s early adopters in Singapore were initially pulled in by the “cute” avatars, personalised rooms and picnic spaces, reminiscent of games like Habbo Hotel that many millennials dabbled in as teens.

    With shades of the Nintendo game Animal Crossing, which took the online world by storm during Covid lockdowns in 2020, Bondee allows users to personalise avatars and bedrooms that friends can visit.

    Friends are capped at 50 by the app’s Singapore-based creators Metadream, in an effort to keep the community tight, relevant and connected.

    Aqil Lim, 25, said he enjoyed being able to visit his friends’ virtual homes, even more as “we don’t have our own homes in real life” in the expensive Asian city state.

    As word of mouth of what was dubbed the “new Gen Z app” spread quickly across Asia, many shared the QR code of their Bondee account on Instagram and Twitter, prompting friends to add them.
    But the novelty quickly wore off as Bondee felt “primitive, with limited customisations and chat functions”, Lim said, adding that after a few weeks he hardly uses the app.

    By Wednesday, Bondee had fallen to 19th on Singapore’s Apple Store – just a month after it topped charts across Asia.

    This also comes after reports of social media users using the term #ripbondee while recording themselves uninstalling the app.

    Bondee’s is a story of social media hype punctured by a sharp truth that the loyalty of digital natives is hard-earned, experts say, since most of their allegiances are already captured by larger platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

    “Avatars alone can’t draw people in, it’s what the entire platform allows you to do with your avatar that gives the platform its stickiness,” said Lim Sun Sun, a professor of communication and technology at the Singapore Management University (SMU).

    The cutesy aesthetics and whimsical feel of Bondee was a “nice hook” but if there isn’t anything else after that, then it is quite literally, “game over”, she said, adding that this will be a challenge for metaverse developers to meet.

    Singaporean Joey Tan, 23, saw videos on TikTok about Bondee and became “curious about what the hype was about”.
    But given the newness of the app, not many of her other friends were on it, an apparent failure to reach a “critical mass” which quickly sees new tech fizzle.
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  • Musk claims to have saved Twitter from bankruptcy and red ink

    Musk claims to have saved Twitter from bankruptcy and red ink

    Still one of the richest men in the world, Twitter CEO Elon Musk is now claiming that his $44 billion purchase of Twitter was a timely one as it saved the social media company from bankruptcy. Replying to a tweet from The Wall Street Journal, Musk wrote, “Last 3 months were extremely tough, as had to save Twitter from bankruptcy while fulfilling essential Tesla & SpaceX duties. I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone. Twitter still has challenges but is now trending to breakeven if we keep at it. Public support is much appreciated!”
    Whether this is just a self-serving missive designed to pump up his accomplishments at Twitter or a legitimate fact isn’t clear. But the multi-billionaire might be feeling his oats after a jury in California found him “not liable” for losses that Tesla stockholders suffered after he disseminated a tweet saying that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share and had “funding secured.”

    In reality, funding was not secured. The tweet was originally posted in 2018 and sent Tesla stock up 11% to $387.46 before crashing to $263.24 a month later when it became obvious that the funding was not secured.

    Since buying Twitter, things have gone anything but smoothly for Musk. He changed his mind several times about his plan to sell verification check marks on the platform and even mentioned that filing for bankruptcy was an option for Twitter that he was considering. However, Musk said in a subsequent tweet that Twitter’s daily user count and user minutes are “still strong.”
    Despite the talk of bankruptcy, Twitter was able to make the first interest payment on the $12.5 billion of debt that Musk borrowed to complete the purchase of Twitter. Being able to make the payment on time probably gave Musk the confidence to tweet his claim. Personally, though, Musk has been going through some tough times. Last year, he became the first person to have the dubious honor of losing $200 billion in wealth during a single year. Over the past year, Tesla’s shares have declined by 37% accounting for most of the evaporation of his wealth.
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  • Elon Musk announces upcoming UI overhaul and new Twitter features

    Elon Musk announces upcoming UI overhaul and new Twitter features

    Elon Musk has announced via Twitter that the social network will get a new look and features. Some of the features he teased include swiping to move between timelines, a bookmark button on Tweet details, and long-form tweets.

    Since Elon Musk took over Twitter as owner and CEO, it has become the standard to look to his direct feed for feature announcements and changes in the platform’s terms of use. Such was the case with his controversial move last year to block links that directed users to competing social media platforms, which was later reversed but prompted calls for Musk to step down as CEO of Twitter.

    While his latest announcement is far from being controversial, it is worth noting as it announces key changes to the platform that its users should be aware of. According to Musk, a new feature will be rolling out later this week which will enable users to move between recommended vs followed tweets in their timelines.

    Although unclear as to what this will look like, since there was no preview provided for it, one can guess it will work similarly to how pinned timelines currently work on mobile devices. It is also unclear whether this new feature will be exclusive to the Twitter mobile apps or if the web client will see something similar as well.

    Musk also confirmed that there is a larger UI overhaul on the way and that this new feature is just the start. Another change coming to the UI is the addition of a Bookmark button in the Tweet details view, which, as per Musk, will serve as the defacto “silent like” on tweets and will be rolling out a week later. Bookmarking tweets has been available for some time, but it requires a couple of extra clicks.

    Finally, the long-promised feature to be able to compose long-form tweets is truly on its way. Musk also confirmed that this will be added in early February, though no additional details were shared on what the feature will entail.

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  • Vietnam’s Elon Musk challenger turns heads in 2023

    Vietnam’s Elon Musk challenger turns heads in 2023

    Vietnam is an unlikely home of the next Elon Musk. That’s why Le Thi Thu Thuy is one person to watch in 2023. The 48-year-old is at the wheel of VinFast, a money-losing electric-vehicle maker racing the U.S. entrepreneur’s Tesla on Western roads. It’s a complicated route.

    VinFast has made its name selling gas guzzlers in the Southeast Asian nation, where its parent Vingroup is the top conglomerate. Now Thuy is heading in an entirely new direction by turning the carmaker fully electric, and by taking its brand global. Within a year, she plans 70 showrooms across the United States, Canada and the European Union to sell cars like the VF9 sports utility vehicle, which is priced at $76,000, around 15% more than Tesla’s comparable Model Y.

    The former Lehman Brothers investment banker is leaning on sophisticated suppliers like battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology and electronic products-outfit Aptiv rather than counting on VinFast to develop proprietary technology. It is building a local factory in the United States too, something that’s hard for Chinese auto rivals like Nio and Xpeng to replicate as tensions fester between Washington and Beijing. An expensive marketing campaign is starting to yield results: VinFast reported 58,000 reservations as of December.

    A planned initial public offering in New York is key to fund the expansion. Thuy must convince investors that the company isn’t desperate for money. Hanoi’s crackdown on the real estate sector is a drag on the property-heavy Vingroup. That makes it look like VinFast has a weak parent at a time when the auto business is also deep in the red: its net loss almost doubled to 34.5 trillion dong ($1.48 billion) in the first nine months of 2022.

    Yet accessing Vietnam’s stock market is tricky and, to date, only nine Vietnamese companies have listed overseas, raising less than $1.5 billion in total, Refinitiv data shows. VinFast’s listing would, therefore, present a rare opportunity to tap an economy the International Monetary Fund expects will grow 6.2% in 2023. Thuy can at least count on a scarcity premium to fuel her big drive.

    Context news

    Vietnamese electric-car maker VinFast is planning a U.S. initial public offering, an initial prospectus published on Dec. 6 shows.

    VinFast reported a net loss of 34.5 trillion dong($1.48 billion) for the nine months to the end of September, against 18 trillion dong for the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell to 10.5 trillion dong, down from 11.2 trillion dong.

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  • Twitter will soon tell you if your posts have been secretly restricted

    Twitter will soon tell you if your posts have been secretly restricted

    Elon Musk’s revamping of Twitter continues with full force. As the man himself announced via a tweet, the platform is currently working on an update that will show “your true account status,” so you will know if your account has been shadowbanned. In addition to that, you will receive information explaining why your account has been restricted and how you can appeal the ban.

    Now, Musk didn’t explain what it means to be “shadowbanned” on the platform. However, journalist Bari Weiss, who has been given access to corporate files, explains that Twitter employees prevent tweets made by disfavored accounts from becoming trending and restrict the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics. All this happens secretly, without informing the affected users.

    Disfavored accounts get added to various blacklists, such as the “Trends Blacklist,” which prevents tweets from becoming trending, and the “Search Blacklist,” which Weiss doesn’t explain what it does but most likely restricts tweets from appearing in searches. Weiss also notes that Twitter doesn’t call these techniques “shadow banning.” Instead, employees call these methods “Visibility Filtering,” or “VF.”

    To better understand what VF does, a senior Twitter employee told Weiss that this is a way for Twitter employees to “suppress what people see to different levels.”

    Interestingly, Instagram recently launched a similar feature to what Twitter is working on. The platform now informs users with professional accounts if their posts have been restricted from appearing as recommendations to others. If there are indeed posts that violate Instagram’s recommendation rules, creators and businesses can edit or delete them to become eligible again, or they can appeal the decision.

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  • Twitter is less safe now, former head of safety warns

    Twitter is less safe now, former head of safety warns

    Elon Musk now officially owns Twitter, and the move caused a big splash in the industry. The tech billionaire started his reign as head of the popular network by laying off staff “en masse” and then trying to rehire some of the valuable assets lost in the process. One such asset seems to be Yoel Roth, the company’s former head of trust and safety, who gave his first interview since his departure shortly after Musk took over.

    When asked whether he still felt Twitter was safer after Musk’s takeover at a Knight Foundation event, Roth said, “I don’t.”The interview comes at a very specific moment. Musk relaunched the Twitter Blue subscription service on November 29th. Roth believes that Musk is breaking procedures and his own promises and, in the end, wants to run Twitter by himself.

    “He would say things that were consistent with establishing a moderation council, that were consistent with not making capricious, unilateral decisions, and I was optimistic based on that,” Roth said. “My optimism ultimately faded.”

    But it’s not all horrible. Despite the statements above, Roth does not think Twitter will have a “spectacular moment of failure,” as several former workers have expressed concern after the company’s enormous layoffs and resignations.

  • Musk suggests that he wants to “go to war” against Apple, starts lobbing “tweet grenades”

    Musk suggests that he wants to “go to war” against Apple, starts lobbing “tweet grenades”

    These days you have to wonder just exactly what is going through the mind of multi-billionaire Elon Musk. After spending $44 billion to buy Twitter, Musk is acting like someone who never made a major decision in his life. He says one thing, reverses direction in a day and reverts back to his original thought a few days later. Can Twitter board members trust him to pick which flavor of ice cream cone to buy at Baskin Robbins? After all, the ice cream purveyor offers 31 flavors.
    Now, Elon is focusing (best as he can) on Apple. Reuters reports that Musk has disseminated several tweets in which he accuses the tech giant of trying to block Twitter from the App Store and said in a tweet that “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” If true, Apple would be one name from a list of advertisers that have left the platform since the Musk era began for Twitter.
    He also tagged Apple’s CEO in a tweet that asked, “What’s going on here @tim_cook?” Ad metrics firm Pathmatics shows that Apple spent $131,600 on Twitter ads between November 10th and the 16th. That was down 40% from the $220,800 that Apple spent on Twitter ads between October 16th and October 22nd. That was the week before Musk closed on his Twitter purchase.

    According to a Twitter internal document, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter during the first quarter of this year having spent $48 million which accounted for 4% of Twitter’s revenue during the three months.

    Musk also railed against the so-called “Apple Tax,” which is the 15% to 30% cut of in-app transactions that Apple collects from developers for using its in-app payment platform. But in what can only be called an unhinged tweet, Musk writes “Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?” At this point, especially after the current legal battle with Epic Games, we would hardly call this a secret tax. Nor would we call this tweet a “spoiler alert” as Musk writes.

    In a meme that the executive posted on Twitter and then removed, Musk suggests that he will “go to war” with Apple. Of course, some politicians used Elon’s ranting to complain about the App Store which has been under attack by lawmakers who see it as a monopoly since iOS does not allow sideloading. That is the use of third-party app stores to download apps on a device. Google allows this on Android, but Apple says that it bans sideloading to protect users from installing malware.

    Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who was one of the lawmakers seeking to pass antitrust legislation against large tech companies like Apple and Google, said, “This is why we need to end the App Store duopoly before the end of this year. No one should have this kind of market power.”
    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that the White House was following the situation and in a statement, it was clear that the Biden administration is focusing on another, more troubling aspect of Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. ” She stated that “We have always been very clear that when it comes to social media platforms, it is their responsibility to make sure that when it comes to misinformation, when it comes to the hate that we’re seeing, that they take action.”
    Since Elon purchased Twitter, many users have complained about a proliferation of hate speech that apparently is now being tolerated on the platform. Such activity could get Twitter banned from the App Store and Google Play Store. According to a previous tweet from Musk, such action would lead him to develop an alternative phone to compete with iOS and Android handsets.
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  • Musk hints that a Tesla phone could be made to punish Apple and Google

    Musk hints that a Tesla phone could be made to punish Apple and Google

    You might wonder how Elon Musk got where he is today based on his uneven performance as Twitter’s new owner. His confusing and illogical changes to the verification checkmarks and his inability to make a decision and stick to it without changing his mind a few times does not inspire confidence in the guy as someone who can run a company like Twitter.
    And when former T-Mobile president and CEO John Legere said that he would be interested in working his magic on Twitter (albeit at a superstar executive salary of course), Musk flat-out rejected him without even hearing him out. Considering what Legere did for T-Mobile, taking it from its position as last among the four major wireless providers to second, the guy should get at least a personal meeting. After all, he does have a stunning track record and helped T-Mobile become the most innovative company in the industry.
    The latest news involving Musk and Twitter is that the multi-billionaire has posted a tweet in which he says that should Apple and Google bounce Twitter from their respective app storefronts, Musk will make what he calls an “alternative phone.”
    Let’s run through the whole thing. A conservative commentator Liz Wheeler tweeted, “If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk should produce his own smartphone. Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android. The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?” Elon responded by writing, “I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone.”

    This reminds us of another billionaire who thought that building a competitive smartphone might be right up his alley. Jeff Bezos and Amazon released the Fire Phone in June 2014. To put it mildly, this phone was a flop, as reportedly only 26,000 units were sold.

    But we digress. Right now there are no signs that Apple or Google is considering the removal of Twitter from the App Store and Google Play Store, respectively. But you never know when something Musk does will go afoul of App Store and Play Store rules. If Google were to banish Twitter from the Android app storefront, Twitter could always end up in a third-party app store like Amazon’s where Android users could sideload it.
    Sideloading an app on Android means downloading it from an app store other than the Play Store. Losing the App Store wouldn’t even be a blow even if sideloading is not an option on iOS. That’s because without an Android or iOS app, Twitter still would be accessible through the mobile browser on iPhone and Android handsets; in other words, the lack of a native iOS and/or Android app would not spell the end for Twitter.

    We’d imagine that if a Tesla phone is developed, Musk would create a mobile/wireless business unit for Tesla. But Elon is going to have to be careful how he approaches such a project. Keep in mind that his holdings in Tesla stock have cratered by 54% so far this year. Tesla stockholders might not take too kindly to Elon using Tesla’s cash and name to prop up Twitter which is one of Musk’s personal holdings.

    Again, this is all conjecture at this point, especially since Twitter remains a listing in good standing in the App Store and the Play Store. Unless development plans for an alternative phone have already started, the process of building a new smartphone using a brand-new platform will take several years. So hopefully Mr. Musk doesn’t expect to snap his fingers and see a new phone instantly become an iOS and Android competitor.
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  • Musk sells Tesla shares worth $3.95 bln days after Twitter takeover

    Musk sells Tesla shares worth $3.95 bln days after Twitter takeover

    Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has sold $3.95 billion worth of shares in the electric vehicle maker, according to U.S. regulatory filings, days after he completed his purchase of Twitter Inc for $44 billion.

    Musk, whose net worth dropped below $200 billion after investors dumped Tesla stock, unloaded 19.5 million shares between Friday and Tuesday, filings published by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed.

    The latest share sale leaves Musk with a stake of roughly 14% in Tesla, according to a Reuters calculation.

    The purpose of the sale was not disclosed.

    The latest sale dump comes as analysts had widely expected Musk to sell additional Tesla shares to finance the Twitter deal.

    Musk, the world’s richest man, had asserted in April he was done selling Tesla stock. Still, he went on to sell another $6.9 billion worth Tesla shares in August and said the sale was conducted to pay for the social media platform.

    Musk, the world’s richest man, had about $20 billion in cash after selling a part of his stake in Tesla, including the sales made last year. This would have required him to raise an additional $2 billion to $3 billion to finance the takeover, according to a Reuters calculation.

    Tesla has lost nearly half its market value and Musk’s net worth slumped by $70 billion ever since he bid for Twitter in April.

    Twitter and Tesla did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

    Musk took over Twitter last month and has engaged in drastic measures including sacking half the staff and a plan to charge for blue check verification marks.

    The billionaire pledged to provide $46.5 billion in equity and debt financing for the acquisition, which covered the $44 billion price tag and the closing costs. Banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp, committed to provide $13 billion in debt financing.

    Musk’s $33.5 billion equity commitment included his 9.6% Twitter stake, which is worth $4 billion, and the $7.1 billion he had secured from equity investors, including Oracle Corp co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

    Musk had tried to walk away from the deal in May, alleging that Twitter understated the number of bot and spam accounts on the platform. This led to a series of lawsuits between the two parties.

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  • Twitter says it is now testing the feature that is most demanded by users

    Twitter says it is now testing the feature that is most demanded by users

    Did you ever post a tweet and realize that you’ve made a huge mistake? Without an edit button, there is nothing that Twitter users can do except delete the post and write it again. However, most Twitter members aren’t interested in having to re-type a tweet. But Twitter posted a blog today in which it says that it is internally testing a new feature called Edit Tweet which will be limited at first to Twitter Blue subscribers.

    It is no surprise that an edit function has been the number one wish from Twitter users since most other social media apps offer some editing capabilities; what good is a social media app if you accidentally push out a missive that has the point you’re trying to make covered up by typing miscues? According to Twitter, “Edit Tweet is a feature that lets people make changes to their Tweet after it’s been published. Think of it as a short period of time to do things like fix typos, add missed tags, and more.”For the initial test, Twitter will allow tweets to be edited multiple times during a 30-minute time period following the publication of a tweet. Subscribers will be able to determine which messages have been edited because these tweets will carry an icon, a timestamp, and a label to alert users that a particular post has been modified. Users will be able to view the original tweet and other edits made to it by tapping on the label which pulls up that tweet’s Edit History.

    Later this month (it now is September folks!) subscribers to Twitter Blue will get the first shot at using Edit Tweet. Early access to new features is one of the things that Twitter Blue subscribers pay $4.99 a month for. Making the testing even more selective, the feature will not only be exclusive to Twitter Blue users, it will be tested in one country only at first and as Twitter sees how people are using Edit Tweet, it will expand the testing to other countries.

     

    “We’ll also be paying close attention to how the feature impacts the way people read, write, and engage with Tweets,” Twitter states in the blog post. The company adds that it wants tweeting to “feel more approachable and less stressful. You should be able to participate in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you, and we’ll keep working on ways that make it feel effortless to do just that.”

    Meanwhile, all eyes will be on the Delaware Court of Chancery for five days starting on October 17th. Twitter is suing the richest man in the world, multi-billionaire Elon Musk, for rescinding his $44 billion, $54.20 a share takeover bid for Twitter. Musk, who is countersuing, alleges that Twitter misrepresented to him the number of fake accounts on Twitter that are controlled by “Bots.”

    With Twitter shares currently trading at $38.71, investors have already priced into the stock the extremely low likelihood that Musk will consummate the transaction. Both Musk and Twitter are arguing over the scope of Musk’s demands in the Discovery phase of the pre-trial which is when both sides turn over material, including documents, pertinent to the trial.

    Twitter claims that Musk is asking for huge amounts of information that are not relevant to the main issue of the litigation. That issue is whether Musk violated the contract he signed with Twitter to purchase the firm. Most contracts of this type include a break-up fee that is paid by the party pulling out of the deal. Musk’s deal with Twitter calls for him to pay the company $1 billion if he doesn’t follow through with the acquisition. Musk has already said that he will refuse to pay it.

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  • Twitter is concerned that bad actors can exploit its shopping features

    Twitter is concerned that bad actors can exploit its shopping features

    Well, it appears that Twitter has some serious concerns regarding one of its features. Last summer, the social media enabled users to purchase directly from the platform. US businesses received the ability to use custom shop names and create shopping sections on their profiles to list and sell items.

    More specifically, it discusses the problems that could occur if someone with bad intentions wants to use Twitter’s e-commerce function to sell illegal or dangerous items.

    The memo contains a section entitled “risk assessment,” which lists a few high-risk elements for Twitter’s shopping feature. One of these is the merchant fields, like shop names and descriptions, which, according to the memo, could be used by bad actors in harmful ways.

    The biggest problem is that, at least at the moment, Twitter doesn’t have good enough ways to deal with such “bad actors.” According to the memo, the platform uses automated detection tools that search for sketchy things in individual product listings, but its proactive measures aren’t enough because the company lacks the manpower needed to offer better detection.

    Another concern that Twitter has is the shareability of the stores. At the moment, users can’t share the storefronts, but if Twitter introduces such a feature, it could give bad actors the ability to share their dangerous items and reach even more people.

    According to a Twitter spokesperson, the memo is genuine and is part of a new initiative that allows teams to share their ideas on how to make product releases safer. The spokesperson also stated that Twitter is always searching for ways to improve the safety of its services and that this is especially true when it wants to add new features to its platform.

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  • Musk still willing to buy Twitter under this one condition

    Musk still willing to buy Twitter under this one condition

    The richest man globally, worth nearly $280 billion, is Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The executive announced in the middle of April that he would buy social media app (and website) Twitter for $44 billion. But by early last month, Musk had withdrawn the offer leading Twitter to sue Musk and the latter to file a countersuit.. What made Musk change his mind was Twitter’s failure to prove to the multi-billionaire that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5% of the total number of Twitter accounts.
    Musk believes that at least 10% of Twitter’s daily active users (DAU) that see ads are not authentic. Furthermore, Musk alleges in his countersuit that of the 229 million daily active users on Twitter, 65 million, or 28%, do not see any ads. To get a more accurate indication of the number of bogus accounts on Twitter, Musk used Botometer, a tool created by Indiana University that measures inauthentic accounts. With this tool, Elon’s team found more fake accounts than the number that Twitter disclosed, according to court filings.
    With a trial set to begin in October, Musk’s lawyers wrote in a document submitted to the court, “Twitter was miscounting the number of false and spam accounts on its platform, as part of its scheme to mislead investors about the company’s prospects. Twitter’s disclosures have slowly unraveled, with Twitter frantically closing the gates on information in a desperate bid to prevent the Musk parties from uncovering its fraud.”
    But having said all that, Reuters today cited a tweet disseminated early today by the Tesla CEO that says if Twitter could reveal how it samples 100 members and confirms that they are real Twitter users, his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter will be back on. But Musk added in his tweet, “However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.”
    In his court filing, Musk claims that Twitter double counts linked accounts. The multi-billionaire claims that Twitter had inflated monetized daily active users in its SEC filings by as many as 1.9 million people each quarter.
    In response to another Twitter user who asked whether the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was investigating the “dubious claims” made by Twitter, Musk tweeted back, “Good question, why aren’t they?” The legal battle between both sides is taking on a harsh tone. This past Thursday Twitter rejected Musk’s claim that he had been tricked into bidding for Twitter.
    Tinged with sarcasm, Twitter’s response was filed with the court and it said, “According to Musk, he — the billionaire founder of multiple companies, advised by Wall Street bankers and lawyers — was hoodwinked by Twitter into signing a $44 billion merger agreement.” Twitter added, “That story is as implausible and contrary to fact as it sounds.”
    Bret Taylor, Twitter’s Chairman of the Board, said of Musk, “His claims are factually inaccurate, legally insufficient and commercially irrelevant.” And as far as the Botometer tool is concerned, Twitter called it unreliable and pointed out that it once called Mr. Musk’s own Twitter account “highly likely to be a bot.” In its lawsuit, Twitter said, “Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”
    A “specific performance” clause that is part of the contract allows Twitter to sue to get the deal to close as long as Musk’s financing remains in place. But if the funding for the deal falls through, Musk can pay $1 billion to end his obligations to buy Twitter.
    While Musk is a multi-billionaire, much of his wealth is tied up in Tesla shares. Musk planned to borrow against the value of some of his Tesla shares to raise as much as $12.5 billion. A dangerous financial maneuver, had Tesla shares declined sharply, Musk could have been forced to pay additional funds with a margin call, or have the Tesla shares pledged as collateral for the loan sold out from under him.
    Eventually, the executive decided against borrowing against his Tesla holdings before scraping the deal altogether. Still, the tweet that Musk posted today reveals that there is still a path to a completed acquisition.
  • Twitter just experienced a major outage

    Twitter just experienced a major outage

    If you have been unable to access Twitter, don’t panic. The problem is not your internet connection or your phone. Apparently, Twitter just experienced some kind of outage and was down for everybody for about an hour. The downtime affected the web version of Twitter and its mobile apps. The web version showed an error message, and the mobile apps displayed an in-app notification saying that the latest Tweets couldn’t be loaded.

    According to Downdetector — a platform that shows the status of various websites and services in real time — sometime around 8:00 a.m. Eastern time, Twitter users began reporting that they were unable to connect. However, just a few minutes ago, all the error messages the social media platform had been showing disappeared, and it is now running without any issues. So, you can once again access Twitter on your iPhone, Android phone, or via your favorite web browser.

    The social media has not yet issued a statement, and there is currently no information on what caused the Twitter outage. If it does, we will let you know what forced Twitter to take a short nap. The last time Twitter experienced such a dramatic problem was back in February. Back then, the social media platform said in a statement that the cause of the issue was a “technical bug that briefly impacted how Tweets were loading for people on Twitter.”

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