Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 1
Elon Musk reveals Twitter has discovered a hidden layer of 'censorship'
During an interview with The Babylon Bee at Twitter headquarters, Elon Musk has discussed censorship by private companies such as Google and if new laws should be introduced that protect users from private companies censoring their users.
The Babylon Bee asked the SpaceX and Tesla CEO if he believes there needs to be new laws introduced to protect users from private companies looking to censor their freedom of speech. These laws would be similar to how the first amendment protects citizens from the government censoring speech. Musk began by explaining that a lot of censorship takes place that many people aren't aware of and that most of this censorship is happening at Facebook and Google.
Musk replied to the question by saying that he believes that it would be "good" if all social media companies were forced to open source their algorithms, as that would reveal to the public what the company is/isn't suppressing and would prevent companies from secretly suppressing pieces of content.
Elon Musk says Twitter lost $40 million over advertisers being Community Noted
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sat down for an interview with Babylon Bee at Twitter headquarters to discuss Musk's rollercoaster takeover of the company and what the future looks like with the world's second-largest social media platform.
Before Musk acquired Twitter back in October 2022, the tech billionaire had discussed throughout multiple interviews the importance of having a social media platform committed to free speech, and he has continued expressing the same sentiment after he completed the takeover of Twitter. Musk still stands by this concept of Twitter being a place users can freely express themselves within the parameters of the law, and throughout his interview with the Babylon Bee, the Twitter owner said this value will remain paramount.
The Babylon Bee recounted a previous Musk interview where Musk said that "I want to speak my mind, even if it costs me something," which refers to Musk's belief that the right to freedom of speech should always be available, even if it costs the user, or ultimately Twitter through the loss of advertising revenue. Musk responded by recounting a recent loss of $40 million, which he says can be attributed to the new Community Notes feature, which enables Twitter users to add informed context to potentially misleading tweets collaboratively.
Twitter brings up people's deleted past as another weird bug hits the platform
Twitter users are reporting a bizarre issue as deleted tweets, and retweets are reappearing on their timelines, causing users to fear the platform's handling of user information.
A significant bug on Twitter is causing deleted tweets to reappear, leaving users frustrated and raising concerns about data privacy. Security expert Richard Morrell reported that Twitter restored 34,000 of his deleted tweets, with over a million restored tweets estimated within the entire network. The issue seems to affect deleted retweets as well.
The bug primarily impacts users who deleted their tweets using third-party services like Redact or TweetDelete, although it is not exclusive to them. Users have noticed deleted tweets from November 2022 and earlier resurfacing. The cause of the bug remains unclear, but speculation suggests it may be related to server relocation and improper adjustments in the network's topology. Essentially, when Twitter moved data from one server to another, it didn't perform the transition correctly, resulting in these deleted tweets somehow resurfacing on Twitter.
Tesla investors rejoice at Elon Musk's plan to start advertising its vehicles
Tesla investors are expressing their joy over company CEO Elon Musk's decision to start advertising its vehicles.
Until now, Tesla doesn't advertise its vehicles and has relied entirely on tweets, interviews, and announcements from the company's CEO, Elon Musk. However, that is about to change as Musk said during Tesla's annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday that the company has a plan to introduce advertising, which is said to focus on parts of the vehicles Tesla feels are undervalued.
Notably, Musk said in an interview with CNBC that the decision to start Tesla's advertising was made entirely in the moment and was actually in response to an investor's question about the topic. Admittedly, Musk said he was surprised at the reception from Tesla investors about the introduction of advertising, and while there hasn't been enough time to develop or announce any formal advertising plans, he can say that they'll emphasize information on Tesla's pricing and safety features.
Company to giveaway half a million 55-inch 4K TV's, but there's one big catch
Telly, a company founded and unveiled by Ilya Pozin, has announced it will be giving away half a million 55-inch 4K TVs that feature a second display that permanently runs advertisements in an effort to create the first sustainable advertising business around free televisions.
Pozin announced Telly on Monday, and its unveiling went off with a bang when the company said it would be giving away millions of premium TV sets completely free of charge, and to kick things off, it will be starting with a batch of 500,000 TVs. The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Pozin, where he explained the motivation behind giving away the televisions, saying that "Companies are making billions of dollars from ads served on televisions, yet consumers have historically had to pay for both the TV and the content they watch. All of that changes today."
So, what's the catch? As with most things you get for free, there is a downside, and Telly's free 4K TV is no exception. Firstly, The Hollywood Reporter managed to get a guided tour of one of Pozin's TVs located in Telly's New York office, as photographed above, where he said each TV set features a 55-inch 4K HDR screen, microphone at the top of the display for voice command interaction, a five driver sound bar, LED strips to illuminate the back of the TV, a HD camera for video calling/workout classes, motion sensor and a second display.
Microsoft CEO responds to Elon Musk's comments about OpenAI being controlled
It wasn't long ago that Elon Musk sat down for an interview with Fox News to discuss various topics, one of which was the evolution of artificial intelligence and the company he originally founded, OpenAI.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO sat down with Tucker Carlson about a month ago and shared his concerns about the exponential development of artificial intelligence, how it can develop bias, and his plan to create his own AI chatbot that will be dedicated to generating truthful responses. Throughout this interview, Musk was asked about the origin of OpenAI, a company that he originally founded with the principal of a non-profit dedicated to developing AI safety and transparently.
Musk said that since his departure from the company in 2018, many of its founding principles have been tossed out, such as OpenAI being a for-profit company, closed source, and being effectively bought by Microsoft. Musk said that OpenAI was created to be a "counter-weight to Google," and he admits that he "took my eye off the ball" as the company has now partnered with Microsoft, forming a relationship where Microsoft has a big say or even direct control over OpenAI. According to Musk, there are only two big players in the artificial intelligence game, Google and its AI division DeepMind, and now Microsoft and OpenAI.
Here's why your Gmail account may be at risk of being deleted
Google has made some changes to its policies regarding Gmail accounts, and the newly updated policy may put your Gmail account at risk of being deleted.
A new report from 9to5Google recounts a policy change that Google made in 2020 when it stated it would remove content from any Google account that hasn't been accessed in two years. Notably, this 2020 policy change outlined that Google would keep the account available for use but would remove the content attached to it.
However, that is about to change as Google has announced that any Google Account that hasn't been signed into for at least 2 years will be deleted, along with its contents and email address. The contents that would be deleted would be Gmail messages, Calendar events, Drive, Docs, Workspace files, and Google Photos backups. Notably, Google won't be removing any YouTube videos attached to Google accounts as some of those videos could have historical significance.
Continue reading: Here's why your Gmail account may be at risk of being deleted (full post)
Twitter admits to 'security incident' that leaked private tweets to the public
A letter sent by Twitter to affected users has revealed the platform experienced a glitch or, more accurately described as a "security incident" that leaked private tweets to the public.
The security incident can be traced back to Twitter Circles, a feature on the platform that enables users to select followers to join a private group where they can share tweets and other exclusive content. Twitter Circle is designed to be a private group of users that share exclusive content that doesn't or shouldn't, appear on Twitter's homepage. However, that very premise of the feature was undermined in early April when users began noticing followers that weren't in their Twitter Circle interacting with posts within their exclusive group.
In an email from Twitter obtained by Fortune, the platform explains that this security flaw enabled users that weren't within a Twitter Circle to see some content that was posted within it, presumably from Twitter's homepage. As you can probably imagine, Twitter Circle users were immediately concerned about the privacy of their Twitter Circle group, with one user even proving the security flaw in early April by posting screenshots of users liking his Twitter Circle's tweets that weren't a part of his Twitter Circle.
Elon Musk fans deem the Twitter CEO '8-Bit Elon' after his hilarious livestream
Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has tested out an old Twitter feature in front of his nearly 140 million followers.
Musk began a Twitter livestream from what appears to be Twitter HQ in San Francisco, and the Tesla CEO can be seen laughing at the quality of the livestream, the fact that people are able to see him, and that "hearts" kept appearing on the screen, presumably people liking the livestream. Musk can also be heard explaining to the viewers that they are simply testing out Twitter's livestreaming feature and identifying areas of improvement, such as the resolution.
Musk goes on to say that despite the resolution, the feature "works," which is quickly followed up by a Twitter staff member saying the livestream is using code from Periscope. Notably, Twitter acquired Periscope in 2015, and much of the popular apps' video/streaming code was integrated into Twitter. According to Musk's fellow Twitter engineers, this code has never been updated, and given the quality of the livestream, that seems to be true.
Mark Zuckerberg gets confronted by surviving angry Meta employees
CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, was at home on parental leave following the birth of his third child when Meta made its latest round of mass layoffs.
Facebook, along with its parent company Meta has been going through multiple rounds of mass layoffs in an effort to reduce running costs amid declining revenue. Meta began handing out pink slips to employees on April 19 that informed them that their position was no longer needed. Individuals familiar with the matter informed The Washington Post that an internal analysis estimated the company could lay off as many as 4,000 workers on April 19.
This figure was confirmed by people that were on a call with Mark Zuckerberg while he was at home on parental leave. Notably, the call with Zuckerberg isn't a free-for-all as the questions Zuckerberg answers are submitted by employees, and then the most popular ones are selected for a response by the CEO. The most recent call with Zuckerberg focused on questions about further layoffs and why senior management and executives were receiving even larger bonuses than last year when the company is going through a massive layoff period.
Continue reading: Mark Zuckerberg gets confronted by surviving angry Meta employees (full post)