Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 5
Elon Musk slashes more Twitter staff, targets global content moderation
Elon Musk's Twitter has unsurprisingly cut more of its staff after Musk reportedly said just last November that the company wouldn't fire or lay off any more of its workers.
Elon Musk
Bloomberg has reported that Twitter has laid off "at least a dozen" staff in its Dublin and Singapore offices, targeting divisions such as content moderation and misinformation. Notably, of the approximately twelve staff that were fired included Analusia Dominguez, the company's former senior director of revenue policy. Furthermore, reports indicate that a handful of employees tasked with maintaining Twitter's global appeals process and state media program were also cut.
The news was confirmed by Ella Irwin, Twitter's head of trust and safety, who said that a selection of staff had been laid off as a result of the company-wide cuts to expenditure. Irwin spoke to Bloomberg and said that "It made more sense to consolidate teams under one leader (instead of two), for example", and that Twitter conducted a company-wide evaluation and eliminated roles that weren't producing enough "volume" to justify employing the talent behind them.
Elon Musk bans Twitter accounts tracking him after scary incident with stalker
Elon Musk has announced that Twitter will be banning any account that is posting the real-time location of individuals as its a physical safety violation.
The SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter CEO took to his personal Twitter account to make the announcement, writing that any account "doxxing real-time location info" of anyone will now be suspended from the platform. Musk added that accounts will be suspended if they post links to sites with real-time location information and that accounts posting locations of where someone traveled on a delayed basis isn't a violation as that individual is safe.
The Tesla CEO continued to explain his reasoning behind the change, with Musk writing that on December 14, a car that was carrying his son "lil X" was followed by a "crazy stalker (thinking it was me)". This stalker eventually blocked the car from moving and then climbed onto the roof. Musk managed to get a video of the stalker and asked the public if anyone recognized "the person or car?"
Elon Musk covers up his guess that only 10% of Dave Chappelle's crowd booed him
SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk made a surprise guest appearance at one of Dave Chappelle's comedy shows on Sunday night and was met with large portions of the crowd booing him.
Musk made an appearance at Dave Chappelle's comedy show in San Francisco, the same city that hosts Twitter HQ. Chappelle introduced Musk as the richest man alive. Musk was met with large portions of the crowd booing him, which even eventuated in Musk asking Chappelle what he should do next. Chappelle attempted to make light of the situation by saying that it sounded like many of the former Twitter staff that Musk fired "are in the audience".
Chappelle went on to defend Musk by asking the crowd to stop booing his guest, saying that "there is something better you could do" and "booing isn't the best thing you can do". Musk replied to a Twitter comment after the event that mentioned the booing he received at Chappelle's show, Musk wrote, "Technically, it was 90% cheers & 10% boos (except during quiet periods), but, still, that's a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life (frequent on Twitter). It's almost as if I've offended SF's unhinged leftists ... but nahhh."
US federal prosecutors are 'closely' investigating FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried
The US Justice Department is reportedly investigating Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a prominent businessman, and investor, over his role in the collapse of FTX, what was the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)
The exact details of the investigation are not yet known, but it is believed to be focused on potential fraud or misconduct on the part of SBF or other executives at FTX. FTX was once a rising star in the world of finance, known for its innovative financial products and aggressive growth strategy. However, the company faced increasing scrutiny and criticism in the years leading up to its collapse, with some alleging that its rapid expansion was built on risky and potentially fraudulent practices.
In the end, the company was unable to withstand the pressures of the market and went bankrupt, leaving many investors and employees to hang out to dry. SBF, whose full name has not been publicly released, was one of the key executives at FTX and played a major role in shaping the company's strategy. He was known for his ambitious vision and his ability to secure significant investments from some of the biggest names in finance. However, his involvement with FTX has now drawn the attention of federal investigators.
Elon Musk announces Twitter's character limit will increase into the thousands
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently announced that Twitter will be increasing its character limit from 280 to 4000.
This change has been highly anticipated by many users, who have long complained about the constraints of the 280-character limit. The expanded character limit will give users more freedom to express themselves in their tweets. It will also allow for more detailed and nuanced discussions on the platform. This is particularly useful for journalists and other content creators who often need to share longer articles or more complex ideas.
Many have praised the move, saying that it will help to improve the quality and depth of discourse on Twitter. Others, however, have voiced concerns that the expanded character limit may lead to an influx of spam and low-quality content.
Twitter Blue to relaunch with true verification, but Apple users now pay more
The director of product management at Twitter, Esther Crawford, wrote on Twitter that the company will be relaunching its Twitter Blue subscription service on Monday, December 12.
Twitter is planning to relaunch its premium subscription service, known as Twitter Blue, with revised payment options. The service, which was first introduced in May 2021, will now cost $8 per month for those that sign up on the web and $11 per month for users that subscribe through the App Store on iOS. Twitter Blue offers a range of additional features and benefits to subscribers, such as the ability to undo tweets, customize the app's appearance, access exclusive content, and the iconic blue checkmark.
The revised payment options for Twitter Blue come as the company looks to expand its revenue streams and diversify its business, with Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk previously stating the company needs to take its reliance off advertiser revenue. Twitter has been facing increased competition from other social media platforms, and the launch of Twitter Blue is seen as an effort to differentiate the service and attract more users to the platform via its exclusive features.
A big ransomware attack downed Rackspace's cloud service exchange services
Almost one week ago, in the early hours of December 2nd, customers noticed issues with their services. A message was posted on their status site stating, "We are investigating an issue that is affecting our Hosted Exchange environments. More details will be posted as they become available."
Although the company had posted a notice on its status page, the average customer was unaware of this part of the website. Clients averaged over two hours before reaching someone in the company's call center. Even when they reached the call center, customer care agents were not fully briefed on the outage and potential impact or solutions.
The system outage disrupted email services for thousands of small and midsize organizations. Rackspace's advice was for their customers to move to a competitor's platform. This left Rackspace customers desperate, frustrated, and many outright furious for the lack of support or communications from the company.
Elon Musk says Twitter will soon be able to show you if you're shadowbanned
Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, has announced that the company is working on a new software update that will make it easier for users to see their account status.
The update will show users whether they have been shadowbanned, which means that their tweets are no longer visible to other users, and provide them with the reason why this has happened. In addition, the update will also include information on how users can appeal their shadowban if they believe it was applied unfairly.
Shadowbanning is a controversial practice that has been used by social media companies to limit the reach of certain users who violate the platform's rules. The practice has been criticized by some users who argue that it can be applied unfairly and without their knowledge. This new update from Twitter aims to provide greater transparency and allow users to better understand why their account may have been shadowbanned.
Elon Musk installs a wardrobe and washing machine at Twitter for at-work-living
In November, Elon Musk said that he would be sleeping at Twitter until everything was fixed and the company was in working order.
Now, leaked photographs from inside Twitter HQ in San Francisco, obtained by BBC reporter James Clayton, have revealed that some Twitter offices have been converted into living spaces with wardrobes, pillows on couches, and even washing machines being installed. Notably, the images showcase conference rooms being converted into makeshift hotel rooms with couches being covered in pillows and sheets, showing that "lots of staff have been sleeping at Twitter", per Clayton.
All of these changes and the makeshift sleeping quarters are a part of Musk's push to create Twitter 2.0, which will lead into the ultimate creation of the "Everything App". Additionally, these additions to the office and employees sleeping at work are certainly part of Musk's ultimatum that the Twitter owner dropped on staff last month. The ultimatum required employees to sign up for "long hours at high intensity" or receive 3 months of severance. The decision forced many employees to leave the company.
Amazon is paying customers $2 a month to monitor their phone traffic
Amazon has announced a new program that will pay customers $2 per month to monitor their phone traffic.
The invite-only program is called Ad Verification and is designed to help the company gather data on when and where customers viewed advertisements on their phones. The program tracks users' ads, informing the company when a user saw an ad, where they saw it, what type of ad, and more. Notably, this tracking includes Amazon's own ads as well as third-party ads.
According to Amazon, the data collected through the program will be used to improve its products and services, as well as provide a more personalized advertising experience for all its customers. Amazon customers not invited to the program can join a waitlist and can potentially enter at a later date, according to an Amazon spokesperson that spoke to Insider.
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