Twitter’s owner plans to strip headlines from news articles shared on X (ex-Twitter). Right now, links to news articles are displayed as “Cards,” consisting of an image, a link, a headline, and a summary of the article, which doesn’t count against X’s post character limits. If Musk goes through with his idea, links to news articles would be stripped from all text, leaving just the lead image and the URL as the links to the actual article.
The Twitter add-on, popular among journalists, is now available only to users who have subscribed to X Premium.
The site formerly known as Twitter has added a five-second delay when a user clicks on a shortened link to the New York Times, Facebook and other sites Musk commonly attacks, a Washington Post analysis found.
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, will no longer allow advertisers to promote their accounts within the platform’s timeline to attract new followers, according to an email to advertising clients.
Elon Musk–owned social network X, formerly Twitter, said late Thursday that it is lowering requirements for its creator payout program. The company said that the creators who have garnered 5 million impressions in the last three months will be eligible for ad revenue sharing — a third of the previous 15 million impression requirement. Creators will be able to withdraw as low as $10 instead of $50, the company said. Users still need to be verified and must have at least 500 followers to qualify for payouts.
Exclusives
The two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a “cage match” face-off in late June. Zuckerberg is actually trained in mixed martial arts, and the CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta posted about completing his first jiu jitsu tournament earlier this year. “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X,” Musk wrote in a post Sunday on the platform. “All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.”
The X started appearing at the top of the desktop version of Twitter on Monday, but the bird was still dominant across the smartphone app. In response to questions about what tweets would be called when the rebranding is done, Musk said they would be called Xs.
Elon Musk said Sunday that he plans to change the logo of Twitter to an “X” from the famous blue bird, marking what would be the latest big change since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year. In a series of posts on his Twitter account starting just after 12 a.m. ET, Twitter’s owner said that he’s looking to make the change worldwide as soon as Monday.
A Twitter video app for smart TVs is in the social media company’s plans, owner Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday, a move that would be in line with the company’s new plans to focus on growing video content on the platform. In response to a tweet suggesting that a Twitter video app is needed, Musk replied “It’s coming”.
Elon Musk is courting other television news anchors to pivot to Twitter just like Tucker Carlson after his firing from Fox News. The Twitter owner shared on the digital platform that he would like to balance out the personalities delivering the news on the social network with left-leaning hosts. “It’d be great to have [Rachel Maddow], Don Lemon & others on the left put their shows on this platform. No exclusivity or legal docs required!” he tweeted.
Elon Musk’s much-publicized Twitter Spaces kickoff event, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announcing his run for president, struggled with technical glitches and a near half-hour delay Wednesday. The billionaire Twitter owner said the problems were due to “straining” servers because so many people were trying to listen to the audio-only event. But even at their highest, the number of listeners listed topped out at around 420,000, far from the millions of viewers that televised presidential announcements attract.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk wrote in a Friday tweet. He added that Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.” Luring advertisers is critical for Musk and Twitter after many fled in the early months after his takeover of the social media platform, fearing harm to their brands in the ensuing chaos. Musk said in late April that advertisers had returned, but provided no details. Pictured: Musk with Yaccarino, chairman of global advertising and partnerships for NBC, at a marketing conference in Miami Beach on April 18.
Elon Musk threatened to reassign NPR’s Twitter account to “another company,” according to the nonprofit news organization, in an ongoing spat between Musk and media groups since his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last year. “So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?” Musk wrote in one email late Tuesday to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn.
PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, following Elon Musk’s decision to label the outlet “government-funded news.” PBS joins NPR, another major editorially independent outlet that receives some government funding, in halting its Twitter activity in light of the new label.
Beyond Ordinary Events Inc. and Possible today announced new additions to the speaker lineup. Elon Musk, CEO, Twitter and Linda Yaccarino, chairman of global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal, will join forces on […]
JESSELL AT LARGE
Memo To Musk: Hire A Publisher And Editor For Twitter
Elon Musk can reverse his early fumble at Twitter’s helm by hiring an old-fashioned publisher, who in turn should hire an experienced editor, to lead. The platform badly needs their application of well-honed journalistic values to climb out of the mire.
Elon Musk suspended reporters from Twitter and later reinstated them, but with a catch: They must nix their tweets related to the account @ElonJet, which has tracked Musk’s private plane using public data.
Musk’s announcement came after millions of Twitter users him asked to step down in an unscientific poll the billionaire himself created and promised to abide by. “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” Musk tweeted. “After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”
Elon Musk asked Twitter users Sunday if he should step down as head of the social media site. More than 17 million votes were cast and delivered a clear verdict: 57.5% said he should quit, in a Twitter “poll” that closed after 12 hours on Monday. Musk had said he would abide by the results of the vote. After voting ended, there was no immediate response from Musk on Twitter.
Yesterday, Elon Musk launched a new 12-hour poll asking if he should step down as head of Twitter. “I will abide by the results of this poll.” The action came after acknowledging he made a mistake Sunday in launching new speech restrictions that banned mentions of rival social media websites. The move to block competitors was Musk’s latest attempt to crack down on certain speech after he shut down a Twitter account last week that was tracking the flights of his private jet.
NBC News has temporarily removed journalist Ben Collins, who covers disinformation and extremism and their intersection with digital venues, from regular reporting on Twitter and Elon Musk according to a person familiar with the matter, citing remarks on social media that the NBCUniversal news organization felt were not consistent with its editorial standards. NBC News declined to make executives available for comment.
Twitter on Thursday evening suddenly suspended several high-profile journalists who cover the platform and Musk.
The new controls are part of Twitter’s effort to reassure and lure back advertisers that have pulled ads off the platform since it was purchased in October by billionaire Elon Musk, amid reports from civil rights groups that hate speech has risen since the acquisition and after several banned or suspended accounts were reinstated.
In the month after Elon Musk bought Twitter, the microblogging platform’s decentralized rival social network Mastodon not only received widespread coverage from the media, but saw traffic explode
Elon Musk reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account on Twitter Saturday, reversing a ban that had kept Trump off the social media site for more than 22 months — since a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was poised to certify President Biden’s election victory. Musk made the announcement after holding a poll that asked Twitter users to click “yes” or “no” on whether Trump’s account should be reinstated. The “yes” vote won, with 51.8%.
A list of things that journalism will lose, and ways that it will change, if Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter leads to its shutdown.
The drama surrounding Elon Musk’s chaotic reign of Twitter kicked up a notch on Thursday night, as reports filtered out of an exodus of key staff at the company leading to genuine fears over the future viability of the platform.
Early on Tuesday, Musk’s team ordered nearly two dozen Twitter employees who had pushed back publicly and privately against him to be fired, three people with knowledge of the matter said. The billionaire, who completed a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last month, later confirmed the exits on the platform and mocked the former employees.
Workers who survived last week’s mass layoffs are facing harsher work conditions and growing uncertainty about their ability to keep Twitter running safely as it continues to lose high-level leaders responsible for data privacy, cybersecurity and complying with regulations. The FTC said in a statement Thursday that it is “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern. No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees,” said the agency’s statement. “Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”
Elon Musk tweeted Sunday that Twitter will permanently suspend any account on the social media platform that impersonates another. The platform’s new owner issued the warning after some celebrities changed their Twitter display names — not their account names — and tweeted as ‘Elon Musk’ in reaction to the billionaire’s decision to offer verified accounts to all comers for $8 month as he simultaneously laid off a big chunk of the workforce.
The San Francisco-based company told workers by email Thursday that they would learn Friday if they had been laid off. About half of the company’s staff of 7,500 was let go, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety & integrity, confirmed in a tweet. The speed and size of the cuts also opened Musk and Twitter to lawsuits. At least one was filed alleging Twitter violated federal law by not providing fired employees the required notice.
Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, acknowledged that ad spending on the platform had slumped. He blamed the drop on pressure from activists.
Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, fired the company’s board of directors and made himself the board’s sole member, according to a company filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He’s also testing the waters on asking users to pay for verification. A venture capitalist working with Musk tweeted a poll asking how much users would be willing to pay for the blue check mark that Twitter has historically used to verify higher-profile accounts so other users know it’s really them.
Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter promises to supercharge the battle over content moderation, which is likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court
