social media

The likely unraveling of the acquisition was just the latest twist in a saga between the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms, and it may portend a titanic legal battle ahead.

Former President Trump and his son were among six board members removed from the board of Trump’s social media company weeks before it was hit with federal subpoenas, according to state records. Florida state business records showed Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and the four others were removed as board members of the Trump Media and Technology Group on June 8, based on a filing with the state’s Division of Corporations. Roughly three weeks later, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a grand jury in Manhattan subpoenaed the company.

Shares of Twitter dipped in late trading Thursday, reversing earlier gains, on fresh speculation that its acquisition by Elon Musk is at risk. Musk inked a deal to buy the social media platform in late April for $54.20 a share, or $44 billion, and has indicated a number times he wants to back out, citing lack of clarity around the number of spam accounts.

The official series’ YouTube page, Instagram account and website have seemingly been deleted following the syndicated show’s cancellation. Eagle-eyed fans noticed the pages being down over the weekend. On Instagram, the handle’s feed showed a “Sorry, this page isn’t available” message. The show’s website and the video channel are also both nowhere to be found.

The subscription plan, called Snapchat+, comes after the social media company reported a disappointing sales outlook for the current quarter when it reported first-quarter results in April.
Launched in nine countries including the U.S., the paid subscription service could help Snapchat diversify its revenue sources if it turns out to be popular. The Plus plan includes pre-release, experimental and exclusive features such as pinning your close friend as BFF and customizing the app’s icon.

Over the last day, several Instagram accounts run by abortion rights advocacy groups have found their posts or stories hidden with a warning that described the posts as “sensitive content.” Instagram said it was working to fix the problem Tuesday, describing it as a “bug.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr says Apple and Google need to remove TikTok from their respective app stores, citing in a tweet “its pattern of surreptitious data practices.” Specifically, Carr was referencing a BuzzFeed News report that officials of TikTok’s Bytedance parent in China had repeatedly been able to access sensitive data of Americans after they downloaded the app from their stores.

Twitter’s board of directors on Tuesday unanimously recommended shareholders approve Elon Musk’s bid to buy the social media company. The board recommended stockholders approve Musk’s $44 billion offer, stating they determined it to be fair and in the best interests of Twitter and its stockholders, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

HUD had accused Meta of engaging in housing discrimination by letting advertisers restrict who could see housing ads on Facebook based on characteristics like race, religion and national origin.

Meta Platforms Inc. was sued Friday over claims that private medical data is being shared secretly with Facebook when patients access web portals for some health-care providers. Facebook’s Pixel tracking tool redirects patient communications and other supposedly “secure” information without authorization and in violation of federal and state laws, according to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court as a proposed class action on behalf of millions of patients.

The veteran digital and news exec will be responsible for the overall digital and social media strategies for the E.W. Scripps news group.

TikTok redefined the idea of a social media feed — can Facebook play catch-up before it’s too late?

The billionaire is also likely to clarify some of his remarks on remote work and strategy at a virtual meeting Thursday with the social media platform’s employees.

Special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp. disclosed on Monday financial regulators probing its deal with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media firm have sought more information, while warning this could potentially delay the deal.

The lawyers investigating Facebook operating chief Sheryl Sandberg’s use of corporate resources are examining behavior going back several years, said people familiar with the matter, focusing on the extent to which staffers worked on her personal projects. A number of employees have been interviewed as part of the investigation by Facebook parent Meta Platforms, the people said, adding that the review has been under way since at least last fall.

Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook is re-examining its commitment to paying for news, people familiar with the matter said, prompting some news organizations to prepare for a potential revenue shortfall of tens of millions of dollars. The company has paid average annual fees of more than $15 million to the Washington Post, just over $20 million to the New York Times and more than $10 million to The Wall Street Journal, according to people familiar with the matter.

Meta this week was hit with several lawsuits claiming that it designed Facebook and Instagram in a way that posed a risk to the health of young users. The cases, filed in nine states, all essentially claim that Facebook and Instagram designed their services to be addictive, and served potentially harmful content to teens and children.

After a weeks-long impasse, Twitter’s board plans to comply with Elon Musk’s demands for internal data by offering access to its full “firehose,” the massive stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the state of negotiations.

Facebook is developing a product that will not rely on anonymized personal information from users and will be more in line with privacy guidelines set by Europe and U.S. states that have privacy regulations. “I think it will use a lot less user data visible to the advertiser,” said Marty Weintraub, Aimclear founder and Facebook expert. The product — Basic Ads — is aimed at brand advertisers wanting to build awareness. It focuses on mass marketing, similar to the way a television station targets viewers, Weintraub said.

Lawyers for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the threat in a letter to Twitter dated Monday that the company disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The lawyers wrote that Musk has repeatedly asked for the information about Twitter’s spam bot and fake accounts since May 9, about a month after his offer to buy the company, so he could evaluate how many of the company’s 229 million accounts are fake.

A Texas law that would bar social media companies from taking action on hate speech and disinformation was temporarily blocked Tuesday in a rare 5-4 Supreme Court ruling. Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer ruled in favor of tech industry groups looking to block the law, with Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Elena Kagan dissenting.

Television turned the celebrity trial into a 24-hour tabloid spectacle. Social media made it into a sport.

The Federal Trade Commission has fined Twitter $150 million over allegations that it misled users by asking for their phone numbers and email addresses for security purposes, but then drew on the information for ad targeting.

A draft document contains the names of dozens of hedge funds and others behind the $1 billion private investment announced in December.

Signaling a wider macro-view of a possible slowdown in advertising, traditional TV-based media companies’ stock prices declined sharply after social media platform Snap said on Tuesday it is seeing a steepening deceleration of its digital ad revenues. Warner Bros. Discovery closed down on the day 7.8% to $16.86 and AMC Networks declined 4.2% to $38.51, while Fox Corp. was 5.1% lower to $30.00, Paramount Global dropped 3.9% to $31.80, and Walt Disney fell 4% to $101.55.

A federal appeals court has agreed to block enforcement of the major provisions of a Florida law targeting social media content moderation. NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association had sought the preliminary injunction while their legal challenge of the law works its way through the courts.

Internet advertisers and others have filed a friend of the court brief at the Supreme Court in support of NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which are challenging a Texas social media law they say will irreparably damage online platforms as advertising vehicles.

Musk’s increasingly skeptical — and erratic — comments about the takeover have kept investors, bankers and Twitter itself guessing about his motives. Some analysts figure that the 50-year-old is trying to drive down the acquisition price or walk away from the deal altogether.

Social media and content moderation experts said Twitch’s quick response was the best that could reasonably be expected. But the fact that the response did not prevent the video of the attack from being spread widely on other sites also raises the issue of whether the ability to livestream should be so easily accessible.

Elon Musk said he is putting his bid to acquire Twitter on hold, weeks after agreeing to take the company private in a $44 billion deal. “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Musk tweeted on Friday. The news sent Twitter shares down more than 20% in premarket trading.

An internal memo shared with employees said the platform’s general manager and general manager for revenue would be departing.

Musk, speaking virtually at a Future of the Car summit hosted by the Financial Times, said Twitter’s Trump ban was a “morally bad decision” and “foolish in the extreme.” He said permanent bans of Twitter accounts should be rare and reserved for accounts that are scams or automated bots.

A filing lists a number of investment firms and other backers who will contribute $7 billion to the deal. In numerous conversations over the last several days, Musk began making promises about what he could do with Twitter, telling potential investors that he could double the number of users on the platform to more than half a billion by 2025, four people briefed on the conversations said. Not only that, he said, he could more than double Twitter’s revenue by that date and bring tens of millions of paying subscribers to the service, two of the people said.