elon musk
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Source: Timbaland, Elon Musk, Swizz Beatz / Verzuz
Swizz Beatz took to social media to respond to backlash after announcing the Verzuz partnership with Elon Musk and X, formerly Twitter.
On Friday (June 21), Swizz Beatz shared a set of photos in a post on his Instagram account showing himself attending the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with fellow star producer and artist Timbaland. It was at the festival on Wednesday where he and Timbaland made the surprise announcement of a deal with Elon Musk to release all future content through X, formerly Twitter. The first photo shows the two in t-shirts highlighting the move, with a phrase by Swizz emblazoned on it in cursive, saying, “We will show you better than tell you.” That was repeated in the caption of the post, with Swizz Beatz adding, “Blessings to all” with emojis.
The comments on the Instagram post weren’t as cheerful, as individuals called out the two mega-producers for striking a deal with a polarizing figure such as Musk and announcing the news on Juneteenth. “It’s cool to ‘show us’ but don’t play in our faces and act like folks don’t have a valid reason to question this partnership,” one commenter wrote. “But nobody said anything before we been on that platform since Verzuz started,” Swizz Beatz wrote in response.
Another commenter wasn’t as civil, writing: “It’s crazy how we always have to go and get the oppressor to help us. What did you need #verzuz to do, broadcast from the moon??? Y’all didn’t need that man. Owning something 100% & then having your oppressor have a say in your business is working backward.” Others also pointed out how Swizz needed to be more understanding since returning from the hajj with his family prior to the Cannes Lions Festival.
The post comes after the joint announcement with Timbaland, where the Ruff Ryders CEO spoke effusively about the partnership. “We are beyond thrilled to have found the best partner for Verzuz,” he said in the statement. “Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we’re excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world. I would like to thank Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Brett Weitz, Mitchell Smith and the entire X team for believing in the Verzuz vision. We can’t wait to get to work.”
They both also promised to build “Entertainment Businesses” on X in the future.
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Source: Linda Yaccarino, Timbaland, Elon Musk, Swizz Beatz / Verzuz
VERZUZ, the friendly but competitive music battle series created by Swizz Beat and Timbaland, announced that the platform has teamed with X. While the musicians touted that it remains Black-owned, the fact that it has essentially teamed with Phony Stark aka Elon Musk—with the announcement made on Juneteenth, no less—meant many people took to social media to comment on the move.
On Wednesday, June 19, VERZUZ announced it had entered into an “exclusive partnership” with X, formerly known as Twitter, for distribution. Swizz and Timbo broke the news themselves while in Cannes, France. Reportedly, the pair had reacquired VERZUZ from their previous partner, Triller. With full control, and touting they’re Black-owned along with equity from artists who participated, their desire for independent distribution has apparently put them in league with Musk.
Source: Timbaland, Elon Musk, Swizz Beatz / Verzuz
“We are beyond thrilled to have found the best partner for Verzuz,” said Swizz in a statement. “Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we’re excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world. I would like to thank Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Brett Weitz, Mitchell Smith and the entire X team for believing in the Verzuz vision. We can’t wait to get to work.”
Added Timbaland, :We are thrilled to partner with X, the most innovative platform globally. Our goal has always been to bring Verzuz to the world which we can now do bigger than ever.”
Swizz and Timbaland say they retain full ownership and creative control of VERZUZ while X will retain the exclusive distribution rights. The plan is that X will only expand VERZUZ’s viewership—touting an audience of over “550 million active users,” allegedly. Viewers will be able to watch the next VERZUZ, an announcement is forthcoming, for the price of Free.99 while being able to chat about the battle all in one location, X.
VERZUZ was beloved as it came to fruition during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had the world indoors looking for ways to interact with each other despite the circumstances. So the platform teaming with X, which is owned by Musk, is getting the side eye. The South African billionaire is known for spouting anit-woke conspiracy theories and allowing racists to run rampant on his platform, which is blatantly the antithesis of what VERZUZ is about.
Don’t take our word for it, check out some of the assorted reactions to VERZUZ partnering with Phony Stark in the gallery.
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Elon Musk is allowing his X platform to host a series of town hall events featuring presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. according to those familiar with the planning of the events. Although Musk hasn’t officially announced the events, Kennedy seemingly confirmed that he will be part of the town halls.
Via a report from Axios, sources close to the events shared with the outlet Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy will be part of the town halls that will reportedly air live on X, formerly known as Twitter. Further, X and NewsNation, a network known for emphasizing conservative-leaning talking points, will work in partnership to bring the event to the masses.
It would serve as the X platform’s largest foray into the world of politics despite Musk not taking a position on either candidate. So far, moderators are still being sought out and users on X will be able to question the candidates during the event. Moderators will approve questions from viewers
Kennedy has stirred up controversies due to his unique views despite hailing from a legendary family in Democratic Party politics. Kennedy is also a staunch critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the COVID-19 vaccine efforts among other controversial takes.
Trump is also surrounded by controversy after the former president and business mogul was found guilty by a jury in New York on 34 counts via his hush money trial that concluded on Thursday (May 30).
Campaign managers for both Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have not confirmed the participation of the candidates.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / X / Twitter
It took a while, but Twitter.com is officially dead.
The rollout for X, Elon Musk’s version of the social media platform known as Twitter, was a hot ass mess. Logging onto Twitter.com still worked, and sharing tweets on websites didn’t work unless you changed the x in the URL to Twitter (that still is the case.).
Today, many desktop Twitter users were surprised to see that typing Twitter.com now redirects them to Elon Musk’s X.
Along with the redirect, a message at the bottom of the webpage says, “We are letting you know that we are changing our URL, but your privacy and data protection settings remain the same.”
The domain transition from Twitter to now X was a weird one. Almost everything, like the platform’s official account, mobile apps, and useless premium accounts, was under the new X branding, while Twitter.com still worked.
Of course, even though Elon Musk is still turning X into the “everything app” he has envisioned, users on X are sticking by the original name and telling Musk, “We are still gonna call it Twitter.”
The platform, formerly known as Twitter, has seen better days. Bots live in people’s mentions, porn is all over timelines, and there are way too many Cheech and Chong edible ads.
Still, as our favorite tech reviewer, Marques Brownlee, said in a post, it’s “still Twitter.”
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
2. Forever
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Source: Dave Kotinsky / Getty
Jerry Seinfeld claimed that comedy today is ruined in part by “extreme left & P.C. crap” in an interview, which has earned him serious backlash from those online.Veteran comedian Jerry Seinfeld shared some thoughts about the state of comedy on television today that has sparked a hefty debate. Seinfeld sat down with journalist David Remnick for the New Yorker Radio Hour podcast to promote a Netflix movie about the origin of Pop-Tarts and was asked by Remnick about how he handles dealing with serious issues going on in the world. “Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don’t get it,” Seinfeld began.
“It used to be you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, Cheers is on,” he continued. “‘Oh, M.A.S.H. is on, oh, Mary Tyler Moore is on. All in the Family is on.’ You just expected, there’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight. Well, guess what? Where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap and people worrying so much about offending other people. When you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committees, groups — ‘Here’s our thought about this joke’ — well, that’s the end of your comedy.”
Remnick asked the 70-year-old if he ever “had that experience”. Seinfeld simply replied, “Um, no.” When Remnick asked him about Seinfeld co-creator Larry David and the conclusion of his acclaimed HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm,the comic replied: “Larry was grandfathered in. He’s old enough so that — ‘I don’t have to observe those rules, because I started before you made those rules.’”
Seinfeld received some support from far-right figures such as Turning Point USA leader Benny Johnson and Dinesh D’Souza after the interview, The comments also earned Seinfeld a heavy amount of backlash online. “Jerry Seinfeld whining that there are no good sitcoms because of wokeness when his writing partner just ended one of the funniest sitcoms of all time which is loved by leftists,” wrote one user in a post on X, formerly Twitter who quoted platform owner Elon Musk’s post of a Seinfeld routine with the caption, “Make comedy great again!”
Check out the responses to Seinfeld’s comments below.
1. Ashley Lynch
2. Ask Aubry
3. TheIainDuncanSmiths
4. Jen The Geek
6. Bryce Lacy
7. The Public Archive
8. Lily O’ Farrell
9. Br33zyBLVCK
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / X
If you got a blue checkmark courtesy of X, Elon Musk wants the world to know so.
Spotted on The Verge, premium X users are finding out they can no longer hide their blue checkmarks and are sharing a notification they are receiving informing them of the new X, formerly Twitter policy.
Last summer, Elon Musk’s lame version of Twitter made showing your blue checkmark optional after X introduced a new subscription feature, giving subscribers the once highly coveted sign that they were part of an elite group.
It’s unclear why X is now doing it, but the timing comes after many celebrities and notable people who vowed to never pay for X to keep their blue checkmarks, now have them after X began “gifting” subscriptions to users with high numbers of verified users.
Those users who received their blue checkmarks began hiding them after announcing to their followers that they had not paid for them.
So this feels like Elon Musk being a douchebag and telling his team to make that move to spite those people who are spiting him and his company.
The social media formerly known as Twitter has been a hot mess since Elon Musk reluctantly purchased it. He changed the name and then rolled out the subscription platform, which was immediately abused by scammers who used to verify fake accounts and fool people.
Some people with blue checkmarks became the target of online harassment and mass blocking before giving users with more than a million followers blue checkmarks.
X is an ongoing mess, but we will stick beside it until the wheels fall off like everyone else.
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / X / Elon Musk
It looks like Elon Musk’s X is giving blue checks back to the platform’s most popular users, and they are like, thanks, but no thanks.
Overnight, Elon Musty’s X, formerly Twitter, “gifted” premium subscriptions to some users on X, mainly those who vowed never to pay for the subscription service that gave users the “blue check,” along with access to other premium features.
Musk confirmed in a post on his bootleg platform that this is the case, writing, “Going forward, all 𝕏 accounts with over 2500 verified subscriber followers will get Premium features for free, and accounts with over 5000 will get Premium+ for free.”
Those who have gotten their blue checkmarks back to their names are taking to the platform to let their followers know they are still ten toes down on their initial stance and did not give Bootleg Tony Stark any money to get back their checks.
Acadmey Award-nominated actor Jeffrey Wright was one of those users who expressed that sentiment, sharing a screenshot of a notification from X that he was getting his complimentary subscription to X Premium.
In the caption for the post, he wrote, “Pay $8? Kidding. Help me. But don’t say anything too free speechy about me or my Garbage Tower of Babel shitsite.”
Netflix’s Good Times star also spoke on the matter, writing, “What happened? I didn’t pay for this. I would NEVER pay for this. When did the Blue Check mark start getting passed around again?!
Actor Mark Hamill, aka our guy Luke Skywalker, responded to Brown’s post, “I didn’t pay when it went away, & really didn’t care. Then, out of nowhere, it mysteriously reappeared. #whatever.”
Well, the sentiment remains thanks, but no thanks.
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Don Lemon was slated to have a new talk show in partnership with the X platform but after an interview described as tense, those plans are no more. The veteran journalist shared a statement on X stating that the company owned by Elon Musk will not be going forward with the planned show.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Don Lemon, 58, shared his side of the interview he held with Musk last Friday that was presumably meant to be the first episode of the show. During the chat, Lemon says that the conversation took some turns and said that it was Musk himself who encouraged him to bring his show to the platform.
“We had a good conversation. Clearly he felt differently,” Lemon said in a portion of his statement. “His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me.”
Lemon added, “There were no restrictions on the interview that he willingly agreed to, and my questions were respectful and wide ranging, covering everything from SpaceX to the presidential election.”
While Musk did comment on X in response to Lemon’s statement, the corporate account for the platform had a more pointed response.
“The Don Lemon Show is welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work and connect with new communities,” the account shared. “However, like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show.”
Don Lemon says his new show will air on YouTube starting Monday, March 18, and will also air in full on X.
We’ve also got reactions from X to the happenings below.
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Photo: Gilbert Flores / Getty
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Elon Musk
Phony Stark, aka Elon Musk’s pockets, might be a little lighter if fired Twitter executives get their way.
As seen on The Verge, when Tesla chief and owner of X, Elon Musk, reluctantly took over Twitter, he gave a lot of people the boot, including top execs at the social media company.
Now, those same Twitter execs are coming for their coins they feel Musk owes them, the website reports via The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.
Former CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and former general counsel Sean Edgett slapped Musk with a lawsuit asking for more than $128 million in severance payments.
Per The Verge:
The same execs who forced Musk to close his $44 billion acquisition in the first place, who are now claiming his goal was to “cheat” them out of $200 million before their stock options vested the next morning. They also have a remarkably thorough source to explain why he closed the deal and fired them when he did: Elon Musk himself, as quoted by Walter Isaacson in the biography released last year, Elon Musk.
Another passage cited from the book calls out a conversation between Musk and his lawyer, Alex Spiro. “[H]e tried to resign … but we beat him,” they said, specifically referring to Agrawal. By firing Agrawal before he was able to send a resignation letter, they apparently believed it would mean the company wouldn’t have to pay his severance package.
The lawsuit also claims that X’s board says the company needed to pay $90 million to the lawyers who successfully made Elon Musk go through with Twitter’s $44 billion acquisition.
Call us haters, but we hope those former Twitter execs win this lawsuit.
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Elon Musk / XMail
Elon Musk, a.k.a. bootleg Phony Stark, isn’t done with dumb ideas. The Tesla chief now wants to compete with Google’s popular email client, Gmail, with a new product called XMail.
Musk seems to have a serious one-sided beef with Google, and we wonder if the folks there know about it. First, he drops his version of ChatGPT called “Grok.”
He has also been calling out the Alpahabet Inc. owned company’s search tool, calling its AI tool Gemini “insane” and “racist.” He claims he spoke with a “senior exec” who assured him the company will “take immediate action to fix the racial and gender bias in Gemini.”
Now, he claims he is dropping his own email client called XMail.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Musk revealed “it’s coming” when replying to X Engineer Nate McGrady asking, “When are we making XMail?”
We all know Musk is full of you-know-what and tends to make outlandish claims all the time, but he could be serious about this XMail thing.
If he thinks he will be able to compete with Google’s Gmail immediately, he’s definitely going to have some serious work cut out for him.
Demand Sage claims that Gmail currently has 1.8 billion active users globally, and we don’t see XMail coming anywhere near that.
Yeah, so good luck with peeling off longtime Gmail users and luring them to “XMail” if he decides to create it.
We truly believe Elon Musk is just talking out the side of his a** like he does with everything else.
You can see more reactions to the possibitly of XMail arriving in the gallery below.
1. Accurate
3. Howling
4. Sure Jan
5. This guy gets it.
6. Excellent question