elon musk
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Officials with the city of San Francisco have stated that the new giant “X” sign of Elon Musk’s rebranding of Twitter was done without a permit.
On Friday (July 28th), the tech entrepreneur announced a rebrand of the social media messaging platform Twitter to X, removing the bird logo many have come to associate with the company from the company’s headquarters on Market Street, with the Twitter logo replaced with a huge “X” that lights up at high intensity as night falls. But a complaint by city officials charges that the billionaire didn’t have a permit for the change and barred entry to inspectors.
“NOV issued for work without permit. Site visited by MH and spoke with Twitter (sic) representatives and Building maintenance engineer representatives. I explained BID’s complaint investigation process and requested access to roof area. Twitter (sic) representative declined to provide access but did explain that the structure is a temporary lighted sign for an event. I explained to all representatives that the NOV requires the structure to be removed with a building permit or legalize,” the complaint read.
Another detail in the complaint revealed that officials were denied access to the roof in another attempt to review the new sign on Saturday (July 29th). Patrick Hannah, a spokesperson for San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection said in an interview that “to ensure consistency with the historic nature of the building and to ensure the new additions are safely attached to the sign,” the city requires a permit. A Notice of Violation could mean that the company could incur permit fees in addition to those incurred for an investigation into why the situation occurred.
Residents have complained about the new sign’s brightness at night being a nuisance. KQED journalist Christopher Beale captured the sign’s strobe-light effect in a video he posted on the platform. “I feel like if I was a person that was maybe epileptic or had a sensitivity to bright lights and strobes it would be a major problem to live here. For now, it’s just an irritant,” he said to reporters. He did note that the X did go dark on Sunday night (July 30th).
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Source: Dan Kitwood / Getty / X / Twitter
The masterclass in successfully ruining a good thing continues with the worst attempt at rebranding ever. Elon Musk has officially got rid of Twitter’s iconic bird logo and replaced it with an “X.”
“X,” or whatever the hell Elon Musk is trying to shape the bird app into, is here. Over the weekend, the Tesla chief announced the name change was officially coming and starting today. It is officially here.
If you log onto Twitter.com via desktop, you will see the new logo in the top left corner where the Twitter bird used to be. Also, if you type X.com, you will be redirected to the Twitter website.
To keep the stupid rebranding going, Musk shared a photo of the bland “X” symbol projected on the side of Twitter’s headquarters early Monday morning.
Musk left the explaining of what precisely this rebrand is all about to Twitter; oops, we X’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, who tried her best to break down this asinine decision.
“It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression,” Yaccarino begins her tweet. “Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”
She continues, “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.”
Uh, okay.
Twitter Users Are Still Baffled At The Decision & Are Clowning Elon Musk
No surprise, Twitter OGs are reacting to the name change negatively and are vowing to continue to call X its original name, Twitter.
They also see this as another opportunity to clown Elon Musk, and we don’t blame them because this is one of the dumbest executions we honestly have ever seen.
We’re always here for a Phony Stark, aka Elon Musk dragging. You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Dan Kitwood / Getty
1. Accurate
2. Behold, a masterclass in headassery.
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Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty / Twitter
Elon Musk and Twitter are starting to look a little desperate as Threads continues to gain in popularity. Twitter is now dishing out payments to some content creators still on the platform.
Spotted on Engadget, Twitter’s “ad-revenue sharing program for creators” is a go, with some eligible Twitter Blue subscribers allegedly already getting a piece of that ad-revenue sharing pie in the form of payments.
The timing of the program’s rollout is quite convenient, but Phony Stark, aka Elon Musk, did tease the idea of the program in February while sharing as few details about how it will work. Some users have been sharing notifications from the platform informing them that payments are on the way.
One user shared that he received a $24,000 deposit based on the ads in the user’s replies.
Basically, the initiative is a way to keep popular content on Twitter and, at the same time, get more users to sign-up for the still very unpopular Twitter Blue subscription service.
But unfortunately, the program is only for Twitter users with at least five million post impressions in the past three months, and they must also be approved by a human moderator while adhering to Twitter’s Creator Subscriptions policies. Twitter will administer the payments through a Stripe account.
Twitter says it will soon drop an application process found under the Monetization hub in the account settings.
Twitter’s “Ad-Revenue Sharing Program Is Already Looking Suspicious
It hasn’t been three days, and Elon Musk’s “ad-revenue sharing program for creators” is already looking really shaky. The Washington Post reports that far-right influencers on the platform, including Andrew Tate, were first on the list to receive payments.
Per The Washington Post:
The first beneficiaries appear to be high-profile far-right influencers who tweeted before the announcement how much they’ve earned as part of the program. Ian Miles Cheong, Benny Johnson, and Ashley St. Claire all touted their earnings.
“Wow. Elon Musk wasn’t kidding. Content monetization is real,” tweeted an anonymous account called End Wokeness, with 1.4 million followers, accompanied by a screenshot showing earnings of over $10,400.
So far, many of the influencers who have publicly revealed that they’re part of the program are prominent figures on the right. Andrew Tate, for example, who was recently released from jail on rape and human trafficking charges, posted that he’d been paid over $20,000 by Twitter.
Again, this sounds like a desperate ploy to keep folks tweeting. We shall see how this works out for Musk and his platform.
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Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty
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Source: SOPA Images / Getty / Threads
Is it a wrap for Twitter? Instagram’s Threads swiftly surpassed the 100 million users milestone.
Spotted on The Verge via Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads profile, the platform explicitly created to rival Twitter looks like a massive success for Meta.
The Threads app surpassed 100 million users faster than OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, which accomplished the feat in two months. It only took Instragram’s Threads mere days to reach that goal in a matter of days following its early Wednesday launch last week.
Per The Verge:
Threads proved to be an early hit almost immediately. In the first two hours, it hit 2 million users and steadily climbed from there to 5 million, 10 million, 30 million, and then 70 million. The launch has been “way beyond our expectations,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday.
On Monday, Zuckerberg said in a Threads post confirming the milestone that the growth was “mostly organic:”
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, followed Zuckerberg, noting that it only took five days to reach the staggering number of users.
Now, whether that was achieved “organically” is another story. Before its launch, Threads was heavily pushed to the over 1 billion people using Instagram, allowing them to transfer their IG accounts quickly to the new platform. So we are sure that also significantly increased the number of people signing up to use Threads.
Users are also threading it up. According to The Verge, there have “been more than 95 million posts and 190 million likes shared on the app.”
Threads Accomplishing A Goal Adam Mosseri Claims It Doesn’t Want To Do
Despite these impressive numbers, Mosseri stated in a Threads post that his platform is not trying to replace Twitter and will not actively push politics or hard news. But you can’t stop users from talking about what they want to, and hard news is finding its way onto Threads.
Also, if its mission is not to replace Twitter, it seems to be failing at that mission. With some help from Elon Musk, Twitter’s traffic is reportedly “tanking,” according to CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince.
Twitter has been telling whatever advertisers it has left, probably Cheech and Chong, whose gummy ads are flooding Twitter users’ timelines, that it has “535 million monetizable monthly active users,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
Prince’s claims say otherwise.
Right now, it’s looking like Twitter is dying a slow death. Twitter better hope that the lawsuit bears fruit. But we are here for anything hurting Elon Musk’s pockets.
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Photo: SOPA Images / Getty / Threads
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Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty / Threads / Twitter
Elon Musk and his hot mess of a social media platform, Twitter, are looking salty in these digital streets after threatening to sue Meta for allegedly biting Twitter with Threads.
Spotted on The Verge, it looks like Elon Musk is shaking in his Allbirds following Threads’ successful launch and looks to be a strong contender to knock out the bird app.
In a letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg obtained by Semafor, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro alleges that Meta is using te company’s trade secrets and intellectual property when making bringing Threads to life and is threatening legal action in “both civil remedies and injunctive relief.”
Per The Verge:
Spiro, who is also Elon Musk’s personal lawyer and a partner at the Quinn Emanuel law firm, claims that Meta hired “dozens” of ex-Twitter employees to develop Threads, which wouldn’t be all that surprising given just how many people were fired following Musk’s takeover.
But according to Twitter, many of these former workers still have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other confidential information. Twitter alleges that Meta took advantage of this and tasked these employees with developing a “copycat” app “in violation of both state and federal law.”
In response to the claims, the communications director for Meta, Andy Stone, said, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”
Meta also doesn’t seem phased by Musk’s threat to sue, being that is usually the course of action the company seems to take, most recently threatening Microsoft with a lawsuit for allegedly abusing Twitter’s API.
In response to the letter, Musk said, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Threads Is Winning Out The Gate
Musk and his company’s lawsuit comes on the heels of Thread’s incredible launch that saw over 10 million users eager to ditch Musk’s platform signup.
According to The Verge, Threads has over 30 million registered users, including big names like Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, J.Lo, and more already on board with the app.
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Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Instagram Threads
Wednesday, Instagram decided to “shock drop” its answer to Twitter to strike while the iron is still hot as the mass exodus from Elon Musk is underway. So far, Mark Zuckerberg and co’s decision to hit the launch button was brilliant and is paying off.
Spotted on Engadget, Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter is off to an impressive start and has already exceeded ten million signups in just seven hours after going live, according to a Thread from CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The massive signup number was a testament to the platform’s ability to handle the rapid signup rate, which could also be a direct result of Instagram successfully luring some of its 2 billion users over to Threads.
Zuckerberg wasn’t done egging on his rival, Elon Musk, whom he could fight in a cage match. No, we’re not kidding about that. In his first tweet in over a decade, the Meta chief used the classic Spider-Man meme signaling a standoff between the two billionaires.
While this is a solid start for Threads, the platform’s launch is not without issues. Users are enjoying their time with Threads, but complaints are coming in. One of the main issues is the lack of chronological or following-only feed options, which both Twitter and Instagram are still dealing with to some extent.
Current Threads users are stuck with the current algorithm throwing random users on their feeds, directly resulting from seeing posts other users are replying to.
Threads also lack a post-editing feature, something both Facebook and IG users enjoy, hashtags, account switching, a dedicated button to insert GIFS, and more.
Adam Mosseri Spoke About Instagram Threads’ Issues
In a Threads post, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said that a following-only feature, post-editing, and account switching are “on the list,” and hashtags will be tappable “in time.”
In a recent update from his Broadcast channel, Mosseri admits things are “hectic” behind the scenes.
“Things have been hectic behind the scenes this week, most of the Threads team is focused on keeping the app up and fixing all the bugs we’re finding it,” Mosseri begins. “It feels a little bit like what working at this company felt like ten years ago, everyone’s rolling up their sleeves, hustling and trying to help the best they can.”
He continues, “We didn’t expect 10s of millions of people to sign up in less than a day, but supporting that is the definition of a champagne problem.”
Well, Rome was not built in a day. We only expect Threads to come into form over time. Plus, you can still spend time on Spill as Threads continues to figure things out.
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Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
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Source: @spillmob / Instagram
In the wake of another chaotic situation caused by Elon Musk, Black Twitter users are making a move to the new Spill social media platform in droves.
On Saturday (July 1st), Twitter users were greeted with an error message that either said “Rate limit exceeded” or “Cannot retrieve tweets.” Musk stated in a tweet that users who were unverified would only be able to read 600 posts a day, but Twitter Blue subscribers would be able to view 6,000 a day. For Black Twitter, that was the last straw in what many felt was the Tesla and Space X CEO’s continual disrespect, prompting many to sign up for Spill.
Spill is a social media platform with the purpose of creating a safe space for diverse communities with a distinct focus on Black women and LGBTQ+ communities. The app had recently launched its beta version on June 19th. It was created by Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell and DeVaris Brown, former Black Twitter employees who were let go in the wake of Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the social media platform. “Our thesis was if we could build a platform from the ground up that caters to these groups, these culture drivers, and then solve the core problems that they’re facing, that our community is facing more specifically, that would make for a better experience for everyone,” Terrell said in a recent interview. The exodus of Black Twitter users, including numerous famous figures such as Keke Palmer and Desus Nice has propelled Spill to be number one in Apple’s App Store as of Monday (July 3).
Spill is styled as a microblogging app with a visual-first approach, with users being able to select from four colorways for their home page. Instead of Twitter’s 140 characters per tweet, each post or “spill” is set at 90 characters but users can get creative with images and GIFs, and even short videos in their posts. Spill is currently invite-only for new users, and is only available on iOS devices, which has spurred some complaints from those using Android devices. But many who’ve made their way to the app are praising it for its diversity and fun factor, as well as the dedication to keeping it a safe space for everyone. Hashtags such as #SpillMigration and #Spillionaires were in wide use on the app, with many more on Twitter making public requests for invite codes.
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Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty / Elon Musk
Phony Stark, aka Elon Musk’s masterclass in breaking something that worked perfectly before he bought it, is pretty much complete. Over the weekend, Twitter was an absolute mess, and Black Twitter became officially fed up with the platform.
What the hell is a rate limit?
That’s what many Twitter users were asking over the weekend and some still as of today. Elon Musk took to his broken platform to reveal that all users were hit with limits on how many tweets they could read, causing a significant outage as people tried to keep up with what was happening in the world.
The Trump of Tech said in a tweet that verified account users can see up to 6,000 posts daily, while unverified users only see 600.
Newly registered Twitter users got it the worse, only being allowed to see 300 tweets per day. He eventually lifted that number to 10,000, 1,000, and 500, but the damage was done.
Musk claims that his platform is dealing with “extreme levels of data scraping” from “several hundred organizations” and “system manipulation” while not naming precisely who is doing it.
Is Elon Musk Lying?
Of course, people are calling C A P on Musk’s claims. Spotted on Crooks and Liars, web developer Sheldon Chang accused the Tesla and Space X chief’s Twitter “DDOSing itself, on rival Mastodon.
Per Crooks and Liars:
This is hilarious. It appears that Twitter is DDOSing itself.
The Twitter home feed’s been down for most of this morning. Even though nothing loads, the Twitter website never stops trying and trying.
In the first video, notice the error message that I’m being rate limited. Then notice the jiggling scrollbar on the right.
The second video shows why it’s jiggling. Twitter is firing off about 10 requests a second to itself to try and fetch content that never arrives because Elon’s latest genius innovation is to block people from being able to read Twitter without logging in.
This likely created some hellish conditions that the engineers never envisioned and so we get this comedy of errors resulting in the most epic of self-owns, the self-DDOS.
Unbelievable. It’s amateur hour.
Another developer was able to back up Chang’s claims by also replicating those DDOSing results.
Another claim accuses Musk and Twitter of simply not paying their bills after it moved from Google’s Cloud Services to their servers, and that’s when all of the issues began.
Black Twitter Is Packing Up & Leaving
Since Musk took over and imposed many dumb ideas, users have been looking for a substitute for Twitter. BlueSky caught on immediately but, per The Verge’s reporting, is pausing sign-ups “temporarily” as it deals with the influx of people signing up to use the platform.
In a BlueSky post, the company said:
“We will temporarily be pausing Bluesky sign-ups while our team continues to resolve the existing performance issues. We’ll keep you updated when invite codes will resume functionality. We’re excited to welcome more users to our beta soon!”
Black Twitter, which basically makes the platform pop, is done with Elon, and his shenanigans are on the move to Spill, which happens to be founded by two former Twitter employees, Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell, and DeVaris Brown.
If you look up and down Twitter timelines, it’s Black users sharing their Spill profiles or asking for invite codes so they can join the mass exodus.
Welp.
Is this truly the end of Twitter? That remains to be seen, but it’s looking like it’s on its way into social media purgatory.
You can see more reactions to Elon Musk breaking Twitter in the gallery below.
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Photos: Anadolu Agency / Getty
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Source: MANDEL NGAN / Getty / Mark Zuckerberg / Elon Musk
I don’t think anyone had this possible PPV event on their digital bingo cards.
Twitter’s incompetent owner, Elon Musk, and Meta’s chief, Mark Zuckerberg, have been virtually jabbing each other for months. Now it seems the two tech giants could square off in a cage match, and we’re not talking virtually either.
This all stemmed from Twitter users and Musk responding to a report about Instagram’s “Twitter-like” platform, Threads.
“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options,” Musk cheekily tweeted.
In response to Musk’s tweet, a user warned the Tesla chief that Zuckerberg is trained in Ju Jitsu, with Musk responding, “I’m up for a cage match if he is, lol.”
Musk might have been joking with his comment, but apparently, Zuckerberg is not, and he let the Phony Stark know he wants all the smoke by responding via his Instagram Stories, “Send me the location.”
Musk continued to egg on the situation by tweeting out a possible venue for the match, the “Vegas Octagon,” of course, and letting off a fire emoji when someone suggested that UFC’s Joe Rogan could be a referee.
He also claims he has a great move called “the walrus,” whatever the hell that means.
Tale of The Tape
Elon Musk, on paper, is the bigger person, but he also admits he “almost never” goes to the gym, and the only exercise he gets is “picking up my kids and throwing them in the air.”
It’s an entirely different story for Zuckerberg. Per ESPN, he won a no-gi white belt in the 149-pound division at a Silicon Valley tournament and placed second in a gi category on the same day.
The Zuck has also trained BJJ for about a year under Dave Camarillo who has also mentored former UFC titleholders like Cain Velasquez, Jon Fitch, and Josh Koscheck.
Camarillo had high praise for the Meta CEO, telling ESPN:
“He’s amazing. He is an extremely hard worker, as everybody knows. But a lot of people have a business, and they’re successful, and they have that side of their life, and rarely do they dip into the physical side, especially with something like jiu-jitsu and MMA, and have the same amount of success or even go past Day 1 or Month 1.”
Twitter, of course, has thoughts about this possible fight between the tech titans. You can see them in the gallery below.
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Photo: MANDEL NGAN / Getty
1. LOL, accurate
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will announce his intent to run for president of the United States in a conversation with Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk.
On Monday (May 22nd), it was announced that the Republican politician and Musk would host an event on Twitter Spaces, the platform’s audio chat area. The event will take place on Wednesday (May 24th) at 6 P.M. ET. Former PayPal product leader and tech investor David Sacks will moderate the conversation, where it is expected that DeSantis will announce his presidential bid. A DeSantis spokesperson, Lindsey Curnutte, confirmed the event to the press on Tuesday while a confirmation request email to Twitter was met with a poop emoji as a reply.
According to sources, the campaign will release a launch video shortly after the event and there will be visits to several states planned for after Memorial Day. The event comes after weeks of planning between DeSantis’ camp and Musk’s team, with one person close to the negotiations stating that they feel Musk isn’t confident about former President Donald Trump’s chances of winning the White House. “He’s interested in the future, and he’s interested in winning again,” the source confided.
When asked about his participation in the Twitter Spaces and a potential endorsement at a convention held by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday (May 23rd), Musk stated that he wasn’t going to endorse any candidate as of yet. “I think it’s quite groundbreaking that there be a major announcement of this type on social media,” he said. Musk and DeSantis were first acquainted with each other after meeting at a party in Austin, Texas. There is also speculation that Musk’s agreement to take part in this event could be a boost to his SpaceX company finding a home in Florida, which has seen some turbulence after its Starship launch explosion leading to a lawsuit against it and the Federal Aviation Administration by environmental groups.
The news comes as DeSantis has been shown lagging in polling behind former President Donald Trump, nabbing only 20% among GOP primary voters which is 15% behind where he was last December. Republicans have become more enamored of Twitter since Musk’s takeover of the platform last October. Since becoming CEO, Musk reinstated Trump’s account which was suspended after the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol, and has been openly courting conservatives and far-right figures including Tucker Carlson who has been sharing more content on the platform.