elon musk
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Elon Musk has been accused of spreading misinformation about the 2024 presidential election by the White House, causing concern.
As the 2024 presidential election season is getting into full swing, the White House and the campaign team for President Joe Biden have alleged that Elon Musk is purposely sharing misinformation about the election on X, formerly Twitter, and preventing actual fact-checking. “It is profoundly irresponsible to spread false information and sow distrust about how our elections operate,” said Biden campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodríguez, to the New York Times, adding: “It’s even more dangerous coming from the owner of a social media platform. We will continue to call out this recklessness as we carry out President Biden’s commitment to protecting our elections.”
The statement is the first direct accusation by the campaign, and it marks another point of contention between Musk and Biden. Musk has been openly contemptuous of President Biden after his Tesla electric vehicle company was excluded from White House events. Since his acquisition of X, the tech billionaire has implored those following him on the social media platform to vote Republican.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, a lawyer representing former President Donald Trump, said that the moves made X “a much better place for conservatives,” praising Musk. Musk has also dismantled X’s system for flagging fake election content, stating that it amounted to election interference in addition to amplifying false claims of undocumented immigrants voting in American elections.
The defiance by Musk is still present, even as advertisers have registered complaints that allowing such disinformation and content would further harm democracy in the nation. These same charges have been levied against X by the European Union, which filed a report late last year noting how in comparison to other social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, instances of election interference content were high on X.
Linda Yaccarino, the chief executive at X, has been steadily refuting Musk’s claims of removing the integrity team, pointing to the Community Notes feature and saying there will be expansion. Stephen Richer, the Maricopa County, Arizona county recorder, still has his concerns over Musk’s behavior. “Whether it’s President Trump or Mr. Musk talking about this and keeping it very much a top-of-mind issue, that can potentially make our lives more challenging,” he said.
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Mark Cuban is known as one of the top business executives in the world and maintains an outspoken image on social media, especially when it comes to issues important to the times. Cuban, who just sold a controlling interest in the Dallas Mavericks, checked Elon Musk and the Tesla founder’s criticism of DEI measures in eloquent fashion but that upset some of the MAGA mutts out there.
Mark Cuban, 65, took to X to check Elon Musk and his offhand critique of DEI. Musk wrote, “DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it” to which journalist Ed Krassenstein replied with, “I don’t think DEI is “racism” but it definitely can have some major flaws that should be addressed.”
Musk fired back with “Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism” which prompted Cuban to chime in as the pair debated the finer points of DEI.
A portion of the response from Mark Cuban’s X account:
Let me help you out and give you my thoughts on DEI
1. DiversityGood businesses look where others don’t, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed.You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration. By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified. The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain.
1a. We live in a country with very diverse demographics. In this era where trust of businesses can be hard to come by, people tend to connect more easily to people who are like them. Having a workforce that is diverse and representative of your stakeholders is good for business.
While Cuban’s measured response didn’t attack Musk and offered a solution-based approach, the MAGA stooges and those concerned with the myth of the erasure of the white male and other such nonsense dismissed the businessman’s viewpoints.
On X, we’ve captured reactions from all sides below.
See the full thread of conversation in the reply below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / X / Twitter
Elon Musk’s struggling social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter, suffered another blackout, and he has nothing to say.
Spotted on Deadline, the sinking ship we all used to love suffered a major blackout on Wednesday night, just before 10 pm PT, according to Downdetector.
Users were greeted by a dormant site with no feeds or posts working and a ‘Welcome To X” greeting with a “Let’s Go” action button that took them nowhere, according to Deadline.
But, at the time of the blackout, #MyTwitter, #NotTwitter, Did Elon, and #TwitterDown were all trending, hilariously.
X began working again around 11 pm PT, but no explanation was provided by the social platform or its owner, who is usually very active regarding his platform.
If you search his timeline, the only thing you will see referencing X is him sharing a quote in a post claiming that “X/Twitter site traffic up 22.3% Year over Year from November 2022-2023,” with him writing in the caption “Growth is strong.”
A Breakdown of Elon Musk’s Fumbling
X has been dying slowly since Elon Musk reluctantly purchased it for $44 billion. Since then, he has put on a masterclass showing everyone how to ruin a company and lose billions successfully.
He stupidly changed the name from Twitter to X, with many still calling it Twitter. He’s seemingly cosigned an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X, leading to companies pulling advertising dollars from the platform.
Musk double-downed on his stubbornness by taking a dig at those advertisers, leading to IBM to say we are good with advertising on X.
In another head-scratching decision, Phony Stark reinstated far-right Hulk Hogan, Alex Jones’ account.
We have no idea how much longer this platform will continue to function, y’all better start getting those Instagram Threads and TikTok accounts popping as soon as possible.
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Source: Joe Buglewicz / Getty / Alex Jones
Elon Musk continues to make X, formerly Twitter, one of the world’s worst places, all in the name of “free speech.”
For his next dumb move, Elon Musk announced he is reinstating far-right Hulk Hogan, aka Alex Jones, account on the struggling social media platform.
How did Musk come to this decision?
It only took one of his infamous polls shared with his 165 million followers, with 70% of them in favor of giving the conspiracy theorist his account back.
Alex Jones and his Infowars program were banned by Twitter in 2018. He was also ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims after claiming the 2012 shooting that left 20 kids and six adults dead was a hoax.
Musk notes that policing Jones will be X users’ jobs through the community notes feature.
“The people have spoken and so it shall be,” Musk said in a post he shared Saturday evening. He continued, “It is a safe bet that Community Notes will respond rapidly to any AJ post that needs correction.”
He then tried his best to make sense of his decision, adding, “I vehemently disagree with what [Jones] said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not? That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money.”
Elon Musk Is Singing A Different Tune
Musk reinstating Jones’ X account is a big about-face from his stance in 2022, where he rejected users’ calls to bring him back.
“My firstborn child died in my arms,” Musk said in a post. “I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame.”
Yeah, okay.
After trashing companies for no longer advertising on X, we don’t think reinstating Alex Jones will help lure them back.
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Photo: Joe Buglewicz / Getty
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Source: Slaven Vlasic / Getty
Elon Musk caused a major stir during a seminar when he told advertisers aiming to stop business on X “Go F— yourself”.Tech billionaire Elon Musk sat down for a conversation at the New York Times DealBook Summit at Lincoln Center in New York City on Wednesday (November 29). When the Tesla founder was asked by moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin about the wave of companies pulling their advertising from X, formerly known as Twitter after his amplifying antisemitic comments, he responded forcefully. “I don’t want them to advertise,” he said “If someone is going to blackmail me with advertising or money go f**k yourself. Go. F**k. Yourself.”
Pausing briefly, Musk continued: “Is that clear? I hope it is.” He then directed his next words to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was in attendance earlier at the summit along with the CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino. “Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, sorry, that’s how I feel.” Disney is one of the companies that decided to pull their advertising from the social media platform along with NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate, WarnerBros Discovery, and Paramount. Sorkin then asked what the exodus of the companies would mean. “What this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company,” Musk stated.
Elon Musk’s words were part of an overall awkward conversation – at one point he called Sorkin the wrong name and offered up a half-apology for his comments supporting antisemitism. “Once in a while I will say something foolish,” Musk said. “I would certainly put that ‘You’ve said the actual truth’ [reply on X] as one of the most foolish things, or the most foolish thing, I ever put on the platform.” It may be “one of the dumbest of my 30,000 posts.” He recently returned from a trip to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Users on X wasted no time in responding to Musk’s comments, with a litany of his supporters (those recognized by blue checkmarks noting their paid subscriptions)egging him on. But many more clowned the billionaire, noting how lackluster and erratic the advertising on the platform has gotten.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the more striking comments below.
1. Tim Wise
Anti-racism scholar Tim Wise shared his thoughts on Musk’s attitude.
2. Liam Nissan
This X user reiterated a common feeling voiced by most X users since Musk’s acquisition of the platform.
3. The Intellectualist
This clip captured the moment when Musk mistakenly called moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin “Jonathan”.
4. Nash076
This user raised a very good point.
5. Keith Boykin
6. Tazerface16
This user drew a comparison of Musk with the reclusive millionaire Howard Hughes.
7. Wilson_Valdez
8. Franklin Leonard
9. Luke Zaleski
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Elon Musk
X is scrambling to defend itself after its owner, Elon Musk, got caught out there endorsing an antisemitic post.
Elon Musty has seriously stepped in it.
On his sh*tty platform X, a user pushed the false narrative that Jews are pushing the hatred of white people, writing in a post, “deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest s— now about western Jewish populations,” adding that he realizes “minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.”
Musk couldn’t help himself and responded to the headass post by writing, “You have said the actual truth,” which garnered 6 million views.
The fallout from Musk’s endorsement of the antisemitic post was swift. Spotted on Raw Story, IBM immediately pulled ads off the struggling platform due to a lack of companies willing to advertise on it.
Per Raw Story:
Nonprofit Media Matters on Thursday reported that it found Apple, Oracle, and IBM ads displayed next to posts touting Hitler and the Nazi Party on X.
“IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination, and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” the New York-based tech firm said in response to an AFP inquiry.
The White House Condemned Elon Musk
Musk’s endorsement of an unfounded antisemitic conspiracy drew an immediate response from the White House.
“We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement. “We all have a responsibility to bring people together against hate and an obligation to speak out against anyone who attacks the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the safety of our communities.”
X’s “CEO,” Linda Yaccarino, issued a statement asserting that X’s perspective is always to condemn discrimination. Does she know her boss doesn’t know that?
X users have also been condemning Phony Stark on his platform. You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
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2. Well damn
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / PlayStation
You can now add Sony as the latest company that will no longer play nice with Elon Musk’s mess of a social media platform X.
PlayStation is killing off its X (formerly known as Twitter) integration. So what does that mean? Well, PS4 and PS5 owners used to enjoy being able to share screenshots and clips directly to their Twitter accounts from those two consoles.
Now, that will no longer be the case.
Spotted on The Verge, Sony announced the significant change to social sharing via a message on its website.
“As of November 13, 2023, integration with X (formerly known as Twitter) will no longer function on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles, Sony said.
“This includes the ability to view any content published on X on PS5/PS4 and the ability to post and view content, trophies, and other gameplay-related activities on X directly from PS5/PS4 (or link an X account to do so)” the message continues.
Notable gaming news source Wario64 shared a screenshot of the message PS5 owners are receiving about the change on X’s biggest competitor, Threads.
As to why Sony is making this decision, the company didn’t give an exact reason for its decision, but many believe it has something to do with X’s ridiculous API pricing the company introduced earlier this year.
Sony did share how gamers could still share their screenshots and clips on X through other means, specifically through the PlayStation app, where you can download your content to your phone and directly post it to your social media accounts.
Xbox Also Made A Similar Move
Sony’s decision to no longer support Twitter’s API is not unheard of. Xbox also announced earlier this year that it was removing the feature.
Threads, it’s your time to shine.
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / X / Twitter / Elon Musk
This news should surprise NO ONE. X (formerly known as Twitter) is a hot a** mess; users have bounced, and it is not bringing in any ad revenue.
Spotted on Variety, Elon Musk’s plan to make Twitter, oops, we mean X, and make it the most worthless social media platform on the planet seems to be working.
In only a year after he reluctantly took over the debt-burdened platform that was known as Twitter and made such stupid moves like the 80% reduction in staff, stupidly renaming it to X and making the blue check useless, and turned the platform into a haven for misinformation, it should come as no surprise X is not doing good.
Per Variety:
Millions of users, including several celebrities, have quit in the wake of Musk’s takeover and dramatic refashioning of Twitter. In September 2023, monthly active users for X/Twitter had dropped 15% worldwide (and 18% in the U.S.) year-over-year, according to web analytics provider SimilarWeb. Other third-party measures indicate a roughly similar decline; mobile daily active users dropped 16% on an annual basis in September 2023, to 183 million, according to Sensor Tower. Musk last month claimed that X has 550 million monthly active users, who share up to 200 million posts daily, but it’s unclear how that might compare to past measures.
Advertising On X Is Also On A Downward Spiral
Twitter, damn, we mean X, relied heavily on advertising dollars, but if you have been on there lately, the ads have been lacking, except for numerous Cheech and Chong gummy ads up and down our timelines.
The website reports, via the Wall Street Journal’s reporting, that ad spending from major ad agencies on the platform has dropped to 54%. That’s a significant dip.
Instead of blaming himself, Musk blames groups like ADL for pointing out that his platform has become a haven for hate speech under his ownership, and that is what is keeping advertisers from coming to the platform.
“Our US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!” Bootleg Tony Stark wrote on Sept. 4.
Musk even said he would sue the ADL, but whatever issues between Musk and the ADL seem to have been resolved.
“We appreciate X’s stated intent over the last few weeks to address antisemitism and hate on the platform,” the ADL wrote in a statement released on Oct.4.
X also slapped activist research group, the Center For Countering Digital Hate, with a lawsuit for claiming there is a rise in hate speech on X, which Musk says is false.
Instagram Threads is looking better and better.
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Kanye West and his public moves of late have been a curious mix of teasing music along with being seen traipsing around the world. By way of Ian Connor, Kanye West, also known as Ye, delivered a message to Elon Musk regarding his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian.
Fashion influencer and stylist Ian Connor shared an Instagram post on October 18 which shows a text conversation between him and Kanye West.
The messages began with Connor writing, “My word, All praise be to Allah” with a screenshotted text presumably from West to Elon Musk.
That message read, “When are we going to speak. You owe me nothing. You never have to speak to me again. But if we do speak. The nature of the relationship has to change.”
Ye added, “I’m not bipolar. I have signs of autism from my car accident. You can’t watch Kim keep my kids from me and not say anything publicly and then call yourself my friend so I can bring my audience to your struggling platform.”
At one point, Ye and Musk seemed to be fast friends with the X and Tesla honcho endorsing the Chicago producer and designer’s 2020 presidential bid. However, Ye’s targeted messages against the Jewish community led to him being banned from the X, formerly Twitter, platform.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty / X / Twitter
Elon Musk continues to give people all the reasons to take their business and mess to Threads or any other social platform.
X, formerly known as Twitter, continues its quick descent into social media platform obscurity thanks primarily to Elon Musk’s dumb a** decisions.
Delivering on a promise, X is no longer showing headlines from articles when shared on the platform. The reasoning, of course, is as stupid as ever. Musk believes it will “enhance the esthetics” on the platform he boneheadedly renamed to X.
“This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics,” Musk said on his personal X account back in August.
The decision to remove headlines could also result from Musk’s disdain for links driving people from the service while revealing that his platform’s content algorithm deprioritizes links.
Musk was not shy in sharing that information in response to a user who shared data revealing the drastic decline in referrals from X and Facebook to websites that deliver news over the last two years.
“Our algorithm tries to optimize time spent on X, so links don’t get as much attention, because there is less time spent if people click away.” Musk said, adding, “Best thing is to post content in long form on this platform.”
WHAT?
X Users Point Out How Dumb This Latest Change Is
As you can imagine, no one wants to read an entire news story in an X post, and this will also not help Musk and his X platform beat those allegations of aiding in the spread of misinformation.
“Along with pushing misinformation, removing the headline posts from articles makes it seem like someone is just making a caption with a photo and not an actual link to a story, which will cause less engagement for certain journalists/news orgs,” one X user wrote.
Matt Eason pointed out on the doomed platform that removing headlines from link previews has “completely broken” accessibility to the stories and could further deter users from clicking on the stories.
We’re just going to continue to pour one out for our former favorite social media platform cause the casket continues to lower into the ground.
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Photos: Anadolu Agency / Getty