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Meta Platforms Inc. is launching a “Meta Verified” subscription service on Facebook and Instagram that allows users to verify their accounts with a government ID.
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The company’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed Sunday (Feb. 19) on social media that the platform will begin testing the service in Australia and New Zealand. The authentication will also include proactive account monitoring for account impersonation, direct access to customer support and increased account visibility and reach.
The monthly subscription-based plan can be purchased on Instagram or Facebook for $11.99 on the web and $14.99 on iOS and Android. According to a news release, for users to be eligible, accounts must meet minimum activity requirements and submit a government ID.
Meta clarified that there will be no changes to already verified accounts as they test the new plan.
The news release said that the “Meta Verified” service was developed after the platform received an abundance of requests from creators for broader access to verification and account support. The release explained that the service’s goal is “to help up-and-coming creators grow their presence and build community faster.”
The company added that it hopes to expand the service globally soon.
Meta isn’t the first social platform to introduce a paid verified subscription plan. When Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, he re-vamped Twitter Blue, with a paid plan for users to sign up for $8 a month on the web and $11 a month for iOS. He also replaced the “official” label with a gold or gray checkmark, depending on the account.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
Two more senators are calling for restrictions on TikTok’s operations in the U.S., citing alleged risks to national security and consumer privacy presented by the Chinese-owned platform.
In the letter sent Thursday, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) called on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is currently investigating TikTok’s 2017 merger with Musical.ly, “to swiftly conclude its investigation and impose strict structural restrictions” between the platform and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance — including by “potentially separating” the two companies. The letter was addressed to U.S. Treasury Secretary and CFIUS chair Janet Yellen.
In the letter, Blumenthal and Moran cite a December disclosure by ByteDance — reported by The New York Times — that four of its employees obtained the data of several TikTok users, including two journalists, in an effort to locate the sources of suspected leaks to journalists of internal company conversations and documents.
Despite ByteDance’s assertion that it fired the employees involved, Blumenthal and Moran allege that the scheme was in fact perpetrated by a “formal ‘Internal Audit and Risk Control’ team” directed by senior executives, including TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
“The incident also occurred while TikTok’s executives had repeatedly promised that Americans’ personal data was secure against such spying,” the letter reads, citing testimony given by TikTok’s vp/head of public policy, Michael Beckerman, to the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection in October 2021.
The letter goes on to claim that TikTok company engineers “continue to have dangerous access to Americans’ personal data and control over its algorithmic recommendation systems, access that continues enable this spying on journalists.”
The senators cite several more reports to bolster their case, including a December article in The Wall Street Journal reporting that TikTok’s product development and management — including oversight of its algorithmic recommendation system — remains based in China. Another article published by Forbes in August, which reported that roughly 300 current employees at TikTok and ByteDance work or have worked for Chinese propaganda outlets including Xinhua News Agency and China Global Television, is also held up as evidence to support restrictions.
Elsewhere, Blumenthal and Moran cite an October investigation by Consumer Reports that found TikTok tracks Americans — including those who don’t use the platform — by embedding “a tracking technology” on partner websites. “While this collection effort is ostensibly an advertising effort by the company, the transmission to TikTok of non-user IP addresses, a unique ID number, and information about what an individual is doing on a site provides a deep understanding of those individuals’ interests, behaviors, and other sensitive matters,” the letter adds.
Despite TikTok’s assurance that it no longer censors videos critical of the Chinese government and other authoritarian regimes, the senators additionally allege that the platform “continues to opaquely demote or remove certain content, including blocking LGBTQ accounts.”
TikTok “is clearly, inextricably dependent on ByteDance for its operations,” the letter concludes, “and therefore beholden to the government of China.”
Thursday’s letter is just the latest in a string of recent condemnations of TikTok by U.S. lawmakers. In December, President Joe Biden signed a bill that prohibits use of the platform by nearly 4 million government employees on devices owned by its agencies, joining at least 27 state governments and several universities that have passed similar measures. The same month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Flor.), Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) introduced a bill that would effectively ban TikTok and any other China-based social media platform from operating in the United States. And earlier this month, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Col.), pushed Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over national security concerns, claiming the Chinese Communist Party could “weaponize” the platform against the United States by forcing ByteDance to “surrender Americans’ sensitive data or manipulate the content Americans receive to advance China’s interests.”
These lawmakers clearly weren’t assuaged by TikTok’s announcement in June that it had started routing U.S. user data to Oracle cloud servers located in the U.S., instituted audits of its algorithms and established a new department to solely manage U.S. user data for the platform.
Concerns about TikTok have been prevalent in other corners of the West, most prominently in Europe. In January, Zi Chew met with European Union officials over concerns about child safety and data privacy, among other matters. On Friday, TikTok’s general manager of operations in Europe, Rich Waterworth, attempted to allay some of those concerns in a blog post where he noted that the company plans to establish two additional European data centers, citing a commitment “to keeping our European community and their data safe and secure.” He added that the company is “continuing to deliver against” a data governance strategy they set out for Europe last year, which includes plans to further reduce employee access to European data, minimize data flows outside Europe and store European user data locally.
Zi Chew is slated to appear before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on March 23, when he’s expected to comment on TikTok’s data security and user privacy policies, the app’s impact on children and ties with the Chinese Communist Party.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Looking to save money this Presidents’ Day? The holiday weekend gives you plenty of time to score discounts on items that you may have been eyeing for months. To make things easier, we collected a list of over a dozen of the best deals that you can shop online — or pick-up in store, in some cases. Find markdowns on clothing, shoes, accessories, beauty items and much more. And if you’re more of a techie than a fashionista, our list includes sales on headphones and earbuds, laptops, TVs, furniture and more from Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon and other retailers.
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Keep reading for a roundup of sales to shop over Presidents’ Day weekend and click here to shop deals on cookware and other home goods.
Adidas – Save up to 30% off full-priced Adidas gear and up to 65% off sale styles with promo code: SCORE.
Ashley Furniture — Up to 50% off select deals.
Amazon – The mega-retailer is rolling back prices for Presidents’ Day. Shoppers will score deals of up to 80% off select items. Find discounts on apparel, books, beauty and personal care items, clothing, mattresses, electronics, jewelry, furniture, household supplies, musical instruments, toys and more.
Best Buy – If you need to stock up on electronics and appliances, Best Buy is serving up loads of discounts. Find deals on refrigerators, washer and dryer sets, microwaves, tablets, sound bars and other speakers, cameras, streaming players, and more. Some of the can’t miss deals include these $79 Samsung Galaxy Buds, this Lenovo laptop on sale for $299.99 (regular $499.99) and smart TVs starting at $79.
Coach Outlet — Save up to 70% off until Feb. 21; Save 30-50% off plush free shipping at Coach with code: FREESHIP (offer ends Feb. 28).
Cozy Earth — Save 20-20% off sitewide (sale ends 2/24).
Dyson — The bestselling Dyson Airwrap isn’t on sale but shoppers can save $100 on the Dyson V12 Defect Absolute cordless vacuum. Offer ends Feb. 26.
Free People – While there’s no official President’s Day sales extravaganza at Free People the fashion brand has a lot of great sales right now. For example, this denim skirt, long sleeve shirt and other items on sale for $19.95 and up.
Forever 21 — Up to 70% on select styles during the President’s Day Sale.
G-Shock — Save up to 50% off sale items at G-Shock. Click here to shop watches starting at $69.99.
GameStop – Save on Anime collectibles including GameStop exclusives and take an extra 30% off clearance items. The holiday weekend coincides with this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend and GameStop shoppers cop NBA 2K23 on sale.
J Crew — Extra 60% off select styles + 40% off almost everything (use code: WEEKEND).
Macy’s — Save 20-60% off and free shipping on purchases of $25. Shop the Macy’s lingerie sale and save 50% off bras, pajamas, underwear and more (ends 2/20).
Net-a-Porter – You won’t find a designated sale for President’s Day, but Net-A-Porter has amazing markdowns of up to 80% off clothing, shoes, accessories and beauty products. Some of the deals include this Christopher Esber Cutout Halterneck Swimsuit marked down 60%, these distressed jeans by Nili Lotan are 70% off and these Sablyn stretch jersey shorts are 60% off.
New Balance — Take 20% off select styles. Sale ends 2/24.
Nike — Whether you’re updating your sneaker collection or shopping for activewear, there’s a good chance that you can find what you need on sale at Nike. Nike app members save 25% off select styles (use code: MEMBERS25). If you’re not a member use code: JOIN20 for an extra 20% off and clearance deals up to 40% off .
Nordstrom – Save up to 50% off select items during the Nordstrom winter sale. Some of the hot deals include these UGG Maxi Curly Slippers which are on sale for $71.50. Shoppers can also save up to 60% off Zella High Waist Studio Lite Pocket 7/8 Leggings and Mac Lip Primer and up to 80% off men’s jackets. Visit the Nordstrom website for more deals on apparel, beauty products and jewelry and other best-sellers.
Purple Mattress — Save up to $900 on mattress sets and up to 25% off sleep accessories.
Reebok — Get 40% off sitewide with code: OHYEAH.
Saatva — Get up to $500 off during Saavta’s biggest Presidents Day discount ever. Sale ends 2/20.
Sephora — Save up to 50% off select beauty at Sephora during the Long Weekend Sale. Offer ends 2/20.
ShopDisney — 30% off toys, clothing and more with code: SAVE30. Free shipping on order $75+ with code: SHIPMAGIC.
Target – Shop four days of deals at Target. Bargain hunters will save up to 50% off headphones and earbuds, up to to 30% off gaming accessories, up to 20% off clothing, mattresses and bedding, floor care items (such as vacuum cleaners) and up to 30% off furniture, rugs and other home décor items.
Timberland — Save 40% off these Tree Vault Boots (on sale for $159.99) and more during Timberland’s end-of-season sale.
The North Face — Up to 30% off select styles during The North Face’s end-of-season sale.
Tory Burch — Up to 50% off hundreds of sale items.
Tuft & Needle — Save up to $625 on mattresses, plus up to 30% off bedding, furniture and more.
Ulta Beauty – Get a free 10-piece makeup bag when you spend $19.50+ on select items; plus free shipping on purchases of $35+.
Urban Outfitters — Save an extra 40% off sale styles.
Quay Australia — 30% off sitewide (offer valid from 2/17-2/20).
Walmart– When it comes to Walmart, you don’t necessarily have to wait for a holiday weekend to find great deals. Nonetheless, the retailer is offering sales on all kinds of items — laptops, TVs, car seats, earbuds, clothing, makeup, movies and more.
Baton
Baton is a collaboration platform that solves chain of custody for work in progress material, ensuring artists are properly credited and compensated for their work. Think of them a bit like GitHub for music.
Since launching a private beta this past fall, Baton has helped connect hundreds of artists with multiple Grammy-winners and has protected the IP of thousands of songs.
The team is a mix of creative technologists from NYU ITP, an “art school for engineers or an engineering school for artists” and industry veterans that have spent over a decade working with many of the largest artists in the world.
Gabe Warshaw, CEO & Founder, Baton said, “The vast majority of music that gets made never gets released. So much of it is incredible, and it’s never been easier to create without a professional studio. At the same time, remote collaboration has left creators increasingly vulnerable to stolen IP. Baton is building an ecosystem that helps musicians find their people. It allows material to be worked on and shared safely with anyone in the world, so creators know that wherever their work ends up, they’ll get credited and compensated in the way they should.”
BEEPR
BEEPR allows fans to opt-in to push notifications about music from their favorite artists, creating ephemeral moments between fans with shared interests. Launched in Summer 2020, BEEPR has garnered 300,000 registered users and 100,000 monthly active users with $0 spent on marketing. BEEPR has helped DSP’s gain over 70 million streams this year. BEEPR’s goal is to create moments in music powered by push notifications.
Jake Zinn, CEO & Founder, BEEPR stated, “Technology has made the music listening experience more convenient. While the streaming services have provided fans what they want to hear, BEEPR provides when they want to hear it.”
Confetti
Confetti is a content creation and live-streaming app that enables couples to get the most out of their weddings by empowering in-person and virtual guests to create fun and memorable content through custom prompts. Say goodbye to stale photos, videos, and your aunt going live on FaceBook, and say hello to beautiful and unforgettable memories that will last a lifetime, whether you’re seated at Table 8 or 3,000 miles away. With Confetti, you have one less thing to worry about on your big day.
Andrew Vuu, CEO, Confetti, said: “Today, wedding guests are creating amazing content and sharing media, which has generated hundreds of billions of impressions on social platforms. However, the problem is that the only way couples can access this great content is through clunky shared albums or by harassing people via text. Currently, we are revolutionizing the wedding industry by providing social media communities with front-row access to their favorite creators’ biggest day through our platform. We are on track to reach 100 million fans across 10 different countries over the next year and have organically generated over 15 million social media views on our path to transform the wedding experience. We are thrilled to extend the power of Confetti to couples everywhere this summer.”
Five Mics
Five Mics is a digital hip-hop trading card game (think Yugioh or Hearthstone, but with rappers and DJs, not elves and dragons). Players construct their decks based around different card styles and can choose to play either casually with friends or competitively in tournaments. With each win, players can also earn new cards, which they own and can collect, trade, or gift to other players.
The collectible card game market is expected to reach $32B by 2027, and hip-hop (the #1 streaming genre in the US accounting for $2.7B in 2021) is arguably the most popular music genre in the world, influencing Latin Trap, Afrobeats, K-Hip-Hop, and more around the globe. Five Mics is determined to bring the two together in an authentic way never before seen, made by the culture, for the culture.
Ace Patterson, CEO, Five Mics, added: “Go on Twitch right now, and more likely than not you’ll find gamers streaming while playing hip-hop music. That’s the dope thing about hip-hop: it’s truly universal. It’s not just for ‘some’ people – it’s for ALL people. And as someone that’s both a hip-hop artist that loves playing trading card games, I truly believe that combining both worlds will impact culture in a seismic way.”
Haven
Haven’s network of event & lifestyle brands host sound-based experiences in stunning outdoor & unconventional indoor spaces. It could be a harpist in a canyon at sunset for Floating or a pioneering composer performing in a historic cathedral for Ambient Church, over 16,000 people gathered with us (in person!) this past year in NYC, LA, Chicago, Portland and Seattle. Other investors include 6lack, Oleg Stavitsky (Co-Founder / CEO, Endel), and Anthony Batt (Founder, SpinMedia).
Brian Schopfel, CEO, Haven, said: “Tech, entertainment and wellness industries have continued to become more algorithmic, reward based, and impersonal; only fueling burnout long term. Haven encourages being vs. doing, inclusion vs. achievement, and IRL vs. URL, and we’re thrilled to be a part of the Techstars Music program to continue to learn, grow and share our experiences with as many people as possible.”
Highly Liquid
Highly Liquid is a streetwear brand born on the internet: a fashion house that combines both digital and physical worlds to create limited-edition drops of apparel, software, and CPG. Our products are designed to spark meaningful conversations around sexuality, gender, and identity, and their role within the financial landscape.
Izzy Howell, CEO, Highly Liquid, said: “Selling panties on the internet doesn’t really sound like the start of a revolution, but by creating NFTs that can be redeemed for IRL panties that say ‘highly liquid’ on the crotch, we are effectively starting a new wave in streetwear – one that puts hyper-femininity at the forefront of culture.”
HomeRoom
HomeRoom is a software platform that unlocks the powerful growth potential of online communities. In the digital age, it’s become increasingly difficult for businesses, creators, and musicians to cut through the noise. HomeRoom provides a suite of tools to enable community leaders to save time with their daily tasks, analytics to measure success, and plugins for hosting memorable community events.
Launched to the public in September 2022, HomeRoom now powers 170+ communities of over 200k combined members and has scaled to $22k MRR with only 70 paying customers. With integrations planned for Twitch, Mastodon, and GitHub by the end of 2023, HomeRoom is building the “Google Analytics for community.”
Arjay Ruggles, CEO, HomeRoom says: ”Audiences are exhausted by the deluge of ads inserted into every aspect of their online experience and have turned to online communities as a source of respite. In response, we’ve seen several companies capitalize on the moment: AirBnB ramped up their community strategy in 2020, cut their marketing spend in half for two years in a row, and have reached a $71 Billion market cap. I believe all businesses and creators should have access to the tools necessary to build the same opportunities for themselves. Community is the future of growth, and HomeRoom is building the foundation upon which all businesses can thrive.”
OBEYme
OBEYme is a social platform where African music fans compete to make songs go viral globally by hosting virtual parties. The most engaging users are rewarded with a pro-rata share of net subscription revenues daily. The result: African tastemakers can host the continent’s hottest parties but also monetize their local influence sustainably. In its first 3 months, 50k South African youth party-hopped virtually on OBEYme’s Beta platform.
Ygor Francisco, CEO/founder, OBEYme, stated: “The time is ripe for leveraging a music-based social platform that rewards Africa’s most influential music fans for driving the culture. Pop culture is dominated by Afrobeats and Amapiano, yet offers African fans and artists disproportionate compensation for their contribution to global music culture.”
RYLTY
RYLTY is a back-office application that helps music catalog owners maximize their investments. The first tool scans owners’ catalogs to seek out errors and omissions that cause royalty underpayments. What used to take a team of royalty accountants, analysts, and administrators days to complete, can now be done with the push of a button. To date, RYLTY has corrected over 3,000 errors and recovered more than $20 million in catalog value. Select customers include Tempo Music, Influence Media Partners, Doja Cat, Troye Sivan, and J.I.D.
Nicholas Judd, CEO, RYLTY, said: “You can’t build a company like ours in a bubble and Techstars Music is the perfect partner to help us expand our reach to help more musicians and catalog owners. We are taking a practical, multi-disciplinary approach to solve this multi-billion dollar problem. Our team is made up of some of the brightest minds in both music and fintech allowing us to take what used to be a manual process and scale it to reach every recording artist, songwriter, and catalog owner in the music industry.”
Seed
Even though Latin artists dominate the music industry today, there’s at least 25 million Latin music creators that don’t have access to music business education, losing time, money and opportunities.
Seed helps Latin music creators and their teams navigate the music industry, protect their rights and make money through an ever-growing catalog of online courses and community. Think of a private business school minus the crippling debt.
In just 15 months, Seed has enrolled more than 921 students from 36 countries, made almost half a million dollars in revenue, and closed more than 5 corporate partnerships. If you want to become a music business professional or entrepreneur, join Seed today!
Alexiomar Rodriguez, CEO, Seed, stated: “The Latin music market is a driving force behind the global music industry, with US Latin music revenues reaching $1 billion in 2022. However, in many Latin American countries, there are no music business schools, and most Latin music creators and aspiring professionals can’t afford to move to the US to attend a university and pay $40,000 in tuition per year. As a music lawyer and producer, I believe bridging this gap will open a whole new world of possibilities.”
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Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk publicly ventured that he may tab someone else to run Twitter before year’s end.
According to reports, Musk told an assembled group at the World Government Summit on Wednesday (Feb. 15th) that he is aiming to pick someone to replace him as CEO of Twitter. Musk officially acquired the social media company for $44 billion last October.
“I’m guessing probably towards the end of this year should be good timing to find someone else to run the company,” he said via video, as he was joining the conference from Dubai. Remarking that “it has been a rollercoaster” in terms of his management of Twitter since last fall, Musk expressed a general idea of how he’d go about the change.
“I need to stabilise the organisation and make sure it’s in a healthy place and that the product roadmap is clearly laid out… I think it should be in a stable position around the end of this year,” he stated.
The South African-born billionaire first mentioned his desire to hand off the position on December 21st, saying that he would focus on software and server engineering the moment “someone foolish enough” took over the role.
Musk has remained under constant criticism for his handling of Twitter since his acquisition. Right-wing trolls, neo-Nazis and other controversial figures who have had their accounts suspended for their actions reinstated by the Tesla founder.
Others have complained about layoffs of personnel that have been important in terms of platform safety and malfunctions in usage. Last week, a rollout of a feature where users who signed up to Twitter Blue (for $8 a month) could post tweets with 4,000 characters caused major glitches.
Another issue for Musk is related to his Tesla company. Since buying Twitter, critics have expressed that he has been neglecting the affairs of that company as well as others. The result has seen Tesla shares drop significantly since last October.
Napster announced that it acquired Mint Songs, a music NFT marketplace that aims to help artists establish a thriving Web3 presence, on Wednesday (Feb. 15). The acquisition brings together a streaming service with a platform focused on creating digital collectibles.
Jon Vlassopulos, CEO of Napster, said in a statement that Mint Songs “have done groundbreaking work helping thousands of artists get their start in Web3, reach their fans in new creative ways through collectibles, and unlock significant new revenue streams.”
“We feel that the natural next step for the Napster service is to include collectibles that fans can get as rewards for engaging with artists they love or that they can purchase to collect and share,” he added to Forbes. “We already have hundreds of thousands of artist storefronts where our fans go to listen to music every day so adding collectibles is very contextual in the fan experience.”
Garrett Hughes, co-founder and CTO of Mint Songs, said in a statement that Napster has “the vision to finally take Web3 music to the mainstream.” “Our goal all along has been to create deep, engaging, and innovative ways for artists to connect with fans that also offer them an opportunity to monetize that fandom,” he continued. “Conversely, we see a demand from fans for a music service to offer more than just on-demand music and podcasts, which makes Napster’s ambitious goals all the more attractive.”
Mint Songs’ Nathan Pham will join Napster to lead Web3 product initiatives, while Hughes will serve as an advisor to the company and “work closely with Vlassopulos to integrate Mint Songs’ technology into the Napster platform,” according to the acquisition announcement.
Last year, Napster was acquired by a pair of companies with Web3 experience: Hivemind and Algorand. Vlassopulos, who had spent close to three years at Roblox, took over as Napster CEO in September. “We want to bring the community together and enable the artists, with the data we have, to activate their communities around things like access to physical events and digital experiences,” he said at the time. Napster then launched Napster Ventures for the purpose of acquiring Web3 music startups.
Matt Zhang, founder and managing partner of Hivemind, applauded the Mint Songs acquisition on Wednesday. “We are excited for Napster to be a central player in the music Web3 ecosystem and acquiring Mint Songs is a great foundational step,” he said in a statement. “The combination of Napster’s continued innovation that powers the platform currently along with Mint Songs’ technology IP and expertise, will help drive Web3 innovation for the music industry.”
Elon Musk said Wednesday that he anticipates finding a CEO for Twitter “probably toward the end of this year.”
Speaking via a video call to the World Government Summit in Dubai, Musk said making sure the platform can function remained the most important thing for him.
“I think I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financial healthy place,” Musk said when asked about when he’d name a CEO. “I’m guessing probably toward the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company.”
It remains unclear how seriously Musk will take that timeline. His comment came only hours after he posted images of his shiba inu dog, Floki, on Twitter as the company’s “CEO.”
“So much better than that other guy!” wrote Musk, who often posts memes. After making the posts, a cryptocurrency known as Dogecoin, based around the image of a shiba inu meme, rose in value by around 5%. Musk previously has suggested Twitter accept Dogecoin in transactions.
Musk, 51, made his wealth initially on the finance website PayPal, then created the spacecraft company SpaceX and invested in the electric car company Tesla. In recent months, however, more attention has been focused on the chaos surrounding his $44 billion purchase of the microblogging site Twitter.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military’s use of Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink as it defends itself against Russia’s ongoing invasion has put Musk off and on at the center of the war.
Musk offered a wide-ranging 35-minute discussion that touched on the billionaire’s fears about artificial intelligence, the collapse of civilization and the possibility of space aliens. But questions about Twitter kept coming back up as Musk described both Tesla and SpaceX as able to function without his direct, day-to-day involvement.
“Twitter is still somewhat a startup in reverse,” he said. “There’s work required here to get Twitter to sort of a stable position and to really build the engine of software engineering.”
Musk also sought to portray his takeover of San Francisco-based Twitter as a cultural correction. Since taking over the company, he’s restored Donald Trump’s access to the platform after the then-president lost access to the website after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Musk also reinstated the accounts of several people who spread misinformation about the coronavirus, including that of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
“I think that the general idea is just to reflect the values of the people as opposed to imposing the values of essentially San Francisco and Berkeley, which are so somewhat of a niche ideology as compared to the rest of the world,” Musk said. “And, you know, Twitter was, I think, doing a little too much to impose a niche.”
Musk’s takeover at Twitter has seen mass firings and other cost-cutting measures. Musk, who is on the hook for about $1 billion in yearly interest payments for his purchase, has been trying to find way to maximize profits at the company.
However, some of Musk’s decisions have conflicted with the reasons that journalists, governments and others rely on Twitter as an information-sharing platform.
Musk on Wednesday described the need for users to rely on Twitter for trusted information from verified accounts. However, a confused rollout to a paid verified account system saw some impersonate famous companies, leading to a further withdrawal of needed advertising cash to the site.
“Twitter is certainly quite the rollercoaster,” Musk acknowledged.
Forbes estimates Musk’s wealth at just under $200 billion. The Forbes analysis ranks Musk as the second-wealthiest person on Earth, just behind French luxury brand magnate Bernard Arnault.
But Musk also has become a thought leader for some as well, albeit an oracle that is trying to get six hours of sleep a night despite the challenges at Twitter.
Musk described his children as being “programmed by Reddit and YouTube.” However, he criticized the Chinese-made social media app TikTok.
‘“TikTok has a lot of very high usage (but) I often hear people say, ‘Well, I spent two hours on TikTok, but I regret those two hours,’” Musk said. “We don’t want that to be the case with Twitter.”
TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk warned that artificial intelligence should be regulated “very carefully,” describing it as akin to the promise of nuclear power but the danger of atomic bombs. He also cautioned against having a single civilization or “too much cooperation” on Earth, saying it could “collapse” a society that’s like a “tiny candle in a vast darkness.”
And when asked about the existence of aliens, Musk had a firm response.
“The crazy thing is, I’ve seen no evidence of alien technology or alien life whatsoever. And I think I’d know because of SpaceX,” he said. “I don’t think anybody knows more about space, you know, than me.”
Former Warner Music Group (WMG) CEO Stephen Cooper has joined the board of directors for Web3 company OneOf, it was announced Wednesday (Feb. 15).
“I am excited about how technology can reshape the future of music, entertainment and business models for many industries,” said Cooper in a statement. “OneOf has a stellar team and deep expertise in providing next generation Web3 technology to enterprises and brands. I look forward to serving on OneOf’s Board of Directors to help guide and accelerate their growth.”
During Cooper’s time as WMG CEO, the company became the most aggressive of the three major labels in embracing Web3 and the metaverse. Under the guidance of chief digital officer/executive vp of business development Oana Ruxandra — who Cooper first brought to WMG in 2012 and who returned in 2018 following a two-year stint at UMG — the company forged partnerships with and/or invested in NFT platforms like Blockparty and The Sandbox, avatar tech company Genies, immersive tech company Wave, blockchain startup Dapper Labs and OneOf, which signed a deal with WMG in January 2022 to create exclusive NFTs for the company’s artists.
In addition to its B2B pursuits, OneOf has a consumer-facing Web3 marketplace, OneOf.com, which is home to digital collectibles for artists including Doja Cat, The Notorious B.I.G. and Whitney Houston.
Cooper’s tenure as WMG CEO lasted from August 2011 to January 2023, when he was succeeded by former YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl. Prior to WMG, Cooper served as CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), CEO of Hawaiian Telecom, executive chairman of Blue Bird Corporation, executive chairman of Collins & Aikman Corporation, CEO of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and CEO/chief restructuring officer at Enron Corporation.
“We are thrilled to welcome Steve to join our board and leadership team,” said OneOf founder/CEO Lin Dai. “Web3 will revolutionize how brands connect with the consumers of the future. Steve’s expertise across music, entertainment, and consumer brands is the perfect addition to OneOf’s leadership team. With his guidance, we look forward to advancing our mission to lower the barriers to entry into Web3 for enterprises and consumers alike.”
TikTok is working on a feature that will allow creators to charge a price of their own choosing for some videos, according to The Information.
In addition, the popular app is rethinking its creator fund and experimenting with a change that would pay out more to creators than the initial version of the program, The Information reports. The new iteration of the fund may also potentially change the limits of who is eligible; creators might need to have more than 100,000 followers, for example. This “Creator Fund 2.0” could launch as early as March.
“We’re committed to exploring new ways to create a valuable and rewarding experience for the TikTok creator community,” a TikTok spokesperson says in an email. “On TikTok, anyone can be a creator and everyone can enjoy entertainment from our inspiring creators, and we aim to continue innovating this experience so people can express themselves, find their community, and be rewarded for their creativity.”
TikTok originally launched its creator fund in the summer of 2020 with $200 million “to help support ambitious creators who are seeking opportunities to foster a livelihood through their innovative content.” Shortly after, TikTok announced that the fund would eventually grow to more than $1 billion in the United States.
While TikTok’s growth has been meteoric in the last few years, it actually slowed in the United States in 2022, according to The Information, which reports that after the platform hit 114 million monthly users in June, the number has since decreased to 111 million.
As TikTok explores these new features, the company is also engaged in another test in Australia, where the platform is temporarily restricting the use of major-label songs in videos. “This will only affect certain music and is scheduled work while we analyze how sounds are accessed and added to videos, as well as looking to improve and enhance the wider Sounds Library,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement. “We appreciate it’s disappointing if a certain track is unavailable or if a sound is muted on a previous video. This change will not be in place for long and not all music is affected.”
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Twitter
Many Twitter users were experiencing bizarre issues that made the social media platform unusable.
Elon Musk’s Twitter is an absolute mess, and users let bootleg Tony Stark know it. Wednesday afternoon, around 4:45 pm, per the New York Times reporting, Twitter’s core features, like direct messages and tweets, were not working for many users for several hours.
Around 6:30 pm, Twitter acknowledged the issues and said it was working to fix the issues in a tweet. “Twitter may not be working as expected for some of you. Sorry for the trouble. We’re aware and working to get this fixed,” the company’s support account said.
While some users could send tweets, others got a message incorrectly telling them they were “over the daily limit for sending Tweets.” Even retweets were not working when users attempted to send one, and they would get this “Sorry! You’ve have exceeded your Tweet limit. Try retweet again tomorrow” message.
The ability to follow accounts was also not working for many. Rex Chapman and many others shared the issue on their timelines.
Was This Done On Purpose?
The Hollywood Reporter reports the company is limiting users to 2,400 tweets a day, significantly impacting businesses and individual accounts.
Per THR:
The company, under Elon Musk, is now placing limits to the number of direct messages and tweets that a user can send per day, according to a page on Twitter’s Help Center site. The daily tweet limit is 2,400, but the site notes, “the daily update limit is further broken down into smaller limits for semi-hourly intervals.” Retweets also count toward that limit.
In response to the THR report, the company claims, “The “limits” mentioned in the article are not new, and were not just implemented today. They have been the policy since 2019 on Twitter.”
Regardless of what they say, there is no denying after Elon Musk reluctantly acquired the platform for $44 billion, it’s been a hot mess, and users are letting him know that.
You can see the reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
2. Accurate
5. Another interesting problem