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Elon Musk’s Twitter Inc. TWTR-N on Friday brought back the “official” badge to some accounts, just days after doing away with it, while several users reported the new subscription option for the blue verification check mark had disappeared. The move follows a surge in fake accounts on the platform after new boss Elon Musk allowed users to pay US$8 for the coveted blue check mark that was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, actors and other major personalities. Fake accounts of several big brands have popped up with the blue check, including Mr. Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX as well as Roblox, Nestle and Lockheed Martin. “To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account – which has the “official” tag – tweeted on Friday. Mr. Musk on Wednesday tweeted he had “killed” the new label, just hours after rolling it out. Drug maker Eli Lilly and Co. issued an apology after an imposter account tweeted that insulin would be fr...

Tesla has considered plans for exporting made-in-China electric vehicles to the United States and Canada, two people with knowledge of the planning told Reuters, a step that would connect its largest factory to North America, its largest market. Tesla has been evaluating whether Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles made in Gigafactory Shanghai could be sold in North America as soon as next year, according to the people, who declined to be named because the process was confidential. Tesla’s evaluation has included consideration of whether parts made by Tesla’s China-based suppliers would be compliant with regulations in the United States and Canada, they said. The Shanghai plant has been working toward an initial plan for a small-batch test run of production of vehicles in the first quarter of 2023 that would be compliant with North American standards for potential export, one of the people said. After Reuters published its article on Friday, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, in a Twi...

Twitter Blue will probably “come back end of next week,” billionaire owner Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday. Twitter on Friday paused its recently announced $8 blue check subscription service on Friday as fake accounts mushroomed. The coveted blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out earlier this week to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers. Several users reported on Friday that the new subscription option for the blue verification check mark had disappeared, while a source told Reuters the offering has been dropped. “To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account - which has the “official” tag - tweeted on Friday. The label was originally introduced on Wednesday - but “killed” by Musk just hours later. On Thursday, in his first com...

Twitter’s billionaire owner Elon Musk on Sunday said that Twitter will soon enable organizations to identify twitter accounts associated with them as the new Twitter owner continues to find ways to limit fake accounts on the platform. “Rolling out soon,” Musk in a tweet on Sunday said. “Twitter will enable organizations to identify which other Twitter accounts are actually associated with them.” He did not elaborate. The social media platform paused its recently announced $8 blue check subscription service on Friday as fake accounts mushroomed, and new owner Elon Musk brought back the “official” badge to some users of the social media platform. Fake accounts purporting to be big brands have popped up with the blue check since the new roll-out, including Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX, as well as Roblox, Nestle and Lockheed Martin . Musk in a tweet yesterday said that Twitter Blue will probably “come back end of next week”. Twitter Inc’s new owner Elon Musk on Thursday raised the possibility...

Tesla founder Elon Musk attends Offshore Northern Seas 2022, in Stavanger, Norway, on Aug. 29. NTB/Reuters A trial over shareholder allegations that Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk’s $56-billion pay package was based on easy to achieve performance targets and that investors were duped into approving it began on Monday, with Musk slated to take the stand later this week. A Tesla TSLA-Q shareholder hopes to prove during the five-day trial that Musk used his dominance over the electric vehicle maker’s board to dictate terms of the 2018 package, which did not require him to work at Tesla full-time. Musk, the world’s richest person, will testify on Wednesday, Greg Varallo, an attorney for shareholder Richard Tornetta, told a court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday. The trial began with Ira Ehrenpreis, a Tesla board member since 2007 and chair of the committee that oversaw the pay package, describing the thinking behind the record-breaking compensation deal. “I wanted to make sure that El...

SpaceX has bought an advertising package on Twitter for its satellite internet service Starlink, said Elon Musk, who owns the rocket company and the social media platform that is seeing an exodus of advertisers. “SpaceX Starlink bought a tiny – not large – ad package to test effectiveness of Twitter advertising in Australia & Spain. Did same for FB/Insta/Google,” Musk tweeted on Monday. Twitter TWTR-N, which generated more than 90 per cent of its second-quarter revenue from ad sales, has seen advertisers flee on fears that Musk would change the company’s content moderation rules. Companies including General Motors Co, General Mills , Mondelez International and Volkswagen AG paused advertising on the platform after Musk acquired it last month. “At the moment, most clients are suspending their activities (on Twitter) because they’re worried about extreme content and content moderation on the site,” S4 Capital’s Martin Sorrell said. The chief executive of Tesla Inc and SpaceX had la...

Elon Musk sent a message to Twitter Inc TWTR-N staff telling them they had until Thursday to decide whether they wanted to stay on at the company to work “long hours at high intensity” or take a severance package of three months pay. Musk told Twitter employees that anyone who had not clicked on a link confirming “you want to be part of the new Twitter” by Thursday evening New York time would be considered to have quit. A copy of the message, which was reported by The Washington Post, was reviewed by Reuters. Three sources who had received the message at Twitter confirmed its content. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The latest move to restructure the company comes after Twitter slashed half of its workforce earlier this month as Musk took control of the social media company. Musk has criticized Twitter’s spending and work culture, and said that the company needs steep cost cuts and a reboot of its services. “Going forward, to build a breakth...

After five days of testimony, including three hours from Elon Musk, a Delaware judge will now decide whether Musk’s $56-billion pay package from Tesla Inc was justified by the company’s explosive growth or undermined by a flawed process. Musk and the Tesla directors named as defendants repeatedly testified that the package achieved what it set out to do – deliver 10-fold growth in the company’s stock price, enriching investors and Musk. “We thought if we could pull this off, if this plan was executed, Tesla would be one of the most valuable technology companies,” Antonio Gracias, a Tesla board member from 2007 to 2021, told the Delaware Court of Chancery on Wednesday. “It was a great deal for the shareholders.” The trial seeks to resolve claims by shareholder Richard Tornetta that the 2018 pay package was dictated by Musk, the world’s richest person, to subservient directors and approved by a vote of shareholders who were misled by Tesla. The trial wrapped up on Friday, as Musk strug...

A sign at Twitter headquarters is shown in San Francisco, Nov. 18, 2022. Jeff Chiu/The Associated Press Elon Musk reinstated Donald Trump’s account on Twitter on Saturday, reversing a ban that has kept the former president off the social media site since a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was poised to certify Joe Biden’s election victory. Musk made the announcement in the evening after holding a poll that asked Twitter users to click “yes” or “no” on whether Trump’s account should be restored. The “yes” vote won, with 51.2 per cent. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted, using a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God.” Shortly afterward Trump’s account, which earlier had appeared as suspended, reappeared on the platform along with his former tweets, more than 59,000 of them. His former followers were gone, but the account quickly picked up hundreds of thousands of them. It is...

U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks at a news conference where she introduced a resolution to investigate funding for Ukraine, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 17. AMANDA ANDRADE-RHOADES/The Associated Press Elon Musk’s Twitter TWTR-N has reinstated the personal account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which was banned in January for violating the platform’s COVID misinformation policies at the time. Greene’s reinstatement comes after Musk over the weekend reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump, who was banned in the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol in 2021. Twitter – at the time – feared there was a risk of further incitement to violence if Trump was allowed to remain on the platform. Trump himself has said he won’t return to Twitter and as of Monday had not yet tweeted since the reinstatement, although he also hasn’t deleted his account. Musk apparently based his decision to allow Trump back on the site on an unscienti...

A coalition of civil rights activists on Monday were urging Twitter’s advertisers to issue statements about pulling their ads off the social media platform after its owner Elon Musk lifted the ban on tweets by former U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump’s account, which Twitter had suspended after the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 citing the risk of further incitement of violence, was reinstated over the weekend. Some 90% of Twitter’s revenue comes from selling digital ads. The groups in the Stop Toxic Twitter coalition complained that Musk had vowed to advertisers that Twitter would take a considered approach to reinstating banned accounts and convene a new content moderation council. No such council has been created as of Monday. “It was a real breach,” Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, a left-leaning media watchdog that is part of the coalition, said on Monday. He said Musk “was lying from the beginning.” “In less than three weeks Musk has gone back on every promise h...

Elon Musk speaks during an event at the E3 gaming convention, in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 13, 2019. Mike Blake/Reuters Put off by Elon Musk’s muscular management style? Move to us! That’s the pitch being used by talent-starved technology firms trying to lure thousands of former Twitter Inc TWTR-N employees laid off by the social media company under its new owner. Twitter has fired top executives and enforced steep job cuts with little warning following Musk’s tumultuous takeover of the social media platform. About half of the work force – around 3,700 employees – has been laid off. Hundreds more are reported to have quit as a result of his sweeping reforms. On Monday, the head of French operations was the latest senior manager to leave. Spying opportunity, some companies are now trying to pick up experienced engineering talent by appealing to their disdain for the methods of the world’s richest person. Katie Burke, chief people officer at U.S. software company Hubspot, blasted Mu...

In the month since Musk took over Twitter, groups that monitor the platform for racist, anti-Semitic and other toxic speech say it’s been on the rise on the world’s de facto public square. Gregory Bull/The Associated Press New Twitter owner Elon Musk said Thursday that he is granting “amnesty” for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation. The billionaire’s announcement came after he asked in a poll posted to his timeline to vote on reinstatements for accounts that have not “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.” The yes vote was 72%. “The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted using a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God.” Musk used the same Latin phrase after posting a similar poll last last weekend before reinstating the account of former President Donald Trump, which Twitter had banned for encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol in...

Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the blue check service next Friday, CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet. Reuters Twitter Inc is planning to roll out its verified service next Friday with different coloured checks for individuals, companies and governments, after a botched initial launch led to a surge in users impersonating celebrities and brands on the platform. Chief Executive Elon Musk on Friday allotted colours for the categories – gold for companies, grey for governments and a blue check for individuals including celebrities. “Painful, but necessary,” he said, adding that verified accounts will be manually authenticated before a check is activated. The revamped $8-per-month service will allow individuals to have a smaller, secondary logo of their organizations if verified by them, he said in another tweet on Friday. “Longer explanation next week.” The social media platform on Monday delayed its relaunch to make it foolproof as the service is e...

Tesla Model 3 vehicles during a delivery event in Shanghai, China, on Jan. 7, 2020. Aly Song/Reuters Tesla is developing a revamped version of Model 3, according to four people with knowledge of the effort, as the top EV maker aims to cut production costs and boost the appeal of the five-year-old electric sedan. One focus of the redesign code-named “Highland” is to reduce the number of components and complexity in the interior of the Model 3 while focusing on features that Tesla TSLA-Q buyers value, including the display, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the revamp has not been announced. The previously unreported redesign comes as the electric sedan faces increased competition from models from the likes of China’s BYD, Hyundai and coming releases from other major automakers. The revamp of the battery-powered sedan, which could also include some changes to the Model 3′s exterior and powertrain performance, will go into production at Tesla’s factory in Shangh...

Elon Musk said on Monday that Apple Inc AAPL-Q has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter, the most high-profile company to pull ads from the social media platform over concerns about content moderation policies under its new owner. The move aligns the iPhone maker with a rising list of firms from General Mills Inc to luxury automaker Audi of America that have stopped or paused advertising on Twitter since the billionaire’s $44-billion buyout last month. “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?,” Musk said in a tweet. He later tagged Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s Twitter account in another tweet, asking “what’s going on here?” Musk said “yes” in response to a user question on whether Apple was threatening Twitter’s presence in the App Store or making moderation demands. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The world’s most valuable firm spent an estimated $131,600 on Twitter ads between Nov. 10 and Nov. 16...

A top European Union official warned Elon Musk on Wednesday that Twitter needs to beef up measures to protect users from hate speech, misinformation and other harmful content to avoid violating new rules that threaten tech giants with big fines or even a ban in the 27-nation bloc. Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for digital policy, told the billionaire Tesla CEO that the social media platform will have to significantly increase efforts to comply with the new rules, known as the Digital Services Act , set to take effect next year. The two held a video call to discuss Twitter’s preparedness for the law, which will require tech companies to better police their platforms for material that, for instance, promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams. It’s part of a new digital rule book that has made Europe the global leader in the push to rein in the power of social media companies, potentially setting up a clash with Musk’s vision for a more unfettered T...

Elon Musk on Wednesday tweeted that the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from Apple Inc’s AAPL-Q App Store was resolved following his meeting with the iPhone maker’s Chief Executive Tim Cook. “Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so,” the billionaire CEO of Twitter and Tesla Inc said in a tweet. On Monday, Musk had accused Apple of threatening to block Twitter from its app store without saying why in a series of tweets that also said it had stopped advertising on the social media platform. He had later tagged Cook’s Twitter account in another tweet, asking “what’s going on here?” Twitter and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Musk’s latest tweet. Apple has not responded publicly to Musk’s earlier tweets. Among the list of grievances tweeted by Musk on Monday was the up to 30 per cent fee Apple charges software developers for in-app purchases, with Musk posting a meme suggesting he was willing to “go to war” with Apple rathe...

A Tesla sign in Taipei, Taiwan, on Aug. 11, 2017. TYRONE SIU/Reuters Tesla TSLA-Q is set to unveil on Thursday its long-delayed Semi, a 18-wheeler heavy duty vehicle that has faced skepticism from industry experts who doubt battery electric trucks can take the strain of hauling hefty loads for hundreds of miles. The launch marks the electric carmaker’s first foray into the trucking business as U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is set to offer a generous $40,000 tax credit for clean commercial vehicles. At the unveiling event in Tesla’s battery factory in Nevada, analysts will look for details such as pricing, how much freight the Semi can carry, and its charging speed. Chief Executive Elon Musk initially said the trucks would be in production by 2019, but that was delayed due to battery constraints. In 2017, Tesla said the 500 mile (805 kilometre) range Semi to be priced at $180,000. The billionaire, who now runs five companies after buying Twitter, has a record of overpromis...

Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc are planning to resume advertising on Twitter, according to media reports on Saturday. The developments follow an e-mail sent by Twitter on Thursday to advertising agencies offering advertisers incentives to increase their spending on the platform, an effort to jump-start its business after Elon Musk’s takeover prompted many companies to pull back. Twitter billed the offer as the “biggest advertiser incentive ever on Twitter,” according to the email reviewed by Reuters. U.S. advertisers who book $500,000 in incremental spending will qualify to have their spending matched with a “100% value add,” up to a $1 million cap, the email said. On Saturday, a Platformer News reporter tweeted that Amazon is planning to resume advertising on Twitter at about $100 million a year, pending some security tweaks to the company’s ads platform. However, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Amazon had never stopped advertising on Twitter. Separately, during a ...