NEWS: X is complying with more German requests compared to pre-acquisition when it comes to identifying users in Hate speech cases, German prosecutors say.
This has raised concerns among civil liberties advocates, due to the strict and broad nature of Germany's hate speech laws.
it is speculated that reductions in European staff could explain the move towards greater compliance. However, this comes in contrast to other countries such as Turkey and India, where X continues to legally contest censorship demands.
NEWS: Stanford internet Observatory (SIO) is shutting down.
‘Twitter Files’ revealed that SIO actively collaborated with Twitter to suppress information they knew was factually true.
Stanford Internet Observatory’s Virality Project had countless people—mostly Stanford students—reporting millions of Twitter posts that didn't comply with theirstandards.
Even posts that were factually true faced censorship if they didn’t conform to the subjective whims of SIO officials.
NEWS: Here's what Elon told 𝕏 staff at the all-hands meeting:
- X is aiming to roll out full payment+financial services by end of 2024
- Creator payouts will increase "significantly"
- X could launch a dating feature
- X's video player will be integrated into TVs
- X is seeing >500 million posts and over 100 billion impressions per day
- Elon thinks X can build a viable LinkedIn competitor via @XHiring
- X is rapidly achieving feature parity with Youtube in its video player, and could exceed it.
Elon said that X's progress over the past year may be the fastest change out of any internet company.
NEWS: Here's the highlights of Elon's roundtable with Jewish leaders discussing X, free speech, Antisemitism and the recent ADL controversy.
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Elon started by pointing out views on Antisemitic content are down >>30% since the Twitter acquisition.
Elon: Multiple third parties, using full data sets, have also concluded the same that impressions on Antisemitic content is down.
Elon challenges anyone who claims the opposite to provide evidence.
Elon points out that Walter Isaacson, who apparently is Jewish, spent 2 years following Elon and speaking to his contacts. Walter didn’t find any evidence Elon is Antisemitic.
Elon also says he first visited Israel when he was 13.
NEWS: FBI and White House coerced social media platforms into removing posts, appeals court rules.
It also said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention likely violated the First Amendment, though its actions were "not plainly coercive."
According to the appeals court, the agencies are forbidden from taking actions "formal or informal, directly or indirectly, to coerce or significantly encourage social-media companies to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech”
NEWS: Walter Isaacson on what he saw at X/Twitter HQ as Elon took over last year.
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Elon had his cousins Andrew and James Musk and more from the Tesla AI team go over lines of Twitter code. Elon himself was sat with a laptop looking at the code.
This was when they decided to fire 85% of the staff - the remaining team needed to go “all in” and Twitter 2.0 would no longer prioritize “psychological safety” or remote work as 1.0 had.
One of Elon’s team came up with the idea that Elon shouldn’t simply fire all the staff. The team should be asked if they want to go all-in, because it was going to be hardcore.