Al-Araby

Twitter said it had filed objections to Turkish court orders requesting a ban on access to some accounts and tweets on the platform, after keeping its service available during an election weekend despite warnings from authorities in Ankara. On Saturday, a day before presidential and parliamentary votes, Twitter said it had restricted access to some content in Turkey in order to keep the platform available to users there. The court orders, which were shared by Twitter, requested the access bans on the grounds that they posed a threat to public order and national security. We are today sharing a…

Twitter decided on Friday to restrict some Turkey-related content ahead of one of the country’s most important presidential elections ever, in a move that was later defended by the social media platform’s chief Elon Musk. “In response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today,” the social media company said in a statement published on the platform. “We have informed the account holders of this action in line with our policy. This content will remain available in the rest of the world…

A fake Twitter account for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, sporting Twitter’s blue tick, posted a false announcement of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s death on Friday. “It is with great sadness that we, alongside the Sudanese People and the Rapid Support Forces, mourn the passing of Commander Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo,” read the tweet, which came amid a mass removal and re-issuing of blue ticks for accounts by Twitter. The tweet that said Hemedti had died after he “sustained injuries performing his duties with a military unit” received more than 1.7 million views …

Some of the Arab world’s most famous musicians lost their blue tick status on Twitter on Thursday, as part of a mass removal of the symbol by Elon Musk’s social media platform. As of Friday morning GMT, Arab musical icons Nancy Ajram, Elissa, and Ragheb Alama were among the millions of Twitter users who lost the blue tick status, which used to signify a verified account. Twitter owner Elon Musk had earlier pledged to get rid of what he described as a “lords & peasants system”. Users of the platform now have to pay $8 a month for the feature, in a move he said last year would “democratize journ…

Some of the Arab world’s most famous musicians lost their blue tick status on Twitter on Thursday, as part of a mass removal of the symbol by Elon Musk’s social media platform. As of Friday morning GMT, Arab musical icons Nancy Ajram, Elissa, and Ragheb Alama were among the millions of Twitter users who lost the blue tick status, which used to signify a verified account. Twitter owner Elon Musk had earlier pledged to get rid of what he described as a “lords & peasants system”. Users of the platform now have to pay $8 a month for the feature, in a move he said last year would “democratize journ…

In January this year, an unprecedented set of events, pitting Saudi against its junior ally the Sisi regime, began to unfold via social media and the Egyptian media. It began on Twitter, where Turki al-Hamad, a Saudi academic and adviser to de facto ruler of the kingdom Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MbS), posted a series of tweets critical of the Sisi regime’s economic behaviours. Al-Hamad tweeted about Egypt’s “deteriorating state”, which he said was firmly the fault of “the military’s soaring dominance over … the economy”. Despite a backlash from pro-Sisi Egyptians, Ali Shihabi, an influ…

Meta on Thursday said that tens of millions of people in Iran are using Instagram despite government efforts to block the service due to months-long protests. Iran has been rocked by citizen outrage since the September 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest for an alleged breach of dress rules for women. “Instagram has been widely used by Iranians to shed light on the protests and the brutal response to them,” Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg said during a briefing. “People have also shared Instagram footage of the protests with international media outle…

A top European Union official told Elon Musk that Twitter needs to make progress in preparing for a new law aimed at curbing hate speech, misinformation and other harmful content, adding pressure on the company to ensure it complies. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and Musk held a video call on Tuesday to assess Twitter’s readiness for Europe’s new rules, known as the Digital Services Act, that are set to take effect later this year. Breton, who oversees the EU’s digital policy, told Musk that he’s “vigilant” about the resources and tools that Twitter is devoting to tackle trust and safety issu…

Twitter has removed verification blue ticks for two leaders of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement after many of the platform’s users voiced outrage over the move. Hedaytaullah Hedayat, the head of the Taliban’s “access to information” and Abdul Haq Hammad, an official responsible for media at the movement’s ministry of information and culture, both acquired blue ticks on Twitter on Monday, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. This followed a change in policy at Twitter announced by South African billionaire Elon Musk shortly after he took over the platform last October. Previously only account…

Twitter has removed verification blue ticks for two leaders of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement after many of the platform’s users voiced outrage over the move. Hedaytaullah Hedayat, the head of the Taliban’s “access to information” and Abdul Haq Hammad, an official responsible for media at the movement’s ministry of information and culture, both acquired blue ticks on Twitter on Monday, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. This followed a change in policy at Twitter announced by South African billionaire Elon Musk shortly after he took over the platform last October. Previously only account…

More than 500 of Twitter’s advertisers have paused spending on the micro-blogging site since Elon Musk’s takeover last year, news website The Information reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with its ad business. The social media company’s daily revenue on 17 January was 40 percent lower than the same day a year ago, the report added. The drop in the company’s revenue was first reported by technology newsletter Platformer on Tuesday. Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on both the media reports. Since Musk took over Twitter last October, corporate ad…

The new Israeli minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, has announced the appointment of Facebook’s Jordana Cutler as his ministry’s director general, according to local media. Cutler has previously held the post of Facebook public policy director for Israel & the Jewish diaspora for over six years, as well as other positions in the Israeli government as well as Tel Aviv’s US embassy, according to her LinkedIn profile. The announcement, reported by the Israeli broadcaster Kan on Wednesday, did not indicate when Cutler will commence the post. #New: Ron Dermer, Israel’s Minister for Strategic…

Karim Benzema has unfollowed several players from the French football team on Instagram after abruptly retiring from international duty, hinting at larger issues within the national squad. The France and Real Madrid forward, widely regarded as one of the world’s best players, was unlucky to miss out on the Qatar World Cup after suffering an injury just before the tournament. As the competition unfolded, several reports surfaced of tensions within the France squad around the striker. Some claimed that Benzema was fit enough to appear in the final against Argentina, but that France coach Didier …

Elon Musk said Tuesday that he plans on remaining as Twitter’s CEO until he can find someone willing to replace him in the job. Musk’s announcement came after millions of Twitter users asked him to step down in an unscientific poll the billionaire himself created and promised to abide by. “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” Musk tweeted.” After that, I will just run the software & servers teams”. I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams. — Elon Musk (@elon…

The Twitter account of Khaled Beydoun, a law professor and activist prominent on social media, has been withheld in India “in response to a legal demand” since Tuesday, according to reports. Beydoun took to Instagram on Saturday to criticise India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Hindu nationalism ideology it adheres to, often called Hindutva. “As a constitutional law professor, free speech and fighting authoritarianism hit close to home on a number of fronts. If the BJP and Hindutva zealots think they can cancel me, they’re wrong, I’ll only get stronger,” he wrote on Instagram. “…

Elon Musk said late on Friday he would reinstate the Twitter accounts of several journalists who were suspended after he accused them of endangering his family. Musk had drawn anger and warnings from the EU and UN after suspending the accounts of more than half a dozen prominent journalists from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post. “The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now,” the Twitter owner tweeted. The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now. https://t.co/MFdXbEQFCe — Elon Musk…

The EU on Friday warned Elon Musk that Twitter could be subject to sanctions under a future media law after the “worrying” suspension of several journalists from the messaging platform. Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists who cover the social media platform on Thursday, the latest battle over what can and cannot be said on the site since billionaire Elon Musk took control of it. Accounts of reporters with The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications, went dark Thursday. The company hasn’t explained to the journalists why it took down the a…

A Twitter account that tracked flights of Elon Musk’s private jet put out word Wednesday that it was suspended by the platform despite the billionaire’s talk of free speech. “Well it appears @ElonJet is suspended,” creator Jack Sweeney tweeted from his personal @JxckSweeney account. Sweeney attracted attention with his Twitter account that tracks the movements of the billionaire’s plane and even rejected Musk’s offer of $5,000 to shut down @ElonJet, which had hundreds of thousands of followers. Musk had gone public saying he would not touch the account after buying Twitter in a $44 billion dea…

Meta Platforms was accused in a lawsuit filed in Kenya on Wednesday of letting violent and hateful posts from Ethiopia flourish on Facebook, inflaming the Ethiopian civil war. The lawsuit, filed by two Ethiopian researchers and Kenya’s Katiba Institute rights group, alleges that Facebook’s recommendations systems amplified violent posts in Ethiopia, including several that preceded the murder of the father of one of the researchers. “Not only does Facebook allow such content to be on the platform, they prioritise it and they make money from such content. Why are they allowed to do that?” Mercy …

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said he had a “clear and honest” discussion with Twitter owner Elon Musk during an unannounced face-to-face meeting in New Orleans. Macron tweeted that he voiced concerns about content moderation on the highly influential platform, which Musk, who also owns electric car giant Tesla, bought for $44 billion in October. “I’ll say it here, on Twitter, because it’s all about the blue bird. This afternoon I met with (Musk) and we had a clear and honest discussion,” Macron tweeted after the hour-long, closed-door sit-down at the New Orleans Museum of Art. “T…

New owner Elon Musk on Wednesday polled Twitter users on whether the site should offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, using the same method he used to handle the case of Donald Trump. The move comes as Musk has faced pushback that his criteria for content moderation is subject to his personal whim, with reinstatements decided for certain accounts and not others. The poll was open until 17:46 GMT on Thursday and mimicked the strategy used just days ago for former US president Trump. “Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the l…

Donald Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated on Saturday after the platform’s new owner Elon Musk ran a poll in which a narrow majority of voters supported the move, days after the former US president announced another White House bid. Trump was banned from the platform early last year for his alleged role in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted, shortly after the 24-hour poll ended. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he added, repeating a Latin adage he post…

Elon Musk expressed excitement Saturday as he watched votes pour in on a Twitter poll he has posted on whether to readmit Donald Trump to the messaging platform. “Reinstate former President Trump,” the billionaire Twitter owner posted Friday, with a chance to vote either yes or no. As of about 1500 GMT Saturday, 52.3 percent of nearly 11 million responses were in favor of a return of the former president, who was banned from Twitter for his role in last year’s attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his followers seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Musk said the poll was drawing…

Twitter owner Elon Musk on Friday said he had reinstated certain banned accounts on his site, but said no decision was made on welcoming back former US president Donald Trump. Musk tweeted that the accounts of comedian Kathy Griffin, psychologist Jordan Peterson and conservative parody site Babylon Bee “have been reinstated,” but that the “Trump decision has not yet been made”. Twitter users have been watching closely to see whether Musk will reinstate Trump, banned for inciting last year’s attack on the Capitol by a mob seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The announcement wa…

Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk has asked staff to choose by Thursday between being “extremely hardcore” and working intense, long hours, or losing their jobs, according to an internal memo seen by AFP. The Tesla tycoon has come under fire for radical changes at the social media company, which he bought for $44 billion late last month. Musk has fired half of the company’s 7,500 staff, scrapped a work-from-home policy, and imposed long hours, all while his attempts to overhaul Twitter have faced chaos and delays. “Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly co…

Top Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti has posted a picture of herself on Instagram without a headscarf to express support for nationwide anti-government demonstrations, another sign that the protest movement is gaining support from all layers of society. Best-known for her role in “The Salesman”, which won an Academy Award in 2017, the pro-reform artist held up a sign in the Instagram post which read “Woman, Life, Freedom” in Kurdish, a popular slogan in the demonstrations. Protests sparked by the Sept. 16 death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the morality police for not weari…

A US woman who had been detained in Saudi Arabia after taking to Twitter to allege that she and her daughter were trapped in the kingdom was released on Wednesday, according to her family. Carly Morris, 34, was detained for “destabilising public order”, according to the BBC. She has been banned from leaving the country after her release. Breaking — US citizen Carly Morris has been released from Saudi prison, her mother tells me. — Elizabeth Hagedorn (@ElizHagedorn) Morris, a Muslim convert, had travelled to Saudi Arabia in 2019 so that her daughter, Tala, could meet the family of her father, M…

Facebook owner Meta will lay off more than 11,000 of its staff in “the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” boss Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. He said the cuts represented 13 percent of the social media titan’s workforce and would affect its research lab focusing on the metaverse as well as its apps, which include Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The tech industry is in a serious slump and several major firms have announced mass layoffs – Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk fired half its staff last week. “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got he…

Elon Musk’s new Twitter management team laid off dozens of the platform’s content moderation personnel just days before the US midterm elections, according to multiple reports. Twitter’s mass layoffs last Friday, which affected approximately half the company’s employees, included teams devoted to adding context to misleading tweets. They included several people who were meant to be on call during the final days of the US midterm elections to flag problematic content or suspected foreign interference around the elections, according to The Washington Post. Why the hell would elon fire twitter’s …

Palestinian-American model Gigi Hadid has quit Twitter, after Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, bought the social media platform. Hadid is one of the many Twitter users concerned by Musk’s plans for Twitter, with fears that his “hands off” approach to monitoring the site will allow far-right activists to re-emerge. Monitors noted a proliferation in the number of racist tweets on Twitter after Musk took control of the social media giant last month in a staggering $43 billion deal. Hadid is one of many Twitter users who have voiced concerns that online abuse could now become much worse. “I dea…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he may speak to new Twitter owner Elon Musk about the billionaire’s plans to charge for its Blue check verification service. Musk said after acquiring the company for $44 billion that he will begin charging verified blue check users $8 per month for the service. “It might be different for us,” Erdogan said in an interview with Turkey’s ATV. “We could carry out some diplomacy with him as well,” he joked. Twitter already has a subscription plan, Twitter Blue, that for $5 a month lets users access extra features, such as the ability to undo a tweet …

Twitter said it will start laying off employees on Friday, according to a memo sent to staff, with several workers filing a lawsuit alleging the move by new owner billionaire Elon Musk violates US labor law. A company-wide email seen by AFP says Twitter employees will receive word via email at the start of business Friday, California time, as to what their fate is. It does not give a number but the Washington Post and New York Times reported that about half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees will be let go. “In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of…

Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy said on Monday he wants a US national security review of a Saudi Arabian conglomerate’s stake in Twitter Inc after Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media company. Murphy said he was asking the Committee on Foreign Investment in theUnited States (CFIUS) — which reviews acquisitions of US businesses by foreign buyers — “to conduct an investigation into the national security implications of Saudi Arabia’s purchase of Twitter.” Most foreigners seeking to take even noncontrolling stakes in US companies must seek approval from CFIUS, a powerful Treasury-led commi…

Trading in shares of Twitter was halted after the stock spiked on reports that Elon Musk would proceed with his $44 billion deal to buy the company after months of legal battles. For a second time, Musk offered to buy theSan Francisco company at $54.20. Shares jumped nearly 13% to $47.95 before trading stopped. Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter, according to people familiar with the case who were not identified. Musk has been trying to back out of the deal for several months after signing on to buy the social media platform in April. Shareholder…

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry on Sunday ridiculed Moscow’s partial mobilisation to bolster its forces in Ukraine, posting on Twitter a mash-up of social media videos of Russian police beating and arresting men protesting the call-up. The mockery came as Russia’s two top lawmakers expressed concern about the drive, ordering regional officials to resolve “excesses” that have ignited public anger, triggered demonstrations and prompted military-age men to make forborder crossings. “Russia still has remnants of a professional army” that the Ukrainian army “hasn’t yet destroyed,” the Ukrainian defe…

Actions by Facebook and its parent Meta during last year’s Gaza war violated the rights of Palestinian users to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation and non-discrimination, a report commissioned by the social media company has found. The report Thursday from independent consulting firm Business for Social Responsibility confirmed long-standing criticisms of Meta’s policies and their uneven enforcement as it relates to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: It found the company over-enforced rules when it came to Arabic content and under-enforced content in Hebrew. It,…

Meta Platforms Inc’s WhatsApp said on Thursday that it was working to keep users in Iran connected after the country restricted access to the app and social media platform Instagram. WhatsApp “will do anything” within its technical capacity to keep the service accessible and that it was not blocking Iranian phone numbers, the messaging service said in a tweet. We exist to connect the world privately. We stand with the rights of people to access private messaging. We are not blocking Iranian numbers. We are working to keep our Iranian friends connected and will do anything within our technical …

Qatar launched an alert service on Facebook and Instagram on Wednesday to help find missing children, making it the first country in the Middle East. The move was announced by the ministry of information as part of a collaboration with the two social media platforms’ mother company Meta, The Peninsula Qatar reported. Using the platforms’ AMBER alert system, users within a 160km radius of a missing report will receive an alert. The reports can be shared by Instagram and Facebook users, allowing for greater awareness. 🧒A new smart alert feature has been launched on Facebook and Instagram that no…

Tens of Palestinian journalists, activists and writers have been pushed off social media or had their posts censored for covering Israel’s August bombardment of the Gaza strip, in shocking new revelations. Facebook, TikTok and Whatsapp have all been accused of closing the accounts of Gazans reporting civilian deaths by Lebanese press freedom organisation SKeyes. “I posted a number of photos detailing the civilians killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on 17 August,” said freelance journalist Omar Abu Nada to SKeyes. “They then accused me of breaching their publishing standards. This also …

On the 14th of July, the same day that Meta unveiled its human rights report from 2020-21, a Netherland-based watchdog released its study of hate speech on Facebook in India. The study revealed “extensive fan page networks using Facebook to widely amplify hate speech and calls to violence and genocide against Indian Muslims.” Netherland-based watchdog The London Story (TLS), which monitors misinformation and hate speeches, released “Preachers of Hate: Documenting Hate Speech on Facebook India” in response to Meta’s report which failed to release its full report on the Human Rights Impact Asses…

A US judge told Twitter on Thursday to surrender more data to Elon Musk on fake accounts, a key issue the billionaire is using to try to cancel his buyout bid. While Judge Kathaleen McCormick allowed the Tesla boss’s team an opening to bolster its argument that Musk was misled, she chastised them for “absurdly broad” requests for “trillions upon trillions of data points.” The judge ordered Twitter to hand over dataon 9,000 accounts the firm audited at the end of 2021, which opens the door for that information to be used in Musk’s effort to quit the $44 billion deal. “Some additional data from …

A former Twitter employee has been convicted of failing to register as an agent for Saudi Arabia and other charges after accessing private data on users critical of the kingdom’s government in a spy case that spanned from Silicon Valley to the Middle East. Ahmad Abouammo, a US citizen and former media partnership manager for Twitter’s Middle East region, was charged in 2019 with acting as an agent of Saudi Arabia without registering with the US government. A jury found him guilty on six counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. The jury acquitted him on another fi…

A vulnerability in Twitter’s software that exposed an undetermined number of owners of anonymous accounts to potential identity compromise last year was apparently exploited by a malicious actor, the social media company said Friday. It did not confirm a report that data on 5.4 million users was offered for sale online as a result but said users worldwide were affected. The breach is especially worrisome because many Twitter account owners, including human rights activists, do not disclose their identities in their profiles for security reasons that include fear of persecution by repressive au…

Elon Musk accused Twitter of fraud in a countersuit over his aborted $44 billion deal for the social media company, which he said held back necessary information and misled his team about its true user base, according to media reports. According to The Washington Post, the countersuit filed by the billionaire and Tesla CEO filed Thursday alleges that Twitter committed fraud, breach of contract and violation of the Texas Securities Act. Musk’s counterclaims were filed confidentially last week and unsealed in a filing late Thursday at the Delaware Chancery Court, the Wall Street Journal reported…

Twitter Inc. on Thursday dismissed Elon Musk’s claims in a Delaware court filing that he was hoodwinked into signing the deal to buy the social media company, saying that it was “implausible and contrary to fact.” Musk made the claims in a countersuit that he filed under seal last Friday, which was made public on Thursday. “According to Musk, he — the billionaire founder of multiple companies, advised by Wall Street bankers and lawyers — was hoodwinked by Twitter into signing a $44 billion merger agreement. That story is as implausible and contrary to fact as it sounds,” the filing released by…

Twitter on Tuesday urged shareholders to endorse the $44 billion deal Elon Musk made to buy the online podium, setting a vote on the merger for 13 September. The firm is locked in a legal battle with the Tesla boss over his effort to walk away from the agreement, and a judge has called for a trial to begin in October. NEW: Twitter will host a shareholder meeting on September 13 to vote on the Musk deal — Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) “Twitter believes that Mr Musk’s purported termination is invalid and wrongful, and the merger agreement remains in effect,” chief executive Parag Agrawal and board …

Facebook has removed the accounts of at least two state-owned media outlets in Afghanistan, the company confirmed Thursday, saying it was complying with laws in the United States listing the Taliban as a “terrorist organisation”. The Taliban have made liberal use of Facebook and Twitter since seizing power in August last year, and have a firm grip on state-owned media in the country – including radio and TV stations, and newspapers. While Facebook parent Meta did not list the banned media outlets, state broadcaster National Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) and the government-owned Bakhtar ne…

Twitter Inc sued Elon Musk on Tuesday for violating his $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform and asked a Delaware court to order the world’s richest person to complete the merger at the agreed $54.20 per Twitter share. “Musk apparently believes that he – unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law – is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away,” said the complaint. The lawsuit sets in motion what promises to be one of the biggest legal showdowns in Wall Street history, involving one of the business wo…

Twitter stock fell Monday after Tesla chief Elon Musk ditched a $44 billion deal to buy the social media giant. The platform stock dropped 5.46 percent on Wall Street, to $34.80 by around 7:05 am (11:05 GMT). It had lost 5.10 percent before the weekend. Musk on Friday pulled the plug on the deal, accusing the company of “misleading” statements about the number of fake accounts, according to a letter from his lawyers, a copy of which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk’s effort to terminate the deal that he inked in April sets the stage for an epic court battle over a bi…

Elon Musk is attempting to pull out of his $44 billion Twitter deal. Twitter says will sue Elon Musk to enforce deal. Elon Musk on Friday pulled the plug on his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, accusing the social media giant of “misleading” statements about the number of fake accounts, a regulatory filing showed. Musk’s effort to terminate the deal that he inked in April sets the stage for an epic court battle over a billion-dollar breakup fee and more. “Mr. Musk hereby exercises (the) right to terminate the Merger Agreement and abandon the transaction,” his lawyers said in a letter to Twitte…

Britain’s army said its Twitter and YouTube accounts had been breached on Sunday. As of 19:00 UK time (1800 GMT), the @BritishArmy handle, which is verified by Twitter, had retweeted a number of posts promoting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its timeline. The army YouTube account had been renamed ‘Ark Invest’ and showed several videos relating to cryptocurrency. “We are aware of a breach of the Army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts and an investigation is under way,” an army spokesperson said. “We take information security extremely seriously and are resolving the issue. Until the investigation i…

One night, at the height of my final semester of graduate school, I was having a sleepless night. I don’t remember why I was tossing and turning, but I remember after an hour of frustrated attempts to sleep, I found myself mindlessly scrolling Twitter. Through squinted eyes, I noticed that my Twitter notifications were lighting up consistently, the blue signal indicating that I had over twenty notifications every few minutes. I clicked my notifications tab and jolted up. I had row upon row of updates about new followers. I was perplexed. Had I tweeted something that had gone viral? How were so…

Elon Musk addressed Twitter employees for the first time on Thursday, projecting a need for “rationalisation of headcount” but offering few other new details about his $44-billion takeover of the social media company. Musk appeared via video call 10 minutes late to what turned out to be a freewheeling question and answer session moderated by a Twitter executive, in which Musk mused about the existence of aliens and other space civilisations and his view that Twitter should help “civilisation and consciousness.” He told Twitter staff he wants to raise the service’s user numbers to at least a bi…

Patience has been wearing thin among social media activists posting Palestine-related content on Instagram as the platform has proved it is willing to selectively censor certain content depending on the ideological beliefs and political orientations, particularly on the timely conflict in Al-Aqsa Mosque. “Your story goes against our community guidelines”, “Your account may be deleted”, “Your account may be temporarily suspended due to multiple violations of our community guidelines”, and “Sensitive content” are some of the repetitive phrases that thousands of accounts have been receiving from …

Twitter users have been up arms this week over a widely-shared ranking of the world’s best cuisines, saying non-European countries including those in the Middle East and North Africa were hard done by. Food website TasteAtlas shared their “50 Best Cuisines” ranking on Twitter this weekend. “Each country’s rating is obtained by the users average rating of the 30 best dishes, beverages and food products in that country,” TasteAtlas said of their ranking. Turkey sat highest of all Middle Eastern or North African nations, in 17th place. Six other MENA countries – Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Leb…

Elon Musk faces a lawsuit accusing him of pushing down Twitter’s stock price in order to either give himself an escape hatch from his $44 billion buyout bid, or room to negotiate a discount. The suit alleges the billionaire Tesla boss tweeted and made statements intended to create doubt about the deal, which has roiled the social media platform for weeks. Filed on Wednesday by a shareholder, the claim seeks class action status and calls on a federal court in San Francisco to back the validity of the deal and award shareholders any damages allowed by law. Musk said last week that his bid to buy…

Elon Musk on Wednesday pledged an additional $6.25 billion in equity financing to fund the $44-billion offer for Twitter Inc, reducing the billionaire’s margin loan against his Tesla Inc shares to zero. The disclosure made in a regulatory filing on Wednesday signalled Musk is working to complete the deal even though he had last week linked its progress to Twitter presenting proof that spam bots accounted for less than 5% of the total users. While doubting that spam bots accounted for at least 20% of the users, the world’s richest man and Tesla top boss had suggested he could seek a lower price…

Twitter Inc will begin placing warning notices in front of some misleading content regarding the conflict in Ukraine and limit the spread of claims debunked by humanitarian groups or other credible sources, the social media company said on Thursday. The step-up against misinformation around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation,” is part of a new policy that outlines how Twitter will approach misinformation during crises. Social media platforms have faced increasing scrutiny over how they determine and handle misinformation. Twitter has agreed to sell i…

Billionaire Elon Musk said on Tuesday his bid to buy Twitter won’t proceed unless he gets proof of the number of spam accounts plaguing the platform, adding more uncertainty to his rollercoaster pursuit of the social media giant. This latest twist to his $44 billion move to acquire the key platform sparked speculation over whether the world’s richest person was trying to shrink the price tag or even back away from the deal. Hours after Musk’s early morning tweet over bots, Twitter insisted the deal push through, and without delay. “Twitter is committed to completing the transaction on the agre…

Elon Musk said on Friday he was putting a temporary halt on his much-anticipated deal to buy Twitter, sending shares in the social media giant plunging. Musk, the world’s richest man and founder of automaker Tesla, had made the eradication of spam accounts and bots one of the centerpieces of his proposed $44 billion takeover of Twitter. When the deal was announced in late April he said he wanted to make Twitter “better than ever” by “defeating the spam bots and authenticating all humans”. But on Friday he wrote: “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam…

In April 2022 Twitter accepted a 44 billion dollar bid from Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, to buy the social media microblogging site Twitter. Musk’s hyper-libertarian support of freedom of speech prompted fears that Twitter would degenerate further into a toxic, anything-goes playground. But how social media is used depends on social and political context. Musk’s particular ire of the ‘far left’ is a warning shot to those groups tackling hate speech, disinformation, and persecution. If anything, the libertarian view espoused by Musk will be worrying for minorities, such as Muslims in Eur…

As many have expected since billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk was approved to buy Twitter last month, he has finally indicated that he will approve of the return of banned former president Donald Trump. This could leave Muslims and other marginalised groups vulnerable to the effects of Trump’s tweets. “I think it was a morally bad decision, and foolish in the extreme,” Musk said of Twitter’s permanent ban of Donald Trump, prompted by the former president’s proximity to the 6 January 2021 riot at the Capitol, which took place shortly after his rally in front of the White House. “I would revers…

Elon Musk said on Tuesday that as owner of Twitter he would lift the ban on Donald Trump, contending that kicking the former US president off the platform “alienated a large part of the country.” Musk’s endorsement of a Trump return to the global messaging platform triggered fears among activists that Musk would “open the floodgates of hate.” “I would reverse the permanent ban,” the billionaire said at a Financial Times conference, noting that he doesn’t own Twitter yet, so “this is not like a thing that will definitely happen.” Trump has stated publicly that he would not come back to Twitter …

Elon Musk and Twitter Inc were sued on Friday by a Florida pension fund seeking to stop Musk from completing his $44 billion takeover of the social media company before 2025. In a proposed class action filed in Delaware Chancery Court, the Orlando Police Pension Fund said Delaware law forbade a quick merger because Musk had agreements with other big Twitter shareholders, including his financial adviser Morgan Stanley and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, to support the buyout. The fund said those agreements made Musk, who owns 9.6% of Twitter, the effective “owner” of more than 15% of the company’s…

A subsidiary of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is contributing $375 million to Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter, according to official US documents published on Thursday. Qatar Holding LLC, the main investment subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), is one of almost 20 companies that have pledged a total of $7.1 billion for the buyout, according to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of the board at the Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), said KHC would be rolling over its approximately $1.9 billion investment in Twitter -…

Manchester City and Algeria football player Riyad Mahrez called on Twitter’s soon-to-be owner Elon Musk to restore his Twitter verification status, after it disappeared from his profile page on Monday. The football star, who captains the North African team, amusingly tagged the Tesla owner in a plea, asking him to bring back the verification badge to his account. The badge, which appears in the form of a blue tick, is a marker of credibility for celebrities and organisations, distinguishing them from impostors, parody or troll accounts. Mahrez, who has more than 3 million followers, tweeted: “…

It’s been a rollercoaster month for Twitter. I’ll be honest. When the Pretorian-born billionaire Elon Musk bought 9.2% of Twitter in early April, I thought this wasn’t really a story. ‘Musk is a bored middle aged man with too much money,’ I said to friends at the time, ‘but he’ll soon tire of the game and be done with it. Nothing to worry about, he’s trolling us all.’ It took less than a month for my prediction to be proven utterly wrong. Fast forward just over two weeks and the board of Twitter confirmed it was selling the platform to the ‘free speech absolutist’ for $44 billion. Cue concern …

Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he has no intention of rejoining Twitter even if his account is reinstated following Elon Musk’s agreement to buy the social media giant for roughly $44 billion. Trump told Fox News that he will instead focus on his own platform, Truth Social, which has been mired in problems since its launch earlier this year. “I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth,” Trump was quoted telling the network. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth.” Trump was barred f…

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, struck a deal Monday to buy Twitter for $44 billion, capping a saga complete with hostile takeover threats before delivering him personal control of one of the most influential social media platforms on the planet. Twitter famously served as a megaphone for former US president Donald Trump before the platform banned him, and Musk – a self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist” – has said he wants to reform what he sees as the platform’s over-zealous content moderation. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town squar…

Twitter Inc is poised to agree a sale to Elon Musk for around $43 billion in cash, the price the chief executive of Tesla Inc has called his “best and final” offer for the social media company, people familiar with the matter said. Twitter may announce the $54.20-per-share deal later on Monday once its board has met to recommend the transaction to Twitter shareholders, the sources said. It is always possible that the deal collapses at the last minute, the sources added. Musk, the world’s richest person according to a tally by Forbes, is negotiating to buy Twitter in a personal capacity and Tes…

Elon Musk says he has lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, and he’s trying to negotiate an agreement with the company. Last week, Musk announced an offer to buy the social media company for $54.20 per share, or about $43 billion. At the time, he did not say how he would finance the acquisition. The Tesla CEO said Thursday in documents filed with US securities regulators that he’s exploring what’s known as a tender offer to buy all of the social media platform’s common stock for $54.20 per share in cash. Under a tender offer, Musk, who owns about 9% of Twitter shares, would take …

Even for the richest person on the planet, buying Twitter was always going to be a challenge- a highly complex financial transaction now made even trickier by a defensive “poison pill” move from the platform’s board. Musk’s $43 billion offer lays out the myriad potential pitfalls: possible government approvals, legal as well as regulatory due diligence, negotiations of a final agreement and, of course, how to pay for it all. Then Twitter’s board on Friday showed it won’t go quietly, saying any acquisition of over 15 percent of the firm’s stock without its OK would trigger a plan to flood the m…

Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said on Thursday that as one of the major shareholders in Twitter he rejected a takeover bid by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. “I don’t believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk ($54.20 [per share]) comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects,” the prince said in a tweet. Musk took aim at Twitter Inc with a $43 billion cash takeover offer on Thursday, with the Tesla CEO saying the social media giant needs to be taken private to grow and become a platform for free speech. I don’t believe that the proposed offe…

Tesla chief Elon Musk has launched a hostile takeover bid for Twitter, offering to buy 100 percent of its stock and take it private, according to a stock exchange filing. Musk offered $54.20 a share, which values the social media firm at $43.4 billion, in a filing dated Wednesday April 13 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk’s latest move towards Twitter comes just days after he turned down a seat on the board following his acquisition of a 9.2 percent stake in the microblogging platform. “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech aroun…

The UN voiced alarm on Friday at Facebook’s decision to temporarily ease its policy on violent speech after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, warning it could spark “hate speech” against Russians. The policy decision from Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta on Thursday said the platforms would now allow statements like “death to Russian invaders” but not credible threats against civilians. “This is clearly a very, very complex issue, but it does raise some concerns under the terms of human rights law and international humanitarian law,” UN rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell tol…

Meta Platforms will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy. The social media company is also temporarily allowing some posts that call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, according to internal emails to its content moderators. “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for forms of …

Facebook said on Thursday that due to the invasion of Ukraine it has temporarily eased its rules regarding violent speech to allow statements like “death to Russian invaders,” but not credible threats against civilians. Moscow’s internationally condemned invasion of its neighbour has provoked unprecedented sanctions from Western governments and businesses, but also a surge of online anger. “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian …

Twitter has removed a tweet from an official Russian account claiming that the bombing of a clinic in Ukraine was a hoax. The Russian Embassy in London tweeted claiming that the Mariupol maternity hospital – hit by a Russian airstrike on Wednesday, killing three people – was not operational when it was bombed and footage of victims of the blast – including pregnant women – were “fake”. The tweets included the word “fake” written on some of the images. The embassy also claimed that a woman injured in a strike “played the role of both pregnant women” in some of the images. Journalists and NGOs h…

Meta Platforms said a hacking group used Facebook to target a handful of public figures in Ukraine, including prominent military officials, politicians and a journalist, amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country. Meta said in the last 48 hours it had also separately removed a network of about 40 fake accounts, groups and pages across Facebook and Instagram that operated from Russia and Ukraine targeting people in Ukraine, for violating its rules against coordinated inauthentic behaviour. A Twitter spokesperson said it had also suspended more than a dozen accounts and blocked the sharing of…

A prominent London-based law firm sent a formal complaint to Facebook over its suspension of Palestinian media workers and platforms. Bindmans LLP on Monday sent a complaint to Facebook on behalf of Palestiniandigital rights group Sada Social, saying that Palestinian media workers have had their Facebook accounts suspended and pro-Palestine posts censored on the platform. The firm said Facebook’s Community Standards policy is “practiced unjustifiably”, it added. This has coincided with the Israeli Knesset’s “preliminary approval on 8 December 2021, of a law that would allow Israeli authorities…

Right-wing French presidential candidates are generating the most Facebook engagement ahead of the country’s April vote, research by a media outlet has found. Right-wing Reconquête’s party founder Eric Zemmour, the Rassemblement National’s Marine Le Pen, Debout la France’s Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, The Patriots nationalist party leader Florian Philippot, and Eurosceptic party Popular Republican Union’s leader François Asselineau acquired 82.7 percent of interactions and 84.6 percent of Facebook shares, January figures have shown, according to French broadcaster BFMTV. Zemmour, who is also a journ…

Facebook has been through the wringer the past few years for its tone-deaf approach to everything fromdata privacy to its role in inciting genocide in Myanmar. Thus, it will not be welcome news to Mark Zuckerberg that Israel’s justice minister, Gideon Saar, is proposing a piece of draconian legislation, popularly named the “Facebook Law.” It would enforce widespread censorship of online content. Leading digital rights advocate Tehilla Schwartz Altschuler of the Israel Democracy Institute says such a provision “does not exist in any other democracy in the world.” Touted by supporters as a law t…

Instagram hashtags used to remember the victims of the Ukraine Airlines flight shot down by Iran were blocked by the social media giant Instagram, according to BBC Persian. The hashtag #IWilllightACandletoo and its Persian counterpart did not appear on the social media site when used by the family members of the victims. According to a cybersecurity expert, the blocking of the hashtag was as a result of a coordinated campaign by Iran to report posts using the hashtag. The mass reporting resulted in the hashtag being blocked by Instagram, who later said that it was “restricted by mistake”. Fami…

Palestinian journalists have raised the alarm over what they describe as unjust suppression of their content on Facebook, a claim backed by rights groups but rejected by the social media giant. On 4 December, Palestine TV correspondent Christine Rinawi posted a video on her Facebook account in which Israeli security forces were seen shooting a Palestinian who was on the ground, killing him. He had just carried out a knife attack on an Israeli civilian. Shortly after she posted her video, Rinawi, who has nearly 400,000 followers, noticed it had been removed from her account. This was not her fi…

The UK Labour Party told Twitter to “get its house in order without delay” following reports Friday that almost half a million anti-Semitic tweets are posted in the UK each year. A new report by the Antisemitism Policy Trust and the Community Security Trust revealed that up to 495,000 explicitly antisemitic tweets are shared in the UK each year, with around 100 to 1,350 such tweets shared every day. Lucy Powell MP, Labour’s Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, said the findings underlined the “scale of the challenging facing us,” taking a tough stance against antisemitism \- an …

Rohingya Muslims are suing social media giant Facebook over the alleged role the social media platform played in the 2017 genocide against their community in Myanmar. Lawyers requested over £150 billion in compensation from the company, one of the largest group claims ever made by survivors and victims of crimes against humanity in a domestic court. The legal action was launched on Monday in the US and UK. “The undeniable reality is that Facebook’s growth, fuelled by hate, division, and misinformation, has left hundreds of thousands of devastated Rohingya lives in its wake,” read the complaint…

Facebook is “actively fighting Palestinian content” the editors of Palestinian news pages that were removed by the social media giant earlier this week have said. The two Palestinian news pages, Al-Qastal and Maydan Al-Quds, disappeared from Facebook after the company removed them for ‘violating the community standards’. Facebook’s move came only a month after it opened a special investigation on Palestine-Israel content suppression. The two Palestinian pages reported daily news in Jerusalem from a Palestinian perspective, focusing on Israeli violations against Palestinians in the city. Facebo…