Starting today, new users will be charged a flat fee of $1 per year if they wish to post content or interact with tweets. Watch the video for the details >
The commission estimates it needs $47.7 mn to enforce Digital Services Act this year. Very large online platforms required to divvy up those costs based on the number of users they have
Elon Musk's social media platform X has begun charging a USD 1 fee to new users in the Philippines and New Zealand, in a test designed to cut down on the spam and fake accounts flourishing on the site formerly known as Twitter. The company said late Tuesday that it has started trying out the annual subscription method for new and unverified accounts. The program, dubbed Not a Bot, won't apply to existing users. It's not clear why it only applies to New Zealand and the Philippines or why those countries were chosen. This new test was developed to bolster our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount, the X support account tweeted. It is not a profit driver. Since Musk bought X a year ago, he has introduced a slew of changes such as renaming the platform and gutting its workforce including its content moderation team. Outside watchdog groups say the changes have allowed
There have been many changes in the company since Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took over X (formerly Twitter) in October 2022
The test, called "Not a Bot," started Tuesday in New Zealand and the Philippines, X said in a blog post
The company has submitted its formal response to the government on the issue
Australia's online safety watchdog said on Monday it had fined X the social media platform formerly known as Twitter 610,500 Australian dollars (USD 385,000) for failing to fully explain how it tackled child sexual exploitation content. Australia's eSafety Commission describes itself as the world's first government agency dedicated to keeping people safe online. The commission issued legal transparency notices early this year to X and other platforms questioning what they were doing to tackle a proliferation of child sexual exploitation, sexual extortion and the livestreaming of child sexual abuse. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said X and Google had not complied with the notices because both companies had failed to adequately respond to a number of questions. The platform renamed X by its new owner Elon Musk was the worst offender, providing no answers to some questions including how many staff remained on the trust and safety team that worked on preventing harmful and .
Most recently EU said it was investigating X for potential violation of its new tech rules after the platform was accused of failing to rein in disinformation in relation to Hamas's attack on Israel
Many users stated that they are unable to use the microblogging site through the official app
The European Commission on Thursday made a formal, legally binding request for information from Elon Musk's social media platform X over its handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the Israel-Hamas war. It is the first step in what could become the EU's inaugural investigation under the Digital Services Act, in this case to determine if the site formerly known as Twitter is in compliance with the tough new rules meant to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content. San Francisco-based X has until Wednesday to respond to questions related to how its crisis response protocol is functioning. Responses to other questions must be received by Oct 31. The commission said its next steps, which could include the opening of formal proceedings and penalties, would be determined by X's replies. Representatives for X did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The company's CEO, Linda Yaccarino, said earlier that the site h
The Minister of State called out global tech giants for 'distorting' fair competition and free consumer choice in the internet world and said that it is an area of concern for the government
Elon Musk's social media platform X has removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts and taken down or labelled thousands of pieces of content since the militant group's attack on Israel, according to the CEO of the company, formerly known as Twitter. Linda Yaccarino on Thursday outlined efforts by X to get a handle on illegal content flourishing on the platform. She was responding to a warning from a top European Union official, who requested information on how X is complying during the Israel-Hamas war with tough new EU digital rules aimed at cleaning up social media platforms. "So far since the start of the conflict, X has identified and removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts from the platform," Yaccarino said in a letter posted on X. The platform is proportionately and effectively assessing and addressing identified fake and manipulated content during this constantly evolving and shifting crisis, she wrote in response to the request from European Commissioner Thierry Breton,
While Twitter has always struggled with combatting misinformation about major news events, it was still the go-to place to find out what's happening in the world. But the Israel-Hamas war has underscored how the platform now transformed into X has become not only unreliable but is actively promoting falsehoods. Experts say that under Elon Musk the platform has deteriorated to the point that it's not just failing to clamp down on misinformation but is favouring posts by accounts that pay for its blue-check subscription service, regardless of who runs them. If such posts go viral, their blue-checked creators can be eligible for payments from X, creating a financial incentive to post whatever gets the most reaction including misinformation. Ian Bremmer, a prominent foreign policy expert, posted on X that the level of disinformation on the Israel-Hamas war being algorithmically promoted" on the platform "is unlike anything I've ever been exposed to in my career as a political ...
"It's now almost impossible to tell what's a fact, what's a rumor, what's a conspiracy theory, and what's trolling," Rothschild said
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it is seeking a court order that would compel Elon Musk to testify as part of an investigation into his purchase of Twitter, now called X. The SEC said in a filing in a San Francisco federal court that Musk failed to appear for testimony on September 15 despite an investigative subpoena served by the SEC and having raised no objections at the time it was served. But two days before his scheduled testimony, Musk abruptly notified the SEC staff that he would not appear, said the agency's filing. Musk attempted to justify his refusal to comply with the subpoena by raising, for the first time, several spurious objections, including an objection to San Francisco as an appropriate testimony location. X, which is based in San Francisco, didn't immediately return a request for comment. The SEC said it has been conducting a fact-finding investigation involving the period before Musk's takeover last year when Twitter was still a publicly tra
The premium plan, which currently costs $7.99 a month, would be split into Basic, Standard and Plus variations as part of the effort, the company told debt holders during the briefing Thursday
X, formerly known as Twitter, has stopped showing headlines on articles shared on the platform. Now, X only displays an article's lead image and a link to the story. Plans for the change were first reported by Fortune in August, when owner Elon Musk confirmed in a tweet that he thought the change which came from him directly would greatly improve the esthetics of posts. Linked articles now appear as an image, and include text in the left-hand corner noting the domain of the link. Users must click on the image if they wish to visit the full article, which could lead to confusion. Musk's platform has been the target of a lot of criticism recently, including accusations by a top European Union official who said that X has the largest ratio of mis-or disinformation posts. The Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish civil-rights organisation, has accused Musk of allowing antisemitism and hate speech to spread on the platform. Musk's latest decision builds on the growing rift betwee
Social media platforms are worried about losing users which include children, since children may only be able to use these platforms if parents give their consent
This move coincides with news of the government's preparation of the Digital India Bill (DIB) which aims to supersede the Information Technology Act, 2000
The former executives argued Twitter violated its own bylaws by refusing to cover the sums even though they were tied to investigations of the social-media platform's operations