Elon Musk- ‘There Will Be Blood’

Judge Makes Major Decision In Case Twitter Brought Against Elon Musk
Carmine Sabia, July 20, 2022

Twitter has scored a major victory against Elon Musk as a judge has granted its request for an expedited trial.

It will be a five-day trial beginning in October. The company originally asked for a four-day trial in September to have Musk “honor his obligations,” Yahoo Finance reported.

Musk’s lawyers asked the court to delay the trial to February 2023. They claimed Twitter was in a sudden rush to complete a trial and force the acquisition following two months of alleged “foot-dragging and obfuscation” over requested data relating to bots and other fake accounts. Musk accused Twitter of underreporting the volume of bogus accounts (and failing to provide enough information) in a bid to clinch the deal. As part of the call for a delay, Musk’s lawyers also claimed they needed more time to search Twitter’s raw “firehose” data.

While Twitter didn’t get exactly what it wanted, the ruling is a clear victory for the social network. It won’t have to wait long to obtain a decision and may force Musk to rely primarily on the claims he made when he announced plans to back out of the purchase. There’s a chance Musk may have to continue with the buyout before the year is over, no matter how much he might regret making the offer.

Musk is rolling out a new strategy aimed at blowing up his $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter.

According to reports, the billionaire is planning to countersue the social media giant after Twitter’s board of directors announced they had hired a legal team to sue Musk last week for trying to back out.

“Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” the company said in the lawsuit. “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.”

Musk’s decision to tank the deal came after he and his investment group were unable to obtain more precise information from Twitter about the real number of bot and fake accounts on the platform.

Late Monday, the New York Post reported that Musk’s legal team will ask the Delaware Court of Chancery to grant them more time to obtain additional information regarding bot accounts.

The outlet adds:

Musk has 20 days from last Tuesday, when Twitter’s suit was filed, to file his own counterclaims.

Twitter wants the court to force Musk to purchase Twitter at the agreed-upon price of $54.20 per share, while Musk has argued that he’s allowed to terminate the deal because Twitter has failed to provide adequate information about fake accounts on the site.

The first hearing in Twitter’s suit is scheduled for Tuesday when Delaware Court of Chancery chancellor Kathaleen McCormick is expected to weigh in on Twitter’s request for an expedited trial.

Attorneys for Twitter are pressing for a four-day trial that would begin in September, The Post added, while Musk wants to push a trial date back to no sooner than February 2023.

“The core dispute over false and spam accounts is fundamental to Twitter’s value,” Musk’s lawyers wrote in a filing on Friday in response to Twitter’s suit. “It is also extremely fact and expert intensive, requiring substantial time for discovery.”

Musk’s countersuit would also be heard by McCormick, The Post noted.

According to University of Iowa corporate law and finance law professor Robert T. Miller, who wrote in a Wells Fargo investor note on Monday, the chancellor is “likely to grant” Twitter’s demand for a speedy trial.

It makes sense, then, that Musk would file a countersuit because “if he doesn’t do that, he’s surrendering,” Miller went on to say in an interview with The Post.

Miller, who once worked for Wachtell, Lipton, the law firm retained by Twitter, added that he does not expect a countersuit to go in Musk’s favor if his legal team simply repeats the same claims about bot and spam accounts without presenting any new evidence.

However, if the countersuit makes new arguments then Musk may be able to win at least some additional time and discovery power, Miller noted.

“If he comes up with a completely new issue that has not been raised, it could change things,” Miller said.

“Some legal analysts have predicted that the Court of Chancery won’t order Musk to buy Twitter because the deal is so large and because a refusal to comply by Musk could wreak havoc on corporate courts,” The Post reported, adding: “Miller, however, argues that ‘all the incentives for Delaware cut in favor of making sure that the big guys get treated the same way as everybody else.'”

[size=16[/size]8-23-2022

Elon Musk subpoenas former Twitter chief
Jack Dorsey.

Elon Musk has served former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey with a subpoena in a hunt for material
to help him get out of buying the giant social media platform for $44 billion as agreed.

Records made public on Monday show Dorsey was served with a legal order to give Musk any communications or documents related to the takeover deal inked in April, as well as information touching on false or spam accounts or how Twitter calculates the number of its active users.

The subpoena asks for anything Dorsey has on the topics dating back to January of 2019.

Tesla boss Musk, the world's wealthiest man, has accused Twitter of fraud, alleging the company misled him about key aspects of its business, particularly the number of accounts that are actually spam or automated "bots" instead of people.

Twitter has stuck by its estimates that bots make up fewer than five percent of users.

Twitter also disputed Musk's assertion he has the right to walk away if its bot count is found to be wrong, since he didn't seek information on that topic when he made the buyout offer.

The company accuses Musk of contriving a story to escape a merger agreement that he no longer found attractive.

"Musk's counterclaims, based as they are on distortion, misrepresentation, and outright deception, change nothing," Twitter said in a court filing.

Rival lawyers have been serving subpoenas for weeks seeking documents or depositions from a wide range of people connected with the buyout, running Twitter's business, and even with a holding company formed by Musk.

Twitter co-founder Dorsey in November of last year ended his second stint as chief of the company and had voiced support for Musk taking it over.

The Twitter deal included a provision that if the deal fell apart, the party breaking the agreement would pay a termination fee of $1 billion under certain circumstances.

Billions of dollars are at stake, but so is the future of Twitter, which Musk has said should allow any legal speech -- an absolutist position that has sparked fears the network could be used to incite violence.

The legal fight is gathering speed as preparations have begun for an October trial in Delaware's Chancery Court, which specializes in complex, high-stakes business battles.

Twitter has urged shareholders to endorse the deal, setting a vote on the merger for September 13.

Ex-Twitter security chief's whistleblower complaint is a 'godsend' for Elon Musk
Yahoo Finance
ALEXIS KEENAN
August 24, 2022, 7:27 AM

Twitter’s (TWTR) ex-security chief has filed a whistleblower complaint with claims that, if proven true, could make it easier for Elon Musk to walk away from his $44 billion deal to buy the social media company.

Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, a widely respected hacker who was fired in January, sent a 200-page complaint to federal officials accusing Twitter’s top executives of violating laws and regulations by covering up lax security, and eschewing resources to fully understand its prevalence of fake accounts. The issue of fake accounts plays a central role in the legal battle between Musk and Twitter, which is suing him in an attempt to force him to go through with the deal.

The whistleblower claims regarding fake accounts present a considerable tide change in the lawsuit, set for trial in Delaware Chancery Court beginning Oct. 17. Prior to the claims, some legal experts had predicted that the seller-friendly merger agreement would tip the case in Twitter’s favor, with Delaware's Chancellor ordering Musk to go through with the deal.

“This changes everything,” University of Iowa law professor Robert Miller said about the claims. “This is like a godsend for Musk. The whistleblower’s complaints, if true…are exactly what Musk needs to get out of the deal. I mean, tailor made.”

'The timing is amazing'

Weeks after agreeing on April 25 to acquire Twitter’s outstanding stock at $54.20 per share, Musk posted on Twitter hinting of cold feet. A termination letter from his lawyers followed, accusing Twitter of breaching the deal by withholding the methods it used in its public filings to estimate that less than 5% of its 238 million monetizable daily active users or "mDAUs" are fake or spam accounts. Musk and his lawyers say they suspect the number is higher.

Zatko makes a similar but distinct claim that Twitter doesn't know how many of its total users are spam or bot accounts, and its employees are disincentivized to find out.

If Zatko’s complaint is accurate that Twitter does not know its total number of bots, and leads to a finding that Twitter cannot accurately estimate mDAUs, Miller and two other legal experts tell Yahoo Finance that it would make it easier for Musk to accuse Twitter of fraud, and in turn, use the fraud claim as a basis for exiting the deal. Musk’s has previously faced an uphill argument in the claim that Twitter breached a contractual information-sharing duty to turn over data backing up its estimate because Musk waived his right to further due diligence. And without access to Twitter's data, Musk would have a tough time proving that Twitter's regulatory filings misrepresented its mDAUs.

Musk's lawyers also allege that Twitter overstated its number of users, causing the company to experience a “material adverse effect” — another difficult-to-prove legal standard that in rare instances allows a buyer to terminate a merger if a target's business operations change significantly.

Now Musk is armed with a witness who can strengthen his case, according to Case Western Reserve University law school professor Anat Beck.

“Musk’s lawyers will try to use [Zatko] to show fraud or a misstatement and try to get around the material adverse effect issue,” Beck said. “The timing is amazing for Musk’s case.”

In an email to Yahoo Finance, a spokesperson for Twitter raised skepticism about that timing, calling it “opportunistic” and noting that Zatko had been fired in January based on “ineffective leadership and poor performance.”

“What we’ve seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context,” Twitter’s spokesperson said.

Widener University Delaware Law professor Lawrence Hamermesh says now that Zatko’s claims are in play, Musk’s case no longer rests on guesses about Twitter’s fake account figures, which Musk himself admitted lacking enough data to prove.

Instead he’ll have the opportunity to elicit testimony from Zatko, who has alleged that Twitter’s executives knowingly lacked tools to know how many fake accounts ran on its network, a claim that conflicts with Twitter’s regulatory filings that say the company stands behind its spam and bot counting methods.

“If it pans out, Musk’s case looks a lot better,” Hamermesh told Yahoo Finance. “I didn’t think he really had much of a case without this.”

Aside from any viable evidence from Zatko, Musk would still need more to prevail on a fraud claim, the lawyers say. The Tesla chief must prove that Twitter knowingly made a material false or misleading statement about the fake account estimates, and also show that he relied upon the inaccurate information. Material statements are those that significantly impact Musk's expectations under the contract.

It's a little harder for Musk to show that he relied on bot or spam representations, Miller said, because he claims he always knew that Twitter had more than the estimated percentage of bots. However, if Musk can persuade the judge that the problem was worse than he expected, or that he relied on Twitter operating in accordance with the law when it didn’t, Musk may be able to rescind the contract.

Chester Spatt, former chief economist and director of the SEC’s Office of Economic Analysis, said he could see Zatko’s complaint as posing a real problem for Twitter if it shows Twitter's leadership knew that the company made misrepresentations to regulators.

“The Twitter leadership is basically being accused of lying, and in particular that those lies, indirectly, would have permeated regulatory filings on which investors must reasonably rely,” Spatt said. "It's a statement that the executives knew and that they systematically lied. This is what this is what I think quickly could create the problem."

In an email to Yahoo Finance, John Tye, chief disclosure officer for Whistleblower Aid, an organization providing legal representation to Zatko said, “Mudge stands by everything in his disclosure, and his career of ethical and effective leadership speaks for itself. The focus should be on the facts laid out in the disclosure, not ad hominem attacks against the whistleblower."

Shares of Twitter closed at $39.86 on Tuesday, down 7.3% from the previous day's close.

Elon Musk Scores Win In Court Battle Against Twitter
By Ben Zeisloft • Sep 7, 2022 | DailyWire.com

A judge ruled on Wednesday that Elon Musk can use evidence from a Twitter whistleblower in his legal case against the social media company.

Twitter is currently battling Musk in court over his attempt to nix a previous offer to buy the company for $44 billion. Musk claims that the true number of fake accounts on the platform could number as high as 33% rather than the company’s reported 5%, with a lower number of monetizable daily active users potentially justifying a lower valuation. A trial to determine the status of the acquisition deal is scheduled for October 17.

Although she did not amend the date of the trial, Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick granted attorneys representing Musk permission to use the account of former Twitter executive Peiter “Mudge” Zatko — who claimed in a recent whistleblower account that his colleagues did not have the resources or motivation necessary to determine the number of bots on the platform — in their arguments.

Twitter reported losses of $0.08 per share in its second-quarter earnings, falling below the $0.14 gain per share expected by analysts. The rough quarter was attributable to “advertising industry headwinds associated with the macroenvironment as well as uncertainty related to the pending acquisition of Twitter by an affiliate of Elon Musk,” the company said in a press release.

Earlier this year, Twitter joined other technology companies in attempting to cut costs by pausing hiring and reducing office space on multiple continents. The company’s stock price has fallen from $64.98 one year ago to $41.22, marking a nearly 37% decline. However, shares rose over 6% following McCormick’s decision to avoid moving the trial.

During court procedures on Tuesday, Twitter lawyer William Savitt revealed that Musk had texted Michael Grimes, a managing director at investment bank Morgan Stanley, on May 8 to express fears about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its potential effects on the global economy. “Let’s slow down just a few days. Putin speech tomorrow is extremely important,” Musk said. “It won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into World War III.”

The text could potentially place Musk in breach of contract, which requires the buyer to use his best efforts to complete a deal, and could work against his claim that an inaccurate bot count was behind his hesitancy, according to a report from The New York Times’ DealBook.

Zatko’s whistleblower report, which was obtained by CNN and The Washington Post, also claimed that Twitter leadership misled board members and government officials about potential vulnerabilities that left the platform open to hacking, foreign manipulation, and spying. He asserted that one or more current employees are working for a foreign intelligence agency.

“All engineers had access. There was no logging of who went into the environment or what they did,” Zatko wrote. “Nobody knew where data lived or whether it was critical, and all engineers had some form of critical access to the production environment.”

Twitter’s lawsuit against the world’s richest man nevertheless asserts that he is obligated to complete the deal. “Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” the lawsuit said. “Musk apparently believes that he … is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”

Temple wrote:

10-8-2022

Musk's Phone Shows ____.

Private messages from the billionaire show that he often takes into
account inputs from relatives in his business decision-making process.

///

Like, I'm sure you never consulted with anyone whenever you spent a few dollars on trivial shit.

Do you ask your wife's permission before spending nine bucks for a Starbucks cup of java, when Folgers at home would do just fine??

The Wise And Powerful wrote:

Temple wrote:

10-8-2022

Musk's Phone Shows ____.

Private messages from the billionaire show that he often takes into
account inputs from relatives in his business decision-making process.

///

Like, I'm sure you never consulted with anyone whenever you spent a few dollars on trivial shit.

buying Twitter for 44 Billion dollars is Not___
__''a few dollars on trivial shit ''
And the read was interesting..and has nothing to do with me-
I was not included...
Dont make everything personal,
leave that to Grac, it's his thing.
So--are you ready for the snow, its gonna be a big one..

Quote :

And the read was interesting..and has nothing to do with me-
I was not included...

...Yea, i think were all aware that you weren't included in conversations between Musk and his family

Quote :

Dont make everything personal,
leave that to Grac, it's his thing.

Holy fuck... That was too "personal" for you?.. It was a *hypothetical* scenario ..
I suggest Obi used you in the example to help you grasp his point because you're a dumbass

Quote :

So--are you ready for the snow, its gonna be a big one..

Now you're asking Obi a ~personal~ question about his "readiness" for snow, ... He also "wasn't included" in Musk's conversations..nor did he mention his weather or anything pertaining to his "getting ready" for it, or what that might entail
.. The only things -I- know about you is what you've openly revealed here on this board .. If you think any of that's too ~personal~ then maybe you should refrain from your chest-puffing blather as to your ~personal~ business and finances .. Obviously your political beliefs haven't been withheld either .. Will you deem them too personal now too?

Musk for President!

Elon Musk To Gut Twitter, Report Says
By  Ryan Saavedra • Oct 20, 2022 • DailyWire.com

Billionaire Elon Musk will reportedly gut Twitter with massive cuts when he takes over, getting rid of the overwhelming majority of the company.

The Washington Post reported that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to get rid of “nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000.”

The report said that even if the Musk’s acquisition of Twitter somehow does not go through, large cuts are still expected as the current people running the company planned to get rid of roughly 25% of the company’s staff.

The report said that the planned cuts by Twitter’s executives helped to explain why the company wanted to sell to Musk once he made the offer.

The social media platform had been fighting Musk in court over his attempt to cancel a previous offer to buy the company for $44 billion, a move he said was driven by concerns that executives were underestimating the actual number of fake accounts on the platform. Musk revived his efforts to purchase Twitter earlier this month.

Beyond his concern about fake accounts, Musk has voiced criticism over lackluster support on Twitter for free expression. He began his shakeup campaign several months ago with a poll for his millions of followers regarding the platform’s adherence to the principle of free speech.

Former Twitter data scientist Edwin Chen said that the cuts would immediately impact the platform and that users would probably be able to notice a difference right away.

“It would be a cascading effect where you’d have services going down and the people remaining not having the institutional knowledge to get them back up, and being completely demoralized and wanting to leave themselves,” he claimed.

The report said that Musk believed that gutting the company was the first step and then he could reshape it through new hires.

The report also disclosed some of the people who decided to help invest in Twitter with Musk, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Sequoia partner Doug Leone, who the Post said “were also Trump supporters and self-proclaimed believers in the type of free speech ideology Musk promised to bring back to the platform.”

The report added that hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin, “the second largest GOP donor in the current midterm cycle, also committed a smaller amount — under $20 million compared with $1 billion from Ellison — to the deal.”

Elon Musk completes $44bn Twitter takeover
Published Just now
By James Clayton in San Francisco and Peter Hoskins in Singapore
BBC News

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has completed his $44bn (£38.1bn) takeover of Twitter, according to US media and an investor in the social media firm.

Mr Musk tweeted "the bird is freed" in an apparent reference to the deal.

A number of top executives, including the boss, Parag Agrawal, have reportedly been fired.

Mr Agrawal and two other executives were escorted out of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on Thursday evening, said Reuters.

The completion of the deal brings to an end months of legal wrangling but it has prompted questions over the platform's future direction.

Chief financial officer Ned Segal, and the firm's top legal and policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, are leaving alongside Mr Agrawal, according to US media reports.

Meanwhile, Bret Taylor - who had served as Twitter's chairman since last November - updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate that he was no longer in the post.

But Mr Musk, a self-styled "free speech absolutist", has been critical of Twitter's management and its moderation policies.

They clashed over the terms of the takeover, with Mr Musk accusing Twitter of providing misleading information about the firm's user numbers.

He has also said he would reverse bans on suspended users, which could include former US President Donald Trump, who was excluded following the Capitol riot in January 2021.

At the time, Twitter said there was a risk Mr Trump would incite further violence. But Mr Musk has described the ban as "foolish".

Earlier this week, Mr Musk said that he doesn't want the platform to become an echo chamber for hate and division. "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!", he tweeted.

The takeover has prompted discussion among Twitter users over what the platform will look like under Mr Musk's ownership.

There are fears that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be invited back to the platform. As well as Mr Trump, that could include political extremists, QAnon loyalists and Covid-19 deniers.

In response to Mr Musk's missive, Thierry Breton the EU commissioner for the internal market tweeted "In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules" suggesting regulators will take a tough stance against any relaxation of Twitter's policies.

Mr Musk as well as being the world's richest person with $250bn to his name, is a controversial figure.

He made his fortune through the electric car company Tesla, and space exploration firm Space X. But he has drawn additional attention by his outspoken intervention in unrelated matters, often using Twitter as the platform, ranging from geopolitical issues such as the war in Ukraine to the rescue of the schoolboys trapped in a Thai cave.

It is not clear yet whether the clear out of senior management is the forerunner to company-wide job cuts. Earlier reports suggested 75% of staff at the social media company were set to lose their jobs but those reports were "inaccurate", according to Ross Gerber, a shareholder in both Twitter and Mr Musk's other company Tesla.

"There are a lot of talented people at Twitter, especially on the engineering side and they want to retain as much of that talent as possible," Mr Gerber told the BBC.

But he said the job losses could nevertheless extend far beyond upper management. Mr Musk might look to cut product managers and end projects "that aren't going anywhere" he said.

The social media platform's shares will be suspended from trading on Friday, according to the New York Stock Exchange's website.

Quote :

There are fears that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be invited back to the platform.

IOW, (hopefully) the left won't be able to dictate what is/not hate speech, disinformation/misinformation and might hafta suffer with shit they don't like being on the platform .. Such is life .. There's always the option(s) to ignore it, not read it, or find a niche somewhere else more to their liking .. But that's not really an option is it<?> .. They want that shit banned..stifled..*cancel* them .. Their righteousness doesn't allow for it on the same platform

Quote :

As well as Mr Trump,

haha! ... Oh the horror of it! .. "We hate him and everything he says and does" .. It's amazing that they'd specifically single out one man/poster from millions all over the world that they're afraid would lay waste to twitter.. At the same time claim that 90% of anything he writes to be a lie or some kinda conspiracy theory

Quote :

that could include political extremists, QAnon loyalists and Covid-19 deniers.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! .. People need to get a fucking grip .. They're talkin about social media forfuksake.. One platform among the many .. They're all bent outta shape, afraid people will return to twitter and pound out words that offend their delicate senses... "Words are violence" and all that leftist bullshit...
... Suck it up or just leave .. Start your own group on facebook where you can ban and dictate everything posted

Elon Musk needs to win back everybody's trust to turn Twitter around
Daniel Howley·Technology Editor, Yahoo Finance
Sun, October 30, 2022 at 6:43 AM·4 min read

Twitter (TWTR) is officially Elon Musk’s company. The Tesla (TSLA) CEO took over his favorite social network Thursday after months of back and forth that saw Musk try to buy the platform, then back out, and finally agree to buy it again.

Now he has to prove he won’t turn Twitter into an even greater wasteland of anger, hate speech, and misinformation than it already is. Musk told advertisers on Thursday he doesn’t want the site to become a "hellscape," and that he wants advertisers to stick around. But if he can’t deliver on that promise, the site could lose its advertisers, and its user base, and turn into another irrelevant app like MySpace.

“I think a lot of folks are saying ‘Look, if this place does become a hellhole, I'll leave. But I'm going to give it a chance to flourish,'” explained Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School and expert on corporate law and governance.

But as one of Twitter’s most prolific posters, and trolls, he’ll need to stick to his word that he wants the platform to be "warm and welcoming” for everyone.

“Elon Musk is starting out as CEO with a large trust deficit,” Forrester research director Mike Proulx told Yahoo Finance. “He has work to do to repair the damage that's been done during a very public and dramatic acquisition process and across Twitter stakeholders. And by that I mean, Twitter's employees, its users, and the advertising community.”

The easy part is over

Musk spent the seven months trying to buy Twitter and then fighting to wiggle out of the deal. Now that he’s made the $44 billion deal official, Musk needs to find a way to make his new platform succeed.

“The day has finally come with Musk officially closing the Twitter deal last night,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in an investor note last week. “As we have discussed, the easy part for Musk was buying Twitter. The difficult part and Everest-like uphill battle looking ahead will be fixing this troubled asset.”

Twitter has an outsized influence on our culture compared to some of its biggest competitors. With 237.8 million monetizable daily active users — the company’s measurement of users who see ads — Twitter is far smaller than Facebook parent Meta, which has 2.93 billion daily active users, and TikTok, which reported having 1 billion monthly active users in September 2021.

Despite its comparatively small size, Twitter regularly fuels major news stories because of the people who use it. That’s not always a good thing. Former President Trump was banned from the platform for using it to instigate the attack on the Capitol, and the artist formerly known as Kanye West was suspended for his recent antisemitic rant. A hero diver sued Musk after the CEO referred to the man as a "pedo guy" on Twitter.

But headlines don't translate into dollars. For years, investors have complained that Twitter isn’t monetized well enough, calling for the company to introduce subscription features and figure out ways to bring in more ad money. To turn the company around, Musk needs to leverage Twitter’s cultural significance, and to listen to the advice of workers and ad partners.

"Elon Musk has to listen to the Twitter community, to listen to Twitter employees and those employees that will be remaining there, to listen to advertisers. These are all important stakeholders that Musk is going to have to energize in order for the platform to be successful,” Pourlx said.

Musk is already making changes

Nobody knows for sure how Musk will transform Twitter. He’s gone from calling for all speech to be allowed on the site to saying that it should be moderated to some extent. On Friday, Musk announced that he is putting together a content moderation council made up of diverse viewpoints that will presumably be responsible for making decisions about user-generated content and accounts.

If he does allow the site to turn into a morass of hate speech and negativity, though, he could end up alienating Twitter’s existing user base.

Musk also needs to lay out a clear vision of what he wants to do with Twitter. That's something he could have done over the last few months if he hadn't been trying to get out of buying the site.

“He needs to be able to communicate that vision in ways that have both a sense of detail, a sense of strategy," Talley said, "and above all, have a sense of commitment by him.”

Elon Musk could become global 'punching bag' as he takes Twitter private
Alexis Keenan·Reporter, Yahoo Finance
Fri, October 28, 2022 at 4:42 AM

Elon Musk completed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Thursday, reportedly firing top executives and raising questions about content regulation on a platform that banned Donald Trump.

The deal comes at a delicate time for social media, as ad revenue wanes and as platforms remain on high alert for potential foreign interference ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Musk's decisions on content regulation could determine Twitter's role in ensuring fair elections. Now that Musk has ousted members of Twitter's leadership, he will effectively become the arbiter of posts from high-profile people, governments, and corporations. That role could interfere with his other businesses, which include Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and the Boring Company.

“He so set himself up to just be a punching bag among really powerful players, who actually have leverage over him,” Eric Goldman, associate dean and professor for Santa Clara University’s School of Law, told Yahoo Finance.

On Friday, Musk shared on Twitter his intention to form a content moderation council whose members hold widely diverse viewpoints, a plan that could help insulate him as the platform's content authority.

"No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes," the Tweet said.

Election security has been a chief concern for social media companies since a bipartisan Congressional investigation confirmed that Russian operatives used the sites to spread propaganda around the 2016 presidential election. Lawmakers and advocacy groups have pressured Twitter, Facebook (META), Instagram (META), and YouTube (GOOG, GOOGL) to curb the spread of false information.


Tweet posted to the account of Twitter owner and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, on Friday Oct. 28, 2022

The responsibility to reign over content and moderation requests puts Musk in a precarious position, Goldman said. The law professor contends Musk will likely receive requests from influential people, including in China and Germany where he's trying to expand his Tesla operations.

Musk could also face pressure from other world leaders, even if his businesses don't directly do business in their countries, Columbia University law professor John Coffee told Yahoo Finance.

"I could imagine the Russians wanting to influence Musk. I don't want to encourage that," Coffee said.

The European Union might also attempt to influence Musk, as sweeping new laws called the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, which among many other provisions, will enforce new rules on transparency and content moderation. EU antitrust regulators in Brussels could also opt to go after Twitter.

"And, I could imagine how Europe will push him because the European courts have already begun to put demands upon social media — and the European antitrust authorities in Brussels," Coffee said, adding that he's also concerned about too much regulation of speech on social media.

Twitter declined to say whether its current “civic integrity policy” will survive a Musk acquisition and the Nov. 8 elections. The policy uses prompts to direct account-holders to information that Twitter deems accurate, and adds content labels on posts that it deems misleading.

"We’re committed to protecting conversation health, keeping people safe, and making credible election information accessible," a Twitter spokesperson said in response to Yahoo's request.

A request to Musk for information on the company’s post-merger moderation policy went unanswered.

'Drastic' action necessary to take down bots

The Musk deal was a long time coming. In April, Musk agreed to buy the company for $54.20 a share, or $44 billion, but then had a change of heart and tried to back out of the deal in July. Twitter sued him that same month in the Delaware Chancery Court, where a judge skilled at analyzing complex business dealings would have ruled on the case had it gone to trial.

Many legal experts predicted Musk would lose the case, and he had yet another change of heart and agreed to go through with the deal on its original terms earlier this month.

The Tesla CEO, who once got in trouble with securities regulators over his own tweet, had pledged to make the forum more open — prompting speculation that he will allow Donald Trump back on the site. Musk has also pledged to tackle bots, or automated Twitter accounts that can look like real humans. Not only can these accounts spread fake information, but they can also upset advertisers that want to show their products to real humans who can buy them.



In April, before agreeing to buy Twitter, Musk told a Twitter board member in a text message that "drastic" action was necessary to tackle bots.

“This is hard to do as a public company, as purging fake users will make the numbers look terrible, so restructuring should be done as a private company,” Musk wrote in the text message that was released as part of the litigation with Twitter.

In another text on May 8, Musk wrote to Morgan Stanley's Michael Grimes saying that he suspected based on his own Twitter feed that Twitter’s authentic, non-double-counted daily active users could be 50% or less, rather than the 95% that it estimates in its public financial filings.

For now, Musk appears to be focused on loosening content moderation. Late Thursday, he tweeted: 'the bird is free.'

Musk-Twitter deal caps off a brutal week for tech
Alexandra Garfinkle and Daniel Howley, Yahoo Finance
Fri, October 28, 2022 at 12:55 PM

Elon Musk officially took over Twitter Thursday and immediately started making changes. The first order of business: ousting CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal.

The moves marked an end to the tech industry's nightmare week, which saw giants from Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META) to Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) take a wrecking ball to the teeth as each firm, one after another, reported slowing sales. Apple (AAPL) was the sole semi-winner, as its wearables and Mac businesses saved it from completely bumming out investors.


Elon Musk's tweet reading "The bird is freed" is seen through a Twitter logo in this illustration taken October 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The week kicked off Tuesday with Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft releasing quarterly results that showed slowing growth in key business segments. Alphabet's earnings were objectively tougher to look at with the company missing Wall Street's expectations on the top and bottom line.

But the biggest headlines included a $400 million miss on YouTube ad revenue, a slowdown in Google Cloud Platform revenue, and net income that came up $5 billion short of last year's numbers. Shares of the search giant were down 6% on the week.

Microsoft, which also reported earnings on Tuesday, fared better than Google in the prior quarter. The company beat analysts' expectations on the top and bottom lines, but its Intelligent Cloud segment growth fell year-over-year from 31% to 20%. It's all-important Azure cloud platform growth, meanwhile, fell from 50% to 35%. The company is still, in some watchers' eyes, set up to win long-term.

“[Microsoft] is one of the strongest companies on the planet," Fitz-Gerald Group Principal Keith Fitz-Gerald told Yahoo Finance Live this week. “It’s one of the most widely held companies on the planet... Do you really want to get off a winning horse in the middle of the race? That’s what investors need to think.”

Nevertheless, this week, Microsoft just didn't look all that great to investors, and it was the company's outlook for Azure that seemed to sting the worst, with the tech giant predicting that its Azure business growth will decline another 5% in the current quarter. Microsoft shares were off 3% for the week as of mid-day Friday.

Fellow cloud computing behemoth Amazon didn't fare much better, reporting misses on revenue and Amazon Web Services (AWS) sales. Those AWS sales are vital to the company and even the slight miss — $20.5 billion actual versus $21 billion expected — was a disappointment. However, the real drag on Amazon was its Q4 guidance. In anticipation of a muted holiday season, the company guided to between $140 billion and $144 billion instead of the expected $155 billion.

Amazon's results were "really macro-related — inflation, interest rates, energy costs, the Ukraine war are impacting the consumer," Cowen Managing Director John Blackledge told Yahoo Finance Live on Friday. "They're also dealing with lingering spend issues, but they're working on it."

Amazon's shares are down about 15% as of mid-day Friday.

In a rough time, Meta stands out as perhaps the week's biggest loser. The Facebook parent reported on Wednesday that its revenue declined in Q3 and missed analysts' expectations, as the company's pivot towards the metaverse increasingly generates criticism and scrutiny from watchers.

Meta's stock went into free fall on Thursday, and its shares are still down 21% for the week as of mid-day Friday.

The one seeming bright spot for Big Tech this week came when Apple reported its Q4 earnings Thursday. While the company missed on revenue expectations for its iPhone and Services segments, it still managed to report record revenue for the quarter.

But even Apple faltered. The company admitted that it will be stung by foreign exchange headwinds and that its Q4 growth will be lower than the 8% year-over-year growth it saw in Q3. Apple didn't provide exact guidance for its holiday quarter, but a drop during what is traditionally its best sales season could be damaging to the iPhone maker.

So, Twitter might have been thrown a life raft with an anchor attached, but when looking at the rest of tech, it hasn't had the worst week. It's all relative in a bear market.

Binance CEO: 'We're excited to be able to help Elon realize a new vision for Twitter'

David Hollerith·Senior Reporter, Yahoo Finance
Fri, October 28, 2022 at 7:34 AM

Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, completed on Thursday, also included a $500 million commitment from crypto's largest trading venue, Binance.

Going forward, that means, a major player in cryptocurrencies and "Web3" now has a stake in the social media giant's success.

Accounting for 1.3% of the company's total value, the stake underscores Binance's growing influence outside crypto.

“We're excited to be able to help Elon realize a new vision for Twitter,” Binance Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a statement. “We aim to play a role in bringing social media and Web3 together in order to broaden the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology."

Alongside major angel investors such as Oracle Cofounder Larry Ellison and Twitter majority stakeholder Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, Binance’s support had previously been disclosed as far back as May.

Year to date, $18 trillion worth of crypto has changed hands on Binance, accounting for 22% of global crypto trading volume, nearly quadruple that of any other crypto exchange, according to crypto indexer, Nomics.

Before the Musk deal closed, Twitter had made efforts to further incorporate crypto onto its platform by allowing users to send cryptocurrencies through their user accounts and verify NFTs as profile pictures.

More recently, the company’s lesser known BlueSky initiative launched a website detailing plans to launch the AT Protocol, which aims to create a decentralized social network using blockchain technology.

Started by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who has since left the company, it remains unclear how BlueSky will fit into Twitter’s plans under Musk.

As of yesterday afternoon, Twitter is also testing "NFT Tweet Tiles," a new feature that let's users buy non-fungible tokens through various NFT marketplaces such as Rarible, Dapper Labs, and Magic Eden.

Dogecoin buyers may also anticipate some value from Musk's takeover. Thanks in part to the billionaire's previous promotion of the meme coin last year, Dogecoin has risen by 38% in value in the week leading up to Musk's Twitter acquisition.

For the period, the market capitalization for DOGE has risen by $3 billion from $7.7 billion to $10.6 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.

For its part, a spokesperson for Binance told Yahoo Finance that Binance is creating a team inside the company to focus on ways cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology could be helpful to Twitter.

"For example, how can we build on-chain solutions to address some of Twitter's issues, such as the proliferation of bot accounts in recent years. We are in the early stages now and still figuring out a plan," the spokesperson added.

Patrick Hillman, Binance's chief strategy officer suggested the company's involvement could mean less speculation and more "practical use cases" for the still buzzy, yet less active, emerging asset class.

"As the world’s leading web3 infrastructure company, we’re looking forward to bringing new solutions to solve some of the issues inherent in the Web2 ecosystem," Hillman said in a statement.

'Go Elon': Trump allies have high hopes for Twitter after Musk takeover
Ben Werschkul·Washington Correspondent, Yahoo Finance
Fri, October 28, 2022 at 8:54 AM

Trump-aligned corners of the internet reacted immediately to Thursday's big Twitter news.

The former president's allies set their expectations sky-high in the immediate aftermath of Elon Musk's formal takeover of the influential social media platform, posting on both Twitter and Trump's copycat service, Truth Social.

These Trump allies have expectations of the Tesla chief that go far beyond the reinstatement of the former president — including allowing back other banned users and removing regulations on hate speech. But will they be disappointed?

Trump weighed in on Friday morning. "I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands," he said. What he didn't say whether he'd rejoin the platform if Musk offers to let him back on. In the past, Trump has said he won't return. but many are skeptical he'd actually be able to stay away if offered.

For now, nobody knows what Musk will do with Twitter. He immediately fired top executives, including the policy chief who is most directly associated with banning Trump. But he has offered few specifics on how he will reshape the site and its approach to politics.

On Friday morning, he did say he would be looking at claims of so-called shadow-banning — blocking a user's content without their knowledge — from a conservative account named @catturd2.


TOPSHOT - This video grab taken from a video posted on the Twitter account of billionaire Tesla chief Elon Musk on October 26, 2022 shows himself carrying a sink as he enters the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco.

One hint from the billionaire came in an open letter he sent to advertisers Thursday morning acknowledging that he'll have some limits on how much he will loosen the platform's rules regarding hate speech and misinformation. This contrasted with previous comments when the billionaire called himself a “free speech absolutist.”

“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences,” he wrote.

Carnegie Mellon University Professor Ari Lightman, in a Yahoo Finance live video before the deal closed, argued that a platform can be both open and heavily moderated. "Both can exist to some capacity," he argued.

However, it remains to be seen whether Musk can appease both Trump allies and other stakeholders, notably advertisers.

‘Go Elon’
In spite of all the open questions, phrases like “Go Elon” were trending Friday morning with a seemingly endless stream of mostly right-wing figures celebrating the billionaire's acquisition.



But the messages pointed towards many thorny issues Musk will have to confront in the days ahead. For example, right wing activists immediately put together lists of figures they say need to be reinstated.

Musk is widely expected to reverse the lifetime ban for Donald Trump, perhaps even before the midterm elections on Nov. 8. He's also reportedly looking at other lifetime bans, but it's unclear how far he’ll go. Will he reinstate Alex Jones, who was recently ordered by a court to pay nearly $1 billion for his lies about Sandy Hook, and let him tweet freely? How about other controversial and legally problematic figures such as GOP lobbyist Roger Stone, MyPillow Guy CEO and election denier Mike Lindell, or far-right activist James O’Keefe?

On Friday, @KanyeWest appeared to be available after being locked locked out earlier this month following antisemitic comments from the artist, who now goes by Ye.

And the calls from the right go beyond reinstating accounts. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) took to Twitter Friday to promise:"A lot of suppressed truths, on social media and in Congress, will be coming to light in the next two years." Meanwhile, Dinesh D'Souza, a key Trump ally and propagator of his 2020 election falsehoods, said Thursday night: “Now Elon Musk can reveal the explosive details” of Twitter’s role around Hunter Biden.

For many on the right, Twitter’s decision to block users from posting a story about Hunter Biden’s stolen laptop less than three weeks before the 2020 election qualified as election interference. The Federal Election Commission has reportedly dismissed those allegations, but many on the right want to keep the case alive. What's unclear is whether Musk would be inclined to wade in.

Other tweets suggested that Twitter record government requests for content from government officials. There were also calls from more firings, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) tweeting “just wait until tomorrow” on Thursday night, in an apparent reference to the fired Twitter executives. Musk has reportedly told Twitter employees he’s not planning to fire 75% of the staff. However, further layoffs and restructuring at the company are widely expected.



For now, all sides of the political spectrum will await next moves from the unpredictable billionaire who has deepened his ties to the GOP in recent months.

On Friday morning, Musk dropped a hint of his mood in the aftermath of the sale, tweeting: "Let the good times roll."

Elon Musk makes his pitch to Twitter's advertisers
Alexis Keenan·Reporter, Yahoo Finance
Thu, October 27, 2022 at 10:59 AM·2 min read

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk tweeted a message aimed at Twitter (TWTR) advertisers on Thursday, a day ahead of an Oct. 28 deadline to complete his $44 billion deal to buy the platform.

Musk said most speculation about his reasons for buying Twitter is wrong. He’s not buying the company to make more money, or because it would be easy to operate, he said. Instead, Musk said he wants to own Twitter to “help humanity” by encouraging nonviolent debate.

“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wider range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk wrote. “In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has fueled and catered to those polarized extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost.”

The message to advertisers comes after a legal battle with Twitter following Musk's attempt to back out of his deal to buy the platform. Twitter sued Musk, and he agreed to complete the deal on its original terms.

Musk has pledged to allow for more open speech on the platform, prompting speculation that he would allow Donald Trump back on Twitter. Still, Musk told advertisers that Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said."

Musk also laid out ideas for making Twitter a more attractive place for advertisers. Users of the platform, he said, should be shown high quality ads that are relevant to them.

When executed properly, ads can rival the content that its users post to Twitter’s platform, according to Musk. Ads can entertain and inform, such as introducing users to a new medical treatment, he noted.

“Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise,” Musk wrote.

It's Happening! Elon's Twitter Just Fact-Checked Joe Biden's Official Presidential Account


Less than 24 hours after Elon Musk took over as Chief Twit of Twitter, a fact-check has been placed on one of Joe Biden’s @POTUS tweets because… he’s lying. Biden tweeted, “Let me give you the facts. In 2020, 55 corporations made $40 billion. And they paid zero in federal taxes. My Inflation Reduction Act puts an end to this.”

Not so fast, homie. Twitter took the opportunity to add context that said, “Out of the 55 corporations the tweet referenced only 14 had earnings greater than $1 billion and would be eligible under Biden’s tax law.” LOL….



https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2022/10/29/its-happening-elons-twitter-just-fact-checked-joe-bidens-official-presidential-account-n1641157

Musk has owned Twitter under a week and big names are already leaving the platform, complaining about a hate surge, and calling for tighter regulation
Steve Mollman | Fortune
Sun, October 30, 2022 at 11:58 AM

That didn’t take long. It’s been four days since Elon Musk finalized his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, and already he’s facing pushback from celebrities, lawmakers, and advertisers worried about how the social network will change under his leadership, even as many conservative voices rejoice.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is among those voicing concerns. Asked Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press whether she trusts Musk now that he runs Twitter, she replied, “No, I do not.”

The Minnesota Democrat wants more content moderation and less immunity for social networks that amplify hate speech.

Referring to the man who attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband this week, she said, “He was posting anti-Semitic tropes; he was showing memes that showed violence and all of this election-denying, pro-Trump, MAGA-crowd rhetoric. That’s what we’re dealing with here…I just don’t think people should be making money off of passing on this stuff that’s a bunch of lies.”

Noting that TV networks have to screen commercials for false information before they air, she said companies like Twitter do not face similar requirements.

”We have to change the requirements on these companies,” she said. “They’re making money off of us. They’re making money off of this violence.”

“Scary AF” tweets
Meanwhile NBA star LeBron James tweeted yesterday that the surge in N-word use on Twitter since Musk’s takeover was “scary AF,” and added that he hoped Musk “and his people take this very seriously.”



That followed the Network Contagion Research Institute—a social media research firm—reporting that use of the N-word spiked 500% on Twitter in the 12 hours after Musk took control.



Anti-Semitic memes also jumped, and so did the word “plandemic”—shorthand for a conspiracy theory in which elites are using the pandemic to gain power and profit off vaccines—according to Dataminr, which also analyzes social media, Bloomberg reported.

In response to James’s complaint, Musk shared a tweet from a Twitter employee reading, "Nearly all of these accounts are inauthentic. We’ve taken action to ban the users involved in this trolling campaign—and are going to continue working to address this in the days to come to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone."

But some Hollywood power players have already decided to leave Twitter. Yesterday Shonda Rhimes, the TV screenwriter, producer, and author behind hit shows like Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, tweeted that she would be leaving the platform, writing simply: “Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye.”

That followed This Is Us executive producer Ken Olin tweeting Friday, “I’m out of here.”

“Free-speech absolutist”
Of course, many conservative pundits and lawmakers are delighted that Democratic lawmakers and Hollywood elites are upset with Musk’s Twitter takeover, having long believed—like Musk himself—that the social network was overly strict and suppressive.

“Free speech. Liberal tears,” tweeted Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio on Friday. Jordan is a strong ally of former President Donald Trump, who the previous leadership of Twitter banned from the platform—and who Musk might welcome back.

Trump himself wrote on his rival social platform Truth Social: “I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country.”

Meanwhile Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News on Friday: "I think Elon Musk buying Twitter is one of the most significant developments for free speech in modern times."

Podcaster Joe Rogan, for his part, on Saturday praised Musk—a self-described “free-speech absolutist”—for wanting to restore a "reasonable exchange of ideas" on the platform.

"I think we have a real problem with discourse on Twitter," he added. "What some would like to do is silence those that have opposing viewpoints, and then you get all this positive feedback from all the people that agree with you."

This spring, when the Twitter takeover drama began, Musk tweeted: “By ‘free speech,’ I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”

On Friday, Musk tweeted, “To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies,” adding, “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”

A day earlier, he rushed to reassure advertisers on Twitter that the platform wouldn’t become a “free-for-all hellscape.”

Not all of them are convinced, yet.

General Motors said it would temporarily pause advertising on Twitter, adding, “We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership.”