Tag: musk
Twitter upgrades DM replies, Musk claims encrypted DMs launch on Wednesday
Twitter is making some big changes to direct messages and expects to introduce encrypted DMs on Wednesday, according to Tuesday evening tweets from the company and owner Elon Musk.
Let’s start first with the immediate changes. As detailed in a tweet from the company’s support account, you can now reply to specific messages (which work like the in-line replies you might be familiar with in iMessage) and react to messages with any reaction instead of a limited few. I just downloaded the iOS app to my phone and both features were there. You can access them by pressing and holding on a specific message.
We’re excited to launch two new features in Direct Messages today!
Introducing DM Replies! You can now reply to any message you receive…
Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Purge Inactive Accounts, Which Could Give You the Handle You’ve Always Wanted – CNET
Elon Musk teases free Tesla FSD trial in North America
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has laid out a rough plan for expanding access to Full Self-Driving (FSD), the company’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), throughout North America and the rest of the world. “Once FSD is super smooth (not just safe), we will roll out a free month trial for all cars in North America,” […]
Elon Musk teases free Tesla FSD trial in North America by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch
Elon Musk says Twitter will start ‘purging’ dormant accounts
According to Twitter owner Elon Musk, Twitter is planning to purge accounts. No, not accounts belonging to extremists, neo-Nazis, or spreaders of disinformation.
Twitter is planning to purge inactive accounts.
“We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop,” Musk said in a tweet.
It’s unclear when Twitter plans on doing so. The way Musk’s tweet is worded makes it seem like the company is actively in the process now.
And that’s a big problem for Twitter and its users if so.
For one, what counts as activity? Many Twitter users don’t tweet; they just log in to read content from the accounts they follow. According to Twitter’s own official policy, the company actually considers an account inactive if the user hasn’t logged in for 30 days. However, Twitter has rarely, if ever, taken action against users’ accounts for simply not logging in for a month.
But Twitter users, even Musk fans and those that pay to subscribe to his exclusive tweet content through the platform’s Subscription feature, had a more pressing concern: Twitter accounts belonging to the deceased.
This is a serious issue. Celebrities and other notable users who have passed away have obviously not logged in for years. Removing dormant accounts would delete their accounts and any history associated with it.
And, of course, there are accounts belonging to deceased family members whom many users revisit in order to reminisce. Even the controversial Andrew Tate expressed his concern to Musk for his deceased father’s account, which has been inactive now for nearly a decade.
“Very good idea,” tweeted Tate in Musk’s replies. “But my father died and I still read his account daily. Please keep him active.”
In a subscriber-only tweet to one of his followers, Musk appeared to say that consideration would be made for deceased celebrities. However, this doesn’t seem to answer the concerns of users with deceased loved ones who aren’t celebrities.
The very idea of purging inactive accounts was first considered by the old Twitter regime in 2019. But, user backlash over the possibility of Twitter deleting accounts belonging to deceased loved ones was too much for Twitter to ignore. The company backtracked shortly after announcing their intention and claimed it was specifically due to that issue.
“We’ve heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased,” the official @TwitterSupport account tweeted in 2019. “This was a miss on our part. We will not be removing any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to memorialize accounts.”
Unfortunately, the old Twitter did not end up rolling out such a feature before Musk acquired the company. There’s still no way to officially memorialize accounts on the platform.
It’s unclear now if Twitter will backtrack once again. Or perhaps Musk’s tweet was just a scare tactic to get users to log in to their accounts again. If one was trying to pump up its monthly active user stats in order to appeal to advertisers, that would certainly be one way to do it. We’ll soon find out.
Elon Musk reportedly settles defamation suit after saying he’d never ‘surrender an unjust case’
A defamation case brought against Tesla chief executive Elon Musk by critic Randeep Hothi is coming to a close, reportedly costing the billionaire ten big ones. Lawyers representing Hothi, a vocal member of the TSLAQ short-seller community on Twitter, said in a statement that Musk asked to settle the nearly three-year-old case back in March. […]
Elon Musk reportedly settles defamation suit after saying he’d never ‘surrender an unjust case’ by Harri Weber originally published on TechCrunch
Tesla’s Magnet Mystery Shows Elon Musk Is Willing to Compromise
Elon Musk says Twitter will introduce per-article charging in May
Twitter might provide publishers with a new way to earn from their content outside of the typical recurring subscription option. According to company chief Elon Musk, Twitter will allow media publishers to charge users for access to individual articles they post on the website as as soon as next month. Users will end up paying a higher per-article price than what the cost of access to every article would amount to if they had a subscription instead. But Musk said it’s for those who want to read the occasional story from a specific outlet, so each article probably wouldn’t cost as much as a monthly subscription.
Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click.
This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article.…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2023
At this point in time, though, details about the upcoming feature remain vague. Musk only said that it will start rolling out next month — it’s unclear what kinds of accounts and media outlets will be able to offer per-article charging. In addition, Twitter’s owner didn’t say how much the website would be taking as commission. When the company officially replaced Super Follows with Subscriptions, Musk announced that it won’t be taking any money from creators for the next 12 months. After the year is up, Twitter will be taking a 10 percent cut on subscriptions.
Engadget has reached out to the website for clarification, but it doesn’t have a press team anymore. We’ll have to wait for more information to know if Twitter will implement the same rule for per-article payments. Ultimately, the company will be taking a cut — Twitter, under Musk, has been introducing more and more paid features to boost revenue. It’s pretty common knowledge at this point that its verification badge now comes as a perk for its $8-a-month Blue subscription. Twitter also shut down its free API to launch a new one that users would have to pay for. It would cost enterprise customers almost $50,000 a month to access the new API, so some organizations and companies such as NYC’s transport authority had chosen to end Twitter integration or to leave the website instead.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-says-twitter-will-introduce-per-article-charging-in-may-230739305.html?src=rss
Jack Dorsey thinks Elon Musk isn’t doing right by Twitter
Jack Dorsey has been using Bluesky, the app he partially funded that’s built upon a federated and open social networking protocol he advocates, to do some truth-telling about Twitter, Elon Musk and the decision to take the company private under the stewardship of the Tesla CEO. Dorsey admits that Twitter is faring poorly under Musk […]
Jack Dorsey thinks Elon Musk isn’t doing right by Twitter by Darrell Etherington originally published on TechCrunch
The week in AI: ChatBots multiply and Musk wants to make a ‘maximum truth-seeking’ one
Keeping up with an industry as fast-moving as AI is a tall order. So until an AI can do it for you, here’s a handy roundup of the last week’s stories in the world of machine learning, along with notable research and experiments we didn’t cover on their own. One story that caught this reporter’s […]
The week in AI: ChatBots multiply and Musk wants to make a ‘maximum truth-seeking’ one by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch