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Twitter Blue

Twitter Blue Set to Relaunch with Higher Price for iOS Users

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According to Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter, the Twitter Blue membership will resume on Monday, starting in five nations.

Twitter said that its monthly membership service, Twitter Blue, would resume on Monday for $8. However, customers who choose to subscribe through the Twitter app on their iPhone rather than the Twitter webpage will incur an additional $3 charge.

Image Source: cnet.com

According to the firm, users can subscribe to the updated service for $8 per month via the web but $11 per month via Apple iOS. Twitter Blue will allow users to edit tweets, upload 1080p videos, and receive a blue tick upon account verification.

Twitter noted, “We’re relaunching @TwitterBlue on Monday – subscribe on the web for $8/month or on iOS for $11/month to get access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark.”

After Elon Musk’s takeover in November, the most recent version of Twitter Blue—which permitted users to purchase a blue-check verification—was first introduced. Immediately after a surge of impersonations on Twitter, it was suspended. Late in November, Musk once more put the launch on hold as he tried to avoid the 30% fee that Apple’s App Store levies on the majority of its sales.

Read More: Elon Musk claims Apple has threatened to remove the Twitter app

Musk has previously said that the cost was actually ten times higher than it ought to be and accused Apple of engaging in monopolistic behavior. Musk also asserted that Apple “threatened” to remove the Twitter app from the app store, but after speaking with Apple CEO Tim Cook on  30th November, he referred to it as a “misunderstanding.”

Despite media claims that the corporation was exploring measures to offset costs levied in the App Store, Twitter did not clarify why Apple customers were charged higher than other users on the web.

Twitter has previously made the blue checkmark accessible to anyone who pays $8 monthly to democratize the status of the blue checkmark, which was once used to authenticate reliable and notable accounts. As a result, numerous individuals purchased blue ticks to impersonate well-known individuals.

Crawford stated in a tweet that impersonation, which she claims is against Twitter Rules, has been combated by Twitter by adding a review process before giving a blue tick to an account.

Twitter may further color-code timelines with the relaunch of its subscription service by adding gold checkmarks for corporations and, shortly, grey checkmarks for governments and “multilateral accounts”.

Crawford tweeted, “Businesses who previously had relationships with Twitter will receive gold checks on Monday. We will soon open this up to more businesses via a new process.”

Twitter has advised users that changing their handle, display name, or profile picture will temporarily remove the blue checkmark from their account till their account is verified again.

As per Twitter, Twitter Blue is “currently available on iOS only in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, with plans to expand”. Musk has made it plain that he intends Twitter to rely less on advertising, which generated $5.1 billion in revenue for the company last year and constituted 90% of its total revenue.

This need has grown more pressing when the CEO of Tesla claimed a “massive drop in revenue” as a result of advertisers leaving the platform over worries about content moderation, which were made worse by the emergence of “verified” impostor accounts.

Trust and Safety Council

Elon Musk’s Twitter Dissolves Trust And Safety Council

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Twitter has disbanded its Trust and Safety Council which was a group of about 100 independent civil, human rights, and other organizations formed in 2016 to confront hate speech, exploitation of children, suicidal behavior, self-harm, and other issues on the platform.

Trust and Safety Council
Image Source: thestar.com

The council was supposed to meet with representatives from Twitter on Monday night. According to multiple members, Twitter notified the group through the use of email that it would be disbanding soon before the meeting.

The council members, who offered The Associated Press images of the e-mail from Twitter, were speaking on the subject of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.

“Our work to make Twitter a safe, informative place will be moving faster and more aggressively than ever before and we will continue to welcome your ideas going forward about how to achieve this goal,” said the email, which was signed “Twitter.”

Source: india.com

The volunteer organization provided expert knowledge and direction over how Twitter can indeed better combat hate, bullying, and other harms, but it lacked judgment authority and did not look into specific content disputes.

“Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council was a group of volunteers who over many years gave up their time when consulted by Twitter staff to offer advice on a wide range of online harms and safety issues,” tweeted council member Alex Holmes. “At no point was it a governing body or decision making.”

Source: india.com

Twitter, headquartered in San Francisco, clarified the meeting with the committee in an email on Thursday, promising an open discussion and Q&A with Twitter staff, which include Ella Irwin, the new head of trust and safety.

This happened on the very day that three Trust and Safety council members stepped down in a public announcement posted on Twitter, claiming that contrary to Elon Musk’s claims, the safety, and well-being of Twitter’s users are on the decline.

After Musk criticized them and Twitter’s previous management for supposedly not doing enough to prevent child sexual abuse on the platform, those former council members have become the target of online predators.

Musk wrote on Twitter that It is a crime that they have refused to act on exploitation and abuse for years.

Concerns were raised by some remaining Trust and Safety council members, who wrote an e-mail to Twitter demanding that the company stop misrepresenting its role on Monday.

SpaceX

SpaceX gets U.S. approval to deploy up to 7,500 satellites

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The US Federal Communications Commission i.e., FCC approved SpaceX proposal to deploy approximately 7,500 satellites on Thursday but put several other judgments on hold.

SpaceX
Image Source: moneycontrol.com

Starlink, a rapidly expanding network of over 3,500 low-Earth orbit satellites, has thousands of users across the United States thus far, with customers paying a minimum of 599 USD ‘for a user terminal as well as 110 USD per month for service. In 2018, the FCC approved SpaceX’s plans to launch up to 4,425 first-generation satellites.

Read More: Neuralink brain chip to begin human trials in 6 months

SpaceX has applied for permission to function a network of 29,988 satellites known as the “second-generation” or Gen2 Starlink constellation, which will transmit internet to areas that have limited or no internet access.

The FCC denied SpaceX’s entire application, which included the deployment of approximately 30,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, and imposed conditions on the firm’s plan to deploy the satellites. It postponed the decision to initiate launching the full number of applications.

“Our action will allow SpaceX to begin deployment of Gen2 Starlink, which will bring next-generation satellite broadband to Americans nationwide,” the FCC said in its approval order, adding it “will enable worldwide satellite broadband service, helping to close the digital divide on a global scale.”

The FCC said its decision “will protect other satellite and terrestrial operators from harmful interference and maintain a safe space environment” and protect “spectrum and orbital resources for future use.”

Source: reuters.com

A U.S. appeals court backed the FCC’s 2021 decision to allow SpaceX’s plan to deploy some Starlink satellites in a lower Earth orbit just as scheduled as the portion of its push to offer space-based broadband internet service.

In September, SpaceX filed a lawsuit against the FCC for denying it 885.5 million USD in rural broadband subsidies. Starlink’s technique has real promise according to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, but it is unable to meet the program’s requirements, citing data showing a gradual decline in the rate of speed over the past year and casting the service’s price as too high for consumers.

Neuralink

Neuralink brain chip to begin human trials in 6 months

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After the company missed prior deadlines he had set, Elon Musk said on Wednesday that he anticipates a wireless brain chip developed by his company Neuralink to start human clinical testing in six months.

Neuralink
Image Source: linkedin.com

Elon Musk, a multibillionaire and the CEO of Twitter, stated on Wednesday that a wireless gadget built by Neuralink is set to start human clinical testing in six months. Neuralink is a neurotechnology company. According to Reuters, Musk stated that the restoration of vision is one of its initial intended uses.

The company, which has offices in Texas and the San Francisco Bay Area, has been involved in testing on animals as it waits for US regulatory approval for human clinical trials.

Read More: Elon Musk claims Apple has threatened to remove the Twitter app

Musk noted, “We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human. The progress at first, particularly as it applies to humans, will seem perhaps agonizingly slow, but we are doing all of the things to bring it to scale in parallel. “So, in theory, progress should be exponential.”

According to Musk, the Neuralink device’s first two human uses would be to restore vision and allow muscle movement in people who are unable to do so. Musk said, “Even if someone has never had a vision, ever, like they were born blind, we believe we can still restore vision.” A tiny device, electrode-laced wires, and a robot that removes a little portion of a person’s skull and inserts it into the brain are the components of the Neuralink product.

The event was initially scheduled for October 31 but Musk canceled it a few days early without providing a reason. More than a year ago, Neuralink gave its last public demonstration, which featured a monkey playing Pong on a computer.

Musk, who also owns the electric vehicle maker Tesla, the rocket company SpaceX, and the social networking site Twitter, is renowned for his aspirational plans to save humanity and colonize Mars. He holds the same lofty goals for Neuralink as well, which he founded in 2016.

He intends to create a chip that would enable the brain to control intricate electronic equipment, eventually restoring motor function to paralyzed persons and treating disorders of the brain including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. He also discusses combining artificial intelligence with the brain. However, Neuralink is going behind schedule.

In a 2019 presentation, Musk stated that his goal was to win regulatory permission by the end of 2020. Then, in late 2021, he declared at a conference that he wanted to begin human trials this year.

Current and former employees claim that Neuralink has routinely missed internal deadlines for obtaining FDA approval to begin human studies. According to Reuters, Musk approached rival Synchron early this year about a prospective investment after complaining to Neuralink staff members about their sluggish progress.

By successfully implanting its device in a patient in the United States for the first time in July, Synchron achieved a significant milestone. In 2021, it got regulatory approval from the US for use in human trials, and studies involving four Australians have been completed.

Apple

Elon Musk claims Apple has threatened to remove the Twitter app

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Elon Musk went on a rant against Apple, Twitter’s top advertiser, on Monday after claiming that the company threatened to remove the social media network from its App Store without any clarification and had pretty much-stopped marketing on Twitter.

Apple
Image Source: republicworld.com

The rant highlighted the enormous power that Apple, the world’s biggest firm, possesses over the fate of the world’s richest man’s Twitter gamble. The rant also hinted at Apple’s potential role as a check on Musk’s chaotic reign at Facebook; Apple has previously annulled App Store permissions from companies that violated its security protocols or supported violence and other troublesome content.

If Twitter is removed from the App Store, new users will be unable to install the app on their iPhones and iPads, and current users will be unable to access updates. The accused threat tends to add to the marketer pressure, staff departures, and regulatory scrutiny that Musk is facing as he pursues to overhaul years of Twitter guidelines and account expulsions in his quest to promote “free speech.”

Read More: Twitter Closes Brussels Office As Elon Musk’s Reforms Spread To Europe

Under a document analysed by The Washington Post that was prepared from internal Twitter data, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter in the first quarter, paying 48 USD million on advertisements on the social network. That quarter, Apple’s spending accounted for much more than 4 per cent of Twitter’s revenue.

Elon Musk attempted to pressurize the firm and CEO Tim Cook in several tweets for halting spending during the holiday shopping season.

Requests for comment were not returned by Apple. Musk’s tweets sought to rekindle long-standing concerns and political scrutiny about Apple’s market dominance. He posted a link to a 2020 parody video made by Apple for Epic Games criticising the App Store as a “monopoly.”

The video is a parody of Apple’s famous “1984” Super Bowl commercial, which Epic, the creator of the Fortnite video game, launched after it was removed from Apple’s store for violating its in-app payment rules. He also asked his and over 119 million followers to vote on whether Apple should publish all censorship acts it has carried out that affect its customers.

“Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?,” Musk tweeted, with the caption “Spoiler alert.”

Musk hinted in a tweet that he may go to war with Apple.

Source: washingtonpost.com

“This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead,” Musk said later.

Source: news18.com
Brussels Office

Twitter Closes Brussels Office As Elon Musk’s Reforms Spread To Europe

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As per reports, Twitter’s Brussels office has been closed. According to reports, Twitter’s Brussels office has been closed, which may make it more challenging for it to comply with new European Union rules governing content moderation.

Brussels Office
Image Source: yahoo.com

The office had less than ten employees, but despite its tiny size, the office was crucial because of its connections to the EU. After Musk took over, the Brussels office staff was reduced from six to two. Last Monday, Twitter’s last two remaining public policy executives, Julia Mozer and Dario La Nasa, left the company completely dissolving the Brussels office.

They may have quit the company or been dismissed, but they left after Musk gave his employees an ultimatum, asking employees to work “long hours at a high intensity” or face termination with three months’ worth of severance compensation.

Read More: Elon Musk Blames ‘Activists’ for His Twitter Moderation Council Lie

Mozer and La Nasa were in charge of Twitter’s public policy in Europe. They were in charge of making sure Twitter conforms with both the Digital Services Act and the EU’s disinformation guidelines. More control over how platforms censor material and when tech corporations must remove unlawful content is granted to EU governments as a result of the new law.

The platforms will have to be open about the factors that go into their content moderation choices. If a user’s content is taken down or accessibility to it is restricted, they have the right to appeal the moderation decision. Twitter might face severe penalties if it doesn’t follow the DSA’s regulations.

Regulators have the power to penalize Twitter up to 6% of its annual global revenue or even shut it down completely. Musk has been cautioned by Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for the internal market, that Twitter must adhere to the bloc’s content laws.

Two significant pieces of digital legislation that will establish previously unheard-of criteria for the accountability of digital companies operating in a free and vibrant digital market were adopted by the European Parliament in July of this year. Mass layoffs at Twitter, meanwhile, have already concerned the Commission and prompted Brussels to become more confrontational with Twitter.

The EU vice-president in charge of the disinformation code, Vera Jourova, expressed alarm about the closure of the Brussels office to the Financial Times. She noted, “If you want to effectively detect and take action against disinformation and propaganda, this requires resources. Especially in the context of Russian disinformation warfare, I expect Twitter to fully respect the EU law and honor its commitments.”

Since Musk took over, concerns about increased levels of misinformation on the network have intensified, especially since he made it possible for anybody to get a verified tag for $8. This resulted in trolls posing as Tony Blair, George W. Bush, and other public figures as well as corporations like Nintendo and McDonald’s. Musk has since put the paid verification program on hold, but he’ll probably resume it soon.

While this is going on, several Democratic senators have requested the FTC to investigate if Twitter has broken any consumer protection laws or a consent order with the agency. The latter mandates Twitter to examine new features for any privacy concerns, among other things.

According to a report from earlier this month, Twitter engineers must “self-certify” that they are abiding by FTC guidelines and other regulations. In a recent statement, the FTC stated that it is “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern.”