Posts Tagged: Musk

Twitter’s former CEO and other execs are suing Elon Musk and X for $128 million in unpaid severance

A group of former Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, are suing Elon Musk and X over millions of dollars in unpaid severance benefits. The claims date back to the chaotic circumstances surrounding Musk’s takeover of the company in October 2022.

When Musk took control of the company, his first move was to fire Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sean Edgett. According to the lawsuit, Musk had “special ire” for the group because of the role they played in the months-long court battle that forced Musk to follow through with the acquisition after he attempted to back out of the deal. According to the lawsuit, Agrawal is entitled to $ 57.4 million in severance benefits, Segal is entitled to $ 44.5 million, Gadde $ 20 million and Edgett $ 6.8 million, for a total of about $ 128 million.

The lawsuit cites Musk biographer Walter Isaacson’s account of the events, which explains that Musk rushed to close the Twitter deal a day early so he could fire the executives “for cause” just before their final stock options were set to vest. According to Isaacson, Musk bragged that the legal maneuver saved him about $ 200 million. 

“Musk doesn’t pay his bills, believes the rules don’t apply to him, and uses his wealth and power to run roughshod over anyone who disagrees with him,” the lawsuit states,“Because Musk decided he didn’t want to pay Plaintiffs’ severance benefits, he simply fired them without reason, then made up fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to uphold his decision.”

X didn’t respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. Of note, it’s not the first time former Twitter employees have sued the company for failing to pay severance benefits. A separate lawsuit claimed Twitter owed former workers more than $ 500 million in unpaid severance. Agrawal, Segal and Gadde also previously sued the company over unpaid legal bills as a result of shareholder lawsuits and other investigations that resulted from Musk’s takeover,

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitters-former-ceo-and-other-execs-are-suing-elon-musk-and-x-for-128-million-in-unpaid-severance-231428042.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Court orders Elon Musk to testify in the SEC’s investigation of his Twitter takeover

In a followup to a tentative ruling made in December, a federal judge has ordered Elon Musk to comply with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) subpoena and testify again in its probe of his Twitter takeover, Reuters reports. Per the order, which was filed Saturday night in a California court, Musk and the SEC now have a week to work out a time and place for his appearance or it will be decided for them. The SEC has been investigating Musk’s purchase of Twitter, now X, since 2022 over concerns about his lateness in disclosing his stake in Twitter.

The order comes after Musk failed to appear for a testimony in September and later refused to attend a rescheduled interview, prompting the SEC to sue. US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler sided with the SEC after Musk tried to challenge its subpoena, which he claims is seeking irrelevant information and is harassment, as he’s already been interviewed twice. But, the SEC says it has obtained new documents in relation to the probe and has further questions for the X owner. Musk also argued that the subpoena exceeds the SEC’s authority because it was issued by a staff member appointed by the SEC’s Director of Enforcement. Beeler struck these arguments down, ruling that the subpoena is valid. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/court-orders-elon-musk-to-testify-in-the-secs-investigation-of-his-twitter-takeover-193303461.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

SpaceX workers face above-average injury rates as Musk prioritizes Mars over safety, report finds

A Reuters investigation into unsafe working conditions at SpaceX has uncovered more than 600 injuries going back to 2014 that have not been publicly reported until now. Current and former employees cited in the report blame CEO Elon Musk’s aggressive deadlines and hatred of bureaucracy, alleging his goal of getting humans to Mars “as fast as possible” has led the company to cut corners and eschew proper protocols.

Injury rates at some SpaceX facilities are much higher than the industry average of .8 injuries or illnesses per 100 workers, Reuters found. At its Brownsville, Texas location, the 2022 injury rate was 4.8 per 100 workers. At the Hawthorne, California manufacturing facility, it was 1.8. In McGregor, Texas, where the company conducts rocket tests, the injury rate was 2.7.

Employees have suffered broken bones, lacerations, crushed fingers, burns, electric shocks and serious head wounds — including one that blinded Brownsville worker Florentino Rios in 2021 and another that left employee Francisco Cabada in a coma since January 2022. At SpaceX’s McGregor site, one worker, Lonnie LeBlanc, was killed in 2014 when wind knocked him off the trailer of an improperly loaded truck. Yet over the years, SpaceX has only paid meager fines as a result of its safety lapses. After LeBlanc’s death, the company settled with OSHA for $ 7,000, according to Reuters.

Reuters spoke to over two dozen current or former employees, as well as others “with knowledge of SpaceX safety practices.” One SpaceX ex-manager told Reuters that “workers take care of their safety themselves,” and others said employees were even told not to wear bright-colored safety gear because Musk does not like it. SpaceX has also repeatedly failed to submit injury data to regulators for much of its history, according to Reuters.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-workers-face-above-average-injury-rates-as-musk-prioritizes-mars-over-safety-report-finds-224235095.html?src=rss

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Sorry, you won’t be able to block Elon Musk (or anyone else) on X

Elon Musk isn’t quite done making major changes to X. The platform’s owner and chief technical officer says the service formerly known as Twitter is getting rid of the option to block other users, except for when it comes to DMs. Musk, who has previously signaled his desire to remove the feature, suggested it “makes no sense” to block other users instead of muting them. The mute option will still be available.

Many people use the block feature to protect themselves from harassment. It’s long been a key safety feature of the platform and nixing it opens the door to users perhaps seeing more hateful content they don’t want to deal with in their feeds and notifications. Moreover, as CNBC points out, some users block advertisers and brands they don’t want to see, which (were enough people to do that) could have a notable impact on X’s bottom line.

In the spring, X killed off the platform’s free API, which broke many third-party apps. Just one year earlier, Twitter (as it was known at the time) started recommending third-party apps for people to use to mitigate harassment on the platform. One of those tools, Block Party, has since abandoned Twitter in the wake of the API changes.

On a related note, soon after Musk posted about the plan to remove the block function, rival service Blueskywent down. It may be that more X users are looking for a life raft as the platform becomes less palatable for them.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sorry-you-wont-be-able-to-block-elon-musk-or-anyone-else-on-x-184331733.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Looks like the Zuck vs Musk fight isn’t happening

Sad news for fans of billionaires beating the paste out of one another. It looks like the Mark Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk cage match isn’t happening, according to exclusive audio heard by Reuters. In an audio recording exclusively provided to the publication, the surprisingly buff Zuckerberg told Meta employees at a company town hall that he’s “not sure if it’s going to come together.”

Zuckerberg’s comments on the match occurred during a company-wide discussion regarding Meta’s recently-launched Twitter rival, Threads, which has been stuttering a bit in the weeks since blasting onto the scene.

Zuck didn’t actually say the match is off, just that it remains unlikely. So keep that glass half full, fight fans. Musk, who loves the letter “X” more than most people love clean air, hasn’t issued a response, but given Zuckerberg’s recent penchant for jiu jitsu, he could be relieved. 

The cage fight was supposed to be a glitzy Las Vegas affair, with the pair of billionaires dancing around the topics of date and venue for the past month or so. Zuckerberg has seemed pretty serious about the fight from the get-go, and Musk eventually relented, tweeting (x-ing?) that he was “up for a cage match” if the Meta CEO was. Musk also said he has this “great move” called "the walrus" where he lays on top of opponents and does nothing. 

Zuck certainly seemed ready to take on the challenge, according to trainer and MMA legend Alex Volkanovski. And though he generally treated the whole thing as a joke, Musk did sort of prepare for the fight by accepting a training offer from UFC champ Georges St-Pierre and sparring with podcaster Lex Fridman. Of course, that's when he's taking a break from retweeting (re-xing?) hateful anti-trans content and changing the site's rules to allow for misgendering. Dana White, president of the UFC, has also told reporters that the organization was ready to assist with the event. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/looks-like-the-zuck-vs-musk-fight-isnt-happening-195538503.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

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. 

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
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk reportedly bought thousands of GPUs for a Twitter AI project

More than a month after hiring a couple of former DeepMind researchers, Twitter is reportedly moving forward with an in-house artificial intelligence project. According to Business Insider, Elon Musk recently bought 100,000 GPUs for use at one of the company’s two remaining data centers. A source told the outlet the purchase shows Musk is “committed” to the effort, particularly given the fact there would be little reason for Twitter to spend so much money on datacenter-grade GPUs if it didn’t plan to use them for AI work.

The project reportedly involves the creation of a generative AI that the company would train on its own massive trove of data. It’s unclear how Twitter would utilize the technology. Insider suggests a generative AI could augment the platform’s search functionality or assist the company in rebuilding its advertising business. In any case, the report colors Musk’s recent decision to sign an open letter calling for a six-month pause on AI development.

Musk has been a vocal critic of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research organization he co-founded in 2015. “I’m still confused as to how a non-profit to which I donated ~$ 100M somehow became a $ 30B market cap for-profit. If this is legal, why doesn’t everyone do it?” Musk said in one of his recent Twitter missives against the lab’s for-profit subsidiary, OpenAI Limited Partnership.

However, a recent report from Semafor suggests his feud with OpenAI is more personal. In 2018, Musk reportedly told Sam Altman, one his fellow co-founders at OpenAI, the lab was falling too far behind Google. Musk then suggested that he should be the one to run the firm, a proposal Altman and OpenAI’s other founders rejected.

The power struggle led to Musk’s departure from OpenAI, though publicly both parties maintain Musk left due to a conflict of interest involving Tesla. At the time, OpenAI said the billionaire would continue to fund its research. However, according to Semafor, Musk’s payments stopped after his departure – despite a promise to provide the firm with roughly $ 1 billion. The sudden shortfall left OpenAI scrambling to raise cash. In 2019, the organization announced it was creating a for-profit subsidiary to secure the capital it needed to fund its work. That same year, the firm announced a $ 1 billion investment from Microsoft. When OpenAI opened ChatGPT to the public in November and the chatbot began to dominate headlines, Musk was reportedly “furious.” One month later, he cut OpenAI’s access to Twitter’s “firehose” of data. And now it would appear he wants to compete against his old organization head-on.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-reportedly-bought-thousands-of-gpus-for-a-twitter-ai-project-214535382.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Court rules Elon Musk broke federal labor law with 2018 tweet

Elon Musk broke US labor law in 2018 when he tweeted Tesla factory workers would forgo stock options if they chose to unionize, according to a federal appeals court. On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision spotted by Business Insider, upheld a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that found Musk made unlawful threats around employee compensation.

In May 2018, a Twitter user asked Musk about his stance on unions. “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted,” he tweeted in response. “But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.”

The tweet immediately drew the attention of labor activists, and in 2021, the NLRB, responding to a complaint from the United Auto Workers union, found Musk had threatened employees. Tesla has argued the tweet was Musk’s way of pointing out that workers at other automakers don’t receive stock options. NLRB chair Wilma Liebman saw it differently. "The employee is going to hear it as, 'If I vote to unionize, stock options will no longer be an option,'" she told Bloomberg in 2018.

After reviewing the decision, the Fifth Circuit Court sided with the NLRB. "Because stock options are part of Tesla's employees' compensation, and nothing in the tweet suggested that Tesla would be forced to end stock options or that the UAW would be the cause of giving up stock options, substantial evidence supports the NLRB's conclusion that the tweet is as an implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization," the panel wrote.

The court ordered Musk to delete the tweet. As of the writing of this article, the message is still live. The Fifth Circuit Court also upheld an order from the NLRB that Tesla reinstates Richard Ortiz, a worker the automaker fired for organizing employees at its Fremont factory in California.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/court-rules-elon-musk-broke-federal-labor-law-with-2018-tweet-195420903.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk reportedly values Twitter at $20 billion

Elon Musk values Twitter at about $ 20 billion, according to an email seen by The Information and The New York Times. Musk shared the valuation, a significant drop from the $ 44 billion he paid to buy the company last fall, in a memo he sent to Twitter employees on Friday announcing a new stock compensation program. The billionaire reportedly warned Twitter’s significantly diminished workforce that the website was still in a precarious financial position. “Twitter is being reshaped rapidly,” he wrote, adding the company had, at one point, been four months away from running out of cash.

According to Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer, Musk additionally told employees he sees a “clear but difficult path” to a $ 250 billion valuation, a hypothetical outcome that would make the company’s current stock grants worth 10 times as much in the future. Musk said Twitter would allow staff to sell stock every six months, a policy similar to one in place at SpaceX. According to Musk, the program would give employees “liquid stock” while shielding them from the “price chaos” that comes with equity at a publicly traded company.

To put Musk’s valuation in context, at $ 20 billion, Twitter would be worth more than Snapchat creator Snap, a company with nearly 140 million more daily active users. It’s also worth noting that the estimate likely reflects the difficulties Twitter has faced as a direct result of Musk’s decisions. At the start of 2023, the company’s daily revenue was reportedly down 40 percent from a year ago after more than 500 of its top advertising partners had paused spending on the platform. Many of those companies left following the firm’s messy relaunch of Twitter Blue, which saw verified trolls abuse the service to impersonate brands. Based on recent reporting from The Information, there were only about 180,000 Twitter Blue subscribers in the US at the beginning of February, suggesting the service is nowhere close to making up for the financial downturn Twitter has experienced since Musk’s takeover.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-reportedly-values-twitter-at-20-billion-200841233.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Jury rules Elon Musk is not liable for shareholder losses after ‘funding secured’ tweets

Elon Musk is off the hook for his 2018 tweets claiming he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private for $ 420 a share. A jury found that Musk was not liable for Tesla investors’ losses, following a weeks-long trial in San Francisco.

The verdict is a major victory for Musk, who could have been liable for billions of dollars in damages. Musk had testified in federal court that just because he tweets something, it "does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly." He also argued that he could have used his shares of SpaceX to fund the deal.

The shareholders who brought the class action suit had argued that Musk’s statements about funding were false, and that they lost vast amounts of money due to stock fluctuations in the aftermath of Musk’s tweets. But while the judge in the case concluded that the tweets were "objectively false and reckless," the jury didn’t find that Musk had deliberately misled the public.

While the verdict ends the years-long saga of the “funding secured” tweets, the posts weren’t entirely without consequences for Musk. He settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018, and stepped down from his role as Tesla board chair as a condition of the settlement. Musk has long decried the SEC settlement and has said he was “forced to admit I lied to save Tesla’s life.”

In a statement to Bloomberg following the verdict, Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, said "the jury got it right." Musk also weighed in — naturally, via tweet — saying he was "deeply appreciative." 

Update 2/3 7:19 PM ET: Added Elon Musk's tweet about the verdict.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk says his SpaceX shares would’ve funded his plan to take Tesla private

Elon Musk said he could've sold his SpaceX shares to take Tesla private when he took the witness stand again to defend his 2018 "funding secured" tweets in a lawsuit filed by the automaker's shareholders. According to CNBC, Musk proclaimed: "SpaceX stock alone meant 'funding secured' by itself. It's not that I want to sell SpaceX stock but I could have, and if you look at the Twitter transaction — that is what I did. I sold Tesla stock to complete the Twitter transaction. And I would have done the same here." He didn't say how many of his shares he'd have to sell, however, to be able to fund the transaction. 

The plaintiffs' lawsuit is based on Musk's infamous 2018 tweets in which he said he was "considering taking Tesla private at $ 420." He even said that he already had "[f]unding secured." Musk first took the stand for this particular case last week to defend himself against the plaintiffs' accusations that the tweets he made cost them significant financial losses. Tesla's shares temporarily stopped trading after those tweets and remained volatile in the weeks that followed. He said at the time that just because he tweets something "does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly."

This time, Musk reiterated his previous claim that he had an agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to take Tesla private. He told the court that the country was "unequivocal" in its support of the transaction, which ultimately didn't go through. According to Bloomberg, the court discussed his communication and eventual falling out with Saudi fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan regarding the deal. A text exchange was reportedly presented to the jury, wherein Musk accused Al-Rumayyan of backing out of their handshake agreement. The Saudi official responded that he didn't have sufficient information to be able to commit to the buyout and called Musk's public announcement of their discussions "ill advised."

The plaintiffs' lawyer also asked Musk what many of us were probably wondering: If the $ 420 share price in his tweets was made as a joke in reference to marijuana. Apparently, it wasn't a joke, and he chose it "because it reflected about a 20 percent premium on Tesla's stock price." Musk is expected to testify again on Tuesday, so we'll likely hear more details about his failed bid to convert Tesla into a private entity. 

As Bloomberg notes, the judge in this case had already determined that his tweets were "objectively false and reckless." However, the plaintiffs still have to prove that Musk knew his tweets were misleading and that his tweets caused their losses to win the case. Musk and Tesla previously had to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $ 20 million each to settle a separate lawsuit over the same tweets, accusing him of making "false and misleading statements" that could be constituted as fraud. The CEO said on the stand that he told the SEC about SpaceX and that the plaintiffs' lawyer "deliberately exclud[ed] that from jurors."

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk defends ‘funding secured’ tweets in Tesla shareholder trial

Elon Musk said that just because he tweets something, it "does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly." The Tesla chief took the witness stand in a San Francisco federal court to defend himself (and the tweets he made back in 2018) in a lawsuit filed by a group of the automaker's shareholders. "I think you can absolutely be truthful but can you be comprehensive? Of course not," he added, regarding Twitter's character limits. If you'll recall, Musk famously tweeted in August 2018 that he was "considering taking Tesla private at $ 420" and that he was already able to secure funding. "Investor support is confirmed," he said in a follow-up tweet.

The CEO later revealed that he was in talks with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which reportedly expressed interest in Tesla as part of the country's bid to lessen its reliance on oil. However, the deal didn't materialize, and he later penned a lengthy post on the automaker's website to say that it's staying public. 

As CNBC notes, shareholders blamed those "funding secured" tweets for their significant financial losses, leading them to file a class action lawsuit against Musk. Tesla's shares apparently remained highly volatile in the weeks that followed. The executive, however, downplayed his tweets' impact and said that they don't necessarily affect stock prices: "There have been many cases where I thought that if I were to tweet something, the stock price would go down. For example, at one point I tweeted that I thought that, in my opinion, the stock price was too high…and it went went higher, which was, which is, you know, counterintuitive."

In addition to the shareholder lawsuit, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Musk over his tweets, calling them "false and misleading statements" that could be constituted as fraud. Musk and Tesla paid $ 20 million each to settle with the SEC, and the executive had to step down as board chairman. The SEC also required company lawyers to approve any Tesla-related tweet Musk makes — a condition the CEO tried (and failed) to get out of last year. 

Aside from defending his tweets, Musk criticized short sellers during his testimony, telling the court that short-selling "should be made illegal." He added: "It is a means for, in my opinion, bad people on Wall Street to steal money from investors. Not good." Another piece of information to take away from his time on the witness stand is that nobody can tell Musk to stop tweeting. When lawyers asked him about the advice he got to refrain from posting on Twitter after calling a British cave diver a "pedo guy," Musk said: "I continued to tweet, yes."

According to Reuters, Musk only testified for less than 30 minutes and that he's not done answering lawyers' questions. He's expected to take the witness stand again to explain why he wrote the funding tweets and why he insisted that he had Saudi Arabia's backing. 

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Senator Markey calls for an end to ‘failed Big Tech self-regulation’ following Musk letter snub

Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts is calling on Congress to pass new legislation to rein in Big Tech companies after Elon Musk ignored an information request. “Elon Musk could respond to my tweets but failed to respond to my letter by yesterday’s deadline and answer basic questions about Twitter verification,” Markey tweeted Saturday. “Congress must end the era of failed Big Tech self-regulation and pass laws that put user safety over the whims of billionaires.”

Musk had until November 25th to answer a letter the senator sent on November 11th about Twitter’s paid account verification feature. The initial rollout of the new Twitter Blue saw trolls use the service to impersonate celebrities, politicians and brands. Markey sent Musk a list of questions about the launch after The Washington Post created a “verified” account impersonating him. One day after Markey shared a copy of the letter on Twitter, Musk attacked the senator.

“Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody,” Musk tweeted. “And why does your pp have a mask!?” he added a few hours later, referring to Markey’s profile picture, which shows the policymaker wearing a face covering. The exchange prompted Markey to chastise the billionaire. “One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online,” the senator said. “Fix your companies. Or Congress will.”

As of the writing of this article, Musk has yet to respond to Markey’s latest tweet. It’s hard to say whether the senator’s call will translate to legislative action, particularly with a split between the House of Representatives and Senate. Musk did appear to answer at least one of Markey’s questions when he announced Twitter’s new verification system on Friday. The latest iteration of the program will feature manual authentication and different colored check marks for different types of users. “Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates,” he said.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk begins unbanning some high-profile Twitter accounts, starting with Jordan Peterson and Kathy Griffin

Elon Musk is acting on his vow to rethink permanent bans on Twitter users. Twitter has reinstated the accounts of three controversial users, including conservative satire site Babylon Bee, conservative author (and former YouTube personality) Jordan Peterson and comedian Kathy Griffin. A decision about former President Donald Trump has “not yet been made,” Musk said, although the CEO previously said he would reverse Trump’s ban.

The action comes as part of “Freedom Fridays,” according to Musk. However, it also appears to contradict Musk’s previous pledge to form a moderation council before undoing bans or otherwise making significant content decisions. The council was supposed to ensure that Twitter’s policies reflected a wide range of viewpoints.

Both Babylon Bee and Peterson were banned earlier this year for violating Twitter’s hate speech rules protecting transgender people. Griffin, meanwhile, was banned for responding to Twitter’s messy pay-for-verification rollout by impersonating Musk. As you might imagine, these actions are likely to have critics. LGBTQ rights advocates like GLAAD supported internet bans on Peterson this summer due to his “hateful and false narratives,” for example.

The tech mogul warned that some content would still be subject to severe restrictions. Hate and other negative tweets would be “max deboosted & demonetized,” he said. While this wouldn’t apply to whole accounts, it would make offending tweets invisible unless you knew to look for them, and would prevent Twitter earning revenue from that material. Free speech at Twitter didn’t mean “freedom of reach,” Musk added.

The combination of lifted bans and a new moderation policy reflects Musk’s attempts to balance his personal desires with commercial realities. While he has argued that Twitter should be a free speech haven where bans are very rare, he has also tried to reassure advertisers worried their promos might appear next to hate speech and other objectionable tweets. In other words, Musk may still have to clamp down on toxic content even if its creators are now allowed on his platform.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk gives employees two days to commit to ‘hardcore’ Twitter or lose their jobs

Twitter might lose even more employees following the mass layoffs that halved its workforce and shortly after the company fired engineers who publicly called out its new owner. According to The Washington Post, Elon Musk gave remaining staff members an ultimatum and asked them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” Twitter going forward. “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” he reportedly wrote in an email that links to an online form. 

So what does an “extremely hardcore” Twitter mean? The report didn’t quite delve into the specifics of Musk’s expectations, but the executive apparently said that it means “working long hours at high intensity.” He added: “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” It’s not quite clear if the move is legal for workers in countries that have rigorous labor laws. Regardless, the email said that those who don’t sign the form by 5PM Eastern on Thursday, November 17th, would be let go and would receive three months of severance pay. 

In addition to reporting about the Musk’s email, The Post said that Twitter will be doing a postmortem on the launch of its $ 8 Blue subscription over the next couple of weeks, in an effort to understand why and how it had led to an influx of impersonators. If you’ll recall, things got so bad that Twitter had to suspend its subscription service, which offered instant verification and, hence, gave fake accounts a semblance of legitimacy. Musk had just announced yesterday that the company is pushing back the return of Blue verification to November 29th to make sure that it’s “rock solid.”

The Post also saw internal information and data externally compiled by a software developer that showed Twitter Blue only had around 150,000 users by the time the website paused subscriptions. That’s a tiny fraction of the 238 million daily active users Twitter said it had in the second quarter of 2022 and would only bring in $ 14.4 million in annual revenue. 

Further, the new Blue subscription could potentially impact the website’s ad revenue. Twitter earned 79 percent of its ad revenue in the US from merely 10 percent of its most valuable users, with the top 1 percent earning the website $ 40 a month. They’re also the ones most likely to pay for a subscription, however, which means they’re bound to see fewer ads as one of the perks they’re paying for. 

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Senator Ed Markey tells Elon Musk: ‘Fix your companies. Or Congress will’

Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts chastised Elon Musk on Sunday after the billionaire had a snarky response to the lawmaker’s request for information about Twitter’s new verification policies. “Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?” Musk tweeted Sunday morning after Markey shared a recent letter he sent criticizing the company’s new $ 8 per month Twitter Blue subscription. “And why does your pp have a mask!?” Musk added a few hours later, referring to Markey’s profile picture, which shows the senator wearing a face covering.

Markey wasn’t impressed by Musk’s response. “One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online,” he said. “Fix your companies. Or Congress will.”

Markey sent the letter that prompted the exchange on November 11th. In the letter, Markey asks Musk to explain how The Washington Post was able to create a verified account impersonating him and why an official pop-up told Twitter users the verification was due to a role in government. Musk has until November 25th to answer those questions and others in writing.

Twitter suspended paid account verification less than two days after launching its new Blue subscription. While the service was available, trolls used it to impersonate celebrities, politicians and brands, leading to chaos on the platform. One account pretending to be LeBron James claimed the NBA star had requested to be traded by the Los Angeles Lakers. Another one tanked the stock of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

While there’s no certainty Markey’s warning will translate to government action, the likelihood of a regulatory response became more solid on Sunday after Democrats secured a Senate majority. Markey is also a member of the Subcommittee on Communication, Media, and Broadband, the Senate panel most likely to recommend action against Twitter.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk to cut half of Twitter workforce, report says

New Twitter owner Elon Musk is planning to lay off 3,500 workers, a report said on Thursday, with affected employees expected to be informed on Friday.
Digital Trends

Twitter was targeted by a coordinated trolling campaign following Musk takeover

Following Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter was the target of a coordinated trolling campaign, according to Yoel Roth, the company’s head of safety and security. In a thread spotted by The Guardian, Roth said late Saturday that Twitter was working to stop an “organized effort” by trolls to make people think the company had weakened its content guidelines. “Bottom line up front: Twitter’s policies haven’t changed. Hateful conduct has no place here,” Roth said, adding the company had seen a “small number of accounts” post “a ton” of tweets that included derogatory language.

In one instance, Roth says the company saw just 300 accounts post more than 50,000 tweets using the same slur. “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,” he wrote.

The news of a coordinated trolling campaign comes after a handful of research groups found evidence of bad actors trying to test the limits of Twitter. On Friday, the Network Contagion Research Institute tracked a 500 percent increase in usage of the n-word. The nonprofit linked the increase to posts on sites like 4chan, where users were encouraging each other to post hateful content.

On Friday, Musk said Twitter would not make any major moderation decisions until the company had the chance to form a council with “widely diverse viewpoints.” Before taking control of the company, Musk had said he wanted to do away with permanent bans, noting he would “err on the side of, if in doubt, let the speech exist.” More recently, he floated the idea of allowing users to split off into different sections of the platform where they could add content ratings to their tweets.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

GM suspends advertising on Twitter to evaluate its direction under Elon Musk

General Motors has temporarily stopped paying for advertisements on Twitter after Elon Musk closed the $ 44 billion deal to take over the website, according to the CNBC. Musk, as you know, is also the chief executive at Tesla, which overtook GM and all its competitors to become the most valuable carmaker in the US a couple of years ago. The company told the news organization that it’s engaging with Twitter to understand its direction under its new owner. Further, it said that it’s normal for the company to pause paid advertising in the face of a “significant change in a media platform.”

GM said in its emailed statement:

“We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership. As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue.”

Over the past couple of years, the company had broadened its commitment to providing consumers more EV options in an effort to better compete with Tesla. The automaker announced an investment of $ 35 billion for its combined EV and self-driving development efforts in 2021. Earlier this year, the company also revealed that it’s building a third Ultium factory in the US that will make batteries for its electric vehicles. 

Shortly after he officially took control of Twitter, Musk posted a message to advertisers on his account in a bid to ease their concerns. “There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong,” he wrote. He also said that advertising, “when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you…” For that to be true, “it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs.”

Here is Musk’s complete statement:

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

The Morning After: Elon Musk reportedly wanted to lay off most of Twitter’s employees

According to a report from The Washington Post, Musk has told prospective investors he plans to axe 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500-member staff upon completion of the deal, a move that would likely kneecap its ability to moderate content and ensure users’ security. Internal documents obtained by The Post reveal that, prior to the Musk deal, current company leadership planned to “pare the company’s payroll” by around $ 800 million, a relatively modest 25 percent reduction. The company’s General Counsel Sean Edgett told staff that discussions about cost savings happened earlier this year, and they stopped “once the merger agreement was signed.” Edgett added there have been no plans for company-wide layoffs since then.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

The biggest stories you might have missed

VanMoof’s new A5 and S5 e-bikes are harder to steal and smoother to ride

You might barely feel the upgraded gear-shifting technology.

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Engadget

VanMoof’s latest generation of premium e-bikes ushers in changes across the board. The company has tried to make most of the parts on its newest e-bikes. The most significant change might be the removal of the tube-based display of the company’s older bikes, swapping it for a duo of Halo Rings near the buttons on each side. The anti-theft technology in the S5 and A5 (both $ 3,498) includes an improved kick lock on the rear wheel. In addition, the bikes will automatically unlock if they detect the user’s phone nearby. And if you’re willing to pay an extra $ 398 for three years of coverage, your VanMoof ride will have support from a retinue of bike hunters – which still sounds cool.

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Amazon faces $ 1 billion lawsuit over claims it ‘tricks’ UK customers into paying more

The company is accused of using the Buy Box to favor its own logistics network.

The Guardian reports lawyers are filing a class action lawsuit with the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal over claims Amazon’s Buy Box “tricks” shoppers into paying more than they should. Consumer advocate Julie Hunter says the section favors either Amazon’s own products or sellers who use the company’s logistics, not the best price or quality of service.

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James Webb telescope captures ‘knot’ of galaxies in the early universe

The cluster could help scientists understand cosmic expansion.

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NASA

Scientists have discovered a tightly packed “knot” of at least three galaxies forming around a quasar 11.5 billion years ago, just over two billion years after the Big Bang. The telescope’s near-infrared spectrograph shows this is one of the densest known areas of early galaxy formation. The density is unusually high enough that lead researcher Dominika Wylezalek suggested there may even be two “halos” of dark matter merging.

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Apple Fitness+ comes to iPhone on October 24th

You won’t need an Apple Watch to use the service.

Apple’s Fitness+ will come to the iPhone, without the need for the company’s wearable, on October 24th. It’ll arrive alongside the iOS 16.1 update. You’ll need the handset to sign up, but it will also be accessible through the iPad and Apple TV. You’ll have access to the full range of workouts and meditations through the Fitness app. The main limitation is accuracy. Where Apple Watch owners can rely on constant heart rate monitoring to determine their calorie burn, iPhone users have to trust estimates.

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Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk plans to lay off 75% of Twitter’s staff, report says

If Elon Musk finally gets his hands on Twitter in the next week, a new report suggests he could lay off up to 75% of the workforce.
Digital Trends

Elon Musk reportedly wants to lay off most of Twitter’s employees

Twitter is gearing up for layoffs no matter whether Elon Musk purchases the company, which could happen as soon as this Friday, according to a report from The Washington Post.

On one hand, Musk has told prospective investors that he plans to axe 75 percent of the Twitter’s 7,500-member staff upon completion of the deal, a move that would likely cripple the site’s operations and kneecap its ability to moderate content and ensure users’ security. On the other hand, internal documents obtained by The Post reveal that, prior to the Musk deal, current company leadership planned to “pare the company’s payroll” by around $ 800 million, a relatively modest 25 percent reduction in the workforce that would only see around 1,900 people left unemployed, along with “major” infrastructure cuts and data center closures.

Musk’s cuts would be “unimaginable” Edwin Chen, a data scientist formerly in charge of Twitter’s spam and health metrics, told The Post. “It would be a cascading effect,” he said, “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.”

When asked about potential layoffs at a Twitter Town Hall meeting in June, Musk came out in favor of staffing cuts, arguing that he didn’t see why low-performing workers should remain employed. Musk has also advocated for loosening content moderation restrictions and allowing formerly banned accounts to be reactivated.  

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk tells SpaceX and Tesla workers they must return to the office full-time

Elon Musk delivered an ultimatum to Tesla and Space X’s corporate workforces: Spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office, or leave the company. Musk today confirmed in a tweet that screenshots of an email sent to workers was real. According to The New York Times, workers at both companies received similar memos from Musk that made clear that all workers must report to a main office for 40 hours a week. Musk also wrote that employees would no longer be allowed to work from “remote branch” offices not related to their job duties, giving the example of an HR worker for the Fremont factory who works out-of-state.

“The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence,” Musk said in a memo to SpaceX employees obtained by NYT. “That is why I spent so much time in the factory — so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, SpaceX would long ago have gone bankrupt.”

Musk taking a hardline stance on remote work is in stark contrast to a number of other major tech companies that have allowed all or most workers to request to work-from-home permanently, including Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce and Slack. Apple recently suspended a requirement that workers return to the office at least three days a week.

As Bloombergreported today, Twitter employees — who are likely to be reporting to Musk once his acquisition of the company is complete — have internally expressed some concern the SpaceX and Tesla remote work policies (or lack thereof) herald unwelcome changes for their own workplace.

Tesla’s career website still lists a number of salaried and hourly remote positions. It’s unclear whether the new policy will apply to those positions. Engadget has reached out to Tesla for comment, though we are unlikely to hear back: the company dissolved its corporate communications department in 2020.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk claims Twitter’s legal team told him he violated an NDA

Elon Musk’s tweeting may have landed him in legal trouble again. As you may recall, the Tesla and SpaceX executive tweeted on Friday that his deal to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold” after the company disclosed that fake and spam accounts represented less than 5 percent of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter of 2022.

After his tweet prompted Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to say the company was “prepared for all scenarios,” Musk stated his team would test “a random sample of 100 followers” to verify Twitter’s numbers. According to the billionaire, one of the answers he gave to a question about his methodology prompted a response from Twitter’s legal team.

“I picked 100 as the sample size number, because that is what Twitter uses to calculate <5% fake/spam/duplicate,” he said in the alleged offending tweet. “Twitter legal just called to complain that I violated their NDA by revealing the bot check sample size is 100,” Musk later said of his actions.

We’ve reached out to Twitter for comment.

In another twist in Musk’s bid to buy Twitter, he also took aim at the platform’s algorithmic feed. “You are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don’t realize,” he said.

The message drew the attention of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. “It was designed simply to save you time when you are away from [the] app for a while,” Dorsey told Musk. “Pull to refresh goes back to reverse chron as well.”

Dorsey then responded to someone who said Twitter’s algorithmic feed was “definitely” designed to manipulate. “No it wasn’t designed to manipulate. It was designed to catch you up and work off what you engage with,” Dorsey said. “That can def have unintended consequences tho.”

Musk later appeared to walk back his comment. “I’m not suggesting malice in the algorithm, but rather that it’s trying to guess what you might want to read and, in doing so, inadvertently manipulate/amplify your viewpoints without you realizing this is happening,” he said.

Should something come of Musk’s actions, this wouldn’t be the first time one of his tweets has landed him in legal trouble. Back in 2018, his now-infamous “funding secured” tweet attracted the attention of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, leading to a $ 40 million settlement with the agency that he’s now trying to end.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Will Elon Musk give media the wake-up call they (we) need

A Musk-led Twitter is the reality check the media industry needs to mend its ways, as harsh it may sound. It’s time to wake up from the honeymoon phase.
Mobile | Digital Trends

Florida pension fund sues Elon Musk over Twitter deal

Elon Musk's $ 44 billion buyout of Twitter is facing its first legal challenge. A Florida pension fund is suing Musk and Twitter, arguing that the deal can't legally close until 2025 due to the billionaire's stake in the platform. The proposed class-action lawsuit — filed today by the Orlando Police Pension Fund in the Delaware Chancery court— also declares that Twitter’s board of directors breached its fiduciary duties by allowing the deal to go through. In addition to Musk and Twitter, the lawsuit also named former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and the company’s board as defendants.

In a message to Engadget, Tulane Law School’s Professor Ann M. Lipton says the lawsuit raises "some very novel issues" under Delaware corporate law. Under a law known as Section 203, shareholders who own more than 15 percent of the company can’t enter a merger without two-thirds of the remaining shares granting approval. Without this approval, the merger can’t be finalized for another three years.

The fund’s lawyers state that Musk initially owned roughly 10 percent of Twitter’s shares, which would seemingly not make Section 203 applicable. But, the fund argues, Musk formed a pact with Morgan Stanley (which owns 8.8 percent of shares) and former CEO Jack Dorsey (who has 2.4 percent) to advance the deal. The combined stake of these parties allegedly makes Musk and his allies in the takeover deal an "interested shareholder" under Section 203 — which, if the court agrees with the underlying reasoning presented in the case, means the merger must either be delayed or get approval shareholders representing at least two-thirds of the company's ownership. 

“Section 203 is not often litigated, and so the issue of whether Musk's relationship with these parties actually counts for statutory purposes is an unsettled question and it will be interesting to watch how it unfolds,” wrote Lipton.

More details of Musk’s highly complex $ 44 billion buyout of Twitter have been made public since the social media platform accepted the billionaire’s offer last month. The New York Times reported that Musk promised investors returns of nearly five to ten times their investments if the deal went through. Parts of the deal are being scrutinized, including its reliance on foreign investors and whether Musk bought shares in the company specifically to influence its leadership. But antitrust experts say the merger is unlikely to be blocked by the FTC. The agency will decide in the next month whether to quickly approve the merger or launch a lengthier investigation.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk says he has the financial backing for his proposed Twitter takeover

Elon Musk now has access to the funds he'd need to buy Twitter. According to an SEC filing, Musk has received "commitment letters" that would supply about $ 46.5 billion to buy all of Twitter's outstanding common stock and take control. The Tesla CEO is "exploring" this tender offer following a lack of response from Twitter, the filing reads.

We've asked Twitter for comment. While the company hasn't directly addressed Musk's offer, initially pegged at $ 43 billion, it recently approved a temporary "poison pill" measure intended to discourage hostile takeovers. The plan would let some shareholders buy more stock if anyone buys more than 15 percent of outstanding stock without the board of directors' approval, diluting the value of Musk's stake. He's already the largest individual shareholder with 9.2 percent ownership.

Musk made the offer claiming that it was meant to protect free speech, and has suggested he could unlock Twitter's potential with features like an edit button (which Twitter was already working on) and an open source algorithm. However, it also comes as the executive fights the SEC over alleged finance rule violations that frequently relate to his tweets. The entrepreneur has multiple strong incentives to purchase Twitter, and the financial backing illustrates just how serious he is.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

The Morning After: Elon Musk is now Twitter’s largest shareholder

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey might not like what’s become of the internet. But the internet doesn’t stop moving. Elon Musk now owns part of Twitter, after purchasing $ 2.89 billion in stock, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing spotted by CNBC. The purchase follows recent criticism by Musk over the social media site's free speech policies. Musk loves tweeting, so it makes sense beyond those criticisms. His tweets have even set off SEC lawsuits.

Musk is now the platform's largest shareholder, and he’s already inquiring into an edit button.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

LG's 2021 C1 OLED TVs are up to 32 percent off right now

No, not my TV!

The worst thing about buying something new, cutting-edge and kinda pricey is when it’s no longer new, cutting-edge and, well, on sale. So my awesome LG C1 OLED has just had substantial price cuts from the 48-inch model through to the 65-inch option. Sigh. Still, they’re great TVs with some notable specs for gamers, like 120Hz refresh rates and support for variable refresh rates.

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A Monkey Island sequel is incoming

From creator Ron Gilbert.

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Monkey Island

One of the best video game series of all time is making a return in 2022 with some of its key original creatives on board. Return to Monkey Island is "a game by Ron Gilbert," who conceived the point-and-click comedy-adventure saga in the late '80s.

Gilbert wrote and directed the original game, The Secret of Monkey Island. He was director, programmer and designer on the sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.

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The UK plans to issue an official NFT

The government is moving to embrace stablecoins.

The UK government's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced the Royal Mint will issue an official NFT sometime this summer. 

Yeah. I’m British and I winced too.

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The DeLorean EV will be unveiled on August 18th

Italdesign helped shape the concept car.

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Delorean

After years of teasing, the DeLorean Motor Company announced it’ll unveil an all-electric vehicle on August 18th, promising to share its official name at the same time. Details on the concept car are scant. The automaker is working with Italdesign, best known for its work with Volkswagen, to design the upcoming car.

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Samsung's 2022 TV lineup has something for everyone

Including its first new OLED TV in a decade.

The centerpiece of Samsung’s new TV family is the new QN900B, the centerpiece of the company’s Neo QLED 8K family. For 2022, Samsung has added 14-bit HDR mapping (up from 12-bit mapping on last year’s models) to improve picture detail in both bright and dark scenes. When combined with that massive 7,680 x 4,320 resolution, according to Sam Rutherford, the TV looks seriously sharp.

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Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

SEC opens investigation into Elon Musk over possible insider trading

Elon Musk isn't about to catch a hoped-for break from the SEC any time soon. Sources for The Wall Street Journalclaim the SEC is investigating whether Musk and his brother Kimbal violated insider trading regulations with recent share sales. Officials are concerned Elon might have told Kimbal he planned to ask Twitter followers about selling Tesla stock, leading the brother to sell 88,500 shares just a day before the November 6th tweet. If so, the company chief might have broken rules barring employees from trading on undisclosed information.

Kimbal Musk has frequently traded Tesla stock at regular intervals under a plan. He didn't on November 5th, according to an SEC filing.

We've asked the SEC for comment. Tesla isn't available for comment as it disbanded its communications team sometime in 2020. Musk clearly isn't on friendly terms with the Commission, however, as he said a day earlier that he "will finish" a fight he believed the SEC started.

If the report is accurate, the investigation will add more tension to a years-long feud. It began in 2018, when the SEC took action against Musk over tweets about taking the company private. While Musk agreed to a settlement that included approval requirements for any financially relevant social media posts, that wasn't the end of the fight between the two. The SEC has been looking into Musk's tweets over the past few years over concerns production-related tweets weren't approved, and just days ago subpoenaed Tesla for information on the EV maker's processes for honoring the 2018 settlement.

Musk has publicly sparred with the SEC at the same time. This year, he accused the regulator of conducting a "harassment campaign" that unfairly singled him out and excluded the court from monitoring. The SEC denied the accusations. Whatever the truth behind those claims, it's safe to presume Musk won't welcome any new investigation with open arms.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk asked to pay $50K to end Twitter bot that tracks his jet

A teen who built a Twitter bot that provides updates on the movements of Elon Musk’s private jet says he’ll delete the account if the billionaire pays him $ 50K.
Mobile | Digital Trends

Elon Musk says he tried to sell Tesla to Apple and Tim Cook snubbed him

Elon Musk apparently once tried to sell Tesla to Apple. Replying to a tweet about yesterday’s Reuters report on the Apple’s electric car ambitions, Musk said, “During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the p…
Engadget

Elon Musk teases ‘working Neuralink device’ reveal on August 28th

Elon Musk has revealed more details about a promised development update for Neuralink, the brain-computer interface designed to help folks with severe brain injuries. Musk said the company will show a “working Neuralink device” during a live webcast…
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Elon Musk says Starship is SpaceX’s ‘top priority’ from now on

Don’t expect SpaceX to lavish much more attention on Crew Dragon now that it has launched people into orbit. CNBC said it had obtained email from Elon Musk asking staff to treat Starship as the “top SpaceX priority,” pushing them to “dramatically and…
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Elon Musk will go to court over ‘pedo guy’ comments

Elon Musk hasn't had success avoiding a trial over his accusations that cave rescue diver Vernon Unsworth was a "pedo guy." Judge Stephen Wilson has determined that the defamation lawsuit is strong enough to go to trial, with the court battle due to…
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Judge orders Elon Musk and the SEC to settle Tesla tweet dispute

Tesla chief Elon Musk told reporters outside the Manhattan Federal Courthouse that he was "very happy" over the outcome of the SEC's latest complaint against him. The commission sought to hold him in contempt for violating their previous settlement o…
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DeepMind, Elon Musk and more pledge not to make autonomous AI weapons

Today during the Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the Future of Life Institute announced that more than 2,400 individuals and 160 companies and organizations have signed a pledge, declaring that they will "neither participate in nor suppo…
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Elon Musk to offer free rides in his LA traffic-dodging tunnel

Elon Musk has posted a video of Boring Company's first nearly completed tunnel under Los Angeles, which heads towards LAX and has an extra entrance at the SpaceX Hawthorne HQ. The multi-company chief said the tunnel is almost done, pending regulatory…
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Elon Musk pulls Tesla and SpaceX pages after #DeleteFacebook challenge

Elon Musk isn't known for kidding around, and he just made that clear in his response to Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal… more or less, at least. The entrepreneur has hidden the official Facebook accounts for Tesla and SpaceX in response to…
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Elon Musk wants to reuse more of the Falcon 9 rocket for future flights

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk tweets his plan to reuse parts of the Falcon 9 rocket for future flights to test before the rocket debuts this summer, despite low odds of success.

The post Elon Musk wants to reuse more of the Falcon 9 rocket for future flights appeared first on Digital Trends.

Cool Tech–Digital Trends

Your move, Elon Musk: Blue Origin unveils massive New Glenn rocket

Forget the space race between the U.S. and Russia — it’s really Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk who are competing for dominance off the planet. Bezos has made the latest move, introducing the New Glenn, the future rocket of Blue Origin.

The post Your move, Elon Musk: Blue Origin unveils massive New Glenn rocket appeared first on Digital Trends.

Cool Tech–Digital Trends

Weekly Rewind: Apple’s no good week, Musk aims for mars, and more

In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on, in fact, that it’s almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories.

The post Weekly Rewind: Apple’s no good week, Musk aims for mars, and more appeared first on Digital Trends.

Cool Tech–Digital Trends

Elon Musk wants to visit space by 2021, send people to Mars by 2025

While talking at the 2016 Startmeup Hong Kong Venture Forum, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he wants to travel to the International Space Station by 2021 and that he intends to send astronauts on a mission to Mars by 2025.

The post Elon Musk wants to visit space by 2021, send people to Mars by 2025 appeared first on Digital Trends.

Cool Tech–Digital Trends