Volkswagen Follows Audi, General Motors to Halt Paid Advertising on Twitter

Volkswagen on Friday said it has recommended to its brands to pause paid advertising on Twitter until further notice in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and will decide about next steps depending on its evolvement,” Europe’s top carmaker said in a statement.

The comments by Volkswagen group, which covers the VW, Seat, Cupra, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Ducati and Porsche brands, echoes similar remarks from other firms, including GM and General Mills.

Earlier in the day, General Mills and Luxury automaker Audi of America announced that they have paused advertising on Twitter, days after the social media platform was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk for $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,37,500 crore). “We will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,” a General Mills spokesperson said.

Audi of America, the Herndon, Virginia-based US unit of Audi — a Volkswagen Group brand — said it would “continue to evaluate the situation.”

The two companies join top US automaker General Motors, which last week said it had temporarily halted paid advertising on Twitter. The ad pauses come after Musk said in an open letter to advertisers last week that he wants Twitter to be “the most respected advertising platform” in a bid to gain their trust.

Last week, Musk tweeted that the company will form a content moderation council “with widely diverse viewpoints.” Musk said no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before the council convenes.

The self-described “free speech absolutist” said in May he would reverse Twitter’s ban on former US President Donald Trump, who was removed from the microblogging site in January last year over the risk of further incitement of violence after the storming of the US Capitol.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

 


 

 

 

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Twitter May Have Stopped Working on Crypto Wallet: Report

Twitter, under the leadership of its new billionaire chief Elon Musk, is undergoing a plethora of operational changes. Amid the ongoing changes, the microblogging site has reportedly halted work on developing its crypto wallet. The crypto community that expects Twitter to experiment with Dogecoin payments under Musk has not met with the news with excitement. Soon after the news began making the rounds, DOGE sank by ten percent, after growing by more than double over in the last seven days.

Jane Manchun Wong, the famed tech blogger and reverse engineer, had revealed about Twitter working on a crypto wallet back on October 25.

As per news publication Platformer, the development on crypto wallet has been paused for the time being.

The news comes in the background of Musk firing several employees from the Twitter team.

In total, Twitter is expected to fire close to close to 3,700 employees as a cost cutting measure.

Despite the corporate upheaval, several crypto majors including Binance, Sequoia Capital Fund, and Fidelity Management are betting on Twitter under Musk for the expansion of Web3.

Musk has expressed his inclination towards integrating Twitter services with crypto payments previously. Back in April, for instance, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had pitched his favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, as a payment option for users seeking to avail Twitter Blue services.

Back in May, Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey had also called Bitcoin the ‘open standard for global money transmission’.

For now, Twitter has not officially confirmed or denied its plans on developing or halting progress on a dedicated crypto wallet.


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Va. history repeating in NY, … and other commentary

Conservative: Va. History Repeating in NY?

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe likely lost the 2021 election with his debate declaration, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Now, argues the Washington Examiner’s Hugo Gurdon, Gov. “Hochul may have just gifted deep blue New York to her challenger” with her debate flub, when Rep. Lee Zeldin noted she “hasn’t talked about locking up anyone committing any crimes” and she replied “I don’t know why that is so important to you.” Like McAuliffe’s gaffe, Gurdon notes, it was a “crystalline statement of Democratic insouciance toward ordinary people’s interests.” So: “It can be no surprise” that the polling “trend is fast against” Hochul. If Zeldin wins, “McAuliffe can take consolation in the thought that he isn’t alone in his Olympian blundering.”

Budget watch: Hochul Hiding Red Ink

“Governor Hochul’s budget office has yet to release the statutorily required mid-year financial plan update,” huffs the Empire Center’s Peter Warren. State law requires its release by Oct. 30. Why the delay? Likely because it holds “grim news” reflecting the “economic and financial market downturn.” The Aug. 1 update “projected a sea of red ink in the coming years, with deficits exceeding $6 billion by FY 2027.” By “signing the Green CHIPS legislation” a few days later, Hochul added “another roughly $500 million per year to the outyear annual deficits.” Voters should be able “to see the full impact on the state’s finances of both broad economic and market conditions, and specific policy decisions made by elected officials.” That’s why the law requires them “by a date certain.”

From the left: Big Brother’s Watching You Vote

TKNews’ Matt Taibbi flags the rise of mailers aiming “to remind people voting records are public, and whether they vote next week will be public record.” Some are handwritten with a signature; one creeped-out recipient says, “It feels threatening, as if a neighbor is keeping track of who has or has not voted.” Indeed, Taibbi reports, “the word ‘Orwellian’ came up more than once in interviews” on “so-called social shaming mailers.” Yet the practice “is likely to increase even more in the future” because it works. “Is Big Brother watching? If the wrong party loses next week, someone in your neighborhood probably will be. Welcome to 21st century electioneering.”

Eye on elex: Dems’ Dead-Parrot Denialism

“It’s never a good idea to tell people that what they see before them isn’t real,” warns The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker, recalling the classic Monty Python “dead parrot” sketch. On key issues, “Democratic candidates across the country are performing an uncanny impersonation of the shopkeeper in the sketch who insists that the deceased bird is in fact not deceased, but ‘just resting’ and ‘pinin’ for the fjords.’ ” President Biden, for one, calls the economy “strong as hell,” yet inflation is “rapidly eroding real wages.” And Gov. Hochul’s “I don’t know why” locking up criminals is “so important to you” remark, Baker contends, shows “a detachment from the reality in which so many of her fellow New Yorkers live.”

Populist: GOP Must Learn From Musk

Elon Musk’s top challenge at Twitter “is changing the culture of this large organization without interrupting its business,” Bruce Abramson explains at RealClearPolitics, and “it’s a task at which President Trump failed. Trump often complained about the politicization and corruption of federal agencies . . . but he had zero perceptible impact on the culture of the federal bureaucracy.” Learn from Musk’s “first moves. He immediately removed key members of Twitter’s leadership, including its CEO, CFO, policy head, and general counsel,” axing “the highest profile senior people most identified with Twitter’s culture.” Then he “denied the rumors that he intended to fire three out of every four employees — without providing details about his actual intentions. The combined message is exactly right: Twitter culture is about to change in a significant way. If you’re competent in your job and on board with the shift, we’d be pleased to have you stay.”

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

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Elon Musk Ropes in Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Sriram Krishnan Ahead of Plans to Revamp Twitter

Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American technology executive, is “helping out” Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk as he revamps the social media giant following its acquisition by the billionaire entrepreneur.

Krishnan is a general partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

“Now that the word is out: I’m helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people. I (and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have a great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen,” Krishnan tweeted.

Krishnan added that he is “still very much in my day job” at @a16zcrypto. “If you’re a crypto founder, you know how to find me!.” According to his profile on Andreessen Horowitz’s website, Krishnan invests in early-stage consumer startups and serves on the boards of companies Bitski, Hopin, and Polywork.

Prior to joining a16z, Chennai-born Krishnan held numerous senior product roles and most recently, he “led core consumer teams at Twitter where he was responsible for products including the home timeline, new user experience, search, discovery, and audience growth”, his profile said.

Previously, he created and oversaw various mobile ad products for Snap and Facebook, including Snap’s Direct Response ads business and the Facebook Audience Network, one of the largest networks in display advertising, his profile said.

Krishnan started his career at Microsoft where he touched numerous projects related to Windows Azure.

Author of “Programming Windows Azure” published by O’Reilly, he also co-hosts with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy ‘The Good Time Show’ on Clubhouse, a nightly show through which they interview innovators around tech and culture.

He is an alumnus of SRM Engineering College, Anna University where he did his Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Information Technology, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Last week, Musk completed the $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,63,090 crore) acquisition of Twitter and ousted chief executive Parag Agrawal, legal executive Vijaya Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett.

Musk, according to reports, plans to rethink the company’s content moderation policies and permanent bans for users who previously violated the platform’s policies, including former President Donald Trump, although he said over the weekend that no major decisions have been made yet. He also is reported to be planning large layoffs at the company.

Musk has said the process of gaining a prestigious “blue tick” will be revised. Reports said the firm could start charging $20 (roughly Rs. 1,650) per month to be verified.

Many of Twitter’s most prominent verified users said they would leave if it tried to implement the plan.

Stephen King, an American author, tweeted: “$20 (roughly Rs. 1,650) a month to keep my blue check? F– that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.” Hours later, Musk replied to King: “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?” A blue tick is currently free and a way of signalling an account is authentic.

While there has been no official confirmation of the plan, on Monday Musk appeared to acknowledge the speculation in a new tweet which said: “On no, all our diabolical plans have been revealed!!” In a separate development, Musk has denied a New York Times report that he plans to lay off Twitter workers before the start of next month to avoid having to make payouts.

The New York Times reported that Musk had ordered major job cuts across Twitter’s workforce.

Citing people with knowledge of the situation, the report said that some managers were being asked to “draw up lists of employees to cut.” The newspaper said the layoffs would take place before November 1, when workers were due to receive grants of shares in the company as a major part of their pay deals.

But replying to a Twitter user asking about the report, he said: “This is false.” The takeover has prompted discussion among Twitter users over what the platform will look like under Musk’s ownership, the BBC said.

Some have voiced concerns that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be allowed back to the platform.


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Elon Musk’s SpaceX May Launch Starship Rocket System by Early December: NASA

SpaceX is targeting early December to launch its giant Starship rocket system into orbit for the first time, a pivotal demonstration flight as it aims to fly NASA astronauts to the moon in the next few years, a US official said on Monday.

Billionaire Elon Musk‘s SpaceX has sought for years to send its towering next-generation rocket system into orbit from the company’s private launch facilities in Texas, where it has only launched prototypes of Starship‘s upper half some 6 miles (10 km) high to demonstrate landing attempts.

The December mission will test the entire system for the first time, involving the company’s 230-foot (70-meter) Super Heavy booster to lift the 160-foot (50-meter) Starship spacecraft into orbit.

“We track four major Starship flights. The first one here is coming up in December, part of early December,” Mark Kirasich, a senior NASA official overseeing development of the agency’s Artemis moon program, said during a live-streamed NASA Advisory Council meeting.

Further ground tests with the rocket and regulatory reviews could delay the debut orbital mission beyond December. The US Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial launch site safety, has not yet granted a license for the mission to SpaceX, part of Musk’s growing universe of companies that also includes Tesla and Twitter.

The FAA and SpaceX did not immediately return requests for comment.

Starship is poised to be SpaceX’s flagship rocket system once fully developed, succeeding the company’s fleet of reusable Falcon 9 rockets as a more powerful and fully reusable ride to space for large batches of commercial satellites, space tourists and professional astronauts.

NASA in 2021 picked SpaceX’s Starship to land humans on the moon around 2025 for the first time since 1972. That mission, under a roughly $3 billion (nearly Rs. 24,800 crore) contract, requires several spaceflight tests in advance that could delay the 2025 moon landing mission.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

 


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Twitter Blue Subscription Fee Hike Reports Refuted by MoS IT, Says Doesn’t Think It’s True

Twitter is abuzz with reports that users will have to shell out a $20 (roughly Rs. 1,600) fee for the ‘blue tick’, which authenticates the identity of the account holder, and a failure pay the amount will result in the coveted status being withdrawn.

Refuting the reports, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar told ANI, “I do not think this is true. This is a challenge for Twitter. They need to see how this miscommunication is being circulated on the platform. I do not think such reports are true.”

According to media reports, Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter, is planning to charge users $19.99 (over Rs. 1,600) for the new Twitter Blue subscription that brings extra features like edit and undo tweets.

Under the current plan, verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue checkmark. Employees working on the project were told that they need to meet a deadline of November 7 to launch the feature or they will be fired.

The particular report comes a day after Musk in a tweet mentioned that Twitter will revise its user verification process. However, he did not any detail related to the charges.

“Whole verification process is being revamped right now”, he tweeted.

The Twitter Blue subscription launched widely almost a year ago as a way to view ad-free articles from some publishers and make other tweaks to the app, such as a different color home screen icon.

In April, Twitter accepted Musk’s proposal to buy and take the social media service private. However, Musk soon began sowing doubt about his intentions to follow through with the agreement, alleging that the company failed to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the service.

In July, in a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk who had long been showing his interest to buy Twitter terminated the deal. The Tesla CEO did so by alleging that Twitter violated their mutual purchase agreement by misrepresenting the number of spam and fake bot accounts on its platform.

After Musk put out the deal termination announcement, the market saw a sharp decline. Later, Twitter sued Musk accusing him of using bots as a pretext to exit a deal. Again, last week, Musk confirmed that he would move forward with the Twitter buyout at the originally agreed price of $54.20 (roughly Rs. 4,400) per share.


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Elon Musk Denies Reports He Is Firing Twitter Employees in Attempt to Avoid Payouts

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk has denied a New York Times report about laying off Twitter employees at a date earlier than November 1 to avoid stock grants due on the day.

In a response to a Twitter user asking about the layoffs, Musk tweeted: “This is false.”

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Musk has ordered job cuts across the company, with some teams to be trimmed more than others and that layoffs would take place before November 1 date, when employees were scheduled to receive stock grants as part of their compensation.

Citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, the Times reported the cuts could begin as soon as Saturday.

According to media reports on Saturday, Musk fired top executives in an effort to avoid hefty severance payouts, while lining up other layoffs as soon as Saturday.

Musk fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde on completion of a high-profile $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,62,300 crore) buyout of the social media platform on Thursday, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

He had accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts on the platform. According to research firm Equilar, the executives stood to receive separation payouts totaling some $122 million (roughly Rs. 1,005 crore).

Citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, The Information reported that Elon Musk terminated four top Twitter executives, including Agrawal and Segal “for cause,” in an apparent effort to avoid severance pay and unvested stock awards.

In a tweet on Saturday LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield said Musk fired top Twitter execs “for cause,” preventing their unvested stock from vesting as part of a change of control.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Reuters wasn’t immediately able to contact the fired executives.

Director of research at Equilar Courtney Yu told Reuters on Friday that the fired executives “should be getting these (severance) payments unless Elon Musk had cause for termination, with cause in these cases usually being that they broke the law or violated company policy.”

© Thomson Reuters 2022


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General Motors Temporarily Halts Paid Advertising on Twitter After Elon Musk Takeover

General Motors said late on Friday it had temporarily halted paid advertising on Twitter after Elon Musk completed his takeover of the social media company.

The largest US automaker said it was “engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership.”

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk is also the Chief Executive of GM rival Tesla.

GM said “as is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising.” The Detroit automaker added its “customer care interactions on Twitter will continue.”

Ad sales accounted for more than 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue in the second quarter. At a presentation for advertisers in May, some ad agencies and brands were already skeptical and concerned over Twitter’s future.

On the eve of the deal’s closing, Musk appealed directly to advertisers in an open-letter tweet, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!… 
Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.”

Musk tweeted on Friday that Twitter will form a content moderation council “with widely diverse viewpoints.” Musk said no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before the council convenes.

The self-described “free speech absolutist” said in May he would reverse Twitter’s ban on former US President Donald Trump, who was removed from the microblogging site in January last year over the risk of further incitement of violence after the storming of the US Capitol.

The question of reinstating Trump on the social media platform has been seen as a litmus test of how far Musk will go in making changes, even though Trump himself has said he would not return.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

 


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