Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 1

Elon Musk has announced that Twitter will be banning any account that is posting the real-time location of individuals as its a physical safety violation.

The SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter CEO took to his personal Twitter account to make the announcement, writing that any account "doxxing real-time location info" of anyone will now be suspended from the platform. Musk added that accounts will be suspended if they post links to sites with real-time location information and that accounts posting locations of where someone traveled on a delayed basis isn't a violation as that individual is safe.

The Tesla CEO continued to explain his reasoning behind the change, with Musk writing that on December 14, a car that was carrying his son "lil X" was followed by a "crazy stalker (thinking it was me)". This stalker eventually blocked the car from moving and then climbed onto the roof. Musk managed to get a video of the stalker and asked the public if anyone recognized "the person or car?"

SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk made a surprise guest appearance at one of Dave Chappelle's comedy shows on Sunday night and was met with large portions of the crowd booing him.

Musk made an appearance at Dave Chappelle's comedy show in San Francisco, the same city that hosts Twitter HQ. Chappelle introduced Musk as the richest man alive. Musk was met with large portions of the crowd booing him, which even eventuated in Musk asking Chappelle what he should do next. Chappelle attempted to make light of the situation by saying that it sounded like many of the former Twitter staff that Musk fired "are in the audience".

Chappelle went on to defend Musk by asking the crowd to stop booing his guest, saying that "there is something better you could do" and "booing isn't the best thing you can do". Musk replied to a Twitter comment after the event that mentioned the booing he received at Chappelle's show, Musk wrote, "Technically, it was 90% cheers & 10% boos (except during quiet periods), but, still, that's a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life (frequent on Twitter). It's almost as if I've offended SF's unhinged leftists ... but nahhh."

The US Justice Department is reportedly investigating Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a prominent businessman, and investor, over his role in the collapse of FTX, what was the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange.

The exact details of the investigation are not yet known, but it is believed to be focused on potential fraud or misconduct on the part of SBF or other executives at FTX. FTX was once a rising star in the world of finance, known for its innovative financial products and aggressive growth strategy. However, the company faced increasing scrutiny and criticism in the years leading up to its collapse, with some alleging that its rapid expansion was built on risky and potentially fraudulent practices.

In the end, the company was unable to withstand the pressures of the market and went bankrupt, leaving many investors and employees to hang out to dry. SBF, whose full name has not been publicly released, was one of the key executives at FTX and played a major role in shaping the company's strategy. He was known for his ambitious vision and his ability to secure significant investments from some of the biggest names in finance. However, his involvement with FTX has now drawn the attention of federal investigators.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently announced that Twitter will be increasing its character limit from 280 to 4000.

This change has been highly anticipated by many users, who have long complained about the constraints of the 280-character limit. The expanded character limit will give users more freedom to express themselves in their tweets. It will also allow for more detailed and nuanced discussions on the platform. This is particularly useful for journalists and other content creators who often need to share longer articles or more complex ideas.

Many have praised the move, saying that it will help to improve the quality and depth of discourse on Twitter. Others, however, have voiced concerns that the expanded character limit may lead to an influx of spam and low-quality content.

The director of product management at Twitter, Esther Crawford, wrote on Twitter that the company will be relaunching its Twitter Blue subscription service on Monday, December 12.

Twitter is planning to relaunch its premium subscription service, known as Twitter Blue, with revised payment options. The service, which was first introduced in May 2021, will now cost $8 per month for those that sign up on the web and $11 per month for users that subscribe through the App Store on iOS. Twitter Blue offers a range of additional features and benefits to subscribers, such as the ability to undo tweets, customize the app's appearance, access exclusive content, and the iconic blue checkmark.

The revised payment options for Twitter Blue come as the company looks to expand its revenue streams and diversify its business, with Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk previously stating the company needs to take its reliance off advertiser revenue. Twitter has been facing increased competition from other social media platforms, and the launch of Twitter Blue is seen as an effort to differentiate the service and attract more users to the platform via its exclusive features.

Almost one week ago, in the early hours of December 2nd, customers noticed issues with their services. A message was posted on their status site stating, "We are investigating an issue that is affecting our Hosted Exchange environments. More details will be posted as they become available."

Although the company had posted a notice on its status page, the average customer was unaware of this part of the website. Clients averaged over two hours before reaching someone in the company's call center. Even when they reached the call center, customer care agents were not fully briefed on the outage and potential impact or solutions.

The system outage disrupted email services for thousands of small and midsize organizations. Rackspace's advice was for their customers to move to a competitor's platform. This left Rackspace customers desperate, frustrated, and many outright furious for the lack of support or communications from the company.

It was not until four days later, on December 6th, that they admitted that they were the victims of a ransomware attack. The identification of the issue that had knocked its Hosted Exchange environment offline was found to be isolated to its Exchange hosting platform.

"At this time, we are unable to provide a timeline for restoration of the Hosted Exchange environment," Rackspace said. "We are working to provide customers with archives of inboxes where available, to eventually import over to Microsoft 365."

Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, has announced that the company is working on a new software update that will make it easier for users to see their account status.

The update will show users whether they have been shadowbanned, which means that their tweets are no longer visible to other users, and provide them with the reason why this has happened. In addition, the update will also include information on how users can appeal their shadowban if they believe it was applied unfairly.

Shadowbanning is a controversial practice that has been used by social media companies to limit the reach of certain users who violate the platform's rules. The practice has been criticized by some users who argue that it can be applied unfairly and without their knowledge. This new update from Twitter aims to provide greater transparency and allow users to better understand why their account may have been shadowbanned.

In November, Elon Musk said that he would be sleeping at Twitter until everything was fixed and the company was in working order.

Now, leaked photographs from inside Twitter HQ in San Francisco, obtained by BBC reporter James Clayton, have revealed that some Twitter offices have been converted into living spaces with wardrobes, pillows on couches, and even washing machines being installed. Notably, the images showcase conference rooms being converted into makeshift hotel rooms with couches being covered in pillows and sheets, showing that "lots of staff have been sleeping at Twitter", per Clayton.

All of these changes and the makeshift sleeping quarters are a part of Musk's push to create Twitter 2.0, which will lead into the ultimate creation of the "Everything App". Additionally, these additions to the office and employees sleeping at work are certainly part of Musk's ultimatum that the Twitter owner dropped on staff last month. The ultimatum required employees to sign up for "long hours at high intensity" or receive 3 months of severance. The decision forced many employees to leave the company.

Amazon has announced a new program that will pay customers $2 per month to monitor their phone traffic.

The invite-only program is called Ad Verification and is designed to help the company gather data on when and where customers viewed advertisements on their phones. The program tracks users' ads, informing the company when a user saw an ad, where they saw it, what type of ad, and more. Notably, this tracking includes Amazon's own ads as well as third-party ads.

According to Amazon, the data collected through the program will be used to improve its products and services, as well as provide a more personalized advertising experience for all its customers. Amazon customers not invited to the program can join a waitlist and can potentially enter at a later date, according to an Amazon spokesperson that spoke to Insider.

Apple's AirTag, a small device that allows users to track and locate their personal items, has recently come under fire for privacy concerns.

AirTag utilizes Apple's Find My network to track the location of an item, allowing users to see its location on a map in the Find My app. However, some have raised concerns that this technology could be used to track individuals without their consent.

One of the primary concerns with AirTag is that it could be used by stalkers to track their victims. AirTag is small and easily concealable, making it difficult for someone to know if they are being tracked. In addition, AirTag does not require any explicit consent or notification when it is attached to an item, meaning that someone could attach an AirTag to another person's belongings without their knowledge.