Morning Tidings

Tag: MuskRun

  • Elon Musk-Run X May Lose up to USD 75 Million of Ad Revenue As More Brands Pull Out, Says Report

    Elon Musk-Run X May Lose up to USD 75 Million of Ad Revenue As More Brands Pull Out, Says Report

    San Francisco, November 25: Elon Musk-run X could lose as much as $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year as dozens of major brands pull out their marketing campaigns after the tech billionaire endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory this month, the media reported. According to the internal documents seen by The New York Times this week, over 200 ad units of companies from the likes of Airbnb, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and others have halted or are considering pausing their ads on X.

    Musk’s support for an antisemitic message on the platform last week prompted numerous firms, including Walt Disney and Warner Bros Discovery, to halt advertising on the X. Elon Musk Antisemitic Post: X Owner Says ‘Nothing Could Be Further From the Truth’ After Hundreds of Media Stories Claim Him To Be ‘Antisemitic’.

    X has responded by suing non-profit Media Matters, arguing that the organisation defamed the platform with a report alleging that advertisements for major brands such as Apple and Oracle appeared next to messages praising Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.

    According to the report, the documents come from X’s sales team and are designed to monitor the effects of all the advertising mishaps that took place this month, including those by companies that have already suspended ads and others that may be at risk of doing so. Apple, Disney, Warner Bros and Other Major Firms Pull Ads From X After Elon Musk’s Antisemitic Posts.

    The documents detail how much ad revenue X employees worry the company could lose by the end of the year if advertisers do not resume their ads. However, X claimed in a statement on Friday that $11 million in revenue was at risk, with the actual sum fluctuating as some advertisers returned to the platform and others increased spending, the report mentioned.

    Meanwhile, a new report has revealed that some super-spreaders of misinformation on X, who are verified premium users with blue badges, are sharing Musk’s ad revenue even after making conspiratorial claims about the Israel-Hamas war. NewsGuard, a for-profit misinformation watchdog organisation, found that such posts with misinformation reached a collective 92 million views.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Nov 25, 2023 03:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).

  • Israel-Gaza Conflict: Elon Musk-Run X Fails To Remove 98% of Posts Promoting Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Anti-Palestine Hate and Other Hate Speech, Says Report

    Israel-Gaza Conflict: Elon Musk-Run X Fails To Remove 98% of Posts Promoting Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Anti-Palestine Hate and Other Hate Speech, Says Report

    Washington, November 15: Elon Musk-run X has failed to remove 98 per cent of posts which promoted antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian hate, or other hate speech, a new report has revealed. X (previously Twitter) continues to host the overwhelming majority of a sample of posts that breach platform rules for promoting antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian hate and other hateful rhetoric in the wake of the Israel-Gaza crisis, the Center for Countering Digital Hate found.

    The report, published late on Tuesday, comes amid several warnings of a rise in hate speech and misinformation on X and other platforms following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Imran Ahmed, CEO and founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), said that X has sought to reassure advertisers and the public that they have a handle on hate speech, “but our research indicates that these are nothing but empty words.” Elon Musk Apologises to Piyush Goyal: Tesla CEO Extends Apology to Union Minister for Being Unable to Meet Him at Tesla Fremont Factory Visit.

    Researchers collected a total of 200 hateful posts that were published after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7 — all of which either directly addressed the ongoing conflict, or appeared to be informed by it. The posts were collected from a total of 101 separate X accounts. The posts were reported to X moderators for breaching platform rules via the official reporting tools on October 31. The sample of posts were subsequently reviewed on November 7 to audit the action taken.

    Despite having a full week to process the reports, researchers found that X continued to host 98 per cent (196) of the 200 posts. In total, the posts that remained up have accrued 24,043,693 views. Out of the 101 accounts in the study, only one was suspended and a further two “locked”. Nearly 43 of the 101 accounts in the sample are verified accounts, which means they benefit from algorithmic boosts to the visibility of their posts. Google Pays Apple 36% of Safari Search Engine Revenue Under Terms of Default Search Agreement, Says Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

    “Our ‘mystery shopper’ test of X’s content moderation systems — to see whether they have the capacity or will to take down 200 instances of clear, unambiguous hate speech — reveals that hate actors appear to have free rein to post viciously antisemitic and hateful rhetoric on Musk’s platform,” said Ahmed.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Nov 15, 2023 11:16 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).

  • Elon Musk-Run X Takes Action Over 325,000 Posts, 375,000 Accounts for Israel-Hamas War Violations

    Elon Musk-Run X Takes Action Over 325,000 Posts, 375,000 Accounts for Israel-Hamas War Violations

    San Francisco, November 14: Elon Musk-run X on Tuesday said it has “actioned” over 325,000 pieces of content that violated its terms of service, including violent speech and hateful conduct, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. X, which now has over 500 million monthly active users, said that 3,000 accounts have been removed, including accounts connected to Hamas.

    “Our escalations team has actioned over 25,000 pieces of content under our synthetic and manipulated media policy. “We’ve also taken action – including suspension – on over 375,000 accounts as a result of our proactive investigations to protect authentic conversation regarding the conflict, including coordinated/inauthentic engagement, inauthentic accounts, duplicate content and trending topic/hashtag spam,” the social media platform informed. Israel-Hamas War: 179 People Buried in Mass Grave Inside Al-Shifa Hospital Premises in Gaza, Says Hospital Director.

    In the first month of the conflict, Community Notes have been viewed well over a hundred million times, addressing topics from out-of-context videos to AI-generated media to claims about specific events.

    “On average, people are 30 per cent less likely to agree with the substance of the original post after reading a note about it,” said X. Notes are getting faster. They are now visible 1.5 to 3.5 hrs more quickly than a month ago. “We have north of 200,000 contributors in 44 countries and are growing. That includes over 40,000 new contributors added from the beginning of the conflict,” X noted.

    The company recently launched notes on new media types. When a note is added to a photo or video, it automatically shows on other posts with matching media. “Because of this new feature, notes related to the Israel-Hamas conflict have been displayed on 10,000+ posts. This number grows automatically if the relevant images and video are re-used in new posts,” the company added. In response to the Israel-Hamas conflict, X has proactively removed more than 100 publisher videos not suitable for monetization. Israel-Hamas War: Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Forced To Bury Dead Bodies Inside Premises, Says Hospital Authority.

    “We’ve updated our keyword blocklists with more than 1,000 terms related to the conflict, preventing ad targeting and adjacency on Timeline or Search placements. And we’ve implemented a change where Amplify Video campaigns from our content partners will only run in the Home Timeline,” the Musk-run company added.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Nov 14, 2023 09:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).

  • Tesla Layoffs: Elon Musk-Run Electric Car Maker Company To Sack 10% Employees in Early 2023, Pauses All Hiring

    Tesla Layoffs: Elon Musk-Run Electric Car Maker Company To Sack 10% Employees in Early 2023, Pauses All Hiring

    San Francisco, December 22: Elon Musk-run Tesla, who has seen its stock nosediving more than 60 per cent this year, has warned employees about another round of layoffs early next year, along with a complete hiring freeze.

    In June, Musk had asked Tesla executives to “pause all hiring” and cut 10 per cent of staff, along with freezing hiring. The electric car-maker company had resumed hiring during the second half of the year. Tesla Headed For Layoffs? Elon Musk Plans 10% Staff Cut at Tesla, Freezes Hiring Amid Rising Inflation.

    The new round of layoffs, according to Electrek, will come in the next quarter (January-March 2023). “It’s not clear how extensive the hiring freeze will be as Tesla is still planning to expand in some manufacturing locations. No further details were made available at this time,” the report said late on Wednesday.

    Tesla has communicated to some employees that it is stopping hiring for now. The company also said that teams will be expected to make layoffs during the “first quarter of 2023”. Tesla is facing pressures from its recent steep stock price drop, which began in late September, and got worsened with Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

    Electric car company Tesla’s shares tumbled further to around $137 apiece, its lowest ever, as Elon Musk on Wednesday again blamed global macroeconomic conditions. Tesla shares are down more than 60 per cent, as Musk is busy micro-managing daily affairs at Twitter. Layoffs Season: Why Meta, Twitter, Amazon, Other Tech Companies Laying Off Employees All At Once and Why Experts Believe the Worst Is Yet To Come.

    Tesla bull Ross Gerber tweeted this week: “Tesla stock price now reflects the value of having no CEO. Great job tesla BOD — Time for a shake up. $tsla.” Musk replied: “As bank savings account interest rates, which are guaranteed, start to approach stock market returns, which are not guaranteed, people will increasingly move their money out of stocks into cash, thus causing stocks to drop.”

    Gerber further said that “Tesla needs a media and comms team; Tesla needs a succession plan as well as clarify when Elon will be back from twitter; Tesla needs to communicate about Elon’s stock sales and a stand still agreement should be made”.

    Musk last week blamed the Federal Reserve for the current situation, saying his electric car company is doing better than ever. Since November 2021, Musk has sold more than $39 billion of Tesla shares.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Dec 22, 2022 11:23 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).

  • Indian Space Tech Startup Pixxel Launches ‘Shakuntala’ Satellite With Elon Musk-Run SpaceX’s Falcon-9 Rocket

    New Delhi, April 2: Spacetech startup Pixxel has successfully launched its first fully-fledged commercial satellite called ‘Shakuntala’ with Elon Musk-run SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket.

    Being Pixxel’s first fully-fledged satellite, ‘Shakuntala’ hosts one of the highest resolution hyperspectral commercial cameras ever flown to space, bringing it one step closer to building a 24×7 health monitor for the planet, it said in a statement.

    Launched on Friday aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-4 mission from Cape Canaveral in the US, this launch puts the company within touching distance of its ambitious mission to assemble one of the world’s most advanced constellations of low-earth-orbit imaging satellites.

    “From being one of the very few finalists in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2017 to now launching our own satellites as part of SpaceX’s fourth dedicated rideshare mission, life has come full-circle for us,” said Awais Ahmed, CEO of Pixxel.

    Weighing less than 15 kg, Shakuntala (TD-2) is capable of capturing orbital images in more than 150 bands of colour from the visible and infrared spectrum with a resolution of 10-metres per pixel, far exceeding the specificity of 30-metre per pixel hyperspectral satellites launched by a few select organisations such NASA, ESA, and ISRO.

    In just a few weeks from launch, Shakuntala will begin amassing information and uncovering the invisible changes wreaking havoc on our planet like natural gas leakages, deforestation, melting ice caps, pollution, and declining crop health.

    The launch came at the heels of Pixxel’s $25 million Series funding from Radical Ventures, Seraphim Space Capital, Relativity Space co-founder Jordan Noone, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, and Sparta LLC, among others.

    It sets the stage for Pixxel’s first commercial phase satellites, to be launched in early 2023. With six satellites flown in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) around a 550-km altitude, Pixxel’s hyperspectral constellation will be able to cover any point on the globe every 48 hours.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Apr 04, 2022 04:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).

  • Elon Musk-Run Electric Car Company Tesla Hits $1 Trillion Market Cap for First Time

    San Francisco, October 25: Elon Musk-run electric car company Tesla on Monday hit the $1 trillion market cap for the first time. Tesla becomes the fifth US company to join the $1 trillion club, after Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet. Its stock soared to a new record-high after it crossed $950 during the trading — up more than 9 per cent.

    The rally came after the US-based rental car company Hertz on Monday said it has ordered 100,000 Tesla vehicles (worth at least $4.2 billion) by the end of 2022 as part of an ambitious plan to electrify its fleet.

    The move includes new EV charging infrastructure across the company’s global operations. Beginning in early November, customers will be able to rent a Tesla Model 3 at Hertz airport and neighbourhood locations in US major markets and select cities in Europe. Hertz, Rental Car Company, Orders 1 Lakh Tesla Vehicles for $4.2 Billion.

    Hertz also is installing thousands of chargers throughout its location network. Customers who rent a Tesla Model 3 will have access to 3,000 Tesla supercharging stations throughout the US and Europe, the company said. Earlier, Tesla hiked prices for all four of its in-production vehicles.

    The base Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles are each priced $2,000 higher, at $43,990 and $56,990, respectively. In addition, the base Model S and Model X vehicles will each cost $5,000 more, at $94,990 and $104,990, reports electrek.co.

    Global EV sales skyrocketed 200 per cent in the last year and will likely continue to grow with commitments from global automakers to increase EV sales. For example, in August, three US automakers pledged to boost EV sales to 40-50 per cent by 2030.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Oct 25, 2021 11:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).