Foreign

Yes-Poll Could Lead to Elon Musk Stepping Down as Twitter CEO

By Web News 410

 Twitter’s new boss, Elon Musk, may be considering stepping down as the Chief Executive Officer of the micro-blogging company after less than two months on the job.

Musk tweeted a poll via his verified handle Sunday night asking tweeps to vote on whether he should step down as Twitter’s CEO, adding that he would abide by the poll’s results.

He tweeted, “Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.”

As of Monday morning, with about six hours to the end of the poll, “Yes” was winning by a margin of 56.3% to 43.7%.

Since buying Twitter and taking over as CEO in late October, the billionaire owner of Tesla has been involved in a series of controversies on the ‘blue app.’

After buying the company for $44 billion from its former CEO, Jack Dorsey, Musk began to make some controversial changes to the company’s policy and personnel.

He sacked several of Twitter’s top executives and half of the company’s staff immediately after becoming its CEO, and announced a stop to remote working for the remaining, lucky employees.

He then gave the remaining staff an ultimatum that they needed to do “extremely hardcore” work or leave, an announcement that saw hundreds or so of the remaining staff quit the company.

The new CEO has fired employees who openly disagreed with his policies or tweets.

Musk went on to announce a new policy to commercialise the verification badge on the social media platform, a policy which raised dust among tweeps.

He first proposed a $20 monthly subscription fee for the blue badge, which he later slashed to $8.

He has frequently changed Twitter’s rules by executive fiat and with no prior notice and has banned tweeps who violated his new rules.

Recently, Musk disabled the Twitter Space feature from the app after having a heated argument with the host of a Twitter Space he participated in. The company, however, claimed that Space was disabled because of a little glitch. It has since been restored after backlashes from users.

In what seemed to be like a remorse for his unannounced policy changes, Musk tweeted Sunday night that every major policy change would now be subjected to a vote.

He wrote, “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.” Punch/Simeon Ugbodov

Foreign

Elon Musk Acquires Twitter

By Web News 743

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has completed his $44bn (£38.1bn) takeover of Twitter, according to US media and an investor in the firm.

He tweeted “the bird is freed,” in an apparent reference to the deal closing.

A number of top executives, including the boss, Parag Agrawal, have reportedly been fired.

It brings to a close a saga that saw Twitter go to court to hold the multi-billionaire to the terms of a takeover deal that he had tried to escape.

Twitter has not yet confirmed the takeover, but an early investor in the company told the BBC that the deal had been completed.

Mr Musk, a self-styled “free speech absolutist”, has been critical of Twitter’s moderation policies and the news will be greeted with mixed feelings by Twitter users and employees.

Many people on the right of US politics will celebrate the exit of Mr Agrawal as chief executive. They view people like Mr Agrawal, and his predecessor, Jack Dorsey, as liberals who are curtailing free speech.

They also think that under their stewardship, Twitter has censored conservative voices – an accusation that Twitter denied.

Mr Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and the firm’s top legal and policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, are no longer with the company, according to US media reports.

Mr Agrawal and Mr Segal were escorted out of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters after the deal closed, the Reuters news agency reported.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone thanked Mr Agrawal, Mr Segal and Ms Gadde for their “collective contribution” to the business.

Meanwhile, Bret Taylor – who had served as Twitter’s chairman since last November – updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate that he was no longer in the post.

It is not clear yet if the reported board clear-out is the opening salvo in company-wide job cuts.

Ross Gerber, president and chief executive of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, who is a shareholder in both Twitter and Mr Musk’s other company Tesla, told the BBC reports that 75% of staff at the social media company will lose their jobs is “inaccurate”.

“The figure that they have mentioned originally was around 50% of the staff,” he said. “But that was predicated on the teams that were working on reviewing who the staff was and how good the staff is.”

He said it is likely Twitter’s new owner will want to keep people “especially on the engineering side”.

“Really what they’re looking at from the trimming side is management which they’ve already started with upper management,” said Mr Gerber. He said cuts are then likely to extend to product managers “and products they’ve been working on that aren’t going anywhere”.

The social media platform’s shares will be suspended from trading on Friday, according to the New York Stock Exchange’s website.

Mr Musk said he bought the social media platform to help humanity and he wanted “civilisation to have a common digital town square”.

Earlier this week, Mr Musk tweeted a video of himself walking into Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco carrying a kitchen sink with the caption: “let that sink in!”

He also changed his Twitter profile to read “Chief Twit”.

A long road

Mr Musk’s early investments in Twitter initially escaped public attention. In January, he began making regular purchases of shares, so that by the middle of March he had accumulated a 5% stake in the firm.

In April, he was revealed as Twitter’s largest shareholder, and by the end of the month, a deal was finally reached to buy the company for $44bn.

He said he planned to clean up spam accounts and preserve the platform as a venue for free speech.

But by mid-May Mr Musk, a prolific Twitter user, had begun to change his mind about the purchase, citing concerns that the number of fake accounts on the platform was higher than Twitter claimed.

In July, he said he no longer wished to acquire the company. Twitter, however, argued the billionaire was legally committed to the acquisition and eventually filed a lawsuit to hold him to the deal.

In early October, Mr Musk revived his takeover plans for the company on condition that legal proceedings were paused

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

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Technology

Twitter Aims for “Less Stressful Tweeting” With Edit Button

By Web News 402

Twitter says it has begun actively testing an edit button, after months of publicly discussing such a tweak.

The company said the trial of “Edit Tweet” will begin with internal employees, and then be expanded out to the platform’s “Twitter Blue” subscription population.

“Edit Tweet is a feature that lets people make changes to their Tweet after it’s been published,” the company said on its blog. “Think of it as a short period of time to do things like, fix typos, add missed tags, and more.”

Under the revision being studied, users could edit a tweet “a few times” in the 30 minutes after the initial posting, in ways that transparently note the changes to “help protect the integrity of the conversation and create a publicly accessible record of what was said,” the company said.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who is locked in a lawsuit with Twitter over a potential acquisition of the micro-blogging platform, had backed an edit button shortly before the company said in April it was studying the change.

Users of Twitter Blue – the subscription offering now available in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zeeland – “receive early access to features and help us test them before they come to Twitter,” the company said.

Twitter said an aim of the tweak is that “Tweeting will feel more approachable and less stressful”.

“You should be able to participate in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you, and we’ll keep working on ways that make it feel effortless to do just that.”

However, a Twitter spokesperson said the test will not necessarily be employed universally on the platform.

AFP/Maxwell Oyekunle

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Technology

FG Orders Twitter, Tik Tok, Others to Appoint Country Reps

By Web News 704

The National Information Technology Development Agency has disclosed that interactive computer service platforms and Internet intermediaries are required to fulfill certain conditions in running their services in Nigeria.

These conditions are stated in the recently released Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries (online platforms).

This is according to a statement issued by NITDA on Monday.

The statement read in part, “NITDA wishes to present to the public a Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries for future review and input.”

The Code of Practice was developed by NITDA alongside the Nigerian Communications Commission and National Broadcasting Commission,with input from platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google, and Tik Tok.

One of such conditions in the Code of Practice is that each online platform is required to have a country representative, who will interface with the Nigerian authorities.

This means that Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google, Tik Tok and other interactive online platforms are required to have country representatives.

Other conditions include registering with the Corporate Affairs Commission as a legal entity, complying with tax obligations, and abide by regulatory and legal demands.

The Code of Practice is aimed at safeguarding the fundamental human rights of Nigerians and non-Nigerians living in Nigeria, and regulating interactions on online platforms.

Punch/Olaolu Fawole

Foreign

Elon Musk Threatens to Walk Away from Twitter Deal 

By Web News 672

Elon Musk has threatened to walk away from his $44bn takeover of Twitter, accusing the social media company of “thwarting” his requests to learn more about its user base.

In a letter filed with regulators, Mr Musk said he was entitled to do his own measurement of spam accounts.

The letter formalises a dispute that has simmered for weeks after Mr Musk declared the deal “on hold” pending further information.

Twitter has defended its estimates.

But Mr Musk has said he believes spam and fake accounts represent a far greater share than the less than 5% of daily users that Twitter reports publicly.

As Twitter’s prospective owner, Mr Musk is clearly entitled to the requested data to enable him to prepare for transitioning Twitter’s business to his ownership and to facilitate his transaction financing. To do both, he must have a complete and accurate understanding of the very core of Twitter’s business model – its active user base,” lawyer Mike Ringler wrote in the letter.

“Based on Twitter’s behaviour to date, and the company’s latest correspondence in particular, Mr Musk believes the company is actively resisting and thwarting his information rights,” the letter said.

“This is a clear material breach of Twitter’s obligations under the merger agreement and Mr Musk reserves all rights resulting therefrom, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement.”

The dispute has raised more doubts about the future of the takeover, which Twitter’s board approved in April.

Twitter has said Mr Musk waived typical rights to due diligence in his eagerness to clinch the deal.

But last month, Mr Musk raised the issue of the spam accounts on social media, saying the deal was on hold but he remained committed to the acquisition.

Mr Musk is on the hook for a $1bn break-up fee if he opts out of the deal, as is Twitter.

Analysts have said the Tesla boss might be using the issue to try to renegotiate the price or even walk away. They said Mr Musk’s decision to raise the issue on social media was unconventional, making it difficult to establish how serious he was.

When Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal defended the company’s process in a series of tweets, Mr Musk responded with a poo emoji.

Mr Musk has said he believes that bots could account for 20% or more of Twitter users. The letter, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, confirms that the two sides have gone back and forth on the issue since early May.

It says Mr Musk merits “reasonable cooperation” as he tries to line up financing for the deal.

“Twitter’s latest offer to simply provide additional details regarding the company’s own testing methodologies, whether through written materials or verbal explanations, is tantamount to refusing Mr Musk’s data requests,” the letter says.

“Twitter’s effort to characterize it otherwise is merely an attempt to obfuscate and confuse the issue.”

Mr Musk’s plans for the company have drawn intense scrutiny from regulators around the world, while raising some alarm among investors of electric car company Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, which Mr Musk also leads.

He has lined up outside investors to help pay for the takeover and is also using equity and loans backed by his Tesla shares, which have been hit in recent weeks as market turmoil wipes billions from the values of companies including Tesla.

The decline has also made Mr Musk’s offer of $54.20 per share for Twitter look even more generous. On Monday, Twitter shares were trading below $39, down 3%. They have yet to return to the highs they hit last month shortly after Mr Musk revealed he had purchased about 9% of the firm’s shares.

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the letter marked the “strongest signal yet that the Tesla founder is prepared to walk away”.

“This is a move Twitter investors have for weeks been steeling themselves for: the moment when Elon Musk’s haphazard ruminations in tweets have been distilled into an official letter to regulators,” she said. “However, given the added volatility which has hit the tech sector since Mr Musk made his offer, it’s highly likely he’s after a cheaper price even if Twitter does provide the data requested in support of its initial analysis.”


BBC /Taiwo Akinola

Foreign

“Twitter may charge government, commercial users” – Elon Musk

By Web News 585

The billionaire founder of Tesla Inc, Elon Musk, has said that Twitter may charge  commercial and government users a slight cost

Musk stated this on his verified  Twitter handle, on Wednesday.

He said the microblogging platform would always be free for “casual users.”

“Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users,” he said.

Last week, Twitter announced that it accepted Musk’s buyout offer of $44 billion, making him the new owner of the platform, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.

Following the  announcement, Musk said he wanted to enhance the platform with new features.

Newspeak/ Oluwayemisi Owonikoko

Entertainment

Cardi B Reacts to Backlash for Not Gracing Grammys 2022

By Web News 651

American rapper Cardi B has deleted her Twitter account following the backlash for not attending the Grammys 2022.

The mother of two took to her Twitter page on Sunday, April 3, 2022, where she slammed her fans and followers over comments about her children.

Cardi B who was nominated for the Best Rap category’s tweets came after demeaning comments were made about her children.

Another Twitter user referred to her kids as being austisic.

@iamcardib do you kiss your @utistic child with that mouth?” the troll tweeted, leading Cardi to reply, “None of my kids are autistic…don’t project wat u got on my kids.”

This is the second time the rapper will be deleting her Twitter page over perceived bullying.

Cardi B and her hubby, have two children together.

The private ceremony took place in the couple’s bedroom in Atlanta.

Taiwo Akinola/Adetutu Adetule

Technology

Nigerians Jubilate Over Twitter Ban Lifting

By Web News 709

Nigerians have described the lift of the ban on Twitter operation in the country as a welcome relief.

A public affairs analyst, Dr Moses Duruji, said lifting the ban was the right thing to do going by the number of Nigerians who utilized the media platform not just for social interaction but also for business engagements.

Dr Duruji noted that for the two hundred fourteen days while the ban lasted, about forty million Nigerians along with institutions and corporate bodies had their activities restricted, though some citizens migrated to the use of the virtual private network, known as VPN.

Similarly, some residents of Ibadan while responding to the development, pointed out how the Twitter ban affected them while it lasted.

They expressed delight that the federal government was able to resolve the dispute with the social media firm.

It would be recalled that the federal government wielded the big stick on the social media platform in June last year.

Simeon Ugbodovon

Foreign

Twitter Suspends Trump Permanently

By Web News 635

Twitter says it has “permanently suspended” US President Donald Trump’s account over the “risk of further incitement of violence”.

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said in a statement.

On Wednesday, it locked out Trump for 12 hours for “severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy” after he had used his handle to mobilise his supporters who invaded Capitol Hill, while the congress was certifying the victory of Joe Biden, president-elect.

FRCN Abuja

Economy

Minimum Wage: Osun Government To Begin Implementation November 1st

By Web News 821

Osun State governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola has approved the new minimum wage for workers in the state.

Governor Oyetola who disclosed this via his official Twitter handle, @gboyegaoyetola also lifted embargo on annual salary increment, promotion and conversion.

The governror announced that the implementation of the new minimum wage for the workers will take effect from November 1, 2020.

The approval followed the recommendations of government and Labour Committee which was set up to work out modalities for resolving all workers’ welfare-related issues.

Governor Oyetola lauded the state workforce for their commitment towards the development of the state.

Wasiu Ajadosu

Foreign

Twitter Says Hackers Downloaded Private Account Data

By Web News 773

Twitter has confirmed hackers made use of tools that were supposed to have only been available to its own staff to carry off Wednesday’s hack attack.

The breach saw the accounts of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Kanye West and Bill Gates among other celebrities used to tweet a Bitcoin scam.

Twitter also revealed the perpetrators had downloaded data from up to eight of the accounts involved.

It declined to reveal their identities but said none of them were “verified”.

This means they did not have a blue tick to confirm their ownership, and thus were not among the most high-profile hacked accounts.

However, the fact the attackers were able to make use of the Your Twitter Data download tool means they now potentially have access to affected users’:

  • private direct messages, including photos and videos
  • contacts, which Twitter’s app would have imported from their smartphone address books
  • physical location history, logged at times they had used the service
  • details about the accounts they had muted and blocked
  • interest and demographic information Twitter had inferred about them via their use of its platform

In a further development, the New York Times has suggested that the social network became exposed after the hackers gained access to credentials that had been shared on Twitter’s internal Slack messaging channel – a service that some companies use as an alternative to email.

The newspaper also suggests that at least two of those involved are from England.

In total, Twitter said 130 accounts had been targeted, of which the hackers had managed to reset the passwords of 45, giving them control.

It added that it believed those responsible may have attempted to sell some of the pilfered usernames.

“The attackers successfully manipulated a small number of employees and used their credentials to access Twitter’s internal systems,” it said in a statement.

“We are continuing our investigation of this incident, working with law enforcement, and determining longer-term actions we should take to improve the security of our systems.”

It added: “We’re embarrassed, we’re disappointed, and more than

Twitter said the attackers had targeted certain Twitter employees through a “social engineering scheme”.

“In this context, social engineering is the intentional manipulation of people into performing certain actions and divulging confidential information,” it said.

A small number of staff had been successfully manipulated, it said.

Once inside Twitter’s internal systems, the hackers were not able to see users’ previous passwords but could access personal information including email addresses and phone numbers as these are visible to staff using internal support tools.

They may also have been able to view additional information, the company said. There has been speculation that this could include direct messages.

The private messages of Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West or Elon Musk could be worth money on dark web forums. Selling the private messages of presidential hopeful Joe Biden or former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg could also have political consequences.

It is not clear why the hackers did not download all the data of these celebrity accounts but did so for others.

Twitter is “actively working on communicating directly” with the affected users, its statement said. It is also continuing to restore access for other users still locked out of their accounts as a result of the firm’s initial response to the hack.

On 15 July, a number of Bitcoin-related accounts began tweeting what appeared to be a simple Bitcoin scam, promising to “give back” to the community by doubling any Bitcoin sent to their address.

Then, the apparent scam spread to high-profile accounts such as Kim Kardashian West and Joe Biden, and those of corporations Apple and Uber.

Twitter scrambled to contain the unprecedented attack, temporarily preventing all verified users – those with a blue tick on their accounts – from tweeting.

However, US President Donald Trump, one of the most prominent Twitter users, was unaffected.

There has been speculation for some time that President Trump has extra protections in place after his account was deactivated by an employee on their last day of work in 2017.

The New York Times confirmed that was how Mr Trump’s account escaped the attack, citing an anonymous White House official and a separate Twitter employee.

Despite the fact that the scam was obvious to some, the attackers received hundreds of transfers, worth more than $100,000 (£80,000).

Bitcoin is extremely hard to trace and the three separate crypto-currency wallets that the cyber-criminals used have already been emptied.

The digital money is likely to be split into smaller amounts and run through so-called “mixer” or “tumbler” services to make it even harder to trace back to the attackers.

Clues about those responsible have surfaced through bragging on social media – including on Twitter itself.

Earlier this week, researchers at cyber-crime intelligence firm Hudson Rock spotted an advert on a hacker forum claiming to be able to steal any Twitter account by changing the email address to which it is linked.

The seller also posted a screenshot of the panel usually reserved for high-level Twitter employees. It appeared to allow full control of adding an email to an account or “detaching” existing ones.

This means that the attackers had access to the back end of Twitter at least 36-48 hours before the Bitcoin scams began appearing on Wednesday evening.

The researchers have also linked at least one Twitter account to the hack, which has now been suspended.

BBC