SAN FRANCISCO — While still grappling with the fallout from buying Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over tweets he made about Tesla. Long before Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October, he had set his sights on Tesla, the electric automaker where he continues to serve as...
Fresno School Trustee Celebrates Anti-Vaxxers’ Infertility in Tweet
Fresno Unified Board Clerk Veva Islas raised a few eyebrows this week with a tweet that says she's happy if vaccination opponents infected with COVID-19 may be briefly unable to have children. Islas, a public health advocate who heads Cultiva La Salud, a nonprofit for health equity in the...
Who’s a Racist? School Board Trustee and Local Conservative Honcho Square Off on Twitter
Ever wonder what a Twitter flame war looks like? Then check out the latest skirmish pitting Fresno Unified Trustee Veva Islas (tweeting not from her official trustee account but from her "Vivacious Veva" account) and longtime local conservative leader Michael Der Manouel Jr. Der Manouel, whose Twitter name now reads...
Trump Hints at Launching His Own Social Media Platform
[aggregation-styles] Politico Former President Donald Trump teased the launch of his own social media platform in a new interview, but did not provide a timeline or offer any further details regarding the potential business venture. “I’m doing things having to do with putting our own platform out there that you’ll...
Twitter Launches Crowd-Sourced Fact-Checking Project
Twitter is enlisting its users to help combat misinformation on its service by flagging and notating misleading and false tweets. The pilot program unveiled Monday, called Birdwatch, allows a preselected group of users — for now, only in the U.S. — who sign up through Twitter. Those who want to...
Twitter Suspends Iran Top Leader’s Account Over Trump Threat
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Twitter said on Friday that it had permanently banned an account connected to the office of Iran’s supreme leader, shortly after the account posted a photo showing former President Donald Trump playing golf in the shadow of a giant drone. In response to a request...
Chinese Embassy Twitter Account Locked for “Dehumanization”
WASHINGTON — Twitter locked the account belonging to the Chinese Embassy in Washington after a tweet stated that Uighur women in Xinjiang have been emancipated and are no longer “baby making machines.” One of the final acts of the Trump administration this week was declaring that China’s policies and actions...
Germany’s Merkel: Trump’s Twitter Eviction ‘Problematic’
BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers U.S. President Donald Trump's eviction from Twitter by the company “problematic,” her spokesman said Monday. Twitter permanently suspended Trump from the microblogging platform on Friday, citing a “risk of further incitement of violence” in the wake of the storming of the U.S. Capitol...
Rioters Fired, Face Company Boycotts After Storming Capitol
NEW YORK — A printing company in Maryland saw the photo on Twitter Wednesday night: an employee roaming the halls of the U.S. Capitol with a company badge around his neck. He was fired the next day. Others are facing similar repercussions at work for their participation in Wednesday's riot at the...
Twitter Bans Trump, Citing Risk of Violent Incitement
Twitter banned President Donald Trump's account Friday, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.” The social platform has been under growing pressure to take further action against Trump following Wednesday's deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter initially suspended Trump's account for 12 hours after he posted a video that repeated...