Tag: Elon Musk

Manila, Philippines – Elon Musk’s X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, has rolled its ‘not a bot’ subscription service in the Philippines and New Zealand. For the company, the move is aimed at bolstering their efforts to reduce spam and and platform manipulations through bots.

According to a recent blog post by X, new accounts which will be registered in these two markets starting October 17 would be required to verify their phone number. Then, users would be now required to select their subscription plan.

Aside from X Premium or Verified Organizations plans, the ‘not a bot’ offering costs US$1 annual fee for new users in New Zealand ($1.43 NZD) and Philippines (₱42.51 PHP).

“This will evaluate a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount. Within this test, existing users are not affected,” the company said.

Since Musk’s acquisition of Twitter happened in October 2022, he implemented paid verification services in the platform which has been always under scrutiny for being used by fake actors, with a study by SimilarWeb saying they prefer quitting the platform altogether than pay for a subscription service on Twitter.

Paris, France – International news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has announced that it has sued X, the platform formerly known as Twitter and owned by Elon Musk, to provide all the necessary elements required for assessing the remuneration owed to AFP under the neighbouring rights legislation.

In a recent statement, AFP said that X had refused to enter into discussions regarding the implementation of neighbouring rights for the press. 

For the news agency, these rights were established to enable news agencies and publishers to be remunerated by digital platforms which retain most of the monetary value generated by the distribution of news content.

AFP filed its legal action in the judicial court of Paris.

“As a leading advocate for the adoption of neighbouring rights for the press, AFP remains unwavering in its commitment to the cause, even four years after the law’s adoption. The legal proceedings initiated against Twitter today are in line with this ongoing commitment,” the company said.

The added, “The agency will continue to employ the appropriate legal means with each relevant platform to ensure the fair distribution of the value generated by the sharing of news content.”

In response, Elon Musk tweeted saying, “This is bizarre. They want us to pay *them* for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue and we don’t!?”

Musk rebranded Twitter to X on July 23, months after Twitter merged with X Corp., the technology company helmed by Musk. The new updates comes over a month after Twitter named former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino as its new chief executive officer. Musk completed its acquisition of Twitter back in October 2022.

Singapore – Months after the initial desire from billionaire Elon Musk to acquire social media giant Twitter in April, the acquisition deal has been finally completed. However, as part of the early moments of the acquisition, Musk has been reportedly firing key executives of the Twitter board.

Reports from the BBC note that while there was no official investor relations announcement posted, an early investor for the company confirmed the deal has been done. In response to the acquisition, Musk posted several tweets to commemorate the deal, including a tweet saying ‘the bird is free’, and a video of him entering the Twitter headquarters–while jokingly bringing a kitchen sink and saying ‘let that sink in’.

Musk also tweeted out a statement directed at advertisers, saying that his motivation in acquiring Twitter was to have a ‘common digital town square’, where a wide variety of beliefs can be shared with one another without resorting to violence.

“There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide in our society”, he said.

Despite the intentions, Musk’s Twitter takeover is marred with issues. Reuters reports that inside sources say that Musk has fired chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde. Agrawal and Segal, who were present at the closing deal, were later escorted out.

It should be recalled that Agrawal previously said that Musk won’t be joining the Twitter board following his desire to acquire the company.

The Musk-Twitter acquisition deal has been a long one in the making, with Musk previously backing out of the deal in July. In response, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk, with the latter finally accepting to acquire Twitter.

Manila, Philippines — The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has approved the registration of Starlink – a low latency, broadband internet system of tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk. The approval means the Philipines will be the pioneering country in Southeast Asia to experience the service.

Starlink Internet Services Philippines Inc. is registered as a Value-Added Service (VAS). The unit will facilitate its operations in the country bringing the low earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet technology into a nation fraught with unstable internet connections.

The LEO satellite technology is touted to serve up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to 200 Mbps of internet speed even in remote areas. Starlink is a subsidiary of Musk’s aerospace transportation, manufacturer, and designer company -SpaceX. Starlink commands over 1,600 LEO satellites that provide satellite internet access to its customers.

NTC approved Starlink’s registration only after 30 minutes when the company submitted their application alongside the complete required documents. NTC said that the swift processing of the VAS provider registration was meant to expedite the service’s immediate roll-out.

Gamaliel Cordoba, NTC Commissioner, commented, “The NTC is steadfast in helping ensure that roll-out of Starlink’s internet access services will be done expeditiously and professionally.”

Meanwhile, Bien Marquez, counsel for SpaceX, shared, “We would like to thank the NTC for issuing Starlink’s VAS license 30 minutes after we submitted our application with complete requirements. This shows the government’s seriousness in addressing the connectivity needs of our countrymen in unserved and underserved areas.”

Previously, Ramon Lopez, DTI secretary, said, “Their system will augment as well as complement existing broadband capacities. This will further capacitate micro, small, and medium enterprises, facilitate online learning, e-commerce and fintech.”

San Francisco, USA – Social media giant Twitter has announced that they will be acquired by multi-billionaire CEO of Tesla Elon Musk for US$44b, based on US$54.20 per share in cash. Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company.

This follows after Elon Musk announced that he had previously bought a 9.2% stake in the company and invited to be part of the company’s board. However, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal clarified back then that Musk won’t be joining the board.

Speaking about his acquisition of Twitter, Musk said, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

He added, “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

Meanwhile, Agrawal commented, “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”

The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Twitter Board of Directors, is expected to close in 2022, subject to the approval of Twitter stockholders, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

Bret Taylor, Twitter’s Independent Board Chair, said, “The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”

California, USA — Multi-billionaire and CEO of Tesla Elon Musk has rescinded his decision to join social media giant Twitter’s board. 

In a tweet on Sunday night by Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter, he clarified that Musk will not be joining the company’s board.

“The Board and I had many discussions about Musk joining the board, and with Musk directly. We were excited to collaborate and be clear about the risks,” Agrawal said.

In the same tweet, he continued: “Musk’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 9 April, but Musk shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Musk is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.”

Less than a week ago, Musk was reported to have bought a 9.2% stake in the social media giant making him the largest individual shareholder. The buyout would also mean Musk was eligible to be part of the company’s board as a Class II director according to Twitter’s regulatory filings; a role that would end in 2024.

New York, USA – Multi-billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, officially joins the board of global social media platform Twitter, following Musk buying a 9.2% stake in the company.

In a tweet by Parag Agrawal, CEO at Twitter, he said that Musk is both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service, which is exactly what they need on Twitter and in the boardroom, to make them stronger in the long-term.

Twitter said in its regulatory filing that Musk is categorised as a Class II director with a term expiring at the company’s 2024 annual meeting of stockholders. In addition, Twitter pointed out that for as long as MrMusk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of Twitter’s common stock outstanding at such time.

The decision comes six months after Agrawal became the platform’s CEO while its founder Jack Dorsey left the company to become the CEO of Block, an American financial services and digital payments company.