SAN FRANCISCO — One year ago, billionaire and new owner Elon Musk walked into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters with a white bathroom sink and a grin, fired its CEO and other top executives and began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X.

X looks and feels something like Twitter, but the more time you spend on it the clearer it becomes that it’s merely an approximation. Musk has dismantled core features of what made Twitter, Twitter — its name and blue bird logo, its verification system, its Trust and Safety advisory group. Not to mention content moderation and hate speech enforcement.

He also fired, laid off or lost the majority of its workforce — engineers who keep the site running, moderators who keep it from being overrun with hate, executives in charge of making rules and enforcing them.

FILE – A workman removes a character from a sign on the Twitter headquarters building in San Francisco, July 24, 2023. One year ago, Elon Musk began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)

Godofredo A. Vásquez

The result, long-term Twitter watchers say, has been the end of the platform’s role as an imperfect but useful place to find out what’s going on in the world. What X will become, and whether Musk can achieve his ambition of turning it into an “everything app” that everyone uses, remains as unclear as it was a year ago.

People are also reading…

“Musk hasn’t managed to make a single meaningful improvement to the platform and is no closer to his vision of an ‘everything app,’ than he was a year ago,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg. “Instead, X has driven away users, advertisers, and now it has lost its primary value proposition in the social media world: Being a central hub for news.”

As one of the platform’s most popular and prolific users even before he bought the company, Musk had a unique experience on Twitter that is markedly different from how regular users experience it. But many of the changes he’s introduced to X has been based on his own impressions of the site — in fact, he even polled his millions of followers for advice on how to run it (they said he should step down).

“Musk’s treatment of the platform as a technology company that he could remake and his vision rather than a social network fueled by people and ad dollars has been the single largest cause of the demise of Twitter,” Enberg said.

FILE – Twitter’s blue bird is seen on its headquarters building in San Francisco, July 24, 2023. One year ago, Elon Musk began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)

Godofredo A. Vásquez

The blue checkmarks that once signified that the person or institution behind an account was who they said they are — a celebrity, athlete, journalist from global or local publication, a nonprofit agency — now merely shows that someone pays $8 a month for a subscription service that boosts their posts above un-checked users. It’s these paying accounts that have been found to spread misinformation on the platform that is often amplified by its algorithms.

On Thursday, for instance, a new report from the left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters found that numerous blue-checked X accounts with tens of thousands of followers claimed that the mass shooting in Maine was a “false flag,” planned by the government. Researchers also found such accounts spreading misinformation and propaganda about the Israel-Hamas war — so much so that the European Commission made a formal, legally binding request for information to X over its handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the war.

Ian Bremmer, a prominent foreign policy expert, posted on X this month that the level of disinformation on the Israel-Hamas war “being algorithmically promoted” on the platform “is unlike anything I’ve ever been exposed to in my career as a political scientist.”

File – A pile of characters removed from a sign on the Twitter headquarters building are seen in San Francisco, Monday, July 24, 2023. One year ago, Elon Musk began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X. (AP Photo/Godofredo A.Vásquez, File)

Godofredo A. Vásquez

It’s not just the platform’s identity that’s on shaky grounds. Twitter was already struggling financially when Musk purchased it for $44 billion in a deal that closed Oct. 27, 2022, and the situation appears more precarious today. Musk took the company private, so its books are no longer public — but in July, the Tesla CEO said the company had lost about half of its advertising revenue and continues to face a large debt load.

“We’re still negative cash flow,” he posted on the site on July 14, due to a about a “50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”

“Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” he said.

In May, Musk hired Linda Yaccarino, a former NBC executive with deep ties to the advertising industry in an attempt to lure back top brands, but the effort has been slow to pay off. While some advertisers have returned to X, they are not spending as much as they did in the past — despite a rebound in the online advertising market that boosted the most recent quarterly profits for Facebook parent company, Meta, and Google parent company, Alphabet.

Insider Intelligence estimates that X will bring in $1.89 billion in advertising revenue this year, down 54% from 2022. The last time its ad revenue was near this level was in 2015, when it came in at $1.99 billion. In 2022, it was $4.12 billion.

Outside research also shows that people are using X less.

File – Workers install lighting on an “X” sign atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in San Francisco, on July 28, 2023. One year ago, Elon Musk began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Noah Berger

According to research firm Similarweb, global web traffic to Twitter.com was down 14%, year-over-year, and traffic to the ads.twitter.com portal for advertisers was down 16.5%. Performance on mobile was no better, down 17.8% year-over-year based on combined monthly active users for Apple’s iOS and Android.

“Even though the cultural relevance of Twitter was already starting to decline,” before Musk took it over, “it’s as if the platform no longer exists. And it’s been a death by a thousand cuts,” Enberg said.

“What’s really fascinating is that almost all of the wounds have been self-inflicted. Usually when a social platform, starts to lose its relevance there are at least some external factors at play, but that’s not the case here.”x

How to take a break from social media

Be easy on yourself and ask for help about social media use

“If you’re reading this article, kudos to you for thinking about reevaluating social media,” Agarwal said Trying to meet your goals is all about celebrating the small wins.

At the least, set small benchmarks for yourself like spending 10 minutes less on social media than the day before. The right amount of social media time is different for everyone since some people actually use these apps to brand and help market themselves. Find your own social media sweet spot, and remember, even if you scroll too much on social media one day, you can try and meet your goal tomorrow.

Another way to keep you on track is to share your goal with someone you trust. A friend or loved one who can kindly nudge you when they notice you’ve been on social media for awhile.

Image by Marie from Pixabay

Helpful exercise to remind you what you’re missing by scrolling

Scrolling through social media while hanging out with friends isn’t uncommon nowadays, but when you think about how unengaged you are in those moments, it can put social media use into perspective.

Agarwal suggests the next time you’re in a room with others at a family or friends gathering and you see yourself scrolling through social media instead of engaging with others, take a minute to physically remove yourself from the room and isolate in another room. Listen and feel how much you may be missing out on.

“What that does is it gives your brain a signal. If you force yourself to leave the room, you realize how much you’re using that app and missing out on other people,” Agarwal said. “It’s a good physical reminder of being present in the moment and not on your on your phone and scrolling through social media.”

Image by natureaddict from Pixabay

Use your phone’s screen-time tracking feature and limit social media use

Most smart phones nowadays track your screen-time and usage already. It’s a good idea to figure out your average screen time per day so you have a benchmark that you can work on.

On iPhone, you can go into your “Screen Time” settings, which displays the amount of time you spend on each app and allows you to put timers on specific apps to limit how long you’re on them. Android phones have similar features in the “Digital Wellbeing” settings. Additionally, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok offer the same features within the app settings themselves.

Image by Biljana Jovanovic from Pixabay

Physically distance yourself from your phone and apps

When you’re at home and have free time, put your phone in a drawer or somewhere you can’t see it. Oftentimes limiting the ability to quickly and easily pick up your phone is enough to keep you off of social media, said Agarwal. If your phone is what keeps your hands from fidgeting, try to have some objects around the house that relieve stress, like a stress ball, fidget toy or yarn and crochet hooks.

Hide your social media apps on your phone by placing the app on the second or third page of your home screen or bury the app inside an “app folder” with a bunch of others. When you’re waiting in line or have a free five minutes, instead of grabbing your phone — take in the view, practice some breathing exercises or read a book.

Image by Kiều Trường from Pixabay

Benefits of taking a social media break

Ever hear of “text neck?” It’s the result of looking down at our phones when scrolling or texting, straining the neck muscles over a long period of time. Taking a break from social media helps relieve neck pain and gives your eyes a break from bright screens.

People may also be more connected than ever through social media, but a 2018 University of Pennsylvania study found that people who limit their time on social media experience less depression and feelings of loneliness.

Taking a break from social media will give you better sleep, too. Research suggests that nighttime use of social media is driven by FOMO (fear of missing out), and keeps people scrolling longer at night instead of going to sleep.

Image by Foundry Co from Pixabay

Reevaluate what you want out of social media

What is the reason that brought you onto social media? This is the question Agarwal said to ask yourself when trying to figure out if it’s time to take a social media break. If you’re not getting the same satisfaction from the reason you use social media, it may be time to look for alternatives.

If you joined social media to…

1. Find community: Look for clubs and groups in your neighborhood where you can meet and interact with others IRL (in real life).

2. Be inspired: Consume other forms of media like magazines, books, podcasts, movies or live events.

3. Buy and sell things: Try using other apps, like OfferUp or NextDoor, or visiting local events and marketplaces in person.

Image by Firmbee from Pixabay

Two and a half hours.

Two and a half hours — that’s the average amount of time people spend on social media each day.

It may not sound like a lot, but that time can really add up — and at what cost? Social media has proven negative effects on mental health (especially for teens), self-image and for some is a huge time-waster.

University of Penn’s Anish Agarwal, an emergency physician, researcher, and deputy director for the Center for Digital Health, said it’s important to constantly be reevaluating the role social media plays in daily life.

The bottom line: taking a break from social media is healthy for you. Read on for guidance and tools to help you limit screen time on these apps.

Dreamstime/TNS

The business news you need

Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.

The post A have a look at X, previously Twitter, 1 12 months after Musk’s takeover appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The San Francisco Department of Building and Inspection says it has been unable to inspect a new black “X” logo on the roof of Elon Musk’s social media company formerly known as Twitter for two days in a row after the company declined access to the structure.

It’s the latest in the push and pull between the city and Musk since he formally changed Twitter’s name to X this past week as part of the company’s overhaul following Musk’s $44 billion acquisition in October.

More from Deadline

On Tuesday, an attempt to remove the company’s iconic blue-bird sign and logo from its Market Street headquarters was rebuffed by city officials who said there was no permit filed, leaving only the “er” remaining from the Twitter logo and one of the birds de-blued.

Fast forward to Friday, when a large black X was erected on the roof of the building, prompting a notice of violation filed with the city for work done without a permit. Any replacement letters or symbols require a permit to ensure “consistency with the historic nature of the building” and to make sure additions are safely attached to the sign, said Patrick Hannan, spokesperson for the Department of Building Inspection.

According to the department’s complaint page after a “notice of violation” was filed, the inspector assigned to the case on Friday “spoke with Tweeter [sic] representatives and Building maintenance engineer representatives. I explained BID’s complaint investigation process and requested access to roof area. Tweeter [sic] representative decline to provide access but did explain that the structure is a temporary lighted sign for an event. I explained to all representatives that the NOV requires the structure to be remove with a building permit or legalize.”

On Saturday, the same inspector reported a “2nd attempt to gain access was performed on 7/29/23 after conversations with property manager on 7/28/23. However, upon arrival access was denied again by tenant. The original NOV document issued on 7/28/23 was redrafted and issued on 7/29/23.”

Story continues

Despite all of it, Musk pinned an post atop his X page overnight showing the lit X logo on the roof — and wrote he was committed to X staying in San Francisco despite the city being in a “doom spiral with one company or another left or leaving.”

“Many have offered rich incentives for X (fka Twitter) to move its HQ out of San Francisco,” he wrote. “Moreover, the city is in a doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving. Therefore, they expect X will move too. We will not. You only know who your real friends are when the chips are down. San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend.”

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.

The post San Francisco Inspectors Nonetheless Can’t Get On Roof To Examine Elon Musk’s New ‘X’ Signal appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The San Francisco Department of Building and Inspection says it has been unable to inspect a new black “X” logo on the roof of Elon Musk’s social media company formerly known as Twitter for two days in a row after the company declined access to the structure.

It’s the latest in the push and pull between the city and Musk since he formally changed Twitter’s name to X this past week as part of the company’s overhaul following Musk’s $44 billion acquisition in October.

On Tuesday, an attempt to remove the company’s iconic blue-bird sign and logo from its Market Street headquarters was rebuffed by city officials who said there was no permit filed, leaving only the “er” remaining from the Twitter logo and one of the birds de-blued.

Fast forward to Friday, when a large black X was erected on the roof of the building, prompting a notice of violation filed with the city for work done without a permit. Any replacement letters or symbols require a permit to ensure “consistency with the historic nature of the building” and to make sure additions are safely attached to the sign, said Patrick Hannan, spokesperson for the Department of Building Inspection.

According to the department’s complaint page after a “notice of violation” was filed, the inspector assigned to the case on Friday “spoke with Tweeter [sic] representatives and Building maintenance engineer representatives. I explained BID’s complaint investigation process and requested access to roof area. Tweeter [sic] representative decline to provide access but did explain that the structure is a temporary lighted sign for an event. I explained to all representatives that the NOV requires the structure to be remove with a building permit or legalize.”

On Saturday, the same inspector reported a “2nd attempt to gain access was performed on 7/29/23 after conversations with property manager on 7/28/23. However, upon arrival access was denied again by tenant. The original NOV document issued on 7/28/23 was redrafted and issued on 7/29/23.”

Despite all of it, Musk pinned an post atop his X page overnight showing the lit X logo on the roof — and wrote he was committed to X staying in San Francisco despite the city being in a “doom spiral with one company or another left or leaving.”

“Many have offered rich incentives for X (fka Twitter) to move its HQ out of San Francisco,” he wrote. “Moreover, the city is in a doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving. Therefore, they expect X will move too. We will not. You only know who your real friends are when the chips are down. San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend.”

The post San Francisco Inspectors Nonetheless Can’t Examine Elon Musk’s New ‘X’ Signal on HQ – Deadline appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

I woke up Sunday to find I had begun using the social network formerly known as Twitter. The app had updated to show the new name chosen by its owner: X. Now, underneath the friendly and familiar blue icon with a white bird, that letter alone was displayed—X—as if my iPhone was affirming that Elon Musk’s Twitter had become an error. Soon after, the bird icon disappeared, too, in favor of a white-on-black 𝕏.

The change has rolled out slowly. First the website rebranded, and then, by the end of last week, Musk had dismantled the Twitter signage on the company’s San Francisco headquarters and erected a huge, glowing X on its rooftop. (It has since been taken down.) Reprising the creeper thinking that inspired Musk to name Tesla’s models the “S,” “3,” “X,” and “Y,” such that they would combine to spell “S3XY,” Twitter also reportedly gave several conference rooms new, X-oriented names, including “eXposure” and, once again, “s3Xy.”

As my colleague Charlie Warzel explained last week, Musk has been trying to make X happen for decades now; PayPal arose from a merger with his X.com website. Now he’d like for X to be a superapp, a platform for chat, banking, news, shopping—everything. Musk’s insistence on packaging that idea, already megalomaniacal, with a logo that resembles a nerdy middle-school boy’s notebook doodle underscores a difficult truth: Nerdy middle-school boyhood, once a phase to be outgrown, has become a philosophy of life. “Anyone else look at the 𝕏 icon and not even want to open this app?” the Chicago-based product designer Chad Ashley tweeted—err, posted on X. He’s right. It’s embarrassing.

Maybe that’s for the best. As a cultural practice, social media is bad—people aren’t meant to talk to one another this much—and anything that might erode the practice is worthwhile. But also, Twitter, like other social platforms and the very internet itself, is already redolent of the seventh grader’s mindset that Musk’s behavior betrays. Maybe we should be grateful that his X fetish forces us to admit that truth, so we can someday move beyond it.

In its un-rebranded form, Twitter helped make the lifestyle of posting seem benign. Before it was a company (and then an online addiction), twitter was just a word: a reference to the sound of birds or certain kinds of human prattle. What harm could come of that?

Lots. For starters, it normalized the very notion of a platform where everyone can speak to everyone, all at once. This feels natural today, but it wasn’t when the service launched in 2006. Back then, some might have had a blog, but people ordinarily posted only to small, closed online networks. That’s how Facebook still worked, and LinkedIn too, and Orkut, may it rest in peace. Social networks were initially designed around communities of trust. Twitter and then Instagram are to blame for expanding the act of posting to the world.

The shift from social networks to social media was culturally destructive. It set the expectation that everyone deserves—is owed, even—an audience for their every notion, quip, photo, or activity. This is a selfish child’s idea of living in the world, now so commonplace that opposing it seems controversial.

That ethos has consequences. The rise of public shaming online, whether in response to jokes, to affirm personal virtue, or to deepen group membership, was dependent on an infrastructure of public data from which shameworthiness could be assessed, and also on the viral spread that Twitter both invented and perfected. So was the spread of QAnon, and the planning for the January 6 insurgency. The ability to repost something instantly and without comment to one’s own network, first invented as the “retweet button” in 2009, became a vector for harassment and misinformation, allowing messages true or false, virtuous or vicious, to reach far beyond their original environments. Every other platform adopted a version of this feature because of its ability to produce engagement, and now imagining social media without it is almost impossible.

Read: The age of social media is ending

Those are influences of function—many frequently acknowledged. Less discussed: Twitter and the services it influenced also changed aesthetic life. They brought a new style to the fore: juvenile narcissism. X is its purest, dumbest distillation, a seemingly edgy but ultimately corny name that evokes mathematics and nightclubs, pornography and tabletop games.

Like many styles, Musk’s (and Twitter’s) came out of a subculture, and one that thrives online. The infinity of social media creates communities at the fringe. In the best cases, these improve the lives of people who might otherwise struggle for connection, but they can also serve as bubbles that amplify and normalize perversion. When everyone can find a group of like-minded individuals, all flavors of mindedness can end up seeming justified—including, most of all, the weird-schoolboy-mindedness of the people who happen to have invented the internet as we know it.

Online culture began in corners where weirdos could connect. Dialed into local BBSes, or logged on to Usenet threads and text-based virtual worlds called MUDs, nerds and outcasts were the first to find their tribes online. Some shared recipes or crochet patterns; others expressed their board-game, anime, or furry fandoms; while still others passed around conspiracy theories. And there were always piles and piles of naked pictures.

Across many of these communities, no matter their host, content, or members, an ethos of dorky behavior was ascendant—and it persists today. You can’t browse a subreddit for plumbing or coffee-brewing tips without running the risk of wading through a hundred nested replies containing dumb jokes, sneers, and sexual innuendo. Bizarre beliefs that once would have been confined to email forwards became widespread on Facebook. Every tweet becomes an opportunity for some miscreant, mansplainer, or literalist to pick your words apart. The Comic Book Guys took over.

Sexual desire and frustration, familiar feelings for the outcast teenage nerd, pervade the social internet. S3xy-ness is everywhere. Posts by women are dismayingly likely to produce advances, or threats, from creepers on all platforms; at the same time, sex appeal is a pillar for the influencer economy, or else a viable and even noble way to win financial independence. The internet is for porn, as the song goes.

In all these ways, online life today descends from where it started, as a safe harbor for the computer nerds who made it. They were socially awkward, concerned with machines instead of people, and devoted to the fantasy of converting their impotence into power. When that conversion was achieved, and the nerds took over the world, they adopted the bravado of the jocks they once despised. (Zuck-Musk cage match, anyone?) But they didn’t stop being nerds. We, the public, never agreed to adopt their worldview as the basis for political, social, or aesthetic life. We got it nevertheless.

Read: The nerds are bullies now

Musk’s obsession with X as a brand, and his childish desire to broadcast that obsession from the rooftops in hoggish, bright pulsations, calls attention to this baggage. It reminds us that the world’s richest man is a computer geek, but one with enormous power instead of none. It calls attention to the putrid smell that suffuses the history of the internet. I’m kind of tired of pretending that the stench does not exist, as if doing otherwise would be tantamount to expressing prejudice against neurodivergence. This is a bad culture, and it always has been.

Foul nerddom is part of what invented, popularized, and profited from the internet’s commercial rise. Twitter did its part to hide all that, with its unoffending avian verbs, its adorable birds, even its charming fail whale. Better we should understand that no global attention network is ever really cute or charming, for they all are on the internet, a cesspool.

If the X rebrand disgusts you—if, like me, you’ve been made a little queasy by having the new logo thrust upon your phone via automatic update—that feeling is about more than Musk alone. He has merely surfaced what has been there all along. The internet is magical and empowering. The internet is childish and disgusting.

The post The Ugly Honesty of Elon Musk’s Twitter Rebrand appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

X doesn’t mark the spot anymore.

The intensely bright “X” sign that was placed on top of the San Francisco headquarters of the social platform formerly known as Twitter has now been removed.

Several outlets have reported that the sign was taken out on Monday after complaints from resident neighbors. According to CNBC, the San Francisco Department of Building Inspections received 24 grievances that went from the sign being a nuisance to it being unsafe.

“This morning, building inspectors observed the structure being dismantled,” Patrick Hannan, spokesperson for the SFDBI said in a statement to the outlet. “The property owner will be assessed fees for the unpermitted installation of the illuminated structure. The fees will be for building permits for the installation and removal of the structure, and to cover the cost of the Department of Building Inspection and the Planning Department’s investigation.”

A notice of violation was issued on July 29 citing working without a permit and the building being unsafe. The citation indicates that officials tried to inspect the metal structure on several occasions but access was denied.

Over the weekend, Elon Musk said that despite all the challenges in San Francisco he was not moving X’s headquarters out of the city.

“Many have offered rich incentives for X (fka Twitter) to move its HQ out of San Francisco. Moreover, the city is in a doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving. Therefore, they expect X will move too,” Musk shared.

He continued, “We will not. You only know who your real friends are when the chips are down. San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend.”

See more

Many have offered rich incentives for X (fka Twitter) to move its HQ out of San Francisco.

Moreover, the city is in a doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving.

Therefore, they expect X will move too.

We will not.

You only know who your real friends are when…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2023

The post Elon Musk’s Intensly Brilliant X Signal Taken Down From San Francisco Headquarters – Deadline appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

July 31, 2023 3:55 AM | 2 min read

Twitter owner Elon Musk installed a massive “X” logo atop Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, sparking an investigation by local authorities and stirring public debate. The incident was captured and shared by journalist Christopher J. Beale on his Twitter account.

What Happened: Musk’s decision to install the “X” logo on Twitter’s headquarters, now known as X Corp, has been met with mixed reactions. The city officials have initiated an investigation into the installation, citing that it was not done with proper permission.

Beale took to Twitter to show short clips of the X logo with a strobing effect.

ENTER TO WIN $500 IN STOCK OR CRYPTO

Enter your email and you’ll also get Benzinga’s ultimate morning update AND a free $30 gift card and more!

“Imagine no more. This is my life now,” wrote Beale.

“The Best Report Benzinga Has Ever Produced”

Massive returns are possible within this market! For a limited time, get access to the Benzinga Insider Report, usually $47/month, for just $0.99! Discover extremely undervalued stock picks before they skyrocket! Time is running out! Act fast and secure your future wealth at this unbelievable discount! Claim Your $0.99 Offer NOW!

Advertorial

See Also: Is Elon Musk’s Success a Result of Deception? Facebook Co-Founder Challenges True Impact of Tesla, SpaceX

Why It Matters: The installation of the “X” logo is part of Musk’s rebranding of Twitter to X Corp. This move has led to mixed reactions from users and analysts alike.

Over the weekend, Musk reacted to the controversy by posting a video of the X headquarters with the new logo on top of the building, while saying that San Francisco was in a “doom spiral.” He reiterated X’s commitment to Golden Gate City and said that the company would not be moving out.

Read Next: Elon Musk Unconcerned by Falling Tesla Values, Could Drive Buyers to Ford and GM: “It Will Affect Them”

Image by rafapress on Shutterstock

Engineered by Benzinga Neuro, Edited by Pooja Rajkumari

The GPT-4 Benzinga Neuro content generation system exploits the extensive Benzinga Ecosystem, including native data, APIs, and more to create comprehensive and timely stories for you. Learn more.

© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

The post Elon Musk’s Strobing ‘X’ Emblem Atop Twitter San Francisco HQ Irks Neighbors And Sparks Native Probe appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Technology

From Associated Press

May 19, 2023 | 1:56 p.m

San Francisco officials are investigating Twitter after six former employees allege that owner Elon Musk’s executive team broke laws by turning the company’s headquarters into a “Twitter hotel,” where workers are being pressured into staying up late to transform the social media platform.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that city officials are launching their latest investigation into the company Musk acquired late last year.

This comes after the former employees, including a former vice president of real estate, claimed in a lawsuit filed in a Delaware federal court that Twitter failed to pay them the promised severance package. Twitter wants to dismiss the case.

They also allege that Musk’s team ordered numerous changes to the company’s headquarters in a 1930s Art Deco building in downtown San Francisco that violated building codes.

Those changes included disabling lights and adding locks that wouldn’t open in an emergency, according to the lawsuit.

One of the plaintiffs is Tracy Hawkins, a former vice president of real estate and employment at Twitter, who was responsible for managing the company’s physical offices and leases.

The lawsuit states that Hawkins initially did not oppose Musk’s acquisition but was “forced to resign when Elon Musk and his transition team insisted that she violated her professional ethics by inducing Twitter to intentionally violate his leases and other contracts.”

The lawsuit alleges that Musk refused to pay rent on the building.

Former employees allege that Musk’s team ordered numerous changes to the company’s headquarters in a 1930s Art Deco building that violated building codes.AP

This is the latest investigation into Twitter, which was acquired by Elon Musk late last year.LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

This isn’t the first time San Francisco officials have fallen out with Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion in October and laid off much of its workforce by converting part of the company’s headquarters into bedrooms.

Earlier this year, San Francisco building inspectors gave Twitter’s contractor two weeks to file a revised zoning permit if the company wanted to continue using two conference rooms as bedrooms.

The city launched an investigation in December after Forbes reported on the beds, prompting owner Musk to take action against San Francisco Mayor London Breed, despite there being no evidence she was involved in the inspection.

Load More…

{{#isDisplay}} {{/isDisplay}}{{#isAniviewVideo}} {{/isAniviewVideo}}{{#isSRVideo}} {{/isSRVideo}}

https://nypost.com/2023/05/19/elon-musks-twitter-hotel-plan-probed-by-san-francisco/?utm_source=url_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

Copy the URL to share

The post Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Resort’ plan probed by San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco officials are investigating Twitter after six former employees allege that owner Elon Musk’s leadership…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco officials are investigating Twitter after six former employees allege that owner Elon Musk’s management team broke laws by turning the company’s headquarters into a “Twitter hotel” for workers who would be pushed to stay up late to transform the social media platform.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that city officials are launching their latest investigation into the company Musk acquired late last year.

This comes after the former employees, including a former vice president of real estate, claimed in a lawsuit filed in a Delaware federal court that Twitter failed to pay them the promised severance package. Twitter wants to dismiss the case.

They also allege that Musk’s team ordered numerous changes to the company’s headquarters in a 1930s Art Deco building in downtown San Francisco that violated building codes. According to the lawsuit, those changes included disabling lights and adding locks that would not open in an emergency.

One of the plaintiffs is Tracy Hawkins, a former vice president of real estate and employment at Twitter, who was responsible for managing the company’s physical offices and leases. The lawsuit states that Hawkins initially did not oppose Musk’s acquisition but was “forced to resign when Elon Musk and his transition team insisted that she violated her professional ethics by inducing Twitter to intentionally violate his leases and other contracts.” The lawsuit alleges that Musk refused to pay rent on the building.

This isn’t the first time San Francisco officials have fallen out with Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion in October and laid off much of its workforce by converting part of the company’s headquarters into bedrooms.

Earlier this year, San Francisco building inspectors gave Twitter’s contractor two weeks to file a revised zoning permit if the company wanted to continue using two conference rooms as bedrooms.

The city launched an investigation in December after Forbes reported on the beds, prompting owner Musk to take action against San Francisco Mayor London Breed, despite there being no evidence she was involved in the inspection.

Copyright © 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

The post San Francisco officers are investigating if Elon Musk’s “Twitter Resort” plan broke legal guidelines appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Twitter saw a fresh exodus of employees on Thursday as the company hit a deadline set by billionaire owner Elon Musk for remaining staff to commit to being “extremely hardcore” or leave the company.

Departing employees posted on Twitter under the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked, announcing it was their last day at the social network. Twitter has been convulsed with chaos since Musk finalized his $44 billion purchase in late October. Many accompanied their posts with a saluting emoji, which has become a symbol inside Twitter of respect for those who are leaving.

Musk already laid off half the company’s 7,500 full-time employees on November 4, reportedly cut thousands of contractors last weekend, and fired several employees who had criticized him publicly.

On Wednesday, in an email to staff entitled “A Fork in the Road,” Musk said Twitter would “need to be extremely hardcore” to succeed. Those who chose to stay should expect long, intense hours of work. Those who left would receive three months’ severance pay, he wrote. Employees were required to choose by Thursday afternoon.

The new wave of departures is adding to fears that Twitter is losing critical expertise in everything from how the site and its servers are run to how it keeps user data safe and complies with regulations to how it handles toxic and illegal content.

Earlier on Thursday, a group of Democratic senators sent an open letter to the Federal Trade Commission urging an investigation of Twitter. They said they were concerned the company may be violating the terms of a settlement with the agency stemming from past privacy violations.

Musk “has taken alarming steps that have undermined the integrity and safety of the platform,” the senators wrote.

Former worker warns cuts will have consequences

When Musk laid off half of Twitter’s employees just days before the midterm elections, Melissa Ingle was left in limbo.

She was a data scientist on Twitter’s civic integrity team, monitoring the platform for tweets that might break its rules against misleading election claims. But she was a contractor, not a Twitter employee. When the cuts happened, she didn’t even know who was left to sign her time sheet.

“My boss was laid off, and my boss’s boss — the head of the department — quit. So I didn’t know who my boss was. I didn’t know what new assignment I had,” she said.

With the end of voting quickly approaching, Ingle and her team worked overtime to flag falsehoods and violating tweets. She says she thinks they did a good job, given the circumstances.

“But at the same time, we’re not really sure if the work we’re doing matters to the new ownership.”

On Saturday, she got an answer: she no longer had a job at Twitter.

“I only found out that I was fired [because] I happened to be looking at my phone at about 5:30 [P.M.]and I got a little pop up that said you’ve been logged out of one or more systems,” Ingle recalled.

Rapid changes disrupt Twitter’s business

Ingle and others warn, Musk’s rapid changes risk compromising Twitter’s ability to deal with toxic content and are already disrupting its business, as chaos spilling over onto the platform threatens its advertising revenue.

“There is a short-sighted view of platforms that can look at trust and safety work and integrity work as a bit of a cost center, and as the people that are trying to drag the company down rather than actually trying to help the company grow for the long term,” said Jeff Allen, a former data scientist at Facebook who co-founded the Integrity Institute, a group focused on online trust and safety.

At Twitter, like other mainstream social media companies, this work relies heavily on people.

There are the staffers who set policies, workers like Ingle who develop automated systems to analyze the 37.5 million tweets posted every hour, and most crucially, a large group of content moderators who constantly review posts. They are almost entirely contractors.

Many of these workers have now been laid off or resigned. The first round of cuts slashed 15% of Twitter’s trust and safety employees, according to Yoel Roth, who led the division. Two days after the election, Roth quit.

The initial round of layoffs also eliminated Twitter’s entire curation team of about 150 people. They played an important role adding context and descriptions to news and events trending on the platform, and curating collections of tweets from authoritative sources to help address misleading or false claims.

It’s unclear how many of the contractors eliminated last weekend were content moderators. Twitter didn’t respond to questions about details of the job cuts.

But losing even a portion of that workforce would be a blow. Ingle said their work is critical to improving the algorithms she wrote, and to understanding things computers can’t, like sarcasm and parody.

Automated systems “need constant input and updating and testing and tweaking, just like any other computer script would need…If there’s not enough people to update the algorithms, they become more and more porous,” she said. “Automation is a lofty goal, and it’s a great goal. But we’re just not there yet.”

Global implications

Cutting back on content moderation could also land Musk in hot water with European regulators. German law, for example, requires social networks to quickly remove illegal content or face fines.

“Either you have content moderation, or you don’t have it,” said Sarah Roberts, an information studies professor at UCLA who briefly worked at Twitter earlier this year. “You don’t just kind of have content moderation. Removing child sexual exploitation material is content moderation.”

Ingle is also worried about the worldwide implications as big events loom, from the World Cup, which starts on Saturday, to elections around the globe.

“We get hyper fixed in the US on the US elections, but we dealt with the recent Brazilian elections and we dealt with elections all over the world: Japan, India, the EU, UK,” she said. “If this global decline in Twitter happens, it’s definitely going to affect democracies around the world.”

– / Twitter account of Elon Musk/AFP

/

Twitter account of Elon Musk/AFP

A screenshot from a video posted on the Twitter account of Elon Musk on Oct. 26, 2022 shows himself carrying a sink as he enters the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco.

The upheaval since Musk took over is already evident on Twitter.

Musk himself tweeted a conspiracy theory. Hate speech surged in the days after the deal closed. Accounts that repeatedly share false claims are getting more engagement, according to NewsGuard, which rates the reliability of online news sources.

Its analysis found while those accounts tweeted just 6% more in the week after Musk took control, they experienced a 57% increase in likes and retweets over the same period.

“The kinds of content they were spreading had disproportionately more misinformation than they usually had, and that is what leads to engagement,” said NewsGuard co-CEO Gordon Crovitz.

Musk’s first big product change — letting users buy so-called blue checks, which previously indicated that high-profile users were who they claimed to be — unleashed a flood of accounts impersonating companies, celebrities and politicians.

White nationalists and far-right extremists also signed up for the checks, according to a review of accounts by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Twitter’s trust and safety team had warned about the potential for the feature to be abused ahead of its rollout in an internal document first reported by Platformer and seen by NPR.

That included “impersonation of world leaders, advertisers, brand partners, election officials and other high profile individuals.” The document warned that “motivated scammers/bad actors” would likely be willing to pay for the increased visibility offered by the blue checks.

The team recommended ways to mitigate risk, most of which were not adopted, according to notes on the document.

The blue check debacle exacerbated Twitter’s business woes, as more advertisers halted spending. Roberts says it’s no wonder big brands are wary — and not just of their messages appearing next to toxic tweets.

“They are concerned about being associated with Twitter itself as a brand,” she said.

Amid the chaos, Twitter paused the paid blue check rollout. Musk said it will relaunch after Thanksgiving, with some guardrails.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

The post Twitter workers stop in droves after Elon Musk’s ultimatum passes appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant company, is hiring a clinical trials director.

Through Sarah McBrideBloomberg

Released on January 20, 2022January 20, 2022

Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink is now hiring a clinical trials director, an indication that the company’s long-standing goal of implanting chips in human brains is getting closer.

The position of principal investigator would oversee the startup’s long-promised human trials of its medical device, according to the listing. Neuralink’s brain implant — which Musk said is already allowing monkeys to play video games with their minds alone — is said to help treat a variety of neurological disorders, including paralysis.

The job description for the Fremont, California position promises that the candidate will work “closely with some of the most innovative physicians and top engineers” as well as “Neuralink’s early clinical trial participants.” It also notes that the job entails “leading and building the team responsible for enabling Neuralink’s clinical research activities,” as well as complying with regulations.

Last month, Musk told The Wall Street Journal that Neuralink hopes to implant his device in human brains sometime in 2022. The device would be in human skulls by the following year.

The first human test that medical device manufacturers must undergo before they can be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is known as the proof of concept. Next, after a submission, review and approval process with the FDA based on the proof of concept, is a pivotal device test.

It’s not clear exactly where Neuralink is in it. Neuralink and FDA officials did not respond to requests for comment. Generally, device manufacturers hire study leaders early in their interaction with the FDA to help design studies to maximize the chances of FDA approval. Neuralink does not appear to have published human studies on clinicaltrials.gov, but publication there may delay enrollment of the first patients.

Last year, another company working on brain-machine interfaces, Synchron, said the FDA had approved their planned proof of concept. Synchron is currently in the recruitment phase, said a spokeswoman.

Neuralink is also applying for a Fremont-based clinical trials coordinator, as well as several other positions.

To contact the author of this story:
Sarah McBride in San Francisco at smcbride24@bloomberg.net

The post Is Musk’s mind implant firm shifting nearer to human trials? | Science and Know-how Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.