All posts tagged "twitter"

Trump admin eyes yanking visas of Musk critics: report

The Trump administration has considered revoking visas of two prominent critics of billionaire Elon Musk — a once close ally of President Donald Trump — and his X social platform, according to a new Zeteo report on Thursday.

New documentation viewed by Zeteo indicated that high-level talks were underway among top government officials to decide whether to make the decision.

"Per a draft for an action memo outlining options for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the administration is weighing a move to revoke the visas of former European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton and Imran Ahmed, CEO and founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate," according to the outlet.

It could be the first attempt for the Trump administration to revoke visas of people it deems are censoring Americans.

"Just last week, the State Department reportedly directed officials to screen out applicants for skilled worker visas who have previously worked to combat online misinformation and disinformation," Zeteo reported.

The news comes as the Trump administration on Wednesday signaled it would begin a new Department of Homeland Security policy that would require visitors to undergo social media inspections. Under the new rule, international travelers would have to provide their social media history over the last five years.

Trump's festering resentment blamed for visa crackdown

A columnist Tuesday described why President Donald Trump's crackdown on factchecker visas was actually "personal, as everything with him tends to be."

The Guardian's Margaret Sullivan recounted how Trump's urge to "control the message," and a festering resentment from the past, has driven him to pull the visas and target international applicants who work on content moderation.

In early 2021, after Trump posted his claims about a "stolen election" that provoked the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Twitter decided to permanently suspend him.

"That evidently hurt. For years, Twitter had been his favorite place for bluster, bombast and straight-up lies," Sullivan wrote. "Other major social-media platforms locked him out too, at least for a while, and there were unsubstantiated charges that the platforms were colluding with Democrats."

Trump developed a disdain for people "who try to make the internet safer, to point out lies and misinformation," Sullivan explained.

That changed with Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter and renamed it X. Musk pushed out many workers on the content moderation team and Trump had conveniently formed his own social platform: Truth Social.

"But the pain of being barred has clearly lingered," Sullivan wrote.

And although Trump has claimed he was a victim of content moderation, "retribution lies at the heart of this crackdown."

"Thus, Trump’s special animus toward content moderators, trust and safety teams, and fact-checkers. It seems he didn’t forget the sting," she added.

Elon Musk's company hit with $139 million fine despite 'garbage' tough talk from JD Vance

Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, has received a $139 million fine by the European Commission.

The penalty is the first-ever issued under the content moderation laws and was issued today (December 5) to the social media site, Politico confirmed. Plans to fine X were aired earlier this year, which prompted vice president JD Vance to suggest the EU should not follow through with a "garbage" notion of fining "free speech".

The EU Commission confirmed that X was in breach of their transparency obligations, with the fine sent to X because of a "deceptive" change of how blue check verification worked. The European Commission’s Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen said it was not about the highest fines possible, but about making sure appropriate changes were considered and made.

Virkkunen said, "We’re not here to impose the highest fines, we’re here to make sure that our digital legislation is enforced. If you comply with our rules, you don’t get a fine." They added the fine was "proportionate" to the value of the company, with DSA regulations meaning a maximum fine of 6% of a company's worth can be issued.

While the fine may not come as a surprise to X, vice president JD Vance warned the EU Commission that they should not be taking aim at Musk's website, something the tech billionaire made clear he did not appreciate.

Vance wrote, "Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship. The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage." Musk replied, "Much appreciated."

Virkkunen would respond to Vance's comments, saying, "The DSA is having not to do with censorship, this decision is about the transparency of X. On this subject, we have agreed to disagree with the way that some people in the U.S. look at our legislation."

"It's not about censorship, and we have repeated several times from this podium, so on this we really agree to disagree on how it is perceived."

'Extraordinary moment' as US watches 'unravelling of bromance' of Trump and Musk

CNN's Dana Bash was stunned by the events that unfolded between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk during an Oval Office press conference Thursday.

Musk live tweeted responses as Trump answered reporters' questions about the Tesla founder's disdain for the spending bill that's now in the Senate.

"The most interesting and perhaps important issue — political issue and policy issue — is what President Trump said about his now former friend, at least it seems, Elon Musk," Bash said on CNN shortly after the press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz.

"It seems as though we saw kind of the unraveling of a bromance, real time. And what our viewers saw was what it turned out to be one side of a fight. The other side was Elon Musk, real time, using his platform X to respond and kind of push back on many of the things that President Trump said."

Bash then showed a scroll of Musk's tweets in response to the president's statements, calling it an "extraordinary moment just a few days after he gave a big, glowing goodbye to Elon Musk from the White House."

"Yeah, it's not even a week, Dana, since we saw them both praise each other from the Oval Office. Two days later now, and actually the first time reporters are actually having the opportunity to ask the president about this," said Correspondent Alayna Treene "We're now seeing this completely fraying relationship on full display. It's very remarkable, given just how close...the president and Musk have been for months now, really him being one of the president's favorite people on this white house complex."

Treene described the president's tone as "strikingly somber."

"You could see kind of the emotion in his tone and on his face as he was discussing this. He said, quote, 'I've always liked Elon.'"

Watch the clip below via CNN or click the link.

'I’m the reincarnation': Book claims Musk thought himself reborn 'spirit' of ancient king

When Elon Musk was a 20-something entrepreneur pushing his first startup, he claimed to a potential investor that he couldn't possibly fail at business because he was the reincarnation of one of the greatest warriors in all of human history, according to a new book.

Washington Post reporter Faiz Siddiqui recounted the exchange between Musk and venture capitalist Derek Proudian in "Hubris Maximus," out this week.

Musk reportedly told the investor that his fledgling company, Zip2, which promised to put the Yellow Pages online, was “going to be the biggest company ever.”

When Proudian tried to change the subject, Musk retorted, “No—you don’t understand. I’m the reincarnation of the spirit of Alexander the Great," the book said.

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Proudian, who "brushed off Musk's words" in the 1990s, is now worried after seeing what Musk has become, The Daily Beast reported.

“I am really concerned because I know how smart this guy is and I know how much money he has and I know how ruthless he is, and it’s playing out in front of my own eyes,” Proudian said.

In another example of Musk's "arrogance," a former Tesla investor told Siddiqui that "Musk cannot stand being told what to do—even by the Securities and Exchange Commission," adding, “He just basically has a complete disdain for any authority period."

A former Tesla software engineer is quoted as saying, "We saw with definitive proof his true colors,” over subjects like racial justice during the George Floyd protests. “I don’t know if he doesn’t want to empathize or if he feels he’s just too busy to empathize.”

The Daily Beast article stated that Siddiqui "has long covered Musk’s antics at Tesla and Twitter for the Post," and that when asked for comment, Musk would often quip, “Give my regards to your puppetmaster,” referring to fellow multibillionaire Jeff Bezos.

Musk did not comment for the Daily Beast article, according to its author.

Read the Daily Beast article here.

'Muzzle down!' Kristi Noem shocks as she points gun at officer's head in video

Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, drew mockery — and concern — on social media after posting video showing her holding an assault rifle with the muzzle pointed toward the head of a law enforcement officer.

"Human traffickers. Drug Smugglers. 18th Street Gang members. Spent the morning in Phoenix with our brave @ICEgov and Arizona law enforcement arresting these dirtbags and getting them off of our streets," Noem posted Tuesday along with the video introducing officers "Marco" and "Brian."

Quite a few military veterans replied to the video, expressing concern for "Brian," who was standing to the secretary's left.

One veteran reposted the photo with the word, "Ummmmm....." and a cringey-face emoji, while another questioned, "just why is she holding a weapon she isn’t authorized to have?" Still another wrote, "You probably shouldn't hold that or at least know what you're doing."

Political analyst David Fitzpatrick posted, "Great, okay but could we at least practice better gun safety measures for a photo op? I appreciate the work, the collaboration, the optics, but gun handling is a pet peeve of mine. Muzzle down, or pointed in a safe position loaded or unloaded - unless engaging a target."

J.D Luckenbach, a liberal influencer with 12,000 X followers, posted, "Kristi has the weapon pointed at the officer's head. Her always playing dress up is going to get somebody killed.."

"Perfect form. 100% natural. Great job media team," mocked podcaster Good Morning Liberty, while polling company Rasmussen Reports wrote, "This looks ridiculous and like you pulled rank on the officers to hold a big gun."

Later in the day, Noem reposted video of an arrest that was witnessed by representatives of the controversial LibsOfTiktok.

"This illegal was so mad he was getting arrested so he tried blocking us and hiding with his CROC. DHS Secretary Noem: “You’re not scaring me with your crocs," LibsOfTiktok posted.

Watch the video below or at this link.

'What's wrong with these people?' Intel chiefs' question dodging shocks Senate watchers

Neither the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard nor CIA Director John Ratcliffe would give definitive answers on the Signal war plans leak that dominated Tuesday's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Gabbard refused to confirm that she was even on the group chat, while neither she nor Ratcliffe would confirm whether the nature of the information shared were either "war plans" or "classified."

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) posted to X, "YA’LL!!!! What is wrong with these people?! @ODNI Director Gabbard refuses to say whether or not it was on a private or issued phone. … AND @CIADirector Ratcliffe is trying to get his mind right— 'I think that’s consistent with my recollection.'"

"Tulsi Gabbard just refused 3 times to state whether or not she was included in the Signal group chat. Mark Warner did a great job here. What cowards," posted writer Brian Krassenstein.

Journalist Kevin Baron wrote, "In any normal world Waltz, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, Hegseth at minimum should be offering their immediate resignations. They've been in public office less than two months and already have violated their oaths, endangered national security, potentially criminally."

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Ana Navarro-Cardenas, with The View, posted, "Tulsi Gabbard is so beyond her skis, it’s almost painful to watch her try to stay afloat in this hearing. My God."

Grassroots political organization Really American posted, "Senator Angus King exposes Tulsi Gabbard's denial of classified information on the Signal group chat as a lie, because "targets, weapons, attack sequences, and timing" were all discussed. Gabbard is not qualified for this position."

Podcaster Fred Wellman wrote in one brief post featuring a video of Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) grilling CIA Director Ratcliffe, "Hammer these liars."

In a separate post, Wellman wrote, "They are lying. The entire conversation was classified by the very nature of the principles involved. It was an illegal use of a disappearing messaging app which none of them objected to. Hegseth appears to have copied and pasted the targeting packages into the chat, and Witkoff was literally in Moscow when he joined the chat. This is a thousand times worse than they want you to know. Those three issues alone are cause for resignations and massive investigations about the use of that app and how much intelligence has been compromised by these incompetent fools."

'Curse words?' CNN host scolds senator over 'bad language' on social media

CNN's Brianna Keilar put Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) on the spot Wednesday over her word choice while posting on social media.

The scolding revolved around Smith's social media response to Elon Musk's infamous email to federal workers asking them to list five things they accomplished during the week.

"I want to say to people, there's a bad language-curse word-expletive alert here," Keilar began, before reading the post.

"You said, 'This is the ultimate d--- boss move from Musk, except he isn't even the boss, he's just a d---.' And then you follow that up with, 'I'm on the side of the workers, not the billionaire a--h--- bosses.'"

Keilar told the senator that voters "want more" from the Democratic Party.

ALSO READ: 'Absolutely unconscionable': Ex-Republican demands Trump removed from office after fight

"They want to see you opposing Trump in a more fulsome way. So, I ask you this sincerely: Do you, like, what's the value in that kind of language and communication? Is that the best way to communicate the stakes of the moment that the country is in?"

"Well, what I am hearing from voters at home and what I heard on your show, is that people want to see some fight," Smith said. "They want to see some urgency in this moment that we're in. And I think with that tweet that I did, it touched a nerve with millions of people. Because everybody has had the experience of having some boss who treats them with disrespect, who denigrates their work and is just basically using big power play moves to terrorize them."

Smith mentioned Elon Musk's post calling Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) "a traitor" for siding with Ukraine.

"Let me play a little devil's advocate on that," Keilar said. "And it was ridiculous that Elon Musk called him, of all people, a traitor. That wasn't a four-letter word that he used — what Elon Musk said to him — and it got a lot of attention. I mean, isn't there a way to mirror what your constituents — the outrage they're feeling — maybe even in a bigger way than using like, the limited vocabulary of curse words? Because there's a lot of great words out there that can communicate a lot."

Smith declined to apologize for her word choice.

"I would just say that In that moment, that's what I thought, and obviously, it struck a nerve."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

Ex-Twitter exec tips off federal workers how to avoid being 'surveilled' by Musk's people

A former Twitter executive is dishing out advice to federal workers thrown off balance by the Elon Musk/Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) takeover of agencies like USAID and the Treasury Department.

Musk has been criticized for his slash and burn tactics that are eerily similar to how he handled his takeover at Twitter, now rebranded as X.

Rumman Chowdhury, who served as director for the Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency and Accountability (META) team,at X, told MSNBC's Jen Psaki Sunday that Musk's strategy of "shock and awe" is meant to "constantly keep people scared, uninformed, keep changing things up on them, make demands that are impossible, make new hoops to jump through."

"No work happens during this for all of the, 'moving in beds' and the dramatics and truly the 'theater,' the theatrics of, you know, saying there's 120 hour work weeks, one has to ask how much work is actually getting done if nobody knows what's going on," Chowdhury said.

ALSO READ: Elon Musk's DOGE boys think this is a video game as Trump plots his 2nd coup

Chowdhury has been sharing advice to federal workers via X competitor, Bluesky. In one post, Chowdhury advises, "If you are a gov employee please do not use your gov devices to coordinate. Do not use standard messaging on your Android or Apple devices. Don’t use WhatsApp. These CEOs will likely give your messages if asked by the administration. Please use Signal and set your messages to autodelete."

In addition to sharing tips on social media, Chowdhury has been working on a series of articles with former and current federal employees ("all of whom, unfortunately, have to remain anonymous") and "critical tech thinkers."

"They're specifically on what to do if you get doxed, how to prevent workplace surveillance, how to prevent device surveillance. And, in short, it's things like, you know, 'don't have conversations in the workplace,' 'don't have conversations on your work devices,' 'try to log into encrypted end-to-end networks.' You know, just remove yourself from any place or situation in which you can be surveilled."

Chowdhury added, "And also, just be careful what you say, no matter what platform you're on. The unfortunate truth is, there are a lot of federal employees sharing documents, you know, working together. But we do have to be careful when we're working with each other, you know, to push back."

Watch the clip below via MSNBC or at the link.

'That man is a snake': Lindsey Graham faces MAGA wrath after Trump J6 'mistake' claim

MAGA World exploded on Sunday when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told NBC's Meet The Press that it was a "mistake" for President Donald Trump to given blanket pardons to the Capitol insurrectionists.

Host Kristen Welker said, "Even his own vice president said, 'If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn't be pardoned.' Do you believe that President Trump was wrong to issue these blanket pardons to the January 6th defendants?"

Graham answered, "Number one, he had the legal authority to do it, but I fear you will get more violence. Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently, I think, was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that's an OK thing to do."

X user @Cfojs, who described themselves as a "MAGA Constitutional Conservative," posted, "Another RINO that needs to go. Time for the next generation to step in. We need to vote them in."

Another user called @chicagopatty1, described as a "First generation American," wrote, "The mistake is that Lindsey Graham is still in office."

@facedschiff, a "self employed, libertarian, husband, father, binary, Christ Follower," wrote, "That man is a snake. Wake up people of SC."

User @JohnStrandUSA, whose X bio called him a "J6 political prisoner" and an "insurrectionist," posted, "Lindsay Graham is pretending he doesn’t know that most allegations of violence by protesters were false or dishonest & manipulated, and predicated on government entrapment and violent (even DEADLY) police brutality and misconduct. He does know—and he’s a scoundrel. VOTE HIM OUT."

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"Who cares what Lindsey Graham likes. Most of us don’t like him," posted "MAGA" Trump supporter @JackiBr16652825.

Trump has frequently referred to the insurrectionists as "political prisoners" and "hostages," and vowed repeatedly during his campaign to set them free. It remained unclear exactly who Trump would pardon, but on day one of his administration, he announced he was blanket pardoning roughly 1,500 criminal defendants, including those who violently assaulted police officers.

FactCheck.org reported, "In its latest update, on the four-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 riots, the Department of Justice reported that approximately 1,583 people had been charged criminally in federal court.

"Most of them pleaded guilty to crimes related to Jan. 6., including 327 who pleaded guilty to felonies and 682 who pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, the Justice Department report said. Among those who pleaded guilty to felonies, 172 pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement, 69 pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement with a dangerous or deadly weapon, and four pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy — conspiring to use force against the United States."

Watch the Meet The Press clip below via NBC or at the link.