Category Archives: Twitter

Elon Musk’s Twitter Sued Over Unpaid Office Services

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Elon Musk’s Twitter is facing yet another lawsuit over unpaid bills, this time from an Australian company specialising in project management and delivery.

Facilitate alleges in a lawsuit filed last week in US District Court for the Northern District of California that the social media firm owes over $700,000 for work in four Twitter offices outside the U.S. since last year. Twitter, owned by the world’s richest person, owes $40,777 for decommissioning and storing the contents of Twitter’s Sydney office, $257,444 for installing sensors in the London and Dublin offices, and $404,224 for outfitting the Singapore offices, according to the suit, first reported by NCA Newswire.

Facilitate alleges it signed a master services agreement with Twitter in March 2021 after Twitter had used the Sydney-based company since 2015 without issue. The agreement, according to Facilitate, mandates that Twitter must pay within 60 days of receiving an invoice.

“Following the acquisition, Facilitate corresponded about its outstanding invoices with its remaining contacts at the company,” the lawsuit says. “They gave no indication that Twitter disputed it owed the amounts on the invoices and offered no justification for not paying.”

Bloomberg reported in May that at least 10 other vendors, including small businesses, have sued Twitter over unpaid bills since December.

Facilitate also detailed Musk’s chaotic tenure at the social media network, pointing out that the company’s content moderation decisions under his leadership, including the reinstatement of former President Donald Trump’s account, damaged its relationship with advertisers, thus prompting a financial crisis for the company.

“On information and belief, Twitter responded with a campaign of extreme belt-tightening that amounted to requiring nearly everyone to whom it owes money to sue,” the complaint alleges.

HuffPost reached out to Twitter for comment on the lawsuit. Twitter, as is now customary, responded with a poop emoji.

Musk announced over the weekend that Twitter was placing a limit on the posts users can see based on their account status. Those who exceed those “temporary limits” could have their accounts locked for the day, The Associated Press reported.

Twitter in recent weeks started repaying Google Cloud for its services, following a period when Musk reportedly refused to pay. The companies mended their relationship after new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino intervened, according to Bloomberg.

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Tory Party Chair Leaves Twitter Bewildered With His Attempt To Mock Keir Starmer

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Greg Hands left people scratching their heads when he posted a video on Twitter trying to show up Keir Starmer – and failed, miserably.

The Conservative Party chair shared a 14-second video on Twitter on Thursday lunchtime showing the Labour Party leader arriving to campaign in the Selby and Ainsty by-election.

It comes after the Tory MP Nigel Adams resigned earlier this month. As a long-standing ally of Boris Johnson, he was expected to received a peerage in the ex-PM’s resignation honours but didn’t make the final cut.

When Starmer, deputy leader Angela Rayner and their team arrived at Selby train station, Conservative campaigners appeared to have arranged an ambush for them.

″Welcome to Selby, Sir Keir,” the Tories cheered, laughing and clapping as they spotted him.

But, the Labour leader looked far from taken aback. He just walked over to greet them, and the two groups seem to have an amicable exchange.

When Hands shared the footage on Twitter, though, he said: “North London Leftie lawyer and top flip-flopper Sir Keir is one of the Conservatives’ trump cards in the Selby By-Election!”

Understandably, Twitter was pretty confused over the point of the tweet, noting there didn’t seem to be any “gotcha” in the video (or the caption) at all…

Others reminded Hands that he, too, is a London MP…

And plenty said it just showed Starmer in an even better light.

Other people just joked that this was a sign the seat was going to be passed over to Labour.

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BBC Newsreader Handles A Live TV Glitch Like A Pro

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A BBC newsreader has won praise for her calm under pressure after a live TV glitch left the broadcaster in a potentially embarrassing situation.

Lukwesa Burak was anchoring the BBC News channel when the so-called “opt-out” appeared to let her down.

In a clip shared widely on Twitter, Burak finished a segment of the programme and said “around the world and across the UK, this is BBC News” as the feed cut to the channel’s titles.

Bagpipers appeared on screen briefly, before Burak could be seen stretching her arms up. She very quickly realises the camera is still rolling, and gives a look of disbelief (to put it mildly).

For what feels like an eternity, Burak stays silent. She eventually introduces a story about Ukraine.

An “opt-out” is when one set of viewers gets a different feed to another – such as adverts for an international audience which cannot be broadcast in the UK.

The BBC announced in July that BBC News and BBC World News would merge to create a single 24-hour TV channel, resulting in job losses, as part of its new digital-first strategy – which perhaps explains the gremlins.

Far from being a source of embarrassment, fellow broadcasters rallied around to praise Burak’s professionalism. She was variously described as a “legend” and “one of the best”.

Burak later took to Twitter to thank “colleagues – present and former, and all you wonderful viewers”.

As part of the shake-up, BBC Four and CBBC will also end as linear TV channels.

The BBC also plans for local radio stations to share more content and broadcast less programming unique to their areas.

The BBC needs to save a further £285 million in response to the announcement in January that the licence fee will be frozen for the next two years.

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Even The Pope Has Lost His Twitter Blue Tick

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Pope Francis, Cristiano Ronaldo and Beyonce are among the first big-name casualties as Twitter removed the “blue tick” from legacy verified accounts.

Twitter Verified tweeted that legacy checkmarks would be removed from the site on April 20, with the main way of getting a blue tick being to sign up for Twitter Blue, which includes an £8 monthly fee for those based in the UK.

The legacy checkmarks began disappearing towards the tail end of Thursday.

Some of the biggest accounts losing their ticks include former president Donald Trump, as well as the official Twitter page for the Pope.

Some legacy accounts seemed to retain their ticks if linked to a verified organisation, including Barack Obama’s personal page.

Elon Musk had promised to take away all of Twitter’s blue check marks doled out to Hollywood stars, professional athletes, business leaders, authors and journalists unless they start buying a monthly subscription to the social media service.

Musk’s goal was to shove the advertising-dependent platform he bought for $44 billion last year into a pay-to-play model.

Twitter Verified Organisations enables bodies of “all types”, including businesses, non-profits and government institutions, to sign up and manage their verification and to affiliate and verify any related account. But it costs a base price of £950 a month.

Some were wistfully saying goodbye to their status …

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‘The Pain Level Of Twitter Has Been Extremely High’: Musk Gives Free-Wheeling Interview To BBC

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Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday sat down for a spontaneous interview with the BBC at the social media network’s San Francisco headquarters, speaking about some of his regrets and offering a glimpse into how he envisions the future of the company about six months after he bought it.

Musk conceded he can sometimes be impulsive when it comes to posting on the platform. He has come under fire for several controversial tweets, including one in which he shared a conspiracy theory around the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Have I shot myself in the foot with tweets multiple times? Yes,” Musk told the BBC’s James Clayton.

“I think I should not tweet after 3 am,” he continued.

The self-professed “free speech absolutist” purchased Twitter in October ― despite trying to get out of a $44 billion agreement to do so ― and quickly set about reshaping the company. He decimated its staff and publicly attacked his own employees. He welcomed back banned users including former US president Donald Trump, who was kicked off the platform for instigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, as well as right-wing figures and other accounts blocked for misinformation. He criticised the media and spread misinformation himself.

Asked about how the first six months have gone, Musk replied: “It’s not been boring.”

He said managing the company has been “quite a rollercoaster”, but that overall usage was up and the site was performing well despite some outages and glitches. He claimed the company will be cash flow positive by the next quarter.

Musk said the hardest moment he faced in the past six months was closing down a server centre at the end of last year, thinking it was redundant — a move that he described as “catastrophic” and which had to quickly be reversed.

“The pain level of Twitter has been extremely high,” he said. “This hasn’t been some sort of party. It’s really been quite a stressful situation.”

The CEO told the BBC the current headcount is at around 1,500, down from the roughly 8,000 people the company employed before he took over.

Musk reportedly agreed to the wide-ranging interview just a few hours before its start.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO defended his company over the latest controversy around requiring Twitter users to pay for verification. Prior to his takeover, the social media platform applied the badges to the accounts of notable individuals and businesses to deter impostors.

Musk vowed to remove all legacy blue checks by April 20, after missing an earlier deadline he had set for the action for April 1.

Musk has already stripped The New York Times of its badge after a user notified him the newspaper didn’t intend to pay for it.

“I must confess there’s some delight in removing the verified badge from The New York Times,” he told the BBC. “That was great.”

He claimed that the goal of his verification strategy is not to necessarily create another revenue stream, but more so to “massively raise the cost of disinformation and bots in general”.

“My prediction is that any social media company that does not insist on paid verification will simply be overwhelmed by advanced AI bots,” he added.

Musk had attempted to get out of the sale agreement with Twitter, saying there was “material breach of multiple provisions” and that the company did not disclose information on spam bot accounts. But Musk told the BBC he moved forward in the end because he expected a judge would have forced him to complete the sale anyway after Twitter sued to enforce the agreement.

While he originally told the BBC he wouldn’t sell the company for the $44 billion he bought it for, he quickly switched his answer: “If I was confident that they would rigorously pursue the truth, then I guess I would be glad to hand it over to someone else.”

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Wishes Jews A Happy Purim. Oy Vey, Says Twitter.

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But many on Twitter weren’t buying her greeting for Purim, which commemorates a biblical Book of Esther story in which Queen Esther thwarted a plan for the Jews’ annihilation in ancient Persia. The holiday began on Monday evening and runs through to Tuesday evening.

One of her responders said Greene was Haman, the villain in the story.

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Fans Say Kate Winslet’s Hair Is A ‘Titanic’ Tragedy In New Movie Poster

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Titanic is sailing back into cinemas this year in honour of its 25th anniversary, yet fans can’t seem to wrap their heads around the movie’s new ― and unintentionally confusing ― promotional art.

A fully remastered edition of the 1997 blockbuster, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, hits cinemas on 10 Feb and to mark the occasion, Paramount Pictures unveiled a brand-new poster showing the actors as star-crossed lovers Jack and Rose, who meet aboard the doomed ocean liner in 1912.

The image, however, appears to show Rose with a combination of two hairstyles, seemingly taken from different segments of the film.

On her left side, she looks to have an elaborate updo, as befitting the character’s first-class status. But on her right, her hair appears to be down, as it was worn for Jack’s sketch session and as the ship sank.

On social media this week, reaction to the image has been chilly, at best…

While many assumed the poster to be a failed example of photo editing, others suggested it was a deliberate choice to relay Rose’s character arc over the course of the movie.

“It represents the duality of her having to portray her societal role and the life she wishes to have, free, with Jack,” one person tweeted.

Another added: “It’s to show the two sides of her in the movie. From boarding as an upper class wealthy passenger to then how things change when she meets Jack and the new kind of life he introduces her to.”

It remains to be seen whether Paramount will deflect the hairstyle discourse by revamping the poster. As of Thursday, the image was still included in a press kit distributed to media outlets.

Directed by James Cameron, Titanic was a critical smash and won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

After raking in a reported $2.2 billion at the box office worldwide, it became the highest-grossing film of all-time, a record it held until Cameron’s Avatar claimed the distinction in 2010.

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These Are The Most Hilarious Tweets From Parents In 2022

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‘I Pooped In A Secret Way’: 27 Funny Tweets That Perfectly Sum Up Life With Toddlers

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Life with toddlers is a real rollercoaster – one moment they’re telling you they love you, the next they’re mooing at you as you step out of the shower.

Fast forward two hours and they’re prostrate on the floor, screaming at you because you wouldn’t let them lick your shoe.

While they can be pretty harsh sometimes – and totally unreasonable – their brutal honesty and innocent outlook on life often brings plenty of laughs to the table, too.

These tweets sum up just how chaotic life can be with young children – and while we do love a moan as parents, we also know we wouldn’t have it any other way.

1. Where did you hide the poo?!

2. My child loves me… but also pizza.

3. Today in questions you never thought you’d ask yourself: Why is there a car under my back?

4. Hi sweetie. Please stop licking mummy’s face.

5. This parent was probably quite relieved they didn’t get to see their toddler’s carol concert IRL.

6. When your toddler is mad because they can’t do something (that also happens to be impossible)…

7. Get this toddler on The Apprentice.

8. Out of the mouth of babes (and all that).

9. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But with the word penis.

10. This two-year-old ran the dishwasher undetected and empty for an entire hour.

11. Imagine being demoted from Your Majesty to Mom Face. Cruel cruel world.

12. Does anyone else’s toddler run like this?

13. Another reason why toddlers get mad: they can’t eat raw food.

14. This toddler wanted to go and buy some more milk for boobies. Then things got a bit dark.

15. Why do all toddlers line up toys like this?

16. Who doesn’t love getting sick 17 times a month?

17. This toddler requested their pear is cut into rectangles and nobody has time for this.

18. Feelings = hurt.

19. When you find out the nation’s favourite coffee chain doesn’t sell books.

20. We’re just wondering why any parent would do this to themselves?

21. WFH and looking after toddlers is a real hoot (said no one ever).

22. This tweet is perfection.

23. Two going on… 42?

24. Admittedly they can be cute.

25. But then in the next breath they can be stone cold.

26. This toddler is going places. (Mainly the steakhouse next door.)

27. We’ll just leave this here…

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Could ‘Space Karen’ Be One Of Twitter’s Last Great Moments?

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Elon Musk being trolled as “space Karen” has spawned potentially the last great moment on Twitter – that’s if the dire predictions are to be believed.

On the day hundreds of Twitter employees were estimated to have quit the beleaguered company following a Thursday deadline from Musk that staffers sign up for “long hours at high intensity” or leave, someone across the street from the firm’s San Francisco headquarters projected a news-ticker style message on the building.

It included descriptions of the self-styled Chief Twit as “bankruptcy baby”, “mediocre manchild” and “petulant pimple” among others.

Gia Vang, an NBC Bay Area reporter, attributed the messages to an individual calling themself “a projection activist”.

It was “space Karen” – a reference to Musk’s inter-galactic ambitions and the archetypal woman with a fondness for asking to see the manager – that stood out.

Regardless of who was behind the prank, Twitter users were delighted.

If the doomsayers are right, it could be one the last hurrahs on the site.

Given the strife brought on by Musk’s arrival, Twitter users have been bidding farewell to the platform by way of comedy and memes following the mass resignations.

The trends #RIPTwitter, #GoodByeTwitter and #TwitterDown were among a number of hashtags and posts that users made to pay homage to the platform late Thursday and Friday morning.

And in a sign things really aren’t going well, Musk emailed Twitter staff on Friday asking that any employees who write software code report to the 10th floor of the office in San Francisco, Reuters reported.

The billionaire said in a follow-up email, “If possible, I would appreciate it if you could fly to SF to be present in person”, adding he would be at the company’s headquarters until midnight and would return Saturday morning.

It comes after the company had told employees it would close its offices and cut badge access until Monday, according to Reuters.

Musk’s first three weeks as Twitter’s owner have been marked by rapid change and chaos. He quickly fired Twitter’s previous CEO and other senior leaders and then laid off half its staff earlier this month.

Musk wrote on Twitter late on Thursday that he was not worried about resignations as “the best people are staying”.

The newest departures mean the platform is losing workers just at it gears up for the FIFA World Cup, which begins on Sunday. It’s one of Twitter’s busiest events, when tweet surges heavily stress its systems.

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