Humiliation and uncertainty are the words to describe the situation, says one of the many Twitter India staff who was handed a pink slip on Friday. That the laying off was perhaps on expected lines or that the microblogging platform itself erupted in support from 'Tweeple' or emphatic outsiders did not make things less painful, says another ex-employee. For scores of Twitter India staff, the grim reality of large scale firings -- that also coincides with the dreaded layoff winter -- is just about 'sinking in', days after popular platform was taken over by the world's richest man Elon Musk.
Twitter users in India looking to avail the blue tick mark for their accounts will have to shell out Rs 900 under the monthly plan for mobile phones, an update from the microblogging platform said on Thursday. The social media platform has priced Twitter Blue at Rs 650 for web and Rs 900 per month for mobile app users. "Blue subscribers with a verified phone number will get a blue checkmark once approved," Twitter said.
Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has said the social media company is holding off the launch of a new system of issuing verified badges to users and could use different "colour checks" for authenticating organisations and individuals. In the days following Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, the billionaire entrepreneur announced that the Blue Tick verification badge, which authenticates a user or organisation on Twitter, will be available for a monthly fee of $8. "Holding off the relaunch of Blue Verified until there is high confidence in stopping impersonation.
Musk has blamed activists for a significant drop in the company's revenues.
The Mona Lisa -- arguably, the most famous painting ever -- will move from its current place in the Louvre in Paris.
When Parag Agrawal was appointed CEO of Twitter in November 2021, the IIT graduate joined a steadily growing club of executives from India rising to the top of global corporations, but the 38-year-old executive's brief tenure at the helm of the social media giant was challenging and chaotic.
The microblogging site has challenged a government order issued in June 2022, terming the blocking orders 'overbroad and arbitrary', adding that the requests failed to provide notice to the originators of the content and were disproportionate in several cases.
Delhi Police on Tuesday informed a court that a first information report (FIR) was registered against journalist Rana Ayyub for allegedly making derogatory posts in 2016-17, including 'insults to Hindu deities, spreading of anti-India sentiment and incitement of religious disharmony'.
Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha, a day after a Surat court sentenced him to two years imprisonment in a defamation case filed against him over his 'Modi surname' remark.
Koo -- the made-in-India rival of Twitter -- will not charge users for a verification badge, its co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna said as he took on the larger rival for allegedly first creating bots and now charging users for verification. Koo, which allows users to express views in Indian languages, has already crossed 50 million downloads and is now flying into the rival's nest, starting a campaign on Twitter by making itself prominently visible on verified handles and offering them better deals on its platform at no cost. Since taking over Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk has set in motion massive changes, sacking employees and talking of levying a $8 charge for 'verified' handles.
In a surprise turn of events in the Twitter buyout saga, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reportedly offered to proceed with his $44 billion purchase of the microblogging website. Musk is proposing to continue with $54.20 per share to buy Twitter, Reuters news agency reported citing Bloomberg News. After the news broke, Twitter's share price increased to 12.7 per cent before trading was stopped for the second time.
Facebook turns 21 today, February 4. Most early Facebookers have migrated to other social media platforms, but A Ganesh Nadar continues to live on Facebook as he notes 'Real life friends are really not welcome on Facebook as they know that last summer when you said you were in Belgium you were actually in Belgaum'.
Krishnan, who has previously led product teams at Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo!, Facebook and Snap, will work along with David O. Sacks who will be the White House AI & Crypto Czar.
Twitter users voted on Monday for Elon Musk to quit as head of the social media giant in a poll the technology tycoon ran on his future and promised to abide by its results.
Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has once again found himself at the center of a controversy, this time for his comments about Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Kamra has been a controversial figure for years, with his comedy often targeting politicians and other public figures. This latest incident has led to a backlash from Shinde's supporters, who have vandalized the venue of Kamra's show. Kamra has a history of making controversial remarks, including heckling a TV anchor on a flight and making comments about the judiciary.
The Delhi High Court has refused to stay the trial court proceedings against Delhi Law Minister Kapil Mishra for allegedly posting objectionable tweets during the 2020 assembly elections. The court rejected Mishra's plea challenging a sessions court order dismissing his petition against the summons of a magisterial court in the case. The court said there was no need to stay the trial court proceedings and that the trial court was at liberty to proceed further with the matter. The high court granted four weeks to the police to file its response to the petition and posted the hearing on May 19. The hearing is slated to come up in the trial court on March 20.
Amid layoffs and a severe cost-cutting, Twitter has closed offices in Delhi and Mumbai and asked staff to work from home, according to sources. The micro-blogging platform's Bengaluru office that largely has engineering staff remains operational, the sources said. The Delhi and Mumbai offices shuttered a few weeks ago, with remaining staff now working from home, sources privy to the matter said.
Musk has not yet offered details about how his content moderation council will work.
A new analysis has shown that hate speech on the social media platform 'X' spiked by almost 50 percent in the months following Elon Musk's purchase, compared to the months prior. Researchers found that the number of bot and bot-like accounts did not decline during Musk's tenure as CEO, until June 2023. The study, published in PLOS One, also revealed a heightened engagement with hate-related content, with about a 70 percent increase in the average number of 'likes' on such posts.
'The pressure from these betting games, coupled with financial ruin, is becoming unbearable for many, and tragically, some even resort to extreme measures like suicide.'
If completed, this deal would place OpenAI among the most valuable private companies globally, alongside Musk's SpaceX and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, according to The New York Times.
Glimpses of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Devi Harris at her final campaign rally at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, November 4, 2024.
A dedicated commercial court for Bengaluru Urban District has directed micro-blogging site Twitter to block the handles of the Indian National Congress (INC) and its 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' till the next date of hearing.
A week after temporarily suspending his account, Twitter restored Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's handle Saturday, but not before the principal opposition party accused it of bias.
Why has the shift from ICE to electric slowed down despite initial enthusiasm?
Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-origin technology executive, is "helping out" Twitter's new owner Elon Musk as he revamps the social media giant following its acquisition by the billionaire entrepreneur.
Twitter has also withheld the handles of its chairperson, OMA Salam (@oma_salam), who had just under 50,000 followers, and general secretary, Anis Ahmed (@AnisPFI), who had nearly 85,000 followers.
Two Indian Americans -- Congressman Ro Khanna and Vijaya Gadde -- prominently figure in United States President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden's laptop story whose full disclosure Twitter CEO Elon Musk has announced would be released on the microblogging site.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday sought Twitter's response on a lawsuit filed by Abhijit Iyer Mitra, seeking restoration of his account on the website that has been "unilaterally banned" and made inaccessible to his followers.
Musk also said that there will be a vote for major policy changes on Twitter.
Twitter fell into a pitless chaos after several employees appeared to have departed the company, which sent messages that it was closing its 'office buildings' for the next few days.
Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for Twitter on Monday online, argued the company was following the rules laid out in the Information Technology Act.
While replying to a user on Twitter, Elon Musk said, "Thank you. A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues."
World Champion D Gukesh began his campaign at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tour with a mixed bag of results, including three draws and a lone loss, signaling that he is adapting to the new format.
'Journalists must ask the Mumbai police why are they sending notices via X to cartoonists.' 'The Mumbai police must come clean. Who is giving them such orders?'
Kohli enjoys popularity in all the platforms of social media
Twitter has started laying off employees in India as part of a global job cut ordered by the social media platform's new owner Elon Musk to attain economies of scale and make the USD 44 billion acquisition viable.
This Women's Day Week, we celebrate the groundbreaking achievements of Justice Anna Chandy, Justice M Fathima Beevi and Justice Leila Seth.
People working at the company hate 'hated' Elon Musk's USD 44 billion bid to take control of the company.
The anonymous Twitter handle, a complaint from which led to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair's arrest, does not exist on the microblogging website anymore.
