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Move over, Webster’s—Elon Musk apparently runs the dictionary now. And wouldn’t you know it: Musk’s dictionary is weird and transphobic. The Twitter owner issued a decree on Wednesday in one of his favorite places—the replies to someone else’s tweets. Musk announced that going forward, “the words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform,” and that repeated use of the terms would lead to temporary suspensions at a minimum. For the purposes of removing all doubt: “Cisgender” is not, by any commonly understood definition of the word, a slur. It’s a term adopted by the medical community to describe someone who aligns with their biological sex and gender from both (“cis” is a Latin prefix meaning “this side”), as opposed to transgender people, who do not. In a clinical sense, the word “cisgender” is a way for medical practitioners to differentiate between a transgender patient and someone who identifies as their birth sex or gender without having to label them as “normal” or a control group. So how did a term that has been largely embraced by the medical community wind up becoming an Internet-poisoned slur to the owner of one of the world’s largest social networks? To answer

News Australia regulators demand Twitter reveal strategies to combat online hate Australia’s eSafety Commissioner launched legal action against Twitter on Thursday demanding information about the platform’s strategies to combat online hate. The move comes in response to a significant increase in complaints regarding online hate on Twitter, particularly following the acquisition of the company by Elon Musk in October 2022.The eSafety Commission is responsible for regulating online platforms under the Online Safety Act. While hate speech is not specifically included in the act’s language, certain instances of hate speech may fall under its cyber abuse provisions.eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant pointed out that while Twitter’s terms of use and policies prohibit hateful conduct on the platform. That said, the eSafety Commission has received an increasing number of complaints amid continued visibility of hateful content. Grant said that this indicates a failure on the part of Twitter to effectively enforce their own rules.In a statement, Grant said, “eSafety research shows that nearly 1 in 5 Australians have experienced some form of online hate. This level of online abuse is already inexcusably high, but if you’re a First Nations Australian, you are disabled or identify as LGBTIQ+ you experience online hate at

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks about the Facebook News feature at the Paley Center For Media in New York on Oct. 25, 2019.Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesFor months, Meta has been working on a Twitter-like, text-based social media network that would compete with Twitter and the bevy of clone apps that have gained prominence since Elon Musk took Twitter private in 2022. News of the plans have inspired a public spat between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, culminating in a joking challenge to engage in a physical "cage match" fight in Las Vegas.Meta previously confirmed to CNBC that it was "exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates," but didn't offer further details on the nature or name of the app.Meta enjoys a significant advantage over upstart competitors like BlueSky or Mastodon, given how many users are already integrated into Facebook and Instagram. It also enjoys longstanding relationships with brands and advertisers which could provide revenue at launch.But given deep cuts to trust and safety teams at Meta and throughout the social media industry, content moderation may prove to be a challenge. Many advertisers fled Twitter after controversial content surged in the

UPDATE Safe to say Antonio Reeves’ return is official. It was a big day for Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats as former Georgia commit and current four-star running back Tovani Mizell announced that he has committed to Kentucky. Mizell officially visited Kentucky in mid-June and ultimately decided to pick the Cats over North Carolina and Oklahoma. The 6-foot running back is bringing the type of speed to Kentucky’s offense that this staff has been wanting to add. The addition of Mizell is another massive addition to the 2024 recruiting class. Stoops now has his running back quarterback Cutter Boley to help lead the offense in the future. Here is how Twitter reacted to the commitment. 3-star RB Tovani Mizell has committed to UK.Florida native also had offers from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, USC among several others.Dice stay hot. https://t.co/l2dhecsj1y— Aaron Gershon (@agershon99) June 21, 2023 7️⃣3️⃣ days until Kentucky football — Everything Kentucky Football (@everythingkyfb) June 21, 2023 Lexington felt like a home away from home for Kentucky's latest football commit, Tovani Mizell (@TovaniMizell)."It didn’t feel like no regular program, it felt like everybody was close."https://t.co/z313QQFhIP— Zack Geoghegan (@ZGeogheganKSR) June 21, 2023 It was also a huge day for the

By Ankita Chakravarti: Twitter employees are not happy with the company over non-payment of bonuses that were promised to them.A group of Twitter employees has taken legal action against the company, alleging that it has failed to fulfill its promise of paying out their 2022 bonuses. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in San Francisco, claims that Twitter executives, including former Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, assured employees that they would receive 50 per cent of their target bonus amounts.However, none of that happened. According to the lawsuit, Twitter's cash performance bonus plan is usually paid out annually. However, after Elon Musk's acquisition of the company in October, Twitter allegedly refused to pay bonuses to employees who were still employed in the first quarter of 2023.Since Musk took over, Twitter has faced multiple challenges. The company has experienced a decline of over 50 per cent in advertising revenue as brands have lost trust in its ability to remove violent, pornographic, and hateful content. This has led to a substantial reduction in the workforce, with layoffs and resignations resulting in a decrease of more than 75 per cent of employees. The company had also faced technical difficulties, such as those

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Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, confirmed on French TV that the company will respect the EU’s Digital Services Act, pledging to comply with enacted laws. What Happened: In an interview with Anne-Sophie Lapix on France 2, Musk said, “If a law is enacted, Twitter commits to comply with it.” Musk had to repeat that statement at least four times throughout the interview.Despite concerns raised by France’s digital minister, Musk stated that Twitter would comply with the law without going beyond its requirements. Despite conflicting statistics, he said Twitter had seen a 30% decrease in hate speech during his tenure.He emphasized the importance of defining hate speech carefully to avoid excessive censorship. Musk also expressed optimism about the return of advertisers to the platform.Politico reported the interview earlier on Monday.   See Also: What Will Elon Musk Put On His ‘Highlights’ Tab?On another note, he discussed the potential for Tesla Inc‘s TSLA significant presence in France but did not commit to building a Gigafactory in the country. Musk praised President Emmanuel Macron, who he met on Friday, and supported localizing production to reduce energy consumption in the automotive industry.When asked about his aspirations for the U.S. presidency, Musk declined, citing his current positions as affording him greater power and flexibility.Why It Matters: Twitter, categorized as a

What will end up happening with NY Giants running back Saquon Barkley? That's the $1 million question countless fans across the globe are waiting to find out the answer for. People in New York and New Jersey are waiting for an extension to get done. However, there's also a chance, however small it may be, that Barkley is a camp holdout. Even worse, the door has been left open for him to sit out the season. With that said, trade rumors continue to fly too. In a recent piece from Bleacher Report, they pitched quite the deal between Tampa Bay and New York. The proposed trade has the Giants sending Saquon and a second-round pick to the Bucs for Mike Evans. A quick look at Twitter shows that fans in Florida are completely against this one: If you were running the #GoBucs, would you accept this trade? pic.twitter.com/k94sxS7w2g— The Pewter Plank (@ThePewterPlank) June 16, 2023From a Giants standpoint, this would be quite the move, as they would land a WR1 in Evans. For a lot of folks in the Tampa Bay area, they indeed don't think Barkley and a second-rounder is enough for the talented wideout. Mike is a buccaneers

Twitter chairman and CTO Elon Musk has frequently hinted at ambitions to grow Twitter’s video offering. And this looks to include an expansion into CTV, with Musk tweeting over the weekend that a Twitter video app for smart TVs “is coming”. Twitter has had mixed success with efforts to grow its video offering in the past. It previously owned short form video app Vine – essentially TikTok before TikTok existed – but couldn’t make the business work financially and shut it down in 2016. It also bought live streaming video platform Periscope in 2015, but this too was eventually shuttered in 2021. But Musk is keen to have another bite at the apple. The company has already extended the length of videos which users can upload directly on the platform, with Twitter Blue verified users able to upload videos up to two hours long. He’s also tweeted in support of ex-Fox anchor Tucker Carlson’s launch of a Twitter exclusive video series, and encouraged others to do the same. And earlier in the year Musk publicly tested a video live stream feature based on old Periscope code, hinting at plans for a live streaming feature on the platform. Late last week

Twitter has been singled out by scholars studying the intersection of politics and cyberspace for its unmatched political momentum, amid other communication platforms. Consider for instance that as of 2020, 98% of the 193 UN member states had an active Twitter presence, represented by 163 heads of states and 136 Foreign Ministries (Twiplomacy 2020). So self-evident is the clustering of a digital international community on Twitter that identifying the absent few is a relatively easy task. For example, missing in 2020 were only four states, namely, Laos, North Korea, Sao Tome and Principe and Turkmenistan (Twiplomacy 2020). According to Marc Lynch (2011), the novelty of digital communication technologies lies in their construction of a new route to information sharing (Lynch 2011). By that, bypassing information producers, previously monopolized by large media corporations. To him, a voice in the information ecosphere is so critical that digital platforms are actually tools of political combat (Lynch 2011). Hence, it was access to these tools that enabled the carving out of a new public sphere, in an Arab context (Lynch 2007). Within the new digital environment, Twitter effectively occupies a unique sociopolitical position (Collins, DeWitt and LeFebvre 2019; Golbeck, Grimes and Rogers 2010; Lewandowsky, Jetter and Ecker 2020;