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Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce panel on consumer protection, said she was worried about Twitter becoming “a platform that is a sewer of hateful and harmful content” and planned to leave if Musk allowed it to become more of a Wild West. The immediate anxiety comes from a false story about the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that Musk personally tweeted over the weekend. Musk has now deleted the tweet, but the story continues to ricochet around the conservative political world. In the larger sense, political players are worried that Musk’s promises to bring Twitter’s policies closer in line with his own ideas about politics and society, as well as his firing of its top accountability executives, will permanently change a platform they’ve come to rely on, and trust to police misinformation and hate speech. Musk has left no doubt who’s in charge of the company since he took Twitter private Thursday night. He renamed himself “Chief Twit” on his official bio, and told the Securities and Exchange Commission that he dissolved the board and named himself sole director. Musk himself acknowledged the concerns about Twitter’s future directly…

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Elon Musk just bought Twitter. Here are the winners and losers 01:46 - Source: CNN CNN  —  Elon Musk on Sunday gave credence to a fringe conspiracy theory about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi. The new Twitter owner tweeted a link to an article full of baseless claims about Pelosi. The article was posted on a website that purports to be a news outlet. Musk, who has 112 million followers on the platform he now owns, posted the baseless story about Pelosi in response to a tweet from Hilary Clinton at 8:15 am ET. He later deleted the tweet around 2 pm, but not before racking up more than 28,000 retweets and 100,000 likes. Linking to a Los Angeles Times story about Pelosi’s alleged attacker, Clinton wrote, “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.” In response, Musk linked to the baseless story, and wrote, “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.” In 2016 the same website falsely…

49ers 49ers Kyle Shanahan dug deep into his bag of tricks against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, and he pulled out a dandy of a play. With the 49ers driving early in the second quarter at SoFi Stadium, Jimmy Garoppolo took a shotgun snap and threw a backward pass to Christian McCaffrey, who was in motion to the right. The new 49ers' running back caught the ball a few yards behind the line of scrimmage, stopped and chucked the ball downfield to a wide-open Brandon Aiyuk for a 34-yard touchdown. The touchdown briefly tied the game between the two NFC West rivals at 7-7. McCaffrey, who was acquired by the 49ers less than two weeks ago, was brought in to make the offense more explosive. But The Faithful couldn't have expected Shanahan to use the former first-round draft pick as a threat to throw the ball. Naturally, 49ers fans and media members took to Twitter to react to the great play. Christian McCaffrey touchdown....pass?— Niners Nation (@NinersNation) October 30, 2022 I think Kyle Shanahan has workshopped this Christian McCaffrey thing— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) October 30, 2022 TD PASS CMC TO AIYUK!!!!!!!KYLE SHANAHAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!!!!— Carlos M. Ramírez (@Tomapapa)…

Hey, folks, welcome back to another edition of TechCrunch Week in Review, the place where we point you to the hottest stories of the past sevenish days. I’m stepping in front of the laptop for Greg Kumparak this week, but don’t fret, he will be back soon. If you want this goodness in your inbox every Saturday, head on over here to sign up. Now, let’s get to it. most read (Elon edition, somewhat) Elon did it: He bought Twitter. The $44 billion acquisition closed this week and on day 1, the platform’s new owner “cleaned house,” Taylor and Amanda write, firing CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde. The purchase capped off months of ups and downs, and this week was no different. Darrell rounded up some highlights. Elon’s layoff about-face: While Elon Musk immediately fired some folks at the top, earlier this week in a reversal from his layoff declaration last week, he said he won’t actually lay off 75% of Twitter’s staff — or 5,600 people — writes Rebecca, citing a Bloomberg report. Apple’s Elon problem: Darrell’s headline says it all, really: “Twitter’s Elon problem could soon become Apple’s…

Elon Musk wasted no time beginning to remodel Twitter after closing his deal to acquire the company Thursday night, quickly cutting key staff, doubling down on plans to lift lifelong bans and previewing plans for a council to determine content decisions.  The changes he’s made so far confirmed suspicions critics had about the direction the billionaire space and auto executive, known for being a Twitter troll himself, would take the company in, and are adding fuel to the chorus of critics worried Musk’s reign at Twitter will allow misinformation and hate speech to thrive on the platform. Musk’s decision to take Twitter private will also allow him to transform the platform — including its content moderation policies and financial priorities — with less oversight from regulators and without having to publicly disclose updates every few months to show how the company is performing.  Musk made a nod to changes to come at Twitter in his typical style shortly after taking control of the company, tweeting Thursday night “the bird is free.”  Among the first changes he made were immediate cuts of top Twitter executives. Musk reportedly fired CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and chief legal counsel Vijaya Gadde, letting them go with a hefty payout of around $187 million, CNN reported. Paul Barrett, deputy director…

Updated Oct. 28, 2022 3:20 pm ET / Original Oct. 28, 2022 5:00 am ET Order Reprints Print Article Tesla CEO Elon Musk closed his deal to buy Twitter on Thursday. Maja Hitij/Getty Images Despite repeated efforts to walk away from his $44 billion deal, Elon Musk now owns Twitter The deal marks the end of the social media firm’s nearly nine-year run as a publicly traded firm. The New York Stock Exchange said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was removing Twitter stock listing (ticker: TWTR) because Musk’s holding firm acquired the company on Thursday. Twitter stock was no longer trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

An emboldened cast of anonymous trolls spewed racist slurs and Nazi memes onto Twitter in the hours after billionaire industrialist Elon Musk took over the social network, raising fears that his pledge of unrestricted free speech could fuel a new wave of online hate.The flood of racist posts was among the most prominent signs of how Twitter had changed in the first hours of Musk’s ownership. But those who were expecting even bigger changes, such as the restoration of former president Donald Trump’s account and the layoff of hundreds if not thousands of Twitter employees, will have to wait longer.Musk on Friday tweeted that he would make “no major content decisions or account reinstatements” until the convening of a new “moderation council.” He promised that the council would have “widely diverse viewpoints” but offered no other information about who would be on it, how its members would be selected, what authority it would have or whether its views would be binding on the company.Musk’s social media rival Mark Zuckerberg, chief of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, also turned to an outside group — known as the Oversight Board — to pass judgment on Facebook’s social media moderation actions after years of…

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With less than two weeks until the midterm elections, about 20 employees from across Twitter have volunteered to help the social network’s internal “Election Squad” enforce its rules at a crucial moment for U.S. politics. In crash-course training sessions this week, the volunteers learned the basics of how to spot election misinformation, detect bots pushing propaganda and flag potential violations of Twitter’s rules to the company’s policy staff.Since 2018, the call for volunteers has been part of an all-hands-on-deck approach to major elections, as the company’s overstretched content moderators work around-the-clock for a week before and after the vote to stanch the tide of viral falsehoods, intimidation campaigns and foreign influence operations.But this election cycle, the company is in greater disarray than ever — increasing the risk that cagey political operatives will be able to use the platform to deceive voters or undermine the legitimacy of results. Twitter has weathered a year of managerial chaos since a CEO change, hundreds of employees have reportedly left and a high-level whistleblower warned that the company lacks the resources to enforce its own election policies globally.Adding to the uncertainty is that billionaire Elon Musk is expected to close his $44 billion acquisition of…