Archive for the ‘Elon Musk’ Category

Tesla’s Elon Musk expects ‘a year of difficulty’ for the global economy – MarketWatch

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk said late Tuesday he foresees a year of difficulty for the global economy, with lots of companies going bankrupt, and said that the EV maker will not be immune to the downdraft, even as he teased two new products for Tesla in the future.

Its is going to be a challenging 12 months, and Tesla is not immune to the global economic environment, Musk said at the Tesla TSLA shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, where he spoke for nearly two hours on a wide range of topics.

The macroeconomic environment will be difficult for at least the next 12 months, Musk said. A turnaround, however, would come in the following 12 months, and long-term investors in Tesla will do extremely well, he said.

A shareholder in the audience asked about rumors that Musk would be about to step down as CEO, ending with say it aint so. Musk responded with it aint so, but offered no further details.

The executive also surprised the audience by saying that Tesla, which famously has eschewed traditional advertising, will now do it. We will try advertising and see how it goes, he said.

Musk teased two new products to be unveiled in the future, and promised more details at a yet-to-be-detailed launch event. The unnamed products would be head and shoulders above anything else currently in the market, he said.

Tesla has been working on a next-generation vehicle that would be cheaper than its current offerings, but nothing has been detailed.

Musk promised a revamp for the Tesla Roadster in 2024, although he said that wasnt a firm commitment. A new Roadster will not be a huge contributor to revenue, but it will be sick, he said.

The CEOs remarks were largely upbeat, to the applause of the shareholders at the event. Musk also spoke about autonomous driving and Teslas plans for alternative energy, and confirmed the Cybertruck, Teslas electric pickup truck which has been delayed a couple of times, is on track to be sold this year.

We will make as many as people want them eventually, but the production ramp will be slow at first, he said.

See also: Rivian, Lucid and Fisker navigate a treacherous road as they struggle to match Teslas success

Earlier, a preliminary tally indicated that shareholders voted yes on the proposals endorsed by the company, including approving the nomination of former Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel to the board.

Some shareholders had questioned Straubels nomination, saying that Teslas board already had too many ties with Musk.

A failed proposal, which had been introduced in previous years and called for a third-party audit into Teslas cobalt supply chain to prevent child and forced labor, ended up being embraced by Musk.

You know what, we will do a third-party audit, although he said that Tesla products dont use that much cobalt.

Tesla shares gained 1.2% in after-hours trading. So far this year, Tesla has gained 35%, compared with gains of around 7% for the S&P 500 index SPX .

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Tesla's Elon Musk expects 'a year of difficulty' for the global economy - MarketWatch

Elon Musk is asking a panel of judges if he can ditch his court-ordered Twitter Sitter for Tesla-related posts saying it chills his free speech -…

A lawyer for Elon Musk asked a federal appeals court in New York to throw out his 2018 agreement with US regulators requiring a Tesla Inc. lawyer to screen all his company-related Twitter posts, calling it an illegal limitation on his free-speech rights.

Musk, Teslas chief executive officer and now the owner of Twitter Inc., has claimed that the agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission violates the First Amendment to the Constitution and that the SEC is harassing him.

The requirement chills Mr. Musks speech, limiting his ability to make statements about Tesla that dont violate any securities laws, Ellyde R. Thompson, an attorney representing the Tesla CEO, told the panel.

Last year, US District Judge Lewis Liman refused to release Musk from the deal and end his Twitter Sitter requirement, saying the CEO was simply bemoaning that he felt like he had to agree to it at the time and now wishes that he had not. Liman also denied Musks effort to block an SEC subpoena seeking information on his tweets.

Thompson on Thursday asked a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Manhattan to reverse the ruling and throw out the deal, or at least modify it.

The pre-approval provision is a classic prior restraint that the Constitution forbids: a government-imposed muzzle on Mr. Musks speech before it is made, Musks legal team said in court papers.

Musk has been battling with the SEC over his social media posts since he tweeted in 2018 that he had funding secured to take Tesla private, sending shares of the electric-car maker surging. The regulator sued, claiming Musk and Tesla had misled shareholders. Musk and Tesla settled with the SEC, with each paying $20 million and agreeing that Musks Tesla-related tweets would be reviewed before he posts them.

In his decision, Liman ruled that Musk willingly waived his First Amendment right to tweet without restraint, a finding Musk denied in his appeal brief.

Mr. Musk could not possibly have known the circumstances and consequences of the pre-approval provision because the provision applies to future speech about circumstances no one could anticipate in advance, his lawyers wrote. But even if he did waive his rights, such a waiver is invalid and unenforceable, they said.

Jeffrey Berger, arguing for the SEC, told the judges there have been no significant changes since Musk agreed to screen his Tesla tweets and that the CEO had failed to show the deal has become onerous or unworkable.

Those are the terms to which he agreed, Berger said.

Musk may no longer wish to comply with the preapproval process, and he may find it inconvenient at times, but he agreed to its terms and has not demonstrated any change in circumstances that makes it substantially more onerous or unworkable, the SEC said in its appeal brief.

The regulator called Musks harassment claim a significant exaggeration.

There is no government censor here, Berger told the panel. There is an agreement that Tesla will review its CEOs communications before they become public. The agreement here does not preclude him from speaking about any topic.

The case is US Securities and Exchange Commission v. Musk, 22-1291, Second US Circuit Court of Appeals (Manhattan).

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Elon Musk is asking a panel of judges if he can ditch his court-ordered Twitter Sitter for Tesla-related posts saying it chills his free speech -...

Elon Musk says hes found a new CEO to lead Twitter – PBS NewsHour

SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard (not pictured) at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 13, 2019. Photo by Mike Blake/REUTERS

Elon Musk said Thursday he has found a new CEO for Twitter, or X Corp. as it's now called and it's a woman. He did not name her but said she will be starting in about six weeks.

Musk,who bought Twitter last fall and has been running it since, has long insisted he is not the company's permanent CEO. The Tesla billionaire said in a tweet Thursday that his role will transition to being Twitter's executive chairman and chief technology officer.

In mid-November, just a few weeks after buying the social media platform for $44 billion, he told a Delaware court that he does not want to be the CEO of any company.

While testifying, Musk said "I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time."

More than a month later, he tweeted in December: "I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job."The pledge came after millions of Twitter usersasked him to step down in a Twitter poll the billionaire himself created and promised to abide by.

In February, he told a conference he anticipated finding a CEO for San Francisco-based Twitter "probably toward the end of this year."

READ MORE: Twitter quietly removes policy against deadnaming transgender people

Analysts who follow Twitter's business welcomed the news even without knowing who the replacement will be. Twitter's advertising business has taken a hit under Musk's mercurial rule, though the billionaire told BBC last month that the company is now "roughly" breaking even.

"A new CEO is the only way forward for Twitter," said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg. "The single biggest problem with Twitter's ad business was Elon Musk. As he steps back, Twitter can begin to unravel Musk's personal brand from the company's corporate image and attempt to regain trust among advertisers. The success of those efforts will depend on who takes over, but it's difficult to imagine that the new CEO could be more controversial or damaging to Twitter's ad business than Musk has been."

Shares of Tesla rose about 2 percent Thursday after Musk made the announcement. Shareholders of the electric car company have been concerned about how much of his attention is being spent on Twitter.

Last November, he was questioned in court about how he splits his time among Tesla and his other companies, including SpaceX and Twitter. Muskhad to testify in the trial in Delaware's Court of Chanceryover a shareholder's challenge to his potentially $55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electric car company.

Musk said he never intended to be CEO of Tesla, and that he didn't want to be chief executive of any other companies either, preferring to see himself as an engineer. Musk also said at the time that he expected an organizational restructuring of Twitter to be completed in the next week or so. It's been nearly six months since he said that.

Musk's tenure at Twitter's helm has been chaotic, and he's made various promises and proclamations he's backtracked or never followed up on. He began his first day firing the company's top executives, followed by roughly 80 percent of its staff. He's upended the platform's verification system and has scaled back content moderation and safeguards against the spread of misinformation.

Bantering with Twitter followers late last year, Musk expressed pessimism about the prospects for a new CEO, saying that person "must like pain a lot" to run a company that "has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy."

"No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor," Musk tweeted at the time.

Left: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard (not pictured) at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 13, 2019. Photo by Mike Blake/REUTERS

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Elon Musk says hes found a new CEO to lead Twitter - PBS NewsHour

Tucker Carlson Beats BTSAnd Taylor Swift, Elon MuskOn Twitter – Forbes

Topline

Tucker Carlsons video announcement earlier this week he would host a show on Twittertwo weeks after the former controversial Fox News host was ousted by the networkbecame the top-performing post on Twitter for the week, beating out Taylor Swift, Elon Musk and others.

Carlsons tweet Tuesdaywhich reads, Were backhas accumulated more than 194,000 retweets and 891,500 likes as of 2:30 p.m. EST Saturday, the most in either category for the week ending on May 13.

Carlson, who parted ways with Fox News after 14 years, announced the return of his primetime news show on the platform with a video accompanying the tweet, suggesting there are limits to the stories that can be told on TV.

The tweet outperformed K-Pop superstars BTSa photo of member Min Yoon-giwhich totaled over 176,600 retweets and 530,600 likes, though the post has been up for less than 24 hours.

Carlson also beat out Taylor Swift, who periodically posted updates from her Eras Tour, with her most-liked post totaling more than 56,000 retweets and 463,400 likes.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk also fell below Carlson, with a tweet announcing Twitters new CEONBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarinototaling over 36,100 retweets and 408,000 likes.

1,088,201. Thats how many likes Swift received for a tweet announcing a re-recording of her 2010 album Speak Now, as the top-performing tweet last week.

Despite Carlsons announcement, Musk tweeted the social media platform had not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever with Carlson, adding, Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators.

Carlson, who was promoted to Fox News primetime slot in 2016 after first joining the network in 2009, agreed to part ways with the company late last monththough it has since been confirmed through multiple accounts that he was fired from the network. A text message sent by Carlson to one of his shows producers describing a video of three Trump supporters attacking a personnoting he thought it was dishonorable obviously and that was not how white men fightset off a panic among Foxs leadership, according to the New York Times. Carlson also wrote he was rooting for the mob against the man, hoping theyd hit him harder, kill himI could taste it. The message prompted an investigation by an outside law firm into Carlsons conduct, which resulted in his dismissal from the network. Carlson was previously criticized for promoting white supremacist beliefswhich Carlson suggested was not a real problem in the U.S.causing the Anti-Defamation League to condemn him 2021.

Tucker Carlson Will Launch Show On Twitter (Forbes)

Tucker Carlsons Not How White Men Fight Text Led To Firing, Report Says (Forbes)

Tucker Carlson Suddenly Out At Fox News (Forbes)

I cover breaking news for Forbes. Before Forbes, I worked as a reporter for USA Today in Asheville and Black Mountain, North Carolina.

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Tucker Carlson Beats BTSAnd Taylor Swift, Elon MuskOn Twitter - Forbes

‘Free speech opportunist’ Elon Musk censored tweets in Turkey – Business Insider

Twitter CEO Elon Musk is seen on stage sa he speaks at the POSSIBLE marketing conference, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in Miami Beach, Fla. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

Elon Musk's reputation as a free speech absolutist took another hit on Saturday after Twitter sided with the Turkish government and censored the accounts of political opponents ahead of a contentious election.

In an announcement posted Friday evening, at approximately 6 a.m. in the country, Twitter's official Global Government Affairs account declared the platform would "restrict access to some content in Turkey" in response to legal requests made of the social media site.

Turkey's presidential election the most closely contested in years, The Washington Post reported is set for May 14.

"The day before a critical election in Turkey, Twitter appears to be acquiescing to the demands of the country's autocratic ruler, Erdogan, and is censoring speech on the platform," California Representative Adam Schiff tweeted in response to the news. "Given Twitter's total lack of transparency, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Musk's promises of free speech have again fallen away."

Schiff's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The details of the legal request and which specific accounts were targeted were not made public. Still, Dr. Turulcan Elmas, a postdoctoral researcher focusing on social media manipulation at Indiana University Bloomington, told Insider he tracked roughly a half dozen accounts posting content related to the Turkish election that had been suspended.

According to Elmas, accounts chosen for restriction were some the Turkish government has traditionally targeted because they had ties to political opposition or whistleblowers who have been critical of the country's right-wing leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

One account, that of Kurdish businessman Muhammed Yakut, was among those restricted. Yakut had previously shared information about Erdogan's governmental dealings and alleged the Turkish leader had been involved in the disappearance of his son-in-law, Turkish Minute reported last week.

Yakut had also hinted at sharing background information before the election related to a failed 2016 coup in the country, Turkish Minute reported on Saturday, insinuating that Erdogan and his allies had staged the whole thing.

While Yakut and other political opponents were censored, Elmas noted, one troll account known for impersonating a whistleblower named Ali Yeilda was not removed from Twitter despite impersonation being against the platform's terms of service and the account posting fake nude photos of politicians in Turkey that oppose Erdogan.

The troll account not being banned, Elmas hypothesized, is reason to believe the account may be tied to the Turkish government as a propaganda tool, used to discredit Erdogan's opponents by painting them out to be blackmailing each other.

"The fact that the government didn't censor this account is kind of evidence of a false flag operation," Elmas said.

Elmas told Insider that the four or five targeted accounts restricted on the social media site likely would not impact the election outcome since targeted users could still post content to YouTube and Facebook or use a VPN to avoid an IP-address-based ban.

"I think Twitter takes this path because the government demanded it," Elmas said. "I think they also think that these bans can all be easily circumvented, so blocking accounts isn't impactful, so they can just say yes to the government."

Since his takeover last year, Musk's Twitter has complied with more than 80% of government requests for censorship or surveillance of users, according to a report by the technology publication Rest of World up from a compliance rate of about 50% before his leadership.

Observers were quick to seize on Musk's decision to throttle Twitter accounts at the behest of the Turkish government, which has become more authoritarian since Erdogan took power in 2014, with some Twitter users declaring Musk a "free speech opportunist" in response to the news.

Musk, who has touted the social platform as a public town square, did not take kindly to the criticism.

"The Turkish government asked Twitter to censor its opponents right before an election and @elonmusk complied," Matt Yglesias, a Bloomberg columnist, tweeted on Saturday, prompting Musk to fire back in defense of his decision.

"Did your brain fall out of your head, Yglesias?" Musk replied. "The choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirety or limit access to some tweets. Which one do you want?"

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, chimed in on the thread, saying: "What Wikipedia did: we stood strong for our principles and fought to the Supreme Court of Turkey and won. This is what it means to treat freedom of expression as a principle rather than a slogan."

Wikipedia was banned in Turkey from 2017 to 2020 over an article about state-sponsored terrorism, where the country was described as a sponsor of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda terrorist groups. After a lengthy legal battle escalated to the country's highest court, the Turkish block of Wikipedia was lifted in January 2020.

Defenders of Musk were quick to label Wales' comparison to Wikipedia as a false equivalency because the encyclopedia site operates as a nonprofit, while Twitter is a for-profit business to which Wales responded: "If Elon is now saying "We don't care about freedom of expression if it interferes with making money" then he should just say that."

Twitter's decision to throttle access to accounts from Turkey comes as Musk's business ties to the country have solidified following increasing communication between Erdogan and Musk, Elmas noted, based on news coverage of their interactions.

The pair first met in 2017, Forbes reported, before sitting down in 2021 to discuss lithium batteries for electric vehicles and launching satellites. That year, Turkey signed its deal with SpaceX to launch its domestically produced communications satellite, Trksat 6A. In 2022, per Forbes, Musk and Erdogan shook hands at the World Cup.

Last month, after years of delays, Turkey's first domestic and national observation satellite was launched into space with the help of a Falcon 9 rocket created by Musk's company, SpaceX, local news outlet Trkiye Newspaper reported.While the deal's financial details remain unclear, Space.com noted that a single Falcon 9 rocket flight costs roughly $62 million.

In February, Musk and Erdogan were also in contact after Turkey declined Musk's offer to activate Starlink capabilitiesin the region after a deadly earthquake rattled the country and left more than 40,000 people dead. The country's communications systems were not disrupted to the point of needing the Starlink system, Insider previously reported.

Twitterwas blocked in the region for about 12 hours following the earthquake, Scientific American reported, amid Turkey's concerns of disinformation circulating on the platform. However, the outage may have hampered the initial emergency response.

"I'm sure this is just a coincidence," users on Twitter posted, some sarcastically,circulating news of Musk's business dealings with Turkey. In contrast, others argued his ties with the authoritarian country were evidence that the self-styled free speech icon "may not be cheap, but he is for sale."

Musk and representatives for Twitter, SpaceX, and the Republic of Turkey did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

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'Free speech opportunist' Elon Musk censored tweets in Turkey - Business Insider