Mediaboss Marketing

Since acquiring the company now known as X, Elon Musk has claimed that his social media platform would be one where free speech ideals reigned supreme. In August 2023, Musk went so far as declaring that he would financially support any user who was punished for their speech on X.

"If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill," Musk said. "No limit. Please let us know."

This past Sunday, X seemingly shared an example of one such case.

"X is proud to help defend Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill against the government-supported efforts to cancel her speech," X said, going on to say they would pay the remainder of the doctor's $300,000 legal bills. Gill had previously posted that she had raised around half of the amount herself through a crowdfunding campaign, meaning X was going to fund the estimated remainder of $150,000.

However, Musk and company left out an important, glaring detail that seems to run contrary to his stated "free speech" beliefs: The lawsuit that Gill lost was one that she filed in an attempt to silence critics from saying things she did not like.

Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill is a Canadian physician who published posts in 2020 on X, then Twitter, that presented her COVID vaccine-skepticism and anti-lockdown beliefs in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, in one tweet that Gill posted in August 2020, she said, "If you have not yet figured out that we don't need a vaccine, you are not paying attention. #FactsNotFear."

Gill's posts were highly criticized by the medical community and were covered by journalists with mainstream news outlets.

As a result, Gill sued 23 doctors, journalists, and news outlets, claiming defamation. Some of the individuals that she sued were ones who had posted their criticism in direct response to her on the social media platform X.

The judge dismissed the lawsuit under anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law, deeming that the suit was an attempt by Gill to silence her critics' speech. Gill was ordered to pay the defendants' legal fees, a judgment of $300,000.

According to X's official statement on its support for Gill, "Elon Musk learned earlier this week about her crowdfunding campaign to pay the judgment," and that's when he pledged to help.

In its post, X claims that "free speech is the bedrock of democracy and a critical defense against totalitarianism in all forms" and that "we must do whatever we can to protect it."

"At X, we will always fight to protect your right to speak freely," X's statement ends.

However, X leaves out critical information about this case that makes their position contrary to Musk and company's stated beliefs.

X claims in its statement that Gill was "harassed by the legacy media, censored by prior Twitter management, and subjected to investigations and disciplinary proceedings by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario."

But it was Gill who filed the lawsuit, in an attempt to stifle speech she didn't like, which included posts from her critics on then-Twitter.

Also, while the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), a regulatory medical body, did "caution" Gill over her COVID posts, those are intended to be educational or remedial measures, not punitive. Gill did not lose her medical license. (In addition, the CPSO was not involved in Gill's lawsuit.)

But, X's actions here shouldn't be too surprising. Musk and company just lost a lawsuit of their own also struck down under anti-SLAPP law one day after it announced their financial support for Gill. In that case, X sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit that tracks hate speech online, over reports regarding X that Musk did not like.

"In support of your right to speak," Musk commented earlier this week regarding X's financial help for Gill.

But, it doesn't seem that Musk extends that "right to speak" to Gill's or X's critics.

Go here to read the rest:

Elon Musk's X to pay fees to support Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill after failed lawsuit - Mashable

Photo: Rebecca Cook ( Reuters)

A prototype of the Lotus-based Tesla Roadster was first revealed by Tesla in July 2006, before deliveries began two years later; the first recipient of the Roadster was Musk in February 2008. By the next month, regular production was up and running

The Roadster was Teslas first-ever electric vehicle or product in general and was a major milestone for the company and a watershed for the new era of electric vehicles, according to then-CEO Zeev Drori. Drori took over as chief executive in 2007, after Musk pushed for Eberhard to step down.

Tesla sold 2,450 Roadsters for $109,000 each until the line was discontinued in January 2012. Known celebrity buyers include actors such as George Clooney and Matt Damon, musicians like Michael Flea Balzary of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Will.i.am., and former California governor and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Tesla is set to unveil a second-generation Roadster by the end of the year, with production scheduled for 2025, according to Musk. Hes boasted that it will have rocket technology used by his other venture, SpaceX.

Read more here:

The history of Elon Musk's Tesla - Quartz

Is Dogecoin poised for a moonshot rally?

The meme coin rally were seeing kick off 2024 is really reminiscent of some of the hype-driven speculation we saw during peak euphoria in 2021. Today, Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) is surging, up by more than 5% as well as more than 95% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis. This rally still has a long ways to go to replicate 2021. However, plenty of speculators appear to be putting leveraged long bets on this dog-inspired crypto, just in case DOGE does shoot higher.

Much of the recent optimism around Dogecoin appears to stem from rumors that Elon Musk could integrate the cryptocurrency as a key payment method for his social media platform X (formerly Twitter). This speculation comes after Musk reportedly commented that the circle will be complete to X user DogeDesigner, who depicted the CEOs former payments platform X merging with the social media platform.

Of course, plenty of speculation around such an implementation is likely already baked into Dogecoins current value. However, todays rise may indicate that investors are warming to the idea.

Lets dive into what to make of these rumors.

Rumors are just exactly that rumors. Speculation continues to be the core driver of Dogecoins valuation, so any suggestion that DOGE could be utilized in some grand way by the Dogefather himself Elon Musk is going to be enough to spark intraday rallies.

Elon Musk himself has stated that he owns Dogecoin, although he hasnt specified how much or whether he has held onto the digital token. That said, Musk appears to have a vested interest in the DOGE community, continuing to provide Easter eggs for those willing to search for reasons to get bulled up on this Shiba Inu-inspired crypto.

Dogecoin is generally considered the grandfather of meme tokens, created as a joke more than a decade ago to represent the outrageous nature of how high cryptos can go based on little more than a meme. Elon Musk has taken this narrative to the next level, continuing to fan the flames.

Well have to see whether Dogecoins fiery surge can erupt into a full bore blaze, or if things will fizzle out over time. But one can be reasonably assured that Musks focus on the most entertaining outcome will provide plenty of volatility as we observe DOGE in the coming weeks and months.

On the date of publication, Chris MacDonald did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.

Chris MacDonalds love for investing led him to pursue an MBA in Finance and take on a number of management roles in corporate finance and venture capital over the past 15 years. His experience as a financial analyst in the past, coupled with his fervor for finding undervalued growth opportunities, contribute to his conservative, long-term investing perspective.

Link:

Elon Musk Is Sparking Yet Another Bull Run in Dogecoin - InvestorPlace

In countries with slow, unreliable, and in some cases censored internet service, SpaceXs Starlink satellite internet terminals are reportedly being used and traded on the black market even in places where Elon Musks space company has no agreement to operate.

Is Bitcoin a good speculative investment?

Starlink terminals are being used and traded illegally in countries including Yemen, Sudan, and Venezuela, Bloomberg reports. Amid the civil war in Yemen, people are dependent on Starlink for business and personal communications, a government official told the news outlet. In war-torn Sudan, Western diplomats told Bloomberg that the Rapid Support Forces a paramilitary group that has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity have used Starlink for logistics. A Starlink trader in Kazakhstan told Bloomberg that the price for the internet terminals went up on the black market after a government crackdown on illegal sales. And in Venezuela, which has faced U.S. sanctions under its authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, Starlink terminals are reportedly being sold and promoted on social media ads.

It is deeply concerning because its unregulated and headed by a private company, Emma Shortis, a senior researcher in international and security affairs at the Australia Institute, told Bloomberg. Theres no accountability on who has access to it and how its being used.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.

In February, Ukraines military agency said intercepted radio indicated that Russian troops in occupied parts of the country were using Starlink satellites. Andriy Yusov, a Defense Intelligence agency spokesperson, said the use of Starlink terminals by Russian troops is growing and starting to become systemic. Ukraine received thousands of Starlink terminals in March 2022 after Russias invasion.

Both Musk, SpaceXs CEO, and the Kremlin denied Ukraines claims. Musk called the reports categorically false, writing on his social media site X that, To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there is not a certified system with us; accordingly, it cannot be officially supplied here and is not officially supplied and therefore cannot be used officially in any way.

After the denials by Musk and the Kremlin, Ukraines military agency released an audio recording that it said was an intercepted radio transmission of Russian soldiers discussing buying Starlink terminals from Arab countries.

View post:

Elon Musk's Starlink terminals are showing up in Yemen, Sudan, and other hotspots: 'No accountability' - Quartz

Premium subscribers of all tiers for the X social media platform will soon gain access to its generative AI chatbot, Grok. Previously, the chatbot was only accessible to users who subscribed to the most expensive subscription tier, Premium+, for $16 a month (approximately 12 or AU$25). Thats set to change, with Xs owner Elon Musk announcing the expansion of availability to the large language model (LLM) to Basic Tier and Premium Tier X users in a post.

Grok has been made open-source, reportedly to allow researchers and developers to leverage Groks capabilities for their own projects and research. If youre interested in checking out its code, you can check out the Grok-1 repository on GitHub. Its the first major offering from Musks own AI venture, xAI.

As Dev Technosys, a mobile app and web development company, explains, Grok is Musks head-on challenge to ChatGPT, with the billionaire boasting that it beat ChatGPT 3.5 on multiple benchmarks. Musk describes the chatbot as having a focus on deep understanding and humor, and replying to questions with a rebellious streak. The model is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, including real-time text from X posts (which is what Musk points to as giving the bot a unique advantage), and text data scraped from across the web such as Wikipedia articles and academic papers.

Some industry observers think that this could be a push to boost X subscriber numbers, as analysis performed by Sensor Tower and reported by NBC indicates that visitors to the platform and user retention have been dropping. This has seemingly spooked many advertisers and hit the platforms revenues, with apparently 75 of the top 100 US advertisers cutting X from their ad budgets entirely from October 2022 onwards.

It does look like Musk is hoping that an exclusive perk like access to such a well-informed and entertaining chatbot as Grok will convince people to become subscribers, and to keep those who are already subscribed.

Earlier this year, Musk leveled a lawsuit against what is undoubtedly Groks largest competitor and the current industry leader in generative AI, OpenAI. He was an early investor in the company but departed after disagreements about several aspects, including the mission and vision for OpenAI, as well as control and equity in the company. Now, Musk asserts that OpenAI has diverted from its non-profit goals and is prioritizing corporate profits, particularly for Microsoft (a key investor and collaborator), above its other objectives - violating a contract called the Founding Agreement.

According to Musk, the Founding Agreement laid down specific principles and commitments that OpenAI had agreed to follow. OpenAI has responded to this accusation by denying such a contract, or any similar agreement, existed with Musk at all. Its overall response to the lawsuit so far has been dismissive, characterizing it as frivolous and alleging that Musk is driven by his own business interests.

Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team.

Apparently, it was established from early on by OpenAI that the company would transition into being a for-profit organization, as it wouldnt be able to raise the funds necessary to build the sorts of things it was planning to as a non-profit company. OpenAI claims Musk was not only aware of these plans and was consulted when they were being made, but that he was seeking to have majority equity in OpenAI, wanted to control the board of directors at the time, and wanted to assume the position of CEO.

Musk didnt give an exact date for Groks wider rollout, but according to Tech Crunch, its due sometime at the end of this week. Having seen what Musk considers funny, many people are morbidly curious about what sort of artificial intelligence Grok offers. One other aspect of Grok that might concern (or please, depending on your point of view) people is that it will respond to queries and topics that have been made off-limits for the most part with other chatbots, including controversial political ideas and conspiracy theories.

The sourcing from X in real-time is one unique advantage that Grok has, although before Musks takeover, this would have arguably been a much bigger prize.

Despite my misgivings, Grok does give users another option of chatbot to choose from, and more competition in this emerging field could spur on more innovation as companies battle to win users.

Original post:

Elon Musk brings controversial AI chatbot Grok to more X users in bid to halt exodus - TechRadar