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If youve been on Twitter over the last week, you probably noticed that all those blue verification check marks are gone. Thats because Twitter CEO and totally smart business man who didnt benefit from his fathers South Africa apartheid-era emerald mine Elon Musk killed that feature on the memeworthy day of 4/20. You know, because hes totally edgy and funny.

Well, that decision alone has caused numerous celebrities and public figures to say fuck this and leave the platform all together, since no more verification means people can easily create impostor accounts since it now only costs $8 a month to do that. And while a lot of it is from actors and other celebrities, ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy said hes done for good since hes not going to subscribe to Twitter Blue just for a check mark.

With Twitter now stripping everybody of them and enabling anybody to simply buy one and pretend to be anybody with no verification, I think its time to bounce from here to avoid any possible confusion or mistaken identity. I will still be using my Instagram and Facebook with daily posts and content so please follow me over there where you can be certain it is actually me posting.

Naturally, this resulted in people coming out of the woodwork to defend boy genius Musk or cry about some political attack that Portnoy was leveling (even though he wasnt). As the vitriol came pouring in, Portnoy pointed to those comments as another reason why he was leaving the platform.

Wow some of these comments (even attacks) are pretty incredible!! Almost comical. I assumed it was obvious I could care less about paying $8 (or however much) for a Blue Check its not even about me having one or not its more about the fact that any 13 yr [old] kid with 18 followers can simply buy one!! It defeats the entire purpose of what verified accounts once meant.

And honestly, reading some of these tweets is another reason Im just not that into this place anymore. Im not making any sort of political statement its just personal taste. Just too toxic for me.

I figured I at least owed my followers a heads up that I was bailing from here but will still be on FB & IG rather than just ghosting everyone! Anyways, if the policies here ever change a bit who knows, maybe Ill come back someday. Just letting you know I wont be posting any updates here for now.

Support of Twitter Blue has been lackluster to say the least. Not only has Musk been offering money of the celebrity icons, even though they may not want them at all, but its also rumored that theyve sold maybe a few dozen subscriptions since its launch, which is abysmal for a massive multinational corporation.

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Mike Portnoy Quit Twitter Because of Elon Musk's Totally Smart and ... - MetalSucks

Elon Musk is getting the last laugh as his ultra-ambitious prediction about the Tesla Model Y becoming the best-selling car in the world has come true.

People often like to poke fun at Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his predictions that didnt turn out to be true, and rightfully so, especially for things like his self-driving timeline. But we also have to give credit where credit is due.

Before Tesla ever brought the Model Y to market in 2020, Musk made some bold predictions about how popular the vehicle would become. Musk said that he anticipated Model Y demand would be about twice as high as the demand for the Model 3, which was already the best-selling electric car at the time.

Back in 2016, the CEO estimated the demand for the Model Ybetween 500,000 and 1,000,000 units per year. That was four years before the vehicle was even released. Musk went so far as to predict that the Model Y would become the best-selling car globally.

Last year, Tesla announced that the electric SUV was on track to catch up to the Toyota Corolla, which has around 1,150,000 sales per year.

With Teslas earnings coming tomorrow, we expect the automaker to give an update on that goal. Early numbers for Q1 2023 indicate that the Tesla Model Y is on track to be the best-selling car this year.

Data coming from China indicates that the Model Y took the top spot in China in the first quarter beating the BYD Song Plus, a PHEV, and VW and Nissans best-selling ICE cars. Considering China is the biggest auto market in the world, it bodes well for Tesla.

Furthermore, in the US, the worlds second-biggest auto market, early registration data shows that Model Y is leading for passenger cars, ahead of the Toyota RAV4 and Nissan Rogue though the final data is not in yet.

Data coming from Europe also shows Teslas electric SUV leading in several markets, thanks to the ramp-up to 5,000 units per week at Gigafactory Berlin.

Across the four factories that produce the Tesla Model Y, the automaker is expected to achieve approximately 1.5 million units in annual production capacity.

Between that production capacity, the price cuts to the Model Y earlier this year, and the performance in Q1, it looks like Tesla is on track to have the best-selling passenger car in the world.

This is truly incredible. An all-electric car is about to become the worlds best-selling passenger car.

Many people, including people considered to be automotive industry experts, scoffed at Elon Musks prediction that the Model Y would achieve that goal.

You have to give credit where credit is due. He saw the potential, and he was right.

Congrats to everyone involved in engineering, designing, producing, selling, and servicing the Model Y. Its quite an achievement, especially if its maintained throughout the whole year, which I think is likely considering the prices and current production rate.

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Elon Musk to get the last laugh as ultra-ambitious Tesla Model Y ... - Electrek

April 24, 2023 8:58 AM | 2 min read

Elon Musk discussed a fictional drug called Soma featured in "Brave New World" a dystopian novel written by Aldous Huxley over the weekend.

What Happened: Musk's comments were made in response to a post on Twitter by the handle "Oldbooksguy," who shares "new ideas from old books."

Musk said that the "public [is] heavily medicated" in response to the tweet. The Twitter owner said, "Did you know that Soma is a real drug? Takes away pain, but dulls your mind."

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Why It Matters: Musk didnt give further clarity. One possibility is he was referring to Carisoprodol, which is sold under the brand name Soma.

The drug is prescribed for musculoskeletal pain with side effects like drowsiness and dizziness, according to Drugs.com.

In Brave New World, the government encourages citizens to take the fictional Soma because it views unhappiness as opposed to social stability.

Varying doses of the drug are dished out with effects ranging from bringing calm to inducing hallucinations.

This is not the first time Musk has made comments on drugs. In 2021, he shared his opinion on psychedelic substances and said people should be "open" to them.

He said at the time that people making laws were from a "different era."

"As the new generation gets into political power, I think we will see greater receptivity to the benefits of psychedelics."

Read Next: Elon Musk Calls Banning Drugs A Net Societal Negative, Just Like Dumb Alcohol Prohibition

This illustration was generated using artificial intelligence via MidJourney.

2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Elon Musk Says This Fictional Opioid Is Real: 'Takes Away Pain, But Dulls Your Mind' - Benzinga

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has sparked concern the social media platform could see an increase in misinformation and propaganda after the company stopped tagging some accounts as "government-funded" media or China or Russia "state-affiliated" media.

Last November, after acquiring Twitter, Musk tweeted that Twitter needed to become "by far the most accurate source of information about the world".

The platform soon introduced context tabs for some tweets. These tabs would give a deeper explanation of a topic related to the tweet and in some cases identify false information.

One feature that was introduced that received both condemnation and praise was the Twitter information tags on profiles. This would identify profiles that were government-funded, or considered state-affiliated so Twitter users understood the wider context of the views they expressed.

According to a Reuters report, Twitter has, in part, dropped this feature. Some profiles that previously had "government-funded", "China state-affiliated" or "Russia state-affiliated" have had the labels removed.

Social Media Lab, a research laboratory at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada, referred to a move by Twitter this month to label public broadcaster Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as "69% government funded media".

"After making a show of labeling @cbc as '69% government-funded media,' the label is now gone. But what's more troubling is the fact that, overnight, Twitter has also quietly deleted labels from many state-run propaganda outlets of authoritarian regimes such as RT, Sputnik & CCCTV," it said on Twitter.

Twitter user @MrSeanHaines shared screenshots of multiple Twitter profiles that previously had China state-affiliated media tags and highlighted his concerns.

He wrote sarcastically: "I'm sure none will go back to hiding their employers, pretending to be humble journalists/influencers, right. Right?

The user, describing themselves on Twitter as being "ex-China state media", also shared comments CGTN journalist Li Jingjing made about being considered China-state affiliated media.

In one of her previous tweets: Jingjing said: "I also wear [China state-affiliated media] as a badge of honor.

"Because, despite the shadowban this tag brings, people who are tired of US mainstream media propaganda want to come to my page even more to hear a Chinese perspective."

A follow-up tweet appeared to show Jingjing celebrating the label being removed, however.

MrSeanHaines showed other profiles that had previously had China state-affiliation requesting Musk remove the feature or celebrating when it was removed.

Freelance journalist Oliya Scootercaster also highlighted that profiles that previously were aligned with Russian-state media have had their tag removed.

Sharing images of the tags removed, she captioned the pictures: "TASS and RT, a Russia government-run 'news' channels had their 'state-affiliated' and 'government-funded' labels removed on Twitter. NPR and BBC newly slapped-on labels are no longer present either."

Newsweek has contacted Twitter via email for comment.

Last week, during a BBC interview, Musk said Twitter was trying to be as accurate as possible but was looking into amending the label, following complaints from some individuals and companies.

Speaking specifically about the BBC being deemed "government-funded,"a label the broadcaster objected tohe said: "Our goal is simply to be as truthful and accurate as possible. We're adjusting the label to be 'publicly funded', which I think is perhaps not too objectionable.

James Rubin, a coordinator for the Global Engagement Center, a state department body set up to identify and counter foreign propaganda and disinformation, has previously raised his concerns about Chinese and Russian propaganda spreading.

Speaking during a European tour in late February, according to a Guardian report, he said: "The well has been poisoned by Chinese and Russian disinformationit's pernicious.

"We as a nation and the West have been slow to respond and it is a fair judgment that we are facing a very, very large challenge.

"In the communication space, the alignment between China and Russia is near complete."

He also commented on how this propaganda push is seen elsewhere in the world.

He said: "For some African countries, for some Asian countries, Ukraine is a war far away. They believe that they don't get enough attention from the West, period, all of them. That makes some of them look at this war through that lens."

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Elon Musk Just Handed China and Russia a Huge Boost - Newsweek

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Elon Musk, like other tech peers, is wary of middle managers.

Growing up, I watched my dad cycle through several careers, from being a distributor of polyvinyl flooring to an independent bookseller. He called himself a salesman but Ive always thought his greatest job skill was managing a sales team, which he did for several global carpet companies. On car trips, wed listen to him reassure Helena, joke with Bob, debate tactics with Stan, and quote Winston Churchill to cheer up Mel. Textile tycoon Roger Milliken was celebrated as the boss whod tried to best Des Brady in a quote battle. At night, Id fall asleep to the sound of him telling my mom stories about the quirks and characters of office life.

With his dry Scottish wit and vague distrust of authority, my father wasnt what youd call a Company Man. The words private beach were practically marching orders to trespass. But his curiosity, competitive spirit and desire to help people get where they wanted to go made him a great manager.

Middle management is a tough place to be these days. Long before the pandemic even started, they were the unhappiest employees in most companies. Now, they have to deal with layoffs, tighter budgets, and pressure to meet their numbers while attending to the emotional wellbeing of people who may still be working from their bedrooms. Oh, and their boss thinks a bot could do their job.

I believe in the value of the middle manager, as do management thinkers like McKinseys Bill Schaninger, who believes theyre critical in driving large-scale organizational change. He is co-authoring a new book on the topic that will be out this summer and will be speaking at our upcoming Future of Work Summit on June 1st the day after hell be retiring from McKinsey to start his new adventure. In a recent article, Schaninger and colleagues argue that middle managers are less a symptom of bureaucracy than victims of it.

Managers are an especially vulnerable species in Silicon Valley, where startups often fumble from Lord-of-the-Flies-like chaos to plush seating and a plethora of cool new titles once the money comes in. (Time Ninja, youll be across the hall from our Dream Alchemist and Chief Happiness Engineer.) When the headwinds come, those who measure excellence in lines of code might look at that middle layer as a cost center to cut.

Exhibit A is Metas Mark Zuckerberg, who declared 2023 to be a Year of Efficiency a telling signal when the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp already laid off 11,000 people the year before. Indeed, the company plans to close 5,000 open roles this year and lay off an additional 10,000 people, possibly starting today.

In a Q&A with employees earlier this year, reported in Command Line, Zuckerberg said, "I don't think you want a management structure that's just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work."

That sounds like a Dystopian nightmare, or a sign that the Meta CEO may not be clear on what a number of his people actually do. Then again, this is a leader who equates being well understood with complacency, which cant have helped morale.

The same could be said of Elon Musk, who came into Twitter, tweeting that there seem to be 10 people managing for every one person coding.

Was the new Twitter CEO confusing functions like sales or, say, compliance with management? Possibly. He tends to recognize excellence in a form that reminds him of himself, which may explain why he says its hard to find people to delegate to. Musk also believes every manager should have the technical skills of the people they manage, even though studies suggest training in leadership skills may be more important. Certainly, middle managers are not to blame for the outages, misinformation, eroding value and general chaos at Twitter in recent months. If anything, the platform could use more good managers.

Instead, at Twitter and elsewhere, their numbers are likely to dwindle. Salesforce, Google and Amazon have also targeted middle management as areas to cut. In some ways, that makes sense. But lets distinguish between those who manage people and administrators whose functions add layers of bureaucracy. (Senior contributor William Baldwin lays out the compelling case to slash the ranks of administrators at Harvard.)

Great middle managers are the carriers of culture, the motivators of people, the agents of change. People tend to quit their boss, not their job, which makes nurturing better bosses a meaningful factor in a company's success.

During the last chapter of my dads career, he managed an independent bookstore with one employee and some occasional interns. He loved books but not that much. He seemed happiest when showing my son how to repair old books, dispensing life advice to the young woman working the cash register, or marching as Mr. Pickwick in the town parade. Like a lot of great middle managers, he was a teacher, a mentor and a coach. We could all use more of those right now, especially as technology transforms how we work.

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Why Mark Zuckerberg And Elon Musk Fire Their Most Valuable People - Forbes