Elon Musk hints at unveiling Twitter's 'darkest secrets', calls platform 'crime scene'

Los Angeles [US], December 11: Twitter CEO Elon Musk created a stir among the microblogging site's users with yet another cryptic series of tweets.

Taking to the platform, the multi-billionaire wrote, "Twitter is both a social media company and a crime scene".

This was followed by the Tesla owner sharing a meme, showcasing a gravestone with the words 'Twitter's darkest secrets' written on it. The other image shows a man with a shovel in his hand, who is labelled as 'Elon'.

Users took to the comments, hailing the SpaceX CEO for bringing more transparency to the platform.

"Honestly glad you bought this thing. There's a lot to clean up but sane people are rooting for you," another user wrote. In his pursuit to bring more transparency to the microblogging platform, Musk had earlier come up with a new update to the micro-blogging platform after the second instalment of the so-called 'Twitter Files' revealed how the company build blacklists and actively limited the visibility of certain accounts. "Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you've been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal," Musk tweeted.

Journalist Matt Taibbi in collaboration with Musk had published 'Twitter Files', documenting Twitter's internal communications to disclose links with political actors and with a focus on how the social network blocked stories related to Hunter Biden's laptop in the lead-up to the 2020 US Presidential election. "The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened ..." Musk wrote. The 51-year-old business tycoon had released the internal 'Twitter Files' last week, revealing that the company responded to a request 'from the Biden team' during the 2020 election -- shortly after the company cracked down on Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden's laptop story.

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Is Elon Musk coming up with new social media site X.com amid Twitter legal feud?

Washington [US], August 12: Amid his ongoing legal battle against Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased a potential social media site of his own as a competitor for Twitter.

Pritish Bagdi

While responding to a question from one of his followers, Musk dropped a cryptic tweet, hinting at a potential new social media platform 'X.com'. On Tuesday, a social media user asked the billionaire tech tycoon whether he had given any thought to creating his own social platform. Musk, who is quite active on Twitter, noticed the question and responded by just writing "X.com".

X.com used to be the domain name of a startup Musk founded two decades ago, which he later merged with financial services company PayPal. In fact, last week, Musk talked about the website during Tesla's annual shareholder meeting last week as well. "I do sort of have a grander vision for what I thought X Corporation could have been back in the day. It's a pretty grand vision and of course that could be started from scratch but I think Twitter would accelerate that by three to five years," Musk had reportedly said. The tweet comes at a time when Musk is involved in a high-stakes legal battle with Twitter. ' Twitter recently sued Musk after he decided to back out of the USD 44 billion takeover deal. In April, Musk reached an acquisition agreement with Twitter at USD 54.20 per share in a transaction valued at approximately USD 44 billion. However, Musk put the deal on hold in May to allow his team to review the veracity of Twitter's claim that less than 5 per cent of accounts on the platform are bots or spam. Back in June, Musk had openly accused the microblogging website of breaching the merger agreement and threatened to walk away and call off the acquisition of the social media company for not providing the data he has requested on spam and fake accounts. Musk alleged that Twitter is "actively resisting and thwarting his information rights" as outlined by the deal, CNN reported, citing the letter he sent to Twitter's head of legal, policy and trust, Vijaya Gadde.

Musk demanded that Twitter turn over information about its testing methodologies to support its claims that bots and fake accounts constitute less than 5 per cent of the platform's active user base, a figure the company has consistently stated for years in boilerplate public disclosures.

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Elon Musk's Tesla sells 75 per cent of its Bitcoin holdings

Washington [US], July 22: Elon Musk's electric car firm Tesla has offloaded 75 per cent of its Bitcoin holdings.

As per TechCrunch, the company sold Bitcoin holding for USD 963 million. Tesla said the value of its remaining "digital assets" is USD 218 million. In an earnings call, the company's executives said the reason for the sale was a desire to maximize cash positions during the uncertainty of China's COVID lockdowns. "We are certainly open to increasing bitcoin holdings in future. So this should not be taken as some verdict on Bitcoin. It's just that we were concerned about overall liquidity for the company given COVID shutdowns in China," Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said.

The electric-car manufacturer disclosed in February 2021 that it had invested USD 1.5 billion in Bitcoin, and subsequently sold 10 per cent of its stake that April.

The company's selloff comes after a steep decline in the price of cryptocurrencies across the board, including both Bitcoin and Dogecoin.

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