Hi folks, Kylie Robison from the tech team. This week, Elon Musk proved yet again that someone needs to cut off his posting access.
It started on Wednesday when someone on X, formerly Twitter, highlighted the surge of anti-Semitism on the platform. This unsettling pattern, which has been well documented by watchdog groups including the Anti-Defamation League, has infamously made users and advertisers nervous about using the service.
Another X user responded by spouting an extremely dangerous anti-Semitic conspiracy theory asserting that Jewish people are plotting to flood the U.S. with people of color, all in a strategic move to counter and overthrow the white race. “Jewish commun[i]ties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them,” the person wrote.
As noted by The Atlantic, this very conspiracy theory was espoused by the man who murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, the deadliest anti-Semitic attack on U.S. soil. The fact that it’s being posted on X in the guise of a discussion (and that it remains posted), only proves what data has been saying about X under Musk’s ownership. An analysis of the platform, first reported by the Washington Post, found a 105% increase in anti-Semitic posts after Musk bought the platform for $44 billion last October. Now, the platform is worth about $19 billion, with a great deal of the lost value probably a result of Musk’s own tweeting habits.
Instead of banning this kind of atrociously racist and anti-Semitic behavior into the ether, never to be seen again, Musk actually engages with it—and endorses it!
“You have said the actual truth,” Musk responded to the post.
Look, it’s hard to find the words for just how bad this is. On one hand, the obvious problem that many have gone to great lengths to explain is that Musk is amplifying a rhetoric that has quite literally cost innocent lives. The richest man in the world, and the most followed man on the platform he owns, should never engage with this type of content. In fact, it should be swiftly removed! His advertisers think so too, which leads me to the second issue at hand.
Musk, who doesn’t have a foot left to shoot at this point, is bleeding essential advertisers at X. Understandably, companies aren’t keen to spend money to place their products next to harmful content. IBM announced on Thursday that it will cease advertising on X after a report by Media Matters for America revealed that IBM’s ads had been displayed alongside tweets promoting Nazi ideology, the Washington Post reported.
In June, Musk hired X CEO Linda Yaccarino to lure back advertisers while he continues to do and post whatever he wants. I wrote last month about the company’s secret PR man who works quietly alongside Yaccarino and under Musk’s nose because the company’s optics are just that bad, but as Musk likes to say, “‘Public Relations’ is a propaganda word for propaganda.” Musk also demolished the company’s trust and safety teams so, let’s see how that goes for him.
So, in Yaccarino fashion, she worked swiftly to mop up the mess, posting that X has “been extremely clear” about its “efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination.”
“There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop,” Yaccarino posted.
“Talk to your boss. He needs to fix this. And stop encouraging it, amplifying it, or posting it himself,” a user responded. “Good luck.”
Kylie Robison
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Today’s edition was curated by David Meyer.
NEWSWORTHY
Big Windows developments. There’s now an official Windows app for Apple’s devices, for browsers, and for, er, Windows. Initially only available for business users, the app makes it possible to stream a copy of Microsoft’s operating system from a remote PC, The Verge reports. It supports multiple monitors and peripherals. Meanwhile, in yet another victory for EU regulators and citizens, Microsoft is reportedly preparing to offer Europeans a version of Windows that allows them to uninstall Bing search and the Edge browser, to comply with the new Digital Markets Act.
Google delays Gemini. Google was supposed to release its next big AI model, Gemini, this month. But according to The Information, that isn’t happening. Instead, the large language model will only become available in the first quarter of next year, which is not good news for Google’s slowing-down cloud sales.
Silicon Valley fraudster. Mike Rothenberg, a venture capitalist who was known for throwing lavish parties and investing in the likes of Robinhood and SpaceX, has been convicted of fraud and money laundering. As TechCrunch reports, Rothenberg settled SEC charges in 2019 but was then hit with Justice Department charges that led to yesterday’s verdict.
ON OUR FEED
“Clyde will be deactivated at the end of the month. By December 1, 2023, users will no longer be able to invoke Clyde in DMs, Group DMs or server chats.”
—Discord cans the experimental AI chatbot that it launched back in March. And yes, that’s as much explanation as users are getting.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Parents and therapists worried about teen social media addiction say Meta’s lifelike, celebrity AI bots are exactly what you would design to keep kids hooked, by Alexandra Sternlicht
Apple folds for a third time to the EU, and it means iPhone users can now get ‘read’ receipts when texting their Android friends, by Rachyl Jones
A series of bad news stories—including an abandoned cloud spin-off plan—wipe billions from Alibaba’s market cap, by Lionel Lim
Linda Yaccarino scrambles to clean up Elon Musk’s mess after the X owner once again drives her advertisers away, by Orianna Rosa Royle
AI will create ‘largest displacement of human labor in the history of capitalism,’ says tech-focused hedge fund CEO. ‘A lot of people will feel left out’, by Steve Mollman
Don’t listen to the gloomy headlines: A new generation of Bay Area innovators is about to soar, by Bob Fisher (Commentary)
BEFORE YOU GO
YouTube AI tests. John Legend, Charli XCX and T-Pain are among the artists who have agreed to work with YouTube and Google DeepMind on tests of AI-generated music that include simulacra of their voices.
Here’s Demi Lovato, who’s also taking part in the Dream Track experiment, in a statement quoted by Variety: “The development of AI technology is rapidly changing the way we navigate the landscape, and I believe as artists we need to be a part of shaping what that future looks like.” And here’s T-Pain’s clip, sounding marginally more robotic than usual.
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