Elon Musk Bends the Knee to Brazil’s Censorship in X/Twitter Free Speech Fight
In a surprising act of capitulation, Elon Musk and his X social media platform are complying with the demands of Brazil’s Supreme Court after weeks of defiance.

In a surprising act of capitulation, Elon Musk and his X social media platform are complying with the demands of Brazil’s Supreme Court after weeks of defiance.

Elon Musk is criticizing the FAA’s proposed fines for SpaceX, calling on the agency to instead focus on Boeing’s Starliner mishaps. Musk characterizes the FAA’s problems with SpaceX as “trivia,” while Boeing left NASA astronauts stranded in space for months with its spacecraft.

As the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google continues, it is becoming increasingly clear that the judge must decide whether to believe what Google executives wrote in emails and chats or what they have said on the witness stand — like one witness who claimed his emails on crushing competition were “jet-lagged ramblings.”

Microsoft has partnered with Constellation Energy to revive the dormant Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, aiming to feed its power-hungry AI data centers with energy from the site of America’s most infamous nuclear accident.

Republican FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak published a report on Thursday expressing concern with Big Tech facilitating content harmful to children, but also warning that in addressing such harmful online content, the Biden-Harris FTC could take actions that result in the censorship of Americans’ online speech.

The U.S. Secret Service is reportedly probing Elon Musk’s X post pointing out that “no one” is “trying to assassinate” President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris following two attempted assassinations on former President Donald Trump’s life. Musk later deleted his post, claiming it was a joke.

As Google’s second antitrust trial this year continues, a Boston University economist testified that Google’s stranglehold over the advertising market allows it to charge between 19 and 27 percent higher rates to advertisers than a “competitive market” would allow.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced that his company will file a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in response to a proposed $633,009 fine related to unapproved launches last year, which Musk calls “lawfare.”

Internal Google documents released during the ongoing antitrust trial against the tech giant have shed light on the company’s efforts to maintain its dominance in the digital advertising industry through exclusivity deals and tying its ad-tech businesses together.

Neal Mohan, the CEO of Google-owned YouTube, testified in federal court on Monday that Google faced ample competition in the ad tech market and laughably claimed the company acts in the best interest of consumers and the ad industry.

Google is currently on trial for allegedly abusing its dominance in the digital advertising industry, which is valued at approximately $200 billion. Here are a the key points that emerged from the first week in the courtroom.

A top attorney for Google, currently defending the tech giant in a landmark antitrust trial, has been revealed to be a key advisor to the Kamala Harris presidential campaign, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest and political bias.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it took the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) 50,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames sparked from an electric Tesla Semi crash.

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) has criticized Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta for its inadequate response to a bipartisan group of lawmakers regarding illicit drug advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

Google knew that publishers would be unhappy when it implemented measures in 2019 to prevent them from diverting ad sales to competitors, it recognized that its stranglehold over the digital ads market would prevent them from fleeing the internet giant’s ad marketplace, according to internal documents presented at the tech giant’s antitrust trial on Thursday.

A Google executive’s remarks from 2009 about the company’s aim to “crush” competitors in the digital advertising market have come to light during an ongoing federal antitrust trial against the tech giant that focuses on its stranglehold over the ad-tech industry.

A former advertising technology executive at News Corp testified that the company considered moving away from Google’s advertising products in 2017 but ultimately decided against it due to potential revenue losses of at least $9 million. The testimony came during the second day of the latest antitrust trial exploring Google’s absolute dominance of the internet.

James O’Keefe claims that Google Growth Strategist Dakota Leazer told an undercover journalist with O’Keefe Media Group, that there is “a coordinated effort by Big Tech and big companies” to help Vice President Kamala Harris to win the 2024 election and “be our next CEO,” adding that it is “most profitable” for Google when Americans are in “crisis” and “fearful” of “some impending sense of doom” and that “democracy is going to end.”

Tesla’s car sales in China reached their highest point for 2024 in August, but the company is still losing market share to domestic rivals like BYD, according to a recent report.

Google is set to face another significant legal challenge as the Justice Department’s antitrust case against the company’s ad-tech practices heads to trial.

The New Mexico attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Snap, accusing the company of fostering an environment on its Snapchat app that enables the sexual exploitation and sextortion of children.

26 percent of advertisers are planning to reduce their spending on Elon Musk’s X platform, citing concerns about the platform’s content and trust in the information shared, according to a new global survey.

James Manyika, Google’s senior vice president for research, technology and society, believes artificial intelligence breakthroughs are coming fast, but translating the technology into real economic gains will require significant work and innovation. In fact, he thinks that the productivity gains from AI that big tech has pinned their hopes on are no “guaranteed.”

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service has announced it will comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court order to block access to Musk’s social media platform X in Brazil.

In a significant victory for Elon Musk’s social media platform X, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has partially blocked a California law that mandates social media companies to disclose their policies for addressing disinformation, harassment, hate speech, and extremism.

Internet trolls backed by the Chinese Communist Party are reportedly posing as Americans on social media platforms including China’s TikTok and targeting U.S. voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Brazil has blocked Elon Musk’s X social media platform after the SpaceX and Tesla CEO refused to comply with the nation’s demands to blacklist certain accounts. Musk claimed on his platform that the country also froze the assets of Starlink, his satellite internet company.

A U.S. District Judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) can move forward with its lawsuit against the leftist censorship organization Media Matters, setting a trial date for April 7, 2025.

Elon Musk says it’s “probably wise” for him “to limit” his travels to areas where free speech is “constitutionally protected.” The X owner’s comments come after Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France in connection to a “lack of moderation” on his messaging app.

Tech giant Apple has laid off employees from its digital services group, primarily affecting those working on the Apple Books app and Apple News.

Yelp, a long-time rival of Google, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the search giant, accusing it of engaging in anticompetitive practices in the local search market.

OpenAI, the developer of the popular AI assistant ChatGPT, has seen a significant exodus of its artificial general intelligence (AGI) safety researchers, according to a former employee.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor certain Covid-related content in 2021, including “human and satire,” expressing regret for not being more outspoken against the government’s actions.

Sen. Eric Schmitt sent a letter to Facebook and Google, demanding to know their policies on censoring free speech before the 2024 election.

Yoshua Bengio, one of the “Godfathers of AI,” worries that regulators may be running out of time to properly govern the rapidly advancing field of artificial intelligence.

Silicon Valley is experiencing another round of significant job cuts as major companies announce layoffs in response to economic pressures and shifting industry priorities.

Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y are commanding the used electric vehicle (EV) market, even as their prices continue to fall dramatically, according to recent data from a major online car marketplace. The price of a used Tesla Model 3 has dropped by 29 percent over the last year due to a lack of demand, a huge glut of supply, and lower prices for new EVs.

Leftists around the world have been flocking to alternative social media platforms over the last year, fleeing Elon Musk’s X/Twitter. Although Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads has been touted as the ultimate X replacement, the reality is that many users find the platform “deathly dull.”

The cozy relationship between the Kamala Harris campaign and Big Tech giants including Google have sparked concerns about potential leniency in antitrust cases if she is elected president.

Driverless cars stationed in a San Francisco parking lot created a traffic jam at 4:00 a.m. and began honking at each other, waking up local residents. Many report the pre-dawn traffic snarl is a regular occurrence for the driverless cars.
