Elon Musk Merges X (formerly Twitter) with xAI, in A $33 Billion Deal

Elon Musk has made a significant move by selling his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), to his artificial intelligence company, xAI. The deal, valued at $33 billion, is part of Musk's vision to integrate AI technologies with social media.

This transaction values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 Billion. 

This is considered a merger since Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has merged with the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), combining their resources, data, and expertise.

The merger aims to combine X's vast user-generated data with xAI's advanced AI models, potentially revolutionizing how AI is used in social media.

The integration is also expected to enhance user experiences by introducing smarter, AI-driven features and personalized interactions. Musk has emphasized that the futures of xAI and X are "intertwined," and this move could set new standards for the tech industry.

The merger aims to integrate xAI's advanced AI capabilities with X's vast user base, potentially transforming how AI interacts with social media. Musk has described this as a step toward unlocking immense potential by blending AI technology with X's reach.

xAI is a private company primarily owned and controlled by Elon Musk, who founded it in March 2023. While Musk is the majority shareholder and the driving force behind the company, other investors include prominent venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, and BlackRock. These firms have participated in funding rounds that have raised over $12 billion for xAI.

Musk’s Post on X on the merger announcement said, "Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at unprecedented speed and scale. X is the digital town square where more than 600M active users go to find the real-time source of ground truth and, in the last two years, has been transformed into one of the most efficient companies in the world, positioning it to deliver scalable future growth."

" xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, computing, distribution, and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach. The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge. This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress."

"I would like to recognize the hardcore dedication of everyone at xAI and X that has brought us to this point. This is just the beginning."

Elon Musk's xAl is Raising $6 Bn in Funding at Valuation of $18 Bn

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence venture, xAI, is making significant strides. According to reports, xAI is currently raising $6 billion in funding, which would value the company at an impressive $18 billion.

Investors, including Sequoia Capital and Future Ventures (co-founded by Musk's longtime friend Steve Jurvetson), are participating in this funding round. Other likely participants include Valor Equity Partners and Gigafund, both of which have connections to Musk's inner circle.

The exact details of the investors involved remain somewhat mysterious, as the commitments were reportedly gathered through private Zoom calls with Musk and his team.

What sets xAI apart is its ambitious vision to connect the digital and physical worlds. Musk plans to achieve this by leveraging training data from each of his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Company (which focuses on tunneling), and Neuralink (which develops brain-computer interfaces).

Interestingly, Musk's social media platform, X, has already integrated xAI's chatbot, Grok, as a paid add-on. Grok's integration into X is just one piece of a larger puzzle. The ultimate goal is to create a virtual cycle where Grok learns from data provided by Musk's various companies, leading to advancements in areas like self-driving cars and even Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus.

xAl, also known as Elon Musk's xAI, is an ambitious artificial intelligence venture that aims to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds by creating advanced Al systems that can interact with and impact the real world.

Unlike traditional Al models that primarily operate in virtual environments, xAl claims to apply Al technologies to tangible, practical scenarios.

While X itself has faced challenges since Musk acquired it, the platform still stands to benefit from xAI's momentum. As xAI continues to raise funds and expand its capabilities, we can expect further innovations and exciting developments in the intersection of AI and the physical world.

X's (Formerly Twitter) India, South Asia Govt Affairs Head Resigns

Samiran Gupta, Head of Government Affairs & public policy at X (formerly Twitter) has reportedly resigned, according to his latest update on the LinkedIn profile.

Samiran Gupta, who joined X in February 2022 before Elon Musk acquired the social media platform, will serve at X till September, said his LinkedIn profile,

The LinkedIn profile further mentioned that he "enabled transition leadership for Twitter post acquisition by Elon Musk led X-Corp."

Mr Gupta was the most senior India employee for X, and he was responsible for "key content-related policy issues" and "defending Twitter's position with new policy developments and support in-country sales organization," according to his LinkedIn profile.

Notably, Mr Gupta step down from the social media platform at time ahead of India's General Elections and amid the company's legal battle with the Government of India over content removal.

Before joining X, Samiran Gupta was the Head of India for ICANN, a non-governmental organisation responsible for allocation of Internet domain names. Prior to that, Mr Gupta was the Senior Director with APCO Worldwide responsible for counselling clients in business and public affairs strategy.

Mr Gupta was also a founder and managing director of a leading management consulting and business advisory practice known for working on distinctive projects for a range of corporations from Fortune 500 clients to top Indian businesses and mid-sized entities.

Ethereum Inventor Vitalik Buterin’s X (Twitter) Account Hacked Leading $691K+ Losses from Victims' Accounts

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s inventor & co-founder, reportedly had his X (formerly Twitter) account hacked, resulting into loss of $691,000 from users who followed a malicious link posted to his X feed.

According to prominent blockchain investigator ZachXBT, the hacking incident has led to victims collectively losing over $691,000 after clicking on a corrupted link.

Dmitry Buterin, the father of Vitalik, announced on Sep. 9 in a post at X that his son’s account had been compromised and Vitalik is working on restoring access.

The account hack was first noticed on Saturday when a post appeared on Buterin’s post announcing the launch of a set of commemorative non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from software provider Consensys.

This post has a malicious link, which could have been displayed to a large number of Vitalik's 4.9 million followers, and prompted followers to follow the link and eventually connect their wallets to mint the NFT, but in reality, it allowed the hacker(s) to get access to their funds in their wallets.

The post on Vitalik's account was later deleted. However, the damage was done already.

This incident has even led Ethereum developer Bok Khoo, better known as Bokky Poobah on X, to allegedly suffered losses in his CryptoPunk NFT collection.

Notably, no official comment has been made by Vitalik, so far, in this hacking incident. According to ZachZPT, the hacker subsequently sent a stolen NFT to Vitalik.

they hacker just sent Vitalik this NFT they drained

0x909c74236ded54ecea95ea1568e1abf67624ccae436d1b9d94cd0c163b11eec5 pic.twitter.com/Fx6ekDYyWR

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 10, 2023

Meta (Facebook) Launching New Twitter Rival 'Threads'

Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, is unveiling a new app that appears to directly compete with Twitter, a micro-blogging platform owned by Elon Musk.

Named "Instagram Threads", the app is expected to be launched on July 6, according to the App Store listing of the upcoming app showing a version ready for Apple’s iPhone.

A new Wikipedia page of Thread also appeared saying — "Designed as a platform for real-time conversations and sharing, Threads aims to provide users with a similar experience to Twitter, with an emphasis on public, text-based posts and conversations (also known as microblogging), and is closely linked to and based on sister social networking service Instagram."

Existing Instagram users will be able to keep their user names and follow the same accounts on the new app, according to screenshots displayed on the App Store listing.

Of late, a number of Twitter competitors have emerged including former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey’s Blueskey, and Donald Trump’s Mastadon.

The choice of the name Thread is also interesting as a Thread, is one of the features of Twitter that is — a linked series of tweets, which was introduced as an official feature in 2017.

However, few reports suggest that 'Threads' was originally the name of a 2019 app Meta launched to compete with the popular messaging app Snapchat. The product was later abandoned but Meta retained the branding.

Mishi Choudhary, Technology Lawyer & Online Civil Rights Activist, and founder of SFLC.in, said, "The current state of mayhem at Twitter presents a great opportunity for Meta to offer an alternative to users. But Meta's abysmal privacy record is bound to raise concerns. Threads is perfectly capable of acquiring a large user base considering it's based on Instagram that boasts of over 2 billion users."

Twitter Users in India Are Mostly Happy With the Platform’s Acquisition by Elon Musk

Twitter users in India are mostly happy with the platform’s acquisition by Elon Musk, but a fifth have no reaction to this move.

Last week Twitter announced its acquisition by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for $44 billion. Since the acquisition, Musk who is an ardent Twitter user has made quite a few remarks about what he intends to do with the platform, spawning a whirlwind of conversations and reactions from Indian netizens.

Under Musk's leadership, a majority of Twitter users in India believe that the platform will become the most powerful social medium.

YouGov’s latest data shows that close to two in five (37%) of Twitter users in India are happy about the platform's acquisition by Elon Musk, with urban Indian millennial users being most likely to say this ( at 43%).

While three in ten of those who use Twitter in India (29%) are surprised by this move, a fifth (22%) remained unaffected by the news. The numbers for those who express negative emotions like worry, sadness and anger and those who are unaware of the acquisition, are much lower (8% and 5%, respectively).

Talking about the anticipated user behaviour as a result of the change in leadership, close to two-thirds (64%) of those who currently use Twitter say they will continue using the platform as always.

Only a small proportion of Twitter users plan to make changes like modifying their behaviour on the platform (8%) or switching to other social media platforms (16%). 

While men are more likely than women to say they plan to stick to their regular usage (66% vs 61%), women are more inclined towards modifying their behaviour on the platform (11% women vs 5% men).

In India, the Twitter community is not just happy with Elon Musk acquiring the platform, they also believe in his leadership. Data shows that a majority (61%) of Twitter users in India agree with the statement- “Twitter will become the most powerful social media platform under Elon Musk's leadership". 

Again, we see that Millennial (70%) users are strong advocates of this view than Gen X (54%) and Gen Z (59%). This is surely a good news for the company as the global Twitter audience is mostly composed of users from this cohort.

Elon Musk (has more than 83 million followers on twitter), who himself is a free speech absolutist, has repeatedly said in the recent times, he wants to “transform” the platform by promoting more free speech and giving users more control.

When Twitter members in India were asked how the potential removal of moderation would affect the future of the platform, almost half agreed this move may make the platform a place for healthy debates and free speech(49%). Half of this number (26%) think otherwise and believe this could encourage hate speech and misinformation. While 14% remained unsure, slightly over one in ten (11%) believe moderation may have no drastic impact on the platform.

* Results based on YouGov Omnibus survey conducted among 1005 urban Indian respondents between April 26th-29th, 2022.

NFT Conversation on the Rise, and Women Are Here to #OwnIt, #OnlyOnTwitter

• 75 million Tweets on NFTs since January 2021, globally 
• NFT conversations on Twitter in India up by 3000%
• 26% women on Twitter believe that NFTs can be a lucrative investment

People come to Twitter to follow and talk about their interests, and there’s a burning new interest on the block -- Non-Fungible Tokens aka NFTs. Last year, 375 million Tweets were sent out on NFTs globally. In fact, in India alone, the NFT conversation has increased by 3000% between January 2021 - January 2022.

While these numbers are exciting, what’s also to note is that just 15% of the conversation in India comes from women. Around the world, nearly 40% of women have never heard of NFTs, but the ones who have, acknowledge that NFTs are to be reckoned with! 26% women believe that NFTs can be a lucrative investment, and 25% see it as an opportunity for exclusivity and to support independent artists. 24% of women think NFTs are a good way for brands to share new and exclusive content.

Clearly, women are leaning into the conversation and are ready to #OwnIt. Twitter is creating incredible opportunities for women during this massive shift in media and technology. Twitter’s open and conversational nature is enabling women to participate in this growing community of NFTs and own the conversations.

The #OwnIt Twitter emoji (woven spark) symbolises the interweaving of different intersections, and as the spark spirals outwards from the center it encourages both individual and collective action from women. The overlapping and layering of the shapes conveys a sense of diversity and unity.

Several Indian women NFT artists are taking the lead in bringing more fellow women into the fold of this growing conversation. Among them is Akanksha Badaya (@art_lover_09), a certified graphic designer from Jaipur, who has been working on a mix of digital and traditional art. She believes that Web 3 is the future and that, through NFTs, her art can reach a wider audience. She says, “My NFT journey started when I came across people sharing their NFTs on Twitter. That got me intrigued to know more about the space and research about it. I attended a few Twitter Spaces that helped me gain knowledge about the background of NFTs. To all the women artists aspiring to be part of the NFT community, it's important to be original and confident about your work. Also, interact and connect with fellow artists.”

To amplify their work and stories, underscore their contributions to the space and share powerful insights with other women, some NFT artists, including Akanksha, will be helping to launch Twitter’s first ever global female-led NFT Community – Women in NFTs. The growing interest in NFTs also presents the need to address misconceptions and doubts -- 22% believe NFTs are only for rich people and 15% believe NFTs will devalue physical art -- thus, the goal of the Community will be to create a safe space for women to share and get information, create connections and support each other.

Twitter Introduces a New Label to Allow "Good Bots" to Self-identify Themselves

Today, Twitter has introduced a new feature for automated accounts (also known as “bots”) to self-identify as “good bots” by adding a label () to their Profile - helping people differentiate automated from human-run accounts. Starting today, all automated accounts will have the option to add the new label to their account Profile. The label will give people additional information about the bot, and help them decide which accounts to follow, engage with, and trust.

This update comes as a result of research that found that people wanted more context around the accounts they interact with- the label will help give “good bots” (those that share helpful/relevant information and intend to genuinely improve the Twitter experience) a way to increase their legitimacy and build trust and transparency with their audience.

We’re all looking for ways to cleanse our timelines these days - and there are a whole slew of “good bots” on Twitter that can help us do that. Good bots can help people find useful, entertaining and relevant information every day - from sharing COVID-19 updates, to notifying people of traffic updates, to even helping people find internships. There’s a whole community of developers that are working hard to build bots that are genuinely useful and interesting.

#GoodBots help people stay apprised of useful, entertaining, and relevant information. In the spirit of celebrating good bots, here are a few good bots on Twitter India to note:

@mumbaitraffic
@bloodreqbot
@CovidvaxBLR
@internfinder
@TheGermanBot

About Twitter, Inc.

Twitter is what’s happening and what people are talking about right now. To learn more, visit about.twitter.com and follow @Twitter. Let’s talk.

Twitter Recognizes Women Who Championed Pandemic Relief in India, Calls them ‘COVID Sheroes’

Twitter India and Breakthrough will be awarding six women from diverse backgrounds as India’s COVID Sheroes, namely: Mithila Naik-Satam (@mithilanasa), Maggie Inbamuthiah (@MaggieInbamth), Arpita Chowdhury (@Arpitapv3129), Sabita Chanda (@itsmesabita), Fathaheen Misbah (@MisbahFathaheen) and Seema Mishra (@SeemaM4)

The COVID Sheroes campaign was launched in August 2021 to recognise women across length and breadth of India who made exemplary contributions to relief work during the pandemic using Twitter

India, 15 November 2021: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Twitter has played a critical role in keeping people connected and amplifying authoritative information from credible sources. With the onset of the second wave of COVID-19 in India, Twitter emerged as a real-time helpline as people supported one another on the service. Among these were many women from different parts of India, representing diverse backgrounds, cultures and languages, who used Twitter effectively to share reliable information and offer support to those in need.

To acknowledge the efforts of these women and their contributions to COVID-relief through their online communities, Twitter India and women rights organisation Breakthrough (@INBreakthrough) have come together to recognise them as ‘COVID Sheroes’.

Earlier this year, Twitter India in partnership with Breakthrough (@INBreakthrough) called upon the community to nominate women who made exemplary efforts towards providing support during the pandemic. These were women who used Twitter to connect people to resources, amplify SOS calls and provide on-ground aid however they could.

Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/1423232350012407813


Payal Kamat, Public Policy and Government, Twitter India, said, “As Indians came together to deal with the second wave of COVID-19, it was humbling to see women across all walks of life actively taking charge to have good faith public conversation and bring relief to those seeking help. Thanks to the Open Internet and the power of public conversation, people can create action, and thus we’re leaning into that by celebrating these COVID Sheroes. In partnership with Breakthrough, we’re proud to recognise these women, and hope that their achievements inspire many more to emerge as instruments of change.”

Sohini Bhattacharya, CEO, Breakthrough Trust, Breakthrough: "Time and again, we’ve witnessed the strength of community and camaraderie in helping people overcome the worst of adversities. During COVID-19, unprecedented as we call it, humanity was struck in a way that distanced communities themselves. The power of the internet, especially Twitter, is what rescued many of those suffering, and the wave of humanity, kindness and community support that emerged was humbling and inspiring. We saw people going out of their ways to connect others with help and resources, and the way some of the women on Twitter utilised their reach and equity on the platform is testimony to their spirit of leadership. It is our honour to be honouring these women and encourage them further as they continue to make society a better place."

After screening through 110 nominated profiles, Twitter and Breakthrough India (@INBreakthrough) are pleased to announce the following six women as COVID Sheroes:

Arpita Chowdhury (@Arpitapv3129), 20, New Delhi: 20 year old Arpita is an undergrad student at the Delhi University, and the founder of Jazbaat Foundation, a Delhi-based project to uplift underprivileged students. To support COVID relief work during the second wave in India, she started the #LetsFightCovidTogether initiative on the 21st of April. As part of the initiative, she created a live database of information around resources including hospital beds, oxygen supplies, medical aid, and more. Within a span of 60 days, Arpita, together with her friends Aarushi Raj (Kamala Nehru College) and Shivani Singhal (Kalindi College) who helped her verify information/leads, were able to help more than a thousand people. Using Twitter, they collected and updated their database to ensure that people find access to real-time and verified leads. Arpita’s work and the impact it made for people was covered by the BBC and CGTN AMERICA, further amplifying the initiative to reach more of those in need.

Back then I didn't know how much I would be able to accomplish but I always had this dream of enabling access to education to the tribal communities. Today with the help of a lot of people my NGO Jazbaat Foundation is trying to bridge the gap. pic.twitter.com/CrT4UhOxpL

— Arpita chowdhury (@Arpitapv3129) October 14, 2020

Fathaheen Misbah (@MisbahFathaheen), 35, Mysore: Fathaheen works in IT, but finds her calling in serving humanity and creating a positive change. It was this calling that led her to the forefront of COVID relief. She used her community and reach on Twitter to amplify requests for help, and connect those in need with resources. From arranging blood plasma, to sharing information around availability of beds, drugs and medicines - Fathaheen was able to bring hope to people. Not only did she get in touch with those seeking support on Twitter, but was also able to reach out to people not on the service and help them find resources.

🆘 Help #Mysuru Breathe!!!

*Bangalore/Mysore Covid -19 Relief* @MysuruMemes @MysuruCity_@CivicMysore @KannadaBO @KarnatakaWorld @voiceofmysuru
@NammaMysuruInfo @dp_satish @AshwiniMS_TNIE @ajavgal@samyuktahornad

*Donate Now To Help Rotary Mysore* - https://t.co/WcHSvwroBP

— Fathaheen Misbah (@MisbahFathaheen) May 19, 2021

Maggie Inbamutiah (@MaggieInbamth), 45, Bengaluru: Maggie works extensively across social welfare, diversity and inclusion. She works with Puppetica India to bring Indian stories to life, and also runs a non-profit called Mandram to promote discourses in regional languages in India, as well as an outdoor venture, Happifeet connecting people with nature. Amidst COVID-19, she led a team of volunteers in South Bangalore - dealing with more than 40 SOS requests per day. Discovering these requests and SOS calls via Twitter, her team was able to help find a BBMP bed for a crematorium worker; provide access to an EMCO machine for a patient from Ahmedabad with the help of two other NGOs; and help a pregnant woman with COVID-19 find appropriate medical help, amongst other achievements.

#Bangalore #COVID19 #nammateams Join us! pic.twitter.com/7BEJ3xPLlw

— Maggie Inbamuthiah (@MaggieInbamth) May 25, 2021

Mithila Naik-Satnam (@mithilanasa), 25, Mumbai: Mithila is a Communications Consultant from Mumbai, and works with the Charkha Development Communication Network, Delhi on a UNICEF India project. She also volunteers with the Khaana Chahiye Foundation (@khaanachahiye), where she looks at partnerships and digital outreach. Through Twitter, Mithila was able to amplify the work of the Foundation, and reach a wider audience. During the pandemic, she leveraged her digital expertise and the Khaana Chahiye community on the service to help people access beds, medical supplies and oxygen.




Sabita Chanda (@itsmesabita), 40, Delhi: Sabita is a career coach and HR advisor turned humanitarian, who spends her time lending support to people in need. She started the Migrant Workers Movement, extending food and ration support to over 8000 migrants who were left homeless, oftens starving, by the pandemic. She also helped underprivileged children from struggling families gain access to online classes through smartphones and laptops. Her work towards helping people find medical aid, especially that of catering to over 1200 requests for blood plasma, earned her the hat of Plasma Queen. She also worked with state governments in the north-east and Himachal Pradesh to help connect people with medical aid. Dedicated to social welfare, Sabita continues to support people to find access to ration and arrange funds for students seeking admission to schools.

Patient Name- Sulochana Das
53yr, Female
Blood Group- B+ve
Requirement- 4unit RDP
Contact Number- 7008876077
Sum Hospital,Bhubaneswar @indiacares_2020 @itsmesabita @arunbothra #Odisha #Blood #Bhubaneswar pic.twitter.com/XZW0joQ7KJ

— Gitadas (@Gitadas94499548) November 7, 2021

Seema Mishra (@SeemaM4), 47, Ghaziabad: Registrar and Academic Head at ICR ILAM group, Seema is a panel advisor and mentor to various startups. As a passionate humanitarian, Seema founded the Develop India Foundation NGO, and has been working extensively towards education equality, empowerment and environmental causes. During the pandemic, Seema started working with a group of volunteers to provide medical aid to those seeking resources for their family and friends. Along with her team, she connected people to food, blood plasma, and hospital beds by making the most of her network on Twitter. She also helped several stranded migrants find their way back home amidst the nation-wide lockdown. Currently, she’s working towards creating vaccine awareness and helping combat people’s hesitance towards the vaccine. Seema has found appreciation and recognition for her work over the years - being awarded as the ‘Influencer of Ghaziabad’ for Womennovator - the first virtual global incubator for women. She was also featured in a book, Changemakers, about social impact by 11 inspiring Indian women.

Consolidate list of all the #Verified #COVID19 helplines for all the districts in #Karnataka created by @chetanjeeral and team.#COVIDIndiaHelp https://t.co/00aTdTAzKB

— Prof.Seema Mishra 🇮🇳 (@SeemaM4) May 4, 2021

Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/SeemaM4/status/1389584404469608452


Earlier this year, ahead of International Women’s Day, a research commissioned by Twitter had revealed that 20.8% women on Twitter in India actively engage in conversations about current affairs, and 8.7% are inclined to talk about social change. Acting as a testimony to these findings, these COVID Sheroes emerged as beacons of hope in times of hardship for thousands of people, and continue to inspire change through their entrepreneurial spirit.

Twitter's Indian Rival Koo Publishes Social Media Compliance Report for July 2021

Image ~ Bizbehindsports.com

Report published second month in a row aims to bring transparency to the process of enabling compliance requirements on social media

National, August 02, 2021: In accordance with *Rule 4(d) of the of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 of the Government of India, Koo has published a social media Compliance Report for July 2021, in the manner required by the Rules.

The report for July 2021 shows that of the 3,431 Koos reported by the Community, 14.5 percent (498) were removed, while other action was taken against the rest – 2,933. Similarly, Koo took steps to proactively moderate 65,280 Koos, of which 2.9 percent (1,887) were removed while other action was taken against the rest – 63,393. ‘Other action’ includes overlay, blur, ignore, warn, etc., related to Koos that do not comply with GoI guidelines.

REPORTED BY COMMUNITY & OTHERS

Month	Reported Koos	Removed	Other Action (overlay, blur, ignore, warn, etc.)
July 2021	3,431	498	2,933

 

PROACTIVE MODERATION

Month	Highlighted in Proactive Moderation	Removed	Other Action (overlay, blur, ignore, warn, etc.)
July 2021	65,280	1,887	63,393

 

Twitter Partners Climate Journo and Meteorologist To Build 'Tomorrow' - A Local Weather News Service

Amid Climate Change, Twitter has teamed up with Eric Holthaus, who is coined as "Rebel Nerd of Meteorology" by Rolling Stone magazine, and a total of 18 local meteorologist contributors to launch Tomorrow a local weather news service that uses all of the creator products Twitter has added. 

Twitter's VP of Product, Mike Park, told Axios, It's the largest collective of writers and experts we've launched with," Twitter's VP of product Mike Park tells Axios.

This new model of Twitter is the starting of investment in local collectives where audiences fund local writers and creators with low overhead. The model will help Twitter’s bottom line, which is great for the company since ad revenue has been stagnant. Park explained to Axios that "it will soon get to a place where video monetization is one among several revenue models on Twitter".

The Tomorrow website says --

The idea behind Tomorrow is simple: The weather affects everyone, and it’s something that brings us all together.

Twitter has long been the go-to platform for breaking news events, but weather events have become especially endemic to conversations on Twitter, given that the news changes so rapidly by the minute.

Currently 16 cities are being covered and more cities will be included in the future.

Twitter Testing "Tip Jar" Feature Where You Can Send Money Directly to Favourite Account

Twitter is testing a new Tip Jar feature globally -- including in India -- where iOS and Android users can send money directly to their favourite accounts with substantial followers.

Starting 6th May, everyone using Twitter in English can send tips to applicable accounts on Twitter for iOS and Android, announced Twitter on its official blog. 

However, at the moment only a limited group of people around the world who use Twitter in English can add Tip Jar to their profile and accept tips. This group includes creators, journalists, experts, and nonprofits. Soon, more people will be able to add Tip Jar to their profile and we’ll expand to more languages.

A Twitter account’s Tip Jar is enabled if you see a Tip Jar icon [$] next to the Follow button on their Twitter profile page. Tap the icon, and you’ll see a list of payment services or platforms that the account has enabled. Select whichever payment service or platform you prefer and you’ll be taken off Twitter to the selected app where you can show your support in the amount you choose. The payment services, availability and features of which may vary by region. 

Eligible accounts can add payment services -- Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, PayPal and Venmo. Twitter takes no cut. On Android, tips can also be sent within Spaces - an audio chat app by Twitter.

Twitter is also reportedly bringing Indian payment providers to Tip Jar, along with the ability to Tip in multiple languages.

Twitter Held Talks to Acquire Clubhouse for Reportedly $4 Bn Deal

Microblogging giant Twitter Inc. has reportedly held talks in recent months to acquire Clubhouse, an audio-chat iPhone app launched last year in April, reported Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. Few other media outlets also confirmed that discussions did take place.

However, now the talks with Twitter is no longer in continuation, said the report, and as it failed to proceed, Clubhouse, which lets users host their own online radio shows, began to explore whether it made sense to raise financing instead, at around similar valuation as it was reportedly would have been acquired by Twitter. 

Notably, Twitter has its own Clubhouse-like app called 'Spaces', a drop-in audio chatroom feature that it has been rolling out gradually to its user base over the past few months.

An another previous report of Bloomberg said that Clubhouse was seeking a fundraise at a valuation of around $4 billion, but the report detailing the potential acquisition talks indicate that the discussions with Twitter collapsed first, leading to a change in strategy to pursue securing additional capital in exchange for equity investment.

Clubhouse, as per media reports isn't making profit at all, thoough it tried monetizing it platform but that isn't working.

Twitter CEO Selling His Very First Tweet from 2006 in the Form NFT (Cryptocurrency), Bid Reaches $600K

On Saturday, Twitter CEO and billionaire Jack Dorsey announced to sell his very first tweet of March 6, 2006 in the form of NFT (non-fungible token), which is a unique form of cryptocurrency, and the bid had already reached $6,00,000 (nearly Rs 4 crore) by Twiiter use named @sinaEstavi. 

Dorsey tweeted with a bidding link to NFT (non-fungible token) through a platform called Valuables. Dorsey's 2006 tweet read: "just setting up my twttr".

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a special type of cryptographic token which represents something unique; non-fungible tokens are thus not mutually interchangeable. This is in contrast to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, and many network or utility tokens that are fungible in nature.

According to Valuables, "Owning any digital content can be a financial investment, hold sentimental value, and create a relationship between collector and creator. Like an autograph on a baseball card, the NFT itself is the creator’s autograph on the content, making it scarce, unique, and valuable."

NFTs allow people to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items and keep track of who owns them using the blockchain.

The artist Grimes recently sold several NFT items for nearly $6 million.

An NFT of LeBron James making a historic dunk for the Lakers garnered more than $200,000.

“The band Kings of Leon is releasing its new album in the form of an NFT. The auction house Christie’s, bids on an NFT by the artist Beeple are already reaching into the millions,” reports NPR.

COVID will set up Entrepreneurs for Next Decade of Change, Innovation and Problem Solving - Maya Hari of Twitter APAC at TiECON Chennai 2020

• Further deliberates on the key trends set out to emerge in the near future for entrepreneurs and leaders to tackle
• Brings to fore the need for gender parity in VC space to accelerate change in women entrepreneurship 

Addressing over 1000 entrepreneurs on the fourth day of TiECON Chennai 2020, Maya Hari, Vice-President & Managing Director - Twitter APAC shared her views on the impact of the pandemic on global business and the opportunities that lay ahead for the entrepreneurial community worldwide. Engaging in a deep, insightful fire-side chat with Dharti Desai, Owner, FineVinesnMore & Vice Chair – TiE Women, Maya further spoke about how the pandemic has presented itself as an opportunity for new-age entrepreneurs and leaders to solve real-world problems by leveraging technology.


The fourth day of TiECON Chennai 2020 virtual conference had a series of power-packed sessions addressing key areas of business and its challenges for the benefit of budding entrepreneurs. Keeping in line with this, the fire-side chat between Maya Hari and Dharti Desai on the theme Leadership Trends For the Next Decade: What problems will future entrepreneurs solve? steered into many interesting paths covering a spectrum of topics in connection with the evolving global entrepreneurial ecosystem.


In her conversation, Maya Hari, Twitter APAC said - 

Every time there has been a major crisis in the world, it has been the reason why people find problems to solve and entrepreneurs, being the best of the breed, are always looking for the real need. I see this crisis as setting up the next decade of change, innovation and problems that people will solve in meaningful ways that adds back to the entrepreneurial community. If I really look at the trends of the future, the problems to be solved are enormous. But what is interesting is, as we think of entrepreneurs and leaders, that each one of these problems also creates unintended consequences that also have to be solved. If you are thinking about digitizing health, you also need to think about ways to protect data and build trust on the back of that. If you are thinking about automation, you need to be able re-skill and reeducate people. These are the exciting opportunities for entrepreneurs and at the same time these are the problems leaders would certainly have to tackle on a daily basis in the future.

Sharing her forecast on what the future holds for businesses, leaders and entrepreneurs globally, Maya Hari said “Technification of the world is happening and I see three trends that start to lay out over the next decade. First, digitization of the world and in India it has already started. For e-commerce, in the last five years, it has been amazing to see the growth. Beyond the obvious areas, there are so many areas lined up to be solved for like HR tech, people analytics, accounting and even a very important sector like health. Traditionally, it has been hard to take the notion of health and move it entirely to digital. Look at what is happening now with the start of people embracing tele-health and telemedicine. The second trend I’m worried and excited about at the same time is feeding the world. One of the things that has become very clear is, when every country started to say I’m going to secure food supplies for my own citizens, supply chains got disrupted. Suddenly the conversation around the world has changed to we, as a whole world, don’t produce enough food to feed our population. I really see the next decade to be all about solving to feed the world. Whether that is using technology in agriculture or food tech, there are plenty of exciting problems waiting to be solved. The third thing is automation of the world. Admittedly there is a fair amount of automation when it comes to manufacturing. Robotics and autonomous vehicles will really change the world we live in and also technology will change the world of hospitality; things that we have barely scratched the surface.”

Speaking on the rise of purpose-driven entrepreneurship in the new world, Maya Hari in her discussion further spoke about the fundamental changes that COVID-19 has brought into the ecosystem. She further added that, contrary to how entrepreneurs have been classified traditionally, the future is going to be a combination of leaders and innovators with a nose for business opportunity and purpose. She also spoke about the future of leadership in a post-COVID era, stating that transparency and people centricity will be an integral part of future leadership styles.

Covering a spectrum of topics, Maya and Dharti conversed about how COVID-19 has given entrepreneurs an opportunity to increase cross-border connections that has helped strengthen operations. They also discussed about the various emerging entrepreneurs that are using this time as an opportunity to take their businesses global.

Discussing further on the future of women entrepreneurs and their challenges, Maya Hari concluded by saying, “I have seen incredible women entrepreneurs, not just in Chennai but around the world. When they really commit to building solutions [and] building companies, they do incredibly well. I often feel that women stop before they take that plunge and question themselves, stop themselves. I really think we need more women entrepreneurs. Funding is tough for women. One, women have a tough time asking for money and backing it up with the confidence that they so deserve to have. Second, not enough investors are seeking out women. On the flip side, I see this as an opportunity for women to mainstream VCs. As much as we talk about diversity and gender parity in technology companies, I feel gender parity in the VC space will accelerate a change we desire to see with women entrepreneurs. That’s a big wish for me.”


Following this session, the conference also hosted a panel discussion on New Age of Consumerism and Mass Customization by Kamesh Goyal, Chairman – Digit Insurance; and Sujay S, Co-founder & CEO, Zwende. The panel was moderated by Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner, Speciale Invest. The day’s conference came to a conclusion with a fire-side chat on SaaS in Asia by Dev Khare, Partner, Lightspeed India Ventures and Priya Rajan, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank.

TiE Chennai is an active chapter with 175+ Charter Members and over 600 Associate Members. Based out of the South Indian city of Chennai, this chapter seeks to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship both within the city as well as the larger state of Tamil Nadu. Through independent events as well as partnerships, the chapter holds multiple events every month, looking to inspire, mentor and educate local entrepreneurs. Charter members, entrepreneurs, business leaders, venture capitalists and government representatives often collaborate to present success stories and business opportunities as well as know-how on raising capital, networking, etc. TiE Chennai has been one of the top performing chapters globally since 2014. This recognition stands testimony to the consistent high performance of the chapter across parameters including regular high quality events and membership growth.
For more info: https://chennai.tie.org/

Koo App Wins PM Modi’s AatmaNirbhar App Challenge

• Koo App is an Indian language based twitter for non-English users.
• Currently available in Hindi Kannada, Tamil and Telugu Languages

Koo App was selected as a winner of PM Modi’s AatmaNirbhar App Challenge on Aug 7, 2020. AatmaNirbhar App Challenge was an invitation from the Prime Minister to foster digital innovation among startups and entrepreneurs in India to create products that could cater to India and its digital needs in 8 categories. Koo App was one of the winners in this App Challenge, that received over 6900 entries from all over India.

Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-founder and CEO of Koo said “We’re very excited about being one of the winners of the AatmaNirbhar App Challenge. PM Modi is giving startups, innovators and entrepreneurs a very good platform to showcase their creation and we’re grateful for this opportunity. We look forward to taking Koo to a wider India that wants to connect with people in their mother tongue.”

Mayank Bidawatka, Co-founder of Koo said, “We are honored to be a part of the winning list of apps that have been selected from among the 6940 entries that the AatmaNirbhar App Challenge received. We value and appreciate the thrust our government is placing on technology innovation for a better India. It’s a proud moment for our team and our contributors to be recognized for our creation. We look forward to giving a voice to a billion Indians through Koo!”

About Koo

Koo is India’s Micro-blogging platform in Indian languages. Koo was launched in March 2020 and is now available in 4 Indian Languages – Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Just 10% of India understands English. The rest speak 100+ Indian languages. They don’t have an Indian language friendly platform to speak their mind and express themselves. Koo is a micro-blog that enables Indians to express themselves in their mother tongue.

Koo also invites some of the most prominent personalities in India so that users can follow them and their thoughts. Koo was launched just 5 months back and has seen prominent personalities like Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Shri Sadhguru, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Dr. Ashwath Narayan (Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka), Deputy Commissioner of Karnataka, MP Tejasvi Surya, Ashutosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi and many other Politicians, IAS Officers, Actors, Actresses and Sports personalities using it to be in touch with their followers.

Koo enables users to speak their mind using text, audio and video. They can either convey their thought in 400 characters of text or 1-minute short audio or video Koos. Some app features include following, people feed, 1-1 messaging, english to language keyboard, language news feeds and hyper local hash tags. Koo will soon launch other languages too in the coming months.

Koo has been co-founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka. They are serial entrepreneurs and have built startups like TaxiForSure and redBus in their past entrepreneurial avatars.

About Aatmanirbhar App Challenge

Ministry of IT and Technology (MeitY) in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission – Niti Aayog launches Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge to identify the best Indian Apps that are already being used by citizens and have the potential to scale and become world class Apps in their respective categories. This Innovation Challenge seeks to create an ecosystem where Indian entrepreneurs and startups are incentivised to ideate, incubate, build, nurture and sustain tech solutions that can serve not only citizens within India but also the world. The Mantra is to Make in India for India and the World.

Twitter to Label Tweets Containing Harmful, Misleading Content on COVID-19

Twitter on Monday said it will label tweets that contain "potentially harmful, misleading information" related to COVID-19, and provide additional context to curb spread of fake news around the pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives globally.

Like other digital platforms, including Google and Facebook, Twitter is also undertaking these measures to ensure that people have access to information from trusted health experts and organisations like World Health Organization at a time when nations across the world are combating the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this year, Twitter had introduced a new label for tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media that aims to mislead people, and had said it would take steps including removal of tweets if such content has the potential to harm public safety.

The crackdown on such content comes amid widespread concerns globally over altered, forged content on social media, including deepfake videos, and its catastrophic implications.

Twitter, in a blogpost on Monday, said, "In serving the public conversation, our goal is to make it easy to find credible information on Twitter and to limit the spread of potentially harmful and misleading content".

"Starting today, we're introducing new labels and warning messages that will provide additional context and information on some tweets containing disputed or misleading information related to COVID-19," it said, adding that this will also apply to tweets sent before May 11.

Twitter said it will take action based on three broad categories -- misleading information, disputed claims, and unverified claims.

Tweets containing misleading information will either be removed or contain a label with links to trusted information sources, depending on the propensity for harm.

Tweets featuring disputed claims will either carry a label or warning depending on the severity of content. No action will be taken for tweets containing unverified claims, Twitter said.

The company said these labels will link to a Twitter-curated page or external trusted source containing additional information on the claims made within the tweet.

These warnings, it said, will inform people that the information in the tweet is in contradiction to public health experts' guidance before a user views the content.

However, embedded tweets and tweets viewed by people not logged into Twitter may still appear without a label, the company said.

"Our teams are using and improving on internal systems to proactively monitor content related to COVID-19. These systems help ensure we're not amplifying tweets with these warnings or labels and detecting the high-visibility content quickly," Twitter said.

It added that the microblogging platform will also continue to rely on partners to identify content that is likely to result in offline harm.

"Given the dynamic situation, we will prioritise review and labeling of content that could lead to increased exposure or transmission. We'll learn a lot as we use these new labels, and are open to adjusting as we explore labeling different types of misleading information," it noted. PTI SR MBI

Rajasthan HC Quashes FIR Against Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey

The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday quashed the FIR filed against Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and disposed of the plea for his arrest for allegedly hurting the sentiment of the Brahmin community by posting an “offensive photograph” on social media.

“The court did not find the offence made out against Dorsey and a journalist and said allowing investigation in the matter by police was absolutely uncalled for," said the petitioner's counsel Nishant Bora.

Allowing the miscellaneous petitions by Dorsey and a journalist, Justice Sandeep Mehta said, “I am of the opinion that allowing investigation in the matter to be continued is absolutely uncalled for.”

The court also observed that the FIR did not disclose “necessary ingredients” of any cognizable offence to warrant its registration and investigation.

Raj Kumar Sharma had filed an FIR with the police through the court in November 2018, alleging that a picture posted by Dorsey with some journalists holding a poster bearing the slogan “Smash Brahminical Patriarchy” had hurt the sentiments of the community.

Referring to the phrase ascribed as offensive, the court said these words could not be construed as having any direct link with the religious sentiment of any section of society.

“The words in the poster best convey the feelings of the concerned person regarding being strongly opposed to the Brahminical patriarchal system and desirous of denouncing the same,”the court said.

Dorsey and the journalist, Anna M M Vetticad, had moved court with a Criminal Miscellaneous petition praying quashing of the FIR. In December last year, the court did not quash the FIR but stayed the arrest. PTI CORR

Star Movies Launches Gamification Model bringing TV and Twitter Together

Star Movies, a leading movie channel, known to set new benchmarks for the category and constantly innovating to enhance the consumer experience has launched #StarMoviesPlayAt7 on Twitter. Starting 16th December, consumers can watch blockbuster Hollywood content on the channel and engage on the platform to win exciting prizes. 

[caption id="attachment_139435" align="alignleft" width="273"] Anuradha Aggarwal, Head - Infotainment, English and Kids, Star India[/caption]

“Star Movies brings the best of the Hollywood to our audience and we’ve always loved to share our passion for movies with the larger communities in unique and engaging ways. Play at 7 is one such initiative where we bring together TV and Twitter through a unique consumer engagement model which is a first for the category. We hope that the audience will play this game and have fun while watching the movies that they love on Star Movies.” said Anuradha Aggarwal, Head - Infotainment, English and Kids, Star India. 

Every day between 7PM and 9PM, while watching movies on Star Movies, viewers can play 7 unique games that will be showcased on Star Movies from 16th December. To participate, all they need to do is tweet the correct answers to @StarMoviesIndia using #StarMoviesPlayAt7. The faster you answer correctly, the better is your overall average time and better is your chance to win. The experience will be complimented by a real-time leaderboard on the @StarMoviesIndia Twitter handle where everyone can see their daily and weekly progress. Top 5 players every week, get an opportunity to win some exciting prizes and since we want the viewers to have fun playing the game every day – there will be 50 Daily winners!   

Twitter, TrustBridge Led $100 Mn Funding in India's ShareChat, A Non-English Social Media Platform

Mumbai, Aug 16 (PTI) Regional social media platform ShareChat on Friday said it has raised USD 100 million in its series D funding with participation from microblogging site Twitter and private equity firm TrustBridge Partners.

Existing investors including Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital also participated in the funding round.

To date, ShareChat has raised a total of USD 224 million, it said in a statement.

"This new round of funding will help ShareChat strengthen the technology infrastructure for its platform as the company looks to scale its business. Additionally, ShareChat will acquire talent to help propel the exchange of ideas among its strategic partners," it said.

To accelerate the internet ecosystem in India, the company will also be introducing more features to make the experience seamless across devices, it added.

"This is a very exciting time for us at ShareChat as we see our platform growing rapidly. With this new round of funding, we are positioned to take the next leap in our growth story. As we scale up, our focus remains to help the ShareChat community better express themselves in the comfort
of their native language," ShareChat CEO Ankush Sachdeva said.

Commenting on the investment, Twitter India managing director Manish Maheshwari said, "Twitter and ShareChat are aligned on the broader purpose of serving the public conversation, helping the world learn faster and solve common challenges."

This investment will help ShareChat grow and provide the company's management team access to Twitter's executives as thought partners, he said. PTI DS AP