Voters in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/wisconsin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wisconsin</a> approved two election-related amendments to the State Constitution on Tuesday, including one that bans the use of private money for election administration. 
The Republican-backed amendments came after Facebook founder <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> spent millions backing groups that funded election administration in counties across the country, including in Wisconsin, during the 2020 election. Critics argued that the massive amount of election funding distributed to non-profit groups, known as “Zuckerbucks,” unfairly benefited Democrat-dominated counties.
The initiative to ban private funding, Question 1, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/02/us/elections/results-wisconsin-question-1-prohibit-private-funding-of-elections.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> with 54% of the vote in favor and nearly 46% against. A section will now be added to the State Constitution that says &#8220;private donations and grants may not be applied for, accepted, expended, or used in connection with the conduct of any primary, election, or referendum,” The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4572010-wisconsin-pass-measure-private-funds-elections/">reported</a>. 
The second initiative, Question 2, defined who can administer various aspects of elections. It <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/02/us/elections/results-wisconsin-question-2-limit-election-conduct-to-election-officials.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> with nearly 59% supporting and 41% opposed. It stipulated that “only election officials designated by law may perform tasks in the conduct of primaries, elections, and referendums.”
Opposition to the two amendments was greatest in the Democratic-heavy counties surrounding Madison and Milwaukee. The amendments were approved as Wisconsin is again expected to be a battleground state for a likely rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in November. 
“Victory! Wisconsin has spoken and the message is clear: elections belong to voters, not out-of-state billionaires,” Wisconsin GOP Chairman Brian Schimming <a href="https://wisgop.org/wisgop-statement-on-questions-1-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement. “Thanks to the efforts by the Republican Party of Wisconsin and grassroots organizing, Wisconsinites have turned the page on Zuckerbucks and secured our elections from dark money donors.”
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<a href="https://thefga.org/research/the-wisconsin-zuckerbucks-problem/">According</a> to the Foundation for Government Accountability, more than $10 million in “Zuckerbucks” was spent in Wisconsin during the 2020 election. The FGA estimated that more than 80% of the funding went to areas Biden won by an average of 37 points. 
Jason Snead, the executive director of the Honest Elections Project, a group that has urged states to ban the use of outside funding for elections, praised the move in a statement obtained by The Daily Wire. 
“Honest Elections Project Action congratulates Wisconsinites for voting to enshrine a ban on private influence on election administration in their state constitution,” Snead said. “Private influence schemes such as ZuckBucks in 2020 and ZuckBucks 2.0 in 2024 sow distrust in election outcomes, which is why they should be banned in all 50 states. Moneyed interests, conservative and liberal alike, have no business influencing how elections are administered.”

A Voters Fills Out Their Ballot At A Polling Station In Green Bay Wisconsin

Wisconsin Voters Approve GOP-Backed Amendment To Ban Private Funding For Elections

2020 Election

2024 Election

Election Laws

Elections

Joe Biden

Mark Zuckerberg

Milwaukee

Politics

Wisconsin

Big Tech CEOs Testify At Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

The Best Way To Protect Your Kids From Being Harmed By A Smartphone Is To Not Give Them A Smartphone

Children

Josh Hawley

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Readers Pass

Smartphones

Social Media

Ted Cruz

During a Wednesday hearing on social media and child exploitation, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) pressed tech entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg to address the families who had been hurt by his and other platforms — and the Meta CEO obliged.
Zuckerberg faced a number of tough questions from Hawley and others about child safety as it related to social media platforms — and what those platforms should have done in the past and could do in the future to ensure the safety of younger users.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WOW. <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HawleyMO</a> pushed Mark Zuckerberg to stand up and apologize to families who’ve lost children to causes linked to social media, sitting behind him in the hearing. 
Zuckerberg stood up and addressed them. <a href="https://t.co/zuOGAr2vX3">pic.twitter.com/zuOGAr2vX3</a>
&mdash; Jay O&#39;Brien (@jayobtv) <a href="https://twitter.com/jayobtv/status/1752741698818506786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Hawley pressed Zuckerberg on the fact that families who felt victimized by social media companies often had no recourse, since those companies were protected from lawsuits by their designation as platforms for public speech rather than as publishers who would have a greater responsibility to police what was posted.
&#8220;Don’t you think they deserve some compensation for what your platform has done? Help with counseling services. Help with dealing with the issues that your services cause?&#8221; Hawley asked.
&#8220;Our job is to make sure that we build tools to help keep people safe,&#8221; Zuckerberg protested.
&#8220;Are you going to compensate them?&#8221; Hawley asked again.
&#8220;Senator, our job and what we take seriously is making sure that we build industry leading tools to find harmful —&#8221; Zuckerberg tried once more.
&#8220;To make money,&#8221; Hawley said.
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Toward the end of their exchange, Hawley told the Facebook creator that he owed an apology to the families who had been harmed by his product — and Zuckerberg complied.
&#8220;I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through. Nobody should have to go through what your families have suffered,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is why we have invested so much and are going to continue industry leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things your families have suffered.&#8221;
Mary Rodee, one of the parents in the gallery, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4440060-zuckerberg-apologies-social-media-victims-meta-senate-hearing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Hill</a> that she was not impressed by Zuckerberg&#8217;s apology.
&#8220;If he really wants to apologize to me then answer any of my letters or contacts from any attorneys or anybody else the whole time since my kid died three years ago,&#8221; she said, noting that her son had died by suicide at the age of 15 after someone used explicit photos to extort money from him via Facebook Messenger. &#8220;In that very short time, he panicked. He was an impulsive 15-year-old. He felt totally trapped and he killed himself.&#8221;

Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing With Big Tech CEOs

‘I’m Sorry For Everything’: Mark Zuckerberg Faces Families Harmed By Social Media

'I'm Sorry For Everything': Mark Zuckerberg Faces Families Harmed By Social Media

Section 230

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) unloaded on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a contentious Capitol Hill hearing on Wednesday, accusing the tech founder of having blood on his hands.
Graham laid out what he believed to be the problem, arguing that social media outlets — by design — were facilitating the exploitation of children. Additionally, he noted, there was little recourse for anyone who was negatively impacted — because, as platforms rather than publishers, the outlets were protected from legal liability.
&#8220;After years of working on this issue with you and others, I’ve come to conclude the following: social media companies, as they are currently designed and operate, are dangerous products,&#8221; the South Carolina senator began, going on to tell the story of a teenager who was tricked into sending someone compromising photos of himself — and then extorted for money until he eventually took his own life, Mediaite <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/politics/youve-got-blood-on-your-hands-lindsey-graham-assails-mark-zuckerberg-at-senate-hearing/">reported</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Make no mistake:
These social media companies and Big Tech have blood on their hands. <a href="https://t.co/WOIbOf1NoN">pic.twitter.com/WOIbOf1NoN</a>
&mdash; Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1752729302020358581?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us — I know you don&#8217;t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands,&#8221; Graham said to applause from the gallery. &#8220;You have a product — you have a product that&#8217;s killing people. When we had cigarettes killing people, we did something about it – maybe not enough. You&#8217;re going to talk about guns, we have the ATF.&#8221;
&#8220;Nothing here,&#8221; he continued, referring to social media in general. &#8220;There&#8217;s not a damn thing anybody can do about it, you can&#8217;t be sued. Now, Senator Blumenthal and Blackburn, who&#8217;ve been like the dynamic duo here, have found emails from your company where they warned you about this stuff — and you decided not to hire 45 people that could do a better job of policing this.&#8221;
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&#8220;So the bottom line is you can&#8217;t be sued, but you should be,&#8221; Graham said, arguing that the emails were evidence that Zuckerberg knew the risks and failed to make efforts to mitigate them. &#8220;But the courtroom&#8217;s closed to every American abused by all the companies in front of me.&#8221;
Graham then called for the repeal of Section 230, which offers protections to social media companies under the assumption that they function as platforms rather than publishers, adding, &#8220;What do you do with dangerous products? Either allow lawsuits — you have statutory protections to protect consumers — or you have a commission of sorts to regulate the industry in question, to take your license away if you have a license or to fine you.&#8221;

US-TECHNOLOGY-INTERNET-CHILD-EXPLOITATION

‘Blood On Your Hands’: Lindsey Graham Scorches Mark Zuckerberg In Contentious Hearing

Congress

Facebook

Lindsey Graham

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/wisconsin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wisconsin</a> judge has sided with a voter who argued that the city of Racine violated state law when it operated a van that drove to locations throughout the city and collected absentee ballots. 
Racine County Circuit Court Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz ruled that the city’s use of a mobile van for absentee voting violated state law and benefited Democrats unfairly in a primary election in August 2022. The van was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-racine-absentee-voting-van-16e07f54c595013ffeeb190c706ba4d8#:~:text=MADISON%2C%20Wis.,around%20the%20city%20in%202022." target="_blank" rel="noopener">bought</a> with money from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit run by Mark Zuckerberg that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/georgia-bans-counties-from-using-private-money-for-elections-after-2020-zuckerbucks-controversy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has been accused</a> of allocating funds for elections in ways that benefit Democrats. 
The decision came after Ken Brown, represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Racine City Clerk Tara McMenamin. Intervenors on behalf of the defendants included the Democratic National Committee, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, and the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans. 
In his <a href="https://will-law.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Brown-v.-WEC-Decision.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruling</a>, Gasiorkiewicz said that while state law did not expressly prohibit mobile van absentee ballot sites, there was nothing in state law to allow them either. 
“Nothing in the statutory language detailing the procedures by which absentee ballots may be cast mentions mobile van absentee ballot sites or anything like them. Such an interpretation was and is contrary to law,” he said. 
According to WILL, <a href="https://will-law.org/will-wins-election-integrity-lawsuit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">there were</a> almost two dozen sites throughout Racine where a mobile van parked for several hours of in-person absentee voting in the two weeks before the 2022 election. 
The ruling could come into play as the 2024 presidential election approaches and voting rules in Wisconsin come under scrutiny. The Wisconsin Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wisconsin-supreme-court-bans-uses-of-drop-boxes-in-elections" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously ruled</a> that the use of ballot drop boxes in 2020 was illegal, but the decision could be reversed as liberals have taken a majority on the court. 
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Gasiorkiewicz also sided with Brown’s statements that the use of the van benefited Democrats. 
“The statute in question clearly and unequivocally indicates that chosen alternate absentee balance balloting sites cannot afford an advantage to any political party,” Gasiorkiewicz wrote. “The filings in this case clearly indicated that the alternate sites chosen clearly favored members of the Democratic Party or those with known Democratic Party leanings.”
WILL celebrated the decision, saying that it was a win for election integrity. 
“Wisconsin voters should know that their elections are secure, and that election administration does not favor one political party over another. This decision does just that. WILL’s policy and legal expertise allow us to hold government actors accountable to the rule of law at all levels, ‘WILL Deputy Counsel Lucas Vebber said.

Blank white van

Mobile Absentee Voting Van Used In Wisconsin Election Violated State Law, Judge Rules

2022 Election

Ballot Harvesting

ballots

X owner <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> says that he might need to get surgery before fighting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Musk, 52, who is also the CEO of Tesla, said on X that he is getting an MRI of his neck and upper back.
Zuckerberg, 39, posted on Threads, which was built to compete with X but has since struggled, a screenshot of a post from Musk that stated: &#8220;Am lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight. Don&#8217;t have time to work out, so I just bring them to work.&#8221;
Zuckerberg responded: &#8220;I&#8217;m ready today. I suggested August 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn&#8217;t confirmed. Not holding my breath.&#8221;
Musk later responded on X: &#8220;Exact date is still in flux. I’m getting an MRI of my neck &amp; upper back tomorrow. May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week.&#8221;
He later added, &#8220;Nobody lives forever.&#8221;
Talks of the two fighting each other began earlier this summer when Musk responded news that Zuckerberg was releasing Threads.
&#8220;I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,&#8221; Musk said.
Zuckerberg responded, “Send me location.”
Talk surrounding the fight has continued to escalate with Musk writing over the weekend: &#8220;Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on 𝕏. All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.&#8221;
Zuckerberg responded on Instagram: &#8220;Shouldn&#8217;t we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?&#8221;
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-surgery-mark-zuckerberg-fight-3598da84">reported</a> that Musk has said in the past that he suffers from “quite severe back pain” and that he said last month that he “might need an operation to strengthen the titanium plate holding my C5/C6 vertebrae together.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on 𝕏.
All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1688091377823895552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

F1 Grand Prix of Miami – Final Practice

Musk Undergoing Medical Testing, May Need Surgery Before Zuckerberg Fight

Elon Musk

U.S.

Months after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jim-jordan-subpoenas-big-tech-executives-in-collusion-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">subpoenaing</a> Meta CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> as part of a censorship investigation, a GOP-led House panel announced on Tuesday a plan to move forward with trying to punish the Big Tech executive for allegedly not complying with its demands.
The Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jim-jordan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jim Jordan</a> (R-OH), said a markup session is <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/committee-activity/markups/markup-report-recommending-us-house-cite-mark-zuckerberg-contempt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scheduled</a> for Thursday afternoon during which members will consider a report recommending the full House chamber vote on citing Zuckerberg for contempt of Congress.
&#8220;The Committee’s subpoena to Meta, issued on February 15, 2023, requires, among other things, that Meta produce material concerning its engagement with the Executive Branch and Meta’s decisions and policies regarding content moderation,&#8221; the <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/zuckerberg-contempt-report_ans.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">panel&#8217;s report said</a>. &#8220;Although directly responsive to the Committee’s subpoena, Meta has failed to produce nearly all of the relevant documents internal to the company.&#8221;
In a <a href="https://twitter.com/andymstone/status/1683904883194200067" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> posted to social media, Meta claimed to have operated in &#8220;good faith&#8221; to comply with &#8220;sweeping requests&#8221; from the committee for months, even before the subpoena was issued in February.
&#8220;To date we have delivered over 53,000 pages of documents &#8212; both internal and external &#8212; and have made nearly a dozen current and former employees available to discuss external and internal matters, including some scheduled this very week,&#8221; Meta added. &#8220;Meta will continue to comply, as we have thus far, with good faith requests from the committee.&#8221;
In addition to Zuckerberg, top executives from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple were also subpoenaed in February with a deadline set toward the end of March. While Republicans have set their focus on the issue of censorship, Democrats have generally been more concerned about the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/981203566/5-takeaways-from-big-techs-misinformation-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spread of false information and extremism</a> on social media platforms.
Twitter, which this week owner Elon Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-announces-twitter-logo-change-plans-to-gradually-remove-all-the-birds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rebranded to X</a>, did not appear on the subpoena list. At the time, Jordan <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-02-15-jdj-to-jassy-amazon.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">touted how Twitter</a> &#8220;set a benchmark for how transparent Big Tech companies can be about interactions with government over censorship&#8221; following the release of The Twitter Files.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook that recently introduced its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meta-to-release-new-app-threads-to-compete-with-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter-competitor app</a> called Threads, had as of Tuesday &#8220;produced only documents between Meta and external entities and a small subset of relevant internal documents&#8221; to the House Judiciary Committee, the panel&#8217;s report said.
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The committee &#8220;has a particular need for Meta’s internal documents, which would shed light on how Meta understood, evaluated, and responded to the Executive Branch’s requests or directives to censor content, as well as Meta’s decision-making process to censor viewpoints in the modern town square,&#8221; the panel added.
While alluding to an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-scores-victory-against-order-blocking-contact-with-social-media-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ongoing lawsuit</a> over alleged collusion between the federal government and social media companies to censor speech in violation of the First Amendment, the panel&#8217;s report indicated Congress may develop legislation to enact &#8220;new statutory limits on the Executive Branch’s ability to work with technology companies to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users.&#8221;
Among the recommendations made in the report, beyond holding Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress, is to have the House speaker refer the matter to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., and &#8220;otherwise take all appropriate action to enforce the subpoena.&#8221;

House Committee Moves Forward With Plan To Hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg In Contempt

Big Tech

Censorship

Jim Jordan

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a> Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody wrote a letter to Meta CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> this week asking the billionaire to testify about the alleged use of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/facebook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> by human traffickers. 
In the letter, dated Monday, Moody asked Zuckerberg to appear before Florida’s Statewide Council on Human Trafficking in October, citing reports from law enforcement who have said that human trafficking cases frequently involved Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 
“Before launching new products or wasting time preparing for a cage match that will likely never happen, Zuckerberg should be working to make Meta’s existing platforms safer for users and to prevent vulnerable people from being forced into illicit sex work. The findings of our statewide survey and other reports make it clear that Meta platforms are the preferred social media applications for human traffickers looking to prey on vulnerable people,” <a href="https://www.myfloridalegal.com/newsrelease/attorney-general-moody-calls-meta-ceo-zuckerberg-florida-testify-about-use-meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Moody, who is the chair of Florida’s human trafficking council, in a press release. 
According to Moody’s <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/658485281/Meta-Letter#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a>, the council surveyed Florida law enforcement agencies to see what role various social media companies may have played in facilitating human trafficking. Moody said the survey found that more than 53% of the 271 human trafficking cases that involved social media were linked by law enforcement to Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. 
“As Chair of the Council, and as Florida&#8217;s Attorney General, I invite you to appear before the Council to discuss this very important issue and address the Council as to what Meta is doing to prevent its platforms from being used to assist, facilitate or support human trafficking,” Moody wrote in her letter. 
Moody requested that Zuckerberg respond by September 5 to her request. Her letter comes on the heels of a report from The Wall Street Journal and academic researchers that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/instagram-accused-of-connecting-vast-pedophile-network-in-new-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused Instagram of facilitating</a> a “vast pedophile network.” 
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The Journal, alongside researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said that Instagram allowed and promoted accounts that openly purchased and commissioned “underage-sex content.”
Accounts on Instagram have posted “menus” that offered inappropriate content, including “imagery of the minor performing sexual acts with animals,” according to researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory. Other “menus” reportedly offered videos of children hurting themselves or “meet-ups” with kids.
In 2022, Facebook <a href="https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2022-reports-by-esp.pdf">reported</a> more than 21 million instances of “apparent child pornography” while Instagram reported over 5 million.

TOPSHOT-FRANCE-TECHNOLOGY-POLITICS-GOVERNMENT-ECONOMY

Florida AG Asks Zuckerberg To Testify On Human Traffickers’ Reported Use Of Facebook

Florida AG Asks Zuckerberg To Testify On Human Traffickers' Reported Use Of Facebook

Crime

Florida

Human Trafficking

Instagram

Twitter sent a letter to Meta CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> this week threatening legal action for what the company suggested amounted to theft of protected intellectual property and trade secrets by Threads.
The letter comes as Zuckerberg claimed on Thursday that Threads, which runs on a .net domain, had signed up 30 million users in its first 24 hours since being released. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, launched Threads Wednesday night.
&#8220;Competition is fine, cheating is not,&#8221; Musk wrote in a tweet replying to the news of the letter that Musk attorney Alex Spiro sent to Zuckerberg.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Competition is fine, cheating is not
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1677042708756439041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Spiro said that the company &#8220;has serious concerns that Meta Platforms (&#8216;Meta&#8217;) has engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter&#8217;s trade secrets and other intellectual property.&#8221;
&#8220;Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees,&#8221; the letter continued. &#8220;Twitter knows that these employees previously worked at Twitter; that these employees had and continue to have access to Twitter&#8217;s trade secrets and other highly confidential information; that these employees owe ongoing obligations to Twitter; and that many of these employees have improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices.&#8221;
&#8220;With that knowledge, Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta&#8217;s copycat &#8216;Threads&#8217; app with the specific intent that they use Twitter&#8217;s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta&#8217;s competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees&#8217; ongoing obligations to Twitter,&#8221; the letter continued.
Twitter said that it &#8220;intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.&#8221;
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The letter warned that Twitter would seek &#8220;both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.&#8221;
Twitter also informed Meta that it was prohibited from &#8220;engaging in any crawling or scraping of Twitter&#8217;s followers or following data&#8221; as laid out by the company&#8217;s terms of service.
&#8220;Please consider this letter a formal notice that Meta must preserve any documents that could be relevant to a dispute between Twitter, Meta, and/or former Twitter employees who now work for Meta,&#8221; the letter continued. &#8220;That includes, but is not limited to, all documents related to the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding of these former Twitter employees, the development of Meta&#8217;s competing Threads app, and any communications between these former Twitter employees and any agent, representative, or employee or Meta.&#8221;

Meta CEO Zuckerberg Testifies In FTC Merger Challenge to VR Deal

Twitter Accuses Meta’s ‘Threads’ Of Violating State And Federal Laws Over Alleged IP Theft

Twitter Accuses Meta's 'Threads' Of Violating State And Federal Laws Over Alleged IP Theft

Business

Threads

Twitter

Facebook founder <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> said Thursday that his new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> competitor, Instagram&#8217;s Threads, attracted a whopping 30 million sign-ups in its first 24 hours.
Zuckerberg&#8217;s Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, launched Threads Wednesday night. Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 7 p.m. ET.
&#8220;Wow, 30 million sign ups as of this morning. Feels like the beginning of something special, but we&#8217;ve got a lot of work ahead to build out the app,&#8221; Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.threads.net/t/CuXCjGVrd6R/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on Threads Thursday morning.
Threads is likely to be Twitter&#8217;s most serious competitor yet. The platform features tweet-style posts, and users can comment on others&#8217; Threads posts, just like on Twitter.
Zuckerberg tweeted for the first time in over a decade to launch a playful missive at Elon Musk on Twitter, tweeting a meme of two matching Spidermans pointing at each other.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://t.co/MbMxUWiQgp">pic.twitter.com/MbMxUWiQgp</a>
&mdash; Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) <a href="https://twitter.com/finkd/status/1676747594460962817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
The goal is to get one billion people to sign up for Threads, Zuckerberg said. The Facebook founder also said they will hold off on ads for now and suggested Meta will grow Threads the same way he grew Facebook.
&#8220;Our approach will be the same as all our other products: make the product work well first, then see if we can get it on a clear path to 1 billion people, and only then think about monetization at that point,&#8221; Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.threads.net/t/CuW5-eWL34x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in another Threads post.
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Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted early Thursday morning after staying up all night and touted the app already reaching 10 million sign-ups, but he acknowledged Instagram still has a lot of work to do.
&#8220;Lots more to do. It&#8217;s easy to get a bunch of people to sign up, it&#8217;s hard to build something that people want to keep using, but quite the first day,&#8221; Mosseri <a href="https://www.threads.net/t/CuWOMBzgnto/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
A slew of celebrities have already signed up for Threads, including Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Oprah, Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, Gordon Ramsay, and Hugh Jackman.
Several big brands also signed up early, including Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Shark Week, Animal Planet, Billboard, HBO, NPR, HGTV, The Washington Post, The Economist, and CBS News.
Threads still lacks many of the features Twitter includes, including direct messaging, a feed of only the accounts the user follows, hashtags, and a search feature. However, some of those features are in the works, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/instagrams-threads-bursts-gate-millions-sign-ups-rcna92827" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Instagram&#8217;s head.
Twitter responded Thursday by threatening legal action against Meta over Threads, accusing the company of poaching former Twitter employees to build a &#8220;copycat&#8221; app.
Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-threatening-sue-meta-over-181843547.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent</a> Zuckerberg a letter accusing Meta of “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Spiro wrote. “Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.”

Facebook Annouces A New Product

Zuckerberg Says Instagram Threads Has 30 Million Sign Ups

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/meta">Meta</a>, the parent company to Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, will release a new microblogging app called Threads — as a potential competitor of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/twitter">Twitter</a> — on Thursday. 
Threads – which will be connected to Instagram, another Meta-owned company – is expected to mimic the Twitter product and draw from Meta’s Instagram user base.
Users will be able to use their Instagram accounts to log in to the new app, which self-describes on the App Store as “Instagram’s text-based conversation app” to “discuss everything from the topics you care about today.” 
Though Meta already owns Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, the company has long searched for a product to compete with Twitter’s popularity: A Twitter employee wrote in an internal post that “Twitter is in crisis and Meta needs its mojo back,” according to a December 2022 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/technology/twitter-rivals-alternative-platforms.html">report by The New York Times</a>. The employee added, “LET’S GO FOR THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER.”
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mark-zuckerberg-looks-to-deliver-hit-to-elon-musk-with-upcoming-twitter-clone-4a464407?mod=hp_lead_pos4">reported</a> that more than 50 million consumers use both Twitter and Instagram, and Meta likely hopes to capitalize on that base. The company has previously adopted similar tactics to combat competitors, such as introducing Stories to compete with Snapchat and Reels to rival Tiktok.
The announcement comes after months of publicity about a rivalry between <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg</a> and Twitter owner <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a>, culminating in a proposed boxing fight between the two, as suggested by Zuckerberg. 
Since Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-elon-musk-officially-takes-over-twitter-as-sale-is-now-final-top-execs-fired-report-says">took over Twitter</a> in October 2022, the company has faced a bucket of controversies over significant cuts to its workforce, changes to its “blue check” verification process, and loosening moderation rules. The company also gained public attention following Musk’s decision to release the “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/twitter-files">Twitter Files</a>” to several journalists, including Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss. 
Most recently, Musk announced over the weekend that he would place “temporary limits” on how many Tweets accounts can view per day, citing “extreme levels of data scraping &amp; system manipulation,” according to his Twitter account. 
Twitter has also likely experienced a steep decline in advertising revenue: The company posted $4.5 billion in 2021, the last year its financials were public before Musk took the company private, but Twitter is predicted to garner only $3 billion in 2023 advertising revenue, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mark-zuckerberg-looks-to-deliver-hit-to-elon-musk-with-upcoming-twitter-clone-4a464407?mod=hp_lead_pos4">The Wall Street Journal</a>. 
Despite the struggles the company has faced, companies Mastodon and BlueSky, as well as Trump’s Truth Social, all of which have tried to rival Twitter, have not yet gained enough traction to compete with Twitter’s more than 350 million users. 
Meta reported a total of 2.99 billion monthly average users across its platforms in its <a href="https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2023/Meta-Reports-First-Quarter-2023-Results/default.aspx">first-quarter earnings report</a>.

COMBO-US-TECHNOLOGY-META-TWITTER

Meta To Release New App ‘Threads’ To Compete With Twitter

Two of the world’s richest and most influential men could be squaring off soon after Twitter CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> challenged Meta CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> to a &#8220;cage match,&#8221; which the Facebook creator appeared to accept. 
Musk laid down the challenge when commenting on Twitter about the prospect of a Zuckerberg-backed Twitter rival. 
“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options,” Musk said in response to reports of a potential Twitter rival being developed by Zuckerburg. “At least it will be ‘sane.’ Was worried there for a moment.”
In response, one Twitter user warned Musk to be “careful” because Zuckerberg does jiu-jitsu. 
“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” the billionaire replied. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I’m up for a cage match if he is lol
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1671364992665264131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Soon after the remark, Zuckerberg posted on his Instagram story the words “Send Me Location” over a screenshot of Musk’s cage match challenge. A spokesperson for Meta <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/21/23769263/mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk-fight-cage-match-worldstar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Verge</a> that “the story speaks for itself” when asked to confirm whether Zuckerberg would face off against Musk. 
Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1671704483598925825?t=rOSDJta14Ol3aXbnNv6pZg&amp;s=19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">replied</a> to The Verge story on Twitter with the words “Vegas Octagon.” The SpaceX CEO also jokingly discussed his fighting skills. 
“I have this great move that I call ‘The Walrus’, where I just lie on top of my opponent &amp; do nothing,” Musk said. 
The verbal jousting comes after The Verge reported that Instagram would <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/8/23754304/instagram-meta-twitter-competitor-threads-activitypub" target="_blank" rel="noopener">work</a> on a text-focused Twitter competitor. It will be an app that is Meta’s “response to Twitter,” according to the company’s chief product officer Chris Cox.
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Zuckerberg, who has competed in martial arts competitions in the past, recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-rogan-praises-fing-savage-mark-zuckerberg-after-the-super-nerd-wins-jiu-jitsu-gold-medal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">won a gold and silver medal</a> in two separate events at the BJJ Tour competition in Woodside, California.
“Competed in my first jiu jitsu tournament and won some medals 🥇🥈 for the Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu team,” Zuckerberg announced in May. “Thanks to Dave Camarillo, Khai Wu, and James Terry for training me!”
Camarillo, who was previously the head Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach for American Kickboxing Academy, <a href="https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/37598929/coach-marvels-mark-zuckerberg-winning-bjj-tournament-one-best-students-ever-had" target="_blank" rel="noopener">praised</a> Zuckerberg as one of the best students he’s ever had. 
“He is an extremely hard worker, as everybody knows. But a lot of people have a business and they&#8217;re successful and they have that side of their life, and rarely do they dip into the physical side, especially with something like jiu-jitsu and MMA, and have the same amount of success or even go past Day 1 or Month 1.&#8221;

Musk Vs. Zuckerberg: Tech Titans Prepare For ‘Cage Match’ After Musk Challenge

Musk Vs. Zuckerberg: Tech Titans Prepare For 'Cage Match' After Musk Challenge

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