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

Mark Zuckerberg

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

Social Media

<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

Facebook

Florida

Human Trafficking

Instagram

Politics

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

Celebrities

Texas Senator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ted-cruz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ted Cruz</a> sent a letter to Meta CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> on Monday asking for answers from the social media giant in relation to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/instagram-accused-of-connecting-vast-pedophile-network-in-new-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bombshell report last week accusing Instagram of facilitating</a> a “vast pedophile network.” 
Cruz, the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee, said in the <a href="https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/1CEAE1E3-2AA0-44F7-B54F-FB9F9B79FC1D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> that he intended to investigate the report and requested documentation regarding <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Meta</a>’s handling of child sexual abuse material that made its way onto Instagram, which is owned by Meta.
“It is shocking and disturbing that Instagram may be actively facilitating the sexual exploitation of children. This horrifying report certainly calls into question whether platforms like Instagram should continue receiving civil liability immunity in cases where the design of their own systems proactively facilitates illegal and harmful activity,” Cruz said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
“Given this example and Meta’s past refusal to adequately answer my questions about Facebook and Instagram’s recommendation algorithms, I think it’s time for the Commerce Committee to hear directly from Mark Zuckerberg why his company’s products are allegedly enabling pedophiles,” the Texas Republican added.
The letter was written in response to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/instagram-vast-pedophile-network-4ab7189" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report from The Wall Street Journal</a> alongside researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst that 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.
Cruz’s inquiry into Meta’s handling of abusive material is part of another investigation he launched in February to look into the <a href="https://www.commerce.senate.gov/index.php/2023/2/sen-cruz-launches-sweeping-big-tech-oversight-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">treatment</a> of conservative content by tech giants Google, Twitter, TikTok, and Meta.
“As the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee may soon move to consider children’s online safety legislation, this disturbing report further calls into question whether platforms should enjoy Section 230 immunity from civil liability in cases where the design of their own systems proactively [facilitates] illegal and harmful activity,” Cruz wrote in the letter.
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Cruz asked Meta to provide a list of sexually abusive hashtags that Meta blocked and how many times they were promoted by the network’s algorithm. He also asked how many times a user account believed to be under 18 was accessed from one of the abusive hashtags.
Additionally, the Texas Senator asked how many resources were being devoted by Meta to child safety and told the company to preserve all documentation of its communications and policies on the issue.
In response to the Journal’s report, Meta said that it was continually fighting against the proliferation of abusive material.
“Child exploitation is a horrific crime,” said Meta, the parent company of Instagram. “We’re continuously investigating ways to actively defend against this behavior.”

Former FBI Director James Comey Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee On Russia Investigation

Ted Cruz Grills Mark Zuckerberg Over Alleged Instagram Pedophile Network

Child Abuse

Ted Cruz

Podcast giant and UFC commentator Joe Rogan praised Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week after the 38-year-old won several events at a Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament this week.
Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/09/business/mark-zuckerberg-jiu-jitsu-winner/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">competed</a> at the BJJ Tour competition in Woodside, California, where he won a gold and silver medal in two separate events.
&#8220;Competed in my first jiu jitsu tournament and won some medals 🥇🥈 for the Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu team,&#8221; Zuckerberg posted on his social media platform this week. &#8220;Thanks to Dave Camarillo, Khai Wu, and James Terry for training me!&#8221;
Rogan responded to the news on his show &#8220;The Joe Rogan Experience&#8221; on Wednesday with guests Kim Congdon and Sara Weinshenk, who are both comedians.
“Did you see Mark Zuckerberg won a gold medal in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition?” Rogan, who is a martial arts champion himself, asked. “Mark Zuckerberg is a f***ing savage.”
“This dude has been training jiu-jitsu. This is what he did. He wore a COVID mask, and he f***ing put a hat on and he hid. He used an alias,” Rogan said. “Imagine you’re right about to compete in like maybe your first competition. ‘Well just give it a try. I mean, what’s the worst thing that could happen?’ Worst thing that could happen — you get strangled by a super-nerd in front of the whole world.”
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Joe Rogan praises ‘super-nerd’ Mark Zuckerberg for jiujitsu medals: ‘F–king savage’ | New York Post" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bIF_zExsgrs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-rogan-torches-the-dnc-for-refusing-to-allow-biden-to-face-primary-debates-in-2024">Joe Rogan Torches The DNC For Refusing To Allow Biden To Face Primary Debates In 2024</a>

Comedian Portraits And Performances At The Ice House Comedy Club

Joe Rogan Praises ‘F***ing Savage’ Mark Zuckerberg After The ‘Super-Nerd’ Wins Jiu-Jitsu Gold Medal

Joe Rogan

Media

Governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/brian-kemp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brian Kemp</a> (R-GA) has signed a bill into law that prohibits <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/georgia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Georgia</a> counties from taking private money to fund elections after millions of dollars in private money were used in the Peach State during the 2020 presidential election.
The law, SB 222, strengthens a previous law that banned officials but not counties from accepting money. The law was in part <a href="https://apnews.com/article/georgia-elections-money-ban-b5c60e678cd1b4b8ffb8dd76bf8cd88b">precipitated</a> by DeKalb County, an Atlanta area county that voted 83% for Joe Biden, taking $2 million from the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence this year, seemingly skirting the first iteration of the law. 
Honest Elections Project Action, an election watchdog group, praised the decision, saying that it would help restore trust in Georgia’s elections. 
&#8220;Honest Elections Project Action applauds Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and the Georgia state legislature for further tightening the state’s prohibition on outside funding for election administration, prompted by the left-wing dark money funded Center for Tech and Civic Life attempting to evade state law to pump $2 million into DeKalb County,&#8221; <a href="https://www.thecentersquare.com/georgia/article_0cd105de-eaaa-11ed-8d21-6f15eba51bdb.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Jason Snead, the group’s executive director.
&#8220;The private funding of election administration ultimately sows distrust in election outcomes,&#8221; he added. &#8220;States across the country should follow in Georgia’s footsteps by passing robust bans on private election administration funding.&#8221;
Following the 2020 election, critics argued that the massive amount of election funding by several groups, including the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) and the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), unfairly benefited Democrat-dominated counties. 
Both groups were backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who gave about $419 million to the groups to give to counties for the 2020 election. In Georgia in 2020, the CTLC <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/zuckerbergs-45m-boosted-dem-turnout" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave $30 million</a> to counties during the presidential election and another $14 million during the Senate runoff. This money became known as &#8220;Zuckerbucks,&#8221; because the tech billionaire had poured so much money into the races. 
According to an analysis by the Government Accountability Foundation, the spending overwhelmingly favored counties that Biden won. In blue counties, $7.13 was spent per registered voter, while only $1.91 was spent per registered voter in red counties, according to the report. 
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&#8220;The Zuckerberg funding is an unprecedented example of using government employees and government resources to put your finger on the scale, to affect the election outcome,&#8221; Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability, told Fox News. 
Bragdon said that the key was to “follow the money” when looking at the donations in Georgia. 
&#8220;They will talk about most of the counties that got money had fewer than 25,000 people or that X percent of counties were Republican counties,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But the key here is to follow the money. And the money went disproportionately to Democratic counties. In Georgia, more than 90 percent of the money went to those Democrat counties. And you could see from the spending per registered voter that it was not proportionate at all.&#8221;
Other reporting cited similar impacts of the spending in other tight states, including <a href="https://thefga.org/research/the-wisconsin-zuckerbucks-problem/">Wisconsin</a> and <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/10/13/mark-zuckerberg-spent-419m-on-nonprofits-ahead-of-2020-election-and-got-out-the-dem-vote/">Arizona</a>. 
Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas all banned private election funding in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.

2020 Breakthrough Prize – Red Carpet

Georgia Bans Counties From Using Private Money For Elections After 2020 ‘Zuckerbucks’ Controversy

2020 Election

Brian Kemp

Georgia

Voting

<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Meta</a> CEO <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> and other senior executives at the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media</a> firm are spending “most” of their time on various initiatives related to <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/artificial-intelligence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">artificial intelligence</a>, according to the company&#8217;s chief technology officer.
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth remarked in a Wednesday <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Meta-to-debut-ad-creating-generative-AI-this-year-CTO-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with Nikkei Asia that the company would soon respond to the release of ChatGPT, a mass-market AI system that can draft emails or write code in a matter of seconds, with innovations of their own. Google and Meta are the vanguards of AI research with respect to the number of studies published.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve been investing in artificial intelligence for over a decade, and have one of the leading research institutes in the world,&#8221; Bosworth told the outlet. He added that Meta employs “hundreds” of AI researchers and is confident they are “at the very forefront” of AI innovation.
Meta expects to commercialize elements of its generative AI capabilities by the end of this year. Companies that advertise on Instagram and Facebook, both owned by Meta, could soon ask an AI system to develop images for their campaigns and thereby save “a lot of time and money.”
The technology will also be used to develop portions of the Metaverse, a virtual reality that Meta is currently building, which inspired the company to change its name from Facebook. &#8220;Previously, if I wanted to create a 3D world, I needed to learn a lot of computer graphics and programming,” Bosworth said. “In the future, you might be able to just describe the world you want to create and have the large language model generate that world for you. And so it makes things like content creation much more accessible to more people.&#8221;
The development of AI capabilities at Meta comes at a tumultuous moment for the social media firm. Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meta-lays-off-thousands-more-employees-as-zuckerberg-urges-return-to-physical-offices" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dismissed</a> 27,000 employees in recent months as the company seeks to cut costs and improve profitability. Even amid the economic uncertainty which partially inspired the layoffs, investors have encouraged Zuckerberg to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/investor-tells-zuckerberg-to-cut-headcount-cool-down-metaverse-push-since-no-one-knows-what-it-even-means" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continue</a> funding AI innovation.
Technology companies otherwise battered by economic volatility have similarly rushed to incorporate AI solutions into their products. Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars into ChatGPT creator OpenAI, announced last month that the system would be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/microsoft-unveils-new-version-of-bing-powered-by-artificial-intelligence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">integrated</a> into search engine Bing and internet browser Edge, allowing users to locate information or understand websites more easily. Google <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/google-search-will-soon-receive-ai-upgrade-as-company-scrambles-to-release-chatgpt-competitor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> one day earlier that Bard, an experimental conversational AI service, would soon be added to the company’s search engine, which has dominated the sector for two decades.
The breakneck rollout of mass-market AI prompted some technology leaders, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, to endorse an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-wozniak-other-tech-leaders-call-for-six-month-pause-on-ai-development" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open letter</a> calling for a six-month moratorium on AI development as lawmakers and society at large consider the impact of AI on employment and information channels. Bosworth disagreed with the sentiment of the letter.
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&#8220;I think it&#8217;s very important to invest in responsible development, and we do that kind of investment all the time,” Bosworth continued. “However, it&#8217;s very hard to stop progress and make the right decisions on what changes you would make. Very often you have to understand how technology evolves before you can know how to protect and make it safe. And so I think, not only is it unrealistic, I don&#8217;t think it would be effective.&#8221;

Mark Zuckerberg Spends ‘Most’ Of His Time On Artificial Intelligence, Fellow Executive Reveals

Mark Zuckerberg Spends 'Most' Of His Time On Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

Technology

World

<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Meta</a> CEO <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> announced that the social media <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/business" target="_blank" rel="noopener">company</a> would dismiss 10,000 employees and cease efforts to fill 5,000 open roles amid <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economic</a> turmoil and lackluster performance.
Meta reported $116.6 billion in revenues in its final <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/metas-profits-down-more-than-40-last-year-but-stock-rallies-as-zuckerberg-streamlines-company" target="_blank" rel="noopener">earnings report</a> of 2022, marking a 1% decline from the $117.9 billion earned in 2021, even as a somewhat higher effective tax rate and a 23% increase in costs from operations contributed to a 41% decline in net income. Zuckerberg said in a Tuesday <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/03/mark-zuckerberg-meta-year-of-efficiency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> that ongoing efforts to “improve organizational efficiency” and “garbage collect unnecessary processes” would necessitate the headcount reduction.
“As I’ve talked about efficiency this year, I’ve said that part of our work will involve removing jobs, and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long term vision,” Zuckerberg wrote.
The executive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heads-roll-at-meta-as-zuckerberg-announces-massive-layoffs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dismissed</a> 13% of his company’s workforce last year after he received a letter from Altimeter Capital Management CEO Brad Gerstner advocating for moves that would significantly reduce headcount, which had more than tripled from 25,000 employees to 85,000 employees over the past four years. Shares for Meta increased more than 20% after the layoff announcement, suggesting that investors were heartened by the emphasis on efficiency.
Gerstner noted that many companies in Silicon Valley could “achieve similar levels of revenue with far fewer people.” Zuckerberg acknowledged that ending less important initiatives freed talented employees to direct their attention toward the most important tasks.
Zuckerberg also told employees on Tuesday that they should brace for a cultural shift toward less managerial bureaucracy, which “adds latency and risk aversion” in decision making, and a renewed emphasis from the company on hiring more engineers relative to other positions. He also revealed that an analysis of remote work suggested that engineers who either joined a Meta office before transferring to remote work or who remained in a physical office “performed better on average” than those who joined the company for a virtual position.
“This analysis also shows that engineers earlier in their career perform better on average when they work in-person with teammates at least three days a week,” Zuckerberg continued. “This requires further study, but our hypothesis is that it is still easier to build trust in person and that those relationships help us work more effectively.”
Similar findings have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/reality-has-set-in-majority-of-firms-see-resistance-from-employees-who-do-not-want-remote-work-to-end" target="_blank" rel="noopener">occurred</a> at other prominent technology companies, many of which instituted across-the-board virtual work arrangements in response to lockdown mandates. Some workers are incensed as their employers reinstitute hybrid or traditional work: employees at Amazon, which requires staff members to report to a physical office at least three times per week, have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thousands-of-amazon-employees-revolt-as-ceo-makes-them-show-up-in-office-at-least-three-days-per-week" target="_blank" rel="noopener">started</a> an internal messaging channel to challenge the end of fully remote work, while Starbucks employees <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/making-our-lives-more-difficult-starbucks-office-staff-revolt-as-company-makes-them-show-up-three-days-per-week" target="_blank" rel="noopener">petitioned</a> management in the wake of a similar announcement.
Employees generally prefer virtual work arrangements because of reduced commuting time and more flexibility, but costs for employers are often significant: 85% of managers believe the shift to hybrid work during the lockdown-induced recession has eroded confidence that employees remain productive, according to a <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work-is-just-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from Microsoft.

Meta Lays Off Thousands More Employees As Zuckerberg Urges Return To Physical Offices

Meta Lays Off 10,000 More Employees

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