Elon Musk

New Twitter Policy To Follow, Question Science: Musk

Talking to Social media, Elon Musk on Wednesday announced that the new Twitter Policy will not only follow science but also question science, reasonably.

“New Twitter policy is to follow the science, which necessarily includes reasoned questioning of the science,” Musk tweeted.

Musk stated, “Anyone who says that criticizing them is doubting science itself cannot be regarded as a scientist,” in a follow-up tweet to his initial policy statement.

No further details of the plan are released as of yet.

Since Elon Musk has taken charge of Twitter as its CEO, he has been under the spotlight for his social media presence.

The Twitter CEO has finally spoken up about his promised resignation from his post after Monday’s poll. Taking to the microblogging site, Elon Musk tweeted, “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!”

The multi-billionaire added that subsequently, he will only run ‘the software & servers teams’.

The post garnered a number of reactions from netizens.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Monday, December 19, started a poll on the microblogging site, asking users if he should step down as head of the social media platform and also promising to abide by the result.

Taking to Twitter, Elon Musk said, “Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.”

Within a few minutes of Musk’s cryptic tweet, asking users if he should step down as head of the social media platform and also promising to abide by the result, the ‘yes’ votes started edging ahead, reaching up to 57.5 percent.

In reaction, Musk said, “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.”

This poll comes after Twitter Sunday announced it would ban accounts used to promote other accounts on other specific social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Mastodon.

Moreover, Twitter said that it still allows cross-posting content from any social media platform. “Posting links or usernames to social media platforms not listed above are also not in violation of this policy.”

The change in Twitter rules comes at a time when Musk has faced some criticism for major policy changes on the platform. (ANI)

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Twitter Starts Laying Off Employees In India

Twitter on Friday started laying off employees in India across engineering, sales and marketing, and communications units, sources said.

The number of employees who have been laid off is not clear at present.
According to sources, there is still no clarification on the severance payout for staff laid off in the country. These layoffs are a part of a global restructuring ordered by the social media platform’s new owner Elon Musk.

Musk is expected to cut roughly half of Twitter’s 7,500-person global workforce.

Last week, as soon as Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk joined the company, he fired the then CEO Parag Agrawal.

The company temporarily closed its offices worldwide on Friday after telling employees they would be informed by email later in the day about whether they are being laid off.

As per an unsigned internal memo seen by The Verge, Twitter employees were notified in the email that the layoffs were set to begin.

The employees were to receive an email by 9 am PST on November 4, confirming whether they have been laid off or not, according to the internal memo, which also states that employee badge access to Twitter’s offices will be shut off “temporarily”.

“We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted,” the memo read.

“Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere,” the memo added.

The layoff comes a week after Musk became the Twitter owner.

Musk had already indicated that he would make job cuts at Twitter, telling employees at a town-hall meeting this summer that there needs to be “a rationalization of headcount” at the social network.

On October 30, asked by someone on Twitter to identify “the one thing that’s most messed-up at Twitter right now,” Musk replied, “There seem to be 10 people ‘managing’ for every one person coding” at Twitter. (ANI)

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News Wrap

Five things that happened last week (And what to make of them)

The formidable rise and rise of China’s Xi

The West is often flummoxed by the goings on in China. This has been particularly true since 2013 when Xi Jinping became president (or rather, the supreme leader) of China. Last week, after China’s Communist party congress, which is held twice every 10 years, Xi emerged even stronger than he has been in his tenure. First, deviating from the norm, he got for himself a third term as head of China’s Communist party as well as president of the country. In addition, he reconstituted the seven-member all-powerful top decision-making body of the party, the Politburo Standing Committee, appointing his closest allies for six members besides himself.

Besides recognising that Xi, 69, is now formidably powerful as China’s leader, the western media and some of the west’s political observers seem not to have comprehended the full impact of Xi’s latest move–to empower himself to a degree that rivals the status of the late Mao Zedong, who was the founder of the People’s Republic of China, which he led as the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from the establishment of the of the republic in 1949 until his death in 1976. Last week, on a major US TV news channel that shall remain unnamed, a correspondent from Beijing and the anchor of the show were together wondering why Xi had appointed his hardcore loyalists to his core team and had not sought to include some members with more diverse views. Seriously?

The problem is that many observers do not understand the mind of Xi Jinping. Unlike his predecessors–and, most importantly, unlike the late Deng Xiaoping, widely regarded as the leader who took China towards free-market economics through a series of far-reaching market-economy reforms and away from strictly ideology-driven policies–Xi is a hardliner when it comes to ideology. Under him, ideology dictates policy and not the other way round. This has several consequences for the rest of the world–the west, as well as China’s Asian neighbours such as India.

Here’s a peek at what Xi’s all-powerful clout means on several fronts. First, in Xi’s regime, there is a new form of nationalism that China has embraced–one in which China plays a dominant role in shaping the world order. It is a nationalism that derives from Marxism and in which the face-off is between the Communist party and its ideology versus free-market tycoons and western ideas of economics and politics. These could sound alien to western ears but as Xi pursues that approach, the impact on the rest of the world could be huge.

Second, already under Xi’s regime the role of the Communist party and the state in economics and business has been growing–either through regulation or policies. The crackdown on China’s tech tycoons and other private sector enterprises is an example of how China believes enterprises should strive towards higher socio-economic objectives than just financial returns. It is believed that involvement of the party and the state could get ramped up in the coming years. Already there are reports that many wealthy Chinese are attempting to leave the country as they anticipate possible crackdowns.  

It is not that economic reforms are stopping in China. Instead, as reforms continue, unlike in the past when they were market driven, under Xi, the state and the party has been increasing its role in economic policy. The objective of that regulation is believed to be to make China become more self-sufficient while the world becomes more dependent on China. 

The common thread in the ‘super-empowered’ Xi regime is “dominance”. China would likely try to be more dominant–in global economics, global politics, and the world’s social and environmental issues. China has been expanding its military and commercial access in the Indian Ocean region–by building ports, airports, and other infrastructure projects in countries such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka. You could expect more of that. Likewise, China has been pushing its Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure development strategy, which calls for China to assume a greater leadership role in global matters by investing in the infrastructure of 150 countries in Asia, Africa and Eurasia.

The bottomline is that China’s ambitions to play a dominant role in the world, driven hugely by ideology (where the objective is for China to play the main role in the emerging world order), will be accelerated in the new extra powerful status that Xi has carved for himself.

Congress’ new prez makes predictable moves

(Caveat: You could skip this item in the column and not miss anything; or, read it for pure distraction)

The Congress party in India has for some time now been resembling more of an amusing, black humour laced distraction than anything of consequence for serious politics. When it makes news these days it is usually for avoidable reasons. Earlier this month, it held an election for the post of the president of the party for which there were two contenders, with one of them alleging that, at least in some parts of the country, the polling was rigged. This was an internal election of the party, mind you. Also, in an instance that smacked of farce, one of the party’s leaders and descendant of the dynastic family that has ruled the party for the longest time, Rahul Gandhi, alluded to Mallikarjun Kharge as the new president even before the results of the election were declared.

Now, Kharge, an octogenarian and a life-long loyalist of the family, has made his first move by replacing the party’s working committee with a 47-member steering committee. And guess what? It has on it all the members of the Gandhi family: former president Somia Gandhi, her son Rahul, and her daughter Priyanka. The steering committee also includes former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and several other seasoned veterans (all of them staunch loyalists of the Gandhis).

What next? Not much except to wait and watch for Kharge’s attempts to revamp and resuscitate a dying party. If you’re an incorrigible optimist, you could think he’ll do it with an independent unforced hand. But we’ll see. As mentioned in the caveat, you could have skipped this section!

Musk kicks off with firings at Twitter

After he took over Twitter, the ubiquitous social media platform that has some 330 million active monthly users, Elon Musk who paid an eye-popping $44 billion for it has kicked off his inning with firings.

He began by sacking Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, all of whom he had accused of misleading him and other investors about the number of fake accounts on the platform.

Earlier, Musk, 51, after concluding his deal, had walked into Twitter’s headquarters with a bathroom sink and declared (via a tweet): “Let that sink in.” He had also changed his Twitter profile to ‘Chief Twit’.

Social media trackers are keenly watching Musk’s moves at the popular but divisive platform. Earlier, in an interview Musk had said he has plans to eliminate nearly 75% of the workforce at Twitter. He has also promised to preserve free speech but was also inclined to side with world leaders who are concerned about BIg Tech’s dominance and ability to facilitate activists. This has worried many who feel his commitment to preserving free speech might eventually be compromised. 

Are Meta’s financials in free-fall?

One year after Facebook was rechristened as Meta, the company’s finances and valuations have tumbled. Last Thursday, Meta’s shares crashed 24% to $97.94, the lowest in four years. In one year the company’s market value has been reduced by an eye-popping $650 billion. Meta market capitalisation now stands at $263 billion. It is out of the ranks of the top 20 companies (by market cap) and its value is now lower than that of Home Depot. 

Meta’s spiralling decline in valuation has also pushed down Facebook founder and CEO’s personal net worth: he lost $11 billion after the stock plummeted and is now down to being the 29th richest person in the world (he was the 25th before last week’s crash of Meta’s stock).

The more important aspect of Meta’s decline is that both its main property–Facebook–has been losing users consistently for the past few years. Although Facebook has 2.93 billion users, it is not a huge draw among younger netizens who prefer newer platforms such as TikTok. And Meta’s other property, the messaging platform WhatsApp, has been losing sheen because of privacy concerns with many users opting for other services such as Telegram and Signal, which are considered by many to have more privacy protection.

Life on the high streets of social media can be ephemeral.

Meet Arvind, the latest proponent of mystical mumbo jumbo

Just when we thought the engineer-turned-successful politician and Delhi’s intrepid chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, had honed his political acumen to a degree where he could plant his clout at the national level, he gave us reason to not take him too seriously. Last week, Kejriwal urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to have Indian rupee currency notes emblazoned with images of religious deities such as Lakshmi and Ganesha. If newspaper reports are to be believed, Kejriwal said he believed the Hindu religious symbols of prosperity will help the economy get back on track. 

There could be two ways, though, to look at his motives. First, could it be that Kejriwal who has been a staunch critic of the pro-Hindutva rightwing BJP regime has experienced some sort of epiphany and become deeply religious? Or could it be that by proposing that gods be depicted on currency notes he is merely being canny and pragmatic in a national zeitgeist that is increasingly becoming Hindutva tinged? If you remember that his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has national ambitions and is eyeing to make big gains in the forthcoming elections in Gujarat (it won handsomely in Punjab recently), then it is probably the second motive that is triggering in him such pious thoughts.