Techmeme
October 31, 2022, 3:00 PM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Sources: Twitter could make Twitter Blue a $20/month subscription that verifies users; staff have until November 7 to build the feature or face being fired  —  Now that he owns Twitter, Elon Musk has given employees their first ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave.
More: BBC, Techdirt, Financial Times, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Garbage Day, VICE, PYMNTS.com, CNN, Insider, ZDNet, The Hill, Ars Technica, Quartz, Reuters, TechCrunch, TIME, WRAL TechWire, Tubefilter, SlashGear, PCMag, Fortune, MobileSyrup, Droid Life, CryptoPotato, PLYR1NE Newsletter, Variety, New York Post, iPhone Hacks, CoinGape, Engadget, TechSpot, Android Headlines, The Economic Times, Watcher Guru, BGR, iMore, Deadline, MSPoweruser, TechRadar, KnowTechie, iPhone in Canada Blog, City A.M., Tech Advisor, MediaNama, TechCircle, ExchangeWire.com, TheGamer, and Firstpost Tech
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Sources: Twitter is strongly considering taking away its verified users' badges if they don't subscribe to Twitter Blue  —  Under pressure to generate revenue quickly, Twitter's new CEO considers ending free verification  —  Twitter is strongly considering making its users pay to remain verified …
Washington Post:
Source: Elon Musk plans to lay off 25% of Twitter's 7,000+ staff in the coming days, focusing on sales, product, engineering, legal, and trust and safety  —  The first round of layoffs, led by his lawyer Alex Spiro, will target 25 percent of the workforce  —  SAN FRANCISCO …
Lauren Hirsch / New York Times:
Twitter faces ~$1B per year in interest expenses after Elon Musk's deal added ~$13B in debt, up from ~$50M in 2021 when operations generated ~$633M in cash flow  —  Mr. Musk faces financial challenges in owning Twitter.  The site frequently loses money and took on $13 billion in debt for the blockbuster deal.
Financial Times:
Sources detail the twists and turns in Elon Musk's $44B Twitter takeover, starting in late March 2022, falling apart in July, and closing late on October 27  —  Even as his $44bn buyout came down to the wire, Elon Musk kept Twitter guessing.  —  Normally, lawyers and advisers on each side …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Alyssa Lukpat / Wall Street Journal:
The world's top 20 tech billionaires have lost $480B+ on paper in 2022; Mark Zuckerberg's wealth dropped by $87B+, and Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos lost $58B+ each  —  Moguls including Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have collectively lost more on paper than the market values of most S&P 500 companies
Selina Cheng / Wall Street Journal:
Inside Foxconn's Zhengzhou iPhone plant as the company uses harsh lockdown measures to try to contain a weekslong COVID-19 outbreak in a crucial ordering period  —  As it adheres to Beijing's strict epidemic controls, Apple's biggest smartphone assembler scrambles to keep production lines moving
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
The FTC accuses homework help app Chegg of security lapses, such as ~40M users' personal info and passwords stolen in 2018; Chegg agrees to boost data security  —  Chegg, a homework help app, exposed the data of 40 million users, including details about some students' sexual orientation and religion …
Wall Street Journal:
Amanda Hoover / Wired:
Some Twitter users, concerned about Elon Musk's ownership, are moving to alternative platforms, including Mastodon, which has seen sign-ups surge, and Discord  —  Discord, Mastodon and other services are bustling as Twitter fans make backup plans for their online social lives.
The Intercept:
An investigation details the US DHS' ongoing plans to police misinformation on COVID-19, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and more; Meta built a portal to flag content  —  The Department of Homeland Security is quietly broadening its efforts to curb speech it considers dangerous, an investigation by The Intercept has found.

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Dan Milmo / The Guardian: