Resolved a legal problem regarding the processing of user data, Twitter, returning from an intense meeting with shareholders, took part in an initiative for Creators and in developing the tweet edit button.
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Twitter, the well-known social network of the blue canary, was still at the center of rumors not only regarding future functions, but also in relation to the contents of its latest meeting with shareholders, and Elon Musk’s commitment to making sure of it. control: in the meantime, the Californian platform, having resolved some legal disputes with the American FTC, has announced an initiative for creators.
In the past few hours, the annual meeting with shareholders took place, in which Elon Musk did not participate (despite the fact that he voted to oust Egon Durban, Musk’s ally and current CEO of the private equity Silver Lake Partners): during the meeting, CEO Parag Agrawal (formerly CTO of the platform) explained that while working to complete the transaction with the current founder and head of Tesla and Space X, efforts are being made to “serve the public conversation “. Regarding one of the issues of greatest interest to those present, no answers were provided to the question on the fate of the shares owned by the shareholders in the event the platform becomes private: in any case, with regard to the content moderation issue, Twitter, in reiterating as it is contrary to free speech to censor the comments of politicians, he however anticipated that, in the future, we will be less dependent on user reports and that, in the meantime, we will continue to apply the policies currently in force.
As mentioned, Musk did not attend the meeting (which was instead attended by former CEO Jack Dorsey, for the last time since his mandate as a member of the Board expired in recent days), but he gave – albeit at a distance – a tangible sign of his presence, communicating to the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission, the American Consob) that he had reduced the loans to 13 billion – initially equal to 22.5 billion dollars, 12.5 of which obtained by pledging shares Tesla – instead increasing his and his partners’ personal commitment, now raised to 33.5 billion (vs the previous 27.3). In short, the histrionic and moody entrepreneur of South African origins has confirmed in some way, by varying the structure of the financing for the purchase, that he is still actively interested in taking over control of Twitter for 44 billion dollars, and this has raised its share value by more than 5% in subsequent after-hours trading.
Put aside the good news, in this sense, Twitter immediately dedicated itself to the “future”. To do so, he agreed to pay $ 150 million to end a lawsuit he’d notified investors as early as August 2020, initiated by the Justice Department on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, for violation of the FTC Act. , specifically for having collected, between May 2013 and September 2019, the data (e.g. email and telephone number) of some (140) million users, with the motivation to better protect their accounts (e.g. via two-factor authentication), only to then use this data also for personalized ads with which its advertisers have reached their preferred target (with a consequent increase in revenue for the social network).
A second initiative announced by Twitter was the launch of the “Twitter Create” mini-site (create.twitter.com/en), including “tips, insights and examples designed to help creators maximize their presence” on the platform. The typical example is that of the vertical section “Podcaster”, upon entering which you will come across advice on advertising your program, with obvious references to the Twitter tools that can be used in this regard.
Finally, the rumors, that is the unofficial initiatives in terms of functions not yet evident but already in development. In this case, the leaker Alessandro Paluzzi made it possible to find out how Twitter is still working on the tweet editing function, as emerged from the screenshots that highlight the “edit not available” information and as emerged from the warning message that appears when you decide to delete an edited tweet (in essence: this tweet and all its versions will disappear from the author’s profile, from the timeline of the accounts that follow it, and from the search results).