Twitter hasn’t given an official explanation for the bans. But the one thing they all have in common is that they have linked to, or reported on, a now suspended account that tracks the billionaire CEO’s private jet using publicly available data.
Ahead of the bans, Twitter changed its terms of service to prohibit the sharing of a person’s current location without their consent. Musk said on Twitter that anyone sharing “real-time location info of anyone” would be suspended, and that he was taking legal action against the college student who runs the jet-tracking account @ElonJet.
This is an about-face for the Musk. When he first took over Twitter, he promised to crack down on what he saw as censorship on the social media platform. Last month, he tweeted: “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.”
Tony Webster, a freelance journalist based in Wyoming, recently posted a tweet letting his followers know that Twitter was preventing users from linking to the jet-tracking account’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Soon after, his account was permanently suspended. Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
When did you find out that your account had been banned?
I found out last night. So it was, you know, a day following what I posted, and I was scrolling through Twitter and I saw that other journalists were being banned from Twitter. And I went to retweet a journalist posting about another journalist being banned, when I got an error message.
I just immediately knew what happened. I refreshed the page, and I said that I, too, had been permanently suspended from Twitter.
What did you think in that moment?
It’s both surprising and not. I mean, I want to be sensitive to the concerns that Elon Musk has expressed about his safety. Everyone wants safety. At the same time, reporting on issues of public importance, such as actions that Elon Musk is taking on Twitter in terms of his new moderation policies, it’s important for people to know what’s happening.
I think that it’s important for the public to be able to get the full picture of what’s going on at Twitter. And if anyone who’s talking about it in journalism gets banned and loses their account, that’s a problem for the free speech that Elon has promised.
Webster’s account was permanently suspended after he tweeted screenshots showing that the social media company was preventing users from sharing links to @ElonJet’s Facebook and Instagram pages. (Submitted by Tony Webster)
Musk says a tweet that was tracking a plane ultimately led to someone stalking his son. Elon Musk does own Twitter, though, as you know. So what responsibility does he have to balance those safety concerns, but also uphold freedom of speech that he says Twitter is all about?
Of course, he’s the decider. You know, he’s the chief Twit, I think is the title he gave himself.
I think the real concern here is that Twitter over the years has become the heartbeat of news and society. And he came in saying that there were problems. I think a lot of people think there were problems at Twitter. And he said he was going to fix that and be an ardent supporter of free speech. It does seem that he’s reversed course on that.
Elon Musk has said that he was supportive of less mainstream journalism…. I’m not really feeling that kind of support right now.– Tony Webster, freelance journalist
You’re in the company of journalists working at the New York Times, the Washington Post [and] CNN as well. They’ve also been banned from Twitter. Why do you think Twitter chose to put you on that list as a freelancer?
I tweeted about this happening and a few of my tweets had gotten embedded in big news stories. They were shared widely. I have to believe that that just likely brought the spotlight on me, unfortunately, because there were a lot of people talking about this issue and not everyone has been banned.
I think what everyone’s looking for is a clear definition of what are the rules. You can’t just ban people when they don’t know what the rules are. And I don’t think that anyone wishes there to be harm. I think he has raised an interesting issue on the flight-tracking thing. I think that’s something that’s worth a conversation — you know, maybe talk to Congress or whatever his solution is there. But just banning people doesn’t actually solve any problem.
Elon Musk says anyone ‘doxxing real-time location info’ will be suspended, and that a ‘crazy stalker’ followed a car his son was in. He says he has taken legal against Jack Sweeney, the U.S. college student who runs an account tracking Musk’s private jet. (@ElonMusk/Twitter)
Taking you off that platform, does that impact the work you do and your livelihood?
Absolutely. You know, I don’t have the backing of a huge news organization. I’m freelance, and I have built up a following over the years reporting on issues of policing and civil rights and elections issues. And that’s just all gone overnight.
Elon Musk has said that he was supportive of less mainstream journalism, more independent voices. And I think that’s a great idea. I’m not really feeling that kind of support right now.
I did sign up for Mastodon recently. Mastodon is a more, like, decentralized Twitter. And overnight I got, you know, 16,000 followers just from people knowing about this happening to me. So I think, ultimately, it’s good if there’s more diversity in where people can share their news and reporting and communication with friends. But I’m hopeful that things will reverse course at Twitter.
In November, Musk promised not to ban the account that uses publicly available information to track the whereabouts of his jet. (@ElonMusk/Twitter)
So you found another outlet, but it sounds like if you were allowed back on Twitter, you’d keep using it?
I wouldn’t delete my account. But there would have to be some major changes. I fear right now that these decisions are being made arbitrarily and impulsively. And I don’t know how anyone can feel comfortable, whether you’re a journalist or not, spending more time on Twitter, investing more time and building relationships there, if it can all just be taken away in a moment with no process, with no warning.
Is there really a place for this platform — or a need for it — now?
You look across the media landscape and small news outlets have been shutting down left and right. And people in their community have been stepping up and live-tweeting city council meetings, and they’ve been keeping their communities informed. I think it’s important that there’s an outlet to be able to do that and to discover people doing that in your community.
Ultimately, like, does that have to happen on Twitter? No.
One thing that I think is good that has sprung out of all of this is a lot of people are now looking at diversifying where they share connections with people online. And I think that is ultimately a really good outcome.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
