Twitter will pay a $150 million penalty and put in new safeguards to settle federal regulators' allegations that the social platform failed to protect the privacy of users' data over a six-year span.

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement on Wednesday with Twitter. The regulators allege that Twitter violated a 2011 FTC order by deceiving users about how well the company maintained and protected the privacy and security of their nonpublic contact information.

The government alleged that the violations occurred from May 2013 to September 2019.

“Twitter obtained data from users on the pretext of harnessing it for security purposes but then ended up also using the data to target users with ads,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “This practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users, while boosting Twitter’s primary source of revenue.”

Elon Musk says Twitter is still losing cash because advertising has dropped by half.In a reply to a tweet offering business advice, Musk tweeted Saturday, "We're still negative cash flow, due to (about a) 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.""Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else," he concluded.Video above: Meta's 'Threads' takes on TwitterEver since he took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal last fall, Musk has tried to reassure advertisers who were concerned about the ouster of top executives, widespread layoffs and a different approach to content moderation. Some high-profile users who had been banned were allowed back on the site.In April, Musk said most of the advertisers who left had returned and that the company might become cash-flow positive in the second quarter.In May, he hired a new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, an NBCUniversal executive with deep ties to the advertising industry.But since then, Twitter has upset some users by imposing new limits on how many tweets they can view in a day, and some users complained that they were locked out of the site. Musk said the restrictions were needed to prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data.Twitter got a new competitor this month when Facebook owner Meta launched a text-focused app, Threads, and gained tens of millions of sign-ups in a few days. Twitter responded by threatening legal action.Video below: Doctor discusses impact of social media on adults' mental health

Musk says deal to buy Twitter can’t go forward unless the company can show that less than 5% of accounts are fake or spam.

The billionaire wrote a letter to Twitter on Monday.

Musk said the company was in a "clear material breach" of its obligations and that he reserves all rights to end the merger agreement.

In March, Musk had warned he would put the $44 billion deal “temporarily on hold” while he waited for data from Twitter.

In the letter submitted on Monday, Musk’s lawyers said that he believes the company “is actively resisting and thwarting his information rights.”

Twitter shares were down 5% early Monday.

Twitter has not commented on the letter.

SAN FRANCISCO —

Twitter denied in a court filing that it had deprived its would-be acquirer, billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, of necessary information or misrepresented details about its business. Musk originally made those charges to justify his attempt to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the social platform, which he later claimed was infested with much larger numbers of "spam bots" and fake accounts than Twitter had disclosed.

That fate of that acquisition, which Musk agreed to without taking the time to examine the details of Twitter's business, now rests with a Delaware court where Twitter sued to force Musk to complete the deal. The case is scheduled to go to trial on Oct. 17.

The court's decision could ultimately determine the future of a social platform used daily by 238 million people around the globe — a small audience by the standards of Facebook and other major platforms, but one that include political leaders, major entertainers and experts on a variety of subjects. Until January 2021, it was also home to the then-U.S. president, Donald Trump.

In an unexpected twist, Twitter was able to file its response to Musk before Musk's own counterclaims have surfaced in public. A judge ruled on Wednesday that Musk's counterclaim will be made public by Friday.

Parts of Musk's counterclaim, however, was included in Twitter's response. These include accusing the company of fraud and "delay tactics" and only providing Musk "sanitized, incomplete information" in answer to his questions about spam accounts and other company metrics. While Twitter has claimed that Musk is inventing reasons to get out of buying the company, Musk's lawyers say that Twitter is the one holding back the deal by "dragging its feet" and providing insufficient data to the billionaire's requests.

In a reply filed Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court, Twitter calls Musk's reasoning "a story, imagined in an effort to escape a merger agreement that Musk no longer found attractive."

"The Counterclaims are a made-for-litigation tale that is contradicted by the evidence and common sense," Twitter's response says. "Musk invents representations Twitter never made and then tries to wield, selectively, the extensive confidential data Twitter provided him to conjure a breach of those purported representations."

At the same time, the response says, Musk also accused Twitter of breaching their agreement by "stonewalling" his information requests.

Representatives for Musk did not immediately return a message for comment Thursday, although Musk briefly talked about Twitter at Tesla's annual shareholders meeting Thursday.

He told an audience at Tesla's factory near Austin, Texas, that Twitter fit into the grand vision for his holding company. He said that since he uses Twitter a lot, with more than 100 million followers, he knows what to do with it.

"I do understand the product quite well," he said. "So I think I've got a good sense of where to point the engineering team at Twitter to make it radically better," he said.

Attorneys for Musk had wanted to file a public version of their answer and counterclaims in Delaware court Wednesday. But Twitter attorneys complained that they needed more time to review and potentially redact Musk's sealed filing, saying it refers "extensively" to internal Twitter information and data given to Musk.

Musk, the world's richest man, agreed in April to buy Twitter and take it private, offering $54.20 a share and vowing to loosen the company's policing of content and to root out fake accounts. Among other things, Musk said he would restore Trump — who was banned from Twitter following the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol — to the platform.

But Musk said in July that he wanted to back out of the deal, prompting Twitter to file a lawsuit to hold him to the "seller-friendly" agreement.

Musk says Twitter has failed to provide him enough information about the number of fake accounts on its service. Twitter argues that Musk, CEO of electric car maker and solar energy company Tesla Inc., is deliberately trying to tank the deal because market conditions have deteriorated and the acquisition no longer serves his interests.

Either Musk or Twitter would be entitled to a $1 billion breakup fee if the other party is found responsible for the agreement failing. Twitter wants more, however, and is seeking a court order of "specific performance" directing Musk to follow through with the deal.

___

Associated Press Writer Randall Chase contributed to this story from Dover, Delaware.

Twitter is moving forward with a plan to sell the company to Elon Musk for $44 billion.

The company's shareholders voted to approve the buyout on Tuesday, which amounts to $54.20 per share. The stock was trading for just over $42 a share on Tuesday.

Musk is attempting to terminate the deal, claiming the social media platform undercounted its fake and spam accounts.

Twitter claims it has provided Musk with all the necessary information to complete the deal.

The deal will likely be decided in court. A trial is scheduled for October.

Musk reportedly subpoenaed a Twitter whistleblower who testified before Congress on Tuesday. Cyber security expert Peiter Zatko told lawmakers that Twitter leadership is "misleading the public, lawmakers, regulators and even its own board of directors" about how it operates.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to spend the next few days with lawyers for Twitter, answering questions ahead of an October trial that will determine whether he must carry through with his $44 billion agreement to acquire the social platform after attempting to back out of the deal.Related video above: Elon Musk cites whistleblower claims as another reason to back out of Twitter dealThe deposition, planned for Monday, Tuesday and a possible extension on Wednesday, will not be public. As of Sunday evening it was not clear whether Musk will appear in person or by video. The trial is set to begin Oct. 17 in Delaware Chancery Court, where it's scheduled to last just five days.Musk, the world’s richest man, agreed in April to buy Twitter and take it private, offering $54.20 a share and vowing to loosen the company’s policing of content and to root out fake accounts. Twitter shares closed Friday at $41.58.Musk indicated in July that he wanted to back away from the deal, prompting Twitter to file a lawsuit to force him to carry through with the acquisition.

Video above: How Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter will affect usersTrading in shares of Twitter were halted after the stock spiked on reports that Elon Musk would proceed with his $44 billion deal to buy the company after months of legal battles.The news, based on anonymous sources, was first reported by Bloomberg News.Musk offered to buy the San Francisco company at $54.20. Shares jumped nearly 13% to $47.95 before trading stopped.According to the report Tuesday, Musk sent a letter to Twitter offering to complete the deal, which already has shareholder approval, at the original price.Twitter did not immediately respond to messages for comment on Tuesday.The trial seeking to compel Musk to buy Twitter is set to start in Delaware Chancery Court on Oct. 17.Musk’s argument for winning the case — and thus walking away from the deal — has largely rested on his allegation that Twitter misrepresented how it measures the magnitude of “spam bot” accounts that are useless to advertisers. But most legal experts believed he faced an uphill battle in convincing Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, the court’s head judge, that something changed since the April merger agreement that justifies terminating the deal.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Thousands of Twitter users across several countries were unable to access the social media site, or faced difficulty and delays, Saturday. "Rate Limit Exceeded" and "#TwitterDown" are the two top trending topics on the app in the U.S., for those who have use of it. The former had over 40,000 tweets as of Saturday noon.Reports of outages began around 8 am EST, according to DownDetector, and shot up through the morning. As of noon EST, DownDetector showed more than 7,400 outage reports across the website. Users, including CNN journalists, flagged that their feeds weren't loading and that they were met with an error message saying, "Sorry, you are rate limited. Please wait a few moments then try again." Others reported errors saying the site cannot retrieve tweets.Musk changes policyHours after users began reporting the problems, billionaire owner Elon Musk tweeted that the site had applied temporary limits "to address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation."Verified accounts are limited to reading 6,000 posts a day, he tweeted, while unverified accounts are limited to just 600. New unverified accounts are at 300 posts a day.Musk began offering a blue verification check mark for users who sign up for its Twitter Blue subscription service to grow revenue.Many expressed their frustration with the connection problems. Other trending topics in the US included: "Wtf twitter" and "Thanks Elon." Just yesterday, Twitter appeared to be restricting access to its platform for anyone not logged into an account. It was not clear whether the change was an intentional policy update or a glitch. Most of the reported problems Saturday were on the website, at 44%, followed by 39% of problems reported on the app.CNN has reached out to Twitter for comment, but the platform responded with an automated poop emoji.Twitter users faced similar wide-ranging service disruptions in March, one of the largest outages since Elon Musk took over. More than 8,000 users reported disruptions in that instance.Musk is trying to turn around the platform, which faced an exodus of advertisers, with the onboarding of a new CEO, Linda Yaccarino.

After being suspended by Meta on Friday, Kanye West posted on Twitter for the first time in nearly two years — a move celebrated by Elon Musk, who is in the process of buying the social media network.West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, tweeted a photograph of a hat that said 2024. Musk responded with his own tweet, reading "Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!"West last posted on Twitter in November 2020, just after the last U.S. presidential election. Following his first tweet on Friday, West posted another one which included a picture of himself with Meta Platforms Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of kicking him off Instagram.In a statement to CNN Business on Saturday, a Meta spokesperson said content from West's account was deleted for violating the company's policies and a restriction was placed on his account. It did not specify what was objectionable about the content or what kind of restriction was imposed.The move comes after West shared a since-deleted post that included a screenshot of a text conversation with Sean "Diddy" Combs that was criticized by the American Jewish Committee as "anti-Jewish."West was previously suspended by Instagram for 24 hours in March for directing a racial slur at "Daily Show" host Trevor Noah.Earlier this week, West stirred controversy for wearing a "White Lives Matter" shirt and dressing several Black models in shirts with the same phrase, deemed a "hate slogan" by the Anti-Defamation League, at his fashion show in Paris.

In a now infamous tirade against Jews on a podcast earlier this month, Kanye West stated that "Adidas cannot drop me," regardless of his remarks.

With a social media uproar focused on Adidas brewing, Ye's theory is now being tested.

Here's the deal: The list of brands distancing themselves from West is growing by the day. Balenciaga and Vogue publicly cut ties last week, and on Monday talent agency CAA dropped West as a client, and production company MRC said that it's shelving a documentary on West. Now the scrutiny has shifted to the German sportswear giant and its long-standing partnership with the controversial artist.

Celebrities including Kat Dennings, Josh Gad and Meg Stalter condemned Adidas for sticking by West. Detlef Schrempf, former NBA sharpshooter and Adidas sponsoree wrote, "I represented the 3 stripes during my career & beyond. @adidas needs to make a statement NOW! Suspend any relationship w/ @kanyewest until he has received psychiatric help, but why wait? End it now. He won't change #erasethehate."

Jonathan Goldblatt of the ADL released a statement Monday aimed squarely at Adidas calling its failure to cut ties with West "pathetic."

Pressure on Adidas increased this weekend after a group of Neo-Nazis placed banners on the 405 highway in Los Angeles in support of West.

"Today on the 405 in Los Angeles. We are waiting @adidas," read Shannon Watts' tweet in response to the incident that received more than 100,000 likes.

Earlier this month after West wore a "White Lives Matter" shirt in public, Adidas said that it was reviewing its lucrative partnership with his Yeezy brand.

"After repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation, we have taken the decision to place the partnership under review," the apparel maker said in a statement. "We will continue to co-manage the current product during this period."

Since that statement, West has come out and targeted Jews explicitly in shocking public statements, becoming the most prominent openly anti-Semitic public figure in a generation.

With pressure mounting and West's hate campaign against Jewish people continuing, it seems the question is when, not if, Adidas will cut ties.

Twitter on Saturday launched a subscription service for $8 a month that includes a blue checkmark now given to verified accounts as new owner Elon Musk overhauls the platform's verification system.In an update to Apple iOS devices, Twitter said users who "sign up now" can receive the blue checkmark next to their names, "just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow."The change represents the end of Twitter's current verification system, which was launched in 2009 to prevent impersonations of high-profile accounts such as celebrities and politicians. Twitter before the overhaul had about 423,000 verified accounts, many of them rank-and-file journalists from around the globe that the company verified regardless of how many followers they had.Experts have raised grave concerns about upending the platform's verification system that, while not perfect, has helped Twitter's 238 million daily users determine whether the accounts they were getting information from were authentic. The update Twitter made to the iOS version of its app does not mention verification as part of the new "blue check" system.It comes a day after the company began laying off workers to cut costs. About half of the company's staff of 7,500 was let go, tweeted Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of safety & integrity.Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on Saturday took blame for such widespread job losses. He had two runs as CEO of Twitter, with the most recent stretching from 2015 into 2021. "I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly," he tweeted. "I apologize for that."

Friday, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts insisted that Twitter reveal its process for verifying users who pay for a subscription.

A Washington Post reporter, with Markey's permission, set up a fake account impersonating the Senator under the username @realedmarkey.

After paying the subscription fee the account received a blue verification mark, The Hill reported.

In a letter from Markey to Twitter's new CEO, Elon Musk, the Senator heavily criticized the platform's process and launch of the new feature which allows users to pay for a blue check mark that is meant to verify their authenticity.

Twitter appeared to have paused the program shortly after the Washington Post ran the test.

Sen. Markey wrote in a letter, “Allowing an imposter to impersonate a U.S. Senator on Twitter is a serious matter that you need to address promptly.”

Markey asked Musk to respond to his inquiry by Nov. 25 regarding how an impersonation was allowed.

CNBC and other outlets said that Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk took the witness stand Friday to defend a 2018 tweet claiming he had lined up the financing to take Tesla private in a deal that never came close to happening.

The tweet resulted in a $40 million settlement with securities regulators. It also led to a class-action lawsuit alleging he misled investors, pulling him into court Friday.

The mercurial billionaire took the witness stand wearing a dark suit on the third day of a civil trial in San Francisco that his lawyer unsuccessfully tried to move to Texas, where Tesla is now headquartered, on the premise that media coverage of his tumultuous takeover of Twitter had tainted the jury pool.

The nine-person jury assembled earlier this week will be responsible for deciding whether a pair of tweets that Musk posted on Aug. 7, 2018 damaged Tesla shareholders during a 10-day period leading up to a Musk admission that the buyout he had envisioned wasn't going to happen.

A month later, Musk stepped down as Tesla's chairman while remaining CEO as part of the Securities and Exchange Commission settlement without acknowledging any wrongdoing.

In the first of those those two 2018 tweets, Musk stated “funding secured” for a what would have been a $72 billion buyout of Tesla at a time when the electric automaker was still grapping with production problems and was worth far less than it is now. Musk followed up a few hours later with another tweet suggesting a deal was imminent.

On the stand Friday, Musk — who last year bought Twitter for $44 billion — said tweeting is “most democratic way” to communicate with investors.

"I care a great deal about retail investors,” he said during questioning by shareholder attorney Nicholas Porritt.

But he acknowledged that investors can get more detail in a traditional corporate filing with securities regulators, given the character limits set on Twitter.

“I think you can absolutely be truthful" on Twitter, Musk said. “But can you be comprehensive? Of course not.”

Even before Musk took the stand, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen had declared that the jurors can consider those two tweets to be falsehoods, leaving them to decide whether Musk deliberately deceived investors and whether his statements saddled them with losses.

Musk has previously contended he entered into the SEC settlement under duress and maintained he believed he had locked up financial backing for a Tesla buyout during meetings with representatives from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

The trial over his Tesla tweets come at a time when he has been focusing on Twitter, which he acquired in October after trying to back out of that purchase.

Musk’s leadership of Twitter — where he has gutted the staff and alienated users and advertisers — has proven unpopular among Tesla’s current stockholders, who are worried he has been devoting less time steering the automaker at a time of intensifying competition. Those concerns contributed to a 65% decline in Tesla’s stock last year that wiped out more than $700 billion in shareholder wealth — far more than the $14 billion swing in fortune that occurred between the company’s high and low stock prices during the Aug. 7-17, 2018 period covered in the class-action lawsuit.

Tesla’s stock has split twice since then, making the $420 buyout price cited in his 2018 tweet worth $28 on adjusted basis now. The company's shares were trading around $133 Friday, down from the company’s November 2021 split-adjusted peak of $414.50.

After Musk dropped the idea of a Tesla buyout, the company overcame its production problems, resulting in a rapid upturn in car sales that caused its stock to soar and minted Musk as the world’s richest person until he bought Twitter. Musk dropped from the top spot on the wealth list after the stock market’s backlash to his handling of Twitter.

A jury on Friday decided Elon Musk didn’t deceive investors with his 2018 tweets about electric automaker Tesla in a proposed deal that quickly unraveled and raised questions about whether the billionaire had misled investors.

The verdict by the nine jurors was reached after less that two hours of deliberation following a three-week trial. It represents a major vindication for Musk, who spent about eight hours on the witness stand defending his motives for the August 2018 tweets at the center of the trial.

Musk, 51, wasn't on hand for the brief reading of the verdict, after making a surprise appearance earlier Friday for closing arguments that drew starkly different portraits of him.

Alex Spiro, Musk's attorney, declined to comment as he walked out of the courtroom following the verdicts.

The trial pitted Tesla investors represented in a class-action lawsuit against Musk, who is CEO of both the electric automaker and the Twitter service he bought for $44 billion a few months ago.

Shortly before boarding his private jet on Aug. 7, 2018, Musk tweeted that he had the financing to take Tesla private, even though it turned out he hadn’t gotten an iron-clad commitment for a deal that would have cost $20 billion to $70 billion to pull off.

Musk's integrity was at stake at the trial as well part of a fortune that has established him as one of the world’s richest people. He could have been saddled with a bill for billions of dollars in damages had the jury found him liable for the 2018 tweets that had already been deemed falsehoods by the judge presiding over the trial.

Earlier Friday, Musk sat stoically in court during the trial’s closing arguments while he was both vilified as a rich narcissist whose reckless behavior risks “anarchy” and hailed as a visionary looking out for the “little guy."

The trial hinged on whether Musk's tweeting in 2018 misled Tesla shareholders, steering them in a direction that they argue cost them billions of dollars. The civil case centered on two tweets Musk posted Aug. 7, 2018 about a Tesla buyout that never happened.

The first tweet Musk declared he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private. A few hours later, Musk sent another tweet indicating that the deal was imminent.

The tweets caused Twitter’s stock to surge during a 10-day period covered by the lawsuit before falling back after Musk abandoned a deal in which he never had a firm financing commitment, based on evidence presented during the trial.

Nicholas Porritt, a lawyer for the Tesla shareholders, urged the jurors to rebuke Musk for his “loose relationship with the truth.”

“Our society is based on rules,” Porritt said. “We need rules to save us from anarchy. Rules should apply to Elon Musk like everyone else.”

Alex Spiro, Musk’s attorney, conceded the 2018 tweets were “technically inaccurate.” But he told the jurors, “Just because it’s a bad tweet doesn’t make it a fraud.”

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who presided over the trial, decided last year that Musk’s 2018 tweets were false and has instructed the jury to view them that way.

During roughly eight hours on the stand earlier in the trial, Musk insisted he believed he had lined up the funds from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take Tesla private after eight years as a publicly held company. He defended his initial August 2018 tweet as well-intentioned and aimed at ensuring all Tesla investors knew the automaker might be on its way to ending its run as a publicly held company.

“I had no ill motive,” Musk testified. “My intent was to do the right thing for all shareholders.”

Spiro echoed that theme in his closing argument.

“He was trying to include the retail shareholder, the mom and pop, the little guy, and not seize more power for himself," Spiro said.

Porritt, meanwhile, scoffed at the notion that Musk could have concluded he had a firm commitment after a 45-minute meeting at a Tesla factory on July 31, 2018, with Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund, given there was no written documentation.

A text message that al-Rumayyan sent later in August that is part of the trial evidence also indicated that the Saudi fund was only interested in learning more about Musk's proposal to take Tesla private at a time the company was valued at about $60 billion.

“Apparently a $60 billion financing commitment was obtained and no one wrote down a single word," Porritt said, while asserting that amount was larger than the combined economic output of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador.

Spiro, though, pointed to Musk's track record helping to start and run a list of companies that include digital payment pioneer PayPal and rocket ship maker SpaceX, in addition to Tesla. The automaker based in Austin, Texas, is now worth nearly $600 billion, despite a steep decline in its stock price last year amid concerns that Musk's purchase of Twitter would distract him from Tesla.

Recalling Musk's roots as a South African immigrant who came to Silicon Valley to create revolutionary tech companies, Spiro described his client “as the kind of person who believes the impossible is possible."

Porritt put a different twist on Musk's mindset during his presentation. “To Elon Musk, if he believes it, or just thinks about it, it's true.”

In his concluding remarks, Porritt told jurors their decision boiled down to their answer to one question: “Do the rules apply to everyone, or can Elon Musk do whatever he wants and not face the consequences?"

Bob Saget, the comedian and actor known for his role as a widower raising a trio of daughters in the sitcom "Full House," was found dead Sunday in Florida. His death at 65 shocked peers and fans and tributes came flooding in on Twitter, praising the veteran comedian for his talent and kindness.

___

“Bob Saget was as lovely a human as he was funny. And to my mind, he was hilarious. We were close friends and I could not have loved him more.” — Norman Lear, via Twitter

“I am broken. I am gutted. I am in complete and utter shock. I will never ever have another friend like him. I love you so much Bobby.” — John Stamos, via Twitter

“I don’t know what to say. I have no words. Bob was one of the best humans beings I’ve ever known in my life. I loved him so much.” — Candace Cameron Bure, who played Saget's daughter on “Full House,” via Twitter.

“Bob was the most loving, compassionate and generous man. We are deeply saddened that he is no longer with us but know that he will continue to be by our side to guide us as gracefully as he always has.” — Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, in a statement.

“I don’t even know what to say about Bob Saget. I loved him and was so lucky to work with someone so funny, soulful and kind. His role on himym was a voice in the future, looking back on all of life’s complexity with a smile, and that’s how I’ll always remember him.” — "How I Met You Mother" co-creator Craig Thomas, via Twitter

“I’m endlessly grateful that HIMYM brought Bob Saget into my life. I’ll hear his voice in my head for the rest of my days.” — “How I Met Your Mother” star Josh Radnor, via Twitter.

“Four decades of friendship. Had Thanksgiving with Bob once when we were coming up. He cooked the turkey but had no idea you were supposed to take the innards out. We completely lost it....Love you, my friend.” —George Wallace, via Twitter.

“Oh no. RIP Bob Saget. Truly one of the nicest guys and so funny. Very sad.” — Marc Maron, via Twitter

“He had a big, big heart and a wonderfully warped comic mind. He gave the world a lot of joy and lived his life for goodness’ sake.” — Jim Carrey, via Twitter.

“Still in shock. I just spoke with Bob a few days ago. We stayed on the phone as usual making each other laugh. RIP to friend, comedian & fellow Aristocrat Bob Saget.” — Gilbert Gottfried, via Twitter

“I know that people lose loved ones, good people, every day. No one gets a pass. But the loss of Bob Saget hits deep. If you didn’t know him, he was kind and dear and cared about people deeply. He was the definition of “a good egg”. Too soon he leaves.” — Jason Alexander, via Twitter.

"The only people who said terrible things about Bob Saget were his best friends. — Tom Arnold, via Twitter.

“Oh god. Bob Saget!!! The loveliest man. I was his TV daughter for one season and he was always so kind and protective. So so sorry for his family.” — Kat Dennings, via Twitter

“You couldn’t find a nicer or sharper wit than Bob Saget. Shocked and devastated.” — Kathy Griffin, via Twitter

“R.I.P. buddy....Life can turn to (expletive) in one moment. My heart aches for his whole family. In often a ruthless business he was historically not just hilarious but more importantly one of the kindest human beings I ever met in my career.” — Richard Lewis, via Twitter

“I had the pleasure of a once in a lifetime candid interaction with Bob Saget and Norman Lear a few months ago that had a warmth generally reserved for long time friends. Every story I heard about Bob was confirmed that night. His dark humor, generosity, and love for ppl.” — Jeremy O. Harris, via Twitter

Twitter has permanently suspended President Donald Trump's account two days after five people died following violent protests at the U.S. Capitol Building.

"After a close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said.

When it comes to the White House and POTUS accounts, Twitter said in an email to EW Scripps Friday evening that they won't suspend those two accounts, but "will take action to limit their use."

"As we’ve said, using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules," Twitter said in a statement. "We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS account. For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts permanently but will take action to limit their use."

On Friday, Twitter also suspended accounts they say are “solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content.”

The accounts included General Michael Flynn, Trump attorney Sidney Powell, and 8kun co-owner Ron Watkins.

QAnon is a group of loosely connected conspiracy theories associated with the far-right on the political spectrum. The president has retweeted some of these baseless conspiracies.

In a statement to NBC and Buzzfeed News, Twitter said “the account(s) has/have been suspended in line with our policy on Coordinated Harmful Activity. We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content.”

Flynn is Trump’s former National Security Advisor who pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI. He was recently pardoned by President Trump. In a video posted to Twitter in July, Flynn took an oath to QAnon.

Powell was his attorney, as well as working with Trump and the Trump campaign. Both Flynn and Powell are active within the QAnon online community.

Watkins is the administrator of the website 8Kun, formerly known as 8chan, according to Buzzfeed News.

Last summer, Twitter removed thousands of accounts associated with QAnon and blocked trends on the social media site relating to the conspiracies.

According to The Verge and Axios, Reddit banned the Donald Trump subreddit on Friday "for encouraging and glorifying violence" after a violent riot erupted at the US Capitol on Wednesday.

President Trump issued a statement from the now-suspended Team Trump account, stating that in the wake of being banned from Twitter, he will be "building out" his own social media platform.

LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas feed store says it's facing a shortage of a drug designed to treat parasitic worms in large animals because customers are purchasing it as a treatment for COVID-19.

The drug, Ivermectin, was the subject of a warning for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. Though it's been studied in connection with treating COVID-19, the FDA strongly recommends against non-prescription human consumption of the drug.

But that's not stopping people from trying to get their hands on Ivermectin in the Las Vegas valley.

V&V Tack and Feed normally stocks and sell Ivermectin for use on horses. But right now, they're completely sold out of the horse dewormer, and store associate Shelly Smith suspects a lot of her customers aren't using it as intended.

"I had a gentleman come in, and he was an older gentleman. He told me that his wife wanted him to be on the Ivermectin plan," Smith said. "I immediately brought him over here because at that time, I had this sign hung up, and I told him this isn't safe for you to take. And he says, 'Well, we've been taking it, and my only side effect is I can't see in the morning.' That's a big side effect, so you probably shouldn't take it."

Smith says the demand for Ivermectin started increasing months ago, so she decided to put out a warning sign next to the drug.

"The first sign came about several months ago when you started seeing articles about Ivermectin treating COVID," Smith said. "So when I was ordering my Ivermectin, I noticed our distributors had that [warning], so I figured let me hang one too just to let people know, 'Do not take this.'"

Smith says the demand for the drug has continued to increase in recent weeks, and she's been receiving four or five customer calls a day inquiring about Ivermectin. That's why Smith hung up a second sign, now requiring customers to present a picture of their horse before they can buy Ivermectin.

"I don't want people taking Ivermectin horse wormer because it's horse wormer," Smith said. "You need to prove to me that you have a horse in order for me to sell you this product because you should not be taking this product. This is not for humans to take. This is to treat parasites in horses.

Dr. AJ Manship at Desert Pines Equine Center concurs. He doesn't recommend any humans take Ivermectin — and most animals, for that matter.

"It can have a lot of serious consequences in people and actually in some veterinary species as well, especially if the correct dose is not administered," Manship said. "In animals, we saw a lot of neurologic diseases, so seizures, coma, death if it's overdosed. A lot of people that own shepherd dogs will be familiar with this. They're very sensitive to this drug, and it can kill them. Any time these drugs are used in an unintended manner, there's a really high likelihood of complication, and it's just not safe."

One of the repercussions of the Ivermectin is that horse owners now have none to give their animals. Shelly Smith says she can't find a single supplier who has Ivermectin in stock right now, and she has no guarantee that will change anytime soon.

This story was originally published by Ross DiMattei on Scripps station KTNV in Las Vegas.

Twitter CEO Ned Segal reportedly said former President Donald Trump wouldn't be allowed back onto the social media platform - even if he runs again for president in 2024.

On Wednesday, during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Segal said that "when you're removed from the platform, you're removed from the platform," Forbes reported.

Twitter permanently suspended Trump's Twitter account back on Jan. 8 "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

The account was suspended two days after five people died during a riot at the U.S. Capitol back on Jan. 6.

Facebook is still mulling over whether or not they'll permanently ban the former president.

Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was leaving the decision up to the company's new independent oversight body.

With vaccination against COVID-19 in full swing, social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter say they’ve stepped up their fight against misinformation that aims to undermine trust in the vaccines. But problems abound.

For years, the same platforms have allowed anti-vaccination propaganda to flourish, making it difficult to stamp out such sentiments now. And their efforts to weed out other types of COVID-19 misinformation — often with fact-checks, informational labels and other restrained measures, has been woefully slow.

Twitter, for instance, announced this month that it will remove dangerous falsehoods about vaccines, much the same way it’s done for other COVID-related conspiracy theories and misinformation. But since April 2020, it has removed a grand total of 8,400 tweets spreading COVID-related misinformation — a tiny fraction of the avalanche of pandemic-related falsehoods tweeted out daily by popular users with millions of followers, critics say.

“While they fail to take action, lives are being lost,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a watchdog group. In December, the nonprofit found that 59 million accounts across social platforms follow peddlers of anti-vax propaganda — many of whom are immensely popular superspreaders of misinformation.

Efforts to crack down on vaccine misinformation now, though, are generating cries of censorship and prompting some posters to adopt sneaky tactics to avoid the axe.

Related video: Doctors already confronting skeptics about COVID-19 vaccine

“It’s a hard situation because we have let this go for so long,” said Jeanine Guidry, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies social media and health information. “People using social media have really been able to share what they want for nearly a decade.”

The Associated Press identified more than a dozen Facebook pages and Instagram accounts, collectively boasting millions of followers, that have made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccine or discouraged people from taking it. Some of these pages have existed for years.

Of more than 15 pages identified by NewsGuard, a technology company that analyzes the credibility of websites, roughly half remain active on Facebook, the AP found.

One such page, The Truth About Cancer, has more than a million Facebook followers after years of posting baseless suggestions that vaccines could cause autism or damage children’s brains. The page was identified in November as a “COVID-19 vaccine misinformation super spreader” by NewsGuard.

Recently, the page stopped posting about vaccines and the coronavirus. It now directs people to sign up for its newsletter and visit its website as a way to avoid alleged “censorship.”

Facebook said it is taking taking “aggressive steps to fight misinformation across our apps by removing millions of pieces of COVID-19 and vaccine content on Facebook and Instagram during the pandemic."

“Research shows one of the best ways to promote vaccine acceptance is by showing people accurate, trusted information, which is why we’ve connected 2 billion people to resources from heath authorities and launched a global information campaign," the company said in a statement.

Facebook also banned ads that discourage vaccines and said it has added warning labels to more than 167 million pieces of additional COVID-19 content thanks to our network of fact-checking partners. (The Associated Press is one of Facebook's fact-checking partners).

YouTube, which has generally avoided the same type scrutiny as its social media peers despite being a source of misinformation, said it has removed more than 30,000 videos since October, when it started banning false claims about COVID-19 vaccinations. Since February 2020, it has removed over 800,000 videos related to dangerous or misleading coronavirus information, said YouTube spokeswoman Elena Hernandez.

Prior to the pandemic, however, social media platforms had done little to stamp out misinformation, said Andy Pattison, manager of digital solutions for the World Health Organization. In 2019, as a measles outbreak slammed the Pacific Northwest and left dozens dead in America Samoa, Pattison pleaded with big tech companies to take a closer look at tightening rules around vaccine misinformation that he feared might make the outbreak worse — to no avail.

It wasn’t until COVID-19 struck with a vengeance that many of those tech companies started listening. Now he meets weekly with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to discuss trends on their platforms and policies to consider.

“When it comes to vaccine misinformation, the really frustrating thing is that this has been around for years,” Pattison said.

The targets of such crackdowns are often quick to adapt. Some accounts use intentionally misspelled words — like “vackseen” or “v@x” — to avoid bans. (Social platforms say they're wise to this.) Other pages use more subtle messaging, images or memes to suggest that vaccines are unsafe or even deadly.

“When you die after the vaccine, you die of everything but the vaccine,” read one meme on an Instagram account with more than 65,000 followers. The post suggested that the government is concealing deaths from the COVID-19 vaccine.

“It’s a very fine line between freedom of speech and eroding science,” Pattison said. Purveyors of misinformation, he said, “learn the rules, and they dance right on the edge, all the time.”

Twitter said it is continuously reviewing its rules in the context of COVID-19 and changes them based on guidance from experts. Earlier this month, it added a strikes policy that threatens repeat spreaders of coronavirus and vaccine misinformation with bans.

But blatantly false COVID-19 information continues to pop up. Earlier this month, several articles circulating online claimed that more elderly Israelis who took the Pfizer vaccine were “killed” by the shot than those who died from COVID-19 itself. One such article from an anti-vaccination website was shared nearly 12,000 times on Facebook, leading earlier this month to a spike of nearly 40,000 mentions of “vaccine deaths” across social platforms and the internet, according to an analysis by media intelligence firm Zignal Labs.

Medical experts point to a real-world study showing a strong correlation between vaccination and decreases in severe COVID-19 disease in Israel. The nation’s health ministry said in a Thursday statement that the COVID-19 vaccine has “profoundly” reduced the rate of deaths and hospitalizations.

As U.S. vaccine supplies continue to increase, immunization efforts will soon shift from targeting a limited supply to the most vulnerable populations to getting as many shots into as many arms as possible. That means tackling the third of the country’s population who say they will not or probably won’t get it, as measured by a February AP-NORC poll.

“Vaccine hesitancy and misinformation could be a big barrier to getting enough of the population vaccinated to end the crisis,” said Lisa Fazio, a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University.

Some health officials and academics generally believe that the social-platform efforts are helpful, at least on the margins. What’s not clear is how big of a dent they can put in the problem.

“If someone truly believes that the COVID vaccine is harmful and they feel a responsibility to share that with friends and family ... they will find a way,” Guidry said.

And some still blame business models that they say encouraged the platforms to serve up engaging, if false, coronavirus misinformation in order to profit from advertising.

When the Center for Countering Digital Hate recently studied the crossover between different types of disinformation and hate speech, it found that Instagram tended to cross-pollinate misinformation via its algorithm. Instagram might feed an account that followed a QAnon conspiracy site further posts from, say, white nationalists or anti-vaxxers.

“You continue to allow things to disintegrate because of the seamless intermingling of misinformation and information on your platforms,” Ahmed, the center’s CEO, said.

The White House picked a serious fight with Facebook Friday. The Biden administration wants social media giants to take down posts that officials flag as COVID-19 misinformation.

President Biden leveled an incredibly serious charge. 

A reporter asked him: "What's your message to platforms like Facebook?" 

President Biden said: "They're killing people. I mean, really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they're killing people." 

Facebook was quick to fire back, saying, "We will not be distracted by accusations which aren't supported by the facts." 

A spokesperson added, "More than 3.3 million Americans have also used our vaccine finder tool to find out where and how to get a vaccine. The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives. Period." 

Biden's comments come one day after his Surgeon General issued a warning about health misinformation and directly called out Facebook.

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THE FREE CAR WASHES WILL BE OFFERED THROUGH JULY FOURTH. EVERYONE REMEMBERS THE MOMTEN THEY GOT EAG.NG BRANDI: SOME HAVE PHOTOGRAPHERS TO CAPTURE THE MOMENT, OTHERS, IT'S THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT. ANFOD R SOME, THEIR MAGILCA MOMENT ENDS UP ON TWITTER. A PHOTOGRAPHER WAS WALKINGN I SAN FRANCISCO AND SAW THIS COUPLE GETTING ENGAGED. SHE WA'TSN ABLE TO MEET UP WITH THEM BUT WH ITTHE HELP OF SOCIAL MEDIA, THE PHOTOS REACHED THE NEWLY ENGAGED COUP. >> WE ACTUALL WYERE FORTUNATE. WE HAD A PHOTOGRAPHER. I GUESS OTHERS LOOKING AND BYSTANDERS CAPTURE THE MENOMT. IT WAS REALLY NICEND SPECIAL. BRANDI: A MOMENT, FOR THIS SACRAMENTO COUPLE, THEY WILL BE ABLE TO CHERISH FOR A LIFETIME. AND HOW THEY FOUND OUT ABOUT THESE STORIES, WILL BE A MEMORY THEY CAN SHARE FOR YEARS. >> MAYBE TWO DAYS AFTER THE ENGAGEMENT, WE WERE GETTING READY TO GO TO BED AND MY FRIEND GOESEY, TWITTER IS LOOKING FO YOU, TWITTER WE WERE SHOCKED BY THE TIME WE WENT TO IT 90,000 LOOKING FOR US, WEOT LT, THEY FOUNDS, U PHOTOGRAPHETOR SHEDAR A MOMENT. ITAS W REAYLL COOL. BRANDI: THE COUPLE SAYS THEY ARE VERY GRATEFUL AND LOOKS TO TIE THE KNOT IN JA

Photographer captures unknown couple's electrifying proposal, uses social media to track them down

Updated: 3:21 PM EDT Jun 25, 2021

Everyone remembers the time they got engaged, and for a California couple, a spur-of-the-moment proposal caught on camera went viral. In San Francisco, a photographer was walking by when she saw the couple mid-proposal. She was not able to meet up with them right afterward, but with the help of social media, the photos reached the newly engaged couple. See more in the video above.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

Everyone remembers the time they got engaged, and for a California couple, a spur-of-the-moment proposal caught on camera went viral.

In San Francisco, a photographer was walking by when she saw the couple mid-proposal. She was not able to meet up with them right afterward, but with the help of social media, the photos reached the newly engaged couple.

See more in the video above.