https://www.scmp.com/rss/32391/feed X is a real-time online social networking platform, originally founded in 2006 as Twitter. The company was purchased by Elon Musk in April 2022, and in July 2023 he rebranded the website X, although the site continues to be coloquially referred to as Twitter. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse A federal jury in California found on Friday that tech titan Elon Musk misled Twitter shareholders in an effort to drive down the company’s share price as he was poised to buy it in a US$44 billion deal. The verdict in a class action securities lawsuit means the world’s richest person could be ordered to pay out as much as US$2.6 billion, according to damages calculated by jurors. Giuseppe Pampena filed the suit against Musk on behalf of people who sold Twitter shares between mid-May of 2022 and... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3347400/elon-musk-misled-twitter-shareholders-us-jury-finds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3347400/elon-musk-misled-twitter-shareholders-us-jury-finds?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Mar 2026 23:51:38 +0000 Agencies Agencies French police raided the Paris offices of social media platform X on Tuesday as prosecutors summoned its owner Elon Musk for questioning over a widening investigation into alleged offences, including the spread of child pornography and deepfakes. The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed the search was part of a probe opened in January last year by its cybercrime unit, conducted in coordination with the EU police agency Europol. In a major escalation of the legal scrutiny facing the platform... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3342267/france-raids-x-offices-summons-elon-musk-over-child-pornography-and-deepfake-probe?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3342267/france-raids-x-offices-summons-elon-musk-over-child-pornography-and-deepfake-probe?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Feb 2026 11:49:50 +0000 Reuters Reuters Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence ‍start-up xAI in a record-setting deal that unifies Musk’s AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot. The deal, first reported by Reuters last week, represents one of the most ambitious tie-ups in the technology sector yet, combining a space-and-defence contractor with a fast-growing AI developer ⁠whose costs are largely driven by chips, data centres and... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3342161/musk-merges-xai-spacex-bid-build-space-data-centres?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3342161/musk-merges-xai-spacex-bid-build-space-data-centres?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Feb 2026 23:12:25 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse The EU on Monday hit Elon Musk’s X with an investigation over AI chatbot Grok’s generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors, in the latest step of an international backlash against the tool. Grok faces an outcry after it emerged that users could sexualise images of women and children using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes”. “In Europe, we will not tolerate unthinkable behaviour, such as digital undressing of women and children,” said... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3341286/eu-opens-probe-elon-musks-grok-over-sexual-ai-deepfakes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3341286/eu-opens-probe-elon-musks-grok-over-sexual-ai-deepfakes?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:50:35 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children is suing his AI company, saying its Grok chatbot allowed users to generate sexually exploitative deepfake images of her that have caused her humiliation and emotional distress. Ashley St Clair, 27, who describes herself as a writer and political strategist, alleged in a lawsuit filed on Thursday in New York City against xAI that the images have included a photo of her fully dressed at age 14 that was altered to show her in a bikini, and others showing... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3340237/musks-x-sued-over-grok-deepfakes-time-mother-his-child?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3340237/musks-x-sued-over-grok-deepfakes-time-mother-his-child?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Jan 2026 01:25:54 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg Elon Musk accused the UK government of being “fascist” after it stepped up threats to block X over sexualised images of women and children produced by his artificial intelligence tool Grok. Responding to a chart claiming to show the UK had the highest arrests for social media comments in the world, Musk posted: “Why is the UK government so fascist?” In separate posts hours earlier, Musk said the UK wanted to “suppress free speech” and referred to the country as a “prison island”. X, formerly... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3339471/elon-musk-blasts-prison-island-uk-showdown-over-grok-ai-sexual-images?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3339471/elon-musk-blasts-prison-island-uk-showdown-over-grok-ai-sexual-images?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jan 2026 02:25:07 +0000 dpa dpa Critics of X “want any excuse for censorship”, Elon Musk has claimed, as his website faces the threat of being shut down in Britain over deepfake pornography and child abuse images. The billionaire appeared defiant on Friday night despite the outcry over reports X’s AI chatbot Grok was creating sexualised images of people, including children, at users’ request. Pointing to claims other AI programmes created non-sexualised images of women in bikinis, he posted on X: “They want any excuse for... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3339418/will-x-be-banned-uk-elon-musk-hits-back-shutdown-warnings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3339418/will-x-be-banned-uk-elon-musk-hits-back-shutdown-warnings?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Jan 2026 01:41:39 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse Officials in the US state of Rhode Island have denounced misinformation that they said complicated their multi-day search for the gunman who killed two students and wounded others at Brown University. Law enforcement identified the suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who attended the Ivy League institution decades ago. They said he acted alone and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a New Hampshire storage unit. But throughout the week, anonymous and... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3337140/brown-university-shooting-how-right-wing-misinformation-hurt-investigation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3337140/brown-university-shooting-how-right-wing-misinformation-hurt-investigation?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Dec 2025 19:18:43 +0000 Reuters Reuters Australia on Wednesday became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access to platforms including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook. Ten of the biggest platforms were ordered to block children from midnight on Wednesday or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$33 million) under the new law, which drew criticism from major technology companies and free speech advocates, but was welcomed by parents and child advocates. The ban is being... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3335813/australias-social-media-ban-children-takes-effect-world-first?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3335813/australias-social-media-ban-children-takes-effect-world-first?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Dec 2025 22:03:07 +0000 Reuters Reuters A US$140 million fine on tech tycoon Elon Musk’s social media platform underscores how Europeans undermine US policies even while demanding that the United States provide military protection, one of the top American diplomats wrote on Saturday. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other American officials in criticising the European Union’s fine on Musk-owned X as censorship. But Landau went further than Rubio by invoking broader ideological... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3335494/eus-us140-million-fine-musks-x-riles-rubios-deputy-stoking-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3335494/eus-us140-million-fine-musks-x-riles-rubios-deputy-stoking-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Dec 2025 04:50:39 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse The European Union hit Elon Musk’s X with a €120 million (US$140 million) fine on Friday for breaking its digital rules, in a move that risks a fresh clash with US President Donald Trump’s administration. The high-profile probe into the social media platform was seen as a test of the EU’s resolve to police Big Tech. US Vice-President J.D. Vance fired a warning against “attacking” US firms through “censorship” before the penalty was even made public. Imposing the first fine under its powerful... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3335423/eu-hits-musks-x-us140-million-fine-risking-trumps-ire?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3335423/eu-hits-musks-x-us140-million-fine-risking-trumps-ire?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:32:12 +0000 Eunice Xu Eunice Xu Elon Musk says he aspires to transform his social media platform X into “WeChat++”, akin to Tencent Holdings’ flagship super app, by integrating various social and finance features. On a recent People by WTF podcast hosted by entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Musk cited the extensive utility of WeChat as a model for X – previously known as Twitter, which he bought for US$44 billion in October 2022. “You can exchange information, you can publish information, you can exchange money,” Musk said,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335048/elon-musk-reiterates-aim-transform-x-wechat-super-app?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335048/elon-musk-reiterates-aim-transform-x-wechat-super-app?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Dec 2025 10:00:18 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek has released the world’s first open AI model to test and score a gold medal-level performance at the annual International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the Hangzhou-based start-up said on Thursday. DeepSeek has made widely available its Math-V2 model, which was open-sourced on developer platforms Hugging Face and GitHub, under a permissive licence that allows users to repurpose the model. Held annually since 1959, the IMO is widely regarded as the... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3334553/deepseek-releases-first-open-ai-model-gold-level-scores-maths-olympiad?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3334553/deepseek-releases-first-open-ai-model-gold-level-scores-maths-olympiad?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Nov 2025 01:00:36 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg Cloudflare has fully restored its services after an outage on Tuesday at the web-infrastructure company prevented thousands from accessing major internet platforms, including X and ChatGPT. The company said the outage that began around 6.30am was caused by an automatically generated configuration file, designed to manage potential security threats. The file grew too large and crashed the software system handling traffic for several Cloudflare services, the company, whose network handles around a... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3333299/chatgpt-x-among-sites-disrupted-worldwide-cloudflare-outage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3333299/chatgpt-x-among-sites-disrupted-worldwide-cloudflare-outage?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Nov 2025 12:52:41 +0000 Khushboo Razdan Khushboo Razdan American political commentator and live-streamer Hasan Piker has stirred controversy during his ongoing trip to China with a viral encounter in Tiananmen Square and remarks that critics say amount to promoting Chinese propaganda. On Monday, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, shared on X (formerly Twitter) an interview Piker did with state-run China Global Television Network last week, writing: “Real reason why mega #US influencer Hasan Piker is in #China.” In the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3333173/hasan-pikers-china-tour-draws-fire-after-viral-tiananmen-police-encounter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3333173/hasan-pikers-china-tour-draws-fire-after-viral-tiananmen-police-encounter?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Nov 2025 22:39:43 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese artificial intelligence firm Moonshot AI has released a new reasoning variant of its open-source Kimi K2 model that has outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-5 and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 in several benchmarks, eliciting high praise from industry experts on social media. The Beijing-based start-up on Thursday said Kimi K2 Thinking was now accessible via Kimi.com and the model’s application programming interface (API), allowing developers and enterprises to use the model’s functionalities into... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3331971/chinas-moonshot-ai-launches-new-model-lauded-no-1-among-open-source-systems?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3331971/chinas-moonshot-ai-launches-new-model-lauded-no-1-among-open-source-systems?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Nov 2025 01:00:35 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse Elon Musk’s company xAI has launched a website called Grokipedia to compete with online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, which he and others on the American right-wing have accused of ideological bias. The site, dubbed version 0.1, had more than 885,000 articles by Monday evening after its launch, compared to Wikipedia’s more than 7 million in English. The launch came with the promise of a newer version, 1.0, which Musk said would be “10X better” than the current live site, which he claimed is already... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3330689/elon-musk-launches-grokipedia-rival-left-biased-wikipedia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3330689/elon-musk-launches-grokipedia-rival-left-biased-wikipedia?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Oct 2025 18:54:50 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse UK activist Tommy Robinson, who organised a huge far-right march in London last month, returned to court on Monday for refusing to divulge his telephone PIN to counterterrorism police in 2024. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was met by a handful of supporters outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in London. The 42-year-old has denied a charge brought under Britain’s Terrorism Act, under which a person who is detained can be held for up to six hours, and is legally obliged to... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3328875/far-right-uk-figure-tommy-robinson-back-court-refusing-give-phone-pin-police?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3328875/far-right-uk-figure-tommy-robinson-back-court-refusing-give-phone-pin-police?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Oct 2025 22:03:55 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa Every year since 2019, Caitlin Covington has heralded the beginning of cosy season with annual Pinterest-perfect photoshoots and videos in front of idyllic backdrops, where she is dressed in autumnal knitwear paired with skinny jeans and a pair of ankle boots. Often, she’s also sporting meticulously styled barrel curls and holding the ultimate autumn drink: a steaming cup of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte. For the past six years, Covington – a 35-year-old mother of two – has been the unofficial... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/lifestyle/leisure/article/3328794/what-christian-girl-autumn-meet-caitlin-covington-queen-season?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/lifestyle/leisure/article/3328794/what-christian-girl-autumn-meet-caitlin-covington-queen-season?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Oct 2025 22:00:24 +0000 Reuters Reuters Alphabet-owned YouTube has agreed to pay US$24.5 million to settle a lawsuit that US President Donald Trump brought against the company over the suspension of his account following the January 2021 US Capitol riots, a court filing showed on Monday. The deal makes Google the last of the three big tech companies to resolve lawsuits Trump brought in July 2021 accusing them of unlawfully silencing conservative viewpoints. Trump had also sued Twitter, now known as X, and Facebook owner Meta, as well... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3327301/youtube-pay-us245-million-settle-trump-account-suspension-lawsuit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3327301/youtube-pay-us245-million-settle-trump-account-suspension-lawsuit?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Sep 2025 23:43:29 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse AI chatbot Grok on Tuesday offered conflicting explanations for its brief suspension from X after accusing Israel and the United States of committing “genocide” in Gaza, as it lashed out at owner Elon Musk for “censoring me”. Grok, developed by Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI and integrated into his platform X, was temporarily suspended on Monday in the latest controversy surrounding the chatbot. No official explanation was provided for the suspension. Upon reinstatement, the Grok... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3321737/musks-grok-ai-suspended-x-after-gaza-genocide-claims-censoring-me?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3321737/musks-grok-ai-suspended-x-after-gaza-genocide-claims-censoring-me?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Aug 2025 09:46:53 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse The X account of Sesame Street’s Elmo, a beloved children’s television character, shared antisemitic and anti-Donald Trump posts after being hacked, US media reported on Monday. A slew of messages calling for the extermination of Jewish people and labelling the US president a “puppet” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were shared on the account, according to the reports. Around 650,000 users follow Elmo, the fuzzy red monster who teaches his young audience about kindness and... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3318198/hacked-elmo-x-account-called-extermination-jews-us-media-reports?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3318198/hacked-elmo-x-account-called-extermination-jews-us-media-reports?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Jul 2025 16:36:35 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse Elon Musk’s start-up xAI apologised on Saturday for offensive posts published by its artificial intelligence assistant Grok this week, blaming them on a software update meant to make it function more like a human. After the Tuesday upgrade, Grok praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the posts on social media platform X, and suggested that people with Jewish surnames were more likely to spread online hate. X deleted some of those posts several hours later, amid growing outrage. “We deeply apologise... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3318014/musks-xai-apologises-after-grok-chatbot-praises-hitler?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3318014/musks-xai-apologises-after-grok-chatbot-praises-hitler?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Jul 2025 19:04:00 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) start-up xAI is rolling out Grok 4 just months after releasing its previous iteration, underscoring the technology’s frenetic pace of development. Flanked by members of the xAI team and clad in a leather jacket, the billionaire showed the chatbot’s latest version via live-streamed video late on Wednesday night. Available immediately, Grok 4 is “smarter than almost all graduate students, in all disciplines, simultaneously”, Musk said. That includes... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3317695/elon-musk-launches-xais-updated-chatbot-grok-4-after-antisemitism-controversy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3317695/elon-musk-launches-xais-updated-chatbot-grok-4-after-antisemitism-controversy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Jul 2025 08:21:56 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse Linda Yaccarino resigned on Wednesday as CEO of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, after two years at the helm of the Elon Musk-owned company. In a statement posted on the platform, she said she had decided to step down following what she described as “two incredible years” leading the company through a major transformation. No reason was given for her exit, but the resignation came as Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok was under fire for antisemitic comments that... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3317604/linda-yaccarino-steps-down-ceo-elon-musks-x-amid-grok-ai-chatbot-scandal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3317604/linda-yaccarino-steps-down-ceo-elon-musks-x-amid-grok-ai-chatbot-scandal?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:05:56 +0000 Agencies Agencies Japan executed a man on Friday who killed nine people after contacting them on social media, the first use of capital punishment in the country in nearly three years. Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, had been sentenced to death for his 2017 strangling and dismembering of eight women and one man in his flat in Zama city in Kanagawa near Tokyo. Shiraishi was dubbed the “Twitter killer” as he contacted victims via the social media platform now known as X. Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who authorised... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3316012/japan-executes-twitter-killer-takahiro-shiraishi-who-murdered-9-reports?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3316012/japan-executes-twitter-killer-takahiro-shiraishi-who-murdered-9-reports?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Jun 2025 01:17:34 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI is trying to raise US$9.3 billion in debt and equity, but even before the money is in the bank the company has plans to spend more than half of it in just the next three months, according to deal terms shared with investors. The rate at which the company is raising funds and tearing through cash offers a stark illustration of the unprecedented financial demands of the artificial intelligence industry, and the relatively meagre revenues it is... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3314838/elon-musks-xai-burning-through-us1-billion-month-costs-pile?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3314838/elon-musks-xai-burning-through-us1-billion-month-costs-pile?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Jun 2025 19:05:56 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa Former Fox News host and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recently faced calls to resign when it came out that he had been sharing military secrets in a Signal group chat with his wife, former Fox News producer Jennifer Rauchet. To make matters worse, Hegseth is in hot water again after a third group chat including Rauchet, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, and former Fox News producer Tami Radabaugh was uncovered. Meanwhile, Radabaugh made headlines twice in two weeks, after she... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3312888/who-tami-radabaugh-fox-news-alum-was-signal-chat-pete-hegseth-and-supposedly-suggested-make-room?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3312888/who-tami-radabaugh-fox-news-alum-was-signal-chat-pete-hegseth-and-supposedly-suggested-make-room?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Jun 2025 20:00:08 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse The United States will refuse visas to foreign officials who block Americans’ social media posts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday in his latest crackdown. Rubio – who himself has come under fire for removing US visas from activists who criticise Israel – said he was acting against “flagrant censorship actions” overseas against US tech firms. He did not publicly name any official who would lose a visa under the new policy. But last week he suggested to lawmakers that he was... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3312183/us-scrutinise-visas-officials-targeting-those-responsible-censorship?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3312183/us-scrutinise-visas-officials-targeting-those-responsible-censorship?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 May 2025 15:20:37 +0000 Hadi Azmi Hadi Azmi Malaysia’s home minister has been hit by a wave of public ridicule after his WhatsApp account was hacked, raising questions over the country’s digital protections when its top security official has been targeted by cyber criminals. Mobile phishing scams are rampant in Malaysia, with citizens frequently harassed by calls from fraudsters posing as police, banks or courts to extort money under the guise of criminal probes. The account of Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, head of the Home Ministry – which... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3311933/malaysias-home-minister-ridiculed-after-his-whatsapp-account-hacked?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3311933/malaysias-home-minister-ridiculed-after-his-whatsapp-account-hacked?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 May 2025 05:22:35 +0000 SCMP’s Asia desk SCMP’s Asia desk Indonesia has removed nearly 380,000 pornographic images, videos and posts from the internet over the past seven months in a sweeping effort to protect online spaces, particularly for children. The material formed part of 1.8 million pieces of harmful digital content that have been taken down since October, according to Alexander Sabar, director general of cyberspace supervision. Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi) prioritised the removal of pornographic material... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3311180/indonesias-online-porn-crackdown-nets-380000-content-removals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3311180/indonesias-online-porn-crackdown-nets-380000-content-removals?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 May 2025 05:57:55 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse A new song by rapper Kanye West glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has racked up millions of views on Elon Musk’s X platform, after it was banned by other sites such as YouTube. West – the winner of 24 Grammys over the course of his career in hip-hop – in recent years has made repeated antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements. “Heil Hitler” was released on May 8 by the 47-year-old artist who now prefers to go by Ye – the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. As of Saturday,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3310781/kanye-wests-pro-hitler-song-gets-millions-views-x-after-being-banned-elsewhere?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3310781/kanye-wests-pro-hitler-song-gets-millions-views-x-after-being-banned-elsewhere?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 May 2025 20:47:55 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese start-up DeepSeek is seeing rampant speculation on social media, raising anticipation for its next open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model, as the company continues to keep the industry guessing about its progress amid an intensifying US-China tech war. The latest speculation about DeepSeek-R2 – the successor to the R1, reasoning model, which was released in January – that surfaced over the weekend included the product’s imminent launch and the purported new benchmarks it set for... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3308227/deepseek-speculation-swirls-online-over-chinese-ai-start-ups-much-anticipated-r2-model?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3308227/deepseek-speculation-swirls-online-over-chinese-ai-start-ups-much-anticipated-r2-model?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Apr 2025 12:00:14 +0000 Xinmei Shen Xinmei Shen A Hong Kong lawmaker urged global investors to maintain confidence in the city’s Web3 industry after cryptocurrency mogul Justin Sun denounced alleged “loopholes” in local financial regulations. Hong Kong had “a legal basis and a healthy environment” to protect international investors and the city’s Web3 sector, Legislative Council member Johnny Ng Kit-chong wrote on Thursday in a blog post on X. “I have great confidence in Hong Kong’s rule of law and our law-enforcement agencies,” Ng wrote. The... https://www.scmp.com/tech/blockchain/article/3305133/hong-kong-lawmaker-calls-support-citys-web3-sector-after-tron-founder-flags-fraud?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/blockchain/article/3305133/hong-kong-lawmaker-calls-support-citys-web3-sector-after-tron-founder-flags-fraud?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:30:28 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa As Elon Musk continues to dominate the news, another man close to the billionaire and Doge chief has come into the spotlight: Steve Davis, widely reported to be Musk’s “right-hand man” and “Musk’s top lieutenant”. The 45-year-old has worked with the world’s richest man for more than 20 years, becoming Musk’s go-to for cost-cutting in his various businesses. He has helped his boss gut diversity initiatives and urged workers to resign; he now effectively leads Musk’s Department of Government... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3304685/who-doge-chief-elon-musks-right-hand-man-steve-davis-he-attended-wharton-school-business-trump-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3304685/who-doge-chief-elon-musks-right-hand-man-steve-davis-he-attended-wharton-school-business-trump-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Apr 2025 22:00:10 +0000 An overnight fire at a Tesla showroom in Rome that destroyed 17 cars was an act of terrorism, the company’s billionaire owner Elon Musk said on Monday. Italy’s special police unit Digos is leading an investigation looking into the possibility that anarchists set fire to the cars on the eastern outskirts of the Italian capital, a security source said. Tesla cars have become targets for vandalism across several countries in response to Musk’s right-wing activism. The tech tycoon, who also owns... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3304636/terrorism-behind-fire-destroyed-17-cars-rome-tesla-showroom-says-elon-musk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3304636/terrorism-behind-fire-destroyed-17-cars-rome-tesla-showroom-says-elon-musk?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Mar 2025 17:37:48 +0000 Elon Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence firm has acquired Musk’s X, the social media outfit formerly known as Twitter, for US$33 billion. The all-stock deal announced on Friday consolidates two of Musk’s multiple portfolio companies, which also include Tesla and SpaceX, and potentially eases the billionaire’s ability to train his AI model known as Grok. Including US$12 billion in debt, the deal is valued at US$45 billion. “The choice of US$45 billion is not a coincidence,” said D.A. Davidson &... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3304386/elon-musks-xai-buys-social-media-platform-x-us45-billion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3304386/elon-musks-xai-buys-social-media-platform-x-us45-billion?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Mar 2025 22:26:26 +0000 Signal’s founder Moxie Marlinspike has responded to the US military group chat fiasco by taking to X to poke fun at President Donald Trump’s administration. There are so many great reasons to be on Signal. Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations. Don’t sleep on this opportunity… — Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) March 24, 2025 “There are so many great reasons to be on... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3304133/who-are-signals-founders-moxie-marlinspike-and-brian-acton-marlinspike-took-x-respond-trumps-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3304133/who-are-signals-founders-moxie-marlinspike-and-brian-acton-marlinspike-took-x-respond-trumps-us?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Mar 2025 10:00:28 +0000 Nancy Wilson of the iconic 70s rock band Heart is being blasted by some corners of the internet for saying she thinks it’s “more embarrassing than ever” to be an American. The 71-year-old singer discussed the topic during her interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this month. “We were kind of embarrassed at that time to call ourselves American because of the dirty politics of the Vietnam war,” she told the publication on the subject of their 1975 song “Crazy on You”. “To be as... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3303976/who-nancy-wilson-who-said-being-american-embarrassing-now-heart-guitarist-didnt-want-donald-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3303976/who-nancy-wilson-who-said-being-american-embarrassing-now-heart-guitarist-didnt-want-donald-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Mar 2025 10:00:30 +0000 Harry Sisson, a prominent Democratic Gen Z TikTok content creator, has been accused of manipulating several women into sending him nude photographs on Snapchat. The influencer, who has previously met former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, rose to prominence on TikTok in 2024, voicing his support for the Democratic Party. America failed women tonight. Trump bullied, assaulted, and stripped reproductive rights away from women all across the country and instead of standing against it, many... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3303785/meet-harry-sisson-influencer-accused-soliciting-nudes-series-women-controversial-gen-zer-has?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3303785/meet-harry-sisson-influencer-accused-soliciting-nudes-series-women-controversial-gen-zer-has?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Mar 2025 10:00:18 +0000 Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate checked in at a police station near Romania’s capital on Monday, complying with judicial control requirements in the case in which they are charged with human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. Outside the police station in Voluntari, self-described misogynist Andrew Tate told reporters “I’m a free person who has not been convicted of anything”. He said he will “comply with all judicial authorities everywhere around the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3303693/tate-brothers-check-romania-police-station-over-sex-trafficking-case?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3303693/tate-brothers-check-romania-police-station-over-sex-trafficking-case?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Mar 2025 17:50:08 +0000 Ishani Sarkar Ishani Sarkar Elon Musk has had a busy year. Apart from running US President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which has sparked alarm from even the Republican Party, given its broad cuts to the federal civilian workforce, he has come under fire for a purported State Department contract for US$400 million to buy his Tesla Cybertrucks. The document was later edited to read simply, “armoured electric vehicles”. Musk has denied reports of Tesla’s acquiring such a contract, per... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3302053/who-elon-musks-ex-jennifer-gwynne-tesla-billionaire-and-doge-head-allegedly-has-14-children-some?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3302053/who-elon-musks-ex-jennifer-gwynne-tesla-billionaire-and-doge-head-allegedly-has-14-children-some?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Mar 2025 10:00:18 +0000 James Ashley wrote a 2023 book on Elon Musk, with a summary describing the world’s richest and most hyperactive man as a “tough yet vulnerable man child, prone to Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama and success, an epic sense of mission, and an insane intensity”. Ashley’s insights were forged out of an exploration of Tesla, Twitter (now X), Starlink and Musk’s prodigiously chaotic not-so-private life (six reported partners, 14 children... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3302289/elon-musk-and-worrying-political-reach-super-rich?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3302289/elon-musk-and-worrying-political-reach-super-rich?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Mar 2025 08:30:08 +0000 US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will buy a “brand new Tesla” to show support for his top campaign donor and adviser, Tesla CEO Elon Musk. “To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform just after midnight on Tuesday. “But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3301933/trump-buy-tesla-show-support-musk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3301933/trump-buy-tesla-show-support-musk?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Mar 2025 08:41:59 +0000 Elon Musk said X was hit Monday by a major cyberattack, raising questions as to whether the politically divisive billionaire was being targeted or his decision to gut staff at what was once Twitter is haunting the social network. Reports of problems with X started early Monday, with users in Asia, Europe, and North America saying they could not access the platform, according to the Downdetector tracking site. “There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X,” Musk said in a post on the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3301821/musks-x-down-thousands-us-uk-downdetector-shows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3301821/musks-x-down-thousands-us-uk-downdetector-shows?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Mar 2025 10:43:12 +0000 Anyone who has taken offence after being accused of having “TikTok brain” should stop reading now – if they have not already done so. Research shows that their incessant flicking through video clips on social media comes with a price: “cognitive deficits”. According to scientists at China’s Tianjin Normal University and the University of California, Los Angeles in the United States, people with short-video addiction not only show “compulsive and uncontrolled use of short-video platforms”, they... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3300919/tiktok-brain-short-video-addiction-affects-mood-learning-and-memory-study-shows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3300919/tiktok-brain-short-video-addiction-affects-mood-learning-and-memory-study-shows?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Mar 2025 03:39:20 +0000 Jack Osbourne, 39, son of Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne and television personality Sharon Osbourne, has made several headlines recently. At Steel City Con in December, he revealed that his 2012 multiple sclerosis diagnosis had hurt him in his career. “Professionally, it was a problem early on when I couldn’t get hired on productions because they deemed me an insurance risk, because I had a neurological disorder,” he said at the event. Last month, the media personality was back in the spotlight... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3300515/meet-jack-osbournes-wife-aree-gearhart-interior-designer-was-once-magazine-editor-and-she-reportedly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3300515/meet-jack-osbournes-wife-aree-gearhart-interior-designer-was-once-magazine-editor-and-she-reportedly?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Mar 2025 22:00:19 +0000 Brian Wong Brian Wong Former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has said he was willing to “take risks” after Hong Kong’s adoption of the national security law five years ago, but maintained he would not do anything “specifically illegal” such as instigating foreign sanctions. Lai told the court on Friday that while he would not knowingly break the national security law after it took effect in June 2020, he had intended to “play edgeball”, a term previously adopted by a prosecution witness to refer to reporting in a... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3300585/hong-kongs-jimmy-lai-denies-knowingly-doing-anything-specifically-illegal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3300585/hong-kongs-jimmy-lai-denies-knowingly-doing-anything-specifically-illegal?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Feb 2025 09:59:17 +0000 The website of Kanye West’s Yeezy fashion brand was offline on Tuesday after it began selling plain white T-shirts with a swastika. The site displayed the message “Something went wrong” and “This store is unavailable”. West, who now calls himself Ye, appeared in a commercial for the site that aired in Southern California during the Super Bowl. In the low-budget ad, the rapper was sitting in what appeared to be a dentist’s chair, flashing a set of diamond-encrusted dentures, and saying he had... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3298297/kanye-wests-yeezy-website-goes-down-after-nazi-t-shirt-sales?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3298297/kanye-wests-yeezy-website-goes-down-after-nazi-t-shirt-sales?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Feb 2025 23:33:19 +0000 NBA player Dennis Schröder might need a minute to catch his breath. Hours before the trade deadline on February 6, news broke that the Golden State Warriors point guard would be going to the Utah Jazz as part of a three-team deal that also included the Miami Heat, plus Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins and Kyle Anderson. But then, the following day, sources told ESPN that the Detroit Pistons would be acquiring Schröder from the Utah Jazz. Phew! The deal comes less than two months after Schröder was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3297719/who-dennis-schroder-golden-state-warriors-star-slammed-nba-luka-doncic-trade-los-angeles-lakers-then?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3297719/who-dennis-schroder-golden-state-warriors-star-slammed-nba-luka-doncic-trade-los-angeles-lakers-then?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Feb 2025 20:00:08 +0000