Why are democrats worried about Musk buying Twitter?

[Winehole23]

whoopsie

[velik_m]

Tesla sales fell by 9 percent in 2025, its second yearly decline

Tesla published its final production and delivery numbers this morning, and they make for brutal reading. Sales were down almost 16 percent during the final three months of last year, meaning the company sold 77,343 fewer electric vehicles than it did during the same period in 2024.

For the entire year, the decline looks slightly better with a drop of 8.6 percent year over year. That means Tesla sold 1,636,129 cars in 2025, 153,097 fewer than it managed in 2024. Which in turn is more than it managed to shift in 2023.

...

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01...early-decline/

[velik_m]

Malaysia and Indonesia block Musk's Grok over explicit deepfakes

Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked access to Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok over its ability to produce sexually explicit deepfakes.

Grok, a tool on Musk's X platform, allows users to generate images but has recently been used to edit images of real people to show them in revealing outfits.

The South East Asian countries said Grok could be used to produce pornographic and non-consensual images involving women and children. They are the first in the world to ban the AI tool.

There is also growing pressure to block Grok in the UK, with its technology secretary saying she would back the move, leading Musk to accuse the government of wanting to suppress free speech.

Malaysia and Indonesia's communications ministries announced their move against Grok in separate statements over the weekend.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said on Sunday that it issued notices to X earlier in the year to seek tighter measures after it found "repeated misuse" of Grok to generate harmful content.

...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7y10xm4x2o

UK to bring into force law to tackle Grok AI deepfakes this week

The UK will bring into force a law which will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, following widespread concerns over Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot.

The Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the government would also seek to make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images.

Speaking to the Commons, Kendall said AI-generated pictures of women and children in states of undress, created without a person's consent, were not "harmless images" but "weapons of abuse".

The BBC has approached X for comment. It previously said: "Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.".

It comes hours after Ofcom announced it was launching an investigation into X over "deeply concerning reports" about Grok altering images of people.

If found to have broken the law, Ofcom can potentially issue X with a fine of up to 10% of its worldwide revenue or £18 million, whichever is greater.

And if X does not comply, Ofcom can seek a court order to force internet service providers to block access to the site in the UK altogether.

...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq845glnvl1o

[ChumpDumper]

Well, I didn't think Musk's insistence on CSAM would be a reason to be worried about his buying Twitter but here we are.

[Winehole23]

It's a feature of the platform's design

[velik_m]

European Commission opens investigation into Elon Musk’s X

The formal investigation into X comes after outcry at the platform's failure to prevent the creation of sexually explicit images of real people – including children.

The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into Grok, X’s chatbot, after the image-editing function of its built-in AI tool was widely used to virtually undress pictures of real women and underage girls without their consent.

As first reported by Handelsblatt, the probe will look at whether or not the social media platform did enough to mitigate the risk of the images being created and disseminated.

If X is found to have breached EU online platform rules under the bloc's Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission could fine the company up to 6% of its global annual turnover.

Last December, the European Commission fined Elon Musk’s social network €120 million over its account verification tick marks and advertising practices.

The concerns emerged last summer after the platform's built-in AI tool, Grok, was enhanced with a paid feature known as “ y Mode”, which allowed users to prompt it to create explicit content.
...

https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/0...o-elon-musks-x

[velik_m]

Elon Musk says Tesla ending Models S and X production, converting Fremont factory lines to make Optimus robots

...
In its earnings announcement on Wednesday, Tesla reported its first annual revenue decline on record, with sales falling in three of the past four quarters. Musk has been trying to turn attention away from traditional EVs and toward a future of driverless cars and humanoid robots, areas where the company currently has virtually no business.

Tesla is developing Optimus with the aim of someday selling it as a bipedal, intelligent robot capable of everything from factory work to babysitting. The company said in the release that it plans to unveil the third generation of Optimus this quarter, its “first design meant for mass production.”

Musk said on the call that Tesla is replacing its production line for S and X in Fremont “with a 1 million unit per year line of Optimus.”
...

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/28/tesl...roduction.html

[ChumpDumper]

Who is going to buy a million of these robots every year?

[Blake]

Who is going to buy a million of these robots every year?

I don't know how or where but I could see some kind of government contract looming....

[ChumpDumper]

Can the robot empty a magazine into the back of a nurse trying to help a woman?

[Blake]

Only if the nurse is holding a phone as a weapon.

[velik_m]

Tesla’s own Robotaxi data confirms crash rate 3x worse than humans even with monitor

...
According to a chart in Tesla’s Q4 2025 earnings report showing ulative robotaxi miles, the fleet has traveled approximately 500,000 miles as of November 2025. That works out to roughly one crash every 55,000 miles.

For comparison, human drivers in the United States average approximately one police-reported crash every 500,000 miles, according to NHTSA data.

That means Tesla’s robotaxis are crashing at a rate 9 times higher than the average human driver.

However, that figure doesn’t include non-police-reported incidents. When adding those, or rather an estimate of those, humans are closer to 200,000 miles between crashes, which is still a lot better than Tesla’s robotaxi in Austin.
...

https://electrek.co/2026/01/29/tesla...-with-monitor/

[velik_m]

Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit searches X office, Musk summoned

French police raided the offices of Elon Musk’s social media network X on Tuesday and prosecutors ordered the tech billionaire to face questions in April in a widening investigation, amid growing scrutiny of the platform by authorities across Europe.

France’s raid and the summoning of Musk — which could further increase tensions between Europe and the U.S. over big tech and free speech — are linked to a year-long investigation into suspected abuse of algorithms and fraudulent data extraction by X or its executives.

Britain’s privacy watchdog, meanwhile, also kicked off a formal investigation into Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok over the processing of personal data and its potential to produce harmful sexualised images and video content.

...

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/03/pari...-summoned.html

[velik_m]

Tesla Sales Down 55% in UK, 58% in Spain, 59% in Germany, 81% in Netherlands, 93% in Norway vs. 2024

Tesla ‘Robotaxi’ adds 5 more crashes in Austin in a month — 4x worse than humans

...
Tesla submitted five new crash reports in January 2026, covering incidents from December 2025 and January 2026. All five involved Model Y vehicles operating with the autonomous driving system “verified engaged” in Austin.

The new crashes include a collision with a fixed object at 17 mph while the vehicle was driving straight, a crash with a bus while the Tesla was stationary, a collision with a heavy truck at 4 mph, and two separate incidents where the Tesla backed into objects, one into a pole or tree at 1 mph and another into a fixed object at 2 mph.

As with every previous Tesla crash in the database, all five new incident narratives are fully redacted as “confidential business information.” Tesla remains the only ADS operator to systematically hide crash details from the public through NHTSA’s confidentiality provisions. Waymo, Zoox, and every other company in the database provide full narrative descriptions of their incidents.
...

https://electrek.co/2026/02/17/tesla...e-than-humans/

[Winehole23]

We're way past the US government "jawboning" social media

Trump is driving a truck over the 1st Amendment

Where are all our Twitter files buddies now?

[velik_m]

[Winehole23]

[Blake]

We're way past the US government "jawboning" social media

Trump is driving a truck over the 1st Amendment

Where are all our Twitter files buddies now?

Trump s love them some propaganda.

[Winehole23]

where are you, right wing free speech warriors?

Trump leaned on Apple and Facebook to remove ICE tracking apps

Is it illegal to share information about what the US government does internally, in public?

https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...94823.34.0.pdf

[Winehole23]

it's not even unethical or immoral, tbh

maybe the opposite

[velik_m]

Tesla is recalling its cheaper Cybertruck because the wheels might fall off


Tesla is recalling its RWD Cybertruck Long Range over faulty brake rotors that could cause the wheels to fall off, as spotted earlier by MotorTrend. In a notice on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website, Tesla says “brake rotor stud holes may crack and allow the stud to separate from the wheel hub.”

The recall affects all 173 of the $70,000 Cybertrucks sold by Tesla, which come with 18-inch steel wheels. The company notes that it has identified three warranty claims potentially linked to the issue, but it’s “not aware of any collisions, fatalities, or injuries” related to the recall.

This is the 11th Cybertruck recall so far, following issues with the vehicle’s accelerator, trim, inverter, reverse cameras, and even font size. Tesla released its RWD Cybertruck model last April, but discontinued it just months later. It launched an even cheaper $60,000 dual-motor AWD Cybertruck variant in February of this year, which isn’t affected by this recall.
...

https://www.theverge.com/transportat...cheaper-recall

[Winehole23]

(only 173 RWD Cybertrucks were sold)

[Winehole23]

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/05/22/...was-a-fantasy/