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Back in March 2020, when the world shut down, Amazon became the world’s go-to online store. When people couldn’t leave their homes, it became imperative to have goods come to them, and Amazon thrived. Money poured into its coffers, its stock price skyrocketed, and it hired like crazy and built warehouses to match the growing demand.

According to numbers from Statista, the company began the pandemic with approximately 840,000 employees in the first quarter of 2020. By Q1 2022, it had over 1.6 million workers. The problem was, as the pandemic loosened its grip on public life, people stopped buying everything online and returned to brick-and-mortar retail.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy certainly seems to understand that the market has changed, and he has been having his managers look for places to cut spending and reduce operating costs, something many large organizations are doing amid a period of great economic uncertainty.

Amazon’s efforts included, if reports are accurate, cutting up to 10,000 jobs in the near term to offset the hiring that happened during the peak of the pandemic.

From a stock perspective, the company has given up almost all of the gains it picked up on the back of the pandemic, losing almost 50% of its value this year, per CNBC. That means Jeff Bezos is just a little less rich than he once was and his ex, MacKenzie Scott, has a little less to give away. Jassy, meantime, has many more headaches to deal with and pressure to cut operations costs.

Through all this, AWS, Amazon’s cloud arm, which Jassy ran before he got promoted to the corner office, has continued to perform at the same high level it always has. But even AWS reported a slowdown in the third quarter as companies tried to slash cloud costs.

Consider that in Q3 2022, the most recently reported quarter, AWS revenue hit $20.5 billion, below the $21.1 billion the analyst crowd expected. It may not seem like much, but cloud computing has been one of a few uber-growth areas, so a miss was a big deal.

That said, you can’t lose sight of the fact that AWS is now on a run rate to become an $80 billion business, so that’s not exactly something to hang your head about, and the consensus is that the cloud business still has plenty of room to grow in spite of external macroeconomic conditions.

In other words, AWS will probably be fine regardless of currency issues, slowing growth or customers looking at only modest IT spending increases in the new year. Jassy may have to cut costs across the company, but chances are AWS gets mostly spared from this exercise.

While Amazon had a rocky year, AWS remains reliable cash cow by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch

A dozen countries in Africa including Nigeria, the continent’s biggest economy and democracy, are expected to hold their presidential elections next year, and questions linger on how well social media platforms are prepared to curb mis and dis-information after claims of botched content moderation during Kenya’s polls last August.

Concerns are mounting as it emerges that Twitter has scaled back content moderation after Elon Musk took over and later laid-off more than half the employees, and nearly cleaning out the entire Africa team, a decision that left outsourced moderators out of jobs too. With very limited support to filter or stop spread of propaganda, Africa will likely be a casualty of Twitter’s oft-erratic or slow response to falsehoods — which catalyze violence in times of political polarization.

But this is not unique to Twitter; widely used platforms like Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube have also been fingered for doing little to stop mis- and dis-information in Africa.

In Nigeria, for instance, sitting president Muhammadu Buhari, has voiced concerns over how dis- and mis-information on social media is fanning conflict, insecurity, and distrust in the government in the lead up to the February elections – even as the country’s economy continues to struggle causing a sense of instability. Yet, as momentum picks up for what is one of the most hotly contested elections, activists, researchers, and a section of civilians are apprehensive about the mounting spread of negative campaigning.

Researchers anticipate that hateful content and falsehoods, meant to stir confusion or sway voters in Nigeria, will continue to be shared online. They are insistently calling on tech companies to hire and train local experts with the knowledge of local languages and context to intercept misleading, violent or intimidating posts that could undermine election integrity.

“Social-media platforms especially – Twitter, Meta (Facebook), YouTube, WhatsApp and Telegram – should step up efforts to identify and deal with election-related misinformation, disinformation and conspiracies as well as intercepting violent or intimidating messages,” said Audu Bulama Bukarti, a senior fellow, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said in a report published a fortnight ago about security risks in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s youthful and tech-savvy population is Africa’s most active on social media. The calls for the platforms to step-up content moderation, while not new, follow the increased use of social sites owing to smartphone and internet penetration.

“The reach and influence of social media have grown ever larger in the years since the 2019 election. It will play a pivotal role in the 2023 election, in terms of positive political communication and in terms of its ability to spread misinformation and disinformation,” said Bukarti.

In Nigeria, Meta claims to have invested in people including content moderators and technology to stem the misuse of its platforms ahead of the elections. The social media giant is also taking the same measures as before and during Kenya’s elections, which included verifying the identities of persons posting political ads. But Mozilla Tech and Society Fellow Odanga Madung is not convinced Facebook are other social sites are prepared well enough.

“Social media platforms are still not completely ready to deal with election environments especially because they’ve had massive layoffs that have greatly affected how the work within several of the areas these elections will be held,” said Madung.

“And quite frankly, they have consistently failed to address the key aspects that make an election environment a dangerous information environment in the first place, where things are neither true or false and information tends to get weaponized quite a bit. Election environments are incredibly low trust environments. I do not think they’re going to actually succeed on this.”

Away from Nigeria, a pivotal moment is also approaching for social media platforms and fragile nations such as Sudan, South Sudan, DR Congo, Libya, and Mali — most of which have blocked social media access in the recent past to quell protests against their governments — as they head to polls next year.

Bungled labeling and moderation

Social sites like Facebook, Twitter and TikTok recently came under heavy scrutiny over their role in undermining election integrity in Kenya. A Mozilla Foundation report claims that content labeling failed to stop misinformation, while platforms such as Facebook profiteered from political advertising that served to amplify propaganda.

Twitter and TikTok’s spotty labeling of posts calling the elections ahead of the official announcement made the platforms seem partisan, and failed to stop the spread of falsehoods, despite partnering with fact-checking organizations.

Facebook, the leading social media platform in Africa, failed majorly on this front by not having “any visible labels” during the elections, allowing the spread of propaganda — like claims of the kidnapping and arrest of a prominent politician, which had been debunked by local media houses. Months later, Facebook put a label on the original post claiming the kidnapping and arrest of the prominent politician.

Sluggish responses to falsehoods by Facebook, are now at the center of a lawsuit filed last week claiming that Meta is fueling violence and hate in eastern and southern Africa.

Abrham Meareg, one of the petitioners and whose father, Professor Meareg Amare, was killed during the Tigray War after Facebook posts doxed and called for violence against him, says that Facebook failed, on multiple requests, to bring down posts that put his father’s life in danger. He said that one post was recently taken down, a year after his father’s murder — more than 600,000 Ethiopians were killed during the two-year war that started in 2020.

The case claims that Facebook’s algorithm fuels viral hate and violence while that content moderation in Africa is bungled as moderators lack local knowledge to moderate content posted in local languages.

“Many of them (platforms) lack context and they are always going to fall short in terms of the of the promises they make to their users because, again, a lie is able to move very fast across platforms before they able to get ahold of it,” said Odanga.

Whistleblower Frances Haugen previously accused Facebook of “literally fanning ethnic violence” in Ethiopia, and a recent Global Witness investigation also noted that the social site was “extremely poor at detecting hate speech in the main language of Ethiopia.”

“Something is wrong with the way Facebook moderates content, and … there is a lack of investment in content moderation, especially for African countries. When you compare to other regions, we are getting the second-rate treatment. And what’s the effect? We are seeing a catalyst for civic unrest, civil war coming from normal interactions; viral posts that make fun of people and then escalate to insightful posts that my client is proof do end up causing violence in real life,” said Meareg’s lawyer, Mercy Mutemi.

Meanwhile, social media remains central to the permeation of political propaganda and the dilution of important investigations in matters around economic and social corruption. Last year, the former Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, was mentioned in the Pandora Papers – a leakage of files detailing the hidden wealth of a number of global leaders, celebrities and billionaires in offshore havens. However, researchers noticed the soaring of two hashtags, #offshoreaccountfacts and #phonyleaks, which topped trending topics and shadowed organic discussions on Twitter in Kenya, undermining the findings of the documentary.

Foreign-sponsored campaigns with political objectives have also affected more than three-quarters of the countries in Africa as “disinformation campaigns become increasingly sophisticated in camouflaging their origins by outsourcing posting operations.”

According to a Africa Center for Strategic Studies report published in April this year, Russian-sponsored disinformation campaigns by the Wagner Group mercenary force, promoting the Kremlin’s interests in the continent, for instance, have so affected more than 16 countries in Africa.

Questions linger over Facebook, Twitter, TikTok’s commitment to uphold election integrity in Africa, as countries head to polls by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch

Three years ago, Mila showed up on Kickstarter with its smart air purifier. The company created an air cleaner with a choice of different filters to suit the use case (and price point) customers were interested in, along with an impressive array of sensors built into the device itself. Today, the San Francisco-based company announced it closed a $10 million Series A to scrub the nasties out of the air for more people.

The company’s seed round was led by no other than Electrolux. Mila claims it was Electrolux’s first startup investment. The appliance giant also participated in the current round. Mila’s $10 million Series A was led by returning partner Cercano Management (the former venture arm of the late Paul Allen’s investment firm) and “an undisclosed global consumer goods brand.” The company says it’ll spend the money to hire, scale operations, expand its product portfolio and work toward its ultimate goal of meeting the global need for better indoor air quality. The company is also planning to launch Mila Halo, a smart humidifier.

The company raised its $10 million round in an all-equity deal at a $52 million post-money valuation, the company tells me. It says the new valuation represents a 3x value increase over its seed round the year prior.

“We’re at the cusp of a great ‘air awakening’ as the quality of the air we breathe becomes more top of mind for families. But the products families typically turn to provide little to no insight on whether or not they’re actually working. With Mila, families can finally monitor and control their indoor air quality effortlessly,” Grant Prigge, CEO and co-founder at Mila said in an interview with TechCrunch. “This investment
will allow us to meet growing demand while continuing to build thoughtful, beautiful experiences that improve the health of our homes.”

The company is operating in a fiercely competitive market — it isn’t like there is a shortage of air purifiers to choose from — but the company’s clever, cute design and the ability to use a number of different filters depending on the need sets it apart from its competitors. The app is also outstanding, reporting particulates (PM1, PM2.5, PM10), humidity, temperature, volatile compounds (TVOC), CO2 and CO. The purifier uses this data to scrub the air more intelligently — running the fans slowly if they’re not really needed, or running at full blast if nasties need to be scrubbed from the air.

We spoke with Grant Prigge, the company’s CEO and co-founder, to learn a bit more. The interview is edited for clarity and length.

TC: Who are the lead investors, and what has it been like to work with them so far?

Grant Prigge: Mila went from a small passion project with a couple hundred thousand dollars of angel funding from friends, to having Electrolux, one of the largest consumer appliance manufacturers in the world, as its first institutional investor. Mila was Electrolux’s first venture investment in the company’s 100 years of existence.

After launching what became the largest air purifier launch in crowdfunding history, with more than $1.5 million in preorders, Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital led Mila’s second round. Our Series A was led by Cercano Management, the venture spinoff of Vulcan Capital, and one of the largest consumer goods manufacturers in the world.

Most people cautioned us against working with big corporate investors, but they’ve been some of the best partners we could ask for, providing thoughtful feedback and lending their support along the way. With Electrolux’s support, we’ve been able to punch well above our weight, especially when it comes to navigating the supply chain challenges of the past few years. And with our newest investor, we see the same synergy in marketing and branding as we bring Mila to millions of homes across the globe.

What is the goal with the fundraise? What does the money unlock?

This fundraise enables us to expand our team and meet the growing demand for Mila’s award-winning air purifier. Additionally, it’ll allow us to expand our product portfolio with additions that work to enhance the health of our homes and indoor environments. In the new year, we’re incredibly excited to release Mila Halo, which is the first humidifier of its kind that actually makes it safe to use tap water, thanks to Halo’s proprietary water filtration system. Halo was the recipient of a CES Innovation Award in 2022.

It is the convergence of a growing portfolio of hardware solutions with an air quality control system that is becoming more intelligent by the day. We believe Mila will become the Home Health Operating System of the future.

What’s the long-term vision?

Our mission is to bring every family back from airblivion to shape the healthy home of the future. The quality of the air we breathe is now recognized as the single largest environmental threat to human health. Around the world, dirty air is behind 7 million early deaths annually — more than AIDS, diabetes and traffic accidents combined.

These past two years have only highlighted how little we know about the air we breathe. Consumers are becoming more aware of how critical their home environment is to their health — they just lack the tools to do something about it. In fact, 91% of consumers say they now understand how air quality impacts their health, but 69% say they don’t know what to do about it.

Mila intends to solve that. Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a $16 billion market ripe for disruption. We aim to be the dominant brand, making every home a healthier place to breathe.

What is the Mila Cares program, and why are you giving away purifiers for free?

One of the things that blew us away during our original Kickstarter campaign was the letters we got from our customers about who they were buying their Mila for. Spouses were buying it for their hubby who suffered from allergies, girlfriends were buying it to save the relationship between the cat and boyfriend, dads were buying it for their young kids who suffered from asthma and suffering from an autoimmune issue. These thoughtful notes and stories inspired and humbled us, and clearly showed that people were buying our products for the health of their loved ones, and we vowed to take that responsibility seriously in everything we do. It reinforced that compassion and care should always be a core pillar of our brand (hence, the name “Mila Cares”).

One way we do this is through the Mila Cares Program. Any customer can nominate someone in need of clean air, and any member of the Mila team can give out a Mila Cares Package. The only requirement is that it touched them in some way. Sometimes a laugh, sometimes a cry. The nominee then gets a surprise Mila Cares Package, almost always containing a Mila air purifier, with a personal letter from us.

To date, we’ve given out more than 100 Mila Cares Packages, and it allows us to celebrate deserving air breathers in the communities we’re lucky to be a part of in a meaningful way.

Backed by Electrolux, Mila raises at a $52M valuation to add smarts to fresh air by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

Remember the Apple Airpower charging mat? Announced in 2017, the device was supposed to recharge three devices simultaneously, but Apple never released it, citing engineering issues. Now, Tesla is giving it a shot with the just-announced Wireless Charging Platform.

Inside the Cybertruck-inspired aluminum casing is a wireless charging platform called FreePower from a startup called Aira. This is the same platform used other multi-device charging mats like the Nomad Base Station Pro. This technology provides up to 15W of fast charging for up to three devices. Allegedly, users can just toss their devices on the alcantara surface, and no matter where they land, they’ll get recharged.

This convenience doesn’t come cheap; the Wireless Charging Platform costs $300.

Aira, the company that developed the recharging platform, was founded in 2017 and has since raised $16.M to date. Its latest fundraising came by way of angel investors in 2019 primarily led by private investors, including Jawad Ahsan, Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec. At the time, the company said the funding was going to be used to reach beyond the consumer market, and allow the company to expand into enterprise, automotive, and hospitality.

Tesla announces a $300 charging mat that can recharge 3 devices at once by Matt Burns originally published on TechCrunch

In case anyone asks, 2022 was all about energy — natural gas, oil, renewables, all of it. Natural gas prices surged early as Vladimir Putin’s poorly thought-out decision to invade Ukraine slashed gas deliveries to Europe. That, coupled with high oil prices, substantially contributed to near-record-setting inflation that forced central bankers to raise interest rates.

That inflation helped spur the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains several provisions to boost renewable power, ready the grid for its arrival and foster the development of other alternative sources of energy.

Taken together, those developments — along with what investors have told me is a desire for safe returns — have sent dollars flocking to clean energy. Venture capital activity in the sector through Q3 is on track to match 2021’s record highs, according to a new report from PitchBook.

Clean energy investments may close 2022 hitting new heights, setting stage for lofty 2023 by Tim De Chant originally published on TechCrunch

Recent headlines have been dominated by announcements of large headcount reductions across the tech industry and especially at giants like Meta, Amazon and Twitter. But it’s not just the big names pulling back on headcount — private SaaS companies have similarly been implementing hiring freezes and headcount reductions for almost half a year now.

This isn’t surprising, as VCs started pushing for more focus on capital efficiency and the “Rule of 40” earlier this summer as it became clear that the “growth at all costs” mentality was going out of favor and the goal was to extend runway to weather the storm.

To get a better understanding of headcount fluctuations within the private market, we programmatically tracked the headcount of 150 private Series A to Series C B2B Enterprise SaaS startups across various industries over 24 months.

Here are the highlights of our study:

Companies are reducing headcount growth to extend runway

Headcounts rose every month across the last four months at a median rate of around 2% compared to the 10% we saw previously. Additionally, the 25th percentile of startups showed reductions in headcounts, indicating that many companies are taking drastic measures to extend their runway.

This is a gloomy indicator as startups brace for additional macro headwinds and repricing events.

Another round of cuts are likely early next year

If the macro environment doesn’t improve, we would expect another wave of job cuts after companies’ fourth-quarter board meetings (usually in January or February).

Many companies will discuss their CY ’23 forecasts, and headcount is always a lever to extend runway since it can account for up to 80% of a startup’s expenses. Given that many companies have maintained their headcounts, we may see them having to lay people off to reduce burn.

Tighter hiring started as early as May 2022

Private companies began tapping the brakes right around May 2022, and more firms started acting in unison, as seen from the tighter headcount velocity interquartile range, which was compressed heavily but has now stabilized.

Companies serving HR and procurement saw the steepest drop

As these services have shrunk across the industry, companies providing tech aimed at HR and procurement professionals saw the steepest drop in headcount growth. However, all the tracked customer profiles have trended toward reducing hiring efforts.

There’s lots of available talent

On a positive note, this is an excellent time for companies with product-market fit (and supportive investors) to hire the right talent, as big tech is reducing headcount and the market is flooded with exceptional talent.

From aggressive headcount growth to holding flat

Until April, most companies were hiring aggressively, with headcount rising month over month at over 10%, and the 75th percentile was close to about 20%.

In contrast, the current median is +1% and the 75th percentile is +4%.

This downward trend kicked off in May and continues today. The interquartile range continues to compress, with the median ultimately heading toward flat headcount (i.e., replacing natural attrition but not hiring beyond that). The 25th percentile fell into layoff territory around August, but both the 10th percentile and 25th percentile have since pulled back.

Now that we have set the stage:

Headcount growth is slowing as startups prepare for worst-case scenarios by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch

Facebook’s parent company Meta has agreed a $725 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit related to the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal.

First reported by Reuters earlier today, the deal follows nearly four months after news first emerged that Meta had proposed a settlement in the Northern District of California where the suit was first filed some four years ago. In the intervening years, Meta has pushed back against the lawsuit, which consolidated complaints from multiple Facebook users, arguing that those who voluntarily signed up to the social network should have no real expectations of privacy — an assertion that the judge overseeing the case in 2019 called “so wrong.”

The scandal in question — one of many to hit the world of Facebook through the years — relates to the now-defunct U.K. political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica that funnelled data from tens of millions of Facebook users through a survey app called MyDigitalLife, with a view toward influencing voters’ behavior using targeted ads. The privacy brouhaha that followed led to various fines and settlements, with Meta (then called Facebook) paying $5 billion as part of a deal with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), $100 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for misleading investors, and a modest £500,000 ($600,000) to the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office.

It’s also worth noting that while the genesis of this class-action lawsuit was Cambridge Analytica, it expanded to include other third-parties that may have improperly used Facebook user data.

Facing the music

While Meta cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously testified before Congress about the scandal, his responses proved somewhat evasive and aside from a carefully controlled testimony in front of the EU Parliament shortly after, the upper echelon at Meta have not had to face any more direct questioning on the matter. However, with this impending lawsuit, Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, and new COO Javier Olivan were all set to testify again at an upcoming hearing. This is something that Meta clearly didn’t want, and it’s something that clearly won’t happen now that a provisional settlement has been reached.

In the filing notifying the court of the proposed settlement, the lawyers conclude that the deal agreed between the plaintiffs and Meta was an “extraordinary outcome,” resulting in the “largest recovery ever achieved in a data privacy class-action and the most Facebook has ever paid” to end a private class-action lawsuit.

They wrote:

The amount of the recovery is particularly striking given that Facebook argued that its users consented to the practices at issue, and that the class suffered no actual damages. Plaintiffs dispute these characterizations, but acknowledge that they faced tremendous risks in this novel and complex case. In addition to the monetary relief obtained by Plaintiffs, Facebook has meaningfully changed the practices that gave rise to Plaintiffs’ allegations, as set forth in the declarations of two Facebook employees with knowledge of those facts.

However, the $725 million settlement will see Meta once again admit no wrongdoing, saying in a statement issued to Reuters that the settlement was “in the best interest of our community and shareholders.” Moreover, the settlement applies to every Facebook user in the U.S. who, if they wish to apply, will only receive a few dollars each from the pot.

The settlement has yet to be rubberstamped, though, though this is expected at a follow-on hearing on March 2, 2023.

Meta hasn’t heard the last of Cambridge Analytica though, with Washington, D.C. suing Zuckerberg personally, alleging that he was personally responsible for the failures leading to the scandal.

Facebook parent Meta to settle Cambridge Analytica class-action lawsuit for $725M by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

Google said on Friday it has appealed against the Indian antitrust body’s order against the firm over alleged anti-competitive practices surrounding Android mobile devices in the key overseas market.

The company has approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), the nation’s appellate tribunal, to appeal against the Competition Commission of India’s October order, in which the watchdog fined Google $162 million.

“We have decided to appeal the CCI’s decision on Android as we believe it presents a major setback for our Indian users and businesses who trust Android’s security features, and potentially raising the cost of mobile devices,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

“We look forward to making our case in NCLAT and remain committed to users and partners.”

In October, the CCI, which began investigating Google three and a half years ago, said that it finds Google requiring device manufacturers to pre-install its entire Google Mobile Suite and mandating prominent placement of those apps “imposition of unfair condition on the device manufacturers” and thus was in “contravention of the provisions of Section 4(2)(a)(i) of the Act.”

Days later, the CCI hit Google with another $113 million fine for allegedly abusing the dominant position of its Google Play Store and ordered the firm to allow app developers to use third-party payments processing services for in-app purchases or for purchasing apps.

India is a key overseas market for Google, which has amassed over 500 million users in the South Asian market. The company, which has poured billions in its India business over the past decade, has pledged to invest another $10 billion in the country over the next couple of years.

Google appeals against India’s fine over ‘unfair’ business practices on Android by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

After taking over Twitter, Elon Musk had long promised that the company is working toward making the platform more appealing to video creators. Today, Twitter updated the Twitter Blue page declaring that subscribers can now upload 60-minute-long videos from the web at 1080p resolution and 2GB in file size.

Prior to the change, Twitter Blue subscribers were able to upload 10-minute-long videos on the platform at 1080p resolution with a file size limit of 512MB. Sadly, if you’re uploading from iOS or Android, this limit is still applicable.

Twitter said that it will consider modifying the quality of the video for distribution.

“We strive to maintain the highest possible video quality for all videos uploaded to our platform. However, we may modify or adapt your original video for distribution, syndication, publication, or broadcast by us and our partners and/or make changes in order to adapt it to different media, including modifying the resolution and bitrate of the original video while streaming based on the speed and stability of the viewer’s internet connection,” the company said on a support page.

By allowing longer video uploads, Twitter will also face a challenge to tackle piracy. Users might post movies or whole episodes of TV shows and the social network’s moderators and automated systems will have to be alert about removing them quickly. Last month, when Twitter’s copyright systems stopped working briefly, users uploaded whole movies in smaller chunks. The new 60-minute video limit makes it easier for culprits to post someone else’s work.

There are also questions about monetization from these videos. YouTube shows multiple ads in longer videos, but it’s not clear at the moment if Twitter is planning to do something similar.

Along with increasing the video upload limit, subscribers will also get priority in replies. The company said that users will “see a slight preference for replies from Blue verified accounts over other replies.” This means you will see replies by paid accounts before other replies. Twitter didn’t really detail how it might handle folks who pay to troll or spam other users by getting a preference in replies.

Musk-led Twitter relaunched Twitter Blue earlier this month after a disastrous first launch in November. Now, the company is charging $11 per month to iOS users to offset App Store fees and $8 per month to folks who subscribe using the web. Earlier this week, Twitter also rolled out the Blue for Business program, which allows companies to identify their affiliated brands and workers through an extra square badge.

Notably, longer video uploads and priority in replies are the first features to be available for paid users apart from the Blue verification badge.

Twitter Blue users can now upload 60-minute long videos by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

More than a week after being banned from Twitter, Jack Sweeney, the University of Central Florida sophomore who has been a pain in the side of Elon Musk for at least the past year, has a new account on the platform. Called @ElonJetNexDay, the hours-old account tracks the private jet of Elon Musk, but with a 24-hour delay.

Whether it’s the last chapter in an ongoing story remains to be seen, but you have to give it to Sweeney; he’s persistent.

Two years ago, the 20-year-old launched a Twitter account that used public data to automatically map the flights of Musk’s private jet, @ElonJet. Musk asked Sweeney back in January through a direct message on the platform to take it down in exchange for $5,000. “It’s a security risk,” Musk reportedly wrote Sweeney. “I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase.” When Sweeney only half-kiddingly asked instead for a Model 3 or $50,000, Musk apparently ghosted Sweeney, but he did not forget him, plainly.

Instead, Sweeney wound up a headline story one very busy day last week after Musk, now the owner of Twitter, banned the account, costing Sweeney 530,000 followers. The impetus, Musk suggested on Twitter, was a car carrying his son X Æ A-12 that had been “followed by [a] crazy stalker” in Los Angeles.” Though there was no obvious tie between the account and the incident, Twitter soon after alerted Sweeney that “after careful review,” it had been “determined your account broke the Twitter rules,” without saying at the time which rules were violated.

Then Twitter kept shutting down more accounts, including Sweeney’s personal account (for violating Twitter’s rules against “platform manipulation and spam”); other accounts operated by Sweeney that tracked the air travel of other prominent individuals, including Musk nemesis Mark Zuckerberg; and a day later, numerous journalists who reported on the Sweeney story, including Ryan Mac of the New York Times and Drew Harwell of the Washington Post. (`Some remain locked out.)

Separately, Musk ratcheted up his focus on Sweeney, tweeting: “Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.”

Sweeney has continued all the while to operate his social media accounts elsewhere. Last week, he opened an account on the newer social media platform Mastadon that tracks Musk’s private jet in real time and has already amassed 67,000 followers; Sweeney also has pages on Facebook and Instagram that track the comings and goings of private jets, including that of Musk, and which enjoy substantial followings.

And now he’s back at it on Twitter, too, for now at least. According to its new rules, “sharing publicly available location information after a reasonable time has elapsed, so that the individual is no longer at risk for physical harm” is not a violation. With a 24-hour delay in reporting on where Musk’s private jet has traveled, @ElonJetNexDay would seem to fall within the confines of Twitter’s recently set safety parameters.

Still, it’s easy to interpret the account as Sweeney thumbing his nose at Musk, who has wielded his power as Twitter’s newfound owner erratically nearly from the day he hauled a sink into the company’s San Francisco headquarters in late October to make a joke about his takeover. (“Let that sink in.”)

Even Musk’s devoted followers on the platform appear exhausted by all the drama. When Musk asked them in a survey on Sunday if he should step down as the leader of the social media site, the vast majority of respondents answered that he should. Musk has since said he will step down as CEO once he finds “someone foolish enough to take the job!”

Persistent Jack Sweeney brings back @ElonJet (but delayed) to Twitter by Connie Loizos originally published on TechCrunch