Twitter suspends Blue after impersonations
After reports of multiple impersonations of major brands and politiciansaccounts, Twitter suspends it’s Twitter Blue $8 verification process. An account impersonating Nintendo tweeted an image of the Super Mario character holding up a middle finger. One posing as Eli Lilly & Co. tweeted that insulin was now free, forcing the company’s official account to say:
We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account
An internal Twitter memo confirmed the change:
An update on what we did tonight: hid the entry point to Twitter Blue, added the ‘official’ label for ONLY advertisers. Note: here is at least one way for users to sign up for Blue. Legacy Blue users can go to subscriptions and upgrade.
In an email to staff, Musk wrote:
Over the next few days, the absolute top priority is finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam
Yoel Roth, the company’s head of trust and safety also resigned
Closing U.S. channel
Al Jazeera America will shut down its cable news channel in April. While the Qatar-based news network has spent heavily to break into the U. S. market, the company says that their business model is not sustainable in light of economic challenges.
Removes Hoverboards from site
Amazon removes 97% of hoverboards from their website over safety related reasoning. Amazon sent a letter to manufacturers saying they should:
Provide documentation demonstrating that all hoverboards you list are compliant with applicable safety standards.
Bans sale of Apple, Google video-streaming devices
In an e-mail to its marketplace sellers, Amazon says it will stop selling the Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast since those devices don’t “interact well” with Prime Video. No new listings for the products will be allowed and posting of existing inventory will be removed Oct. 29. Roku Inc.’s set-top device, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation, which work with Amazon’s video service, aren’t affected.
Stops selling AR-15
Walmart says it will stop selling “modern sporting rifles” such as the AR-15 and other semi-automatic rifles because of sluggish demand and focus instead on “hunting and sportsman firearms.” The class of rifle was sold in fewer than a third of its roughly 4,500 U.S. stores. The company says the decision was unrelated to and shooting incidents.
This is done solely on what customer demand was. We are instead focusing on hunting and sportsman firearms.
Flag removed from Capitol
South Carolina removes the Confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds in Columbia. A crowd shouts “U.S.A.” as the color guard removes the flag and folds it, and hands it to the curator of the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, where it will be stored. Some of the few thousand attendees are dressed in Confederate uniforms and carry Confederate flags to show their support for the flag.
South Carolina taking down the confederate flag – a signal of good will and healing, and a meaningful step towards a better future.
— President Obama (@POTUS44) July 10, 2015
Ends Trump relationship
Serta end its licensing agreement, saying it will will stop manufacturing and selling Trump Home-branded mattresses, due to remarks he made in June 16 speech.
Serta values diversity and does not agree with nor endorse the recent statements made by Mr. Trump. Serta is in the process of unwinding our relationship.
Severs ties with Trump
Macy’s is ending its business relationship with Trump, and will drop Trump’s menswear collection.
Macy’s is a company that stands for diversity and inclusion. We have no tolerance for discrimination in any form. We welcome all customers, and respect for the dignity of all people is a cornerstone of our culture. We are disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico. We do not believe the disparaging characterizations portray an accurate picture of the many Mexicans, Mexican Americans and Latinos who have made so many valuable contributions to the success of our nation. In light of statements made by Donald Trump, which are inconsistent with Macy’s values, we have decided to discontinue our business relationship with Mr. Trump and will phase-out the Trump menswear collection, which has been sold at Macy’s since 2004.
Trump issues a statement suggesting he initiated the breakup.
I have decided to terminate my relationship with Macy’s because of the pressure being put on them by outside sources. While selling Trump ties and shirts at Macy’s is a small business in terms of dollar volume, my principles are far more important and therefore much more valuable.
NBC drops Miss USA,Miss Universe
NBC says it will drop Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, which it jointly owns with Trump.
At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values. Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump.
Trump stands by his comments and said his “stance on immigration is correct.”
As far as ending the relationship, I have to do that, because my view of immigration is different from the folks at NBC. I told NBC, I just can’t change my stance…NBC is weak, and like everybody else is trying to be politically correct.
Univision drops Miss Universe
Univision ends partnership with the Miss Universe Organization (partly owned by Trump) due to Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants:
Today, the entertainment division of Univision Communications Inc. announced that it is ending the company’s business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which is part-owned by Donald J. Trump, based on his recent, insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants. At Univision, we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country. We will not be airing the Miss USA pageant on July 12th or working on any other projects tied to the Trump Organization.
Trump responds by saying the Mexican government is putting pressure on Univision to stop him exposing the weaknesses the U.S. has at the southern border:
The government of Mexico and the lobbyists and the special interests have put tremendous pressure on Univision, a company that is very subservient to Mexico, to get Trump to stop exposing the terrible situation at the border and the terrible trade deals that are being made by the United States to the benefit of Mexico. I will not be party to that, because my love of the country is too great to allow this to happen.
Third season cancelled
PBS cancels the third season of Finding Your Roots after an investigation reveals Affleck pressured producers to violate network standards by letting him have “improper influence” in leaving out details about an ancestor of his who owned slaves. PBS will not run the show’s third season until staffing changes are made, including hiring a fact checker. Gates:
I sincerely regret not discussing my editing rationale with our partners at PBS and WNET and I apologize for putting PBS and its member stations in the position of having to defend the integrity of their programming.
Removes flags
Walmart removes any and all items made from or containing depictions of the Confederate flag. They apologise for the inclusion of such products in their range.
We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer. We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment, whether in our stores or on our website
Cancelled
HBO cancels Looking. The series will be wrapped up with a special; however, it is unknown when this special will air. The second-season finale averaged 298,000 same-day viewers.
After two years of following Patrick and his tight-knit group of friends as they explored San Francisco in search of love and lasting relationships, HBO will present the final chapter of their journey as a special. We look forward to sharing this adventure with the shows loyal fans.
Phasing out elephant acts
The Circus is phasing out the use of elephants for its performances. Growing public concern over the animals’ treatment as well as ‘anti-circus’ and ‘anti-elephant’ ordinances led to the decision. Thirteen elephants will continue to tour with the circus before they are retired to the Center for Elephant Conservation in 2018.
There’s been somewhat of a mood shift among our consumers. A lot of people aren’t comfortable with us touring with our elephants.
Sales halted
The company says the Explorer program will close and it will stop taking orders for the product but it says it will continue to support companies that are using Glass. Google insists it is still committed to launching the smart glasses as a consumer product, saying it will focus on “future versions of Glass” with work carried out by a different division to before.
The Glass team will also move out of the Google X division and become a separate undertaking, under Ivy Ross.