Federal Workers Shift to Encrypted Messaging to Hide Communications #1799



As trust in platforms like Facebook declines, federal employees are increasingly turning to encrypted apps like Signal for private communication. Concerns over surveillance by the Trump administration and tech companies’ cooperation with government data requests have driven many to migrate sensitive conversations away from mainstream services. Employees fear potential monitoring and retaliation, leading to heightened caution in workplace discussions and online interactions.

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Apple Has Started Advertising On X Again



Apple has resumed advertising on X for the first time since pausing ads more than a year ago. The company was one of many to halt advertisements over concerns for brand safety following Elon Musk’s purchase of the social network.

While Xs approach to content moderation has changed little since then, Big Tech’s relationship with Musk has shifted since President Donald Trump took office, The Verge reported.

Apple was among several major advertisers, including Amazon, Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros., Discovery, and IBM, to pull out of the platform in November 2023 over concerns regarding controversial remarks about antisemitic conspiracy theories and white pride made by X owner Elon Musk.

X’s approach to moderation since Musk acquired the platform in 2022 has been widely criticized for failing to remove illegal or harmful content, including posts regarding misinformation, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other hate speech. 

Musk himself has also repeatedly engaged in such behavior, and gained more influence since befriending President Donald Trump and being handed his DOGE leadership position. The European Union is currently investigating the platform’s content moderation efforts, having already found that it violates the bloc’s rules around advertising transparency.

Mashable reported: Over a year ago, Apple removed its ads from X after Elon Musk backed a series of antisemitic posts from far-right users on the social media platform. Around the same time, a new report found that ads from companies such as Apple were being served on pro-Nazi content on X.

However, since November 2023, when Apple stopped advertising on Musk’s X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, a lot has happened. Namely, Donald Trump was elected president once again, and this time, Musk is essentially operating as his right-hand man.

Now, roughly 15 months after Apple halted its ad spend on X, Apple has returned to advertising on the platform.

While Apple has resumed ads on X, it’s unclear how big their current ad campaigns are. The Safari ad, for example, has just over 600,000 impressions as of publishing on Feb. 13. It was originally posted on Feb. 10. Other advertisers who previously left have returned at various points but with a significantly reduced marketing budget for ad spend on X.

MacRumors reported: Apple this month started advertising on X for the first time in more than a year. The company had stopped advertising on the social media platform in November 2023 following controversial remarks made by its owner Elon Musk.

A report last month indicated that Apple was considering advertising on X again, and evidently it has decided to do so, at least for now.

Apple is one of many brands that have paused advertising on X at least once, with other  companies including Disney, Coca-Cola, Sony, IBM, Comcast, and more. Disney and many other brands have cautiously returned to advertising on the platform since.

In my opinion, I think it would be hard for various large companies to choose to post their advertisements on X, especially if their ads are posted next to unsavory content.

 


The Government’s Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified



Billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has a key ally in the US Department of the Treasury: Tom Krause, a veteran technology executive who’s now a special government executive who’s now a special government employee, or consultant, at the agency, Bloomberg reported.

Until a federal judge temporarily blocked DOGE’s access on Saturday, Krause had “read-only” access to Treasury’s payments system, which handles more than 1.2 billion transactions a year. The government calls it “America’s checkbook,” an essential window into the federal spending that President Donald Trump is looking to slash by $1 trillion or more.

Krause, 47, who’s serving as fiscal assistant secretary at Treasury, will keep his day job: chief executive officer of Cloud Software Group, which owns a company called Citrix Systems. His deep cost-cutting there shows why he may have appealed to Trump and Musk, the president’s adviser and Tesla Inc.’s CEo- and also why some people familiar to Krause’s record are unsettled about his new government role.

Elon Musk’s unceasing attempts to access the data and information systems of the federal government range so widely, and are so unprecedented and unpredictable, that government computing experts believe the effort has spun out of control, The Atlantic reported.

Even if the president of the United States, the head of the executive branch, supports (and, importantly understands) these efforts by DOGE, these experts told us, they would still consider Musk’s campaign to be a reckless and dangerous breach of the complex systems that keep America running. Federal IT systems facilitate operations as varied as sending payments from the Treasury Department and making sure that airplanes stay in the air, the sources told The Atlantic.

Based on what has been reported, DOGE representatives have obtained or requested access to certain systems at the U.S. Treasury, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Personnel Management, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with eyes towards others, including the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Fortune reported: Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old member of Elon Musk’s squad that’s criss-crossing US government agencies, was fired from an internship after he was accused of sharing information with a competitor.

“Edward has been terminated for leaking internal information to the competitors,” said a June 2022 message from the executive of the firm, Path Network, which was seen by Bloomberg News. “This is unacceptable and there is zero tolerance for this.”

A spokesperson for the Arizona-based hosting and data-security firm said Thursday: “I can confirm that Edward Christine’s brief contract was terminated after the conclusion of an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure.”

Afterward, Coristine wrote that he’d retained access to the cybersecurity company’s computers, though he said he hadn’t taken advantage of it.

In my opinion, I don’t think that non-elected officials in the US government should be making any kinds of decisions when it comes to important things like social security.


Sam Altman Says “Open AI Is Not For Sale”



OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees in a memo on Tuesday that the company hasn’t received “anything official” from Elon Musk regarding a potential purchase of the artificial intelligence startup, CNBC reported.

“Our structure exists to ensure that no individual can take control of OpenAI,” Altman wrote, in the memo that was obtained by CNBC. “Elon runs a competitive AI company, and his actions are not about OpenAI’s mission or values. They are tactics aimed at weakening us because we’re making great progress.”

The note comes a day after news surfaced that Musk is leading a group of investors in trying to buy control of OpenAI for $98.4 billion. The offer is for the nonprofit that oversees the AI startup behind ChatGPT, and Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff said he submitted on Monday,

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Toberoff told CNBC in a statement.

Altman and Musk are in the midst of a heated legal and public debate relations battle over the future of OpenAI. They were two of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2025, establishing the entity as a nonprofit focused on AI research. Musk is suing OpenAI, accusing it of antitrust violations and to try and keep it from converting into a for-profit corporation.

TechCrunch reported: In an interview at the AI Action Summit in Paris on Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed Elon Musk’s unsolicited $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI’s nonprofit as “an attempt to slow OpenAI down.”

“Musk is obviously is a competitor,” Altman said. “He’s raised a lot of money for his AI company xAI, and they’re trying to compete with us from a technological perspective.”

Altman went on to quip, “I think Musk’s whole life is from a position of insecurity … I don’t think he’s a happy person.”

BBC reported: The chief executive of ChatGPT-owner OpenAI says it’s “not for sale” after a $97.4bn  (£78.4bn) takeover bid from a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk.

Sam Altman, who co-founded OpenAI with Musk before a public falling out led to Musk’s departure, was speaking at the AI Action Summit in Paris.

“We are an unusual organization and we have this mission of making AGI (artificial general intelligence) benefit all of humanity and we are here to do that,” Altman said in an on-stage interview.

When asked to define AGI, Altman said “most people use it to mean, like, really strong, powerful AI systems.”

Unlike many tech giants, such as Meta or Microsoft, OpenAI is not a publicly traded company.

Instead, it has a complicated structure which involves a partnership between non-profit and for-profit arms. 

Altman has suggested Musk was “a competitor who is not able to beat us in the market and you know, instead, is just trying to say, like, “I’m gonna buy this” with total disregard for the mission.” 


T-Mobile Offers Free Starlink Satellite Texting Beta Until July #1798



T-Mobile is rolling out its Starlink satellite texting feature in beta, free until July. Compatible iPhone and Android users, even on rival networks, can apply. After July, premium T-Mobile plans will include it, while others can subscribe for $10–$20 per month. Limited spots are available.

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Elon Musk-Led Group Makes $98.4 Billion Bid for Control Of OpenAI



A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, upping the stakes in his battle with Sam Altman over the company behind ChatGPT, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, said he submitted a bid for all the nonprofit’s assets to OpenAI’s board of directors Monday.

The unsolicited offer adds a major complication to Altman’s carefully laid plans for OpenAI’s future, including converting it to a for-profit company and spending up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure through a joint venture called Stargate. He and Musk are already fighting in court over the direction of OpenAI.

“It was time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement provided by by Toberoff “We will make sure that happens.”

Altman responded to Musk on X writing, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” using the previous name for the Musk-owned social-media platform and moving the decimal point in the billionaire’s bid for OpenAI one space to the left.

The New York Times reported: A group of investors led by Elon Musk has made a $97.4 billion bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, according to two people familiar with the bid, elating a yearlong tussle for control of the company between Mr. Musk and OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman.

The consortium includes Vy Capital and Tai, Mr. Musk’s artificial intelligence company, as well as the Hollywood power-broker Ari Emanuel and other investors, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are ongoing.

OpenAI declined to comment on the bid. The company has not yet seen the bid, according to a person familiar with OpenAI’s potential response.

Mr. Musk was one of OpenAI’s co-founders and one of its initial investors but left after a power struggle. Mr. Musk also created his own A.I company to compete head on with Mr. Altman’s company.

The unsolicited offer landed as OpenAI was set to complete a $40 billion fund raising deal that would nearly double the high-profile company’s valuation from just four months ago.

TechCrunch reported: A team of investors led by Elon Musk submitted a $97.6 billion bid to purchase OpenAI on Monday. The news comes by way of Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, who confirmed the reporting with The Wall Street Journal.

The unsolicited bid is the latest escalation by Musk in his war with co-founder Sam Altman, with whom he cofounded OpenAI with numerous other individuals back in 2015. 

Musk is already embroiled in a legal dispute with OpenAI, filing a 2024 injunction against its effort to transition away from nonprofit status. The Musk-led team is positioning the move as a bid to retain the organizations initial open source focus.

In my opinion, The fight between Elon Musk and Sam Altman over OpenAI might become a big problem for the both of them.


Elon Musk Denies Potential TikTok Bid



After being touted as a potential buyer earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied interest in acquiring TikTok’s US operations, PCMag reported.

“I have not put in a bid for TikTok,” Musk said at a conference hosted by German Billionaire Mathias Döpfner. He added that he doesn’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” claiming that he doesn’t use and isn’t familiar with the platform.

The X owner added: “I do not require companies in general; it’s quite rare,” calling the 2022 acquisition of the company previously called Twitter (now X) “unusual.”

Under a law signed by President Biden last year, TikTok was ordered to divest its US operation on national security grounds. That was supposed to have been done by Jan. 19, but TikTok fought the ban in court. It lost at all levels, but President Trump — who started the TikTok ban issue himself in 2020 — gave the company a 75-day reprieve when he returned to office.

TechCrunch reported: Elon Musk recently said he is “not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok.”

Musk made those remarks during an interview at the WELT Economic Summit on January 28. 

The interview came after President Donald Trump delayed a law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok or see it banned in the United States. At the time, there were reports that the Chinese government was open to a deal in which Musk would require the app.

Trump even told reporter that he’d like to see Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison acquire TikTok; he’s also signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund that could purchase a stake in the app.

But Musk claimed that he wasn’t interested, flatly stating “I have not put in a bid for TikTok.”

“I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” he said in the interview. “I guess I would look at the algorithm and try to decide: How helpful or useful is this algorithm? And what can we do to shift the algorithm to be more productive and ultimately be beneficial to humanity?”

New York Post reported: Elon Musk has no interest in purchasing TikTok’s American business from Chinese Company ByteDance according to new public comments.

In a recently released video interview at the WELT Economic Summit, the DOGE chief said he doesn’t use the app and could not find a motivation to pursue a purchase.

“I have not actually put in a bid for TikTok, I don’t have any plans for what I wold do if I had TikTok,” Musk told the German forum.

Musk went on to say that he does not generally purchase companies and only does so when he can see an altruistic reason.

“I do not acquire companies that’s quite rare. Acquiring Twitter, now called X, was highly unusual. I usually build companies from scratch,” Musk said.

In my opinion, it certainly sounds like Elon Musk doesn’t want to acquire TikTok at this time.