April 5, 2022

Photoillustration: Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images; Protocol
Good morning! Elon Musk has acquired a sizable stake in Twitter, his platform of choice, amid a fight with the SEC over whether his tweets need to be preapproved. Maybe Musk has big plans, or maybe it’s an elaborate bit. Either way, are you not entertained? I’m Owen Thomas, and I once rode in Musk’s Tesla Roadster when he wasn’t behind the wheel.
Maybe Elon Musk deserves to own Twitter. All he has to do is post “Oh hi lol” and he can garner 150,000 likes an hour. That’s all he had to say for himself after an SEC filing revealed he’d taken a 9% ownership stake in Twitter to become its largest shareholder.
Twitter shares soared 27%, netting him an instant profit on his purchase. (It wasn’t clear from the filing what Musk paid, but Twitter shares closed at $33.03 on March 14, the day he reported buying them, and ended Monday just below $50.) He hasn’t said what he plans to do with the stake, but the type of filing he made indicated he planned to be a passive investor — meaning he wouldn’t agitate for a takeover or change in management.
Musk is the ultimate Twitter power player, and it’s not hard to imagine him asking for a board seat. Back in 2019, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said Musk was his favorite user of the service.
Musk has made it clear he wants Twitter to change. Just read his tweets.
But Musk could be a headache for Twitter, just by tweeting. He’s certainly caused plenty of trouble for Tesla.
There is a solution to all of this. Twitter’s bylaws require directors to be a “natural person,” which is a bummer for all the bots on the service, and questionable for Musk as well. That requirement seems stale in a time when money lives in smart contracts and your Twitter avatar can be an NFT. Why don’t Twitter and Musk embrace the decentralized future and put his shares on the blockchain, with voting controlled by a DAO of his followers? The result couldn’t be any loopier than what Musk would come up with on his own.
IPCC’s Jim Skea said we need to make use of the tech that can create a habitable future:
Gary Gensler is looking into whether crypto platforms can register with the SEC:
Cyber-research fellow Valentin Weber said Russians pivot each time the country increases online censorship:
DuckDuckGo has an all-in-one privacy solution aimed at simplifying online privacy protection. DuckDuckGo’s app can be used as an everyday browser with private search, tracker blocking, encryption, and now email protection built-in. It’s the free, easy button for online privacy.
The cyberspace and digital policy bureau is officially here. It’ll be led by a Senate-confirmed ambassador.
Roelof Botha is replacing Doug Leone as Sequoia’s new leader. Botha’s now in charge of the firm’s global operations and compliance. (If you haven't already, you should read our Biz Carson's fantastic profile of Botha.)
Josh Adams and Billy Boozer quit Truth Socialas heads of Tech and Product Development, respectively, Reuters reported.
Allison Brecklin and Kristene Turner joined Mixhalo as VPs of Client Operations and Marketing, respectively. Brecklin comes from DICE, and Turner’s from Motorsport Network.
Akshay Verma joined Coinbase as its first head of legal ops. Verma led legal ops at Meta since 2020.
Unions are a touchy subject at Amazon. The company now plans to block and flag any posts with keywords relating to labor unions, like “restrooms” and “plantation,” on an internal messaging app, according to documents seen by The Intercept.
Chip companies have ramped up their lobbying. Lobbying expenditures from chip firms have jumped about 50% since 2018 to just over $46 million last year.
Audible and Barnes & Noble never prepared for Google Play’s new billing policy, and now Android users can’t buy audible titles or digital books in their respective apps.
The British are coming for NFTs. The U.K. government has plans to mint its own NFT.
Google is helping people get to work with electric scooters. The company is reimbursing employees for subscriptions to 20 mph scooters from Unagi.
Mailchimp was breached, allowing an intruder to view about 300 accounts. The company didn’t say which clients were affected.
Workers walked out over Activision Blizzard’s dropped vaccine mandate. Company execs have since said that leaders of U.S. offices can figure out the best policies for them.
Rug pulls suck. But rugs themselves are nice. So imagine having an actual rug featuring logos of all the biggest crypto rug pulls. It’s actually a thing, and it’s called a rug pull rug.
The rug is advertised as “the scams you love, now firmly under your feet.” There’s only one rug being sold at the moment on the website rugpullrug.biz, and it’s going for about $25. If you’ve been the victim of a rug pull before, you can enter the promo code “IVEALREADYLOSTMILLIONSONARUGPULL” for $1 off. Only fiat is accepted.
Tracking is a comprehensive problem — over 80% of websites, apps and emails contain third-party trackers. Because of that, people need a multi-pronged privacy solution. DuckDuckGo’s all-in-one privacy app can be used as an everyday browser with multiple features built-in, including private search, tracker blocking, encryption, and email protection.
Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to sourcecode@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.
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