At Cannes, X CEO Linda Yaccarino says the platform is in conversations with sports leagues about producing more docuseries, like the NWSL series The Offseason (Kerry Flynn/Axios)

Mediagazer: At Cannes, X CEO Linda Yaccarino says the platform is in conversations with sports leagues about producing more docuseries, like the NWSL series The Offseason (Kerry Flynn/Axios)

Top News:

Bloomberg:

Elon Musk tried to repair his often strained relationship with the ad industry through an appearance at the Cannes Lions, after Twitter skipped 2023's event— Elon Musk attempted to repair his often strained relationship with the advertising industry with an appearance at the Cannes Lions conference in France on Wednesday.
Discussion:

E.J. Schultz /
Ad Age: Cannes Today—Musk meets marketers, Marcel explains 'WoMen's Football'—plus the Grand Prix winners

Arif Durrani /
The Media Leader: How Elon Musk tried to woo back brands at Cannes

Ariel Zilber /
New York Post: Elon Musk clarifies ‘go f-k yourself’ comment as he tries to woo advertisers at Cannes Lions

Megan Graham /
Wall Street Journal: Elon Musk Pitches Advertisers on a Return to X, Months After Telling Some to ‘F’ Themselves

Kerry Flynn /
@kerrymflynn: My dispatch from @elonmusk's appearance at @Cannes_Lions “What is not cool is insisting that there can be no content they disagree with on the platform,” Elon Musk told advertisers at Cannes https://www.axios.com/...

Brittaney Kiefer /
Adweek: Elon Musk's Advertiser Apology Tour Begins at Cannes

Dima Zeniuk /
@dimazeniuk: WPP CEO Mark Read at Cannes Lions conference: “In November, you told us to go f*ck ourselves.... Why did you say that, and what did you mean?” “It wasn't to advertisers as a whole; it was with respect to freedom of speech.” - Elon Musk [image]

Caroline Frost /
Deadline: Elon Musk Forecasts A “10%-20% Chance” Of AI-Related Global Disaster & Doubles Down On Free Speech Over Advertisers' Ask For Censorship — Cannes Lions

Kendra Barnett /
The Drum: Elon Musk on why he told advertisers to ‘go fuck yourself’ - and why he wants them back

Liza Foreman /
The Wrap: Elon Musk Rebuffs Advertisers Who Fled X, Touts Free Speech on Platform: 'It's Better to Be Real'

Jon Lax /
@jonlax@threads.net: Elon trying to convince advertisers to spend money on X while running ads telling users to pay for premium because ads are a waste of their time is really something.

Arlo Brady /
Arlo Brady on LinkedIn: Elon Musk's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity interview with WPP's Mark Read today was fascinating on many levels. Four things that stuck me: …

Meg Graham /
@megancgraham: At @Cannes_Lions, WPP's Mark Read asks Elon Musk: “In November, you told us to go fuck ourselves.... Why did you say that and what did you mean?” Musk: “it wasn't to advertisers as a whole, it was with respect to freedom of speech...” [image]

Ben Page /
@benatipsos: Elon here in Cannes “I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time but at least you knownit is genuine, not from the pr dept” #musk @elonmusk [image]

RELATED:

Axios:

At Cannes, X CEO Linda Yaccarino says the platform is in conversations with sports leagues about producing more docuseries, like the NWSL series The Offseason— - About 70% of the conversation ahead of the Paris Olympics this summer is about women's teams, she added.

Discussion:
Awful Announcing, @xnews, @warriorrabbit.bsky.social, @axios and The Information

Discussion:
@axios: X is in conversations with sports leagues about producing more docuseries on the platform, CEO Linda Yaccarino tells Axios at Women's Sports House in Cannes. https://www.axios.com/...

The Guardian:

Sources: WaPo's Will Lewis advised Boris Johnson and others to “clean up” their phones during UK's COVID-era Partygate scandal in December 2021 and January 2022— Sources' claim suggests advice by Will Lewis, an informal adviser to then prime minister, contradicted instructions to staff

Discussion:
@dougiec3@libretooth.gr, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, @adambienkov and @7im

Discussion:
@dougiec3@libretooth.gr: Three sources say Will Lewis told Tories to delete evidence from their phones to cover up Partygate. — https://www.theguardian.com/ ... #Partgate #BorisJohnson #Tories #England #COVID #Lockdown

Jeff Jarvis /
@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social: Call him Sir Won't Lewis. You won't be publishing incriminating news about me, now will you? You won't read emails from New Corp's hacking scandal; they're gone. You won't have Boris Johnson's Covid party texts; they gone. He won't soon be CEO of the Post. Or Will he? …

Adam Bienkov /
@adambienkov: A reminder that there were 5,000 WhatsApp messages missing from Boris Johnson's phone when he gave it to the Covid Inquiry. Deliberately destroying evidence demanded by a public inquiry is a serious criminal offence punishable by up to a year in prison https://www.theguardian.com/ ... [image]

Tim Dickinson /
@7im: Democracy is Deleted in Darkness

Wired:

Analysis: Perplexity seems to scrape sites using surreptitious methods, ignoring robots.txt, with a Perplexity-tied machine doing so on Wired and other sites— A WIRED investigation shows that the AI-powered search startup Forbes has accused of stealing its content is surreptitiously scraping—and making things up out of thin air.

Discussion:
@bernie_michalik@threads.net, @jessicalessin, @technicallymims@threads.net, @LeftistLawyer@kolektiva …, @benedictevans@threads.net, @katiedrumm, @clive@saturation.social, @johnvoorhees@mastodon …, @carnage4life, @timmarchman.bsky.social, @johnkoetsier@threads.net, @howelloneill@infosec.exchange, @olifranklin, @noahshachtman@threads.net, @rafat and @dmehro, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Bernie Michalik /
@bernie_michalik@threads.net: If you still think Perplexity is good and you should use it after this, idk (via @technicallymims )

Jessica Lessin /
@jessicalessin: Killer reporting from @WIRED. Hopefully this is a wake-up call to publishers about AI companies not being into the business of news. https://www.wired.com/...

Christopher Mims /
@technicallymims@threads.net: perplexity is ignoring robots.txt prohibitions against scraping content @LeftistLawyer@kolektiva.social: The hits are coming hard and fast now. With good reason, nobody trusts the tech sector anymore. Nvidia is now the most *valuable* company in the world. Is anyone seeing a pattern? The bubble will explode soon. — https://www.wired.com/...

Benedict Evans /
@benedictevans@threads.net: Probably not a good thing that Perplexity appears to be breaking robots.txt and lying about it. I hope it's not the new Stability. https://www.wired.com/...

Katie Drummond /
@katiedrumm: A @wired investigation found that Perplexity is ignoring robots.txt — despite vowing to honor block requests. Perplexity has published a list of IP addresses its crawlers use. The company seems to be scraping sites using an IP address *not* on that list. https://www.wired.com/...

Clive Thompson /
@clive@saturation.social: A terrific investigation at @WIRED finds that Perplexity scrapes and (sometimes with bullshit added) summarizes web sites that it has been explicitly told, by those web site owners, not to visit — https://www.wired.com/... Excellent work by @dmehro and @timmarchman @johnvoorhees@mastodon.macstories.net: Wired has corroborated what @robb discovered over the weekend while helping us prevent AI crawlers from accessing @macstories: — Perplexity is straight up shady. @WIRED's story: https://www.wired.com/...

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life: Wired has discovered that Perplexity's crawler ignores robots.txt directives that block AI crawlers. Given the choice of spending millions licensing content like Google & OpenAI or having outdated info, it's sad but not surprising some startups are taking the third option. [image]

Tim Marchman /
@timmarchman.bsky.social: New from me and @dmehro.bsky.social: Despite claiming it isn't, Perplexity, the billion dollar AI search startup Forbes has accused of plagiarism, is scraping websites, including WIRED, from which developers have tried to block its crawlers.

John Koetsier /
@johnkoetsier@threads.net: Whoa Looks like Perplexity AI is scraping content behind robots.txt barriers from hidden IP addresses not publicly acknowledged by the company. So ... Unethically ripping off content , but also doing it in an unethical way. https://www.wired.com/...

Patrick Howell O'Neill /
@howelloneill@infosec.exchange: The fact that there hasn't been stronger legal action from publications against AI-branded plagiarists is wild to me. You have to protect your work when it's being stolen. https://www.axios.com/...

Oli Franklin-Wallis /
@olifranklin: Incredible @WIRED investigation shows Perplexity, the much-hyped, AI-powered Google search alternative funded by Bezos and others, is intentionally ripping off publishers' copyrighted work - and reveals exactly how they're doing it. https://www.wired.com/... [image]

Noah Shachtman /
@noahshachtman@threads.net: .@perplexity.ai is using a secret server to steal journalists' work, often without credit https://www.wired.com/...

Dhruv Mehrotra /
@dmehro: NEW: Perplexity is ignoring the Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt), using a secret server to regurgitate news articles and investigations that take reporters years to create, often without giving us credit. W/ @timmarchman https://www.wired.com/...

RELATED:

Axios:
Forbes' lawyer demands that Perplexity AI remove articles sourced from Forbes, seeks assurances that Perplexity AI won't infringe on Forbes copyrights, and more

Discussion:
@johnvoelcker and Talking Biz News

Discussion:
@johnvoelcker: An AI-generated story using @Forbes' original reporting without appropriate credit led to an AI-generated podcast ... and an AI-generated YouTube video that “outranks all Forbes content on this topic within Google search.” Buy popcorn. Or weep. No, both. https://www.axios.com/...

Chris Roush /
Talking Biz News: Forbes threatens legal action against Perplexity

O'Reilly Media:

How generative AI model providers can create business models that reward copyright holders and content creators, much like what has happened on the web— Last month, The New York Times claimed that tech giants OpenAI and Google have waded into a copyright gray area by transcribing …

Discussion:
@ainemacdermot.bsky.social and Tim O'Reilly on LinkedIn

Discussion:

Áine /
@ainemacdermot.bsky.social: Like Elon rewarding fascists for shit posting, ignoring people who had been contributing real content for 17 years kinds of rewards? You tech bro fuckers are laughable. [embedded post]

Business Insider:

MoffettNathanson: Q1 2024 was the worst quarter the pay-TV business has ever seen, losing 2.37M subscribers, down 6.9%, and even YouTube TV slightly shrank— - Pay TV just suffered its worst quarter in history — a stunning 6.9% drop. — The TV industry used to hope digital services …

Discussion:
Nielsen, Next TV, @penenberg, @nicksologist, @chrifamouamo1, @pkafka, @thatniggaephy, @chrifamouamo1, @pkafka, Cord Cutters News and Awful Announcing

Discussion:

Daniel Frankel /
Next TV: Amid Another Worst Quarter Ever for U.S. Pay TV, Even YouTube TV Lost Subscribers in Q1, Analyst Says

Adam L. Penenberg /
@penenberg: @pkafka It's dismal and has gotten more expensive. Talking to you, @Ask_Spectrum It's like you're begging customers to pull the plug, like we'd be doing you a favor.

Nick Hennen /
@nicksologist: @pkafka @DylanByers I dumped @YouTubeTV . — as much as I love it it is way over priced @chrifamouamo1: @pkafka Shocked that xfinity and the others haven't offered genre packs or tiny tiers They're still playing the all or nothing game

Peter Kafka /
@pkafka: @mhudack Slowly and then all at once

Some Black Guy /
@thatniggaephy: @pkafka Wrote about the trend from an spend POV in South Africa https://techcabal.com/...

@chrifamouamo1:
@pkafka The fact that over 1M people **successfully** canceled comcast/spectrum/dish in just 12 weeks is truly impressive Think about the 2M that likely called and were relegated to new promos or talked out of it....

Peter Kafka /
@pkafka: It's boring to keep saying cable TV is collapsing but boy oh boy is cable TV collapsing. Pay TV - including digital substitutes like YouTube TV and Hulu Live - lost a record 2.37 million subscribers in Q1. That's a drop of 6.9%.

Luke Bouma /
Cord Cutters News: YouTube TV Reportedly Lost 150,000 Subscribers in The 1st Quarter of 2024 As Every Major Live TV Provider Saw Subscribers Drop

Politico:

Snap agrees to a $15M settlement with California after a three-year probe into employees' allegations of discrimination, retaliation, and sexual harassment— Women who worked for the company in the last decade may be eligible for compensation. — SACRAMENTO, California …

Discussion:
@suhaunah, @calcivilrights, CRD, @kimzetter, Courthouse News Service, San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times

Discussion:

Suhauna Hussain /
@suhaunah: new: Snap, the parent of Snapchat, has agreed to pay $15 million to settle allegations of rampant sex discrimination, harassment, pay equity violations & retaliation. settlement resolves a three-year investigation by @calcivilrights https://www.latimes.com/... @calcivilrights: NEW: We've reached a $15M settlement with Snapchat over allegations of discrimination against its female staff, including unfair pay, sexual harassment, & retaliation. Women are entitled to equality in every job, workplace, & industry. Learn more below ⬇️ https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/ ... [image] CRD: Civil Rights Department Obtains $15 Million Settlement Agreement with Snapchat Over Alleged Sex-Based Employment Discrimination

Kim Zetter /
@kimzetter: “women at [Snapchat] were actively discouraged from applying for promotions or lost promotions to less-qualified male colleagues. Women also faced unwelcome sexual advances and other harassment.... When the employees spoke up, the company leaders retaliated with negative

Natalie Hanson /
Courthouse News Service: Snapchat reaches $15 million settlement over gender discrimination, harassment claims

Ida Mojadad /
San Francisco Chronicle: Women who worked at Snapchat's parent company between 2014 and 2024 may be eligible for compensation.

The Desk:

London-based sports content studio C15 Studio emerges from stealth to launch FAST channels in partnership with Formula 1, Triton Poker, and others— The developer of free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels dedicated to programming from Formula 1, Triton Poker and professional squash …

Discussion:
Matthew Keys on LinkedIn and Sportico

Variety:

Timbaland and Swizz Beatz strike a distribution deal with X for their music series Verzuz, which they sold to Triller in 2021 but have since reacquired— Earlier in the year, Swizz and Timbaland reacquired Verzuz from their previous partner Triller and now own 100% of the platform …

Discussion:
TMZ.com, Rolling Stone, Monique Pintarelli on LinkedIn, WTOP News and Billboard

Discussion:

Larisha Paul /
Rolling Stone: Timbaland and Swizz Beatz Are Bringing Verzuz Back on X

Monique Pintarelli /
Monique Pintarelli on LinkedIn: “We are beyond thrilled to have found the best partner for Verzuz. Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we're excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world.” … WTOP News: ‘Verzuz’ will return after Swizz Beatz, Timbaland lock in new distribution partnership with X

Variety:

A look at Paramount's failed merger talks with Skydance and how Shari Redstone's unilateral decision to call off the talks shows her unusual power— For Shari Redstone, it was nothing personal. But the longer the negotiations went on, the more Redstone fell out of love with the idea …

Discussion:
@xpangler, The Hollywood Reporter, @xpangler, @asharma, @carlquintanilla, @xpangler and

Discussion:

Todd Spangler /
@xpangler: How did Paramount end up in such a vulnerable position? In short, under Bakish, the company made the ill-fated decision to go for broke on streaming — right when traditional TV advertising and cable TV affiliate revenue took a turn for the worse https://variety.com/...

Alex Weprin /
The Hollywood Reporter: Shari Redstone Goes for Broke: Can Paramount Pick Up the Pieces?

Todd Spangler /
@xpangler: With Paramount Global's M&A negotiations playing out publicly for the past six months, a level of fatigue and resignation has set in across the company. Insiders say they have been bracing for job cuts — no matter what sale scenario might have unfolded https://variety.com/...

Amol Sharma /
@asharma: “Redstone's ability to make such a unilateral decision to call off the talks is a testament to her unusual power, even with her empire's diminished state.” https://variety.com/...

Carl Quintanilla /
@carlquintanilla: “.. two minutes before the June 11 meeting's scheduled start time, the Skydance CEO and others received a bombshell via email. .. expletives flew as they processed the news.” @Variety @Variety_Cynthia $PARA https://variety.com/... [image]

Todd Spangler /
@xpangler: Ultimately, Shari Redstone didn't feel that Skydance was bringing enough to the table to make it worth her while to make a deal that would likely be challenged in court by other Paramount shareholders https://variety.com/...

Mediaite:

X removes some of journalist Pablo Manriquez's viral posts on Senator Ted Cruz's donor info; X claims the posts violated its rules but did not give details— A series of viral social media posts revealing the contents of a folder on Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) donors were removed by Elon Musk's platform X on Tuesday.

Discussion:

Pablo Manríquez /
@pabloreports: NEW. Someone, presumably a staffer, left a folder full of briefing documents on TED CRUZ donors in the Senate Refectory. A THREAD 🧵

Will Bunch /
@will_bunch: Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas — the state where Juneteenth was founded by the joy of emancipated Black people — is honoring the holiday by spending the day in NYC begging for $$$ from billionaires

Jay Willis /
@jaywillis: Would love to hear the Twitter/X justification for taking down a thread of Ted Cruz's donor lists??? [image]

Jacqueline Sweet /
@jsweetli: @EricMGarcia Shoulda redacted the addresses tho , I didn't realize there were home addys on it

Prem Thakker /
@prem_thakker: This thread of documents includes tidbits like instructions for Ted Cruz to ask former U.S. Ambassadors to each give him $119,200 [image]

Eric Michael Garcia /
@ericmgarcia: Absolutely absurd that Elon Musk calls Twitter a “public square” for free speech and now this app is censoring Pablo's tweets showing the donors that Ted Cruz is wining and dining in DC and in New York.

Prem Thakker /
@prem_thakker: Interesting. Pablo tweeted documents he found at the Capitol that showed Ted Cruz's schedule to wine and dine with big donors — including former U.S. ambassadors — and Musk's Twitter forced the tweets down. A home address was in one tweet, but most tweets didn't have such info. [image]

Philip Nelson /
@blu3r4d0n: @jaywillis what happened to absolute free speech

Michael McDonald /
@electproject: @jaywillis staffers' phone numbers needed to be redacted

Tommy /
@tommyg.bsky.social: X has a very strict policy of doing whatever the hell E**n wants during his current bender

Eric Michael Garcia /
@ericmgarcia: @JSweetLI Entirely reasonable. Even if it is on campaign finance documents. Redacting address would have been covering bases

Jason Karsh /
@jkarsh: Absolutely hilarious that Twitter pulled these pics. You have to wonder what Elmo would have done were they Democratic donors.

Jim Swift /
@jimswiftdc: This is the first time I've ever been locked out and asked to delete a post (a link to Ted Cruz's donors, which he or a staffer left in the Capitol), reported by @PabloReports. Will be in today's Overtime! [image]

Robert Graham /
@erratarob: Musk bought Twitter to defend “free-speech”, such as how the old Twitter censored the Hunter Laptop content. But of course, when it's Republicans, the situation is the opposite: [image]

Wired:

A look at Rebind, a startup that turns Margaret Atwood's and other authors' voices into AI reading companions, and an interview with CEO John Dubuque— Margaret Atwood, Marlon James, Lena Dunham, Roxane Gay: We've all agreed to be turned into AI reading companions by a mysterious company called Rebind.

Discussion: