By Stuart A. Thompson Stuart Thompson collected and analyzed data on thousands of Facebook posts for this article. On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Christopher Blair’s fake news empire was humming along. Mr. Blair had been earning as much as $15,000 in some months by posting false stories to Facebook about Democrats and the…
Tesla shareholders have reaffirmed a pay award of more than $45 billion for Elon Musk, the chief executive, after it was thrown out in a legal challenge. The vote result, announced at Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, is a strong sign that shareholders still believe in Mr. Musk and it could persuade…
Republican lawmakers questioned a senior Microsoft executive on Thursday about the company’s presence in China, about a year after Chinese hackers used the tech giant’s systems to launch a devastating hack of federal government networks. Several members of the House Committee on Homeland Security asked Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, in an hourslong hearing how a…
For the past year, two philosophy professors have been calling around to prominent authors and public intellectuals with an unusual, perhaps heretical, proposal. They have been asking these thinkers if, for a handsome fee, they wouldn’t mind turning themselves into A.I. chatbots. John Kaag, one of the academics, is a professor at the University of…
If you or someone you love speaks almost exclusively in internet references — “It’s giving golden retriever boyfriend energy” or “Show it to me Rachel” — they may be suffering from a condition known as “brainrot.” The term refers primarily to low-value internet content and the effects caused by spending too much time consuming it….
The Tesla shareholder vote over Elon Musk’s pay is in some ways a referendum on the performance of the company and its chief executive. But even before the vote concludes on Thursday, Tesla’s stock price shows that investors have plenty of doubts about Mr. Musk and the electric carmaker’s outlook. Tesla’s shares are down nearly…
The fight over Elon Musk’s pay package and the vote over whether to move Tesla’s headquarters to Texas have been the main focus of attention ahead of the company’s shareholders meeting on Thursday, but not for investors from Nordic countries. Tesla’s major shareholders in Sweden, Denmark and Norway are instead looking to the meeting to…
Under Elon Musk’s leadership, Tesla popularized electric vehicles and became the most valuable auto company in the world. Mr. Musk became a billionaire many times over while generating huge profits for investors. Despite these achievements, Tesla’s shareholders may decide that Mr. Musk has been paid too much. In a vote whose results will be announced…
The European Union said on Wednesday that it would impose additional tariffs of up to 38 percent on electric cars built in China, a move it said would help level the playing field for automakers in Europe. The tariffs, which have been expected for months, come on top of existing 10 percent duties, but the…
What’s a five-letter word for an activity that media and technology companies are increasingly relying on to gain subscribers and keep them coming back? G A M E S Apple released a series of word-focused puzzles in its subscription news service last fall. LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, debuted a set of word games…
