Elon musks purchase of twitter. How much have things changed in a year other than the name youre watching getting answers . Im kristen sze. A year ago today, the billionaire ceo of tesla forked out 44 billion or at least put that funding together and took over the San Francisco bay social media platform known for its little blue bird role as the worlds public town square, the go to app for real time information. Musk promised changes and he delivered, perhaps not unexpected ways, though. The New York Times has two prominent stories today looking at the consequences of his ownership of the company, now renamed as x. And joining us live now is the New York Times tech reporter ryan mac. Ryan. Thanks for your time today. Thanks for having me so what was elon musks promise and stated mission when he took over uh . Well, he made a few promises. You know, and his had many ideas with this acquisition. I mean, this idea of preserving free speech, for example, but also, you know, continuing along the development of, you know, one of the most important places to gather socially and chat on the internet, which is twitter. Yeah, obviously, that hasnt gone to plan. You know, the company has fallen by the wayside. Its had a name change. But there are, you know, less people using it these days as the valuation has been cut in half, advertisers have fled the platform and its been a bit of a mess in the last year. Yeah, and lets try to explore how we got there. And i think we can do that through the two articles that are in the New York Times really well reported. One of them has the headline, the consequences of elon musks ownership of x. So i know your team looked at studies of the platform. Um, what did they find about the content . Well, its, its been interesting because with the changes that he has implemented, you know, theres been a lot of layoffs at the company, a lot of people that have left the trust and safety teams and with with this happening, theres been an increase in misinformation. A lot of increases in hate speech abuse, content. Ant and, you know, twitter or x has denied all this, but external studies have shown, you know, there is an increase in things such as antisemitism. If you look at whats going on with the israel hamas war now, theres a lot of misinformation being spread by these quote unquote, verified accounts that have just paid for the blue check mark, which has also changed under his leadership up so that has dramatically changed the platform. Its shifted it away from this kind of place where people go to gather news and its become quite partizan. So, ryan, why do we think this happened . And right, you talked about some of the changes. More specifically, is it the unbanning of some concern tsay accounts . Is it the uh were not going to censor. So anything goes. Is it the taking away of verified blue checks from journalists like ourselves . What what are some of the concrete things . I think its all of the above that you mentioned. I mean, if you look at, for example, the check marks, you know, that used to be a symbol for you know, journalists, for celebrities to show that, you know, those were indeed the people you could trust. Those were indeed the people that said they were who they were. And now thats, you know, a feature that anyone that pays 8 a month can get. And that in and of itself kind of changes how you view tweets on the platform. Now, if you see you know, a piece of information alongside a blue check, youre not guaranteed that that is, you know, accurate or verified or, you know, has gone through the vetting process of, you know, twitter 1. 0. So that, you know, changes how people use the platform. You know, yes, this this idea of free speech has, you know, its what elon musk wants you to believe. But, you know, theres also been a lot of, as you said, unbanning of accounts as well. You know, we saw that with, you know, for example, kanye west, who was banned for antisemitism. Hes now back on the platform. But theres, you know, dozens of these accounts, hundreds of these accounts that have come back under the, you know, musks ownership, who feel emboldened by his his new leadership. You talked about the popularity dropping with users and advertisers. Do you have the numbers like by how much . Sure. So similarweb, this Third Party Company says, you know, usership has dropped by about 14. So 40 fewer users are using the platform compared to a year ago. In terms of advertising, we just you know, we reported before musk himself admitted that advertising was down about 66 in the us, and thats a significant portion. I mean, this is a company that used to rely on advertising that made up 90 of its revenue. And for it to cut it down more than half is a dramatic change. Right . So what is elon musk doing to, i guess, make up for that loss in revenue . I mean, maybe he just doesnt care. Maybe money doesnt matter. And its really just control of the speech for him. But are there things hes doing to try to shore up the revenue part . I heard something about a dating app. I dont know about the everything app that he at one point proposed. Yeah, well, if you believe i mean he said in interviews that he he doesnt care about the Financial Impact that this that he has through this but you know through his actions he is still trying to build a viable company. They are still wooing advertisers. For example, if you look at their business account, for example, the business account, they were courting advertisers today, thanking them for, you know, continuing to advertise in their platform on the product front. You know, he is trying to shift this this platform to what you said in everything app, a place where, you know, you can presumably pay for groceries in the future or, you know, maybe hail a taxicab or, you know, a youtube like competitor where you can watch more videos. You know, its a its a big pie in the sky type dream. But thats what hes betting on, this idea that you will do everything soon through x are there concrete . I dont know. Is there concrete evidence that those things are actually in the works and happening . I know he slashed the engineering staff by so much. Is anything new being built . I mean, theres a slow trickle of features coming out of the company. You know, i think theyre testing video and audio calls this week for example. And he he talked about a dating app in a internal meeting. You know, last night. But, you know, theres a lot of feeling of like throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks right now. And you know, there are already apps that people use that serve all these functions. And so theres no guarantee that even if he launches these things, people will use it. You know, it theres an equivalent of this in china called wechat and everything app. But here in the us, theres no guarantee that, you know, youll stop using uber or youll stop using venmo or paypal and you know, instead move all your, you know, apps to x, for example, especially if theres a hit to kind of the trustworthiness of the brand itself. Right now x right. And one thing is i wonder if youve noticed a change in the i know you dont have access to their algorithm. However ever. Is there a sense that the boosting of certain more contentious posts or thats become a thing under his ownership . Sure. I mean yeah, the algorithmic feed has become quite different, you know . I mean, it is you know, based on what your, your personal, you know, its tailored to your personal interests. But, you know, im getting a, you know, for example, im getting a lot more kind of viral video content. A lot of, um, violent stuff actually is has come across my feed. You know, theres the promotion of accounts that were previously banned. You know, an individual named andrew tate, misogynist, kind of influencer, which was banned under the previous, you know, twitter ownership is now back and he is, you know, verified and promoted on the for you page. So, you know, i think that gives a flavor of what were seeing here under under musk. All right. So i guess we want to wrap it up here, which is, is anyone one able to fight back within the company or is x a lost cause, if you will, for those who kind of long for the good old days when it was twitter or do you see anything changing, you know, i its hard to say. I you know, i think inside the company, the people that have stayed are those that, you know, maybe believe more in his vision than, you know, he has fired or laid off more than 80 of the Company Since taking over a year ago. Those that have stayed. And, you know, some, of course, maybe need the job, need the health care. But theres a good amount of people in that company who believe in his vision. And, you know, theyre thinking, you know, hes a man who built tesla, who built spacex to what it is. Why . Why bet against him . Um so, you know, he seems pretty determined. His ceo, linda yaccarino, seems pretty determined on his vision. So i, i dont think i would see a place where, you know, we get back to the good old days. As you said, a lot of questions one year later. Thank you so much, brian mac with the New York Times. Appreciate it. Thank you. And we do have a red flag warning coming our way, so stick around. Well have some important tips to share with will last most of the weekend. Its a massive area thats covered the largest area in more than two years. All of the north bay, the inland east bay, santa clara hills, Santa Cruz Mountains and the San Mateo County coast line. You can see it right there in red. All could face critical fire conditions. Abc7 news meteorologist drew tuma says winds on our ridge tops could reach gusts of 60mph. So this is actually the first time weve had a red flag warning this whole year. So we may need a refresher course on its meaning, the dangers and ways to protect ourselves. Joining us live now is Kathy Earhart, training captain for the Alameda County Fire Department. Captain earhart, thanks for your time. Hi. Thank you all so much. Yeah, im here talking about the red flag warning that were experiencing this weekend. It is just its an incredible kind of phenomenon being this late and seeing these kind of conditions. I know it feels super cool out, but with the winds picking up and what were seeing is a lot of drying of the fuels. So youll see Alameda County fire stations hoisting that red flag just warning everyone about the fire dangers. We will be up staffing this weekend with our dozer. So just be mindful of people working outside and doing yard work, any kind of barbecuing. I know it seems cool out and that were kind of filtering into fall in summer, but in all actuality it really is still staying nice and hot and that we are really still facing the challenges of i know the fire season wasnt that extensive, but we still can see challenges coming into the later winter just with all these dry fuels. Yeah. Lets talk about the fuels. Weve seen some goats in the hills throughout the bay area kind of clearing, eating away some of that vegetation option. Is there more of that this year because of the amount of rain we got last winter . You know, with the amount of rain we got last winter, we had tons of vegetation grow up and we have been very mindful. I know Alameda County has its fuel mitigation crew out there working, trying to clear a lot of that area out, along with having goats and other avenues to kind of clear that fuel path, because even if it doesnt burn now, if we dont clear it, itll just burn later and become a more of an issue later. Yeah. By the way, we just like seeing goats. I had to ask you that question. Dont we all . Yeah, we truly do. And they do great work. You mentioned asking folks to be really aware and alert if theyre going to be outside, but what are some other things homeowners can do to protect themselves . As you know, homeowners can just be, as i said, just mindful of the things theyre doing when it comes to barbecuing outside. You know, i know its nice and its a halloween weekend, but keeping those campfires, you know, at bay or if youre having a little thing outside and just other things homeowners can do, thats not time for yard work and its not time to run your gas powered motors outside. Okay . Got it. Okay. Hey, recently your department, Alameda County fire, hosted a Training Session led by women in to help other women find jobs and advance their careers in the fire service. Talk to us about that. Well, actually, it is actually happening this weekend. We are hosting it is more so in the past. Weve hosted girls camps where weve helped young women find young women. Sorry. We have a lot of stuff going on. We have a lot of activity at the tower right now. Were getting ready for this weekends event, but we in the past, we hosted all these events for young women who are interested in the fire service to get them more hands on. But this weekends actually about giving back to the volunteers. We have a lot of young women that are already hired that just need more sets and touches on Forcible Entry or auto extrication. So a lot of the senior women are giving continue to give back to the fire service. And we have senior women all the way from alaska, from la city, from fort worth, texas, come down to share their knowledge with a lot of these junior women who have 1 to 5 years on its cosponsored by two nonprofits. We have camp blaze and we have norcal women, the fire service and Alameda County is doing an awesome job hosting and really recognizing the need for this mentorship within this really demanding career field. Can i ask you how important mentoring was in your career coming up and why you think that may be especially important given that we are seeing a shortage right now in staff or, you know, all First Responders . Really, if you think about it right. Absolutely. Mentorship is huge. You know, you come to the fire service to be part of the fire family. And im a Training Officer with Alameda County Fire Department. I would not be here today without one of these past camps, you know, a captain now chief with Fire Department was the one who helped mentor me and give me my first teaching opportunity. And i built on that. And now im im helping host this camp. Im a Training Officer for Alameda County. Im teaching at local junior colleges. And if it wasnt for these amazing women pouring into me, i wouldnt be where im standing today. And so my hope is that i can pour in to younger people to train them into my seat. Its all about giving back. But along with that, its not only about the women of this organization and all the other ones. Its about hiring and promoting those great men within our Organization Means that allow that support us and are standing beside us and recognize us what value we bring to the fire service, police, all these jobs that are very male dominated, like i said, wouldnt be where im standing, where im today without these incredible women, but also fantastic men who support all these women in these roles. Allies, right . Absolutely yeah. What is the percentage . Im curious. Thats women now on the force on your department, in your department. We are less than 5. Oh okay. All right. I mean, thats better than before, but we can still do a lot better. Captain Kathy Earhart with Alameda County fire, thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time. Have a great day. Stay safe out there. You, too. Coming up next, with halloween around the corner, well give you the tour, a tour of some creepy burial haunts work looked at right in the eyes for about a count of three. So i hope that if i build it, they will come and they do. People come in here from all over the planet who have seen a hairy biped. Did i get story after story after story . So any doubts i ever had about my sighting and about the reality of bigfoot . Oh, i lost those doubts years ago. Oh, halloween is just around the corner. In just in time for the spooky holiday is the second edition of our creepy Bay Area Special on abc seven. Now streaming on our app. You can find it on roku, amazon fire stick, apple tv and google tv. Yes, the bay area has some of the most famous haunts in the world, if you can believe that, including alcatraz in the Winchester Mystery House. But there are many lesser known halloween themed places to check out. Joining us here right now is simone schaeffer, the producer of abc7s creepy bay area show. Welcome welcome, simone. Hi. Thank you for having me dressed beautifully for the occasion. Is the season totally. And i got to say, this episode, the second one is super exciting because the first one you took us to some of the more famous places, right . Last year we covered alcatraz and is alcatraz haunted . We also covered the famous graves in the bay area. So famous people buried throughout the bay area. And my personal favorite where horror movies were shot here in the bay area like vertigo and phantasm, all the good ones. Okay. See, this is just like a tour of the bay area right there. Simone fantastic. But this time for the second one, its even more i dont know, its a little nichey and not what you think of, but the guy i saw talking about bigfoot and it looked like he had a museum. Yeah. So there actually to bigfoot museums near to the bay area. Theres the one up north in willow creek in humboldt county, and then the gentleman that you saw was down in felton in in the Santa Cruz Mountains is bigfoots big business. People love bigfoot. And so, you know, anywhere theres a forest, people are seeing bigfoot. And thats up north. Thats throughout the central coast. Its everywhere. Okay, who knew . Right . Right. In our backyard. You also went to some very cool and scary and creepy businesses. Yeah. So . Well we have a different even eclectic collection of offbeat businesses. Yeah. Our first one is a snake wrangler who visits parties, schools to educate people about what some may think are creepy crawlies, but are actually beautiful and amazing animals. We also have a witch themed hair salon in concord and a horror themed bar in oakland. Wait, what did they do to you at the witch theme based hair salon . So its all decorated in a very witchy scheme. But as beverly the stylist puts it, shes a little bit of science and a little bit of magic to make her potions, to make your hair exactly how you want it to be. Oh, my gosh. Its like going to salem, except you dont have to go that far. What do you think is our. The reason for our fascination with all things witchy . Ooh. I think its just to do with being fascinated by the unknown. You know, we move through our everyday lives and we encounter stuff thats weird or mysterious, and then our brains sort of fill in the rest. So so theres not always a good explanation. So some people turn to the mystical and the magical. And i think that really captures peoples imaginations, makes them interested in things like ghosts or monsters or witches. Yeah indeed. Okay. What are some of the other places i know you went to a ton and like other bookstores, occult places. Yeah so all throughout the bay area, theres these shops that are, you know, cater to a clientele that wants something a little bit more in the spiritual realm. So so we visit feathered outlaw in alameda. Oh, sorry. Pause pause. What is this . Oh, that is our horror themed bar in oakland. Its called the avenue. Oh, thats. And they do it up every year for halloween. I mean, they really go all out, but a lot of its left up year round. So no creepy crawlies know pictures of Michael Myers from halloween, skeletons there up year round, but they go the extra mile for halloween. Oh, i see. Okay. Now back to what you were saying. Yeah. So these bookstores, well, there are bookstores. There are magic shops. They offer for know everything from products like maybe you need sage or salt or something to conduct your magic with. Maybe you need a new deck of tarot cards or some books on spells. But then also, a lot of these shops offer services for tarot card readers or reiki energy practitioners, owners or astrologers. So a lot of these places are one stop shops for people who are interested in more supernatural things. Yeah, yeah. Where are some of them . Your favorites. Theyre all throughout. But the ones that we cover in this shop, in this show, weve got feathered outlaw in alameda. Weve got ancient ways in oakland and weve got moon kissed in santa cruz. And ive actually shopped at most of them before i even did the special. And so theyre beautiful. The people are so friendly and helpful. Theyre there to help you and theyre there to help you, like, you know, find your own path. And one of the things i love about these shops is how welcoming they are to people of all different backgrounds, all different faiths or lack thereof. And its a place where you can just be yourself is the message i got when i visited these places, which is very oh, i didnt mean to say which. Just play on words. Thats very bay area if you will. Yeah, very. And i mean, like i think were very lucky here to have, you know, a group of people who are so into interested in the unusual, who are tolerant of what other people might find weird or scary. Sure. But here we really embrace it. Okay. Part two of creepy bay area show sounds fabulous, but lets also revisit it. The first one, i think its fantastic. Like alcatraz, people still cant get enough. Do you think youve gone enough times to make a proclamation on whether it is haunted . Okay, well, my big problem is, is that i actually dont believe in ghosts or the supernatural, but i think its so much fun and i love it. But but having gone on the night tour to alcatraz, i can see why people would think that the fog rolls in, it gets dark. Theres the searchlight that goes up on the hill. You walk around in the cells, its all dark. I mean, i could i could easily see be seeing something out of the corner of your eye and wondering, was that a was that al capone . I know. Oh, yeah, yeah. One of the guys who didnt make it trying to swim out of there. What about Winchester Mystery House . What is your vibe when you visit there . Winchester mystery house. You know, the very first time i visited it, i was sort of surprised at how close to civilization it was. Yeah, right. You picture it out on a field, you know, out in the middle of nowhere. But no, its right close to us. And its such a fascinating piece of architectural history to see how they designed it. And yes, the story around it is amazing. And the reason that we talked about it last year was because obviously they made the winchester movie and shot a lot of it. There so much good stuff. Thank you so much, simone. This is fantastic. Abc7s creepy bay area show. Check it out on streaming and of course, you can get our live newscasts breaking news weather anytime with our abc7 bay area. Tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. The Israeli Military operation underway right now expanding its ground Law Enforcement sources telling abc news they have found a suicide note addressed to his son. Explosions lighting up the night sky as the Israeli Military sends Armored Vehicles across the border. The ground operation expanding. Matt gutman in
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