Netflix shares are headed for their steepest weekly drop since April amid a Musk-led boycott campaign.. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) shares slid nearly 5% this week, marking their steepest decline since April 4, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk intensified his campaign urging consumers to cancel subscriptions to the streaming giant.

The drop comes in sharp contrast to the broader market, which gained about 2% to fresh record highs, and also trails Big Tech peers like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Meta (NASDAQ: META).

Musk Urges #CancelNetflix

Musk, who has more than 227 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), accused Netflix of promoting transgender content in children’s programming. “Cancel Netflix for the health of your kids,” he posted earlier this week, while sharing a series of messages criticizing the streamer.

Netflix has not issued a comment in response to the boycott calls.

Cancel Netflix for the health of your kids https://t.co/uPcGiURaCp

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 1, 2025

Earnings Ahead

The boycott comes just weeks before Netflix’s third quarter earnings report. Analysts note that while the company no longer discloses subscriber figures quarterly, the near-term financial impact of cancellations could be difficult to measure.

In its latest earnings release, Netflix topped Wall Street expectations and raised its full-year revenue outlook. The company guided for Q3 revenue of $11.53 billion and EPS of $6.87, both above consensus. For 2025, revenue is projected between $44.8 billion and $45.2 billion, boosted by strong adoption of its ad-supported tier, favorable foreign exchange trends, and steady user engagement.

Executives expect advertising revenue to double to $3 billion in 2026, supported by popular returning shows like “Stranger Things”, “Wednesday”, and “Squid Game”, alongside growing investment in live sports streaming.

Not the First Backlash

Netflix has faced public boycotts before. In 2020, the release of the French film “Cuties” sparked bipartisan criticism, with cancellation rates briefly surging fivefold. However, the company ultimately saw little long-term damage.

Analysts Remain Bullish

Despite recent volatility, many analysts remain optimistic. Oppenheimer’s Jason Helfstein reiterated an Outperform rating and a $1,425 price target, citing strong Q3 engagement data, with viewing hours up 20% year-over-year, as well as momentum in live programming and original content.

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X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, is teaming up with Visa to launch a real-time payment system called the “X Money Account.” This service will allow users to make peer-to-peer payments, utilize a digital wallet, and transfer funds to bank accounts, marking a significant step toward Elon Musk’s long-held vision of creating an “everything app.” Visa will power the service through its instant money transfer system, Visa Direct, with the U.S. launch expected later this year.

Visa has been announced as the first partner for X’s “X Money Account” service, which is scheduled to debut later this year, according to X CEO Linda Yaccarino. In a post on Tuesday, Yaccarino revealed that the offering will include an in-platform digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment options connected to users’ debit cards. Additionally, users will be able to transfer funds to a bank account seamlessly.

Visa, which also shared the news on its official X account, confirmed that the payment system will be powered by Visa Direct, the company’s real-time money transfer service. Initially, the service will be available to X Money Account users in the U.S., though plans for an international rollout and partnerships with other payment providers have not yet been disclosed. The exact launch date remains unspecified.

Yaccarino described the partnership with Visa as a “milestone for the Everything App” and teased that this is just the first of many announcements to come regarding X Money.

Elon Musk has long envisioned transforming X into a multifunctional “everything app,” akin to China’s WeChat. Musk first expressed interest in the concept in the late 1990s when he launched X.com, a financial startup that later evolved into PayPal. Although Musk’s efforts to expand PayPal were thwarted, the sale of the company to eBay in 2002 provided him with funds to invest in ventures like SpaceX and Tesla.

This latest partnership with Visa represents a significant step in realizing Musk’s ambitions for X. However, X will face stiff competition in a crowded market where social media platforms such as Facebook’s Meta are already integrating features like shopping, gaming, and payments into their ecosystems.

Furthermore, X’s aggressive push toward becoming an all-encompassing platform could attract scrutiny from regulators and rival tech giants. For instance, Apple has faced accusations from the U.S. Justice Department of leveraging its market dominance to block the emergence of super apps on its devices since 2017. Apple has denied these allegations and is currently fighting an antitrust lawsuit in federal court.

The evolution of X into a comprehensive “everything app” comes at a time when the platform is still reeling from controversies over Musk’s leadership. Since acquiring X for $44 billion in 2022, Musk’s management has faced backlash over issues like rising hate speech and misinformation, alienating both users and advertisers. How X’s new offerings will fare in this challenging environment remains to be seen.

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Elon Musk’s Starlink has applied to establish ground stations in Pakistan, marking the company’s move to provide direct satellite internet services. The company has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and is awaiting approval to set up operations.

Elon Musk’s company, Starlink, has officially registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) under the name “Starlink Internet Services (Private) Limited.” As part of its expansion plan, Starlink has applied to establish 2-3 ground stations across Pakistan to deliver high-speed internet directly to Pakistani consumers via its constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. This move comes in response to growing demand for broadband services, particularly in underserved and remote areas of the country.

In a written statement to the Senate Standing Committee, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) confirmed that Starlink had submitted applications for the necessary licenses to operate in Pakistan. The company applied for a Long-Distance International (LDI) license on February 24, 2022, and for 14 Local Loop licenses on April 29, 2022. These applications were forwarded to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MOITT) in March 2022 for further consultation with relevant stakeholders.

The Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) has also verified that Starlink’s satellite network operates globally without causing any interference to terrestrial communication systems. This is an important step in ensuring compatibility with Pakistan’s existing infrastructure.

The regulatory framework for satellite-based telecommunication services in Pakistan is outlined by the National Satellite Policy of 2023 and the Pakistan Space Activities Rules of 2024. The National Satellite Policy, approved in December 2023, mandates collaboration between federal and provincial agencies under the guidance of the National Space Agency (SUPARCO). Furthermore, the Pakistan Space Activities Regulatory Board (PSARB) is tasked with registering satellite service providers like Starlink and issuing the necessary No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for licensing.

According to the regulations, all local and international satellite service providers must adhere to both local and international laws as defined by the National Communications Authority Rules of 2024. Existing geostationary satellite operators are permitted to continue their operations but will eventually be required to transition to national or registered satellite systems once their current agreements expire.

At present, Starlink’s application to set up ground stations in Pakistan is under review by the PSARB, which is conducting a technical evaluation of its Earth Gateway Stations and analyzing the compatibility of Starlink’s satellite network with the country’s communication infrastructure. Upon successful completion of this review, the PTA will grant Starlink the necessary licenses to begin providing internet services, assuming all regulatory requirements are met.

While satellite-based services are available through licensed operators in Pakistan, direct-to-consumer services remain unavailable. Currently, companies like PTCL provide bandwidth for point-to-point traffic transportation. Starlink’s entry into the market could potentially revolutionize the broadband landscape by expanding internet access to underserved regions and bridging the digital divide in Pakistan.

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Elon Musk, the tech billionaire behind the artificial intelligence start-up xAI, has introduced a groundbreaking AI model called ‘Grok.’ With this move, Musk aims to challenge industry giants like OpenAI, Google, and Meta by launching a sassy chatbot closely integrated with X, previously known as Twitter.

Grok, the fresh AI system, boasts “real-time access” to data from X, the social media platform that Musk acquired for $44 billion a year ago. According to Musk, this provides Grok with a “significant advantage over other models” that primarily rely on older internet data archives.

Musk emphasized Grok’s penchant for sarcasm and its ability to inject humor into conversations. By infusing more personality into the chatbot, Musk hopes to set Grok apart in an increasingly crowded market. Grok is also capable of handling edgier questions, making it a distinctive offering in the AI landscape.

xAI, the company behind Grok, has unveiled a “very early” testing version of the chatbot, which showcases the capabilities of so-called generative AI companies. These companies, which can create humanlike text, code, and imagery in mere seconds, have attracted substantial investments this year. Supporters believe this technology could be as transformative as the internet itself, but some caution against the formation of a new tech bubble, with commercialization still in its early stages.

xAI’s ability to introduce a capable model with just two months of training demonstrates how new players are starting to challenge the dominance of OpenAI, which released its groundbreaking chatbot, ChatGPT, almost a year ago.

Users of X can now apply to test Grok, available to subscribers of the app’s new “Premium+” service for around $16 per month, following an unspecified testing period.

Musk’s efforts to enhance engagement and revenue at X, which experienced revenue declines since his 2022 acquisition of Twitter due to advertiser concerns over relaxed content moderation, underline the significance of the Grok launch.

In a similar move, Meta announced the launch of nearly 30 AI chatbots across its Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp apps, including an AI assistant designed to answer user queries and others modeled after celebrities for entertainment purposes.

Musk, who recently stated that “AI will be able to do everything” and could potentially make human work obsolete, founded xAI earlier this year. His team of engineers, formerly associated with Google DeepMind and Microsoft, is racing to catch up with established rivals, including OpenAI, a company he co-founded in 2015 but later departed from in 2018.

Experts have expressed concerns about potential biases, the spread of harmful content, or false information through the chatbot, a phenomenon referred to as “hallucinations.” These issues have plagued other players in the AI space, even after their trust and safety teams worked on making their systems safer. Elon Musk’s approach to make the chatbot less politically correct, according to AI ethics adviser Reid Blackman, poses greater risks.

X has not provided an immediate response to these concerns.

Despite being developed in just a few months, Musk claims that Grok’s capabilities rival the latest models from Meta and Inflection, an AI start-up led by former DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, as per benchmark tests.

xAI has stated that Grok’s ability to respond to mathematical queries and demonstrate reasoning is similar to OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, the model behind ChatGPT. The start-up also revealed that Grok achieved a grade C in a Hungarian high-school final math exam, matching Anthropic’s Claude model.

However, xAI acknowledges that it lags behind OpenAI, which released its latest GPT-4 model in March. GPT-4 has demonstrated “human-level performance” on professional benchmarks like the US bar exam and is already being integrated into applications by partner companies.

According to Nathan Benaich, an AI investor at Air Street Capital, Grok’s performance is impressive given its relatively small size and rapid development. Still, the substantial resources available to Musk’s company were taken into consideration.

Aaron Brindle at Radical Ventures, another AI investor, cautioned that building an AI system for business customers differed from creating a chatbot for consumers. Large enterprise customers prioritize safety, reliability, and performance.

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After getting an email on Thursday stating that they would receive word through email on Friday regarding their employment status, the employees filed the case.

According to the lawsuit, the corporation violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act by failing to notify the employees 60 days in advance of the expected job layoffs. The attorney for the Twitter layoff lawsuit, Shannon Liss-Riordan, was previously involved in a fight against Tesla Layoffs.

Even though the federal and state WARN Act requires 60 days of layoff pay when there is a big layoff, she claims that in the instance of Tesla, “workers were instantly asked to sign away all of their rights for a week or two of severance pay.”

Musk used a tactic known as “pay in place of notice” this time around, offering three months of severance in an effort to abide by the law. But the practise continues to be illegal.

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Twitter, Elon Musk’s most recent acquisition, is apparently going to start offering celebrities paid Direct Messaging (DM) as another way to generate income.

According to the New York Times, the company’s internal docs and two workers revealed the news of the DM function. Although Twitter hasn’t yet finalised the cost structure for DMs, the report estimates that it will be “as little as a few dollars per direct message.”

The messages would be categorised under a unique DM inbox, and Twitter would earn a percentage of the fees, the reporter claimed. For celebrities to receive messages from their fans, they would need to opt in.

The story sheds insight on the ongoing proposed/in-progress improvements that have been occurring swiftly since since Elon Musk took over the company, even though it is still unknown whether the feature will be implemented or not.

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In a recent SEC filing, Twitter published a letter from Elon Musk’s legal team this morning. It expresses unhappiness with the information provided by the corporation about the amount of “spam and bogus accounts” on its service. This is the same concern that the internet mogul has stated numerous times since his Twitter agreement was made public.

Musk sees Twitter’s “latest offer to simply provide extra information concerning the company’s testing methods, either through verbal explanations or written materials, [as] tantamount to refusing [his] data requests,” which the SpaceX and Tesla CEO claims will help “facilitate his evaluation of spam and fake accounts on the company’s platform.”

More data (rather than just an explanation of how the current data was gathered) on Twitter’s non-human users — both spam and natural — is vital to reaching a financial agreement. According to the letter, “as Twitter’s possible owner, Mr. Musk has a clear right to the sought data to prepare for the transfer of Twitter’s business to his possession and facilitate his transaction finance.”

Following his many attempts to first dominate the social network and then buy it altogether, Musk has made several assertions about how Twitter counts non-human members. Musk went so far as to tweet excrement-themed emoticons at Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, after he wrote a thread about how the company deals with spam and bots.

Musk’s staff has made it plain that if he doesn’t get further information, he will go. We’ll let you judge whether Musk’s requests are realistic or not. The situation, on the other hand, presents a fascinating conundrum. If Twitter wants Musk to pay the agreed-upon amount, it may cave and reveal more information.

The post Musk Warns of Killing Twitter Deal over Lack of User Data Transparency appeared first on Techlist.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, was the highest-paid chief executive officer in 2021, according to the Fortune 500. Musk was paid approximately $23.5 billion in 2018 after executing Tesla stock options granted as part of a multiyear “moonshot” project (around Rs 1,82,576 crore). That was the largest remuneration ever awarded to a CEO, according to Fortune 500.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is at the top of Fortune’s list of high paid CEOs. He may soon buy Twitter. Others, on the other hand, work in the IT and biotech fields. These executives include Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

Cook was paid $770.5 million in 2021 alone, according to Fortune, as part of a $1.7 billion 10-year stock grant. On the list, he was ranked second. During his tenure, Apple’s market value climbed by $2.2 trillion. As a result, his pay is justified in specific ways. Apple is placed third in the Fortune 500.

Jensen Huang of Nvidia received $561 million in 2021, while Cook won the second one. According to a Fortune 500 spokeswoman, Huang “realised nearly $507 million from expiring options given in 2011 and 2012, representing the almost 60x increase in the company’s share price over the decade.”

Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, is ranked fourth, having just unveiled plenty of new initiatives aimed at boosting the company’s revenues, which have been hampered by issues such as account sharing and poorer content compared to its competitors. Hastings made $453.5 million last year, according to the Fortune 500. A Netflix spokesperson, on the other hand, shot down the rumour. “His total compensation in 2021 was $40.8 million, including $650,000 in cash and $39.7 million in stock options,” the spokeswoman said.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, was rated seventh last year, with a salary of $309.4 million. He was also dubbed “the most undervalued” CEO in 2021, a title he has earned for the previous six years. Nadella has been the CEO of Microsoft since 2017.

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Elon Musk, a well-known internet tycoon, just purchased the social media giant Twitter. With 93 million followers, he has a sizable following on the platform. However, according to a recent audit, about a quarter of those followers (23.42 percent) are false or spam accounts.

The audit was carried out by the companies SparkToro and Followerwonk. They claimed that their interpretations of the terms “spam” and “fake” may differ from Twitter’s. According to the company, an algorithm that ran 35,000 fake Twitter accounts bought by SparkToro identified 50,000 accounts as non-spam using a system of 17 warning flags.

If a billionaire’s follower received multiple spam signals, they were labelled as low-quality or false. According to the analysis, 70.23 percent of Musk’s followers are inactive users who haven’t tweeted in 90 days. According to the survey, 73 percent of Musk’s Twitter followers had spam-related keywords on their profiles, and 71 percent used locations that didn’t match any region.

In addition, 41% of the accounts had display names that matched spam account patterns. A large percentage of the accounts (69%) have been dormant for more than 120 days. 83 percent of followers had “suspiciously few” followers, and 78 percent followed “an extraordinarily tiny number of accounts.” The teams analysed signs like the account’s age, the amount of tweets sent over time, and the use of Twitter’s default profile picture for a more in-depth investigation.

“Those that do not regularly have a human being personally composing the content of their tweets, consuming the activity on their timeline, or engaging in the Twitter ecosystem,” according to SparkToro. Those who do not have a human creating the content of their tweets, consuming the activity on their timeline, or participating in the Twitter ecosystem on a regular basis.

Because the fraudulent or spam accounts could be bots gathering news and tweeting images from throughout the world, the researchers decided that they were not generally harmful. Spam accounts were “guilty of peddling propaganda and disinformation, encouraging spam email or malware, manipulating stocks and cryptocurrencies, and harassing other users,” according to Business Insider.

The assessment comes after Musk announced last week that he would halt his $44 billion buyout of Twitter unless the company can prove that less than 5% of its followers are fake. In a tense exchange with Musk, Twitter CEO Prag Agarwal defended the company’s statistics, claiming that the company suspends half a million spam accounts every day.

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International news sites reported on Monday that Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, had officially accepted Twitter’s $44 billion acquisition deal.

Shortly after the announcement that Twitter trade had been ceased, the social media firm issued a press release indicating that it had accepted Musk’s offer to take the social network private.

“The Twitter Board went through a thorough and thoughtful process to evaluate Elon Musk’s proposal, focusing on value, certainty, and finance.” Twitter’s Independent Board Chair Bret Taylor told reporters, “The proposed acquisition will generate a considerable cash premium, and we believe it is the best path ahead for Twitter’s stockholders.”

According to the press announcement, the cash acquisition for $54.20 per share is worth approximately $44 billion. Twitter will become a private corporation once the transaction is completed. The announcement puts an end to a drama that began when Musk hinted at a large investment in the company. Soon after, Twitter declared that Tesla CEO Elon Musk would join the board of directors, only for Musk to retract his statement a few days later. Later, he made his “best and last” offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, valuing the company at about $43 billion.

“Free speech is the backbone of a functional democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where subjects crucial to humanity’s future are debated,” Musk stated in a statement included in Twitter’s news release. I also want to make Twitter better than it has ever been by adding new features, opening up the algorithms to increase trust, combating spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has enormous potential, and I’m excited to work with the company and the Twitter community to realise it.”

If the deal is finalised, Musk will own Twitter, making him the world’s wealthiest person and someone who has been a vociferous critic of the network while using it in legally problematic ways, most notably through sensitive tweets about his car firm, Tesla.

Though Musk has stated that his primary interest in Twitter stems from the company’s suppression of free speech, his critics are right to be concerned that the billionaire’s control over the platform could result in the silencing of their voices, as well as the voices of others with whom he allegedly picks an argument.

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