In another sign of the upheaval happening internally at Twitter, the company has called off its Chirp developer conference just two weeks before it was scheduled to take place on November 16th. The company alerted developers and other attendees in a brief note that didn’t provide a reason for the cancellation.

“The team at Twitter is hard at work right now to make Twitter better for everyone - including developers,” the message says. “While we are heads down working on some exciting things for you, we’ve decided to cancel our #Chirp Developer Conference.”

A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on the reason for the cancellation. Members of the media received invitations to register for Chirp just two weeks ago. “Chirp is the first time we will bring our developer community from around the globe together in person to preview some new tools, discuss feedback, and celebrate the developers that are making it easier for people on Twitter to discover content, have safer conversations, and impact the greater good,” a Twitter spokesperson said at the time.

While sudden, the cancellation isn’t particularly shocking, given Musk’s recent takeover of the company. In addition to shaking up its leadership, he’s also vowed to significantly change the company’s subscription service, Twitter Blue, and is likely to make changes to content moderation and other policies. It wouldn’t be surprising if he also has a different vision for Twitter's developer strategy.

But for Twitter's developers, the cancellation will likely be a disappointment. The company has had a strained relationship with developers over the years, but has recently tried to revamp its developer platform with new APIs for researchers and third-party apps. Chirp was set to be Twitter’s first in-person developer conference since 2015. Now, like many other aspects of Twitter under Musk, the company’s plans for developers are once again uncertain.

Meta is expanding its support for NFTs in a major way. The company is now allowing some creators to make and sell digital collectibles directly on Instagram, Meta announced during its Creator Week event.

The platform has been experimenting with NFTs on Instagram and Facebook since last year. But up until now, Instagram users have only been able to show off their digital collectibles. Now, Instagram will have an “end-to-end toolkit” so creators can make NFT collections and sell them to their fans and followers.

While Instagram has been ramping up commerce features for creatures for some time, this update is the first time Instagram has tried to compete directly with existing NFT marketplaces. Notably, Meta so far hasn't disclosed how much of a cut it plans to take from NFT sales from Instagram. Creators can, however, set a commission rate for resales of their work, ranging from 5% to 25%.

The new tools are only available to a “small group” of creators in the United States for now, but Meta says it plans to expand to more people and countries “soon.” But the company is updating other NFT features that are more widely available. For collectors, Meta is adding support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet, and enabling video NFTs in Instagram profiles. The app is also adding OpenSea metadata for “select collections.”

The expansion of NFTs on Instagram is part of a broader push by Meta to increase money-making features for the creators in its apps. The company is also expanding Instagram’s subscriptions, and “professional mode” for Facebook. Meta is also bringing Facebook Stars to more places, including photo and text posts, and adding in-app gifting to Reels on Instagram.

Last week, Elon Musk officially completed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. But Musk’s path from Twitter super-user to Twitter owner and CEO was anything but straightforward.

While he’s long been known as a prolific tweeter, it was a surprise to most that he was interested in exterting an even bigger influence on the platform. After quietly acquiring a majority stake in the company, he offered to buy the whole thing — even though it wasn’t for sale.

Twitter’s board seemed hesitant at first, but Musk’s money was hard to turn down. In a matter of days, the company agreed to alter its path entirely. Then Musk changed his mind… multiple times. First, the deal was “on hold.” Then, he wanted out entirely. Twitter sued, kicking off a massive legal battle in a Delaware court. But just before the trial was scheduled to begin, Musk said he would honor the deal after all.

Now, there are fresh questions about what exactly Twitter will look like under Musk. He’s proposed numerous changes, including changing Twitter’s moderation rules and reversing permanent bans. He also has a new plan to charge for verification. These decisions are only just beginning to play out, but have already caused massive upheaval both within the company and on the platform itself. Watch the video above for the full story.

Twitter may soon charge users $8 a month for verification, but Elon Musk reportedly plans to give all users a long-requested feature for free: the edit button. According to Platformer’s Casey Newton, the move is in the works alongside the more sweeping changes to Twitter Blue that Musk previewed Tuesday.

For now, Twitter’s edit button is only available to subscribers in the current version of Twitter Blue, which costs $4.99 a month and is only live in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The feature gives users a 30-minute window to change their tweets, and includes a revision history.

Musk so far hasn’t publicly talked (or tweeted) about his plans for the edit button since taking control of the company. But the feature was one of the first Twitter-related topics he raised after he first acquired a large stake in the company this spring. And Twitter confirmed it was working on the feature just hours after Musk polled his followers on whether the platform should have an edit feature. (Millions of his followers vote "yse" in the poll — Twitter has previously said an edit button has long been its most-requested feature.)

At the same time, Musk is also planning more substantial changes to Twitter’s subscription service. He's said he qill allow anyone to get verified if they pay $8 a month, and will also show subscribers fewer ads. He’s also reportedly planning to nix the ad-free articles that’s currently included as perk with Twitter Blue, but wants to work with publishers to allow subscribers behind their paywalls.

It’s been less than a day since Elon Musk began his takeover of Twitter, but his move to the top of the company is already impacting the platform. Following the news that the deal was completed, and that he had begun purging some of the company’s executive staff, some groups opted to test Twitter’s moderation rules.

The Washington Postalso reported that “racial slurs were posted rampantly overnight,” in the hours immediately after Musk’s takeover. The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a nonprofit organization that studies disinformation on social platforms, said Friday morning that it had observed a sharp uptick in the n-word on Twitter.

“Evidence suggests that bad actors are trying to test the limits on @Twitter,” the group said. “Several posts on 4chan encourage users to amplify derogatory slurs.”

A Twitter spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment. As both The Post and NCRI point out, much of this seems to be organized on platforms like 4Chan and TheDonald, where users are encouraging each other to spread hate.

For now, it’s unclear how widespread these efforts are. As with past harassment campaigns, a small group of trolls can have an outsize impact, particularly at a moment of upheaval for the company. Musk, who according to Bloomberg has temporarily assumed CEO duties at the company, said Friday that he would not be reinstating any banned accounts or making “major” changes to the company’s content policies until he could for a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.”

He also responded to a Twitter account called Catturd, which had complained about shadowbans and losing followers, that he would be “digging in more.” Musk has previously said that he wants to do away with permanent bans on the platform and that he would “err on the side of, if in doubt, let the speech exist.”

Notably, the uptick in racist slurs comes one day after Musk appealed to Twitter’s advertisers, saying that he didn’t want to turn the platform into a “free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences.”

But the increase in hate speech has further fueled concerns that Twitter’s years-long effort to clean up its platforms could be reversed under Musk. Already, he has fired the company’s top policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, who played a central role in shaping the company’s content rules. That’s concerning, says Paul Barrett, deputy director of NYU’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.

“The danger here is that in the name of ‘free speech,’ Musk will turn back the clock and make Twitter into a more potent engine of hatred, divisiveness, and misinformation about elections, public health policy, and international affairs,” Barrett said in a statement. “This is not going to be pretty.”

After months of legal drama, Elon Musk has begun his takeover of Twitter, according to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. His first move was to fire CEO Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and other top execs.

Musk is taking the reins just ahead of a Friday deadline to complete the deal. The deal's closing will bring to an end the months-long legal battle that has engulfed Twitter since Musk first offered to buy the company in April, before announcing a couple weeks later that the acquisition was “on hold.” Musk, who declined to do due diligence before his offer, cited concerns about the number of bots and fake accounts on the platform. Twitter’s lawyers later argued that the bot issue was merely a “pretext” for him to renege on the deal.

But finalizing the acquisition will be far from the end of turmoil within Twitter. Musk, who changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit,” has made it clear he intends to bring big changes to the social media company. He has said both in public appearances and in private messages that he wants to relax Twitter’s moderation rules and that he dislikes permanent bans. He’s also likely to cut staff, though he has told employees he won’t cut 75 percent of employees as he was reportedly considering.

Twitter’s core service could also dramatically change under Musk’s leadership. In addition to loosening moderation rules on the platform, Musk has said wants to “open source” Twitter’s algorithm so users could better understand its recommendations. At the same time, he’s tried to reassure advertisers that he doesn’t want the site to be a “free-for-all hellscape,” and that Twitter should be the “most respected advertising platform in the world.”

Musk, who has often talked about his desire for Twitter to be “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app” akin to WeChat in China, is also likely to look for ways to increase non-advertising revenue. He’s proposed changes to Twitter Blue, and floated the idea of charging companies for tweet embeds.

Developing…

One day before Elon Musk is expected to finalize his deal to buy Twitter, he’s attempting to reassure the platform’s advertisers that he won’t turn the platform into a “free-for-all hellscape.” In a message posted Thursday, Musk tried to explain why he wanted to buy the company, and that he doesn’t intend to blow up its advertising business.

“There had been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising,” he wrote. “Most of it has been wrong. Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

Musk has previously said that he would like to loosen Twitter’s content moderation rules, and do away with permanent bans in most cases. But that stance has upset many Twitter employees, and worried the company’s advertisers. The Wall Street Journalreported that some advertisers have even threatened to “pause all their ads” if the company gives Donald Trump his account back — something Musk has said he would likely do.

While Musk didn’t walk back those comments, he said he wanted Twitter to “be warm and welcoming to all.” He added that people should be able to “choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature.”

Musk’s comments come just after he visited Twitter’s office and reportedly told employees that he won’t be axing 75 percent of its staff as earlier reports had suggested. He also apparently met with Twitter COO Sarah Personette, who tweeted that she had a “great discussion” with the Tesla CEO. “Our continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged,” she wrote.

Notably, Musk’s stance on advertising is very different from former CEO Jack Dorsey, who privately told Musk that Twitter “can’t have an advertising model” and suggested it should be a “foundation of sorts” like the messaging app Signal. But though Musk responded favorably to the idea at the time, his message to advertisers now sounds very different.

“I also very much believe that advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you,” Musk wrote. "For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content."

“Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.”

The $1500 Meta Quest pro may have just gone on sale, but the company is already teasing the next version in its line of cheaper VR headsets. During the company’s latest earnings call, outgoing CFO Dave Whener said “the next generation of the consumer Quest headset” will launch “later next year."

Mark Zuckerberg also referenced the “next generation of our consumer Quest headset.” He didn’t name the device, but it certainly sounds like he was referring to the Meta Quest 3. It’s unclear exactly when it could launch, but in the past the company has introduced new headsets in the fall to coincide with its annual Connect event.

It’s not the first time Zuckerberg has mentioned the Quest 3. He told analyst Ben Thompson earlier this month that a Quest 3 was in the works, and that it would likely fall in the $300 - $500 price range. That would make it more in line with previous Quest headsets — the Quest 2 started at $299 — rather than the latest Quest Pro.

While Quest 3 may be more of a budget device than the Quest Pro, there are signs Meta may incorporate some elements of the higher-end VR headset. As UploadVR has pointed out, Zuckerberg has said face and eye tracking will a be “a big focus,” and at least one early rumor suggests Quest 3 could have “pancake lenses” similar to the Quest Pro.

A year later, Meta’s pivot to the metaverse is proving even more expensive. Reality Labs is losing more money than ever, Facebook’s parent company disclosed in its latest earnings report.

Reality Labs, the unit that oversees the company’s virtual and augmented reality projects, lost $3.7 billion in the third-quarter of 2022, a jump from a $2.6 billion loss a year ago and $2.8 billion last quarter. Reality Labs has lost more than $9 billion so far in 2022. And the company’s finance chief said the trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon. “We do anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year,” outgoing CFO Dave Whener said in a statement.

That’s significant because Meta’s massive investment in Reality labs has already proved costly for the company. Meta reported earlier this year that it lost $10 billion on Reality labs in 2021. The company also confirmed that the “next generation of our consumer Quest headset” is expected to launch “later next year,” an apparent reference to a Meta Quest 3.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg also warned that the company could face “near-term challenges on revenue.” The company reported $28 billion in revenue for the quarter, which was in line with analyst expectations, but “still behind where I think we should be,” according to Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg also confirmed that Meta would continue to slash hiring as it deals with slowing revenue growth. “Some teams will grow meaningfully but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year,” he said. “In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”

Developing…

Days before Elon Musk’s deal to acquire Twitter could finally close, workers at the social company are warning that staff cuts would be “reckless.” Timereports that an open letter from an unspecified number of Twitter employees, directed to Musk and Twitter’s board, is making rounds within the company.

The letter comes on the heels of a report from The Washington Post, that Musk wants to cut as much as 75 percent of Twitter’s roughly 7,500 staff. “Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation,” the letter says. “A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation. We cannot do our work in an environment of constant harassment and threats.”

The letter also includes a list of demands for “current and future leadership” of the company. In addition to “fair severance policies for all workers,” letter writers want Musk to keep existing employee benefits in place, including remote work. Musk has previously criticized remote work, and suggested most Twitter employees should return to the office.

The letter also hints at the potential ideological divide between some Twitter workers and Musk, who has said he favors less moderation. “We demand that leadership does not discriminate against workers on the basis of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs,” the letter says.

It’s unclear how many workers have signed onto the letter so far. But it’s yet another sign of how messy things could get for Twitter employees under Musk. After a months-long legal battle, the deal seems to be on track to close by the October 28th deadline.