Search power driving ai development

Industry data shows that while OpenAI’s ChatGPT still leads in overall monthly users, Google’s Gemini chatbot has recently recorded faster growth and higher user engagement. Researchers attribute this shift largely to Google’s ability to draw on decades of indexed web pages, video content from YouTube and mobile data from the Android operating system, all of which feed its AI training models.

Industry leaders warn of monopoly risks

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince has argued that Google’s role in shaping the modern internet has now extended decisively into artificial intelligence. In an interview with Wired, he said Google sees several times more online content than its closest competitors, giving it what he described as “incredibly privileged access.” Prince added that this imbalance suggests the AI race is less about innovation and more about who controls the largest data pipelines.

Pushback from the wider web ecosystem

Concerns over data concentration have prompted countermeasures from infrastructure providers. Prince said Cloudflare launched a so-called “Content Independence Day” initiative on July 1, allowing websites to block their data from being used in AI training. Since then, the company claims it has stopped hundreds of billions of AI bot requests, reflecting growing resistance to what critics see as Google’s outsized influence over the future of the internet.

Lazarus leads hacking activities

The Lazarus group tops the list of suspected cyber actors with 31 documented incidents between October 2024 and September 2025, according to the software security firm's latest assessment. Authorities are investigating the group's potential involvement in a recent major cryptocurrency breach at South Korean exchange Upbit that resulted in the theft of 45 billion won ($30.6 million). The hacking techniques employed in this incident showed similarities to Lazarus's 2019 attack on the same exchange, which netted 58 billion won in Ethereum.

Multiple state actors involved

Following Lazarus, the Kimsuky group registered 27 cyber incidents during the same reporting period. Beyond North Korea's 86 total hacking incidents, the security report identified additional cyber operations originating from Chinese, Russian, Indian and Pakistani groups. These state-affiliated actors conducted numerous cyberattacks throughout the assessment timeframe, indicating a diverse landscape of international cyber threats facing South Korea and other nations.

Pattern of cryptocurrency targeting

The latest findings reinforce concerns about North Korean hackers' continued focus on cryptocurrency platforms as revenue sources. Security analysts noted that the methods used in the recent Upbit breach closely mirrored previous attacks attributed to Lazarus, suggesting consistent operational patterns despite enhanced security measures. The repeated targeting of cryptocurrency exchanges demonstrates the persistent financial motivation behind these cyber campaigns and the ongoing challenge of securing digital asset platforms against sophisticated state-sponsored actors.

Türkiye Tech Visa: A Gateway for Global Innovators

Launched by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, the Türkiye Tech Visa is an exclusive invitation program designed for technology experts with critical skills and startups with groundbreaking ideas.

The program offers a wide range of privileges, including:

1. A 3-year work permit exclusive to Türkiye Tech Visa holders
2. Simplified residence permit processes for families
3. Tax exemptions in technology development zones
4. Comprehensive healthcare assurance
5. Office opportunities in technoparks and incubation centers
6. Venture capital investments and financing support
7. Mentorship and consultancy for growth
8. And a dedicated partner to ease integration into the Turkish tech ecosystem

With these incentives, Türkiye is not only opening its doors to global talent but also ensuring that innovators find the right environment to scale their ambitions.

A Springboard for Startups and Talent

Türkiye’s fast-growing technology ecosystem already hosts world-renowned projects, from unmanned aerial vehicles to electric cars, and continues to expand across artificial intelligence, fintech, biotechnology, and more.

For startups, Türkiye offers fertile ground to grow, supported by government incentives, a large domestic market, competitive talent costs, and quick access to global markets.

For tech professionals, the country provides opportunities to work on future-shaping projects alongside motivated teams in state-of-the-art facilities.

Turcorn 100: Building the Next Generation of Global Tech Giants

Türkiye’s ambition is clear: not just to attract talent, but to build global champions. The Turcorn 100 Program, supported by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, aims to help startups on their journey to becoming unicorns — “Turcorns.”

At GITEX Global 2025 in Dubai — one of the world’s largest technology and AI events — Sadullah Uzun, Director General of National Technology at the Ministry of Industry and Technology, told Anadolu Agency that Türkiye is determined to accelerate the global journey of its tech entrepreneurs:

“Our mission is to support startups on their journey to becoming Turcorns and help them access global investors faster. By 2030, we aim for the total valuation of our Turcorns to reach $100 billion.”

Uzun highlighted that more than 7,000 companies and 200,000 participants attended the event, including 2,000 startups, many of which were able to connect with investors. Türkiye also introduced its unique Turcorn Lounge concept, where startups met potential partners and investors in a dynamic environment that blended networking with Turkish hospitality.

The program already includes dozens of promising ventures, some of which are securing international contracts and attracting global investors.

Why Türkiye?

1. Advanced Technology Ecosystem with strong R&D support
2. Highly educated, young population
3. Modern lifestyle and vibrant culture
4. Comprehensive healthcare system
5. Government incentives and support mechanisms
6. Strategic location at the heart of global markets

Türkiye is not only at the geographic center of the world — it is determined to become the center of technological innovation as well.

A Call to Innovators

Türkiye is extending an invitation to visionaries:

Whether you are a tech expert seeking groundbreaking opportunities, or a startup ready to scale globally, Türkiye offers the springboard to unlock your true potential.

"With the new Media Mode, photos, videos & GIFs are all at your fingertips. Seamless flow, instant discovery," NSosyal said in a statement.

Since its beta launch, NSosyal has grown rapidly, with over 1 million users.

The platform has demonstrated the potential of domestic technologies in the social media sector, becoming one of the most downloaded free apps on mobile stores in the social networking category.

NSosyal allows users to freely express their thoughts. The platform is primarily designed for sharing news, technology, lifestyle, and current events-related content.

With the rapid advancement of AI technologies, the risk of fake and misleading content spreading across digital platforms has significantly increased. AI-powered text generators, widely used in areas ranging from education and academia to the media sector and everyday life, can produce texts nearly indistinguishable from those written by humans. This raises critical concerns regarding information accuracy and ethical standards, making AI detectors indispensable. These tools aim to discern the differences between AI-generated and human-produced content to uphold the integrity of written information.

AI detectors analyze language structure, sentence flow, and linguistic features to identify subtle differences between human and AI-generated writing. For example, AI-generated texts often exhibit repetitive word use, consistent flow, and a monotonous tone, while human writing tends to display slight errors, a unique style, and emotional nuances. Acting as vigilant observers of the digital realm, these detectors meticulously examine the origins of texts, ensuring reliable analysis of their sources.

In academia, AI detectors have gained traction, particularly to ensure originality in university students' assignments and theses. For instance, a student under time pressure might use AI tools to craft a paper that, at first glance, seems academically sound. However, AI detectors can assess the linguistic signatures and patterns within the text to determine whether it was created by a human or an AI. These tools have become invaluable allies for educators striving to promote transparency and ethical practices in student work.

The media sector also benefits from AI detectors, using them as effective tools to combat fake news and misinformation. Particularly in social media platforms and digital publishing, AI detectors play a vital role in identifying fraudulent content. In an era where swift access to information is crucial, ensuring its accuracy and reliability has become equally essential. AI detectors stand out as powerful instruments for safeguarding information security within the media industry.

AI detectors are designed using language models similar to those of AI content generators but with advanced analytical capabilities to distinguish between human and AI writing. By scanning for specific linguistic patterns and structural traits, detectors work to identify content created by AI.

However, keeping up with the evolving capabilities of AI language models poses a challenge to the reliability of AI detectors. Modern, sophisticated AI systems can produce content so complex and human-like that even the best detectors struggle to differentiate. As a result, continuous updates and the integration of new algorithms are necessary for these detectors to remain effective.

It’s also important to acknowledge that AI detectors are not flawless. In some cases, they might mistakenly identify human-authored texts as AI-generated. Such false positives have sparked new debates surrounding the use of detectors in education and media sectors. To enhance their reliability, ongoing efforts are required to refine algorithms and train detectors on extensive datasets.

AI detectors like AI Detector analyze details such as language use, sentence structure, and word choice to distinguish natural, human-created writing from AI-generated content.

In addition to detectors, other technologies are being developed to facilitate the identification of content origins. For instance, digital watermarks can be added to AI-generated content, making it easier to differentiate such material. However, these protective measures are not foolproof, as AI-powered content creators are also devising techniques to bypass these markers. Still, watermarking and similar methods represent a significant step toward enhancing information security and distinguishing AI-generated content.

The evolution of AI detectors is seen as a crucial step in fostering a more transparent and accountable flow of information in the digital world.

These tools align with societal expectations by ensuring academic integrity, preventing misinformation, and promoting information security. AI detectors are increasingly crucial in ensuring the accuracy of digital content and fostering an ethical digital ecosystem.

In the future, AI detectors are expected to evolve further, providing reliable results not only for text but also for audio and visual content. Supporting humanity's pursuit of information security and accuracy, these technologies will contribute significantly to maintaining ethical standards in the digital age.

Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in the US District Court Northern District of California issued the order on Saturday night, according to multiple reports.

The latest order follows a tentative ruling she made in December 2023, when she said Musk has to testify in the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) probe.

The SEC sued Musk in October last year, in an effort to force him to testify about his purchase of Twitter, arguing that the billionaire failed to appear for testimony on Sept. 15 as required by a subpoena and delayed the regulator's ongoing investigation.

The regulator also noted that its officials tried to come up with an agreed time and place to meet with Musk in October and November.

The probe aims to find out whether the $44 billion purchase of the social media firm violated any federal laws.

Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted an image of the new X branding beamed onto the side of the social media company’s headquarters in San Francisco, saying: “X.com now points to Twitter.com.”

“X is here! Let’s do this,” Twitter’s CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted.

On late Saturday, Musk invited his followers to suggest an X logo and on Sunday chose one of the designs.

“The US has carried out discriminatory, large-scale cyber attacks against other countries over the years,” said Mao Ning, spokeswoman of China’s Foreign Ministry.

Pointing out that the alleged US cyber-attacks “have raised concern,” Mao told reporters in Beijing: “The US Cyber Force Command blatantly declared last year that the critical infrastructure of other countries is a legitimate target for US cyber-attacks.”

“China is a victim of cyber attacks. We firmly oppose any form of cyber attacks,” she said, according to a transcript released by the Foreign Ministry.

Mao noted that cyber security is a “global challenge and requires a joint response from the international community.”

“Some in the US must not smear other countries with groundless narratives to serve their political agenda. The US needs to stop cyber attacks against other countries,” she added.

Beijing had also accused Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of "directing color revolutions" in April by gathering intelligence from foreign governments.

In 2020, Chinese internet security company Qihoo 360 discovered an unknown cyberattack organization “which carried out a slew of cyberattacks toward China and other countries by utilizing cyber tools related to CIA.”

The news website, Semafor, citing a letter dated Wednesday, reported that Twitter attorney Alex Spiro accused Meta of "systematic" and "unlawful misappropriation" of trade secrets following the launch of the Threads app.

Spiro said the new service was constructed by former Twitter employees who he said were deliberately assigned to create a "copycat" application.

"Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information," said the letter.

"Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice," it said.

"Competition is fine, cheating is not," Elon Musk responded to one tweet.

The new Meta service was launched Wednesday.

Meta Communications Director Andy Stone posted on Threads that no one on the app’s engineering team is a former Twitter employee.

"To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we've applied the following temporary limits: Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day, unverified accounts to 600 posts/day, new unverified accounts to 300/day," he said in a tweet, drawing fire from users.

In a later tweet, Musk said that the limit would be raised to 8,000, 800, and 400 tweets, respectively, for verified, unverified, and new unverified users.

The move to implement what has been called a paywall due to the much higher limit offered to paying Twitter Blue subscribers, was criticized by many of the platform's users as many called on the billionaire to reverse course.

"Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience," Musk previously said when Twitter started requiring users to log in to see a tweet.

The move has raised many questions, including as to the limit would include any tweet that appears on their screens.

“The security of networks is essential for all of us in Europe,” EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said at a news conference presenting the latest progress report on the EU's 5G toolbox on cybersecurity.

Breton said that “only 10 EU member states” had implemented the 5G toolbox recommendations on restricting or excluding suppliers because of posing a security risk for EU governments.

According to the European Commission’s assessment, the EU countries took a “justified" decision on excluding or restricting Huawei and ZTE from 5G networks because the companies are “subject to highly intrusive own country laws on national intelligence and data security,” he added.

The European Commission will “implement the 5G toolbox principle to its own procurement of telecom services to avoid exposure to Huawei and ZTE,” Breton said.

He also stressed that the EU executive body urges member states to speed up decisions “to replace high-risk suppliers from their 5G networks.”

The US, UK, Australia, Japan, India and Canada have recently taken similar steps.

“We are concerned that Google may have illegally distorted competition in the online advertising technology industry,” EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said at a news conference.

She explained that after launching an investigation into Google’s activities on the ad tech chain in 2021, the EU executive body sent a formal notification called “Statement of Objections” to the tech giant.

“We found that Google may have abused its dominant position by favoring its own ad tech services,” Vestager explained.

According to the investigation, Google is the most important player in the market of ad tech services offered for publishers and advertisers, as well as operating a matching function called AdX.

The EU executive body assumes that it had abused its leading position “by ensuring that both its intermediation tools on the buy-side and on the sell-side would favor AdX in the ‘matching’ auctions,” Vestager explained.

“Rather than letting the best of the ad exchanges win the race, the helping hand of the powerful Google ecosystem gave Google's own exchange a unique head start over all other rivals in the industry,” she further said.

As the next step of the investigation that may lead to another heavy fine on the tech company, Google can reply to the European Commission’s letter.

In the past years, the EU executive body imposed a penalty of €2.4 billion ($2.6 billion) and €4.3 billion ($4.7 billion) on Google for abusing its dominant position in the market of online searches and related Android operating systems.

Maintaining fair competition in the EU’s internal market is one of the few exclusive competencies of the EU, allowing the European Commission to fine companies for breaching antitrust law.

The three-day event hosts representatives of major firms, experts and academics.

During dozens of sessions, many topics, including future of malls, new trends in e-commerce, blockchain, green logistics, and new generation warehouse options, will be discussed.

Among the domestic and foreign shareholders attending the event are Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, worldwide shipping firm UPS, Turkish flag carrier's air cargo subsidiary Turkish Cargo, Turkish marketplaces Trendyol and Hepsiburada, and Turkish retailer LC Waikiki.

Last year, the forum, which was held in the Turkish Mediterranean resort city Antalya, hosted more than 25,000 business-to-business meetings which are expected to generate a trading volume of $1.5 billion.

"Microsoft has uncovered stealthy and targeted malicious activity focused on post-compromise credential access and network system discovery aimed at critical infrastructure organizations in the United States," it said in a statement.

The company said the attack was carried out by Volt Typhoon, which it said was a state-sponsored actor based in China that focuses on espionage and information gathering.

"Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises," it said.

Volt Typhoon has been active since mid-2021 and has targeted critical infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the US, it said.

"In this campaign, the affected organizations span the communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education sectors.

"Observed behavior suggests that the threat actor intends to perform espionage and maintain access without being detected for as long as possible," said the statement.

The US-based global tech giant posted revenue of $69.8 billion in the January-March period of this year, up 2.6% from $68 billion from the same period of last year.

Net income, on the other hand, fell to approximately $15 billion, from $16.4 billion, during the same period for an 8.5% decline.

The company's cloud services, meanwhile, expanded over 27% to more than $7.4 billion, from $5.8 billion, during the same period.

With positive results, Alphabet saw its stock price rise more than 4% to $108.10 per share, after closing Tuesday at $103.85 a share.

Blue checks had for years been a public display that Twitter took the time to verify the identity of an individual, which it did by checking documents, including a copy of a government-issued identification card. They can now do so by subscribing to Twitter Blue.

Owner Elon Musk had originally vowed to begin the process to remove legacy blue marks April 1, but delayed the action en masse until April 20.

So far, major accounts associated with high-profile celebrities including Oprah, former President Donald Trump, Pope Francis, Kim Kardashian, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and a wide slew of journalists across varied media outlets have lost the mark.

As with many overhauls at Twitter, the new rollout has led to glitches with the legacy blue checks occasionally reappearing on subsequent page refreshes.

Musk had originally sought to expand the blue checks to any user who pays for them, but the plan quickly ran into problems last year when users bearing the blue mark began impersonating high-profile accounts in a deluge that sometimes led to negative blowback for the real individual or entity.

Users can still receive a blue check if they sign up for Twitter Blue, which costs $84 per year, or $8 per month to maintain a verification status. Other perks include Twitter boosting users' posts, fewer advertisements, and the ability to post longer videos and tweets.

The push to get people to adopt Twitter Blue comes as Musk continues to grapple with the shockwaves of his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which was finalized in October. Following his acquisition, advertisement revenue at Twitter and beyond has nosedived as Musk has sought to cut costs, including with deep internal layoffs.

Musk last week voiced regret over the purchase, saying in an interview with British broadcaster BBC that his takeover has been “quite painful," acknowledging that he only went through with the purchase because a judge was about to make him do so.

The "pain level has been extremely high, this hasn't been some kind of party," he said. "We could be profitable, or to be more precise, cash flow positive this quarter if things keep going well. I think almost all advertisers have come back or said they are going to come back."

He did not specify which advertisers would be returning to Twitter.

Epidemic diseases, which disrupted our personal and professional lives, brought along institutional innovations in the way we do business. Thus, rapidly transforming and developing technology has forced so many sectors to adapt quickly. So much so that digital platforms, the use of which has increased in the interim, have brought about a sea change in our cinema and television habits, while online meetings and remote working models have saved time and brought people together in the virtual world.

In this context, institutional structures have to integrate their systems into the new world that is formed. However, digitalized and traditional management approaches sometimes clash, bringing about new risks.

MUSIAD Private Secretary Selçuk Şenel stressed the importance of human relations by noting that digitalism has moved to a different dimension, particularly during the pandemic.

"It may not always be easy to manage the situation, events, process, and people correctly and strategically, and the technology and management approach should be built on a corporate structure that renews itself and closely follows the latest innovations,” continued Şenel.

Noting that training, seminars, and studies on corporate innovation and management in public and private companies, as well as non-governmental organizations, have gained importance since the pandemic, Şenel argued that more systematic corporate governance understandings can be created by blending innovative perspectives and traditional structures.

Şenel also underlined that the new management approach and traditional management trends that emerged with digitization will not cause any conflict when the appropriate ground is laid, "Managers should also familiarize themselves with the changing trends as well as the corporate structures. The development of the person who takes the initiative is very important. A good manager should keep abreast with technology and the world, strengthen human relations, know their job very well in theory and practice, and constantly improve themselves," he concluded.

Telegram’s share in total instant messaging traffic reached 60%-80% in by the beginning of 2023, the Russian TASS news agency reported on Monday, citing a report from local newspaper Vedomosti.

A representative of mobile operator Megafon told the newspaper that Telegram has been top in traffic in Russia since last March, the report said.

In March 2022, a Moscow court banned Meta-owned social networks Facebook and Instagram in Russia over “extremist activity,” but said the ruling would not affect WhatsApp.

Telegram’s daily user count stood at 48.8 million people, or around 40% of Russia’s internet users, this month, versus WhatsApp’s 76 million daily users, the report said.

According to the report released by Brand Finance, a leading valuation and strategy consultancy group, Amazon regained the title despite a 15% drop in its brand value to $299.3 billion.

Amazon was the most valuable brand in the 2020 report with a value of $220.8 billion but lost ground to Apple in 2021 and 2022.

In the 2023 report, Apple was in second place with a value of $297.5 billion, down by 16.2% on a yearly basis.

In third place is Google with $281.4 billion, followed by Microsoft ($191.6 billion) and Walmart ($113.8 billion).

Among the top 10 firms included Samsung, ICBC, Verizon, Tesla and TikTok.

Among the top 10 companies, seven are from the US, two are from China and one is from South Korea.

David Haigh, the chairman and CEO of Brand Finance, said: “Technology brands across the world have lost significant value in response to shifting demand patterns.

"Inflation has affected brands across many sectors, but as consumer habits partially revert to pre-pandemic patterns, demand for the services of tech brands has been hit particularly hard."

The US dominated the list of 500 most valuable brands with 201 brands ($3.98 trillion), followed by China with 79 brands ($1.43 trillion), Germany with 24 ($479.6 billion), Japan with 32 ($425.5 billion), and France with 31 ($331.2 billion).

Ali Taha Koc invited technology firms to join the platform, called TechnoHub, which he said would serve as an umbrella establishment for all tech companies at all levels, according to a press release.

TechnoHub will benefit all its members, Koc said, adding that on its website, turkiyetechnohub.org, they could register all companies in the technology ecosystem and identify their areas of expertise, bringing them together with potential domestic and foreign investors and customers.

The platform also aims to facilitate the sharing of experience and information between companies in the country to make them more visible on a global scale, establish new collaboration links, and create more opportunities, he underlined.

It will cover all stakeholders in Türkiye in the domestic technology entrepreneurship ecosystem, he said, including public institutions serving tech entrepreneurship, private sector companies, technoparks, and technology transfer offices.

All relevant stakeholders can register themselves on this platform, created for ecosystem-wide information sharing, added Koc.

This is the first such platform established to gather "under a single roof" all stakeholders in the tech entrepreneurship ecosystem with a comprehensive classification system and strong international visibility, noted the official.

"We needed this platform to identify the competencies of our domestic technology startups and share it with all stakeholders," he said.

Stating that companies can register themselves on the platform freely at any time, Koc invited all startups working in the technology sector to join turkiyetechnohub.org and be part of this ecosystem without delay.

The fee he promised to implement was launched so users can verify accounts with the coveted blue checkmark.

“Get Twitter Blue for $7.99/month if you sign up now,” Twitter announced in an update on Apple iOS devices. “Blue checkmark: Power to the people. Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.”

The move comes days before the US midterm elections on Nov. 8 and the blue checkmark is raising concerns about who can get a verified account because anyone able to get it could lead to confusion and the spread of disinformation ahead of voting. Impostors could pay for the subscription and use the names of politicians and elected officials.

Twitter’s verification system had been in existence for 13 years since the platform launched it in 2009 to prevent impersonations of high-profile accounts such as celebrities and politicians.

The company had about 423,000 verified accounts before the new changes. That verification was supposed to be used to help the site’s 238 million daily users determine if the accounts they were getting information from were authentic.

The new fee is luring those who want to be verified with the promise of extra perks.

“Coming soon… Half the ads amp; much better ones,” the Twitter statement added. “Since you’re supporting Twitter in the battle against the bots, we’re going to reward you with half the ads and make them twice as relevant.”

Twitter Blue is also promising users the ability to "post longer videos" and receive "priority ranking for quality content."

"Your content will get priority ranking in replies, mentions and search," said the announcement. "This helps lower visibility of scams, spam, and bots."

Twitter Blue is available on iOS in the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

The US-based multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate added 14.4 million Disney subscribers during its fiscal third quarter, which corresponds to the April-June period of this year.

"We now have 221 million total subscriptions across our streaming offerings," the company said in its financial results statement released on late Wednesday.

In contrast, Netflix’s financial results statement released on July 19 showed that it had 220.6 million global streaming paid memberships in the April-June period of this year.

Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers during the first three months of the year, marking its first loss in users since October 2011.

It also lost 1 million subscribers in the second quarter of this year, which was lower than its forecast of 2 million, according to its financial statement.

This marks the first time any streaming service surpassed Netflix in total subscribers, and it makes Disney the world's largest streaming service provider in the industry in terms of the number of subscribers.

Since its launch in November 2019, Disney saw exponential growth in the number of subscribers, as its portfolio spans from the popular Star Wars franchise to Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Walt Disney Company's stock price soared 7.6% in pre-market trading on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, while Netflix shares were down 0.4%.

The company's revenue came in at $21.5 billion in the April-June period of the year, up 26% from $17 billion in the same period of last year.

As Saturday marks 31 years since the internet's first website came online, Google was found to be the most-visited website with 47.8 billion, according to US-based search engine marketing company Semrush.

However, this was not always the case over the past roughly three decades after the first-ever website, which was made by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee and contained information on the World Wide Web project, went public on Aug. 6, 1991.

The website started functioning on Dec. 20, 1990. But at the time, it was only accessible from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

In 2001, the most popular websites were MSN, Yahoo, and eBay, though the first two would lose their spots to Yahoo and Google by 2007.

Other popular websites at that time, such as Myspace and AOL, have disappeared over time.

Google, Facebook, and YouTube were ranked as the most popular websites in 2012.

There are currently around 2 billion websites. After Google, YouTube tops the list in popularity with 46.8 billion visits, followed by Facebook with 10.6 billion, Wikipedia with 5.8 billion, and Twitter with 4.8 billion.

On the other hand, according to website traffic tracker Similarweb, YouTube is the website on which users spend the most time -- around 22 minutes per visit. It is followed by Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

According to data by Statista, there were 5 billion active internet users, which is over 60% of the world population, as of April 2022. Of those, 93% are also on social media.

The 164-page document was sealed after the judge-imposed filing deadline, which means the contents of the countersuit are not accessible through public records.

“I have reviewed the counterclaims and declare that the matter contained therein insofar as it concerns my acts and deeds is true, and insofar as it relates to the acts and deeds of any other person, I believe it to be true,” said an accompanying filing signed by Musk.

Musk agreed to buy Twitter in April for $54.20 per share in an unsolicited agreement.

But the billionaire announced in July that he was pulling out of the deal, alleging that Twitter misrepresented user data and the number of spam bots on the platform is much higher than the company originally disclosed.

Twitter dismissed those claims, stating that the number of bots was well under 5% of total daily active users.

Delaware Court of Chancery judge Katharine McCormick granted Twitter's request for an expedited trial during a preliminary hearing last week, with the five-day court battle set to begin Oct. 17.

Musk's attorneys originally requested that the trial start no earlier than February, arguing that his legal team needed more time to investigate fake accounts on Twitter's online platform.

“The longer the merger transaction remains in limbo, the larger the cloud of uncertainty cast over the company,” said McCormick.

Under court rules, a redacted version of Musk's countersuit may soon be made public.

Shares of Twitter dropped 0.7% Friday to $41.32 at the closing bell on Wall Street.

The company's net sales reached $121.2 billion in the April-June period of the year, an increase of 7% from $113.1 billion in the same period of last year.

The firm posted a net loss of $2 billion in the second quarter of this year, while it had a net income of $7.8 billion in the same period of 2021.

"Second quarter 2022 net loss includes a pre-tax valuation loss of $3.9 billion included in non-operating expense from our common stock investment in Rivian Automotive, Inc.," the company said in a statement late Thursday.

CEO Andy Jassy said the firm is seeing revenue accelerate with Prime membership, investment in faster shipping, free delivery from food ordering platform Grubhub, in addition to exclusive access to NFL Thursday Night Football starting Sept. 15, and the release of the series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Sept. 2.

"Despite continued inflationary pressures in fuel, energy, and transportation costs, we’re making progress on the more controllable costs we referenced last quarter, particularly improving the productivity of our fulfillment network," he added.

The company said its Prime members worldwide shopped more than any other Prime Day event this year, purchasing more than 300 million items with more than 100,000 items per minute.

As net sales offset the net loss, Amazon's stock price surged 11.1% to $135.85 per share at the pre-market opening on the Nasdaq as of 8.28 a.m. EDT on Friday, after closing Thursday at $122.28 a share.

“As it has done, Twitter will continue to provide information reasonably requested by Mr. Musk under the Agreement and to diligently take all measures required to close the transaction,” said Twitter attorney William Savitt in a letter to Musk’s legal team.

Twitter's letter comes in the wake of Musk backing out of the deal late last Friday with multiple reasons, including that Twitter allegedly undercounts the number of spam accounts on its service.

"Twitter has breached none of its obligations under the Agreement, and Twitter has not suffered and is not likely to suffer a company material adverse effect," Savitt added, reiterating that Musk's move to end the deal was “invalid and wrongful.”

“Twitter reserves all contractual, legal, and other rights, including its right to specifically enforce the Musk Parties’ obligations under the Agreement," the letter continued.

Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share in an unsolicited deal struck in late April.

The billionaire alleged in his Friday termination letter that Twitter misrepresented user data, claiming the number of spam bots on the social media platform is much higher than the company has disclosed.

Twitter dismissed that claim, stating that the number of bots was well under 5% of its total daily active users.

Twitter chairman Bret Taylor tweeted Friday that the company "plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement."

No lawsuit has yet been filed by either side.

Twitter shares fell 11% to $32.65 at Monday's market close.

“Mr. Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement,” Musk’s attorney Mike Ringler said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) letter dated July 8.

“(Twitter) appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect,” it said.

The termination cited a lack of information on bot accounts.

“For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to ‘make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform,’” the letter goes on to say. “This information is fundamental to Twitter’s business and financial performance and is necessary to consummate the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement.”

“Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information,” Ringler said in the SEC filing. “Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information.”

Twitter’s chairman Bret Taylor sent out a tweet following Musk’s announcement.

“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” said Taylor. “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”

Depending on what the court decides, technically, under an acquisition agreement with Twitter, Musk at the very least is on the hook for a $1 billion termination fee if the deal is not completed.

Leading up to his unsolicited April 14 offer to buy the social media platform for $54.20 per share, Musk was a sharp critic of Twitter’s message-posting practices and described the platform as an important forum for free speech.

"The merger agreement is advisable and the merger and the other transactions contemplated by the merger agreement are fair to, advisable and in the best interests of Twitter and its stockholders,” the board said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Musk, who previously bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter, made an offer of $54.20 per share for the company in his notification to the SEC on April 14.

Twitter announced on April 25 that a deal had been reached for the sale of the company to Musk, but Musk said on May 13 that it had been temporarily suspended.

In a post on his Twitter account, he said the deal was on hold pending "details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."

"From at least May 2013 until at least September 2019, Twitter misrepresented to users of its online communication service the extent to which it maintained and protected the security and privacy of their nonpublic contact information," said a complaint filed on Wednesday.

"Specifically, while Twitter represented to users that it collected their telephone numbers and email addresses to secure their accounts, Twitter failed to disclose that it also used user contact information to aid advertisers in reaching their preferred audiences," said the filing in the US District Court Northern District of California.

In a statement on Wednesday, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that Twitter "deceptively" used account security data for targeted advertising, and then profited "by allowing advertisers to use this data to target specific users."

Lina M. Khan, the FTC chair, said this practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users, while boosting Twitter’s primary source of revenue.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said the substantial new compliance measures to be imposed will help prevent further "misleading tactics" that threaten users’ privacy.

"We have a critical opportunity to build consensus on how digital technologies can be used for the good of people and the planet while addressing their risks," Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council. "Collective action by Member States remains essential towards this goal."

DiCarlo said digital technologies have "boundless opportunities for sustainable development; for education; for inclusion," but said advances in technology have also resulted in "significant new risks."

She pointed to an increasing number of malicious cyber actions from state and non-state actors, which DiCarlo said have quadrupled since 2015, particularly attacks on public infrastructure, including public health agencies and hospitals.

"Meanwhile, lethal autonomous weapons raise questions regarding human accountability for the use of force. The Secretary-General has made clear, machines with the power and discretion to take lives without human involvement are politically unacceptable, morally repugnant, and should be prohibited by international law," she said.

"Further, digital technologies have raised major human rights concerns, from artificial intelligence systems that may be discriminatory to the widespread availability of surveillance technologies that can be deployed to target communities or individuals," she added.

The new policy "will help to slow the spread by us of the most visible, misleading content, particularly that which could lead to severe harms," Twitter said in a blog post. The policy will first be applied to content concerning Russia's war against Ukraine before being expanded to include other crises.

"In times of crisis, misleading information can undermine public trust and cause further harm to already vulnerable communities," wrote Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of safety and security.

"During moments of crisis, establishing whether something is true or false can be exceptionally challenging. To determine whether claims are misleading, we require verification from multiple credible, publicly available sources, including evidence from conflict monitoring groups, humanitarian organizations, open-source investigators, journalists, and more,” he said.

As part of the new initiative, Twitter will put warning labels on tweets with misleading information with an emphasis on high-profile accounts, including state-affiliated media outlets, verified accounts and government accounts.

Twitter will also ensure it does not amplify or recommend posts that contain misleading claims. That includes content on the home timeline, as well as the search, and explore tabs.

An announcement on Russia's official registry Fedresurs on Wednesday said the company has started the process to declare bankruptcy.

The company could not fulfill its financial obligations as of March 22, the statement read.

The company was required to pay a fine of 7.2 billion rubles ($111.7 million) over lawsuits filed by Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).

The SpaceX founder tweeted that he estimates at least 20% of all Twitter accounts, or even more, could be fake or spam accounts, which is four times what Twitter claims of being less than 5%.

He added that his billion-dollar offer to purchase Twitter was based on the company's US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings being accurate.

"Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of

"Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users," Musk wrote on his own Twitter account.

The social media company announced earlier this month that it estimates false, spam, and fake accounts make up less than 5% of its total monetizable daily active users, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Musk earlier said one of his priorities after his takeover would be removing spam and bots from the platform.

Twitter saw its stock price plummeting almost 22% to $35.18 per share in Friday pre-market hours on the New York Stock Exchange, after closing the previous day at $45.08.

Two Twitter executives announced Thursday they were leaving the social media firm, as it also announced a hiring freeze.

Twitter announced on April 25 that it had accepted Musk's offer to be purchased for $44 billion.

Many users of the service have expressed reservations about the deal, saying Musk’s more permissive approach could open the doors to more harassment, hate speech, and abuse.

Musk last week secured $7.1 billion in funding from a number of investors to buy the company, including tech firm Oracle's co-founder Larry Ellison, Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, and Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency marketplace by trading volume.

"I wanted to take a moment to thank all the teams and partners I’ve been lucky enough to work with during the past 5 years. Building and running these businesses is a team sport," Bruce Falck, the general manager of revenue and head of product, wrote on his Twitter account.

"When all is said and done, it's the work that matters," he said, as he thanked all engineers and coworkers in a series of tweets.

Falck also wrote "unemployed" on his Twitter account.

"I’m leaving the company after over 7 years," wrote Kayvon Beykpour on his Twitter account, who is the general manager of consumer responsible for leading design, research, product, engineering and customer service.

Twitter announced on April 25 that it has accepted Musk's offer to be purchased for $44 billion.

Musk has secured last week $7.1 billion in funding from a number of investors to buy the company, which include tech firm Oracle's co-founder Larry Ellison, Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, and Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency marketplace by trading volume.

Musk, whose $44 billion bid to acquire the social media company was accepted by Twitter in late April, said he has spoken to company founder Jack Dorsey and they agree "permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots or spam scam accounts, where there's just no legitimacy to be accountable."

"I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice," he said during an interview with the Financial Times newspaper.

Musk acknowledged that he does not yet own Twitter, but said he and Dorsey agree "that we should not have" permanent bans.

"That doesn't mean that somebody gets to say whatever they want to say if they say something that is illegal or otherwise destructive to the world then that there should be a passive timeout, a temporary suspension, or that particular tweet should be made invisible or have very limited traction," he said.

"High-speed internet service is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. But too many families go without high-speed internet because of the cost or have to cut back on other essentials to make their monthly internet service payments," the White House said in a statement.

The bipartisan Infrastructure Law aims to create the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which will reduce the internet service costs of millions by up to $30 per month, or $75 a month on Tribal lands.

The administration said it has secured commitments from 20 leading American internet providers, such as ATamp;T, Comcast and Verizon, which cover over 80% of the US population across urban, suburban, and rural areas, to either increase speeds or cut prices, and make sure they all offer ACP-eligible plans for no more than $30 per month.

Eligible households will be able to sign up and get details on "GetInternet.gov" about ACP and find participating internet providers in their respective areas.

While the US Social Security Administration will email all 1.6 million recipients to inform their eligibility for ACP, households will qualify for ACP based on their income or through their participation federal programs such as Medicaid.

In addition, some US states will text millions of eligible households, while public interest organizations will conduct direct enrollment and outreach.

Around 48 million households, or nearly 40%, are estimated to qualify for the ACP because of their income standing below 200% of the federal poverty level, according to the statement.

"As of now, more than 1,300 internet service providers participate in the program, and more than 11.5 million households have signed up to receive the ACP benefit," it said.

Biden in November 2021 signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, which includes investing $65 billion to provide high speed and affordable internet access to public.

Unconscious and uncontrolled use of technology and the internet is a type of addiction that manifests itself with addictive sub-behaviors such as behavioral addictions, internet gaming disorder, and excessive use of social media and smartphones, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency from Turkiye's Green Crescent organization.

The problems caused by technology addiction include physical complaints such as eye burning, pain and stiffness in the neck muscles, poor body posture, numbness in hands, and physical weakness.

Also, social complaints, including low academic achievement, personal and family problems, time management issues, sleep disorders, decrease in physical activities, as well as social isolation, are counted as other problems related to technology and internet addiction.

To help people deal with these issues, Green Crescent Counseling Center provides free support to those aged 12 and over.

According to research by the UK-based GlobalWebIndex last year, the average daily time spent on the internet worldwide was six hours and 58 minutes.

However, users in Turkey spent an average of eight hours on the internet -- above the world average.

Japan ranked last in internet use time, with four hours and 26 minutes, according to the research.

Meanwhile, Green Crescent recommends a maximum of 120 minutes of screen time daily for people aged 12 and over.

Infants and toddlers should be kept away from the screen, preschoolers aged 3-6 should spend no more than 30 minutes, children aged 6-9 a maximum of 50 minutes, and those aged 9-12 should spend no more than 70 minutes daily, according to the Turkish NGO.

- Recommendations

To get rid of tech addictions, Green Crescent recommends limiting hours of daily internet use through weekly schedules or participating in support groups or family therapy.

Guiding children to meet their friends in natural environments and enabling them to socialize in peer groups are also advised for families.

"Direct your children to sports branches that match their talents and interests. Support your child's friendships and plan activities that will bring them together. Check your child's computer use and get to know his friends in the virtual environment. Make sure you have secure internet applications on your computers," the group also suggested.

It also warned parents that they should never use technological devices such as smartphones and tablets to keep their children busy.

Established in 1920, the Turkish Green Crescent is a non-profit and non-governmental organization that aims to empower youth and adults with factual information about drugs to help them make informed decisions against different kinds of addictions, such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and gambling, according to its website.

“This report exposed that social media companies, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube, failed to act on 89% of posts containing anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobic content reported to them,” said the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

In a joint statement in 2019, Meta, Twitter, and Google committed to uphold the Christchurch call to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

The social media giants stated that they would be resolute in their “commitment to ensure they are doing all they can to fight the hatred and extremism that lead to terrorist violence.”

“Once again, their press releases prove to be nothing more than empty promises,” the report said.

The CCDH researchers reported 530 posts which contain disturbing, bigoted, and dehumanizing content that target Muslims through racist caricatures, conspiracies, and false claims.

These posts were viewed at least 25 million times.

Many of the abusive content was easily identifiable, and yet there was still inaction, it said.

Stating that Instagram, TikTok and Twitter allow users to use hashtags such as #deathtoislam, #islamiscancer and #ragheadi, the report further said content spread using the hashtags received at least 1.3 million impressions.

Such content further endangers these communities by driving “social divisions, normalizing the abusive behavior, and encouraging offline attacks and abuse,” it added.

“Worse still, platforms profit from this hate, gleefully monetizing content, interactions, and the resulting attention and eyeballs. For them, hate is good business,” it said.

Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla, sold 3.7 million shares of Tesla stock on Tuesday for $3.3 billion, and an additional 735,000 shares for almost $700 million on Wednesday.

In addition, he sold another 5.2 million shares worth $4.5 billion on Thursday, according to filings made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In total, Musk has sold more than 9.6 million Tesla shares, for an average price of around $883 per share.

"No further TSLA sales planned after today," Musk wrote on his personal Twitter account late Thursday.

The stock price of Tesla, with ticker TSLA on the Nasdaq, was up 3.5% to $908.50 at 12.05 p.m. EDT on Friday.

Musk is estimated to have sold around 5.6% of Tesla shares he owned. After the transactions, percentage of the shares he owns in the company fell from around 17% to approximately 16%.

Twitter announced Monday it has accepted Elon Musk's offer to be purchased for $44 billion.

Musk was exploring a tender offer to buy Twitter, as he received a $46.5 billion commitment for the deal, according to a securities filing last Thursday.

In a report prepared with Ukrainian cybersecurity officials and private sector companies, Microsoft said: "The cyber component of Russia’s assault on Ukraine has been destructive and relentless."

"At least six Russian Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors and other unattributed threats, have conducted destructive attacks, espionage operations, or both, while Russian military forces attack the country by land, air, and sea," the report said.

It added that a day before Moscow's military attack in Ukraine, operators associated with the Russian military intelligence service launched destructive cyberattacks on hundreds of systems in the Ukrainian government, information technology, energy and financial organizations.

"Based on Russian military goals for information warfare, these actions are likely aimed at undermining Ukraine’s political will and ability to continue the fight, while facilitating collection of intelligence that could provide tactical or strategic advantages to Russian forces," the report said.

The co-founder of PayPal and Tesla, and the founder of SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company, Musk has chosen to focus on particularly complicated issues facing humanity with a string of sensational initiatives.

Known for his eccentric way of doing things and his resounding successes, the multibillionaire is often associated with other trailblazers like Steve Jobs, Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, and Bill Gates.

With a current estimated net worth of around $273 billion, Musk is the richest person in the world, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the Forbes real-time billionaires list.

Here is a brief look at the initiatives that made headlines and blew up several industries:

1. Creating X.com (PayPal) e-payments

By founding X.com, an online payment firm, in 1999, Musk was eager to shape the future of banking.

He was interested in helping people make payments via email, so he merged with another firm, Confinity, to form PayPal, which was purchased by eBay in 2002 for a price tag of more than $1 billion.

2. SpaceX: Sending humans to Mars

In 2001, Musk became involved in the nonprofit Mars Society, inspired by plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars, discussing the idea of funding the project himself.

He got one step closer to this goal when, in 2002, he established SpaceX to help reduce the cost of space transportation and enable what once seemed the crazy aim of colonizing the Red Planet.

In 2018, SpaceX made history by successfully launching its Falcon Heavy rocket with an electric car on board and bound for deep space. Marking an important milestone in spaceflight, this was the first time a rocket that powerful was sent into space by a private company, rather than a government space agency.

3. Hyperloop: Changing the future of transportation

Traffic congestion and mass transit in the world's densely populated cities are two other major issues Musk says he wants to tackle.

To do this, Musk hopes to build what has been dubbed the Hyperloop, a proposed high-speed transportation system for both people and goods, designed to employ three essential components: Tubes, pods, and terminals.

This system, begun in 2013 and still in the formative stages, aims to take people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in half an hour using pressurized tubes.

4. Neuralink and AI debate

In 2016, Musk co-founded neurotechnology startup Neuralink to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices embedded in the brain to facilitate its merging with machines.

At a live demonstration in August 2020, Musk described one of their early devices as "a Fitbit in your skull," that could soon cure paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other disabilities. Fitbit is a US firm that produces smart watches and fitness trackers.

Many neuroscientists and publications criticized these claims, which the MIT Technology Review magazine called "highly speculative" and "neuroscience theater."

Actually, Musk is no fan of artificial intelligence, and warns of risks if it is allowed to develop unchecked.

"I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence," Musk once said. "If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that. So we need to be very careful."

5. Buying Twitter: Free speech 'absolutist'?

Describing himself as a "free speech absolutist," Musk's most recent major exploit was a deal he struck to buy Twitter with the proclaimed aim of halting censorship on the platform.

Twitter announced on Monday that it had accepted his offer to purchase it for $44 billion.

While the sale led to an outcry from many Twitter users, Musk said the agreement would affect neither the company nor its policies. "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," he said.

"I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans."

In recent years, Twitter has stepped up measures to combat misinformation and violent or provocative speech on its platform, even banning users who break its rules, such as former US President Donald Trump.

What will Musk's purchase of Twitter bring? It remains to be seen what he will do with the reins of the company that the enterprising 50-year-old is soon to take in hand.

The social media company said in a statement that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Musk, in which Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each common stock they own.

"The purchase price represents a 38% premium to Twitter's closing stock price on April 1, 2022, which was the last trading day before Mr. Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake in Twitter," the statement said.

Twitter will become a privately held company after the deal is closed.

Trading of Twitter shares were briefly halted in the Samp;P 500 on the New York Stock Exchange during mid-day session amid a pending purchase agreement.

The announcement came after Twitter's Board of Directors met Sunday to discuss Musk's offer.

"The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon's proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing," Twitter's Independent Board Chair Bret Taylor said in the statement. "The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter's stockholders."

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said that the company has "a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world."

While many Twitter users raised a loud outcry on social media amid the purchase deal, Musk tried to reassure them by saying the agreement would not affect the company nor its policies.

"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," Musk said in the statement.

"I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it," he added.

Entrepreneur and business magnate Musk, the founder of electric carmaker Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX, announced on April 4 that he bought a 9.2% share in Twitter, becoming the social media platform’s biggest investor.

Musk was exploring a tender offer to buy Twitter, as he received a $46.5 billion commitment for the deal, according to a securities filing released Thursday.

According to a statement from the European Commission on Saturday, the Digital Services Act (DSA) will provide better protection for internet users besides defining a single set of rules in the bloc, helping smaller platforms grow.

The political agreement reached by the European Parliament and European Council is now subject to formal approval by the two co-legislators.

Once adopted, the DSA will be directly applicable across the bloc within 15 months or from Jan. 1, 2024

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed that the online environment needs to remain a safe space, safeguarding freedom of expression and opportunities for digital businesses.

"It gives practical effect to the principle that what is illegal offline, should be illegal online," Leyen said.

Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe Vestager, pointed out that online platforms should be transparent about their content moderation decisions, prevent dangerous disinformation from going viral and avoid unsafe products being offered on market places.

Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton said platforms would be slapped with sanctions of up to 6% of global turnover or a ban on operating in the EU single market in case of repeated serious breaches.

The stock price of Netflix, a US-based global streaming service and production company, closed Wednesday at $226.19 per share on the Nasdaq – down 35.12% from its previous close of $348.61 a share.

While the company had a market capitalization of $154.77 billion on Tuesday, this plummeted to $100.42 billion on Wednesday – a $54.35 billion loss in market cap.

The sudden decline came after Netflix reported late Tuesday that it had lost 200,000 subscribers during the first three months of 2022, marking its first loss in users since October 2011.

The company cited account sharing, revenue decline, and rising competition as major issues.

More than 100 million households use a shared password around the world for the company's service, with over 30 million of those in the US and Canada, according to Netflix.

"Our revenue growth has slowed considerably ... a large number of households sharing accounts, combined with competition, create revenue growth headwinds," the company told shareholders after the release of its first-quarter financial results on Tuesday.

The stock price of Netflix fell to as low as $212.51 per share on the Nasdaq after the opening bell, down 39% from its previous close of $348.61 a share.

The sudden decline came a day after Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers during the first three months of 2022, marking the first loss of users since October 2011.

The US-based global streaming service and production company cited account sharing, revenue decline, and rising competition as major issues.

"Our revenue growth has slowed considerably ... large number of households sharing accounts, combined with competition, create revenue growth headwinds," the company told shareholders after the release of its first-quarter financial results on Tuesday.

More than 100 million households use a shared password around the world for the company's service, with over 30 million of those in the US and Canada, according to Netflix.

Global e-commerce volume grew 14% to reach $4.9 trillion in 2021 from the previous year, according to official data.

More than 162,000 companies in Turkey engaged in e-commerce activities for the first time last year.

Around 70% of web shopping was done via mobile apps.

Online shopping last year took place in a range of product categories.

Fashion, including clothing, footwear and accessories, led the product categories with a 69.2% share.

Electronics came second with 47.7%, and cosmetics and personal care third with 41.6%.

They were followed by home and office supplies with 37%, home textiles with 31.4%, and books with 28.1%.

Food orders had a share of 27.9%, while supermarket orders stood at 22.8%, and medical products and supplements had a share of 22.2%.

They were followed by food and beverages with 19.7% and flowers at 17.3%.

While music, movies and hobbies had a 14.6% share, sports and outdoors were at 13.9%, followed by auto spare parts and accessories with 13%.

At the bottom of the list were gardening and hardware with 12.7%, toys at 11.6%, and entertainment and culture coming in at 10.1%.

In 2015 the global e-commerce volume stood at $1.5 trillion, when it constituted 7.4% of total world retail trade.

The volume of global e-commerce doubled to $3 trillion in 2018, with a share of 12.2%.

In 2021, the overall volume of e-commerce soared to $4.9 trillion – a 19.6% share of world retail trade.

"Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best," Parag Agrawal said in a statement on Twitter.

The board had offered Musk a seat.

On Tuesday, Agrawal said the founder of electric carmaker Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX would be appointed to the board.

Musk had purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter, becoming the social media platform’s biggest investor.

"We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input," said Agrawal.

No reason was given for the reversed decision.

This includes Turkiye, where such technology has been instrumental in ongoing digitalization efforts of numerous archives and libraries, giving researchers and students of Ottoman/Turkish studies from all over the world invaluable access to a vast volume of primary sources.

Endeavors like these, which fall in the category of digital humanities, serve as a bridge between the humanities and digital technologies, said Fatma Aladag, a researcher at Leipzig University in Germany and founder of the Digital Ottoman Studies website.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Aladag explained that the digital humanities allow researchers to ask new questions and produce new data with the help of special software that can process multi-layered and complex data.

- Digital supplanting conventional?

Noting concerns that digital technologies are "taking over" academia, Aladag underlined that the digital humanities had no such aim, but could rather be thought of as part of humankind's inevitable adaptation to the expanding role of technology in daily life.

"Can one expect our careers, research methods, or the institutions where we work to not be affected by these technological developments? Of course not," she argued.

According to Aladag, as humankind's cultural heritage becomes increasingly digital, the nature of knowledge as well as each individual's relationship with society, is in flux.

It is at this juncture that the digital humanities play a critical role in understanding these changes, she underlined, adding that, by facilitating open access to sources that may have otherwise been out of reach for many researchers, digitalization paves the way for inter-disciplinary work.

"Many different disciplines such as history, linguistics, literature, computer engineering, and architecture, along with their characteristic methodologies and sources, can be part of a digital humanities project," she said.

- Applications in Ottoman-Turkish studies

Having worked for years in her field, Aladag pointed out the sheer volume of Ottoman archives in many languages, spanning diverse ethnicities and geographical regions, while making the utilization of technology even more important for study.

With its deep-rooted record-keeping tradition, the Ottoman Empire left a vast collection of archival documents, hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, and registers on population, tax, land, and religious endowments, she said.

"If we can transform this immense volume of Ottoman archives into big data, it would be much easier to classify it according to different eras, regions, and topics.

"Thus, through machine learning and artificial intelligence, still untapped parts of the archive, will be available for researchers and students."

- Digital Ottoman Studies

On the Digital Ottoman Studies website, which she founded, Aladag said that the platform contains numerous projects, publications, and databases of maps, manuscripts, photographs, and dictionaries.

She also noted that the website had been recommended to researchers by academics at many prominent world universities including Harvard, Cornell, and Michigan.

On the state of digitalization in Turkiye, Aladag praised ongoing efforts by archives and libraries to scan documents and make them accessible online.

However, digitalization is more than scanning source material, she said, adding that researchers should be encouraged to use spatial and network analysis, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) applications in their work.

Universities, and especially humanities departments, should step up efforts to train students in line with the latest currents and developments in the digital humanities field to remain relevant and in demand, Aladag asserted.

"Therefore, students become not just consumers of information, but producers, too."

Megafon said the use of Telegram in Russia has increased rapidly since Feb. 24, when Russia launched a "war in Ukraine.

The share of Telegram in the total messaging traffic rose from 43% to 63% in the first two weeks of March.

WhatsApp’s share, meanwhile, dropped from 48% to 32% in the same period.

Earlier, Meta, which is the parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, announced that it would allow violent messages against Russians supporting the war in Ukraine and Russian soldiers participating in the war.

Following this development, access to Instagram and Facebook has been banned in Russia.

The Competition Commission said in a statement that it has referred Meta Platforms and its subsidiaries WhatsApp Inc and Facebook South Africa to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution for abusing its market dominance.

The commission alleges that Facebook in July 2020 threatened to block local startups GovChat and #LetsTalk from using its WhatsApp Business API.

GovChat is a local civic engagement platform providing various government-sanctioned communications services.

GovChat claimed that Facebook wanted to block it from the WhatsApp platform so that they could replace it by directly offering similar services to the South African government.

“This is in contravention of the Competition Act, (which) prohibits a dominant firm from abusing its dominance by engaging in exclusionary conduct geared at preventing competitors or potential competitors from entering into, participating and expanding in a market,” said the Competition Commission.

The commission said it has asked the Competition Tribunal to impose a maximum penalty against Meta Platforms, WhatsApp and Facebook South Africa which is 10% of their collective turnover.

“In addition, the Commission has requested the Tribunal to interdict Facebook from off-boarding GovChat from the WhatsApp Business API and to declare void certain exclusionary terms and conditions for access to the WhatsApp Business API,” the statement said.

The EU executive body will examine the so-called “Jedi Blue” cooperation agreement that Google and then Facebook stroke in 2018 to see if the deal sidelined Google’s competitors from the market of tech service advertisements.

“Via the so-called ‘Jedi Blue’ agreement between Google and Meta, a competing technology to Google's Open Bidding may have been targeted with the aim to weaken it and exclude it from the market for displaying ads on publisher websites and apps,” the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said in a press statement.

“If confirmed by our investigation, this would restrict and distort competition in the already concentrated ad tech market, to the detriment of rival ad serving technologies, publishers and ultimately consumers,” she added.

The European Commission also promised to “closely cooperate” with UK authorities who launched a similar investigation on Google and Meta.

Last June, the European Commission launched an investigation to determine if then Facebook had gathered data from advertisers to advertise its own competing services.

In two separate cases, the EU executive body imposed a penalty of €2.4 billion ($2.6 billion) and €4.3 billion ($4.7 billion) on Google for abusing its dominant position on the market of online searches and related Android operating systems.

Maintaining fair competition in the EU’s internal market is one of the few exclusive competencies of the EU. It allows the European Commission to decide on state aid rules and fine companies for breaching EU antitrust law.

Song Young-gil, chairman of the Democratic Party, was struck from behind on the head several times, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Video footage showed the assailant, later identified as a 70-year-old YouTuber, had wrapped the hammer in a black plastic bag.

Song was rushed to a hospital and needed stitches to stop bleeding from his head, officials said.

He was at a rally in the capital’s Sinchon area, campaigning for Lee Jae-myung, the party’s candidate for the March 9 presidential election.

The attacker, whose name has not been released, was immediately captured and handed over to police.

He “appeared to have followed” Song on the campaign trail since last month, the report said.

According to witnesses, the assailant “shouted at the scene that he opposes South Korea-US military exercises.”

Lee and the main opposition People Power Party’s presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol condemned the attack as “a threat to democracy.”

In this context, Turk Telekom cooperated with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), which sets open, virtualized interface standards and helps the development of the relevant ecosystem.

At the Turk Telekom Innovation Center, joint trials have begun on flexible, agile, and supplier-independent open carrier network solutions where the hardware and software layers are separated.

Turk Telekom also plays a leading role in these studies and contributes significantly to the development of carrier network equipment to meet the software, hardware, and interface requirements of mobile operators, together with the manufacturers in the TIP ecosystem, which includes the world's prominent telecom operators, infrastructure, and system providers.

Yusuf Kirac, assistant general manager for technology in Turk Telekom, stated that Turk Telekom supports open source and open interfaces to create an ecosystem that supports new generation network technologies.

"TIP, thanks to the common targets it has set together with the operators and the coordinated employee ecosystem it provides, offers an important basis for developing open and unbundled network solutions," he said.

"In this context, Turk Telekom takes part in many TIP projects and makes valuable contributions to the maturation of new generation technologies.

Our cooperation with TIP and analysis partners continues to increase. We believe that we will undertake very valuable projects such as this," he added.

Bhartendu Chaurasia, head of Meta Connectivity Technologies and Ecosystems and TIP Technologies Europe and the Middle East, said: "At TIP, we have studied and developed the decentralized base station-level router ecosystem, and we are excited to see the increasing adoption of open and unbundled solutions for transportation.

"We look forward to continuing our cooperation with Turk Telekom in open network innovation projects."

According to Russian state-owned news agency Tass, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said: "The company stands with the international community in condemning the military operation in Ukraine."

Many countries, especially EU members and the US, have announced sanctions on the Russian economy, and major companies have also halted their services in the country, including Volkswagen, IKEA, Hamp;M, and Siemens.

According to UN figures, at least 331 civilians have been killed and 675 injured in Ukraine since the start of the war on Feb. 24.

More than 1.2 million people have also fled to neighboring countries, according to the UN refugee agency.

In a statement on its website, Roskomnadzor, the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, said Facebook has 26 times discriminated against the Russian media since October 2020.

In recent days, Facebook restricted access to the websites of two Russian TV channels, two major news agencies, and two media outlets.

The restrictions imposed by Facebook are prohibited by the Russian federal law, and they violate the principles of free spreading of information and free access of the Russian users to the Russian media on the foreign internet platform, Roskomnadzor said.

Some Western countries recently shut down Russia's international Russia Today and news agency Sputnik as part of the sanctions package imposed on the country amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that began on Feb. 24.

Russia's war on Ukraine has been met by outrage from the international community, with the EU, UK, and US implementing a range of economic sanctions on Russia.

"Cyberattacks on businesses and government agencies have increased following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the risk of spillover cyberattacks against non-primary targets becoming much more widespread," the global rating agency said in a statement.

"Heightened risk exists particularly for issuers conducting business in these countries or with their governments, as well as for entities or countries that impose sanctions or deemed to interfere," it added.

The agency said potential targets include critical infrastructure such as financial services, governments, and utilities.

Corporate information technology teams handled 623 million ransomware attacks in 2021, up 105% from the previous year, according to security vendor SonicWall, Fitch noted.

SonicWall reported a 1,885% increase in attacks on government targets, 755% rise in healthcare, and 152% increase in education, it added.

Access to the social media network has been restricted based on federal law on information, information technologies and information protection which regulates restrictions on accessing sites containing calls for mass disorder, extremist activity, participation in mass public events conducted in violation of the established order, according to Tass.

The decision to restrict access was made by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation on Feb. 24, it added.

Roskomnadzor, the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, said earlier that it blocked access to Facebook in response to restrictions that the company imposed on several Russian media outlets.

The move came amid harsh sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine.

In a statement on Twitter, the company said: "It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action".

The Russia-Ukraine war entered its sixth day on Tuesday, with the latest reports indicating that Russian troops were heading toward the capital Kyiv.

Since Russia's war on Ukraine began last Thursday, it has been met by outrage from the international community, with the EU, UK, and US implementing a range of economic sanctions against Russia.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen previously said the EU would ban state-run Russian media outlets, including Sputnik, RT and their subsidiaries.

Russia was further isolated after its planes were barred from flying in European and Canadian airspace, and a number of its banks were kicked out of the SWIFT international banking system.

Tagging Musk, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister and Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on Saturday said: “while you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand,” on Twitter.

“Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route,” replied Musk.

Starlink provides satellite internet access coverage to most of the world.

SpaceX, founded by Musk in 2002, plans to establish a network of 12,000 satellites in earth orbit with Starlink satellites. The project is targeted to be completed in 2027.

The company aims to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets, according to its website.