Anthony Taylor tries to take his shot with Pokimane after winning his MMA fight

X, formerly known as Twitter, filed a federal defamation suit on Monday in Texas against Media Matters for America, accusing the media watchdog group of kicking off an advertiser exodus with a “harmful” article alleging the social network let top brands display ads near antisemitic and pro-Nazi posts. The liberal-leaning media observer allegedly curated a feed specifically with fringe accounts and those belonging to corporations like IBM, Comcast, Apple, and Oracle, then displayed screenshots of the unsavoury posts appearing near company ads in a critical article, according to the lawsuit. The Media Matters analysis, published last week, also alleges that X owner Elon Musk has increasingly begun a “descent into white nationalist and antisemitic conspiracy theories.” The lawsuit does not dispute that some top brands’ ads were featured near the inflammatory content. Rather, it suggests Media Matters gamed X to produce extremely unlikely pairings that are usually screened out by the service’s advertising tools, alleging that one harmful match appeared for “only one viewer (out of more than 500 million) on all of X: Media Matters.” “Not a single authentic user of the X platform saw IBM’s, Comcast’s or Oracle’s ads next to that content, which Media Matters achieved only through its manipulation of X’s algorithms,” the suit continues. “Media Matters created these pairings in secrecy, to manufacture the harmful perception that X is at best an incompetent content moderator (a harmful accusation for any social media platform), or even worse that X was somehow indifferent or even encouraging to Nazi and racist ideology,” the suit argues elsewhere. Media Matters told The Independent in a statement that its analysis of X and its content policies remains valid. “This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X’s critics into silence,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in the statement. “Media Matters stands behind its reporting and looks forward to winning in court.” Top executives at X have railed against Media Matters in recent days. “If you know me, you know I’m committed to truth and fairness. Here’s the truth,” Linda Yaccarino wrote on X on Monday. “Not a single authentic user on X saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’ article. Only 2 users saw Apple’s ad next to the content, at least one of which was Media Matters. Data wins over manipulation or allegations.” Mr Musk, meanwhile, called the organisation “pure evil” in an X post of his own. Outside of the disputed accuracy of the Media Matters report, Mr Musk has openly endorsed a right-wing conspiracy theory on X in recent days, prompting criticism that he’s fueling antisemitism. Last Wednesday, the billionaire X owner responded to a tweet echoing claims of the racist and often antisemitic “great replacement” theory, including that Jewish people were “flooding” America with “hordes of minorities” to promote “dialectical hatred against whites.” Mr Musk called the claim “the actual truth.” The theory referenced in the original post was among the hateful ideas directly referenced by the gunman who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history. “At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging around the world, it is indisputably dangerous to use one’s influence to validate and promote antisemitic theories,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League civil rights group, which monitors antisemitism and other forms of extremism, wrote on X in response to Mr Musk. The White House also weighed in, alleging the tech CEO was contributing to the spread of “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate.” “It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” the White House said in a statement. The Independent contacted Mr Musk during the backlash against his response to the post and did not receive an answer. Amid the controversy, Mr Musk has alternatively defended X’s content policies and appeared to mock critics who allege the network is harbouring hateful content. Last week, he shared a clip of someone playing a video game level called “Echo of Hatred,” with the caption “defeating hatred is never easy.” “Clear calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension,” he wrote elsewhere on X on Friday. This summer, a study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate alleged X failed to take down 99 per cent of a selection of hate content flagged by the group. The group alleged that “the platform is allowing them to break its rules with impunity and is even algorithmically boosting their toxic tweets.” Read More Musk's X sues liberal advocacy group Media Matters over its report on ads next to hate groups' posts Elon Musk and Trump aide want journalists jailed over X Hitler exposé IBM pulls ads from Elon Musk's X after report says they appeared next to antisemitic posts Dates and venues for three 2024 presidential debates announced 2024 polls: Three presidential debates revealed for next year Torso found washed up on New York beach could be missing Irish filmmaker: NYPD

Fortnitemares 2023 likely starts on Tuesday, Oct. 10 with new Halloween weapons, quests, and skins coming to Epic Games' Battle Royale.

Kentucky Republican gubernatorial nominee Daniel Cameron is looking to separate himself from the last GOP governor

Slack has been hit by issues for the second time in a week. Users reported that they were unable to see images properly – while others said they were not able to get online at all. The outage will be a disruption to the many workplaces who use the app to keep up with colleagues, especially with the rise of remote working. The problems happened during the working day in the UK and US. The technical issues came just days after another outage at the app, last week. Those problems were more significant, and users around the world were unable to sign on or send messages. This time around, the problems did not appear to be affecting all users and for most they were more limited in their scope. Slack’s official status page was updated on Wednesday to indicate that users “may be experiencing issues loading threads, admin pages and images”. It said it was investigating the issue. Tracking website Down Detector saw a huge spike in the number of people reporting issues. It was unclear if the problems were limited to specific platforms or locations. Slack says that it has more than 200,000 paid customers, which includes 77 of the Fortune 100. Those companies include some of the US’s biggest firms including Target, Uber, Expedia and Airbnb. Read More Slack has stopped working Google warns Gmail users they could be about to lose their account Hundreds of years after it was discovered, one material could change the world

MrBeast is open to hosting Beast Games if he gets sufficient backing from streaming platforms

The UK Financial Conduct Authority is examining the market for sustainable loans amid concerns that environmental targets are

Zscaler stock is suffering despite Wall Street hailing the last quarter as evidence of its strong business. The security-software company’s caution about its guidance looks to have disappointed the market but analysts aren’t too concerned.

A researcher has figured out that the Earth’s first continent was formed 3bn years ago, in a new paper that sheds fresh light on the early stages of the planet’s life. Jane Greaves, an astronomy professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University in Wales, was examining continent formation on distant stars and planets. It is thought that exoplanets with continents that formed in a similar way to Earth’s are more likely to be habitable, and perhaps even contain alien life. In the process, she calculated when several distant planets’ continents were born, as well as those a little closer to home. Continents on Earth sit on top of the planet’s hot, viscous mantle. Heat from the inner core stops the mantle from solidifying. The reason the core is hot is because it contains radioactive elements that came from neutron star collisions billions of years ago such as forms of Uranium, Thorium and Potassium. By analysing how many materials like this are present on Earth and on other planets, we are also able to estimate when the continents formed. On Earth, that was about 9.5 billion years since the beginning of the universe. Meanwhile, in Greaves' sample, the first continents appeared 2bn years before Earth’s on the exoplanets of younger, so-called thin disk stars. Older, thick disk stars analysed in her work produced rocky planets with continents that appeared even earlier: about 4 to 5bn years before Earth’s. “The outlook seems very promising for finding rocky exoplanets with continents, given that nearby Sun-like stars have already produced a few candidate hosts,” she wrote. The study, “When were the First Exocontinents?” is published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical SocietySign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Solar energy has reached an “irreversible tipping point” that will see it become the world’s main source of energy by 2050, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Exeter and University College London analysed recent technological and economic advances to determine that the transition to clean energy is not just reachable, but inevitable. “The recent progress of renewables means that fossil fuel-dominated projections are no longer realistic,” said Femke Nijsse from the University of Exeter. “Using three models that track positive feedbacks, we project that solar PV will dominate the global energy mix by the middle of this century.” Barriers may still arise to hamper this positive trend, the researchers noted, including political resistance from anti-environmentalists and the lack of financing for solar power in developing countries. “Solar energy is the most widely available energy resource on Earth, and its economic attractiveness is improving fast in a cycle of increasing investments,” the researchers wrote in a study detailing their findings. “We find that, due to technological trajectories set in motion by past policy, a global irreversible solar tipping point may have passed where solar energy gradually comes to dominate global electricity markets, without any further climate policies.” The study, titled ‘The momentum of the solar energy transition’, was published in the journal Nature Communications. The latest research comes less than a month after a Berlin-based research institute calculated that fossil fuel-generated power will no longer be economically viable within the next 30 years due to the plummeting costs of solar, batteries and other renewable technologies. The Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) found that the transition to renewable energy was “cheaper than expected” and could make fossil fuels obsolete by 2050. “This is an extremely optimistic scenario – but it illustrates that the future is open,” MCC researcher Felix Creutzig noted. “Climate science, which provides policymakers with guidance in its scenario models, must reflect technical progress as closely as possible.” The UK saw a record-breaking year for renewable energy last year, and is on track to do the same in 2023 following the installation of new solar and wind plants. Wind, solar, biomass and hydro power generated 40 per cent of the country’s electricity in 2022, according to figures compiled by Imperial College London, up 5 per cent from the year before. Read More Fossil fuels ‘becoming obsolete’ as solar panel prices plummet Solar panel breakthrough could supercharge ‘miracle material’ production ‘Game-changing’ facial recognition technology catches prolific shoplifters WhatsApp update will change how you log in forever Amazon trials humanoid robots to see if they can help staff warehouses

By Manya Saini and Jaiveer Shekhawat (Reuters) -SoftBank-owned chip designer Arm on Monday disclosed a modest 1% fall in annual

The best PlayStation 5 consoles and bundles available in stock currently on Amazon for Black Friday 2023.