Hannah Murphy
Financial Times tech correspondent writing on social media - X, Meta, TikTok, Telegram - plus some AI, cyber and misinformation.
🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸. DMs open.
Tips to: 📨hannah.murphy@ft.com
Signal: mshannahmurphy.04
- About a month ago, Tesla board members reached out to executive search firms to formally find a new CEO to replace Elon Musk, per WSJ They also told him to spend more time at the company & he said he would. unclear if the succession planning is ongoing or not 👀 www.wsj.com/business/aut...?
- Advertising groups and tech start-ups are racing to find ways to help brands boost their likelihood of surfacing in results from AI chatbots, marking a new era of 'SEO' FT story w Cristina Criddle: on.ft.com/4iAVZxr
- AI optimisation/visibility is the new SEO…
- FT SCOOP: US venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz is in talks to invest in TikTok as part of an effort led by Trump to wrest control of the popular video app from its Chinese owners on.ft.com/4iXce94 w @antoinegara.bsky.social @ivanlevingston.bsky.social & @georgehammond.bsky.social
- It’s not every day your best friend gets nominated for an Emmy for producing a beautiful show about young queer love - and you get to tag along to the awards ceremony. But yesterday was that day! Very proud of Paddy. And if you haven’t already, go watch Heartstopper on Netflix 💕
- Delighted to have won a SABEW @sabew.bsky.social Best in Business award in the Technology division for @financialtimes.com coverage of Telegram & Pavel Durov! Just beaming 🙌 You can read my interview with Pavel just months before his arrest here: on.ft.com/4ijv9dI
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- Merci John!
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- thank you!! 🙏
- “In the 2010s, there was a sense that Silicon Valley was different, had a rarefied culture. Now you’re just like any other union-busting top-down conglomerate.” Our FT analysis on the slow death of left-wing activism in the Valley, as Big Tech quells dissent and staff fear layoffs on.ft.com/3XfJy29
- And now for some real journalism! I took a break from reporting on tech billionaires and Trump to write about getting my lashes done by an AI-powered robot While the era of fully automated beauty treatments still seems some way off, disruption is coming to the sector - on.ft.com/4jCLevZ
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- why thank you!!
- For those interested, here’s what happens:
- Scoop: Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is exploring buying a property in Washington DC, as part of a push to work more closely with the Trump administration He joins a growing group of tech titans - Elon Musk, David Sacks - seeking bases close to the White House www.ft.com/content/9310...
- where all the tiktok refugee starter packs at
- In 8 days, Zuckerberg has: - Promoted top Republican Joel Kaplan to be face of Meta - Hired Dana White to board - Killed 3rd party fact-checking - Loosened hate speech policies - Killed DEI initiatives - Said on Joe Rogan that corporations are “culturally neutered” & need more “masculine energy”
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- I was literally just thinking this is the least awkward I've ever seen him in my six years of covering him/Meta
- JUST IN: Meta has just ended its major diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, effective immediately — including for hiring, training and picking suppliers www.axios.com/2025/01/10/m...
- I cannot recommend enough that you read this op-ed written by Peter Thiel in the FT today (free to read!) for a direct look inside the mind and grievances of the libertarian tech billionaires who have helped Trump to power - and what they want next www.ft.com/content/a46c...
- It's happening: "Musk has been examining possible candidates to replace Farage as leader of the party, including Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, and has probed what mechanisms there are to replace him, according to people briefed on his thinking." www.ft.com/content/dd4b...
- this headline and paragraph are absolutely sending me
- This article where an NYT journalist ditches his news apps for Rumble, journeys down the rabbit hole, emails Rumble creators for comment and then ends up being doxxed by them - before the article had even published - is WILD www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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- ICYMI Zuckerberg - who earlier this year said he wanted Meta to be politically “neutral” and reduced the prominence of political content across its apps - has had the company donate $1mn to Trump's inauguration fund It's the first time Meta has donated to an inauguration fund on.ft.com/4fexOD6
- Hello to followers old & new (just got an unexpected influx!) I'm a tech reporter for the Financial Times covering social media platforms (Meta and X) & the billionaires that run them (Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk) If you've worked for them & want to speak, mshannahmurphy.04 on Signal /dms open
- I'll also be in London early next week if anyone in the social media space wants to chat over a ☕or 🍺or invite me to their Christmas parties!
- can i hear a lil commotion for the jumper I wore for the FT San Francisco bureau’s Christmas dinner
- BREAKING: A US appeals court has upheld a law requiring TikTok’s owner ByteDance sell the platform or face a US ban next year - dealing a major blow to the Chinese company behind the video app. on.ft.com/3Vsv2TQ
- someone in my friend's building got a kayak out to prepare during the (now 'cancelled') Bay Area tsunami warning
- SCOOP: Marc Andreessen, one of the world’s most powerful VCs, is playing a central role in recruiting for Elon Musk’s DOGE department While he has no formal role, he's helping identify and interview potential candidates, per sources w/ @georgehammond.bsky.social on.ft.com/3ZBatXM
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- But the logo is THREE DEE Ryan!
- A rightwards shift for Meta? Meta has conceded it was "overdid it" with certain content moderation in the past - in an apparent overture to Donald Trump It comes as Zuckerberg is seeking an “active role” in shaping tech policy debates with the incoming administration on.ft.com/41dIgaz
- ICYMI: - Boris Johnson recently renewed an acquaintance with Elon Musk, having been reintroduced by Sriram Krishnan, a London-based VC - Tony Blair and Musk have been speaking on the phone recently - The Nigel Farage-Musk bromance deepens Scoop w/ @annasophiegross.bsky.social on.ft.com/41jRWRb
- So Brendan Carr, Trump’s FCC chair pick, reposted this story with the caption - “Buh-bye” Fwiw even avid free speech advocates argue that there is a First Amendment right to academic freedom, and therefore universities should not be penalised for misinformation research
- Trump has vowed to crack down on universities involved in misinformation research, or what he dubs the "censorship cartel" - e.g. by curbing funds to those that have "flagged content for removal”, or legal threats “I'm pretty fucking scared," one professor tells me. www.ft.com/content/bfb4...
- and so it begins on Bluesky… Not MBS in my DMs!
- NEW: Telegram booked more than half a billion dollars in revenue and $335mn in profit in the first half of 2024, according to financial disclosures obtained by the FT But this was largely due various intriguing crypto endeavours (rather than e.g. ads) w/ @bondhack.bsky.social on.ft.com/415mgyO
- Trump has vowed to crack down on universities involved in misinformation research, or what he dubs the "censorship cartel" - e.g. by curbing funds to those that have "flagged content for removal”, or legal threats “I'm pretty fucking scared," one professor tells me. www.ft.com/content/bfb4...
- Is Zuckerberg regretting his decision to reduce the prominence of political content on Threads? Data is stark showing Bluesky massively capitalising on the X-odus where Threads has failed to. Now, Threads swiftly rolling out Bluesky-like features on.ft.com/3V7huNc w/ @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social
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- Ditto! Hannah.murphy@ft.com 🙌
- You're in his DMs. I'm re-skeeting a viral Bluesky starter pack of his favourite journalists, which have been handpicked and independently verified. We are not the same.
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- 👋 (email in bio 🙌)
