Elon Musk's X Appears to Be Violating US Sanctions by Selling Premium Accounts to Iranian Leaders While publicly supporting protesters in Iran, Elon Musk's X appears to have been selling premium accounts to regime officials. Check marks were removed from certain accounts after a WIRED inquiry. In recent weeks, Elon Musk has followed president Donald Trump's lead, slamming Iranian government officials and supporting the thousands of protesters railing against the regime. He even provided free access to his Starlink satellites in the midst of a nationwide internet blackout . But while publicly proclaiming his support of the protesters, Musk's company X appears to be profiting from the very same government officials he railed against, potentially violating US sanctions in the process, according to a new report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) shared exclusively with WIRED.

Parents might have once cautioned against speaking to strangers on the internet. But dating apps are now one of the most common ways for couples around the world to meet. Matching with strangers still has its drawbacks, including the risk of being'catfished'. But help is at hand, as Tinder has launched new verification tools in the UK and US that let users scan their passport or driving licence to confirm their identity. 'Giving users more confidence that their matches are authentic is one of the most valuable things we can do for our users,' said Rory Kozoll, SVP Product Integrity at Tinder.

It's been a rough few months for the technology industry. Meta, Amazon, Google, Spotify, and Twitter have all laid off a sizable chunk of their workforce (the list goes on, too). Everybody is talking about how ChatGPT and other generative-AI chatbots are role-playing as Skynet, and the older tech giants are feeling out of step. But whereas Google and Microsoft are deep into the chatbot arms race, Meta looks like a late-aughts tech dinosaur. It's time to shake things up, to turn the ship around.

Welcome to Plaintext, the newsletter that's cheaper than a blue check mark--and guaranteed bot-free! This was the month when Big Tech got smaller. The leader in the shrinkage was a troubled Twitter, led by a new owner who, after trying to weasel out of his $44 billion commitment to buy the firm, has thrown himself into the task of fixing its problems. Job One was getting rid of half the workers behind the money-losing platform. But Twitter was far from alone in stripping employees of their salaries, health plans, and email addresses.