Twitter

Sharon Osbourne is an anti-censorship purist ... because she doesn't want anyone banned from Twitter, and that includes Donald Trump and the Taliban.

We caught up with Sharon Tuesday in Bev Hills outside Neiman Marcus, and she was all about Elon Musk, declaring her love for the rocketman, and amplifying his position that Twitter should be open to all, even if the messaging is abhorrent. The point ... that vibrant discourse is a better way of getting at the truth than censorship.

Sharon's position regarding the Taliban is interesting ... most folks who support free and open Twitter still want to carve out exceptions for calls to violence. The Taliban seems to fall in that category, and there's certainly a good argument that can be made ... Donald Trump may not explicitly call for violence, but the subtext in some of his messages certainly seems to invite it.

Donald Trump might be back in the Twittersphere soon enough -- that is, if Elon Musk's mega deal to buy Twitter closes ... 'cause the guys says 45's ban was BS.

The Tesla chief -- and soon-to-be new Twitter owner -- signaled DT might be back on the bird app during a virtual chat at a car summit ... saying he would reverse the permanent ban if the decision was up to him, and it very well could be in a matter of weeks.

EM called the move a "morally bad decision" in the first place, going on to say he saw it as "foolish in the extreme."

His rationale is interesting ... Elon essentially argued that Trump should be allowed to exist in the de facto town square, rather than allowing him and/or his loyal followers to foment/fester elsewhere -- which is a bit of a different POV than his free speech one.

Elon says, "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. So I think this may end up being frankly worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate."

You'll recall ... Twitter gave Trump the boot for good in January 2021, right after the Capitol insurrection, because they claimed his tweets had the potential to incite further violence.

Lisa Ann says the new era of Twitter should take decisive action to rein in the wild west of porn within its chambers -- an ironic take that is certainly not lost on her.

The legendary adult film actress -- who was in the biz for years, but is retired now -- explained her thoughts to a photog in NYC ... this after she came out last week on her podcast to declare her stance on X-rated content that goes unregulated on the bird app.

Essentially ... this all boils down to minors, and the very easy access Twitter gives 'em to see just about anything without much screening or filtering -- something LA wants changed.

Check it out -- she says kids are susceptible to what they're seeing online now more than ever, going on to explain the type of porn that's popular these days is more aggressive and twisted than ever ... and a lot of that stuff is flying around on Twitter for all to see.

This is something Billie Eilish recently alluded to, and Lisa is on the same wavelength as far as limiting access to those who are under 18 ... and while she hasn't reached out to Elon Musk (Twitter's new daddy) just yet, she seems very open to having a sit-down with him.

As for the criticism that she's hypocritical for pushing this -- considering her background -- Lisa Ann has already made it clear ... her past life doesn't define her current ideology.

Elon Musk thinks the Russian government is out to get him -- maybe kill him -- and he's exposing the threat he received that supports his theory.

Elon just tweeted, "If I die under mysterious circumstances, it's been nice knowin ya."

As for what prompted the tweet, a guy named Dmitry Rogozin, Chief of Russia's Space Agency, sent a statement to Russian media accusing Elon of assisting Ukraine in Russia's brutal war against the country.

Rogozin accused Elon of being "involved in supplying the fascist forces in Ukraine with military communication equipment."

And then, the ominous warning ... “And for this, Elon, you will be held accountable like an adult – no matter how much you’ll play the fool.”

As for linking Rogozin's statement to Elon's tweet, it's pretty obvious ... Elon tweeted 6 minutes after Rogozin released his statement.

Elon's SpaceX Starlink terminals are now being used by Ukrainian forces to keep the Internet and therefore communications strong as Russia tries to disable it. It's a critical link in fighting the war.

Rogozin went on ... “From the testimony of the captured commander of the 35th Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Dmitry Kormyankov, it turns out that the internet terminals of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite company were delivered to the militants of the Nazi Azov Battalion and the Ukrainian Marines in Mariupol by military helicopters.”

Musk's mom, Maye, was shaken by Elon's tweet, responding, "That's not funny."

Drake's DM to one dude's wife may have crossed the line, but it's all love and the guy is actually a big fan ... so says the troll himself!

As we reported ... Drake clapped back to a guy named Cedric, by DM'ing the dude's wife. He wrote, "I just followed your girl cause she prob miserable and needs some excitement in her life".

Drizzy followed up by messaging Cedric's wife, Toni saying ... "I'm here for u ma".

It all started after Cedric took a jab at Drake on Instagram on a post where Drake defended Tee Morant -- father of NBA star Ja Morant. Cedric chimed in referencing a rumor that Drake doesn't write his own music, obviously, hitting a nerve for the 6 God.

Of course, the beef sparked lots of reactions from folks on social media, but we talked to Cedric and his wife, Toni, and they were actually in good spirits over the whole thing.

Cedric says, he felt Drake took things a little too far, by messaging his wife ... but he finds the whole situation hilarious. At first, he didn't think the comment would go anywhere, and he was shocked when a little trash-talking escalated into Drake actually DM'ing his wife.

Cedric says he's actually a huge fan of Drake. His wife, Toni, was all smiles over the dustup. She says, she's not interested in going on a date with Drake, because she's super happy with her hubby ... but she insisted they all meet!

Bill Maher delivered a scorching attack on the movement in the U.S. to censor what we say ... and gotta say, it may be his best commentary in a long time.

The "Real Time" host declared his position from the jump -- "Sorting out lies from truth is your job," adding it's ridiculous we treat everyone like "helpless dumb blondes ready to believe everything ... like Donald Trump!"

He makes the point ... people living today aren't special -- as he says, every age is the misinformation age. He harkens back to 1858, when the New York Times worried Americans couldn't handle the transatlantic telegraph because it was "superficial and too fast for the truth."

Go back even further, Bill says, to 1487, when the Pope cautioned against the misuse of the printing press, saying it was the source of pernicious writing -- hmmm, sounds like fake news.

And, then there's radio ... in 1938, some listeners freaked out listening to Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds," believing the Martians invaded New Jersey.

As Bill says, lies are everywhere ... like germs. He says you can't germproof the world, so develop a better bull*** meter.

And, then he makes a brilliant point ... "Sometimes misinformation is history's first draft" -- like the stories that circulated about COVID -- that 50% of those who are unvaccinated become hospitalized when it's less than 1%.

To drive home the point, he notes lots of folks believe in "an imaginary best friend in the sky who they can talk to to help them with their problems." Bill asks if there should be a warning label on that.

He's all for banning things like child porn, calls for insurrection, personal threats, etc, but people should be able to express their opinions even if they are repugnant. And, deciding whether something is true, half-true, a quarter true or false ... well that's our job, not the job of some publisher.

Wrestling icon CM Punk is not here for the Supreme Court's alleged decision on abortion ... emotionally clapping back at internet trolls in defense of women's rights.

The AEW superstar shared a throwback pic of himself wearing a pro-choice shirt just hours after it was reported the SC took a private vote, which if made official, would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision ... which pissed off a number of his followers.

CM decided to share the hateful messages he got to his 922k followers on Tuesday ... and he's not holding back.

One message read ... "Are you going to cry little bitch," to which Punk responded, "A little bit, yeah."

"For my wife, my sisters, for mothers and women who are helplessly watching their rights over their own bodies stripped away by elite, rich white, terrorist religious fascists. Being human means I cry when injustices masquerade as religious right. HER BODY, HER CHOICE."

Another troll praised Punk's wrestling skills and bashed his politics ... and his response was short and sweet.

"Unfollow me. We respect women here."

Kid Rock and Bruce Springsteen are going head-to-head in a very unofficial fan poll taking place on the internet -- and wouldn't you know it ... it's politics as usual, yet again.

Somebody posed the strange question this weekend ... asking Twitter quite simply, "Bruce Springsteen or Kid Rock" -- and boy, did the bird app people give her a piece of their mind. Lo and behold, this turned into political mudslinging -- as these things often do.

Of course, Kid is much more so associated with right-wing views -- so as you can imagine, people who lean that way were coming out in fierce defense of KR ... dubbing Bruce as a leftist, etc. Ditto for fans of the Boss -- they too were name-calling.

Interestingly, the original question-poser tried to weed out the associations and connotations that each artist might carry outside of music, and answered her own question based solely on skill. In her mind, she doesn't think Bruce is all that he's cracked up to be.

Most music fans would probably disagree with her ... and the evidence is in the cold, hard numbers here. While musical taste is certainly subjective -- you can't deny that Bruce runs laps around Kid when it comes to hit singles, sales and overall popularity big picture.

On the Billboard Chart alone, Bruce takes the cake -- he's got a total of 26 songs that made it on the Billboard's Hot 100 list, 12 of which cracked the Top 10 ... with "Secret Garden" and "Dancing in the Dark" sticking around for 23 and 21 weeks, respectively.

Kid, meanwhile, only has 6 songs that made it into the Hot 100, and just one made into the Top 10. That'd be "Picture," which hung in tight on the chart for a total of 34 weeks.

And on pure numbers alone for units sold -- Bruce, again, beats Kid ... he's got about 150 million record sales worldwide, compared to KR's 27 million. So it's not really a contest or a matter of opinion in this regard ... Bruce has, objectively, outperformed the Kid.

Like we said, the discourse around this bizarre juxtaposition seems to have devolved into nothing more than a Democrat vs. Republican chat -- with each camp coming to their own artist's defense.

That's the way of the world lately, we suppose -- but again, to each their own. With that said, we'll put the question out there right here ... who's better, Kid or Bruce???

There were 2 fights connected to the boxing showdown between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano Saturday night -- the fight in the ring, and the fight between their supporters, Jake Paul and Conor McGregor.

Katie beat Serrano in a split decision at Madison Square Garden. Conor -- true to form -- who's in Katie's corner, zeroed in on Jake on social media, comparing him to deceased BBC personality Jimmy Savile ... a man who was suspected of sexual abuse.

McGregor wrote, "Who the f*** is this jackass in the pink Jimmy Savile glasses?"

Now what a shock, we say jokingly, Jake responded ... "I'm the one who has done more for fighters than you ever have; the one who has won five fights in the past two years while you have lost five."

Jake wasn't done ... "The one who isn’t owned by Dana White, the one who made the fight you just watched happen, the one who got your hero Katie Taylor paid, that’s who."

McGregor's comeback ... a pic of Savile sporting pink glasses similar to the ones Jake wore at the Garden.

The 2 have been trash talking for months now, and ya gotta think a fight would line both their pockets with millions and millions of bucks. Problem for Conor -- Jake is 6'1" and 210 lbs, while Conor's 5'8", and now weighs about 175 lbs.

Bill Maher thinks Elon Musk has a superhuman mission, and it's not about sending people to Mars ... it's about saving Twitter.

The "Real Time" host bore in on the current CEO -- whom he says will probably get a pink slip from Mr. Musk -- who boasted Twitter is not defined by the First Amendment. He said that because the First Amendment only applies to Congress making no laws abridging free speech. Well, Bill says that's a dodge, plain and simple.

Maher is reacting to Elon's promise to make Twitter a bastion of free speech. There's been a lot of criticism and fear over this, but Bill says let the sunshine and free discourse in!

As for how Twitter has failed by censoring free speech, Bill says there are plenty of examples. He notes the New York Post got booted from the platform for writing about Hunter Biden's emails, but turns out the story had validity. He notes Twitter blocked discourse over the theory COVID came from a lab, and there's now a school of thought among some scientists it did indeed.

But, the best is a Christian news and satire site that posted a skit about Twitter being too sensitive and twitter flagged it! As Bill said ... a complete lack of self-awareness.

As Bill concluded ... "If that's where the line is you have failed Twitter."

As for Elon taking over, Bill says thank God it's not a 23-year-old who's at the helm ... cause he thinks Gen Z kinda sucks.

NBC News' social media team could use Elon Musk's proposed edit tool on a tweet about the reigning "Jeopardy!" champ ... all because they focused on her sexuality and job title, confusing and even angering a lot of users on Twitter.

Mattea Roach has won 17 consecutive games, which ranks No. 8 all-time, qualifying for the game show's Tournament of Champions and bringing her current winnings to $396,182 ... but NBC News decided to highlight the fact she's a "lesbian tutor" in a story about her achievements.

The controversial tweet was blasted out Friday to NBC News' 9 million followers, with many people reacting to the "lesbian tutor" description, showing confusion over the choice of words and even anger.

One user's hilarious response ... "Oh ffs. What on earth is a lesbian tutor? You mean she helps people become better lesbians? Be better @NBCNews & know that this incredible woman’s sexuality has absolutely no bearing on her amazing @Jeopardy streak & smarts!"

The tweet is still up as of this post, and it doesn't get much better when you click the link ... the headline for the NBC News story reads, "Mattea Roach becomes latest LGBTQ 'Jeopardy!' phenom."

Elon Musk pulled a move only Don Corleone himself could finagle -- his big-ticket offer to buy Twitter has reportedly gotten the green light ... with the deal coming in for a landing.

Reuters says Musk's $43 billion bid is poised to be accepted by Twitter's board Monday, and that an official announcement could be expected later in the day. Sounds like he didn't budge on his $54.20-per-share price -- and he's in the process of reeling them in right now.

There is, of course, the possibility that this thing could fall through ... but at the moment, all signs point to be EM becoming the new owner of the bird app -- ushering in a new regime.

As we reported ... there were rumblings of this coming to fruition over the weekend. Twitter and Musk had a sit-down on Sunday, which apparently went long into the wee hours of the morning. Word is ... the company was under major pressure from shareholders to sell.

Some of the stockholders wanted to see if Musk would go up in price ... but in the end, it seems they're ready to accept his original betting chip -- especially now that he's got the dough all secured. Elon ponied up the cash last week with the help of some outside partners.

There's a laundry list of goals Elon apparently wants to achieve with the takeover. Beyond addressing "free speech" problems he sees, EM has reportedly also talked about longer tweets, pivoting away from ads and getting rid of spam bots -- which he sees as a pest.

Elon has also talked about making Twitter's algorithm open source ... meaning we'd be able to see why things trend the way they do, and why exactly we're seeing certain tweets on our timeline versus others. Essentially ... more transparency on how Twitter operates internally.

Of course, him taking the company private might mean this becomes a subscription-based service ... especially if he's serious about putting a stop to advertisements. So, the question is ... are folks willing to pay for Twitter, which has been free up to this point???

Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter might actually be one the company can't refuse -- the man is reportedly meeting with execs this weekend ... to seriously discuss his takeover proposal.

The Wall Street Journal reports that both sides are set to meet Sunday (today) to get into the weeds of his $43 billion bid ... which he put forth publicly, and for which he also just announced he got legit financing in the amount of $46.5 billion to actually make it happen.

Per WSJ, Twitter is receptive to negotiating a deal ... or at the very least, hearing Elon out and considering a final price tag -- even though EM says he won't budge on $54.20-a-share.

There's more on the table, potentially than just dough. WSJ says Twitter honchos are mulling over a number of factors ... including a final valuation of what they think the bird app is worth, the possibility of inviting other bidders ... and maybe even insisting on Elon covering breakup costs if the would-be deal falls apart (aka, sweeteners).

As for why Twitter would even entertain this ... Reuters reports they're under pressure from shareholders who want to get paid out. Elon reportedly met with a select number of bigwig shareholders this past week to make his pitch on why Twitter would be better in his hands.

Among the things he reportedly wants to change (beyond his "free speech" objections) ... allowing for longer tweets, and pivoting away ads. He also reportedly told several of them ... you'll never reach my share price on your own. Twitter's closing price Friday was $48.93.

Reuters says some shareholders have expressed to leadership that not only should they talk to Elon and feel him out -- but, more importantly, see if they can finagle a larger offer.

Time will tell if Elon's willing to spend a bit more to take Twitter private -- but he almost had folks thinking he was ditching this whole endeavor, tweeting "Moving on" Sunday ... later clarifying that he meant teasing Bill Gates regarding climate change.

Elon Musk has ruffled feathers by comparing Bill Gates to an emoji addressing transgender people -- and it all seems to stem from a back-and-forth they had that left Elon pissed.

The Tesla chief tweeted an insult at the Microsoft co-founder Friday, posting a side-by-side photo of BG next to an emoji of a pregnant man ... a new one that was recently rolled out to be more inclusive to trans men. Elon's caption ... "in case u need to lose a b***r fast."

He followed up by jokingly tweeting a picture of cloaked figures coming together in a circle and writing, "shadow ban council reviewing tweet …" seemingly aware his OG tweet might be seen as offensive. It's also undoubtedly connected to his current bid to buy Twitter.

Of course, some were confused about the shot in the first place ... but leaked texts between Elon and Bill seem to paint a clearer picture about what's going on.

No word on when this convo happened, but Elon himself confirmed the texts are legit ... saying they'd apparently been leaked to the NYT by friends of friends. He adds, "I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret."

If you peep the texts, it shows Elon and Bill going back and forth ... apparently trying to set up a meeting of some sort -- one in which BG wanted to talk philanthropy and climate change. Before that, though, Elon asked him straight up ... you shorting my company, bro?

Elon's angry that Bill's betting against Tesla's stock ... placing a major wager that the price will dip. Elon also argues that Tesla is doing a lot to mitigate climate change by investing in sustainable energy, so he sees Bill's position as hypocritical here.

Jack Harlow's on top of his game and at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart thanks to his new single “First Class” -- but some fans, critics and industry execs wonder if race is playing a role in his success.

Of course, Jack's hit samples Fergie’s 2006 multi-platinum track, “Glamorous" ... and we all know it absolutely blew up on TikTok, which definitely helped it grab the top spot.

Still, Top Dawg Entertainment President Terrence "Punch" Henderson sparked a debate Tuesday on Twitter by proclaiming Black artists have to be more exceptional compared to their White counterparts.

Even though "Punch" never mentions Jack by name, the twitterverse got his point.

He also seemed to reference Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' "The Heist" album beating Kendrick Lamar's "good kid, m.A.A.d. city" at the 2014 Grammys as an example.

The debate came up on Tuesday's episode of TMZ Hip Hop ... as our DJ Hed and Rodney Rikai challenged each other on what's really fueling the Kentucky-born rapper’s rise to the top.

Great convo, and you gotta check out the clip, because they actually answered this hypothetical: IF Jack were a Black rapper, whose career would his most resemble???

Dave East and Saweetie fans, pay attention!

All in all, Jack is having a renaissance year within a still blossoming career. His new album "Come Home the Kids Miss You" is set to drop May 6, he’s starring in the "White Men Can’t Jump" reboot ... and he's fresh off a KFC campaign that benefits several social justice and youth groups.

Doja Cat had her first solo performance at Coachella, and she brought Tyga to the stage to perform one of their hits.

The recent Grammy winner got her own lineup spot Sunday, and the crowd was loving every minute ... along with her hits, she performed a new song, "Vegas," which is in Baz Luhrmann's new Elvis movie.

At one point, she started her song, "Juicy," but couldn't do it alone ... bringing fellow artist Tyga to the stage to collab. She also brought up Rico Nasty for their song, "Tia Tamera."

Doja joined Rico at the festival back in 2019, but this is the first year she's been given her own slot -- fitting to bring Rico back on the stage after she did the same for her years ago.

As you know, Doja claimed to be quitting music at the end of March after tweeting about her poor performance at Lollapalooza in Brazil ... her fans in Paraguay got upset that she never tweeted about missing their recent festival -- one that was canceled due to a deadly storm, so not really her fault.

A war broke out online between her and fans, even journalists, in Paraguay ... going off about leaving the music game, changing her handle to "I quit" and saying "This s*** ain't for me so I'm out. Y'all take care."