NEW YORK — Cracking down on hate, abuse and online trolls is also hurting Twitter’s standing with investors.
The company’s stock plunged Friday after it reported a decline in its monthly users and warned that the number could fall further in the coming months. The 20.5 percent plunge comes one day after Facebook lost 19 percent of its value in a single day.
Twitter says it’s putting the long-term stability of its platform above user growth. That leaves investors seemingly unable to value what the biggest companies in the sector, which rely on their potential user reach, are worth.
Twitter had 335 million monthly users in the quarter, below the 339 million Wall Street was expecting, and down slightly from 336 million in the first quarter. That overshadowed a strong monthly user growth of 3 percent compared with the previous year.
The company said its monthly user number could continue to fall in the “mid-single-digit millions” in the third quarter.
NEW YORK — CBS said Friday that independent members of its board of directors are investigating personal misconduct claims after reports that the company’s chief executive, Les Moonves, was the subject of an upcoming New Yorker story detailing sexual misconduct allegations.
CBS’s stock fell 6 percent — its worst one-day loss in nearly seven years — as the reports of the misconduct allegations began to circulate around noon Friday, triggering investor concerns Moonves might be forced to step down. The CBS chief has been a towering figure in television for decades, credited with turning around a network that had been mired for years at the bottom ratings.
The company did not mention Moonves by name but said it issued the statement in response to the upcoming New Yorker article. The Hollywood Reporter, citing unnamed sources, was the first to report that the New Yorker would publish an article detailing accusations against Moonves. The New Yorker did not immediately respond to inquiries about the report.
“Upon the conclusion of (the CBS board members’) investigation, which involves recently reported allegations that go back several decades, the board will promptly review the findings and take appropriate action,” the CBS statement said.
JOHANNESBURG — Curiosity and awe have greeted a complete lunar eclipse, the longest one of this century and visible in much of the world.
The so-called “blood moon,” when it turns a deep red, was visible at different times in Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe and South America when the sun, Earth and moon lined up perfectly, casting Earth’s shadow on the moon.
The total eclipse lasted 1 hour and 43 minutes, with the entire event lasting closer to four hours.
Across Africa people turned to the sky, watching the reddish shadow slide up the moon’s surface. In Somalia, some hurried to mosques for special prayers. In South Sudan, some dared to take photos in a war-torn country where using a camera in public is discouraged.
ST. LOUIS — Video and audio recordings from a fatal tourist boat accident in Missouri show that the lake went from calm to deadly dangerous in a matter of minutes, the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.
The NTSB cited preliminary findings gathered from the video recorder camera system salvaged by divers after the duck boat sank July 19 at Table Rock Lake near Branson. Seventeen of the 31 people on board died, including nine family members from Indianapolis.
The material was examined at a lab in Washington, but the agency has not yet analyzed the findings and no conclusions about the cause of the accident, one of the nation’s worst maritime accidents in recent decades, can be drawn.
The findings, though, paint a chilling picture of the final few minutes before the boat went under.
The captain and driver boarded the vessel at 6:27 p.m. The excursion begins on land at a terminal in Branson. Normally, the vessel tours the popular country music and entertainment community first before going to the lake for about a 20-minute boat ride. The driver drives the vehicle on land, and the captain takes over on the water.
From Associated Press