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Twitter CEO cautions against blocking content

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey spoke during a Bloomberg Television interview in San Francisco earlier this month.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News

SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter CEO says blocking content is perilous

While lamenting abusive conduct on Twitter, chief executive Jack Dorsey said any move to block content based on political or social views would stoke already rising concern about the power of social-media companies. “We can’t just keep changing randomly, based on our viewpoints,” Dorsey said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” “That just adds to the fear of companies like ours making these judgments.” His comments aired a day after President Trump said, “Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.” Earlier in the week, Twitter put temporary limits on the account of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for violating company policies. Trump, in his tweet, said social-media companies “are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others” and said his administration “won’t let that happen.” Dorsey said he’s open to changing the platform to help avoid abuses. Possible initiatives include adding context to misinformation, he said. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

HEALTH

Genetic mutation could help scientists fight obesity

For a lucky few people, weight will never be a worry. People who have a rare genetic mutation called essential fructosuria lack the primary enzyme needed to metabolize fructose. No ill consequences are linked to the defect, save for an aversion to sweets. Those who have it seem to be at little risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, or serious liver ailments. Researchers looking to understand weight-related ailments — and drug companies seeking new medicines to treat them — are eager to study essential fructosuria. The problem is, it is almost impossible to find people who have it. The chance that someone has essential fructosuria is 1 in 130,000 — longer than the odds of dying in a severe storm. And people with essential fructosuria tend to be healthy, so they are often stumbled on by chance. Pfizer, the largest US drug maker, has been unable to track down a single carrier. But that hasn’t stopped it from trying to develop a drug modeled on the mutation. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

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WORKPLACE

Elon Musk says working less isn’t an option

Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, responding to Arianna Huffington, who urged him to change the way he works in an open letter that portrayed him as “demonstrating a wildly outdated, anti-scientific and horribly inefficient way of using human energy,” said that’s not an option. In The New York Times last week, Musk said he sacrificed family milestones in the race to meet Tesla production targets. He responded to the letter with a tweet in which he said Ford Motor Co. and Tesla are the only two US car companies to have avoided bankruptcy. “I just got home from the factory,” Musk wrote at 2:32 a.m. Pacific time Sunday. “You think this [changing] is an option. It is not.” Tesla shares plunged 8.9 percent Friday after the Times interview, in which Musk called the past 12 months “the most difficult and painful year of my career.” References to Ambien use and driving while tweeting were fueling calls for Tesla’s board to step up its oversight of the CEO and top shareholder. Huffington has been campaigning to draw attention to the benefits of sleep, calling herself a sleep evangelist.
— BLOOMBERG NEWS

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ECONOMY

Greece officially ends reliance on bailouts

Greece will reach a milestone Monday in its recovery from one of the worst financial crises to hit Europe, when the country officially ends its reliance on nearly a decade of bailouts that totaled more than 320 billion euros, or about $360 billion. European leaders are declaring an end to a debt crisis that nearly destroyed the euro, and Greece is anticipating a new era of financial independence and growth. But years of harsh austerity and a downturn reminiscent of the Great Depression have left a legacy of poverty that affects a third of the Greek population. While growth is slowly reviving, it will most likely be years before Greece’s economy returns to normal.
— NEW YORK TIMES

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