“A bipartisan group of senators led by Utah Republican Mike Lee introduced legislation Thursday that would take aim at conflicts of interest in the advertising technology industry and force Google to break up its dominant online-ad business,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Twitter’s board said that it plans to “close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement” between Elon Musk and Twitter, the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Musk’s increasingly skeptical — and erratic — comments about the takeover have kept investors, bankers and Twitter itself guessing about his motives. Some analysts figure that the 50-year-old is trying to drive down the acquisition price or walk away from the deal altogether. Many were unnerved by his methods, with market-moving pronouncements made off the cuff at conferences or in emoji-laden tweets in the middle of the night.”

Washington Post: “Records show Facebook-funded American Edge backed minority interest groups, conservative think tanks and small business groups to create the appearance of grassroots opposition to antitrust regulation.”

“Elon Musk said his $44 billion bid for Twitter can’t move forward until the company is clearer about how many of its accounts are fake,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Associated Press: “Musk’s comments are likely to bolster theories from analysts that the billionaire either wants out of the deal or to buy the company at a cheaper price.”

“A number of companies that were associated with President Trump have filed for bankruptcy. There can be no assurances that TMTG will not also become bankrupt.”

— A disclaimer in the SEC filing for taking public Donald Trump’s social media company, the Trump Media & Technology Group.

Elon Musk stoked speculation that he could seek to renegotiate his takeover of Twitter, saying a viable deal at a lower price wouldn’t be “out of the question,” Bloomberg reports.

Matt Levine: “Donald Trump’s social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which runs the ‘Truth Social’ app, plans to go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company called Digital World Acquisition Corp., raising something like $1.3 billion. Today TMTG and DWAG filed the registration statement for their merger, a key step in actually making it happen.”

“You can read it — here it is — and of course I will discuss it, because it is funny and because that is what I do for a living. But in a sense there is no point in reading it. It will not tell you much about TMTG’s business, because TMTG doesn’t have much of a business.”

“President Trump plans to partially restrict himself from using Twitter, according to a new federal securities filing from the blank check company taking his social network, Truth Social, public,” Axios reports.

From the filing: “President Trump is generally obligated to make any social media post on TruthSocial and may not make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours. Thereafter, he is free to post on any site to which he has access. Thus, TMTG has limited time to benefit from his posts and followers may not find it compelling to use TruthSocial to read his posts that quickly.”

“In addition, he may make a post from a personal account related to political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the-vote efforts on any social media site at any time.”

“Elon Musk tweeted Friday morning that his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is ‘temporarily on hold’ as he seeks more details on the platform’s new estimate that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5% of users,” Axios reports.

“Twenty internet providers, including AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., have agreed to help offer high-speed internet to millions of unconnected households through the bipartisan infrastructure law,“ the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The program has run up against an early hurdle because the people who need it most are the hardest to reach because they aren’t online.”

“Elon Musk flatly denied a claim by the head of ex-President Donald Trump’s new social media company that Trump had encouraged Musk’s bid to buy Twitter,” CNBC reports.

Said Musk: “This is false.”

A judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by former President Donald Trump seeking to lift his ban from Twitter, CNBC reports.

“Elon Musk’s decision to accept some foreign investors as part of his $44 billion buyout of Twitter runs the risk of inviting the kind of regulatory scrutiny over U.S. national security that social media peer TikTok faced,” Reuters reports.