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More than two dozen House Democrats on Tuesday accused Elon Musk‘s X of “profiting off violent content by a terrorist organization” and demanded that he and CEO Linda Yaccarino address Hamas-related content on the social media platform.

“The platform has become a hotbed of misinformation and terrorist propaganda,” wrote the group of 27 Democrats, led by Reps. Dan Goldman of New York and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, in a letter obtained by CNBC.

The already “inexcusable” issue of antisemitic content on X, they wrote, had become “outright indefensible” since the deadly Oct. 7 terror attack in Israel by Hamas militants. The U.S. has labeled Hamas a terror group since 1997.

“Given the many flagrant examples of X profiting off this content, we need detailed answers from X in considering potential legislation that would prevent such activity in the future,” wrote the lawmakers.

They gave Musk and Yaccarino until Dec. 1 to provide “all forms of written communications” related to content moderation for any posts or accounts connected to Hamas.

In addition to the records, the House Democrats asked Yaccarino and Musk to detail how X plans to address Hamas-related content currently on the platform. They also want to know what changes the company “plans to implement to ensure that the harmful spread of terrorist propaganda does not happen again.”

X did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The letter comes as Musk, the world’s richest man, and X, the platform he bought for $44 billion last year, fend off new accusations of antisemitism that are threatening to cut deeply into the company’s ad-based revenue model.

Apple, Disney, and Comcast, the parent company of CNBC, are some of the major brands that paused their online advertising on X last week, after Musk publicly agreed with an antisemitic conspiracy theory that “Jewish communities” were pushing “dialectical hatred against whites.”

“You have said the actual truth,” Musk wrote last Wednesday in response to that post.

The exchange drew fierce condemnation from X users, Wall Street investors and Washington politicos. The White House accused Musk of promoting “antisemitic and racist hate.”

The fallout coincided with a new report from the progressive nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters for America, which accused X of placing ads from major brands next to posts that promoted Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.

Musk has vehemently denied allegations that he is bigoted, writing in a post on Sunday that media reports labeling him antisemitic over his rhetoric are “bogus,” and “nothing could be further from the truth.”

“I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all,” he wrote.

He has also repeatedly slammed Media Matters as “pure evil” and vowed to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” on Monday against the outlet “and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.”

Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal advertising chief whom Musk tapped in May as his CEO, said Thursday that X has “been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination.”

Media Matters president Angelo Carusone in a statement Saturday slammed Musk’s legal threat as a “meritless” effort to “silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate.”

The letter from Goldman and Raskin on Tuesday largely avoided personally singling out Musk over his controversial posts.

Instead, the Democrats highlighted numerous X accounts that have reportedly been “spreading Hamas terrorist propaganda videos glorifying barbaric acts of violence against Israelis.”

They cited reports last month from the Tech Transparency Project, or TTP, the research arm of the nonprofit watchdog Campaign for Accountability, and the nonprofit think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue, or ISD.

The TTP investigation found accounts that paid for X’s Premium service sharing graphic, uncensored videos including “bloodied bodies on the ground, and rocket and drone attacks on Israeli tanks and vehicles.”

Those videos had also been featured on the website of Hamas’ military wing and were posted on X in apparent violation of the company’s content policies, according to TTP.

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An ISD report, meanwhile, identified 128 posts from 45 unique accounts “containing glorification and support for terrorist content on X” in just 24 hours between Oct. 11 and Oct. 12.

Both reports noted that one of the Premium accounts spreading Hamas propaganda and antisemitic messages had been promoted by Musk himself in a since-deleted post.

The reports also showed that X is “profiting from the spread of this gruesome and harmful propaganda through account subscription fees and ad revenue,” the lawmakers wrote.

By buying X Premium, the accounts identified in the TPP and ISD reports are “paying for verification without any formalized vetting process and being promoted by the website’s algorithm,” the Democrats wrote.

The letter also cited a mid-October report from the misinformation tracker NewsGuard, which analyzed 250 high-engagement posts that promoted false or unproven claims related to the Israel-Hamas War. it found that 186 of the 250 came from accounts that had paid for Premium verification.

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Bitcoin rises to fresh record above $112,000, helped by Nvidia-led tech rally

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Bitcoin rises to fresh record above 2,000, helped by Nvidia-led tech rally

The logo of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin can be seen on a coin in front of a Bitcoin chart.

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Bitcoin hit a fresh record on Wednesday afternoon as an Nvidia-led rally in equities helped push the price of the cryptocurrency higher into the stock market close.

The price of bitcoin was last up 1.9%, trading at $110,947.49, according to Coin Metrics. Just before 4:00 p.m. ET, it hit a high of $112,052.24, surpassing its May 22 record of $111,999.

The flagship cryptocurrency has been trading in a tight range for several weeks despite billions of dollars flowing into bitcoin exchange traded funds. Bitcoin purchases by public companies outpaced ETF inflows in the second quarter. Still, bitcoin is up just 2% in the past month.

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Bitcoin climbs above $112,000

On Wednesday, tech stocks rallied as Nvidia became the first company to briefly touch $4 trillion in market capitalization. In the same session, investors appeared to shrug off the latest tariff developments from President Donald Trump. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite notched a record close.

While institutions broadly have embraced bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative, it is still a risk asset that rises and falls alongside stocks depending on what’s driving investor sentiment. When the market is in risk-on mode and investors buy growth-oriented assets like tech stocks, bitcoin and crypto tend to rally with them.

Investors have been expecting bitcoin to reach new records in the second half of the year as corporate treasuries accelerate their bitcoin buying sprees and Congress gets closer to passing crypto legislation.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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Perplexity launches AI-powered web browser for select group of subscribers

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Perplexity launches AI-powered web browser for select group of subscribers

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Perplexity AI on Wednesday launched a new artificial intelligence-powered web browser called Comet in the startup’s latest effort to compete in the consumer internet market against companies like Google and Microsoft.

Comet will allow users to connect with enterprise applications like Slack and ask complex questions via voice and text, according to a brief demo video Perplexity released on Wednesday.

The browser is available to Perplexity Max subscribers, and the company said invite-only access will roll out to a waitlist over the summer. Perplexity Max costs users $200 per month.

“We built Comet to let the internet do what it has been begging to do: to amplify our intelligence,” Perplexity wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine that gives users simple answers to questions and links out to the original source material on the web. After the company was accused of plagiarizing content from media outlets, it launched a revenue-sharing model with publishers last year.

In May, Perplexity was in late-stage talks to raise $500 million at a $14 billion valuation, a source familiar confirmed to CNBC. The startup was also approached by Meta earlier this year about a potential acquisition, but the companies did not finalize a deal.

“We will continue to launch new features and functionality for Comet, improve experiences based on your feedback, and focus relentlessly–as we always have–on building accurate and trustworthy AI that fuels human curiosity,” Perplexity said Wednesday.

WATCH: Perplexity CEO on AI race: The market of providing answers to questions will become a commodity

Perplexity CEO on AI race: The market of providing answers to questions will become a commodity

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Retailers log $7.9 billion in online sales in first 24 hours of Prime Day

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Retailers log .9 billion in online sales in first 24 hours of Prime Day

A worker sorts packages on Amazon Prime Day in New York on July 8, 2025.

Klaus Galiano | Bloomberg | Getty Images

U.S. online sales jumped 9.9% year over year to $7.9 billion on Tuesday, the kickoff of Amazon‘s Prime Day megasale, according to Adobe Analytics.

At that level, it marks the “single biggest e-commerce day so far this year,” Adobe said. It also eclipsed total online spending during Thanksgiving last year, when sales on the holiday reached $6.1 billion.

Amazon’s Prime Day bargain blitz began on Tuesday and lasts through Friday. The event, first launched in 2015 as a way to hook new Prime members, has pushed other retailers to launch counterprogramming.

Walmart‘s six-day deals event also started Tuesday, while Target Circle Week kicked off on Sunday and Best Buy launched a Black Friday in July promotion that began Monday.

Home and outdoor goods showed signs of strong demand during the first day of Amazon’s discount event, said Kashif Zafar, CEO of Xnurta, an advertising platform that serves more than 20,000 online businesses.

Read more CNBC Amazon coverage

Other historically well-performing categories such as beauty and household essentials saw softer demand early on, but could see demand pick up as Prime Day continues, he added.

“Early Prime Day numbers might look soft compared to last year’s surge, but it’s too early to call the event a miss,” Zafar said in an email. “With four days instead of two, we’re seeing a different rhythm, consumers are spreading out their purchases.”

Adobe expects online sales to reach $23.8 billion across all retailers during the 96-hour event, a level that’s “equivalent to two Black Fridays.”

U.S. online shoppers spent $14.2 billion during the 48-hour Prime Day event last year, according to Adobe.

This year’s Prime Day is landing at an uncertain time for retailers and consumers as they grapple with the fallout of President Donald Trump‘s unpredictable tariff policies.

U.S. consumer confidence worsened in June after improving in May as Americans remained concerned about the tariffs’ effect on the economy and prices, according to the Conference Board.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month the company hasn’t seen prices “appreciably go up” on its site as a result of tariffs.

Some third-party sellers previously told CNBC they were considering raising or had already raised the price of some of their products manufactured in China as the cost of tariffs became burdensome.

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