Back in May, Twitter started testing a new feature that allowed users to define who could and could not reply to their tweets. These changes were made in attempt to help people feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts on their own Twitter profiles. After a few months of testing, those features are now rolling out to everyone on the platform.
That the US government under President Trump wants to ban TikTok in the country is no surprise. That it wants TikTok to sell to a US company in order to escape that ban, a deal that includes giving the US Treasury some percentage, is not a shocker either. What was rather unexpected was that Microsoft is apparently so interested in buying up the popular short-video social network that CEO Satya Nadella personally talked with government officials about it. It turns out, Twitter is another prospective buyer and it might actually be a better fit for a TikTok owner. Presuming, of course, it could even buy it.
Twitter is taking additional steps to address the potential for manipulation and election interference on its platform, stating that it has new labels specifically for media accounts belonging to states and governments. The labels provide context for users, according to Twitter, including on the accounts of those who are affiliated with the state media account, including people like editors-in-chief, senior staff, official spokespeople, and similar.
Twitter has disclosed the discovery of a security bug that impacted only a small percentage of users, according to a brief note detailing the matter. According to the company, it has already fixed the bug, as expected, one that potentially left some private messages exposed to malicious actors who may have been aware of how to exploit the security issue. Twitter says this bug was related to a larger Android security issue that impacted older versions of the mobile OS.
A 17-year-old teenager from Tampa, Florida, has reportedly been arrested over his alleged 'mastermind' role in the recent Twitter hack that compromised many high-profile accounts. The discovery was made by a local news agency that claims the teenager has been charged with 30 felonies, including ones involving fraudulent use of personal information and communications fraud.
Although probably still not as scandalous as Facebook's involvement in the US political scene a few years back that opened a dozen cans of worms, the recent security incident at Twitter definitely has the social networking giant reeling from both the PR fallout as well as legal repercussions. Given its prominent role in today's society, it's not something it can silently sweep under a rug until everyone forgets and is most likely compelled to update the public on its ongoing investigations. Its recent update sheds more light on how hackers were even able to get hold of high-profile accounts and it pretty much puts the blame on employees that were unfortunately conned into helping those miscreants.
Earlier this year, Twitter announced changes to its content policy that specifically targeted hateful and violent content, something it has expanded this week to include links as well as the content of tweets. This move will reduce the number of problematic content linked on the platform and will put accounts that share such content at risk of suspension if they do not change their habits.
Twitter is one of the most popular social media networks and by far the biggest microblogging service out there. The tech company’s current sources of revenue include advertising – which grosses up to 84-percent (per last quarter reports) - the rest of the income coming from data licensing. With the advertising business taking a major hit in the ongoing pandemic, Twitter is mulling new ways of amassing revenue from its user base, including by the means of a subscription model.
Although less scandalous compared to Facebook, Twitter has had its fair share of PR messes that involved security, privacy, safety, and free speech over the years. Last week, however, it found itself in what may be the company's highest-profile scandal yet, especially considering it involved the hacking of very high-profile accounts. Unsurprisingly, the company has been very careful in what it disclosed about the hacking incident and has only now admitted than dozens of these high-profile accounts, including one from an elected official in the Netherlands, had their private direct messages accessed by the culprits.
Twitter has finally published a complete blog post detailing the security incident that rocked its platform last week, one that involved the hijacking of several major accounts. According to the company, and as of July 17, Twitter's investigation indicates that the hackers targeted select employees to get their credentials, which were then used to access the company's internal systems.
At around 14:00 Central Time (Chicago) on July 15, 2020, several prominent Twitter accounts posted messages about Bitcoin. These messages appeared to suggest that the brands and individuals the accounts represented would be giving Bitcoin away to individuals in an effort to "give back to [the] community." Users were asked to send amounts of Bitcoin to a given Bitcoin wallet, at which point they'd return the Bitcoin at double the amount sent.
If you find yourself using the desktop version of Twitter often, then you're about to get a useful new feature. Twitter today announced the roll out of a home screen shortcut of sorts that will put your direct messages front and center. Gone are the days of switching between your timeline and messages tab, at least on the desktop iteration of Twitter.