You could soon be able to grab the Twitter handle of your dreams
One of the problems with signing up for just about any online service, particularly social platforms, is trying to bag yourself the username you want. On Twitter, this could be about to get a bit easier.
It is no secret that since Elon Musk took over the company, Twitter users have been leaving the site in droves, mainly to Mastodon. Add to this the number of accounts that were set up years ago and never used, accounts that have fallen inactive and there are a lot of Twitter handles that could be opened up to new owners -- and this is precisely what is on the cards.
Elon Musk lets Donald Trump back on Twitter after users vote to lift the ban on the ex-president
Almost two years after Donald Trump was banned from Twitter, Elon Musk has permitted the former US president back onto the site. Trump was evicted form the site following the January 6 attacks on the US Capitol
This weekend Musk conducted a poll on Twitter asking people to vote about whether or not to "reinstate former President Trump". After more than 15 million votes were cast, a majority voted in favor, and it wasn't long before Trump's account was reactivated.
Facebook is revamping user profiles, removing political views, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and more
In the world of social media, most of the attention is -- understandably -- focused on what's happening at Twitter, but there are changes afoot at Facebook too.
Starting at the beginning of December, some information fields are being removed from user profiles. The fields in question are Religious Views, Political Views, Address, and Interested In, with the latter being the field used to indicate sexual orientation.
Twitter could be about to die; here's how to download your tweets
Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has been nothing short of chaotic, leading to thousands of employees being fired, an unknown number resigning, countless users jumping ship, and confusion for those left behind. So... what to do? Download your Twitter archive.
It is one thing to find a new home on a Twitter alternative such as Mastodon, but what about everything you are leaving behind? While the future of Twitter is very much an unknown, it is hanging in the balance, and recent events have shown that just about anything is possible. Rumors abound about the site being closed, so if you are concerned about losing years' worth of tweets -- many of which may contain valuable data -- here's how to go about downloading them for posterity.
Twitter wants you to stop screengrabbing tweets and share them instead
Twitter is taking steps to increase engagement on the platform by discouraging people from taking screenshots of tweets. iOS users are the first to be subjected to prompt to share a tweet rather than a screengrab of it.
The move makes it clear that Twitter is able to determine when users are taking screengrabs, and while many of the images will end up being shared on Twitter itself, the company would prefer that links were shared to other platforms to encourage click-throughs.
Twitter is gaining a WhatsApp Share icon
Twitter is looking to make sharing content easier and wider-reaching by cross-pollinating with other social platforms. The micro-blogging site -- which may or may not end up being bought by Elon Musk -- is adding an option for sharing tweets via WhatsApp.
For now, the new sharing option is limited to certain markets, but it is hard to imagine that it will not spread globally in the near future. The question is, will it be welcomed by users or not?
Microsoft undercovers high severity vulnerability which could allow one-click hijacking of TikTok accounts
Microsoft has revealed details of a high severity vulnerability in the TikTok app for Android. The Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team shares news of the now-fixed security flaw which the company says could have allowed an attacker to take over a victim’s account by simply getting them to click a malicious link.
With hundreds of millions of users around the world, TikTok is one of the most popular social platforms at the moment; the potential damage from the successful exploitation of such a vulnerability is huge.
Twitter comes clean about serious security incident affecting millions of accounts
Twitter has confirmed that a hacker was able to exploit a security vulnerability on the social platform earlier this year, gaining access to the private data of millions of users.
In total, 5.4 million accounts were affected, with the attacker able to link account names to email addresses and phone numbers. While the incident took place back in January this year, Twitter has also revealed that the exposed user data was made available to buy just last month. In what will be regarded by many as something of an understatement, the company says that "it is unfortunate that this happened".
Instagram rolls back changes that drew the ire of Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner
Following a backlash from ordinary users, as well as influencers and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, Instagram has announced that it is rolling back a number of recent changes to the social platform.
One of the new features that caused widespread irritation was a TikTok-aping video-focused recommendation system which means users were no longer seeing as much content from accounts they actually follow. Another unpopular change was a new full-screen view for posts. Instagram owners Meta says that after the rollback it will "take the time" to get the changes right.
If you're daft enough to pay for Twitter Blue, prepare to dig deeper into your pockets
It was hardly a surprise when Twitter launched a subscription service in the form of Twitter Blue. In exchange for $2.99 a month, anyone keen to gain access to extra feature could help top up the social media company's coffers.
But it seems that the coffers have not been topped up enough as Twitter has announced a price hike. The cost of a Twitter Blue subscription jumps by two thirds for new subscribers with immediate effect, and existing subscribers can expect to pay the new, higher price in the near future.
Facebook is finally restoring the chronological feed
Facebook's love of algorithms has meant that there has been a highly polarizing focus on recommended content in users' feeds rather than posts from friends, family and pages of genuine interest. But this is changing.
In a move that will please millions of Facebook users who have become increasingly frustrated with the way recommended content is pushed into their feed, Mark Zuckerberg has announced that iOS and Android users are being treated to feed split over two tabs. While one of these will remain populated with content surfaced by Facebook's "discovery engine", the other is a chronological feed of content from friends, groups and Pages.
Elon Musk pulls out of Twitter purchase, but Twitter plans to sue to force the deal
When the richest person on Earth offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, the eyes of the world pivoted to Elon Musk to watch the drama unfold. And the drama did not disappoint, played out over several month.
There has been speculation for some time that Musk's plans to buy Twitter would fall through, and those who predicted this may just have been proved right. Musk's lawyers have written to the social media company to say that the deal is now off, citing Twitter'ss failure to provide information that had been requested. Twitter has responded saying that it intends to sue Musk and force him to complete the merger.
Instagram to use video selfies as one method of age verification
Like most social media platforms, Instagram has a minimum age for users -- in this instance, it is 13 years old. But verifying ages online -- particularly for non-adults -- has long proved difficult. Now Instagram thinks it has come up with a solution.
As part of measure to enforce age limits more strongly, Instagram is preparing to use a variety of techniques to confirm that younger users are the age they claim to be. One of the options that will be available to such users is uploading a video selfie which will be shared with age-checking agencies.
While it works on an 'edit tweet' option, Twitter adds the ability to step away from mentions
Elon Musk's recent colossal investment in Twitter made him the largest shareholder in the company. His tweets after this became public made it seem as though he was going to be something of a trouble-making disruptor, stirring things up with talk of an edit button, but it soon transpired that Twitter really is working on the option to edit tweets.
It's hard to say quite when the feature will be made available, and it is likely to be limited to Twitter Blue subscribers -- at least to start with. In the meantime, users who are not willing to pay for extra features can enjoy another new option: Unmention
Pinterest bans climate change misinformation with new policies
Pinterest has become the first major social network to implement a ban on users posting misinformation about climate change.
The image-focused social platform is putting in place new rules that means it will no longer be possible to post content that denies the existence or impacts of climate change, the human influence on climate change, or that climate change is backed by scientific consensus. Misleading posts, including those that misrepresent scientific data will also be banned.
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