Articles about Twitter

Hate the new-look Twitter? Here's how to get the old version back

Hanging Twitter logos

People are often resistant to change, particularly when it feels like change for the sake of change -- and this is certainly the feeling that abounds with the recent redesign of Twitter.

While some Twitter users have been working with the new look for some time, it only rolled out globally a couple of weeks ago. Predictably, the reaction has been mixed, but the redesign has certainly not been met with universal praise. If you're one of the many who hate the way things are now, you'll be frustrated to learn that Twitter does not give you a way to revert back to the old look. But where there's a will, there's a way...

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The right to be wrong: Public opinions, private data and Twitter's proposed flagging policy

A few weeks ago, Twitter announced a plan to begin placing a notice over tweets from high-influence political leaders it believes violate its standards regarding abusive behavior. On the surface, this didn’t seem significantly different from the motion picture industry’s rating system or more detailed advisories posted prior to programming on Netflix and other on-demand networks. But dig a little deeper and one realizes what made it particularly dangerous is Twitter’s intention to apply this protocol very selectively.

Initially, this censorship policy would apply solely to posts from political figures with large followings. But why not from everyone with 100,000 followers? Or less? In other words, why not to everyone, period? Why not to you and me?

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Scotland Yard Twitter account and website hacked

New Scotland Yard

The Twitter account of Scotland Yard has been hit by hackers, resulting in a series of strange and offensive tweets being sent to hundreds of thousands of followers. The website for the Metropolitan Police was also hacked.

Tweets sent by the hackers made references to Keemstar as well as drill artist Digga D, calling for the rapper to be freed from prison. The attack by hackers also resulted in a series of emails being sent out to journalists via the Metropolitan Police's official email address.

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Twitter redesign rolls out on the web

Twitter redesign 2019

Twitter is rolling out a faster, redesigned version of its website, bringing not only a new look to the desktop, but also a range of new features.

It's now possible to bookmark tweets -- something users have been asking for for a very long time -- there is a darker dark mode, and the Explore feature from Twitter's mobile apps makes its way to the web. There's certainly a lot to like, but the fact that the new look is not optional is likely to grate with some users.

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US Court of Appeals says Trump can't block people on Twitter

Trump baby blimp

Donald Trump's love of Twitter is legendary and often ridiculed; it is also the source of frequent controversy.

The US president is huge fan of ranting, raving and venting steam in tweet storms, but his famed love of sycophants also comes to the fore. Many people who have responded to his tweets critically have found themselves blocked. Now the US Court of Appeal says this is a violation of their First Amendment rights.

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The Twitter app is returning to macOS

Twitter macOS

For more than a year, macOS users have been without an official desktop Twitter client -- more on that shortly. But now, thanks to Project Catalyst for macOS 10.15 Catalina, a Twitter app is making its way back to Mac.

Twitter says that Apple's Project Catalyst means that it has been easy to use the code from the iOS version of the client to create a native macOS app. The company has also revealed just why it was the Mac Twitter client disappeared in the first place.

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Twitter looks into whether white nationalists and supremacists should be banned

Twitter on iPhone

In a world that appears to be lurching ever further to the right, it is perhaps little wonder that white nationalists, white supremacists and other extremists are becoming more prevalent online. Social media sites have a balancing act to perform -- not wanting to be seen to be advocating censorship, but also removing troublesome elements from their networks.

And this is the problem that Twitter faces. The platform has long been home to a glut of racist content and users -- as well as other unsavoury material -- and now the site is conducting research to determine how best to tackle this. Specifically, it is looking at whether white nationalists and supremacists should simply be banned, or whether their posts should be left available for others to debate.

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RIP Grumpy Cat: The meme and internet phenomenon is dead

Grumpy Cat

Grumpy Cat, the feline subject of many memes, has died at the age of 7.

The internet celebrity rose to fame because of her delightfully dour demeanour and a sour face that made the online world smile. An internet celebrity for seven years, Grumpy Cat (aka Tardar Sauce) shuffled off this mortal coil this week, leaving the web a sadder place.

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Banned from social media? Feeling persecuted and censored? Report it to Donald Trump!

Black and white Trump

The White House has launched a new tool that enables people to report the fact that they have been kicked off the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

The tool is aimed at people who have had their social media presence curtailed and "suspect political bias" is involved. Anyone who feels aggrieved is invited to "share your story with President Trump".

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Privacy: Twitter 'inadvertently' collected and shared location data of some users

Twitter on iPhone

Social media services are hardly regarded as bastions of privacy, and the latest slip-up by Twitter goes some way to showing why. Twitter has revealed that it "may have accidentally collected location data" about users, that this data was shared with one of its "trusted partners".

Twitter blames the "inadvertent" data collection on a bug, and says that the issue affects some iOS users. It also says that precise location data was not collected or shared, but zip code or city-level only.

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Why every enterprise needs data loss prevention for all social media channels

Security leaders face tough decisions when it comes to using social media in the workplace. Social and other digital channels are fundamentally changing the way modern businesses communicate. They’re tied to critical operations ranging from customer support to marketing to internal collaboration. Avoiding them isn’t an option. At the same time, relying on the security and privacy settings of these platforms can leave your company open to a serious incident.

It doesn’t help that social media comes with an enormous attack surface. The sheer scale of message creation on these platforms makes it especially hard to prevent the leakage of private data, like personally identifiable information (PII) and other privileged information. Security teams need to stop relegating social media as a communications channel. It is essentially a public cloud environment, and needs to be protected as such.

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Twitter slashes the number of users you can follow each day

Twitter on landscape mobile phone

In an attempt to cut down on bots and spam activity, Twitter is dramatically reducing the number of accounts it is possible to follow each day.

The previous limit meant users could follow up to 1,000 new accounts on a daily basis, but this has been abused by spammers and bots to quickly grow their networks. The new limit is less than half of this -- just 400 -- and is an update to Twitter's policies against "aggressive following or follower churn" and "bulk or aggressive activity".

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How I quit social media, but it didn't quit me

Facebook censorship

My name is Jason Kingdon, social media addict and Founder and CEO of BOLDFISH. I've been Facebook free for three years now, but I can't seem to separate it from my life. Wherever I go, there it is. Sign in with Facebook or follow us for more. At networking events, new contacts are incredulous and offended when I state my lack of social media. He lies, their eyes read

Some of my friends have acclimated to just texting me, but others have fallen out of touch. I've become accustomed to the "OMG! How are you!? I haven't seen you in forever! Are you still in China?" It’s as though time had frozen since the last time we made contact. There are amazing memories from pictures and status updates, yet they assume that what they consume is all that there ever was or will be.

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How to delete your social media accounts: Benefits, alternatives, and why you should do it

Often, our social media engagements seem like little more than momentary diversions. Someone might scroll through Twitter when sitting in a waiting room or browse Facebook over breakfast. These time commitments feel small in the moment, to the point of being insubstantial -- but over time, these "insubstantial" moments on social media add up. The average person spends almost two hours on social media every day, while the average teenager spends up to nine hours. One study suggests that most people will end up spending more than five years of their lives on sites like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter.

Social media is eating up a lot of your time. While not all of that time is "wasted" -- it’s possible to learn things on social media, network with valuable connections, catch up with friends, and follow important news stories -- five years of your life is a big ask. Have you ever considered deleting your social media accounts? In this article, we’ll explore how to delete your accounts, whether going dark can affect your job prospects, and what you can do instead to limit your social media usage or online exposure.

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Warning: Don't change your Twitter birthday to 2007

Stop Twitter

Many things go viral online these days -- funny cat videos, memes, stupid "challenges", and all manner of helpful hints and tips. Something that's doing the rounds at the moment encourages Twitter users to change their birthday to a date in 2007.

This might sound like a strange thing to do, but there is the promise of secret new color schemes or rainbow mode being unlocked to lure people in. There are also claims that changing your birthday will get your account verified and earn you a prestigious blue tick. It is -- of course -- not true, but this is not stopping Twitter users from trying it... and regretting it.

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