Articles about Twitter

Few people can claim to like the ads that have become part and parcel of smartphone usage, but for the most part they can be endured. But what about when a minor inconvenience that merely infringes on your time becomes even more of a nuisance and actually starts to kill your phone battery?

According to an investigation, this is precisely what has been happening. An ad fraud scheme has been uncovered that invisibly plays videos lucrative video ads on handsets, earning money for fraudsters and draining the batteries of Android handsets.

Continue reading →

There are many demands made of Twitter, but perhaps the most frequently requested feature is an edit option. There's a chance that this will appear in time, but until then there are other concerns for Twitter users.

Abuse and trolling on Twitter -- like other social networks -- is rife, and anyone posting a tweet has to deal with the replies that it may generate... and the responses to those replies. It is already possible to block or mute respondents, but Twitter is currently testing a new tool -- the ability to hide replies.

Continue reading →

It's the bane of any internet user. You stumble across a link to a fascinating-sounding article and click it only to discover that the site hosting the post is paywalled. Gah!

The Medium platform is one that can include paywalled content, and there's good news for Twitter users. If you access a Medium article via a tweet, it does not matter if it is a paid-for article or not -- you will be able to access it for free.

Continue reading →

When you delete a direct message on Twitter, it is gone forever, right? From a user's point of view, this is true -- a deleted message vanishes. But a security researcher has discovered that Twitter is actually hanging onto these messages.

Karan Saini found that he was able to see messages he deleted years ago when he downloaded an archive of his Twitter data from the site.

Continue reading →

The ability to edit tweets is one of the most frequently requested features for Twitter. The most common reason for wanting to make edits is to fix typos, but concern has been voiced about the potential for an editing facility to be abused -- which perhaps explains Twitter's apparent reticence at rolling out such a feature without careful thought.

While tweet editing has yet to appear, there has long been speculation about how it could be implemented. In a move that is sure to fuel rumors that an edit function is just around the corner, Twitter chief Jack Dorsey has talked about how the feature could work.

Continue reading →

Twitter has discovered what it describes as "unusual activity" stemming from China and Saudi Arabia. The social networking company says that it noticed a large number of enquiries involving a support API coming from individual IP addresses in the two countries.

The discovery came as Twitter investigated a bug in a support form. The problem, Twitter says, dates back to November 15, and it was fixed the next day, but a security researcher says he reported the issue two years ago. As a result of the bug, Twitter says that the country code of users' phone numbers could have been discovered by malicious actors.

Continue reading →

For those who like simple chronology, Twitter's insistence on delivering tweets in an algorithm powered order that is seemingly random has long been a source of frustration. Today, the social site launches a new way to switch between reverse chronological order or the algorithm-driven "top tweets" ordering.

To allow for easy switching between the two modes, Twitter is rolling out a new "sparkle" button to its mobile app. The change is being made available to iOS users first, but Android owners will not be far behind.

Continue reading →

Earlier this year we looked at Duo Security's research into Twitter bots which focused on fake followers. The company has now published some further research looking at amplification bots.

So what is an amplification bot? They exist to boost content through likes and retweets. Duo has produced an algorithm to identify these bots and was able to find more than 7,000 over a 24 hour period.

Continue reading →

Twitter has confirmed the removal of thousands of accounts for not only discouraging people from voting in next week's US elections, but also falsely appearing to originate from the Democratic Party.

In all, over 10,000 accounts were deleted in September and October, for targeting key demographics and encouraging them to withhold their vote. While the removals are pretty small-scale, they still serve to demonstrate how Twitter is being used to try to subvert the outcomes of elections.

Continue reading →

Earlier this year we covered some research from Duo Security published into the activities of Twitter bots. The company has now followed this with a look at how fake Twitter followers operate.

Traditional fake followers are challenging to detect on an individual level since they have very little (if any) activity other than following other accounts. However, because fakes operate in groups created by the same bot owner they do tend to share characteristics.

Continue reading →

Twitter is being investigated by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) over concerns about how much data it collects through its t.co link-shortening tool.

The Irish privacy regulator is concerned about the amount of data Twitter is able to collect through the service -- something that was only heightened by the company's refusal to hand over information about link tracking when it was requested.

Continue reading →

How many characters is an emoji? It seems like a simple question, but on Twitter the answer has not always been clear. Some emojis count as a single character while others eat further into the character count.

But now this is changing -- Twitter has announced that all emojis will now be treated equally. Previously, emoji that could be modified in various ways -- such as changing the skin tone of people -- would use up large numbers of characters. No more!

Continue reading →

In less than two weeks, Twitter's Moments will no longer be available to mobile users.

Seemingly in recognition of the fact that hardly anyone used the feature, Twitter is killing off the ability to create Moments in its iOS and Android apps. But the company is not completely shutting down Moments -- the feature will still be available to those who really want to continue using it.

Continue reading →

Continuing to face criticism for failing to successfully tackle abuse on its platform, Twitter has announced a new approach. The company is planning to introduce new policies, but before they become part of official rules it will ask for feedback from users.

Starting off with a new Dehumanization Policy, Twitter will invite users to give their opinion and complete surveys about proposed policy changes. The first policy to be subject to this public scrutiny says: "You may not dehumanize anyone based on membership in an identifiable group, as this speech can lead to offline harm".

Continue reading →

People have many complaints about Twitter, but one that crops up time and time again from users is how the timeline is displayed. Like many other social media sites, Twitter ditched the idea of showing your tweets in the order in which they were posted in favor of using algorithms to show you what it thinks you want to see.

But now this is about to change again. After vocal outpourings from critics of the algorithm-driven timeline, Twitter is going to give users a choice -- have your timeline controlled by an algorithm, or view a chronological timeline instead.

Continue reading →