Twitter removes 143,000 apps, now requires developers to request API access
As part of its continuing efforts to clean up the platform, Twitter has removed 143,000 apps in the last three months for policy violations. To help reduce the need for such measures in the future, the company has also introduced a new registration system that means developers must now request access to Twitter's APIs.
The change is a significant one, and with it Twitter will be hoping to prevent the appearance of malicious apps in the first place -- making its job easier and improving the overall experience for users.
How to edit tweets with Covfefe so you don't embarrass yourself on Twitter
Twitter: you either love it or hate it. Even if you're a Twitter lover, there's probably plenty you dislike about it! People have complained about tweets being too short, and Twitter fixed this. People complained about not being verified, and Twitter (temporarily, at least) opened up verification to everyone. People have complained about not being about to edit tweets -- and Twitter has done nothing about it.
But that's not to say someone hasn't been working on a solution. Using a new Chrome extension, you can effectively gain the ability to edit your tweets and save yourself the embarrassment of a typo in your timeline.
Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter team up on open source Data Transfer Project to ease your data moving woes
Four giants of the technology world have joined forces in an attempt to make it easier for people to move data between services. The collaboration between Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter takes the form of the open source Data Transfer Project, the aim of which is to make it possible to "transfer data directly from one service to another, without needing to download and re-upload it".
The four companies joining announced the data portability platform which currently makes use of public APIs to offer support for photos, mail, contacts, calendars and tasks from the founders as well as other companies who are encouraged to get involved.
Who cares what Trump thinks about Europe's record fine for Google?
It's just days since the Europe hit Google with a record fine for what it described as "very serious illegal behavior" in an antitrust case about the company's abuse of Android to dominate the competition.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of people have an opinion not only about the way Google has acted, but also of the European commission's ruling itself. Among those with an opinion to share is none other than Donald Trump who used the fine as a way to paint the US as a victim at the hands of Europe.
If you want to get verified on Twitter, you'll have to wait until after the US mid-terms
Attaining a blue tick of verification remains a goal for many Twitter users, but it remains elusive for most. It is quite some time since Twitter paused the option for anyone to request verification, and now the company has revealed that opening it back up is far from a priority.
The idea behind pausing the application process was to give the company the opportunity to work on fixing what was seen as a broken verification system. Product lead Kayvon Beykpour says that Twitter doesn't have the "bandwidth" to sort things out right now, and instead needs to concentrate on sorting out election integrity in the run-up to the US mid-term elections.
Your Twitter follower count is about to drop as part of a clean-up operation
Over the coming week, you may well notice that you lose a number of Twitter followers. Don't worry, it's (probably) not the result of something you said -- Twitter is having a spring clean and is cutting locked accounts from follower numbers.
The company says that the change is being introduced so that everyone's follower counts are "meaningful and accurate" and that they are something people can have confidence in. So just how many followers are you likely to lose?
Twitter is suspending more suspicious accounts than ever -- over 70 million in the last two months
Twitter has revealed that in May and June it suspended more than 70 million accounts as it continues its battle against trolls, fake profiles, bots and abuse.
Closing down over a million accounts a day means that Twitter has more than doubled its rate of clamping down since October, and the suspension rate is continuing into this month. The company confirmed the figures to the Washington Post, but refused to comment on what this might mean for overall user numbers.
Twitter tries to fight spam by forcing new users to verify their email or phone number
Twitter -- like many social media platforms -- has its fair share of problems, including trolling, spam, abuse and fake accounts. The company has fought something of a losing battle in trying to regain control of things, but it is confident it has started to make progress.
In a blog post in which it shares details of this progress, Twitter also reveals plans to crack down on people who "try to take advantage of our openness". In a bid to cut down on the number of spam accounts that crop up, Twitter is going to require anyone signing up for a new account to confirm their email address or phone number.
Microsoft issues statement distancing itself from ICE's separation of children from parents
The separating of children from parents at the US southern border has created international outrage -- and lots of rhetoric from President Trump on Twitter. When Microsoft removed from its website a reference to working with ICE, the company found itself pulled into the political debate.
A blog post from January this year saw Microsoft stating it was "proud" to be working with ICE. When this was spotted, people took to social media to call out Microsoft, making references to the child separation policy; shortly afterwards, the ICE reference was deleted. Now it is back, and Microsoft has issued a statement clarifying its position about border policy.
Judge: President Trump blocking people on Twitter is unconstitutional
Donald Trump's use of Twitter has long been controversial, and he has developed something of a penchant for blocking people who dare to question or criticize him. Earlier this year a judge suggested that he should make use of the mute option instead of blocking Twitter users, and now another judge has ruled that blocking critics is unconstitutional.
Judge Naomi Buchwald said that Trump's use of the block feature is a violation of people's right to free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The Department of Justice has indicated that it disagrees and is considering what to do next.
Twitter tweaks algorithms to give trolls less prominence
Twitter's troll problem has not improved, despite various measures taken by the company. The latest attempt to get things under control finds Twitter changing its algorithms to take into account "behavioral signals" and help bury content from trolls.
The algorithm tweaks do not mean that tweets will be deleted, but those that are found to "distort and detract from the public conversation" will be pushed further down conversations and search results to reduce their visibility.
Vine successor V2 is postponed for an 'indefinite amount of time'
It is now over a year since Vine closed down, and fans have been holding out for a follow-up to the video service. Co-founder Dom Hofmann previously said that work was underway on a successor called V2, but this has now been put on hold.
Blaming "financial and legal hurdles", Hoffmann now says that the project has been postponed "for an indefinite amount of time". He says that he had hoped to bring V2 to life as a personal project, but the realization that more money will be needed means that investors need to be brought onboard.
Twitter warns all users to change passwords after 'bug' left credentials stored in plaintext
Twitter has issued a warning to its 330 million users, urging them to change their passwords. The security announcement comes after the company discovered a bug that left passwords stored in unencrypted form in internal logs.
While Twitter says that the bug has been fixed and that the plaintext logs have been deleted, it is encouraging the password change out of "an abundance of caution".
Twitter bans Kaspersky Lab from buying ads
Its software is already banned from US government computers, and now Kaspersky Lab's advertisements have been banned from Twitter. The Russian security firm has been hit with an ad ban for "using a business model that inherently conflicts with acceptable Twitter Ads business practices".
Eugene Kaspersky has responded angrily in an open letter in which the company CEO says that even if Twitter reverses its decision, his company will not advertise on the platform, opting instead to donate the money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to fund the fight against online censorship.
Weibo reverses homosexuality policy in China: 'We're no longer targeting gay content'
Following a huge backlash over the weekend, Weibo -- the Chinese equivalent of Twitter -- has announced a reversal of a policy that would have seen gay content banned from the platform.
Originally announced on Friday, the "clean-up" operation was due to last three months, and covered violence and pornography as well as homosexual content. Now, however, Weibo has felt the pressure of public outcry and backed down saying: "We're no longer targeting gay content".
Recent Headlines
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.