Twitter pauses verification program after giving white supremacist the coveted blue tick
Head of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has admitted that the company's verification system is "broken" after a blue tick was awarded to white supremacist Jason Kessler. There was a backlash this week after Kessler -- who helped to arrange the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville earlier in the year -- had his Twitter account verified.
Responding to the negative reaction this prompted, Twitter announced that its verification program has been paused. The company also said that the verification tick had been largely misinterpreted by people.
Twitter more than doubles the length of user display names
Signing up for any service means facing the username battle. There are two obstacles: is your username still available, and does it meet the necessary requirements. With Twitter, getting an @YourName handle is tricky because there are simply so many users (and bots), but there has long been a highly restrictive limit on the length of names -- just 15 characters.
Twitter has long offered something of a compromise in allowing display names that are slightly longer -- but only up to 20 characters. Now, the company has announced that there are more than twice as many characters to play with. Display names can now be up to 50 characters in length -- usernames, unfortunately, remain unchanged.
Twitter lets everyone send 280-character tweets -- and infuriates with maddening circle icon
After a few weeks of testing with a limited number of users, Twitter is rolling out 280-character tweets to (nearly) everyone -- but says that very few of the testers reached this limit.
With the 140-character limit, says Twitter, just 9 percent of tweets hit the upper limit; with 280 characters to play with, this drops to 1 percent. The increase has divided opinion on Twitter, but the company's decision to replace the simple character countdown -- to warn how much more you could type -- with a bizarre circular icon has been given a rather negative reception.
Twitter blames a failure to take context into account for its block on LGBTQ searches
Over the weekend, users noticed that a number of search terms -- such as bisexual -- appeared to be blocked on Twitter. Having said "we've identified an error with search results for certain terms. We apologize for this. We’re working quickly to resolve & will update soon," Twitter has finally explained what happened.
Perhaps predictably there's -- assuming you believe Twitter -- nothing sinister going on. Instead, the company's latest policy changes, which took extra measures to block sexual content, meant that its automated systems were being rather heavy-handed in censoring certain content, completely failing to take context into consideration.
EFF: Twitter users have a First Amendment right not to be blocked by President Trump
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has told a court that Donald Trump's blocking of users who criticize him on Twitter is a violation of their First Amendment rights. The digital rights group says that people have a "constitutional right to receive government messages transmitted through social media and participate in the forums created by them."
The EFF argues that Trump's use of Twitter has become a hallmark of his presidency, and by blocking individuals he is denying them access to the policy details and other information he frequently disseminates through tweets.
Twitter pledges to fix 'error' that hides bisexual search results
Twitter faced criticism over the weekend after it was discovered that the search term "bisexual" appeared to have been blocked. Users noticed that searching for the word returned no news or photo results, leading to claims of censorship and discrimination.
The company refers to the issue as "an error with search results for certain terms" and is "working quickly to resolve" it.
Twitter clarifies rules about abuse, violence, adult content -- promises a further update on November 22
Twitter seems to be fighting something of a losing battle against abuse on its platform, as well as failing to successfully clamp down on all manner of content that supposedly violates its terms of use. In its latest attempt to get things sorted, the company has -- once again -- updated its rules.
The company's latest changes specifically take in the issues of abusive behavior, self-harm, spam, graphic violence and adult content. The announcement is in keeping with Twitter's recently announced timetable for tackling abuse, as is the promise that further changes will be revealed on November 22.
Twitter shares timetable for tackling abuse transparently between now and January
With promises made by Jack Dorsey and a leaked email indicating that Twitter was ready to do more to start tackling abuse on the site, it should come as little surprise that the company has now published a timetable for what it intends to do over the coming months.
Entitled the "Calendar of Our Safety Work," the document details the changes that Twitter is going to make between now and the middle of January. The timetable covers subjects such as non-consensual nudity, hateful imagery, violent groups and hateful display names. There's an unprecedented level of transparency that Twitter will hope convinces people that it is taking matters seriously.
Leaked email: Twitter introduces yet more rules in latest attempt to tackle abuse
Twitter has made endless promises about clamping down on abuse, constantly tweaking existing rules and introducing new ones in an attempt to protect users. Following last week's #WomenBoycottTwitter protest, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey promised to start taking a more aggressive approach.
A leaked internal email gives details of just what this new stance will involve. The definition of "nonconsensual nudity" is to be expanded to include upskirt photos and so-called "creep shots," and symbols of hate -- a term that Twitter does not actually define -- will be hidden behind a "sensitive image" warning.
Twitter vows to take a more aggressive approach to unwanted sexual advances, abuse and more
Jack Dorsey has promised that Twitter will take a more aggressive stance in applying its rules. The announcement came after the #WomenBoycottTwitter protest was used to draw attention to women being silenced.
The Twitter CEO also said that new rules will be introduced to try to counter "unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence."
Women boycott Twitter to protest against women's voices being silenced
The sexual abuse and harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein are having some interesting side effects. Having temporarily banned actress Rose McGowan from its platform, Twitter today finds itself at the center of a boycott.
While it was initially thought that McGowan had been booted from the site for speaking out about Weinstein, Twitter insists it took action because she shared a private phone number in a tweet. But other users are making Friday the 13th an unlucky day for Twitter via the #WomenBoycottTwitter hashtag. Many women are choosing to boycott the site completely today to protest against the silencing of women, while others are using the trending topic to help raise awareness of abuse.
[UPDATED] Twitter temporarily suspends Rose McGowan following Harvey Weinstein tweets
Rose McGowan -- one of many actresses to have spoken out about Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual abuse and harassment -- has been slapped with a temporary suspension from Twitter. The sanctions came after the Charmed and Nip/Tuck star talked about the Weinstein allegations.
While Twitter has not revealed exactly why McGowan's account was suspended, it followed her speaking out about sexual abuse, and telling Ben Affleck to "fuck off" after he said he knew nothing of Weinstein's reputation for sexual harassment.
Twitter introduces Happening Now to keep you up to date with sport and more
Twitter may have a bookmarking system in the works, but there are new features that are already rolling out to users. The latest addition is called Happening Now which will be used to highlight tweets about a particular topic.
It's a feature that's not a million miles removed from the existing Moments feature, but Twitter seems to think it's what people want. To start with, Happening Now is rolling out to Android and iOS users in the US and it will highlight sports. Over time, however, it will expand to other parts of the world and cover different events as well.
Twitter not only changes its mind about 'inflammatory' ad, it's going to change its policies too
Twitter was accused of censorship after banning an "inflammatory" ad campaign by Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn. But just one day after implementing the ban, the company has backed down, saying the video -- which sees Blackburn talking about fighting to stop "the sale of baby body parts" -- can be promoted on Twitter.
Despite maintaining its belief that the video contains inflammatory language, Twitter now says that it is permissible within the context of the ad. Furthermore, the company says that it will "refine" its policies around the issue.
Kodi: Users who stream illegal content should 'Bugger off'
A week ago, Kodi took to Twitter to express its hatred for popular third-party add-ons site TVAddons, claiming that it should be shut down as it brought "nothing but misery to everyone."
The media software developer has continued its war of words since, attacking not only TVAddons again, but also end users, stating that anyone who uses Kodi to stream content illegally "can just bugger off and never come back." And that’s not all.
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