Twitter lets customer support operatives use custom profiles with their direct messages
Having become the medium through which upset customers often turn to in order to complain to companies or ask questions, Twitter is fully embracing its role as a customer service platform. But while Twitter is a neat and quick way to get in touch with a company, it tends to have something of an impersonal feel.
This is about to change as Twitter is rolling out a new feature that lets customer service representatives personalize direct messages with their own name and image rather than that of the company they work for. Will this splash of personality help customers feel valued in a marketplace awash with bots?
Twitter tweaks blocking and muting in latest anti-abuse measures
Having just introduced the idea of restricted timeouts for abusive users, Twitter has unveiled yet more measures designed to counter abuse and harassment. Now if you have blocked or muted a user, you'll no longer be notified of replies to a conversation by that user.
You will still, however, receive notifications of replies to the conversation if they come from people you follow, so you are not completely cut out. It has been warmly received by Twitter users, many of whom believe this is how things should have been from the beginning.
Twitter slaps abusive accounts with temporary timeouts
After promising to do something to tackle the problem of harassment, Twitter recently announced plans to stop repeat offenders. An even more recent tweak to lists backfired, and the latest measure sees abusers hit with a timeout rather than a ban.
It is an attempt to placate those who want to see something being done, while simultaneously trying not to anger those affected. The restrictions seem to be -- at the moment -- limited to hiding the offender's tweet to everyone but his or her followers, but it's possible that others may be implemented as well.
'Refugee' Julian Assange arrives on Twitter
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has activated his Twitter account. His profile gives his location as the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and describes him as "refugee" who is "picking the lock to the chain that enslaves mankind -- ignorance."
Within minutes of activating the account, Assange managed to amass thousands of followers, and this is a number that is sure to skyrocket in the coming days now that the account is actually being used. So what did the reclusive man have to say with his first tweet?
Twitter tweaks Lists because of potential for abuse -- and then reverses the changes
Twitter has tried various methods of cracking down on trolling and abuse, and it is now rolling out its latest batch of safety measures. The most recent change only lasted a few hours before it was killed off due to protests.
In a seemingly well-intentioned move, Twitter decided to no longer notify users when they were added to lists. The idea was that lists could be used as a form of abuse: you might not be able to message someone, but you could add them to a list called "you're a douchebag", and they would be notified. But the change did not last very long at all.
Twitter cracks down on repeat offenders -- stops the creation of new abusive accounts
Twitter has long had an abuse and harassment problem, which has put off a lot of would-be users. Over the years the company has taken steps to try to combat the issue, but with very limited success.
However, Twitter is now working hard make the service a more friendly place -- just last week it improved how users report abusive tweets. Today, the company goes even further, and introduces three new changes designed to silence the trolls.
Democracy 'threatened' by the social media echo chamber
In the wake of Donald Trump's election in November, we looked at the phenomenon of social media bubbles and the effect they have on political discourse.
Research released by UK political think tank Demos reveals some of the extent of the echo chamber effect in political discussions on Twitter.
#DeleteUber campaign forces Uber to automate and speed up account removal process
After failing to participate in a taxi ban around John F Kennedy airport while protests against President Trump's travel ban went on, Uber found itself on the receiving end of a good deal of flak. The hashtag #DeleteUber spent a lengthy period trending on Twitter as people voiced their disapproval of what they see as a Trump-supporting company.
Irked Uber users who did not like the idea of the company seeming to profit from the refugee and immigration ban were not just flashing the #DeleteUber hashtag around, they were acting on it. But attempts to delete accounts led to frustration, with some people suggesting that Uber was blocking them from killing their account; this was not the case, and the company is speeding up the deletion process.
Twitter will finally roll out 'long overdue' fixes to tackle harassment
Twitter's trolling and harassment problem is not going away, and the company has long-promised to do more to tackle the issue. In a series of tweets, Twitter's vice president of engineering Ed Ho has revealed that action is finally to be taken.
While he does not go into detail about exactly what Twitter's plan is, he says that more will be revealed as the tools roll out this week. Importantly, he reveals in addition to changes to muting and blocking, the new measures will include steps to prevent repeat offenders from simply creating new accounts if they are blocked.
Twitter reveals the worrying content of two secret National Security Letters
All the big players in the world of tech release transparency reports these days, and Twitter is no different. Like other companies, Twitter has been unable to report details of any National Security Letters (NSLs) it receives from the FBI asking for access to user account information.
These data requests are accompanied by gagging orders that prevent the recipients from informing either the public or the subject of the letter about the request. The gag has now been lifted and Twitter has shared the contents of two letters which ask for a "large amount of data."
Twitter relegates Moments to a subset of the new Explore tab
If there's one thing that irks Twitter users (actually, there are many things, but stick with us...) it's the disorganized way in which information is scattered hither and thither. Keen to get users to break out of their timelines and see what else it out there, the Twitter app is undergoing a makeover.
The change means that the existing search, Moments, and trends are now combined into a single, more manageable Explore tab. It's a simple change, but one that will make life easier for Twitter explorers.
Anonymous threatens Donald Trump with leaks about ties to mafia and child trafficking
Donald Trump has not yet taken up office, but he has already managed to whip up tidal waves of opposition not only in the US, but around the world. Among the president-elect's opponents is Anonymous, the hacktivist collective.
The group took to Twitter -- Trump's favorite medium -- to issue a pre-inauguration warning: "This isn't the 80's any longer, information doesn't vanish, it is all out there. You are going to regret the next 4 years". The tirade came as Trump lashed out at reports about criticism from outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan; Anonymous responded by threatening the billionaire with damaging leaks.
Watch Trump's inauguration as POTUS live on Twitter
A week from tomorrow, on Friday 20 January, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States and you can watch the whole event on the billionaire's favorite social platform -- Twitter.
The social site is teaming up with PBS NewsHour to provide six hours of coverage of Trump's inauguration starting at 11:00 ET. It's an event that millions of people all around the world will be keen to watch -- particularly in light of this week's Russian dossier revelations -- and Twitter is setting up a dedicated page for that very purpose.
Now it's easy to secretly edit Facebook posts without anyone noticing
There is a lot of talk about the possibility of editing tweets on Twitter at the moment, but an editing function has been available on Facebook for ages. With the ability to edit posts that people can comment on come concerns, and with this in mind Facebook has always let you know when a post you're reading has been amended. Until now...
Without warning, the label which advised of edits has vanished. This means that it is now possible to make surreptitious changes to posts and many people will be completely unaware of what you have done.
Vine is closing on 17 January -- download your Vines now!
Back in October Twitter announced that it was shuttering Vine, with the promise that more details of the closure would follow. A subsequent announcement narrowed it down to the first month of 2017, and now it has been pinned down to 17 January.
The move sees Twitter morphing the app into a new Vine Camera app, and killing off the Vine website as we know it. It will still exist, but only as an archive of Vines for you to browse. If you want to download your old Vines for posterity, you'll need to do so by the 17th.
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