Articles about Twitter

The first week of the New Year is out of the way and Windows Insiders are eagerly awaiting the first Windows 10 build of 2016. The waiting may be over soon, as Microsoft says that it should be just "a few more days" before testers' patience is rewarded.

It's only a few weeks since the Redstone branch of Windows 10 became public, and Microsoft's Gabe Aul suggests that a new build could be on the way next week. The Windows 10 team just needs time to recover from Christmas and the New Year, and then we should also start to see more frequent build releases.

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The Investigatory Powers Bill may only be in draft form at the moment, but the UK government has already come in for criticism for its plans. Today, scores of pieces of written evidence, both for and against the proposals, have been published, including input from the Reform Government Surveillance (RGS) coalition.

Five key members of the coalition are Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo. In their written evidence, the quintet of tech companies express their concerns about the draft bill, seek clarification from the UK government, and issue warnings about the implications of such a bill.

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Twitter could be on the verge of making one of the most significant changes in its history. The micro-blogging service has long been famed for its 140-character limit that allows for pithy quips, concise statements, and brief utterances. But all this could be about to change. Reports suggest that the 140-character restriction could be thrown out of the window, with a decidedly meatier 10,000-character upper limit being ushered in instead.

If such a change is implemented, it would bring regular tweets in line with direct messages which enjoyed a lengthening just a few months ago, and comes shortly after Twitter changed the order in which tweets are displayed. Both of these changes led to a good deal of debate, but would increasing the maximum length of a regular, public message by more than 70 times be such a fundamental change as to be a step in the wrong direction?

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A huge DDoS attack took the BBC's websites offline on Thursday, as well as the broadcaster's iPlayer streaming service. The disruption lasted for several hours, and now a US-based group of 'cyber hackers' that usually targets ISIS has claimed responsibility.

The New World Hacking group is a self-proclaimed hacktivist group that supports Anonymous. It says that despite effectively knocking the BBC from the face of the web, it was only meant to be a test of server power rather than a targeted attack on the corporation.

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This is a personal account of my experience of depression and how I feel technology has both helped me, and held me back. I've been depressed for just about as long as I can remember, but it's only in the last six months or so that I decided I needed help and thought it was time to do something. 30-odd years is a long time to feel like Atlas bearing the weight of the world.

Having made this decision, technology was something of a lifeline... specifically, and perhaps oddly, Facebook. The social network made it possible for me to communicate with friends when the mere idea of actually speaking to someone seemed like an insurmountable obstacle. It broke down barriers of time and distance, eased my embarrassment, stopped me from feeling awkward for crying (although even writing that brought the tears welling up, and I feel like an idiot, albeit in private).

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Social networks were designed for people, and people mean problems. In particular, the likes of Facebook and Twitter have become havens for bullies and trolls, eager to prey on others online. Twitter has launched tools and education programs to combat trolling, and now the site says that it is winning the battle.

After making it easier to report abusive tweets and increasing the size of its anti-troll team, Twitter believes it is getting 'bad behavior' under control. As well as bullying of acquaintances and work colleagues, Twitter has also been used to attack celebrities, the gay community, religious groups, and more, with many people feeling driven from the site. It seems that the decision to take a very hands-on approach to troll tackling is starting to pay off.

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ISIS has been in the news for some time now, and events like the recent terror attacks in Paris keep pushing the group into the public consciousness. Governments may be waging war on ISIS on the ground, but on the web it is the likes of Anonymous and vigilante hackers who have taken it upon themselves to curtail terrorist propaganda.

In the latest twist in the tail, hacker group VandaSec traced the IP addresses relating to some ISIS Twitter accounts to the UK government -- the Department of Work and Pensions specifically. Given that the accounts have been used not only to spread ISIS propaganda, but also to recruit members, does the UK government have a dirty little secret? As you might expect, it's not quite that simple.

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Twitter is joining the Google - Facebook bandwagon, as it has started warning its users that they may be potential targets for "state-sponsored" hack attacks.

Canadian non-profit organization Coldhak has tweeted a copy of an email it has received from Twitter, warning it about a possible cyber-attack.

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Twitter's timeline is getting a makeover. Not content with presenting tweets in an ordered, chronological fashion (well, reverse-chronological if you want to be pedantic), Twitter is experimenting with the order which tweets are displayed.

It's something that Facebook has been doing for a while, but now Twitter has jumped on the bandwagon using new methods to "surface the best content" for users. At the moment, this is just an experiment, but it's entirely possible that the re-ordering will become the norm in the not-too-distant future. So what's the deal?

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Now that most smartphones take brilliant photos, it is convenient for people to take and share pictures. Back in the day, you would have to upload photos from your desktop or laptop to the web. Hell, many of us lived in a time where we had to scan our paper photographs -- yuck!

Sharing photos can be the most fun aspect of photography, and social media is ideal for that. Unfortunately, Twitter was designed to be a text-only service, so the additions of photo and video sharing, historically, have not been the best experience. With photos, for instance, they are often cropped in feeds, and must be clicked on to be seen in full. No more. Today, Twitter announces that it will end the evil cropping of uploaded images.

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The ability to broadcast live video on Facebook is something that has previously only been available to celebrities. It's not being made available to everyone -- yet -- but a handful of lucky users are being given the chance to try it out ahead of a wider rollout.

Starting today, some US iPhone users will be able to live broadcast to their friends and family. This is Facebook's bid to take on Twitter's Periscope, but the social network has more to announce. On top of Live Video, photo collages are also being unveiled as a new way to show off your snaps.

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In the panic that followed the attacks on Paris by ISIS there have been calls for various measures to be put in place to stop similar atrocities happening in the future. As well as calls for an increase in online surveillance, politicians have also suggested that encryption should be weakened or banned entirely.

Secure email service ProtonMail found itself the subject of unwanted attention when it transpired that ISIS recommended using it to evade detection. The company has remained silent about the post-Paris backlash; until now.

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There are many problems with the censoring of online content, not least that it can limit free speech. But there is also the question of transparency. By the very nature of censorship, unless you have been kept in the loop you would simply not know that anything had been censored.

This is something the Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to change, and today the digital rights organization launches Onlinecensorship.org to blow the lid off online censorship. The site, run by EFF and Visualizing Impact, aims to reveal the content that is censored on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, and YouTube -- not just the 'what' but the 'why'. If you find yourself the subject of censorship, the site also explains how to lodge an appeal.

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Sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, are still a huge issue. Unfortunately, many young people no longer fear HIV because they see people, like Magic Johnson, living normal lives with the disease. While I am happy that Johnson has continued to survive and prosper, not everyone is as lucky. Safe sex is still extremely important. Charlie Sheen is just the latest high-profile victim. Many more non-famous people are getting HIV, herpes and more.

In an effort to drive this issue home, Durex, the condom maker, is calling for safe sex emojis to be created. Before you call it unnecessary or silly, remember -- young people are communicating with emojis more and more nowadays. Maybe there is some value here. What do you think?

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It has been all change at Twitter recently. After increasing the number of accounts users are able to follow, and switching the Favorite star for a Like heart, Twitter today takes the wraps off a new Public Policy and Transparency page.

This is a central hub for information about Twitter's policies relating to freedom of speech, privacy, security, and corporate responsibility, as well as being a home for transparency-related information. It's also the place to go to find out how Twitter is handling government surveillance and online legal issues.

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