Twitter

In a speech that lauded Apple for not only its security practices but also its transparency, Jen Easterly from the CISA said that Microsoft and Twitter needed to do more to keep their users secure.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director was speaking at Carnegie Mellon University where she made particular reference to multifactor authentication. Easterly praised Apple for enabling MFA by default while describing Microsoft and Twitter as "disappointing" in this area.

There is a great deal to be said in favor of making software, apps and code available on an open source basis. And this is particularly true of the algorithms that influence so many aspects of life, and control what is seen online.

Now Elon Musk has suggested that Twitter's own algorithm could be made open source -- perhaps as soon as next week.

Not to be outdone by Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg has taken to Instagram to announce the rollout of a paid-for Meta Verified program. While it is already possible to receive a Twitter-style blue tick of verification on Facebook and Instagram, the new subscription service will give users the opportunity to pay for the badge.

Echoing the claims of Musk, Zuckerberg says that "this new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services". With a charge of between $12 and $15 per month, there is obviously a financial benefit for Meta as well.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an important means of securing accounts, making it significantly harder for hackers to gain unauthorized access. So it is perhaps a little surprising that Twitter has announced that it is locking one of the most popular 2FA methods behind a paywall.

The company has announced that SMS-based two-factor authentication will only be available to paying Twitter Blue subscribers. The change will take effect on March 20, and after this date non-paying Twitter users will be limited to securing their account with either an authentication app or a physical security key.

Free access to the Twitter API was meant to end yesterday, but the company has announced that there will be a brief stay of execution. Having already extended the cut-off by four days, Twitter now says that "we will be delaying the launch of our new API platform by a few more days".

The delay is blamed on "an immense amount of enthusiasm for the upcoming changes with Twitter API", but the lack of detail and clarity about what is happening is causing confusion and anger. Over the weekend, the company also contacted academic researchers to inform them that they will be losing free access to the API as well; it had previously been expected that such education and research-related usage would remain free.

The recent big tech layoffs have profoundly impacted industries outside of technology because the sector has long been seen as a driving force for innovation and economic growth. The layoff announcements by companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon have raised concerns about the tech industry's future and the ripple effects throughout the economy.

Below are several major tech companies that have laid off employees as they navigate the challenges of a rapidly changing industry:

There has been a lot of backlash against Twitter's plans to stop offering free access to its API, a move that will result in many bots, apps and services no longer working. Free access to the Twitter API was due to end on February 9, but now the company has given this cut-off a very brief extension as it reveals details of paid API access tiers, as well as sketchy information about a new, limited, free tier.

The extension to free access is very brief indeed -- just an extra four days, making the new end date February 13. Twitter has also shared information about pricing for what it describes as "paid basic access" to the API. While on the face of things, the $100 per month price tag is not high, for hobbyist developers with bots and apps, this will be too much.

The turbulent seas of Twitter show no signs of calming since the tempestuous Elon Musk took over. Having caused confusion and irritation by blocking third-party clients, Twitter then announced that free access to its API will end this week, with the effect of killing off large numbers of bots, services and tools -- including Mastodon migraters' favorite Movetodon.

Ending free access to the Twitter API has, understandably, not gone down well, with developers being highly and vocally critical of the move. Now, having listened to feedback, Musk says that "Twitter will enable a light, write-only API for bots providing good content that is free".

The exodus from Twitter to Mastodon shows little signs of slowing down, and numerous websites and services have popped up to make it easier to jump to the decentralized social network. One such tool is Movetodon, designed to help anyone moving to Mastodon to find the people they were previously following on Twitter.

Movetodon has proved incredibly popular, but it has just been killed off by Twitter. The Elon Musk-owned site announced this week that it is ending free access to its API on February 9, but ahead of this, Twitter has blocked Movetodon's access to the API, rendering the service non-functionable, alleging violation of unspecified rules and policies.

Having already banned all third-party clients, Twitter has now announced that it is completely dropping free access to its APIs. In an announcement made via the Twitter Dev account, the company says: "Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead".

The move will effectively kill off unknown -- but large -- numbers of apps and tools that depend on the Twitter API. While getting rid of free API access is unlikely to impact larger apps such as Hootsuite, those produced by smaller, independent developers are unlikely to be able to shoulder the costs.

Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, Mastodon has been the platform of choice for many of the people seeking to flee the blue bird platform, or just looking for a lifeboat in case Twitter finally sinks.

One of the strengths of Mastodon, but also one of its drawbacks, is its distributed, open source nature whereby people can stand up their own Mastodon servers. This means there's no central control, however, you need some technical expertise to create and run a server.

While there has still been no announcement, Twitter has updated its developer agreement so that third-party clients are now prohibited. Over the course of the last week or so, we've already seen the likes of Tweetbot and Twitterific rendered useless after the company blocked API access.

Twitter later said that it was merely enforcing long-standing rules, but failed to provide any details or clarification. But now a new developer agreement has been published that slaps a ban on the creation of, "a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications" -- in other words, third party Twitter apps are now forbidden.

Users of various third-party Twitter clients have been frustrated over the last week as their chosen apps stopped working. There was speculation that Twitter was blocking apps on purpose, with internal communication appearing to substantiate this.

Now we know for sure that it is the case, with the company confirming it in a tweet. Twitter says that it is merely "enforcing its long-standing API rules", conceding that this "may result in some apps not working". But there is confusion from app developers who say that Twitter is not revealing which rules it is referring to.

If you are a Tweetbot user who found yourself unable to access Twitter, you're not alone. Tweetbot, along with various other third-party Twitter clients stopped working on Thursday, it seems as though this is the result of an intentional block by Twitter.

Although the company has yet to say anything to either confirm or deny that third-party access to the Twitter API has been blocked, it is something that has been confirmed in leaked internal communication from Twitter engineers. One says: "third-party app suspensions are intentional".

Twitter has, without making an announcement, removed a feature that directed users towards suicide prevention services after searching for certain content.

The #ThereIsHelp feature was removed after Elon Musk issued an order to that effect. Sources familiar with the matter say that the removal is only temporary and that a revamped version will be launched in the future. But the social platform has been criticized not only for the timing -- Christmas is a tough time for many people -- but also for removing the existing support feature before having a replacement ready. [UPDATE -- the feature is now back. Despite the fact Twitter confirmed its removal, Musk used a series of tweets to denounce reports that it had temporarily been removed as 'fake news']