Mozilla: The internet is fcked, but together we can unfck it
Ahead of the 2020 United States presidential election, Mozilla is calling Twitter and Facebook to "unfck the internet".
The Firefox-maker is seeking "an honest internet for the US elections". It's something of an ad campaign for its own web browser, but it touches on legitimate worries many people have about the use and abuse of social media. Specifically, there are concerns about how social media platforms are used to spread misinformation.
Twitter staff targeted by 'coordinated social engineering' attack as hackers hijack verified accounts in Bitcoin scam
Overnight, Twitter suffered a massive attack by hackers who tried to use the verified accounts of celebrities and high-profile users to execute a Bitcoin scam. The likes of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Kanye West had their accounts hijacked and message were posted promising that if people sent money to a Bitcoin wallet, they would get double the amount back.
Needless to say, it was a crypto scam, and Twitter took the extraordinary steps of preventing all users with a blue tick from tweeting. Twitter now has control of the situation and says that the attack came after staff fell victim to social engineering, enabling hackers to gain access to internal tools which were then used to take over key accounts.
Twitter warns users of 'data security incident' involving billing information
Twitter has emailed an unknown number of users to warn them of a security incident that took place some time prior to May 20 this year.
The company says that personal and billing information of people who used the Ads or Analytics pages on the Twitter site may have been affected. Twitter says that the vulnerability has now been addressed, but has emailed users to explain the circumstances of the incident.
Is Twitter losing the right?
If you've been using Twitter over the past week or so -- especially if you're in the UK -- you may have noticed the hashtag #Twexit trending.
This is being used to signal users' intention to abandon Twitter and decamp to upstart rival Parler. So what’s going on here and why?
Facebook removes Nazi Trump ads while Twitter flags up 'racist baby' tweet
The Trump administration has been dealt a double blow on social media after Twitter flagged a tweet from the president as "manipulated media" and Facebook remove election ads that featured a Nazi symbol and called for Antifa to be declared a terrorist organization.
On Twitter, Trump retweeted a video labelled as depicting a "racist baby" and made to look like a CNN news clip. In the case of Facebook, an ad that violated the company's policies against organized hate was taken down.
You will soon be able to request Twitter verification
The coveted blue tick of verification is the goal of many Twitter users, and for a very long time the social media company has closed off the request system that existed.
Having used a secretive system to determine whether an account is deemed worthy of being verified or not, Twitter is now going to bring a "Request verification" option into its apps. The feature is currently undergoing development, but Twitter confirms that there is a new system in the works.
How to schedule tweets from the Twitter website
While Twitter is used for sharing live news, real-time reactions and the like, it's also used for promotion -- and promotion means planning. There are numerous apps and services that you can turn to if you would like to be able to send a tweet at a date or time in the future, but now you can do it direct from the Twitter website.
The ability to tweet when you're not at your computer can be extremely useful, so here's what you need to know about scheduling tweets.
Twitter hides Trump tweet for violating rules about glorifying violence
Donald Trump's war with Twitter looks likely to heat up after the social media site hid one of the president's tweets for "glorifying violence".
Tweeting about people in people in Minneapolis protesting about the killing of George Floyd by a police officer, Trump referred to the protestors as "thugs". He then went on to say "any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts" -- and it was this phrase which fell foul of Twitter rules.
Trump threatens to close social media platforms following Twitter spat
There have long been complaints from the right that online platforms censor conservative opinions because of a liberal bias. Now after being fact-checked by Twitter, Donald Trump has threatened to close down social media platforms.
In the last 24 hours, Twitter added a "Get the facts" link to a false claim made in a tweet by the president about mail-in votes. Clearly incensed, Trump tweeted that "we will strongly regulate, or close them down".
Trump accuses Twitter of 2020 election interference after the platform fact-checks his false tweets
Donald Trump has lashed out at Twitter, accusing the site of not only interfering in the 2020 presidential elections, but also of standing in the way of free speech.
The accusations came after the site added a fact-checking link to a tweet Trump posted suggesting that mail-in ballots in California would be "substantially fraudulent". Twitter added a "Get the facts about mail-in ballots" to a pair of his tweets, causing the president to react angrily. The site, did not, however, censor or delete the tweets.
Twitter gives some users the ability to edit tweets... sort of
For years people have been asking -- nay, begging -- Twitter to add the option of editing tweets, and for years the company has resisted. Now, for a handful of iOS users, this is changing.
If you've been holding your breath for an Edit Tweet button, exhale now before you pass out. A proper editing option is not likely to arrive any time soon -- if at all -- but as part of an experiment, Twitter is testing the ability to "revise" tweets.
Twitter will now share more user information with advertisers
Twitter has announced that it is now going to share more information about its users with business partners. In an update to its privacy policy, the company says that it is removing the ability for users to block the sharing of non-public information with advertisers.
While for many people this represents something of a compromise in privacy, the change does not apply to users in the EU, an EFTA state or the UK; users in these locations will have to opt into data sharing.
Twitter's Jack Dorsey donates $1 billion to fund coronavirus research
In times of crisis, billionaires are often criticized for failing to help out. But when it comes to fighting coronavirus, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is digging deep and offering up more than a quarter of his personal wealth.
In all, Dorsey is donating $1 billion to help fund global COVID-19 relief. The philanthropic venture sees the Twitter chief executive moving $1 billion worth of shares in his payments company Square into a charitable fund, called Start Small LLC.
If you used Firefox to access Twitter, your non-public info may have been exposed
Mozilla Firefox is damn good web browser that is largely open source and focuses on privacy and security. That is why I choose it as my default browser on both Windows 10 and Linux-based operating systems such as Ubuntu and Fedora. Many people wisely choose Firefox for the same reasons.
Sadly, today, we discover that if you have been using Mozilla Firefox to access Twitter, you may have had non-public information data saved locally to cache. Twitter makes it clear that other major browsers, such as Google Chrome and Apple Safari, are not affected. Thankfully, the social network says it fixed the issue on its end.
The surprising state of social media background checks in 2020
Your friends and followers aren't the only ones looking at what you Like. In 2017, CareerBuilder revealed that 70 percent of employers review social media during the hiring process. Today that number may be even higher: one survey by First Advantage found that nearly two-thirds of employers choose to screen all employees and applicants for "red flag" behavior on websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The primary peril of vetting candidates by examining their online profiles remains the same as when this trend first rose to prominence: employers performing "social media background checks" may inadvertently uncover sensitive or protected information which compromises their ability to make an unbiased hiring decision. Not hiring a candidate based on such information, from sexual orientation to religion to race, could expose a business to accusations of unfair or discriminatory hiring practices.
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