By framing it as a human rights issue, Amnesty International says it hopes to be able to push Twitter to enforce its own policies consistently and be transparent about how it’s doing so.

“Twitter’s failure to adequately and consistently enforce their own policies is leading women to either silence or censor themselves online,” Dhrodia told me. “So women are either leaving the platform, they’re thinking five or six times over before they post anything, they’re taking social media breaks. They’re coming up with a whole bunch of different coping mechanisms in order to avoid violence and abuse because they know by speaking out, it’s not going to be dealt with.”

Although Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has publicly said the company is looking for help to address its issues around safety, Amnesty International says Twitter has declined to provide the organization with any “meaningful data on how the company responds to reports of violence and abuse.”

This report comes after Amnesty International’s 14-month investigation that combined quantitative and qualitative research. The report is based on interviews with 86 women and non-binary people, including journalists, politicians and everyday users across the U.S. and the UK about their experiences online.

“When talking to them about their experience of violence and abuse, Twitter came up consistently as the platform where most women had experienced violence and abuse and also where they felt it was the company that was doing the least to remedy the issue,” Dhrodia said.

The report goes on to outline some recommendations for Twitter moving forward. The first is to share specific examples of the type of violence and abuse Twitter won’t tolerate. Another is to share data on how quickly Twitter responds to reports of abuse, while another is to ensure its decisions to restrict certain content are consistent with international human rights law.

Earlier this month, Twitter began soliciting proposals from the public to help the platform capture, measure and evaluate healthy interactions. The goal is to come up with metrics to measure the health of the interactions on Twitter. But Twitter eventually wants to take that a step further, Dorsey said in a public conversation via Periscope.

“Ultimately we want to have a measurement of how it affects the broader society and public health, but also individual health, as well,” Dorsey said.

As Twitter embarks on its journey to make its platform a safer, more productive place for everyone, it’s relying on third parties to step in to determine the best ways to capture, measure and evaluate health metrics. Perhaps, more importantly, Twitter needs help determining exactly what those metrics entail.

I’ve reached out to Twitter and will update this story if I hear back.

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Source: TechCrunch

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The social media company moved to suspend a number of popular accounts with millions of followers between them, Buzzfeed reports. Their offense? Stealing people’s tweets without credit and conspiring as a group to share tweets — their own, and those of paying customers — with the intent of forcing them to go viral.

Many of the suspended accounts — a list that includes @Dory, @GirlPosts, @SoDamnTrue, @reiatabie, @commonwhitegiri, @teenagernotes, @finah, @holyfag, and @memeprovider — are known as “tweetdeckers.” These users are so named because they gather in private Tweetdeck groups to plot out their plans to manufacture virality (a practice that Buzzfeed has documented extensively).

This sort of behavior goes against Twitter’s rules, which clearly state: “You may not use Twitter’s services for the purpose of spamming anyone.” The platform’s spam policy covers many different types of bad behavior, including the posting of “duplicative or substantially similar content, replies, or mentions over multiple accounts” or “[attempting] to artificially inflate account interactions.”

Tweetdeckers engage in both of those activities to make a post go viral, and some accept payment to perform the task for third-party interests — another Twitter no-no.

Recently, the company has purged bots (though there are reasons it may not go further), tweaked rules, and banned face-swap videos, many of which fall under the category of pornography.

There are still plenty of problem areas to be addressed on Twitter, but Friday’s move to suspend known tweetdeckers is just one more action in a recent string of them. It’s all part of the company’s ongoing struggle to clean up its platform, a process that has also come to include looking for outside assistance.

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Source: Mashable

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Developers are now banned from using any system that simultaneously posts “identical or substantially similar” tweets from multiple accounts at once, or makes actions like liking, retweeting, and following across multiple accounts at once.

Twitter will remove these options from its own TweetDeck app, and third-party developers have until March 23rd to comply.

Twitter says these actions are “an important step in ensuring we stay ahead of malicious activity targeting the crucial conversations taking place on Twitter — including elections in the United States and around the world.”

It alluded to the plan last month, when it revealed that over 50,000 accounts were linked to Russian propaganda efforts.

The company laid out a series of specific policies and exceptions for account automation. Instead of sending the same tweet from multiple accounts, users can send one tweet and have multiple accounts retweet it, but they can’t use “bulk, aggressive, or very high-volume automated retweeting.”

The ban on bulk tweeting applies regardless of whether you’re posting a bunch of duplicate tweets at once or scheduling them across a longer time period.

Apps can still cross-post alerts from other services (like RSS readers) to Twitter, but only to a single account.

These new rules don’t apply to alerts for “weather, emergency, or other public service announcements of broad community interest” — so a tsunami warning, for instance, could be posted across a lot of different accounts at once.

Generally, though, Twitter offers two guiding rules.

“Posting duplicative or substantially similar content, replies, or mentions over multiple accounts you control, or creating duplicate or substantially similar accounts, with or without the use of automation, is never allowed,” it says.

Neither is posting multiple updates (from any number of accounts) to a trending topic “with an intent to subvert or manipulate the topic, or to artificially inflate the prominence of a hashtag or topic.”

It’s a blanket rule that gives Twitter authority to shut down anything it sees as “inorganic” tampering.

Twitter is talking about these rules in terms of election propaganda. They coincide with what appears to be a significant attempt to purge bot accounts, which reportedly also temporarily locked some human users’ accounts.

But the new rules are also a pretty substantive change to the platform — and they’ll have an effect on any app or company that cross-posts content to multiple accounts.

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Source: The Verge

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Users have 30 days, starting on Feb. 16, before the app will no longer be supported, Twitter said.

“We’re focusing our efforts on a great Twitter experience that’s consistent across platforms,” Twitter Support wrote in a tweet. “So, starting today the Twitter for Mac app will no longer be available for download, and in 30 days will no longer be supported.”

The app hadn’t exactly been flourishing in recent years, scoring a dismal 1.7 out of 5 in the App Store. Twitter had outsourced the development of the app to a studio in Seattle called Black Pixel.

Some users had been hoping for a dramatic desktop update since 2015, but most have since migrated to Twitterific or Tweetbot. Others are now expressing concern that Twitter might shut down Tweetdeck, a far more popular multi-column client.

It’s unclear what Twitter will do, since the company hasn’t always marched in step with its user base.

Let the ratios tell the whole story.

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Source: Mashable

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The company declared that it will refocus its efforts on “a great Twitter experience that’s consistent across platforms” rather than continuing development for Twitter for Mac, a message that doesn’t sound great for TweetDeck lovers.

The Twitter for Mac app no longer lives in the Mac App Store, though its one and a half star rating lives on in the hearts and minds of its few tenacious users, maybe.

Over the years, Twitter has often seen its own official app eclipsed by slicker, more feature-rich third-party clients, which it sometimes buys up. Twitter bought the software that evolved into Twitter for Mac (formerly known as Tweetie for Mac) back in 2010, though it’s largely believed to have languished following the acquisition.

Many Twitter users are expressing their concerns that the company could similarly sunset TweetDeck, a well-loved client with multi-column organization, list-making tools and robust notifications that the company acquired for $40 million back in 2011. For a normal company, ending a product that everyone feels pretty good about wouldn’t be a likely potential outcome, but Twitter isn’t exactly known for making choices in lockstep with the desires of its opinionated user base.

While most people aren’t likely to mourn the passing of Twitter for Mac, the choice does highlight the gaping hole where a solid multi-platform client should go. Considering its resources and the lessons the company should have learned from unnecessary bickering with its development community over the years, it doesn’t seem like a big ask.

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Source: Techcrunch

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The news gave a massive boost to Twitter’s shares which closed 12% up on the day.

That was despite the number of people using the social network coming in below expectations.

Twitter’s previous failure to make a profit had confounded investors given its widespread use and popularity among celebrities and politicians.

Net profit was $91.1m (£65m) in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared with a loss of $167.1m for the same period a year ago.

Twitter, which has posted consistent losses since it became a public company in 2013, said it expected to be profitable for the full year of 2018 as well.

The company has found success with video and other changes, deepening the experiences on offer, James Erkine, director at marketing firm The Social Circle, told the BBC.

“It’s now about taking that scalable model and using it to reach new user groups to increase their user base,” he said.

“Hopefully now they’ve made a profit once, they should be able to do it next quarter and carry on doing it.”

User growth

In October last year, Twitter had suggested a profit was likely as it sought to cut costs, including by slashing stock-based compensation.

Revenue in the quarter rose 2% to $732m, as growth internationally offset a decline in the US.

User growth, however, remained fairly flat.

The firm reported 330 million active users a month, a rise of 4% on last year but no change on the previous quarter.

Monthly active users in the US were down to 68 million from 69 million in the third quarter.

Twitter said user numbers had been hurt by changes made by Apple to its Safari web browser.

A crackdown on fake accounts also contributed to the lacklustre growth, it said.

The firm has faced controversy over use of the platform during political events, including Brexit and the 2016 presidential election in America.

The firm’s shares were trading around $32 per share in mid-morning trade.

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Source: BBC

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The 32-year-old model – who already has 21-month-old Luna with her husband John Legend – has been tasked with naming her second child, and has said she’s struggling so much with choosing a moniker that she wants to hand the power over to her loyal fans on social media.

She said: “Names are tough. What I learned was never share your ideas. If you have a name idea, somebody is going to be like ‘No, I knew a person by that name in high school and they were gross.’ That always happens.

“John picked Luna so I decided I get to pick this one. I don’t know what to do. Take it to Twitter.”

The ‘Lip Sync Battle’ star might run into difficulties asking the public though, as she’s already promised her husband that she won’t reveal the sex of their child, who was conceived via IVF.

Speaking to E! News, she said: “We knew when we put it in but John was like, ‘Make sure you don’t say it. Let’s have one thing for us’ and of course I’m probably going to end up saying it but I’m just going to do this favour to him for as long as I can.”

It comes after Chrissy recently complained to her Twitter followers that her child would end up with no name, as the happy couple are unable to settle on a suitable moniker.

Captioning a picture of a number of unisex baby names, she wrote on Twitter: “Jesus Christ my baby will have no name (sic)”

Meanwhile, a source previously revealed Chrissy and 39-year-old John – who married in 2013 – are “so excited” that their daughter Luna is going to be a big sister.

They said: “They have been planning for this for a long time. Chrissy is really excited to finally share the news. They are so excited to make Luna a big sister. They think Luna will do a great job with the baby and they’re really happy to be expanding their family.”

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Source: Capitalfm

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The cyber-security pioneer has rebuffed suggestions that the alleged incidentundermined his own credentials saying: “I have no control over Twitter’s security”.

But he also posted that he believed his mobile phone had likely been compromised.

Twitter declined to comment but highlighted its security advice guide.

The social network offers two-factor authentication – in which a person must enter a code sent to a mobile phone in addition to a password to access an account – to avoid such incidents.

Mr McAfee told the BBC that he had activated the option, but added that he believed the hacker had intercepted the authentication code.

“The first indication that I had been hacked was turning on my cell phone and seeing the attached image,” he said.

“I knew at that point that my phone had been compromised.

“I was on a boat at the time and could not go to my carrier (AT&T) to have the issue corrected.

“All that the hacker did was compromise my Twitter account. It could have been worse.”

Mr McAfee added that he had since removed two-factor authentication from all of his accounts as a precaution.

The former presidential candidate is currently working on plans to sell the world’s most “hack-proof” smartphone.

A press release issued earlier this month said it was due for release in February.

Crypto guru

Mr McAfee came to prominence in the 1980s when he founded a company that released the first commercial anti-virus software – McAfee VirusScan – and helped spark a multi-billion dollar industry.

Although that business has since been sold to Intel, he still develops cyber-security products of his own.

The Scotland-born entrepreneur also heads up the Bitcoin mining operation MGT Capital Investments, which solves complicated mathematical problems to verify transactions in the virtual currency.

In recent times, he has come to be seen by some as a crypto-currency guru.

Earlier this month, Mr McAfee began issuing a daily recommendation about which of the more obscure virtual currencies he recommended others should invest in.

These “coin of the day” picks often pre-empted a spike in the value of the selected assets.

On Tuesday, Mr McAfee declared he would slow down his recommendations to once a week, with the next one due out on 1 January.

But the next day, his Twitter account began firing off picks in rapid succession.

These messages were later deleted and Mr McAfee posted that he had been hacked, adding that he had no clue how this had been achieved.

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Source: BBC

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Not too different from Facebook Lite, Twitter has also built a version of its app that’s optimized for developing countries. Twitter Lite minimizes data usage, which makes it more accessible in regions where data plans are too expensive.

The app is able to load faster on a slow connection. Twitter says it is “more resilient on unreliable mobile networks,” like 2G and 3G. Twitter additionally reduced the size of the app to under 3MB, so that it doesn’t take up too much space on a phone.

The full list of countries where Twitter Lite is being made available is Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, Nepal, Panama, Peru, Serbia, El Salvador, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia, Tanzania and Venezuela.

Twitter says its experiment in the Philippines has led to a greater than 50% increase in tweets.

The move should help Twitter expand its presence internationally. The company has 330 million monthly active users, 80% of whom are outside the U.S.

Twitter investors closely watch the company’s user growth. After a volatile few years on the stock market, Twitter’s stock has mostly remained constant for the past year. But at $20.58, it’s still less than a third of the high of $69 it achieved in early 2014.

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Source: TechCrunch

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The @nytimesworld team, which covers international events, has about 1.9 million followers and is recognised by the social network as being a “verified account”.

But on Saturday it was locked after posting a report about the Canadian prime minister.

The newspaper was told it had violated Twitter’s rules about hateful conduct.

The NYT said it had taken Twitter nearly 24 hours to unlock the account and allow it to start posting again.

It normally sends up to 100 tweets a day.

The supposedly offensive post had said: “Left out of an apology a decade ago, native people in Newfoundland and Labrador get an apology from Justin Trudeau.”

It referred to the politician addressing the fact that indigenous children had been forced to attend boarding schools in the past, where some had been abused.

The newspaper had been embroiled in controversy the same day after profiling a Nazi sympathiser – leading to complaints it had “normalised” the views of a white nationalist.

However, Twitter has not indicated that the two events are linked.

In a statement it said: “After reviewing the account, it appears that one of our agents made an error. We have flagged this issue so that similar mistakes are not made going forward.”

A rogue Twitter employee briefly deactivated President Trump’s account earlier in the month, but in that case the action was rectified in just 11 minutes.

In October, the company faced criticism after it temporarily restricted the account of Rose McGowan – an actress who had accused film producer Harvey Weinstein of rape – without explaining why until later.

Mr Weinstein denies any allegations of non-consensual sex.

In the past, Twitter has more commonly been attacked for taking too long or failing altogether to remove bullying, hateful and otherwise offensive material.

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Source: BBC

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