Elon Musk Says Twitter Is Launching A New Color-Coded Verification Scheme Next Week — Here’s What We Know So Far
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Gold ticks will be given to verified company accounts and gray ticks will be handed to “government” accounts.
Blue checks will now be given to “all” verified individuals, celebrity or not, Musk said, explaining that the boundary of what constitutes notable is “otherwise too subjective.”
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Musk described the implementation of manual verification as a “painful, but necessary” step to tackle impersonation. Given the mass firing and exodus of staffers since Musk took the reins in October, this process is likely to add considerable strain to Twitter’s already pressured workforce.
Replying to questions on Twitter asking whether the check marks will actually help users differentiate between similar accounts, Musk acknowledged the possibility the scheme will not go to plan and vowed to act accordingly. Deliberate impersonation or deception will result in account suspension, he said, adding that users could use organizational affiliation, biography and follower counts to help distinguish between accounts with the same name. Musk said Twitter could show follower counts under people’s names on tweets and allow filtering based on follower amount “if it actually becomes a problem.”
US FCC bans sales, import of Chinese tech from Huawei, ZTE
Source: AP
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is banning the sale of communications equipment made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE and restricting the use of some China-made video surveillance systems, citing an “unacceptable risk” to national security.
The five-member Federal Communications Commission said Friday it has voted unanimously to adopt new rules that will block the importation or sale of certain technology products that pose security risks to U.S. critical infrastructure. It’s the latest in a years-long escalation of U.S. restrictions of Chinese technology that began with President Donald Trump and has continued under President Joe Biden’s administration.
“The FCC is committed to protecting our national security by ensuring that untrustworthy communications equipment is not authorized for use within our borders, and we are continuing that work here,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, in a prepared statement.
Along with Huawei and ZTE, the order affects products made by companies such as Hikvision and Dahua, makers of widely used video surveillance cameras.
Twitter failed to detect upload of Christchurch mosque terror attack videos
Sun 27 Nov 2022 21.49 EST
Twitter has removed freshly uploaded footage of the Christchurch terror attack that was circulating on the platform, but only after the New Zealand government alerted the company, which had failed to recognise the content as harmful.
The video clips, filmed by the Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch in 2019, were uploaded by some Twitter users on Saturday, according to the office of the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.
A spokesperson for the prime minister said Twitter’s automated reporting function didn’t pick up the content as harmful.
Other users reported the videos and the government separately raised it with Twitter, the office said. “Twitter advised us overnight that the clips have been taken down and said they would do a sweep for other instances.”
Serious Question: Is Twitter Worth Saving? by Tim Karr
November 29, 2022
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Twitter is unraveling at the speed of a SpaceX rocket. Things have gotten so bad under the erratic reign of Elon Musk that the future of the social-media company is in question. What, if anything, should be done to pull Twitter from the brink?
From the moment Musk walked through the door, he’s sought to impose his unique brand of creative destruction on Twitter. But the results have been less than brilliant, and far more damaging.
Musk’s takeover deal itself saddled him and his investors with a $13-billion debt load that could force Twitter to default on payment as early as next April, with the possibility of banks forcing the company into bankruptcy.
Bad financing was only the beginning. To help service his debt Musk drastically slashed costs, including laying off half of Twitter’s staff, thousands of the company’s outside contractors, and forcing more than a thousand others to walk off the job. He decimated Twitter’s trust and safety and human-rights teams, making it all but impossible for the company to uphold and enforce critical user safeguards and content-moderation standards.
Conclusion:
Twitter may be beyond saving, but the idea of a public-interest social network is something worth fighting for, with or without Elon Musk.
LinkedIn Rolls Out Focused Inbox and Messaging Safety Tools as It Gets to Grip with Spam and Scams by
December 1, 2022
Introduction:
(TechCrunch) LinkedIn, the social platform for the working world for networking and recruitment, hasn’t been the biggest name in headlines when it comes to how social media is leveraged for spam, scams, toxicity and fake news, but they’re all significant problems on the platform that will only get bigger as traffic grows (as it’s doing currently, at a rate of 34%/year); and as businesses and people fly from other social networks and look to the likes of LinkedIn, which now has some 875 million members, for more targeted business interactions.
Today the company made a couple of announcements related to its direct messaging service — your private inbox that sits alongside your public feed — that speak to this theme: LinkedIn is rolling out a “focused” option for incoming messages with others relegated to an “other” box; and it’s turning on new automatic spam and harassment detection and a new feature to report unwanted messaging.
The new features are critical for the health of LinkedIn and its wider business.
The company says that there are some 21 inMails — direct messages — sent every second with job opportunities at the moment. (For those of you who feel like you get a lot of unwanted solicitations… that’s a global figure, not just for you!) Having an experience full of spam and other junk will turn off people from using the service, which will make it less effective for outreach for recruiters, and thus less likely they pay send those messages on LinkedIn.
But the kernel within that business logic is the other reason: it’s important for everyday users’ experience. LinkedIn’s transparency report from earlier in the year found that LinkedIn proactively removed 70.8 million spam and scam messages on its platform, and that users reported a further (mere) 179,000. I’m guessing that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what people could report were it easier to do so.
Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk by Robert Mackey and Micah Lee
November 29, 2022
Introduction:
(The Intercept) ELON MUSK CLAIMS to be “fighting for free speech in America” but the social network’s new owner appears to be overseeing a purge of left-wing activists from the platform.
Several prominent antifascist organizers and journalists have had their accounts suspended in the past week, after right-wing operatives appealed directly to Musk to ban them and far-right internet trolls flooded Twitter’s complaints system with false reports about terms of service violations.
As the Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin noted on Twitter, the suspended users include Chad Loder, an antifascist researcher whose open-source investigation of the U.S. Capitol riot led to the identification and arrest of a masked Proud Boy who attacked police officers. The account of video journalist Vishal Pratap Singh, who reports on far-right protests in Southern California, has also been suspended.
Among the other prominent accounts suspended were the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, an antifascist group that provides armed security for LGBTQ+ events in North Texas, and CrimethInc, an anarchist collective that has published and distributed anarchist and anti-authoritarian zines, books, posters, and podcasts since the mid-1990s.
All four accounts had been singled out for criticism by Andy Ngo, a far-right writer whose conspiratorial, error-riddled reporting on left-wing protests and social movements fuels the mass delusion that a handful of small antifascist groups are part of an imaginary shadow army called “antifa.” In a public exchange on Twitter on Friday, Musk invited Ngo to report “Antifa accounts” that should be suspended directly to him.
One of the banned accounts is CrimethInc Ex-Workers’ Collective, an anarchist network that publishes everything from books to podcasts about a variety of topics. To read a description from the collective concerning its ban: https://crimethinc.com/2022/11/25/elon ... ght-troll
Twitter Lifted Its Ban on COVID Misinformation – Research Shows this is a Grave Risk to Public Health by Anjana Susarla
December 1, 2022
Introduction:
(The Conversation) Twitter’s decision to no longer enforce its COVID-19 misinformation policy, quietly posted on the site’s rules page and listed as effective Nov. 23, 2022, has researchers and experts in public health seriously concerned about the possible repercussions.
Health misinformation is not new. A classic case is the misinformation about a purported but now disproven link between autism and the MMR vaccine based on a discredited study published in 1998. Such misinformation has severe consequences for public health. Countries that had stronger anti-vaccine movements against diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccines faced a higher incidence of pertussis in the late-20th century, for example.
As a researcher who studies social media, I believe that reducing content moderation is a significant step in the wrong direction, especially in light of the uphill battle social media platforms face in combating misinformation and disinformation. And the stakes are especially high in combating medical misinformation.
Elon Musk Suspends West’s Account Breaking Twitter Rules by Ivan Mehta
December 1, 2022
Introduction:
(TechCrunch) Elon Musk has suspended Kanye West’s (aka Ye) Twitter account after the latter posted antisemitic tweets and violated the platform’s rules. In a reply to Mega founder Kim Dotcom, Musk clarified that Ye’s account was suspended for “incitement to violence” and not because of the music artist posting an “unflattering” picture of the Tesla CEO.
(See linked article for Twitter Feeds)
Earlier today, West went on a tweet rampage and tweeted a picture of a Nazi swastika merged with the Star of David. Soon after that, he posted on Truth Social that his Twitter account was temporarily locked. Later, Musk clarified that he “tried his best” to nudge West to follow Twitter rules, but the rapper still continued to post content that violated the platform’s rule against incitement to violence — resulting in a suspension.
caltrek's comment: Apparently, it is ok to advocate the raping and locking up of women in cages as long as we don't advocate violence as part of the process.
Twitter Is Regressing Into a Cesspool of Climate Misinformation by Oliver Milman
December 3, 2022
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) Twitter has proved a cherished forum for climate scientists to share research, as well as for activists seeking to rally action to halt oil pipelines or decry politicians’ failure to cut pollution. But many are now fleeing Twitter due to a surge in climate misinformation, spam, and even threats that have upended their relationship with the platform.
Scientists and advocates have told the Guardian they have become unnerved by a recent resurgence of debunked climate change denialist talking points and memes on Twitter, with the term #ClimateScam now regularly the first result that appears when “climate” is searched on the site.
Under the often chaotic leadership of Elon Musk, Twitter has fired content management teams, dismantled the platform’s sustainability arm, and lifted bans on several prominent users with millions of followers, such as Donald Trump and the right-wing commentator Jordan Peterson, who has espoused falsities about the climate crisis. The changes have been too much to bear for some climate experts.
“Since Musk’s takeover I have ramped down my own use of Twitter, using it less both to look for news and to share science,” said Twila Moon, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center who said she was worried that years of connections formed between scientists could “crumble” if trust in Twitter collapses.
“Folks noticing a rise in climate denialism and disinformation is particularly worrying and I am concerned that it could slow climate action in ways that are devastating to economies, communities, and health,” she said.
Twitter Advertisers Aren’t Happy with Ads Appearing on Pages of White Nationalists by Jon Porter
December 7, 2022
Introduction:
(The Verge) Ads for around 40 high-profile brands and organizations have been spotted on the Twitter pages of white nationalists, according to a report from The Washington Post. Ads from brands including Amazon, Uber, Snap, and GoDaddy, media companies like USA Today and Morning Brew, and even one government organization, the US Department of Health and Human Services, were seen on the offending Twitter pages.
The ads were spotted on the profiles of Andrew Anglin and Patrick Casey. Anglin is the editor of neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, while Casey previously led white nationalist group Identity Evropa (later rebranded as the American Identity Movement). The two were banned from Twitter in 2013 and 2019 respectively. After Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the CEO polled his followers on whether they’d like the platform to offer a “general amnesty” to suspended accounts, with over 70 percent of respondents voting in favor. Shortly afterwards, Anglin and Casey openly returned to the platform.
The Washington Post also reports seeing ads alongside white supremacist posts on pages with names like “No White Guilt Clips” and “White Power Ranger.”
The US Department of Health and Human Services told The Washington Post that it would be pulling its ad from Twitter because “having it appear on hateful Twitter channels is inconsistent with [its] values.” USA Today said it would be contacting Twitter “as this obviously does not align with [its] values or mission.”
As of this writing, ads no longer appear to be showing on either Anglin or Casey’s accounts. One former Twitter employee told The Washington Post that Twitter pages need to be flagged to prevent advertising appearing on them. Twitter did not respond to The Verge’s request for comment, but is widely reported to have disbanded its press team.
Twitter to relaunch Twitter Blue at higher price for Apple users
Source: Reuters
Twitter Inc will relaunch a revamped version of its subscription service Twitter Blue on Monday at a higher price for Apple users, the company said in a tweet on Saturday.
The company said users could subscribe to the revamped service that will allow subscribers to edit tweets, upload 1080p videos and get a blue checkmark post account verification, for $8 per month through the web but for $11 per month through Apple iOS.
Twitter did not explain why Apple users were being charged more than others on the web but there have been media reports that the company was looking for ways to offset fees charged in the App Store.
Twitter had initially launched the Twitter Blue early in November before pausing it as fake accounts mushroomed. It was then scheduled to launch again on Nov. 29 but was pushed back.
