Hey! Let's take a look at Twitter these days

[adrianmonk]

Twitter sued for failing to pay bonuses to employees who stayed on after his takeover.

Musk refused to pay annual bonuses promised to Twitter employees, lawsuit says

Lawsuit: Workers relied on promise of bonus when opting to stay after Musk buyout.

arstechnica.com

 

[essentialsaltes]

Twitter Beats Out Threads for Coveted Taliban Leader Endorsement​

The fundamentalist group thinks Meta’s content policy, which includes a ban on support or praise for terrorist or hate groups, is “intolerant”

 

[essentialsaltes]

Elon Musk says Twitter’s ad revenue is down 50% and cash flow is negative​

 

[JSRG]

The most baffling decision to me is the recent decision to make Twitter private if you aren't logged in--that is, you can't actually go and look at people's tweets.

That's poison for something like Twitter. A key part of the site, or really social media sites in general, is that you can go and look at other people's tweets and posts without having to sign up for an account.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Surging Twitter antisemitism unites fringe, encourages violence, officials say​

Most alarming to Joel Finkelstein, co-founder of the nonprofit Network Contagion Research Institute, has been the unification and elevation of voices little heard since the Capitol attack.

“Kanye is using antisemitism to popularize a list of actors who have been censored for a long time,” Finkelstein said. “Trolls are climbing over the walls to start new accounts. This is a bonanza.”

One of those rejoining Twitter, 10 years after he was banned, is Andrew Anglin, editor of the Daily Stormer, for years one the best known openly racist and fascist publications.

On Friday, Twitter’s software recommended Anglin’s revived account under “who to follow” to everyday users

Shortly thereafter, Kanye was banned by Twitter, but now X has reinstated Ye's account.

Twitter, now rebranded as X, reinstated the musician Kanye West’s account on Saturday about eight months after suspending him for violating the platform’s rules.
The platform suspended West after he posted an image of a swastika combined with a star of David in December.

[X also reinstated an account that had recently posted an altered but recognizable image from an extremely notorious child abuse video. The account was doing so to 'raise awareness'. The story is a bit █████-adjacent, so no link.]

 

[Pommer]

I suggest that the OP amending the title (if still possible) to include the new! improved! moniker for the social media platform.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Twitter Fails to Remove Hate Speech by Blue-Check Users: Report​

If you pay $8 a month, Twitter will boost your tweets, new research found, even if you post about how “Hitler was right.”

Researchers at the Center For Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) flagged hate speech to the company in tweets from 100 Twitter Blue subscribers. Four days later, they say, 99 percent of the tweets were still up and none of the accounts had been removed.

Musk responds the only was a free speech absolutist can...

Musk threatens to sue researchers who documented the rise in hateful tweets​

An attorney representing the social media site wrote to the Center for Countering Digital Hate on July 20 threatening legal action over the nonprofit's research into hate speech and content moderation.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Unpermitted ‘X’ removed after being installed atop company headquarters following Twitter’s rebrand​

The news comes after the company was issued a notice of violation (NOV) Friday for work without a permit for the new sign, which flashes at night, that adorns the building.

 

[Pommer]

Unpermitted ‘X’ removed after being installed atop company headquarters following Twitter’s rebrand​

The news comes after the company was issued a notice of violation (NOV) Friday for work without a permit for the new sign, which flashes at night, that adorns the building.

The company that (eventually) holds the permit must be named “Marks the Spot”, I demand this!

 

[durangodawood]

They should replace it with this....

 

[JSRG]

"Twitter" is one of the most recognized site names on the planet; most companies would dearly love that level of brand recognition. It's established to the point that when fictional series went some kind of social media stand-in, things like "Chitter" often get used. And so the response with such a strong brand recognition is to... rebrand? And not only to rebrand, but to come up with something as dull as X. Just... why?

This rebranding feels like the sort of thing you'd see in a comedy sketch making fun of corporate ineptitude. While this is far from the biggest errors made with Twitter since the buyout, it's the one that is for me the hardest to comprehend the reason for.

 

[Mayzoo]

The most baffling decision to me is the recent decision to make Twitter private if you aren't logged in--that is, you can't actually go and look at people's tweets.

That's poison for something like Twitter. A key part of the site, or really social media sites in general, is that you can go and look at other people's tweets and posts without having to sign up for an account.

It is likely bad for twitter, but it makes me happy. I read my news on my phone. I get very tired of clicking on what is supposed to be news only to be routed to social media. Retrospectively, I probably need a new news app that does not go to non-news sites as a source for news .

 

[Pommer]

"Twitter" is one of the most recognized site names on the planet; most companies would dearly love that level of brand recognition. It's established to the point that when fictional series went some kind of social media stand-in, things like "Chitter" often get used. And so the response with such a strong brand recognition is to... rebrand? And not only to rebrand, but to come up with something as dull as X. Just... why?

This rebranding feels like the sort of thing you'd see in a comedy sketch making fun of corporate ineptitude. While this is far from the biggest errors made with Twitter since the buyout, it's the one that is for me the hardest to comprehend the reason for.

It’s going to take my browser Quite A While to offer to take me to [platform formerly know as] Twitter.
Yup

 

[Pommer]

It is likely bad for twitter, but it makes me happy. I read my news on my phone. I get very tired of clicking on what is supposed to be news only to be routed to social media. Retrospectively, I probably need a new news app that does not go to non-news sites as a source for news .

We’re headed for a “bubble” in the news media.
Soon* it “won’t pay” to be “in the game” any more; News will go back to being a service and cease being the product.

*2033 tops, (barring an authoritarian regime before)

 

[durangodawood]

....And not only to rebrand, but to come up with something as dull as X. Just... why?
....

Because Elon is concocting an "everything" brand in which he can be the internet hub for.... everything.

Twitter is a something. So into the can it goes. X is an everything! Or maybe a nothing. I guess we'll see.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Elon Musk’s X is throttling traffic to websites he dislikes ​

The site formerly known as Twitter added a five-second delay when a user clicked on a shortened link to the New York Times, Facebook and other sites Musk commonly attacks, a Washington Post analysis found​

The delayed websites included X’s online rivals Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Substack, as well as the Reuters wire service and the Times. All of them have previously been singled out by Musk for ridicule or attack.

On Tuesday afternoon, hours after this story was first published, X began reversing the throttling on some of the sites, dropping the delay times back to zero.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Musk may have violated FTC privacy order, new court filing shows​

The Justice Department makes the accusation in its response to a motion from X asking that the consent decree be dismissed​

In the legal filing, the Justice Department published previously confidential evidence from the Federal Trade Commission’s probe into the social network, including detailed excerpts of depositions with former executives about ways Musk’s directives and efforts to cut costs ran afoul of the company’s security and privacy practices. The company had agreed to implement a number of security safeguards and privacy audits in May 2022 to settle allegations that it deceptively collected users’ data.

The filing marks the first official confirmation of the extent of the FTC’s initial findings of its probe into compliance with its order, revealing “a chaotic environment at the company that raised serious questions about whether and how Musk and other leaders were ensuring [the company’s] compliance.”

FTC orders are among the most critical enforcement tools that the federal government has to hold Silicon Valley accountable, and Facebook in 2019 had to pay a multibillion-dollar fine to the agency for violating the terms of its own privacy agreement with the agency.

The FTC has been looking into X’s privacy and security practices for more than a year, opening a probe following a whistleblower complaintthat the company had “extreme, egregious deficiencies” in its defenses against hackers, according to court filings.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Nick Fuentes is back on Twitter. Most recently he's tweeted about YE24 and DEFCON. [Ye had been criticized for saying he was going "death con 3" on the Jews.]

And... he's gone again.

Nick Fuentes is back on Twitter.
And... he's gone again.

In recent days, a user named @grimaceshake01 popped up to promote the antisemitic #BantheADL campaign boosted by Elon Musk. Aside from overt references to the “Groyper Army,” Fuentes’ name for his followers, @grimaceshake01 shared and engaged with tweets specifically claiming the account was his. And, of course, it posted aggressively racist and antisemiticcontent.

Shortly after Confider reached out to the social-media platform to ask about Fuentes apparently skirting the ban, @grimaceshake01 was quickly suspended.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Donald Trump Jr.’s X account was hacked, his spokesman says​

“Don’s account has been hacked,” Andrew Surabian posted on X, adding that a post claiming the former president had died was “obviously not true.”

The company is also still under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over its ability to sufficiently protect user privacy and whether it may have violated binding commitments it made in 2011 to securing the platform. (see post #177)

 

[probinson]

Donald Trump Jr.’s X account was hacked, his spokesman says​

Huh. I wonder if Trump Jr.'s account was legitimately "hacked" or if the perpetrator just guessed his credentials. I mean, you'd think high profile figures would take some responsibility for securing their online accounts with strong passwords and MFA, but who knows.