Facebook cracks down on fraudulent miracle cures, vaccine misinformation
Facebook said Tuesday that it plans to to fight sensational health claims, supposed miracle cures, and fake health news by de-prioritizing content around those topics in the News Feed. The company said that any exaggerated or misleading health claims about vaccines would be part of the crackdown.
Twitter will now label, hide tweets when Trump, other politicians break its rules
Twitter announced Thursday that it will add a notice over politicians' tweets if the social network deems the tweet to violate its rules. While not mentioning President Donald Trump, the move is all but certainly aimed at him and other politicians who use the social network to attack rivals.
A new Senate bill would fundamentally change the internet as we know it
A new bill in the U.S. Senate could cause the internet as we know it to cease to exist by holding major tech companies like Facebook or YouTube liable for anything posted on their platforms. The proposal could destroy social media as we know it, experts said
Twitter lets you turn your livestreamed monologues into chats with guests
Livestreaming on Twitter just became more interactive as the feature now lets you add up to three people to a broadcast, though the guests can only be heard, and not seen. Up to now, livestreamers could only interact with viewers via their chat messages, which appear in real time on the screen.
Twitter co-founder Ev Williams still wants to save the world
Social media has led to a mental health crisis in Gen Z and a rise in hate speech. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel, according to Ev Williams, the co-founder of Twitter and Medium. But weaning ourselves off today's social media won't be easy, he told Kara Swisher at the Collision conference.
Help wanted: British royal family seeks social media wiz to run its accounts
The British royal family is looking for a social media expert to help it communicate its role and activities to the masses. Anyone can apply for the position, though you'll need plenty of experience of using social media in a high-profile environment to have any hope of succeeding.
Twitter sorry for mistakenly storing and sharing some users’ location data
Twitter has revealed that a bug led to it accidentally storing and sharing location data for a number of iOS users. The issue, which has now been fixed, affected those operating more than one Twitter account from the app. The company apologized for the blunder and said it’s contacting those impacted by it.
Twitter: Now you can jazz up your retweets with GIFs, photos, and videos
Twitter for Android, iOS, and its mobile site now lets you add GIFs, photos, and videos to retweets. The feature, which the company said people have been asking for, can be enabled in a few quick taps, though it doesn’t yet show properly for the desktop version of Twitter.
Twitter has revealed a launch date for its handy hide replies features
Twitter said it will launch a feature in June that lets users hide replies to their tweets. The hope is that the option will help the original poster filter out offensive or irrelevant content from conversation threads and pave the way for more respectful and meaningful exchanges on the platform.
Twitter’s experimental Twttr app is even more popular than the real thing
Twttr, the recently launched app that lets regular Twitter users test new features, is proving more popular than the main app, according to the company. Some of the recent innovations on Twttr are a hit with users, suggesting they could be rolled out to the wider Twitter community before too long.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey received an annual salary of $1.40 in 2018
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey received an annual paycheck of just $1.40 in 2018, an amount that would only get you one item at a dollar store, with 40 cents left over for, perhaps, a banana. He’s not the only CEO to forgo a proper salary, but why do they do it, and where do they get their money from?
Twitter’s dark mode automatically activates to ease your eyes
Not a fan of Twitter's dark blue "dark" mode? The updated version begins rolling out today with a black background and the option to automatically activate dark mode when it's dark outside. The update comes after the Twitter CEO promised a fix. Here's how to use Twitter's dark mode.
Twitter is officially a teenager now. Are we raising a monster?
On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey sent the first ever tweet. Thirteen years later, Twitter has fundamentally changed the way we communicate. Here are some of the myriad ways that the popular microblogging service has amplified the human experience, for better and for worse.
New Zealand attack shows that as A.I. filters get smarter, so do violators
The shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand were livestreamed to social media, and networks spent the next few days trying to take down remixed videos of the horrific attacks. While stats show networks are improving at removing offending videos, as the system improves, so do the violators' workarounds.
Twitter is testing a handy subscription feature for following threads
Twitter has recently started testing a feature that lets you subscribe to a thread so that you’ll no longer need to like a comment or post to it yourself in order to receive notifications of new contributions. The company said the effort is part of its ongoing work “to make Twitter more conversational.”
Professional drone racing is flying onto Twitter this summer
Professional drone racing is coming to Twitter for the first time this summer. Organizers hope the deal with the social media platform will help the growing sport to further broaden its audience. The races will see skilled pilots maneuvering their machines at speeds of up to 90 mph along challenging obstacle courses.
Twitter wants you to help shape the future design of its app
Twitter is launching an app for testing new design features and it wants you to get involved. Those accepted into the program will have the chance to try out different conversation designs aimed at improving the user experience. Initial trials are expected to focus on enhancing the look and feel of threads.
The British royal family is taking on the Twitter trolls
After an apparent uptick in abuse on its social media accounts, the British royal family has told commenters to refrain from posting offensive content or face possible police action. The family has more than 18 million followers across its Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Experimental feature will let you filter out toxic Twitter conversations
Twitter is working on a new feature that will let users on the platform hide replies to their tweets. The feature had initially been hidden away in the code for the Twitter app on Android and was recently made a bit more official by a senior product manager at the company.
Twitter keeps your direct messages, even years after you delete them
While Twitter users that delete their accounts or their direct messages on the social network might expect that the data is gone for good, a security researcher has discovered a "functional bug" that allows DMs to be recovered even years after they were deleted.
Twitter users are declining but more people are seeing ads every day
Twitter's end-of-the-year report for 2018 is a mix of good and bad news. The good news is that more users are seeing adds daily, the metric the company will focus on moving forward. But the bad news is that monthly active users are declining. Twitter also posted a healthy profit, according to the report.
Periscope tool adds guests to feeds so streamers can become talk show hosts
Periscope users can now invite viewers to chime into the conversation with more than just the comment tool. By enabling the option to add guests, livestreamers can add guests to the conversation, in audio format only. The tool allows up to three guests to be added to the livestream.
Twitter boss again teases the idea of a button to edits tweets
A recent interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey suggests the company is still looking at a range of options for allowing people to edit tweets. Ideas include a function that gives you up to 30 seconds to recall a tweet to fix any typos or other issues before it goes live on the service.
Social media sites can predict your behavior even if you don’t use them
Bad news for people trying to preserve their privacy by staying off social media -- a new study has found that your privacy is at risk even if you are not personally using social media sites. The findings show "privacy on social media is like second-hand smoke. It's controlled by the people around you."
Twitter testing ‘original tweeter’ label so you know who started a thread
Twitter is testing an "original tweeter" label to make it easier for users to identify who started a thread. The idea is to help clear up confusion about who began a conversation, and to reduce the impact of imitators. The test is currently running with a select group of Twitter users on iOS and Android.
Twitter shares sneak peek at simpler, less cluttered design with new features
Twitter shared a sneak peek of an upcoming redesign of its website, showing a less cluttered design with a handful of new features. The update brings keyboard and emoji shortcuts, improved search, and a two-column layout. The Twitter team is also working on an updated dark mode for the mobile app.
Twitter suffers privacy scare as bug reveals tweets of protected accounts
If you set your Twitter account to private and you have an Android device, you'd better check your privacy settings now. Twitter says it's just fixed a four-year-old bug that flipped the privacy switch to make the account public, though it couldn't say how many users had been affected.
It’s back! Here’s how to switch to Twitter’s reverse chronological feed
Twitter has finally brought back the reverse chronological feed, allowing you to see your feed based on the newest tweets, rather than using Twitter's algorithm that shows what it thinks you want to see. Thankfully, it's easy to switch to the reverse chronological feed on Android and iOS. Here's how.
Twitter extends its new timeline feature to Android users
Twitter has launched a new feature for Android that gives users more control of their timeline by letting them quickly switch between an algorithm-generated timeline and one that shows the most recent tweets first. The new feature landed for iPhone users in December 2018.
Japanese billionaire splashes the cash to break retweet record
Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa has proved again he has a knack for self-publicity after launching a cash-prize contest to break the retweet record. Maezawa, who was announced as the first paying passenger for SpaceX's proposed 2023 moon mission, has seen his post retweeted 5.6 million times.
Japanese monks hit Twitter to protest driving ticket in the most brilliant way
Cops in Japan told a monk recently that he shouldn't drive a car wearing his traditional robe because its long length and long sleeves might affect his ability to handle the vehicle safely. In solidarity, his fellow monks took to Twitter to post amusing videos with the hashtag: "I can do this in robes."
Twitter makes it easier than ever to switch between latest and top tweets
Twitter has finally delivered on its promise to give users more control over their timeline. It comes in the form of a new button on the main screen that lets you switch between an algorithm-generated timeline or, as some people like to have it, a timeline that shows the most recent tweets first.
This band owns Twitter, according to list of top accounts and tweets for 2018
What was the biggest buzz on Twitter in 2018? Twitter's 2018 Year in Review highlights the biggest tweets, accounts, and hashtags on the network, topped by pop group BTS. The most-tweeted celebrities, movies, TV shows, athletes, politicians, and more in Twitter's 2018 trends.
Viral tweets remind us not to ask our parents how to microwave a turkey
There are tons of ways that you can cook a turkey. One that definitely isn't recommended: Putting it in the microwave. People on Twitter decided it would be fun to ask their moms if it's OK to cook the main course for Thanksgiving dinner in the microwave. The responses are hilarious.