Tag: social media

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Mobile Syrup

Some Twitter users are reporting issues with ‘mute this conversation’ feature

Twitter is experiencing some issues with its “mute this conversation” feature, according to some users.

Earlier this week, I was live-tweeting during the latest episode of Better Call Saul and one of my tweets blew up a little bit. To stop getting so many notifications, I selected “mute this conversation,” but found myself still receiving pings for every like and reply. This issue has persisted with two other tweets I’ve made, as well as a tweet from a mutual follower that I was tagged in.

A quick search of “mute this conversation” on Twitter brings up tweets from several other people reporting the same issue. However, some people who’ve responded to them have said they haven’t experienced it, while others say they’ve got it working on web, just not mobile. (For what it’s worth, I’m now successfully able to mute conversations on the web for me, but it still hasn’t worked on Twitter for iOS.)

Earlier today, the official Twitter Support account responded to someone saying she’s had this issue since April 23rd, noting that “our team is aware, and looking into this.” It’s unclear, however, how widespread this issue may be. MobileSyrup has also reached out to Twitter for additional information and will update this story once a response has been received.

It’s been a big week for Twitter, as the social media giant confirmed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is set to acquire it for $44 billion USD (about $56 billion CAD). Nearly $1.5 billion CAD is being loaned to Musk from Canadian banks.

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Mobile Syrup

It’s official: Elon Musk to acquire Twitter

Twitter has announced that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will officially be acquiring the platform.

The world’s richest man is buying the social media giant at $54.20 USD (about $69 CAD) per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion USD (about $56 billion CAD). The deal is expected to close later this year, pending Twitter shareholder and governmental regulatory approval.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Musk in a press statement. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

More to come…

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Mobile Syrup

Decision about Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover might come soon

Twitter appears to be in its final stretch of negotiations with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, before the world’s richest man takes the company private.

Musk recently claimed to have secured $46 billion USD (roughly $57 billion CAD) in debt and equity financing to purchase Twitter outright, and while Twitter’s board of directors were apprehensive of the move at first, and even deployed a ‘poison pill’ maneuver to block Elon Musk’s buyout proposal, a new Bloomberg report suggests the decision could be made as soon as today, Monday, April 25th.

The $54.20 per-share deal, according to Musk, is suitable and enticing, though he did say that if his bid is not accepted, he “would need to reconsider his position as a shareholder.”

Musk also stated that in order for Twitter to thrive, it needs to become a genuine platform for free speech, and for that to happen, it must be taken private.

Since the ‘Musk-Twitter’ saga began, the social media platform has announced that it is working on an ‘edit button.’ Soon after, reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong discovered that the in-development feature would give users the ability to check the Tweet’s edit history. 

Additionally, if taken private by Musk, the platform will work to get rid of the spam bot infestation it currently finds itself in, and give all human users a new visual authentication mark.

Considering the recent toll the Russia-Ukraine war has inflicted on stock markets around the world, paired with the Federal Reserve System’s hawkish outlook about rate hikes to curb high inflation, the $54.20 per-share deal might turn out to be lucrative for Musk once the market starts reversing.

Source: Bloomberg

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk claims to have secured $46.5 billion for Twitter bid

Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and perpetual social media shit poster, says that he has lined up $46 billion USD (roughly $57 billion CAD) in debt and equity financing to purchase Twitter and take the platform private.

Musk says that he will personally contribute $33.5 billion USD (about $42 billion), including $21 billion USD (approximately $26 billion CAD) of equity and $12.5 billion USD (roughly $15.7 billion) of margin loans against his Tesla shares to purchase Twitter.

Musk — who is the richest man in the world — first presented his “best and final” cash offer to Twitter’s board in early April after deciding not to join the company’s board following the purchase of a 9.1 percent majority stake in the social network.

Twitter responded to this offer with a “poison pill” maneuver involving a new “shareholder rights plan” to prevent the takeover.

Musk claims to have plans to protect his definition of free speech on Twitter and suggests that he will add new features to the platform, including an ‘Edit’ button (which Twitter is already working on).

A Twitter spokesperson told Engadget that the social network is conducting a “careful, comprehensive and deliberate review” of the offer.

Via: Engadget 

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Mobile Syrup

Former Twitter CEO criticizes the platform’s board amid talks about Elon Musk takeover

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is criticizing the social media platform’s  board after it issued a new shareholder rights plan to block the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, from taking the company private.

It all started with Initialized founder Garry Tan‘s tweet stating, “The wrong partner on your board can literally make a billion dollars in value evaporate,” to which Dorsey replied by saying “big facts,” indicating that he agrees with Tan.

@iHadrami_‘s reply to the tweet, which talks about Twitter’s early days being “mired in plots and coups,” specifically among its founding members, further riled up Dorsey, with him stating that said plots and coups have “consistently been the dysfunction of the company.”

It’s worth noting that despite resigning as the platform’s CEO, Dorsey still has a seat on Twitter’s Board of Directors until the end of his term next month.

The debate comes soon after Musk purchased 9.2 percent of the social network in March, making him the largest individual shareholder of the company. At the time, he was set to join Twitter’s board of directors before pulling out.

Then, earlier last week, Musk revealed a proposal to purchase Twitter outright and take the company private. In a letter to the board, Musk offered to pay $54.20 a share in cash, which turns out to be about $43 billion for the company. In response, the Twitter board of directors deployed the shareholder rights plan, which, in essence, allows shareholders to purchase additional stock, and would prevent Musk from seizing control of the platform.

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter’s edit button could show the tweet’s edit history, according to reverse engineer

Twitter’s highly requested edit button is not officially available quite yet. However, reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong has been able to break down its inner workings.

According to Wong, Twitter’s in-development edit buttons may leave a history of the tweet’s edits. Wong states that the edit feature is “immutable.” This would mean that when a tweet is edited, Twitter creates a brand new tweet, leaving previous versions intact in some capacity.

“Instead of mutating the Tweet text within the same Tweet (same ID), it re-creates a new Tweet with the amended content, along with the list of the old Tweets prior of that edit,” Manchun Wong says in her tweet.

What this means for visibility on the user’s end is still unclear. Twitter could perhaps show records of a tweet’s edit and its previous versions. Many users and critics of the idea of an edit button have raised concerns over transparency. Showing records of a tweet could avoid the inevitable backlash if and when a tweet is edited to fix public records or mislead an audience. However, there’s also a chance that Twitter could avoid providing a visible history of edits altogether.

Alessandro Paluzzi, an app researcher, tweeted a screenshot showing the updated UI, which includes the ‘Edit Tweet’ feature. Apparently, the ability to edit a tweet is in the three-dot menu on the right side of an individual tweet. Hitting this button, users are lead to a screen to compose a tweet with the option to “Update” the original text. Paluzzi’s screenshots do not indicate whether an edit history will be available, though.

Users have been extremely vocal about wanting edit functionality on Twitter. The company first publicly announced the development of the feature on April Fool’s Day. The Twitter Comms account later followed up, clarifying that yes, the company is working on the feature. In fact, Twitter has “been working on an edit feature since last year,” the account states.

As for when an official rollout will kick off, it does appear to be further down the line. Twitter Blue subscribers are the first to gain access to the edit button “in the coming months.”

Source: Jane Manchun Wong Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

TikTok is testing a dislike comments button

Russia, Kazan May 28 2019: Tik Tok application icon on Apple iPhone X screen close-up. Tik Tok icon. tik tok application. Tiktok Social media network

TikTok is testing a way for users to dislike comments to help people feel more in control of the content they’re viewing.

The company unveiled this information in its most recent community guidelines that track how it’s enforcing its safety guidelines.

Some users taking part in the test have shared their screenshots of the thumbs down button. The button appears next to the heart in the comment section. As of right now, it seems like dislikes counters aren’t visible the same way likes are.

“We’ve started testing a way to let individuals identify comments they believe to be irrelevant or inappropriate,” the social media platform states.

YouTube recently hid the dislike count across its platform.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: TikTok

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter acquires OpenBack to improve its notifications

Twitter has acquired mobile platform OpenBack to improve its notification system and to keep users coming back to its app.

Twitter’s head of consumer product Jay Sullivan also wrote, “OpenBack and their talented team joining Twitter will help us improve our ability to deliver the right notifications at the right time, in a way that puts people’s privacy first.”

OpenBack, founded in 2015, aims to make apps more engaging through on-device control of push notifications. The platform allows apps to process data on devices — like other push notifications — instead of a third-party server.

OpenBack will shut down officially on April 19th. The developers at OpenBack will join Twitter’s Bluebird product team.

The end goal is to use more dynamic notifications to improve Twitter’s level of engagement and draw in its user base.

Source: @jaysullivan Via: Engadget 

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter confirms it’s working on edit button, Elon Musk will likely take credit

Twitter has confirmed that it’s officially working on a heavily-requested feature: an edit button.

The social network made the announcement through its official @TwitterComms account.

Interestingly, this comes shortly after Elon Musk — who recently purchased a stake in Twitter and joined the company’s board — publicly asked users if they wanted an edit button.

However, Twitter noted in its tweet that the idea for the edit button didn’t come from a poll, in a clear reference to Musk. Instead, the company says it’s been working on the edit button since last year.

The feature will begin testing within Twitter Blue Labs in the “coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t and what’s possible,” Twitter says.

Twitter users have long asked for an edit button, as the only way to correct any mistakes otherwise is to fully delete and tweet again.

However, people have warned that this could be used maliciously, especially in an era of misinformation. For example, someone could tweet something innocuous, receive many likes and retweets and then edit the tweet to include something harmful. To that point, users have suggested an “edit history” section in the vein of Facebook so that a public record of previous versions of a given tweet can be accessed.

It’s unclear exactly what form the Twitter edit button will take, but the company’s comment about needing to “learn what works, what doesn’t and what’s possible” at least seems to acknowledge the importance of getting this right.

Source: @TwitterComms

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Mobile Syrup

After complaining about free speech on Twitter, Elon Musk buys 9.2 percent stake in the social media platform

Elon Musk now owns a stake in Twitter.

The SpaceX CEO, freedom convoy supporter, and frequent bad meme tweeter purchased 9.2 percent of the social media platform on March 14th.

News of the purchase was released Monday morning through a Securities and Exchange Commission 13G filing.

This led to Twitter’s shares increasing more than 21 percent. According to CNBC, Musk’s stake is worth $2.89 billion USD (roughly $3.6 billion CAD), based on the social platform’s closing numbers Friday.

He now owns almost 73.5 million Twitter shares.

A little over a week ago, Musk launched a poll asking users if Twitter “rigorously adheres” to the principle that “free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.”

A day later, he asked his 80.2 million followers if “a new platform is needed?” Hours later, he tweeted that he was “giving serious thought” to building a new social media platform.

Musk has previously gotten into trouble for his tweets.

In 2018, he tweeted that funds were in place to take Tesla private if shares reached $420 USD (about $523 CAD) each. No such deal was in the works.

As a result, Tesla lawyers have to approve his tweets. Musk is currently trying to get the agreement thrown out and is (questionably?) using quotes from Eminem to get his point across. 

Image credit: Dan Taylor/Heisenberg Media 

Source: CNBC