Tag: Twitter

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Twitter is a shitshow, but are you sticking with it?

Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the social media platform has become a total mess.

This past week, Twitter got rid of and then re-added Twitter Blue subscriptions, rolled out the ‘Official’ checkmark, killed it and then brought it back. Still with us?

Musk also said bankruptcy is not out of the question for the platform, and many fake accounts with official checkmarks have surfaced.

 

Personally, I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with Twitter. There’s too much confusion and impersonation, a ton of ads, and many angry people. Are you sticking with Twitter? Or are you going to shift to Mastodon or another social media platform?

Let us know in the comments below.

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Parody Doug Ford account sporting blue check surfaces on Twitter

As Twitter suspends its new Blue subscription, which gives accounts a blue checkmark, over rampant impersonation issues, imposters have come to Ontario’s provincial government.

Global News spotted a parody account for Ontario Premier Doug Ford, which now sports the paid blue checkmark. At a glance, the account could easily be mistaken for Ford’s actual account, given the similar profile picture and account name (plus, the blue checkmark previously signified verified accounts before it became a signal of paying for Twitter).

Check out the screenshot below for a taste of some excellent Ford parody tweets (you can also view the account yourself here until gets banned).

Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, recently ramped up the penalties for impersonation on Twitter after a slew of accounts — including some celebrities — impersonated Musk to make fun of him. Musk also declared that any account doing parody must include the word ‘parody,’ and later, he tweeted that parody must be in the account name and not just the bio.

That hasn’t stemmed the flood of fake accounts buying blue checks to impersonate high-profile accounts, including brands, athletes, news organizations and more. The situation has proven both hilarious and highlighted the consequences of messing with Twitter’s well-established verification system.

You can keep up with the latest Twitter turmoil here.

Source: @DougFord_ON Via: Global News

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Twitter’s new Blue subscription vanishes

Twitter’s revamped Blue subscription, which gives subscribers a blue checkmark and little else for $9.99/mo CAD, has mysteriously vanished just over a day after launch.

After a false start over the weekend, Twitter actually launched the revamped Blue service on Wednesday for iPhone users in select countries, including Canada. However, now when users tap the ‘Twitter Blue’ option in the Twitter app’s menu, they get an error saying it’s not available:

“Thank you for your interest! Twitter Blue will be available in your country in the future. Please check back later.”

The Verge reported that several users don’t even see the Blue option in the menu anymore, while those that do still see it can’t sign up. I checked Twitter on an iPhone, and while I still had the Blue menu option, I got the error saying it wasn’t available. There are also tons of tweets from users experiencing similar issues.

At the moment, it’s not clear why Twitter Blue is no longer available. It’s possible Twitter intentionally paused the service amid an influx of fake imposter accounts, or it could be related to the company’s decision to limit Blue sign-ups for new accounts (although that doesn’t explain why accounts that have been around for a while, like mine, don’t have access to Blue).

The Verge suggests that this could all be related to Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk firing half the company’s employees earlier this week. Several reports, including from current employees, warned that Twitter was in danger of breaking as issues, errors, and bugs pile up. The company’s remaining staff are also being pushed to the limit, with many working long hours and even sleeping in the office. Plus, Musk recently emailed employees demanding a return to in-office work amid warnings that Twitter could go bankrupt.

The Twitter Blue rollout itself was tumultuous. Aside from the false start, it launched after Twitter added a new grey ‘Official’ badge to some verified accounts. Within hours, Musk killed the grey badge, tweeting that the blue badge would be the “great leveler [sic].” Following the launch of Blue, Twitter was flooded with fake accounts using the paid blue badge to appear more legitimate, something that many predicted would happen. Musk also should have seen it coming, given how upset he was by all the accounts impersonating him, but instead, Musk seems convinced the paid blue badge will actually fix these problems.

And now the grey ‘Official’ badge is making a return, at least according to the Twitter Support page. Humorously, the two most recent Twitter Support tweets directly contradict each other, with a November 9th tweet saying the company isn’t adding an ‘Official’ label and a November 11th tweet saying it has now added a label. Neat.

Follow along with the latest Musk-induced Twitter turmoil here.

Via: The Verge

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Elon Musk says ‘bankruptcy is not out of the question’ for Twitter

The saga continues.

If you thought Elon Musk adding a grey checkmark and then killing it just as quickly, before creating an even more confusing verification system, was the most outlandish Twitter news you’d read this week, think again.

Roughly two weeks after taking over Twitter, Musk has finally addressed staff with a rather bleak message. During a recent all-hands meeting, Musk said that Twitter is currently losing so much money that “bankruptcy is not out of the question,” according to The Information and Platformer.

Twitter hasn’t turned a profit since 2009, and advertisers are rapidly pulling out of the platform following Musk’s takeover. During the meeting, Musk emphasized that Twitter Blue subscriptions are integral to the platform’s future.

“The reason we’re going hardcore on subscribers is to keep Twitter alive,” said Musk during the meeting. In other Twitter-related news, Musk recently reversed the company’s “work from anywhere” policy and said that “if you can physically make it to an office and you don’t show up, resignation accepted.”

Amid the ongoing chaos, several top executives have left Twitter, including the company’s chief information security officer, the chief compliance officer and the chief privacy officer.

For the latest on Musk’s shenanigans at Twitter, follow MobileSyrup’s coverage here.

Source: The Information, Platformer

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How to spot which Twitter accounts paid for verification

Unsurprisingly, Twitter is chock-full of fake accounts sporting the new blue check that anyone can buy for a measly $8.

While Twitter seems to be suspending them quickly, it feels like a game of high-stakes whack-a-mole — the numbers are in the moles’ favour. For the terminally online, most of these accounts should be easy to spot. But for those who haven’t followed the real-time collapse of Twitter under its new overlord Elon Musk, these accounts could definitely trick you.

The Verge, Kotaku, and others reported on a variety of fake accounts for brands, athletes, and more popping up on Twitter in the hours after the new Blue subscription went live. Many of these accounts, including fake Nintendo, Valve, LeBron James, Donald Trump, and even Jesus Christ appear more legitimate thanks to the paid badge (Although to be fair, the Jesus account was an existing parody account, but it’s still quite funny to see Jesus verified on Twitter).

If you’re having a hard time with all these new blue check accounts, here are some tips to figure out which ones are legitimate and which aren’t.

How to spot legitimate Twitter accounts

Surprisingly, the most reliable way to check the legitimacy of any account on Twitter is through the blue checkmark. At first glance, the old verification badge and the new paid badge you get from subscribing the Twitter Blue (which costs $9.99/month in Canada) are identical. However, if you open an account’s profile and click or tap on those badges, a little pop-up will tell you whether the account was verified under the old system or if it was bought. This works across Twitter’s website and mobile apps.

Of course, digging into an account’s profile page and tapping a tiny blue icon is a bit of a pain to do every time you’re sus of an account. Moreover, not every account with a traditional verification badge is trustworthy and not every account with a paid blue check is untrustworthy. So, it’s helpful to look for some context clues.

Things to consider include the handle (@), the content of tweets, and other details of the account, such as the number of followers. For the handle, keep an eye out for things like typos or slightly off spelling, or perhaps the use of certain characters that can look like others (such as I, l, |, or 1, although MobileSyrup’s site font makes those look different).

Fake Nintendo Twitter account (via Kotaku)

Tweet content can often prove helpful for detecting suspicious accounts. For example, a fake Nintendo account tweeted a picture of Mario flipping off the viewer. While funny, that tweet obviously didn’t come from a real Nintendo account. Other content clues include pushing people to click suspicious links (for example, a fake Twitter account telling people to click a weird link to sign up for Twitter Blue), or statements that just don’t make sense (like the fake LeBron James account announcing a plan to leave the Lakers).

Other account details, like when the join date, follower account, or the number of tweets can also help detect potential fakes. For example, if someone created a new Twitter account to mess with people, it might have a recent join date, a low number of followers, or a low number of tweets.

And if, after all that, you’re still not confident if the account is authentic, assume it isn’t and consider alternate options. For example, you could use a trustworthy source to find the actual Twitter account (for example, most companies include links to their official social channels on their websites). You can also try and verify the information in a tweet with a trustworthy source. And when in doubt, never click a link, even if it doesn’t look suspicious.

How we got here

If you haven’t been following along with Musk’s Twitter takeover turmoil, we’ve got a quick summary for you. If you have been following along, feel free to bow out now.

In short, one of Musk’s first actions after taking over the company (aside from laying off half the staff and then desperately begging some to come back because it turned out they were essential) was to revamp Twitter’s Blue subscription service. The new Twitter Blue boasts two changes: a higher price tag and access to the blue checkmark long used to designate if an account was authentic. Musk has promised other changes to come, which we’ll dig into in a moment.

The new Twitter Blue was supposed to launch over the weekend, but then Twitter quietly delayed the feature until November 9th to avoid interfering with the U.S. midterm elections. One of the main concerns raised about the new paid verification badge is that it would open the floodgates for impersonation and fake accounts. Bizarrely, Musk believes paying for verification will somehow fix Twitter’s spam problems. Musk even witnessed firsthand the problems with giving anyone a verification badge after a series of accounts impersonated Musk and made fun of him. Twitter is also now limiting new accounts from signing up for Blue, likely in an effort to tamp down on impersonations like this.

Before the rollout started on the 9th, Twitter briefly launched a second grey ‘Official’ badge to help users differentiate between legitimate accounts and fakes, effectively replacing the function of the blue check ahead of it becoming a Blue feature. Musk quickly killed the grey badge, calling blue checks the “great leveler [sic].” However, Twitter employees said the grey badge would still be applied to some accounts despite Musk’s tweets.

Finally, Musk has promised Blue will eventually get new features like priority in replies, mentions and search, reduced ads, and the ability to post longer videos. Longer videos might actually be a helpful benefit for some, while internal Twitter discussions revealed the ad reduction plan could lose the company money. However, giving Blue subscribers priority on the site risks disrupting what makes Twitter such a useful tool for many.

For the latest on Musk’s shenanigans at Twitter, follow MobileSyrup’s coverage here.

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Twitter attempts to ‘solve’ blue checkmark woes with grey check

Over the last few days, we’ve watched Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, witness firsthand why it’s a bad idea to let anyone pay for verification on Twitter. Now, the social media platform is rolling out a solution to the blue check problem it created — another checkmark.

This time around, it’s a grey checkmark accompanied by an ‘Official’ label, which has started to appear on some Twitter accounts.  The company’s Esther Crawford, who’s heading up the new Twitter Blue subscription that comes with a blue check, tweeted that the new grey check mark was intended to distinguish between accounts the company verified as official and accounts that paid for a blue checkmark.

“Not all previously verified accounts will get the “Official” label and the label is not available for purchase. Accounts that will receive it include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures,” Crawford wrote in a follow-up tweet. Crawford also confirmed that Twitter Blue doesn’t include ID verification.

Twitter’s ‘Official’ checkmark in a tweet.

As of this morning, several accounts have suddenly gained a grey ‘Official’ checkmark, which appears underneath an account’s name and handle (@) in tweets and in the account’s profile page. It remains unclear if Twitter plans to open the new ‘Official’ badge up for applications, or if the company will arbitrarily decide which accounts qualify and which don’t.

Twitter’s ‘Official’ checkmark in an account profile.

Moreover, many accounts still have the old blue verification badge, even if they haven’t subscribed to Twitter Blue. For example, I still have my badge despite never paying for Blue — and I don’t plan to start anytime soon. As a result, many Twitter accounts are now double-badged.

While the new ‘Official’ badge is arguably a helpful change that should cut down on the potential for impersonation, there remains a distinct lack of transparency around the system (which was a notable issue with the old verification system). Additionally, the old blue checkmark is more visible than the grey check — coupled with the history behind the blue checkmark, the new double-check system may increase confusion over which accounts are authentic or not.

At the moment, the blue checkmark really only means one of two things: that account paid for Twitter like a loser, or that account was previously verified and hasn’t lost the blue check yet. Most accounts seem to be in the latter camp for now since Twitter delayed the change to the blue checkmark. Now that the U.S. midterm elections are over, that will begin to change.

You can find more about the ongoing Musk x Twitter drama here.

Source: @esthercrawford Via: The Verge

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Critic claims Twitter rejected his anti-Tesla ad for ‘political’ reasons

A Tesla critic who previously shared controversial videos claiming that Tesla vehicles failed to avoid running over child-sized mannequins now claims that Twitter rejected an anti-Tesla ad from his safety advocacy group.

As reported by The Verge, Dan O’Dowd and the Dawn Project claimed Twitter rejected attempts to promote a tweet about a full-page ad the group ran in the New York Times. The ad criticized Elon Musk’s Tesla over its Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature. Screenshots shared by the group show Twitter’s response to the promoted tweet, noting that it rejected the tweet for violating Twitter’s policy about political ads.

Notably, the tweet remains on Twitter — the Dawn Project isn’t able to promote it, which could limit engagement.

For reference, Twitter’s advertising policies define political content as follows:

“We define political content as content that references a candidate, political party, elected or appointed government official, election, referendum, ballot measure, legislation, regulation, directive, or judicial outcome.

“Ads that contain references to political content, including appeals for votes, solicitations of financial support, and advocacy for or against any of the above-listed types of political content, are prohibited under this policy.

“We also do not allow ads of any type by candidates, political parties, or elected or appointed government officials.”

“The move to prohibit the advertising of content criticizing Musk’s Tesla Full Self-Driving software raises serious questions over his commitment to free speech,” O’Dowd said in a statement. Musk’s free-speech commitment has come under fire from others as well, notably following Musk’s declaration that Twitter would permanently ban any accounts engaged in impersonation after several accounts impersonated Musk and made fun of him.

Twitter didn’t respond to The Verge’s request for comment, although it’s worth noting that much of the company’s PR department was let go in Musk’s mass layoffs.

O’Dowd and Musk have traded blows before

O’Dowd and Musk have butted heads in recent months over Tesla FSD. O’Dowd has publicly antagonized Musk, including taking out a full-page ad in the New York Times to criticize the safety and reliability of Tesla vehicles and FSD. O’Dowd’s Dawn Project became the face of anti-Tesla advertising, including a campaign centred around videos of Tesla vehicles striking child-sized mannequins. (As an aside, those videos elicited an interesting response from Musk stans, who fervently believed the vehicles failed to stop because the tests used mannequins. The stans actively sought real children to stand in front of Tesla vehicles in hopes of proving that the vehicles would stop for real children.)

Part of the anti-Tesla campaign was tied into O’Dowd’s failed Senate campaign earlier this year. The Verge notes that O’Dowd came in just shy of 75,000 votes in the June primary, landing 10th overall.

Meanwhile, Tesla sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Dawn Project in August over the videos of Tesla vehicles striking child-sized mannequins. Those videos are no longer on the group’s YouTube page. Moreover, Tesla supporters pointed out that O’Dowd has a vested interest in shaming Tesla publicly since O’Dowd runs Green Hills Software, which does business with some Tesla competitors, including General Motors, BMW, and Ford. Additionally, Musk previously called Green Hills Software a “pile of trash.”

It’s worth noting the U.S. Justice Department is investigating Tesla’s FSD claims after the automated driver system was involved in over a dozen crashes last year.

Source: The Verge

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Elon Musk considered putting all of Twitter behind a paywall

Twitter owner Elon Musk reportedly considered charging a subscription fee for access to the social media platform amid the chaos of paid verification.

According to details reported by Casey Newton in his Platformer newsletter (via The Verge), Musk and his adviser David Sacks, a venture capitalist (VC) helping Musk manage the Twitter transition, discussed the idea of adding a paywall to Twitter in recent meetings. (As an aside, it’s well worth reading Platformer to get a fuller picture of the internal chaos at Twitter right now based on information shared with Newton by employees.)

One possible plan Musk and Sacks considered involved allowing people to use Twitter for a limited time each month, but requiring a subscription to continue browsing. However, Newton wasn’t able to learn how serious Musk and Sacks are about the idea, and Twitter didn’t respond to requests for comment (unsurprising, considering Musk gutted the company’s PR team in the mass layoffs).

However, I wouldn’t be surprised if Musk chose to go through with the paywall idea. After all, he’s spent the last few days tweeting things like “Trash me all day, but it’ll cost $8,” suggesting people would need to pay for Twitter Blue to “trash” him. Currently, you can “trash” Musk on Twitter all you want without paying a cent (but you might lose your account).

Reading beyond Musk’s tweets, it’s clear he’ll need to do something to squeeze profit out of Twitter. The acquisition saddled Twitter with some $13 billion USD (about $17.5 billion CAD) in debt, with annual interest payments expected to total $1 billion USD (roughly $1.3 billion CAD). Moreover, some of Musk’s money-making plans might actually lose the company money.

Per Platformer, Twitter employees warned that Musk’s revamped Twitter Blue subscription could lose the company money. One of Musk’s promised features for Blue was to cut ads in half for subscribers. Estimates suggest Twitter will lose about $6 in ad revenue per U.S. user by making that change, and when factoring in the cut Apple and Google take from in-app subscriptions, Twitter would likely lose money on Blue if the ad plan goes through.

This all comes as the company reportedly delayed the launch of its paid verification feature until after the U.S. midterm elections over fears of election interference. At the same time, brands and governments are pulling ads from Twitter. However, Musk remains confident, tweeting that Twitter is gaining users.

For the latest on Musk x Twitter news, check out all of MobileSyrup’s coverage here.

Source: Platformer Via: The Verge

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Federal government to pause advertising on Twitter indefinitely

OTTAWA, CANADA – NOVEMBER 10, 2018: Canada Wordmark, the official logo of the Canadian government, on an administrative building next to a Canadian flag waiving

Mass layoffs at Twitter aren’t just losing the company private advertisers, but also large-scale Federal ones.

According to the CBC, a media and marketing agency that works with the federal government to plan and buy ads, has advised federal departments to “pause activity on Twitter,” citing mass layoffs at the newly taken over company as the primary reason.

The government’s media and marketing agency is Quebec City-based Cosette, and according to the CBC, the agency asked the government to “pause activity [on Twitter] immediately and monitor the situation over the weekend due to unknown continuity plans for moderation and a heightened risk of brand safety.”

According to Cosette, large-scale layoffs at the company increased concerns about the platform’s ability to moderate content and achieve brand safety.

However, Twitter’s head of safety and Integrity, Yoel Roth, said that the reduction in Twitter’s workforce affected only about 15 percent of the company’s trust and safety organization, compared to a general 50 percent company-wide cut. “More than 80 percent of our incoming content moderation volume was completely unaffected by this access change,” said Roth. “The daily volume of moderation actions we take stayed steady through this period.”

It’s worth noting that hate speech on the platform, including racist and derogatory slurs, soared in the initial days of the Musk acquisition, though that appears to have settled down for now.

Cossette is also reportedly wary about the upcoming U.S. midterm election, and how it might result in “a lot of focus on the platform for abuse.”

According to the CBC, the federal government spent over $3 million on Twitter ads through Cossette from 2020 to 2021.

Other companies that have paused advertising on Twitter include General Motors, Pfizer, Volkswagen, General Mills, Mondelez International, Nintendo and more.

The latest news on Twitter and Musk can be found here.

Source: CBC

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Twitter reportedly delays paid verification until November 9th

Twitter has reportedly delayed the rollout of its new paid verification system until after the U.S. midterm elections, according to the New York Times.

The Times cited messages from an internal Twitter Slack channel in which employees questioned “making such a risky change before elections” over its potential to cause election interference.

A manager working on the verification badge project replied that “we’ve made the decision to move the launch of this release to Nov. 9, after the election.” The blue checkmark shown on verified accounts adds a level of authenticity to those accounts — by opening up verification to all, it potentially risks making fake news, misinformation, and fake accounts appear more legitimate.

Moreover, the Times said that Twitter didn’t respond to requests to comment, noting that the company had “almost entirely laid off” its communications team (hardly a surprise for a company owned by Elon Musk).

It’s an interesting turn of events, with the decision coming just a day after an update to the Twitter iOS app offered up paid verification. Text from the iOS app update details noted that users can sign up for Twitter Blue to get a blue checkmark “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.”

Amid the blue check chaos, Musk declared Twitter would permanently ban accounts that impersonate people without a parody label. The escalation in Twitter’s impersonation policies came amid a slew of verified accounts pretended to be Musk and made fun of him. However, despite saying that accounts labeled as parody would be okay, Twitter has banned some parody accounts that impersonated Musk too.

Since taking the helm at Twitter, Musk has created turmoil across the social network. Brands have paused advertising on Twitter over uncertainty with leadership, hate speech spiked after Musk’s takeover, and Musk has suggested various schemes to try and squeeze profit out of the company (including paid verification, DMs, and more). You can keep up with the latest Musk x Twitter news here.

Source: The New York Times