Tag: Twitter

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter admits it overstated user figures between 2019 and 2021

Twitter overstated user numbers by two million between 2019 and 2021, according to the social media giant’s latest financial report.

The company introduced a feature in March 2019 allowing for multiple accounts to be linked together so users could easily switch between their accounts.

But the company admits people with multiple accounts were counted as separate users, inflating its figures.

The admission comes as billionaire Elon Musk is acquiring the company for $54.20 USD a share (about $69 CAD). The entire transaction is valued at roughly $44 billion USD (about $56 billion CAD).

According to the Globe and Mail, two Canadian banks are also helping to finance the purchase.

Musk is borrowing $25 billion in loans from 12 banks. RBC has pledged $750 million USD (about $955 million CAD) and CIBC put up $400 million USD (roughly $500 million CAD).

Source: Twitter Via: Engadget

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter’s sudden follower fluctuation post acquisition is organic

Following the news that Elon Musk is acquiring Twitter in a deal valued at approximately $44 billion USD (about $56 billion CAD), users with big followings have seemingly started experiencing significant fluctuations in their Twitter following in both directions.

Twitter says that these fluctuations in follower count are completely organic, owing the change to several new and departing users.

“While we continue to take action on accounts that violate our spam policy which can affect follower counts, these fluctuations appear to largely be a result of an increase in new account creation and deactivation,” Twitter said in a statement given to NBC News.

Since the acquisition, former President Barack Obama, the most followed user on Twitter, has lost more than 300,000 followers, whereas American artist Katy Perry lost more than 200,000 followers.

On the other hand, Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, a popular right-wing figure gained about 90,000 followers, and so did Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who gained nearly 100,000 new followers.

The sudden volatility in follower count indicates that people who support liberal ideas and left-wing politicians, in general, are leaving the platform, fearing Musk’s adamancy to establish free speech on the platform, which will bring a major change in the content moderation policies of the platform, and bring back users like former president Donald Trump who has long been banned from the platform.

Trump did say that he won’t be returning to the social media platform in favour of his TRUTH Social.

Source: NBC News

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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

Two Canadian banks lend $1.46 billion to Musk for Twitter acquisition

Following news breaking that Elon Musk will acquire Twitter in a deal valued at $44 billion USD (about $56 billion CAD), The Globe and Mail has revealed that the Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce are aiding the purchase, at least in some capacity.

According to the report, Musk has borrowed about $25 billion in loans from 12 banks, out of which RBC pledged $750 million USD (roughly $955 million CAD) and CIBC put up $400 million USD (roughly $500 million CAD), totalling about $1.15 billion USD ($1.46 billion CAD) of Canadian Bank loans.

Additionally, Musk is using a 17 percent stake of his Tesla share, which is valued at around $170 billion for a $12.5 billion loan to fund the acquisition.

CIBC and RBC’s loan is the least risky for Musk since it charges the lowest-cost debt among all 12 lenders.

Musk underlined that his decision to take over the company was motivated by his desire to protect free speech.

“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 of the acquisition news. “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.”

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: The Globe and Mail

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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

Twitter is testing a new status feature codenamed ‘Vibe’

Twitter is reportedly working on a new feature called “Vibe” that will let users set a status to let the world know what they’re doing.

The in-development feature was spotted by researcher and app reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) and reported by The Verge.

According to Wong’s tweet, it appears that there are five preset ‘Vibes,’ namely “Eating yummy ramen,” “Driving highway,” “Shopping grocery,” “Lurking Twitter” and “Studying for the final exam.”

There’s no way that these would be the final ‘Vibes’ when the feature eventually comes out. Most of these are very situation-based, and I imagine Twitter would add a way for you to set custom personalized ‘Vibes’ as well.

Additionally, the tweet also suggests that there would be two kinds of ‘Vibes.’ One for your overall Twitter profile, and one specific to Tweets.

The same feature was also spotted by leaker Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) back in March where he hypothesized that the feature could be similar to Facebook’s ‘Feeling/Activity’ status picker.

There is no official word from Twitter about the rumoured in-development feature.

Source: @wongmjane Via: TheVerge

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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