Tag: Twitter

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Over 200 million email addresses leaked in Twitter breach

Hackers have posted usernames and email addresses belonging to over 200 million Twitter users in a database. The data was compiled from several Twitter breaches dating back to 2021, and while the online database does not include passwords, the collection of data will likely pose a security threat to those exposed.

Several reports from security researchers and media outlets, including The Verge and Bleeping Computer, have detailed the breach, with researcher Alon Gal warning the breach “will unfortunately lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing, and doxxing.”

Bleeping Computer shared screenshots of the database, revealing it contains several text files listing email addresses and linked Twitter usernames along with email addresses and real names (if users shared their real names with Twitter). The database also includes information like users’ follower counts and account creation dates. Bleeping Computer also said it was able to confirm the validity of many email addresses including in the leak. The database is being sold on one hacking forum for as low as $2 USD.

Troy Hunt, who created the cybersecurity alert site ‘Have I Been Pwned‘ to help people check if their phone number or email was included in a data breach, posted on Twitter that he found 211,524,284 unique email addresses in the Twitter breach. “[The breach] looks to be pretty much what it’s been described as,” Hunt wrote.

The breach has since been added to Have I Been Pwned so Twitter users can head to the site and check if their information was included in the breach.

As mentioned above, the Twitter breach can trace its origins back to 2021 when hackers found a vulnerability in Twitter’s security systems. That vulnerability allowed malicious actors to look up accounts with an automated system that entered email addresses and phone numbers to see if they were associated with Twitter accounts.

Twitter disclosed the vulnerability in August 2022 and claimed it fixed the issue in January after it was reported as a bug bounty. Moreover, Twitter said at the time it had “no evidence to suggest someone had taken advantage of the vulnerability,” but cybersecurity researchers had already found databases of Twitter credentials for sale in July 2022. This latest database of Twitter info appears to have origins in the old vulnerability.

Source: The Verge, Bleeping Computer

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Twitter Blue subscribers now get priority in replies

Twitter’s Blue subscription service got some new features heading into the holidays. Per an update to the list of features on the Blue about page, the service now gives subscribers “prioritized rankings in conversations” and the ability to upload hour-long videos.

Twitter owner Elon Musk has long promised these features, with priority in replies dating back to November. Musk also promised priority in search and mentions, but it appears Twitter still needs to add that (at least, it doesn’t mention it on the Blue page).

It’s not entirely clear how the prioritization feature works. The Verge suggests Twitter will now factor in whether an account subscribes to Blue when ordering replies to a tweet. Twitter previously said the feature was intended to help “lower the visibility of scams, spam and bots.”

Of course, that doesn’t consider that scammers, spammers, and other bad actors can now pay for Blue to boost the visibility of their replies.

As for the video features, Blue subscribers can now upload videos up to 60 minutes long with up to a 2GB file size and 1080p resolution. However, the feature is only available via the web. Moreover, a Twitter support page warns that the platform may modify “the resolution and bitrate of the original video while streaming based on the speed and stability of the viewer’s internet connection.”

The changes come after Twitter added view counts to tweets.

After the relaunch, Twitter Blue’s price increased to $10/mo for Canadians who subscribe through the website and $15/mo for Canadians who subscribe through iOS. Learn more here.

Source: Twitter Via: The Verge

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Samuel L. Jackson celebrates birthday in horny jail after liking porn on Twitter

Samuel L. Jackson is one of the biggest movie stars on the planet… From Star Wars and Marvel to Jurassic Park and Pulp Fiction, the man is something of a living legend.

But the internet was reminded this week that at the end of the day, Jackson is still only human.

On Wednesday, December 21st, the third highest-grossing actor of all time was celebrating his 74th birthday as one normally would — by watching porn on Twitter. How do we know? Because screenshots and videos captured Jackson’s public, verified account liking explicit, NSFW videos.

While Jackson has since unliked these posts, people have nonetheless still had some amusing responses:

Some even pointed out that Jackson once admitted to liking anime and manga porn, better known as hentai.

Jackson hasn’t addressed these events on social media, but regardless, it’s quite the funny situation. While it’s possible that someone else running Jackson’s account got a little carried away, it’s undoubtedly more entertaining to imagine him sneaking away from some baller Beverly Hills birthday party look at Twitter porn.

Stars — they’re just like us!

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Musk to resign once he finds someone ‘foolish enough’ to be Twitter CEO

Surprising absolutely no one, Elon Musk said he would still be in charge of parts of Twitter after finding someone “foolish enough” to take the job.

Over the weekend, Musk ran a Twitter poll asking if he should step down as head of Twitter after he oversaw a series of suspensions targeting journalists and rival social media platforms. He lost, with nearly 58 percent of the 17.5 million votes favouring Musk stepping down. Further, in an absolute sore loser move, Musk said he’d change the rules on Twitter to restrict voting in polls so only Twitter Blue subscribers can do so.

Following the poll, there was some debate over whether Musk would actually step down from the CEO role. I had doubts, but reports suggested Musk had started the hunt for a new Twitter CEO long before posting the poll. Well, looks like I was at least partially right.

Musk tweeted a response to the poll on December 20th, writing that he will resign “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job.” Musk went on to say he would “just run the software & servers teams” after handing over the CEO role.

As The Verge points out, software and servers are the vast majority of Twitter at this point, especially after Musk laid off huge swaths of the company. However you slice it, it seems clear Musk has no intention of giving up control regardless if he holds the official CEO title.

You can follow along with Musk’s chaotic reign over Twitter here.

Source: @elonmusk Via: The Verge

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Sore loser Musk will restrict who can vote after losing Twitter poll

After Twitter CEO Elon Musk lost a poll asking if he should step down as head of the company, he says the rules determining who can vote in Twitter polls in the future will change.

Twitter user ‘Unfiltered☢️Boss’ suggested Musk lock polls so that only Blue subscribers can vote in “policy related polls,” writing that subscribers “actually have skin in the game.” While I don’t think paying a monthly subscription fee to use a social network run (poorly) by the world’s formerly richest man counts as having “skin in the game,” Musk appears to agree with the idea of restricting voting to paying users. In response to Unfiltered☢️Boss, Musk tweeted, “Good point. Twitter will make that change.”

Of course, it’s worth keeping in mind what kicked all this off: Musk having a public tantrum and banning several journalists who had been critical of Musk, as well as rival platforms. As a quick refresher, last week Musk alleged a stalker used information from the ElonJet account run by Jack Sweeney to follow a car carrying Musk’s child. The ElonJet account used publicly available information to share details about the flights of Musk’s private jet.

However, despite the dubious (at best) link between the stalker incident and Sweeney’s account, Twitter introduced a new policy prohibiting the sharing of real-time information, banned ElonJet and Sweeney, then started banning journalists who covered the story and accounts that tweeted links to Sweeney’s ElonJet accounts on other social media platforms. That included Mastodon, the much-hyped possible Twitter replacement. Twitter also introduced a policy prohibiting linking to other social media platforms.

Following outcry, Twitter rolled back the policies, Musk apologized, and he promised there would be a vote for major policy changes in the future. Musk then started a poll asking if he should step down as head of Twitter, with 57.5 percent of the over 17.5 million votes being in favour of Musk stepping down. Although apparently, the vote may not have mattered — reports indicate Musk started hunting for a new CEO before posting the poll.

Twitter relaunched its Blue subscription on December 12th at a higher cost of $10/mo for Canadians who subscribe through the Twitter website and $15/mo for those who subscribe through the App Store on iOS. Currently, the Twitter Blue subscription doesn’t offer much beyond adding a blue checkmark to subscribed accounts and the promise of future features like reduced ads, priority in replies, and more. Further, despite positioning the new Blue subscription as verifying users with their phone number, Twitter’s about page for Blue notes that Twitter won’t review accounts to ensure they’re authentic.

You can follow along with the latest insanity from Musk’s Twitter here.

Source: @elonmusk

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Musk asked Twitter users if he should step down – they said yes

Serial poster and Twitter CEO (although maybe not for much longer) Elon Musk ran a poll on Twitter Sunday night asking if he should step down as head of Twitter. 57.5 percent of the 17,502,391 respondents voted in favour of Musk stepping down.

In the tweet, Musk said he would “abide by the results,” but he has a history of not following through on the things he tweets (examples A, B, and C). After sharing the poll, Musk tweeted, “be careful what you wish, as you might get it,” which seems to be a potentially ominous warning related to the poll. Of course, it’s also worth noting that Twitter’s former head of trust and safety warned that polls could easily be swayed by bots.

Elon Musk's Twitter poll asking if he should step down.

This follows a turbulent week for Musk, who launched a banning spree on Twitter targetting journalists and alternate social media platforms, notably Mastodon, an oft-cited potential alternative to Twitter. It started with Musk banning Jack Sweeney and Sweeney’s ElonJet Twitter account that shared details about the flights of Musk’s private jet using publicly available information. Musk previously used Sweeney as an example of his “commitment to free speech,” saying he wouldn’t ban the ElonJet account despite it being a “direct personal safety risk.”

On December 14th, Musk alleged that a stalker used information from the ElonJet account to follow a car carrying his child (although so far, there doesn’t appear to be a link between ElonJet and the stalker incident). That led to a hastily-introduced Twitter policy banning the sharing of people’s real-time location, which was used to ban Sweeney, ElonJet, and several journalists covering the story. Around the same time, Twitter banned Mastodon’s Twitter account and started placing warnings on links to Mastodon.

Over the weekend, Twitter rolled out another new policy banning users from linking to their accounts on other social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, and others. However, that policy didn’t last long and was removed after Musk apologized and promised major policy changes would be put to a vote first (although, as mentioned above, Musk tends to not follow through on things he tweets).

It remains to be seen what, if anything, comes from Musk’s latest Twitter poll. If he follows through, there’s a chance we could see Twitter’s current trajectory improve. But I won’t hold my breath.

You can follow the ongoing sage of Musk and Twitter here.

Source: @elonmusk

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Elon Musk shows off free speech commitment by banning journalists

Under self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” and CEO Elon Musk, Twitter has banned the accounts of several people, including journalists that were critical of Musk, completely shut down the popular Spaces feature after Musk was confronted by journalists in a Space, and also suspended the account of rival social media network Mastodon. Moreover, Twitter now marks links to Mastodon as “potentially harmful.”

These very obviously pro-free speech moves come after Twitter suspended the ‘@ElonJet’ account run by ‘@jxckSweeney,’ whose account was also suspended. As a quick refresher, Musk has had an issue with Sweeney and the ElonJet account for a while since the account shared publicly available information about which airports Musk’s private jet flew to. Since then, Twitter has banned other accounts that track flight locations, including some that track other billionaires like Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates. Sweeney operated many of the accounts.

On December 14th, Musk claimed a stalker used information from the ElonJet account to follow a car carrying Musk’s son, X Æ A-Xii, thinking Musk was in the car, although the LA Times reported that no crime reports about the incident had been filed with the LAPD.

Shortly after, Twitter hastily introduced a new policy banning people from sharing other people’s private information, such as “real-time and/or same-day” location information (sometimes called ‘doxxing’). The policy also covers links to third-party URL(s), which is likely at least part of the reason why Twitter is blocking links to Mastodon — Twitter suspended Mastodon’s Twitter account after it shared a link to ElonJet’s Mastodon account. Moreover, several of the journalists who received suspensions shared links to ElonJet on other platforms like Mastodon.

Banned journalists join a Twitter Space, Musk kills Spaces

The Verge reports that several of the banned journalists were able to join a Twitter Space on December 15th where they discussed what was going on. Musk also joined the Space and answered some questions. During the conversation, Musk accused journalists who posted links to ElonJet on other platforms were evading the ban, which is why they also got banned.

The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell asked Musk how his decision to ban ElonJet and accounts sharing links to ElonJet differed from Twitter’s treatment of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, something Musk previously called “incredibly inappropriate.” As a reminder, Twitter blocked links to the New York Post’s story about the alleged Hunter Biden laptop — that event became a cornerstone of Musk’s first ‘Twitter Files’ release, which included internal Twitter documents about the moderation decision.

Musk responded to Harwell by saying, “You dox, you get suspended. End of story, that’s it.” He then left the Twitter Space. Since then, Twitter shut down the Spaces feature — Muks claimed in a tweet that Spaces was shut down to fix a “legacy bug” and that the feature should return on December 17th. Presumably that legacy bug was the ability for banned accounts to join a Space.

Of course, I’d be remiss not to point out that Musk’s new anti-doxxing stance apparently doesn’t appear to apply to him or his allies. For example, the first Twitter Files release doxed Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s email address, while Musk himself posted a video of the alleged stalker, which included the person’s licence plate, and asked if anybody recognized the person. And if you need more proof that Musk is a hypocrite, here’s his tweet from November 6th, 2022, saying he was so committed to free speech he wouldn’t ban the account following his plane (plus a screenshot below in case Musk decides to delete the tweet, as he tends to do).

Per The Verge, Musk ran a poll asking if he should unsuspend accounts that “doxxed my exact location in real-time,” but the ‘now’ option won was winning with about 43 percent support. Musk then tweeted there were “too many options” and restarted the poll with the options ‘Now’ and ‘In 7 days.’ At the time of writing, ‘Now’ was winning with 58.6 percent of the vote. Musk certainly likes to base moderation decisions on polls, such as when he broke his promise and reinstated former U.S. president Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

Screenshot of Musk’s redone poll. Via: The Verge

EU sanctions

Finally, the EU is planning to sanction Twitter over the arbitrary bans, with the EU Commission’s vice president of values and transparency, Vera Journova, tweeting that the suspension of journalists “is worrying.”

According to Mashable, tweets from some suspended journalists didn’t violate Twitter’s policy, including the publication’s own Matt Binder. Binder said his account was suspended after sharing a screenshot of a tweet from CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan about the LAPD’s statement regarding Musk’s stalker claims.

So, to sum things up: Twitter banned the ElonJet account after Musk said he wouldn’t ban it, banned journalists who tweeted about ElonJet getting banned, and banned rival social media platform Mastodon that was hosting the ElonJet account, as well as put warning labels on links to Mastodon, and now the EU Commission is looking into what’s going on and might sanction Twitter over the suspensions.

You can keep up with all things Musk and Twitter here.

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Canadians can now contribute to Community Notes on Twitter

Community Notes, a Twitter feature that allows selected users to add notes to misleading tweets, is now accepting Canadian contributors.

The fact-checking system is community focused. “Community Notes doesn’t work by majority rules,” the Community Notes Guide states. Helpful notes require contributors to agree on posts that may have disagreed in the past. “This helps prevent one-sided ratings.”

The feature was previously known as Birdwatch and got the new name after Elon Musk acquired the platform. Previously only available in the U.S., all Twitter users worldwide can now see Community Notes.

“We admit new contributors in batches, growing the contributor base by 10 percent per week. We’ll be monitoring quality, and may adjust that up and down based on what we learn,” the Community Notes Twitter account tweeted.

Interested Canadians can sign up here. To successfully join, users can’t have any recent notices of violating Twitter’s rules, joined the platform at least six months ago, and have a verified phone number.

Source: @CommunityNotes Via: iPhone in Canada

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Twitter has banned the account that tracked Elon Musk’s private jet

A famous Twitter account that had been constantly tracking Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s private jet has been suspended.

The account, @ElonJet, used publicly available information to follow which airports Musk’s private jet flew to, and shared the updated on Twitter. Notably, the person who ran the account, @jxckSweeney has also been suspended.

So much for freedom of speech?

Before the @jxckSweeney account was banned, Sweeney said that screenshots provided by a Twitter employee indicated that the social media company was limiting the @ElonJet account’s reach, essentially shadow-banning it.

Back in January, Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to take down the account and stop tracking his whereabouts, saying that it is a security risk, even though the information used by Sweeney was available publicly, and he just broadcasted it to his audience on Twitter. At the time, Sweeney declined Musk’s offer and said, “Any chance to up that to $50k? It would be great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3.”

It is currently unknown why both of Sweeney’s accounts were banned, but we’ll hopefully hear about it soon, likely from Musk himself.

Sweeney’s @elonmuskjet Instagram account is still up and running.

Via: Engadget

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Twitter disbanded its Trust and Safety Council

In a move that’s both completely expected and also a perfect metaphor for what’s going on at Twitter, the company abruptly disbanded its Trust and Safety Council on December 11th.

The council was a volunteer group of about 100 people responsible for moderating content, including hate speed, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm, and more, according to an archived version of the Trust and Safety page shared by Gizmodo.

In an email sent to the group, Twitter wrote:

“As Twitter moves into a new phase, we are reevaluating how best to bring external insights into our product and policy development work. As part of this process, we have decided that the Trust and Safety Council is not the best structure to do this.”

Elon Musk, noted comedian and owner of Twitter, previously promised to form his own content moderation council before making major decisions like reinstating accounts. He did not do so. When the broken promise was pointed out to him, Musk blamed activists for him not following through.

Before the council was disbanded, three members resigned, warning that the “safety and wellbeing of Twitter’s users are on the decline.”

Even though the Trust and Safety Council did not have decision-making power and only advised Twitter, Musk responded to the resignation by accusing the council of “refusing to take action on child exploitation for years.” Notably, this came after Musk’s layoffs gutted the Twitter teams responsible for removing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), leaving just one person for the entire Asia Pacific region. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also noted that Musk’s claim was false, but Musk doubled down and claimed he made child safety a “top priority.”

Meanwhile, CNN reported that the former head of the trust and safety, Yoel Roth, had to flee his home following threats of violence resulting from Musk’s campaign of criticism against him. Other members of the Safety council said their personal safety was also “impacted by the actions of Twitter staff.” Roth has appeared repeatedly in internal documents shared as part of Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’ series. Moreover, Roth was previously critical of Musk’s use of polls, saying they were “more prone to manipulation than almost anything else [on Twitter].”

This wouldn’t be the first time Musk’s actions have resulted in harassment. Before Musk took over Twitter, he incited a wave of harassment against Twitter’s former head of policy and legal, Vijaya Gadde.

For the latest on Musk’s Twitter turmoil, check out our coverage here.

Source: Gizmodo