Tag: Twitter

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Mobile Syrup

Musk is ‘holding off’ relaunching Twitter Blue until he is confident about stopping impersonation

After the blunder of a lunch that was Twitter Blue with Verification, and its prompt end, Elon Musk decided to relaunch the subscription service on November 29th. 

Now, according to a recent Tweet, it appears as though it’ll be a little longer before Twitter users would be able to get their hands on the subscription service.

“Holding off relaunch of Bue Verified until there is high confidence of stopping impersonation,” he wrote. “Will probably use different color check for organizations than individuals.”

Additionally, we already know that once relaunched, only accounts older than 90 days would be able to purchase the subscription. “Newly created Twitter accounts will not be able to subscribe to Twitter Blue for 90 days,” reads the ‘About Twitter Blue’ page. 

Other than that, it is currently unknown what other measures Musk and team are taking to combat imposters.

The initial rollout of Twitter Blue with Verification was haphazard, and laden with a myriad of fake imposter accounts, so much so that a fake, yet verified Eli Lilly Twitter account’s Tweet that read “We are excited to announce insulin is free now,” causing the company’s market cap to shrink by billions.

Subsequently, this caused a horde of key advertisers to mark the platform as “high risk,” and leave the platform, including IPG, Omnicom and even GroupM. Even Cosette, a media and marketing agency based in Quebec City that manages ads for the federal government, has asked government agencies to pause activity on Twitter.

Elsewhere, even after multiple rounds of layoffs at Twitter, Musk intends to cut down the platform’s sales and partnerships teams.

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

Source: @elonmusk

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter alternatives take flight amid turmoil

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the company has had a rough go, to say the least. Significant portions of the staff were fired or left the company, advertisers bailed, and Twitter rolled out and then suspended a revamped subscription service after it was abused to impersonate high-profile accounts and brands (as predicted).

With the significant loss of staff, some think it’s only a matter of time until Twitter breaks. While I’m not convinced the platform will totally die, I’ve been looking into (and signing up for) some of the various alternate platforms I’ve seen mentioned. None of this is a recommendation for what people should switch to — instead, it’s a resource of possible alternatives for people who may want to try something new.

I’ll run through them below:

Mastodon

I’ve actually written about this one before (you can read about it here). In short, Mastodon is probably the most Twitter-like of alternate platforms. What sets it apart is that its open source and decentralized. That means there is no single governing entity controlling everything. Instead, Mastodon is made up of various servers, which can be thought of as digital communities (they’re often based on locality or shared interests). Each server effectively governs itself with its own moderation and rules. However, the decentralized nature and servers can prove confusing for newcomers.

Check out our Mastodon explainer here. You can also learn more about Mastodon here.

Hive Social

I hadn’t heard of Hive until earlier today, but it seems to be picking up steam quickly (on November 20th, Hive shared on Twitter that it had almost hit 800k “Besties,” marking a growth of 200,000 new users over a few days).

While I haven’t spent much time with Hive yet, it feels like a more fun, social Twitter. Highlight features include profile music, text and image posts, polls, and Q&As. Heck, you can even theme it with colours of your choice. Hive will definitely be one to keep an eye on and you can sign up for free via the iPhone or Android app.

Learn more about Hive here.

Post.news

Post.news, on the other hand, appears to a different approach from Hive. Rather than a fun, colourful, social Twitter-like experience, Post seems to lean harder into the news and discussion aspects of Twitter. The bad news about Post is that it’s not broadly available yet. At the moment, there’s a lengthy waitlist (according to an email I received from Post earlier this morning, there are about 125,000 people on the list). Post encourages people to climb up the waitlist by inviting others to join with a referral code, and I’ve seen some reports that it’s fast-tracking people who have large Twitter followings.

Post comes from former Waze CEO Noam Bardin, who makes it clear that he doesn’t want Post to replace Twitter as the defacto online battleground:

“Post will be a civil place to debate ideas; learn from experts, journalists, individual creators, and each other; converse freely; and have some fun. Many of today’s ad-based platforms rely on capturing attention at any cost — sowing chaos in our society, amplifying the extremes, and muting the moderates.”

While I’m definitely intrigued by Post, the lengthy waitlist has me thinking the service might be eclipsed by another alternative before it has a chance to take off.

You can learn more about Post here.

Cohost

Last up is Cohost, which is made by the ‘anti software software club’ (ASSC). It describes itself as a not-for-profit software company that “hates the software industry.” At the moment, Cohost looks a lot like an old internet forum, which might be a hit for some. Moreover, Cohost is big on not using ads or algorithms, although it can make it a little tough for people to find things.

Like some of the other alternatives, Cohost has a waiting period before people can start posting. According to Cohost, the waiting period lasts “a day or two” and users can still follow, like, and share other posts — they just can’t post.

You can check out Cohost here.

Other options

Of course, there are other existing social networks that people might consider switching to if Twitter doesn’t work out. Facebook, Instagram, Discord, and Tumblr, for example, all offer some similar features to Twitter and already have well-established audiences. Ultimately, it comes down to what you want out of your social media, and finding a platform that meets those needs.

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Mobile Syrup

Here’s how to download your Twitter data, just in case

Twitter’s future looks increasingly uncertain as employees resign and new owner Elon Musk continues to drop the ball. Some predict Twitter will break in the coming days or weeks. Whether or not Twitter dies (my money is on the service limping along as an empty husk of what it once was), you may want to pull your data out, so you have a backup if the service does collapse.

Thankfully, Twitter offers a built-in tool for doing this. To access it, open Twitter and click ‘More’ > ‘Settings and Support’ > ‘Your account’ > ‘Download an archive of your data.’ You’ll need to enter your password, and then a verification code will be sent to either your email or phone number (I’d recommend email since when I went through the process, I got an error when trying to use SMS). You can also do this from Twitter’s mobile apps.

Once you’ve verified yourself, click the blue ‘Request archive’ button. Twitter will then start preparing the archive, which will be available to download as a zip file. The Twitter site notes that it can take 24 hours or longer for the data to be ready.

Data in the archive will include account information, history, apps and devices, account activity, interests, and ad data.

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Mobile Syrup

New Twitter accounts must wait 90 days before subscribing to Blue

While Twitter’s future certainly seems uncertain, Musk still has plans to relaunch the platform’s Blue subscription with paid verification on November 29th. Now, new details on the ‘About Twitter Blue‘ page (spotted by The Verge) say that new accounts will need to wait 90 days before they can sign up for the service:

“Availability: Twitter Blue is currently available on iOS only in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, with plans to expand. Not all features available on all platforms. Newly created Twitter accounts will not be able to subscribe to Twitter Blue for 90 days. We may also impose waiting periods for new accounts in the future in our discretion without notice.” (emphasis ours)

The new delay comes after Blue opened the floodgates for impersonation on the platform by handing anyone who paid for the subscription a blue checkmark that looks identical to the old verification badge used to mark high-profile accounts as authentic. Nearly everyone could tell adding paid verification was a bad idea, and Twitter even warned Musk, but that didn’t stop him from implementing the change. Twitter suspended the Blue launch within days after rampant impersonation.

During the brief initial run of Blue, Twitter did block accounts made on or after November 9th from signing up for the service, but that didn’t do much to stop existing accounts from buying checkmarks to trick users. The new 90-day delay could help prevent people from making new accounts and buying checkmarks to scam users, but as The Verge notes, there’s nothing stopping scammers from stockpiling free accounts for a few months and then buying checkmarks for them later.

Twitter also has plans for other mitigation efforts, but I don’t see any of them being effective. For example, Musk previously said that Twitter users who change their verified username will temporarily lose their checkmark until Twitter confirms the new name doesn’t violate the terms of service. However, with Twitter’s staff cuts, contract worker purge and mass resignations, it’s not clear who will check changed usernames. Moreover, it still isn’t clear if Twitter will check usernames when people sign up for Blue.

Ultimately, Musk seems committed to the idea of paid blue checkmarks regardless of the potential harm to both Twitter and its user base. As I’ve said before, the issue is less about paying for a blue checkmark and more about what the checkmark means. If there was still a system in place to verify high-profile accounts and designate them as authentic, and if it was separate from the badge users get for paying, it’d be a different story. It’s worth noting Twitter tried to do that with a new grey ‘Official’ badge, but the implementation was clunky, and Musk killed the project before it suddenly returned amid the flood of impersonations.

You can view the ongoing Twitter coverage here.

Source: Twitter Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter employees quit in droves following Elon Musk’s demand for ‘hardcore’ policy

Twitter’s days could be numbered.

Following an ultimatum from new Twitter CEO Elon Musk demanding remaining staff adopt a “hardcore” policy of “long hours at high intensity” or leave the company with three months of severance, hundreds of employees have reportedly opted to depart their roles at the social media giant.

In an email sent to Twitter employees on Wednesday, Musk said that “going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore.” The awful Elden Ring player asked employees to click “yes” by 5pm ET/2pm PT if they wanted to continue working for the beleaguered social media giant. Those who didn’t respond would be considered to have quit and no longer working for “Twitter 2.0.”

The New York Times reports that hundreds of employees opted to leave Twitter rather than continue to work under Musk’s new regime. According to The Verge, employees posted farewell messages and salute emojis in Twitter’s internal Slack, stating that they did not respond to Musk’s request.

However, Musk appears to have walked back some of his earlier comments regarding a blanket ban on working from home, according to an internal memo, though he emphasized managers will still be fired if remote team members underperform.

Further, Twitter closed all of its office buildings and suspended badge access, with the social media giant’s offices set to reopen on November 21st. Platformer‘s Zoe Schiffer says that Musk and his leadership remain unsure of what employees clicked “yes” on the Google form in his email.

Musk laid off roughly half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees earlier this month. It’s believed that following these latest departures from the social media platform could make it unable to continue to run adequately — but don’t worry because, according to Musk, “the best people are staying,” and he’s “not super worried.”

Earlier this week, Musk fired several employees who criticized him in tweets and internal messages.

All of MobileSyrup‘s Elon Musk x Twitter coverage can be found here.

Source: The Verge, Engadget, The New York Times, @ZoeSchiffer

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Mobile Syrup

Musk plans to relaunch paid verification on November 29th

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk still plans to forge ahead with paid verification on the platform, apparently learning little from the recent fiasco.

In a recent tweet, Musk announced that Twitter Blue would launch again on November 29th “to make sure that it is rock solid.”

As a quick refresher, Twitter launched then quickly un-launched a revamped version of its Blue subscription service on November 9th. Customers who signed on for the $9.99 subscription got a blue checkmark next to their name. However, that checkmark was previously used as Twitter’s verification badge to denote authentic accounts, primarily a tool intended to prevent people from impersonating high-profile accounts like those of government officials, companies, celebrities, or journalists.

Basically, everyone with a modicum of foresight knew paid verification was a bad idea, including Twitter’s own trust and safety team, which detailed potential problems and solutions in a seven-page document served up to Musk and his cohort ahead of the November 9th launch. Naturally, Musk ignored most of the suggestions and, as predicted, paid verification resulted in a flood of impersonations on the platform. Accounts sporting the new paid badge impersonated brands, government officials, and more, leading some to lose significant amounts of money. One account even parodied Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Admittedly, it was fun to watch the chaos unfold.

Musk also tweeted his apparent plan for dealing with impersonations, which is just temporarily removing the blue checkmark from accounts when they change their name. Accounts will get the checkmark back once Twitter confirms the new name meets the company’s terms of service. It remains unclear who will be vetting all these name changes, given Musk laid off a significant chunk of Twitter’s staff, fired most of the company’s contract workers, and issued an ultimatum to those who remain to put in long hours or quit. It’s also unclear if Twitter will vet account names when they sign up for Blue.

Musk reiterated plans to remove unpaid legacy checkmarks “in a few months” as well and tweeted about ‘X’ again, calling it the “everything app.”

Aside from the Blue relaunch, Musk tweeted some other details about ongoing Twitter projects. Leaker Jane Manchun Wong tweeted evidence of Twitter working on end-to-end encrypted DMs, to which Musk replied simply, “😉.” Wong also tweeted that the source detail, which shows the app a person tweeted from, was gone in the app prototype she looked at. It’ll be sad to see tweet sources go, considering how much fun tech folks had spotting Android ads tweeted from iPhones.

You can follow along with the latest Twitter turmoil here.

Source: Elon Musk Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter document warned Musk of Blue problems ahead of launch

Twitter’s revamped Blue subscription sporting paid verification badges predictably backfired last week, leading Twitter to suspend the program within days of the launch. While plenty of people pointed out the problems with paid verification before the feature launched, new reporting shows Twitter knew how it’d play out as well. However, the company’s new overlord Elon Musk wouldn’t listen.

As reported in the Platformer newsletter written by Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer (it’s also available in full on The Verge), Twitter’s trust and safety team prepared a seven-page document detailing several potential problems with the new Twitter Blue and recommendations to help avoid some of the worst consequences. Platformer obtained the document, which was prepared days ahead of the November 9th launch of the new Twitter Blue. It predicts with “eerie accuracy” the events that followed Blue’s launch.

“Motivated scammers/bad actors could be willing to pay … to leverage increased amplification to achieve their ends where their upside exceeds the cost,” the document says in its first recommendation. The document highlights other problems, including impersonation of high-profile accounts, including “world leaders, advertisers, brand partners, election officials,” and more, and warned that removing the legacy verification badge from accounts could drive users away from Twitter for good.

Additionally, the document highlights problems with removing legacy verification, noting that there’s no automated way to do so.

“Given that we will have a large amount of legacy verified users on the platform (400K Twitter customers), and that we anticipate we’ll need to debadge a large number of legacy verified accounts if they decide not to pay for Blue, this will require high operational lift without investment,” the document says. It’s worth noting the document came before Twitter laid off about 80 percent of its contract workers.

Platformer notes that the trust and safety team did gain support for some recommendations. Notably, the team recommended using the ‘official’ badge to retain verification for high-profile accounts, a solution that Musk killed off after launch but later returned following the flood of impersonations that came with the Blue launch.

Beyond that, Platformer describes the document as a “wish list” of features that would have made Twitter safer and easier to use. Most changes were not approved.

Sources confirmed to Platformer that Musk was briefed on the document, as well as his attorney, Alex Spiro, and director of product management Esther Crawford. Platformer notes Crawford has become one of Musk’s top lieutenants in recent weeks. Moreover, she was sympathetic to concerns raised in the document but declined to implement suggestions that would delay Blue’s launch.

The Platformer newsletter also digs into internal details connected to the contractor layoffs, a major code freeze, and ongoing fallout from advertisers pulling out of Twitter — it’s well worth reading if you’re curious to learn more about Twitter.

For more details on the Twitter turmoil, read all of MobileSyrup’s coverage here.

Source: Platformer

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Mobile Syrup

Advertisers are marking Twitter as a ‘high risk’ platform to spend money on

Several advertisers, including industry giants like IPG and Omnicom have already recommended their clients to pause advertising activity on Twitter, and now, the world’s biggest ad company, and Twitter’s biggest spender, GroupM, part of WPP, is following suit.

As first reported by Digiday, the advertiser, which manages ads for clients like Google, L’Oréal, Bayer, Nestle, Unilever, Coke, and Mars, is telling clients that buying ads on Twitter is “high risk,” following several controversies at the platform.

“Based on the news yesterday [Nov. 10th] of additional senior management resignations from key posts, high profile examples of blue check abuse on corporate accounts, and the potential inability for Twitter to comply with their federal consent decree, GroupM’s Twitter Risk Assessment is increased to a High-Risk rating for all tactics,” wrote the company in a document shared with clients, seen by Digiday.

GroupM also says that it hasn’t completely ticked Twitter off its list. The social media platform can get back into GroupM’s good books if it can:

  • Return to baseline NSFW levels
  • Re-populate IT security, privacy, trust & safety senior staff
  • Establish internal checks & balances
  • Offers full transparency on future development plans of community guidelines/content moderation/ anything affecting user security or brand safety
  • Demonstrates commitment to effective content moderation, and enforces current Twitter Rules, e.g., account impersonation, violative content removal timing, intolerance of hate speech & misinformation, etc.

It’s obvious that advertisers don’t want big brand clients to appear on Twitter. Large-scale layoffs at the company have increased concerns about the platform’s ability to moderate content and achieve brand safety. Hate speech on the platform, including racist and derogatory slurs, soared in the initial days of the Musk acquisition, while a myriad of fake imposter accounts on the platform has caused Twitter to indefinitely suspended the Twitter Blue subscription.

Elsewhere, Cosette, 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.”

Source: Digiday Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Dbrand is selling Blue verified checkmark stickers for $8

Following in Tumblr’s footsteps, Toronto-based Dbrand is also giving into Twitter’s Blue checkmark relevancy hype.

The smartphone skin and accessory brand has just released a Blue verified checkmark sticker pack for the same price as Twitter Blue — $8 USD (roughly $10.6 CAD).


The $8 USD sticker pack contains eight stickers. Five in small size, two medium, and a large sized sticker. “One lawsuit and $44 billion dollars later, the world’s biggest crypto scammer has the solution nobody asked for: an $8 monthly fee to rent a digital checkmark,” wrote Dbrand in the sticker description, referring to Elon Musk as the world’s biggest crypto scammer. “We just have one question: why stop at Twitter accounts? Instead of footing the bill for the worst bluff of all time, pay us once to verify whatever the fuck you want. Checkmate, Elon.”

Twitter rolled out its ‘Twitter Blue with Verification’ in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. on November 9th, only for it to be suspended the next day indefinitely due to a myriad of fake imposter accounts on the platform. The new subscription was only available on iOS and iPadOS, and allowed the buyer almost instant access to a Blue verification badge, alongside perks like priority in replies, mentions and search, the ability to post longer videos and see fewer ads.

Check out Dbrand’s Blue verification stickers here.

Image credit: Dbrand

Source: Dbrand

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Mobile Syrup

Musk’s SpaceX buys ads from Musk’s Twitter amid bankruptcy fears

Amid Twitter’s ongoing struggles to drum up profit as advertisers bail, SpaceX has ordered one of the social media platform’s larger advertising packages.

While a company buying advertising from another company wouldn’t typically be a big deal, it’s worth noting that Elon Musk is CEO for both SpaceX and Twitter. Moreover, Twitter has faced increasing pressure to make money after Musk’s acquisition saddled the company with significant debt. Musk previously said Twitter saw a “massive drop in revenue” and that the company faced bankruptcy, and under Musk, Twitter laid off a significant portion of its workforce to save money.

CNBC reported on the SpaceX ad buy, citing internal records viewed by the publication as well as information shared by a Twitter employee who asked not to be identified. SpaceX reportedly purchased what’s called a Twitter ‘takeover’ to promote Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service. The campaign will target Australia and Spain and was reportedly purchased last week.

According to CNBC, when a company buys a takeover, it typically costs $250,000 USD (about $332,036 CAD) per day and will put the brand at the top of the main Twitter timeline for a full day. Users reportedly will see Starlink brand messaging for the first three times they open Twitter on the day (or days) of the takeover campaign. SpaceX’s campaign is slated to run in the coming days.

Moreover, CNBC notes that SpaceX doesn’t typically purchase large advertising campaigns from Twitter.

This all makes for a relatively suspicious transaction, given Musk’s very public discussions of Twitter’s financial problems and dropping ad revenue. It also comes after Musk headed the failed rollout of a revamped Twitter Blue subscription service. Musk pushed Twitter to launch a new, more expensive version of Blue that provided paying subscribers with a blue verified checkmark, which was previously reserved for authenticating high-profile accounts. Within hours of the subscription going live, a variety of fake accounts with paid verification badges flooded Twitter with posts, some of which had significant impacts on companies — namely, a fake tweet about insulin that caused Eli Lilly to lose billions after the company’s stock took a dive.

The chaos prompted Twitter to pause the new Blue subscription within days of it going live, and Musk seems to be reconsidering the idea, saying in a tweet that Twitter would allow organizations to identify which other accounts are actually associated with them.

For the latest on the turmoil at Twitter, check out all of MobileSyrup’s coverage here.

Source: CNBC