Social Media & Big Tech news and discussions

[Time_Traveller]

Looks like its going more downhill.

[Powers]

Looks like its going more downhill.

The snowball keeps rolling.
One more

[caltrek]

More on that:

Twitter Will Not Let You Retweet, Like, or Reply to Substack Links
by Amanda Silberling
April 7, 2023

Extract:

(TechCrunch) So much for “free speech absolutism.”
…
The timing of this action doesn’t seem coincidental. Two days ago, Substack launched its Notes feature, which looks a whole lot like Twitter. Unlike other new Twitter alternatives, Substack has a huge advantage: people actually use the platform, and many writers already have massive followings there. Such writers include Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, who Twitter owner Elon Musk partnered with to publish “The Twitter Files.”

Under Musk’s ownership, Twitter has also taken steps to suppress content from Mastodon, an open source social network that gained a sudden influx of users when Musk took control of Twitter. In December, Twitter temporarily suspended Mastodon’s account and banned posting links to Mastodon servers. On its formerly banned Twitter account, Mastodon said, “Not a good sign if you need to build a wall to keep people in.”

“We’re disappointed that Twitter has chosen to restrict writers’ ability to share their work. Writers deserve the freedom to share links to Substack or anywhere else,” Substack’s founders wrote in an emailed statement. “Their livelihoods should not be tied to platforms where they don’t own their relationship with their audience, and where the rules can change on a whim.”

Musk is an active critic of mainstream media, going as far as slapping a misleading “state-affiliated media” label on NPR’s account. These labels are usually reserved for publications that do not have editorial independence from state government, but the government has no hand in NPR’s content; plus, the news organization only received about 1% of its budget from federal funding in 2020.

Read more here: https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/07/twit ... -retweet/

[Time_Traveller]

More on that:

Twitter Will Not Let You Retweet, Like, or Reply to Substack Links
by Amanda Silberling
April 7, 2023

Extract:

(TechCrunch) So much for “free speech absolutism.”
…
The timing of this action doesn’t seem coincidental. Two days ago, Substack launched its Notes feature, which looks a whole lot like Twitter. Unlike other new Twitter alternatives, Substack has a huge advantage: people actually use the platform, and many writers already have massive followings there. Such writers include Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, who Twitter owner Elon Musk partnered with to publish “The Twitter Files.”

Under Musk’s ownership, Twitter has also taken steps to suppress content from Mastodon, an open source social network that gained a sudden influx of users when Musk took control of Twitter. In December, Twitter temporarily suspended Mastodon’s account and banned posting links to Mastodon servers. On its formerly banned Twitter account, Mastodon said, “Not a good sign if you need to build a wall to keep people in.”

“We’re disappointed that Twitter has chosen to restrict writers’ ability to share their work. Writers deserve the freedom to share links to Substack or anywhere else,” Substack’s founders wrote in an emailed statement. “Their livelihoods should not be tied to platforms where they don’t own their relationship with their audience, and where the rules can change on a whim.”

Musk is an active critic of mainstream media, going as far as slapping a misleading “state-affiliated media” label on NPR’s account. These labels are usually reserved for publications that do not have editorial independence from state government, but the government has no hand in NPR’s content; plus, the news organization only received about 1% of its budget from federal funding in 2020.

Read more here: https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/07/twit ... -retweet/

Hmm, i wonder why i left the birdy.

[Time_Traveller]

Twitter Company ‘No Longer Exists,’ Is Now Part of Musk’s X Corp

APRIL 11, 2023 3:18 PM

Twitter has ceased to be an independent company after merging with a newly formed shell firm called X Corp., driving speculation about what Elon Musk intends for the social media platform.

Twitter “no longer exists” after being merged with X Corp., according to an April 4 document submitted in a California court for a lawsuit filed against the company and its former chief executive, Jack Dorsey, last year by conservative activist Laura Loomer.

It’s unclear what the change means for Twitter, which has seen a sweeping overhaul since Musk bought the company for $44 billion last year. The billionaire owner has in the past suggested that buying Twitter would be an “accelerant” for creating X — which he dubbed an “everything app.” Musk tweeted about the move Tuesday with the single character “X.”

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/ ... ter-x-corp

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Parler Abruptly Taken Down By New Owners -- Site Replaced With Brutal Statement on Conservative 'Twit

Parler Abruptly Taken Down By New Owners — Site Replaced With Brutal Statement on Conservative ‘Twitter Clone’

The Parler app and website were taken offline Friday after parent company Parlement Technologies Inc. announced it reached a deal with media company Starboard to buy the faltering social network.

The conservative social media app was marketed and adopted as an alternative to Twitter for conservatives, and became a highly MAGA and Donald Trump-focused niche service.

In December, a deal to sell Parler to rapper controversial Kanye West fell through, leaving the company in a lurch resulting in massive layoffs at Parlement. Parler CEO George Farmer, husband of conservative pundit Candace Owens, is being replaced, but not many other details were available about the deal.

The app was taken offline and replaced by a brutally frank assessment from new owner Starboard, which owns several conservative-leaning publications. Describing Parler as “the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform,” the statement then flatly declares: “No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-AA19S8jV

[weatheriscool]

Montana Just Passed the First State TikTok Ban
https://www.yahoo.com/news/montana-just ... 00394.html

Montana made history on Friday by becoming the first state legislature to approve a wholesale TikTok affecting nearly all devices in the state. The first-of-its-kind ban, which goes far beyond previous state efforts banning the app on government devices, could set the precedent for a wave of TikTok bans in other Republican-led states. Widespread TikTok bans, for better or worse, could become a reality.

The state’s House of Representatives voted in favor of the bill, called SB 419, by a margin of 54-43 on Friday afternoon. Montana’s state senate already approved the bill back in March, meaning the only thing preventing it from becoming law is a signature from governor and known journalist body-slammer Greg Gianforte. Once signed, the ban will take effect in January 2024. However, the bill would become void if Congress enacts its own national TikTok ban. The bill also wouldn’t apply if TikTok divests its US business from Chinese ownership.

How would the ban work?

SB 419 prohibits TikTok from operating “within the territorial jurisdiction of Montana,” over fears the app could be manipulated by the Chinese government for espionage purposes. If TikTok or app stores violate the law, Montana’s Department of Justice could slap them with penalties of up to $10,000 per day for the length of the violation. Those fines would apply to entities facilitating TikTok’s download rather than the app’s users.

“TikTok endangers the safety of Montanans and Americans at large,” Montana state Sen. Shelley Vance, one of the bill’s primary authors said according to KTVH. “We know that beyond a doubt that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is operating as a surveillance arm of the Chinese Communist Party and gathers information about Americans against their will.”

[weatheriscool]

Canada's public broadcaster quits Twitter, joining US outlets
Source: The Hill

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) announced that it will quit posting content on Elon Musk-owned Twitter, joining other U.S.-based media outlets.

“Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on @Twitter,” CBC wrote in a tweet on Monday.

Twitter hit CBC, along with other media outlets receiving some public funding, with a “government-funded” label on its account, which amassed more than 32,000 followers.

According to Twitter policy, government-funded media is defined as outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet’s funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... r-AA19YTge

[Time_Traveller]

Interest in joining Twitter has plunged after surging when Elon Musk took over last year, Google data shows

Apr 17, 2023, 4:33 PM GMT+1

Interest in joining Twitter has plunged in the six months since Elon Musk's takeover, according to Google Trends data compiled by the web-hosting company Fasthosts.

Google Trends' index for searches of "Twitter sign up" has plummeted 81% from a November peak, just weeks after the world's second-richest person took control of the social-media company.

Fasthosts' report adds that searches for how to delete accounts have now returned to pre-Musk levels, but those relating to joining Twitter appear to be less common than before the acquisition.

That could be because so many people have now joined Twitter — as Musk has said usage is at an all-time high, and tweeted an internal report saying it had crossed 250 million daily users for the first time.

Although Fasthosts suggests it would be "idealistic" to say this is the only reason for the declining interest. "Searches being as low as they are will not be the scenario those in charge were hoping for, a sign of potentially sluggish future growth," it said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter ... &r=US&IR=T

[weatheriscool]

Microsoft kicks Twitter in the teeth
Connie Loizos@cookie / 3:39 PM PDT•April 19, 2023

Microsoft is dropping Twitter from its advertising platform next week, nearly two months after Twitter announced that it will begin charging a minimum of $42,000 per month to users of its API, which include enterprises and research institutions.

Users began receiving emails about its new pricing details in early March, per a Wired report that observed at the time that the new pricing scheming “prices out nearly everyone.”

With its $2.15 trillion market cap and roughly $100 billion cash on hand at the end of last year, Microsoft obviously has the money to pay Twitter what it wants, so the move appears to be a bit of a statement, even as Microsoft is declining to elaborate further about its decision.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/19/micro ... the-teeth/

[weatheriscool]

Free-speech absolutist Musk bans Twitter-account for telling people to oppose new Twitter-feature.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4 ... on-Twitter

A blue check-mark on Twitter used to mean that Twitter has verified your identity and you are indeed who you claim to be on Twitter.

Then Musk had the glorious idea to sell blue check-marks without verification, meaning the real people/corporations and impostors now both have the same check-mark.

Then, on 4/20/2023, because Musk is a reasonable, mature adult, Musk decided to do away with verifications. From now on, only paying customers have blue check-marks.

OK. FINE. WHATEVER.

Then some users decided that a good way to punish Twitter for this new policy they don't like, would be to simply block everyone and anyone with a blue check-mark. Because only toxic Musk-fans, Neonazis and crypto-scammers pay for a blue check-mark.

Twitter was NOT happy with users exercising their right to use Twitter's options as they see fit. First, Twitter blocked the account "@BlockTheBlue" for rule-violations, although they couldn't tell which rules exactly he broke.

Then Twitter forced blue check-marks on the accounts of people pushing this BlockTheBlue-trend, in the hopes of getting them blocked by their own followers.

[Powers]

So we passed from:


To:

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Agreed, wouldn't we all be better by deleting all of our social media accounts. My friend has never even used social media as he thinks that time should be spend doing other things and he is part of the Millennial generation like me.

[caltrek]

Agreed, wouldn't we all be better by deleting all of our social media accounts. My friend has never even used social media as he thinks that time should be spend doing other things and he is part of the Millennial generation like me.

I am not sure about "deleting all of our social media accounts." I do agree with spending less time on social media and developing social skills in the "real world." This was particularly brought home to me when I briefly lived in Virginia. I remember driving by a street corner near a train station. I guess people were waiting for some sort of ride, having just finished their train trip. There were about twelve young adults in this group. The attention of every one of them was in looking at their cell phones. Not one was talking to the person standing next to them.

In the apartment complex in which I lived in Virginia, it was very exceptional to come upon a young person who was actually willing to talk to my wife or myself. I don't think it was out of any felt hostility to us. Rather, it seemed to be from a place of being shy. Of simply not knowing how to go about making conversation. Part of that may have been the conservative nature of the area. Dominated by politically conservative people, there was a sprinkling of liberals. So there was a danger triggering great resentment or anger in speaking with an older adult. In such circumstances, staying silent was not such a bad strategy. Still, there are ways of carrying on conversations that are relatively neutral.

My wife has some very conservative friends. I can converse with them for hours at a time without our discussion degenerating into a hostile argument. Sometimes, it is a matter of talking in a neutral manner, and sometimes it is just a matter of agreeing to disagree and moving on to another topic. It is a learned skill.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

New York's subway will no longer post alerts on Twitter after Elon Musk demanded $50,000 per month

New York City’s mass-transit system is ending its real-time service alerts on Twitter for subway, train and bus riders as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority curbs its relationship with the platform owned by Elon Musk.


Twitter had asked the MTA to pay $50,000 a month to continue accessing the platform’s application programming interface, or API, an infrastructure tool that allows for multiple computer programs to work together, according to an MTA official. Twitter didn’t specifically respond to an emailed request for comment.

“I don’t think it would be the best use of resources, especially when we have these other features and functions that are internal and homegrown and that are reliable that we want our customers to use,” Shanifah Rieara, MTA’s acting chief customer officer and senior advisor, said in a telephone interview. “We want to communicate with our customers through all platforms, but we need a platform that is reliant and consistent and up to date.”

https://fortune.com/2023/04/27/new-york ... elon-musk/

[Time_Traveller]

Twitter to allow publishers to charge users on a per article basis starting May

April 29, 20236:28 PM GMT+1

April 29 (Reuters) - Twitter Inc CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that the social media platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click, calling it a win for both the public and media organizations.

The feature, to be rolled out in May, will enable users who do not "sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article," billionaire owner Musk tweeted.

On Friday, Musk had said that Twitter will take a 10% cut on content subscriptions after the first year, noting that the company will not take a cut for the first 12 months. These subscriptions include long-form text and hours-long video.

Since taking over the social media firm in October, Musk has swiftly moved through a number of product and organizational changes. The company rolled out Twitter-verified blue tick as a paid service and shrunk the employee base by about 80%.

Musk has been bringing in changes to boost revenue at Twitter after the social media platform saw advertising income drop last year in the run-up to his on-again-off-again acquisition that closed.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media- ... 023-04-29/

Do birdy members still want to stay there?