Social Media & Big Tech news and discussions

weatheriscool
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Twitter becomes first major social platform to allow weed ads
Source: Politico
Elon Musk is backing up all his 420 tweets.

The owner of Twitter, who sparked a media firestorm after he puffed on a spliff during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, is making good on speculation that his acquisition of the platform might make it more cannabis-friendly. The company changed its policy to allow U.S. cannabis companies to advertise on its platform Tuesday — although with numerous restrictions.

“It is a groundbreaking thing for many cannabis advertisers to be able to reach their markets and their audiences without doing any type of workarounds,” said Amy Deneson, co-founder of the Cannabis Media Council, a trade association focused on cannabis education.

To advertise on Twitter, cannabis companies must be pre-authorized by Twitter and meet many requirements. Perhaps the most significant restriction is that cannabis companies can’t promote or offer for sale cannabis products.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/1 ... k-00083026
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wjfox
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YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki steps down after nine years

2 hours ago

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down after nine years in the role.

In a blog post, she said she had "decided to start a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects I'm passionate about."

YouTube's chief product officer, Neal Mohan, will take over as head of the Google-owned video platform.

"The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube," Ms Wojcicki said.

Ms Wojcicki added she would continue to work at YouTube in the "short term" to "support Neal and help with the transition."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64675997
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wjfox
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wjfox wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2023 8:24 am
Hmm, you wonder why i left ages ago, just before the takeover.
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
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Time_Traveller wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2023 8:40 am
wjfox wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2023 8:24 am
Hmm, you wonder why i left ages ago, just before the takeover.
It was already going down that route and Musk has done absolutely nothing to stop it, maybe even accelerating it.
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Instagram to launch new $11.99/month ‘Meta Verified’ subscription with verification badge
19/02/2023

As rumored at the beginning of the month, Facebook-owned Instagram may soon take a leaf out of Twitter’s book by allowing users to buy a blue verification badge, with a line of code discovered referencing a “paid blue badge” and a new subscription.

According to social media consultant and industry analyst Matt Navarra, the new verified subscription service will be called ‘Meta Verified,’ offering subscribers customer support, prioritization in comments, exclusive stickers to be used in Stories, plus the platform’s verification badge.

Last year, as part of Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s rampant efforts to monetise the platform following his turbulent $44 billion buyout, Twitter allowed any user to purchase the once-sought after blue verification badge as part of the service’s pay-monthly Twitter Blue subscription, leading to a spate of significant impersonations and confusion on the platform as any user could purchase the once-meaningful blue badge and claim their account represented whoever they wished, with no clear way to differentiate genuine accounts from impersonators.

Despite the flaws with Twitter’s new pay-to-play verification system, Facebook-owned Instagram appears to be developing a similar feature that would allow users to add a blue verification badge to their profile by subscribing to a new pay-monthly subscription service.

According to Navarra, the new ‘Meta Verified’ subscription will only be available to individuals and not business accounts.
https://www.theapplepost.com/2023/02/19 ... uecmuXdrpE

What birdy does, Meta soon follows.
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
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China hits out at US over TikTok ban on federal devices

34 minutes ago

China has accused the US of overreacting after federal employees were ordered to remove the video app TikTok from government-issued phones.

On Monday, the White House gave government agencies 30 days to ensure that employees did not have the Chinese-owned app on federal devices.

The order follows similar moves by the EU and Canada in recent weeks.

A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry accused the US of abusing state power to suppress foreign firms.

"We firmly oppose those wrong actions," spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters during a news briefing on Tuesday. "The US government should respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop suppressing the companies and provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies in the US."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64795548
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This is what freedumb looks like.

-----

Twitter can’t protect you from trolls any more, insiders say

12 hours ago

Twitter insiders have told the BBC that the company is no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-co-ordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation, following lay-offs and changes under owner Elon Musk.

Exclusive academic data plus testimony from Twitter users backs up their allegations, suggesting hate is thriving under Mr Musk's leadership, with trolls emboldened, harassment intensifying and a spike in accounts following misogynistic and abusive profiles.

Current and former employees of the company tell BBC Panorama that features intended to protect Twitter users from trolling and harassment are proving difficult to maintain, amid what they describe as a chaotic working environment in which Mr Musk is shadowed by bodyguards at all times. I've spoken to dozens, with several going on the record for the first time.

The former head of content design says everyone on her team - which created safety measures such as nudge buttons - has been sacked. She later resigned. Internal research by Twitter suggests those safety measures reduced trolling by 60%. An engineer working for Twitter told me "nobody's taking care" of this type of work now, likening the platform to a building that seems fine from the outside, but inside is "on fire".

Twitter has not replied to the BBC's request for comment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64804007
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Twitter hit with one of the biggest outages since Elon Musk took over

Source: CNN Business

New York CNN — Twitter’s website was inaccessible for many users on Monday while others reported issues seeing photos and clicking through links in the app, marking one of the most wide-ranging service disruptions to date under new owner Elon Musk. Some users who attempted to load Twitter.com or TweetDeck, a service that allows users to organize their Twitter feed into lists, were met with an error message: “your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint.”

Other users were able to access the site (although it appeared to load slowly), but they were met with the same error message when clicking on links. Outage tracker site DownDetector showed more than 8,000 Twitter outage reports around noon on Monday. For users who were able to access the platform, “Twitter API” was trending as people tweeted about the issues.

“Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now,” the company said in a tweet. “We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed.” In a separate tweet on Monday, Musk said: “This platform is so brittle (sigh). Will be fixed shortly.” Within about an hour, the issues appeared to have largely resolved. “Things should now be working as normal,” the company tweeted around 1 pm ET.

Monday’s outage marked the second Twitter glitch in less than a week and the third in under a month. Last Wednesday, some Twitter users who opened up their “for you” timeline were greeted with a blank screen and a message saying, “welcome to your timeline,” encouraging them to follow other users to get tweets to show up even if they already followed various accounts. Other users were met with a “Welcome to Twitter!” message as if they had just joined the platform. Three weeks ago, Twitter users encountered various issues with the platform, including the inability to tweet, send direct messages or follow new accounts.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/tech/twi ... index.html
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TikTok to be banned on UK government phones

4 minutes ago

Chinese-owned social media app TikTok is set to be banned on phones and other devices used by government ministers and civil servants on security grounds.

Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden will make a statement to MPs later.

There has been no official comment - but Security Minister Tom Tugendhat had asked the National Cyber Security Centre to review the issue.

TikTok has strongly denied allegations that it hands users' data to the Chinese government.

The government has come under pressure from senior MPs to follow the United States and the European Commission in banning the app.

The US banned TikTok from official devices in December, and the Commission followed suit last month.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64975672
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