Joins Twitter
Snowden joins Twitter. He only follows a single account, the NSA.
Can you hear me now?
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015
Tests poll feature
The company gives Twitter staffers and certain verified accounts the ability to create two-option polls within its mobile app and desktop site. Polls have a lifespan of 24 hours.
Direct Message class action suit
A proposed class action lawsuit claims that Twitter surreptitiously eavesdrops on its users’ private Direct Message communications. For example, if a user privately tells a follower through the service to check out a story on nytimes.com, providing a full URL, Twitter will modify this into a custom link such as “http:/t.co/CL2SKBxr1s” (while still displaying the text “www.nytimes.com” to its users). The lawsuit says that by sending users to Twitter’s analytics servers before passing them on to the linked-to website, Twitter is benefiting by demonstrating to The New York Times and others where the source of the traffic is.
The end result is that Twitter can negotiate better advertising rates.
The claimed damages are as high as $100 per day for each Twitter user whose privacy was violated
Twitter, Shopify partner
Twitter adds a buy button on its website. Users can browse products from over 10000 merchants on Shopify and purchase directly from Twitter. Twitter:
Users will get access to offers and merchandise they can’t get anywhere else and can act on them right in the Twitter apps for Android and iOS. Sellers will gain a new way to turn the direct relationship they build with their followers into sales
Shares fall
Twitter shares plunge on the New York Stock Exchange, dropping 5.6% to $29.27 which is the lowest level ever. The share price has fallen a total of 45% in four months. Co-founder Dorsey:
We haven’t done a great job at aligning the entire company around our total audience strategy.
Removes lifted jokes
Twitter has begun to honour takedown requests from users complaining their jokes have been lifted wholesale and shared by others, passing them off as their own. One freelance writer:
I simply explained to Twitter that as a freelance writer I make my living writing jokes (and I use some of my tweets to test out jokes in my other writing). I then explained that as such, the jokes are my intellectual property, and that the users in question did not have my permission to repost them without giving me credit.
Twitter policy:
Twitter will respond to reports of alleged copyright infringement, such as allegations concerning the unauthorized use of a copyrighted image as a profile photo, header photo, or background, allegations concerning the unauthorized use of a copyrighted video or image uploaded through our media hosting services, or Tweets containing links to allegedly infringing materials.
Twitter removes epileptic videos
Twitter removes “#DiscoverMusic campaign” Vine videos that use bright flashing effects that cause epileptic seizures in viewers. Epilepsy Action:
For a huge corporation like Twitter to take that risk was irresponsible.
Dorsey replaces Costolo
Costolo steps down from the CEO position, but will remain on the board. Dorsey becomes Interim CEO.
https://twitter.com/dickc/status/609090180725678080
Apologizes
The Nasdaq stock market apologizes for early release of Twitter results. Official statement:
The posting was caused by an operational issue that exposed the release on Twitter’s IR [investor relations] website for approximately 45 seconds.
Stock crashes after early earnings release
The Company’s stock crashes after financial analytics firm Selerity posts a quarterly report before the stock market closes. The report shows revenue growth at 74 percent in the quarter, which is below the company’s own forecasts. Twitter shares plunge on the news, and trading briefly halts so the company can disseminate its results. The drop steepens and the stock ends the day down about 18 percent. Executives attribute the slowdown to a transition to an advertising model that prices certain ads based on the result, such as whether the viewer downloaded an app, instead of whether the person simply clicks on it.
Anti-abuse policy update
Twitter updates its abuse policy to make it tougher for trolls to flood it with threats and harassment.
We are making two policy changes, one related to prohibited content, and one about how we enforce certain policy violations. We are updating our violent threats policy so that the prohibition is not limited to direct, specific threats of violence against others but now extends to threats of violence against others or promot[ing] violence against others.
Bans revenge porn
Twitter bans the posting of naked photographs and videos without the permission of the person in that photograph or video. Updated rule:
You may not post intimate photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject’s consent
Tackles abuse
The site makes it easier to submit abuse reports and triples its number of staff to handle the abuse reports. The Company is also improving its methods to deal with trolls, with one method rumored to be telephone number tracking of users that have earned a reputation for repeated harassment.
Bond agency gives ‘junk’ rating
0 CommentsStandard & Poor’s assigns an unsolicited rating of BB- to Twitter’s corporate debt, after its sale of $1.8 billion convertible notes in September, rating its risk profile at Fair. It said the outlook on the rating is stable:
[Twitter is expected] to experience very strong growth and not encounter a significant increase in competitive pressure. We could raise the rating if Twitter broadens its revenue sources through international expansion and new product launches, maintains its market position, continues to improve its profitability, and achieves positive and sustained discretionary cash flow in excess of $100 million in 2016.
The agency could lower the rating if revenue contracts or other investment-negative events occur.
Terrorists post 90 tweets a minute
The Saudi-based Sakina NGO finds that terrorist groups including ISIS post 90 propaganda tweets a minute. ISIS, Al-Nusra and other groups posted 129,600 tweets in October. Sakina official:
The nature of the extremist can be understood by analysing his posts, identifying his social circle and understanding his internal motives and history
Uses Justpaste.it, hashtags to spread content
ISIS disseminates content such as beheading videos and the ‘programs’ featuring Cantlie via anonymous paste sites. Links to the first video featuring Cantlie were placed on Justpaste.it, which allows anonymous uploads. Users were redirected to gulfup.com, sendspace.com and directmirror.com where they could view the video after entering a long password string, also provided on Justpaste.it. The group also uploads to Youtube but expects its content to be quickly deleted. ISIS-affiliated Twitter users with backup accounts announce simultaneously when content is being uploaded. They have also hijacked hashtags for trending topics including the 2012 Scottish independence referendum to spread their message. Facebook’s Simon Milner says the company’s safety team in Dublin is ‘consumed’ by dealing with content emanating from the Syrian civil war. Twitter’s Sinéad McSweeney says it has a team working 24/7 to examine reports across a range of issues which is comprised of
in excess of 100 people
Beats Twitter, Facebook pre-orders
Online brokerage firm TD Ameritrade says pre-open orders for Alibaba ($BABA) were around three times the volume it received for Twitter on its market debut day, and higher than the volume it received for Facebook.
Beats Twitter trading volume
FactSet data shows Alibaba has beaten Twitter’s first-day trading volume within an hour of its debut. A total of 110 million Twitter shares were traded on its first day on the market, while Alibaba has already reached volume of 170 million.
‘Discussed infiltrating Mexican border’
A counter-terror official says ISIS militants have discussed the possibility of entering the U.S. via the Mexican border over social media, but says the Department of Homeland Security believes the border currently remains safe. Francis Taylor, DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis:
There have been Twitter and social-media exchanges among ISIL adherents across the globe speaking about that as a possibility. [DHS is] satisfied that we have the intelligence and the capability at our border that would prevent that activity.
Twitter employees threatened
A Twitter account believed to represent the Jerusalem-based radical group Al Nusra Al Maqdisia (The Supporters of Jerusalem), which has pledged allegiance to ISIS and claims to have represented the group in the 2014 Gaza conflict, threatens Twitter employees with assassination. Twitter user @dawlamoon uses a hashtag that translates to #The_Concept_of_Lone_Wolf_Attacks to make the threats on the platform’s Arabic service:
The time has arrived to respond to Twitter’s management by directly attacking their employees and physically assassinating them!! Those who will carry this out are the sleepers cells of death.
Twitter has suspended @dawlamoon and says it is investigating the threats.