Twitter reveals security flaw that may have exposed Android users’ direct messages

Twitter revealed a vulnerability that may have exposed some Android users’ messages to attackers.

According to CNBC, the vulnerability could have exposed the private data of Twitter users running devices with Android OS versions 8 and 9.

Read More ... Twitter reveals security flaw that may have exposed Android users’ direct messages

Maker of Ben Jerry’s, Dove pulls off from Facebook, Twitter ads in US

Maker of Ben Jerry’s, Dove pulls off from Facebook, Twitter ads in US

San Francisco: The company behind Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Dove soap, and a host of other consumer products said Friday it will stop advertising on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in the US through at least the end of the year because of the amount of hate speech online.

Unilever said that the polarized atmosphere in the United States ahead of November’s presidential election placed responsibility on brands to act.

The company, which is based in the Netherlands and Britain, joins a raft of other companies halting advertising on online platforms. Facebook in particular has been the target of an escalating movement to siphon away advertising dollars in a bid to pressure the social media-giant to do more to prevent racist and violent content from being shared on its platform.

“We have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S.,” Unilever said. “Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society.” Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Verizon joined others in the Facebook boycott.

Sarah Personette, vice president of global client solutions at Twitter, said the company’s “mission is to serve the public conversation and ensure Twitter is a place where people can make human connections, seek and receive authentic and credible information, and express themselves freely and safely.”

Twitter deletes 170,000 accounts linked to China information operation accounts

Twitter deletes 170,000 accounts linked to China information operation accounts

Twitter has removed more than 170,000 accounts tied to the Chinese government, relating to influence campaigns from China focusing on Hong Kong protests, Covid-19 and the US protests

Twitter said the accounts were “spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China” and were removed for violating its platform manipulation policies.

Although, Twitter is blocked from access in China, the campaign was targeted at Chinese-speaking audiences outside the country in order to influence  the perceptions on issues such as the Hong Kong protests, Covid-19 and US protest

Sources claim, as per the analysis of 348,608 tweets between January 2018 and April 2020 by the researchers, most tweets were posted during business hours in Beijing between Monday and Friday, and dropped off on the weekends.

Most of the tweets contained images with Chinese  language text and the primary targets of the campaign were people living in Hong Kong, followed by broader Chinese diaspora.

Twitter removes China-linked accounts spreading false news

Twitter removes China-linked accounts spreading false news

London: Twitter has removed a vast network of accounts that it says is linked to the Chinese government and were pushing false information favourable to the country’s communist rulers. Beijing denied involvement on Friday and said the company should instead take down accounts smearing China.

The US social media company suspended 23,750 accounts that were posting pro-Beijing narratives, and another 150,000 accounts dedicated to retweeting and amplifying those messages.

The network was engaged “in a range of coordinated and manipulated activities” in predominantly Chinese languages, including praise for China’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and “deceptive narratives” about Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, the company said.

The accounts also tweeted about two other topics: Taiwan and Guo Wengui, an exiled billionaire waging a campaign from New York against China’s president and party leader Xi Jinping and his administration. Most had little to no followers and failed to get much attention. The accounts were suspended under Twitter’s manipulation policies, which ban artificial amplification and suppression of information.

Twitter and other social media services like Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China.

“While the Chinese Communist Party won’t allow the Chinese people to use Twitter, our analysis shows it is happy to use it to sow propaganda and disinformation internationally,” said Fergus Hanson, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre, which worked with the company on the takedown.

China denied involvement. “It holds no water at all to equate China’s response to the epidemic with disinformation,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing on Friday.

“If Twitter wants to make a difference, it should shut down those accounts that have been organized and coordinated to attack and discredit China,” she added.

Twitter also removed more than 1,000 accounts linked to a Russian media website engaging in state-backed political propaganda in Russian, and a network of 7,340 fake or compromised accounts used for “cheerleading” the ruling party in Turkey.

Twitter cites security reasons for blocking Amul; Netizens allege its ‘Boycott China’ ad

Twitter cites security reasons for blocking Amul; Netizens allege its ‘Boycott China’ ad

New Delhi:  A day after it briefly restricted Amul’s account sparking public outrage, Twitter on Saturday said the account was restricted after being caught in the microblogging platform’s security processes.

Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) – which makes Amul brand of food products – found its Twitter account blocked on June 4 evening. The account was restored on June 5.

On accessing the account, a message saying “This account is temporarily restricted. You’re seeing this warning because there has been some unusual activity from this account. Do you still want to view it?” was displayed.

Once the account clears this security step, the account regains full access, the statement added.

“To protect the accounts, we routinely require them to clear this security key for login verification,” the spokesperson said.

Amul Managing Director RS Sodhi said the company’s Twitter account was blocked on the night of June 4, and restored on June 5 morning when the issue was taken up with Twitter.

“Our Twitter account was blocked on the night of June 4 and restored on June 5 morning when we again took up process of reactivation with Twitter. We have asked Twitter why it blocked our account. We are waiting for the reply,” he said.

Twitter was abuzz with several users expressing shock, while many questioned its move to restrict the account. Twitteratis linked the restriction of Amul”s account with the brand’s campaign, supporting the boycott of Chinese products. The brand figured among trending topics in India even on Saturday with over 11,500 tweets.

In the campaign, Amul’s iconic girl in white and red polka dots dress is seen fighting a dragon that is carrying a “Made in China” placard. The picture mentions TikTok (a Chinese short video platform).

The creative carries a tagline “Amul Made In India” referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for self-reliant India.

“As far as the cartoon is concerned, it is not Amul’s comment. Amul butter girl comments on mood of the nation and the topics which are in discussions among the common people,” Sodhi said.

“Safety and security of the accounts is a key priority for us and to ensure an account has not been compromised sometimes we require the account owner to complete a simple reCAPTCHA process. These challenges are simple for authentic account owners to solve, but difficult (or costly) for spammy or malicious account owners to complete,” a Twitter spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

K-Pop Fans hijack ‘White Lives Matter’ hashtag on Twitter

K-Pop Fans hijack ‘White Lives Matter’ hashtag on Twitter

For the past few days #Black Lives Matter has been trending on social media following the death of a 46-year-old George Floyd. In order to counter the trend, Americans started another trend, #WhiteLivesMatter, to show that all human lives matter.

Now, fans of Korean popular music, widely known as K-pop stans, have spammed the Twitter hashtag “White Lives Matter” with fancams to block out the racist posts.

K-pop fan groups of BTS, MONSTA X, and BLACKPINK made a proud display of their overwhelming social media presence to obscure the ‘White Lives Matter’ and ‘Blue Lives Matter’ hashtags.

It is said that most of the posts contained an anti-racist message alongside a video of their favorite K-pop stars.

Although at first twitterati were confused by K-pop videos appearing in the #Whitelivesmatter hashtag, soon many understood that it was spammed and the trend became a huge hit.

Twitter again flags Trump’s tweet says it violated rules about ‘glorifying violence’

Twitter again flags Trump’s tweet says it violated rules about ‘glorifying violence’

Washington: A defiant Twitter on Friday, May 29 flagged a fresh tweet from Donald Trump for violating its rules about “glorifying violence”, hours after the US president signed an executive order aimed at stripping social media giants like Twitter and Facebook of legal immunity for the content posted by third party users.

The move came after Trump tweeted that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” in reference to the ongoing unrest in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed African American man who pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck.

Twitter had earlier added fact-check links to two of Trump’s tweets, enraging Trump.

“These thugs are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. I just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” Trump tweeted.

Twitter flagged the tweet, which is now only visible if one clicks on Twitter’s flag.

“This Tweet violated the Twitter rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible,” the social media company said.

Floyd was seen pinned down in a video by a white police officer and later died.

He could be heard screaming, “I can’t breathe,” on the video of the incident.

The video of Floyd’s death has now caused outrage in the city of Minneapolis and all over the country. Residents of the city have been protesting his death since Tuesday.

According to Twitter, it generally takes action on tweets that violate its rules.

“However, we recognize that sometimes it may be in the public interest to allow people to view Tweets that would otherwise be taken down. We consider content to be in the public interest if it directly contributes to understanding or discussion of a matter of public concern,” it said.

“At present, we limit exceptions to one critical type of public-interest content—Tweets from elected and government officials—given the significant public interest in knowing and being able to discuss their actions and statements,” it said.

“As a result, in rare instances, we may choose to leave up a Tweet from an elected or government official that would otherwise be taken down,” it said.

Trump, who has more than 80 million followers on Twitter, signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at stripping social media giants of legal immunity for the content posted by third-party users after Twitter added fact-check links to two of his tweets.

The executive order calls for new regulations, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to make it that social media companies that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield.

Twitter’s latest move can further escalate tensions between the president and social media platforms, the US media commented.

President Trump, who is seeking a second term in November, has already threatened to shut down social media platforms.

Twitter fact-checking row: Trump signs executive order targeting social media giants

Twitter fact-checking row: Trump signs executive order targeting social media giants

Washington: US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at stripping social media giants like Twitter and Facebook of legal immunity for the content posted by third party users.

The order comes a day after Trump accused Twitter of election interference after it added fact-check links to two of his tweets.

“Today I’m signing an executive order to protect and uphold the free speech and rights of the American people. Currently, social media giants, like Twitter, receive an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that they’re a neutral platform, which they’re an editor with a viewpoint,” Trump told reporters after he signed an executive order on Thursday.

The executive order calls for new regulations, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to make it that social media companies that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield.

“That’s a big deal. They have a shield; they can do what they want. They have a shield. They’re not going to have that shield,” Trump asserted.

Trump said that the executive order further instructs the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit social media companies from engaging in any deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce.

“This authority resides in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act,” he said.

Trump also said that he was directing the Attorney General to work cooperatively with the States.

“He’s going to be working very much and very closely in cooperation with the states to enforce their own laws against such deceptive business practices. The states have brought in powerful authority to regulate in this arena, and they’ll be doing it also and we encourage them to do it – if they see exactly as we’ve been seeing,” he noted.

Leave our employees out of this: Twitter CEO tells Trump

Leave our employees out of this: Twitter CEO tells Trump

Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey responded back to US President Donald Trump on Wednesday after the president warned to shutter social media platforms as Twitter added fact check warnings to his tweets.

Dorsey said that the website’s effort to point out misinformation did not make it an “arbiter of truth.”

“Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves,” he tweeted.

He doubled down on the new policy, writing: “Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me. Please leave our employees out of this. We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.”

On Wednesday, Twitter tagged two of Donald Trump’s tweets in which he claimed that more mail-in voting would lead to what he called a “Rigged Election” this November.

There is no evidence that attempts are being made to rig the election, and under the tweets, Twitter posted a link which read: “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.”

Apparently, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg also waded into the row, telling Fox News that his social network still the biggest in the world has a different policy.

“I just believe strongly that Facebook should not be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online,” Zuckerberg said in a snippet of the interview posted online Wednesday by Fox.

“I think, in general, private companies, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that,” he added.

Trump threatens to “close down social media” after Twitter fact-checks his tweets

Trump threatens to “close down social media” after Twitter fact-checks his tweets

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to close down social media platforms after Twitter labelled two of his tweets “unsubstantiated” and accused him of making false claims.

“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,” Trump tweeted.

Twitter targeted two tweets the president posted on Tuesday in which he contended without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to fraud and a “Rigged Election.”

Under the tweets, Twitter posted a link which read “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” — a first for the social network which has long resisted calls to censure the US president over truth-defying posts.

Twitter on Tuesday for the first time prompted readers to check the facts in tweets sent by U.S. President Donald Trump, warning readers his claims about mail-in ballots were false and had been debunked by fact checkers. Freddie Joyner has more.

Trump pushed back again on Wednesday saying “we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots.

“Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”

The president also accused social media platforms of interfering in the last election, saying “we saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016.”

“We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again.”

The president has long used Twitter as a platform to spread abuse, conspiracy theories, false information and insults to his 80 million followers.

Before being elected in 2016, he built his political brand by supporting the “birther” lie that Barack Obama, America’s first black president, was not born in the United States and therefore was not eligible to be president.

And he has recently ignited another storm with an attempted character assassination of MSNBC TV host Joe Scarborough by spreading the baseless rumor he murdered an aide.

In a first, Twitter adds fact-check warnings to Trump tweets

In a first, Twitter adds fact-check warnings to Trump tweets

Washington: For the first time, Twitter has flagged some of President Donald Trump”s tweets with a fact-check warning.

On Tuesday, Twitter added a warning phrase to two Trump tweets that called mail-in ballots “fraudulent” and predicted that “mail boxes will be robbed,” among other things.

Under the tweets, there is now a link reading “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” that guides users to a Twitter “moments” page with fact checks and news stories about Trump”s unsubstantiated claims.

Until now, the president has simply blown past Twitter”s half-hearted attempts to enforce rules intended to promote civility and “healthy” conversation on its most prominent user.

Trump frequently amplifies misinformation, spreads abuse and uses his pulpit to personally attack private citizens and public figures alike — all forbidden under Twitter”s official rules.

In a statement, Twitter said Trump”s vote-by-mail tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labelled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”

Trump has never previously faced Twitter sanctions on his account. The husband of a woman who died by accident two decades ago in an office of then-GOP Rep. Joe Scarborough recently demanded that Twitter remove the president”s baseless tweets suggesting that Scarborough, now a fierce Trump critic, killed her.

Twitter issued a statement expressing its regret to the husband but so far has taken no action on those tweets.

Over the weekend, the president issued several tweets calling into question the legality of mail-in-ballots. The storm of tweets followed Facebook and Twitter posts from Trump last week that wrongly claimed Michigan”s secretary of state mailed ballots to 7.7 million registered voters. Trump later deleted the tweet and posted an edited version that still threatened to hold up federal funds.

Twitter policy forbids sharing “false or misleading information intended to intimidate or dissuade people from participating in an election or other civic process.” While it has previously flagged tweets conveying misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, it has never before put warnings on tweets for any other reason.

Trump replied on Twitter, accusing the platform of “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election” and insisting that “as president, I will not allow this to happen.”

His 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said Twitter”s “clear political bias” had led the campaign to pull “all our advertising from Twitter months ago.” Twitter has banned all political advertising since last November.

Trump”s Scarborough tweets offer another example of the president using Twitter to spread misinformation — in this case, about an accidental death that Trump persists in linking to the co-host of MSNBC”s “Morning Joe” show.

“My request is simple: Please delete these tweets,” Timothy J. Klausutis wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last week.

The body of Lori Kaye Klausutis, 28, was found in Scarborough”s Fort Walton Beach, Florida, congressional office on July 20, 2001. Trump has repeatedly tried to implicate Scarborough in the death even though Scarborough was in Washington, not Florida, at the time.

There is no mystery to the death of Lori Klausutis. Medical officials ruled that the aide, who had a heart condition and told friends hours earlier that she wasn”t feeling well, had fainted and hit her head. Foul play was not suspected.

Klausutis wrote in his letter that he has struggled to move on with his life due to the ongoing “bile and misinformation” spread about his wife on the platform, most recently by Trump. His wife continues to be the subject of conspiracy theories 20 years after her death.

Klausutis called his wife”s death “the single most painful thing that I have ever had to deal with” and said he feels a marital obligation to protect her memory amid “a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died.”

Trump”s tweets violate Twitter”s community rules and terms of service, he said. “An ordinary user like me would be banished,” he wrote.

At Tuesday”s White House briefing, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeatedly refused to say why Trump was pressing the unfounded allegations or whether he would stop tweeting about them. Instead, she focused on remarks that Scarborough made about the case that she said were inappropriate and flippant.

Dorsey did not reply directly to Klausutis” letter and has not taken any action on the president”s tweets. In a statement, Twitter said it was “deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family.” Scarborough has urged the president to stop his baseless attacks.

‘Plandemic’ conspiracy video still resurfacing on Twitter

‘Plandemic’ conspiracy video still resurfacing on Twitter

A few days ago, conspiracy documentary “Plandemic” went viral across the internet and social media giants were quick enough to delete the videos from their platform

However, over the past week, the Plandemic video has continued to resurface on internet. While other social media giants such as Facebook and YouTube have managed to delete the videos unofficial video links to the “Plandemic” documentary are still resurfacing on twitter.

The 26-minute video dubbed ‘Plandemic’ went viral this week across social media platforms. It features Judy Mikovits, an activist among people who contend that many common vaccines are dangerous.

In the video, Mikovits says that wearing masks activates the coronavirus within people, without providing evidence, and criticizes orders to stay away from beaches.

It was immediately deleted from youtube and facebook based on misleading information. Even twitter began censoring widely circulated hashtags such as “#Plandemic”, “#PlagueOfCorruption”, and “#Plandemicmovie.”

Twitter also claims it has removed more than 2,600 tweets and “challenged 4.3 million potentially spammy accounts targeting Covid-19 discussion.”, but twitter users are still sharing the links of the video.

Scientists discover new fungi species on Twitter, name it after Twitter

Scientists discover new fungi species on Twitter, name it after Twitter

A new species has been discovered on Twitter. It is said to be a type of parasitic fungus and it is named Troglomyces twitteri.

According to the study, published in the journal MycoKeys, professor Ana Sofia Reboleira of the National Natural History Museum spotted an image of a millipede while scrolling through Twitter and noticed a few tiny dots near the creature’s head, something that has never been seen on the American millipedes.

Ana Sofia Reboleira, said “I could see something looking like fungi on the surface of the millipede. Until then, these fungi had never been found on American millipedes. So, I went to my colleague and showed him the image. That’s when we ran down to the museum’s collections and began digging,”

Derek Hennen had shared the image in 2018, as a part of a collection of millipede photos posted by him on Twitter. Reboleira discovered the image and having been intrigued by it, went on a hunt for the species in previously undocumented fungus.

Twitter to label tweets containing harmful, misleading content on COVID-19

Twitter to label tweets containing harmful, misleading content on COVID-19

New Delhi: Twitter on Monday said it will label tweets that contain “potentially harmful, misleading information” related to COVID-19, and provide additional context to curb the spread of fake news around the pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives globally.

Like other digital platforms, including Google and Facebook, Twitter is also undertaking these measures to ensure that people have access to information from trusted health experts and organizations like World Health Organization at a time when nations across the world are combating the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this year, Twitter had introduced a new label for tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media that aims to mislead people and had said it would take steps including removal of tweets if such content has the potential to harm public safety.

The crackdown on such content comes amid widespread concerns globally over altered, forged content on social media, including deep-fake videos, and its catastrophic implications.

Twitter, in a blog post on Monday, said, “In serving the public conversation, our goal is to make it easy to find credible information on Twitter and to limit the spread of potentially harmful and misleading content”.

“Starting today, we’re introducing new labels and warning messages that will provide additional context and information on some tweets containing disputed or misleading information related to COVID-19,” it said, adding that this will also apply to tweets sent before May 11.

Twitter said that it will take action based on three broad categories — misleading information, disputed claims, and unverified claims.

Tweets containing misleading information will either be removed or contain a label with links to trusted information sources, depending on the propensity for harm.

Tweets featuring disputed claims will either carry a label or warning depending on the severity of content. No action will be taken for tweets containing unverified claims, Twitter said.

The company said these labels will link to a Twitter-curated page or external trusted source containing additional information on the claims made within the tweet.

These warnings, it said, will inform people that the information in the tweet is in contradiction to public health experts’ guidance before a user views the content.

“However, embedded tweets and tweets viewed by people not logged into Twitter may still appear without a label,” the company said.

“Our teams are using and improving on internal systems to proactively monitor content related to COVID-19. These systems help ensure we’re not amplifying tweets with these warnings or labels and detecting the high-visibility content quickly,” Twitter said.

It added that the microblogging platform will also continue to rely on partners to identify content that is likely to result in offline harm.

“Given the dynamic situation, we will prioritize review and labeling of content that could lead to increased exposure or transmission. We’ll learn a lot as we use these new labels, and are open to adjusting as we explore labeling different types of misleading information,” it noted.