NPR will no longer post fresh content to its 52 official Twitter feeds, becoming the first major news organization to go silent on the social media platform. In explaining its decision, NPR cited Twitter’s decision to first label the network “state-affiliated media,” the same term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries.
The decision by Twitter last week took the public radio network off guard. When queried by NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn, Twitter owner Elon Musk asked how NPR functioned. Musk allowed that he might have gotten it wrong.
Category: Social Media
Twitter Circle Tweets Surfacing on For You Timeline⇢
Amanda Silberling at TechCrunch:
Numerous Twitter users are reporting a bug in which Circle tweets — which are supposed to reach a select group, like an Instagram Close Friends story — are surfacing on the algorithmically-generated For You timeline. That means that your supposedly private posts might breach containment to reach an unintended audience, which could quickly spark some uncomfortable situations.
I observed this bug when a tweet from someone I follow appeared on my For You timeline, but the retweet button was disabled, despite the person’s account being public. When I clicked on the tweet, it disappeared. I asked the tweeter if that post was intended for their Circle — which I am not in — and they confirmed this was the case.
Twitter Labels NPR as ‘US State-Affiliated Media’⇢
Kris Holt, writing at Engadget:
Twitter has added a label to the main account of NPR to designate the public broadcaster as “US state-affiliated media.” Until now, such labels have typically been reserved for state-run organizations such as RT and Sputnik in Russia and China’s Xinhua News Agency. The labels appear on every tweet from accounts they’re applied to.
“We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as state-affiliated media,” a description that, per Twitter’s own guidelines, does not apply to NPR," the broadcaster’s CEO John Lansing said in a statement. “NPR and our member stations are supported by millions of listeners who depend on us for the independent, fact-based journalism we provide. NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy.”
Twitter’s Algorithm is on GitHub⇢
When it first went up, Issues were apparently open on the repo. There were some very funny things in there that have now been deleted, but as of this writing, this one remains, as does one requesting a printed version of the repository.
The White House Won’t Chip in for Twitter Verification⇢
The White House will not pay to have its staff’s official Twitter profiles continue to be verified, according to guidance issued to staffers via an email obtained by Axios.
Official White House staffers rely on their verified accounts to inform the public on behalf of the administration. Verification, combined with the designated Twitter profiles, helped to ensure the public could trust those messages.
“It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service. Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user,” White House director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty told staffers in an email sent Friday afternoon.
Meta Announces Verification Program, Complete with Blue Badges⇢
Good morning and new product announcement: this week we’re starting to roll out Meta Verified – a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support. This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services. Meta Verified starts at $11.99 / month on web or $14.99 / month on iOS. We’ll be rolling out in Australia and New Zealand this week and more countries soon.
Twitter Blue Customers Can Send Tweets up to 4,000 Character in Length⇢
Huge news for those paying for Twitter Blue:
Twitter has launched a longer tweet feature, giving Blue subscribers in the US the ability to post up to 4,000 characters at once. If someone you follow uses the feature, the tweet in your timeline will have a “show more” button to keep it from taking up your entire screen.
Currently, there are a few limitations to the feature (besides the big one that it’s behind a paywall). If your tweet is over the standard 280 characters, you can’t save it as a draft or schedule it for later. However, most other normal features should work as usual — you can add hashtags or pictures, and non-Blue subscribers will still be able to interact with the posts as normal.
Twitter Replacing Free API With Unknown ‘Paid Basic Tier’ Next Week⇢
Jess Weatherbed, writing at The Verge:
Twitter will no longer provide free access to the Twitter API from February 9th. As announced by the official Twitter Developer account late Wednesday night, Elon Musk’s social media hobby will stop supporting free access to the Twitter API and will instead provide a “paid basic tier.” Twitter hasn’t provided any information regarding pricing, but said that it will provide “more details on what you can expect next week.”
The End of an Era
Sean Herber at The Iconfactory:
Twitterrific has been discontinued.
A sentence that none of us wanted to write, but have long felt would need to be written someday. We didn’t expect to be writing it so soon, though, and certainly not without having had time to notify you that it was coming. We are sorry to say that the app’s sudden and undignified demise is due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change by an increasingly capricious Twitter – a Twitter that we no longer recognize as trustworthy nor want to work with any longer.
‘Extremely Hardcore’⇢
If you want to know just how bad things are inside Twitter, this piece has it all. The graph on the left side of the page is particularly good.
Popular Third-Party Twitter Apps Currently Suspended⇢
Hanlon’s razor says “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity,” but it’s impossible to tell the difference with Twitter these days.
In a surprise to no one, developers of these apps have been left in the dark, as The Iconfactory points out in a blog post:
There’s been no official word from Twitter about what’s going on, but that’s unsurprising since the new owner eliminated the employees dedicated to keeping the API up and running smoothly, including the developer evangelists who previously provided communication with third-parties.
Free Speech Champion Elon Musk Bans Links to Alternative Networks⇢
Twitter is where the public conversation is happening, and where people from all over the globe come to promote their businesses, art, ideas, and more. We know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms; however, going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter.
At both the Tweet level and the account level, we will remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms, such as linking out (i.e. using URLs) to any of the below platforms on Twitter, or providing your handle without a URL.