X, the former Twitter, lets users hide once-vaunted blue check

SAN FRANCISCO — Users on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, will now be allowed to hide their once-prized blue check marks, the company says.

A coveted status symbol at Twitter before Elon Musk bought the company, the blue checks have been mocked by some as a sign that the user is willing to pay for special treatment.

"As a subscriber, you can choose to hide your checkmark on your account," an X help page said on Wednesday.

"The checkmark will be hidden on your profile and posts."

Blue ticks, long free at Twitter, were intended to signal the identity of certain users -- such as journalists, celebrities and politicians -- had been verified in an effort to build trust in the platform.

But Musk decried that as a "lords & peasants system," and opened up access to the check marks to anyone who paid for a Blue subscription -- an $8 per month program which gives users access to other special features as well.

He quickly put the program on a temporary hold after problems with people buying tick marks and impersonating high-profile personalities, including the tycoon himself.

In April, the eccentric billionaire then followed through with a long-promised move to strip free blue ticks from Twitter users.

Some praised the move as egalitarian while others decried it as being shaken down for money to safeguard their status on the platform.

Wordsmith Stephen King, who had previously vowed he would never cough up, even telling Musk that Twitter should instead be paying him to post, appeared horrified to discover that he still had his blue check.

Musk said in response to a news article about the check marks at the time that he was "paying for a few personally," and replied to King's message with "You're welcome namaste."

Word that X Blue subscribers can try to hide that fact prompted one user to fire off a post contending that Musk "destroyed a decade old symbol of trust and turned it into a mark of shame."

A post from the X account @ianvisits said that "Blue ticks are now so toxic that you can hide the fact that you have one."

Other paid-for features, such as posts longer 280 characters, may still allow other users to identify a Blue subscriber even if their blue tick has been hidden.

"The checkmark may still appear in some places and some features could still reveal you have an active subscription," X said at its help page.

Agence France-Presse 

San Francisco warns Musk he needs permit for giant, flashing X sign

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco sent the company formerly known as Twitter a warning Monday that it needed proper permits for the giant, flashing new X sign atop its headquarters, after the tech firm twice refused to let building inspectors check it.

The sign, installed on the roof of the company's downtown office last week, is part of owner Elon Musk's bid to rebrand the troubled social media giant to the 24th letter of the alphabet.

But local residents have complained, both to media and on Musk's app, about the brilliant flashing lights emitting from the sign at night. Some have also complained about safety, suggesting the sign -- which looms over the building's edge -- does not appear securely anchored to the roof.

A building inspector following up on a complaint first went to the tech firm's headquarters on Friday -- but was not allowed onto the roof to check the sign, according to the complaint posted on a city website.

Instead, an X representative told the inspector that the structure was "a temporary lighted sign for an event," the complaint showed.

A second attempt by an inspector to check the sign was also rebuffed on Saturday, according to the city.

On Monday the city sent X a notice of violation warning that it needed proper permits for the sign. The city website says that such notices can result in fees, but it was not immediately clear if X would face any financial penalty.

When contacted by AFP about the complaint, X replied with an automated message saying it would respond "soon."

Musk has brushed off the backlash to the sign and to the rebrand in general, responding with a laughing emoji to one X user's post about the city being at odds with him over the new sign.

The billionaire killed off Twitter's globally recognizable bird logo early last week as he rebranded the company he hopes to turn into a super-app inspired by China's WeChat, which would function as a social media platform and also offer messaging and payments.

Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, the platform's advertising business has collapsed as marketers soured on Musk's management style and mass firings at the company that gutted content moderation.

In response, he has moved toward building a subscriber base and pay model in a search for new revenue.

Workers last week were stopped while removing the Twitter sign and blue bird logo from the headquarters due to a lack of proper permits.

Agence France-Presse

Twitter challenger Threads struggles for traction

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - After a wildly successful first few days, Threads popularity has waned in the weeks since Meta launched its challenge to Twitter, which lives on despite its problems.

The average amount of time people spend on Threads daily has plummeted more than 75 percent since the platform made a rock star debut on July 6, according to data from Sensor Tower, a market analysis firm.

Threads was quickly billed as a potential death knell for Twitter, a platform that has tumbled into chaos under the leadership of mercurial tycoon Elon Musk.

The launch saw sign-ups of more than 100 million users in less than five days, smashing the record of AI tool ChatGPT for fastest-growing consumer app and creating relief and excitement amongst early adopters fleeing Twitter.

"I actually closed down my Twitter account after starting Threads," said Brooklyn resident Lauren Brose, head of marketing at a tech start-up.

"I used to love Twitter. After Elon Musk took over Twitter, I found that the entire environment just changed completely."

But weeks later, Threads has since seen a "material decline in new sign-ups," Sensor Tower said.

Twitter continues to dominate its space as a platform for online comment and news, and Musk "would have to completely destroy it" to drive away its audience for good, according to Silicon Valley investor and analyst Jeremiah Owyang.

"Will Threads kill Twitter? Absolutely not. It's just not equivalent," he said.

Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at its launch, though it is not available in Europe because parent company Meta is unsure how to navigate the European Union's data privacy legislation.

Twitter is thought to have around 200 million regular users but it has suffered repeated technical failures since Tesla tycoon Musk bought the platform last year and sacked much of its staff.

Musk, also the boss of SpaceX, has alienated users by introducing charges for previously free services and allowing banned right-wing accounts back on the platform.

There is little doubt that Threads had a major leg up compared to other wannabe Twitter alternatives.

Several rivals have emerged but most are niche platforms without the capacity to grow at the necessary scale to dethrone Twitter.

But Meta was able to easily prompt Instagram users to start Threads accounts, tapping into a base of at least a billion users at the image-focused social network.

NOT ABOUT NEWS?

Threads has a lot to prove, and features to add, to become a formidable Twitter alternative, according to Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg.

It needs to foster creators to engage users, and to find its own identity separate from Instagram and Twitter, Enberg said.

"Given that Twitter is in a state of disarray, the brilliant move that they did was using the existing social graph from Instagram for rapid and seamless adoption," Owyang said of Threads.

The downside is that's not the user base "that you want to have chats with or to do microblogging," he added.

Instagram users typically engage with the service for images or videos, not commentary or controversy, Owyang noted.

"It is a very different crowd on Instagram," Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said of a comparison to Threads.

Twitter is known as a forum for news and politics, topics that Threads has no interest in spotlighting, according to a recent post by Threads and Instagram boss Adam Mosseri.

Meanwhile, Twitter is seen as an established home for posts by journalists, celebrities, athletes, politicians and others.

Another roadblock to Threads growth is that Meta is holding it back from the European Union, Milanesi said.

"You are missing a big chunk of the market," she said of Threads being absent from the EU.

TWITTER DIASPORA?

While people frustrated with Musk-owned Twitter are seeking alternatives, no single competitor has established itself as the ideal option.

Twitter quitters have become a "diaspora" of sorts, spread across Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads and other platforms in search of a new social media home, Owyang reasoned.

"Many people have left Twitter, and that will continue," Owyang said.

"But the issue is where are they going? There's no one centralized place to go."

The Threads app has been downloaded more than 184 million times globally since its launch, according to Data.ai Intelligence.

"But, the app hasn’t proved to be materially different from Twitter in terms of features/functionality," said Sensor Tower senior insights analyst Abe Yousef.

"What should dissuade people from remaining on Twitter, assuming they’re comfortable with Twitter's content policies?" Yousef added.

Agence France-Presse

Facebook, Twitter highlight security steps for users in Ukraine

Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc has set up a special operations center to monitor the conflict in Ukraine, and it launched a feature so users in the country can lock their social media profiles for security, a company official said in Twitter posts on Thursday.

Twitter Inc on Wednesday posted tips on how users can secure their accounts against hacking, make sure their tweets are private and deactivate their accounts. The company tweeted the safety tips in English, Russian and Ukrainian.

Both social media platforms are often used by political activists and researchers to disseminate information during times of crisis. The Russian invasion of Ukraine on Thursday also raised concerns about the spread of disinformation about the conflict on social media.

With one click, users in Ukraine can lock their profile to prevent users who are not their friends from downloading or sharing their profile picture, or seeing posts on their timeline, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of security policy, said on Twitter.

On Wednesday, Twitter also shared information on how users can deactivate their accounts.

As the conflict in Ukraine escalated on Thursday, social media users took to platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter to post videos of evacuation lines, helicopters in the sky and anti-war protests in Russia.

On short-form video app TikTok, the hashtags "Russia" and "Ukraine" had 37.2 billion and 8.5 billion views, respectively.

-reuters

First tweet fetches $2.9 million at auction

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - The first message ever Tweet fired off at Twitter sold on Monday for $2.9 million when its sender Jack Dorsey accepted the winning bid for the collectible as a "non fungible token" or NFT at an auction.

"Jack accepted the offer from sinaEstavi for $2,915,835.47," read a tweet from the Valuables by Cent auction platform.

"This tweet is now minted on the blockchain."

The profile on the auction-winning account indicated it belonged to Sina Estavi, chief executive of blockchain technology-related startup Bridge Oracle.

A copy of Dorsey's inaugural tweet and a history of the bidding was posted at the v.cent.co website.

Dorsey's tweet highlighted a surge of interest around NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.

NFTs use the same blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies to turn anything from art to sports trading cards into virtual collector's items that cannot be duplicated.

Fifteen years ago Dorsey typed out a banal message -- "just setting up my twttr" -- which became the first ever tweet, launching a global platform that has become a controversial and dominant force in civil society.

The short tweet was sent March 21, 2006 by the Twitter co-founder and chief, who said he would donate the money from its sale to charity.

"I think years later people will realize the true value of this tweet, like the Mona Lisa painting," Estavi said in a Twitter post.

Dorsey on Monday tweeted thanks to @sinaEstavi, along with a message indicating the proceeds were sent to Give Directly nonprofit in East Africa that helps people living in poverty.

"Hey @jack , thank you for accepting my offer, and I'm glad this money is being donated to charity," Estavi responded in tweet from @sinaEstavi.

Agence France-Presse

Twitter suspends accounts defending Duterte’s COVID-19 response – report

MANILA, Philippines — Twitter has suspended accounts defending President Rodrigo Duterte under hashtags in support of the government’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response.

“Hundreds of accounts” were in violation of the social media platform’s manipulation and spam policies, according to a report from The Washington Post on Thursday.



Quoting Twitter, the report said behaviors that violate Twitter’s rules on spam include posting “duplicate” content across multiple accounts, creating multiple accounts and sending large numbers of unsolicited replies or mentions.

Under Twitter’s rules and policies on platform manipulation and spam, it is said that the platform may not be used  if it is “intended to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience.”

This policy prohibits misleading others by “operating fake accounts” which engage in “spamming, abusive or disruptive behavior.”

Several hashtags in support and of dissent to the President recently climbed the top trending topics on Twitter Philippines following his late night public addresses on COVID-19.


These include #OustDuterte, #IStandWithThePresident, #ICantStandThePresident and #OursDuterte.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Twitter gets more serious about its coronavirus misinformation control

On Wednesday Twitter broadened its definition of “harmful” in relation to its removal of harmful misinformation about COVID-19 on its platform.

Now, its policy goes so far as to say that “content that increases the chance that someone contracts or transmits the virus” is harmful and must be removed, not simply misinformation about the disease itself.


Content that increases the chance that someone contracts or transmits the virus, including:
– Denial of expert guidance
– Encouragement to use fake or ineffective treatments, preventions, and diagnostic techniques
– Misleading content purporting to be from experts or authorities

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) March 18, 2020

Content now deemed as dangerous includes those posts that claim expert guidance—like that issued by nationally recognized health officials—is false, those that encourage people to use “fake or ineffective treatments, preventions, and diagnostic techniques,” and those consisting of misleading information published by self-proclaimed “experts.”

These changes are in effect as of Wednesday; however, considering how the virus and the media’s response to it evolves every day that the pandemic continues, it’s likely that this list will expand even more in the near future. IB

technology.inquirer.net

Google gets in on the emoji mashup madness by launching ‘Emoji Kitchen’

Likely inspired by the success of Emoji Mashup Bot, a Twitter account that publishes new-wave emojis made from existing ones, Google has launched “Emoji Kitchen” for its Gboard.

As of today, over 2,000 emoji exist according to Unicode Consortium, the leading reference site on all things emoji when all variants are taken into account. Now, Google is putting a whole new selection of characters at the fingertips of Gboard users by launching “Emoji Kitchen.”

Emoji lovers rejoice: Now on @Android you can combine two emoji into a sticker to communicate more nuanced feelings. Learn more & create your own→ https://t.co/tbadfNLf9l pic.twitter.com/GgsjTujzbU

— Google (@Google) February 12, 2020

The new emoji stickers are created in a similar way to those of the Emoji Mashup Bot that randomly combines existing emoji to make new ones like a confounded jack-o-lantern or a grinning alien. Unlike the bot, however, the Google designs are created by hand rather than being automatically generated, making the icons more streamlined. Users will be able to “explore new ‘recipes’ of expressions using your favorite emoji as ingredients.” RGA


source: technology.inquirer.net

Facebook moves to help users know if they got tricked by Russian propaganda during 2016 US polls

A software tool would be released by end 2017 that would allow users to know if they were taken in by so-called Russian propaganda during the last presidential campaign in the United States, as Facebook bids to help people tell if they liked or followed posts considered part of a Russian effort to meddle with the 2016 US election.

The software tool would let users see whether they engaged with Facebook pages or Instagram accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) between January 2015 and the August before the presidential election in 2016.

The IRA is seen as a Russian resource for spreading propaganda online.

“It is important that people understand how foreign actors tried to sow division and mistrust using Facebook before and after the 2016 US election,” the leading online social network said in a blog post.

The creation of the new tool comes in the face of Congressional pressure on Facebook and other internet giants to let users know if they were exposed to Russian propaganda prior to the election.

Google, Facebook, and other tech firms joined global news organizations earlier this month in an initiative aimed at identifying “trustworthy” news sources, in the latest effort to combat online misinformation.

Microsoft and Twitter also agreed to participate in the “Trust Project” with some 75 news organizations to tag news stories which meet standards for ethics and transparency.

Google, Twitter and Facebook have come under fire for allowing the spread of bogus news – some of which was directed by Russia – ahead of the 2016 US election and in other countries.

During a quarterly earnings call with analysts this month, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg addressed criticism over allowing disinformation and manipulation during the US presidential election, just hours after the company’s top lawyer faced a grilling at a Washington congressional hearing.

“Our community continues to grow and our business is doing well,” Zuckerberg said.

“But none of that matters if our services are used in ways that don’t bring people closer together. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.”

Facebook told Congress that the apparent political meddling included use of its image-sharing application Instagram.

Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch told a hearing that Instagram posts by suspect Russian accounts were seen by some 20 million Americans last year.

The data on Instagram is on top of the estimated 126 million Americans exposed to Facebook posts from Russian entities seeking to create divisions during the election campaign.

“I’ve expressed how upset I am that the Russians tried to use our tools to sow mistrust,” Zuckerberg said earlier this month.

“What they did is wrong and we are not going to stand for it.”            /kga

source: technology.inquirer.net

Twitter blocks ‘bisexual’ search results, draws flak from netizens

Social media site Twitter faced a blunder as it accidentally blocked the word “bisexual,” irking LGBT activists for the mishap.

Netizens first noticed that no search results yielded upon typing the word, unlike “gay” and “lesbian.”

This led to the social media site to tweet saying it was working to fix the problem.

The move caused a backlash from netizens, with one UK-based BiPride saying it was a “bi-erasure” to filter-block results relating to the word “bisexual.”

The Bisexual Index campaign manager, Kate Harrad, told BBC Newsbeat that Twitter should be careful in filtering bisexual content.

“Every bi-activist knows the problems of trying to search for bi-content on the web and some public wifi systems block it altogether, even when it’s nothing to do with sex, because bisexual is seen as a dodgy word in itself,” Harred said in the report.

It is unclear if this is in line with updating Twitter’s Terms and Services, which enforces stricter protocol against content showing self-harm, violence, abusive behavior and the like.  Katrina Hallare /ra

source: technology.inquirer.net

Miss Universe draws record-high 34M tweets; Thailand, PH bets most mentioned

The recently concluded Miss Universe peageant in Manila which saw the Philippines’ own Pia Wurtzbach relinquishing her crown to Iris Mittenaere of France generated a record-breaking number of tweets, Twitter said on Tuesday.

Twitter said a total of 34.6 million Miss Universe-related tweets were recorded during the live event—the highest tweet volume for an entertainment event during a live show.

The most mentioned contestants during the pageant were Chalita Suansane of Thailand (Top 6), Philippine bet Maxine Medina (Top 6), and Raissa Santana of Brazil (Top 9).

It was also Thailand’s Suansane who won the Miss Universe online voting, which earned her a spot in the Top 13.

The most talked about moments were the end of the evening gown competition, end of the interview round, Miss Kenya being asked about United States President Donald Trump, end of the swimsuit segment, and the announcement of Top 6 contestants.

Despite Medina’s loss, Twitter noted that Filipino users tweeted out “big support” to the Philippine representative.

Here are the top Twitter moments on the 65th Miss Universe pageant: https://twitter.com/i/moments/825598159409647616

source: technology.inquirer.net

Trump denounces Streep as ‘overrated Clinton flunky’

NEW YORK, United States — Donald Trump took on one of the Hollywood greats Monday, accusing Meryl Streep of being an overrated actress and a Hillary Clinton “flunky” after the multiple Oscar winner tore into him at an awards ceremony.

In what has become an early morning custom for the notoriously thin-skinned Republican president-elect, Trump took to Twitter to settle scores with the three-time Oscar winner just hours after her public broadside.

“Meryl Streep, one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood, doesn’t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes,” Trump wrote. “She is a Hillary flunky who lost big.”

Streep berated Trump for his divisive rhetoric as she received a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes on Sunday in Los Angeles.

The 67-year-old fought to control her emotions as she received a standing ovation during her acceptance speech for the Cecil B DeMille Award, handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

“You and all of us in this room, really, belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now. Think about it. Hollywood, foreigners and the press,” she said to her peers with a laugh, referencing Trump’s campaign that frequently disparaged immigrants and what he called biased media.

The US entertainment industry broadly supported Trump’s Democratic opponent Clinton, with many stars publicly endorsing her White House run and pumping millions of dollars into her campaign war chest.

Streep trashed the incoming president and singled out an infamous campaign speech during which he did a decidedly unflattering impression of disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski.

“The person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter — someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart,” she said.

‘Disrespect, violence’

“This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.”

“Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence,” she said.

“When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”

Trump has denied mocking Kovaleski and again defended himself on Monday against Streep’s accusation.

“For the 100th time, I never ‘mocked’ a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him ‘groveling’ when he totally changed a 16-year-old story that he had written in order to make me look bad,” Trump said in a series of tweets.

“Just more very dishonest media!” he added.

Trump told The New York Times in a brief telephone interview that he was “not surprised” to be criticized by “liberal movie people.”

His senior aide, Kellyanne Conway, dismissed Streep’s remarks as sour grapes, accused the actress of “inciting people’s worst instincts” and backed her boss as “absolutely right.”

“The election is over. She lost,” Conway told Fox News.

‘Self-pity’

“Everybody in that audience with very few exceptions was of a single myopic mind about how they wanted the election to go,” she said, criticizing what she called the “self-pity” of multi-billion-dollar industry Hollywood.

“Talking about how vilified poor Hollywood is, in their gazillion dollar gowns? Can I borrow a couple of those for the inaugural please?” she said.

“Somebody with a platform like Meryl Streep is also I think inciting people’s worst instincts, when she won’t get up there and say, ‘I didn’t like it, but let’s try to support him and see where we can find some common ground’.”

Streep spoke with less than two weeks to go until Trump’s inauguration.

“Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. If you kick ’em all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts,” she said, holding back tears.

She urged the “principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage,” to cheers from the floor.

Streep, considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation, was presented with the DeMille award to mark a career which has seen her win eight Golden Globes and collect 29 nominations.

Star Trek actor George Takei was among those who leapt to her defense.

“A better president would take criticism without name calling,” he wrote in a flurry of his own tweets. “Just admit you’re a bully — and a liar,” he later added, along with: “What a small, small man. SAD!” CBB

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Naked man ‘photobombs’ girl’s photoshoot, goes viral on Twitter

A teenager from Oregon, USA, simply wanted to have a memorable photoshoot in the pristine Willamette river before she is to enter her senior year in high school . Unexpectedly, one man “ruined” it.

Jillian Henry, a 17-year-old incoming senior, told Oregon Live that she and her friend, Elena Nesbit, began laughing when they saw the naked man interrupting their photoshoot on Saturday. The man was walking his dog in the river.

love my senior pics pic.twitter.com/LMzc1RlCGU

— jillian henry (@jill_henn) August 28, 2016

On Sunday, Henry posted the hilarious snaps on social networking site Twitter, with the simple caption “love my senior pics.” The tweet has gone insanely viral, with over 39,000 retweets and 110,000 likes as of Wednesday morning.

“I posted it and was super excited when it got to just a few hundred favorites, and then I went swimming and was out of cell service for a couple hours and when I got back into service it was at a few thousand and just kept getting more and more,” Henry told the news site. “I never expected it to get that big.” Gianna Francesca Catolico

source: technology.inquirer.net

Saudi billionaire prince doubles ownership of Twitter stock

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his investment company have doubled their ownership of Twitter’s publicly traded shares in the past six weeks.

A joint statement released Wednesday by the prince and the Riyadh-based Kingdom Holding Company says their combined shares represent more than 5 percent of Twitter’s common stock, with a market value of $1 billion.

The prince and KHC, which he chairs, originally invested $300 million in Twitter in 2011 before the micro-blogging site went public two years later.

With the most recent investments, Prince Alwaleed holds roughly 30,100,000 shares in Twitter and KHC has nearly 4,850,000 shares.

source: business.inquirer.net

#ALDubEBforLOVE hits 26M tweets, 43K per minute on Sept. 26–Twitter

The “AlDub” phenomenon reaches a new high this week as Twitter announces that the hashtag #ALDubEBforLOVE has reached a record high of 26 million tweets.

A post by Twitter Singapore on Friday said: “26 million Tweets for #ALDubEBforLOVE when @aldenrichards02 visited @mainedcm at the mansion. http://reverb.twitter.com/view/947770132507343271”

AlDub, the love team of actors Alden Richards and Maine “Yaya Dub” Mendoza, is the popular pair on “Kalyeserye,” a segment produced by long-running noontime show “Eat Bulaga.”

#ALDubEBForLove was the official hashtag of Kalyeserye’s Sept. 26 episode which highlighted the much-awaited visit of Alden to see Yaya Dub at her grandmothers’ (lolas) mansion.

The hashtag was first tweeted at 10:34 p.m. on Sept. 25 and reached its peak at 1:26 p.m. the next day with 43,000 tweets per minute during the airing of the episode, according to a release by cellular network Talk ’N Text for its unlimited Twitter promo.

AlDub’s record is just two million short of Super Bowl’s Twitter record which hit 28.4 million tweets on Feb. 1.

“AlDub is a global phenomenon on Twitter and shows how our platform as the social soundtrack to TV has really connected Filipinos who love a good love story,” said Rishi Jaitly, vice president of Media, Asia Pacific and Middle East, Twitter. “We can’t wait to see if the live, public AlDub conversation can set global records by uniting their passionate fans, the nation and the world on Twitter.”

On Saturday, the AlDub story is expected to reach a new milestone as Maine heads to the “Eat Bulaga” studios to visit Alden. RC

source: technology.inquirer.net

The “AlDub” phenomenon reaches a new high this week as Twitter announces that the hashtag #ALDubEBforLOVE has reached a record high of 26 million tweets.
A post by Twitter Singapore on Friday said: “26 million Tweets for #ALDubEBforLOVE when @aldenrichards02 visited @mainedcm at the mansion. http://reverb.twitter.com/view/947770132507343271”
- See more at: http://technology.inquirer.net/44658/aldubebforlove-hits-26m-tweets-43k-per-minute-on-sept-26-twitter#sthash.MeIIpIA6.dpuf

#ALDUBMostAwaitedDate pushes through, but…

So near, yet so far.

The “most awaited date” of star-crossed lovers Alden Richards and Yaya Dub in “Eat Bulaga’s” hit segment “Kalyeserye” pushed through on Saturday afternoon but it is unclear what happened to Maine Mendoza’s character.

Things didn’t go easy for Eat Bulaga’s “Kalyeserye” couple–at least before they saw each other.

They first had to play a matching game where they had to answer Nidora’s questions and come up with same answer to prove that they are really MFEO or “made for each other.” One point equals to one base until they reached their meeting place.

And when the pair got seven questions correctly, the fun began and the disaster too.

However, minutes into the date, Mendoza was forced to leave in order to bring Lola Nidora’s medicine to her. Bayola’s character later discouraged her but Mendoza was already in the vehicle.

While the camera showed Richards going through the pieces of paper left by Mendoza, the sound of a car braking was heard in the background.

Both the studio and television audience were left to wonder what happened to Mendoza.

At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, the hashtag #ALDUBMostAwaitedDate surpassed the 10-million mark on Twitter.

AlDub recently celebrated their second month on Tuesday with Alden serenading Yaya Dub through their split-screen interaction. He also sent her a heart-shaped locket with their faces on it and lots of red roses.

“Kahit dalawang buwan pa lang ang nakakaraan ang dami nang nangyari…may masasaya..may mga malulungkot..may masasakait..pero lahat ng to mayroon tayong natututunan..at walang hindi makakayanan basta handa tayo at ito ang gusto natin” Alden said in a love letter addressed to Yaya.

(Even if only two months have passed, so many things have happened…there are happy ones, and there are sad ones…there are also painful ones. But we have all learned a lesson…and we can do all things as long as we are ready and we like what we are doing.)
Alden also gave P100,000 to a 73-year-old widow from Sta. Mesa, Manila.  It was Maine’s cash prize from the “AlDub Battle For A Cause” for the “Bulaga Pa More, Dabarkads Pa More” Wildcard edition where she emerged as the winner against Alden.

The day after, Lola Nidora gave her blessings to the couple and allowed them to meet for their very first date.

The other two grandmothers Lola Tidora (Paolo Ballesteros) and Tinidora (Jose Manalo) helped Yaya in choosing the best outfit for the date and taught her the essential dating etiquette.

The popular segment of Eat Bulaga has trumped rivals’ shows on television and through social media.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Twitter tries to lure in users as it searches for CEO

NEW YORK — Twitter’s most urgent task is naming a new CEO. But the most formidable one is convincing more people that its service is essential, easy to use and not just meant for celebrities, 16-year-olds and news junkies.

To help with the latter, there are big promotions, such as last year’s World Cup push and this year’s expanded content and advertising deal with the NFL to help broaden its audience.

There are also smaller tweaks designed to help people find new features or take advantage of tools they might not have been aware of.

And there’s just explaining the basics.

Recently, some Twitter users got a message saying “Retweet to share what interests you with your followers.”

While elementary advice for some, the note shows Twitter is still trying to teach people how to use its service. Retweeting, in Twitter lingo, means blasting out someone else’s Twitter post to your own followers, sort of like an email forward.

Although its brand is widely known and its service boasts more than 300 million users, Twitter has been struggling to widen its appeal and its user growth has slowed down dramatically. Facebook, in comparison, has nearly 1.5 billion members.

“(We) have unbelievably high brand awareness globally,” said co-founder and interim CEO Jack Dorsey during the company’s most recent conference call to discuss its financial results. “People all over the world know of the power of Twitter, but it’s not clear why they should harness it themselves.”

With user-growth slowing, Twitter’s management has acknowledged that the service is too confusing to navigate. Finance chief Anthony Noto said the company has “not clearly communicated Twitter’s unique value” and as a result, people who don’t use Twitter continue ask why they should.

“We have not delivered on meeting the new potential users’ expectations of Twitter when they try the product,” Noto said in the July 28 call. “Simply said, the product remains too difficult to use. As Jack mentioned, we need to simplify the product so everyone can get value from Twitter faster.”

Dorsey took Twitter’s helm as interim CEO after Dick Costolo stepped down on July 1 amid criticism over Twitter’s disappointing financial performance and stock-price decline. Besides Dorsey, Adam Bain, head of revenue and partnerships, is also seen a top contender for the post of permanent CEO.

Shares of San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. rose $1.10, or 4.4 percent, to $26.13 in afternoon trading Thursday amid a broader market rally. Still, the stock is down more than 27 percent year-to-date and only slightly above the $26 price of its November 2013 initial public stock offering.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Netizens turn to Twitter as Facebook, Instagram bog down

MANILA, Philippines—Social media behemoths Facebook and Instagram crashed at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon (Philippine time).

The meltdown rocked the online world, prompting users to turn to their Twitter accounts and report the incident.

The hashtag “#Facebookdown” surged to become the top trending topic worldwide while the words “Facebook and Instagram” were also in the top 10 worldwide trending topics.

Instagram has acknowledged the outage in a post on its official Twitter account: “We’re aware of an outage affecting Instagram and are working on a fix. Thank you for your patience.”

A massive Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack in the United States caused the servers of Facebook, Instagram and AIM to go down on Tuesday, according to digitalattackmap.com.



US was targeted by a massive amount of data requests, causing the servers of social networking sites to crash due to the load.

Twitter account @Reddit_tech_new tweeted about the DDoS attack after several minutes of the site being down.

Facebook and Instagram were restored at 3:10 p.m. (Philippine time).

Aside from Facebook and Instagram, users noted that dating app Tinder, AIM and HipChat were also down.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Key US military command’s Twitter, YouTube sites hacked

WASHINGTON—Hackers claiming to work on behalf of Islamic State militants seized control of the Twitter and YouTube sites of the military’s US Central Command on Monday. The Pentagon swiftly suspended the sites and said it appears that no classified material was breached.

The hacker group appears to be the same one that is under FBI investigation for hijacking the websites or Twitter feeds of media outlets in the last month, including a Maryland television station and a New Mexico newspaper.

The Central Command Twitter site was filled with threats that said “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back.” Other postings appeared to list names, phone numbers and personal e-mail addresses of military personnel as well as PowerPoint slides and maps.

Most of the material was labeled “FOUO,” which means “For Official Use Only,” but none of it appeared to be classified or sensitive information, suggesting the hackers did not breach classified material.

One of the documents appeared to be slides developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center focused on national security. The slides appeared to depict what it called “scenarios” for conflict with North Korea and China.

An ‘annoyance’

“This is little more than a prank or vandalism. It’s inconvenient and it’s an annoyance. But that’s all it is,” said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. “It in no way compromises our operations in any way shape or form.”

Warren said Pentagon officials are in contact with Twitter and YouTube to ensure that military passwords and other security for such public websites are adequate.

The tweets came shortly after US Central Command posted its own tweets about the US and partner nations continuing to attack Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria and one repeating a report that said France will deploy an aircraft carrier to the fight.

The hackers titled the Central Command Twitter page “CyberCaliphate” with an underline that said “i love you isis.” And the broader message referred to the ongoing airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and threatened, “We broke into your networks and personal devices and know everything about you. You’ll see no mercy infidels. ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base.”

It added: “US soldiers! We’re watching you!”

The intrusion on the military Twitter account carried the same logo, CyberCaliphate name and photo that appeared on the Albuquerque Journal’s website in late December when one of its stories was hacked. And earlier this month, it appeared that the same hackers breached the Journal’s Twitter account and also took over the website and Twitter feed of WBOC-TV in Salisbury, Maryland.

The FBI at the time acknowledged it was looking into the Albuquerque case, and WBOC said it was also in contact with the agency.

Some IS militant videos also were posted on the Central Command’s YouTube site, purporting to show military operations and explosions.

“This is something we’re obviously looking into, and something we take seriously,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. But he cautioned against comparisons to the broader hack attack against Sony. “There’s a pretty significant difference between what is a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account,” he said.

A senior defense official confirmed that the two accounts were compromised and said US Central Command was taking appropriate measures to address the matter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about it publicly on the record.

The military suspended the Central Command Twitter site and terminated the YouTube site. This is not the first time that US government websites or other accounts have been hacked. It was not clear whether the site was attacked by the insurgent group or by sympathizers.–Lolita C. Baldor with Josh Lederman   

source: technology.inquirer.net

Twitter suffers limited blackout

WASHINGTON, United States – Twitter on Sunday experienced a partial outage, the nature of which was not immediately clear, the company said.

“Something is technically wrong,” the microblogging service’s welcome page said. “Thanks for noticing—we’re going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon.”

Users reported problems on the Twitter application for Android and iPhone smartphones, while tweets on the computer application TweetDeck were showing up as having been posted a year ago.

Twitter claimed 284 million active users at the end of September.

Sony earlier this month was hit by a sophisticated hacking attack that stole massive amounts of data from its servers.

The US has blamed North Korea for the attack, with the reclusive state furious at the release of Sony film “The Interview,” which parodies leader Kim Jong-Un.

source: technology.inquirer.net