The U.K. media is atwitter this weekend over a controversy about press gag-orders known as “super-injunctions” that have recently been disobeyed on Twitter. It’s an unlikely combination of celebrities, sex, social media, and press freedoms that has exploded into a scandal that led Twitter this week to break its U.K. traffic record …
Twitter and Facebook Know Where You’ve Been Online? Do Not Like
For those who like to Like things on Facebook or tweet them to friends, beware: You’re telling your social media much more about you than you might think.
A study carried out on behalf of the Wall Street Journal found that “Like” and “Tweet” widgets on websites track users’ movements across the internet even when they’re not used, …
Why Do We Care So Deeply About Brands like Twitter and Apple?
Yesterday, Bill Keller of the New York Times struck a nerve with his post on the Twitter trap he laid a few days prior; particularly the way it eats into its users’ “normal” social interactions and its potential to “make you stupid.” Responses from Twitter’s loyalists across the web were swift, thorough, and at times brash – …
Access Denied: Twitter Changes Login Rules for Apps
Twitter’s just announced changes to the way third party clients have to connect users to the service, and has upset a few apple carts along the way.
In an official announcement headlined Mission: Permission, Twitter’s Jodi Olsen wrote:
“Beginning today, we’re giving you more control over what information you share with third-party
…
Follow the Leader: Lady Gaga Breaks 10 Million Twitter Followers
Lady Gaga must be feeling good about her promotional prospects for new album Born This Way. Not only has she taken over social media gaming to break ground for GagaVille, but she’s also just become the first person on Twitter to gain 10,000,000 followers.
Her ten millionth follower arrived around midnight on May 15th, and Gaga …
Twitter Promises to ‘Protect the Safety of Any Person,’ but Will It Hand Over Taliban Info?
In January, Wired noted that “Twitter beta-tested a spine.”
During the height of the WikiLeaks bruhaha, the U.S. government slapped the company with a court order, demanding user information of a few of the key WikiLeaks conspirators, including Pfc. Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. Instead of coughing up the information (mainly …
Visually Graph Data in Twitter with Sparktweets
Perhaps you’ve seen them popping up in your own timeline: insular, blocky chunks of bar graph data curiously sent out by the people you follow. These visual representations are actually lines of unicode, or standardized web terms used to represent text. On Twitter they’ve been coined Spark Tweets, and they’re the brainchild of two Wall …
The Taliban Are On Twitter
Due to a strict adherence to Sharia law, the Taliban have long shunned modern technology, particularly personal televisions and computers. But in the wake of a recent offensive campaign in the Afghan city of Kandahar, the group has emerged on a new, if unlikely, modern platform: Twitter.
At the the time of writing this, the account in …
48% of British Workplaces Ban Social Media
In the British workplace, time is money, and updating the Internet on your life 140 characters at a time is a luxury businesses apparently can’t afford. New research carried out by HCL Technologies and PR company Lewis Communications has discovered that 48% of British companies have banned employees from using Twitter and Facebook at …
Twitpic Says Sorry for Copyright Confusion
Twitter image service Twitpic today apologized after an update to its terms and conditions implied that it claimed ownership of all images uploaded to its servers, and could sell them on without the original photographer’s permission.
After a day of protest online, Twitpic rushed to amend its terms page, and said sorry to users on its …
Twitter Ignores British Legal ‘Superinjunctions’ – or Does It?
Twitter has found itself at the center of a legal battle in the U.K. this weekend after one Twitter user apparently “outed” celebrities who have legally prevented news outlets from reporting specific rumors and/or stories.
According to the Register, there are around 35 “superinjunctions” in place preventing British news outlets from …
Study: Online News Is Casual, Social and Not Video
The future of online news is social… and surprisingly casual. The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism has released results of a study into audience behavior for the top 25 news sites in the U.S., and those results underline existing wisdom and offer a new idea of who is reading their news online, and how often, …