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Japanese billionaire's 'free cash' tweet smashes Twitter's retweet record
Japanese billionaire and future SpaceX lunar orbit tourist Yusaku Maezawa has nabbed the record for most retweeted tweet ever. While previous record holder Carter Wilkerson's tweet came down to an appetite for Wendy's chicken nuggets, Maezawa's post won out because of our collective hunger for free cash.
Twitter's chronological timeline button is here to stay
Nearly two months ago, Twitter began testing a feature that made it easier for users to see the latest tweets on their feed first, rather than the ones pushed by the company's algorithm. It's a toggle dressed as a sparkle icon that lives above the home timeline, which keeps you from having to go deep into your Twitter settings to get that purely chronological view. Certain iOS users have had access to this since October, but today Twitter is making the change permanent and rolling it out to everyone on Apple's platform. Twitter's Android app as well as its website are getting the new magic button, too, but that won't be coming until after the holidays.
Elon Musk's next move? Teasing the SEC on Twitter
Just days after announcing a settlement with the SEC that would cost him $20 million and his spot as chairman of the board, this afternoon Elon Musk tweeted "Just want to (say) that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work. And the name change is so on point!" As a reminder, the Securities and Exchange Commission had accused him of "false and misleading public statements and omissions" based on his tweets about having "funding secured" to make Tesla a private company.
The US government comes for Google, Facebook, and Twitter
Facebook, Twitter, and Google were threatened by lawmakers from three distinct quarters on Wednesday. A leaked email from the largest US telecom lobbying group tells us where this is headed. One threat came during testimony from Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey to Congress when Senator Mark Warner told the pair of executives that "Congress is going to have to take action here. The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end."
Elon Musk says 'the worst is over' for Tesla
Elon Musk said he's had an "excruciating" year so far, often working 120-hour weeks to get Tesla Model 3 production on track, according to a New York Times interview. He also described the sequence of events that led to his infamous "taking Tesla private" tweet but said "I was not on weed, to be clear." In the same article, the NYT reported that Tesla is actively recruiting a second-in-command, and Musk said the company approached Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg about the position a couple of years ago.
How to delete old tweets so you don't get fired
This past Friday, Disney shocked fans of the Marvel Comic Universe with a stunning announcement that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director James Gunn had been fired from the project after decade-old offensive tweets of his had been uncovered. Regardless of the controversy surrounding how the tweets were unearthed (by right-wing troll Mike Cernovich) or whether Disney's drastic response was warranted, the fact remains that this entire episode could have been avoided with some basic, and often free, social-media housekeeping. It's called "deleting your old tweets so you don't lose your job once you get famous" and it's really easy to do.
Donald Trump really wants to be allowed to block people on Twitter
If there's one thing President Donald Trump has made clear during his time in office so far, it's that he's a big fan of Twitter. And that includes -- as recent legal battles demonstrate -- blocking users that disagree with his views. And even though last month a federal judge ruled that doing this constituted a violation of the First Amendment, it seems it's a pretty important feature for Trump, as the US Justice Department now says it will appeal that ruling.
Elon Musk may have violated US labor laws during tweet storm
When Elon Musk had a twitter meltdown a few days ago in response to bad press about Tesla factory safety, he may have actually said something illegal. According to Bloomberg, the United Auto Workers union is asking a federal labor board to investigate a tweet by Musk that could be interpreted as threatening to take away stock options if employees join a union. It's illegal for an employer to threaten retaliation for organizing.
Embedding a tweet could violate copyright
If you've ever embedded a tweet on your blog, that could be a copyright violation, according to a New York federal court ruling. Numerous sites, including Time, Yahoo (which is part of Oath, Engadget's parent company) and Breitbart published stories with an embedded tweet containing an image of NFL star Tom Brady. The tweet was posted by another party, but the photographer who took the photo accused the news sites of copyright infringement for embedding it. The judge agreed, saying their actions "violated plaintiff's exclusive display right."
Tweet back to live video through your Apple TV
The Twitter app came to Apple TV a year ago, bringing the social network's various video streams to your big screen television set. It added support for Twitter's live 360-degree video this past May, too. Now a new update will give you the power to tweet replies to live Twitter videos on your Apple TV via a connected iPhone or iPad.
Twitter’s ‘Happening Now’ feature groups tweets about ongoing events
Twitter is introducing a new feature to timelines that will keep you up to date on particular ongoing events. At the top of your timeline, you'll start to see a Happening Now label that will show you all of the events and current topics Twitter thinks you're interested in, which when clicked, will take you to tweets people have posted about them.
Twitter workarounds give anyone 280 characters to play with
As you may be aware, Twitter is currently trialing an expanded character count. Yes, the platform known for restrictive tweets, is giving select users 280 characters to play around with, up from its default 140. If you're not one of the lucky few with access to the new feature, there may still be hope -- as long as you're willing to tinker with your browser, that is. A few enterprising users have found a bunch of workarounds that will double your tweet character count to the 280 limit Twitter is currently experimenting with.
Barack Obama breaks the record for most-liked Tweet
Barack Obama's August 13th tweet promoting racial and religious tolerance has become the most liked of all time, Twitter says. The message -- apparently in response to the death of a woman at Charlottesville neo-Nazi marches -- quotes Nelson Mandela and reads, "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion." So far, it has hit three million likes, easily surpassing Ariana Grande's 2.7 million-like-tweet following the bombing of her Manchester, UK concert that killed 23.
Trump sued for blocking users on Twitter
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University warned President Trump to stop blocking Twitter users. The freedom of speech organization sent the president a letter last month arguing that when Twitter is used by a President, it operates as a "designated public forum" like a city council or school board meeting. When blocking users for mocking or critical tweets, it argues, the president is violating their First Amendment rights. While the letter did not explicitly promise legal action, the implication was clear. Now, the same institute has filed suit, asserting that President Trump and "his communications team are violating the First Amendment by blocking individuals from the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account because they criticized the president or his policies."
The White House is saving all of Trump's deleted tweets
Five days after Trump's inauguration, news leaked that his staff was continuing to use email linked to a private server. While that's not illegal (though hypocritical, given Hillary's election pillorying), it requires those using non-government emails to disclose them. If that doesn't happen -- if those messages aren't forwarded to an official account and stored for posterity -- the offender violates the Presidential Records Act. It seems the same could apply to Trump's tweets: The White House has agreed to the US National Archives' request that they save every one, including those he deletes.
Twitter removes @replies from 140-character limit
While many have embraced the short and sweet nature of Twitter's 140-character limit, the restriction can be something of a pain. So last year, Twitter made a few changes to help you express more with less. For example, it's now possible to quote a retweet without it affecting your character count, and you can attach images and polls without worrying about the restraint as well. Today, Twitter is introducing yet another change: you can now reply to someone or a group of people without those @usernames taking up precious space.
New York Times reporters' tweets will appear in its paper edition
The pages just inside the print edition of The New York Times had previously been used to list corrections and article summaries for later stories. Last week, the newspaper announced a shakeup that redesigned A2 and A3 into landing pages featuring noteworthy facts from the day's stories, historical headlines from the paper's past and behind-the-scenes looks at its journalistic endeavors. But the new front section will also include a first for the Gray Lady: Featuring its reporters' tweets in newsprint.
Twitter boss says edit tweet feature is 'definitely needed'
CEO Jack Dorsey asked Twitter users what improvements they most wanted to see, and as you'd expect, he got an avalanche of replies -- over 5,700 so far. The most requested feature was the ability to edit tweets after you've sent them, rather than having to delete and start again. Dorsey agreed that "a form of edit is def needed," and that the company is "thinking a lot about it." However, he thinks anything beyond quick edits would require a changelog, and some users suggested any edits would worsen trust issues with the site.
Twitter accidentally killed @ names in replies on iOS today
If you use the official Twitter iOS app, you may have noticed something missing today: @username handles in replies. I wasn't a fan of the reworked style when it popped up on my Android device recently, and neither were many of the people affected by the change today. The one upside however, was that since @names no longer applied to the character count, some users created a massive "Twitter canoe" mentioning everyone they could. Anyway, it has now reverted back to normal for all users, and in a tweet, the company explained: "an experiment around replies accidentally went out to everyone on iOS briefly."
Twitter now ranks your conversations based on who replies
Threaded conversations are some of the best interactions you can have on Twitter -- with dozens of users chattering away 140 characters at a time. Unless you're already in a conversation, however, it can be hard to tell if a tweet is getting a lot of social interaction. Now, it's a little easier: Twitter has added a reply counter and a 'conversation ranking' to its mobile apps designed to push the most relevant discussions to the top of a tweet thread.
