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Twitter security flaw uses text spoofing to hijack UK accounts
A Twitter security flaw gives hackers a way to post unauthorized tweets via text messaging, and British cybersecurity firm Insinia has proven its existence by hijacking some celebrities' accounts. The company was able to post tweets as other people without having to enter their passwords by spoofing their mobile numbers. It's easy to forget the feature if you have data and a smartphone, but Twitter still allows you to tweet via SMS. You simply have to link your digits to your account and then text what you want to post to a number Twitter designated for your country and carrier.
Didn’t think Facebook could get any worse? Think again.
Just about 24 hours ago, we published a story recapping Facebook's terrible 2018. But the year isn't over, and it looks like the drama is going to continue until the bitter end. According to an investigation by The New York Times that cites interviews with more than 60 people, including former Facebook employees, the company gave Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Spotify and other tech firms far greater access to user data than previously disclosed. Earlier this month, the paper reported how some of these companies were receiving favored access to people's information, but we didn't know it was allegedly giving certain ones the ability to read, write and delete private messages.
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.
More people get their news from social media than newspapers
For the first time since the Pew Research Center began tracking how adults in the US get their news, social media has edged out print newspapers. In a survey conducted earlier this year, 20 percent of adults said they often get news via social media while just 16 percent said the same about print newspapers. However, neither are as popular as radio, news websites or television. Television topped the list, with 49 percent of respondents saying they get news from TV often while 33 percent and 26 percent of respondents said news websites and radio were significant news sources for them.
Facebook’s internal documents show its ruthlessness
As expected, the UK Parliament has released a set of internal Facebook emails that were seized as part of its investigation into the company's data-privacy practices. The 250-page document, which includes conversations between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other high-level executives, is a window into the social media giant's ruthless thinking from 2012 to 2015 -- a period of time when it was growing (and collecting user data) at an unstoppable rate. While Facebook was white-listing companies like Airbnb, Lyft and Netflix to get special access to people's information in 2013, it went out of its way to block competitors such as Vine from using its tools.
Survey says teens find some benefit from social media
The Pew Research Center has already given us a look into teens' social media and smartphone use, and in a new survey it's sharing some of the more positive effects of social media, as experienced by teens. While these younger social media users noted some negative aspects -- like feeling overwhelmed by drama and the pressure to post content that will generate likes and comments or make them look good -- more teens reported a number of benefits of participating in social networks.
DJ Khaled and Floyd Mayweather fined for illegally promoting ICOs
Last year the SEC issued a warning to celebrities promoting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency offerings, saying they "must disclose the nature, scope, and amount of compensation received in exchange for the promotion." That warning carried a bit more bite than other advisories about sponsored posts on social media, owing to the involvement of federal securities laws. A failure to heed that warning has cost two high-profile promoters of one particularly scammy initial coin offering (ICO): DJ Khaled and boxer Floyd Mayweather. Both took money to promote Centra Tech, an ICO that eventually led to fraud charges for several of its masterminds. The SEC found that Mayweather took $100,000 to promote the Centra token, as well as $200,000 to promote two other ICOs, in posts like an Instagram message where he told his millions of followers "You can call me Floyd Crypto Mayweather from now on." DJ Khaled was paid $50,000 to promote Centra Tech -- facts neither mentioned in their social media posts. While they avoided admitting any wrongdoing, both will have to give up the money they were paid, along with an additional $300,000 penalty for Mayweather to go with a $100,000 fine for DJ Khaled (plus interest). While this year's drop in prices for Bitcoin and other tokens has taken a lot of the steam out of social media posts promising "get rich quick" ICOs, the SEC said its investigation is ongoing, and it's possible these won't be the last social media marketers targeted for their activity. Of course it could be worse -- they could've been promoting another Fyre Festival.
Luxury resort bans gadgets at swimming pool to create guest 'haven'
Look, as great as it is to have all these fancy laptops and smartphones around us, sometimes we can become too attached to them. And when you're on vacation, you just have to find a way to break free from technology. That's why a luxury resort in Bali, Indonesia is banning electronic devices from one of its swimming pools. With its "In the Moment" campaign, the five-star Ayana Resort & Spa wants to encourage its guests to unplug and fully enjoy their me-time, which it feels can be more easily accomplished if they're not worrying about calls, checking email or what's happening on social media.
Once again, Facebook has a lot of explaining to do
Just when you thought things couldn't get worse for Facebook, The New York Times has come out with a bombshell exposé of the company's tumultuous last two years. That, of course, includes its handling (er, mishandling) of the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal and other controversies, like the lack of transparency around Russian interference on its site leading up to the 2016 US presidential election. The paper says it spoke with more than 50 people, including current and former Facebook employees, who detailed the company's efforts to contain, deny and deflect negative stories that came its way.
Study shows that social media limits made people feel less lonely
Humans have a complex relationship with social media platforms. They could be a way to reconnect with old friends and to grow closer to current ones, but they could trigger feelings of loneliness. Now, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania say they've confirmed the "causal link between time spent on [Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat] and decreased well-being." There have been many surveys and studies examining the effects of social media on users' mental health over the years, but according to the researchers, "a causal connection had never been proven" before.
Facebook’s pop-up store has everything from clothes to burger sauce
The last thing you might expect to find inside a Macy's store is a space decorated by Facebook. But that's exactly what people in Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh and New York City will see when they visit The Market, a curated collection of established and up-and-coming brands that Macy's features as a shop-within-a-shop at select locations. Through a partnership with the retailer, Facebook this week launched its first-ever pop-up store, which is going to put a spin on The Market and feature 100 "digital-native" brands inside Macy's. Digital native, essentially, means they've either advertised on Facebook or Instagram.
Snapchat pushes voters toward the nearest polling place
Snap said its surprisingly successful voter registration campaign helped 418,000 people register in the space of a two-week period. Now, the ephemeral messaging app is following that up with an initiative that encourages those users (and other voters) to actually go to the polls. Starting today until November 6th, you'll be able to decorate your snaps with special Election-related face lenses and filters, including one that says "I Voted." According to Snap, they were designed to spread the word and encourage other users to vote, as well.
Influencer Luka Sabbat sued for not shilling Spectacles on Instagram
Luka Sabbat, a social media influencer with 1.4 million Instagram followers, is being sued for failure to, well, influence. According to a lawsuit filed by PR Consulting Inc., Sabbat breached a $60,000 contract he signed to promote Snap Spectacles on -- wait for it -- Instagram. The public relations agency said that, as part of the deal, he was supposed to post three Instagram Stories and one picture on his account. But, as it turns out, Sabbat didn't fulfill his end of the deal: PR Consulting Inc. claims he only made one Instagram story and that the post he put up on his feed wasn't submitted to it for approval.
Facebook is still growing at a slow but steady pace
It feels like for the better part of the past two years, every few months we talk about how Facebook hasn't been having an easy time. In 2018 alone, the company's faced several problems, such as the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal and, of course, the recent data breach that exposed private data of 29 million Facebook users. While we won't see the effects of the latter until next quarter, if at all, Facebook has kept raking in cash and users despite everything -- even if its growth has slowed down a bit. For Q3 2018, Facebook reports it has grown to 2.27 billion monthly active users, a 10 percent year-over-year increase, which is complemented by $13.78 billion in revenue.
For Twitter, 'sorry' seems to be the easiest word
Two weeks before Cesar Sayoc was arrested for mailing 13 pipe bombs (and counting) to various Democratic politicians and supporters, including President Barack Obama, he was threatening people on Twitter who opposed his nationalist, pro-Trump views. In a tweet to political analyst Rochelle Ritchie on October 11th, which he sent from one of two Twitter accounts that have since been suspended, he said she should hug her "loved ones real close every time" she left home. "So you like [to] make threats. We Unconquered Seminole Tribe will answer your threats. We have nice silent Air boat ride for you here on our land Everglades Swamp. We will see u 4 sure," he added. Ritchie reported the tweet, only to be told by Twitter that it did not violate its terms of service.
Americans fear they can’t identify social media bots
A new poll from the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that studies trends, found that many Americans fear they cannot discern a bot from an actual person on social media. This study did not tackle the percentage of people who have been fooled by bots, but more simply, what general knowledge and awareness Americans have. About half -- 47 percent -- of the people who've heard of bots feel confident or somewhat confident that they can recognize one on social media. Only seven percent felt they were very confident. This is contrast with another study done by Pew in December of 2016 that found 84 percent of Americans felt they could readily recognize fake news. According to the study, about 66 percent of Americans have heard of social media bots-- to at least some extent -- and are aware of their existence. Another 34 percent had never heard of bots at all. The margin of error for the 4,581-person sample was 2.4 percentage points.
Facebook says recent data breach wasn't 'related to the midterms'
Even though the number of users affected by Facebook's most recent hack was lowered to 29 million, from 50 million, it's still safe to say the attack was worse than originally thought. That's because we now know that the breach, which Facebook revealed a couple of weeks ago, exposed very detailed information of 14 million of those users, including their username, birthdate, gender, location, relationship status, religion, hometown, self-reported current city, education, work, the devices they used to access Facebook and the last 10 places they checked into (or were tagged in) on the site. The attackers, whose identities Facebook won't reveal because of an ongoing FBI investigation, were also able to view which people/Pages were followed by these 14 million users, as well as their 15 most recent searches on Facebook.
Creator of doomed Fyre Festival gets six-year prison sentence
Billy McFarland, the founder of the disastrous Fyre Festival from 2017, has been sentenced to six years in a federal prison, The New York Times reports. The 26-year-old was found guilty of defrauding investors, an act he admitted to earlier this year. McFarland told prosecutors then that Fyre Media got $26 million from lenders by lying and forging documents, for what was then billed as "the cultural experience of the decade." As we know now, though, Fyre Festival ended up being the completely opposite of that, leaving attendees stranded at airports and eating sad cheese sandwiches instead of the five-star meals McFarland and his group promised them.
Google+ is dead, but its legacy lives on
Following the revelation of a security vulnerability that exposed the private data of up to 500,000 Google+ users, Google is finally ready to pull the plug on the consumer version of its troubled social network. Simply put, the company said Monday, Google+ has not achieved the broad consumer or developer adoption it had hoped for. Google even said that 90 percent of Google+ user sessions were lasting less than five seconds. This sums up the sad state of a service that, when it launched in 2011, Google dreamed of turning into a serious Facebook competitor.
Netflix is adapting edgy social media reality TV show 'The Circle'
Social media-inspired reality TV show The Circle is coming to Netflix. First launched in the UK in September, the unscripted show sees eight people kept in isolation, only able to communicate with one another through The Circle, a faux-social media platform. A popularity contest ensues, and one by one the players are "blocked" by the group, with the last person standing winning a hefty cash prize.