Category: Twitter

Twitter Launches New Option to Follow Specific Topics, in Addition to User Accounts

On By Alexa SouthardIn Technology, Twitter, UncategorizedLeave a comment
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-launches-new-option-to-follow-specific-topics-in-addition-to-user/566772/

Twitter is now beginning to feature an additional option to follow topics, allowing for more user engagement and tweet discovery across the platform. Once a user follows a topic, the tweets will appear on timelines like those of the people they follow. The new feature also may match you with other topics you may like based on those you follow and engage with.

Over 300 topics will be released and available for users to consume, the subjects varying. One thing that Twitter topics will not cover yet is politics. The platform is staying away from the subject considering how sensitive the unintended consequences could be.

The topics will be curated from machine learning algorithms and human editors. The platform is not relying on algorithms alone, which is a smart move considering they are not always reliable in determining what content is relevant to users or topics. Another helpful addition to the new feature could include being able to share tweets to the people involved in the topics, rather than with all of their followers.

The only way to tell if the new option for topics on Twitter will succeed is to wait and see the reaction of the users, and to see if it falls flat like previous introductions of new features to the platform.

Facebook to limit ads in 2020

On By William StroughIn Consumer behavior, Content Restriction, Fake News, TwitterLeave a comment
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Facebook has recently announced that in 2020 they will start to limit the amount of advertisements a page can release on their site. A crazy idea that Facebook would turn down potential ad revenue and limit advertisers may not seem like such a crazy idea. Coming with the announcement Facebook said that only a small percent of advertisers and companies will be affected by this change. But when asked about why they are starting to limit the amount of ads they are allowing on their site they responded with “quality”.

Facebook plans to increase the quality of the advertisements by limiting the amount of ads a company can run. When a company can run as many ads as they want they produce low quality, potentially dangerous ads that do not serve the public’s best interest. And more importantly running too many ads leads to overall worse “ad performance”. Flooding the market with low quality ads takes away from the high quality ads and tarnishes Facebook’s ads results. When Facebook’s ad results get tarnished it lowers the price per ads and hurts Facebook in the long run. 

One of the latest ways Facebook has joined the movement to rid the platform of fake news. More and more media companies like Facebook and Twitter are starting to take a look at how their platforms are starting to affect the world outside of their platforms. Twitter not running political ads and Facebook limiting ads are ways these companies can keep a check on outside influence and interference with the American People.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-will-implement-limits-on-how-many-ads-a-page-can-run-in-2020/566605/

Apple TV+ Movie “The Bankers”

On By Chris ColeIn Media Covergence, Streaming, TwitterLeave a comment

A few days ago Apple released their trailer for their new movie entitled, “The Banker”. The movie is based on the story of two African American businessmen, Bernard Garrett and Joe Morris, and follows their aspirations of starting a banking empire. Unfortunately, due to societal setbacks, the pair had to employ a working-class white man named Matt Steiner (Nicholas Hoult) to pose as the face of their operation. Mackie and Jackson teach Steiner how to socialize with other rich white men and create deals they can’t due to their skin color. According to HYPEBEAST, The Banker will serve as Apple TV+’s first original film and Oscar contender. Many Marvel fans are excited to see Anthony Mackie (Falcon) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) as the leads in this movie. As a fan of both actors and a fan of the story, I hope that this film is historically accurate and not merely based on the outline of the story; two black men buy a bank. I say all of this because recently another black biopic was released, Tubman, which was very loosely based on the story of Harriet Tubman. The only thing that was true in the movie was that there was a woman named Harriet Tubman… most of the characters on the screen and the conversations depicted were fabricated. This angered me because Harriet Tubman was an amazing woman who lived an extraordinary life. The movie that came out about her did more of an injustice to its audience by not framing the story around the truth. Given the problems with race that we have today. and have always had, it is important to see the world and its history for what it truly is. For those excited to see the Banker, make sure you check it out when it releases in theaters on December 6 and will release on Apple TV+ in January.

Twitter Will Ban All Political Ads, C.E.O. Jack Dorsey Says

On By Alexa SouthardIn Political, Twitter, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/technology/twitter-political-ads-ban.html

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has made an important decision in terms of the social media platform by banning all political advertisements. Dorsey believes the spread of fake news and political advertisements jeopardize democracy. This is in contrast of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s stance on the issue, who claims Facebook will continue to receive and promote political ads, regardless of their truthfulness or falsehood.

Dorsey claims political messages should “be earned, not bought”. Responses to this decision have been mixed, while Conservatives are outraged and Democrats are in favor. Trump’s campaign manager claimed it would be a major negative decision for Twitter’s stockholders, which has since been refuted, claiming the lack of political ads will not significantly impact the outlet’s revenue. Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez concluded that if social media outlets are not going to run basic fact checking on the political ads, they should not be allowed to be posted at all. I agree with this statement, especially considering the widespread misinformation on Facebook for profit and the impact it has on polarizing our country in particular.

Even when Twitter did allow political advertisements, it required verification of the advertisers. The ban will not impede on free speech, which can include toxicity. Another challenge Twitter will experience will be distinguishing what ads will be considered political or not. Twitter’ defines political ads as “advocates for or against legislative issues of national importance,” and this would be including immigration and health care. In my opinion, this will not be entirely detrimental to the spread of information to the masses, but will inhibit the payment for the spread of this information or bias.

I believe Twitter is making an important step on the attack on fake news in this country, and is setting the precedent for other outlets to consider what they can do to stop the spread of misinformation to no longer compromise democracy.

Twitter Bans Political Ads for 2020 Election

On By grosso611In Twitter1 Comment
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It was announced on Wednesday that Twitter will be banning all political ads regarding the 2020 election in hopes to counter the spread of fake news and misinformation. Starting in November, Twitter will no longer allow political ads from the any source, including legitimate political actors and figures.

In a series of tweets regarding the ban, CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey stated, “While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions.” Dorsey is well aware of the power of tailored ads in the internet landscape, so instead of marking ads like they did in June, he decided to remove the ads from the equation. Interestingly enough, Twitter has decided not completely to remove past ads or tweets already on the platform, but they will be marking them down as fake or political.

This article interests me because it’s one of the first times a tech company has decided to take a stand against false advertisements. Facebook took a different approach stating that they shouldn’t be a platform of political agendas, which is funny because Facebook is the largest online social media site which probably has the most ads. I think Twitter’s new rules will be an improvement to the platform considering all the people who have a desire to see politics when scrolling through social media. It’s only a matter of time when every social media company will have to address this issue as the election looms closer every day.

Twitter defends Trump

On By William StroughIn Censorship, Technology, Twitter1 Comment
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/technology/trump-twitter-account.html

Seemingly the backbone to the political landscape we currently have, Twitter has to defend the president from democrats who look to have the president’s account removed from the platform. President Trump has been locking horns with democrats over the impending impeachment inquiry of Trump. He has not been kind when going to twitter to voice his opinion on the matter, claiming the impeachment was a “coup” intended to strip Americans of their rights. Democrats look to suspend his Twitter account on the basis that his tweets are “blatant threats” that violate Twitter’s policies. 

Twitter has since taken a stand in favor of President Trump saying that Twitter has a right to the people to bend the rules for world leaders. Twitter cites that it is for the best interest of the public to keep world leader’s Twitter accounts active even though they may appear to violate Twitter’s own policies. Twitter has said that they would only take action against Trump or any world leader if they, “used their account to threaten an indiviual, promote terrorism or self-harm, or post private information like a phone number.” Twitter then followed up their defence of the president with another statement, “The accounts of world leaders are not above our policies entirely, presently, direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules.”

This shows that Twitter is taking a stand not towards democrats or any political party but taking a stand protecting the public. We deserve and I think entitled to hear what the president is tweeting no matter what it is. It helps the public know what is going on, not only for the president, but the entire country. Protecting this kind of speech is dangerous but it serves the public by preserving those tweets for all of us.

Superfans: A Love Story

On By andreabecassisIn Consumer behavior, Technology, TwitterLeave a comment

From “Star Wars” to “Game of Thrones,” fans have more power than ever to push back. But is fandom becoming as toxic as politics?

Article & Photo: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/16/superfans-a-love-story

This article talks about the power that fans and fandoms have across social media and develops a story about these groups of people that recognizes both the overly fanatic and the more humanistic side of the pop-culture landscape.

It starts out by telling the story of Wanna Thompson, a freelance music journalist, and how her tweet about Nicki Minaj needing to be more mature in her lyrics created such backlash from her fans that she lost her internship and had her daughter’s face photoshopped onto a gorilla’s body. After even getting a nasty DM from Nicki Minaj’s official twitter account, Thompson was baffled at how one single tweet could bring her so many problems. The author continues by citing other examples of fandom power such as the extreme anger expressed by fans of Game of Thrones at the series finale and Star Wars’ Last Jedi.  

Besides the fact that it is quite funny and absurd, I enjoyed reading this article as a reflection of the increased power of audiences and the importance to create content that satisfies them. The story was good in emphasizing that wide, varied audiences are shrinking while more dedicated and demanding fandoms are rising. A media company’s main concern these days should be to write plots that truly fulfill the expectations of fans, since “there are certain things where you should listen to them, because they’re smarter than maybe the super-high-up execs are going to think.” Essentially, if companies want to effectively profit from their creations, they should work on finding ways to gather audience input on the development of their stories.

Aspiring psychotherapist Michael Asuncion contributed to the article by stating that “there are three needs that all people have: they want to be seen, they want to be heard, and they want to be valued.” All these needs have clearly been channeled into their favorite movies, series, books and TV shows.

What does #BoycottMulan mean for the film’s box market success?

On By tuj52701templeeduIn Consumer behavior, TwitterLeave a comment

Currently, there’s been a significant increase in criticism from international human right groups concerning the ways in which police are handling confrontations between protesters and the public in Hong Kong, China.

Celebrities are quite notorious for taking to social media to speak out against police brutality, and social issues in general. A little while back, Crystal Liu Yifei, – the actress who will be starring in Disney’s live action version of Mulan, posted a message of support for the Hong Kong police force over Chinese social media. Her post then ignited a wave controversy, and attracted the attention of those in Hong Kong as well as pro-democracy sympathizers from other parts of the world, prompting a #boycottmulan campaign on twitter.

According to wikipedia, Liu’s godfather is Chen Jinfe , the Chairman of Beijing Tongchan Investment Group, so it comes as no surprise that she would be in support of the mainland’s interests.

One of Disney’s intents with the film Mulan is to attract Chinese audiences, and although some may think the actresses comments will dampen Disney’s success with China, it is important to remember that Hong Kong’s box market makes up only a small percentage of Disney’s box market worth in China.

That being said, many of those in the Weste are quite aware of what’s going on in China, support the protests, and are thus, are equally bothered by the actress’s comments. For instance, a quick look up of #boycottMulan on Tumblr’s search engine alone demonstrates that there are a handful of potential viewers in the US who’ve been put off of seeing Disney’s Live Action Mulan precisely because of the actresses comments.

I think if anything Liu’s comments has resulted in bad publicity for the film, though the full extent I think it’ll have on Mulan in terms of the film’s success in the West, is still something I remain unsure of.

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/16/20808691/boycott-mulan-disney-live-action-remake-hong-kong-protests