Ken Bone may have violated FTC rules with Uber tweet
Ken Bone’s overnight fame looks to have already soured. As VICE reports, Bone’s tweet for the UBERSelect service in St. Louis, where last Sunday’s presidential debate was held, did not include any indication that the message was sponsored. This is a big no-no with the Federal Trade Commission — just ask Kim Kardashian.
Everyone wants to know if I’ve decided… and I have. uberSELECT helps you ride in style like me https://t.co/HyOS8z9SRd
— Ken Bone (@kenbone18) October 13, 2016
The FTC has become increasingly stringent with its regulation of marketing and advertising on social media in recent months, and has clear rules on the matter. “The FTC isn’t mandating the specific wording of disclosures,” the FTC guidelines read. However the commission goes on to suggest using “Sponsored”, “Promotion”, “Paid Ad” or just “#ad” are all acceptable notifiers which all take up less than 1/14th of the tweet’s total space.
What both companies and their endorsers need to do, lawyer William I Rothbard told Engadget, is “be aware of and comply with the FTC’s endorsement guidelines.” These guidelines demand the disclosure of “material connections” between the parties. “If Mr Bone was compensated in some way by Uber,” Rothbard continued, “and there wasn’t a disclosure of that material connection, those tweets would be in violation of the FTC guidelines.”
And while there isn’t a fine, per se, for this sort of infraction, the FTC can empower law enforcement to confiscate any monies paid by Uber to Bone for his endorsement, though the FTC rarely actually pursued such action in the past, according to Rothbard. Plus, as VICE discovered, Bone was not paid in cash, but rather Uber credits. And this is why celebrities, even flash-in-the-pan amateurs like Bone, need to do their due diligence before trying to capitalize on their instant fame.
TImothy J. Seppala contributed to this report.
Source: Vice
Twitter picks horse racing for its first global sports stream
Twitter has made a big deal out of streaming sports in the US, but anywhere else? Not so much, unless you count a Wimbledon experience that avoided showing the live games themselves. However, that’s changing today. The social network has unveiled a deal with the Victoria Racing Club to livestream Australia’s Melbourne Cup worldwide — its first streaming partnership beyond the US. You can watch the horse racing on Twitter’s website or its official apps. You may need to set an alarm if you live on the other side of the planet, though, as the pre-event coverage kicks off November 1st at 2:30PM Australian Eastern Daylight Time (11:30PM Eastern in the Americas).
It’s a modest start to Twitter’s international livestreaming deals (the core race broadcast lasts for an hour), but an important one. Twitter is both trying to define itself and court potential buyers, and becoming a go-to destination for live sports events could help achieve both ends. The challenge will be to score these deals on a frequent-enough basis that your instinct is to go to Twitter first.
Source: Twitter Blog, Flemington
4Chan may have wiped Clinton campaign chief’s iPhone
Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief, John Podesta, might be having a particularly lousy week. In the wake of WikiLeaks dumps revealing Podesta’s email and the sensitive account details inside, intruders (apparently from 4Chan’s /pol board) claim to have hijacked his iCloud account and wiped his iOS devices. They may have been the ones who briefly compromised his Twitter account, too. Podesta’s social account is back in running order, but it’s not certain what happened to his iPhone and iPad.
As with earlier high-profile iCloud intrusions, this doesn’t appear to be a hack. Instead, the intruders took advantage of what knowledge WikiLeaks offered to reset passwords and take control. That suggests that Podesta wasn’t using two-factor authentication to protect his accounts — an odd oversight for someone long considered a high-profile target, especially when WikiLeaks data has circulated for days.
It’s difficult to know whether or not 4chan members are directly responsible, or did as much damage as they claimed they did. The screenshots are plausible, but it’s easy to imagine someone on the prank-prone site whipping up faked images to look like a champion to Clinton haters. We’ve reached out to the Clinton campaign to see if it can confirm any details and say what it’s doing next, although Podesta has already blamed the Russian government for the hack that led to the email breach. Whatever it says, it’s safe to presume that the campaign will be double-checking its security measures.
Apparently some asshole from anonymous compromised Podesta’s Apple account using creds in WL dump and remotely wiped his phone. V cruel. pic.twitter.com/ZdfWf2NkuY
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) October 13, 2016
Via: Ars Technica, The Verge
Source: Pwn All The Things (Twitter 1), (2), (3)
Streaming to Periscope is no longer confined to phones
Twitter’s live-streaming service is moving beyond the phone. Today, Periscope CEO, Kayvon Beykpour, announced that Periscope will stream videos from, well anything. The new “Producer” feature is aimed at content creators who might not want to be limited to just streaming from their phone.
In the near future, users can point their live streams to the Periscope servers whether it comes from a handset, drone or other connected camera. Those videos then show up on a user’s account as if they were shot on a phone. The difference being that the video can originate from a high-end camera, computer or hardware encoder (which opens this up to gaming streams, too). If the images can be streamed to a URL, it can be sent to Periscope.
During a demo, Periscope user Alex Pettit showed how using OBS Studio (an open source video streaming app for macOS, Linux and Windows) he could add graphics, footage from his phone, and pre-roll to this Periscope feed.
In fact, Periscope noted that companies like TechCrunch, Disney, Louis Vuitton, CBS 12, Telemundo and others have been beta-testing Producer for the past six weeks. While power users like Pettit and content-creating companies will start using the feature, it’s unlikely your average streamer is going move away from the phone and start using higher quality equipment for streams.
Beykpour notes that those who use this new feature will be a very small subset of users. “There are far more people who are interested in sharing what is happening in the world with their phones,” he said.
This isn’t the first time the company has added support for something other than phone. GoPro cameras have been able to stream to the app since January.
Beykpour says the company thinks it’s about how viewers interact with live video that’s important. Today’s announcement is just an additional way to get that video onto Periscope’s platform. “It’s a natural evolution for us to cover as wide of a spectrum as possible,” Beykpour said.
The new feature will begin rolling out very slowly and interested users will initially have to fill out a questionnaire to be whitelisted and have the feature added to their app. No solid timeline on when the feature will be available to everyone. Plus at launch, it’s iOS only but engineer Sara Haider said that Android support was coming.
Source: Periscope
Twitter teams with BuzzFeed for a live election night stream
Twitter doesn’t want its live US election coverage to stop with the debates. It’s partnering with BuzzFeed News on a show for election night, November 8th. Visit Twitter starting at 6PM Eastern and you’ll get a steady stream of results and analysis as the votes pour in. And you might have reason to tune in through the social network instead of resorting to TV. The two companies are working with volunteer data outfit Decision Desk HQ to make calls on election results instead of leaning on a single source, like conventional broadcasters.
Be ready for the occasional interruption. BuzzFeed and Twitter will roll “TV style” commercials in between segments, so you’re not quite escaping the usual election night experience. Nonetheless, this could be more than a little helpful if you want to keep up with the vote wherever you happen to be.
Source: PR Newswire, Decision Desk HQ
Twitter Testing Out Expanded ‘Moments’ Tab Now Called ‘Explore’
Twitter is opening up a new “Explore” tab on iOS and Android to a select group of users of its service. The new section is aimed at “content discovery” and showcases trending topics and simplified search tools in addition to “Moments,” which the tab was previously dedicated to (via Mashable).
Moments launched a year ago this month with the purpose of showing users stories and conversations unfolding on the service in differing categories. The tab had sections like “Entertainment” and “Sports,” with individual Moments changing throughout the day as big events occurred.
Image via Mashable
Explore aims to expand Moment’s singular purpose with more useful data for users, as well as keeping the basic structure of Moments packaged into the tab. For those who have seen the Explore section show up on mobile, it appears various sections are highlighted at first, including “Trending Now,” “Today on Twitter,” and “Explore All.”
“As part of our continued efforts to make it easier to find what’s happening on Twitter, we’re testing a new tab for content discovery,” the company said in a statement.
With Moments recently expanding into a customizable user feature, the company’s future goals for Explore remain uncertain. It didn’t comment on whether or not Explore would become a permanent feature for all users on iOS and Android, either.
The company has gone through a hard time over the past few months, facing its slowest revenue growth in years amid talk of rocky waters at the social network’s headquarters because of uncertainty surrounding a potential buyout by other companies.
Over the summer, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that the service can be confusing for newcomers and even alienating to its install base of loyal users. In attempts to keep its users happy, Twitter has recently removed media attachments from the 140 character limit, and is trying to address harassment on the service with a new tweet moderation filter system.
Tag: Twitter
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Twitter’s Flight developer conference was scrapped this year
For the past two years, Twitter has put on a big show called Flight to dazzle mobile app makers with new tools and highlight new shifts in strategy. This year, though, Flight is grounded. Twitter confirmed in a statement to Recode that instead of the usual big fete, the company plans to host smaller, more intimate events around the country — all the better to improve the Twitter’s dicey ties with developers.
“Somewhere along the line our relationship with developers got confusing, unpredictable,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said at last year’s Flight conference. “We want to come to you today and apologize for the confusion. We want to reset our relationship and make sure that we’re learning, listening, and that we are rebooting.” Dorsey’s words seemed earnest at the time, but it’s hard not to look at Flight’s cancellation as a sign of Twitter’s continuing struggle to figure out how best to work with its developer community.
Curiously, Recode also points to unnamed sources who said that a Flight conference was actually in the works for a while before the plug was unceremoniously pulled. It’s not clear how far along plans for another Flight conference were, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Twitter ultimately didn’t want to devote time and energy to a big show. After all, power players like Alphabet, Salesforce and the Walt Disney Company were exploring the possibility of buying Twitter, at least before their enthusiasm died down (dinging Twitter’s stock price in the process).
Make no mistake: giving developers the tools they need to turn this “people’s news network” into something truly indispensable is hugely important for Twitter’s future. Dorsey also admitted in a company-wide memo that his goal is to turn Twitter into “the first place people check to see what’s happening,” a vision that is only helped by developers splashing that firehose of information all over the place. Still, as schizophrenic as Twitter’s stance with its developers might seem, you can’t really blame Jack and his crew for focusing on more short-term priorities.
Source: Recode
Hashtags help survivors break their silence
Last Friday, the Washington Post revealed a video recorded in 2005 of Donald Trump and Access Hollywood co-host Billy Bush engaged in a lewd and crass discussion about women. Caught on a hot mic, Trump said that he can grab women “by the pussy,” that he starts kissing them without waiting for consent and that he get away with it because he’s a “star.” Trump has since come under fire for his remarks, not just because they are vulgar, but because what he is describing is sexual assault.
Author Kelly Oxford was so disturbed by the comments that she went on Twitter and invited women to tell their stories of sexual assault. Since then, millions of women have come forward, responding to that tweet with their own tales of abuse and rape, coming up with the hashtag #NotOK along the way. Suddenly, one hashtag has given them the courage to share their stories.
Women: tweet me your first assaults. they aren’t just stats. I’ll go first:
Old man on city bus grabs my “pussy” and smiles at me, I’m 12.
— kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) October 7, 2016
The reason? Solidarity. Seeing other people tell stories that are similar to yours encourages you to speak up. This isn’t unique to the #NotOK hashtag and has been around for years. Yesterday thousands used the #WorldMentalHealthDay to share how they coped with depression or to let you know that seeking therapy is normal. Today, many tweeted their personal stories about being LGBT in conjunction with #NationalComingOutDay. #EverydaySexism encourages women to speak up when they experience daily sexist situations, #NoWomanEver has women telling stories of harassment and #YouGoodMan gives a space for black men to talk about mental health. Ethnographer Tara Conley has several more such hashtags listed here.
Michael Luo, the deputy Metro editor for the New York Times who was told recently to “Go back to China,” asked Asian-Americans to reveal stories of racist encounters with the hashtag #thisis2016. He has since received “an avalanche” of responses, according to CNN Money.
Asian Americans, tweet at me your own racist encounters and I’ll try to collect them. Hashtag it like I did #thisis2016
— Michael Luo (@michaelluo) October 10, 2016
As for me, I’ve had multiple sexually inappropriate and racist encounters in my life. Strangers have driven past me in a truck and yelled “Chink, go home!” while I was walking alone on the sidewalk. Once when I was a passenger in a cab, the driver said he liked South East Asian girls because they are more submissive and then leered at me, asking if I was a virgin. These are stories that I haven’t told a lot of people, mostly because it doesn’t really come up in everyday conversation. But seeing other people share their tales on Twitter, I was compelled to join in. Now I didn’t feel alone. And maybe telling my story will help others not feel alone either.
Hashtags aren’t just for keeping track of trending topics like the presidential debate or celebrating the victory of a baseball game during the postseason. It turns out it can also be used to cultivate a sense of community. Plus, it’s a whole lot cheaper than therapy.
ACLU: Police use Twitter, Facebook data to track protesters
According to an ACLU blog post published on Tuesday, law enforcement officials implemented a far-reaching surveillance program to track protesters in both Ferguson, MO and Baltimore, MD during their recent uprisings and relied on special feeds of user data provided by three top social media companies: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Specifically, all three companies granted access to a developer tool called Geofeedia which allows users to see the geographic origin of social media posts and has been employed by more than 500 law enforcement organizations to track protesters in real time.
Law enforcement’s ability to monitor the online activities of protesters could have a chilling effect on First Amendment rights, the post asserts. “These platforms need to be doing more to protect the free speech rights of activists of color and stop facilitating their surveillance by police,” Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director for the ACLU of California, told the Washington Post. “The ACLU shouldn’t have to tell Facebook or Twitter what their own developers are doing. The companies need to enact strong public policies and robust auditing procedures to ensure their platforms aren’t being used for discriminatory surveillance.”
Based on information in the @ACLU’s report, we are immediately suspending @Geofeedia’s commercial access to Twitter data.
— Policy (@policy) October 11, 2016
Twitter released the above statement, Facebook (which owns Instagram) provided Engadget with the following comment, “This developer only had access to data that people chose to make public. Its access was subject to the limitations in our Platform Policy, which outlines what we expect from developers that receive data using the Facebook Platform. If a developer uses our APIs in a way that has not been authorized, we will take swift action to stop them and we will end our relationship altogether if necessary.”
All three companies have sought to restrict Geofeedia’s access to their data in recent weeks. Instagram and Facebook reportedly terminated access to their respective APIs on September 19th. Twitter renegotiated their contract with the subsidiary that granted Geofeedia access with additional terms to safeguard against surveillance and sent the analytics company a cease and desist letter on Monday before shutting down access altogether earlier today.
Via: Washington Post
Source: ACLU
Jack Dorsey calls Twitter the ‘people’s news network’
One of the reasons that Twitter has struggled with its investors is because nobody, not even its leaders, really knows what Twitter is for. In a memo sent around to employees, CEO Jack Dorsey seems to have stumbled across his vision for the embattled company. The note, which was sent to celebrate a year running the company, describes the site as “the people’s news network,” with a combination of “news and talk.”
The document was procured by Bloomberg, which has been posting regular stories about Twitter’s internal problems. Last week, the newswire reported that Dorsey was locked in a three-way battle for the service’s soul, fighting CFO Anthony Noto and co-founder Ev Williams. The latter is pushing for a sale, while Noto has seized power and is dragging Twitter into live video — rather than as a “news and talk” network.
Dorsey also says that the last 12 months have been spent “getting to the truth” of what Twitter is. Now that he has arrived at this mission statement, he wants the company to “strive to be the first” whenever news breaks. Of course, given how much news is shared on Twitter, we’re not sure immediacy has ever been a real issue for the company. Compared to, say, the undercurrent of racism and abuse that dogs the platform and garners plenty of negative headlines in the press.
In the short term, it’s not clear if Dorsey’s memo was simply a generous note to his employees or something of a power play. After all, if you’ve been recently criticized for a “passive” leadership style, then sending a take-charge memo may help to beat back that perception. It also doesn’t help that several would-be buyers took a quick look at Twitter as a going concern and decided to walk away.
Source: Bloomberg
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