French authorities investigate suicide broadcast via Periscope

In another intersection of internet livestreaming and tragedy, French police are investigating the suicide of a teenager that was apparently broadcast on Periscope. The New York Times reports that a 19 year-old woman threw herself in front of a train at the Égly station (25 miles south of Paris) Tuesday afternoon, at the end of five streaming sessions totaling nearly two hours. French paper Metro says she told viewers they would “see something” around 4PM. During the broadcasts, a viewer asked if she was going to kill herself, and she responded “No,” but also said nothing could make her get up in the morning. Prosecutor Éric Lallement said in a statement that she sent a text to a close friend, saying that her actions came as a result of evil, in the form of violence and rape, inflicted upon her by an ex-boyfriend.

Periscope, which is owned by Twitter, told Buzzfeed that the content had been reported and removed, although the prosecutor said his office is trying to obtain video of the incident from the company. Clips have been republished elsewhere, reportedly including segments where emergency workers are reaching the victim under the train. Its content policy does not explicitly mention self-harm or how to report suspected incidences, but says the service is “intended to be open and safe.”

Source: New York Times, USA Today, Metro News, Buzzfeed

Twitter blocks US spies from analyzing your tweets

There’s more tension between tech firms and the US government, as Twitter has reportedly blocked spy agencies from a service that helps them root out terrorists. According to the WSJ, the social network cut off the government from Dataminr, a company that analyzes every public tweet sent. Though Twitter doesn’t own the service (it has a five percent share), it does provide it with unique access to its central data line. Neither Twitter nor Dataminr have confirmed the details publicly, but unnamed intelligence officials have corroborated the story.

Dataminr examines hundreds of millions of tweets every day and correlates them to news sources, geographic locations, market information and other data. It then sells the information to news agencies, stock brokers and other companies. For instance, Dataminr helped the New York Times find significant tweets during the Brussels terrorist attacks for its live blog. It also reportedly gave US intelligence services information about the same attacks 10 minutes before the general public found out.

Twitter quite rightly declining to serve as extension of US spy agencies. https://t.co/iKpVTC11D3

— Jameel Jaffer (@JameelJaffer) May 9, 2016

Twitter said in a statement that it “never authorized Dataminr or any third party to sell data to a government or intelligence agency for surveillance purposes.” However, a venture capital arm of US intelligence called In-Q-Tel has reportedly invested in Dataminr and other social media analytics firms. As part of that, Dataminr allowed certain spy agencies to mine tweets as part of a pilot program. When that ended, Twitter forbade the company from using its data, fearing the “optics” of being too closely associated with intelligence activities, according to WSJ sources.

With the decision, Twitter is following other Silicon Valley companies like Apple in distancing themselves from the NSA and other surveillance services. Apple resisted an FBI order to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, for instance, saying it was a slippery slope that could decrease security for everyone.

However, US spy agencies reportedly aren’t pleased with the decision, as they have become increasingly dependent on social media analysis to root out terrorists. Former NSA deputy director John C. Inglis told the WSJ, “if Twitter continues to sell this to the private sector, but denies the government, that’s hypocritical. I think it’s a bad sign of a lack of appropriate cooperation between a private-sector organization and the government.” The American Civil Liberties Union disagrees, however, as deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer tweeted that “Twitter quite rightly declining to serve as an extension of US spy agencies.”

Source: WSJ

Tweetbot makes it easier to go on Twitter rants

Tweetbot 4 brought some much needed features to the third-party Twitter client, such as a Stats and Activity Tab plus a revamped iPad app. Now there’s a new version of the app that’ll be sure to please those who love to post a whole bunch of tweets in a row. See, in the default Twitter app, you have to either use a hashtag or manually reply to yourself if you wanted related tweets to appear in a single chronological thread. The latest Tweetbot 4, however, has introduced a new feature called Topics, which lets you group together those tweets way, way easier.
Just tap the gear menu in the Compose screen and you’ll see the option for starting a Topic. Once you create one, you’re able to write up multiple tweets and have them automatically chain together. You can even have it so the same hashtags appear throughout. The topics are stored in the cloud, so you’re also able to start a tweetstorm on your iPhone and then continue it on your iPad (you’ll soon be able to do the same on the Mac version too).

The update brings a number of other changes, like larger images on the iPad app and a more thorough mute function (a muted user now won’t show up on Mentions, Lists or Searches either). But the ability to quickly and easily go off on Twitter rant (or live tweet an event) is by far Tweetbot 4’s latest and greatest feature. Yes, Tweetbot 4 does cost money — $9.99, to be exact — but that could be worth it if you do a lot of Twitter rants. Kanye West, listen up.

Source: Tweetbot 4 on the App Store

Periscope #saves your broadcasts beyond 24 hours

Periscope broadcasts can low live longer than a day, so long as you add #save to their titles. In fact, any broadcast with the hashtag will stay online forever unless you delete it. Periscope videos are typically only accessible for 24 hours. Company CEO Kayvon Beykpour announced the feature’s launch as a public beta, explaining that they’re still working on a full solution that won’t require you to add #save to your titles.

That full-featured solution will also come with a better way to manage your videos. For now, the company wants you to test it out — you don’t even have to update the app — and let them know what you think. Besides #save, Beykpour also announced that Periscope now prioritizes people you know when they enter the room while you’re broadcasting. That way, you can chat with them even if there are a ton of other viewers in the room. Even if you’re just a viewer, you’ll still get notified if someone in your friends list starts watching the same broadcast.

Working on supporting broadcasts beyond 24h! Starting now, you can use our public beta by using #save in your title! https://t.co/LsjqsSib7v

— Periscope TV (@periscopetv) May 5, 2016

Source: Periscope TV