Skip to main content

Twitter

See All Stories

Twitter is a social networking site that was created in 2006. Users send "tweets" to let people know what they are doing. It was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams.

Twitter accused of hypocrisy over Trump tweets

Twitter is a social networking site that was created in 2006. Users send “tweets” to let people know what they are doing. It was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. Prior to building the service, they were working on a podcast directory called Odeo.

Odeo was a directory and search destination website for RSS-syndicated audio and video. It employed tools that enabled users to create, record, and share podcasts with a simple Adobe Flash-based interface.

When iTunes 4.9 was released, it ultimately made Odeo irrelevant. The people behind the company went on to create a service called Twttr. Twttr would eventually be called Twitter. iTunes 4.9, believe it or not, ultimately led to the creation of one of the most popular social networks in the world.

The major turning point for service’s popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference. Over the next few years, Twitter began to see rapid growth. For mobile devices, it originally relied upon third-party apps. In 2010, Twitter acquired application developer Atebits. Atebits had built the Twitter app known as Tweetie for the Mac and iPhone. It was renamed as Twitter and released for free.

Over the years, the apps have seen various revisions. There are currently versions available for iOS while desktop users must either use the web interface or a third party app like Tweetbot or Twitterrific.

X working on new Premium subscription tiers to let users remove ads

Twitter X logo

Elon Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter) has been undergoing a lot of profound changes since it was acquired by the billionaire last year, as he wants to turn the social network into a mega app for calls and even payments. In the meantime, it seems that Musk wants to expand the X Premium paid service by breaking it up into different tiers, including one that removes all ads.

Expand Expanding Close

X CEO shows her iPhone’s Home Screen with her favorite apps – and X isn’t there

X CEO shows her iPhone's Home Screen with her favorite apps – and X isn't there

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding X (formerly Twitter) since the company was acquired by Elon Musk last year. Earlier this year, Musk appointed former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino as CEO of X. On Thursday, Yaccarino joined an interview at Vox Media’s Code 2023 conference, at which point she decided to show off her iPhone to the audience. To some people’s surprise, the X app is not on the first page of the Home Screen.

Expand Expanding Close
Political ads on X | Abstract X image

Political ads on X; Chinese sextortion scammers; severance lawsuit

The social network formerly known as Twitter has very quietly announced that it will allow paid political ads on X, reversing the ban imposed by founder Jack Dorsey.

Dorsey said in 2019 that “political message reach should be earned, not bought” and said that it was not credible for a social network to claim to be fighting disinformation while allowing political parties to buy ads to make unchecked claims …

Expand Expanding Close

Special #AppleEvent hashmoji now live on X ahead of iPhone 15 launch

Special #AppleEvent hashmoji now live on X ahead of iPhone 15 launch

It’s now a tradition: Every time Apple announces a special event, the company also launches a special hashmoji (also known as a hashflag) on X (formerly Twitter). And as Apple has just confirmed that it will be holding an event on September 12 to potentially announce the iPhone 15 lineup, there’s now a new Apple hashmoji live on X to promote the event.

Expand Expanding Close

Twitter for Mac abandoned: Missing features, no ‘X’ rebranding, bugs galore

Twitter Elon Musk

Update August 29, 2023: Twitter for Mac still hasn’t been updated since Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company. This means Twitter for Mac is still named “Twitter for Mac,” and does not reference the new “X” name of the social network anywhere. It also still lacks the vast majority of X Premium features.


Original story published May 17, 2023: Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company and subsequent gutting of engineering teams have left Twitter for Mac in the lurch. The app hasn’t received a single update since Musk’s acquisition and is lacking many features key to the “new Twitter” experience (which may not be a bad thing for some users).

Expand Expanding Close

Elon Musk says Twitter will no longer let you block other people

In another possibly shortsighted decision, Elon Musk says Twitter will soon remove the ability to block people – with the exception of direct messages. In a post on Twitter today, Musk said that the block feature “makes no sense” and instead recommended people use the mute option.

Apple’s App Store Guidelines, however, could prevent this from actually happening…

Expand Expanding Close

Musk says Twitter will no longer have a light mode, making dark mode the default option [U]

Twitter X logo

Since Elon Musk became Twitter’s CEO, he’s been pushing through a lot of changes to the social network. But perhaps none of them have been as controversial as Twitter’s recent rebranding to “X” (although the Twitter name is still everywhere). And now it seems another change is coming soon. According to Musk, Twitter will soon get rid of light mode.

Expand Expanding Close

Beware: Tricky phishing email targeting Twitter Blue subscribers with X rebranding confusion

Twitter’s abrupt rebrand to the letter X is leaving a lot of users confused about the direction of the platform. With this comes an opportunity for cybercriminals, who are now taking advantage of the chaos with some of the most clever phishing emails I’ve ever seen…

Update: Brevo (formally known as Sendinblue) has taken down the mailing list account used by the threat actors. In addition, a security engineer at Twitter confirmed that they are working to address the fake API account.

Expand Expanding Close

Social media roundup: CSAM on Mastodon; Zuckerberg faces contempt charge; Twitter’s bank plans

CSAM on Mastodon | Abstract image of servers

An investigation by the Stanford Internet Observatory has found worrying volumes of CSAM on Mastodon. Of particular concern is that the child sexual abuse material included many known examples that should have been automatically detected by digital fingerprinting.

Researchers say that a large part of the issue is the open and decentralized nature of the social media platform …

Expand Expanding Close