TheNewsGuru

Tag: Twitter

Twitter

  • Facebook blocks more accounts linked to foreign entity

    Facebook blocks more accounts linked to foreign entity

    Facebook on Tuesday said it blocked more accounts, in addition to the about 115 accounts it blocked over the weekend, in the run-up to the US midterm elections that saw Democrats capture US House majority.

    The company said a website claiming to be associated with Russia-based Internet Research agency published a list of Instagram accounts they claimed to have created.

    “We had already blocked most of these accounts yesterday, and have now blocked the rest,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cyber-security policy said in a statement, without disclosing the number of additional accounts blocked.

    The social network had blocked accounts on the eve of the US midterm elections after authorities tipped it off to suspicious behaviour that may be linked to a foreign entity, the company said in a blog post on Monday.

    Eighty-five of the removed accounts were posting in English on Facebook’s Instagram service, while 30 others were on Facebook and associated with pages in French and Russian, the post said.

    The company said it needed to do further analysis to decide if the accounts are linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency or any other group.

    Both Facebook and Twitter have taken down millions of posts and shuttered accounts linked to influence operations by Russia, Iran and other actors in the run-up to Tuesday’s US elections.

    US intelligence agencies concluded a Russian-state operation carried out a campaign of hacking and misinformation to undermine the 2016 presidential election.

    Russian agents believed to be connected to the government had been active in spreading divisive content and promoting extreme themes ahead of US midterm elections, but they were working hard to cover their tracks, according to government investigators, academics and security firms.

    Social media companies say they are now more vigilant against foreign and other potential election interference after finding themselves unprepared to tackle such activity in the US presidential election.

     

  • Trump’s plan to abolish birthright citizenship spark off reactions

    The latest plan by US President Donald Trump to abolish birthright citizenship has sparked off reactions, as social media has been abuzz with divergent opinions on the matter.
    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Trump made the plans to end automatic right to US citizenship for children born to non-citizens in the United States known in an interview with Axios.
    “Good job president Trump… they come here pregnant on temporary Visa or crossing the border illegally, give birth to a child and then they bring the whole village here,” a Twitter user known as Riya Sharma tweeted.
    Kevin Vozar stated that “Customs can deny a pregnant foreign national entry to US if it is determined they have no health insurance/money or will become a ward of the state. If they come in illegally with the intent on giving birth they can both be deported”.
    https://twitter.com/CaptainKvo/status/1057255640576507904
    “The 14th Amendment needs to be updated due to abuse from those it was not intended to cover. If someone is already a citizen of another country, birthing in US shouldn’t get birthright citizenship. The policy can be changed with just an executive order for now,” another Twitter user stated.
    The 14th Amendment of the US constitution stated thus: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”.
    Trump described it as “ridiculous”, stressing that “it has to end”.
    “How ridiculous, we’re the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits. It’s ridiculous, and it has to end,” Trump said.
    President Trump said he had spoken to legal counsel about it and that the change is in the works.
    “You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. You don’t. I can do it just with an executive order. It’s in the process, it’ll happen – with an executive order,” Trump said.
    “More shameful and disgusting idea from Trump the orange menace,” Catherine Jackson stated.
    https://twitter.com/catheri77679385/status/1057254682052227073
    https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/1057221071940870147
    “I am reminded that 4 of Donald Trump’s 5 children have immigrant mothers: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump. Also, there is evidence the first lady was once an “illegal immigrant. And the president’s first wife (and mother of his three older children) came to the United States using a “cold war marriage,” Angelo Villagomez stated.
    https://twitter.com/TaotaoTasi/status/1057254778982580224
    In his argument on the birthright citizenship, Steve Kantrowitz also on Twitter said “The framers of the Civil Rights Act — the immediate precursor to the 14th Amendment, and the first place national citizenship was codified — knew exactly what they were doing”.
    He further stated that “They were clarifying the well-understood principle that children born in the U.S. were citizens regardless of the immigration status of their parents.
    “They even understood this to be true for children whose parents would then have been racially ineligible for citizenship, such as the Chinese”.
    https://twitter.com/skantrow/status/1057229372631998464
    See more reactions:
    https://twitter.com/danvock/status/1057252203809902598


    https://twitter.com/adamemile/status/1057254145449750528
    https://twitter.com/Shaunton_Davis/status/1057254894359457793


    https://twitter.com/atriumofthefall/status/1057269289105842176
    https://twitter.com/humbleresh/status/1057269267794747393


    https://twitter.com/ScienceHoffman/status/1057255387248832513


     

  • IBB denies owning any Twitter handles

    Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retired), former military president, has said that Twitter handles bearing his names and photographs were fake.
    Babangida, in a statement signed by his media aide, Zubairu Abdulrauf, said that he had no social media account, and advised members of the public to ignore claims to that effect.
    Zubairu, in the statement made available on Tuesday in Minna, revealed that the social media accounts were targeted at misleading unsuspecting members of the public.
    “Our attention has been drawn to the existence of several Twitter handles purportedly owned by the former military president; members of the social media community should know that Babangida currently has no twitter handle.
    “We wish to state that the twitter handles bearing the name and photographs of Babangida are fake, and also advise the general public to be wary of the fake accounts and discountenance whatever message conveyed therein,” the statement read.
     

  • Jack Dorsey to testify before House Panel

    Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive will on September 5th testify before a US House of Representatives committee.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports the panel made this known in a statement on Friday, after some Republicans raised concerns of social media companies removing content from conservatives.

    The House Energy and Commerce Committee “intends to ask tough questions about how Twitter monitors and polices content,” Republican Representative Greg Walden, the panel’s chairman, said in a statement.

    “We look forward to Mr Dorsey being forthright and transparent regarding the complex processes behind the company’s algorithms and content judgment calls,” Walden said.

    On Friday, President Donald Trump accused social media companies of silencing “millions of people” in an act of censorship, but without offering evidence to support the claim.

    “Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!” Trump wrote on Twitter, not mentioning any specific companies.

    Trump also criticized social media outlets last week, saying without providing proof that unidentified companies were “totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.”

    Those tweets followed actions taken by Apple, Facebook, and Alphabet’s YouTube to remove some content posted by Infowars, a website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

    Jones’ Twitter account was temporarily suspended on Aug. 15.

     

  • Trump slams social media firms for ‘silencing millions’

    U.S. President Donald Trump criticized social media companies on Friday for silencing “millions of people” in what he called an act of censorship.

    Trump did not mention any of the companies by name.

    On Tuesday, Facebook, Twitter Inc and Google removed hundreds of accounts tied to an alleged Iranian propaganda operation, while Facebook took down a second campaign it said was linked to Russia.

    “Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely.

    People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!” Trump said.

     

  • Google deletes YouTube accounts with ties to Iran

    Google has announced deleting 58 accounts with ties to Iran on its video sharing platform, YouTube and some other of its sites.

    The recent removals targeted 39 channels on YouTube, which had more than 13,000 views in the United States, as well as 13 accounts on the social networking site Google Plus and six accounts on Blogger, its blogging platform, the company said.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president of global affairs, said in a blog post that each of the accounts had ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB, which is tied to Iran’s ayatollah, and that they “disguised their connection to this effort”.

    Google’s announcement comes days after Facebook suspended hundreds of accounts on its site and photo-sharing app, Instagram, that originated in Iran as well as Russia, and Twitter made a similar move.

    At the time, YouTube confirmed it had removed one account, called Liberty Front Press, which appeared to have connections to Iranian state media.

    Google also revealed on Thursday that it took down 42 additional channels on YouTube that had ties to the Russian government’s online troll army, called the Internet Research Agency, since the company testified to Congress in November.

    Facebook had acted on a tip from the cyber-security firm FireEye, which later shared its findings with Google and Twitter.

    In response, Google briefed law enforcement officials as well as congressional investigators about its findings on Thursday, the company said.

    The revelations of further coordinated inauthentic activity online are likely to grab the attention of lawmakers.

    The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to question top executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter next month on their efforts to protect their platforms from disinformation and other digital ills.

    On Thursday, the Republican chairman of the panel, Sen. Richard Burr, said he had rejected an offer by Google to send Walker to testify. “I told them I wasn’t accepting the senior vice president,” Burr said.

    Earlier this week, Microsoft announced it had found evidence of a Russia-backed effort to spoof key websites, including those for conservative think tanks, in an apparent bid to hack into visitors to those pages.

    In its blog post, Google said it recently took similar actions to block “attempts by state-sponsored actors in various countries to target political campaigns, journalists, activists, and academics located around the world”.

    Google said it most recently notified Gmail users who received suspicious emails “from a wide range of countries” on Monday.

     

  • ‘Dangerous’ for Twitter, Facebook to ban accounts, says Trump

    ‘Dangerous’ for Twitter, Facebook to ban accounts, says Trump

    US President Donald Trump said on Monday that it is “very dangerous” for social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to silence voices on their services.

    Trump’s comments in an interview with Reuters come as the social media industry faces mounting scrutiny from Congress to police foreign propaganda.

    Trump has made his Twitter account – with more than 53 million followers – an integral and controversial part of his presidency, using it to promote his agenda, announce policy and attack critics.

    Trump previously criticised the social media industry on August 18, claiming without evidence in a series of tweets that unnamed companies were “totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.” In the same post, Trump said “too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad.”

    Those tweets followed actions taken by Apple, Alphabet’s YouTube and Facebook to remove some content posted by Infowars, a website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones’ own Twitter account was temporarily suspended on August 15.

    “I won’t mention names but when they take certain people off of Twitter or Facebook and they’re making that decision, that is really a dangerous thing because that could be you tomorrow,” said Trump.

    Trump appeared on a show produced by Infowars, hosted by Jones, in December 2015 while campaigning for the White House.

    In removing Jones’ content, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook each pointed to specific user agreement violations. For example, Facebook removed several pages associated with Infowars after determining they violated policies concerning hate speech and bullying.

    Twitter and Facebook declined to comment on Trump’s statement. Apple and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    In July, during a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter testified they did not remove content based on political reasons.

    “Our purpose is to serve the conversation, not to make value judgments on personal beliefs,” Nick Pickles, Twitter’s senior strategist, said at the time.

     

  • State prosecutor insists Twitter ban in Iran remains

    State prosecutor in Iran on Tuesday insisted that Twitter remained banned in the country, refusing a request by the communication minister to lift the ban.

    “Twitter belongs to our American enemies. … Therefore, the Twitter ban will not be lifted,” Deputy Chief Attorney-General, Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, said.

    The minister should endeavour to promote local internet services instead of promoting U.S. platforms, Khoramabadi said, according to the Fars news agency.

    At age 36, Mohammad-Javad Jahromi is the youngest member of President Hassan Rowhani’s cabinet.

    He has repeatedly advocated for a free and open internet in his role as communication minister.

    He had lodged his request for Twitter to be allowed in the Islamic republic, arguing that the country’s justice system was out of touch with reality.

    Several prominent Iranian figures, including Rowhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif and some ayatollahs, have official Twitter accounts.

    Even supreme leader Ayatollah Ali-Khamenei has had comments tweeted in his name, though he does not use the service himself.

    Social media sites such as Twitter, Telegram, Instagram and Facebook have been a thorn in the side of the Iranian political regime for years, since they are used by critics to spread dissent and arrange demonstrations.

    Many Iranians, however, get around the bans by using VPN tunnelling.

    Khoramabadi himself announced in July that 30 million people in the country are evading internet bans.

     

  • Adeosun returns to Twitter with FEC reports, Nigerians demand her NYSC certificate reports

    Adeosun returns to Twitter with FEC reports, Nigerians demand her NYSC certificate reports

    32 days after Premium Times, an online newspaper, broke the report of the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun’s alleged forgery of her National Youth Service Corp [NYSC] exemption certificate, the accused [Adeosun] collapsed every communication channel to her office, went underground and never gave a response on the issue.

    However, on Wednesday evening, the embattled minster finally returned to Twitter to share details of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting which held in Abuja today.

    In her series of tweet, Adeosun listed some of the high-points at the FEC meeting but Nigerians from their reactions to the minister’s tweet, seem to be more interested in what she has to say on the NYSC certificate forgery allegation.

    In less than three hours after the finance minister dropped her ‘come-back’tweets, TheNewsGuru observed that hundreds of netizens flooded her timeline with questions pertaining to her NYSC certificate scandal.

    Here are some of the feedback sent to the minister on her Twitter page:

    Adeosun had come under fire with several Nigerians, particularly on the social media, demanding investigations from the Federal Government into the allegations and calling for her resignation for presenting an alleged forged exemption certificate.

    The reports claimed that the finance minister, who did not participate in the one-year national youth service, allegedly forged an Exemption Certificate several years after her graduation.

    The certificate, which is dated September 2009, was reportedly signed by an NYSC Director-General, Yusuf Bomoi, who already left the scheme in January 2009.

     

  • Trump accuses Twitter of targeting Republicans, offers no evidence

    U.S. President Donald Trump accused Twitter on Thursday of restricting the visibility of prominent Republicans on its platform, and promised to investigate.

    Trump did not, however, provide any evidence to that effect.

    “Twitter ‘SHADOW BANNING’ prominent Republicans. Not good.

    “We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once!” the Republican president wrote in a Twitter post.

    On Wednesday, Republican party Chairperson Ronna McDaniel also condemned the practice saying that “the notion that social media companies would suppress certain political points of view should concern every American.”