As the web cries out, yet again, after an attack by the Syrian Electronic Army, those of us fond of 80′s superhero shows feel like we’re watching an episode unfold. And it’s pretty fantastic.
Any minute now, the SuperFriends will come to the rescue.
Either than, or the hacks will just continue. It’s more fun to imagine the former. Ka-pow!
Learn how to maximize real-time marketing opportunities at AllTwitter Marketing Conference, June 4 in San Francisco. Explore how your businesses can — and should — approach Twitter to drive engagement, awareness, and sales. Learn more.
There are consequences for what you tweet – particularly if you live in Bahrain. A court there just sentenced six people to jail time for posting insults.
Yeah, you’d probably be looking at a life sentence for the stuff YOU tweet. I know I won’t be visiting that lovely locale any time soon!
Twitter does what it can to protect users’ privacy, requiring governments to go through legal channels to obtain private information – but some governments aren’t fond of rules.
If you live in Saudi Arabia, it seems your tweets aren’t being intercepted yet – but it’s really only a matter of time. And if you don’t live in Saudi Arabia, don’t be fooled into thinking your safe. Just because other governments aren’t as (unwisely) attempting to recruit folks to intercept tweets and getting publicly busted for it, doesn’t mean they’re NOT doing it.
Yes, I took my paranoia pill today.
How many times each day do you see something on social media that makes me marvel at people’s lack of personal boundaries? Pretty often, we’re guessing.
One way folks feed into this ‘too much info’ (TMI) mentality is through live-tweeting.
Yes, live-tweeting can be great for breaking news and such, but do we want to read live tweets from someone pushing out a baby? If you’ve ever heard someone recount even a bit of the birthing process, the answer is a resounding NO. But someone did it. And we’re guessing that’s only the tip of this TMI iceberg.
The White House just hired its first Chief Privacy Officer – straight out of Twitter, no less – but the privacy they may be protecting is that of the FBI, not the American people.
According to new internal documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) through a Freedom of Information Act request, the content of your emails, Facebook chats, Twitter DMs and all other forms of digital communication chould be at the disposal of law enforcement agencies, even without a warrant.
The Syrian Electronic Army, the group behind the April 23 hacking of the Associated Press Twitter account, and more recently CBS, hacked into the E! Online profile on Saturday.
The hackers tweeted a fake “exclusive” allegedly from Justin Bieber announcing that he was gay, which prompted more than 1,000 retweets and more than 350 favorites.
Governments know they can’t get user data out of Twitter without a warrant, but they CAN do something that’s almost as bad: censor people with Twitter’s blessing.
Granted, Twitter has (fast and loose) rules around this as well, but you have to wonder WHAT is going on when the Kremlin, a place that isn’t known for embracing freedom of expression, is praising Twitter for blocking tweets.
If they’re happy with the response they’re getting, you shouldn’t be.
Chennai, like most places in the world, has a crime problem.
What it also has, that most places do NOT (though it’s only a matter of time) is a police force tasked with monitoring social media sites, like Twitter, to help fight back.
But are they planning to use it purely to fight crime – or will they use it to crush political dissidents and other naysayers as well?
Nothing posted online is private, of course – and any expectation of privacy on social media is pure comedy, but some sites (like Twitter) go the extra mile in an attempt to appease the masses.
And guess what? When stacked against other sites by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Twitter earns top marks for protecting user privacy! Guess who doesn’t?
Last week the world was rocked by a tweet issued by the official Associated Press (@AP) Twitter profile that reported that President Barack Obama had been injured after two explosions in the White House.
Except (and of course), the news was fake. There were no explosions at the White House, and President Obama had not been injured. The problem? The source, the @AP Twitter account, was real, and had been compromised by hackers, and Twitter has now warned journalists and media companies that they expect these attacks to continue.
NEXT PAGE >>
Tap into our vast network of talented social media pros.
Post a risk-free job listing
Shea Bennett
Co-editor
Mary Long
Co-editor
Allison Stadd
Contributor
Lauren Dugan
Contributor
Nadine Cheung
Editor, The Job Post
AllTwitter Twitter feed loading...