A French hacker broke into Twitter's internal administration system, granting him access to all Twitter accounts. The hacker gained access by resetting a Twitter employee's Yahoo password and guessing his secret question. Graham Cluely, Twitter security breach exposes accounts to hackers, Naked Security by SOPHOS (May 1, 2009), https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2009/05/01/twitter-security-breach-exposes-accounts-hackers/.
A study conducted by Sysomos found that 24% of all tweets come from bots. Additionally, it found that 5% of Twitter accounts generate 75% of all tweets. Pete Cashmore, Twitter Zombies: 24% of Tweets Created by Bots, Mashable (Aug. 6, 2009), https://mashable.com/2009/08/06/twitter-bots/.
Twitter updates its terms of service to be in more plain language. In the updated terms, Twitter claims "they are your tweets and they belong to you" immediately after saying Twitter has the right to "use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, and distribute" your tweets. Leena Rao, Twitter Tweaks Terms of Service, "Your Tweets Belong To You", TechCrunch (Sep. 10, 2009), https://techcrunch.com/2009/09/10/twittter-tweaks-terms-of-service-your-tweets-belong-to-you/.
A hacker broke into 55,000 accounts and revealed their user names and passwords. However, most of the compromised accounts were spam accounts. Twitter claims many of the leaked credentials are also false. Laurie Segall, Twitter hack breaches thousands of accounts, CNN (May 8, 2012), https://money.cnn.com/2012/05/08/technology/twitter-hack/index.htm.
Thousands of bots on Twitter are used to tweet support or criticism ahead of the 2012 Mexican presidential election. The bots come from inside the campaigns themselves as a sort of viral marketing tactic. Mike Orcutt, Twitter Mischief Plagues Mexico's Election, MIT Technology Review (Jun. 21, 2012),https://www.technologyreview.com/2012/06/21/185262/twitter-mischief-plagues-mexicos-election/.
Public tweets are found to have no reasonable expectation of privacy by a judge demanding Twitter turn over information on an Occupy Wall Street protester. Alex Fitzpatrick, Judge: Public Tweets Have No 'Reasonable Expectation of Privacy', Mashable (Jul. 3, 2012), https://mashable.com/2012/07/03/twitter-privacy/.
Panagiotis Metaxas, a computer scientist, warns of manipulation on social media such as Twitter ahead of the 2012 Presidential election. Virat Markandeya, Computer Scientist Warns of Social Media Manipulation in U.S. Election, IEEE Spectrum (Oct. 26, 2012), https://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/computer-scientist-warns-of-social-media-manipulation-in-us-election.
Twitter emails users whose accounts have been compromised and urges them to reset their passwords. There is no word on how many users were affected or how. Adi Robertson, Twitter resets unknown number of passwords after apparent security breach (update), The Verge (Nov. 8, 2012), https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/8/3617672/twitter-hack-password-reset.
Hackers gained access to 250,000 Twitter accounts, including usernames, passwords, and email addresses. Affected users will have to reset their passwords before logging back in. Cass Jones, Twitter says 250,000 accounts have been hacked in security breach, The Guardian (Feb. 1, 2013),theguardian.com/technology/2013/feb/02/twitter-hacked-accounts-reset-security.
It is discovered the Department of Homeland Security uses Twitter to monitor the publicly and, specifically, 337 accounts of interest. A Freedom of Information Act request disclosed the identities of those 337 accounts. Emily Stanton, Department of Homeland Security Uses Twitter for Monitoring Citizens, U.S. News (Jul. 18, 2013),https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/07/18/department-of-homeland-security-uses-twitter-for-monitoring-citizens.
Security researchers discover 22,000 Twitter account credentials on a server in the Netherlands. The data breach is believed to be the result of keylogging software. Jose Pagliery, 2 million Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter passwords stolen in massive hack, CNN (Dec. 4, 2013), https://money.cnn.com/2013/12/04/technology/security/passwords-stolen/.
The federal government demands Twitter does not speak about certain requests that it makes for user information. Twitter files a lawsuit against the federal government for violating its First Amendment rights. Laura Sydell, Twitter Is Suing The U.S. Over Free Speech (Its Own), NPR (Oct. 11, 2014), https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/10/10/355141813/twitter-is-suing-the-u-s-over-free-speech-its-own.
Gamergate begins. Gamergate is the targeted harassment of women involved with video games for their "SJW" corruption. The main targets were indie game developer Zoe Quinn and critic Anita Sarkeesian. The harassment began after Zoe Quinn's ex-boyfriend wrote a series of posts about the end of their relationship and released personal information about her. Proponents of Gamergate claim Gamergate itself is not about harassing women, but about ethics in gaming journalism. This is because one of Quinn's ex-boyfriends claims was that she cheated on him with a gaming journalist at Kotaku. Kotaku investigated the matter and found no ethical violations. Emily VanDerWerff, #Gamergate: Here's why everybody in the video game world is fighting, Vox (Oct. 13, 2014), https://www.vox.com/2014/9/6/6111065/gamergate-explained-everybody-fighting; Emily VanDerWerff, Angry misogyny is now the primary face of #GamerGate, Vox (Oct. 13, 2014), https://www.vox.com/2014/10/13/6970573/gamergate-misogyny.
Anita Sarkeesian, an activist who criticizes the way women are portrayed in pop culture and target of Gamergate harassment, posts all 157 abusive tweets she received in one week. Kelsey McKinney, Activist Anita Sarkeesian posted every abusive tweet she got in one week. All 157 of them., Vox (Jan. 28, 2015), https://www.vox.com/2015/1/28/7925317/antia-sarkeesian-gamergate.
Twitter put trillions of tweets up for sale to data miners. Juliette Garside, Twitter puts trillions of tweets up for sale to data miners, The Guardian (Mar. 18, 2015), https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/18/twitter-puts-trillions-tweets-for-sale-data-miners.
A troll used promoted tweets to urge transgender individuals to kill themselves. Samuel Gibbs, Troll uses Twitter adverts to urge transgender people to kill themselves, The Guardian (May 20, 2015),https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/20/troll-uses-twitter-adverts-to-urge-trans-people-to-kill-themselves.
Hackers used malware to collect nearly 33 million users' login credentials. These credentials were found for sale on the dark web. Twitter is confidant the information did not come from a data breach. The leak appears to have come from malware infected browsers. Catherine Shu and Kate Conger, Passwords for 32M Twitter accounts may have been hacked and leaked, TechCrunch (Jun. 9, 2016), https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/08/twitter-hack/.
A California District Court dismissed a case against Twitter alleging Twitter provided material support to ISIS. The case was dismissed under CDA 230. Russell Brandom, Twitter is not legally responsible for the rise of ISIS, rules California district court, The Verge (Aug. 10, 2016), https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/10/11950098/twitter-isis-lawsuit-safe-harbor-terrorism.
A study from the University of Southern California claims that 20% of all tweets related to the election came from bots. The study looked at 20 million tweets created between September 16 and October 21. Daniel Oberhaus, Election 2016 Belongs to the Twitter Bots, Vice (Nov. 7, 2016),https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/78kmky/election-2016-belongs-to-the-twitter-bots.
Twitter updates its privacy policy to allow for location data, other installed apps, and websites visited to target ads. Thomas Brewster, Creepy or Cool? Twitter Is Tracking Where You've Been, What You Like And Is Telling Advertisers, Forbes (May 18, 2017), https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2017/05/18/twitter-privacy-update-called-creepy/#5da86dce464f.
The Knight First Amendment Institute files a lawsuit against President Trump for blocking critics on Twitter. The suit alleges these blocks are a violation of the First Amendment because the President's Twitter feed is a public forum. Bill Chappell, Lawsuit Says It's Unconstitutional For President Trump to Block Critics on Twitter, NPR (Jul. 12, 2017), https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/12/536842197/lawsuit-says-its-unconstitutional-for-president-trump-to-block-critics-on-twitte.
Twitter says its crackdown on trolls is working and claims it is taking action against 10 times as many accounts as it did just one year ago. Paayal Zaveri, Twitter says its troll crackdown is working, CNBC (Jul. 20, 2017), https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/twitter-troll-crackdown-is-working.html.
Twitter users are doxxing those who participated in the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. The account @YesYoureRacist called on Twitter to identify individuals in photos taken at the rallies. Jonathan Shieber, Twitter users are calling out participants in the Charlottesville white supremacist rallies, TechCrunch (Aug. 14, 2017), https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/13/fascists-called-out-on-twitter/.
Twitter's terms of service are clarified, making users realize that the content they post on Twitter can be shared by Twitter to third-parties for the purposes of promotion or distribution. Twitter can do this without paying the user who created the content or even getting their consent beyond the EULA. Sarah Buhr, Twitter's terms of service are making people mad - but they're not new, TechCrunch (Sep. 2, 2017), https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/02/twitters-terms-of-service-are-suddenly-making-people-freak-out-but-theyre-not-new/.
50,000 automated Russian accounts were responsible for 4.25% of all of Trump's retweets in the final weeks of the 2016 election. Donie O'Sullivan, Russian bots retweeted Trumped nearly 500,000 times in final weeks of 2016 campaign, CNN (Jan. 27, 2018), https://money.cnn.com/2018/01/27/technology/business/russian-twitter-bots-election-2016/.
A study finds that fake news travels faster than real news on Twitter. Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral, The spread of true and false news online, Science (Mar. 9, 2018), https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6380/1146.
It is discovered that the creator of some of the tools used by Cambridge Analytica on Facebook purchased data from Twitter in 2015. Margi Murphy, Twitter caught up in Cambridge Analytica data scandal, The Telegraph (Apr. 28, 2018), https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/04/28/twitter-caught-cambridge-analytica-data-scandal/.
Twitter urges 330 million users to change their passwords after a bug left them visible in plain text in an internal log. The bug and passwords were discovered by Twitter itself, not a malicious actor. Chaim Gartenberg, Twitter advising all 330 million users to change passwords after bug exposed them in plain text, The Verge (May 3, 2018),https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17316684/twitter-password-bug-security-flaw-exposed-change-now.
The National Bureau of Economic Research found that Twitter bots influenced both the Brexit vote and 2016 Presidential election. These bots boosted pro-Brexit votes by 1.76% and Donald Trump's Presidential votes by 3.23%, the study found. Jeanna Smalek, Twitter Bots May Have Boosted Donald Trump's Votes by 3.23%, Researchers Say, Time (May 21, 2018), https://time.com/5286013/twitter-bots-donald-trump-votes.
A federal court ruled that President Trump blocking critics on Twitter violates their First Amendment rights. Federal Court Rules that President Trump's Blocking of Twitter Critics Violates First Amendment, Knight First Amendment Institute (May 23, 2018), https://knightcolumbia.org/content/federal-court-rules-president-trumps-blocking-twitter-critics-violates-first-amendment.
Seth Rogen claims to have been direct Messaging Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey about the issue of Twitter verifying white supremacists on its platform. Rogen concludes that Jack Dorsey "simply does not seem to give a fuck." Todd Spangler, Seth Rogen Blasts Twitter CEO for Verifying White Supremacists, Variety (Jul. 3, 2018), https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/seth-rogen-twitter-ceo-white-supremacists-1202864595/.
A study conducted by the American Public Health Association found that Russian bots promote antivaxx views on Twitter. David A. Broniatowski, Amelia M. Jamison, SiHua Qi, Lulwah AlKulaib, Tao Chen, Adrian Benton, Sandra C. Quinn, and Mark Dredze, Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate, American Jounral of Public Health (Sep. 12, 2018), https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567.
A report from the Knight Foundation found that more than 80% of accounts associated with 2016 election disinformation were still active and posting. Tim Mak, Most Twitter Accounts Linked to 2016 Disinformation Are Still Active, Report Finds, NPR (Oct. 4, 2018), https://www.npr.org/2018/10/04/653454568/most-twitter-accounts-linked-to-2016-disinformation-are-still-active-report-find.
Twitter released an archive of 10 million tweets from state-backed troll accounts. The tweets range from 2013 to 2018 and 9 million of them came from only 3,800 accounts associated with Russia. The last million came from 770 Iranian accounts. Makena Kelly, Twitter releases archive of 10 million tweets from state-backed troll accounts, The Verge (Oct. 17, 2018), https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/17/17989348/twitter-10-million-tweets-russia-iran-troll.
Due to a security flaw, any user who updated their email address between November of 2014 and January of 2019 may have had their private Tweets exposed. This flaw only affected Android users. Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years, BBC News (Jan. 18, 2019),https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46918859.
Several Twitter employees and executives state Twitter cannot censor white supremacy on its site without collaterally affecting some accounts controlled by Republican politicians. Twitter claims the above characterization is not accurate. Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler, Why Won't Twitter Treat White Supremacy Like ISIS? Because It Would Mean Banning Some Republican Politicians Too., Motherboard (Apr. 25, 2019),https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3xgq5/why-wont-twitter-treat-white-supremacy-like-isis-because-it-would-mean-banning-some-republican-politicians-too.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that President Trump cannot block people on Twitter because his account is considered to be a public forum. Because of this, if he blocks someone because of their viewpoints, he would be in violation of the First Amendment. When does Twitter blocking violate the First Amendment?, Constitution Center (Aug. 1, 2019), https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/podcast/when-does-twitter-blocking-violate-the-first-amendment.
Twitter discloses 936 accounts originating from the People's Republic of China who were aiming to sow political discord in Hong Kong as a state-backed information operation. Twitter Safety, Information operations directed at Hong Kong, Twitter (Aug. 19, 2019), https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/information_operations_directed_at_Hong_Kong.html.
For the first time, Twitter's terms of service is updated to ban financial scams. Prior to this addition, financial scams were not outright banned, but were instead dealt with through Twitter's spam reporting tool. Sarah Perez, Twitter details new policies designed to crack down on financial scams, TechCrunch (Sep. 23, 2019),https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/23/twitter-details-new-policies-designed-to-crack-down-on-financial-scams/.
Twitter admits it was using email addresses and phone numbers meant to be used for 2-factor-authentication purposes to target ads by "mistake." Zak Doffman, New Twitter Privacy Breach - 2FA Phone Numbers Used To Target Ads, Forbes (Oct. 8, 2019), https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/10/08/twitter-very-sorry-but-admits-2fa-data-was-abused-to-target-ads/#59c8427e4a1a.
Twitter's Lists feature, after being abused for hateful groups and individuals, now has a way to report it. If it is being used to harass or abuse a user, it can now be reported. Sarah Perez, Twitter launches a way to report abusive use of its Lists feature, TechCrunch (Nov. 18, 2019),https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/18/twitter-launches-a-way-to-report-abusive-use-of-its-lists-feature/.
Hundreds of users inadvertently gave access to their data by using third-party apps. The information exposed included usernames, email addresses, and recent posts. This breach affected Android users who were using the apps Giant Square or Photofy. Hundreds of Users Impacted in Twitter and Facebook Data Breach, CISO MAG (Nov. 26, 2019), https://www.cisomag.com/hundreds-of-users-impacted-in-twitter-and-facebook-data-breach/.
A data breach caused by malicious code possibly inserted by hackers caused millions of Indian Twitter users to become vulnerable. It is unknown if any information was stolen. Sushant Talwar, Twitter warns users of serious security breach that could impact millions of accounts in India, India Today (Dec. 23, 2019), https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/twitter-warns-users-in-india-of-serious-security-breach-announces-fix-1630777-2019-12-23.
In order to comply with global privacy laws, Twitter updates its privacy policy to better inform users about what data advertisers are given. Elizabeth Culliford, Twitter Makes Global Changes to Comply With Privacy Laws, U.S. News (Dec. 2, 2019), https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2019-12-02/twitter-makes-global-changes-to-comply-with-privacy-laws.
Twitter bans Grindr from advertising on it site after a report shows Grindr was sharing users' personal data with advertisers and marketers. Megan Cerullo, Twitter suspends Grindr from ad network after alleged privacy violations, CBS News (Jan. 15, 2020),https://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-bans-grindr-from-ad-network-following-personal-data-report/.
A study conducted by Amnesty International India found that 13.7% of all tweets sent to female politicians ahead of the 2019 election were hateful or abusive. New Study Shows Shocking Scale of Abuse on Twitter Against Women Politicians in India, Amnesty International (Jan. 23, 2020), https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/shocking-scale-of-abuse-on-twitter-against-women-politicians-in-india/.
The NFL and about half of the teams in it had their Twitter accounts hacked. Allen Kim, The NFL and nearly half of its teams had their Twitter accounts hacked, CNN (Jan. 28, 2020), https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/28/us/nfl-twitter-hack-trnd/index.html.
Twitter is going to ban faked pictures, videos, or other media that are deceptively shared and pose a serious safety risk. This includes media that has been spliced, clipped, or overdubbed in a way that changes its meaning, as well as any fabricated footage, such as deepfakes. Adi Robertson, Twitter will ban 'deceptive' faked media that could cause 'serious harm', The Verge (Feb. 4, 2020),https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/4/21122661/twitter-deepfake-manipulated-media-policy-rollout-date.
A study looked at millions of tweets written around when Trump announced the U.S. was pulling out of the Paris climate agreement. It found that 25% of all tweets about climate change, or congratulating the President on his withdrawal were coming from bots. Bots amounted to 38% of all tweets pertaining to fake science and 28% of all tweets about Exxon. Oliver Milman, Revealed: quarter of all tweets about climate crisis produced by bots, The Guardian (Feb. 21, 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/21/climate-tweets-twitter-bots-analysis.
Twitter banned 70 pro-Bloomberg, the presidential nominee, accounts for platform manipulation. These accounts were all sharing the same message and clearly paid to do so. Makena Kelly, Twitter suspends 70 pro-Michael Bloomberg accounts for 'platform manipulation', The Verge (Feb. 22, 2020), https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/22/21148516/twitter-suspends-mike-bloomberg-facebook-google-platform-manipulation.
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