General Elon Musk Fukkery Thread
- Thread starter Armchair Militant
- Start date
millennial childhood icons showing up in the 11th hour to take out Boomer / Gen X neo-fascists would be 
didn't know where else to post this.
Twitter just realized it was dumb to cut off automated public service tweets
Twitter reversed what may have been its least popular change yet under Musk.
arstechnica.com
Twitter reversed what may have been its least popular change yet under Musk.
ASHLEY BELANGER - Today at undefinedOf all the changes Elon Musk has made to Twitter, blocking emergency and public transit services from tweeting automated alerts might have been his least popular. User backlash roared, as National Weather Service accounts got suspended. Then, one of the country's largest public transit services, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), had so much trouble tweeting, it decided to quit posting updates to Twitter.
Alarmed Twitter users who depend on these updates can perhaps rest easier now, though. Musk has abruptly reversed course. On Tuesday afternoon, the @TwitterDev account confirmed that, once again, at least some public services have been granted free access to Twitter's API, so they can continue tweeting out important updates.
"One of the most important use cases for the Twitter API has always been public utility," @TwitterDev's tweet said. "Verified gov or publicly owned services who tweet weather alerts, transport updates and emergency notifications may use the API, for these critical purposes, for free."
One of the most important use cases for the Twitter API has always been public utility. Verified gov or publicly owned services who tweet weather alerts, transport updates and emergency notifications may use the API, for these critical purposes, for free.
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) May 2, 2023
One of the most important use cases for the Twitter API has always been public utility. Verified gov or publicly owned services who tweet weather alerts, transport updates and emergency notifications may use the API, for these critical purposes, for free.
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) May 2, 2023
Many news outlets speculate: What does Twitter mean by "verified" in this tweet? It's currently unclear if Musk plans to charge government or publicly owned services for a verified badge to get free access to the API or if these accounts can also be verified for free, as many celebrity accounts with more than 1 million followers have been. MTA has just as many followers to qualify for the latter, but smaller local accounts posting weather alerts or public transit updates might not.
In February, when Twitter announced that it would cut off free access to its API—and instead charge $100 a month for a basic tier or $42,000 a month for top-tier subscribers—Musk pondered giving verified users free access to the API.
"I guess we could give all verified users access to the API for posts like this," Musk tweeted, responding to a Twitter user complaining about a favorite bot being potentially killed off by the new paid tiers.
This could hint that Musk plans to rope weather and emergency services into paying for verification. However, a base subscription to verify organizations in the US costs $1,000 a month, plus $50 a month for each affiliate account. And it seems unlikely that organizations that have already found other solutions to share updates with their audiences—including MTA interacting with users on Meta-owned WhatsApp, Business Insider reported—will be willing to pay any amount to continue posting automated tweets.
The MTA tweeted yesterday that while it's "happy" that Twitter "got the message" and "committed to making API access free for the MTA and other public sector agencies," they wouldn't necessarily be resuming automated tweets. Instead, MTA plans to assess their "options for service alerts going forward."
Ars could not immediately reach MTA for comment. Twitter still responds to comment requests with a poop emoji.
Twitter continues deprioritizing third-party content
Other services disrupted by Twitter's decision to charge for API access include the United States Geologic Service, the US Forest Service, and Bay Area Rapid Transit, The Verge reported. In April, Mashable reported that subscribing to the basic paid tier for API access could require services to alter how their automated tools work, which may not be worth the effort. Because MTA says that Twitter has become unreliable, public sector agencies likely view putting time and energy into updating Twitter services as a gamble, so long as Musk continues radically updating the platform every few months. If Musk's goal is to close off Twitter from third-party ecosystems, as Mashable suggested, more changes could be coming, which could mean further disruptions.It seems Musk is prioritizing Twitter-hosted content above all else in his seemingly unending efforts to monetize Twitter in every way possible. This week, Musk tweeted that posts featuring text, images, and videos uploaded to the platform would be boosted and rewarded for views, above posts featuring links to text, images, and videos hosted elsewhere.
"The more screentime users spend looking at a post, whether text, pic, or video, the more it is boosted," Musk tweeted. "Video posted natively to this platform will be boosted more than an external link, because way more time is spent watching a video than clicking on a link."
Creators who want to share the highest-quality content are supposed to ignore that currently on Twitter, "our video upload is so bad!" Musk says. "I recommend 480p for video longer than 10 mins, as that resolution is fine for phone/laptop users."
Every decision Musk makes that risks alienating popular accounts, whether it's creators or public sector agencies, threatens the appeal of Twitter for everyone on the platform. Musk may be messing too much with what Business Insider described as a "delicate balance" between popular accounts and their audiences. The more useful or entertaining an account is, the more useful and entertaining Twitter is for users, and the more likely accounts are to continue making posts and attracting users.
While Musk continues messing with Twitter, his decision to backtrack on blocking emergency services that don't pay for API access is a welcome one. It's also possibly a sign that he recognizes that "Twitter may need reliable real-time information more than the providers need Twitter," Business Insider reported.
Whether it's too late to woo back accounts like MTA has yet to be seen, as the transit authority may still be bristling from Musk's alleged prior demand that it pay $50,000 a month to continue posting automated tweets, Bloomberg reported. When MTA declined to pay, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that MTA's decision came as a "surprise" to Musk. It's still uncertain if MTA will resume posting automated updates on Twitter.
One reason MTA might return to Twitter is if the platform proves its value, though. After the pandemic dramatically decreased MTA ridership, MTA considered raising fares and tolls to close revenue gaps while reducing services to adjust to "new normal" ridership, the New York state comptroller reported. At a time when MTA is hoping to encourage people to return to its public transit options, Twitter could be an effective outreach tool if MTA could depend on it.
Twitter Abruptly Stops Reporting On Gov’t Requests As Data Reveals Elon Obeys Gov’t Demands Way More Often Than Old Twitter
To hear Elon and his biggest fans tell the story, pre-Elon Twitter was a hellhole of censorship often driven by government demands, and he had to take over the company to “bring free speech back.” …
www.techdirt.com
Twitter Abruptly Stops Reporting On Gov’t Requests As Data Reveals Elon Obeys Gov’t Demands Way More Often Than Old Twitter
from the whatever-elon-has-said,-he's-done-the-opposite dept
Mon, May 1st 2023 09:34am - Mike Masnick
To hear Elon and his biggest fans tell the story, pre-Elon Twitter was a hellhole of censorship often driven by government demands, and he had to take over the company to “bring free speech back.” As astute observers not easily misled by nonsense peddlers knew, however, in actuality, old Twitter was actually one of the most welcoming platforms to speech that other platforms refused to host, and was among the most aggressive at pushing back on government demands.
Twitter’s transparency reports on this were clear. Just looking at the last transparency report released before Elon took over, you can see this quite clearly. On requests for information from governments around the globe, it only complied with around 40%:
And when it came to government demands to remove information whether by court order or other government demands, its compliance rate was around 51% globally:
If you dig into the details, not surprisingly, you find that the variation country to country is significant. So, from here, you can see the countries that sent the most legal demands over the period of that report (second half of 2021):
From that, you can see that Twitter complied with just 20% of requests from India, and 44% of the requests from Japan.
Clearly, the company made a real effort to evaluate the requests and their legal merit before making a decision.
Now, as we just reported, Twitter under Elon has stopped doing transparency reports, though it did release a ridiculous blog post that wasn’t “transparent” at all and literally said: “Twitter’s compliance rate for these requests varied by requester country.” But provided no actual data on the compliance rate at all.
Thankfully, Russel Brandom over at Rest of World, realized that Twitter has still been automatically reporting government demand info to the good folks at the LumenDatabase… and from that found that Elon’s Twitter has been way more compliant in giving in to exactly what governments are demanding, both for removing content and for handing over information. And, from the look of things, governments are fukking thrilled with this, seeing as the numbers of demands went way, way up.
That last column is “post-Elon.” So, again, Elon’s Twitter is now doing the very nonsense that Elon and his fans falsely thought old Twitter did. We already knew that Elon had caved in and was agreeing to take down accounts from journalists and activists in India, which old Twitter had drawn a line and said it refused to cross.
Notably, and importantly, just as Brandom was doing this research, Twitter abruptly stopped sharing this data:
After the article went up, Lumen put out a statement on Mastodon noting that Twitter had deliberately stopped sharing as their “data sharing policies are under review” and that “they will update Lumen once there is more information.”
So… as Elon has promised to be more about free speech and transparency, and less about giving in to government censorship and surveillance requests, the reality is that, once again, he’s done literally the opposite of that.
Goodbye Twitter: Techdirt Will Soon End Our Automated Posting
from the bye-twitter dept
Wed, May 3rd 2023 09:30am - Mike Masnick
Over the last few months we’d been wondering if it was worth pulling Techdirt posting from Twitter altogether, but had been too busy with other stuff to make a decision, and now it looks like Twitter has made the decision for us. Last week, Automattic informed us that Elon Musk was demanding a ridiculous amount of money to continue allowing its Jetpack service to use the API to enable WordPress sites to automatically post to Twitter. Automattic publicly announced this week that it would not pay, and that WordPress sites would no longer be able to automatically post to Twitter.
And… that’s fine. I’m sure we could probably find some hack to keep posting, but why bother?
We’re actually joining a large number of others who have left Twitter, including news organizations like NPR and PBS. Lots of others have left as well, either by choice or when pushed. NY’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, the MTA, announced recently that given Twitter’s increasing unreliability it will no longer use it for alerts.
Lots of other accounts have left as well, including many fun ones that used to make Twitter such a fun place to be. Inoreader, one of the world’s most popular RSS readers has now dropped Twitter feeds because of the new API fees. Same with Feedly. A bunch of official weather services have been exploring other options, after Twitter blocked many of their accounts from posting (though some were re-enabled after complaints).
Of course, just yesterday Twitter (again realizing that it hadn’t thought any of this through) announced that it was restoring API access for government weather and travel alerts. But, just the fact that this is all based on Elon making stupid decisions, learning they are stupid, and having to backtrack should be concerning for everyone.
So, we’re fine. Elon has every right to cut us off from posting our content to Twitter. But, really, our Twitter feed drove little to no traffic anyway, and it has limited value. It seems like a bizarre decision to cut off a service that powers 43% of the world’s websites, making it way more difficult for those services to put their content on Twitter, but Elon (I’m repeatedly told) is some sort of intergalactic business genius, and I’m just some guy who writes words on the internet.
We are looking into alternative services, but not alternative ways to post to Twitter. As I’ve made clear, I’m quite enthusiastic about a few different protocol-based systems out there, including ActivityPub (Mastodon), AT Protocol (Bluesky) and nostr. So we’ll be looking at ways to automate posting to all of those over time. Protocol systems not subject to the whims of some random dude seem like a much safer and more sustainable bet. This is also why Techdirt has been available for decades via RSS, and you can always follow us that way, or by just visiting the page once a day.
Goodbye Twitter: Techdirt Will Soon End Our Automated Posting
from the bye-twitter dept
Wed, May 3rd 2023 09:30am - Mike Masnick
Over the last few months we’d been wondering if it was worth pulling Techdirt posting from Twitter altogether, but had been too busy with other stuff to make a decision, and now it looks like Twitter has made the decision for us. Last week, Automattic informed us that Elon Musk was demanding a ridiculous amount of money to continue allowing its Jetpack service to use the API to enable WordPress sites to automatically post to Twitter. Automattic publicly announced this week that it would not pay, and that WordPress sites would no longer be able to automatically post to Twitter.
We were told that the automatic sharing of Techdirt articles as tweets would end over the weekend, though they’ve still been showing up. Honestly, we’ve got too many other things we’re working on to turn off the autosharing ourselves, so they’ll keep appearing as long as Elon allows it, but I assume that’s not much longer.
And… that’s fine. I’m sure we could probably find some hack to keep posting, but why bother?
We’re actually joining a large number of others who have left Twitter, including news organizations like NPR and PBS. Lots of others have left as well, either by choice or when pushed. NY’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, the MTA, announced recently that given Twitter’s increasing unreliability it will no longer use it for alerts.
Lots of other accounts have left as well, including many fun ones that used to make Twitter such a fun place to be. Inoreader, one of the world’s most popular RSS readers has now dropped Twitter feeds because of the new API fees. Same with Feedly. A bunch of official weather services have been exploring other options, after Twitter blocked many of their accounts from posting (though some were re-enabled after complaints).
Of course, just yesterday Twitter (again realizing that it hadn’t thought any of this through) announced that it was restoring API access for government weather and travel alerts. But, just the fact that this is all based on Elon making stupid decisions, learning they are stupid, and having to backtrack should be concerning for everyone.
So, we’re fine. Elon has every right to cut us off from posting our content to Twitter. But, really, our Twitter feed drove little to no traffic anyway, and it has limited value. It seems like a bizarre decision to cut off a service that powers 43% of the world’s websites, making it way more difficult for those services to put their content on Twitter, but Elon (I’m repeatedly told) is some sort of intergalactic business genius, and I’m just some guy who writes words on the internet.
We are looking into alternative services, but not alternative ways to post to Twitter. As I’ve made clear, I’m quite enthusiastic about a few different protocol-based systems out there, including ActivityPub (Mastodon), AT Protocol (Bluesky) and nostr. So we’ll be looking at ways to automate posting to all of those over time. Protocol systems not subject to the whims of some random dude seem like a much safer and more sustainable bet. This is also why Techdirt has been available for decades via RSS, and you can always follow us that way, or by just visiting the page once a day.
Last edited:
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
Twitter just realized it was dumb to cut off automated public service tweets
Twitter reversed what may have been its least popular change yet under Musk.
arstechnica.com
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Mozilla (@mozilla@mozilla.social)
Last year we announced we would be joining Mastodon to explore an alternative to today's social media.
We’re excited to announce we’re expanding Mozilla.social to a private beta, with hopes to open to the public soon. This is just the beginning. Read more about the launch of our instance...
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The internet isn’t just about browsers. Browsers are a critical part of the human experience on the internet and will always be core to our work at Mozil
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Mozilla (@mozilla@mozilla.social)
Last year we announced we would be joining Mastodon to explore an alternative to today's social media. We’re excited to announce we’re expanding Mozilla.social to a private beta, with hopes to open to the public soon. This is just the beginning. Read more about the launch of our instance...mozilla.social
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This whole saga is a wakeup call that someone else needs to get a real viable twitter alternative going as fast as possible.
Verified Twitter Accounts Spread Misinfo About Imminent Nuclear Strike
YouTube and Twitter accounts spread rumors about nuclear war after two drones struck the Kremlin.
By Matthew Gault
May 4, 2023, 12:16pm
NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION PHOTO.
]Several bluecheck Twitter accounts and a YouTube channel spread misinformation about heightened nuclear threats online last night, saying that Russian military jets were being armed with nuclear payloads aimed at Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Unfounded speculation and blatant lies about global politics and war zones are common on social media, but are even more reckless given the volatile conflict between Russia and Ukraine and Twitter’s eroded moderations policies and new Twitter Blue scheme, where any bad actor can pay for the same verification that used to be reserved for legitimate news organizations.
The verified Twitter accounts also spread the rumor that Russia was preparing a nuclear response hours after two drones exploded over the Kremlin and Moscow accused Kyiv and the United States of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin.
“We are currently evaluating rumors of nuclear movement in Russia,” the verified account DEFCONWarningSystem said on Twitter. “Please remember that these are rumors only with no verification at the moment.”
Several bluecheck Twitter accounts and a YouTube channel spread misinformation about heightened nuclear threats online last night, saying that Russian military jets were being armed with nuclear payloads aimed at Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Unfounded speculation and blatant lies about global politics and war zones are common on social media, but are even more reckless given the volatile conflict between Russia and Ukraine and Twitter’s eroded moderations policies and new Twitter Blue scheme, where any bad actor can pay for the same verification that used to be reserved for legitimate news organizations.
The verified Twitter accounts also spread the rumor that Russia was preparing a nuclear response hours after two drones exploded over the Kremlin and Moscow accused Kyiv and the United States of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin. “We are currently evaluating rumors of nuclear movement in Russia,” the verified account DEFCONWarningSystem said on Twitter. “Please remember that these are rumors only with no verification at the moment.”
DEFCONWarningSystem, with its verified blue checkmark and official looking logos, could be mistaken for some kind of official warning system. People have heard the word “DEFCON” and they know it’s associated with nuclear war. The account, however, has nothing to do with any official agency.
DEFCONWarningSystem says it’s a “private intelligence organization that has been analyzing the threat of nuclear war since 1984 and offers an alert code to the public.” It happens to share the name of the defense readiness condition (DEFCON) alert system that the U.S. President and Pentagon use to signal its readiness to conduct nuclear war.
A helpful Twitter note attached later explained that the account is “not affiliated with any government agency and does not represent the alert status of any military branch. The public should make their own evaluations and not rely on the DEFCON Warning System for any strategic planning.”
A quick glance of DEFCONWarningSytem’s website shows that it’s connected to Reagan-era christian apocalyptic movements. They link to the website of Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth and Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth, non-fiction books that imagine an evangelical Christian-style end of the world scenario.
An hour after its initial Tweet about possible nukes, DEFCONWarningSystem followed up. “We are unable to verify any claims of either Russian nuclear movements not a heightened state of nuclear alert in Russia. We will continue to monitor the situation,” it said.
This was not the only account spreading the nuclear rumor in the wake of the Kremlin attack. OSINTdefender, another verified Twitter account, also said it had heard rumors of nuclear movements and hedged that these reports were “extremely unconfirmed.” As well as being extremely unconfirmed, the rumors were extremely specific.
“Extremely Unconfirmed Reports that the Russian Strategic Nuclear Force has been ordered into a Heightened State of Alert today with Air-Launched Nuclear and Conventional Weapons being prepared at multiple Air Force Bases across Western Russia including Engels Air Base in the Saratov Region and Shaykovka Air Base in the Kaluga Region which both contain Tu-160, Tu-95MS, and Tu-22M3 Strategic Bombers,” it said. I would like to Heavily Stress that there is so far No Evidence of this occurring with it currently only being Rumors from some Russian and Ukraine Sources.”
When asked why it was posting a series of unconfirmed rumors about a nuclear war, the account defended itself. “I feel it is my ‘Duty’ as an OSINT/Information Aggregation Account to Post this Info and then later down the line determine if it was True or False which is what I am currently attempting to do,” it said. “The only Information I don’t Post is stuff that is clearly either Trolling or Blatantly Propaganda.”
The wildest series of tweets about nuclear war came from pro-Ukrainian account Igor Sushko who unfurled a long thread about nuclear weapons being loaded onto TU-22Ms strategic bombers. "The source also claimed that for the first time nuclear weapons may be used, at least two 'items' are already located directly at one of the aforementioned airfields,” Sushko said on Twitter, quoting a source.
Sushko linked to a YouTube livestream and clipped bits from the broadcast to put on his Twitter thread. The thread included photos and personal details of the Russian pilots who were supposedly flying the bombers carrying nuclear weapons. “Osechkin [the YouTuber] is letting the pilots know that no tinted windows will protect them if they commit these war crimes,” he said on Twitter. “They will be identified and exposed.”
The nuclear attack on Kyiv never came.
The incident highlights one of the problems of Twitter's new verification policies. People can purchase credibility for $8 a month and get pushed to the top of the algorithm. Accounts like DEFCONWarningSytem should absolutely not be listened to when it comes to nuclear threats, yet its rumor went viral in the aftermath of an attack on the Kremlin.
Nuclear tensions are high right now and the Kremlin has been very good at doing its own nuclear threats. In the days after its February invasion of Ukraine, Putin put its nuclear forces on high alert. More importantly, he told the world he’d done it. Nuclear movements are highly monitored and highly signaled—if nuclear war is about to break out, we aren’t going to learn about it from a blue check on Twitter tweeting out an unverified rumor for engagement.
Verified Twitter Accounts Spread Misinfo About Imminent Nuclear Strike
YouTube and Twitter accounts spread rumors about nuclear war after two drones struck the Kremlin.
By Matthew Gault
May 4, 2023, 12:16pm
NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION PHOTO.
]Several bluecheck Twitter accounts and a YouTube channel spread misinformation about heightened nuclear threats online last night, saying that Russian military jets were being armed with nuclear payloads aimed at Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Unfounded speculation and blatant lies about global politics and war zones are common on social media, but are even more reckless given the volatile conflict between Russia and Ukraine and Twitter’s eroded moderations policies and new Twitter Blue scheme, where any bad actor can pay for the same verification that used to be reserved for legitimate news organizations.
The verified Twitter accounts also spread the rumor that Russia was preparing a nuclear response hours after two drones exploded over the Kremlin and Moscow accused Kyiv and the United States of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin.
“We are currently evaluating rumors of nuclear movement in Russia,” the verified account DEFCONWarningSystem said on Twitter. “Please remember that these are rumors only with no verification at the moment.”
Several bluecheck Twitter accounts and a YouTube channel spread misinformation about heightened nuclear threats online last night, saying that Russian military jets were being armed with nuclear payloads aimed at Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Unfounded speculation and blatant lies about global politics and war zones are common on social media, but are even more reckless given the volatile conflict between Russia and Ukraine and Twitter’s eroded moderations policies and new Twitter Blue scheme, where any bad actor can pay for the same verification that used to be reserved for legitimate news organizations.
The verified Twitter accounts also spread the rumor that Russia was preparing a nuclear response hours after two drones exploded over the Kremlin and Moscow accused Kyiv and the United States of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin. “We are currently evaluating rumors of nuclear movement in Russia,” the verified account DEFCONWarningSystem said on Twitter. “Please remember that these are rumors only with no verification at the moment.”
DEFCONWarningSystem, with its verified blue checkmark and official looking logos, could be mistaken for some kind of official warning system. People have heard the word “DEFCON” and they know it’s associated with nuclear war. The account, however, has nothing to do with any official agency.
DEFCONWarningSystem says it’s a “private intelligence organization that has been analyzing the threat of nuclear war since 1984 and offers an alert code to the public.” It happens to share the name of the defense readiness condition (DEFCON) alert system that the U.S. President and Pentagon use to signal its readiness to conduct nuclear war.
A helpful Twitter note attached later explained that the account is “not affiliated with any government agency and does not represent the alert status of any military branch. The public should make their own evaluations and not rely on the DEFCON Warning System for any strategic planning.”
A quick glance of DEFCONWarningSytem’s website shows that it’s connected to Reagan-era christian apocalyptic movements. They link to the website of Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth and Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth, non-fiction books that imagine an evangelical Christian-style end of the world scenario.
An hour after its initial Tweet about possible nukes, DEFCONWarningSystem followed up. “We are unable to verify any claims of either Russian nuclear movements not a heightened state of nuclear alert in Russia. We will continue to monitor the situation,” it said.
This was not the only account spreading the nuclear rumor in the wake of the Kremlin attack. OSINTdefender, another verified Twitter account, also said it had heard rumors of nuclear movements and hedged that these reports were “extremely unconfirmed.” As well as being extremely unconfirmed, the rumors were extremely specific.
“Extremely Unconfirmed Reports that the Russian Strategic Nuclear Force has been ordered into a Heightened State of Alert today with Air-Launched Nuclear and Conventional Weapons being prepared at multiple Air Force Bases across Western Russia including Engels Air Base in the Saratov Region and Shaykovka Air Base in the Kaluga Region which both contain Tu-160, Tu-95MS, and Tu-22M3 Strategic Bombers,” it said. I would like to Heavily Stress that there is so far No Evidence of this occurring with it currently only being Rumors from some Russian and Ukraine Sources.”
When asked why it was posting a series of unconfirmed rumors about a nuclear war, the account defended itself. “I feel it is my ‘Duty’ as an OSINT/Information Aggregation Account to Post this Info and then later down the line determine if it was True or False which is what I am currently attempting to do,” it said. “The only Information I don’t Post is stuff that is clearly either Trolling or Blatantly Propaganda.”
The wildest series of tweets about nuclear war came from pro-Ukrainian account Igor Sushko who unfurled a long thread about nuclear weapons being loaded onto TU-22Ms strategic bombers. "The source also claimed that for the first time nuclear weapons may be used, at least two 'items' are already located directly at one of the aforementioned airfields,” Sushko said on Twitter, quoting a source.
Sushko linked to a YouTube livestream and clipped bits from the broadcast to put on his Twitter thread. The thread included photos and personal details of the Russian pilots who were supposedly flying the bombers carrying nuclear weapons. “Osechkin [the YouTuber] is letting the pilots know that no tinted windows will protect them if they commit these war crimes,” he said on Twitter. “They will be identified and exposed.”
The nuclear attack on Kyiv never came.
The incident highlights one of the problems of Twitter's new verification policies. People can purchase credibility for $8 a month and get pushed to the top of the algorithm. Accounts like DEFCONWarningSytem should absolutely not be listened to when it comes to nuclear threats, yet its rumor went viral in the aftermath of an attack on the Kremlin.
Nuclear tensions are high right now and the Kremlin has been very good at doing its own nuclear threats. In the days after its February invasion of Ukraine, Putin put its nuclear forces on high alert. More importantly, he told the world he’d done it. Nuclear movements are highly monitored and highly signaled—if nuclear war is about to break out, we aren’t going to learn about it from a blue check on Twitter tweeting out an unverified rumor for engagement.
Chris Trottier (@atomicpoet@mastodon.social)
Attached: 1 image Apparently, George Santos doesn't like #Bluesky. He accuses it of having dangerous rhetoric. https://twitter.com/Santos4Congress/status/1654623264835076097
mastodon.social
Mike McCue (@mike@flipboard.social)
The only feature that matters for any social media experience is the people who are on it. I'm amazed at how many technology leaders forget this and get distracted by the underlying tech, protocols, features, etc. Elon is a great example. He thinks he bought a platform. But what he really...