Facebook Might Shut Down Twitter Livetweeting - http://clapway.com/2016/01/22/facebook-might-shut-down-twitter-livetweeting-123/

Facebook has announced the launch of a virtual Sports Stadium, and it might threaten Twitter’s spot as the go-to livetweet platform. The new hub will apparently bring in a new way to experience sports, and it comes just in time for the Super Bowl 50.

Facebook is the World’s Largest Cybernetic Sports Stations

There are over 650 million sports fans on Facebook, and many go there to make posts about sports events as they are happening. These posts become threads of celebration, misery or trash talking among friends, loved ones, and other fans if posts are appropriately tagged or posted in public forums.

A Live Posting Platform Isn’t A Total Surprise

With a specialized place for sports, Facebook brings together a very specific group of people to the platform. The social media website will host a special tab called Facebook Sports, where all content related to sports will be compiled. Through it, users will be able to see posts and comments from friends, posts from experts and specialized organizations. This includes broadcast stations, teams, leagues, and journalists.

The live stadium will also feature live scores, game statistics, and play-by-play posts. Fans will also be able to see game information, like which broadcast stations are showing them and at what time. It’s just an easier tool to follow all of the games as they happen, and a one-stop place for commentary. The point is to enhance the game watching experience, much like Twitter has done for award shows and live events through hashtags.

How Will Twitter Retaliate?

Twitter has been a comfortable tool for anyone to use. Especially when it comes to broadcast content, it’s just the simplest way to give live commentary. However, with this hub rolling out to American iPhones to support American Football, it could be in danger.

Facebook hasn’t tapped into the entertainment industry yet, but sports fans are a serious force to be reckoned with. Facebook announced that they will be rolling out the platform for basketball and soccer fans soon, and it will become available globally in the next few weeks. In those weeks, Twitter might just announce a new way to livetweet, and hopefully, both of them can remain neck and neck.

Facebook Might Shut Down Twitter Livetweeting

Haters on Facebook and Twitter Can End Up in Jail - http://clapway.com/2016/01/20/haters-on-facebook-and-twitter-can-end-up-in-jail-123/

Watch Your Words! It is 2016 and haters on Facebook or Twitter can easily get a restraining order pinned on them. They could even end up in jail for up to a year. Governments all over the United States are taking Facebook communication as e-mail.

Facebook and Twitter Are More Influential Than We Think

Social media is a powerful tool for many things. It recently showcased its power against Maria Gonzales, who now faces jail time for harassing her ex-sister in law on Facebook. It might be a bit of a stretch to call it harassment since all she did was post some vaguely threatening posts on the platform. What made it harassment was the fact that Maria actually tagged her sister in law in the posts.

In one of the posts, Maria Gonzales called her ex-sister in law ‘stupid’, and in another, she made an offhand comment about her family being ‘sad’. Naturally, the ex-sister in law was notified of these posts, which prompted her to file for a restraining order.

This isn’t the smartest move to make. Impulse can take a big part of why people post hate publicly on the internet. In this instance, tagging the object of your hate is probably the most dangerous thing to do. Many people think that Facebook or Twitter accounts can make them anonymous, but it’s quite the opposite.

Facebook and Twitter Can Get You a Restraining Order, Even Put You in Jail

A restraining order means that a person must refrain from any contact with another person, either by mail, phone, email, voicemail or other electronic or any means. Cases from as far back as 2014 have treated Facebook as a valid email communication, so it’s no surprise Gonzales is facing this level of trouble.

Online harassment became a hot topic on the internet. It spurred a new kind of bullying, cyberbullying, which affects people around the globe. Cyberbullying has taken many lives, and it’s only right that Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram content is admitted into courts as evidence. This will ensure the safety of teens suffering from depression all over the world, and especially protect those who are very present on these platforms.

Haters on Facebook and Twitter Can End Up in Jail

Twitter and Gmail Users Have to Stay Away from "Star Wars" - http://clapway.com/2016/01/20/twitter-amazon-and-gmail-passwords-have-to-stay-away-from-star-wars-123/

SplashData has released their annual list of 25 worst passwords of 2015. It seems like a lot of Twitter, Gmail and Amazon users had Star Wars themed ones. The password management firm took data from over 2 million passwords that leaked online during 2015 to compile the ones most often hacked.

2015 Passwords Got A Bit More Clever

The report states that the passwords of the year became longer, which is good. However, they were still too simple and not random. Classic examples of these kinds of passwords are ‘1234567890’ or ‘qwertyuiop’. Interestingly enough, there were also many Star Wars themed passwords found in the data.

If You Use Any of these Passwords for Gmail, Amazon or Twitter: Beware!

According to the ranking, the number one spot goes to ‘123456’, with increases and decreases in digits on spots 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 12. This is absolutely no surprise. The second worst password of 2015 was ‘password’, with ‘qwerty’ at 4. Sports related passwords also made the list, like ‘football’ and ‘baseball’.

Amazingly enough, 4 of the most popular worst passwords were related to Star Wars. This was probably because of the huge buildup to the launch of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The passwords in question were ‘princess’ (referencing Princess Leia), ‘solo’ (referencing Han Solo), ‘master’ ( a possible reference to C3PO) and ‘starwars’.

Many Platforms Offer Secondary Authentication Procedures

Gmail, for one, has an authentication process that sends a code to user’s mobile phone. Other companies are moving in for it, including Facebook. Despite that, there’s no denying that there is a strong need for better and stronger passwords.

The recipe for success is combining long and random. Passwords should combine letters, numbers and symbols whenever possible. Not only that, but people’s passwords should vary in every major account. This includes bank accounts, email, social networking websites and any platform that has your credit card information.

Password Managers and Muti-Step Authentication Are Key

Password managers are also good for people who tend to be forgetful about passwords. The highest recommended platforms are KeePass, LastPass, Dashline and SplashID. People are also encouraged to enable multi-factor authentication on their Amazon, Facebook, Gmail, Microsoft and Twitter accounts.

Twitter and Gmail Users Have to Stay Away from "Star Wars"

Facebook and Instagram Doing Great, Twitter is in Trouble - http://clapway.com/2016/01/13/facebook-and-instagram-are-doing-great-twitter-is-in-trouble-123/

A new statement from Twitter has declared that Periscope video feeds will now be viewable directly from the platform. This is good news for Facebook and Instagram.

User Growth Is Faltering on Twitter

User growth is the single most important factor when it comes to social media. There have been small increases in the US in recent months. Even the biggest social media networks have been flatlining in the United States and gained very little abroad. It looks like everyone who wants a Twitter account already has one.

Jack Dorsey Might Make Things Right

In an effort to shake things up, co-founder Jack Dorsey returned as the CEO of the Twitter. This is roughly like when Steve Jobs stepped in to use market capitalization to make Apple what it is today. However, his efforts haven’t been entirely effective. The platform has tried out curated feeds of content dedicated to certain themes or events, to no avail.

Jack Dorsey has been blamed for the plateauing for not dedicating all of his time to this platform. Currently, he splits his work between Twitter and his own company, Square. Investors are extremely disappointed. It has reached the point where the social media website’s stock went under $20 for the first time sine 2013. Right now, the company’s stock is at around $19.64.

Jack Dorsey is bringing in Periscope to right some wrongs. The popular live streaming app was acquired by Twitter last year, so this not too surprising a move. It allows users to live stream video from anywhere with an Internet connection, and other users can view and comment on the content as it happens.

Periscope Could Pull a Vine

According to the announcement blog post, this will give Twitter more dimension. It effectively lets the user get pulled into their feed or specific favorite accounts. It will hopefully give people a reason to log into Twitter and stay there instead of switching around. This will also boost Periscope’s popularity as some users may even want to download the separate platform.

Twitter recently acquired Vine, which records and loops 6-second videos. The platform became so popular that it became its own service though it still works seamlessly within Twitter. The same thing could happen to Periscope. The new update will roll out to iOS on January 12. It will be coming later for web and Android users.

What Does This Mean for Facebook and Instagram?

Facebook and Instagram are doing just fine on their own. While Instagram’s video platform isn’t as popular as Vine, it’s still widely used and functional. Facebook is bringing in a video platform of their own soon, which will allow for Facebook to work like a combination of social media and YouTube. On that side of the spectrum, it’s safe to say these two social media platforms will be largely unaffected by this update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYyWfxUH9_Y

Facebook and Instagram Doing Great, Twitter is in Trouble

Twitter Wages War Against Google News and Apple News - http://clapway.com/2016/01/06/twitter-wages-war-against-google-news-and-apple-news-123/

Twitter may roll out a new update that allows users to write messages of up to 10,000 characters in a tweet in the first quarter of 2016. This feature would only display the first 140 characters, but it would bring a drastic change to the platform as a whole.

Twitter Goes Beyond 140 Characters

Many people have been turned away from using the platform because of the character limit. If this update does roll out, the social network will officially become a quick-fix stop for a lot more people. Allowing users more than 140 characters will make it easier for new accounts to get used to the platform.

Apple News and Google News Are In For Some Trouble

Let’s face it, writing tweets efficiently isn’t easy. A lot of people have to sacrifice grammar and context. A well-composed tweet is really commendable, which is probably why Twitter will only display the first 140 characters even if the limit is extended. This will encourage some muscle work on your first sentence. It will also ensure that the content doesn’t change too dramatically.

Blogs and publications will probably benefit the most from an update like this. It’ll give them space for an opening thought, and then allow them to continue in a ‘read more’ section. This is something that Twitter has lacked. Facebook and Tumblr have already introduced ‘read more’s onto their platforms, so it’s about time for Twitter to get with the program.

This will make for potential competition against Google News and Apple News. Twitter handles a lot of traffic from smartphones and tablets, which is something that is not as popular for Google News. Apple has its own News app integrated onto their phones, but some people don’t even know it exists. If Twitter extends the limit of their posts, they could become the go-to news source for a lot of people.

This New Update Might Not Be Entirely Beneficial

The 140 character limit is Twitter’s curse and blessing. It has been mocked, parodied and praised. Messages in short form have given many outlets a way to upload information in nuggets. The platform’s growing user base has gotten used to browsing through and getting only the most vital information. This makes the system efficient, quick and fun.

10,000 characters will allow for article-length content. This is something newspapers and news sources will take great advantage of. Blogs that focus on writing will also find this very useful. Though 10,000 characters seem a bit excessive even for these purposes, it could garner some good attention.

Should Twitter Consider Medium?

Medium is a platform that, while eerily similar, is pretty much what Twitter will be if they roll out this update. Medium even gives users an average of the time it will take to read a post. This would be beneficial to Twitter if people are really picky about time.

There has been no confirmation from Twitter that this update will actually happen. It would sure be interesting.

 

Twitter Wages War Against Google News and Apple News

Facebook is for Old People, Snapchat is for the Young - http://clapway.com/2016/01/01/facebook-is-for-old-people-snapchat-is-for-the-young-123/

The statistics of 2015 show us some surprising figures. The age group that visited Facebook the most in the US were people between the ages of 25-54. On the other hand, 50% of Snapchat’s user base was composed of people between the ages of 13-17. So, is Facebook only for old people? Is Snapchat the new in app?

Statistics Show 25-34 Year Olds Make Up for 20.5% of Usage in the US

According to 2015 statistics, there was nearly the same amount of Facebook activity from 18-24 year olds as there were of 35-44 year olds. In fact, more than 10% of all usage in the US came from people in the ages between 45-54. These are no surprise, as it has become especially common for baby boomers to experiment with social media. Since Facebook was one of the first o get the trends started, it could be why it caught on with the older crowds first.

Snapchat is an Entirely Different Story

The figures for Snapchat say something else. According to their statistics, the main group of users (50% of them) are between the ages of 13-17. The next age group where it is most popular is 18-24, with 31% of all usage. Groups over 25 years old make up only 19% of the platform usage. This says quite a lot about the platform.

How Come the Figures Are So Different?

Snapchat is more accessible to younger crowds because of its privacy. Since users can specifically choose where their context goes and since the information is (mostly) transitory, it might be more comfortable for younger crowds. Not to mention it brings messaging to a higher degree by combining fleeting images with messages.

Older Age Groups Will Catch Up… Eventually

Facebook is used by people above 25 to communicate in a more massive scale. They don’t communicate messages to individual users, they look to communicate to everyone. It has become the place for parents to tell the stories regarding certain events, their jobs, families, loved ones and such. This is probably why Facebook will be the most popular platform for those age groups for a long time to come. Facebook is the place to tell stories, express messages and raise awareness. At least until they catch up to other platforms, time by which younger groups will have already jumped ship to a different one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwjxBmMszQ

Facebook is for Old People, Snapchat is for the Young

Twitter Unlocks Special Celebration Emoji for The New Year - http://clapway.com/2016/01/01/twitter-unlocks-special-celebration-emoji-for-the-new-year-123/

Parts of the world are already celebrating the beginning of 2016, and many have turned to Twitter to spread the cheer. There are already thousands of tweets of people confessing their wishes, resolutions and showcasing how the celebrate on the social media platform.

To Celebrate, Twitter Has Launched A Fireworks Emoji

This new emoji can be unlocked when people use certain hashtags on the platform. The hashtags are all related to the New Year – #HappyNewYear in English and its alternative in over 35 other language.

This is to unite the entire Twitter user base in one place, with the trendiest hashtag of every December 31st. Other languages that will turn on the emoji include: Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Portuguese, Punjabi, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and even Urdu.

Twitter Partners Up with Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment

The companies that organize the biggest event of the year, the Times Square New Year’s Eve in New York City. They will be showcasing the conversation going on on Twitter. Both tweets and videos will be fully on display under the Times Square Ball, which even has it’s own Twitter handle. It will also be displayed in other screens in the area for the million people that will be in the area tonight.

New Year’s Tweets Will Be Showcased Across the Globe

The messages will not be limited to the Twitter platform and Times Square. Times Square New Year’s Eve will be sharing content from the even with broadcasters from around the globe. The yearly ball drop gathers more than a billion viewers every year, and 2015 will be no different.

This event, historic in all parts of the world, unites everyone. It connects people from Honolulu to Fiji and everywhere in between. The new special emoji is one more way to welcome 2016 in style and as one.

Safety Tips for New Year’s Eve

We can expect to see the screens of Time Square with year-end celebrations of all kinds, as people gather at the landmark by the masses. It’s also important to stay safe as well, as masses can get over-excited. Always travel in groups and never drink and drive. Make sure to look out for yourself and your own!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGPSXZz_3yA

Twitter Unlocks Special Celebration Emoji for The New Year

NASA is Better at Twitter than Donald Trump is at Facebook - http://clapway.com/2015/12/29/nasa-is-better-at-twitter-than-donald-trump-is-at-facebook-123/

NASA has an insane social media strategy, as was proven by the fantastic coverage of New Horizons’s flyby of Pluto on July 14. In fact, 2015 has been such a good year for NASA in terms of social media that not even Donald Trump’s poorly composed tweets measure up.

Social Media Has Become An Even More Powerful Tool This Year

2015 was the year of many social media uproars. Pop culture overcame the mystery of the color of that one dress, the Charlie Charlie challenge, the Jenners and the Paris Attacks of January 7th and November 13. There have been many ups and downs, and looking back on the year in Twitter hashtags reveals what were the most trendy events of 2015.

The Whole World Was With Paris

The top spot goes to #ParisAttacks. Paris was the victim of vicious attacks of terrorism ten months apart. The city held the spot of most influential hashtag of the year. Related tags included #porteouverte. This hashtag offered stranded civilians asylums in homes all over the city.

2015 Was a Highly Political Year on Twitter

In second place stood #BlackLivesMatter. Its mission was to bring awareness to the injustice in the American justice system. This followed the deaths of many young people, children and adults that were killed for their race. It also showcased police brutality in the United States. The hashtag was also a shield for the protests that came with these murders.

On the side of positivity, #LoveWins was another incredibly popular hashtag. It stemmed from a tweet from President Barack Obama. This hashtag celebrated the legalization of gay marriage in all 50 states of the US.

NASA #PlutoFlyBy Takes the Space Cake

Most notably, one of the most influential hashtags of 2015 was NASA’s #PlutoFlyBy. It’s a well-known fact that NASA has some great people in charge of their social media. It is borderline excessive. To be fair, though, NASA has had a pretty great 2015.

The New Horizons’s Pluto flyby was perhaps the highlight of the year for the astronomy community, and with good reason. NASA is now in full gear to get men and probes to Mars, so it’ll be an exciting time for the agency for the next ten years.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s Facebook and Twitter full of the same insulting comments based on only about 2% fact. Nothing new to see there.

NASA is Better at Twitter than Donald Trump is at Facebook

Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo Have an Unstoppable Battle with State-Sponsored Attacks - http://clapway.com/2015/12/28/facebook-twitter-and-yahoo-have-an-unstoppable-battle-with-state-sponsored-attacks/

State-Sponsored attacks are a very serious problem. Many companies have experienced them, and many have warned their users about them. These attacks could reveal very vital information such as IP addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, passwords, etc. Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo are among the companies involved with these attacks.

FACEBOOK ISSUED AN ANNOUNCEMENT FOR STATE-SPONSORED ATTACKS

Way back in October of this year, the Chief Security Officer at Facebook, Alex Stamos, released a statement that can be found on their website. Stamos stated that every day the members of the company look for any malicious activity taking place. He said how if the company believed your account was experiencing this activity, you would get a notice. The notice explains that they believe your account is under attack, and they give you the option to turn on Login Approvals.

TWITTER RECEIVED STATE-SPONSORED ATTACKS

Earlier this month, some users of Twitter received a message that they might be the target of a state-sponsored attack. The notification from Twitter tells the user that there may have been some activity on their account. They said the attackers may have been looking for IP addresses and other information. The good thing is they said they have no evidence that any accounts were hacked. There still has not been much information revealed about this ordeal.

YAHOO ISSUES ALERTS ABOUT STATE-SPONSORED ATTACKS

Yahoo actually announced earlier this week that they will notify their users if state-sponsored attacks happen. The chief information security officer of Yahoo, Bob Lord, stated that the company will notify their users of these attacks. This will then allow the users to take all of the precautions they need to protect their accounts. However, Yahoo did not say how they were going to notify all of their users, but that they will if they need to. Yahoo also mentions to not freak out if you get a notification because this does not automatically mean you have been hacked.

STATE-SPONSORED ATTACKS ARE GETTING ALL THE MAJOR COMPANIES

These kinds of attacks are very serious. The amount of damage that can be done with an Internet Protocol address is massive. Not only that either, any information like phone numbers, passwords, or e-mails can be disastrous. Yahoo, Facebook, and Twitter are correct by sending their users alerts if this is happening. If you ever get an alert from these three companies, it would be wise to listen.

 

Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo Have an Unstoppable Battle with State-Sponsored Attacks

Facebook Helps Boy Get a New Liver, Twitter Helps Adele Fight Scalpers - http://clapway.com/2015/12/22/facebook-helps-boy-get-new-liver-twitter-helps-adele-fight-scalpers-123/

Social media has done a world of good today. A mother took to Facebook to find a liver for her sick son, and Adele fans go to Twitter to complain about ticket resales.

Anthony Parello Survives Liver Disease thanks to Facebook

Antony Parello, 14, was born with a rare condition called biliary atresia. This causes inflammation in the bile ducts, and it damages the liver progressively until it fails. This condition is diagnosed in 1 out of every 18,000 newborns. A transplant is the likeliest way to a full recovery.

Parello’s mother went to Facebook as a last resort, as hospitals were nowhere near getting a transplant in time. In the end, a long lost acquaintance answered to her post, and she turned out to be a match. Kendra Perpich, Minnesota resident, saved Anthony Parello’s life.

Facebook Connects Donors with Transplant Patients

Perpich donated a part of her liver to Anthony, who received surgery just last week. The doctors declared that Anthony should make a complete recovery, as the minor transplant will help the rest of the liver regenerate. He will be able to engage in any physical activity his age and condition allow.

Meanwhile, Adele Protects Her Fans from Scalpers

We’ve all seen ticket resellers outside concert venues. Adele is about to bring those nasty crooks down, and her management has joined hands with Songkick to do it. The singer’s 2016 North American tour will be the first since 2011, which she was forced to cancel because of a vocal chord hemorrhage.

Her 2016 North American tour tickets went on sale last week, and all dates were sold out within minutes. As it turns out, not all sales were handled by StubHub. Eight percent of all sales were handled by Songkick.

Songkick Protects Adele Fans from Resellers

Songkick is a website that sells and manages tickets that are sold through an artist or band’s website. They sold 235,000 tickets legitimately to fans in an attempt to block about 53,000 sales to people who were suspected of having intentions to resell them for higher prices. Songkick assures to sell tickets at the right price.

Twitter Gets the Good and the Bad from The Ordeal

In the end, Adele saved her fans about $6.5 million, even if they don’t know it. A lot of fans took to Twitter to complain about the record time in which tickets sold out. There were a lot of delays on her website and on Stubhub, and then the tickets were gone. Truly enough, Adele’s management did this for their own good.

For her UK tour, Songkick managed 40% of Adele’s tickets. Resales have been a hot and popular topic in the live-event world. Scalpers have been generating total captal of aroudn $8 billion from reselling tickets at an impossibly high price to unsuspecting music and live act fans. There are a lot of very popular resale websites in America, like TicketNetwork and Vivis Seats, which scam clients into buying tickets that don’t exist. By the power of Adele, they will be stopped.

Adele, Mumford & Sons and Elton John Speak Out Against Ticket Resales

Adele is not the only one fighting against these efforts. Mumford and Suns have expressed disapproval for these resellers, as well as Elton John. In her own words, Adele said she does not really care for the business side of the industry, but she will always call for justice where it is due. She refused to allow her album to be available on streaming websites like Spotify or Apple Music to encourage purchases and to honor the time-old tradition of selling your own albums.

The singer has had a great year in terms of speaking out against fame, the music industry and artistry in general. She has expressed that she doesn’t want to be the face of anything, and that aside from her throat getting operated on, not much has changed. Her new image, more mature and polished than how we saw in 21, shows her transformation into an older Adele. She is unapologetically her, restricted to being defined solely by her music.

But that doesn’t mean she won’t use social media and media in general to do things her way. She is currently fighting the unfair fight of streaming services to dumb down album sales, and the artist’s control of their image and their work and the reselling industry. All while slaying in her own way, with wicked winged eyeliner and killer cheekbones.

Read: Adele Promotes Premature Birth in New Song?

Facebook Helps Boy Get a New Liver, Twitter Helps Adele Fight Scalpers

Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte and Politics Collide - http://clapway.com/2015/12/14/facebook-twitter-vkontakte-and-politics-collide-123/

Social media has had many run-ins with politics this year, especially Facebook, Twitter and Russian VKontakte. This week alone Facebook offices in Hamburg were victim to a violent attack on the premises, and Twitter released information about a potential threat to its users.

Facebook Gets Attacked by Vandals in Germany

On the night of December 13, Facebook offices were attacked by vandals. They smashed the glass, threw paint at the premises and graffitied ‘Facebook dislike’ on a wall. The incident was handled by the Hamburg police department that night. The attack was reportedly carried out by a group of young people between the ages of 15-20, clad in all black and wearing hoods. There were no injuries or casualties, and authorities do not have enough information to pinpoint a motive for the attack yet.

Germany Will Not Tolerate Racism

There is a strong belief among the community that this attack was carried out because of Facebook’s poor efforts to remove racist hate speech from the social network. Celebrities and German politicians have expressed their concern on Facebook’s loose restrictions on hate speech, especially against foreigners in the German vein of Facebook. Germany has famously welcomed refugees with open arms, and the community has since embraced a zero-tolerance for hate in their soil.

Facebook Office in Germany

Facebook officials have not taken these concerns seriously, and the attack was likely an expression of outrage at this. While some people may assume that this attack was the product of just vandalism, the German people are standing up for something very valuable and very relevant right now. Facebook should, at least, consider monitoring hate speech more efficiently than they have done so far, that is if Mark Zuckerberg means anything he’s ever said concerning the ISIS conversation.

On the Other Hand, Twitter Warns of a Possibly State-Sponsored Cyber Attack

In other news, Twitter Inc has declared that some users might be at risk of having their information stolen in what could be a cyber attack sponsored by the US government. The attack could potentially involve hackers hired by the US government to obtain data from only certain accounts.

There was little else revealed by the social network, but several companies have shared that they were warned by Twitter that their information could be in danger. According to Twitter companies like Coldhak were sensitive to having their email addresses, IP addresses and/or phone numbers hacked by this group of cyber attackers.

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https://twitter.com/coldhakca/status/675443513367007232

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VKontakte Hosts a Political Joke Yet Again

Social media and politics seem to be hand in hand, and in truth, they are quite compatible. In a hilarious turn of events, Russian politics have seen an unlikely candidate this past week. Barsik the Siamese cat became a runner for Barnaul’s mayoral elections after being put on the ticket through VKontakte, the Russian counterpart of Facebook.

Barsik the Cat Could Become the Next Mayor of Barnaul

Barsik became a true and legitimate candidate for the elections, with his picture among those of the human politicians running for mayor of the Russian city. Over 2,000 people took part in the polls after the cat was shown as a runner, and it won by a very wide margin against human candidates. VKontakte accounts were making posts supporting the cat, with messages like ‘Go, Barsik!’ and ‘Barsik Rules’ throughout the time that the cat spent on the polls.

Why Was Barsik the Cat Ahead Of Human Russian Politicians?

Several users made an analysis onto why the cat received so much support. Despite the ridiculousness, the Russian people believe a cat can’t be more corrupt than Russian politicians, so they’d rather have their trust rest with Barsik than with anyone else.

Petr Frisen is the current mayor of the city after Igot Savintsev was fired from the position because of corruption. Surely enough, Barsik the Cat could be replacing Frisen for the same reason.

Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte and Politics Collide

Tumblr Slammed Down Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram with this New Feature - http://clapway.com/2015/12/11/tumblr-slammed-down-twitter-pinterest-and-instagram-with-this-new-feature/

Tumblr has taken advantage of the new feature that Apple has opened up. Opening this new feature to their users will put them ahead of Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. The feature that was added by them is known as Live Photos.

APPLE OPENS UP LIVE PHOTOS FEATURE

This is a very cool feature that Apple opened up to the public. They introduced it for their smartphones using the iOS 9.1 operating system. This would be the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus smartphones. Basically, Apple opened this Live Photos feature to make it so developers could share Live Photos. However, what exactly is this feature?

WHAT THE LIVE PHOTOS FEATURE IS THAT TUMBLR ADDED

This Live Photos feature is what you can imagine it is. It allows users to capture moving images. This will allow users to be able to include movement and sound into their photos. This adds a lot of diversity to image taking. Tumblr mentions how all users have to do to use this is to update the app’s latest version. When this is done, the feature will be available to the users. Sharing these photos will work the exact same way as any normal photo would. The only subtle alteration is users will see a special icon on any photo that is live. This will make them easy to find when looking through images.

TUMBLR ALSO ADD USES FOR 3D TOUCH

First of all, 3D Touch basically allows the live photo to come to life. The image must be pressed and then it will reveal all the animation and sound. However, the company has added more uses to this feature. The company points out that this feature will now play a role in searching across their domain. Using the 3D Touch when searching for something will initiate an avatar showing a preview. It will be done the same way that it would be done to animate a photo.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR TWITTER, PINTEREST, AND INSTAGRAM

Tumblr has positioned themselves above Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram after this one. Tumblr was the first major social networking service to implement this feature into their domain. This will now give users an extra incentive to switch over to them. As of right now Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram do not support this feature, but they might want to soon. This is such a cool feature that all three of these services need to take a page out of Tumblr’s book and implement it.

FACEBOOK ANNOUNCES WHAT TWITTER, PINTEREST, AND INSTAGRAM NEED TO

Facebook is certainly not waiting to take advantage of this great new feature provided by Apple. They announced that later this year they are going to update their app to support Live Photos. No specific date was stated, they just said it would be available for their users within the next year. Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest need to follow in Facebook’s steps and do the same. Live Photos is certainly a feature that needs to be present for all major social networking services.

KEEP ON EYE ON TWITTER, PINTEREST, AND INSTAGRAM IN THE FUTURE

It is not a guarantee, but it would be a surprise for these three services to not add this feature soon. There is no reason to believe that they would just allow Tumblr, and now Facebook, to have an advantage that they do not have. This is especially considering that Live Photos is a feature that Apple is opening to any developer that wants it. It is hard to believe a scenario in which Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram would not want to add Live Photos to their domain. Keep an eye on these three in the future.

Tumblr Slammed Down Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram with this New Feature

New Twitter Look is A Lot Like Instagram - http://clapway.com/2015/12/10/new-twitter-timeline-looks-a-lot-like-instagram-123/

Twitter has always been lacking somehow as a social media platform, and the new Twitter look is hoping to change that. It has never been as popular as Facebook, and when Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat were introduced to the masses, Twitter lost a lot of its ground.

Twitter Revamps its Timeline

The new Twitter layout makes it so that pictures aren’t cropped. While this is slightly withdrawn from the principle of tweeting, which is scrunching thoughts onto 150 characters or less, it’s a welcome change. The fact that photos got awkwardly cut off was one of many complaints that users had. It made it less convenient to upload pictures, and a lot of users were discouraged from it.

The New Twitter Look is Oddly Reminiscent of Instagram

Earlier in the year, Twitter rolled out an update that replaced Favorites with Likes, which was much in the likeness of Facebook. According to the official announcement, this happened because users can’t Favorite anything. Users will hopefully favorite the new look of the platform. The new layout makes it look a lot like Instagram, with a similar detail placement. Is it possible that by combining different aspects of different social media platforms Twitter will become more popular?

Will The Social Network Get its Wonder Back?

Hopefully, this new Twitter look gives it some more hype and attention. It would be well-deserved, too, as the platform is still unique in its own way. The blue bird still is a household item, present in probably every home screen of every smartphone, and it could recover what glory it has lost with coming updates.

Twitter has even lost to its sibling company Vine, which blew up quite dramatically throughout the past two years. Although the platform also adopted a ‘Like’ feature, it’s been much more successful at drawing new public and keeping it. Many videographers and musicians have been discovered through the platform. A time will come again where Twitter will be a force to be reckoned with.

New Twitter Look is A Lot Like Instagram

Obama Wins Tweet of the Year Title - http://clapway.com/2015/12/08/barack-obama-gets-tweet-of-the-year123/

President Barack Obama takes the tweet of the hear in the politics and government topic with his famous #LoveWins tag. The top tweets in this topic were released by Twitter this week, and the results are not surprising at all.

The Democratic Party Politicians Including Obama Take All the Top Spots

Both Obama’s Organizing for Action nonprofit and his official account got the top three spots. The ranking was made by measuring the number of retweets, and the president ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 16th, 22nd and 24th place. In 5th place, surprisingly enough, sits Edward Snowden’s first tweet, which read: ‘Can you hear me now?’

Hilary Clinton also took one of the top spots. The tweet where she announced that she was running for president had 101,000 retweets. She was followed by fellow presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, in his tweet were he referred to Republicans as ‘out of touch’. His tweet was retweeted 32,000 times.

Republicans Get the Duller Side of the Spotlight

The next major politician in the ranking was Jeb Bush, with his famous ‘Sorry Mom’ tweet. This went live right after he spoke about using marijuana at the GOP debate on September 16th. It was retweeted 30,000 times.

The natural runner-up is Donald Trump, who has become an internet jester since he announced that he was running. He received 17,000 retweets for a one of series of live-tweets that he posted during the Democratic debate on October 13th. The specific tweet read ‘illegal immigrants will be given Obamacare and free college tuition but nothing has been mentioned about our VETERANS.’ As if he’s said or done anything helpful his entire run. Ted Cruz capped at 13,000 retweets for a video announcement.

Wake Up America: Trump Is Not A Joke Anymore

Since the beginning of the presidential campaigns for the 2016 elections, Donald Trump has been seen as a joke. The media has taken serious advantage of this, and his coverage has been massive. It’s safe to say it’s not a joke anymore. There are some serious things to be considered if he turns out to be a serious competitor to be the next American President. Even the GOP themselves have declared that Trump does not stand for the Party’s values, but for his own.

 

Obama Wins Tweet of the Year Title

Can Pinterest Help Fight ISIS like Facebook and Twitter? - http://clapway.com/2015/12/08/can-pinterest-help-fight-isis-like-facebook-and-twitter123/

US authorities are putting serious pressure on social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to do more than raise awareness and halt terrorist use of their services. Nearly all major social media outlets have been connected to the recruit and communication between terrorist groups, namely the one responsible for the shooting in San Bernardino, CA and the Paris attacks of November 13.

Legislation for Twitter, Youtube and Facebook to Alert Authorities of Terrorist Activity

Senators in California are calling for a law that requires social media platforms to alert authorities of any suspicious activity on their websites or applications. This would have become part of an Intelligence Authorization Bill that has already been approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee. However, this bill was taken down because objections were holding up the underlying bill.

After the latest San Bernardino was linked to a couple that support ISIS and the spread of jihad, authorities are more and more nervous about how strong of a platform social media is. Extremist groups have better reach to the public now more than ever. Social media platforms make it all too easy for terrorists to spread their poisonous messages, and extremism has always been contagious. The line where the threat becomes real enough to alert authorities, though, isn’t too clear.

Should the Law Get Involved with Social Media?

As a principle, social media doesn’t line up with any governments or any authorities other than the ones where copyright is concerned. It’s not in the nature of the internet itself to be guarded by anything or anyone. Social media, like much of the internet, is fully public. Should the law get involved with Twitter, YouTube and Facebook any further?

If so, even platforms like Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram should have to get involved as well. However, while it may feel like the internet is safer, it will only be in regards to terrorism. Many people will feel less safe browsing the internet if they know their activity is actively being monitored. Companies aren’t in favor of this either. So what is the right thing to do? As legislators and government officials deliberate the new bill, we’re sure to find out.

Can Pinterest Help Fight ISIS like Facebook and Twitter?

Scientific Communities Teach How To Use Twitter - http://clapway.com/2015/12/04/scientific-communities-teach-how-to-use-twitter123/

Social media expert and paleontologist Jon Tennant taught attendees at the London Career Expo 2015 how to properly use Twitter to engage scientific communities. Here are his best tips.

Find Big Figures, Follow them And Check Who They Follow

This is a basic step in getting to know a new community. Start by following the biggest figures in your particular areas of interest. These are typically the most relevant scientists of the time. After following them, check out who they follow. This is what’s on their feed, which may be relevant to you.

Tweet From Conferences and Gain Followers

Not all members of the different scientific communities can be present at conferences, so tweeting from them would give you insight as to who shares your interests. By adhering to conference hashtags, you become more visible to the community, and other enthusiasts and students of science will follow you.

Make Scientific Communities Lists

It’s always helpful to separate the scientific communities you follow into lists. Separate them into microbiology, nanobiology and genetics, for example. This will make it easier for you to focus on one community at a time so no knowledge is wasted. As conferences come up, you’ll also find it easier to navigate. Mentions are also important. While it may not do much in terms of outreach, it could land you direct communication from the biggest figures in your area of interest.

Don’t Forget the Unfollow Button

The unfollow button is there for a reason. People are very conscious of what they say and do on the internet in recent years, but some things are just wrong. If you see something that you don’t like on your Twitter feed, regardless of the relevance of the author, unfollow them. It’s simple. Whether the author is a celebrity or a revolutionary scientist, negativity should never be tolerated.

Scientific Communities Teach How To Use Twitter

This is What a Twitter AI Could Look Like - http://clapway.com/2015/11/18/is-there-a-twitter-ai-in-development123/

Could There Be A Twitter AI in the Works?

Artificial Intelligence has become increasingly influential during the course of 2015. Google has brought the world the self-driving car, which currently has driven over 90 human years’ worth of roads, as well as a tool that responds to your emails for you. In addition, Facebook has just released a feature that will enable the blind to use Facebook. What then, of other social networking sites like Twitter?

Could There Be A Twitter AI in the Works

Will Twitter Bring a Twitter AI that Writes Your Tweets for You?

Twitter could well join in the ranks of the race for the best artificial intelligence by bringing a tool that writes users’ tweets for them. Perhaps it can also recognize people in pictures and automatically tag them. There could even be a chance that a Twitter AI offers optimal suggestions to stick to 150 characters and under per tweet, which would be infinitely helpful to those not 100% Twitter savvy.

This could even extend to Vine, who could well develop an AI in the likes of a Twitter AI to record and stop videos, maybe even upload them through voice command. Vine has become a platform that’s almost as accessible as YouTube for variety content, so it would greatly benefit from an AI that can meet its demands.

Twitter AI Would Top off the AI Race

It feels like all competitive social networks and major search engines are competing to see who will develop the easiest and most convenient way to browse the web in favor of the content they want to see. It’ll be interesting to see just where or how far this race goes.

This is What a Twitter AI Could Look Like

The day has finally arrived: Twitter is saying goodbye to its 140-character limit - a company trademark users seem to have a love-hate relationship with. #140characters #characterlimit #twitter - http://clapway.com/2015/09/29/twitter-140-character-limit123/

The day has finally arrived: Twitter is reportedly saying goodbye to its 140-character limit – a company trademark all users seem to have a love-hate relationship with. According to a Re/code report, the social media site is looking to launch a product that will allow users to share content that exceeds the character limit.

IS TWITTER FINALLY BOOTING ITS 140 CHARACTER LIMIT?

Although the details of the project are still fuzzy, it is unlikely that the outcome will be too removed from its main, legacy platform. The move could potentially help Twitter gain a slight edge, after its user growth has remained flat for several quarters. According to Fortune, the website still continues to struggle to explain what it is to new users. The character limit could potentially bring a host of new people to the site, the stocks of which have fallen nearly 30 percent this year alone, as reported by Reuters.

In the past, Twitter has relied heavily on SMS, or short message service (aka text messaging), which is limited to 160 characters. Thus, the character limit was put into place in order to ensure that the Tweet would not be cut off. Although Twitter’s SMS activity is still significant in certain developing countries, most people today rely on apps to access the website. As such, the push to forgo the 140 character limit has been instigated by Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s interim CEO who is currently looking to become Twitter’s permanent CEO.

TWITTER’S STRUGGLE TO STAY ON TOP

In the past, Twitter has also implemented other strategies to maximize the amount of available characters for each tweet – mainly due to popular demand. Back in April, the website added the “Retweet with comment” functionality, which gave users the full 140 characters to work with whenever they “retweeted” or reposted a status. The company also dropped the limit for direct messages back in June.

Moreover, Twitter is reportedly re-evaluating how the 140-character limit should be counted. Excluding user handles and links from the total count have been suggested as possible options, according to Re/code.

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Twitter Says Goodbye To Its 140-Character Limit?

Find out more about the newest deal between #Twitter and #Google. - http://clapway.com/2015/08/23/tweets-now-appear-in-google-search-results-232/

An arrangement has been made this week between one of the biggest social media powerhouses and a technology titan, Twitter and Google. This agreement means that tweets will soon be appearing on desktop Google search results, along with the mobile search result pages.

THE DESKTOP DEAL COMES AFTER THE MOBILE SEARCH RESULTS

This announcement comes after Google had effectively begun allowing tweets to appear on mobile search result pages. Many people believed that the desktop version would happen a lot faster than it did. Other search engines, for example, Bing have been including tweets into their search result pages for over a year now, so Google is a bit late on this latest version. Then again, this isn’t Google’s first endeavor to incorporate tweets in their search engine results. Google and Twitter marked an arrangement in 2009 to do literally the same thing that they’re doing at this point. However, the arrangement expired in 2011 and wasn’t renewed because of the past COO wanting to have more control over the client content.

TWITTER, PINTEREST AND INSTAGRAM HAVE A LARGE PORTION OF THE MARKET SHARE

This alliance of Twitter and Google comes at an essential time as Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram are gradually gaining more control over the market share. This agreement with Google may seal Twitter’s future as the leader of online networking.

There are right now more than 315 million active users on Twitter. Although this number is still growing, it is definitely growing at a slower pace than has been in previous years and in comparison to their social media competitors. There has also been recent controversy over poor advertising results, user growth and retention being the factors that have slowed down Twitter’s growth.

THIS NEW DEAL WILL HELP TWITTER AND ITS CURRENT USERS

This new deal Google takes into consideration Twitter wanting to grow its presence among the internet. The idea is that individuals can now see tweets as they appear in list items. This should make them more inclined to sign up for Twitter accounts. This will likewise become an advantage to the current Twitter users to have the Google search platform to grow their follower base, in light of the fact that the tweets will appear to a much bigger crowd.

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Tweets Now Appear in Google Search Results

#Facebook vs. #Twitter on the news front. Who gets your vote as the source for your breaking news? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/12/facebook-to-compete-with-twitter-with-new-breaking-news-app-245/

Facebook has been in the news quite a bit as of late — mostly in regards to testing new ideas like its giant drone that will spread free Wi-Fi over certain parts of the world, or testing out their new storefront. Now, it looks like Facebook is getting ready to compete toe-to-toe with Twitter as the company is looking into developing a news application that functions quite a bit like Twitter.

Not So Fast

It’s definitely true that a lot of people rely on Twitter for announcements and breaking news, but there are a lot of other social features that allows users to interact with each other. The Facebook app that Business Insider reported about is more focused on the business nature. That means users won’t necessarily be interacting with each other, and they won’t be creating content either.

Instead, Business Insider suggests that the app will be a “broadcast-only experience.” Facebook will only be allowing partnered companies to produce content. Users will follow various topics they are interested in and receive instant alerts that are limited to 100 characters — slightly less than Twitter’s 140 limitation.

Facebook Hopes to Clean Up the User Experience

One aspect that Facebook hopes will give it an advantage over Twitter is reliant on how Facebook’s new app, currently in alpha, will curate posts better. Information about the app is still pretty vague, but Facebook is hoping that news won’t dissipate into the social masses as quickly as it happens on Twitter.

Facebook believes that this provides new users with a bad experience since the more people they follow, the faster their Twitter feed moves. Some users may never see a post on Twitter unless the tweet is retweeted by someone else or the original tweeter, but with Facebook’s new app, news will stay relevant for longer.

Facebook Is Trying to Stay Relevant

We’ll know more about Facebook’s new app as the company gets ready to share more details about it. This app is just the latest addition to the company’s rapidly expanding suite of apps that it hopes will help maintain its relevancy moving forward. Facebook also owns Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

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Facebook to Compete With Twitter With New Breaking News App