Twitter to start deleting inactive accounts on December 11

On Tuesday, Twitter began alerting users who have not logged into their account for over six months that it would be deleted.

Twitter users who are not active on the social media began receiving emails on Tuesday stating that, unless they log in by Dec. 11, their accounts would be deleted.


Specifically, users who have not signed in for over six months will permanently lose their Twitter account and username, as outlined in the platform’s inactive account policy.

According to the company, an account only has to sign in once in a while to be considered “active” — no tweeting, retweeting, or liking necessary.

Twitter has been sending out alerts about possible account deletion at the end of the year for over six months now.

Once an account is deleted, these usernames will be available for new accounts to take; Twitter has not stated how long it will take after removal for the names to become accessible. IB/JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Twitter, Facebook close accounts linked to Spanish party

MADRID  — Twitter and Facebook say they have removed 365 fake accounts linked to Spain’s conservative Popular Party that were used to influence public opinion and spread spam.

Twitter said Friday it culled from the social network 265 accounts “operated by the party” that were “identified as falsely boosting public sentiment online in Spain.” The accounts were active before Spain’s April 29 general election.


Facebook says it removed 65 Facebook accounts and 35 Instagram accounts after it uncovered links to individuals associated with the Popular Party.

Facebook said the accounts had posts about politics, elections and criticism of the party’s opponents.


The Popular Party denies it ran the accounts.

The once-dominant party heavily lost the April election to Spain’s Socialists.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Twitter Lite now available in 45 countries

A year after its launch, Twitter Lite is now available for Android users in a total of 45 countries.

Twitter Lite was rolled out last year to provide a faster, data-friendly version of the app to those connected to slower 2G or 3G networks.

Twitter began testing the Lite app in the Philippines in September, and then expanded to 24 more countries by November. Now it’s broadening its availability to 21 more countries.

On Monday, Twitter announced that the app will be available in the Google Play Store for anyone in the following 45 countries: Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Twitter Lite is aimed at those faced with expensive data plans, slow mobile networks or little storage space on their device. Designed to launch 30 percent faster, the app also offers key features — timeline, tweets, direct messages, trends, profiles, media uploads, notifications — with quicker navigation.

While smartphone adoption grew to 3.8 billion connections by the end of 2016, a vast number of smartphone users still rely on 2G —40 percent of connections in 2017, according to the latest report from GSMA.

Along with the increased availability, Twitter Lite has also received Push Notifications, Night Mode, Bookmarks, Threaded Conversations and Data Saver. These additional tools allow users to manage what is automatically loaded, what can wait and what can’t — all of which will contribute to saving energy, data and bandwidth.

Find out more at www.lite.twitter.com. The app is available to download from the Google Play Store. JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

WATCH: Taylor Swift breaks silence to congratulate NBA MVP Russell Westbrook

Taylor Swift has been on a social media hiatus, only tweeting to promote songs, or to speak up on the Manchester tragedy.

Another momentous event warranted her social media presence: NBA player Russell Westbrook being awarded this season’s MVP.

In a video shared on the Thunder’s Twitter account, Swift reminded the Oklahoma City player that they had each other to thank for their careers.

“I was the one who taught you to dribble, to shoot hoops, you know,” says the pop singer, sporting wavy locks instead of her short bob.

The All-Star player also apparently inspired one of her songs: “I remember the first time you beat me, and I was very upset.”

“You said, ‘You just have to shake it off,’ and I got an idea,” she says, referring to her hit song “Shake It Off”.

Finally the Grammy award-winning artist admits, “That’s a fake story, but I wish it were the truth.”

She proceeds to congratulate him and sends a virtual hug.

Watch the video here:


No clue yet on when Swift will return to social media, but Westbrook can count the video as another achievement—only few can say that Taylor Swift made them a personal video, even if they’ve never met. JB

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Macron, Trudeau ‘bromance’ fires up internet

“A liberal fantasy dream sequence”, “a bromance,” “insanely romantic”.

The Internet was abuzz Friday with pictures of French President Emmanuel Macron and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau schmoozing at the G7 summit in Sicily, strolling through flowered walkways and chatting against the backdrop of a sparkling blue Mediterranean sea.

“Apparently Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron flew to Sicily for their wedding photoshoot,” netizen @sherlockify joked on Twitter.

The reaction to the telegenic pair’s encounter in the picturesque, hillside town of Taormina, immortalized by Macron himself who tweeted a video of their meeting, provided some light relief from a summit otherwise devoted to thorny issues such as climate change and the threat of extremism.

“The Franco-Canadian friendship has a new face,” Macron tweeted after sitting down for talks with Trudeau and taking the now famous stroll.

“@JustinTrudeau, it’s up to us to take on the challenges of our generation!”

“Sitting down with @EmmanuelMacron for the first time, talking jobs, security & climate -– looking forward to more conversations, my friend,” Trudeau responded on Twitter, posting pictures of both smiling, shaking hands, and looking out over the Mediterranean, their dapper suit jackets billowing in the breeze.

Macron, 39, has only been in power for 12 days but enjoys similar kudos, particularly abroad where he has been compared to Trudeau.

“This image of Trudeau and Macron in Sicily is right out of a liberal fantasy dream sequence,” tweeted Dhruva Jaishankar, an expert on foreign policy at the India section of the Brookings Institution think tank.

Others were even more explicit.

“Le swoon, le sigh,” tweeted netizen MissMary, above a photo of both leaders in apparent earnest chat.

“Is there a budding bromance between Macron and Trudeau? Two hunks!” added @MaureenRamsden.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Internet trolls United Airlines with creative memes

The internet is having a field day with the shocking incident of a passenger forcefully dragged off an overbooked United Airlines flight, posting creative memes about the incident that has gone viral and caused an uproar.

Viral video footage captured by fellow passengers of a man being violently dragged out of his seat, striking his head against the armrest across the aisle and busting open his lip after he refused to deplane caused outrage on social media platforms. Following new images of the man’s bloodied face and United Airline’s tepid response to the incident, the furor shows no sign of abating.

On Twitter, uses have been expressing their anger in creative ways, causing the hashtag #united to trend in the United States.

One of the most liked and shared photos features a graphic of an airplane layout, dividing the cabins into United First, Economy Plus, Economy, and “Fight Club.”

“United Airlines is pleased to announce new seating on all domestic flights,” tweeted @Reflog_18. “In addition to United First and Economy Plus we introduce…”

Cue “Fight Club.”

The incident has also traveled around the world to China, where citizens are calling it an incident of targeted racism and urging a boycott of the airline on social media platform Weibo.

On Tuesday, #UnitedAirlinesforcespassengeroffplane was the top trending topic on China’s version of Twitter.

Other memes include “Southwest. We beat the competition. Not you.”, which references one of United Airlines’ chief competitors.

In a cinematic nod to the 1997 film “Air Force One”, another Twitter user suggested the United should use a clip of Harrison Ford as POTUS in an ad campaign, in which he mutters his signature line through clenched teeth, “Get off my plane.”

Also trending was a photo of “The Walking Dead” slugger Negan with his barbed baseball bat walking through the cabin.

“When you fly @united and they have overbooked your flight,” reads the tweet, along with a photo caption that says “Eenie…Meenie…” JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Apple users could get some cash from app privacy lawsuit settlement

iPhone users who have used certain apps such as Twitter, Yelp and others between 2009 and 2012 could be getting a small cash back from the settlement of the app privacy lawsuit concerning the misuse of the “Find Friends” feature on iOS.

Foodspotting, Foursquare, Gowalla, Instagram, Kik, Path, Twitter and Yelp will be contributing a total of $5.3 million as payment to customers based on the terms of settlement, according to Fortune.

The amount will be seeded to customers through Amazon credits or by check. The payments are expected to be processed late this year.

“Find Friends” allows users to see who among their contacts are also using certain apps. However, app makers violated user privacy by failing to inform them that user contact lists are being transferred to company servers.

Despite the large amount being pooled together by these eight companies, it is likely that users eligible for the settlement money will only get a few dollars due to the sheer number of users who downloaded the aforementioned apps.

Either way, eligible users will receive an email from the app makers. In Twitter’s case, users will be prompted by a tweet with a ”@settlementnews” handle. Alfred Bayle/JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

McDonald’s apologizes for hacked tweet slamming Trump

NEW YORK—McDonald’s apologized Thursday after it briefly posted on Twitter a blast criticizing President Donald Trump, which the company blamed on a hack from an external source.

The quickly deleted tweet offered an uncharitable appraisal of Trump, saying, “You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have Barack Obama back, also you have tiny hands.”

The tweet was removed mid-morning Thursday soon after being posted to one of McDonald’s official Twitter feeds — but not before being retweeted more than a thousand times and garnering plenty of attention in political and media circles.

“Based on our investigation, we have determined that our Twitter account was hacked by an external source,” said McDonald’s spokeswoman Terri Hickey in a statement.

“We took swift action to secure it, and we apologize this tweet was sent through our corporate McDonald’s account.”

Hacking has been a persistent problem in recent years with the growing influence of Twitter and other social media sites.

In April 2013, a hack of the Associated Press resulted in an erroneous post that the White House had been attacked, briefly sending US stocks markets down in a panic.

source: technology.inquirer.net

The best tweets from Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime performance

While the Super Bowl has never been a cultural phenomenon in this part of the world, the performer in this year’s Halftime Show is another story. Two words: Lady. Gaga. Actually, words won’t do the Mother Monster’s performance any justice (you have seriously GOT to watch it) but these tweets in 140 characters or less are pretty damn close.

Here are some of the best tweets about Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl LI Halftime Performance:

*Posts photo on Instagram*

We did say assuming, right? Still too real.
*crush likes it*

Me: Kami naaaaaaaa!!! pic.twitter.com/UFVY9WhoSz
— Nikko Ramos (@NikkoRMS) February 6, 2017

We all do, Ben. We all do.

I wish I trusted anyone as much as @ladygaga trusts those suspension cables helping her fly through the air.

— Ben Schwartz (@rejectedjokes) February 6, 2017

Me jumping to conclusions pic.twitter.com/CVdnX6rJ7D — Unapologetically LIT (@HeyPariss) February 6, 2017

And the memes have begun.

Some say Spongebob did it better.

Lady Gaga wanna be Spongebob so bad pic.twitter.com/gOpuicLnZY
— Dory (@Dory) February 6, 2017

Lady Gaga just won the mic drop game.

Lady Gaga ends her #SuperBowl performance with a *mic drop* pic.twitter.com/ft15G1OLpa — Mashable (@mashable) February 6, 2017

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Justin Bieber Takes Down His Instagram After Feud with Selena Gomez

This happens after Justin and ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez had a war of words in the comments section. Justin told his fans to stop attacking his rumored new girlfriend Sofia Richie, and Selena told him to stop posting photos and getting mad at his fans.

“If you can’t handle the hate then stop posting pictures of your girlfriend. It should be special between you two only. Don’t be mad at your fans. They love you. They were there for you before anyone,” Selena writes.

Justin then accused Selena of using him for fame, to which she replied, “Funny how the ones that cheated multiple times are pointing the finger at the ones that were forgiving and supportive, no wonder fans are mad. All love.”

And the rest is history―quite literally.

Although Selena later apologized for the incident on her Snapchat, it might take a while before we hear anything from Justin on social media―unless he decides to tweet something out of nowhere. (Yup, his Twitter’s still there, don’t worry.

[Entertainment Tonight and Telegraph]

Photo courtesy of Salon

source: preen.inquirer.net

Twitter adds button to share tweets in direct messages

SAN FRANCISCO, United States — Twitter on Tuesday added a button that lets people easily share ‘tweets’ in direct messages.

The move came as an acknowledgement of the appeal of one-to-one connections to users of the popular one-to-many messaging service, and as Twitter worked to ramp use of its platform.

Millions of direct messages are sent daily at Twitter, and the number of tweets shared privately tripled in the second half of last year, according to product manager Somas Thyagaraja.

“With all this interest, we’ve also heard from many of you that it could be easier to share a Tweet using Direct Message,” Thyagaraja said.

“So now — in just a few taps — you can share unique Twitter content from your timeline right into your private conversation.”

Twitter has gradually enhanced its direct messaging option by letting people add animated snippets referred to as GIFs or emotion-capturing symbols called ’emojis,’ as well as the option to send lengthy missives.

The new ‘message’ button was added to Twitter applications tailored for mobile devices powered by Apple or Android software, according to Thyagaraja.

source: technology.inquirer.net

LOOK: Who’s who in this selfie of mom and twins?

Not all selfies are created equal, but it didn’t take much for a teenager in the United States to set her selfie apart from all the rest. All she had to do was take a selfie with her mom and twin sister. Sounds typical enough, but netizens ask: Who’s who?

Sixteen-year-old Kaylan Mahomes posted a selfie on Twitter on January 28, 2016 with the caption “Mom, twin & me.” But it was hard to tell which among the youthful looking women in the photo was Kaylan, her mom, or her twin sister.

The Twitter post has boggled minds across social media, with over 22,000 retweets and more than 37,000 likes as of writing.

The mystery of the viral selfie was finally solved when Kaylan revealed that her mom was the one on the left-hand side of the photo.

source: technology.inquirer.net

One Direction teams with Twitter to find country with best 1D fans

Which countries have the best One Direction fans in the world?

The band has teamed up with Twitter to try to find the answer.

The social media platform will provide hashtags for each of 140 countries in the contest. Filipino fans, for example, need to use the hashtag #1DPH.

The 10 winning countries will get their own custom One Direction emoji.

The competition will begin on Saturday, November 14 at 8 a.m. Philippine time.

Fans can check live results at http://twittermusic.wayinhub.com/Home

—JST, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Maine Mendoza posts messages after getting back social media accounts from hackers

Maine Mendoza made a triumphant return to social media on Tuesday, hours after hackers took over her accounts.

The Kalyeserye sweetheart posted a message after taking back control of her Twitter account.


But she has not gotten access to all her accounts quite yet, with her Facebook account being deactivated by hackers and her email account still out of reach.

Anonymous Philippines took responsibility for the hacking in the wee hours of Tuesday, posting messages directing Maine's 2.4 million followers to their social media pages.

The entries have been deleted.—JST, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

#ALDubEBTamangPanahon breaches 20 million tweets

Tweets for #ALDubEBTamangPanahon breached the 20 million mark an hour before the end of the most awaited "Tamang Panahon" concert of Eat Bulaga.

As of 2 p.m., tweets for #ALDubEBTamangPanahon has reached 20.2 million.

The AlDub hashtag's current record is 25.6 million for #ALDubEBforLOVE.

The hashtag was for Alden Richards' first visit to Maine "Yaya Dub" Mendoza at Lola Nidora's mansion last September 26.

#ALDubEBTamangPanahon has been trending since early Saturday followed by the hashtag for Eat Bulaga's rival It's Showtime with only 1.32 million. —ALG, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Post ni Georgina Wilson sa Twitter, ikinakilig ni Maine Mendoza

Hindi na nga matawaran ang dami ng sumusubaybay sa phenomenal love team nina Pambansang Bae Alden Richards at Dubsmash Queen Maine Mendoza a.k.a. Yaya Dub.

Bihira na ang nakakaligtas sa AlDub fever, at maging ang isa sa mga tinaguriang 'It girl' na si Georgina Wilson ay aminadong fan rin ni Yaya Dub.

Pinapanood daw ni Georgina ang Dubsmash videos ng dalaga, kung saan unang nakilala ito ng netizens.

Ayon kay Georgina, “Never thought I'd be saying this but I'm OBSESSED with @mainedcm yaya dubs videos!!!! They are so hilarious!!!! Especially the Kris A ones!!”

Hindi naman napigilan ni Maine ang kilig nang mabasa niya ang pagpuri na ito mula sa TV personality at model.

—Bianca Rose Dabu/JST, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

#ALDubEBforLOVE gets 22.7M tweets

Tweets for #ALDubEBforLOVE has breached the 22-million mark as fans of the AlDub loveteam continue to discuss on social media this Saturday's kalyeserye episode.

As of 6 p.m., the hashtag has been tweeted for at least 22.7 million.

The hashtag was still the top trending topic on Twitter followed by #ShowtimeKapamilyaDay with only 6.66 million.

ALDUB STATISTICS, which tracks tweets for AlDub hashtags, predicted that the number of tweets for #ALDubEBforLOVE will reach 23 million before 7 p.m.


Based on a graph posted by ALDUB STATISTICS, tweets for #ALDubEBforLOVE peaked between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., with at least 2.250 million tweets per hour.

The latest AlDub hashtag broke records as the nation watched the meeting between Alden Richards and Maine "Yaya Dub" Mendoza at the mansion of Lola Nidora during Eat Bulaga's Kalyeserye. —ALG, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

How #AlDub exploded across the Twitterverse

It looks like an explosion, and in some ways it really is: the above video clearly shows the wildfire spread of #AlDub tweets across the Philippines.

The past few weeks have really seen a veritable explosion of posts on Facebook walls and Twitter feeds on #AlDub, the “accidental” segment on Eat Bulaga that has had a phenomenal following for some time now.

Some Trends

In the plots below, we count the number of tweets recorded for each of the terms for every hour of everyday for the entire month of August.

In the first plot, we only look at the tweets with the patterns “eatbulaga” and “showtime” in them. Eat Bulaga and It’s Showtime are two primetime shows of the two maor rival TV networks. From the plot, we can see that there are more tweets associated with “showtime” (“ItsShowTime“) than “eatbulaga”. This has been the trend on Twitter for quite some time now.

(Note that it is highly likely that this distribution of “televiewers” is skewed, i.e. Viewers are not necessarily the same as Twitter users)

Then the #AlDub phenomenon happened. The way people have received this 30-minute Eat Bulaga segment makes it more like a TV program in itself. Look at the trends below. The graph is the same as the plot above, but this time, we added the “AlDub” curve (blue).

The difference is stark! #AlDub single-handedly stole the show, blowing competition clear out of the water.

The huge spike in the number of recorded tweets is especially interesting. What happened on 22 August 2015? Googling “aldub august 22 2015” hints to the episode titled “The Wedding of Frankie and Yaya Dub”. This was also the day when the hashtag #ALDUBAgainstALLODDS trended worldwide.

Word Cloud

This is in fact captured in the word cloud below, which shows the most common words in the collection of tweets on “AlDub”.

Geotagged Tweets

This brings us back to the video at the beginning of this article: we can further filter the tweets into those that have geotagging, i.e. the tweets that have associated locations with them. This, of course, limits the data points in the set since not all Twitter users in the Philippines have activated their location trackers. Be that as it may, the video shows a CartoDB visualization of the tagged tweets as they are being tweeted across the Philippines.

 EF Legara is a physicist by training, a complex systems scientist by profession, and a data hobbyist and amateur stock trader by leisure pursuit.

She is an advocate of investing in the Philippine market, of data-driven policymaking, and of a strong Philippine scientific culture.

An earlier version of this article appeared on her blog.

The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

 source: gmanewtwork.com

Friendship over? Zayn Malik rips ex-bandmate Tomlinson on Twitter

Chances of Zayn Malik returning to One Direction is even bleaker now as he ripped former bandmate Louis Tomlinson on Twitter.

Tomlinson had been conducting an online back-and-forth with Malik's friend, UK producer Naughty Boy. Malik eventually put in his own two cents, sending a pointed message to Tomlinson:

source: gmanetwork.com

Twitter supports bigger photos on iPhone app

Twitter users can now see bigger photos on their timelines on the iPhone, with the newest update to the micro-blogging site's iOS app.

On Thursday (PHL time), Twitter said it will introduce bigger photos.

A separate report on tech site The Next Web said this means "a whole lot prettier" scrolling through content on Twitter, at least for Apple's popular smartphone.

With the update, Twitter's app can now display full-width images.

"It’s a neat improvement to the previous setup, where images would appear as small thumbnails you’d have to click on to enlarge, so the new layout should save you some time besides looking nicer," TNW said.  — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com