Tag: Twitter

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Twitter will reinstate Trump’s account following his deletion of tweets

A Twitter spokesperson has confirmed with TechCrunch this morning that Trump has deleted three tweets that led to the temporarily suspension of this account last night.

Twitter locked the account pending deletion of the offending tweets on Wednesday following the riot and siege of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., and said that the suspension would remain in place so long as the tweets were not removed, and that any further violation of its rules could result in an actual permanent account suspension for Trump.

The President’s account is to remain lock 12 hours after his deletion of the tweets (seen below). While we don’t have exact timing on when the countdown started, he has yet to tweet from the account. The account also still bears the warning that, “this Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules.”

While Trump has previously enjoyed the benefit of a rule Twitter put in place that allowed a special exemption for content that would normally violate its terms of service, but that it would allow to remain in the interest of public access in cases where it comes from accounts with a significant public interest component, like Trump’s while he’s occupying the office of U.S. President.

Twitter locks Trump out of his account for at least 12 hours

The three tweets that finally proved a bridge too far for Twitter included a video posted by Trump that called for an end to the violence on Capitol Hill, but that also said “We love you, you’re very special” to the terrorists taking part in the action. The other two included statements that falsely suggested the legitimate results of the most recent U.S. presidential election were somehow fraudulent, including one that suggested the terrorist actions in Washington that resulted were somehow justified.

It’s worth noting that Twitter didn’t actually deleted the offending tweets; the company generally has a policy of removing tweets that violate its terms from public view, and notifying the offending account that they must be deleted by the account holder themselves in order to re-instate the ability to actively use the account.

While Trump does not have access to his own official Twitter account, his deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino posted a statement early Thursday morning about the Electoral Certification process, which was completed in the early hours. The statement again included inciting language falsely disputing the election results, but remains available and untouched by any of Twitter’s flagging measures.

Until this week, most anticipated that Trump would continue to enjoy protections that come with his political status. Yesterday’s move marked a shift for Twitter, but there remains a major question around his status in the remaining two weeks of his Presidential term. Facebook, meanwhile, has taken the opposite action, altogether banning Trump from its platform, for “at least the next two weeks.”

Trump’s ability to maintain his favorite platform will hinge on whether Twitter determines that he has crossed the line one final time.

Mark Zuckerberg announces Trump banned from Facebook and Instagram for ‘at least the next two weeks’

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Tech leaders speak out about platforms’ roles in US Capitol riots

After pro-Trump extremists violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, a number of tech executives and industry leaders are calling on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to more aggressively curb the president’s messages amplifying and endorsing violence.

After Trump released a video calling the extremists “very special” and telling them to go home, Facebook and Twitter have taken down the content. Twitter has locked Donald Trump’s Twitter account for at least 12 hours, warning that “any future violations” of Twitter rules will result in permanent suspension of the account.

The riot triggered the platforms, after long scrutiny, to finally react to Trump’s incendiary tweets and messaging. As the situation continues to play out, some prominent tech figures see the root of the riots as the platforms that ignored and amplified misinformation surrounding the election, allowing violent rhetoric to spin out of control in the final days of the Trump presidency.

Pro-Trump mob storms the US Capitol, touting ‘Stop the Steal’ conspiracy

Chris Sacca, one of the earliest investors in Twitter, wrote “you’ve got blood on your hands, [Jack] and Zuck. For four years you’ve rationalized this terror. Inciting violent treason is not a free speech exercise. If you work at those companies, it’s on you too. Shut it down.”

Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, added to Sacca’s remark, saying: “there are a lot of hard questions we’re going to have to answer for our children.” Ohanian left Reddit’s board in 2020 following Black Lives Matter protests.

Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former chief security officer, wrote that both companies needed to act, arguing that the “labeling won’t do it” and that Twitter and Facebook “have to cut him off.”

Tech platforms have repeatedly come under fire for failing to address the rise of misinformation and groups coalescing around conspiracy theories. Twitter’s latest response has been the introduction of tags to flag potential misinformation.

Ellen Pao, tech investor and the former CEO of Reddit, argues today’s chaos is directly linked to Dorsey’s inaction. In November, Pao and Laura Gómez, a former tech founder and CEO, called on Dorsey to limit Trump’s influence on Twitter, explicitly accusing Trump of using Twitter to incite “a coup.”

“[We] told them to do the right thing. They didn’t. And here we are,” Pao wrote on Twitter today.

Timnit Gebru, a top researcher who recently was fired from Google’s AI team, slammed Facebook and Twitter, but further placed blame on YouTube, which she says has “completely managed to get out of the spotlight” for facilitating hate speech.

A recent video from Trump, where he calls the rioters “special people” and urges them to go home, has recently been taken down from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Guy Rosen, VP of Integrity at Facebook, tweeted that the events are an “emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video. We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.” Facebook released an official statement as well.

With Inauguration Day just two weeks out, platforms will continue to play an intense role in safeguarding a peaceful transfer of power. Today’s events feel like a tipping point. The terrorism has pushed Silicon Valley tech figures to criticize some of the industry’s most powerful leaders and implore them to act before further violence takes place.

“Let me say in no uncertain terms @jack @vijaya @kayvz: If you do not suspend Donald Trump’s Twitter account for the next day at least, this mob attack on Congress is also on you. Sorry, but he has incited violence for days, using your tools in large part and you need to act now,” tech media figure Kara Swisher wrote in a post on Twitter.

Color of Change, activist groups step up pressure to kick Trump off Twitter, Facebook

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Color of Change, activist groups step up pressure to kick Trump off Twitter, Facebook

Color of Change, the nonprofit civil rights advocacy group, along with a growing number of other organizations, called for social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook to remove President Donald Trump from their platforms, following a chaotic day of protests and rioting that led a mob of pro-Trump supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol and prompted a lockdown and an evacuation of lawmakers.

Color of Change and other activist organizations have said that major tech and financial service companies are complicit in the insurrection in Washington, D.C. and called for social media to take action. Twitter has locked the president of the United States’ Twitter account and forced the removal of three offending tweets, but the social media platform has not removed him from the platform altogether. The lock of the Twitter account will last for at least 12 hours.

Color of Change President Rashad Robinson tweeted Wednesday “Enough is enough. It’s time for Facebook and Twitter to kick Trump off their platforms. We’ve been in contact with @Facebook and @Twitter leadership about this but we need your help.”

Twitter locks Trump out of his account for at least 12 hours

The organization also launched a petition that people can use to make a direct appeal to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The petition reads:

Dear CEO Jack Dorsey,

Donald Trump has historically violated your terms of service with impunity and now, as a result of his promotion and facilitation of today’s chaos, insurrectionists have stormed our Senate building leaving Senators, staffers, and building employees fearing for their lives. Trump’s tweets have endangered the lives of millions of Americans, from his rants cheering on white supremacists to now advocating for the National Guard to use deadly force against Americans who are protesting against police killings. There is no excuse for allowing this dangerous user to exploit your platform It’s time to #KickTrumpOffTwitter.

Numerous other activist organizations, business groups and tech leaders have used social media to condemn the events Wednesday. Accountable Tech, an ethics organization, tweeted Wednesday that the violent assault has been heartbreaking, but not expected. “Sadly, Twitter and Facebook’s preparedness and response has been wildly inadequate. Simply labeling incitements of violence is not enough.”

Other organizations such as the U.S. Travel Association, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and Business Round Table offered their own condemnations of the events, but didn’t directly criticize social media for its involvement.

Business Roundtable, whose members are chief executive officers of major United States corporations, focused efforts on Trump and called for an end to the chaos and a peaceful transition of power. Others such as the National Association of Manufacturers used stronger language, noting that the protesters supporting Trump was an act of “sedition” and “mob rule” and urged Vice President Mike Pence to “seriously consider” invoking the 25th amendment.

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Twitter locks Trump out of his account for at least 12 hours

In a reversal of its long standing policy, Twitter has locked the President of the United States’ Twitter account and forced the removal of three offending tweets.

“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three  @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” the site writes. 

As part of the action, Trump will be locked out of his account for at least 12 hours. The account will remain locked beyond that, as long as the tweets are not deleted, the site adds. Beyond the current action, Twitter adds that future violations of its policies, “will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”

The service has long contended that tweets from a prominent figure like Trump were in the public interest, in spite of breaking its stated terms of service. According to Twitter guidelines,

A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable. With this in mind, there are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain Tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules.

The removed tweets include content that was early flagged by the service, “due to a risk of violence,” all arriving in the wake of a violent storming of the U.S. Capitol:

The trio includes a pre-recorded video that pleaded with rioters to “go home,” before adding, “We love you; you’re very special.” Following the earlier action, Twitter told TechCrunch, “In regard to the ongoing situation in Washington, DC, Twitter’s Trust & Safety teams are working to protect the public conversation occurring on the service and will take action on any content that violates the Twitter Rule. Let us be clear: Threats of and calls to violence have no place on Twitter, and we will enforce our policies accordingly.”

Calls for the President’s twitter account to be deleted have intensified during today’s events. It has largely been assumed that Trump would be allowed to continue tweeting at least through the end of his presidency, but what unfolded at the Capitol today — and his responding tweets — appear to have caused the service to accelerate those punitive actions.

Developing…

Trump will lose protected Twitter status after his presidency

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Facebook and YouTube remove Trump video calling extremists ‘special’

Facebook and YouTube have removed a video posted by President Trump telling rioters who stormed Congress “we love you.” The same video was left online but blocked from being shared by Twitter just minutes ago.

A great deal of video and content from the chaotic scene in Washington, D.C. can be found on social media, but Trump’s commentary was spare. His posts suggested the rioters “remain peaceful,” well after they had broken into the Capitol buildings and Congress had been evacuated.

At about 5 PM Eastern time, Trump posted a video in which he reiterated that the election was “stolen” but that “you have to go home now. Go home, we love you. You’re very special.”

On Twitter this was soon restricted, with a large warning that “this Tweet can’t be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.”

Twitter adds huge pop-up warning to Trump video telling Capitol Hill rioters ‘we love you’

Guy Rosen, VP of Integrity at Facebook, wrote on Twitter that “this is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video. We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”

At Facebook there is some precedent for one of Trump’s posts being removed. In August, the company took down a video in which Trump stated that children were “almost immune” to COVID-19, a dangerous and false claim not supported by science.

As Twitter and Facebook crafted bespoke policies to address threats to the election leading into November, YouTube mostly remained quiet. In early December, a month after the election, the company announced that it would begin removing content that made false claims that the U.S. election was affected by “widespread fraud or errors.” YouTube’s decision to remove the president’s video on Wednesday aligned with that policy.

“We removed a video posted this afternoon to Donald Trump’s channel that violated our policies regarding content that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Election,” a YouTube spokesperson told TechCrunch, noting that the video is allowed if accompanied by proper context for “educational” value.

This story is developing.

Pro-Trump mob storms the US Capitol, touting ‘Stop the Steal’ conspiracy

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Daily Crunch: Trump tweets approvingly as rioters storm US Capitol

A pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol while the president encouraged them on Twitter and … well, it feels extremely hard to care about anything else right now.

That said, there was a whole other news cycle before then, and I know you read The Daily Crunch for tech headlines. So I’ll do my best to carry on and squeeze everything in.

This is your Daily Crunch for January 6, 2021.

The big story: Trump tweets approvingly as rioters storm US Capitol

As you almost certainly know already, a pro-Trump mob entered the U.S. Capitol today, forcing the Senate and House to flee as they were in the process of debating and certifying Joe Biden’s election as president.

These Trump supporters were chanting slogans like “stop the steal,” which grew out of online conspiracy theories that have spread on social media. At least one gunshot victim has been reported, and an explosive device was also detonated safely outside the Republican National Committee.

Meanwhile, President Trump continued to tweet his unfounded and unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and even posted a video telling the rioters, “Go home, we love you.” Twitter has posted warnings but there are calls for the platform to go further.

The tech giants

Facebook redesigns Pages with a more simplified layout and no ‘Like’ button — The redesign includes a new look-and-feel, updated navigation, the introduction of a dedicated News Feed and a new Q&A format.

Twitter acqui-hires creative agency Ueno to help design new products — Twitter is essentially buying an agency with which it already had a close working relationship.

TikTok rolls out its first lidar-powered AR effect — The effect features an AR ball, similar to the one that drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Perfect Corp., developer of virtual beauty app YouCam Makeup, closes $50M Series C led by Goldman Sachs — The YouCam Makeup app lets users “try on” virtual samples from more than 300 global brands.

Plant-centered prepared food delivery startup Thistle raises $10.3M — The company delivers plant-based full menus for its customers, along with a range of juices and sides.

Teamflow lands $3.9M for a productive virtual HQ platform — Teamflow, formerly Huddle, is creating a virtual headquarters to help distributed teams collaborate and communicate from a singular platform.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Why VC funding is falling out of favor with top D2C brands — In 2020, venture capitalists unceremoniously broke up with D2C brands and product-based businesses.

Revenue-based financing: The next step for private equity and early-stage investment — The financial structures used by VCs haven’t evolved much since they first emerged in 1957.

Extra Crunch Live is back in 2021, connecting founders with tech giants and each other — Somehow, we did 44 episodes of the show in 2020.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

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Twitter adds huge pop-up warning to Trump video telling Capitol Hill rioters ‘we love you’

Twitter took a new action against President Trump’s account Wednesday, adding a large, pop-up warning message to his latest tweet addressing the ongoing chaos on Capitol Hill. The company has restricted engagement on the tweet, citing a “risk of violence.”

Trump’s new message to his mob of angry supporters came in video form, following an earlier tweet encouraging the crowd to be “peaceful.” In the video, Trump both affirmed his supporters’ conspiracy-rooted grievances and gently encouraged them to leave.

“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it. Especially the other side. But you have to go home now,” Trump said. “Go home, we love you. You’re very special.”

A crowd of agitated Trump supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. Wednesday, storming into Congressional chambers and even invading the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The effort, connected to the “Stop the Steal” movement which Trump has regularly encouraged, happened as Congress was meeting to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral win.

Pro-Trump mob storms the US Capitol, touting ‘Stop the Steal’ conspiracy

Twitter has previously hidden the president’s rule-breaking tweets, affixed them with small warning labels and limited their engagement, but the large pop-up is a tool we hadn’t yet seen the company use. Twitter said today that it would “[explore] other escalated enforcement actions” in light of the situation unfolding at the Capitol. It’s not clear if the pop-up is appearing for all users and we’ve asked the company if this was one of the escalated measures it referred to.

“In regard to the ongoing situation in Washington, DC, Twitter’s Trust & Safety teams are working to protect the public conversation occurring on the service and will take action on any content that violates the Twitter Rules,” a Twitter spokesperson said. “Let us be clear: Threats of and calls to violence have no place on Twitter, and we will enforce our policies accordingly.”

Trump breaks platform rules again with false claim that COVID-19 is ‘far less lethal’ than the flu

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Pro-Trump mob storms the US Capitol, touting ‘Stop the Steal’ conspiracy

A chaotic scene unfolded in Washington D.C. on Wednesday as a large crowd of pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building.

The Trump supporters flooded into the nation’s capital to attend a rally held earlier by President Trump outside the White House. The rally was timed to protest lawmakers gathering Wednesday to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral win.

At his own event, Trump encouraged his supporters to continue demonstrating against Congress, claiming incorrectly that Vice President Mike Pence holds the power to overturn the election results. While the situation is still unfolding, protesters penetrated the Capitol building and injuries have been confirmed, including at least one gunshot victim.

As Trump supporters flooded up the Capitol steps with “Make America Great Again” hats and “Stop the Steal” banners, the president did little to quell the violence. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “USA demands the truth!”

Twitter appended a warning label calling Trump’s election fraud claims “disputed” to the tweet. After his supporters already made their way into the Capitol building, the president seemed to walk back his calls to action, calling for supporters to remain peaceful.

The Stop the Steal movement grew out of online conspiracies boosting Trump’s unfounded claims that Democrats had in some way rigged the presidential election. In reality, U.S. electoral results were decisively in favor of Biden, though votes trickled in over an extended period of time, as expected, due to a massive expansion of pandemic-related mail-in voting.

Facebook made efforts to rein in the Stop the Spread movement soon after the election, blocking the hashtag for violating its rules around election misinformation. “The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group,” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone said at the time.

Stop the Steal supporters also found a foothold on many other platforms, including Reddit, Twitter and alternative social networks like Gab and Parler, which have attracted far-right users with policies much friendlier to extremist content. The crowd at the capitol also shares considerable overlap with QAnon, a constellation of conspiracy theories that exploded on Facebook, YouTube and other online platforms over the last few years.

This story is developing.

‘Free speech’ social network Parler tops app store rankings following Biden’s election win

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Google and Snap in talks to invest in India’s ShareChat

ShareChat, an Indian social network that added Twitter as an investor in 2019, may soon receive the backing of two more American firms.

The Bangalore-based startup is in advanced stages of talks to raise money from Google and Snap, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

The new financing round — a Series E — is slated to be larger than $200 million with Google alone financing more than $100 million of it, four sources said, requesting anonymity as the talks are private. The round values ShareChat at more than $1 billion, two of the sources said.

Twitter as well as a couple of other existing investors are also engaging to participate in the round. ShareChat, Google, and Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ShareChat has raised about $264 million to date and was valued at nearly $700 million last year.

The terms of the deal could change and the talks may not materialize into an investment, the sources cautioned. Local TV channel ET Now reported last year that Google was in talks to acquire ShareChat.

ShareChat’s marquee and eponymous app caters to users in 15 Indian languages and has a large following in small Indian cities and towns. Twitter and Snap, on the other hand, are struggling to gain users beyond urban cities in the world’s second largest internet market. Both Twitter and Snapchat have about 50 million monthly active users in India, according to a popular mobile insight firm.

In an interview with TechCrunch last year, Ankush Sachdeva, co-founder and chief executive of ShareChat, said the app was growing “exponentially” and that users were spending, on an average, more than 30 minutes on the app each day.

If the deal goes through, it would be the first investment from Snapchat’s parent company into an Indian startup. Google, on the other hand, has been on a spree of late. The Android-maker last month invested in DailyHunt and InMobi’s Glance, both of which operate short-video apps.

Like the two, ShareChat also operates a short-video app. Its app, called Moj, had amassed more than 80 million monthly active users as of September last year, the startup said at the time.

Last year, Google announced that it plans to invest $10 billion in India over the course of five to seven years. Days later, the company invested $4.5 billion in Indian telecom giant Jio Platforms. Google and Facebook, which invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms last year, reach more than 400 million users in the country.

More to follow…

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Twitter’s POTUS account will reportedly be reset to zero followers when Biden takes over

In this country, we have a longstanding peaceful transfer of power for the executive office, even in the wake of the hardest-fought elections. Certain circumstances have led many to question whether the tradition will continue come January 20. Despite his very vocal protestations, however, the current president has agreed to step aside, should all of his legal maneuvers fall short (something that seems all but a certainty at this point).

There is, of course, nothing in the Constitution that offers guidance the peaceful transition of passwords — strangely, the forefathers of this country didn’t possess the foresight to predict Twitter . The service has already outlined what happens to Trump’s account when he leaves office. Namely, he loses the protections that come with being a political figure.

CEO Jack Dorsey noted this at last month’s congressional hearings, stating, “If an account suddenly is not a world leader anymore, that particular policy goes away.” But what of the incoming president? What will the transition look like for Biden? And what happens if Trump doesn’t willingly give up the official @Potus account as has also been suggested?

He hasn’t exactly been eager to accept the results of this election and he’s not the sort to willingly give up a platform — particularly one with 33 million followers (admittedly a fraction of Trump’s main account).

Nick Pacilio, of Twitter’s Communications, Government & News team, offered TechCrunch the following statement, on the matter: “Twitter has been in ongoing discussions with the Biden transition team on a number of aspects related to White House account transfers.”

The company, perhaps understandably, didn’t answer the question directly, but working with the incoming team is a simple enough way to circumvent any issues transferring more than one dozen accounts, as The Wall Street Journal notes. As has been reported, existing tweets will be deleted and the incoming administration will start from scratch — a net positive for the Biden team, given the…polarizing nature of the previous president’s feed.

According to Biden’s digital director, the POTUS and White House accounts will also reset to zero followers, marking a change over the Obama to Trump transition. Donald Trump’s personal Twitter account has already lost one prominent follower. Earlier this week, CEO Jack Dorsey unfollowed the president, along with other prominent politicians, including Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Trump will lose protected Twitter status after his presidency