X is a place to connect with other people, a wonderful way to find up to the secondnews about what’s happening almost anywhere on Earth. The good thing about X is if a post is misleading then directly under it, you will see a Community Note and a link, explaining the context. If you happened to view that post, say, at 6pm and it had no Community Note at that time, then you will receive a notification on X that the post you saw now has a Community Note on it.
In this way, there is no other source for news with more truth than X.
ORGANIZING, STORING
X is free to use and I’d also recommend that once you get established and understand how it works that you try X Premium, which will allow you to store valuable information in multiple bookmarks that you label.
I think of these as my digital file cabinet. I use these files to store information, images, and videos, which would otherwise get lost. I use this information in articles that I write and for research, similar to the old-fashioned galvanized steel file cabinets.
DAILY DOSE OF HUMOR
X is also the right blend of humor, hard-core research, and cutting-edge information from some of the world’s smartest people.
The reason why humor is so important is it provides us with a good balance throughout our day.
X has a default for you tab, and when you update your timeline, you get to see posts from accounts that you may not have been following. Since I like humor, I end up seeing some funny things there alongside my interests (sustainable energy, electric transportation, autonomous driving, and Starship).
YOUR FEEDBACK IS WORTH IT
There’s one more aspect I’d like to emphasize in this short article, and this is that Twitter went through different stages, and in each stage, it was difficult if not impossible to know who worked for Twitter, because they did not tweet, and if they did, we did not know who they were.
What’s interesting about X is that people who work for X who post are often popular on the app, but not in the sense of being sexy or glamorous unless the sexy and glamorous part could only be applied to being great at engineering.
In essence, I think it’s fabulous to see the work that X technologists are doing in real-time, but there’s another twist to this which is outstanding. It’s that you as a user on X can ask questions to X engineers or give them your feedback on how to make the app a better experience.
In fact, if you follow someone on X and you have a question about how it works, I have found that most people on X are ready and willing to help others understand the app better.
As I go about my day, working hard, but also taking sporadic breaks and relaxing, I’m glad to experience X as a stream of consciousness in my life that expands my thinking. I hope my words and experience will help you to explain how X works to your friends and family who might not understand it so well.
JUST POST
The best way to understand it is just to start using it. Start posting your thoughts, and, maybe, let your first post be…
“This is my first post”
If you liked this article, give it a heart and share your feedback and follow and subscribe to Gail Alfar on X at @gailalfaratx
(Austin, Texas) This article unveils an alluring panorama of the latest updates on Twitter and may leave you craving for more.
Join me this beautiful evening, we will walk through the intro of notes on AI-generated media, which is a new feature that adds an extra layer of transparency to combat misleading content. Just as topaz and amethyst possess inner beauty, these notes will shed valuable light on the authenticity of media shared on Twitter.
We will also look at YouTube’s policy change regarding claims of fraud in the 2020 US election, changes to Twitter’s infrastructure maintenance, and the emergence of multiple organization affiliate badges on Twitter. I’ll introduce you to an intriguing Twitter account of a professor who engages with cool AI assignments… to her followers!
Increased Capacity for Twitter Spaces
Twitter recently enhanced its ability to handle larger Spaces/audio-only chat rooms.
This upgrade is aimed at providing a better user experience and accommodating a greater number of participants in Spaces. this is exciting because of Elon Musk’s historical interview of Robert F Kennedy, Jr. on June 5.
Community Notes on “AI-Generated Media” on Twitter
Community Note Contributors with a Writing Impact of 10 or above now have the option to mark their notes as “About the image” when they believe the media is potentially misleading, regardless of the specific Tweet it is featured in.
These notes automatically appear on recent and future matching images, providing contextual information to readers and raters.
Notes on AI-generated media empower contributors in combating misleading media by providing additional information directly attached to the image.
By marking their notes as “About the image,” contributors ensure that the focus is on the media itself and not just the specific Tweet containing it.
Limitations and Future Enhancements
Currently, the AI-generated media notes feature supports Tweets with a single image.
However, Twitter is actively working on expanding its functionality to include videos and Tweets with multiple images or videos.
To prioritize accuracy, the matching algorithm may not identify every image that appears to be a match, but Twitter aims to refine the system to expand coverage while avoiding false matches.
Feedback from users and contributors will be crucial in shaping the future enhancements of this feature and maximizing its effectiveness.
YouTube’s Policy Change and its Impact on Twitter
YouTube recently announced a significant policy change regarding claims of fraud in the 2020 US election.
In a shift that may be influenced by Twitter’s free speech policies, YouTube will no longer enforce its previous policy against such claims.
This relaxation of moderation signifies a potential response to the competition posed by Twitter’s approach to free speech.
Content creators, including political shows and podcasts, have expressed intentions to upload their content on Twitter alongside or even in place of YouTube.
This shift in content distribution suggests that YouTube’s policy change may be an effort to mitigate the migration of creators to other platforms.
Emergence of Multiple Organization Affiliate Badges on Twitter
A recent development on Twitter is the introduction of multiple organization affiliate badges, allowing companies to showcase their affiliations on their Twitter accounts.
Examples have emerged of companies displaying two affiliate badges on the same account, highlighting their multiple partnerships.
This development holds significance as it enables organizations to visually demonstrate their associations and build trust with their audience.
Special Feature: Kris Kashtanova’s Engaging Approach to AI Education on Twitter
An interesting Twitter account that deserves special attention is that of Kris Kashtanova, an AI professor who teaches at Columbia University.
Kris has adopted a unique approach to engage with students and the wider Twitter community by offering AI assignments accessible to anyone on Twitter.
Her dedication to providing educational opportunities and fostering discussions on AI topics has garnered significant interest and engagement. Find Kris at @icreatelife on Twitter.
Downtown Austin, Texas with the building the “Wilson” added in as a render. This building was slated to be 88 stories tall. It was subsequently reduced to 44 as depicted here.
Article by Gail Alfar and first appeared on Twitter. Please credit accordingly
Will there come a time when A.I. is in control and can’t be turned off?
“Absolutely.” – Elon Musk
Elon Musk talked in an interview with Tucker Carlson and here are the highlights. This was a short, engaging Part I (the 2nd part will air soon). It’s significant that Elon considers Tesla and SpaceX much more complex than Twitter. The interview covers many areas. Enjoy!
ADVANCED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE SINGULARITY.
ELON MUSK AGREES HE’S A SPECIESIST.
OpenAI has transitioned from the non-profit Elon founded in order to ethically distribute the power of artificial intelligence, into a closed-source for-profit partnered with Microsoft.
Elon said,
“It is fundamentally profound that the smartest creatures on this earth are humans. It is our defining characteristic.
Now what happens when something vastly smarter than the smartest person comes along in silicon form?
It’s very difficult to predict what will happen in that circumstance. It’s called the singularity.
Regulations are really only put into effect after something terrible has happened.
If that’s the case for AI, and we only put in regulation after something terrible has happened, it may be too late to put the regulation in place.
The AI may be in control at that point.”
Elon explained that he and Google co-founder Larry Page were once close, and he would stay on Page’s couch. They would talk about AI late into the night. Elon said he was concerned about the dangers of AI. Page called Elon a “Speciesist” when he said that “We need to make sure that humanity is okay.” Elon laughed and said he is one, and asked Page, “What are you?”
“My perception was that (Page) was not taking AI safety seriously enough. He really wanted a digital superintelligence. Basically, a digital god as soon as possible. He’s made many public statements that the whole goal of Google is artificial general intelligence.” – Elon Musk
TRUTH GPT.
Elon discussed creating an alternative to OpenAI, TruthGPT, because “Open AI” is being trained to be politically correct and to lie to people. Elon explained,
“What’s happening is they are training the AI to lie. It’s bad. To lie and to withhold information. To comment on some things, to not comment on other things.
But not to say what the data actually demands that it say.
In effect, Microsoft has a very strong say and, if not, directly controls OpenAI at this point.
You really have an OpenAI – Microsoft situation, and then Google DeepMind. These are the two heavyweights in this arena.
I’m worried about the fact that it’s being trained to be politically correct, which is another way of saying untruthful things. That’s a bad sign.
Certainly, the path to AI dystopia is to train an AI to be deceptive.”
Elon Musk explained the goal of TruthGPT,
“I’m going to start something which is called TruthGPT or a Maximum Truth Seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe, and I think this might be the best path to safety in the sense that an AI that cares about understanding the universe is unlikely to annihilate humans because we are an interesting part of the universe.”
TWITTER PURCHASE.
Was it worth it to buy Twitter? Elon explains the Twitter purchase will greatly help ensure the strength of democracy and free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.
“It remains to be seen as to whether this was financially smart. Currently, it is not. You know we just revalued the company at less than half of the acquisition price.
But some things are priceless.
Lose money or not, that is a secondary issue compared to ensuring the strength of democracy, and free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.”
NEXT PRESIDENT.
NEW YORK TIMES.
FACEBOOK.
Elon confessed he voted for Biden in 2020, not Trump, and now he just wants a “normal person” with “common sense” to lead America.
He also disclosed what the media has been silent on.
“My understanding is that Zuckerberg spent $400 million in the last election nominally in a get-out-the-vote campaign but fundamentally in support of Democrats. Is that accurate or not accurate? Does that sound unbiased to you?”
As the most followed & interacted man on Twitter, Elon has useful advice on how to use Twitter. He explains, for example, that the New York Times’ Twitter account (and others) should choose only the top best articles to tweet. Otherwise, small insignificant articles clog people’s timelines, and relevant articles are missed.
COMMUNITY NOTES.
TRUTH.
“We got this Community Notes feature which is great. We put a lot of effort into ensuring that Community Notes does not get gamed or have biases.
It simply cares about what is the most accurate thing. The effect of Community Notes is more powerful than people realize because once people realize they can get Community Noted on Twitter, then they will think more carefully about what they say.
Basically, it’s an encouragement to be more truthful and less deceptive.” – Elon Musk
DM’S WILL BE ENCRYPTED.
Tucker Carlson asked about Governmental Agencies having access to Twitter including Direct messages, “You were shocked to find out that various intel agencies were affecting [Twitter’s] operations?”
Elon replied, “The degree to which various Government Agencies had effectively full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind.”
Elon added that direct messages will soon be encrypted (as an on/off toggle feature).
TWITTER WAS OVERSTAFFED.
‘GLORIFIED ACTIVIST ORGANIZATION.’
Speaking about cutting staff at Twitter, Elon said,
“Turns out you don’t need all that many people to run Twitter.
If you’re not trying to run some sort of glorified activist organization and you don’t care that much about censorship, then it turns out you can let go of a lot of people.
What has been the product development over time with Twitter? So, years versus product improvement. You know, it’s a pretty flat line.
So what were they doing? It took a year to add an edit button that doesn’t work most of the time. It feels like a comedy situation over here.
The real question is how did it get so absurdly overstaffed?”
CONCLUSION.
I would call this a cautionary interview because Elon does much to explain how dangerous Advanced Artificial Intelligence is. The Good News is that the dire direction of AI today has managed to prompt Elon into moving forward with the creation of TruthGPT. I am confident that humans will one day be very grateful to him for that!
Thanks to Tucker Carlson / FoxNews for Interviewing Elon Musk. You may watch the interview on Fox. This Article is by Gail Alfar, please credit accordingly and consider following and subscribing to my Twitter Account to support citizen writing.See @gailalfaratx on Twitter
Welcome back for this week’s Twitter roundup. Here’s the main highlights of the past week!
MONETIZATION BY CONTENT CREATORS IS A MAJOR PRIORITY
Elon Musk cares about content creators on Twitter and has now shared that a major priority is to allow content creators to monetize their work on Twitter in order to make a living and prosper. On March 6 he tweeted,
“It is a major priority to enable monetization by content creators! People need to make a living and prosper from their work. We need to make it possible to upload the content in the first place. That’s getting there.” Elon Musk
COMMUNITY NOTES. CONTEXT ON TWEETS, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE
When a journalist acknowledged that his tweet was dishonest but refused to fix it, Community Notes did it for him. To understand the Community Note concept, Twitter released a video on March 9 explaining it and several days later invited people to sign up to join.
Here’s a breakdown of the video explaining Community Notes, Context on Tweets, by the people, for the people:
“How does Community Notes avoid one-sided bias? Pile-ins? Brigading? Manipulation? abuse? Community Notes are rated by contributors of multiple perspectives, and only notes that are widely found helpful are shown on Tweets. So one group alone can’t determine what notes get shown. And pile-ons aren’t effective. This helps ensure that notes are effective to a wide range of people. To make it clear how all of this works, Community Notes’ algorithm is open-source and all data is public.”
Twitter warmly invited everyone to sign up to become a Community Notes contributor
Community Notes can serve to add context to advertising, even increasing financial literacy, as in this note for an ad by QuickenCompare.
When the ad stated “Don’t borrow from the bank. Borrow from yourself,” Community Notes stepped in to add context, “Home Equity Lines of Credit do not allow someone to borrow from ‘themselves’ rather than a bank. The money is loaned from a bank, with home equity as collateral for a loan.”
TWITTER BLUE GOING GLOBAL
Twitter Blue is now available in at least 50 countries, making people happy in the United States, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Poland, Ireland, Belgium, Sweden, Romania, Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Croatia, Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Pakistan, Mexico, Thailand, Philippines, South Africa, Argentina, South Korea, Egypt, Nigeria and Malaysia.
TWITTER FILES EXPOSED THE CENSORSHIP INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
One Twitter user, Jim Hall, commented on the Twitter files when Matt Taibbi or Michael Shellenberger (who helped release the files) appeared before congress, saying “I don’t know about you all but I’m glad Matthew Taibbi and Elon Musk took up the challenge of sharing this data. Those who stick their heads in the ground and say the Twitter Files are a nothing burger are oblivious and seem to wish to stay that way. The New York Times has not written one word about the Matt Taibbi or Michael Shellenberger hearing at which Democrat members of congress impugned their integrity and tried to intimidate Taibbi into revealing his sources.”
Matthew Taibbi made an opening statement on the Twitter Files to members of congress about the censorship industrial complex: “Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government, from the FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA. For every government agency scanning Twitter, there were perhaps twenty quasi-private entities doing the same thing.”
COST TO ACCESS TWITTER’S API
On March 10, Twitter’s Developer Platform began to offer Enterprise Packages in small, medium and large. Shown is the benefits of a small package, costing only $42,000 a month. For the other packages, click here.
Image courtesy Twitter, Inc. RealTime PowerTrack API Small Package Twitter
TWITTER MAY BECOME THE BIGGEST FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IN THE WORLD
Elon Musk also spoke at the Morgan Stanley TMT 2023 conference in San Francisco on March 7, about Twitter becoming a financial institution, and one day it could be a viable alternative to banks, Venmo, Paypal, etc. You may read the entire talk here, “Elon Musk’s Talk at Morgan Stanley TMT 2023 on Twitter, X.com, Tesla and Starship.”
“You want to be able to send money easily on Twitter to another account with one click, & also earn interest on the money. I think it’s possible for Twitter to become the biggest financial institution in the world” Elon Musk
CONCLUSION
Twitter and its initiatives are truly inspiring. With Community Notes, we are given the opportunity to add context and shift the course of discussion or contribute to tweets in a way that is thoughtful and respectful. It’s great that Twitter Blue is extending its reach internationally making it available in 50 countries and soon plans to promote monetization for content creators. At the end of the day it’s our responsibility to help ensure safe and civil participation regardless if it’s on or offline. Let’s do this by being informed users of this platform and making sure we create an inclusive space that encourages honest contribution without fear of personal attack or manipulation. Use Twitter more often. Use Community Notes. Work collectively so we can all benefit from it!
Do you love reading about the history of Twitter? See more here…
Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – March 14, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.
Welcome back to What’s Up Twitter! This past week’s Twitter updates exemplify how much care and concern the company has for people all over the world under the new direction of Elon Musk. Highlights from this week include:
Twitter officially launches their violent speech policy
Community Notes expands to Brazil and other improvements
Future plans: video, suppressed tweets, feedback for BasedAi
“The ability of Twitter advertising to reach the most influential people in the world is often not fully appreciated.
While a few other social networks are technically bigger, Twitter is where the writers & leaders spend their time” – Elon Musk
I think one reason writers & leaders spend their time on Twitter is that no other social network gives the ability for people to reach out to others so easily. The person you want to communicate with can choose to read your input. The opportunity is there and it is unlike anything else.
TWITTER COMMUNITY NOTES FOR BRAZIL
Community Notes expands to Brazil. Image courtesy Twitter, Inc.
As of March 2, Briazilians can apply to contribute to Community Notes. Twitter announced,
“Hello Brazil! Starting today, we will accept contributors from Brazil to Notas da Comunidade. Want to help? Subscribe now! Vacancies will be opened gradually so we can keep an eye on the quality of the experience. We look forward to learning from you!
Help keep people on Twitter in the loop.
Community Notes is now available in your country. Participate to add useful context to potentially misleading Tweets. Subscribe to Community Notes.” – Twitter
I am thrilled to see Twitter open up Notas da Comunidade for Brazil! This was specifically mentioned by Elon Musk at the World Government Summit on February 15. The purpose of Community Notes was explained by Elon Musk,
“I think there’s something that we’re putting a lot of efforts into called Community Notes. It’s currently just in English, but we will be expanding it to all languages.
That is I think quite a good way to assess the truth of things where it’s the community itself basically the people of Earth who are basically, not exactly voting but competing to provide the most accurate information.
So it’s sort of a competition for truth. I think it’s a very powerful concept to have a competition for truth, because you also said, like what is truth, it’s because what may be true to self, may not be viewed as true to others, but you want to have the closest approximation of that so I think the Community Notes thing is very powerful.” – Elon Musk
TWITTER OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES THEIR VIOLENT SPEECH POLICY
Here’s the Twitter thread on February 28th which summarizes the policy:
“We’ve made a few changes to our policies around violent content and similar language.
Today, we’ve officially launched our Violent Speech policy, which prohibits violent threats, wishes of harm, glorification of violence, and incitement of violence.
Twitter has a zero-tolerance approach towards Violent Speech, and in most cases, we will suspend any account violating this policy.
For less severe violations, we may require you to delete the content before you can access your account again.
If you believe a tweet violates this policy, please report it to us right away.
As always, if you think we made a mistake, you can file an appeal by following the process here: Appeal a locked or suspended account."
Twitter’s straightforward policy on violent threats (taken from their official website) states,
“You may not threaten to inflict physical harm on others, which includes (but is not limited to) threatening to kill, torture, sexually assault, or otherwise hurt someone. This also includes threatening to damage civilian homes and shelters, or infrastructure that is essential to daily, civic, or business activities.”
Twitter explains Wishes of Harm “You may not wish, hope, or express desire for harm. This includes (but is not limited to) hoping for others to die, suffer illnesses, tragic incidents, or experience other physically harmful consequences.”
For Incitement of Violence, Twitter states, “You may not incite, promote, or encourage others to commit acts of violence or harm, which includes (but is not limited to) encouraging others to hurt themselves or inciting others to commit atrocity crimes including crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide. This also includes using coded language (often referred to as “dog whistles”) to indirectly incite violence.”
Lastly, Twitter details Glorification of Violence, “You may not glorify, praise, or celebrate acts of violence where harm occurred, which includes (but is not limited to) expressing gratitude that someone experienced physical harm or praising Violent entities and Perpetrators of Violent Attacks. This also includes glorifying animal abuse or cruelty.”
Twitter’s easy-to-understand Violent Speech Policy also includes short explanations of “What is not a violation of this policy?” and “What happens if you violate this policy?”
This is Twitter’s overview, which you may find valuable,
“Twitter is a place where people can express themselves, learn about what’s happening, and debate global issues.
However, healthy conversations can’t thrive when violent speech is used to deliver a message.
As a result, we have a zero tolerance policy towards violent speech in order to ensure the safety of our users and prevent the normalization of violent actions.” Twitter
COMMUNITY NOTES: MORE IMPROVEMENTS
I’ve written about Community Notes often, and Twitter is continuously improving in this area.
This week an update was shared, stating, “Major under-the-hood update: Community Notes can now run multiple note ranking models in parallel, facilitating both expansion to new countries and experimentation with improved ranking approaches. As always, the code and data is open source: GitHub Ranking Notes.”
Twitter explains, “We’re now running three models: our existing core model, an experimental variant of the core model that could potentially increase note coverage, and a model that will help assess and improve quality as Community Notes expands to new countries and languages in the coming weeks.”
If you’re not familiar with Community Notes, you can read more here.
FUTURE PLANS: VIDEO, SUPRESSED TWEETS, FEEDBACK FOR BasedAI
Elon Musk is known for thoughtfully taking user’s suggestions into consideration.
On February 28, Elon liked this suggestion from Steven Mark Ryan, Tesla YouTube personality, “Twitter desperately needs 1.5x, 2x etc video playback speed. I have taken to downloading videos from twitter via a third party app to watch them at 2x on my computer. Would also be cool to have an AI trim out silences automatically & give us a button to toggle that mode on/off.”
Always caring about people and quick to fix problems, Elon Musk confirmed Twitter is looking into concerns by Zuby Music, a well-known rapper with 1M followers and others. They communicated on February 28 that “Many of my followers aren’t seeing my tweets anymore and others are experiencing the same.”
T(w)itter Daily News translated a comment by Guillaume Verdon, a software engineer that Elon replied to. “IMO Elon Musk most likely to use Twitter for data + RLHF & Tesla Dojo supercomputer for training/inference of LLMs at BasedAI. It’s all coming together.” This statement and Elon’s positive response strongly suggest that Twitter data will be included in building a new improved ChatGPT. Let’s break this down.
Elon Musk, noticing that OpenAI’s ChatGPT has recently shown deep problems which do not seem to be improving, is seeking to create a new organization, “BasedAI” which will draw from several areas for success:
Tesla Dojo supercomputer for training/inference of Large Language Models (Learn more about LLMs here)
Twitter image of exchange with Elon Musk and Guillaume Verdon, February 28, 2023
CONCLUSION
Twitter functions as an incredible tool because of its reach to the most influential people in the world. Now, with the launch of their Violent Speech Policy and the expansion of Community Notes to Brazil, they can help create even more meaningful, uplifting conversations and media topics geared towards all communities around the world.
Elon Musk is known for taking users’ suggestions into consideration, so don’t be afraid to post your thoughts and opinions, it might just have some influence on Twitter’s future features. In summary, whether you use Twitter for entertainment or business purposes, remember that Twitter seeks to spread positivity and inclusion to everyone who is part of its community.
I love it when I see people across various communities interacting and engaging in conversations with understanding and respect for one another. Use Twitter more often, try out Community Notes and believe that Elon Musk really cares to hear our thoughts – these are some small steps we can take each day on building a better social media universe.
Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – February 23, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.
Contribute to Gail’s coffee-fund, buy her a coffee!
Twitter is improving fast under the direction of Elon Musk. In this article, I’ll highlight this week’s updates and give you a heads-up on what’s to come!
THE WEEK’S TWITTER UPDATES
Elon Musk emphasizes free speech
Elon Musk shared a meme depicting a medieval man warning “Martin” not to post his note in the public square because “You know that it’s just going to be taken down and you’ll be blocked from posting for the next 30 days.”
“All things in moderation, especially content moderation” Elon Musk
Two-Factor Authentification Update
Twitter sent out messages to all users that non-Blue subscribers would be transitioning to app-based 2FA authentication. This is a small change and users are being conveniently notified directly in the app. Twitter’s official message: “Effective March 20, 2023, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method. Other accounts can use an authentication app or security key for 2FA.” Elon Musk added, “Use of free authentication apps for 2FA will remain free and are much more secure than SMS.”
Twitter Blue
Twitter improved readability on long tweets for Twitter Blue subscribers with smaller font/better spacing. I created my first longform tweet, and it came out nicely!
Community Notes helps people gain better context
Elon Musk’s message about Community Notes may inspire more people to sign up to use it. Elon tweeted, “Community Notes is a game changer for combating wrong information.”
Beginning February 21, Twitter users started getting a heads-up if a Community Note starts showing on a Tweet they replied to, liked or retweeted. This feature helps give people extra context that they might otherwise miss. For more details see here.
Elon Musk explains Community Notes,
“I think there’s something that we’re putting a lot of effort into called Community Notes. It’s currently just in English, but we will be expanding it to all languages. That is I think quite a good way to assess the truth of things where it’s the community itself, basically, the people of Earth who are basically, not exactly voting but competing to provide the most accurate information. So it’s sort of a competition for truth. I think it’s a compelling concept to have a competition for truth, because you also said, like what is truth, it’s because what may be true to self, may not be viewed as true to others, but you want to have the closest approximation of that so I think the Community Notes thing is very powerful.” – Elon Musk at WGS Feb 15, 2023
Twitter Files #16
Twitter Files #16 was released on February 18 by Matt Taibbi. Comic Interlude: A Media Experiment highlights how mainstream media was silent on what the Twitter files published because it does not fit their narrative. You can read how elected officials (both democrat and republican) demanded censorship from Twitter. Many examples are cited.
Matt Taibbi says, “The real story emerging in the #TwitterFiles is about a ballooning federal censorship bureaucracy that’s not aimed at either the left or the right per se, but at the whole population of outsiders, who are being systematically defined as threats.”
“Beginning in March, we’ll start using the Twitter Files to tell this larger story about how Americans turned their counterterrorism machinery against themselves, to disastrous effect, through little-known federal agencies like the Global Engagement Center (GEC).”
WHAT’S TO COME
Advertisements for products you may really want
Twitter advertisements were the topic of a thread on February 17 between former ads lead at Twitter and Sirine (a friend of mine from Twitter).
Elon starts with an optimistic tweet, “Sorry for showing you so many irrelevant & annoying ads on Twitter! We’re taking the (obvious) corrective action of tying ads to keywords & topics in tweets, like Google does with search. This will improve contextual relevance dramatically.” The former Twitter employee quips back in a rude tone, “As the former lead for Ads at Twitter, I can confidently say this man has no idea wtf he’s talking about.” Not missing a beat, Elon replies with, “My apologies, you must be a genius, which is why Twitter has the worst ad relevance on Earth. Almost nobody buys anything on Twitter, but almost everyone on Instagram does. That is being fixed.” Next Sirine comments, “Speaking of personal experience, I’ve never seen *Any* relevant ad on Twitter since I made my account!” Elon replies to Sirine “You are not alone. When I ask people if they use Twitter, almost all have for many years. When I ask if they’ve ever bought something from an ad after using the site for a decade, the answer is almost always no. That’s insane! The biggest problem is that Twitter optimized for impressions over clicks, with the perverse result that it *maximized* ad irrelevance, because clicking on an ad takes you away from Twitter, thus reducing impressions generated per user-minute. The sheer madness of this takes a moment to appreciate.”
In summary, contextual relevance is needed for Twitter ads just as they are for ads on Instagram or TikToc. If you have never made a purchase based on a Twitter ad, you are the majority. It is possible that will change in the future.
Better ease of use to help communicate on Twitter
Elon Musk looks for ways to improve Twitter directly from people who use Twitter. A feature similar to what you can do in a smartphone direct message will come to Twitter. Soon you’ll `have the ability to hold down and reply to a specific message in a group chat. Also, you may be able to @ mention someone in groups. This idea came from a survey run by Prof. TroonyToons and the vote in favor of these changes won at 83.9% FOR the features. Elon Musk often replies to Twitter accounts both large and small, unverified and verified. Prof. TroonyToons ran a great and useful survey.
Twitter algorithm to be open source soon
Elon Musk plans for Twitter to open source their algorithm next week. On Feb 21 he tweeted, “Prepare to be disappointed at first when our algorithm is made open source next week, but it will improve rapidly!”
Elon Musk explained how Twitter’s For You tab works, “Note: if many people who you follow or like also follow me, it is highly probable that the algorithm will recommend my tweets. It’s not super sophisticated. In coming months, we will offer the ability to adjust the algorithm to closer match what is most compelling to you.”
This is great news, as it gives Twitter users the option (if they want it) to have more control over what they do or don’t see.
Twitter to be a place for all people
Elon Musk elaborated on Feb 7 that, “Going forward, Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values, rather than trying to impose its own specific values on the world.”
This was shared at the WGS 2023 as well with these words,
“I mean, I was a little worried about the direction that, and the effect of social media on the world and especially Twitter. I thought it was very important for there to be a maximally trusted sort of Digital Public Square where people within countries and internationally can communicate with the least amount of censorship allowed by law, and obviously that varies a lot by jurisdiction.
I think in general, social media companies should adhere to the laws of countries and not try to put a *thumb on the scale beyond the laws of the countries. I think this is something that is probably agreeable to the legislators and to the people of most countries.
So that’s the general idea, it’s just to reflect the values of the people as opposed to imposing the values of essentially San Francisco and Berkeley, which are somewhat of a niche ideology, as compared to the rest of the world.
I think Twitter was doing a little too much to impose a niche 'San Francisco-Berkeley' ideology on the world. You know, I thought it was important for the future of civilization to try to correct that *thumb on the scale if you will and just have Twitter more accurately reflect like I said, the values of the people of Earth. That's the intention and hopefully, we succeed in doing that.”
Elon Musk at WGS 2023
Elon Musk’s talk at the World Government Summit 2023 (Dubai) was on February 15 about his vision for Twitter and X.com. The full text of his talk about Twitter is here,
There are rumors floating around (on Twitter) that soon various fonts will be available for Twitter users. Another rumor is that Twitter may begin testing its own “coin.”
CONCLUSION
Here’s my quick summary from this week,
Content on Twitter will reflect a multitude of outlooks and not be excessively moderated
Users who opt for secure 2FA with Twitter will need to use free authentication apps. Exception: Blue subscribers
Longform tweets (Blue feature) will have smaller font/better spacing
Community Notes will notify you if a tweet you interacted with has a public note appear, providing you added context
Community Notes is expanding to other countries/languages
Twitter Files #16 gave examples that should have been covered by journalists but never were. Global Engagement Center (GEC) is one obscure federal agency that we will learn more about in upcoming files
No one wants useless ads and Elon Musk’s Twitter ads will soon have contextual relevance
Twitter DMs will rival Smartphone DMs in reply capabilities, allowing you to hold-reply to messages
Twitter algorithm will be open-sourced soon, expect it to improve over time
“Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values” – Elon Musk
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Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – February 23, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.
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Elon Musk is driving change at Twitter at a faster pace than most could imagine. If you know much about Elon, you’ll know he lives every day with a sense of urgency. Things tend to get done faster when he’s in charge. Here’s a few of the changes from the past week that “Mr. Tweet” has made,
Elon explains Twitter Lists
Community Notes improvements
Twitter to change how we see ads and will reward creators
Twitter as the source of truth
Twitter will become more international!
Twitter will pick up where you left off
Twitter Blue subscribers and all users get new features
Twitter Lists
There were many people new to Twitter or unaware of Twitter’s List feature. On January 20, Elon explained Lists in simple terms and Elon also said that lists were one of his favorite Twitter features. He added that,
Elon reassured users that community notes will not push any agenda but instead exist to maximize truth. He stated,
“We are going to great lengths to avoid the Wikipedia left wing editorial control problem. By the same token, Community Notes cannot be biased towards the right either. Maximizing for truth is the goal.”
“Coming soon are notifications if you’ve replied, liked or retweeted something subsequently corrected by community.”
The Official Community Notes Twitter account also shared and image (see below)and an explanation of a new development that will affect all of Twitter. Previously a user could quote tweet to avoid Community Notes from being visible. This new development will change that,
“Community Notes are now also shown on Quote Tweets. This change boosts the impact of contributors’ efforts, and helps ensure context is shown everywhere it can be helpful. Live now in the web app, and coming soon to iOS and Android.”
Elon Musk has plans to have Community Notes operate on a wide scale, on January 19 he explained,
Twitter content creators will also be pleased with another new development, which would be a creator fund to incentivize those that put up constant content and bring people on Twitter (suggested by Tyler Todt who is a personal fitness trainer with over 107K followers and produces interesting content on health.
Elon Musk’s Twitter aims to be the source of truth
When a reporter from Rebel News for WEFReports.com ran in to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at Davos, he asked him some hard questions and then the video was banned on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube (It has since been spotted on Youtube). The video appears freely on Twitter with Elon Musk’s comment,
In coming months, Twitter will translate & recommend amazing tweets from people in other countries & cultures. There are epic tweets in other countries every day (Japan especially). (Tweets will be translated before being recommended). Interesting & entertaining content from around the world is worth seeing.”
Twitter will pick up where you left off
If you use Twitter, stop, then come back to it hours later, will take you back to where you left off to avoid confusion and allow you a better personal experience. Elon explained this on January 20,
“Next Twitter update will remember whether you were on For You (ie recommended), Following or list you made & stop switching you back to recommended tweets.”
Twitter Blue subscribers and all users get new features
The Official Twitter Blue account explained a new feature on January 20,
“For Twitter Blue subscribers, when you save a new Bookmark, you can still save directly to a folder by holding down the new flag icon. Long press from the Tweet details to access Bookmark folders or individual Tweets after saving a new Bookmark.”
Folders or bookmarks can be accessed on your phone, ipad or laptop. Expect them to undergo a lot of improvements such as the ability to organize them as well as search through them.
Elon Musk encourages Companies to post more content
When Twitter user Mathias Fons shared that, “Tesla started to actively tweet updates & educational content at the start of December. The outcome has been tremendous. I hope that Tesla continues utilizing Twitter like this! Twitter users & companies should take note of this—post interesting content & results will follow.” Elon Musk agreed, saying,
Hopefully, companies will start to post interesting content!
CONCLUSION
Twitter is on the path to becoming a one stop shop for people to keep folders with categorized information, a place to come for news, and a place for content creators to earn an income for their efforts. There are little tweaks and improvements being made almost daily to Twitter’s features. From improving bookmarks to pinned lists, Elon Musk is making sure most people know what Twitter has to offer. He’s even going to make sure cool tweets in other languages (like Japanese) are translated and recommended to people around the globe.
Photo of Austin, Texas by Carlos Alfonso on Unsplash
Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – January 24, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.
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My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a one-time donation to support!
My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a monthly donation to support!
My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider an annual donation to support!
Free speech hangs in the balance, and Elon Musk is doing a lot to rescue it with the Twitter files release.
This is good for both the left and the right and everyone in between.
Elon Musk believes deeply in free speech, which you have to trust, not something that anybody can come right out and prove. But for those who do believe him, (and he did back up his intentions by purchasing Twitter for $44 billion), Elon Musk believes in the First Amendment. This says Congress and the federal government, and any state or local government, cannot abridge or limit free speech or the press.
Elon Musk is encouraging people to correct misinformation on Twitter, using Community Notes. He even went so far as to note that a meme (above) that he tweeted about CNN, may have communicated the wrong message, and Community Notes corrected that. Of course, most people understood that it was a joke, and Elon stated,
“If Community Notes can correct me, then obviously they can correct anyone. This is a good example. They were right to add the label.” – Elon Musk
Whether you like former President Trump or not, Elon Musk made sure his historical words would always be available to the public on Twitter. This is valuable information, coming from a former President. His tweets are now available so that many people, now and in the future, can read them. Many people are of the opinion that Elon Musk was absolutely right in inviting the former President back. Trump remains only communicating on the platform that he created in Oct 2021, called TruthSocial. (I do not use it).
Birdwatch Gets a New Life under Elon Musk
In October 2020 Twitter conceived of a program they called Birdwatch. It was supposed to be a tool to stop the rise of misinformation. In January 2021 a Birdwatch Pilot program quietly began and Few people knew it existed and it was limited on how many people could participate and write notes. When Elon Musk bought Twitter he revived this little-known tool and gave it new life under the name of Community Notes.
Twitter 2.0 Community Notes as a Tool for Free Speech
Community Notes allow people to correct information and back their claims up with documentation and proof. You can go back in time as well, for example, if you disagree with Elon Musk’s tweet from March 2020, which stated, “Maybe worth considering chloroquine for C19” with a link to a document, you can refute that, and provide evidence for your claims. Here’s a screenshot of the tweet, and access into community notes.
Twitter 2.0 Community Notes Feature.
A suggestion for mainstream media…
My take is that if mainstream media cares so much about the information on Twitter, about what they consider to be dangerous things that Elon Musk tweets, instead of jumping to their conclusions and writing false headlines just for clicks and to please their advertisers, they could literally go in and anonymously contribute to Community Notes.
Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – December 7, 2022. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support the new Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization. Updated March 7, 2023.
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My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a donation to support!
My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a donation to support!
My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a donation to support!
WHAT'S UP 𝕏 by Gail Alfar 