TikTok Deal Finalized, Complaints About New TOS & Posts Being Censored

 

For fans of TikTok in America who have been somewhat worried about the lingering threat of a potential ban in the United States, they no longer have to worry about that as a deal was made with American investors that satisfied the demands of the current administration. But, it may have come with a price that some users are not willing to bear.

More on the story in Extra. 

 

(finally up, sorry about the delay). 

Tik-Tok Social Media App Goes Offline, Then Restored

 

 

On the night of Saturday January 18, The social media app TikTok went offline. Those trying to access it instead got the following message:

Sorry,TikTok isn't available right now

A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now.

We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate Tiktok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!

This was the result of a law passed in April last year in which the app would be banned from use within the United States unless it's Chinese-based parent company ByteDance sold it. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld the ban. 

But the next day, Sunday January 19, TikTok was back. President-Elect Trump had stated he would issue an executive order giving the app a reprieve.

Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!

You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.

Since 2018 when it was merged with another app, Musical.ly, Tik Tok has been a sensation, with millions using it to share short videos from funny to serious. It's been especially popular with teenagers and young adults. But while social media platforms have always been subject to criticism, notably for gleaning data from it's users, with TikTok it was moreso due to the parent company being from China, whose government has been criticized for violating human rights and has been increasingly confrontational with the United States. It caught attention in 2019 when other social media was showing images of Hong Kong protests, but they were absent on TikTok. Despite that US election-related posts were on, the company's response to the criticism was that the platform was for entertainment and not politics. But leaked documents showed moderators were told to remove content the Chinese government considered sensitive. Concerns about collected data ending up in the hands of Bejing would lead to the Pentagon bagging the app from all US Military smartphones. Trump in his first administration had issued an executive order to ban US companies from dealing with the app or it's owner and then a second ordering it's sale within 90 days. But those legal efforts collapsed when Biden's Presidency started. But TikTok's problems continued, with stories that the app encouraged extreme dieting in teenagers. Continuing national security concerns would lead the FBI and FCC to ban the app from it's mobile devices. In March 2024, Congress would debate the law that would ban Tik Tok from operating in the US, and President Biden would sign it after it's passage in April. 

 

While many have praised the ban, calling TikTok too much of a security risk, others, notably it's users have protested, some saying they keep in touch with the news or make some money through it.  Ironically enough, Trump who was once a critic, began making use of the app in his 2024 election campaign that year. In anticipation of the ban, some users began signing up with another Chinese app, Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote (or Little Red Book).

Sources: BBC News, Associated Press, The Guardian

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday August 3

    ~*~

 

    At 8 AM PST   

    Can We Create The Perfect Farm

    Dr. Stephen L. Gasior

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/perfect-farm/

   

      

    ~*~

 

    

    At 10 AM PST   

    Social Media Corrupts Human Interactions

    Organized by Chantal Jager

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/debates/

   

      

    ~*~

 

    

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

 

Sneaky Discord Scam

 

 

 Been hearing about a diabolical scam on Discord. It's described as appearing as a very obvious one at first, but the REAL scam is the "dismiss message" link, which supposedly gives the scammer access to your computer. 

At the very least, it's a reminder to be a little careful with your computers. 

Short Outage On Facebook

 

On Tuesday March 5, Facebook experienced a widespread outage. The incident started at 10 AM EST, and lasted for over two hours. The number of users affected was over a half million at it's peak. 

 

A spokesman for Meta, the owners of Facebook, would say, "Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue ... for everyone who was impacted." The announcement was made over Twitter. 

Source: Reuters

Discord Issues

 

If you were having trouble getting on Discord on Friday September 29, you weren't alone. Numerous users using the client software were getting a while screen with the words "You have been blocked."

 

Someone posting on Twitter to Discord Support stated, "I suddenly get a Cloudflare "Sorry, you have been blocked" page when opening the Discord desktop client. Is something wrong on your end or am I false positive in some DoS detection?"

The problem is described as lasting for hours, and the company pinned the issue on the service experiencing "unusual traffic spikes."  It has been suggested that the reason was issues at Cloudfare, which Discord works with to improve it's service. 

The issue came up in a couple group chats in Second Life. Later in the day after the problem seemed to be resolved, it was suggested to users still having trouble that restarting the client, or their computers, would resolve the problem. A suggestion that Discord itself had been making.

 

Sources: Techcrunch,  Bleepingcomputer, Twitter,

Bixyl Shuftan

Twitter Checkmark

 

 I got this little item from Marianne McCann, a Second Life version of the Twitter blue checkmark.

 

 To those not in the know, the blue checks were added as a verification feature to Twitter for $8 US dollars a month by orders of it's new owner Elon Musk. One of the motives for this was likely to help stop Twitter from losing millions every day. But things quickly went awry as some quickly began using the feature to troll and impersonate people. It wasn't long before the feature was finally suspended. This hasn't been the only problem with Twitter as recently as advertisers have been leaving and a number of it's security, privacy, and compliance heads have quit. Musk as admitted that Twitter going into bankruptcy is not out of the question. What happens next? Time will tell.

Sources: ArsTechnia, CNBC, BBC News, Forbes, Business Insider, Engadget   

Bixyl Shuftan

Elon Musk Makes A Deal To Buy Twitter

On Monday April 25, Twitter announced it had reached a deal with billionaire Elon Musk for him to purchase the company for 44 billion dollars. This was the culmination of a series of events that began on April 4 when it was revealed he had bought 9.2 percent of it's stock, making him the largest shareholder. There was speculation that he would join the executive board. But instead he stated he had no intention. Instead on April 14, he announced he was offering to buy all of Twitter's stock. The immediate reaction of the board was to adopt a "poison pill" strategy, or limit anyone from owning more than 15% of the company. But apparently negotiations went on behind the scenes, and the board agreed to Musk's offer.

In a statement announcing the deal, Musk would say, "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."

With 83 million followers, Musk is already one of Twitter's most high profile users. He's also made some controversial statements. Reaction to news of the purchase had a political divide. Conservatives tended to view the buyout with optimism and cheers, many feeling Twitter has been biased against them and restricts free speech. Liberals tended to feel worry and concern, wondering if his efforts to encourage free speech might mean fewer filters against hateful rhetoric and what environmentalists consider mistruths about the climate debate.

Sources: BBC News, CNN, PR Newswire

Bixyl Shuftan
 

A Bad Week For Facebook and Twitch, Windows 11 Launched

It was not the best week for Facebook last week.  On Tuesday October 5, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook manager turned whistleblower, testified before Congress. She stated the company knew it's app Instagram could be hazardous to the mental health of teenage girls, and knew it was not doing enough to combat disinformation on it's social media website that contributed to the worsening political divide in the United States and led to the January 6 riot. While it could have taken measures to protect girls on Instagram and done more about misinformation on Facebook, it had not done so as the company didn't want to cut into it's profits, putting money over the safety of it's customers. Company CEO Mark Zuckerberg would respond with a statement denying her accusations.

But then came more bad news in the form of a six hour outage of both Facebook and Instagram. While for most it was an annoyance, some small businesses have come to rely on Facebook for communication with their customers. Also affected were sets of Oculus VR headgear. The company would eventually offer an apology.  It's estimated that the company lost billions from this outage. Then on Friday, the company suffered another outage and once again Facebook and Instagram were down once more, another blow to it's reputation.

Facebook wasn't the only social media platform to face big trouble. On Wed Oct 6, there was a massive data leak targeting Twitch. Over 100 gigabytes of data was posted online on Wednesday October 6. This includes operational details that the company "fiercely guards," such as how many millions the top streamers made in revenue from broadcasting. "Aside from the salary details, the documents seems to contain the site's source code and even technical details for yet to be released products and platforms," Joe Tidy in an article on BBC News would say, adding if everything was confirmed it would be, "the biggest leak I have ever seen - an entire company's most valuable data cleaned out in one fell swoop." ThreatModeler founder and CEO Archie Agarwal would say of the data breach,"This is as bad as it could possibly be."

While there didn't seem to be any passwords included in the leaked data, it was listed as "part one," hinting there was more to come. Still, it is reccomended that Twitch users change their passwords anyway.

Tuesday October 5 was the release date of Windows 11. Six years ago, Microsoft was saying there would be only new installments of Windows 10. That has changed, and the company has launched a new version that promises to be "clean and fresh and simpler." If you're reluctant to change over to the new system, you'll have plenty of company. The list of machines the company says this version of Windows needs has been described as "ridiculously strict." In a review on PC Gamer, the writers thought Windows 11 had a few nice improvements, but nothing worth upgrading to the new system, and a number of reasons to wait. Officially, PC users have until October 2025 to wait. After that, Microsoft plans no more technical or security updates.

Sources: BBC News, PC Gamer, The Verge   

Bixyl Shuftan
  

EOTB: Linden Lab Asking For Content For Tik Tok, Instagram

 

For those using social media and making videos, Linden Lab is asking residents to get on a couple of their pages. A few days ago, the Lab posted an announcement requesting content for their Tik Tok and Instagram pages. 

There were two forms to fill out, one for the Second Life Tik Tok page, the other for it's Instagram. There is no contest or reward, other than to "your chance to show off and shine."

To see the blog post in full, Click Here. 

Second Life Tik Tok page: https://www.tiktok.com/@secondlife? 

Second Life Instagram; https://www.instagram.com/secondlife/ 

533 Million Facebook Users Personal Data Leaked Online

 

Personal data from 533 million Facebook accounts was discovered to have been leaked online. The data comes from users from over 100 countries, "including over 32 million records on users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in India. It includes their phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and, in some cases, email addresses."

The leak was revealed a few days ago on April 3 by chief technology officer Alon Gal of Hudson Rock, a cybercrime intelligence group. It was posted online on a hacking forum by someone, and "available to anyone with rudimentary data skills." Gal would post his findings on Twitter, "I have yet to see Facebook acknowledging this absolute negligence of your data." 

Facebook responded that the reported data was the same as that of a 2019 data leak, "We found and fixed this issue in August 2019." But as many people continue to use the same phone numbers and email addresses, the data could still potentially be useful for scammers and other online schemes.

The leak is being investigated by Ireland's Data Protection Commission, which stated they will work with Facebook to make sure it's claim is true. Joe Tidy of BBC News commented, "The database has likely changed criminal hands many times before now being offered for free."

Sources: Business Insider, BBC News, Twitter 

Image Source: AP News

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Trump Twitter Ban Raises Questions About Roles and Responsibilities of Social Media

 

It's been about a week since US President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter. Trump has been a controversial figure in American politics, and his takedown from the social media platform was greeted with applause by his opponents and criticism by his supporters. But some, including people whom have been critical of Trump in the past, expressed concerns about him being removed. The head of Twitter himself felt while they did the right thing, the move could have repercussions in the future for free speech online.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - " Follow The Food 3," "Science Cafe"

"Follow The Food 3"

Saturday August 1,

7:00 AM to 8:00 AM SL time

Follow the Food is a BBC documentary sponsored by one of the big Three agriculture companies, Corteva Agrisciences. It covers the current food chain, challenges to feeding the world, and new technologies in world agriculture. Come watch Season 1 over 4 weeks from July 11th through August 8th with a Q&A after each one with a Corteva Agrisciences Scientist.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32

For more information, Click Here.

*  *  *  *  *

"Science Cafe: The Future of Higher Education"

Saturday August 1

10:00 AM to 11:00 AM SL time

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/206/216/25

For more information, Click Here.

News And Commentary: No Plans For Covering US Election in SL This Spring

Over the past few days, there's been quite a bit of chatter on my social media in Facebook at Discord about certain political issues, notably the unsuccessful impeachment of US President Donald Trump. But there were also comments about President Trump's State of the Union Address and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's reaction to it. While results of the vote itself were more or less as expected, there was still no shortage of angry comments. There were both people expressing their fury at the President and those who voted for him, and the President's opposition and those who voted for them. 

Like Election Night 2016, I ended up reflecting for some time at the Texas State Capitol Building in Antiquity Texas (153/132/22), the closest Second Life has to Capitol Hill. While I had thought of covering the election some this spring, the frequency and depth of the anger I've been hearing has convinced me to wait a little longer. There's plenty else to write about in the meantime.

Perhaps a little time will help calm the angry voices ... hopefully. As a reader of American history, I am all too aware of what can happen when there is no longer an agreement to disagree. 

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Newser Discord Channel

We at the Newser do our best to give you news about the people, places, events, and things about Second Life. We've also invited feedback, especially reader submissions. We've been posting links to many of our stories on Facebook for many years, for instance. But as there have been more questions about the social network, some have stopped going there.

For some months, I've been on a few groups on Discord, a chat program that many have been using instead of Skype lately. So we're opening ours on SL Newser Discord channel ( https://discord.gg/SttVuj). It's still new, with plenty of informal though friendly comments so far. So feel free to join in (though behave yourselves as drama and other trouble is unwelcome).

Source: The Guardian 

Bixyl Shuftan

AOL Instant Messenger To Shut Down

Those of you whom have been around the days of browsing the Internet and the World Wide Web since the beginning will remember America On-Line's AOL Instant Messenger. Also known simply as AIM, it helped pioneer the days of social media, people using the Internet and being online to get in touch and chat with one another instead of simply looking up information and checking email. But like many other pioneers in technology, it became outclassed by later products. It was announced earlier this month by the VP of Communications of Oath, the company created by the merger of AOL and Yahoo, that AOL IM would be shutting down in December 2017 after 20 years of operation.

If you were a 90’s kid, chances are there was a point in time when AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was a huge part of your life. You likely remember the CD, your first screenname, your carefully curated away messages, and how you organized your buddy lists. Right now you might be reminiscing about how you had to compete for time on the home computer in order to chat with friends outside of school. You might also remember how characters throughout pop culture from “You’ve Got Mail” to “Sex and the City” used AIM to help navigate their relationships. In the late 1990’s, the world had never seen anything like it. And it captivated all of us.

AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed. As a result we’ve made the decision that we will be discontinuing AIM effective December 15, 2017. ... Thank you to all of our AIM users.

The announcement was made on Twitter and Tumbler, two newer messengers that helped displace AIM into irrelevance, and ended by promising to "continue building the next generation of iconic brands" and "provide more products and experiences."

And so, a peice of life on the early Internet is fading away into the history books.

Source: CNN

Bixyl Shuftan

Facebook "Bitstrips" No More

Users of Facebook may be familiar with "Bitstrips," cartoons that some used posted on their pages, and would appear on their friends' public feed like other posts. Unfortunately, it seems the Bitsrip fun is over. Someone who was a regular user posted this on her page on April 25.

Yesterday, there were questions out of surprised confusion about the BitStrips situation.. the BitStrips app on Facebook has been stopped and it's over.. to dispel any doubt, and to provide a promised update, here is the picture that greeted me when i tried to access new BitStrips yesterday. sorry, folks.. and thanks for following with me. I hope you got as much enjoyment out of seeing them as i had making them.

But the bitstrip pictures she had already done and saved as pictures were still in her pictures section, as were those done by SL Enquirer editor Lanai Jarrico. The one she did of me as a joke was still on my page.

Bitstrips were created by Jacob Blackstock, whom described himself as having a "lifelong passion" for comics. He came up with the idea for Bitstrips in 2007, and launched it as a mobile app in 2008. With it, people can create "avatars" of themselves, then put them in customized comic-strip scenes on the Bitstrip site to create their own cartoons, with no drawing skill needed, "We kind of saw it as a Youtube for comics." Originally for mobile devices, when the Facebook application was made available in October 2013, the number of users jumped from 2 million to 30 million in a month. Bitsrtips user were at first able to create avatars of their friends, but after Facebook changed it's Terms of Service in regards to privacy, after April 2015 they were no longer able to do so.

Last month, Snapchat bought up Bitmoji, the company that owns Bitstrips, for $100,000. It's possible that the company is integrating the technology in it's own products rather than let it continue as a separate app on Facebook.

No doubt Facebook's bitstrip fans will miss doing the comics. Perhaps They could continue to do so using Second Life and MORPG screenshots using graphics programs.

Sources: Facebook, The Guardian, Techcrunch

Bixyl Shuftan

Still More Ice Bucket Challenge Pictures

There's been fewer Ice Bucket Challenge videos coming out on Facebook and Second Life chat, so it seems the fundraiser for ALS funding turned social phenomena may be finally running it's course. So here's a few more pictures which just might be our last ones.

C-Wing, who'd I'd known to come by Club Zero Gravity sometimes, decided to take up the challenge if I took a picture. So I did. Unfortunately, there was a catch. Among the three people he nominated was me, which I did, though there was a twist.

Someone else C-Wing would nominate was a pony avatar with a number instead of a name. He reffered to him as "forty-eight."

And the result was one shivering pony.

And finally came this picture of my neighbor from the now gone Woodlin community, Ekedo Phang. Being in a microfox avatar, his options for the Ice Bucket Challenge were somewhat limited. He sent this picture over, saying for him the challenge was not a dunking, but a freezing-cold bath.

And so goodbye to the Ice Bucket Challenge, at least we think this is the last of the pictures and videos. You're provided many entertaining moments, albeit at the expense of a little dignity, and provided millions in money for ALS research.

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: Goodbye Google-Plus

I have deleted my google plus profile. If you were following me there, I've just poofed.

Google sold it as a new Social Media setup. And the circles idea was really really good. And I had hoped that Google would actually do things right for once instead of falling flat on its billion dollar face, as they did with Buzz. And as they did with Lively. And Wave. Lather rinse repeat.

But it is NOT a social media center to compete with Facebook. That is not Google's aim at all. Google wants to become the world's only database for... reputation. They want to be able to sell people the knowledge that if a person says they are X, that they are X. They want to be able to tell advertisers that you make Y amount of money, own a home in Z, and are looking for a new BMW, just like Facebook does. But unlike facebook, they will allow any swinging d*** anywhere in the country to verify you are who you say you are, just by checking with them (and presumably paying a small fee).

Now what the f*** does this have to do with Social interaction? I don't need Google to verify a person's identity -- I already know who is who. I don't need google removing everyone's fandom name -- 80% of you I ONLY KNOW via your nethandles and fandom pseudonyms. So by throwing all my friends out and making it not a social network, what possible use do I have for the thing?

They said they would start allowing some screen names, so I stuck around. But they just canned a friend for having "a silly name" one time too many, especially after stating they would stop doing it. If my admission to the cool club of Google Plus depends on some teenager in California snickering at the name or not, then f*** them and f*** Google. I don't have any objection giving my RL name to Google to create the account. But there's no way they can prove I'm telling the truth to begin with. So what's the harm in allowing us to have different nicknames for the different circles?

Google, you have now done something I thought only one company in the world could accomplish -- you've pulled a Linden. I would say congrats, but it's truly not something to be proud of. And it's very difficult to recapture the old excitement and good will of the folks after they are gone. Once gone, they are gone, and they'll be very descriptive to everyone else on the web about how quickly you went from internet darling to Darth Vader so everyone they know can stay as far away from you as possible.

Linden -- (verb); netglish. From the Internet group called Second Life. To take an unbeatable winner of a product and manage it so badly that it fails.

Shockwave Yareach