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Twitter provided an update about the unprecedented July 15th attack that allowed hackers to tweet from some of the most high-profile accounts on the service, in a blog post and a series of tweets published Thursday evening. Twitter now says that a few employees were targeted in a phone spear phishing attack. That presumably means hackers called up Twitter employees while posing as colleagues.
A post by US President Donald Trump has been given a fact-check label by Twitter for the first time. President Trump tweeted: “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.” Twitter put a warning label under the post and a subsequent tweet under its new policy on misleading information.
Twitter says it has discovered attempts by possible state-sponsored hackers to access account holders’ telephone numbers. The breach came to light after a security researcher found a flaw in the “contacts upload” feature. The contacts upload function allows people with a user’s phone number to find and connect with that user on Twitter. The company declined to say how many user phone numbers had been exposed.
Twitter announced on Wednesday it will begin removing large numbers of profiles which have been added to people’s followers accounts despite having been frozen for suspicious behavior. The reform is meant to take aim at social media fraud and restore trust in the platform. Prominent users ‘will experience a more significant drop’ than most people.
Following criticism for its inaction, Twitter joined its technological industry counterparts and suspended far-right conspiratorial commentator Alex Jones from the platform. Jones’ Twitter account is suspended for one week. His old material will still be visible but he will be unable to make new posts. The controversy ignited debate over free speech versus safety online.
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski was recently the victim of a Twitter feud between herself and President Donald Trump. Trump said in his tweets, “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and claimed that she had been “bleeding badly from a face-lift.” Republican senators immediately condemned the tweets. Many feel that Trump is alienating himself from getting support from fellow Republicans, which may mean Trump will find it harder to gain the support for the upcoming healthcare initiative.