Twitter Axes Anti-Vaxxer Marjorie Taylor Greene

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, GOP QAnon Drama Queen and Miss Misinformation 2021, has finally been booted from Twitter for her anti-vax, pro-virus tweets. Sadly, her official congressional Twitter account is still active, and she has lots of time to tweet, having been bounced off all her House committees.

More:

“Twitter permanently suspends Greene’s account over COVID-19 misinformation,” Caroline Vakil, The Hill

“Twitter permanently suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account,” Doha Madani, NBC News

“Twitter bans Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account over COVID misinformation,” Joe Hernandez, NPR News

“Twitter Permanently Mutes Marjorie Taylor Greene Account for Spreading COVID Misinformation,” Jordan Hoffman, Vanity Fair

Updates:

“McCarthy Campaigns For Speaker By Denouncing Twitter After It Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Summer Concepcion, TalkingPointsMemo

GOP leader criticizes Twitter over Greene decision without naming her,” Rebecca Klar, The Hill

“Rand Paul Vows to Fill Misinformation Void Caused by Twitter’s Ban of Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

“Facebook temporarily suspends U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s account,” Daniel Uria, UPI

“Conservatives clash: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Dan Crenshaw trade social media insults,” Chelsey Cox, USA Today

“Trump’s Favorite Pastor Is ‘Tired’ of Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Zachary Petrizzo, Daily Beast

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Cambridge Analytica Got Data on 87 Million Facebook Users

Remember learning that Trump campaign data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica grabbed personal information from 50 million Facebook users? Fake News! it was 87 million.

But that’s nothing. Facebook now admits it let all kinds of skeevy cyber customers (it calls them “malicious actors”) scrape personal data from 2 billion people. Yes, that’s most Facebook users. Oops.

Looks like Mark Zuckerberg will have some ‘splainin’ to do when he testifies before Congress next Tuesday. Fun Fact: Three of his congressional questioners own FB stock.

Shut-the-Barn-Door-After Department: There are Plans to Restrict Data Access on Facebook.

More:

“Mark Zuckerberg knows he screwed up,” Kurt Wagner, ReCode

“Facebook says it should have audited Cambridge Analytica,” Associated Press

“Facebook’s dizzying spin on ‘the Cambridge Analytica thing,’” Callum Borchers, Washington Post

“Facebook suspends Canadian firm linked to Cambridge Analytica,” Kia Kokalitcheva, David McCabe, Axios

“As Facebook confronts data misuse, foreign governments might force real change,” Nick Noack, Washington Post

Related:

“This is how Zuckerberg’s Facebook will likely get regulated,” Chase Purdy, Quartz

“It’s about to get harder to trick people with political ads on Facebook,” Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz

“Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Says Data-Sharing Tool Complied With FTC,” Sarah Frier, Bloomberg

“AP sources: EPA chief spent millions on security and travel,” Michael Biesecker, Associated Press

“Private Messages Aren’t Exactly Private at Facebook,” Shira Ovide, Bloomberg Gadfly

“Facebook retracted Zuckerberg’s messages from recipients’ inboxes,” Josh Constine, Techcrunch

“Facebook may need group therapy to fix its engineering culture,” Janet Guyon, Quartz

“Can We Be Saved From Facebook?” Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

“Don’t Fix Facebook. Replace It.” Tim Wu, New York Times

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Library of Congress Stops Archiving Twitter

Way back in 2010, the Library of Congress announced its plan to archive all public messages on Twitter (on Twitter, of course), starting with the very first tweet, the Twitter equivalent of the Gutenberg Bible.

That was then. On December 26, 2017 the Library pulled the plug on Twitter. While preserving a text archive of all tweets from the first 12 years of Twitter (2006-2017), the LoC will be more selective from here on out.

More:

“The Library of Congress Quits Twitter,” Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker

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H.R. 2884: The COVFEFE Act

Congressman Mike Quigley (D, IL-05) has introduced the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement or “COVFEFE” Act, H.R.2884. It would amend the Presidential Records Act ( Sec. 2201, Title 44 USC) to include social media, ensuring preservation of presidential tweets. It has been referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The bill’s short title was provided by Donald Trump in a well-known tweet, since deleted.  Since Mr. Trump’s is the first Twitter Presidency, that deletion illustrates the need for such legislation, and Press Secretary Sean Spicer has already observed that the president’s tweets are official White House statements.

More:

“Remember covfefe? It might become a law about presidential records.” Carly Sitrin, Vox

“COVFEFE Act would make social media a presidential record,” Joe Uchill, The Hill

“The Covfefe Act Has A Silly Name — But It Addresses A Real Quandary,” Laurel Wamsley, NPR

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120-Character Tweets Pile Up In the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress announced its plan to archive all public messages on Twitter in 2010 (on Twitter, of course). The Library has the very first tweet, the Twitter equivalent of the Gutenberg Bible. It preserves Barack Obama’s presidential victory tweet as well as George Washington’s diary.

But Since 2010 the fire hose of tweets has become an endless tsunami, 500 million messages each day. And volume is the least of it. Archiving is not just amassing stuff. The Library has yet to figure out how to make the stuff usable while protecting privacy. And the tweets keep on coming.

More:

“Can Twitter Fit Inside the Library of Congress?” Andrew McGill, The Atlantic

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Facebook is Like a Disease, But Recovery is Near

“A new study of Facebook has predicted that the social network’s rapid growth will prove unsustainable and that the site will lose 80 per cent of its users between 2015 and 2017.

A group of Princeton researchers has compared Facebook to a highly infectious disease, claiming that after it reaches a certain critical mass of ‘infected’ users, these individuals will ‘recover’ and quit the site.”

— “Facebook is an ‘infectious disease’ and will lose 80% of users by 2017, according to researchers,” James Vincent, The Independent

If you’s like to see how Princeton’s engineers apply an epidemiological model to social media, you can read study here:

“Epidemiological modeling of online social network dynamics,” John Cannarella and Joshua A. Spechler, arXiv

Turkey Tries to Turn Off Twitter

In a frantic effort to keep a lid on dissent, Turkey’s political leaders are blaming an outside agitator — Twitter — and they’re desperately trying to shut it down. The real problem seems to be insider information on corruption in those tweets, though, and not the micro-blogging platform itself. And work-arounds make a shut-off attempt futile. Twitter can be accessed through other sites and even by SMS text messaging.

More:

“Turkey: Twitter allows ‘character assassination, ‘” Suzan Fraser, AP via Fort Worth Star‑Telegram

“Twitter May Have Exposed Government Corruption, So Turkey Is Banning Twitter,” Sara Morrison, The Wire

“Turkey blocks use of Twitter after prime minister attacks social media site,” Kevin Rawlinson, The Guardian

Instagram Gun Deals

Firearms enthusiasts like shooting snapshots of their guns almost as much as shooting the guns themselves. And a cell phone photo is worth a thousand tweets … and a thousand bucks to an illegal gun dealer. Brian Ries explains:

“Users of Instagram, which has no explicit policy prohibiting the sale of firearms, can easily find a chrome-plated antique Colt, a custom MK12-inspired AR-15 tricked-out with ‘all best of the best parts possible,’ and an HK416D .22LR rifle by simply combining terms like #rifle or #ar15 with #forsale. These are handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, and everything in between being sold in an open, pseudo-anonymous online marketplace. With no federal law banning online sales and differing, loophole-ridden state laws, many gun control advocates are concerned about the public safety consequences of this unregulated market.”

Purgatory Pass? Tweet the Pope.

“In its latest attempt to keep up with the times the Vatican has married one of its oldest traditions to the world of social media by offering ‘indulgences’ to followers of Pope Francis’ tweets.

The church’s granted indulgences reduce the time Catholics believe they will have to spend in purgatory after they have confessed and been absolved of their sins.”

More:

“Vatican offers ‘time off purgatory’ to followers of Pope Francis tweets,” Tom Kington, The Guardian

And for His Holiness:

“The Complete Guide to Twitter Lingo,” Amy-Mae Elliot, Mashable

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The Library of Congress Has All Your Tweets. Now What?

The Library of Congress archives all public messages on Twitter. This was announced two years ago (on Twitter, of course). The Library has the very first tweet, the Twitter equivalent of the Gutenberg Bible. It preserves Barack Obama’s presidential victory tweet as well as George Washington’s diary.

Now that the Library has amassed this huge and growing sea of  social media data, it doesn’t know what to do with it. Meanwhile, the tweets keep gushing in.