A Peek Into the Future of the Internet? [Content Made Simple]
Issue #246: Lots of Twitter news this week, weirdly!
TOP OF THE WEEK:
Crypto Is Cool. Now Get on the Yacht.
Quote:
All of this velvet-rope exclusivity might seem at odds with the claims of crypto enthusiasts that Web3 is a democratizing force that will expand access to financial services, level the playing field and get rid of legacy middlemen. And I did wonder, at times, if the Web3 kids were trying to tear down the old social hierarchy, only to replace it with a new, tokenized one where they were on top.
Commentary:
Super interesting reporting from Kevin Roose of the NYT as he attended NFT.NYC, a conference all about Web3, crypto, and other aspects of the future of the internet. He asks many of the same questions I’m asking.
HITTING THE LINKS
Link #1: Twitter will now show full-sized images on web
The internet is not a neutral platform. :-)
The ongoing changes to Twitter’s handling of photos stem from last year’s auto-crop controversy. Some users noticed that Twitter’s auto-cropping algorithm may favor white faces over Black faces, resulting in a crop that shows white faces more prominently. Twitter looked into the issue and found that its auto-crop algorithm wasn’t very biased but still disabled it just in case.
Link #2: Twitter will now let you pay to undo tweets and read ad-free news in the US
I subscribed to this for a month to see if it’s worth the $3.
Twitter Blue, the company’s subscription service, is adding new features while expanding to new countries and platforms. The service first launched in June in Canada and Australia on iOS, but starting Tuesday, Twitter Blue will be available in the US and New Zealand and on Android and the web.
Perhaps the most useful Twitter Blue feature is an undo button, which lets you recall tweets before they send. (I can think of a few times that would have saved me from an embarrassing typo.) Other features in the initial launch included a reader mode for tweet threads, bookmarks folders, the ability to theme your Twitter app and app icon, and, as of last month, a Labs program that lets subscribers try out some new Twitter features early.
Link #3: Twitter Launches Data Governance Committee
I like seeing this kind of stuff!
To strengthen the implementation of our privacy and security policies and standards, we’re establishing an internal Data Governance Committee (DGC). This committee will ensure we are making consistent and balanced decisions around how we use and protect your data. The Committee will oversee all decisions to collect, maintain, use, disclose, or provide access to customer data internally. They will also review and approve updates to our Privacy Policy, ensure that teams are adhering to those policies, and make the decisions on what is and is not acceptable use of your data.
THE FUNNY PART
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