Before acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk said he was against lifetime suspensions, promising to reinstate banned users like Donald Trump. Now, Musk wrote that Twitter will permanently suspend account impersonators if they are not clearly labeled as parody. The move comes after several verified "blue-check" users changed their accounts to impersonal Musk himself. 

Twitter appears to have just banned comedian Kathy Griffin for impersonating Musk, at least temporarily, after she used his name and image in her own verified Twitter account. Other verified accounts impersonating Musk, including Jeph Jacques, also appear to have been kicked off the site.

Prior to Musk's takeover, Twitters rules already stated that users "may not impersonate individuals, groups or organizations to mislead, confuse or deceive others, nor use a fake identity in a manner that disrupts the experience of users on Twitter." Parody accounts were required to say so in both their accounts and bio. Consequences included profile moderation, temporary suspension or permanent suspension — though the latter was rarely imposed.

Twitter has been awash in drama over the last few days. Early in Musk's tenure, trolls and racists flooded the site with epithets and other hate speech, presumably to test the new limits of the site. This week, a flood of advertisers put a hold on spending on the site. In reply to a user who suggested a boycott on those companies, Musk tweeted a "a thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues."

Substack users now have another way to interact with their favorite writers, podcasters and video makers. The platform now has a chat feature, where creators can hang out with their subscribers and perhaps forge deeper links with their communities. "Chat is a community space reimagined specifically for writers and creators— it’s like having your own private social network where you make the rules," Substack said in a clear dig at Twitter.

The feature is only available through Substack's iOS app for now. You won't be able to chat with your favorite Substack writers and podcasters on the web or Android just yet, but chat will eventually be available there.

The company noted that creators can decide the tone and topic of chat threads. They can switch the chat function off and reactivate it whenever they like, and they can decide whether to open it up to everyone or only paid subscribers.

The first time that a creator starts a chat, a notification email will go out to all of their subscribers. That seems a little spammy, but at least it's a one-time thing. After that, readers will be alerted to a new chat thread only if they have push notifications switched on.

Creators have a few moderation options, according to an FAQ. They can turn off replies in a chat thread, delete replies and stop subscribers from posting images (readers can flag and hide explicit images as well). Creators can also ban users from chat threads and comments. However, it doesn't seem that there's a way for a writer to appoint trusted moderators to handle that stuff on their behalf for the time being.

Substack pointed out that many newsletter writers have taken to the likes of Discord, Slack and Telegram to chat with their subscribers. Its developers have been working with a group of writers over the last few months to simplify things with an in-house chat option. However, writers may not be willing to give up on external platforms until Substack has more robust chat moderation options. This marks just the beginning of the chat feature and other social functions on the platform, as Substack says more updates are on the way.

Twitter may soon charge users $8 a month for verification, but Elon Musk reportedly plans to give all users a long-requested feature for free: the edit button. According to Platformer’s Casey Newton, the move is in the works alongside the more sweeping changes to Twitter Blue that Musk previewed Tuesday.

For now, Twitter’s edit button is only available to subscribers in the current version of Twitter Blue, which costs $4.99 a month and is only live in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The feature gives users a 30-minute window to change their tweets, and includes a revision history.

Musk so far hasn’t publicly talked (or tweeted) about his plans for the edit button since taking control of the company. But the feature was one of the first Twitter-related topics he raised after he first acquired a large stake in the company this spring. And Twitter confirmed it was working on the feature just hours after Musk polled his followers on whether the platform should have an edit feature. (Millions of his followers vote "yse" in the poll — Twitter has previously said an edit button has long been its most-requested feature.)

At the same time, Musk is also planning more substantial changes to Twitter’s subscription service. He's said he qill allow anyone to get verified if they pay $8 a month, and will also show subscribers fewer ads. He’s also reportedly planning to nix the ad-free articles that’s currently included as perk with Twitter Blue, but wants to work with publishers to allow subscribers behind their paywalls.

Twitter is increasing the price of its subscription service. Moving forward, Twitter Blue will cost $8 per month in the US, with pricing in other countries adjusted for the purchasing power of consumers in those markets, Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk announced today. The $3 jump from Blue's current $5 per month fee amounts to a 60 percent price increase. 

At the same time, Twitter plans to add new perks to the service. As a subscriber, you'll see fewer ads and have the ability to post longer videos and audio. It will also give you priority in replies, mentions and the platform's search feature, perks Musk claims are essential to reducing the amount of spam on the platform. "Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit," Musk said, all but confirming verification will be tied to Twitter Blue subscriptions. Lastly, Twitter Blue will include the ability to bypass paywalls — though that will come later and will depend on Twitter forging the necessary publisher partnerships. "This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators," Musk said.

Tuesday's announcement comes after days of speculation on how Twitter could change under Musk's ownership. On Sunday, two separate reports said the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was considering increasing the price of Twitter Blue to as much as $20 per month and making the subscription a requirement for verification.    

Developing...

Twitter became the target of a coordinated trolling campaign shortly after Elon Musk took over the company last week. Yoel Roth, the company's head of safety and security, said that the organized effort was to make people think that Twitter has weakened its policies. Roth also said that the company was working on putting a stop to the campaign that had led to a surge in hate speech and hateful conduct on the website. Now, the executive has tweeted an update to the Twitter's cleanup efforts and said that it has made "measurable progress" since Saturday and has removed over 1,500 accounts involved in the trolling.

Roth explained that those 1,500 accounts didn't correspond to 1,500 people. "Many were repeat bad actors," he tweeted. The executive also said that Twitter's primary success measure for content moderation is impressions — that translates to the times a piece of content is seen by users — and the company was able to reduce impressions on the hateful content that flooded its website to nearly zero. 

In addition to providing an update about dealing with the recent trolling campaign on Twitter, Roth also talked about how the website is changing how it enforces its policies regarding harmful tweets. He explained that the company treats first person and bystander reports differently: "Because bystanders don’t always have full context, we have a higher bar for bystander reports in order to find a violation." That's why reports by uninvolved third parties about hateful conduct on the platform often get marked as non-violation evens if they do violate its policies. 

Roth ended his series of tweets with a promise to reveal more about how the website is changing how it enforces its rules. However, a new Bloomberg report puts into question how Twitter's staff can enforce its policies in the coming days. According to the news organization, Twitter has frozen most employees' access to internal tools used for content moderation. 

Apparently, most members of Twitter's Trust and Safety organization have lost the ability to penalize accounts that break rules regarding hateful conduct and misinformation. This event has understandably raised concerns among employees on how Twitter will be able to keep the spread of misinformation in check, when the November 8th US midterm election is just a few days away. 

Bloomberg said the restriction placed upon the employes' access to moderation tools is part of a broader plan to freeze Twitter's software code, which will prevent staff members from pushing changes to the website as its changes ownership. The organization also said that Musk asked the Twitter team to review some of its policies, including its rule regarding misinformation that penalizes posts containing falsehoods about politics and COVID-19. Another rule Musk reportedly asked the team to review is a section in Twitter's hateful conduct policy that penalizes posts containing "targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals."

With Elon Musk in charge, Twitter is planning to boost the price of its Blue subscription plan from $5 to $20 per month and make it mandatory for verified users, according to Platformer's Casey Newton and The Verge. If it launches the plan, verified users (celebrities, politicians, journalists, etc.) will have to sign up to the service within 90 days or they'll lose the blue check mark. And employees working on the project have reportedly been told they'll be fired unless they implement the changes by November 7th.

Twitter launched Blue late last year in the US for $3 per month, but boosted the price in July to $5. It offers subscribers features like top articles, custom icons and, most recently, the ability to edit tweets. The company hasn't revealed subscriber numbers, revenue or other details for Twitter Blue, but the vast majority of its revenue (89 percent) comes from advertising, according to Investopedia.

Musk telegraphed the move yesterday, tweeting that "the whole verification process is being revamped right now." As Newton pointed out, Twitter's @verified currently follows around 428,000 accounts that carry the blue check, a fraction of the site's 206 million daily actives users. 

A lot of those folks have tweeted about the change, and many wouldn't pay $20 to keep their verified status. At the same time, users have pointed out that the new system could increase Twitter's bot and spam issues that Musk seems to hate. "The point of Twitter verification is that... it's useful to be able to verify their statements are coming from them," tweeted cosmologist and writer Katie Mack. "It's supposed to help combat disinformation, not be a status symbol." 

Musk has been busy in the few days he's been "chief twit." He has reportedly ordered company-wide layoffs, according to The New York Times. On Saturday, the SpaceX and Tesla boss reportedly told managers to begin drawing up lists of employees to cut.

General Motors has temporarily stopped paying for advertisements on Twitter after Elon Musk closed the $44 billion deal to take over the website, according to the CNBC. Musk, as you know, is also the chief executive at Tesla, which overtook GM and all its competitors to become the most valuable carmaker in the US a couple of years ago. The company told the news organization that it's engaging with Twitter to understand its direction under its new owner. Further, it said that it's normal for the company to pause paid advertising in the face of a "significant change in a media platform."

GM said in its emailed statement:

"We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership. As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue."

Over the past couple of years, the company had broadened its commitment to providing consumers more EV options in an effort to better compete with Tesla. The automaker announced an investment of $35 billion for its combined EV and self-driving development efforts in 2021. Earlier this year, the company also revealed that it's building a third Ultium factory in the US that will make batteries for its electric vehicles. 

Shortly after he officially took control of Twitter, Musk posted a message to advertisers on his account in a bid to ease their concerns. "There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong," he wrote. He also said that advertising, "when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you..." For that to be true, "it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs."

Here is Musk's complete statement:

Twitter, like Facebook and Instagram, might also roll out NFT integration in the future. The now-Elon Musk-owned website has announced an experimental feature that prominently displays NFT listings when users tweet a link to them, so long as they're from one of its partner marketplaces. An NFT Tweet Tile, as the company is calling it, displays a large photo of the digital artwork, along with its title and creator. It also comes with a button that takes users straight to the marketplace listing where they can purchase it or sell their own collectibles. 

At the moment, Twitter has four partners: multi-chain NFT marketplace Rarible, Solana-and-Etherium-focused marketplace Magic Eden, Dapper Labs (the team behind Top Shot) and Jump.trade, which is where people would go for digital cricket collectibles. In its announcement, Twitter said that "some" links from those four will show up as NFT Tweet Tiles for those chosen to participate in the test. As Decrypt notes, the marketplaces cover several blockchain networks that include Flow, Polygon and Tezos.

The company told the publication that it's testing the integration "with select Twitter users across iOS and web" and that it's not limited to Blue premium subscribers. Twitter previously gave paying members access to another experimental feature that allowed them to connect their crypto wallets to their accounts. After they do so, they'll be able to display an NFT as their profile photo, which will show up with an icon indicating that they're the official owner of the digital artwork. 

Facebook is giving Groups a tune-up with new features, not to mention tools to ensure healthy discussions. Like it or not, Reels are coming to Groups — members can share how-to guides, vacation recaps and other videos using the seemingly omnipresent format. You can also update your Group profile to share things you might have in common, and signal that you're open to messages. And if you want to broadcast an event, you can share public Facebook events as Instagram Stories.

The social media behemoth is also making it easier to curb the spread of misinformation within Groups. Admins can automatically move posts with known false claims (that is, verified by fact checkers) to pending posts so they can be reviewed before they're deleted. While leaders could already auto-decline posts and even auto-block posters, this could help them spot trends in bogus content and help make decisions on bans.

Meta

There are efforts to promote conversations, too. Facebook is testing an extension (shown at top) that lets admins allow content that might otherwise be flagged for bullying and harassment, such as describing a fish as "fatty." This will only be available to actively involved admins who haven't either helmed a removed group or committed a serious policy violation. In another test, admins can reward contributions by giving points to community members. You may get badges for welcoming newcomers or providing useful tips, for example.

The changes are both an effort to spur positive engagement and an acknowledgment that Groups have sometimes been the source of Facebook's largest misinformation problems. It put some communities on probation for spreading false 2020 election claims, and banned hundreds of QAnon groups. The ability to allow certain flagged content is unusual — effectively, Facebook is willing to let Groups override its moderation system if they feel there's been a mistake.

Those who were worried that YouTube would completely limit access to 4K content to Premium subscribers can breath easily. For now. YouTube has revealed on Twitter that it has "fully turned off" the experiment that requires Premium subscription to be able to play videos in 4K resolution. Earlier this month, users started reporting on social networks like Reddit and Twitter that when they accessed the drop-down menu for resolution options, the word "Premium" was right next to 4K/2160p. Not everyone was required to have a Premium subscription to play 4K videos, though, indicating that it was an experimental feature rolled out to a limited number of users.

It's unclear why YouTube has decided to cancel the experiment, but as 9to5Google notes, it was met with a significant amount of negative feedback. Users were understandably far from happy being asked to pay $12 a month or $120 a year to be able to play videos in the highest resolution available on the website. And those who weren't part of the experiment were concerned that it would make its way to wide release and be a permanent "perk" for Premium subscribers.

YouTube didn't say whether it's permanently shelving the idea of locking 4K videos behind a Premium subscription. In a tweet written in Japanese, YouTube invited users to leave a feedback about the experiment, which could help it ultimately decide how to move forward.