Twitter is turning Tweetdeck into paid service after slowing down access to rival sites
Twitter, rebranded as X, is now officially turning Tweetdeck into a paid service and placing it behind a paywall, after slowing down access to rival social media platforms including Meta’s Threads and Facebook. Tweetdeck, which was also rebranded recently to “X Pro”, now requires a Blue subscription to access it. The latest change follows Twitter’s announcement in July that users must be “verified” to access TweetDeck. Non-subscribing users visiting Tweetdeck’s website are now being redirected to a page promoting signup to Twitter’s premium service. Tweetdeck, which allows users to access different accounts and multiple custom feeds, was one of the most popular Twitter third-party apps, and was acquired by the social media company in 2011. Twitter has tried to make its premium subscription more enticing to users with added features like ad revenue sharing, formatting, and higher rankings in conversations. Now it appears the social media company, rebranded as X, is hoping the addition of XPro to this list of added features would attract more premium subscribers. On Tuesday, X also appeared to slow down the loading times of some of the platform’s competitors such as Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads as well as Substack and news media sites posted to X. Links posted to X from some websites were taking about five seconds longer than usual to load on Tuesday, but the platform began reversing some of the changes restricting quick view of news sites. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg reacted to a post on the issue with a “thinking face emoji”. “Substack was created in direct response to this kind of behaviour by social media companies,” the company’s founders, Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi, said in a statement. This is not the first time X, formerly Twitter, has taken decisions to restrict access to rival websites. In December, X-owner Elon Musk announced he would ban “free promotion” of other social media services, and also suspend accounts encouraging users to move to other platforms. This announcement came as the platform’s rival Mastodon was growing in popularity, partly due to users’ discontent with changes made by the Tesla titan to Twitter since his takeover of the company. “We will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter,” Mr Musk said before the company decided to reverse its decision. Read More Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight: ‘It’s time to move on’ Move fast and beat Musk: The inside story of how Meta built Threads Elon Musk says he may need surgery before proposed 'cage match' with Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight Elon Musk reveals more dramatic details of fight against Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg reveals his 4,000 calorie diet and large McDonald’s order
2023-08-16 13:24
ChatGPT Creator OpenAI Is Testing Content Moderation Systems
OpenAI said its technology is capable of moderating content, a task that could help businesses become more efficient,
2023-08-16 01:28
US Congressman Bacon Says His Emails Were Hacked in Campaign Linked to China
US Representative Don Bacon said he is among those whose emails were hacked in an espionage campaign that
2023-08-15 23:50
MTN Fintech Unit Seeks More Investors After Mastercard Deal
MTN Group Ltd. is seeking as many as three more strategic investors in addition to Mastercard Inc. for
2023-08-15 21:23
Internet Firm Sea Misses Sales Estimates on Slowing E-Commerce Demand
Sea Ltd.’s revenue missed estimates after its e-commerce division posted slowest growth on record, reflecting fallout from economic
2023-08-15 19:50
Indonesia’s GoTo Cuts Loss After Bottom-Line Focus Pays Off
GoTo Group narrowed losses after prioritizing the bottom-line over revenue growth, taking the Indonesian internet leader closer to
2023-08-15 16:27
Tesla Rolls Out Lower Spec Models S, X That Are $10,000 Cheaper
Tesla Inc. has added two lower spec versions of its less popular Model S and X electric vehicles
2023-08-15 11:47
Taiwan's Foxconn says it sees 'billions' of dollars in India investments
A month after exiting an ambitious project to help build one of India's first chip factories, Taiwan's Foxconn says it remains bullish about the world's most populous nation and is planning "billions" of dollars in investments there, as multinationals seek to diversify their supply chains beyond China.
2023-08-15 09:48
Amazon’s Leader on Alexa, Echo and Other Devices Plans to Leave
Amazon.com Inc. devices chief Dave Limp plans to retire — the latest senior leader to announce his departure
2023-08-15 05:25
Crypto lender Celsius sends bankruptcy plan to creditor vote
By Dietrich Knauth NEW YORK Crypto lender Celsius Network on Monday received a U.S. bankruptcy judge's permission to
2023-08-15 03:53
Experts have pinpointed exactly when society will collapse
A prediction about when society is most likely to collapse, made by scientists in the 1970s, has resurfaced – and it looks pretty bleak. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used a computer to model patterns like population, natural resources and energy usage. The study, published by Club of Rome, picked out when these factors could hit “limits to growth”, which they said could lead to the downfall of modern life as we know it. They think we’ve got fewer than two decades left, with collapse due in 2040. Gulp. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter At the time, the report wasn’t given much credence. But a similar study was carried out in 2009, and came up with similar results. Published by American Scientist, the more recent study found that the model’s results were “almost exactly on course”. "It is important to recognise that its predictions have not been invalidated and in fact seem quite on target. We are not aware of any model made by economists that is as accurate over such a long time span," the study said. And to make matters worse, Dutch sustainability researcher Gaya Herrington concurred with the prediction in 2021. Speaking to The Guardian, Herrington said: “From a research perspective, I felt a data check of a decades-old model against empirical observations would be an interesting exercise.” Herrington found that data aligned with the predictions made back in 1972, which had a worse case scenario of economic growth coming to halt at the end of this decade, and collapse around 10 years later. Thankfully, there was a reason to be cheerful too. She added: “The key finding of my study is that we still have a choice to align with a scenario that does not end in collapse. "With innovation in business, along with new developments by governments and civil society, continuing to update the model provides another perspective on the challenges and opportunities we have to create a more sustainable world.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-08-14 19:28
IPhone Maker Hon Hai Cuts Outlook as Electronics Demand Weakens
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. now expects 2023 sales to fall after previously forecasting flat revenue, sounding a
2023-08-14 16:53