Boris Johnson continues gas-bagging at #AskBoris Twitter question time October 20, 2014 Boris Johnson flexed his fingers and hit Twitter yesterday for his monthly #AskBoris question time and, as usual, the mayor didn’t disappoint with his flamboyant answers. He made an extraterrestrial quip when asked about the reinstatement of Peckham Lido, tweeting #takemetoyourlido. He said if he were to spend a night in any building at [...]
Tweet money transfer: Twitter and French bank BPCE will let users transfer cash via twitter October 13, 2014 Twitter is partnering with French bank BPCE to launch a new service that lets people transfer money between them by simply tweeting. Details of the plans are due to be unveiled tomorrow by BPCE’s mobile payment off-shoot S-Money. The French bank said those using the free peer-to-peer transfer service would need just a bank card and [...]
How Ebola spread: This Twitter visualisation maps mentions of the outbreak October 8, 2014 A new map visualising Ebola shows how the first confirmed case in the US sparked a huge surge in Twitter chatter around the world, as fears over the spread of the outbreak increased. The map tracks every mention of the Ebola hashtag (#ebola) across the world over the last month, with tweets coming from as [...]
Twitter sues US government for the right to release surveillance information October 7, 2014 Twitter is taking on the US government. The social media giant has filed a lawsuit against the FBI and the Department of Justice for restrictions preventing it from revealing the extent of US government surveillance of the site. Twitter argues the prohibitions are “unconstitutional” and deny its users a sufficient level of transparency. [...]
Chief executives and Twitter: Are they losing out? October 1, 2014 Only a handful of business leaders tweet, which may be a good thing. "I owe you one @BenKaufman! Here’s my #IceBucketChallenge. You’re up Sarah and Steve Immelt and Ken Chenault!” So tweeted General Electric chief executive Jeffrey Immelt on 21 August. It’s difficult to imagine the company’s august co-founder and former president Charles [...]
Twitter is investing $10m in MIT partnership to make sense of social data with a new Lab for Social Machines October 1, 2014 Twitter is investing $10m in a partnership with US university MIT, renowned for its tech credentials, to make sense of the huge amount of social data shared by people across the world. The Lab for Social Machines (LSM) will focus on “the development of new technologies to make sense of semantic and social patterns across [...]
Did another Tory MP defect to Ukip? No. Here’s how Twitter reacted and bookies’ changed odds October 1, 2014 Another tory MP defection to Ukip was almost certain the bookies said. With Ukip calling a press conference, everyone was pretty confident this was the moment for a third defection after Mark Reckless and Douglas Carswell. Alas no. To much disappointment, there was news (of sorts), but not the much anticipated defection everyone was holdng their [...]
David Cameron speech: Twitter reaction to benefit cuts, NHS and Russell Brand October 1, 2014 David Cameron's speech to the Conservative Party conference was hijacked by campaign group Ukuncut – on Twitter. Analysis of the Twitter reaction to the Prime Minister's speech by Impact Social showed the response was largely negative and that an attempt by Russell Brand to help UKuncut commandeer the hashtag #CPC14 was successful. Here he comes! @David_Cameron – [...]
Twitter chief exec Dick Costolo goes for Iranian president Hassan Rouhani – but fails “foriegn” relations September 28, 2014 Iranian president Hassan Rouhani may be enjoying thawed relations with leaders of United Nations countries thanks to his efforts to stop Islamic State militants, but Silicon Valley is rather less easy to please, it turns out. Rouhani, who is a prolific tweeter, was happily tweeting from last week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York [...]
#MuslimApologies – what is it and why is it taking Twitter by storm? September 24, 2014 Twitter was flooded by tweets ending with the hashtag #MuslimApologies this morning. Across the nation, Muslims were apologising for all sorts of things – both to do with their religion and, well, not related at all. Why are they doing it? We asked one participant, Akhal, to explain what was happening. He said: "It [...]