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Twitter API ToS To Force Routing Clicks To Twitter
An anonymous reader writes "Twitter has announced that it will change the way it handles URLs in tweets. This has been widely reported, including the likely consequences for bit.ly. What has not received much attention, and was not in the official blog announcement (but in the Google Twitter developers mailing list instead) is that the Terms of Service for all applications that use the Twitter API will be changed to require that any click on a URL in a tweet be routed through a Twitter gateway, allowing Twitter to see exactly which links are followed and by whom."
So I can't distribute kiddy pron any more via twitter?
On a more serious note, I don't see how this won't be abused by governments to track and shut down people who oppose them (like human rights activists that coordinate using twitter).
"Our goal each year should be to increase the number of goals we set for ourselves!"
Ah, blacklists, the age old method of making sure people don't visit sites that you think are bad for them.
Better than whitelists, where people decide what's good for you.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
When a small personal site that I administer got hacked by the Chinese (thanks to a Blogger security hole), Google and Firefox both flagged it as "dangerous" and took appropriate actions to warn people that visiting my site was a huge security risk. For sites that have been compromised by malware, it's absolutely necessary to inform visitors that they're exposing their computers to risk by visiting.
Thus, having an "access blacklist" isn't always a bad thing. Something tells me Twitter isn't about to start censoring sites with information about the Freedom of Tibet or the Genocide in Darfur.
Yes, and a punch in the face is arguably better than a kick in the balls :)
And soon it will end up making Twitter losing it's popularity.
It seems to me that as soon as commercial interests takes over a certain web service it's obsolete and will soon be replaced by something else.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
"Hey guys, you know how Facebook's been getting away with screwing over the entire world on privacy issues?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"And you know how our average users are even dumber than theirs?"
"Wouldn't have thought it possible if I I hadn't seen it in action, but yeah?"
"Well...Why don't we..."
"Ohhhhhhhh!"
kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.
You're complaining about a lack of elegance and talent in modern music and yet you used that pun in your title?
Twitter is a communications medium that requires brevity and succinctness. It's a chance for friends to keep in touch about moderate to low-importance notifications in a way that is appropriate for their value. "I'm heading to Ikea later today. Anyone want to come?" "Need a replacement for an Ibanez Tubescreamer." Etcetera. It's a bit like the chatter that would happen when people chatter in person, but with a forced character limit. Someone saying "I've had a bad day" isn't interesting in and of itself, but it is interesting if it is from someone you happen to care about.
The ______ Agenda
I don't use twitter.
I don't want to catch chirpies.
It's a canarial disease.
It's untweetable.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.