Twitter will not back down from its battle against its competitor, Threads, once it releases for both Apple and Android devices later this week. While there’s likely many s counting the days until they can migrate away from Twitter, the social media platform’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey, has a warning for those considering the shiny new alternative. 6l1t50

Dorsey shared a tweet that featured the extensive list of what data Threads will be collecting. Aside from the usual information such as s, browsing history, and location, it also discloses its intention to collect health information, purchases, financial info, and other “sensitive info.” All this information is publicly available on Threads’ App Store page.

There is a lot to talk about when it comes to the data being collected for Threads. If you compare this list to the one that’s publicly disclosed for Twitter, it is a little less invasive than what Meta is asking for. Twitter isn’t after your health information, and it also discloses that it isn’t collecting your info, content, and other data.

However, if you look at what Facebook collects on its App Store page, you can see that it is almost identical. The same can be said for Instagram, the app to which your Threads will be linked. Knowing that over two billion s are using Facebook and Instagram, making a Threads shouldn’t be an issue if you’re concerned about data collection.

Dorsey does have an argument to make, though, when it comes to Meta’s data collection. The company has been scrutinized on multiple occasions in regards to how data is collected. In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg had to testify to Congress over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where data was collected without consent for political advertising. So, if you plan to migrate to Threads, just be aware that the company behind the platform will be collecting a lot of data from you.

But then again, Doresey did invest in Bluesky’s development, which is another alternative to Twitter and is still invite-only. So it makes sense as to why he wants to scare s off using Meta’s platform. As of writing, it’s still unknown when Bluesky will open its doors to the public.

Threads is set to be released on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store on July 6, 2023.

Elon Musk ventured into the line of fire today after taking aim at Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO, for how he handled the platform’s pockmarked history regarding safeguards against child exploitation. 

Dorsey immediately shot back at Musk with just three words, but those three words were all that was needed to pull the train out of the station and set the pair down a path laden with lawsuits. “This is false,” Dorsey said after Musk claimed Twitter “refused to take action on child exploitation for years!”

It all started when Anne Collier, one of three Twitter Trust & Safety Council , shared a lengthy explanation about why she resigned from the company, along with breadcrumbs of red flags that led to her decision. 

Collier’s resignation serves as a protest of Musk’s leadership and policy changes at the company since taking it over in Oct. with his $44 billion acquisition. Collier claims she and others on the Trust & Safety Council received zero acknowledgment from Musk, believes he shouldn’t be allowed to define digital safety the same way he has free speech, and refused to stand by as Twitter leans more heavily on algorithms, instead of a sufficient human staff, to monitor hate speech and abuse.

“Having followed the research on youth online risk since 1999, I know how hard it is for platforms to get it right, honoring young s’ rights of protection, participation and privacy simultaneously. But some progress has been made in the industry. Tragically, the research shows that Twitter is going in the opposite direction, and I can no longer find a reason to stay in tacit of what Twitter has become.” 

Her scathing words drew the attention of conspiracy theorist and alt-right social media personality Michael Cernovich, who commented “you all belong in jail” and shared a 2021 New York Post article about the site’s history with Child Sex Abuse Material (CSAM), also commonly referred to as child pornography.

Indeed, Twitter has been embroiled in a child safety lawsuit since 2021, one which Musk inherited when he acquired the company. The suit alleges that Twitter failed to remove images of a 13-year-old boy engaging in sexual acts, which remained live on the site for nine days. According to the suit, Twitter “didn’t find a violation” in the images of the company’s “policies.” 

The 13-year-old boy in question, John Doe, had been blackmailed by a scammer into photographing explicit photos of himself on Snapchat in 2017; photos which resurfaced on Twitter in 2021 went viral, and were eventually viewed hundreds of thousands of times before being taken down. The content was reported to Twitter at least three times, but not until a federal law enforcement officer got involved did Twitter finally take it down, according to the suit. 

With Collier and other of the Trust & Safety Council stepping down, one can only wonder how the company is getting on with handling issues such as these with even less staff on hand than it had before. Elon Musk claims things are just fine. Better, in fact. 

In response to Dorsey’s “this is false” comment, Musk said, “No, it is not. When Ella Irwin, who now runs Trust & Safety, ed Twitter earlier this year, almost no one was working on child safety. She raised this with Ned & Parag, but they rejected her staffing request. I made it top priority immediately.”

What exactly Musk is doing to make it a priority is vague, but his comment implies more staff will be coming on board to tackle this extremely important issue. No matter which way you look at it, though, Musk has got a massively messy lawsuit on his hands that he’ll have to address sooner or later.

If you know someone suffering from sexual violence,  RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. 

Tech billionaire Elon Musk really needs a history lesson about what Twitter stood for before he bought the company. The new Twitter CEO released a video where he found multiple “#StayWoke” t-shirts in Twitter’s storage room. While Musk continued to berate the old Twitter istration for deg such a product, others had to remind the new Twitter owner of the true origins of the shirts, and what the old Twitter team stood for.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “woke” is defined as paying attention to societal issues, which include issues of race and social justice. But the term’s roots are specifically in Black activism, and in particular “stay woke” has been in use in Black communities for almost a century. Among other instances, legendary folk/blues artist Huddie Ledbetter AKA Lead Belly, in his 1938 protest ballad “Scottsboro Boys” about Black teens falsely accused of rape, advises his listeners traveling through Alabama to “stay woke,” by which he meant remain alert to the very real dangers of a brutally racist Jim Crow-era law enforcement. And that’s what these shirts were designed for, to bring to light an important racial issue brought out by one of Twitter’s employees.

New York Times reporter Ryan Mac released a thread that explains the shirt’s origins. They were popularized by Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey after the quote came from one of the company’s Black employees. Dorsey wore this shirt when he was in Ferguson, in protest of the shooting of Michael Brown. While Dorsey was heavily criticized for wearing the shirt, he intended to call awareness of police violence against Black people, and to his Black employees.

People called Musk out for not learning the origins of the shirt before ridiculing them on social media. In response, Musk released the Department of Justice findings from the aforementioned shooting. It claimed that the police shot Brown due to “self-defense” after he didn’t stop after the police told him to. Musk also claimed that the protest was based on a “false premise,” yet he’s acknowledged that other injustices may have occurred.

After Musk explained his stance on why he criticized the shirts, he released a ‘redesign’ with a new quote, “#Stay@Work.” Kinda ironic since he laid off multiple staff , plus he locked the Twitter building due to fears of sabotage. While his design received some praise from his fans and followers, the new shirt completely misses the point of why the old ones were created.

It’s no secret that Musk wants his employees to work for long hours. Not to mention, he gave an ultimatum last week where they could leave with three months severance or work “hardcore” to build “Twitter 2.0.” These new shirts no longer stand with the employees and what they believe in. They now spread a message about what Musk wants, without caring about the well-being of his employees.