15 votes

Twitter is testing a new feature on Android: When you retweet an article that you haven't opened on Twitter, the app may ask if you'd like to open it first

Posted by shiruken
Tags: social media, android, twitter, apps, retweets
https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1270783537667551233

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Authors
twittersupport

6 comments

  1. [3]
    joplin
    Link
    This will teach users once again to just click on buttons without reading to get your stupid device to do what you want. It won't cause anyone to read anything. Plus, what if I already read it...

    This will teach users once again to just click on buttons without reading to get your stupid device to do what you want. It won't cause anyone to read anything. Plus, what if I already read it somewhere else? Now you're being punished for it. This doesn't feel useful to me, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

    6 votes
    1. [2]
      MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      Best case, it means a few people get fed up and don't retweet things when they like the headline.

      Best case, it means a few people get fed up and don't retweet things when they like the headline.

      7 votes
      1. unknown user
        Link Parent
        I believe this actually is the point! If it helps in dampening the effect of vitality on certain articles, then it's achieving its goal. It doesn't matter if it's a surmountable challenge to defeat.

        I believe this actually is the point! If it helps in dampening the effect of vitality on certain articles, then it's achieving its goal. It doesn't matter if it's a surmountable challenge to defeat.

        5 votes
  2. synergy-unsterile
    Link
    Chronotope on Twitter made a thread about the privacy implications of this new feature. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1270789059888254977.html

    Chronotope on Twitter made a thread about the privacy implications of this new feature.

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1270789059888254977.html

    It's particularly interesting b/c by pushing you to click through Twitter will likely be expanding its detailed data on users. & b/c the last time I did a data export from Twitter (Aug 2018) there was no list of links that I clicked on, a thing we can assume Twitter stores now.

    So I ran an export of my data from Twitter and guess what! There's a new file that wasn't there in 2018 'user-link-clicks.js' which logs links I clicked on, what tweets they were in, the url those links resolve to & the time stamp of when I clicked, starting 05-13-2020.

    yes, instead of storing metadata about links you click now Twitter stores a log that explicitly contains everything you've ever clicked, the tweet you got a link from, & precise timestamp of that click (great for deanonymizing cross site activity!)

    6 votes
  3. JXM
    Link
    This is great, but I fear that it’ll just be something people click on automatically to bypass it. But if it can make someone stop and think for a moment before posting an article with a...

    This is great, but I fear that it’ll just be something people click on automatically to bypass it.

    But if it can make someone stop and think for a moment before posting an article with a sensational headline that doesn’t match the content, then I think it’s a net positive.

    3 votes
  4. krg
    Link
    Seems like a good idea. A better idea would be to require reading of an article before retweeting/commenting. Or... I guess a worse idea, as it'd be impossible to regulate.

    Seems like a good idea. A better idea would be to require reading of an article before retweeting/commenting. Or... I guess a worse idea, as it'd be impossible to regulate.

    2 votes