Twitter’s latest updates: Banned profiles and cross-posting

Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, or Post. Twitter said violators will be penalized “at both the Tweet and account level.” Users can no longer link to their other social media profiles in their Twitter bio or tweet about them. Usernames or handles without URLs from competing services are likewise disallowed.

“Used for the principal purpose of advertising material on another social site” Twitter accounts may be banned from linking to Linktree and Lnk.Bio. Twitter allows paid advertising of forbidden sites (although this option doesn’t seem to be working yet):

We understand that some social media platforms offer alternatives to Twitter and allow users to publish on Twitter. Even from banned sites, cross-posting is permitted on our platform. Paid social media promotion is also available.

Users having forbidden social media connections on their profiles may be suspended by Twitter. It will also punish users who violate this restriction by masking URLs to other platforms, “spelling out ‘dot’ for social media networks that use ‘.’ in the names to avoid URL creation or publishing screenshots of your handle on a restricted social networking platform.” The Twitter restriction no longer applies to Telegram, TikTok, YouTube, Weibo, and OnlyFans. “Twitter should be easy to use, but no more relentless free advertising of competitors,” Musk tweets. “No traditional publisher permits this, and neither will Twitter.”

Twitter errors out Mastodon links. After donating to Nostr, a decentralized social network prohibited by Twitter, former CEO Jack Dorsey wondered, “why?” Many journalists were suspended for tweeting about @ElonJet, an account that tracked billionaire Elon Musk’s private jet, during a stressful week on Twitter. “Live location information” and “links to 3rd-party URL(s) of travel routes” were blocked on Musk’s Twitter. After polling Twitter users, Musk reinstated most prohibited accounts but temporarily banned The Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz for “prior doxxing action.”

US Congress Moves Towards Crypto Regulation in Wake of FTX Collapse

Matt Laslo over at Wired.com writes that several lawmakers in the US Congress are finally beginning to understand the urgency with which cryptocurrency needs to be reformed in the wake of the FTX collapse. Yet despite several millions of people losing their funds overnight, most people in Congress still need clarification about how cryptocurrency even works. According to Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), “There are a whole host of issues that, I think, we are planning on working through, and…the cryptocurrency industry will be one of them moving forward.” Jeffries commented on the multifaceted nature of such a task.

According to Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), the rise of crypto and the dangers that come with it caught everyone by surprise. “It’s growing faster than people recognize,” she says. “It’s time to regulate. It’s time to put sideboards on this.” Lummis’ comments are especially significant because the state that she represents, Wyoming, is recognized as the “crypto capital” of the US. Lummis has been consistently calling for crypto regulation despite such a move still being unpopular among Republicans in general.

She defends her stance as follows: “There will still be companies that deal in digital assets that will fail even after they’re regulated, but at least we’ll have consumer protections and reporting—and the most important thing there is segregating the customers’ assets from the financial institution’s assets.”

Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) have lobbied to drop the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which promises “a complete regulatory framework for digital assets.”

Cryptocurrencies will be differentiated from securities under the Act, which gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) more power to regulate them. It would also establish an advisory committee to allow lawmakers to navigate the continually evolving world of digital currency in a smoother manner.

Open FBI files to public review prompts democrat concerns

The “Twitter Files” revealed that the FBI had been working closely with the social media company, according to Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the incoming House Intelligence Committee chairman. Turner said Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” will subpoena the FBI’s Twitter data gathering. He applauded new Twitter CEO Elon Musk for sharing internal records, demonstrating mainstream media-social media cooperation.

On December 16, Matt Taibbi disclosed that the FBI had “constant and pervasive” contact with Twitter. The bureau targeted Twitter accounts and tweets. House Republicans will demand FBI “secret files.” These private files may contain the bureau’s mainstream and social media contacts.

“It has been our purpose to get ahold of those files, to see the breadth of this so that we can stop it, cut off the money and prevent normal Americans from being impacted by FBI actions,” he said.

The Ohio Republican claims the FBI deceived social media companies. Turner claimed the FBI “truly erupted into” mainstream and social media, affecting democracy.

“Luckily, the January 6 committee has produced some fantastic legal precedent that shows Congress has complete access,” he continued. “So they’ll have a hard time preventing us from receiving those documents.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is demanding FBI answers after the sixth “Twitter Files” release. Reps join Gaetz. Jim Jordan, Mike Johnson, Andy Biggs, and Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) asked questions.

Taibbi said that after the 2016 election, the FBI organized an 80-member social media task force that spoke with Twitter to uncover foreign influence and election meddling. DHS also pressured Twitter to regulate content with third-party security firms and think tanks.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) blasted the FBI’s task group on Fox News’s Hannity on December 16. He added that the FBI has its own propaganda ministry with 80 agents managing internet expression at $12 million in taxpayer-funded salaries and perks. Two Republicans suggested restricting Google and Facebook if Twitter was. Republicans expect subpoena power and committee work.

This cyber offensive will add to Russia’s strategy to hike up energy prices across Europe this winter. According to Watts, “Russia has and will likely continue to focus these campaigns on Germany, a country critical for maintaining Europe’s unity and home to a large Russian diaspora, seeking to nudge popular and elite consensus toward a path favorable to the Kremlin.”

Data breach at LastPass results in stolen encrypted password vaults

LastPass revealed that malicious actors obtained more information about its customers during the August 2022 security breach than previously disclosed, including encrypted password vaults and basic customer account information.

The popular password management service said an unidentified attacker obtained credentials and keys to a cloud-based storage service and copied customer vault data from the encrypted storage service. The data is protected using 256-bit AES encryption.

LastPass confirmed that the security lapse did not involve access to unencrypted credit card data but warned that threat actors might try to guess master passwords and decrypt vault data, as well as target customers with social engineering and credentialing stuffing attacks.

The company notified a small subset of its business customers to take certain unspecified actions based on their account configurations.

TikTok’s parent company admits tracking journalists with its platform’s data

ByteDance employees accessed data from TikTok to track a Financial Times reporter and a former BuzzFeed reporter to identify the source of leaks to the media. Erich Andersen, ByteDance’s general counsel, admitted this in an email seen by Agence France Presse (AFP) on December 23.

According to Andersen, ByteDance staff members obtained the IP addresses of journalists to check whether they were located near colleagues suspected of divulging confidential information. However, this plan didn’t work since IP addresses only reveal approximate location info.

The incident led to the dismissal of four ByteDance employees – two each from China and the United States – for a “misguided initiative that seriously violated [ByteDance’s] code of conduct.” TikTok’s CEO said such “misconduct is not at all representative” of the company’s values in an email to employees seen by Reuters. He added that protocols surrounding employee access would be further improved following this event.

Elsewhere Online

European Ombudsman finds Commission Failed to Protect African Countries from Illegal Surveillance Measures

https://privacyinternational.org/press-release/4992/eu-watchdog-finds-commission-failed-protect-human-rights-its-surveillance-aid

Microsoft’s Digital Threat and Analysis Centre Warns of Increased Russian Cyber Attacks this Winter

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/microsoft-beware-russian-winter/

Client-side encryption for Gmail in Google Workspace

https://www.securityweek.com/google-workspace-gets-client-side-encryption-gmail

Data of 1.5 million BetMGM customers was breached, hacker offers to sell it

https://www.securityweek.com/betmgm-confirms-breach-hackers-offer-sell-data-15-million-customers

Russian Cyber Hacktivist Group, Anonymous Russia, Behind Killnet DDoS Attack on EU Parliament Website

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/killnet-ddos-group-executes-a-cyber-attack-on-the-eu-parliament-website-after-resolution-against-russia/

Previously on #AxisOfEasy