So today I clicked a twitter link because companies like to use it for official announcements, only to be greeted with a login page. Was annoyed then I remembered nitter exists. It just prompted me to install Privacy Redirect which I should have done ages ago.

Github: https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect

Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/privacy-redirect/pmcmeagblkinmogikoikkdjiligflglb/related

Firefox Browser Add-ons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/

Looks like twitter waited for the reddit API changes to do push this change to try to do it under the radar.

  • Talos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    1 year ago

    Omg, I went to twitter.com and it requires a login now. That’s the end of that, I guess. Most people aren’t going to sign up to see a random sentence written by some person that was linked to by some random website.

    • Notyou@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Same thing happened to Insta back when I used to lurk on it. They start requiring a login to view any content, so I just noped out. I don’t care enough to make an account on every social media site.

      • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I just checked a random news article and embedded tweets seem to be working still. But when you click the tweet you get taken to the login page.

        • scutiger@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I don’t know why they bother embedding tweets. They always quote the tweet anyway, so you end up reading the same bit twice.

  • sven@l.mchome.netEnglish
    11·
    1 year ago

    This is pretty terrible really. Governments, cities, states use twitter for alerts and news. Now I have to agree to be tracked and monetized to view information from my government. I think everyone needs to write to all your cities, states, schools, law enforcement etc and demand they stop using twitter for anything. Our taxes should not go to padding twitter’s wallets.

    • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      Now that Twitter has become what it is, I’m somewhat offended that my local government makes announcements on it. Hopefully this will be an impetus for them to stop… although many agencies use Facebook too, and FB and IG have been this way for years.

      • tvbusy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Lemmy is exactly what government bodies need. Anyone from other instances can see, vote and comment. They can limit sign up to only employees and their users immediately have an official seal of authenticity. @obama@whitehouse.gov would be so cool.

        • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          They absolutely should be setting up lemmy or mastodon as official announcement sites. That would be a perfect platform.
          I think they also want to be on twitter, fb etc for the distribution potential though.

        • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I would prefer @potus@44.whitehouse.gov so that it makes it easier to defederate from extreme right wing presidents if, god forbid, they get in power again.

          Also for archival purposes.

    • Godnroc@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      I’ve worked in local level government communication. Most of the time your just trying to hit as many places as possible in a hopeless effort to keep an interested public informed. The price is usually low, the audience is there, and information can be duplicated to other platforms easily, so it generally makes sense to use social media.

      That said, low engagement on a platform would be a great reason to consider cutting it out. A citizen with feedback is enough to spark the flame too.

    • paddirn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      As much as I hate the idea of Yet Another Social Media App, I kind of wish there was some sort of official government-specific platform that was only available to state/local/federal government(s) or organizations for making important announcements. No memberships required (other than posters or commenters), no likes, upvotes, or retweeting or whatever, just postings of information that people can get to from anywhere.

      • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        They could easily have their own websites based on Mastodon or Lemmy, not federated with anything.

      • bighi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        The Brazilian government send SMS to people for alerts. It’s independent of apps, and everyone with a phone can get them.

        Seems like a good solution for important warnings.

        • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I don’t use twitter, but I’ll check the local utilities twitter if there is a power outage so I can learn about updates, or the local transit twitter if there are delays, things like that. SMS isn’t very practical for those kinds of infrequent uses.

    • poison@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Our taxes should not go to padding twitter’s wallets

      Or just nationalize Twitter, make it a public utility like water, parks, roads, etc. Then it’s not subject to the whims of some clownshow billionaire dictator. It could be the people’s podium, not some damp troll cave.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        81·
        1 year ago

        Well if that’s the case Twitter is as dead to me.

        Spez has talked about how he’s trying to model Reddit on Musk’s “success” with Twitter.

        It would be hilarious if Musk set up Spez to take the publicity fall to cover Musk’s plan to force Twitter for authenticated consumption only.

        • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Twitter is way more prominent than reddit. I doubt that there’s a secret plan

          If anything, Splez is too dense to notice that Musk seems to be intentionally/unintentionally ruining Twitter. It’s really hard to imagine how someone could look at “ad revenue down 70%” and think wow, that’s what we need to emulate!

        • Augustiner@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          Why does there always have to be a secret play involved with musk? Can’t they just both be incompetent at leading a social media company? This is just another example of Hanlon‘s Razor…

    • cerevant@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Yep. I wonder what this is going to do to their traffic. I know I’m not signing up.

      I bet Reddit will follow suit.

    • wtf_man@lemmy.worldEnglish
      02·
      1 year ago

      twitter is the perfect place to have a screenshot of something you said in 2010 be put on blast so a bunch of college kids can scream about it and demand your corporation fires you

  • Vipsu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    What makes this worse is that using Twitter pretty much requires one to give them your phone number. Accounts without one will often or eventually get locked for “suspicious activity” and given option to unlock the account by providing phone number.

    So anyone thinking about creating throwaway account to browse twitter, don’t bother.

  • Matharl@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Maybe users will stop posting link to this site now that a lot of people can’t see it.

    I see this as a plus.

    • axtualdave@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I think we’re reaching that point in the technology cycle where the money people have finally realized that running a social media platform is essentially unprofitable. People absolutely loathe ads and go to extremes to block them, and legislative and regulatory controls are starting to squeeze the manipulative aspects of social media such that what few ads the platforms can serve aren’t as relevant anymore, and the data they collect from their users is protected in more and more jurisdictions.

      So they’re bailing on the open platform idea. They’re slapping paywalls up, putting things behind required-accounts, and trying to build a walled garden they can control.

      I wish them the best. I remember what happened to Prodigy, CompuServer, and AOL.

  • melonpunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Wow, these companies are making it really easy for me to walk away. Thanks for the 15 years Twitter (I barely used you for the last 6 or so).

      • MercuryUprising@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Yep, every company requires quarterly growth and hitting KPIs, so a bunch of assholes with no moral qualms about it will fuck everything to get higher bonuses.

        Its also why everything is subscription based these days.

  • rooster_butt@lemm.eeOPEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    So this must be a regional thing since I can get around the login page using a VPN. My personal opinion on the matter is that I’m at least expecting backlash from governments since officials like using twitter for official announcements. I do not expect this playing well for twitter since they are holding a public forum hostage.

  • cerevant@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    The fediverse really needs to work on usability, but this is yet another example of why monolithic services can never be the long term solution.