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Twitter Social Networks Software The Internet

Twitter Launches Disappearing 'Fleets' Worldwide (reuters.com) 52

Twitter said on Tuesday it was globally launching tweets that disappear after 24 hours, similar to the stories feature that is popular on Snapchat and Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram. Reuters reports: Twitter has previously announced its plan for these ephemeral tweets, dubbed "fleets," and tested the feature in Brazil, Italy, India, and South Korea. "Some of you tell us that Tweeting is uncomfortable because it feels so public, so permanent, and like there's so much pressure to rack up Retweets and Likes," design director Joshua Harris and product manager Sam Haveson said in a blog post. "Because they disappear from view after a day, Fleets helped people feel more comfortable sharing personal and casual thoughts, opinions, and feelings," they added.

Fleets, which include text, photos and videos, will be available at the top of users' home timelines on Twitter and on the sender's profile. Twitter also confirmed it was working on a live audio feature, dubbed 'Spaces,' that it aims to test later this year. The feature will allow users to talk in public, group conversations. It has similarities with Clubhouse, a social platform in which users are invited to talk in voice chat rooms. "Given all of the potential for abuse within audio spaces, we are going to be making it available first to women and historically marginalized communities," said Twitter's Kelley.

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Twitter Launches Disappearing 'Fleets' Worldwide

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  • Seriously? (Score:4, Informative)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @07:54PM (#60736370)

    Everything you put on the internet is permanent.

    • by TheMeuge ( 645043 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @08:37PM (#60736458)

      I thought we already had this feature... all you had to do was to post something Twitter mods disagreed with.

    • Even what you type into the box and backspace over before submitting.

      But, if people realized that they'd really feel uncomfortable about using these services. So they give you all kinds of irrelevant "privacy options" to make sure engagement stays up.

    • Because they disappear from view

      Is the key here. They disappear from view. Not from the database.

    • Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Arnonyrnous Covvard ( 7286638 ) on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @03:54AM (#60737400)
      These features are not designed for privacy. The Whatsapp "status" and the Twitter "fleets" exist so that you have to keep looking or you'll miss something. They are making the apps more addictive.
      • ^^ This is correct.

          Also, weak plausible deniability for posters who will say they didn't post something despite (signed?) archival proof. Still good enough for those want to believe "If it's not on the feed now, it never was". Confirmation bias for the win!

    • Coming next : Tweet history conservation site.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's like saying there is no point putting a lock on your door because all locks can be picked and all doors can be broken down. The point is not that locks are invincible and doors indestructible, it's that a decent lock makes the act of breaking in more difficult.

      There is also another use for temporary tweets. A lot of people delete old tweets, there are even services you can use that do it for you. They don't want people to quote-mine them for things they said 5 years ago and have changed their mind abou

      • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Well actual adults can say usually deal with it pretty simply by saying: "You know what I wrote that when I was 20 and since them I have had the following experiences ... and learned that....I no longer hold that opinion."

        If people finding that unconvincing its probably because you are lying to them and in the context of your more recent statements and behaviors they doubt you have really changed. The truth is most people don't really change. Sometime around age 13 people form core beliefs about the big s

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          It's Twitter. Every thought has to be condensed down to 250 characters and if someone calls you a hypocrite chances are that will go viral and your response pointing out the childishness of the assertion will be ignored.

  • Oh fuck me. They took this long to get this idea? And anything inflammatory or embarrassing on Twitter is going to be a screen shot and blasted all over other "social media" so I'm not sure what they think they're accomplishing.
    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Two stage twitter. The corporate pseudo celebrities get permanent tweets and the nobodies get disappearing ones. Part of the push to bring more elitism to the internet, shutting up the 99% and providing a network megaphone for the 1%.

    • Re:Sigh. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @09:44PM (#60736566)

      If they're deleted after 24 hours, then any screenshot taken becomes "photoshop fakes" because you cannot link to the original, i.e. no proof.

      For someone wanting to "rattle the cage", it's a perfect weapon. They can say any shit they want, and once the followers are all riled up for/against whatever, not only is the tweet not needed anymore but it becomes a liability.

      It's like Twitter are trying to make Trump more powerful on purpose, but they're doing it by accident.

      • Archive.org.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Trump is a great example of why people want this. There is always a Trump tweet for every occasion. Often from years ago, before he became president. Random outbursts he had 6 years ago come back to haunt him and make him look like a hypocrite, not least because he can't admit he was wrong so has to stand by everything he ever said.

        There are services that auto delete your old tweets for you. Twitter is just integrating that feature.

  • And I will "disappear" from following and/or respecting you.

    You put it on the net, I might save it, or even pass it around if you piss me off enough. Try to control me, and I will tell you to go fuck yourself, and share your shit in non self-destruct format out of spite.

    Don't try to control me.

    • People deleting their own tweets is "trying to control" you? Riii-iight. Got that. I'm just gonna go over there, ok?
      • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        You welcome to delete your copies of correspondence any time you wish. You can ask me to delete my copy. If you actually try and FORCE me to delete me copy, yes that is "trying to control" me.

        I think most reasonable people would agree.

      • "People deleting their own tweets is "trying to control" you? Riii-iight. Got that. I'm just gonna go over there, ok?"

        Except it's obvious they will use Javashit "disable right click", and maybe find a way to fuck with screen capture so you only get a blank image, and other malicious acts to try to enforce this.

        This seems like this is going to be more than simply removing the tweet from the server.

        This is what I have a big problem with.

        • If you are running Android or iOS, they already have built in ways to enforce this on you. Try taking a screenshot of Hulu on non-rooted/custom rom Android- you just get a "protected content, no screenshots allowed" message.

          They can make this Twitter app exclusive, and then they have you completely owned.

  • Trust us, we're on your side.
  • Like the enema? I guess they do go quickly. I hope better jokes are coming.
  • by Chas ( 5144 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @09:35PM (#60736546) Homepage Journal

    It allows their partisans to post bullshit, inflammatory crap and have it disappear.

    YES, you can claim your screenshot as real evidence.
    But they can just go "Nononono. FAKE!"

  • What are they going to do with all the indexing sites that stores tweets? They are impossible to block because they don't use the twitter api.
    This feature will only put naive people into a false sense of security and comfortability that will bite them in the ass very quickly.
    Haven't been on twitter in a while. Did they remove the ability to delete tweets?
    People are not comfortable to use twitter due to the aggressive censorship. Twitter do not support free speech, they punish it aggressively. Jokes, truth,

    • What are they going to do with all the indexing sites that stores tweets? They are impossible to block because they don't use the twitter api.

      Right. I hate to delve into speculation that sounds a little conspiracy'ish, but this is a way to get people to "trust" that they can write down things they might not have otherwise.

      Haven't been on twitter in a while. Did they remove the ability to delete tweets?

      I went there exactly once. It was immediately obvious that Twitter is a place for narcissists and has a major purpose as a place to either self destruct, or as a member of the blue hair check mark crew, to attempt to destroy. No thanks Twitter!

      People are not comfortable to use twitter due to the aggressive censorship. Twitter do not support free speech, they punish it aggressively. Jokes, truth, entertaining conspiracy theories, etc.

      I too am entertained by many conspiracy theories. Because they tend to be really stupi

    • "This feature will only put naive people into a false sense of security and comfortability that will bite them in the ass very quickly."

      Life experience. Something might screw up your life?- DON'T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET!

      Unsorry, but we really need to stop coddling and babysitting the naive. Fuck up in the real world, and there are serious consequences. The internet is an extention of the real world, and they can learn that the easy way or the hard way.

  • Heaven forbid (Score:4, Insightful)

    by thadtheman ( 4911885 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @11:15PM (#60736764)

    someone thinking twioce before they post on the internet.

    How could we ever live with that?

    • Well I couldn't. I'm already having withdrawal symptoms from everyone's favourite Commander in Tweet and he hasn't even left office yet. Where will I get my daily dose of hilarity from? Biden?

      • Well I couldn't. I'm already having withdrawal symptoms from everyone's favourite Commander in Tweet and he hasn't even left office yet. Where will I get my daily dose of hilarity from? Biden?

        Ol' sleepy Joe has an actual sense of humor. He might say things that make us laugh in a good way, not a WTF did trump ragetweet today?

  • Are these people unfamiliar with how the internet works?

  • Sure for popular accounts with lots of followers this might mean something, but for the vast majority of people it will be like they never tweeted at all, because no one will ever see it.

    Might as well be redirect to /dev/null

  • People will just use this as the ability to go crazy.
  • If you are uncomfortable posting thoughts and feelings, you should be every bit as uncomfortable posting your thoughts and feelings just because they pretend go away after a day.

    This brain dead feature is likely to allow stupid people to post more stupid and self incriminating things, which kinda makes me wonder if that was it's purpose.

    Meanwhile - gonna be a lot of snapshots made. Politicians, ex spouses, anyone we like.

    Jes sayin'

    • "This brain dead feature is likely to allow stupid people to post more stupid and self incriminating things, which kinda makes me wonder if that was it's purpose"

      Honeypot

      • "This brain dead feature is likely to allow stupid people to post more stupid and self incriminating things, which kinda makes me wonder if that was it's purpose"

        Honeypot

        Exactly. I'd look at it as a version of the politician posting something, and later taking it down. But others monitor their pages, and boom - it's permanent. This is the same thing on steroids.

  • I wish they would come up with a way to make the whole site disappear in 24 hours.
  • Were they named for this product:

    https://www.fleetlabs.com/cons... [fleetlabs.com]

    ?

  • "Fleets helped people feel more comfortable sharing personal and casual thoughts, opinions, and feelings"

    Perfect. The world has been lacking a way for people to share their personal and casual thoughts, opinions and feelings with the Internet.

  • New self-destructing tweet feature (your tweet goes away in 24 hours) encounters a software glitch that causes Twitter to disappear in 24 hours.

    .

    If only it were true.

To be or not to be, that is the bottom line.

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