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Twitter's voice tweet feature allows users to record 2 minutes and 20 seconds of audio to share in a tweet. Any voice tweets that are longer than 2 minutes and 20 seconds will appear as threaded messages with a maximum of 25 tweets. The voice tweets feature is currently only available to certain iOS device users. Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories. If you've ever found Twitter's character limit suffocating or felt frustrated by the tone of your tweets being misconstrued, one of Twitter's newest features may be of interest. The social media platform recently launched a voice tweet tool to make sharing your fleeting thoughts with your followers even easier. By clicking a few simple buttons, you can record a message and post it to your timeline. This will add a personal touch and ensure your message doesn't get lost in translation.Voice tweets appear as regular tweets with audio attachments complete with a play button for anyone to listen to. You'll retain the ability to write text with the tweet, which means you can also mention users or add hashtags. The recorded audio files also have a maximum length of two minutes and 20 seconds, though longer…

For years, Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act has allowed social media platforms to moderate content without being liable for what their users post. Experts told CNBC that after the Jan. 6 pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol, that may be about to change."I think that these social media companies need to be dealt with as publishers," said former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya. "And I think at the front of the line is Facebook, because they are algorithmically deciding — there are people inside of that company that are building these things, that are amplifying the lobotomized, the intellectual cornering of people, so that they cannot learn what's really happening, so that their worst fears and their worst concerns are amplified."Facebook is a much larger company than it was when it was founded eight years after the Communications Decency Act was passed. It reported over 196 million daily active users across the U.S. and Canada in the third quarter of 2020 and $21.47 billion in revenue.Though all social media companies would be affected by a change to Section 230, Palihapitiya, the founder and CEO of Social Capital, differentiated Twitter from Facebook. "The problem with Facebook is different, which…

January 15, 2021 | 2:06am | Updated January 15, 2021 | 4:38am Enlarge Image The Twitter logo, left; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, center; and Rep. Ilhan Omar, right. AP The notoriously litigious, self-described California sex addict best known for suing Twitch over masturbation injuries allegedly caused by the video streaming platform’s “scantily clad gamers” has a new target—this time filing a lawsuit against Twitter, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar over the “overbearing pain and suffering” caused by the social media giant’s ban of President Donald Trump. In an 11-page legal document filed Tuesday in the Northern District of California, Erik Estavillo argues that he is entitled to $88.7 million in compensation, the reinstatement of Trump’s account and a retaliatory ban of both AOC and Omar, who he says use the platform to “promote eastern communist philosophies.” Estavillo, who is representing himself in the case, claims in the filing to have run for Congress himself last year and says that due to a variety of ailments — which include depression, agoraphobia, Crohn’s disease and OCD — he has “no friends” and relies on social media as his only way of participating in political discourse.  “The Americans with Disabilities Act should…

Joe Biden’s transition team flipped the switch on a new Twitter account for the president-elect on Thursday night, while clashing with the social media company over its decision to deny the incoming administration millions of existing White House followers.Biden’s transition opened @PresElectBiden in order to start building a following for one of the official accounts the new president will inherit at noon on Jan. 20: @POTUS. In a change in practice from 2017, when President Trump entered office, Twitter Inc. plans to reset both the @POTUS and @WhiteHouse official accounts to zero followers for Biden.The two accounts currently have a massive audience — nearly 60 million followers combined, though there is overlap. Trump got a head start in 2017 when he inherited about 12 million followers of @POTUS from President Obama’s tenure, plus millions of followers from other official accounts. Though Trump used his personal account, @realDonaldTrump, as his primary social media mouthpiece throughout his presidency, Biden’s aides think it’s unfair Twitter isn’t handing over followers along with the official accounts.“They are advantaging President Trump’s first days of the administration over ours,” Rob Flaherty, the transition’s digital director who will be director of digital strategy in the Biden White House,…

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - In this time of politics becoming more and more involved in social media, some are claiming that sites have overreached and violated first amendment rights.After a riot on Capitol Hill, Twitter, and several other social media platforms, banned President Trump.We spoke with first amendment attorney Leita Walker who said that Twitter or any other social media app that has so far taken down, removed, or deactivated Trump’s account has not violated the first amendment.Why?Because for it to be a violation, Walker says it has to come from the government. Since Twitter and Facebook are not government bodies or entities, they are not in violation of the first amendment or censorship.When it comes to the riots at the Capitol, some have questioned that politicians should be held responsible for inciting those actions. Walker says an inciting of a riot case is rare and very difficult to prove.Copyright 2021 WVLT. All rights reserved.

Trump says remarks to supporters at rally before Capitol attack were appropriate Speaking to reporters before traveling to Texas on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said his remarks to supporters at a rally prior to the violent siege on the US Capitol were totally appropriate. SAN FRANCISCO - Nearly a week after banning President Donald Trump’s personal Twitter account, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey broke his silence with a series of Tweets explaining the company’s decision to go forward with the suspension.  On Jan. 8., Twitter announced that it had permanently removed Trump’s personal Twitter account after a review, citing "the risk of further incitement of violence." The move came days after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters who attempted to halt Congress’ certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. On Wednesday, Dorsey wrote that he was not celebrating the ban of Trump, but rather felt the move was necessary to respond to "threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter."  "I believe this was the right decision for Twitter," Dorsey wrote. "We faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety. Offline harm as…

Days after social media giant Twitter deleted tweets from President Donald Trump and suspended his @realDonaldTrump account following the riot at the U.S. Capitol, one Orange County elected official awoke on Monday to find his own page had been deleted.Huntington Beach City Atty. Michael Gates took to Facebook to explain his bewilderment at reportedly having his Twitter account wiped clean earlier that day.“I guess Twitter did me a favor,” Gates wrote on his personal Facebook page, which is public. “It wiped my account of all posts — even though I rarely tweet. Sad state of society we live in. Sad.”A personal social media account the 45-year-old Huntington Beach resident said he uses only a few times a month was suddenly bare, save for a profile picture and a prompt inviting him to leave a first tweet. “Six or seven years of activity was completely gone,” Gates said Tuesday. “There was no warning, no notifications, nothing.” Days after social media giant Twitter deleted permanently suspended President Donald Trump from the social media platform, Huntington Beach City Atty. Michael Gates discovered his own Twitter page had been completely wiped clean.(Twitter) The city attorney said he hadn’t recently posted anything inflammatory that would…

Are you numb to the numbers? A social media page aims to humanize the pandemic, putting faces behind the statistics. HOUSTON — Tuesday marked two grim milestones in Texas since the COVID-19 pandemic began. There are now 14,218 lab confirmed COVID-19 patients in the hospitals, the first time that number has surpassed 14,000. Texas also reports 286 more COVID-19 deaths, surpassing 30,000 deaths. The death toll currently stands at 30,219.   Houston hospitals are on the brink of being overwhelmed, and our healthcare workers are exhausted. Still, many people just aren’t listening -- in Texas and across the country. That’s one reason why Alex Goldstein, a communications expert in Boston, wanted to humanize the headlines. Back in March he started a page on Twitter, @FacesOfCovid. Are you numb to the numbers? Houston hospitals say it won't be long before they're overwhelmed. Still, people aren't listening. @FacesOfCOVID seeks to humanize the pandemic. So many dying & grieving alone. The creator says it's a needed platform. Tune in at 10. #KHOU11 #covid19 pic.twitter.com/3fQTcxoNx6— Lauren Talarico (@KHOULauren) January 13, 2021 “I was really struggling with how to process the headlines,” Goldstein said. “I think it’s important to affirm the basic dignity of the…

January 11, 2021 | 9:05pm | Updated January 11, 2021 | 9:05pm Enlarge Image Last Friday, Twitter permanently shutdown President Trump's Twitter account. AFP via Getty Images Donald Trump was the president of the Twitter. What radio was to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and TV to Ronald Reagan, communicating 280 characters at a time on a ­social-media platform that is a watchword for hyperactive inanity was to Trump. It is symbolically appropriate that the effective end of his power after the siege of the US Capitol has coincided with the suspension of his Twitter account. He may well get impeached a second time, but for now, the punishment that really stings is Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey deciding after sitting down with his woke colleagues that Trump must pay the ultimate price for his post-election misinformation and agitation. This judgment is as arbitrary as Dorsey’s worst critics would expect, and it will be impossible for Twitter to enforce anything resembling a consistent line following its Trump suspension (the platform didn’t seem particularly exercised by all the voices valorizing last summer’s riots as an ­ “uprising”). But there is no doubting Dorsey’s power. He has rendered the president of the United States practically…

Tracking what may be planned in the coming days could become even more difficult as the groups take to lesser-known networks and apps that can’t be easily monitored.Supporters of President Trump at his rally on Wednesday in Washington.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York TimesJan. 11, 2021On the Telegram messaging app, there were calls for armed marches on state capitols and the offices of tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter, starting on Jan. 16.On Gab, a social media network, fliers were posted about a rally in Washington, D.C. Attendees were advised to “come armed at your personal discretion.” The date: Jan. 17.On the 4chan messaging board, a call went up for a “Million Militia March.” The date: Jan. 20.In the days since rioters stormed Capitol Hill, fringe groups like armed militias, QAnon conspiracy theorists and far-right supporters of President Trump have vowed to continue their fight in hundreds of conversations on a range of internet platforms.Some of the organizers have moved to encrypted messaging apps like Telegram and Signal, which cannot be as easily monitored as social media platforms.Social media has played a crucial role in the support of Mr. Trump since he announced his intention to run for president…