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Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

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Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#111

Post by _Algernon_ »

derefr wrote: post #93
iforgotpassword wrote: post #49

I've never understood why people even wanted to use this. For the styling? So you can just copy some random stuff from Twitter and it looks like Twitter but is also interactive? Just with the Facebook like-Button, you're exposing your visitors to the tracking of Twitter. For what? Just so you can quickly copy one snippet and be done with it, instead of manually copying author name, content and link and spending 10 se…

One advantage I've seen people recently point out about using content transclusions in general (where the Twitter widget is an example of such), is that these provide some level of evidence that the transcluded content is really something that exists at the source. Screenshots and other "fetch and burn into the reciever" approaches can be fabricated very easily to create fake news; but it's a bit more of a technical…

Whats wrong with a linked screenshot?

Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#112

Post by ethanwillis »

bussetta wrote: post #105

Would it have been better if Twitter had announced this change and made the change only for the new tweets and left the existing ones as is?

In my opinion, yes. I think that would be much better and more responsible. Are they a business or a political entity? Businesses need to be reliable

Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#113

Post by sings »

iforgotpassword wrote: post #49

I've never understood why people even wanted to use this. For the styling? So you can just copy some random stuff from Twitter and it looks like Twitter but is also interactive? Just with the Facebook like-Button, you're exposing your visitors to the tracking of Twitter. For what? Just so you can quickly copy one snippet and be done with it, instead of manually copying author name, content and link and spending 10 se…

The worst example being media organisations. Why would you cede any remaining semblance of journalistic authority by cheaply embedding tweets into a news article. Handpicked commentary from a narrow part of the internet does not constitute an expert opinion, nor does it lend you any credibility. If anything, it lets me know that I’m seeking news in the wrong place. The short term gains, if there are any real ones, seem to be obviously outweighed by the negative impacts to your reputation as a news organisation.

Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#114

Post by ki_ »

hmm. Personally i think when u delete a tweet, you should not be able to embed it. If you changed your mind about a tweet, you should be able to decouple it from your account. If people want to refer to tweets, how about a screenshot? It's safer, faster and cant 404 when twitter is down.

And i think the whole "they edited my page" statement is ridiculous. You EMBED a part of twitter into your page. You know it can change. If you embed a youtube video, and the owner deletes it, it wont play anymore. obviously.

Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#115

Post by bartread »

PinguTS wrote: post #66
WatchDog wrote: post #10

Functionality aside embedding random scripts from twitter seems like a big risk for security and privacy. At a minimum, it should probably be embedded in a sandboxed iframe. Just taking a screenshot, and linking to the tweet, seems like a more robust solution, that won't randomly stop working, and doesn't have the same privacy issues.

That said, screenshots of such things bear their own problems in terms of accessibility for screen readers and other supportive devices.

> bear their own problems

Sure, but these problems were anticipated in the design of, certainly later, HTML specs. One example: the ALT text tag for images, which has been part of the spec since at least HTML4, originally published as a recommendation in 1997.

Every image on your website(s) should have ALT text to be screenreader friendly and, if it doesn't, that's on you: it doesn't make using images an inherently bad or accessibility-unfriendly idea.

Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#116

Post by Sayrus »

maccard wrote: post #103
jazzyjackson wrote: post #96

It's a shame there's no better way to preserve a tweet than taking a screenshot -- there's no way to prove that an individual said something, save for perhaps trusting the record on archive.org It doesn't have to be this way. Either the individual or the platform could cryptographically sign content to prove that it really happened. I guess Twitter would prefer a plausible deniability. If anyone screenshots you sayin…

I've never had my name dragged through the mud on twitter or anything but I'm super glad knowing that if I do make a mistake I can delete it rather than having it immortalised on the internet to be used as a weapon against me forever.

The blockquote is still inside the page and indexed by search engines. While many will get a blank preview, it is still immortalized on the internet and visible if you block Social Tracking / Twitter's widget.js.

Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#117

Post by db48x »

ranguna wrote: post #17
db48x wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not even that twitter is hostile; allowing any third–party javascript onto your website is a mistake.

Laughs in node_modules

True, npm packages are a risk. However, I think that there is a big difference between using npm packages and loading javascript from a third–party domain: with an npm package, you can inspect the source. If you don’t like what you see, you can avoid the package. I’m sure that most developers fail to do so, and just blindly trust that the package will do what it says and nothing else, but at least the opportunity is there. If you load javascript from a third–party domain you lose that opportunity, and all hope of keeping your website secure and your visitors privacy intact.

Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#118

Post by tommek4077 »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #111
derefr wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One advantage I've seen people recently point out about using content transclusions in general (where the Twitter widget is an example of such), is that these provide some level of evidence that the transcluded content is really something that exists at the source. Screenshots and other "fetch and burn into the reciever" approaches can be fabricated very easily to create fake news; but it's a bit more of a technical…

Whats wrong with a linked screenshot?

An image is not text. Just copy the text and be done with it. You even only need to apply styles once on your site with a twitter-css class.

Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#119

Post by parksy »

If permanency is a priority then letting external scripts be responsible for presenting content is not a good idea, especially if the agreement doesn't make any promises about whether content will be permanent, and doubly so if the agreement / terms of service explicitly say they can change the behaviour of their services at any time.

What this probably calls for and maybe something is out there is some service that can embed, archive, and track changes to a tweet or social media post. You'd embed the same way, but the archive will fetch and cache the content. It could then serve up the original version, as well as a timeline of changes.

The right to be forgotten has merit though, and I can see twitter's logic there and probably they're under pressure via GDPR or something. So any archival or cache service would need to take that into account. Various countries and districts have varying laws on what is and isn't official public record too, so it seems like managing that could be the function of a dedicated archival service.

Re: Twitter is using its embedded JavaScript to hide tweets that have been deleted

#120

Post by ThePhysicist »

TomGullen wrote: post #82
ThePhysicist wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that you have a contractual relationship with Stripe or Paypal when you use their services. When you embed FB/Twitter/... content there's no such relationship, that's the issue.

OK bad examples, but any open source project you use via a package manager in your projects you have to trust and there's no contract or relationship there.

Yes but bundling packages via npm is not an issue either, it's the fact that third-party embeds transfer personal data to the third party whenever a user visits the website, that is the central issue.
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