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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

#201

Post by gentleman11 »

tofuahdude wrote: post #16

You don't need to use Twitter's JS to show Tweets. If you choose to use their system, you're subject to their rules. If you don't like their rules, don't use their stuff. Calling it "altering the public record" is a little hyperbolic imo. If you want to act as a repository for the public record, you better use your own system. Twitter is under no obligation to retain this kind of stuff on your behalf. I'm not trying…

I agreed with this several years ago, but I’m not sure any more. Software networks are very different than other things humans have had in the past. They are inherently winner take all and give the owner/creator unprecedented power over users that creators in past generations could only have dreamed of. I wonder if software companies should have some restrictions to make up for this

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

#202

Post by jakelazaroff »

mgamache wrote: post #198
blendergeek wrote: post #190

I see so many people here arguing that by embedding javascript directly from Twitter, you are accepting whatever they choose to make that javascript do. While that is true to an extent, Twitter has provided documentation for this javascript that says that if the Tweet gets deleted, the javascript will simply stop styling your quote of the tweet that you have on your website. By changing the behavior of the javascript…

"Twitter has broken every rule of being a good distributor of third-party code." Yes, and you've broken every rule of common sense by thinking that their goals are your goals and they have any interest in being a 'good' anything besides profitable. You are embedding code from a a money making bot. To expect them to host deleted tweets forever as some public record is absurd.

Okay, but they’re not “hosting” anything (other than the script). They could take down the server with that script on it and the markup would show up fine. If Twitter went out of business tomorrow, all these tweets would magically show up again. But no, they’re going out of their way to break your webpage. That is absurd.

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

#203

Post by folkrav »

montroser wrote: post #185
simonw wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I embed your JavaScript on my page I am giving you a HUGE amount of my trust. You should treat that as sacred.

But why would you trust a corporation that owes you nothing?

There's always some level of implicit trust the second you decide to use any platform.

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

#204

Post by LadyCailin »

fphhotchips wrote: post #142
bennyp101 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An email provider (which you most likely pay for - and don't publish on a website) is very different to a social media site (that you don't pay for and want it out in the public) It's a free service that they provide - why can they not change how their system works when they want? People can object whenever they want - but it doesn't change the fact that they don't have any 'rights' to show someone elses content via…

I disagree. Twitter doesn't own that content. Someone posting the Twitter JS on their website to allow Twitter to format the tweet to Twitter's brand standards and allow a link to drive traffic back to Twitter is a favour that they're doing Twitter. They should respect that favour by not changing the contract unilaterally.

But, you as the website operator don’t own that content either? Certainly I have some level of expectation that if I delete something, it may very well actually be gone, right? And further, that Twitter taking steps to do exactly that in places they control is reasonable?

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

#205

Post by rchaud »

joeraut wrote: post #123
polydevil wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- copy paste the content of the tweet - meta data is lost (date and time, author, obv it is possible to copy paste the text and add links to original tweet and link to an author; - screenshot - now you dont have to add custom styles, meta data exists, but it is not usable - you can make is to click on tweet will open a tweet, but click on tweet author will open authors profile. Also screenreaders and bots - they dont…

Great point on accessibility, a guarantee of screen reader support is a benefit that would be lost with screenshots or text without the correct semantics.

Reddit seems to be able to do this. They have bots that transcribe the text on image-based memes, and the transcription has always been accurate.

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

#206

Post by vntok »

Sayrus wrote: post #116
maccard wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For the vast vast majority of people (or as we call them in cases of cyber-harassment, "the mob"), it will be gone from the Internet.

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

#207

Post by [deleted] »

simonw wrote: post #135
tofuahdude wrote: post #16

You don't need to use Twitter's JS to show Tweets. If you choose to use their system, you're subject to their rules. If you don't like their rules, don't use their stuff. Calling it "altering the public record" is a little hyperbolic imo. If you want to act as a repository for the public record, you better use your own system. Twitter is under no obligation to retain this kind of stuff on your behalf. I'm not trying…

"If you want to act as a repository for the public record, you better use your own system." I deliberately chose Twitter's JavaScript because I inspected the design of how it worked and saw that they had deliberately built it in a way that would respect my preferences for how deletion should be handled. They've changed that on me - without even announcing the change. This is a rug-pull. Now I have to replace their co…

[deleted]

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

#208

Post by gigaflop »

victorstanciu wrote: post #55
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.

"Functionality aside embedding random scripts from twitter seems like a big risk for security and privacy." When I started blogging again, I wanted to render my Twitter feed on the homepage, as a sort of bitesize alternative to the regular content, but I too have a deep aversion to allowing external scripts on my websites. So I added some code to my Hugo theme that pulls the tweets from my profile via the Twitter API…

Back when I was applying for my first career position, one of the companies asked for a demo project, with one of the options being something that could poke at the Twitter API.

It was pretty darn simple to get the text of a tweet, and just apply some styles to it. If one was motivated, making something to replace Twitter's version of embedding would not be very difficult.

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

#209

Post by Jcowell »

dotancohen wrote: post #13
im3w1l wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

The privacy tradeoff is not Twitter's to make. The content was copied - while still available - and placed on another website. Twitter's responsibility is to serve or not serve content. If it cannot serve the content requested, for instance because that content was deleted, then they should not continue to alter the non-Twitter webpage. Of course, the real problem is that the site administrator is allowing Twitter to…

Say if someone envokes a right to be forgotten on Twitter and it complies by deleting all tweets by said person (I’m imagining this is how it works) is it twitters responsibility or the website that embedded twitter’s tweet to ensure that it’s deleted? In my mind it’s Twitter since it comes from them no ?

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

#210

Post by mgamache »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #202
mgamache wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Twitter has broken every rule of being a good distributor of third-party code." Yes, and you've broken every rule of common sense by thinking that their goals are your goals and they have any interest in being a 'good' anything besides profitable. You are embedding code from a a money making bot. To expect them to host deleted tweets forever as some public record is absurd.

Okay, but they’re not “hosting” anything (other than the script). They could take down the server with that script on it and the markup would show up fine. If Twitter went out of business tomorrow, all these tweets would magically show up again. But no, they’re going out of their way to break your webpage. That is absurd.

You are using content from twitter on your page and then using a script from twitter to format the content, right? You've seeded control on how it's displayed. They changed their mind on how to format the content. You are responsible for your page no one else.
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