X caught blocking links to NPR, claiming the news site may be 'unsafe' - eviltoast

X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, is marking some links to news organization NPR’s website as “unsafe” when users click through to read the latest story about an altercation between a Trump campaign staffer and an Arlington National Cemetery employee. The warning being displayed is typically applied to malicious links, like those containing malware, and other types of misleading content or spam. However, in this case, the web page being blocked is an NPR news report, raising questions about whether or not Musk’s X is actively trying to stop the news story from spreading.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    3 months ago

    If everyone could just delete Twitter, that’d be great. I don’t get how people just prioritize “there are good memes sometimes” over staying out of the metaphorical Nazi bar.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I keep hearing “it is the only way for me to get critical weather updates in my area!” which at least would be better than being addicted to memes, but still seems to me like a shitty or bogus and/or ssuper rare reason.

        • ripcord@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Trying to be charitable, I’m guessing for some countries there aren’t a lot of good sources. Maybe?

          Definitely in the US and Europe there are a billion sources.

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I’ve never had a Twitter account in my life and have had no issues finding weather forecasts or emergency notifications. That’s a shitty excuse even by the shitty excuse standard.

      • revelrous@sopuli.xyz
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        3 months ago

        I’ve deleted my account, but for twitter was nice for a run to get notifications on local road closures and weather alerts. Sigh.

    • rsuri@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The problem is no one has really made an effort to take over in the news/politics space. Meta basically decided Threads wouldn’t be for that. Mastodon exists, but given it’s nerd-based nature it’s way more tech focused. Then there’s Substack’s half-assed effort, but they seem happy to focus on newsletter subscriptions for now. So there’s competitors in microblogging generally, but there’s still zero competition in news/politics.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        3 months ago

        I think it’s a little like “no one goes there anymore it’s too crowded”. If people started posting on mastodon people would use it, and it wouldn’t be so nerd-dense.

        A friend and I had a minor fight about this. She was like “but all the good content is on Twitter” and I was like sometimes you have to be the change you want to be and suffer a little to make the world better. I think you can suffer through less immediate memes. She did not accept this.

        But anyway yeah you’re right that content needs to move. NPR and others could probably just switch, but none of them probably want to be the first to move.

        • yamanii@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          That’s true, the truth is that most people are lazy, if you are a company your social media person should be mirroring your stuff everywhere, it’s just copy paste.

          This is why misskey actually gained some traction over in japan, the artists there are mirroring their drawings there alongside twitter and pixiv.

    • criss_cross@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It spent a lot or time carving its place for quick news updates and getting people off platforms is surprisingly hard.

      I don’t use it anymore but it’s hard not to inadvertently find a news article that links to it.

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 months ago

      It’s this weird game of cat and also cat right now, I think. The media uses Xitter because people read their twats. People use Xitter because there’s media to deliver twats. Until some other short-social platform hits a critical mass of popularity to replace it, that probably won’t change much.

    • Aedis@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Ok, where do I get distilled news and incidents regarding covid and other infectious diseases/viruses spreading?

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        3 months ago

        I would hope the CDC or other government agencies would have their own website and feed, and not rely entirely on a private entity that could go away at any moment.

        • Aedis@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Sure, the CDC, the NIH and the WHO are some sources. But what about a source that has information about what people are encountering?

          • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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            3 months ago

            Well, fediverse stuff like Lemmy and Mastodon come to mind as one solution.

            Web forums were pretty sweet sometimes, too.

            I bet there are other options that don’t devolve into “some billionaire asshole owns this” and “value is being extracted”

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    This is an obvious abuse of power, and is clearly illegal, or at least it is in EU, but since this is about USA, it’s probably alright, because USA is no longer a country of law. If it was, Trump would not still be walking around a free man, running for president.

    I hope EU will never decline to the depths Trump and republicans have dragged USA.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s about accreditation in the US. It’s the same reason Fox News and Newsmax are classified as “entertainment.” Social media companies are not required to provide accurate information. They’re only held accountable by civil suits for slander or libel.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Well the way things are going, X may need to shut down in EU soon.
        Even Brazil doesn’t tolerate their bullshit anymore.

    • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Twitter operates in the EU, so if this were illegal in the EU then the EU would file a complaint. Maybe it’s not illegal in the EU.

      • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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        3 months ago

        First as other people said, it doesn’t work like that. Second there’s already a process in the EU Comission against X because of them knowingly spreading misinformation.

        • Omega@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          “If this were illegal” is already a bad assumption. In the U.S., SCOTUS already determined that the 14th Amendment is unenforceable.

          And any other time, there requires somebody to file charges.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Yet the same news sites keep linking to X and keep posting to X accounts.

    What do you call someone who uses a fascist-owned platform with a fascist user base? Motherfuckers need to let that shit die already.

  • squirrelwithnut@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Blocking access during an election year to a well respected and accurate news outlet that has never been known to be “unsafe” seems like election interference to me.

  • don@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Turnabout’s fair play, everyone start blocking links to xhitter. It’s an unsafe site.