Monthly Archives: March 2020

Major altcoins have seen their Twitter presence greatly reduced in the wake of the recent cryptocurrency market crash. According to data from Bitinfocharts, major altcoins such as Ethereum, Litecoin, and XRP now find their Twitter mentions nearing two and even three-year lows.

Meanwhile, Bitcoins Twitter presence doubled in the first three months of 2020, though its tweet count remains a long way off of its 2017 all-time high.

Earlier this week, on March 21st, tweets bearing the hashtag #XRP numbered 2,542. Thats a 60% drop since January 2020 alone, when XRP tweets ranged between 6,000 and 7,000.

The last time XRPs daily tweet count fell as low as 2,500 was in July 2018, almost 21 months ago.

XRPs all-time high Twitter surge didnt come during the 2017-2018 bull run, unlike most other coins. Instead, the peak of XRP Twitter engagement to date remains September 21st, 2018, when XRP was tweeted out 20,000 times according to Bitinfocharts.

As readers may recall, that date coincides with the first whispers regarding the then-rumoured launch of Ripple Labs xRapid - an XRP-based payment solution for financial institutions. Boosted by the much anticipated product launch, the price of XRP almost tripled in the week leading up to September 21st.

Litecoin reverts to 2 year tweet low

When daily Litecoin tweets fell as low as 344 earlier this month, it was the lowest Twitter engagement witnessed on behalf of Litecoin since March 2017.

That was the month in which Litecoin began its ascension leading up to its 2018 bull run. Between March and May of 2017 alone, the price of LTC increased ten times over, from $3 to $30.

From there, both the coins price and Twitter engagement continued climbing up and up. Remarkably, Litecoins return to the Twitter doldrums coincides with its fall back to the aforementioned $30 range.

Currently, Litecoin tweets currently number just 1.3% of their previous all-time high of 31,000.

Ethereum tweets down 95% from peak

Following a similar trend, Ethereums Twitter presence is at one of its lowest ebbs in over three years. Currently numbering around 2,500, Ethereums tweet-count has only sunk this low once in the past three years - that being New Years Day of 2020.

Barring that dip, the last time ETHs Twitter engagement fell so low was February of 2017. That was also the month in which ETH began a 60-day, 5x increase which carried the coin price from $10 to $50.

From December 2017s peak of 51,000 tweets in one 24-hour period, Ethereums Tweet-count has fallen over 95%.

Bitcoins Twitter engagement on March 26th amounted to 24,722 tweets. Thats a substantial drop from December 2017s peak of 155,000, but unlike most altcoins, Bitcoin has shown a resurgent Twitter trend in 2020.

After recording as little as 12,000 tweets back in January of this year, Bitcoin tweets have since more than doubled.

Searching for reasons why, one might assume that Bitcoins lesser drop in value compared to most altcoins has something to do with it. After all, social media engagement surrounding cryptocurrencies tends to follow price.

However, another cause could be the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus, which reignited discussion surrounding Bitcoins value as a safe-haven asset.

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Bitcoin Ascends on Twitter While Major Altcoins Hit Multi-Year Lows - Cointelegraph

Customers are finally starting to take delivery of the long-awaited Tesla Model Y electric compact crossover, which was announced back in March 2019. Elon Musk has touted a driving range of up to 300 miles and a zero-to-60-mph time as low as 3.5 seconds. But what Tesla's CEO didn't mention was the electric crossover's off-road abilities. That's exactly what Mike McGinnis set out to do with his Model Y by taking it "off-roading."

The best part of McGinnis's video isn't even the Model Y driving through a puddleit's the comments. One Twitter user responded, "I'm sure a Model 3 would've driven through that just fine." He's probably right, though, as the Model Y has a ground clearance of 6.6 inches, which handily beats the Model 3's 5.5 inches of clearance.

For reference, consider two of the most serious off-roaders available today: the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon has 10.8 inches of ground clearance, and the Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro has 9.6 inches. User @teslatactics commented on Twitter, "I think that Mustang in the back has more ground clearance than the model Y." Well, that's not true.

No matter what you think the definition of off-roading is, we're all in favor of people getting out and enjoying their cars. We'll be testing Tesla's latest soon, and we'll let you know if we can hit the 300-mile range and zero-to-60-mph time of 3.5 seconds that Elon claimed. The off-roading, though? We'll leave that to the cars' owners.

Link:

Tesla Model Y Off-Roading Video Gets Hate on Twitter - Car and Driver

Today marks the end of Meghan and Harry's royal duties, as they officially step down from their roles as working royals. The couple had planned to move to Canada, somewhere Meghan had once lived and worked, but have since decided to move to Los Angeles, Meghan's hometown. This is no surprise to a lot of people, the couple's team of agents and public relations staff are based there, plus Meghan's family.

Never one to miss out on the chance to voice an opinion, Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to share his thoughts on the move.

In a tweet shared on Sunday, Trump stated, "I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!"

The unprovoked tweet prompted representatives for the couple to issue a statement to royal correspondent Omid Scobie, saying, "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the U.S. government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made."

Meanwhile many others felt that Trump should be focussing on the current Coronavirus pandemic rather than Harry and Meghan, while others asked if the couple even asked the U.S. government to pay for their security...

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Meghan and Harry respond to Trump's twitter rant about them - cosmopolitan.com

Were at a time where there are no live sports to watch, so well have to settle for Dwayne The Rock Johnson eating an absurd amount of food on Instagram Live.

And, you know what? Thats just fine.

The Rocks diet has been published in detail over the past few years. It roughly consists of more than three pounds of meat or fish per day, 5.5 cups of rice, 4 cups of vegetables and 14 egg whites.

In all, that diet plan comes to The Rock eating between 5,000 and 6,000 calories per day so he can maintain his physique.

But his cheat meals are spectacles in their own right. On Sunday, The Rock hosted an AMA on Instagram Live as he enjoyed a cheat meal of brioche french toast smuuuthaad with peanut butter and syrup along with some tequila.

And by French toast, he meant enough French toast to feed a family of five. The internet was in awe. (Note: Expand the tweets to see full image)

Nearly 150,000 people tuned in to watch that action, and they didnt leave disappointed.

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Twitter could not get over The Rock's preposterously huge French toast cheat meal - For The Win

Vladimir Putin has released hundreds of lions and tigers on to the streets of Russia to enforce self-isolation. Hollywood celebrities are not being diagnosed with coronavirus they are actually being arrested for paedophilia offences. The US was threatening Iraq with coronavirus 30 years ago, as proven by an archived Associated Press video of Saddam Hussein.

These are just a few of the conspiracy theories and fake news stories that have been widely shared on Facebook and Twitter.

Both organisations have trumpeted their efforts to take on fake news around Covid-19. But an investigation by Press Gazette suggests that the social media giants which together employ hundreds of thousands of people and make tens of billions in revenue every year are struggling to contain misinformation around coronavirus.

Russias streets patrolled by lions and tigers

The story of Vladimir Putin releasing 800 tigers and lions on to the streets of Russia to enforce self-isolation may sound like a joke and this appears to have been its original purpose. But when the claim is supported by imagery and mocked-up TV news coverage, it starts to seem more realistic.

It appears that many social media users were taken in by the story, and one of the images even drew in Lord Sugar the billionaire businessman who stars on the BBCs Apprentice who did at least question whether it was a wind up while sharing it with his five million followers.

One of the early versions of this claim which may have been where it originated appeared on the Twitter account of a comedian based in Pakistan.

On Saturday, 21 March, he tweeted that Putin had released 800 tigers and lions to enforce self-isolation. He also said Putin had given his countrymen two options: You stay at home for 2 weeks or you go to jail for 5 years. No middle ground.

The tweeter clarified two days later, on 23 March, that the post was a joke. But the original was retweeted 23,000 times and liked more than 50,000 times.

Although the post was intended as a joke, its content appears in comments from other Twitter users to have been taken seriously by many. The situation was exacerbated by later tweets that elaborated on the story and illustrated it with fake news TV images.

The comedians tweet was only deleted by Twitter after Press Gazette flagged it to the companys press office on Friday, 27 March.

Saddam Hussein video

A doctored video of Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, talking about coronavirus in the 1990s has also been circulated widely on both Twitter and Facebook.

The video has been shared by dozens of Twitter users, who claim that it shows Hussein telling a meeting of Iraqi politicians that the US was threatening the nation with coronavirus.

The video, which is made more convincing by a label for Associated Press in the top right-hand corner, has been fully debunked by Indian news website The Quint, which located the original footage not mentioning coronavirus on Youtube.

The Quint also reported that the same doctored video had been widely shared on Facebook. The original has been viewed more than 4,000 times but has now been flagged as false information on the website.

Covid-19 origin conspiracy theories

Twitter faced criticism last week when it refused to take down a tweet from a Chinese government PR that suggested coronavirus may have been introduced to Wuhan by the US military.

The conspiracy theory was aired on Thursday, 12 March, by Lijian Zhao a spokesperson and deputy director-general at the Chinese foreign ministrys information department.

When did patient zero begin in the US? he tweeted. How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!

The Daily Beast reported last week that Twitter had refused to take down the post because it does not violate the firms terms of service. These state that direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter rules.

Mistaken identity

Another tweet that Press Gazette drew to Twitters attention on Friday was one of several that claimed to highlight a video of Sophie Grgoire Trudeau, the wife of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.

In the video, a woman with an English accent is seen inside a hospital warning others about her ordeal dealing with coronavirus.

Grgoire Trudeau did suffer from coronavirus after contracting the illness on a trip to the UK. But the woman in the video who appears to identify her partner as a man named Richard rather than Justin is not her.

Despite this, the video has been shared by dozens of Twitter and Facebook users who identify the woman as the Canadian PMs wife. Many of the posts remain on Facebook and Twitter now.

Warnings to friends and family

The coronavirus crisis has also led to many reports of unverified information being shared widely after users of Facebook and Whatsapp (which is owned by Facebook) have made warnings to their friends and family.

On Friday, 27 March, Press Gazette flagged to Facebook a post from 19 March claiming that Homeland Security in the US was preparing to mobilise the National Guard to implement a nationwide lockdown that would include all businesses closing down.

They will announce this as soon as they have troops in place to help prevent looters and rioters, the user said, claiming to have sourced their information from a source at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

They asked readers to forward the message to their family and friends, and advised: Stock up on whatever you need to make sure you have a two week supply of everything.

The post was shared more than 2,000 times between 19-27 March. It has been deleted since Press Gazette shared it with Facebooks press office.

In Ireland, The Journal has debunked a widely shared message advising that a Galway hospital had advised people to wear disposable gloves at petrol stations.

Elsewhere, fact-checking organisation LeadStories has debunked Facebook posts suggesting that stories about celebrities contracting coronavirus are cover-ups and that actually they have been arrested for paedophilia offences. The original post in this case appears to have been deleted, but other users have shared the claims.

What are they doing about it?

A Twitter spokesperson said the company is working with the World Health Organization and ministries of health across the world to provide people with access to credible verified public health information.

They added: Currently, our team is not seeing large-scale coordinated platform manipulation surrounding the Covid-19 conversation.

As is standard, we will remove any pockets of smaller coordinated attempts to distort or inorganically influence the conversation.

Additionally, were continuing to review and require the removal of tweets that do not follow the Twitter rules half of which we catch before theyre ever reported to us.

If people see anything suspicious on our service, please report it to us. This is an evolving global conversation and we will remain vigilant.

A spokesperson for Facebook said the platform is working to remove false claims which could cause harm to people who believe them.

Were focusing on claims that could lead to real world harm, they added. So if someone relies on the information, it makes them more likely to get sick or not get treatment. Since January weve been taking down dangerous claims like drinking bleach can cure coronavirus and now includes claims that social distancing doesnt work.

Facebook works with a network of 55 fact-checking organisations across the world and is offering $1m in grants to fact-checking groups to tackle Covid-19 misinformation.

Facebook and Whatsapp are both also making efforts to promote official health information to their users.

Facebook also yesterday announced the launch of a new business grants programme that will aim to hand out $100m to news groups to help them cover Covid-19.

Journalists disinfecting fake news epidemic

While the social media giants appear to be struggling to keep up with the levels of fake news around coronavirus, several journalistic and fact-checking organisations are investing much time and effort into tackling Covid-19 myths.

French news wire AFP has debunked dozens of inaccurate stories in recent weeks.

In the US, the Poynter Institute has been working to challenge false narratives, while the International Fact-Checking Network and Facebook are preparing to hand out grants to aid the effort. In the UK, Full Fact has been checking the veracity of several stories per day.

Last week, in an interview with Press Gazette, Independent health writer Shaun Lintern also suggested journalists are rising to the challenge of taking on fake news around coronavirus.

He said: Its taking an enormous of my time to check rumours that if theyre true would be incredible stories.

In the last few days Ive been chasing stories of doctors dying because theyve been infected with coronavirus, doctors being mugged at knifepoint for their ID badges none of these seem to be true.

He added: There are hundreds of posts about this on social media. It seems to have spread like a virus via Whatsapp and its actually scaring NHS doctors and nurses.

Its heartening to see the mainstream media not picking this stuff up without checking it

People need to be careful about sharing this stuff on social media. A bonafide journalist is going to be the best person to trust for information at this point.

Original post:

The fake news epidemic: Twitter and Facebook failing to contain Covid-19 misinformation - Press Gazette

A dramatic video shows a leopard climbing a tree with its prey in mouth.

A video of a leopard effortlessly climbing a tree with its prey in mouth has left social media users amazed. The video was posted on Twitter by Indian Forest Services officer Parveen Kaswan, who often shares wildlife-centric posts with his followers.

This time, Mr Kaswan took to the microblogging platform to share the video which shows the big cat going up a tree with a huge deer hanging from its mouth. The 1-minute-and-30-seconds-long clip shows the leopard climbing the straight and smooth tree trunk with minimum effort.

While sharing the video, Mr Kaswan explained that leopards can climb trees carrying prey three times their own weight. "Unbelievable climb. Do You know a #leopard can take three times heavy prey & can climb a straight tree," he wrote. "In their territory many a times you can see leftover on trees also." In the comments section, he further revealed that the video was not filmed in India.

Take a look at the video below:

Since being shared online two days ago, the video has been viewed more than 1.5 lakh times. It has also garnered over 10,000 'likes' and dozens of comments.

"Raw power. He calculated everything before starting the ascent," wrote one person in the comments section. "Oh my, that was a quick one minute of complex mental calculations regarding the task ahead and very neatly accomplished with zero errors. Unbelievable!" said another.

This is not the only leopard video that has captured the Internet's attention recently. A few days ago, a video of a leopard pulling off an impressive backflip to catch its prey had also gone viral online.

See original here:

Video Of Leopard Climbing Tree With Prey Leaves Twitter Stunned - NDTV News

All signs point to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson not fighting at UFC 249, and the combat sports world is doing a collective facepalm.

Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has put much of the world on pause, the UFC was dead set on moving forward with Nurmagomedov (28-0 MMA, 12-0 UFC) vs. Ferguson (25-3 MMA, 15-1 UFC) despite four previously failed bookings. UFC president Dana White said he was close to confirming a venue, but then on Monday another significant wrench was thrown into the works.

Nurmagomedov is apparently unable to leave Russia due to the recently imposed travel ban, and now the UFC is reportedly scrambling for either a replacement to fight Ferguson, or a new main event all together.

The situation caused many reactions within the MMA community, and much of them were filed with the same disappointing tone. Check out the top Twitter reactions to Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson being in serious jeopardy.

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See original here:

Twitter reacts to Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson being in jeopardy at UFC 249 - MMA Junkie

The Western Cape government has reminded the public that no one is immune to contracting the infectious virus.

Debate over the first township case of the coronavirus has been raging on Twitter less than a day after Western Cape Premier Alan Winde announced that Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain had reported one and five cases respectively.

Each and every one these cases from Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain to Mossel Bay is of very serious concern for my government.

Our response teams are treating the development of cases in our informal areas with the urgency and seriousness it deserves, following up with every contact and ensuring isolation, said Winde.

We appeal to the public to not stigmatise this virus no one is immune, and we ask for understanding and assistance to those in need of help. Mostly, if we are [to] break its spread, we need to be open about it.

No further details about the cases in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain have been released although weekend reports stated that police had arrested residents who violated lockdown rules.

On Twitter, some users angrily commented that it was unfair for the townships to be named while the other areas that had been affected by the virus went nameless.

Some, however, said that by publicising the case in Khayelitsha, this would lead to more awareness as some had mistakenly thought that they were immune from contracting the disease.

@Kay_Mantanga said: Why are people angry about the reported Khayelitsha #Covid19inSA case? It is a big, highly populated, congested area and the virus can easily spread. Its important to spread awareness of the possible danger the people living there are facing so they can protect themselves.

The lack of ablution facilities, space and informal housing were pin-pointed as limiting factors that could set townships back from battling the disease.

Another Twitter user said adhering to the lockdown was important as the virus could infect anyone regardless of race or class.

Continue reading here:

Twitter divided over reveal of first COVID-19 township case - The South African

NewsPoliticsFormer Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has unwittingly revealed the Scottish address of a UK spy chief.

Monday, 30th March 2020, 4:17 pm

In a now-deleted tweet, Ms Davidson responsed to the announcement of the new head of MI5, by making a comment which roughly gave away the Scottish address of his opposite number in MI6.

Ken McCallum, a Glaswegian, was revealed as the new MI5 chief today and Alex Younger of MI6 studied at St Andrews University and has retained a flat in Scotland.

In her social media gaffe, Ms Davidson revealed that Mr Younger lived in the line of sight of a well known address.

Angus Robertson, the former SNP deputy leader who was a member of Westminsters intelligence and security committee and who hopes to stand in Ms Davidsons constituency at the next Holyrood elections, said the tweet was quite extraordinary and utterly reckless.

He added: Why on earth she thought it was a good idea to publicise the home location of the head of MI6 is utterly beyond me. This is an ill-considered act of brash negligence.

When news of Mr McCallums appointment broke, SNP MP Stewart McDonald said on Twitter that MI6 chief Alex Younger had also studied in Scotland.

Ms Davidson responded: And splits his time between Edinburgh and London and went on to say his house was within line-of-sight of a well-known location.

SNP MP Stewart McDonald replied: Assuming the bit on his house is meant to be a joke? If not, Im not sure the head of Mi6 would be overly excited to see the rough whereabouts of his address published.

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said that Ms Davidson had thought she had sent the message privately and as soon as she realised it was public she took it down.

He added: She feels like a right pillock for this mistake and wishes to apologise very sincerely to Mr Younger.

See the article here:

Ruth Davidson Twitter 'gaffe' reveals spy chief address - Scotland on Sunday

Although the network has wavered on a few occasions, Fox News coverage of President Donald Trump has been notably favorable to him since he took office more than three years ago.

So perhaps an eyebrow or two mightve been raised this month when the network, after nearly a year-and-a-half of disconnecting from the social media network altogether, started using its Twitter account again.

Fox News stopped using Twitter, according to reporting from WhatsTrending.com, after the account Smash Racism DC published his home address to encourage people to peacefully protest his coverage of the Mueller investigation and other Trump-related controversies. While Carlson maintained at the time that the protests were violent, media reports showed that there wasnt the type of behavior present that he said was there.

Nevertheless, the doxxing of Carlson resulted in Smash Racism DCs tweet to be removed but because it didnt happen at the speed to Fox News liking, out of protest the network discontinued its use of the platform.

Yet on March 18 of this year, the network decided it was time to start its account back up, advertising its return as a means for people to keep up with all the latest COVID-19 news.

However, it seems that their return to the social media site, during this time of crisis, comes back with its usual pro-Trump bias. A quick look at the companys past 10 tweets (as of 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday evening) finds that half of them involve Trump and all five of those tweets are arguably a positive spin of news events over the last 24 hours for the president.

Those five Trump tweets involve:

Indeed, unlike other networks, the Fox News Twitter account doesnt even have a single tweet that mentions the fact that the president believes 100,000 to 200,000 deaths the result of coronavirus would be, in his mind, a very good job.

Theres not much evidence to suggest as much, but anyone with a discerning eye can see that the network appears to be glossing over some pretty important headlines that have occurred over the past week or so. Which begs the question: is Fox News return to Twitter a means to promote a pro-Trump agenda?

Featured image credit: Fox News Corporation/Public domain; Gage Skidmore/Flickr

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Fox News Comes Back To Twitter Is It To Help Trump Through A Crisis? - HillReporter.com