Bridge Over Troubled Twitter

In This Issue:

🐦 SAFETY: Ella Irwin, Twitter's trust and safety lead, resigns, leaving the social media giant in a trust turmoil.

📚 CONTENT: A recent study reveals that Twitter has failed to remove hateful posts from its paid subscribers, raising concerns about content regulation.

💰 REWARDS: Shopify's Shop app introduced a new 'Shop Cash' rewards program.

📰 PUBLISHING: WordPress.com launched its paid newsletters feature, presenting a competitive challenge to Substack.

🤖 AI: The Artifact news app has started using AI to rephrase the headlines of clickbait articles.

📞 TELECOM: Amazon Prime is reportedly discussing possibilities of reducing cell phone bills, potentially offering free plans to its members.

🎄 MARKETING: TikTok has launched its 2023 Holiday Marketing Playbook to help marketers with campaign planning.

Another Twitter Trust and Safety Lead Throws in the Towel

Twitter's trust and safety lead, Ella Irwin, may be looking for a Bluesky invite, after confirming her resignation to Reuters yesterday. She spent just seven months with the company and oversaw content moderation.

The specific reason behind her departure is still unknown, but according to TechCrunch, it seems to be related to Twitter's slide to the political right and in particular an activist film called "What is a Woman.” The documentary is a feature-length attack on transgender people.

Upon its release on Twitter yesterday, the film’s visibility was limited, apparently an automatic trigger of the platform’s rules against hateful conduct. 

In response, Musk said that the limited reach was a mistake made by several people at Twitter and clarified that the film was welcome on his platform, despite its violation of the company’s policies. 

As of today, I was able to access the documentary without any restrictions.

While it is not clear whether Irwin's exit is directly related to this incident, the report suggests she may have been involved in the decision-making process regarding video labeling.

☑️ Hate Speech Thrives for Twitter Blue 

Meanwhile, content moderation chaos persists. A new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate revealed that Twitter is letting more hateful posts on, and overlooking moderation if the poster is a paying subscriber of Twitter Blue. 

The report says Twitter hasn't removed recent hateful posts from verified subscribers that violate the platform's policy against hateful conduct.

The study's researchers collected tweets from paying subscribers and reported them using Twitter's own flagging tools. Four days later, 99% of the reported posts from subscribers were still active, and all the accounts involved were still active.

The flagged tweets, which were posted within the last month, contained racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi, antisemitic, and conspiratorial content.

Images: Twitter / The Center for Countering Digital Hate 

Shopify Launches Shop Cash Rewards

Shopify is now paying consumers to shop. 

The e-commerce company launched a new rewards program today called Shop Cash that gives customers 1% back on purchases made using its Shop Pay online checkout service. 

Once a purchase is made, shoppers will see the rewards appear in their Shop Pay wallets in the Shop app, and these rewards can be redeemed for future purchases within the app. 

To promote the launch, Shopify is hosting a Shop Day event today and giving away more than $1 million in Shop Cash. The company is also partnering with several merchants and influencers, including the popular YouTube creator  MrBeast, to share custom links across social channels with followers. Customers can redeem Shop Cash by clicking on those links and spending directly in the Shop app.

The rewards program is now available for eligible purchases from merchants and shoppers in the U.S.

Image: Shopify 

WordPress Comes for Substack

WordPress is entering the paid newsletter market, directly challenging Substack and others. 

The company launched a big update yesterday with its Newsletter product now supporting paid subscriptions and premium content. 

WordPress's Newsletter lets writers send posts via email to connect with their audience while using the platform's other capabilities. Users have the option to use it exclusively for newsletters or integrate it into their blog for readers who prefer receiving posts via email. 

The tool has been around since December but with this week’s expansion, publishers can monetize their content. 

Like Substack, WordPress authors can choose whether their posts are available for free or exclusively for paid subscribers. When posting, publishers specify the audience by checking the right box.

This is accessible to all WordPress.com blogs, including those on the free plan. But as newsletter businesses expand, the company notes that publishers may opt for paid plans, which come with reduced transaction fees on their newsletter subscription emails.

Full disclosure: This podcast’s email newsletter uses Substack. 

Image: WordPress 

This News App Will Rewrite Your (Cheap) Headline

So you slaved over just the perfect headline for that landing page or news story… sure it’s a little clickbait’y but it’s performing!

Well, there’s some bad news coming. 

Artifact, a news app, now lets users flag articles as clickbait. And worse, it will take that beautiful headline of yours and rewrite it in real time using GPT4. A little star icon will appear beside rewritten headlines in the app. 

Previously, Artifact relied on a manual process to verify and label articles as clickbait based on multiple user reports. 

Next up, it’s working on detecting those headlines without any human flagging. 

Image: Artifact 

Amazon: From Free Shipping to Free Phone Plans? 

The biggest e-commerce company in the world may have found a way to reach consumers right in the palm of their hands.

Bloomberg reported today that Amazon is in talks with Verizon, T-Mobile, and other wireless carriers about offering Prime subscribers low-cost wireless plans for $10 a month or possibly for free. 

The talks are said to have been going on for several weeks and have also included AT&T, but the plan may take several more months to launch if it does come to fruition. 

Quoting the report:

TikTok Launches 2023 Holiday Marketing Playbook

June may have only just begun, but it's beginning to look a lot like starting to plan your holiday campaigns.

On this front, TikTok has released its 2023 holiday marketing playbook, which includes insights into its role as a product discovery platform and its impact on consumer shopping habits. 

The guide also includes top hashtags and key trends in the app as well as recommended timelines for executing various campaigns.

Images: TikTok