Jack Dorsey slams Twitter for quietly tracking devices users have shared from during exchanges with Elon Musk – who says the platform he’s acquired is like “angry birds” with too many groups “fighting each other internally” .
- Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has criticized the social media company for tracking the devices users share tweets from
- Dorsey called the feature a “step backwards” but noted that it was added last year, before Elon Musk took over the company
- His comments came during a tweet with Musk, leading to Musk saying the company was plagued by infighting and comparing it to “Angry Birds.”
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has criticized the social media company for tracking the devices users share tweets from.
Dorsey called the feature a “step backwards” but noted that it was added last year, before Elon Musk took over the company.
The 45-year-old resigned as CEO of Twitter last November and it’s unclear if the device tracking feature was added before or after his departure.
His comments came amid a series of tweets he fired out Sunday night, including an exchange he had with Musk about renaming the Twitter feature Birdwatch.
On Saturday, Musk announced that Birdwatch — which aims to discourage misinformation by allowing users to add notes to tweets — would be renamed “Community Notes,” a name Dorsey called “the most boring Facebook name ever.”
Musk chided Dorsey for a series of tweets, eventually comparing Twitter to the Angry Birds game and saying it was riddled with power struggles.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has criticized the social media company for tracking the devices users share tweets from. He noted that the feature was added before Musk bought the company
Dorsey pointed out that all information after the ‘?’ in tweet urls was not required to share a tweet
Dorsey pointed out that the URLs on Tweets contain a line of code that isn’t required for Tweet sharing.
‘Nothing needed after the ?’ he wrote, referring to the question mark in tweet URLs.
Twitter detectives like user Joshua Steinman found that the lines of code that follow the question mark in URLs are unique to the specific device the tweet was shared from.
The feature allows Twitter to know where a shared tweet came from, even if the person posting the tweet is doing so from an account not linked to their name.
In his tweet on Sunday night, Dorsey appeared to raise an eyebrow at the feature.
“These tracking additions to sharing a tweet are a step backwards,” he wrote.
As Dorsey pointed out, users can bypass device tracking by deleting any information after the “?”. in a tweet url before you send it.
Twitter user Joshua Steinman posted a thorough breakdown of how he found Twitter tracking devices via shared Tweet URLs
Minutes before tweeting about Twitter’s tweet share tracking, Dorsey questioned Musk directly about his intentions to improve the accuracy of information available on Twitter.
“Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world,” Musk tweeted. “That is our mission.”
“Exactly for whom?” Dorsey replied.
Musk then said that he wanted accuracy to be encouraged by Twitter users themselves, and pointed to the Community Notes feature as a means to do so.
When Dorsey responded that he thought the old name was better, Musk said, “Birdwatch gives me goosebumps.”
‘Not everything has to have ‘bird’ in the name!’ he added. ‘Too many groups of birds fighting each other internally on Twitter. Angry birds.’