Twitter - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: 280

Explanation:
Twitter is testing allowing tweets to be expanded to 280 characters - double the existing limit - in the latest effort to boost flagging growth at the social network.

San Francisco-based Twitter said on 26th Sept 2017 that the new limit, a major shift for the messaging platform known for its 140-character tweets, aims to address “a major cause of frustration” for many users.

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey fired off what may be one of the first expanded tweets.

“This is a small change, but a big move for us,” he wrote, calling the previous limit was an “arbitrary choice”.

Twitter planned to leave the old limit in place for tweets in Japanese, Chinese and Korean because internal data showed written characters in those languages packed plenty into the allotted space.

Twitter, which became a public company in 2013, has never reported a profit, even though it has built a loyal base of celebrities, journalists and political figures, including prolific tweeter US President Donald Trump.

In its most recent quarter, Twitter reported its base of monthly active users was unchanged at 328 million compared to the first three months of the year and up just five percent from a year earlier.

Its growth has failed to keep pace with social network leader Facebook, which has some two billion users, and Facebook-owned Instagram, with 800 million.

Twitter has been seeking to draw in users by offering more video, including live streaming of sporting events, aiming to broaden its appeal.

Reaction on Twitter was mixed, with some lobbying for the original cap and the pressure it applied to succinctly express thoughts.

Many others on Twitter welcomed the news and said raising the character cap was long overdue.

Some people already resort to long strings of rapid-fire tweets, known as “Twitter storms,” to string together lengthy comment.

The messaging platform reported a net loss of $116 million in the second quarter, slightly wider than its $107 million loss a year ago.

It remained an open question whether the new tweet limit would ignite the growth an engagement Twitter needs to compete in the fast-moving social media segment.

The move by Twitter could also be rendered moot by lifestyle changes brought about by trends in voice-commanded digital assistants and looking at the world through mixed-reality glasses, according to Gartner analysts.

ANSWER: Bharat Ke Veer

Explanation:
The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched the live twitter wall for promoting Bharat Ke Veer portal on the eve of Independence Day 2017.

On this occasion, Shri Rajnath Singh and Ministers of State for Home Affairs Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Shri Kiren Rijiju contributed their one month salary for Bharat Ke Veer.

Shri Rajnath Singh said that the Security Forces have made supreme sacrifice in the line of duty and the people need to stand by their families to support them.

This social media awareness campaign will display all tweets with hashtag Bharat Ke Veer (#BharatKeVeer), at Connaught Place, CGO complex and Khan Market in New Delhi where huge LED display screens have been installed.

Emoji has also been created for this hashtag.

Union Home Secretary Shri Rajiv Mehrishi, OSD Shri Rajiv Gauba and Senior Officers of MHA were present on this occasion.

Bharat Ke Veer portal was launched by the Union Home Minister and actor Shri Akshay Kumar on April 9, 2017.

This portal facilitates online donation directly to the families of CAPF Martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the country in line of duty from January 1, 2016.

ANSWER: Aliza Knox

Explanation:
In a yet another blow for the struggling micro-blogging website Twitter, its head of Asia-Pacific business Aliza Knox has decided to move on after a near-five year stint.

Knox built out Twitter's presence in Asia with an office in Singapore that currently spans nine locations with over 100 people on payroll.

Her exit comes on the back of the loss of a number of high-profile Asia-based executives in 2016.

This includes Managing Director for Southeast Asia, India, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region Parminder Singh, India head Rishi Jaitly, China head Kathy Chen and Australia country boss Karen Stocks.

Jaitly drove strategic partnerships with the news, government, entertainment, sports, TV industries, and others in the mass and emerging media landscape.

Jaitly was the vice-president of Twitter's Asia Pacific and Middle East business.

After Jaitly, Singh announced that he has quit the company.

Following this, the micro-blogging website appointed Maya Hari as its new Managing Director for South East Asia and India who was reporting to Knox.

In a bid to realign its future goals and cut costs, Twitter had reduced nine per cent of its workforce (nearly 350 people) internationally.

In 2016, Twitter cut 300 jobs after Jack Dorsey took over as CEO full-time.

ANSWER: Twitter

Explanation:
To celebrate International Women's Day, Twitter is enabling users across India to spotlight the women who inspire them with the hashtags #SheInspiresMe or #SheLeadsIndia.

These hashtags will trigger a #WomensDay emoji.

The emoji would be the gender symbol for females and a representation of feminism and will be available till April 1.

Twitter has also partnered with digital video storytelling platform @SheThePeopleTV, to host a special #BlueRoom session to talk about the issues women in media and technology face.

The session would be live on March 8 at 5:30 p.m. from both @TwitterIndia and @SheThePeopleTV handles, the statement added.

ANSWER: Rizvi Traverse Management LLC

Explanation:
Rizvi Traverse Management LLC managed by investor Suhail Rizvi has halved its stake in Twitter Inc and increased holding in mobile payments company Square Inc, regulatory filings have shown on 12th August 2016.

• Rizi had amassed more than 15% stake in microblogging phenomenon for himself and his investors.
• He also influenced the Kingdom Holding Co, Saudi Prince Alwaweed bin Talal’s investment company to purchase extra Twitter stock, according to a Reuters report.
• Firm owned 1.4 million Twitter shares as of June 30 down from March 31, as per a filing.
• This will provide a stake of 0.2 percent as per a estimate.
• Firms stake in square rose to 1.05 million Class A shares from 44,000 working out to a stake of 0.3 percent.
• Twitter and Square are headed by Jack Dorsey.

ANSWER: Twitter

Explanation:
Telecom and postal service users can now file complaints with the government directly on social media platform Twitter.

• Communications Minister Manoj Sinha announced the Twitter Seva for registration and resolution of complaints.
• Platform will also address grievances against private players.
• People can use four commands to escalate their complaints. These are #DoTSewa, #BSNLSewa, #MTNLSewa, #PostalSewa.
• Twitter Seva is free for government departments; subscribers will be added to the service to generate revenue through this.

ANSWER: NBA

Explanation:
The agreement is to stream exclusive non-game programming, pushing deeper into sports streaming through a new way to attract users.

• NBA deal follows Twitter’s high profile agreement with the National Football League to stream NFL games this fall.
• Twitter will deliver a live stream of new weekly pre-game show of NBA and another show as well.
• NBA deal highlights CEO Jack Dorsey’s plan to use video to make the microblogging site more engaging and spur user growth.

ANSWER: CSIS

Explanation:
Canadian spy agency Canadian Security Intelligence Service has joined Twitter with the statement “Now it’s your turn to follow us.”

• Canada’s ruling Liberals ran on an election platform to increase government transparency and oversight of the spy agencies of the nation.

ANSWER: Bloomberg

Explanation:
Micro-blogging site Twitter and Bloomberg Media have signed a deal to lifestream several media company’s news shows on Twitter platform
Partnership includes streaming rights show along with the network daily stock market coverage.

• Twitter is one of the fastest ways to find out what is happening in global business and financial markets.

ANSWER: CBS

Explanation:
Twitter has indicated that it will lifestream CBS news online coverage of Republican and Democratic conventions later this month for the social media outlet.

• People will be able to watch videos of the convention on mobile devices and desktops in the form of political tweets.
• Twitter’s foray into video is a major step taken by this social media outlet.