Removed by mod
Can’t steal something you don’t own. And people should never forget you don’t own anything on these platforms.
Removed by mod
The user behind the account has a stronger claim to the value of the account than the website
Legally, they absolutely do not. Regardless of how shitty it is, a user has no rights whatsoever to anything on these platforms. Doesn’t matter if you’ve had an account on Twitter since day one, have a million followers, and because of that facilitated tons of ad revenue for the platform. Literally none of it belongs to you in any tangible or legal way.
These are chickens that people never believed would come home to roost. These social media companies have been around for so long and feel like such major players that people don’t think about things changing, and what that change means when they’ve built entire communities or businesses on these platforms. This is what happens when you build a life or career on a foundation you don’t control. The rug can be pulled out from under you at any time, and you have no recourse whatsoever.
You’re not even a tenant to these companies. You are not the customer. You’re the product they serve up.
This would be like a bank claiming all the money in your savings account because you haven’t made any deposits or withdrawals recently.
Many banks have features and services that require a minimum average daily balance and/or a certain number of transactions each month. Plenty of them have inactivity fees. And they’ll tell you that you signed papers agreeing to these things. Are those agreements valid? Doesn’t matter. Can you afford to sue a billion dollar banking and investment company to find out?
N.B.: I’m not endorsing these practices. Just describing the reality of them. Social media is a cancer. Capitalism is killing the planet. And all these problems lay therein.
Removed by mod
The reality is that we often don’t know what rights we have until we attempt to take them to court and see if they carry weight. At some point companies move into the territory of fraud. The question is where that line is. This could well land on the wrong side of the line if a few judges decide it’s not reasonable.
Ehh it’s not that simple either way.
Like, platforms don’t actually own your data and usually explicitly state so; if for no reason other than not having liability for what you post.
If they did actually own the data (beyond having the very broad license to use it) they’d also have to curate 100% of it, otherwise they’d get sued to oblivion by copyright holders and whatnot.
This would be like a bank claiming all the money in your savings account because you haven’t made any deposits or withdrawals recently.
someone’s never seen an “inactive account” fee
Removed by mod
SWIM lives in such a country, and recently got hit by a “virtual fee” for account inactivity. Since it isn’t a “real fee”, it doesn’t increase debt, which would be illegal, but the bank will still happily apply it the moment SWIM were to ever put any money in the account.
SWIM looked around the web, and there are more people who got hit with that out of the blue… after they apparently introduced the “functionality” in 2018, but decided to “delay it” until 2023 because of COVID and stuff.
Calling it a “virtual fee” and just letting them sit there without doing anything, allows the entity to claim having more clients than they actually have, and look like it’s being owed more that it will ever get paid.
Ownership of identifiers, that includes usernames, is regulated by Trademark laws.
If you keep using a moniker, like a username, to conduct trade under it, and/or have it registered as a trademark (which requires you to use it in trade or lose it), then you can legally claim it.
Otherwise, Twitter or any other platform, can do whatever they want with it.
Removed by mod
Correct. What decides the rights, is the use. A registered but unused mark loses the rights, while a used but unregistered one keeps the rights (just becomes harder to prove).
And it needs to be used for trade. Like, someone’s personal nick, not used for trade, would have no rights. But the nick of someone using it to be an influencer, or a furry artist, would give them some rights.
Can’t steal something you don’t own
🤔 think you got that backwards?
THEY can’t steal from you something you don’t own.
Ah thanks, that makes more sense
50k for a username on a dieing platform.
Something something, fools and their money…I mean… people buying it are fools and we don’t know if anyone has actually done so. The person selling it might be an idiot, but is it foolish to ask for money? Doesn’t hurt, especially if you need it desperately.
So anyone who hasn’t logged in for 30 days is considered inactive and their account may be subject to being seized and sold? Fuck that shit.
deleted by creator
They can have my useless handle, i already purged and deleted my Twitter account.
Removed by mod
Explanation from my point of view:
-
at work I use Edge and it has the page with the clickbait at start. If I click, then the news is in the msn page with no direct link to the source (or hidden in a way that’s not immediate)
-
Most times, at least in my country, the source is paywalled while the MSN version isn’t
Removed by mod
I’m happy people are sharing stuff to Lemmy, it’s been a little quiet.
I definitely value the Forbes article over the MSN but we might not be talking about it if we hadn’t seen this post. let’s not be too critical when people are participating positively.
Removed by mod
-
At this stage it’s starting to look like a Ponzi scheme. Squeeze out as much as possible before it sinks?
How long before the X-NFT campaign?
Maybe if your account is big enough to make money off TwitX some day, you’ll be paid in Dogecoin.
That would be great, even without a real use, DOGE is still above 0 USD. Just imagine if it did have some use! 🚀🌝
That would be lovely! I actually still own some DOGE, albeit more for teh lulz than because of sound financial reasons. Though I’ve yet to encounter one single place where I could spend them for something I actually need.
I’d be slightly disappointed if the bill simply read “69.99” instead of “very such wow point wow” though.
Hehe, yeah, I got some DOGE at 0.0695€… maybe should put an order for $0.069420, hmmm…
Basically, use Twitter or they let people impersonate you.
$50,000 is nothing to pretend to be a major newspaper and ruin their reputation.
Fuck Musk.
Is it better to periodically clear unused handles and have them snatched up by bots or should they sell them? To me selling them gives people a chance to get the handle they want and stops bots from grabbing up popular handles.
If I want the handle fizz I’ll pay about $10 if someone wants to pay more then they want it more than me. I’d rather be able to bid on it than have it grabbed by a bot.
You think those are mutually exclusive? What’s to stop a bot/bad actor with some money from buying “unused” handles?
I guess this isn’t the worst idea he’s had for twitter but it seems like a short term money grab while the ship is sinking. By his own valuation twitter is worth half what it was a year ago and still not profitable, selling usernames won’t change that
If I want the handle fizz I’ll pay about $10 if someone wants to pay more then they want it more than me.
No, if someone is willing to pay more than you they may want it less but also value their money less because they have a lot of it, or they may think they can use it to make more money than you are willing to pay for it. capital=power, not desire
In my opinion that still results in the handle going to someone who wants it more.
how??? How does someone wanting it less but having more money to throw around that you mean they want it more?
Poor people don’t really want things - you need a certain level of cash flow to qualify as a proper person with dreams and feelings, haven’t you heard?
Poor people should try wanting things more
It’s so rare to find a situation where someone’s declared opinion is actually wrong on merit.
Maybe just don’t recycle them, as was the policy until now
deleted by creator
Removed by mod
Because it’s their platform and you aren’t using the name. They don’t want all the good handles stuck on dead users.
Removed by mod
The username is being sold either way. Either Twitter sells it or a bot scoops it up when the inactive accounts get released and sells it.
The original user is not in the question. The names being freed up are from users that have not logged in for years.
Removed by mod
Most sites that use a unique username free up old ones periodically so I don’t think that’s the issue here. Usernames have value and that’s why they should be freed and auctioned to people that want them. On a proprietary website like Twitter nothing belongs to the user.
Removed by mod
Liquidation has commenced.
I don’t see the issue of this. Usernames aren’t property.
I probably should sell mine for 49,999 and save whoever want my handle a buck.
