Twitter reported its site was being blocked and throttled in Belarus amid protests and unrest over the results of the recent presidential election.
According to Twitter’s official public policy account, the social media platform has been blocked after the people of Belarus began demonstrating to contest the election results. Incumbent Alexander Lukashenko declared victory with nearly 80% of the vote, but is suspected of ballot stuffing by election watchdogs, who said the election was not fair.
Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya also declared herself the rightful winner.
Twitter announced the throttling on August 10, the morning after protests rocked the streets. The company has historically supported access to a free internet, especially in cases of political suppression.
We're seeing blocking & throttling of Twitter in #Belarus in reaction to protests contesting the election result. #KeepItOn
Internet shutdowns are hugely harmful. They fundamentally violate basic human rights & the principles of the #OpenInternet.https://t.co/DN3pc4TkWC
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 10, 2020
“Internet shutdowns are hugely harmful. They fundamentally violate basic human rights & the principles of the #OpenInternet,” Twitter said in a statement.
You just opened X and started typing your thoughts. Imagine the jump scare when a hand suddenly pops up on your screen, pointing at the promote button. It doesn’t say a word and simply points. For a growing number of X users, this isn’t a made-up scenario but something they have been seeing since yesterday, and very few of them are amused.
Most of us have learned to tune out the usual in-app upsells, whether it’s a glowing upgrade banner or a pop-up about a premium plan. A floating hand hovering over your draft is much harder to ignore, and that’s probably the whole point.
Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.
What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?