back to article Kaspersky Lab loses the privilege of giving Twitter ad money

Twitter says it will no longer run ads from beleaguered security vendor Kaspersky Lab. Claiming the company's alleged dealings with the Russian government violates its ad policies, the 280-character shoutfest site says Kaspersky's advertising money is no longer good, but it can still post regular (unpaid) Tweets. "This …

  1. Martin Summers Silver badge

    I hate to say it but this is probably the beginning of the end for Kaspersky. They're not going to shake off the reputation they are gaining (fairly or not) and it doesn't help that whilst powerful their enterprise products are so unforgiving and unpolished. I've uninstalled it only the other day and I get it for free.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Martin

      Or the beginning of the end for social media. Facebook is already on its decline and if people use their gray blub they'll notice a pattern here.

      For starters: this could be you. If they can block you from advertising for no given (proven!) reason then they can do a whole lot more. Basically: upset twitter and see your privileges decline, that is what this boils down to. What's next? You're too negative about women (because you said you hated The Last Jedi) so we'll just revoke some of your privileges because.. $reasons?

      Why anyone would want to associate themselves with this twisted "social" media garbage is way beyond me. All they're doing is parasiting on your data.

      1. thames

        Re: @Martin

        On it's own it might be remotely plausible as a "security" action. In the wider context though, it fits in as American trade protectionism. Canadian steel and aluminum companies have also been labelled "national security risks" by the Americans. Bombardier is "bad" until they promise to assemble planes in the US, and then the trade complaint gets magically thrown out at the next hurdle.

        I think that the head of Huawei said something along the lines of that getting blocked from the US market feels much more relaxing now that they know that they don't have to worry about keeping the Americans happy any more.

      2. Martin Summers Silver badge

        Re: @Martin

        I think the key words in my comment were "fairly or not". I didn't say it was fair or that I agreed with Twitter. Doubt has been introduced and a security vendor surely cannot survive something like that. That's all I was saying.

    2. a_yank_lurker

      @Martin - I doubt this will be the end for Kaspersky as actions like this risk a winnable civil suit by them. The only reason they are in 'trouble' is because they are Russian and thus most be in Putin's hip pocket. The same could be said about any AV vendor, they must be in X's back pocket because they are in Y. No proof has been offered on these assertions.

      However, Twitter is being more and more censored because they are afraid of anything smelling of a controversy. As they become more risk adverse look for more this type of action in the future.

      Also, this might be a blessing for Kapersky as the use of ad blockers rises making online advertising less effective. Some browsers are shipped with ad-blockers (Brave definitely - built in).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        What's worse

        is that many of the others are in Trump's hip pocket.

        Pot calling kettle black as far as I'm concerned.

    3. Chronos

      Beginning of the end for Kaspersky?

      Really? Because, from my perspective, they are getting more viral advertising from the subtext that they're not caving in to political pressure from anyone to weaken their security that I rather think they'll do quite well from this.

      As I've said before, pissing off various three letter agencies and the odd nosey bastard is probably the best feedback they could possibly get.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shouldn't the last paragraph read "Twitter is playing into the hands of cybercriminals NSA, CIA, FBI and otherUS agencies when it hinders us providing users, for example, with timely, potentially important information on protection from cyber-extortionists private information gathering."

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Indeed.

      The way things are going I am going to donate Евгений a few Eu by switching my subscriptions to the paid tier.

      He deserves it

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        few Eu by switching my subscriptions to the paid tier

        I suspect that Kaspersky is suffering from a surfeit of "Won't give the US security services inside access" here..

    2. tom dial Silver badge

      Internet users may need to ask, and answer rationally, what risks they face and having done so, they should respond accordingly. While there undoubtedly are some for whom the US or another government is the primary risk actor, it is quite certain that for the overwhelming majority the primary risk comes from criminals after their money.

      Somewhere between, and toward the low end if the risk scale, is the rather ill-defined risk of private information gathering, of which the most likely effect is that it will be used to target them with advertising they do not wish to receive and the most damaging is likely to be its acquisition by criminals after their money.

      Given the propensity of some billions of Facebook, Twitter, and other users to share their thoughts and personal information with something like the entire world, I doubt that Kaspersky or any other software can make much of a dent in anything beyond identifying and sometimes preventing unauthorized and nearly always illegal access to computer systems.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        > While there undoubtedly are some for whom the US or another government is the primary risk actor, it is quite certain that for the overwhelming majority the primary risk comes from criminals after their money.

        With the US government proposing and pushing Open Source (and likely IT) industry destroying things such as the TPP (with variations over the years until it gets through), they're by far the greater and more primary risk than the other groups of criminals you're thinking of.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    I hope for a symbol in the making...

    So basically what Twitter is saying: we have no proof but we still believe that you violated our policies so we'll hit you where we can. Get over it already: if they violated your policies block their account but not this half twitted idiocy. Oh wait.. I just though of something ;)

    Warning:: This could be you if you rub twitter the wrong way!

    Can't happen? Just look at Facebook and the gigantic well of misery which got opened there. Did you know that if you removed your account from Facebook then all your friends will get sent a reminder that you unfriended them? Social networks do many things except keep your best interests in mind and I have no doubt that twitter isn't any different.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: I hope for a symbol in the making...

      Did you know that if you removed your account from Facebook then all your friends will get sent a reminder that you unfriended them?

      Awesome. "Social Network". More like "Vindictive Little Sh*ts network".

    2. briandavies

      Re: I hope for a symbol in the making...

      >>Did you know that if you removed your account from Facebook then all your friends will get sent a reminder that you unfriended them?<<

      That didn't happen when I dumped them last year.

      1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

        Re: I hope for a symbol in the making...

        That didn't happen when I dumped them last year.

        Which means it is a clear "payback" specifically introduced for all the ones who are paying attention this year.

        The ANTISocial Network.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: I hope for a symbol in the making...

          I find Facebook abhorrent but in the interest of truth:

          Unfriending on Facebook does not notify the friend, and neither does deactivating an account.

    3. Jeffrey Nonken

      Re: I hope for a symbol in the making...

      Did you know the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary? Go ahead, look it up for yourself!

  4. Florida1920
    WTF?

    Banned for "alleged dealings with the Russian government"

    But they aren't banning Trump?

  5. Smoking Man

    Easy.

    Trump said: "Wanna stay the official voice of America? Ban Kaspersky. Got the message?"

  6. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    How to prove a negative (in this case)

    "...Kaspersky was sharing information collected from its customers with Russian intelligence agencies."

    How do you prove that this accusation is more-or-less effectively probably likely unfounded?

    Kaspersky needs to provide the information and tools to allow WireSharking researchers to decrypt the contents of any and all packets being sent from the users' PC back to anywhere.

    Then the independent researchers can view the plain text data, and provide commentary.

    It won't be cut-and-dry, but it may well be clearly nefarious or it may well be clearly harmless. In either case, the results would be clear. But it may be in the muddled middle, perhaps.

    Researchers could examine historical versions too.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Enemies, foreign and domestic

      Any informed observer would realize that Symantec's Norton AntiVirus has done more harm to Western Civilization than any foreigner cyber criminals.

      NAV probably wasted hundreds of millions of hours. We might have been on Mars by now if we hadn't lost several years of human progress circa 2002-2009.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    fears, alleged, etc

    and they get 'punished'. I don't appreciate ads, I don't care about twiturr, and I never tried Kaspersky... but it seems like some guilty-until-proven-innocent bullshit.

  8. Milton

    Exposing Ridiculousness

    Exposing Ridiculousness is an uncatchy but arguably appropriate term for statements like Twitter's, which reveal mind-bending hypocrisy and sophistry.

    For serious security I don't, and wouldn't use or recommend Kaspersky products any more than I would suggest the use of any hardware that's been in China, or made according to Chinese designs—neither Russia nor China remotely resembles a free democracy; both undertake massive espionage against the west; companies operating in those countries have no defence against doing whatever their despotic and evil government tells them.

    But it is striking that there is not an iota of hard evidence offered by US Govt against Kaspersky, nor, so far as I'm aware, by anyone else.

    Whereas Twitter resolutely refuses to delete the account of an influential person who routinely posts offensive, racist, misogynist, warmongering statements and (with remarkable consistency) outright and provably untruthful propaganda.

    Twitter: if your values boil down to shameless hypocrisy and transparent dishonesty, then—beyond reprinting tiny pellets of superficial crap posted by lazy semilterates— what are you for, and why would any self-respecting person want a damn thing to do with you?

  9. Cynicalmark
    Devil

    Erm

    Didn’t Kaspersky refuse to put backdoor into the product for the US Government-or something along those lines? Maybe Lobbyists for Norton Twattyvirus persuaded a few Senators with incentives etc...

    The point is the good old US of A is finally showing that it is what we all knew anyway, a bloody mess of legalese and greed. Twatter is a platform of censorship and control, created as a safety app for concerned parents and now hijacked as is everything by the morons full of vacuous shit.

    I will be sticking to Kaspersky - it’s always been easy to use and I couldn’t give a toss what some brainless tit from a Disney gov’t thinks. Christ alive, guilty until proved innocent is not Democracy, the last time that happened a guy with a bad hairdo and a moustache in a socialist party caused a global war........oh ffs, I’m off to buy a lot of canned goods.

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