Maybe "hacked" is too strong of a word, but it seemed like this troubled celebrity had somehow mastered Twitter in a way that tech reporters hadn't.

It happened like this: BuzzFeed writer Louis Peitzman noticed that when you scrolled down to the first tweet on Amanda Bynes' Twitter profile, something bizarre happened. Love her or hate her or have no opinion about her whatsoever, Ms. Bynes' Twitter made it appear as if you--or whoever's Twitter account you were logged into--had tweeted some extremely complimentary things about her.

Def did not tweet this.

The whole thing reminded us of that old AIM trick, where you'd plug %n into your away message and it would automatically replace it with the username of whoever was viewing your profile.

As it turns out, Amanda Bynes wasn't the only celebrity whose profile made it appear as if the user had tweeted nice things about them. In fact, the Twitter profiles of Kanye West and Chris Brown were both displaying the same bug.

Twitter released a statement soon after BuzzFeed pointed out the problem, saying that it had resolved the issue. "While scrolling through another user’s profile, it falsely appeared to the viewer that the user had retweeted a Tweet that the viewer hadn’t actually sent," read the statement.

This all strikes us as mildly bizarre, though: for one, why was it only happening to celebrities? It wasn't relegated solely to verified accounts, as Ms. Bynes' account wasn't yet verified. And it also didn't appear to have to do with follower counts, as lesser-known Twitter personalities with big followings but little name cache didn't appear to have the bug.

Whatever the case, we're happy to have all history of our prior faux adoration of Amanda Bynes wiped from the Twitter archives.

Kim K, queen of the selfies. (Photo: Instagram)

Much ink has already been spilled over Instagram's new updated terms of service, which specifically states that it can use your photos for "advertising and promotions." Twitter users erupted in outrage over the news, with many techies claiming they would soon be quitting the service. Wired wrote a helpful how-to on how to download your photos and delete your account. Photographer Clayton Cubitt, who is not at all hyperbolic, called it Instagram's suicide note. Gizmodo called everyone whiny babies and offered a counterpoint: "shut up."

While the hype may be somewhat overblown (we highly doubt the masses quit Instagram over this), the ambiguity introduced by the new terms has understandably led to much confusion. If all you take is brunch photos or pics of the sunset and don't mind those showing up in ads, bully for you. But what happens if Instagram decides to use photos of your young siblings or children to advertise a product? As Anil Dash put it, “It’s very likely they’d use a photo of my son to sell stuff to my parents, without me knowing."

That concern also extends to users as young as 13, who are also subject to Instagram's new policy. As Bloomberg points out, taking photos of underage users for ads raises some thorny privacy and safety concerns.

And what about the BaddieBey's, Riri's and ChampagnePapi's of the world? Celebrities have also become prolific users of the seemingly-intimate photo sharing service. Instagram’s new TOS says the service has the right to share your photos, username, likeness and metadata with third party advertiser. This means they could feasibly take a photo of Kim Kardashian’s cat Mercy (RIP) and use it in an advertisement for the SPCA. As it did with professional photographers, this invokes questions about how much control you have over own content and likeness.

Some celebs are already worried about this. On his Google Plus page (lol), Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton writes:

Here's what I'm wondering: if Kaley Cuoco uses Instagram to share a photo of her and Melissa Rauch doing something silly, does that mean that Instagram can take that photo and use it to advertise for something silly without compensating them for what becomes a use of their likeness for commercial purposes? I can see that being a pretty serious shitstorm if it happens.

It’s unlikely that Instagram will alter its policy to protect celebrities. For all its celebrity-courting, famous people on Twitter use the service pretty much like the rest of us. But it also seems unlikely that publicists will be okay with the service making money off of their clients’ likenesses. Either way, it would behoove Instagram to clarify just how it intends to use our data before Snapchat starts looking like the only safe place to share.

(h/t to HeyVeronica, who got us thinking about this whole thing.)

Update:

Turns out celebrities really are angry about this whole Instagram TOS update. P!nk tweeted that she'll be quitting, as will Saved By the Bell star Tiffani Amber Thiessen, whom we did not even know had an Instagram

Basically singing an aria right now. (Photo: Screencap)

Nathan Fillion, hunky star of the beloved-but-taken-too-soon TV series Firefly (and also Castle, we suppose?) appeared on Conan last night. And it seems the main thing he could talk about was how much he loves his iPhone 5.  He loves his iPhone 5 more than you love your mother, spouse and/or labradoodle puppy.

And what's more? That little bundle of chips and Gorilla glass surely loves him back. He gushed to host Conan O'Brien: "It's pretty, it's tiny and it's light and it's so smart and it loves me, obviously it loves me."

Lest you leap to the conclusion that Mr. Fillion's relationship with his Apple devices has been without its rough patches, he admitted to a period of unhappiness with Siri, whom he initially programmed to call him "Scout," which got annoying. However, in the words of the great U2, love is blindness:

"She's not always super accurate and sometimes she's way off, but you know what? I commit to it. Send--whatever she says."

Let's hope he takes a slightly more skeptical approach to whatever he discovers on Apple Maps.

(h/t CNET)

(Photo: YouTube)

On May 15, 2007, a then-19-year-old YouTube user named Shawn Cotter--employing the handle “cotter548”--uploaded the music video for Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up,” intending to troll some of his fellow gaming cohorts on 4chan. Mr. Cotter, who was serving in the Air Force in South Korea at the time, linked to the video under the pretense that it was a new trailer for Grand Theft Auto: IV. But as that now-familiar drum cadence faded in and the caption “You just got Rickroll’d” floated across the screen, users discovered they weren’t watching a video game trailer at all.

The digital bait-and-switch of Rickrolling was born, and 4chan was not amused.

“The reaction was pure rage,” recalled Mr. Cotter with a laugh on a phone interview with Betabeat. “They were so mad because people had been pumped for this game for so long.”

Within days, the video exploded across the web and became one of the modern internet’s most well-known memes. To date, “Rickroll’d” has been viewed over 64 million times--most of them probably by mistake, considering the spirit of the meme. Mr. Cotter remained anonymous before coming forward in a Reddit AMA late last year.

“I figured it would last a couple hours and that was it,” Mr. Cotter said of the video’s success. “I didn’t figure it would get reposted so much. It just was craziness when it did. Within the first day it was up to a crazy amount of views.”

We found Mr. Cotter through his AMA, but were still skeptical that the phenomenon of Rickrolling could actually be tracked back to a single person. In order to prove that it was really he who uploaded the original video, we asked him to add a few lines to the YouTube description. Sure enough, he wrote "Hi, Jessica!" in the description, and we actually felt kind of famous, if only for a moment.

In the ’80s, “Never Gonna Give You Up” was a worldwide number-one hit that catapulted Mr. Astley to music stardom. His first eight singles hit the U.K.’s Top 10, but he decided to retire in 1993—at the ripe age of 27—to focus on his family. But 15 years later, with the click of a Nebraskan Air Force kid living in Korea, he was suddenly relevant again.

We asked Mr. Cotter which video he'd choose to start a similar trend, if he could choose today. "I’m a pro wrestling fan so probably what i would do is instead of doing a music video, I’d bring back a wrestling theme song. Hulk Hogan’s 'Real American'--that’s a classic."

Here's what Mr. Astley thinks of the whole thing.

Imagine being able to tell the other kids that your dad made Reasonable Doubt. Now, one will.

You might also know this because you've spent time on Twitter.

Earlier today, Mashable noted the new Power Daughter's effect on Twitter, via the social analytics firm Simply Measured, which noted that tweets per minute about Blue—the Bey-Z in question—"peaked at 2,379 tweets at 11:15 p.m. PT on Saturday, which is a 'healthy number for a non-televised, rumor driven event.'"

Furthermore, they have a wonderful chart to detail this:

Celebrity Baby Announcements: The indisputable, truest value of social media.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Yes, in what appears to be one of the odder variations on the old "I HATE YOU ALL!" internet stomp off, Mr. Baldwin has abandoned his Twitter account in order to...eventually return to Twitter in some other form. Via the L.A. Times:

The "30 Rock" star sent a tweet late Tuesday that said, "Let's play a game called Mass Unfollowing. I want to crash this acct and start again. But, tonight at 10 PM NY time, unfollow me."

His account was then closed out with a link to three YouTube videos of an orchestra performing Mahler's 9th Symphony.

In the event you need refreshing, the precedent for this kind of planned resurrection was once set by Jesus. This is what his Twitter looks like now:

Mr. Baldwin did, however, take time to file for the Huffington Post on the crucial issue of How Much American Airlines Sucks As Told To You By Alec Baldwin. Journalism and/or serenity, now!

The lesson I've learned is to keep my phone off when the 1950's gym teacher is on duty. That was my fault there, even though this trip was quite a bit different from so many others. But it is sad, I think, that you've got to fly overseas today in order to bring back what has been thrown overboard by US carriers in terms of common sense, style, and service.

 
Not that this is the first time an overzealous celebrity has raged against an airline and "won," but this time, thankfully, due to Mr. Baldwin's bold sacrifices made over the last 24 hours, the world not only knows how much (the literally bankrupt) American Airlines sucks, but also, just how patently unaccountable the world will hold anybody for being insufferable when they have as many Twitter followers as Alec Baldwin does.

We are all better off.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek