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Recode Daily: Twitter is experimenting with supersized tweets

Plus, Walmart runs a 90-day free trial of Facebook’s Workplace office product, China blocks Facebook’s WhatsApp, and the sound of (streaming) music.

Illustration of the Twitter bird icon if it doubled in size.
Illustration of the Twitter bird icon if it doubled in size.
Alex Ewerlöf / Dribble

Twitter is testing a big change — doubling the length of tweets from the iconic 140 characters to 280. We asked Twitter if U.S. President Donald Trump — quite possibly the most famous tweeter of them all — would get the new feature. Nope. But then, neither did Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s mom. Recode’s staff — passionate tweeters all — had some immediate opinions. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

Walmart — America’s largest employer — is using Facebook’s enterprise office product, Workplace, the largest deployment of the product in the U.S. Walmart isn’t paying Facebook yet — it’s using a 90-day free trial of Workplace. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

Top tech companies will commit a total of $300 million to a new White House’s push toward boosting computer-science and STEM education in the U.S. Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce have each committed $50 million. [Tony Romm / Recode]

China blocked Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging app ahead of a big Communist Party gathering next month. Chinese authorities have a history of blocking and slowing down internet services, prompting many to switch to apps like Tencent’s popular WeChat that are easily monitored by the government. [Keith Bradsher / The New York Times]

Facebook users will now be able to watch NFL highlights and game clips for free immediately after the game. The two-year deal kicks in immediately. Meanwhile, Trump is still tweeting about the national anthem. [Peter Kafka / Recode]

Equifax chairman and CEO Richard Smith stepped down in the wake of the company’s massive data breach, which exposed the personal data of 143 million people. Equifax said Smith will “retire” after more than a decade with the company; Paulino do Rego Barros, who served as Asia-Pacific president, will replace him as CEO. [Zack Whittaker / ZDNet]

Take a look at Rolling Stone’s financials. They’re not pretty, even by aging magazine standards. Jann Wenner, who is looking for a buyer, suggests that whoever buys his publication should save money buy cutting the editorial budget in half. [Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair]

Top stories from Recode

Dyson, the company that makes fancy vacuums, is building an electric car.

Founder James Dyson announced the company’s plans in a staff email.

Uber drivers will get a flat fee for every new pickup on Pool rides.

The ride-hail company is rolling out the fourth chapter of its driver improvement campaign.

Venture firm IVP has raised its biggest fund yet at $1.5 billion.

A sign of the times.

Here are 19 random facts about Google on its 19th anniversary.

In 1998, Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded the search engine.

This is cool

The sound of (streaming) music.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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