Nieman Lab: “Given the amount of attention TikTok has swallowed up from anyone under the age of 30, we might expect it to be a more obsessive focus of news organizations in their efforts to attract younger and more engaged audiences. But TikTok has shown itself to be rather inhospitable to news: It removes links that publishers could use… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Social Media
Lessig on why AI and social media are causing a free speech crisis for the internet
The Verge: Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig – After 30 years teaching law, the internet policy legend is as worried as you’d think about AI and TikTok — and he has surprising thoughts about balancing free speech with protecting democracy. Nilay Patel: “…Larry and I talked about the current and recurring controversy around react videos on… Continue Reading
Meet ‘New Elites’ Who Control Twitter’s Israel-Hamas News
The ‘new elites’ of X: Identifying the most influential accounts engaged in Hamas/Israel discourse. Oct 20, 2023 RAPID RESEARCH REPORT University of Washington Center for an Informed Public: “Since the first news of the attack on Israel by Hamas, we have seen anecdotal reports from users of X (formerly Twitter) that the platform has become… Continue Reading
PeerTube: Video hosting on the Fediverse
“PeerTube ⧉ is a video platform for the Fediverse, and allows anyone to start their own independent video site. Because it’s part of the Fediverse, PeerTube accounts can be followed from Mastodon etc as well as other PeerTube servers. PeerTube videos are streamed using clever peer-to-peer technology which means the more people watch a video,… Continue Reading
AI’s Threats to Election Security
Brennan Center for Justice: “Increasing awareness of the power of artificial intelligence coincides with growing public anxiety about the future of democracy, with significant concern about AI’s potential to harm elections. A new series from the Brennan Center and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology explores how AI could impact various parts of… Continue Reading
Silicon Valley Ditches News, Shaking an Unstable Industry
The New York Times via Yahoo: “Campbell Brown, Facebook’s top news executive, left the company this month. Twitter, now known as X, removed headlines from the platform days later. The head of Instagram’s Threads app, an X competitor, reiterated that his social network would not amplify news. Even Google — the strongest partner to news… Continue Reading
Mozilla’s first-ever Annual Consumer Creep-O-Meter
“Mozilla’s Annual Consumer Creep-O-Meter distills what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s just plain creepy in the world of consumer tech. Since 2017, Mozilla has published 15 editions of *Privacy Not Included, our consumer tech buyers guide. We’ve reviewed over 500 gadgets, apps, cars, and more, assessing their security features, what data they collect, and who… Continue Reading
Social Media’s ‘Frictionless Experience’ for Terrorists
The Atlantic [read free]: “These platforms were already imperfect. Now extremist groups are making sophisticated use of their vulnerabilities. The incentives of social media have long been perverse. But in recent weeks, platforms have become virtually unusable for people seeking accurate information….Social media has long encouraged the sharing of outrageous content. Posts that stoke strong… Continue Reading
Are people actually using TikTok for news?
Mashable: “…Researchers Nick Hagar from the New York Times and Nicholas Diakopoulos of Northwestern University have published a study in New Media and Society [Algorithmic indifference: The dearth of news recommendations on TikTok] which investigated how news content was amplified and recommended on the TikTok For You Page. Bear in mind that at the end… Continue Reading
Violent and graphic content of the Gaza conflict served to minors’ accounts
Content warning: This dispatch contains graphic descriptions of violence, including to children. Institute for Strategic Dialogue: “Over a 48-hour period, ISD analysts surfaced more than 300 posts or videos across Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, portraying extremely graphic, distressing, or violent imagery around the conflict between Hamas and Israel, available to the accounts of 13-year-olds utilising… Continue Reading
Misinformation Is Soaring Online. Don’t Fall for It
Wired via PodMust: “Misinformation lives everywhere. False accounts of events, doctored photos, and purposely misleading news stories are quickly shared and passed around on social media, usually by well-meaning people who don’t know they’re sharing incorrect information. It’s a big problem in the best of times, but the stakes become much higher during a heated… Continue Reading
Antisemitism and Its Impacts
Use this Explainer and Tropes Chart to help students understand what antisemitism is, how it shows up in contemporary settings, why it persists, and how it impacts individuals and communities….”What Forms Does Antisemitism Take and Where Does It Show Up? Because humans often divide our societies into “in” groups and “out” groups, and because we… Continue Reading
