Center for Data Innovation: “The Verge, a U.S.-based technology news publication, has created a dataset of tweets flagged for misinformation in Twitter’s Birdwatch program. Twitter’s Birdwatch program serves as a content moderation ecosystem in which users can identify misleading tweets, annotate them with additional context, rate each others’ notes, and view all submitted notes. The… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Social Media
Freedom on the Net 2022: Countering an Authoritarian Overhaul of the Internet
“Global internet freedom declined for a 12th consecutive year as more governments erected digital barriers designed to censor dissent and monitor users, according to a report released today by Freedom House. The study finds that more than three-quarters of the world’s internet users now live in countries where authorities punish people for exercising their right… Continue Reading
Most of the Americans who will pay for news are rich
Nieman Lab: “About a quarter of Americans have ever paid for news directly. Americans making more than $150,000 a year are, not surprisingly, much more likely to have paid for news than those in any other income group (even the $100,000 to $150,000 bracket).” Continue Reading
TikTok Parent ByteDance Planned To Use TikTok To Monitor The Physical Location Of Specific American Citizens
Forbes: “…The team behind the monitoring project — ByteDance’s Internal Audit and Risk Control department — is led by Beijing-based executive Song Ye, who reports to ByteDance cofounder and CEO Rubo Liang. The team primarily conducts investigations into potential misconduct by current and former ByteDance employees. But in at least two cases, the Internal Audit… Continue Reading
6 Tips for Escaping From the Endless Bad News Cycle
MakeUseOf: “During tumultuous times in world history, the news plays a critical role in informing people and spreading valuable messages. However, the difference between this digital age and previous periods of significant change is that the 24/7 news cycle keeps us aware of as much bad news as good news at nearly all times. This… Continue Reading
Social listening tool for elections (free and open-source)
Maggie Farley / ICFJ – “Try this free social listening tool [beta] – or customize it for your newsroom. It’s useful for tracking politicians or issues in the run-up to the elections, and following contested races afterward. Political Pulse US is a social-listening app supported by ICFJ that allows journalists to monitor and analyze what… Continue Reading
We’re Publishing the Facebook Papers
Gizmodo – Here’s How Meta Became the Internet’s Biggest Hub of Covid-19 Misinformation: “…From the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, Facebook understood the outsized role its platform would plays in shaping public opinion about the virus and the safeguards that governments would inevitably institute in hopes of containing it. Ten months before the first reported… Continue Reading
Investigative Report on the role of online platforms in the tragic mass shooting in Buffalo on May 14, 2022
Office of the New York State Attorney General Letitia James, October 18, 2022: “The mass shooting in and around the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York on May 14, 2022 that claimed the lives of ten individuals and injured three others was all the more horrific because of the white supremacist ideological motivation that… Continue Reading
Many believe misinformation is increasing extreme political views and behaviors
The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (October, 2022). Many believe misinformation is increasing extreme political views and behaviors – “Ninety-one percent of adults say the spread of misinformation is a problem and most believe misinformation contributes to extreme political views and hate crimes, according to a new Pearson Institute/AP-NORC Poll. The poll is being… Continue Reading
Americans’ Trust In Media Remains Near Record Low
Gallup – “At 34%, Americans’ trust in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” is essentially unchanged from last year and just two points higher than the lowest that Gallup has recorded, in 2016 during the presidential campaign. Just 7% of Americans have “a great deal” of trust and confidence in… Continue Reading
Select Subcommittee Details Trump Administration’s Assault On CDC And Politicization Of Public Health During The Coronavirus Crisis
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus – Oct 17, 2022 – Press Release – “Report is the third installment detailing findings from investigation into Trump Administration’s political interference with federal coronavirus response…the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, chaired by Rep. James E. Clyburn, released a staff report detailing efforts by the Trump Administration to compromise… Continue Reading
How to rescue your hacked account: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and more
The Verge: “Hackers commandeer online accounts at industrial scale. Here’s how to restore and protect your access to Apple, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify, TikTok, and Twitter. Nearly 2 out of 5 Americans say that hackers have taken over their social media accounts. And those numbers are likely to rise as more and more account… Continue Reading
