“Goodbye Meta AI” is the most recent Facebook copypasta to go viral online. A chunky wall of text pasted against a hazy orange-yellow gradient background, it’s complete with all the trend’s hallmarks: vague references to the legal system and unilateral declarations of personal protection. It almost feels nostalgic, a blast …
Read More »Meta Releases Llama 3.2—and Gives Its AI a Voice
Mark Zuckerberg announced today that Meta, his social-media-turned-metaverse-turned-artificial intelligence conglomerate, will upgrade its AI assistants to give them a range of celebrity voices, including those of Dame Judi Dench and John Cena. The more important upgrade for Meta’s long-term ambitions, though, is the new ability of its models to see …
Read More »Russia-Backed Media Outlets Are Under Fire in the US—but Still Trusted Worldwide
In the lead-up to the 2024 elections, the Biden administration has taken aim at several Russian information operations. Earlier in September, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against two employees of RT, a Russian state-backed news network formerly known as Russia Today. At the heart of the indictment was …
Read More »Your Dumb Memes Revived One of Butt Rock's Biggest Bands
Creed is having a moment. Actually, if we’re being precise, it’s having innumerable moments, over and over again, all across the internet. On Instagram, the band has been repurposed as a comedic device for dunking on President Joe Biden; on TikTok, shitposters imagined what it would be like to explain …
Read More »Why is this Michigan school district suing social media companies?
Anyone who has attended a K-12 school or has a child, friend, or loved one who has attended one in the past decade knows one thing for sure — teachers and administrators are not fond of social media. One school is so critical of social media that it is suing …
Read More »Meta Connect Starts Today. Here’s What to Expect
Meta Connect, the big developer event and hardware showcase from the company that runs Facebook and Instagram, is kicking off today. Meta is likely to show off its new VR and mixed-reality technology, put a shiny polish on its meandering metaverse ambitions, and delve into all the fresh ways it …
Read More »Moo Deng Is More Than a Meme
Everyone, it seems, wants a piece of Moo Deng. The baby pygmy hippo is barely two months old and already famous. So beloved on TikTok, Instagram, and X is Moo Deng that workers at Khao Kheow Open Zoo, the place in Thailand where she was born, are doing all they …
Read More »The Shade Room Founder Is Ready to Dial Down the Shade
The Shade Room pioneered a unique, if somewhat loose-lipped, brand of digital media when it launched in 2014, merging elements of fan culture around the machine of celebrity news. Across the next decade, Angie Nwandu, its founder, flipped her Instagram-only celebrity tabloid into a media company with a 40-person staff …
Read More »Instagram announces restrictive 'Teen Accounts' for users under 16
Instagram just unveiled a much more restricted way for teens under 16 to use its app. Known as Teen Accounts, parent company Meta says its part of a “reimagining” of their platform for teens, in light of ongoing concerns about youth safety on the app — and they plan to …
Read More »Great news for reply guys: You can now leave comments on Instagram Stories
I come bearing exceptional news for reply guys. You can now leave comments on Instagram Stories. Previously, reply guys had just three options to display their devastating thirst on a Story post: like the Story with a heart, react with an emoji (🔥), or respond with a private DM. They’ve …
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