Elon Musk says that advertisers fleeing X after his endorsement of an antisemitic post could “kill” the platform formerly known as Twitter. And he has a simple message for those companies, which include Disney, Apple, and IBM: “Go fuck yourself.” Musk, speaking Wednesday night at the New York Times’ DealBook …
Read More »4 Tips to Spot Misinformation on the Web
We've already discussed how the Israel-Hamas war is the latest conflict where people are poring over social media and news channels looking for updates on what, exactly, is happening. After all, whether it’s news about our neighborhoods or communities on the other side of the world, the web is where …
Read More »China Tried to Keep Kids Off Social Media. Now the Elderly Are Hooked
Gao Xiangjin used to know all the names of players in the American baskeball leagues, but since relations between the US and China soured, once-daily NBA broadcasts are now far less frequent. So Gao started watching China’s men’s basketball instead, until reports about corruption turned him off earlier this year. …
Read More »Hard Drives, YouTube, and Murder: India’s Dark History of Digital Hate
A crowd had gathered at a village temple in Kesapuri, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, when Vikas Patil plugged a hard drive into his laptop to begin his show. First, he showed them an explicit video of a cow being killed. The animals are considered sacred to “upper …
Read More »YouTube and Reels Could Decide India’s Elections
Sharvan Patel’s Instagram account is a window into daily life in the vast deserts of western India: children fighting calves for camel milk, a grandmother drying pickles on top of a mud house, or a farmer eating under the only tree in a barren land. Patel’s passion for wildlife conservation …
Read More »US Lawmakers Ask SEC to Launch Fraud Investigation Into Elon Musk
Federal regulators are being pushed to investigate whether Elon Musk deceived investors in his brain-chip startup Neuralink by omitting details about the gruesome deaths of at least a dozen animals who were surgically fitted with its implants. Four members of the US House of Representatives today alleged that Musk issued …
Read More »Elon Musk’s Media Matters Lawsuit Will Have a ‘Chilling Effect’
On Monday, X filed a lawsuit against Media Matters for America (MMFA), a nonprofit, alleging that a recent report showing big name advertisers appearing next to antisemitic content on X was an attempt to “destroy” the company by encouraging advertisers to pull their money. Shortly after, Texas Attorney General Ken …
Read More »Inside the Operation to Bring Down Trump’s Truth Social
As former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social social media platform teeters on the brink of financial collapse, a group of shitposting cartoon dogs known for mocking Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine has infiltrated the platform. They’re trying to bring it down from the inside before the 2024 US election. The …
Read More »Bumble, Grindr, and Hinge Moderators Struggle to Keep Users—and Themselves—Safe
“I wasn’t able to go outside anywhere alone,” Ana says. “I had so much anxiety that when I went outside to do errands, I lost consciousness twice. That’s when I realized I was very sick.” Ana began working for LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr when she was in her early twenties, …
Read More »Meet Emmett Shear, OpenAI’s ‘Highly Intelligent, Socially Awkward’ Interim CEO
After a weekend of chaos at OpenAI, the company’s board of directors appointed former Twitch boss Emmett Shear interim CEO late Sunday. It was just the latest in a string of tumultuous changes at the AI company following Friday’s ouster of CEO Sam Altman, and it left many wondering what …
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