Social
Social networking shapes society and our news coverage reflects and directs that. We keep tabs on all the biggest social companies, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Reddit, as well as funding and acquisitions of new social startups.
Substack is opening up to more users with its recent announcement that anyone can now publish content on its platform without setting up a publication. With the change, Substack is…
As unrest fueled by disinformation spreads, the UK may seek stronger power to regulate tech platforms
The U.K. government has indicated it may seek stronger powers to regulate tech platforms following days of violent disorder across England and Northern Ireland fueled by the spread of online…
Instagram is rolling out the ability for users to add up to 20 photos or videos to their feed carousels, as the platform embraces the trend of “photo dumps.” Back…
The X account announced that its Premium+ subscription would now be “fully” ad-free, leading some to question how this change would affect creator earnings.
Just three months after Maven’s public launch, Kenneth Stanley — the former OpenAI researcher who co-founded the social media platform designed to facilitate serendipitous interactions — is stepping down. Stanley…
UK’s internet regulator warns social media platforms over risks of inciting violence
The U.K.’s internet regulator Ofcom has published an open letter to social media platforms raising concerns about the use of their tools being used to incite violence.
Facebook creators are being given a new option that will help them avoid jail — “Facebook jail,” that is — upon their first violation, and at various times after. In…
Elon Musk’s X taken to court in Ireland for grabbing EU user data to train Grok without consent
Elon Musk’s X is being taken to court in Ireland for using Europeans’ data to train AI models without asking for their consent.
Reddit users will soon see AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told investors during its earnings call on Tuesday that the company…
According to a company blog post, the team was already leaning on Masnick for advice, so adding him to the board is a “natural next step” in formalizing their relationship.
X Ceo Linda Yaccarino claims that GARM’s “illegal behavior of these organizations and their executives cost X billions of dollars.”
Grok — not to be confused with the homophonic AI startup Groq that this morning raised over $600 million — has been spreading false information about Vice President Kamala Harris…
TikTok Lite: EU closes addictive design case after TikTok commits to not bring back rewards mechanism
The European Commission has closed a Digital Services Act (DSA) investigation of a rewards feature in TikTok Lite by accepting commitments from the social media giant to permanently withdraw the…
A fireside chat between Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg at SIGGRAPH 2024 took some unexpected turns. What started as a conversation about the capabilities of Nvidia GPUs and Zuckerberg’s vision…
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department are suing TikTok and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, with violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law requires digital…
While venture capitalists and the rest of the technorati are off on holiday or attending the Paris Olympics, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its staff attorneys are keeping…
Date Like Goblins, a new dating platform, allows users to virtually date and play video games
Date Like Goblins is geared toward the gaming community and allows users to connect through voice chat while playing video games.
Threads users in the U.S. can now see a label that highlights related trending topics above posts.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has passed in the Senate after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushed the internet bill to a vote. Proposed in 2022, KOSA requires that…
We say something “goes viral” because we tend to think of rumors and disinformation spreading the way that an infection spreads. But these days it may be more accurate to…
It turns out that maybe, just maybe, spending a lot of time staring at your phone and reading bad news isn’t great for your outlook…
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MatPat, the first big YouTuber to successfully exit his company, is lobbying for creators on Capitol Hill
Though MatPat retired from YouTube, he’s still pretty busy. In fact, he’s been spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill.
OpenAI is testing SearchGPT, a new AI search experience to compete directly with Google. The feature aims to elevate search queries with “timely answers” from across the internet and allows…
The language is ambiguous, so it’s not clear whether X is helping itself to all user data for training Grok or whether this processing refers only to user interactions with…
Meta’s AI integrations into apps like Instagram and Facebook have felt pretty useless so far. If I’m just trying to find my friend’s Instagram, why…
The Board wants Meta to change the terminology it uses for labeling explicit, AI-generated images from “derogatory” to “non-consensual.”
TikTok Lite, a low-bandwidth version of the video platform popular across Africa, Asia and Latin America, is exposing users to harmful content because of its lack of safety features compared…
Content creators are busy people. Most spend more than 20 hours a week creating new content for their respective corners of the web. That doesn’t leave much time for audience…
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There’s a lot more to the Kamala Harris memes than you think
“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” says Vice President Kamala Harris in a now infamous clip. An overlay of the lime green album art for Charli XCX’s “Brat” flashes on the screen, while a remix of “Von Dutch” scores increasingly frenetic clips of Harris hysterically laughing…
Meta AI, Meta’s AI-powered assistant across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and the web, can now speak in more languages and create stylized selfies. And, starting today, Meta AI users can route…
