Social media Archives - Attention to the Unseen

How a false nuclear claim about Iran ricocheted from India to Washington, bolstering Netanyahu

From elsewhere — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 23:00:07 +0000

The New York Times reports: On the morning of Aug. 5, an anonymous account on X in India posted seemingly sensational news. The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had vowed that his country would never give up its nuclear weapon ambitions as long as Israel and the United States possessed those weapons, the account said. It was not true, and there’s no evidence that the commander made the remark or that Iran has developed nuclear weapons. The claim...

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SpaceX’s earnings show Elon wiped out two-thirds of Twitter’s ad business

From elsewhere — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 01:52:36 +0000

Mike Masnick writes: When SpaceX filed for its IPO, we went through the S-1 to point out just how far off the mark Elon Musk’s predictions about his Twitter takeover turned out to be. Indeed, the failure of Twitter as a business was so catastrophic, Musk had to hide it by merging all his Xs together: he had xAI buy X (formerly Twitter), and then had SpaceX buy xAI. But when Musk was buying Twitter and needed investors, he made...

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Meta ordered to pay almost $1 billion over social media harm to children

From elsewhere — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 01:05:13 +0000

Fortune reports: A New Mexico court has ordered Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta to pay $567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms in the second phase of a landmark trial. Judge Bryan Biedscheid said in a ruling late Thursday that the bulk of the money — $420 million — will be used for treatment services for young people. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next...

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ICE built a $258 million social media surveillance machine to monitor its online critics

From elsewhere — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 01:04:38 +0000

Gadget Review reports: A critical Reddit comment about immigration enforcement can, four months later, bring plainclothes agents to a poster’s door carrying a printout of the post — a scenario no longer hypothetical. According to the Wall Street Journal, ICE has built a funded, contractor-powered surveillance operation that monitors social media around the clock — not just for credible violence, but for speech that challenges the agency’s mission. Since early 2025, DHS has fired off hundreds of administrative subpoenas to...

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From a Ukrainian bomb shelter, Laura Loomer explains her shift on Russia’s war

From elsewhere — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 23:56:56 +0000

The Associated Press reports: Laura Loomer became infamous for spreading conspiracy theories online. Now, as she travels across Ukraine to see the damage inflicted by Russia in its yearslong war, she wants to admit that she fell for some falsehoods of her own. A close ally of President Donald Trump, Loomer has completely reversed her longtime criticism of Ukraine and is urging fellow conservatives to be wary of Moscow’s propaganda, which she blames for duping large swaths of the American...

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War has turned Trump’s social media posts into nothing more than noise

From elsewhere — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 01:32:14 +0000

Charlie Warzel writes: If President Trump has one true skill, it is conjuring up alternate realities and getting his supporters to accept them. The examples are everywhere: dismissing stories he doesn’t like as “fake news” from corrupt media, casting the January 6 rioters as victims, election denial. After he baselessly insisted that there had been rampant mail-in voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, 11 states made mail-voting access more restrictive. His repeated false claims in 2024 that Haitians in...

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France becomes first EU country to ban social media access for under-15s

From elsewhere — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:05:39 +0000

The Guardian reports: France’s parliament has approved a bill banning social media access for children under 15, making it the first EU country to bar children from apps such as TikTok. The president, Emmanuel Macron, has championed the ban as a key reform of his final term in office and pledged to enforce it by September. “France is leading the way in Europe when it comes to protecting our children and teenagers,” Macron said in a video posted on social...

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Trump’s ex-campaign manager is running an Israeli influence operation targeting the MAGA base

From elsewhere — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 01:30:43 +0000

Time reports: After the U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire deal on June 17, a senior U.S. official was monitoring the online reaction when they noticed something surprising. President Donald Trump’s aides had expected his supporters to celebrate the agreement. Instead, online influencers in Trump’s MAGA movement were excoriating it on social media. One shared an Israeli op-ed titled, “You Could Have Been the Greatest President of All—But You Failed.” Several posted the same video of Qatar’s prime minister...

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Trump blatantly tries to manipulate markets by selling fast access Truth Social to Wall Street firms

From elsewhere — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:16:52 +0000

The New Republic reports: The thin veil that has historically clouded government corruption is in the trash—under the current Trump administration, blatant ethical misconduct is in. Truth Social executives announced Thursday that the company would sell Wall Street firms premier access to Donald Trump’s market-rattling online posts, granting traders an advantage over the general public with regard to anticipating stock market fluctuations due to the president’s social media habits. The product, marketed as “Truth API,” apparently aims to make fast...

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The Democratic influencer who helped bring down Graham Platner and former Rep. Eric Swalwell

From elsewhere — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 01:37:05 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reports: Behind the stunning downfall of two Democratic politicians this midterm cycle is a 29-year-old lawyer and progressive social media influencer. Cheyenne Hunt played a key role in surfacing serious accusations of assault and sexual misconduct against Maine Democrat Graham Platner and former Rep. Eric Swalwell, the California Democrat who was also a leading candidate for governor. Both men have denied the allegations. Platner ended his Senate campaign on Wednesday and Swalwell suspended his gubernatorial campaign...

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