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Category: Social media

How the Pelosi attack suspect plunged into online hatred

How the Pelosi attack suspect plunged into online hatred

The New York Times reports: Bitter over the end of a long relationship, estranged from his children and working carpentry jobs to keep a roof over his head after a time living on the streets, David DePape retreated into isolation, spending hours each day in the online worlds of gaming and chat rooms. Mr. DePape, the suspect in the brutal attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, had an obsession with video games as a boy, and at some point in…

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Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president’s account

Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president’s account

Reuters reports: Donald Trump on Saturday said he had no interest in returning to Twitter even as a slim majority voted in favor of reinstating the former U.S. president, who was banned from the social media service for inciting violence, in a poll organized by new owner Elon Musk. Slightly over 15 million Twitter users voted in the poll with 51.8% voting in favor of reinstatement. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted. Trump’s Twitter account, which…

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As resignations roil Twitter, Elon Musk tries persuading some workers to stay

As resignations roil Twitter, Elon Musk tries persuading some workers to stay

The New York Times reports: Hours before a Thursday deadline that Elon Musk had given Twitter employees to decide whether to stay or leave their jobs, the social media company appeared to be in disarray. Mr. Musk and his advisers held meetings with some Twitter workers whom they deemed “critical” to stop them from leaving, four people with knowledge of the conversations said. He sent out confusing messages about the company’s remote work policy, appearing to soften his stance on…

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Fake Eli Lilly tweet highlights risks for advertisers as Twitter lurches toward bankruptcy

Fake Eli Lilly tweet highlights risks for advertisers as Twitter lurches toward bankruptcy

The Washington Post reports: The nine-word tweet was sent Thursday afternoon from an account using the name and logo of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., and it immediately attracted a giant response: “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.” The tweet carried a blue “verified” check mark, a badge that Twitter had used for years to signal an account’s authenticity — and that Twitter’s new billionaire owner, Elon Musk, had, while declaring “power to the people!”…

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Inside Elon Musk’s destructive takeover of Twitter

Inside Elon Musk’s destructive takeover of Twitter

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk had a demand. On Oct. 28, hours after completing his $44 billion buyout of Twitter the night before, Mr. Musk gathered several human-resource executives in a “war room” in the company’s offices in San Francisco. Prepare for widespread layoffs, he told them, six people with knowledge of the discussion said. Twitter’s work force needed to be slashed immediately, he said, and those who were cut would not receive bonuses that were set to…

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Musk is putting Twitter at risk of billions in fines, warns company lawyer

Musk is putting Twitter at risk of billions in fines, warns company lawyer

The Verge reports: Twitter’s privacy and security teams are in turmoil after Elon Musk’s changes to the service bypassed its standard data governance processes. Now, a company lawyer is encouraging employees to seek whistleblower protection “if you feel uncomfortable about anything you’re being asked to do.” The company’s chief privacy officer Damien Kieran, chief information security officer Lea Kissner, and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty have all resigned, according to two employees and an internal message seen by The Verge….

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Trump’s Twitter clone has turned into his albatross

Trump’s Twitter clone has turned into his albatross

The Washington Post reports: The co-founders of former president Donald Trump’s post-presidential start-up, Trump Media & Technology Group, had a name for June 11, 2021: “meltdown day.” Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, former contestants on Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” had a week earlier traveled with an 11-person entourage to Trump’s palatial golf club in Bedminster, N.J., to show off what they’d worked for months to build: a web of conservative-aimed business ventures, including the Twitter clone Truth Social, that…

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Elon Musk’s spectacular incompetence

Elon Musk’s spectacular incompetence

https://t.co/lt6A7XqxoR pic.twitter.com/JOVY64QLT9 — ma.nu (@lmanul) November 7, 2022 Charlie Warzel writes: Elon Musk has spent the past 12 years tweeting whatever comes into his mind, often without major negative consequences. That was before he owned the place. Now, less than two weeks after his $44 billion purchase, the world’s richest man is finding that his actions—which recently included tweeting a baseless conspiracy theory to Hillary Clinton about the assault on Paul Pelosi—may actually have consequences. Advertisers are fleeing, the employees…

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Russia reactivates its trolls and bots ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections

Russia reactivates its trolls and bots ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections

The New York Times reports: The user on Gab who identifies as Nora Berka resurfaced in August after a yearlong silence on the social media platform, reposting a handful of messages with sharply conservative political themes before writing a stream of original vitriol. The posts mostly denigrated President Biden and other prominent Democrats, sometimes obscenely. They also lamented the use of taxpayer dollars to support Ukraine in its war against invading Russian forces, depicting Ukraine’s president as a caricature straight…

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Twitter layoffs gutted election information teams days before midterms

Twitter layoffs gutted election information teams days before midterms

The Washington Post reports: Devastating cuts to Twitter’s workforce on Friday, four days before the midterm elections, are fueling anxieties among political campaigns and election offices that have counted on the social network’s staff to help them combat violent threats and viral lies. The mass layoffs Friday gutted teams devoted to combating election misinformation, adding context to misleading tweets and communicating with journalists, public officials and campaign staff. The layoffs included a number of people who were scheduled to be…

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With Twitter in chaos, Mastodon is on fire

With Twitter in chaos, Mastodon is on fire

CNN reports: In the week since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the number of people signing up for a small social network called Mastodon has surged. You may not have heard of Mastodon, which has been around since 2016, but now it’s growing rapidly. Some are fleeing Twitter for it or at least seeking out a second place to post their thoughts online as the much more well-known social network faces layoffs, controversial product changes, an expected shift in its…

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Most Americans think they won’t be misled by election disinformation — but they worry about others falling victim

Most Americans think they won’t be misled by election disinformation — but they worry about others falling victim

Knight Foundation: More than half of all Americans (58%) say they are somewhat or very concerned that people in their community could be deceived by election disinformation. But at the same time, few think they will fall victim themselves: only 27% say they might fall victim to false or misleading information, while 25% say misleading information might sway their decisions at the polls. This pattern holds across party lines. Most Democrats, Republicans and Independents feel confident they won’t be misled…

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Days before the midterms, Twitter lays off employees who fight misinformation

Days before the midterms, Twitter lays off employees who fight misinformation

NBC News reports: Mass layoffs at Twitter on Friday battered the teams primarily responsible for keeping the platform free of misinformation, potentially hobbling the company’s capabilities four days before the end of voting in Tuesday’s midterm elections, one current and six former Twitter employees familiar with the cuts told NBC News, five of whom were recently laid off. Two former Twitter employees and one current employee warned that could bring chaos around the elections, as the layoffs hit especially hard…

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Suspected Russian plot used political cartoons to influence American voters

Suspected Russian plot used political cartoons to influence American voters

Bloomberg reports: Social media users tied to Russia are using political cartoons to try to influence the outcome of tight electoral races ahead of the U.S. midterms, according to research provided exclusively to Bloomberg News. Members of a Russian group accused of meddling in prior U.S. elections have pushed internet memes that promote right-wing conspiracy theories in a way that aims to undermine support for Democratic political candidates, according to the social media analysis firm Graphika Inc. The users, who…

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How online mobs act like flocks of birds

How online mobs act like flocks of birds

Renée DiResta writes: You’ve probably seen it: a flock of starlings pulsing in the evening sky, swirling this way and that, feinting right, veering left. The flock gets denser, then sparser; it moves faster, then slower; it flies in a beautiful, chaotic concert, as if guided by a secret rhythm. Biology has a word for this undulating dance: “murmuration.” In a murmuration, each bird sees, on average, the seven birds nearest it and adjusts its own behavior in response. If…

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Twitter’s failings long preceded its ownership by Elon Musk

Twitter’s failings long preceded its ownership by Elon Musk

Yair Rosenberg writes: [M]ost of Twitter’s pathologies that people are pinning on Musk predate his ownership. I know this from personal experience. During the 2016 presidential-election campaign, I was inundated with anti-Semitic invective on Twitter over my critical commentary on Donald Trump’s candidacy. An Anti-Defamation League study found that I received the second-most abuse of Jewish commentators on the site during that cycle. Twitter subsequently vowed to clean up its act, but though some strides were made, most anti-Semitic bigotry…

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