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Category: Social media

A landmark verdict against Meta and Google could change social media

A landmark verdict against Meta and Google could change social media

Kaitlyn Tiffany writes: After deliberating for nine days—and emerging at one point to tell the judge that it was having a difficult time reaching a decision—a jury in Los Angeles finally returned its verdict today, finding both Meta and Google liable for creating addictive products that caused a young woman’s mental-health problems. The two companies were ordered to pay $3 million in compensatory damages: 70 percent by Meta and 30 percent by Google. (Meta-owned Instagram played a larger role in…

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Trump was ‘high on his own supply.’ Now he is confronted with the reality of war

Trump was ‘high on his own supply.’ Now he is confronted with the reality of war

Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write: Trump has grown accustomed to doing what he wants and then quickly improvising if things go south. But this time, some in his inner circle have what one official called “buyer’s remorse” — growing fears that attacking Iran was a mistake. A source close to the administration said some key officials around Trump were reluctant or wanted more time. “He ended up saying, ‘I just want to do it,’” the source said. “He grossly…

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Dark money group offers influencers $1,500 for posts attacking Dem primary candidate, Kat Abughazaleh

Dark money group offers influencers $1,500 for posts attacking Dem primary candidate, Kat Abughazaleh

MS Now reports: A week out from a crowded and contentious Democratic primary in Illinois’s 9th Congressional District, Amanda Informed, an online influencer in Florida received an email with an offer: one negative post about candidate Kat Abughazaleh on Instagram and TikTok, for $1,500. The request, which came from a secretive political organization called Democracy Unmuted, was forwarded to her by Matt Anthes, founder of Advocators, a digital marketing agency focused on politics and advocacy through micro-influencers. The job offer,…

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‘Operation Epstein Distraction’: Trump’s bloody Iran ‘hype videos’ seem to target rightwing Gen Z males

‘Operation Epstein Distraction’: Trump’s bloody Iran ‘hype videos’ seem to target rightwing Gen Z males

The Guardian reports: Rap and EDM. Clips from action movies. Heads-up displays from video games. As the war with Iran approaches its second week, the White House has leaned into an online propaganda campaign that seems less about intimidating Iran or projecting US strength abroad than it is about reaching a rather niche domestic audience: young rightwing American men who spend a lot of time online. Over the past couple of days, the White House and officials affiliated with the…

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MAGA reacts to Trump’s strikes on Iran: ‘Absolutely disgusting and evil’

MAGA reacts to Trump’s strikes on Iran: ‘Absolutely disgusting and evil’

Rolling Stone reports: Major figures associated with the Make America Great Again movement — including former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, far-right figure Alex Jones, and infamous manosphere influencer Andrew Tate — are fuming at Donald Trump over the military strikes against Iran that began overnight on Saturday. Tucker Carlson, who visited the White House just last week, told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that the choice to attack Iran is “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Greene, meanwhile,…

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A White House staffer appears to run a massive anonymous pro-Trump X account

A White House staffer appears to run a massive anonymous pro-Trump X account

Wired reports: Hours after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, the Trump administration was already working to shape the narrative. Official White House accounts flooded social media with clips of burning flags and clashes between locals and federal immigration agents, casting protestors—not the killing—as the story. Among the accounts amplifying that message was Johnny MAGA, a pro-Trump X account with nearly 300,000 followers. “They’re burning the American flag right now in Minneapolis,” the anonymous account claimed,…

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While fighting against regulation of social media, tech billionaires shield their own children

While fighting against regulation of social media, tech billionaires shield their own children

The New York Times reports: In November, Kim van Sparrentak, a Green Party lawmaker from the Netherlands, grabbed her headphones and headed for the exit of the European Parliament building. Moments earlier, she had participated in a heated debate over whether to bar young teenagers in Europe from social media platforms. Then a statement on a podcast she was listening to stopped her cold. It was a message from Meta opposing the social media ban proposal, Ms. van Sparrentak said…

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More than 600 people were fired or punished for posting about Charlie Kirk’s death. They want justice

More than 600 people were fired or punished for posting about Charlie Kirk’s death. They want justice

The Guardian reports: Julie Strebe, a 55-year-old sheriff’s deputy in the small Bible belt town of Salem, Missouri, was on a date with her husband at a Buffalo Wild Wings when her husband slid his phone across the table. On Facebook, people were demanding Strebe’s immediate termination, calling her a “wacko” with “extreme mental health issues”. It was the afternoon of 13 September 2025, just a few days after Charlie Kirk had been killed by a sniper’s bullet on a…

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Nihilism is now the lingua franca on social media

Nihilism is now the lingua franca on social media

Charlie Warzel writes: More and more, it seems, I pull to refresh a feed or open up a new browser tab and encounter something that makes me feel as if I’ve sustained a head injury. Recently, the culprit has often been the federal government. The Department of Homeland Security is putting out white-nationalist dog whistles on X. President Trump posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The subtext of every egregious shitpost from the administration is the…

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DHS sending hundreds of administrative subpoenas to social media companies to suppress political dissent

DHS sending hundreds of administrative subpoenas to social media companies to suppress political dissent

The New York Times reports: The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency. In recent months, Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security, according to four government officials…

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DHS hires social media propagandist who promotes white supremacism

DHS hires social media propagandist who promotes white supremacism

The New York Times reports: The Department of Homeland Security has hired a social media manager from the Department of Labor for a key communications job, despite posts he made on Labor Department media accounts that raised internal alarms over possible white-nationalist messaging. Peyton Rollins, 21, was hired this month to help run Homeland Security’s social media accounts, which have become public bullhorns for President Trump’s mass-deportation efforts and come under scrutiny of their own for appealing to right-wing extremists….

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Musk calls Spanish PM ‘fascist’ as X hits out over French office raid

Musk calls Spanish PM ‘fascist’ as X hits out over French office raid

The Independent reports: Elon Musk has slammed Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez as a “true fascist totalitarian” after he proposed a ban on social media use by teenagers, as Europe toughens its stance against tech giants. In a furious response on his social media site X, the tech billionaire described the Spanish prime minister – who had earlier promised to protect children from the “digital Wild West” – as a “tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain”. Sanchez had…

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Right-wing influencers who brought mayhem to Minnesota are now targeting California

Right-wing influencers who brought mayhem to Minnesota are now targeting California

Wired reports: A month after the Trump administration began its immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, right-wing creators are turning their attention to a new target in search of fraud: California. Over the last few weeks, right-wing creators who were instrumental in boosting the Minnesota fraud allegations that predated the administration’s surge of federal immigration agents have been going after a number of California’s social welfare programs, making unsubstantiated accusations of fraud—and potentially laying the groundwork for a similar federal crackdown…

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DHS is trying to force tech companies to hand over data about Trump critics

DHS is trying to force tech companies to hand over data about Trump critics

TechCrunch reports: The Department of Homeland Security has been quietly demanding tech companies turn over user information about critics of the Trump administration, according to reports. In several cases over recent months, Homeland Security has relied on the use of administrative subpoenas to seek identifiable information about individuals who run anonymous Instagram accounts, which share posts about ICE immigration raids in their local neighborhoods. These subpoenas have also been used to demand information about people who have criticized Trump officials…

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How to be a citizen in the information war (and stay sane)

How to be a citizen in the information war (and stay sane)

  On this week’s “Galaxy Brain,” Charlie Warzel opens with what it means to live in 2026, when our phones can drop us into graphic, real-time violence without warning—and when documenting that violence can be both traumatizing and politically consequential. Using recent footage out of Minneapolis as a lens, he explores the uneasy collision of algorithmic feeds, misinformation, and the moral weight of witnessing. Charlie also traces how viral documentation can puncture official narratives, pushing stories beyond political circles and…

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Instagram ‘is a drug’: Internal messages may doom Meta at social media addiction trial

Instagram ‘is a drug’: Internal messages may doom Meta at social media addiction trial

Ars Technica reports: Anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and death. These can be the consequences for vulnerable kids who get addicted to social media, according to more than 1,000 personal injury lawsuits that seek to punish Meta and other platforms for allegedly prioritizing profits while downplaying child safety risks for years. Social media companies have faced scrutiny before, with congressional hearings forcing CEOs to apologize, but until now, they’ve never had to convince a jury that they aren’t liable for harming…

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