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Category: Social media

Think Ukraine’s offensive has started? Wait for the heavy brigades

Think Ukraine’s offensive has started? Wait for the heavy brigades

Ben Hodges writes: The social media channels are alive with grainy footage of tanks and explosions in Southern and Eastern Ukraine. There are statements everywhere that Kyiv’s long-expected counteroffensive is underway, which is causing some excitement and trepidation. The offensive is incredibly important for Ukraine’s future. But when assessing what’s actually happening, it’s useful to understand some key facts. There is a big difference between starting an offensive, and the main attack or main effort of the operation. The offensive…

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Viral Pentagon explosion hoax took off from pro-Russian accounts

Viral Pentagon explosion hoax took off from pro-Russian accounts

The Washington Post reports: A viral hoax that briefly sent the stock market down last month apparently first gained traction on Twitter through a conspiracy-mongering, pro-Russian account. The picture that grabbed attention on the morning of May 22, captioned “Large Explosion Near the Pentagon,” was generated by artificial intelligence without much sophistication, experts said. But it is probably a harbinger of things to come, especially as generative AI gets better at producing images to meet the demands of anyone’s imagination….

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Twitter admits in court filing: Elon Musk is simply wrong about government interference at Twitter

Twitter admits in court filing: Elon Musk is simply wrong about government interference at Twitter

Mike Masnick writes: It is amazing the degree to which some people will engage in confirmation bias and believe absolute nonsense, even as the facts show the opposite is true. Over the past few months, we’ve gone through the various “Twitter Files” releases, and pointed out over and over again how the explanations people gave for them simply don’t match up with the underlying documents. To date, not a single document revealed has shown what people now falsely believe: that…

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Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue plunges 59% as woes continue

Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue plunges 59% as woes continue

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk recently said Twitter’s advertising business was on the upswing. “Almost all advertisers have come back,” he asserted, adding that the social media company could soon become profitable. But Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May was $88 million, down 59 percent from a year earlier, according to an internal presentation obtained by The New York Times. The company has regularly fallen short of…

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Weapons expert cut from UK government event due to tweets critical of government

Weapons expert cut from UK government event due to tweets critical of government

BBC News reports: A global expert on nerve agents, stood down from speaking at a government-backed conference, says he believes it is because he is outspoken on a range of issues including asylum policy. Dan Kaszeta was disinvited from Tuesday’s conference after his social media content was vetted. The Ministry of Defence said checks on people speaking at government-organised events ensured a balanced discussion. But Mr Kaszeta insisted he would have only spoken on his area of expertise. That is…

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Elon Musk has been a disaster for Twitter

Elon Musk has been a disaster for Twitter

Vanity Fair reports: When Tesla chief executive Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion back in October, the deal was thought to be a massive overpay, and Musk himself admitted as much at the time. But since then, the billionaire’s financial position on the company has only grown worse, according to a Fidelity valuation Tuesday, which found Twitter to be worth just one third of what Musk originally paid for it. While it is unclear how Fidelity—which recently marked down the value of its stake in…

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EU’s Breton wants to ‘stress test’ Silicon Valley giants

EU’s Breton wants to ‘stress test’ Silicon Valley giants

Politico reports: The European Union’s Thierry Breton wants Big Tech to know that he’s “the enforcer.” The internal market commissioner will travel to California next month to carry out “stress tests” to see how social media companies are preparing for new content rules, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA). The French politician told POLITICO that he and European Commission officials would meet with Google, Twitter and Meta Platforms during his trip to the United States, most likely during the…

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Under Elon Musk, Twitter has approved 83% of censorship requests by authoritarian governments

Under Elon Musk, Twitter has approved 83% of censorship requests by authoritarian governments

EL PAÍS reports: Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in a tumultuous $44 billion deal completed last October, the social network has turned down very few requests for content restriction or censorship from countries like Turkey and India, which have recently passed laws limiting freedom of speech and the press. Although the billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla presents himself as a free speech absolutist, the social network he controls has bowed to hundreds of government orders during his first six…

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Florida mom sought to ban Amanda Gorman’s poem while also promoting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Florida mom sought to ban Amanda Gorman’s poem while also promoting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

JTA reports: [Miami-area mother, Daily] Salinas’ Facebook feed reflects the kinds of right-wing memes that continue to circulate widely, although she told JTA that she did not post everything on it herself. Miami Against Fascism also shared video of Salinas with the Proud Boys, a far-right group with ties to antisemitic activists, as well as a video of her attending a school board protest last year with Moms For Liberty, a “parents’ rights” group active in pushing for book removals…

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Tech layoffs ravage the teams that fight online misinformation and hate speech

Tech layoffs ravage the teams that fight online misinformation and hate speech

CNBC reports: Toward the end of 2022, engineers on Meta’s team combating misinformation were ready to debut a key fact-checking tool that had taken half a year to build. The company needed all the reputational help it could get after a string of crises had badly damaged the credibility of Facebook and Instagram and given regulators additional ammunition to bear down on the platforms. The new product would let third-party fact-checkers like The Associated Press and Reuters, as well as…

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How Twitter became a haven for climate misinformation

How Twitter became a haven for climate misinformation

Aaron Rupar and Thor Benson write: On World Meteorological Day in March, the UN Climate Change Twitter account posted an anodyne tweet reminding people that “every bit of additional global warming worsens climate impacts.” But thanks to Elon Musk’s new paid blue checkmark system, the most prominent replies to it are flooded with nonsense like “these commies are doubling down” and calls to “stop globalist fake alarmism.” This is just one way in which Twitter is rapidly becoming a hellscape for climate scientists who…

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Twitter is a far-right social network

Twitter is a far-right social network

Charlie Warzel writes: Twitter has long been described, even by its most ardent users, as a hellsite. But under Elon Musk, Twitter has evolved into a platform that is indistinguishable from the wastelands of alternative social-media sites such as Truth Social and Parler. It is now a right-wing social network. In December, I argued that if we are to judge Musk strictly by his actions as Twitter’s owner, it is accurate to call him a far-right activist. As a public…

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Elon Musk at home among the anti-Semites

Elon Musk at home among the anti-Semites

Yair Rosenberg writes: Last night, Elon Musk made two rookie social-media mistakes: He tweeted after 10 p.m., and he echoed paranoid anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. “George Soros reminds me of Magneto,” he declared, likening the financier to the Marvel supervillain, both of them Jewish Holocaust survivors. In case the meaning was unclear, Musk quickly clarified to another user, “He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.” Criticizing George Soros is not inherently anti-Semitic. He is one of…

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Twitter’s chief troll slanders George Soros with antisemitic slurs

Twitter’s chief troll slanders George Soros with antisemitic slurs

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk made a series of attacks on George Soros overnight, tweeting that the Jewish-born investor and liberal philanthropist, who often is subject to virulent antisemitic conspiracy theories, hates humanity and “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization.” Musk, who has overseen an increase of antisemitism and other hate speech on Twitter since he bought the social media platform last year, did not give a reason for singling out Soros. But he made his comments…

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Climate crisis deniers target scientists for vicious abuse on Musk’s Twitter

Climate crisis deniers target scientists for vicious abuse on Musk’s Twitter

The Observer reports: Some of the UK’s top scientists are struggling to deal with what they describe as a huge rise in abuse from climate crisis deniers on Twitter since the social media platform was taken over by Elon Musk last year. Since then, key figures who ensured “trusted” content was prioritised have been sacked, according to one scientist, and Twitter’s sustainability arm has vanished. At the same time several users with millions of followers who propagate false statements about…

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Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social

Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social

The Washington Post reports: An obscure financial entity with connections to a Caribbean-island bank that bills itself as a top payment service for adult entertainment sites would gain a sizable stake in former president Donald Trump’s media company if its merger deal proceeds, according to internal documents a company whistleblower has shared with federal investigators and The Washington Post. Yet the role ES Family Trust would assume in Trump Media and Technology Group has never been officially disclosed to the…

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