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Category: Social media

Stephen Fry: Musk and Zuckerberg are ‘the worst polluters in human history’

Stephen Fry: Musk and Zuckerberg are ‘the worst polluters in human history’

BBC News reports: Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk are “the worst polluters in human history”, Stephen Fry has said. The actor and comedian made the claim during a lecture at Kings College, London. “You and your children cannot breathe the air or swim in the waters of our culture without breathing in the toxic particulates and stinking effluvia that belch and pour unchecked from their companies into the currents of our world,” he said of the…

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After Trump and Vance’s baseless claims about pet-eating immigrants, Springfield faces bomb threats

After Trump and Vance’s baseless claims about pet-eating immigrants, Springfield faces bomb threats

Parker Molloy writes: The lie was absurd, and yet it spread like wildfire. A baseless rumor, claiming Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating people’s pets, began as a fringe social media post. In a matter of days, it had evolved into a talking point at the highest levels of Republican politics. Trump mentioned it in a presidential debate, and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, repeated it without a shred of evidence. But the fallout didn’t stay…

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Taylor Swift drove nearly 338,000 people to Vote.gov with Kamala Harris endorsement post

Taylor Swift drove nearly 338,000 people to Vote.gov with Kamala Harris endorsement post

The Hollywood Reporter reports: Taylor Swift‘s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris led to a surge of visitors to Vote.gov, the U.S. government website that helps citizens understand how they can register to vote. According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Government Services Administration, Swift’s endorsement post on Instagram led directly to 337,826 people visiting vote.gov. “As of 2:00 P.M. on Wednesday, September 11, there have been 337,826 visitors to vote.gov referred from the custom URL created and shared by…

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Trump Media shares plunge after GOP nominee’s debate with Harris

Trump Media shares plunge after GOP nominee’s debate with Harris

CNBC reports: The share price of Trump Media plunged more than 13% on Wednesday, a day after majority shareholder Donald Trump gave a widely panned presidential debate performance against Vice President Kamala Harris. The company’s stock price was at its lowest intraday level since the Truth Social app owner began publicly trading as DJT on the Nasdaq in late March. Investing in Trump Media stock is often seen as a way to bet on the political fortunes of Trump, the…

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Elon Musk is uniquely dangerous as a purveyor of election misinformation

Elon Musk is uniquely dangerous as a purveyor of election misinformation

The Washington Post reports: The chairman of the board of elections in Montgomery County, Pa., was well acquainted with the regular attendees at his monthly meetings who peddled old, debunked voting conspiracy theories. But something changed after April 4, the chairman, Neil Makhija, explained in an interview. That was the day Elon Musk retweeted a false claim that as many as 2 million noncitizens had been registered to vote in Texas, Arizona and Pennsylvania. Suddenly, the same people were coming…

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Has the tide turned against TikTok, Telegram and X?

Has the tide turned against TikTok, Telegram and X?

Alexander B. Howard writes: Three major events have shaken up the social-media world in the past two weeks. First, French authorities detained Pavel Durov, the iconoclastic billionaire behind the online platform Telegram. Then, a judge suspended the microblogging service X in Brazil. Soon after, a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania ruled that the mother of a 10-year-old child who died copying a TikTok self-asphyxiation video can sue the service, circumventing a blanket legal immunity the company has long claimed. While each of these events took place in a…

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The Russian propaganda attack on America

The Russian propaganda attack on America

Tom Nichols writes: When people think of the world of espionage, they probably imagine glamorous foreign capitals, suave undercover operators, and cool gadgets. The reality is far more pedestrian: Yesterday, the Justice Department revealed an alleged Russian scheme to pay laundered money to American right-wing social-media trolls that seems more like a bad sitcom pitch than a top-notch intelligence operation. According to a federal indictment unsealed yesterday [9/4], two Russian citizens, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, worked with a Tennessee company not named in…

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Russia secretly worms its way into America’s conservative media

Russia secretly worms its way into America’s conservative media

The New York Times reports: In early 2022, a young couple from Canada, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, registered a new company in Tennessee that went on to create a social media outlet called Tenet Media. By November 2023, they had assembled a lineup of major conservative social media stars, including Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin, to post original content on Tenet’s platform. The site then began posting hundreds of videos — trafficking in pointed political commentary as…

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Inside Tenet Media, the pro-Trump ‘supergroup’ allegedly funded by Russia

Inside Tenet Media, the pro-Trump ‘supergroup’ allegedly funded by Russia

The Washington Post reports: Even by the standards of right-wing social media, last year’s rollout for Tenet Media was strange. Videos of the event featured influencers such as Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin talking portentously about freedom and censorship while bathed in a nightclub-style purple light. Tim Pool, a much-followed right-wing commentator, proclaimed that Tenet would be a kind of YouTube “supergroup” that would compete with the untrustworthy mainstream media. “I worked for several massive corporate news organizations,” Pool, a…

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Right-wing influencer network Tenet Media allegedly spread Russian disinformation

Right-wing influencer network Tenet Media allegedly spread Russian disinformation

Wired reports: A Tennessee-based media network that produces shows for high-profile right-wing influencers such as Benny Johnson and Tim Pool was largely funded by Russian state-backed news network RT, according to a federal indictment against two RT employees that the US Department of Justice unsealed on Wednesday. The DOJ claims the US company—which WIRED, along with other news outlets, was able to identify as Tenet Media but goes unnamed in the indictment—posted hundreds of videos on social media that pushed…

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Top Brazilian judge orders suspension of X platform in Brazil amid feud with Musk

Top Brazilian judge orders suspension of X platform in Brazil amid feud with Musk

The Associated Press reports: A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media giant X in Brazil after the tech billionaire refused to name a legal representative in the country, according to a copy of the decision seen by The Associated Press The move further escalates the monthslong feud between the two men over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. Justice Alexandre de Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be…

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Photos of European influencers used to push pro-Trump propaganda on fake X accounts

Photos of European influencers used to push pro-Trump propaganda on fake X accounts

CNN reports: Luna, a self-described 32-year-old “MAGA Trump supporter” from the battleground state of Wisconsin, has gained a huge following since she joined X, formerly Twitter, in March. Her timeline has become a digital bullhorn for the “Make America Great Again” movement, praising former President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, promoting conspiracy theories about his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and touting Republican talking points to nearly 30,000 followers, who she addresses as “patriots.” “Would You Support Trump Being The President…

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Zuckerberg’s spineless surrender: Rehashing old news to enable false GOP narratives

Zuckerberg’s spineless surrender: Rehashing old news to enable false GOP narratives

Mike Masnick writes: Two bits of news came out of the letter Mark Zuckerberg sent to Rep. Jim Jordan this week (and how people responded to it), neither of which are what you’re likely to have heard about. First, Donald Trump seems to be accusing himself of rigging the 2020 election against himself. And, second, Mark Zuckerberg has absolutely no spine when it comes to Republican pressure on Meta’s moderation practices. He falsely plays into their fundamentally misleading framing, all…

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Telegram’s loudest defender: the global crypto industry

Telegram’s loudest defender: the global crypto industry

The New York Times reports: Shortly after Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested in France on Saturday, the chief executive of the cryptocurrency company Tether called the situation “very concerning.” Crypto enthusiasts pledged to support Mr. Durov, posting the hashtag #FreeDurov. Others investors declared that the arrest was an assault on free speech. “Can’t even imagine a day without Telegram,” one crypto user wrote. The wave of support for Mr. Durov was a reflection of…

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Mark Zuckerberg’s letter about Facebook censorship is not what it seems

Mark Zuckerberg’s letter about Facebook censorship is not what it seems

Adam Clark Estes writes: This week Mark Zuckerberg sent Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) a letter outlining how the Biden administration pressured his company to “censor” free speech on Facebook — specifically misinformation about Covid-19. The letter also made reference to Hunter Biden’s laptop and Zuckerberg’s lack of plans to spend money on the election. This sounds bad. But none of this information is new. It’s interesting that Zuckerberg decided to dive into the free speech snake pit this week. It’s…

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Telegram founder’s arrest part of broad investigation, French prosecutors say

Telegram founder’s arrest part of broad investigation, French prosecutors say

The New York Times reports: Prosecutors in France said on Monday that Pavel Durov, the entrepreneur who runs the Telegram messaging platform, had been arrested in connection with an investigation opened last month into criminal activity on the app and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Mr. Durov, 39, was detained on Saturday at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after landing on a private plane from Azerbaijan. He had not been charged and remained in custody, which can be…

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