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Category: Social media

Australia banned kids from social media. Now it has advice for the U.S.

Australia banned kids from social media. Now it has advice for the U.S.

Politico reports: As countries around the world race to counter the tech industry’s ever-expanding influence, one issue in particular has become a major rallying cry: protecting children online. And Australia just put itself out front. In late November, Australia became the first country in the world to ban minors under age 16 from social media. Oddly enough, it’s an American who will help enforce the unprecedented legislation: Julie Inman Grant, who has served as Australia’s eSafety Commissioner since 2017. The…

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Facebook and Instagram to unleash AI-generated ‘users’ no one asked for

Facebook and Instagram to unleash AI-generated ‘users’ no one asked for

Rolling Stone reports: Since burning through tens of billions of dollars on its flop “metaverse” concept and laying off thousands in the aftermath of that gamble, tech giant Meta has strained to reinvent itself as a company poised to capitalize on the overhyped AI revolution. Last year, for example, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled animated AI chatbots modeled as alter egos of celebrities including Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, Paris Hilton, and Kendall Jenner. But licensing the voices and likenesses of famous people did little to endear Meta to the younger demographics it wants to turn…

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German politicians decry Elon Musk’s AfD support as election ‘interference’

German politicians decry Elon Musk’s AfD support as election ‘interference’

Reuters reports: U.S. billionaire Elon Musk drew criticism from German politicians from the government and opposition on Sunday for an opinion piece he wrote backing the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) which they deemed “intrusive” outside influence. The support of the AfD from Musk, who is set to serve U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration as an outside adviser, comes as Germans are set to vote on Feb. 23 after a coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed. The commentary…

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How Trump went from backing a TikTok ban to backing off

How Trump went from backing a TikTok ban to backing off

The New York Times reports: Four years ago, President Donald J. Trump denounced TikTok, the Chinese-owned video sharing app, as a threat to America’s national security. This week, as Mr. Trump prepares to retake the White House, he called it a “unique medium for freedom of expression.” The comment was part of a brief he filed to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking the justices to pause a ban on TikTok set to take effect next month so that he…

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Meta censorship is having a ‘devastating’ impact on Palestinian news sources

Meta censorship is having a ‘devastating’ impact on Palestinian news sources

Middle East Eye reports: Meta’s policy of censorship is having a “devastating” impact on Palestinians, according to a new report by a prominent Arab media watchdog. The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, also known as 7amleh, collected 20 first-hand testimonies from Palestinian influencers, journalists and media outlets who have experienced the tech conglomerate’s discriminatory practices. Since October 2023, with the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza, Meta has been accused of censoring Palestinian content and groups on…

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The operators behind four major neo-Nazi X accounts

The operators behind four major neo-Nazi X accounts

Texas Observer reports: Under owner Elon Musk, the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, has become a hotbed of white supremacist and neo-Nazi content. A recent headline in the Atlantic doesn’t mince words: “X is a white supremacist site.” Musk has allowed formerly banned far-right and neo-Nazi accounts back on the platform, and, in some instances, he’s directly responded to accounts that traffic in white supremacist and neo-Nazi rhetoric. Meanwhile, anonymous accounts that regularly promote racial hate on…

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Journalists flock to Bluesky as X becomes increasingly ‘toxic’

Journalists flock to Bluesky as X becomes increasingly ‘toxic’

NBC News reports: When Ashton Pittman, an award-winning news editor and reporter, first joined the app Bluesky, he said, he was the only Mississippi journalist he knew to be using it. Until about five weeks ago, he said, that was the case. But now, Pittman said, there are at least 15 Mississippi journalists on Bluesky as it becomes a preferred platform for reporters, writers, activists and other groups who have become increasingly alienated by X. Pittman’s outlet, the Mississippi Free…

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Australia passes world-first law banning under-16s from social media despite safety concerns

Australia passes world-first law banning under-16s from social media despite safety concerns

The Guardian reports: Australia’s parliament has passed a law that will aim to do what no other government has, and many parents have tried to: stop children from using social media. The new law was drafted in response to what the Labor prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says is a “clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians.” On Thursday, parliament’s upper house, the Senate, passed a bill by 34…

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Musk uses X to intimidate federal workers

Musk uses X to intimidate federal workers

CNN reports: When President-elect Donald Trump said Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would recommend major cuts to the federal government in his administration, many public employees knew that their jobs could be on the line. Now they have a new fear: becoming the personal targets of the world’s richest man – and his legions of followers. Last week, in the midst of the flurry of his daily missives, Musk reposted two X posts that revealed the names and titles of…

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Bluesky is turning into a strong X alternative

Bluesky is turning into a strong X alternative

Kevin Roose writes: After an hour or so of scrolling through Bluesky the other night, I felt something I haven’t felt on social media in a long time: free. Free from Elon Musk, and his tedious quest to turn X into a right-wing echo chamber where he and his friends are the permanent, inescapable main characters. Free from Threads and its suffocating algorithm, which suppresses news and real-time discussions in favor of bland engagement bait. Free from my own bad…

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Elon Musk cyberbullies a federal worker while showcasing his own ignorance

Elon Musk cyberbullies a federal worker while showcasing his own ignorance

Futurism reports: Elon Musk has it out for federal employees. He’s promised to fire them en masse in a bid to cut down government spending by trillions of dollars, and he plans to do this through DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, a commission that will be formed as part of president-elect Donald Trump’s administration. That much is old news. But as The Wall Street Journal now reports, Musk has taken his animus to another level by cruelly singling…

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How social media is reshaping human connection

How social media is reshaping human connection

Giuseppe Riva writes: In response to this pressing need for greater insight into social media, researchers have proposed a novel Disembodied Disconnect Hypothesis. Introduced in a recent paper by different European and American researchers coordinated by the Humane Technology Lab, at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart, this framework examines how digital platforms reshape social behaviours without necessarily altering cognitive structures. The hypothesis posits that while digital platforms create new opportunities for interaction, they fundamentally differ from traditional, in-person social…

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Musk and Trump: ‘great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again’

Musk and Trump: ‘great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again’

The New York Times reports: In nearly every meeting that President-elect Donald J. Trump holds at Mar-a-Lago, alongside him is someone who has been elected to nothing, nominated to nothing and, only a few months ago, had no meaningful relationship with him. Elon Musk. The world’s richest person has ascended to a position of extraordinary, unofficial influence in Mr. Trump’s transition process, playing a role that makes him indisputably America’s most powerful private citizen. He has sat in on nearly…

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X’s plan to interfere with the election

X’s plan to interfere with the election

Casey Newton writes: With polls essentially tied and hours to go until Election Day, no one knows for certain who will win the 2024 US presidential election. But we can say with some certainty what will happen if the result is anything other than a landslide victory for Donald Trump: a concerted campaign to delegitimize the election’s results, organized and amplified on Elon Musk’s X. Today, let’s talk about what we should expect to see in the potentially tumultuous aftermath…

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X is a white-supremacist site

X is a white-supremacist site

Charlie Warzel writes: X has always had a Nazi problem. I’ve covered the site, formerly known as Twitter, for more than a decade and reported extensively on its harassment problems, its verification (and then de-verification) of a white nationalist, and the glut of anti-Semitic hatred that roiled the platform in 2016. But something is different today. Heaps of unfiltered posts that plainly celebrate racism, anti-Semitism, and outright Nazism are easily accessible and possibly even promoted by the site’s algorithms. All…

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