Social
Social networking shapes society and our news coverage reflects and directs that. We keep tabs on all the biggest social companies, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Reddit, as well as funding and acquisitions of new social startups.
While venture capitalists and the rest of the technorati are off on holiday or attending the Paris Olympics, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its staff attorneys are keeping…
Date Like Goblins, a new dating platform, allows users to virtually date and play video games
Date Like Goblins is geared toward the gaming community and allows users to connect through voice chat while playing video games.
Threads users in the U.S. can now see a label that highlights related trending topics above posts.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has passed in the Senate after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushed the internet bill to a vote. Proposed in 2022, KOSA requires that…
We say something “goes viral” because we tend to think of rumors and disinformation spreading the way that an infection spreads. But these days it may be more accurate to…
It turns out that maybe, just maybe, spending a lot of time staring at your phone and reading bad news isn’t great for your outlook…
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MatPat, the first big YouTuber to successfully exit his company, is lobbying for creators on Capitol Hill
Though MatPat retired from YouTube, he’s still pretty busy. In fact, he’s been spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill.
OpenAI is testing SearchGPT, a new AI search experience to compete directly with Google. The feature aims to elevate search queries with “timely answers” from across the internet and allows…
The language is ambiguous, so it’s not clear whether X is helping itself to all user data for training Grok or whether this processing refers only to user interactions with…
Meta’s AI integrations into apps like Instagram and Facebook have felt pretty useless so far. If I’m just trying to find my friend’s Instagram, why…
The Board wants Meta to change the terminology it uses for labeling explicit, AI-generated images from “derogatory” to “non-consensual.”
TikTok Lite, a low-bandwidth version of the video platform popular across Africa, Asia and Latin America, is exposing users to harmful content because of its lack of safety features compared…
Content creators are busy people. Most spend more than 20 hours a week creating new content for their respective corners of the web. That doesn’t leave much time for audience…
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There’s a lot more to the Kamala Harris memes than you think
“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” says Vice President Kamala Harris in a now infamous clip. An overlay of the lime green album art for Charli XCX’s “Brat” flashes on the screen, while a remix of “Von Dutch” scores increasingly frenetic clips of Harris hysterically laughing…
Meta AI, Meta’s AI-powered assistant across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and the web, can now speak in more languages and create stylized selfies. And, starting today, Meta AI users can route…
Meta has been given until September 1 to respond to consumer protection concerns in the European Union. The Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network, a network of authorities responsible for the…
Nine months on, and Jigsaw is now formally handing Altitude over to Tech Against Terrorism, which will continue its development and maintenance.
This week saw one of the most widespread IT disruptions in recent years linked to a faulty software update from popular cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Businesses across the world reported IT…
From the Sphere to false cyberattack claims, misinformation runs rampant amid CrowdStrike outage
This serves as an example for how easy it is to spread inaccurate information online during a time of immense global confusion and panic.
Olivia DeRamus is flipping the script: What if scrolling through social media didn’t make us miserable? What if, especially for women, social media could actually make us feel more supported?…
TikTok is partnering with the music distribution service DistroKid to fast-track the creation of artist accounts for members. The ByteDance-owned short video platform introduced an Artist Account feature last year…
WhatsApp is rolling out a “Favorites” filter to let you quickly access chats and groups for sending them new messages or making calls.
The tests indicate there are loopholes in TikTok’s ability to apply its parental controls and policies effectively in a situation where the teen user originally lied about their age, as…
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Hank Green reckons with the power — and the powerlessness — of the creator
Hank Green has had a while to think about how social media has changed us. He started making YouTube videos in 2007 with his brother, novelist John Green, at a time when the first iPhone was in development, Myspace was still relevant and Instagram didn’t exist. Seventeen years later, posting…
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If you’re an AT&T customer, your data has likely been stolen
This week, AT&T confirmed it will begin notifying around 110 million AT&T customers about a data breach that allowed cybercriminals to steal the phone records of “nearly all” of its customers. The stolen data contains phone numbers and AT&T records of calls and text messages during a six-month period in…
If X continues to violate Europe’s data protection rules, the company is on the hook for fines of up to €4,000 per day.
The platform formerly known as Twitter has earned the dubious honor of being the first very large online platform (VLOP) to face a preliminary finding of breaching the European Union’s…
Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, is continuing to develop a downvoting feature that will be used to improve how replies are ranked. Although the company has not yet officially announced…
Retro CEO Nathan Sharp isn’t worrying just yet about Google’s plan to copy his app’s experience, despite the numerous similarities.
The new YouTube features include those that will automatically transform longer videos into Shorts, among others.
