Six months have passed since Facebook’s oversight board started working as the social media’s “Supreme Court,” and the jury is still out on its efficiency. But what’s clear is that the board is not upholding all of Facebook’s decisions on content removal; on the contrary, it is overturning most of the tech company’s actions. Still, […]
The Australian bill—good or bad for the media industry?
The last few months have brought multiple hurdles to the giants of the tech world, but the latest bill in Australia, which seeks to make Google and Facebook pay for media outlets, might be their biggest challenge. The Australian government argues that tech companies siphon ad dollars from the content provided by news outlets, so […]
Twitter diversifies as newcomers take over the Internet
As social media giants like Twitter and Facebook grapple with content moderation issues, new platforms are monopolizing the online realm. The newsletter platform Substack and the recently launched audio-based social network Clubhouse are two of those newcomers that have seen their values soar. As a response, Twitter has tried to diversify its business in these […]
Parler, an online home for conservatives
It’s a common catchphrase among the right that the left has captured social media. They argue that the platforms are only banning or tagging content from specific right-wing figures such as President Donald Trump, while not taking issue with leftist commentators. After the defeat of Trump in the elections, millions of users have decided to […]
How the post-truth world led to QAnon
In the last few months, QAnon proponents have gained momentum on social media, with President Donald Trump recently offering encouragement to the theory advocates. QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory concocted in 2017, which argues that there’s a deep state working against Trump and his administration. Their statements have no grounding in reality, but they […]
Facebook’s new Instagram feature could crush Tik Tok
These last few weeks have been hard for Tik Tok. The Chinese app was banned from India—one of its biggest markets—in late June. In the United States, the administration is debating whether to restrict it for fears that it could be used as a surveillance tool. Meanwhile, Facebook is taking advantage of Tik Tok’s weakness […]
The limits of freedom of speech on social media
Amid the pandemic, the police violence, and the riots, President Trump’s executive order (EO) against social media companies may have gone unnoticed. On May 28, Trump introduced a rule to limit social media platforms’ editorial power after Twitter tagged some of its tweets as “potentially misleading.” Although the order will likely be challenged in court, […]
The rise of the healthcare influencer
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown light to a trend that had gone largely unnoticed until now—a lack of medical experts on social media. Since the virus hit Western countries, citizens have turned to the Internet for solutions. But, with the rise of misinformation, most of them decided to put their trust in the few medical […]
