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Sample social media app interface on mobile phone showing shared video content

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
January 17, 2023

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
addiction, Anthony Bradley, Apps, College, Gen-Z, Instagram, Jonathan Haidt, Lawsuit, mental health, social media, TikTok, youth}

Girl Tragically Dies After Doing Horrific TikTok Challenge

_{The 12-year-old from Argentina isn't the only victim of the fatal TikTok "blackout challenge"} _{Peter Biles

January 17, 2023

2

Social Media}

A 12-year-old girl from Argentina died after trying the dangerous “choke challenge” on TikTok, per the New York Post. The girl, Milagros Soto, was found in a closet hanging from a makeshift noose on January 13th. Soto’s family members think she was bullied and challenged to perform the horrible online fad while at school. Soto isn’t the only casualty of the TikTok challenge, which involves asphyxiating oneself until passing out. It’s also only one of many “fatal fads” circulating the TikTok sphere. Also known as the “blackout challenge,” Tiktok users chase virality and clout by forcing themselves to pass out. In light of the tragic death, people are begging parents to prohibit TikTok from their children. Several Twitter users spoke Read More ›

A sheet of white paper is held by a protester in China.

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Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
December 23, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, China, Global Technology

Tagged
A4 Revolution, Amy Chang Chien, Apple Airdrop, Caiwei Chen, China, China protests 2022, Claire Fu, Featured, Instagram, Instagram and China protests, Paul Mozur, Twitter, Twitter and China protests, Urumqui apartment fire, White paper movement (China), Zero-Covid policy in China}

China: Protesters Evade Censors and Confront State Surveillance

_{Chinese citizens are known for their clever plays on words to evade social media censors.} _{Heather Zeiger

December 23, 2022

7

Censorship, China, Global Technology}

The graffiti on the bathroom wall at the university said there would be a gathering in honor of the people who had died in an apartment fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Bathrooms usually do not have surveillance cameras, so this announcement would probably go unnoticed by censors. It is better than risking punishment by posting on social media. In another city, Chinese citizens discretely shared information about the location of a vigil for the Urumqi victims on WeChat in the guise of dinner plans. A number of people died in the fire, whose toll was likely inflated because emergency vehicles were unable to access the building due to zero-Covid measures. Social media posts showed doors that were barred shut and barricades Read More ›

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Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
March 11, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Global Technology, Social Media

Tagged
Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, Facebook, Hate speech, Instagram, Meta, Russia, Twitter, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, WhatsApp}

Meta Suspends Hate Speech Policy in Countries Near Russia

_{Hate speech and death threats against Russian and Belarusian political leaders and their militaries are temporarily allowed in twelve Eastern European countries} _{Caitlin Cory

March 11, 2022

4

Censorship, Global Technology, Social Media}

In a dramatic change of policy, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) will temporarily allow users of Facebook and Instagram in twelve countries to post hate speech and death threats directed toward Russian and Belarusian military personnel and political leaders within the context of the conflict in Ukraine. The change was first reported by Reuters on Thursday morning. A Meta spokesperson told Reuters, “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.” Calls for violence against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are Read More ›

Pre-adolescent teen girl texting on a smartphone lying in bed at home. Candid indoor photo withFocus on the foreground and copy space

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post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
December 7, 2021

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
Facebook, Facebook Files, Frances Haugen, Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, Wall Street Journal (on Facebook/Meta)}

Facebook’s…Er, Meta’s Instagram Problem

_{Despite employee-recommended solutions, Facebook has largely turned a blind eye to the harms their own algorithms have caused in teenage girls using Instagram} _{Heather Zeiger

December 7, 2021

10

Social Media}

The Wall Street Journal’s series of articles based on leaked internal documents from Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) gave us a peek inside the company’s business model, including what the company knew about Instagram’s harmful mental health effects on teen girls.* Facebook employee, Frances Haugen, provided thousands of pages of internal documents and Slack conversations to the Wall Street Journal’s Jeff Horwitz, and has since made the documents available to other media outlets. Gizmodo is working with a group of experts to make the documents public, which can be viewed here. On October 5th, Haugen testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Facebook’s lack of transparency regarding the harms of its platforms. The full testimony can be seen in the video below. Haugen Read More ›

An internet email symbol and a group of people are separated by a red prohibitory symbol No. restrictions on access to the global Internet. Censorship. Information control, society isolation policy

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post

Author
News
Date
August 6, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Algorithms (monitoring content), Cameron English, COVID-19, Facebook, Instagram, Kevin Folta, Manny Marrotta (Hitler episode), Matt Taibbi, Misinformation concept}

Is “Misinformation” Another Way to Say “Unwelcome Information”?

_{Cameron English notes that, on social media, major media outlets can botch the science with impunity but the slightest offenses, real or imagined, get others silenced} _{News

August 6, 2021

6

Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Social Media}

At American Council on Science and Health (“promoting science and debunking junk since 1978”), Cameron English reflects on the handwringing among social media companies about how to crack down on “misinformation” on COVID-19. Given the number of authoritative statements made and suddenly reversed, tt seems that any such crackdown would largely be driven by politics. For example: Facebook recently announced that it would “no longer take down posts claiming that Covid-19 was man-made or manufactured,” and the company’s new policy nicely underscores this point about credibility. What was the social media platform’s justification for allowing users to discuss the lab-spillover hypothesis? It didn’t hire a team of virologists and foreign policy experts to assess the viability of competing explanations for Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
May 3, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy

Tagged
Apple (company), Facebook, hacking, Instagram, Karl D. Stephan, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook}

Fallout From Facebook’s Huge Privacy Hack: A Serious Unfriending

_{The Big Hack in April, in which even Mark Zuckerberg’s data got scraped, was hardly the first one Facebook faced} _{News

May 3, 2021

6

Business and Finance, Data Privacy}

We’ll let engineering prof Karl Stephan start the story, comparing Facebook to God: For purposes of discussion, we will compare Facebook to the traditional Judeo-Christian God of the Old and New Testaments. And we will restrict the comparison primarily to two matters: communication and trust (or faith). Users of Facebook communicate with that entity by entering personal information into Facebook’s system. That act of communication is accompanied by a certain level of trust, or faith. Facebook promises to safeguard one’s information and not to reveal it to anyone else without your permission… Karl D. Stephan, “In Facebook we trust” at MercatorNet Safeguard the information? As recent news reports revealed, a month ago today, a hacker released roughly 533 million users’ Read More ›

Face recognition and personal identification technologies in street surveillance cameras, law enforcement control.

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Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
April 28, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Law, Surveillance

Tagged
ACLU, Al Gidari, Canada, Canada's Office of the Privacy Commissioner, China, Clearview AI, Daniel Therrien, DHS, Doug Mitchell, Facebook, Facial Recognition, facial recognition technology, Fight for the Future, Google, Hoan Ton-That, Instagram, Kashmir Hill, Law enforcement, New York Times, OpenMedia, Richard Schwartz, Rudy Giuliani, Surveillance, Twitter, VEnmo, Woodrow Hartzog, YouTube}

Canada Orders Facial Recognition App to Cease and Desist

_{Your face is likely already stored in this app's database} _{Caitlin Cory

April 28, 2021

9

Artificial Intelligence, Law, Surveillance}

In February, Canada released the findings of a year-long investigation into the US-based facial recognition app, Clearview AI. The investigation declared Clearview’s actions illegal within Canada and ordered the company to cease operations within the country and to remove all Canadian citizens from its database. “What Clearview does is mass surveillance, and it is illegal,” said Canadian Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien. So what is Clearview AI? And why has it raised the ire of our neighbors to the North? Clearview AI, Inc. Clearview AI is a facial recognition company marketed primarily to law enforcement agencies. It boasts a database of over 3 billion facial images “scraped” from public sources online such as news articles and social media sites. In other Read More ›

iron chain and castle on the silk national flag of Hong Kong with beautiful folds, the concept of a ban on tourism, political repression, crime, violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens

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Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 9, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, Apple (company), China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Facebook, Featured, Google, Great Firewall, Hong Kong, Hong Kong National Security Law, Instagram, Microsoft, Telegram, Tik Tok, Twitter, WhatsApp, Zoom}

Hong Kong: Tech Companies Face Serious Ethical Decisions

_{As Hong Kong is transformed into a police state, Western companies, faced with demands for snitching on users, are rethinking cozy relationships with China} _{Heather Zeiger

July 9, 2020

7

Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy}

The semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong is no longer semi-autonomous, at least in practice. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), circumventing Hong Kong’s parliament and courts, passed the Hong Kong National Security Law on June 30 that effectively abolishes the “one country, two systems” regime outlined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The law was passed one day before the anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China (July 1, 1997), in time to quash any pro-democracy candidates who would likely win in the September elections. Although the CCP justifies its moves from the Hong Kong Basic Law and claims that Hong Kong will maintain autonomy, in practice, it has already arrested dissidents and formed a secretive agency called the Office Read More ›

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Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 20, 2018

Categorized
Education, Social Media

Tagged
Coddling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff, iGen, Instagram, Jean Twenge, Jonathan Haidt}

Maybe iGen really IS fragile

_{Did social media's troll frenzies trigger the campus war on ideas?} _{Mind Matters

September 20, 2018

6

Education, Social Media}

Twenty-four-year-old fashion blogger Scarlett Dixon posted a picture of herself having breakfast, “looking flawless on a freshly made bed flanked by heart-shaped helium balloons.” The orcs burst suddenly through the virtual gate. Read More ›