December 8, 2021

TechCrunch: Twitter will use new data from reported tweets to identify platform problems earlier

TechCrunch: Twitter will use new data from reported tweets to identify platform problems earlier. “Like most social media companies, Twitter has long relied on user reporting to flag potentially policy-violating tweets. But in its new imagining of that system those reports would provide the company with a richer picture of behavior on the platform rather than just a way to evaluate individual incidents in isolation.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
December 7, 2021

Business Insider: Meta says it busted more than 600 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to a massive China-based COVID-19 disinformation campaign

Business Insider: Meta says it busted more than 600 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to a massive China-based COVID-19 disinformation campaign. “Meta’s ‘Adversarial Threat Report’ said that the company removed 524 Facebook accounts, 86 Instagram accounts, 20 Facebook pages, and four Facebook groups linked to this disinformation campaign in November.”

COVID-19 0
December 7, 2021

Washington Post: Facebook’s race-blind practices around hate speech came at the expense of Black users, new documents show

Washington Post: Facebook’s race-blind practices around hate speech came at the expense of Black users, new documents show. “The Black audience on Facebook is in decline, according to data from a study Facebook conducted earlier this year that was revealed in documents obtained by whistleblower Frances Haugen. According to the February report, the number of Black monthly users fell 2.7 percent in one month to 17.3 million adults…. Civil rights groups have long claimed that Facebook’s algorithms and policies had a disproportionately negative impact on minorities, and particularly Black users. The ‘worst of the worst’ documents show that those allegations were largely true in the case of which hate speech remained online.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
December 4, 2021

Mashable: A decades-old missing persons case and an obsessed true crime reporter puts Twitter’s newest policy to the test

Mashable: A decades-old missing persons case and an obsessed true crime reporter puts Twitter’s newest policy to the test. “Maura Murray seemingly vanished from the face of the earth after a car accident on February 9, 2004. Her disappearance, a mere days after Facebook launched, was one of the first cases to put social media sleuthing to the test as users created Facebook and MySpace pages to solve the mystery of her disappearance. She was 21 years old. Now, nearly 18 years since she was last seen, Maura Murray’s suspicious disappearance is putting social media to the test once again.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 18, 2021

Washington Post: Facebook took down a New Mexico militia group’s accounts. Prosecutors say it deleted key evidence.

Washington Post: Facebook took down a New Mexico militia group’s accounts. Prosecutors say it deleted key evidence.. “In an era when extremist groups commonly organize online, the legal showdown highlights a tension between the pressure digital platforms face to remove problematic accounts and content, on the one hand, and authorities’ interest in accessing that information for real-world prosecutions, on the other. And it raises questions about what privacy protections, if any, those platforms — from Facebook to Twitter to YouTube and others — owe to people and organizations they’ve banned.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 12, 2021

The Wrap: Newsmax’s Emerald Robinson Banned From Twitter Over COVID Misinformation

The Wrap: Newsmax’s Emerald Robinson Banned From Twitter Over COVID Misinformation. “Newsmax’s Emerald Robinson was permanently suspended from Twitter Tuesday after repeatedly violating the platform’s guidelines about sharing COVID-19 misinformation. The ban from Twitter comes on the heels of a week-long suspension, which she earned by tweeting last week that COVID-19 vaccines ‘contain a bioluminescent marker called LUCIFERASE so that you can be tracked.’ A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the suspension to TheWrap.”

COVID-19 0
November 10, 2021

Climate change: Facebook fails to flag denial, study finds (BBC)

BBC: Climate change: Facebook fails to flag denial, study finds. “Climate change denial is spreading unchecked on Facebook, two studies by disinformation researchers have found. The Center for Countering Digital Hate and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue said less than 10% of misleading posts were marked as misinformation. And the CCDH researchers linked the majority of these to just 10 publishers. Facebook said this represented a small proportion of climate change content.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
November 10, 2021

BBC: Facebook deletes Ethiopia PM’s post that urged citizens to ‘bury’ rebels

BBC: Facebook deletes Ethiopia PM’s post that urged citizens to ‘bury’ rebels. “Facebook has removed a post from Ethiopia’s prime minister for violating its policies against inciting violence. On Sunday, Abiy Ahmed called on citizens take up arms to block the advance of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The TPLF has fought a year-long campaign against government forces, capturing key towns in recent days.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
October 20, 2021

New York Times: YouTube Sued Over Animal Abuse Videos, Accused of Not Enforcing Ban

New York Times: YouTube Sued Over Animal Abuse Videos, Accused of Not Enforcing Ban. “Lady Freethinker, which has exposed dogfighting rings in Chile and dog meat auctions in South Korea, said YouTube had ignored the group’s repeated flagging of animal abuse videos. YouTube’s community guidelines, the rules for what is allowed on the site, say animal abuse content is not permitted. The ban includes videos in which humans inflict physical harm to an animal to cause suffering.” I saw no explicit content in the article, but just the descriptions of abuse were enough to make me nauseated. Click with caution.

Security & Legal Issues 0
October 20, 2021

CNET: Facebook to demote all Groups content from users who break its rules

CNET: Facebook to demote all Groups content from users who break its rules. “Facebook said Wednesday it will demote all content posted in Groups from users who have broken the site’s rules, making potentially problematic content harder for others to find. The social network will also let people who manage groups know when content from members has been flagged by Facebook and will offer administrators the ability to appeal before a post gets removed.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
October 15, 2021

New York Times: YouTube’s stronger election misinformation policies had a spillover effect on Twitter and Facebook, researchers say.

New York Times: YouTube’s stronger election misinformation policies had a spillover effect on Twitter and Facebook, researchers say.. “YouTube’s stricter policies against election misinformation was followed by sharp drops in the prevalence of false and misleading videos on Facebook and Twitter, according to new research released on Thursday, underscoring the video service’s power across social media.”

Research & Opinion 0

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