The Atlantic: Substack Has a Nazi Problem. “The newsletter-hosting site Substack advertises itself as the last, best hope for civility on the internet—and aspires to a bigger role in politics in 2024. But just beneath the surface, the platform has become a home and propagator of white supremacy and anti-Semitism. Substack has not only been hosting writers who post overtly Nazi rhetoric on the platform; it profits from many of them.”
Tubefilter: The first annual VTuber Awards are happening Dec. 16. “The first VTuber Awards will air Dec. 16, 2023, hosted by VTuber Filian and put on by Mythic Talent, the talent management company co-founded by OTK members Asmongold and TipsOut. It’s produced by WePlay Studios and will be hosted live at the WePlay Esports Arena in Los Angeles.”
KNWA: Blogger Matt Campbell suing Gov. Sanders over documents regarding lectern. “Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is being sued for documentation about the purchase of a $19,000 lectern by blogger Matt Campbell. Campbell’s lawsuit against the governor’s office was filed on October 24. The lawsuit states the governor’s office did not turn over documents related to the purchase of a $19,000 lectern, claiming that is a violation of the state’s FOIA law.”
The Verge: The poster’s guide to the internet of the future. “The idea is that you, the poster, should post on a website that you own. Not an app that can go away and take all your posts with it, not a platform with ever-shifting rules and algorithms. Your website. But people who want to read or watch or listen to or look at your posts can do that almost anywhere because your content is syndicated to all those platforms.” If you’ve been on the Internet since the early 1990s, this is going to seem very familiar…
USC Annenberg Media: ‘There are crazy people out there’: Mommy vloggers balance privacy and publicity. “Twin baby girls sit in matching Gap hoodies and suck on pacifiers as their mother tackles their wispy golden hair, tying up a tiny bun on each of their heads. At one and a half, their locks just barely brush their shoulders. The pair, Scout and Violet, stare directly into my eyes, or more accurately, right at the camera lens. I’m seeing this 60-second glimpse into their life through a video posted to TikTok by their mother, Maia Knight.”
South China Morning Post: ‘Gold-digger’: China blogger jailed over fake news claiming woman’s grandpa was tycoon husband, attracting 470 million views online. “A man in China who spread fake news online about a ‘gold-digger’ marrying an ageing tycoon, alongside photos of a young woman with her grandfather, has been jailed for a year. The perpetrator, surnamed Wu, was sentenced by Dongguan No 1 People’s Court in southeastern Guangdong province, for ‘fabricating facts that defamed’ and which resulted in ‘serious consequences that jeopardised the social order’.”
Radar Online: Family Ties: Cardi B Drags Husband of Blogger Who Owes Her $4 Million to Court, Rapper to Examine Couple’s Bank Statements. “Cardi B’s efforts to collect the nearly $4 million owed to her by blogger Tasha K have ramped up in federal court, RadarOnline.com has learned. According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Cardi and her legal team have scheduled a videotaped examination of Tasha for this week.”
American Songwriter: Kanye West Files Lawsuit Against Social Media Account Leaking His Music. “In the past year alone, Kanye West has been hit with about six lawsuits by paparazzo photographers, Boogie Down Productions, former brand partners at Adidas and Gap, and former employees at his Donda Academy. However, this week, he filed a suit of his own, alleging that a well-known hip-hop blog has been illegally leaking his music.”
Associated Press: Arkansas blogger files suit seeking records related to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ travel, security. “An Arkansas attorney and blogger has filed a lawsuit against the Arkansas State Police that accuses the agency of illegally withholding public records he requested related to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ travel and security.”
Medium: New Partner Program incentives focus on high-quality human writing. “Changes are coming in August to the way we pay writers for great stories and which countries we support. Here’s what’s happening, why, and what it means for you.” I wrote about my weird Medium spam experience in January 2021..
New York Times: China Took Her Husband. She Was Left to Uncover His Secret Cause.. “He was brilliant, quirky and intensely private — and also, she now suspects, an anonymous dissident blogger who had won fame for years of evading the surveillance state.”
Slate: The Delicate Race to Archive the Work of Murdered Journalists—Before It Disappears. “Many of the murdered journalists are not the hard-hitting investigative reporters you might have in mind, juggling whistleblowers and carefully pulling together sweeping exposés of corruption. Those reporters are targeted too, often via sophisticated methods like the spyware Pegasus—but in my research, I’ve found that most often the journalists who are murdered are those who worked locally and precariously: reporters who founded their own media outlets—blogs, websites, and Facebook pages—in which they posted about daily life in their towns.”
The Root: Is Tasha K About to Get Sued by Cardi B…Again?. “If aversion to the phrase ‘don’t write a check with your mouth that your butt can’t cash’ was a person, it would be YouTuber Tasha K. Why? Because even after a long, litigious battle with Cardi B., that’s resulted in her having to pay the rapper over $4 million, she still hasn’t learned to keep her mouth shut. I’ll explain.”
Brazen Careerist: Grappling With The Death Of Heather Armstrong: Where Does Dooce Leave Us Now?. “People say Heather killing herself is not all that surprising given her problems with addiction. This is what I know from having Heather as my secret coworker for the last 20 years: before the addiction killed her, the blog did.”
Associated Press: Mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, known as Dooce to fans, dead at 47. “The pioneering mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, who laid bare her struggles as a parent and her battles with depression and alcoholism on her site Dooce.com and on social media, has died at 47.”
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