New Yorker: The Search for Dirt on the Twitter Whistle-Blower. “The dozens of e-mails and LinkedIn messages received by people in Zatko’s professional orbit appeared to be mostly from research-and-advisory companies, part of a burgeoning industry whose clients include investment firms and individuals jockeying for financial advantage through information.”
New York Times: Google Seeks to Break Vicious Cycle of Online Slander. “For many years, the vicious cycle has spun: Websites solicit lurid, unverified complaints about supposed cheaters, sexual predators, deadbeats and scammers. People slander their enemies. The anonymous posts appear high in Google results for the names of victims. Then the websites charge the victims thousands of dollars to take the posts down. This circle of slander has been lucrative for the websites and associated middlemen — and devastating for victims. Now Google is trying to break the loop.”
The New York Times: When Instagram Killed the Tabloid Star. “Instagram gave us a new way of seeing celebrities, drawing us closer to them both physically and psychologically. The images that Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner post there may seem like extensions of their reality television empire, but television only works in one direction: We watch it. On Instagram, we look and we post. We watch other people, and we watch ourselves.”
The Daily Beast: Real Housewives of Soccer Go to War Over Instagram Mole Hunt. “It was a lengthy investigation, one that was carefully planned and meticulously executed over the course of several months. And when the big reveal came, it was delivered in stunning style, with a sensational and dramatic denouement.” Filter it though I may, I usually spend time slogging through gossipy news stories and do not include them here. But I thought this was interesting, so let me be gossipy for one moment.
Newswise: Study explores how gossip spreads in social networks. “Researchers studying the spread of infectious diseases and transmission of information have developed a model that elucidates the reasons why some news propagates through social networks before there is time to corroborate the facts. Their results, which may also help marketing companies target specific social groups, appear online at arXiv.org.”
The Next Web: Here’s the real tea: A primer on YouTube drama channels. “So you may have heard about a little fight going on in the YouTube community, between two beauty gurus named Tati Westbrook and James Charles. The drama tornado has engulfed aspects of the internet that aren’t even remotely related to the two, but one of the reasons may be an organized and inquisitive network of channels devoted to drama. If you’re new to the world of YouTube gossip, here’s what you need to know about these channels and what they do.”
The Verge: The dream of the ‘00s lives on in gossip blogs. “Mostly, the internet is worse now than it was 20 years ago — but at least it looks better. Now that ‘going online’ is more often a job than a hobby, the internet looks appropriately sleek to match: by adults and for adults, by professionals and for professionals. Platforms have different personalities, from the cutesy quirk of Etsy to the clean, friendly usability of Slack. But, in general, if a website is popular, if it is large enough to be the primary income source for its creators, it is both navigable and beautiful in a minimalist, Scandinavian-boutique-hotel sort of way. The look of a website is intentional and made by a well-paid committee. Very little about the internet’s appearance, short of a bug quickly remedied, is an accident.”
Radio Free Asia: China Shutters Dozens of Entertainment News Accounts in Social Media Crackdown. “China’s powerful Cyberspace Agency has shuttered around 60 social media accounts on major platforms amid a crackdown on celebrity news and gossip. The agency said the move came amid a crackdown on independent media accounts purveying celebrity photos and gossip sparked by the new cybersecurity law, which came into effect on June 1, and contains a clause stipulating that online content mustn’t breach privacy.”
I think we can file this under “not surprising”: an official word can stop viral rumors on social media. “…when faced with the new realities of online life, many organizations falter when it comes to addressing the problems cultivated through social media outlets. Ignoring the problem won’t get you anywhere, according to a new study by the University of Washington’s Emerging Capacities of Mass Participation (emCOMP) Laboratory, which found that a simple statement from an official can turn the tides on rumors gone viral.”
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