Tag Archives: online activism

ABC News (Australia): A year after Elon Musk bought Twitter, X is now a ‘worthless’ platform some say is no longer safe for activists

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ABC News (Australia): A year after Elon Musk bought Twitter, X is now a ‘worthless’ platform some say is no longer safe for activists. “Over the past 12 months, Mr Musk has gutted content moderation, restored accounts of previously banned extremists, and allowed users to purchase account verification. The blue bird logo has since disappeared, and so too have many advertisers and users who could no longer make sense of — or feel safe on — the platform now known as X.”

The Conversation: Ukraine’s IT army is a world first: here’s why it is an important part of the war

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The Conversation: Ukraine’s IT army is a world first: here’s why it is an important part of the war. “The IT army has thousands of volunteer members around the world, who use Twitter and Telegram channels to communicate, coordinate and report on actions. Its members have already taken part in a wide variety of attacks. These range from stealing and exposing important information to successfully disrupting Russian communications and other critical networks in order to hinder the Russian war efforts.”

The Conversation: In times of war, digital activism has power. Here’s how to engage responsibly

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The Conversation: In times of war, digital activism has power. Here’s how to engage responsibly. “Eyewitness accounts, verified facts and culturally sensitive reporting are competing with misinformation, political propaganda and irresponsible journalism. This information warfare has real-world consequences. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests organised through social media have drawn tens of thousands of people onto the streets, despite anti-protest measures adopted in some countries.”

New York Times: China Took Her Husband. She Was Left to Uncover His Secret Cause.

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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.”

The Verge: Reddit demands moderators remove NSFW labels, or else

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The Verge: Reddit demands moderators remove NSFW labels, or else. “Reddit has sent messages to the mods of those subreddits saying they must ‘immediately correct’ their NSFW labeling, claiming each community ‘has not historically been considered NSFW nor would they under our current policies.’ If the designation isn’t corrected, any moderators involved in that decision will be removed.”

Pew: #BlackLivesMatter Turns 10

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Pew: #BlackLivesMatter Turns 10. “In July 2013, activists first used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to spark conversation about racism, violence and the criminal justice system following George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. Ten years later, Black Lives Matter stands as a model of a new generation of social movements intrinsically linked to social media.”

9to5 Mac: Reddit plagued with 1-star App Store reviews over API debacle as users search for 0-star button

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9to5 Mac: Reddit plagued with 1-star App Store reviews over API debacle as users search for 0-star button. “Despite site-stopping protests by mods and users, Reddit leadership chose to brute force its way through any reasonable way of continuing third-party app support. Instead, the company hopes its luxury-priced API will be its secret shortcut to an overvalued IPO. As a result, Reddit’s official iOS app is being torpedo’d in the App Store.”

The Verge: Reddit is telling protesting mods their communities ‘will not’ stay private

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The Verge: Reddit is telling protesting mods their communities ‘will not’ stay private. “Reddit is pressuring moderators who have set their subreddits to private to reopen their communities this week, according to messages seen by The Verge. The company has given moderators deadlines to lay out their plans for reopening but said that they can’t stay closed.”

Motherboard: Reddit Moderators Are Protesting By Changing Their Communities to NSFW

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Motherboard: Reddit Moderators Are Protesting By Changing Their Communities to NSFW. “In protest of Reddit’s new API fees, the moderators of some big subreddits have cast aside the usual rules and changed their communities to NSFW. Reddit doesn’t allow ads to run on subreddits that are marked NSFW; in theory, keeping advertisers off of some of the most popular subreddits on the site would deprive the company of some serious ad revenue.”

NBC News: Reddit CEO praises Elon Musk’s cost-cutting as protests rock the platform

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NBC News: Reddit CEO praises Elon Musk’s cost-cutting as protests rock the platform. “In an interview Thursday with NBC News, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman praised Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting and layoffs at Twitter, and said he had chatted ‘a handful of times’ with Musk on the subject of running an internet platform.”

The Verge: Reddit communities with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

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The Verge: Reddit communities with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely. “Moderators of many Reddit communities are pledging to keep their subreddits private or restricted indefinitely. For the vast majority of subreddits, the blackout to protest Reddit’s expensive API pricing changes was expected to last from Monday until Wednesday. But in response to a Tuesday post on the r/ModCoord subreddit, users are chiming in to say that their subreddits will remain dark past that 48-hour window.”

CNN: What the chaos at Twitter means for the future of social movements

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CNN: What the chaos at Twitter means for the future of social movements. “Twitter has often been heralded as a democratizing force, bringing previously marginalized voices to the forefront and giving the public a platform to demand accountability from leaders. (It has also enabled the spread of misinformation, extremist ideas and abusive content.) But since Elon Musk acquired Twitter last year and the platform plunged into chaos, some organizers and digital media experts have been bracing for the impact that his controversial policy changes and mass layoffs may have on social movements going forward.”

The Verge: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

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The Verge: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps. “Some of Reddit’s biggest communities including r/videos, r/reactiongifs, r/earthporn, and r/lifeprotips are planning to set themselves to private on June 12th over new pricing for third-party app developers to access the site’s APIs. Setting a subreddit to private, aka ‘going dark,’ will mean that the communities taking part will be inaccessible by the wider public while the planned 48-hour protest is taking place.”