The Verge: Meet the 26 year-old socialist trucker running for Congress on TikTok. “Joshua Collins looks like just about every other young person on TikTok. His nails are painted black, his videos are set to trending songs, and he’s not afraid to dunk on fascists online. But where many young people use the app for clout or entertainment, Collins’s TikTok has become the centerpiece for a new kind of political campaign, one he hopes will carry him all the way to Congress.”
social media
JSTOR: Is Jane Austen the Antidote to Social Media Overload?
JSTOR: Is Jane Austen the Antidote to Social Media Overload?. “I soon got past the incongruity of finding Jane Austen on my phone, in my audiobook app, and in the ebook I downloaded so that I’d have access to explanatory annotations on the text. (Yes, I’m afraid I really have fallen down the Austen rabbit hole this time.) Indeed, as I plunged into Austen’s England from the very device that normally connects me to Facebook and Twitter, her world and ours looked more and more alike.”
Tubefilter: Famous Birthdays Surpasses 25 Million Monthly Visitors, Driven By TikTok Surge
Tubefilter: Famous Birthdays Surpasses 25 Million Monthly Visitors, Driven By TikTok Surge. “Famous Birthdays, a social media influencer encyclopedia of sorts — as well as a chronicler of the most popular creators of the day — has seen a recent surge in monthly visitors that founder and CEO Evan Britton attributes to the rise of TikTok.”
CNET: France and Trump agree temporary truce on digital tech tax
CNET: France and Trump agree temporary truce on digital tech tax. “France and the US have agreed to a temporary truce over the European country’s tax on digital technology companies. The 3% tax, introduced by France last year, applies to companies with revenues of more than 25 million euros ($28M) in France and 750 million euros ($832M) worldwide. It attracted the ire of US President Donald Trump, who interpreted it as a direct attack on the success of US tech giants. He threatened to retaliate by imposing tariffs on French goods, including Champagne and handbags, imported to the US.”
BBC: Influencers ‘being offered thousands for sex’
BBC: Influencers ‘being offered thousands for sex’. “Top social media influencers are being propositioned daily by strangers with offers of thousands of pounds in return for sex, the Victoria Derbyshire programme has been told. One said social media had become ‘a catalogue’ for men to select their next conquest.”
Middle East Eye: Saudi Arabia’s bot army flourishes as Twitter fails to tame the beast
Middle East Eye: Saudi Arabia’s bot army flourishes as Twitter fails to tame the beast. “You only need to search Twitter for a hashtag relating to a country in the Middle East to find one of these bot accounts. They typically copy-and-paste the same content, and feature a video clip with the distinctive Saudi 24 logo in the bottom right corner.”
USA Today: Doctor’s pro-vaccine TikTok went viral. Then came hate and threats from around the world
USA Today: Doctor’s pro-vaccine TikTok went viral. Then came hate and threats from around the world . “Nicole Baldwin, a pediatrician working in suburban Cincinnati, posted a TikTok video encouraging vaccination on Twitter Saturday evening. It took less than 24 hours for the video to go viral on both TikTok, a video sharing app, and Twitter – and just another 48 hours before Baldwin was facing backlash from hundreds of thousands of people associated with the anti-vaccine movement.”
