Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
SAN FRANCISCO — Left-leaning political activists accused Facebook of suppressing free speech when the social media giant removed an event listing this week that it said was part of a new disinformation campaign with ties to Russia. Facebook said it had to act quickly to disclose that inauthentic operators were behind an upcoming event in Washington to…
It’s harder and harder to have an honest debate on the internet. Social-media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook Groups are rife with trolls; forums are plagued by archaic layouts and spambots. Teenagers who are looking to talk about big issues face additional frustrations, like the fact that most adults on these platforms don’t take…
Nearly everyone on Samish Island knew Chuck Davis, a bighearted retiree who lived in the handsome gray shingle house with the best view of Samish Bay. But almost no one on Samish Island had ever even seen Lane, Chuck’s 33-year-old son — until the sunny day last July when they heard a woman’s screams, and…
Screenshot: Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night Tons of Twitter bots are still just pictures of boobs asking for your credit card information, but programmers have also used the format to make some cool shit. Every Teenager Bot and Gradients are genuinely fun little experiments that brighten up my timeline. But every botmaker struggles with getting…
Following a year in which YouTube has repeatedly promoted conspiracy-theory videos during breaking news events like the shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Las Vegas, the company announced on Monday a slew of new features it hopes will make news on the platform more reliable and less susceptible to manipulation. The company is also investing $25…
The Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK has announced its intention to fine Facebook more than $600,000 for its “lack of transparency and security issues” related to third party data harvesting. The ICO is also taking steps toward bringing criminal action against SCL Elections, the now-defunct parent company of the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica,…
Wanna Thompson, 26, has long considered herself a Nicki Minaj fan. As a freelance writer living in Toronto, Ms. Thompson also counts herself as a cultural critic with a focus on hip-hop, and with her insights, she has built an audience via her personal website and social media feeds. So when she posted a tweet…
Mobile screens are likely to stay small, but the share of ads they are taking on is becoming immense. In fewer than five years, nearly seven out of every 10 digital ad dollars will go to mobile, according to a fresh forecast from Forrester. That’s thanks to what the research firm is predicting will be…
The tweet was an obvious troll, by a fake doctor with a profane name. “When Trump supporters come to my office at the Mayo Clinic, I love misdiagnosing their healthy pregnancies as ectopic so they have to abort their white fetuses,” Twitter user @DrNifkin wrote last week. Since then, the Mayo Clinic has debunked the…
Back in March, Science Magazine published a somewhat shocking op-ed titled “Why I don’t use Instagram for science outreach.” Just from the title, it was clear that this opinion piece was positioned in opposition to something or someone. You don’t have to read very far into it to see exactly who it was targeting: Samantha…