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Selfies are shifting our definition of beauty
Selin Pesmes says she uses selfie filters because they smooth out her skin and present a "better-quality version" of herself. That's likely the same thinking for the millions of other people who regularly post edited pictures of themselves on social media, which are often created using selfie-enhancing tech from apps like Instagram, Snapchat and FaceTune. While some of these filters are fun or creative (for example: They can give you dog or bunny ears), many of them are simply there to make you look prettier. With a quick swipe, they can get rid of blemishes, fix the nose you don't perceive as perfect or give you lips that resemble Kylie Jenner's expensive fillers. Some people love these selfie filters so much that they're going to plastic surgeons and asking for cosmetic procedures that'll make them look like a software-enhanced version of themselves.
Alex Jones gets a week suspension from Twitter
More than a week after other services pulled the plug on Alex Jones and InfoWars, CNN reports that Twitter has given the personality a one-week suspension. The move came after a Periscope video session where Jones told viewers "now is time to act on the enemy" ahead of a "false flag" attack. His ability to tweet and retweet is gone for now, although the @RealAlexJones account is still visible and he can read things on the site. After Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Vimeo dumped InfoWars content people have pushed for Twitter to do the same, however it has declined despite being notified of tweets that broke its rules. One site where Alex Jones remains fully active is Tumblr (which, like Engadget, is a part of Verizon-owned Oath) where InfoWars continues to post basic links to content that lives elsewhere. Still, the availability of its app via the Google Play and Apple iTunes stores means that followers can still receive the content if that's what they're interested in. That reality hasn't stopped the host from continuing to complain of censorship, a battle that seems likely to go on indefinitely. Meanwhile the @InfoWars account is unaffected.
Ruby Rose is the latest celebrity driven off Twitter by abuse
It's only been a few days since Ruby Rose was cast as "Batwoman" for the CW series Arrowverse, but the Australian actor has already had to quit Twitter after a stream of abusive messages. Much of the backlash has focused on accusations that Rose -- who identifies as gender fluid and is a prominent LGBTQ activist -- isn't "gay enough" to play the role of Kate Kane (aka Batwoman) who is a lesbian in the comic books. Some others took issue with the fact that, unlike the character in the comics, Rose isn't Jewish. Still others simply questioned her acting ability, leading to the creation of #recastbatwoman campaign on social media.
Twitter doesn’t have the spine to ban Alex Jones
It seems like every major tech company has had enough of Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and propagandist behind the controversial far-right site InfoWars. Well, almost everyone. The obvious holdout: Twitter. On Monday, Twitter said InfoWars and its associated accounts, including Jones', were not currently violating its rules. And last night its CEO and co-founder, Jack Dorsey, tried to explain the decision. He said Twitter is going to "hold Jones to the same standard we hold to every account," but that it isn't "taking one-off actions to make us feel good in the short term, and adding fuel to new conspiracy theories."
The internet’s slow turn against Alex Jones and InfoWars
Tech companies are finally starting to take action on Alex Jones, the man who called the Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax and said the Democrats were planning a second civil war, for spreading his hateful conspiracy nonsense on the internet. It all began a couple of weeks ago when YouTube removed multiple videos from his channel for hate speech, a move that was followed by Facebook blocking him from posting on his personal page for 30 days. Since then, Spotify has taken down multiple episodes of Alex Jones' podcast, citing violations of its rules against hate speech, while Stitcher and Apple have gone as far as completely removing InfoWars shows. And now Facebook and YouTube have outright banned him and his InfoWars pages. Although things seem to have come to a head just recently, the battle between the InfoWars creator and tech firms has actually been brewing for months. Here's a timeline of the most important events leading up to today, when it seems that tech companies have decided that enough is enough.
Facebook's security chief is leaving the company
Facebook's Chief Security Office Alex Stamos has announced that he's leaving the social network, and the company might leave his seat unoccupied. According to The New York Times, the company doesn't have any plans to appoint a successor, which some might consider a controversial decision for a company with huge privacy issues. The publication says it got its hands on an internal post from Stamos back in January, wherein he revealed that Facebook's security team will be disbanded and will no longer be a standalone group. Former members of the team will work more closely with the other product and engineering teams instead.
Facebook's new tool lets you limit your social media use
For some people, quitting social media cold turkey could be the most effective way to escape their addictive clutches. Facebook doesn't want to lose users getting exhausted from reading their friends' rants and raves, though, so it has launched new time management tools for its applications in hopes that they'll limit their own usage without leaving entirely. The platform's new activity dashboard will display how much time you spend browsing Facebook and Instagram on average every day of the week.
Twitter is auditing itself for toxicity
Whether it's the veil of anonymity, the controversial nature of political discourse, or both -- conversations on social media can quickly turn into emotionally charged quarrels. To combat these ongoing issues, Twitter has cracked down on fake accounts, added extra verification steps for new users, and acquired Smyte -- a software company that's dedicated to preventing spam and abuse. Now the social networking site is turning to university experts to promote healthier dialog.
UK politicians blame Facebook for the rise of fake news
After an 18 month investigation, the UK parliament has issued a scathing report on the handling of fake news and illegal election ads by tech companies, especially Facebook. The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee said Facebook "obfuscated" information and refused to probe potential Russian abuse until forced to by the US Senate. Worst of all, the social network helped spread disinformation and hatred against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. "Facebook is releasing a product that is dangerous to consumers and deeply unethical," the report states.
Twitter's tougher stance on users is hurting its growth
The number of people using Twitter every month fell in the second quarter of 2018, the company confirmed today. Monthly active users slipped to 335 million in the three-month period, down from 336 million. Curiously, the one million drop-off came from the US, rather than any of the company's international markets. For Twitter, that's a serious concern, though not an unexpected one. The company has been under pressure to tackle bots and extremist accounts that are breaking community guidelines. Chief executive Jack Dorsey has promised to do better, and spent a lot of time and resources this quarter "investing in the long-term health of Twitter." Twitter seems to be cleaning up its platform, albeit slowly. It's tough, but necessary work that should earn some goodwill from longtime users and, ultimately, create a healthier long-term business. The short-term drop in active accounts, though, won't be appreciated by many investors. Following the release of its second quarter earnings, Twitter shares plunged more than 15 percent in premarket trading. That's... not good.
Why are Trump and sex workers angry about shadow banning?
On Thursday morning, United States President Donald Trump tweeted about how Twitter was "shadow banning" prominent republicans, presumably after reading reports that it wasn't auto-suggesting the names of members of his party when people searched for them on its app. "Not good," Trump said. "We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints." But, while some people may appreciate what Twitter is doing, the company says this wasn't done on purpose -- it was simply a side effect of a change it made back in May aimed at cleaning up the platform.
Despite scandals, Facebook is still raking in cash and users
It's no secret that 2018 has been quite a rocky year for Facebook, after controversies over the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal and, most recently, its handling of fake news on the platform. But, despite these troubling issues, the company's bottom line hasn't been affected -- it made $12 billion during the last quarter alone. And today, Facebook reported a total revenue of $13.23 billion in Q2 2018, a 42 percent year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, daily and monthly active user numbers are still growing, though they didn't jump by much compared to Q1 2018. Monthly users are now at 2.23 billion, only up 1.54 percent from the last quarter.
Facebook's 'shared viewing' video feature is coming to all groups
Facebook has made it clear that it wants to make video a crucial part of its business, as it looks to compete with the likes of YouTube, Amazon and Netflix. And, over the past few months, the company's been making changes to help it get there, launching new features aimed at making videos more social. One of those is Watch Party, an experimental tool introduced in January that lets members of Facebook groups watch videos together and simultaneously. That shared watching experience, which works with both live and pre-recorded videos, was only available to select users when it was first announced, but now Facebook is bringing it to every group worldwide.
Instagram adds status markers to your DM list
Instagram started telling you when your friends were active in the direct message list last January. Now the photo-centric social network is expanding the feature with a new green dot to indicate who is online and active.
Congress' social-media hearing was a ‘stupid’ sideshow
Tuesday marked another chapter in the "Tech Companies Go to Congress" story, with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. The hearing, titled "Examining the Content Filtering Practices of Social Media Giants," was supposed to shed light on how these companies are keeping their sites safe for users by filtering out toxic content. But, instead, we learned very little. Executives from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube simply echoed what they've been saying in other congressional hearings since 2017. They talked about how they're using a combination of artificial intelligence and human reviewers to fight fake news, bots and toxic content like hate speech.
World Cup tweets were viewed 115 billion times
Twitter had high hopes that the World Cup would be a big hit on its platform. The previous games in 2014 happened before the platform released video features, but this time around, it secured a deal with the event's US rights holder Fox Sports, as well as others across the world, for exclusive content like highlight clips and interviews. As the dust settles following the French team's triumph over underdog Croatia's squad in Sunday's final game, Twitter has released its own numbers to give us an idea how the World Cup went for the platform.
Egypt will subject popular social accounts to anti-fake news laws
Egypt's parliament has passed a new law that will categorize social media accounts and blogs with more than 5,000 followers as media outlets. As such, they'll be regulated by the Supreme Council for the Administration of the Media and be subject to media laws that criminalize the spread of fake news. Additionally, the regulatory body can now block websites and file criminal complaints against those deemed to be "inciting people to violate laws" and spreading "defamation against individuals and religions."
Twitter reportedly suspended 58 million accounts in Q4 2017
Twitter reportedly suspended 70 million accounts across May and June of 2018 as part of its purge of fake users. Now, according to a tweet from the Associated Press, the social media company had already suspended at least 58 million accounts in the last quarter of 2017.
Facebook can’t decide when a page should be banned
Another day, another congressional hearing on how tech companies are conducting themselves. This time it was Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that testified before the House Judiciary Committee today, in a hearing titled "Examining the Content Filtering Practices of Social Media Giants." While much of the three-hour session was information we've heard before, like what they're all doing to fight fake news and propaganda-driven bots, there was an interesting discussion about Facebook's policies (or lack thereof). In particular, the company's president for global policy management, Monika Bickert, couldn't give members of the committee a firm answer on what exactly it takes to ban offensive pages from Facebook.
Watch tomorrow's social media congressional hearing right here
Hey, if you were wondering when we were going to get another congressional hearing about social media, you're in luck. On Tuesday, executives from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Examining the Content Filtering Practices of Social Media Giants." The people representing these tech companies are members of their public policy teams, so expect them to be grilled by US Representatives about the toxic and harmful content that shows up on each of their sites.