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Mark Zuckerberg: CEO, billionaire, troll
We imagine the scene at Facebook right now is like Kim Jong-il's funeral. Employees weeping in hallways, dripping anguished snot onto keyboards, beating their chests with unsold Facebook phones in an orgy of anguish at the injustice of media coverage regarding Mark Zuckerberg's unprompted defense this week of giving Holocaust deniers a voice on the platform. But I think we've finally figured out what's going on at Facebook after all.
Twitter is removing locked accounts from your follower count
Your Twitter follower count might soon shrink. The microblogging service announced today that it will begin purging locked accounts from your follower count starting this week. "Most people will see a change of four followers or fewer; others with larger follower counts will experience a more significant drop," according to a blog post. But this week won't mark the end of the changes, with Twitter saying that follower accounts might change on a regular basis as "part of [its] ongoing work to proactively identify and challenge problematic accounts."
Twitter will hide tweets from annoying trolls
In March, Twitter announced that it would be working harder to encourage open, healthy, civil conversations on its platform and it asked outside experts to weigh in on the best way to do so. Today, the company described some changes it's making to how it handles content that might distort conversations but doesn't actually violate its policies. "One important issue we've been working to address is what some might refer to as 'trolls,'" David Gasca, Twitter's product manager for health, said in a blog post. "Some troll-like behavior is fun, good and humorous. What we're talking about today are troll-like behaviors that distort and detract from the public conversation on Twitter, particularly in communal areas like conversations and search."
YouTube's trending section shows it has a fake news problem, too
In discussions of the ongoing battle over fake news, we often hear Facebook and Google criticized for playing a hand in spreading false information. And while both have made efforts recently to stem the spread of misinformation on their platforms, they've each had some major missteps. YouTube is talked about less often when it comes to fake news, though it isn't short of scandals itself. Last year, a number of companies and groups pulled their ads once it became known that they were appearing alongside extremist content and YouTube has also had to deal with predatory comments on children's videos, content falsely parading as being appropriate for kids and of course Logan Paul. But today, YouTube has stepped into the fake news spotlight. The number one trending video on the site earlier today was a video purporting to be evidence that David Hogg isn't a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student but instead an actor paid to speak out during crises.
UK to review online trolling laws
Over the last nine months, the UK government has looked at various ways to make the internet safer for people across Britain. In October 2017, culture secretary Karen Bradley published an Internet Safety Green Paper, which discussed a voluntary levy on major social media companies to fund awareness and preventative activity against online trolls and in turn help users report threatening behaviour. Today, the Prime Minister -- supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport -- announced a new independent review "to make the UK the safest place to be online." It'll seek to clarify whether current laws are effectively treating online and offline behaviour the same.
Facebook, Twitter and social media’s road to federal regulation
The extent of Russia's meddling in the 2016 US presidential election remains unclear, but it's no secret that social media played a major role. This year brought with it a great deal of scrutiny for tech giants, particularly Facebook, Twitter and Google. These three companies came under the US government's microscope after news that Kremlin bots and trolls, spearheaded by a group known as the Internet Research Agency, used their sites to tamper with the 2016 presidential election. They spread misinformation (fake news!) and dubious ads across Facebook, Twitter and Google to hundreds of millions of users in the US, with the aim of fomenting hostility among Americans. And it's safe to say they succeeded.
Twitter bans 'Impostor Buster' bot that ID'd Nazi trolls
It's been a rocky road to Twitter's newfound pledge to kick members of hate groups off its platform. For those on the end of racist abuse, reporting trolls to Twitter has been a frustrating process. But, earlier this year, one journalist decided to take matters into his own hands. After suffering a record amount of harassment, reporter Yair Rozenberg teamed up with dev Neal Chandra to build a bot that unmasked impersonator accounts manned by bigots. It got off to a great start, explains Rozenberg in a New York Times op-ed, before Twitter shut it down at the behest of Nazis.
Dreamworks' exclusive Netflix shows for 2018 include 'She-Ra'
If you'll be after some light-hearted TV viewing to banish the January blues (and let's face it, who won't be?) you're in luck, as Netflix and DreamWorks are bringing six new original cartoon series to screens in the new year. Family-friendly Trolls: The Beat Goes On! -- which picks up where the previous series left off and premieres on January 19 -- has been positioned at the top of the companies' announcement, but retro fans will likely be more excited by the news that girl power icon She-Ra is also getting her own rebooted air time (premiere date TBC). The rest of the line-up includes The Boss Baby: Back in Business, Harvey Street Kids, The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, Trollhunters (part 3) and 3 Below (the second instalment of Tales of Arcadia Trilogy). Premiere dates for these are yet to be confirmed, but they'll be available for Netflix members worldwide when they do land.
Facebook will alert you if you liked a fake Russian account
As part of its ongoing transparency efforts on Russian activity, Facebook today revealed that it will soon let users find out if they liked or followed pages created by the Internet Research Agency between January 2015 and August 2017. The company said it plans to roll out the tool by the end of this year, which is going to live in the Facebook Help Center and will also include information about Instagram accounts.
Internal Twitter email explains its new plans to fight abuse
Twitter promised stricter rules for abuse and hate in the wake of a boycott, but what will those rules entail, exactly? It's a bit clearer after today. Wired has obtained email providing early details on new policies, and they're mostly good news -- although they probably won't satisfy some people. Most notably, it's planning to crack down against all groups that "have historically used violence as a means to advance their cause" rather than focusing primarily on terrorism. It'll also take action against tweets that glorify violence, not just direct threats. There's no guarantee that this will lead to bans and suspensions against hate groups (Twitter is still hashing out the details), but that's what the early language implies.
Google also found evidence of Russian influence in US election
Et tu, Google? Search and ad giant Google has found evidence that Russian agents purchased ads on YouTube, Google Search, Gmail and the company's DoubleClick ad network, unnamed sources have told the Washington Post. That means Russian actors have penetrated all the large Silicon Valley ad firms, as Facebook and Twitter recently revealed similar attacks. However, the Google ads were reportedly not purchased by the same Vladimir Putin-affiliated group that bought ads on Facebook, meaning the problem could be more widespread than thought.
After Las Vegas shooting, Facebook and Google get the news wrong again
The worst mass shooting in modern US history took place last night in Las Vegas, where a gunman killed at least 58 people and injured more than 515 others, according to the latest reports. Not long after the unfortunate event, Facebook and Google began populating news stories on their respective platforms, as they often do. And, in what's become a problematic trend, some of the articles being highlighted and distributed to millions of people were from unreliable sources. This time, among them were a trolling thread on internet forum board 4chan and a completely false story from a far-right conspiracy website.
Instagram moves beyond its all-or-nothing approach to comments
Instagram already has tools to filter your comments, but sometimes that's just not enough. What if you're tired of comment spam, or just don't like that creep who tries to flirt with you on every post? You can finally do something about it outside of reporting individual users. Instagram is rolling out comment tools that give you tight control over who can leave feedback on your photos and videos. So long as your account is public, you can set broad controls (such as limiting comments to people you follow). And even if your account is private, you can block specific users.
'Pharma bro' Shkreli ordered to jail over internet harassment
Martin Shkreli is learning the hard way that his eagerness to harass others has consequences beyond social networking bans. Judge Kiyo Matsumoto has ordered the price-gouging (and most recently, securities fraud convict) "pharma bro" CEO to jail over the Facebook post he wrote offering $5,000 to whoever could get him a strand of Hillary Clinton's hair. Shkreli and his lawyer maintained that the post was satire protected by free speech, but Judge Matsumoto didn't buy it. This was "solicitation of assault," she said in her decision, adding that it wasn't funny to effectively issue a threat.
Kodi fights trademark trolls trying to charge for its media app
Kodi doesn't just have to worry about add-ons and devices that give it a reputation as a piracy haven. The media center app developer has revealed that it's battling "trademark trolls" who've registered the Kodi name as their own and are using that mark to profit from software that's supposed to be free to distribute. The culprits may charge you to host Kodi on a website, for example, or make you buy their Kodi boxes instead of others. And this isn't a theoretical worry, either.
Google’s comment-ranking system will be a hit with the alt-right
A recent, sprawling Wired feature outlined the results of its analysis on toxicity in online commenters across the United States. Unsurprisingly, it was like catnip for everyone who's ever heard the phrase "don't read the comments." According to "The Great Tech Panic: Trolls Across America," Vermont has the most toxic online commenters, whereas Sharpsburg, Georgia, "is the least-toxic city in the US." There's just one problem.
Internet wisdom clashes with political activism in downtown Phoenix
Don't feed the trolls. This advice is drilled into our heads: The most effective way to smother harassment on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, email or any other online outlet is to ignore it. Don't give it attention. Don't legitimize the taunts, the name-calling, the threats. Don't give them more reason to come after you. Don't feed the trolls. But that's online. In the real world, we're advised to do the opposite. We are compelled to stand up, speak out, and chant in the faces of people and ideas that would do us harm. When something unjust, tragic or deeply foreboding happens in America, the first instinct is to protest, make signs, march. Scream.
How hateful alt-right trolls hijacked your timeline
You don't need to get attacked by a pro-Trump troll-bot horde to know that social media is a battleground for propaganda farms. It's pretty obvious, and miles of speculative digital ink has been spilled saying as much. An Oxford study this week is getting more of that ink spilled, confirming what we already knew. But no one's spelled out what it actually means. The Computational Propaganda Research Project at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, certainly tried. That's the paper everyone's talking about this week, by the way. It looked at case studies from researchers in nine countries, interviewed 65 experts, and analyzed tens of millions of posts across seven different social media platforms during moments of heightened government propaganda activity: elections, political crises and national-security incidents.
MTV's 'Catfish' will introduce internet trolls to their victims
MTV's Catfish: The TV Show, a documentary series that brings together online couples who have never met in real life with sometimes disastrous results, is branching out. Instead of pursuing potential romances, the broadcaster is seeking people who would love to square up to their online rivals in the hope that it'll make engaging TV.
Disqus wants to help rid the web of toxic commenters
In recent years, commenting services have come and go, but one has maintained a consistent presence on some of the world's biggest websites: Disqus. It's spent the past ten years helping brands and news media develop their own communities, while simultaneously amassing hundreds of millions of users of its own. The service is big enough that its commenting tools have been deployed on websites that host unsavory content, which it has, in turn, become associated with. Disqus has said it has no tolerance for hate speech but continues to host discussions on websites that promote toxicity. Now, it says, it wants to do more about it.
