Platforms

Meta’s new microblogging app Threads is emerging as a potential threat to Twitter’s lock on politicians and political observers seeking real-time news and debate.  Most Twitter competitors have struggled to match the size and bipartisanship of its user base, but Threads is garnering significant participation from both parties.

Social media gets a bad rap these days—our polarized society, its impacts on self-esteem, all that stuff—but there's a group of creators out there dedicated to using their talents to bring you good vibes only. These artists—mostly centered on Instagram, though they cross-post to other platforms—have built vast followings by generating smiles via their signature characters. A by-no-means comprehensive selection of some popular accounts include:

Two months after President Biden took office, his top digital adviser emailed officials at Facebook urging them to do more to limit the spread of “vaccine hesitancy” on the social media platform. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials held “weekly sync” meetings with Facebook, once emailing the company 16 “misinformation” posts. And in the summer of 2021, the surgeon general’s top aide repeatedly urged Google, Facebook and Twitter to do more to combat disinformation.

One day after a Louisiana federal judge set limits on the Biden administration’s communications with tech firms, the US State Department canceled its regular meeting with Facebook officials to discuss 2024 election preparations and hacking threats. State Department officials said all future meetings, which had been held monthly, have been “canceled pending further guidance." The cancellation shows the immediate impact of the order by US District Judge Terry A. Doughty, a Trump appointee.

Big Tech’s enforcement of various official truths that turned out to be false has undermined trust in both the leading tech companies and society overall. In addition to their own content moderators, four other organizational entities have been used to determine misinformation, disinformation, and so-called malinformation.  All four have serious shortcomings:

Judge Terry Doughty of the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana restricted parts of the Biden administration from communicating with social media platforms about broad swaths of content online.

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.

Europe's telecommunications chiefs love to moan about the data deluge that has swamped their networks, demanding payment – a "fair contribution" or "fair share" – from the Internet giants they hold mainly responsible. Yet none has ever presented any hard data to support the claims. Metrics show many of them fail to cover their capital costs.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel sent a clear signal to Congress she is not looking to apply multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) regulations to streaming video services, and that she does not think the regulator has the authority to expand into that area in any event. Rep.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) unveiled a legislative framework for regulating artificial intelligence (AI), warning that “Congress must join the AI revolution” now or risk losing its only chance to regulate the rapidly moving technology. Majority Leader Schumer also said that starting in Fall 2023, he would launch a series of “AI Insight Forums” featuring top AI developers, executives, scientists, community leaders, workers, national security experts, and others. Those discussions, he said, will form the foundation for more detailed policy proposals for Congress.