Leaving the house to take the garbage out has suddenly become a rare treat for isolated Australians, who are putting in all kinds of effort for the occasion. The Bin isolation outing Facebook group has amassed almost half a million members in under two weeks. Here are some of our favourite posts
Continue reading...Category Archives: Social media
WhatsApp to impose new limit on forwarding to fight fake news
Restrictions on frequently forwarded messages intended to disrupt false Covid-19 claims
WhatsApp is to impose a strict new limit on message forwarding as the Facebook-owned chat app seeks to slow the dissemination of fake news, the company has announced.
If a user receives a frequently forwarded message – one which has been forwarded more than five times – under the new curbs, they will only be able to send it on to a single chat at a time. That is one fifth the previous limit of five chats, imposed in 2019.
Continue reading...YouTube to suppress content spreading coronavirus 5G conspiracy theory
Site will reduce recommendations of videos promoting misinformation
YouTube will reduce the amount of content spreading conspiracy theories about links between 5G technology and the coronavirus that it recommends to users and actively remove videos that breach its policies, the company has said.
Content that is simply conspiratorial about 5G mobile communications networks, without mentioning coronavirus, is still allowed on the site. YouTube said those videos may be considered “borderline content” and subjected to suppression, including loss of advertising revenue and being removed from search results on the platform.
Continue reading...Couple live-streams wedding during coronavirus lockdown – video
A ban on weddings, and other public events did not deter one couple from 'tying the knot' in Slough over the weekend. While it wasn't a legally recognised ceremony, David Howell and Brenda Rolfe made vows to each other in front of their pastor who appeared on a YouTube live stream. After the ceremony guests were invited to the wedding reception on the Zoom app, and asked to wear wedding attire (from the waist up at least) and bring cake to eat
Continue reading...Facebook says spam filter mayhem not related to coronavirus
Social network restores posts that were wrongly removed as system went haywire
A Facebook spam filter that went haywire on Tuesday evening and began removing many perfectly acceptable posts was unrelated to coronavirus, the company has said.
All the removed posts have been restored, a Facebook executive said, attributing the removals to an automated system. Despite the fact that many of the removed posts were related to the coronavirus, the company says that was simply a coincidence owing to the fact that so many posts on the site are related to the pandemic.
Continue reading...TikTok ‘tried to filter out videos from ugly, poor or disabled users’
Documents from the Incercept show social media app put pressure on moderators
TikTok moderators were told to suppress videos from users who appeared too ugly, poor or disabled, as part of the company’s efforts to curate an aspirational air in the videos it promotes, according to new documents published by the Intercept.
The documents detail how moderators for the social video app were instructed to select content for the influential “For You” feed, an algorithmic timeline that is most users’ first port of call when they open the app. As a result, being selected for For You can drive huge numbers of views to a given video, but the selection criteria have always remained a secret, with little understanding as to the amount of automation involved.
Continue reading...British American Tobacco circumventing ad ban, experts say
BAT seems to be running accounts to promote e-cigarettes after crackdown on hiring influencers
British American Tobacco (BAT) is marketing e-cigarettes and heated cigarettes with pictures of attractive models and using hashtags such as “I dare you to try it”, despite a crackdown last year after it paid social media influencers to promote its products.
BAT had come under fire after hiring young models to sell its products despite having an explicit policy banning under-25s from appearing in adverts.
Continue reading...Madrid claps for healthcare workers amid coronavirus lockdown – video
People living in Madrid stood on balconies and leaned out of windows to clap and cheer doctors and healthcare workers on Saturday evening following a campaign launched on social media to show appreciation after the Spanish government declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus.
People have been ordered to stay at home for two weeks unless they have to buy food or medicine or go to work or hospital as Spain has become the country most affected by the coronavirus in Europe after Italy.
Russian-led troll network based in west Africa uncovered
Fake Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts seemed to aim to inflame divides in US
A newly discovered Russian-led network of professional trolls was being outsourced to Ghanaian and Nigerian operatives, according to Facebook and Twitter, who removed the network’s accounts on Thursday.
The network was small: just 49 Facebook accounts, 85 Instagram accounts and 71 Twitter accounts in question. But it marks the first time that a Russian information operation targeting the US has been found to be run from Africa.
Continue reading...Inquiry calls for web pre-screening to stop UK child abuse ‘explosion’
IICSA report calls for social media firms to be made to act, as police struggle to keep up
Social media companies should be forced to pre-screen all uploaded material to help law enforcement agencies cope with the “explosion” in online child sexual abuse in the UK, a critical report says.
The UK is identified as the third-biggest consumer in the world of the livestreaming of abuse in the 114-page study by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA).
Continue reading...#BeKind: can Caroline Flack’s final plea be more than just a hashtag?
Business brands promote a fundraising message of empathy following the death of the Love Island host
Scanning the magazine aisle at her local supermarket last weekend, Nikki Evans suddenly felt sick. She was stocking up on celebrity and gossip weeklies for her beauty salon when she realised that she couldn’t face buying them any more.
“It’s awful that it took the passing of Caroline [Flack] for people to stop and think ‘enough is enough’, but I re-evaluated and looked at all these magazines and I couldn’t see anything positive in them,” she told the Observer. “People come to my salon to feel good; we’re all about wellbeing and wellness, and I’m going to hand them magazines calling people trash? I’m done with it.”
Continue reading...Politicians condemn press intrusion after Caroline Flack’s death
ITV says Sunday’s Love Island will not be broadcast as calls mount for regulation of traditional and social media
Politicians have condemned press intrusion, calling for more regulation of both traditional and social media after the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack.
The former Love Island presenter is understood to have taken her own life on Saturday at her home in Islington, London. She had been charged with assaulting her partner and was due to stand trial in several weeks’ time.
Continue reading...YouTube at 15: what happened to some of the platform’s biggest early stars?
As YouTube celebrates its 15th birthday, we talk to five early adopters about how the all-singing all-dancing platform has evolved
Late on the evening of 14 February 2005, Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen registered the website YouTube.com. Two months later, when the first video (of Karim briefly describing the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo) was uploaded, a platform was launched that has gone on to change the world.
Today, more than 2bn of us visit YouTube monthly, and 500 hours of footage is uploaded every minute. That’s a far cry from the 18-second video that started it all. Its stars are multi-millionaires: YouTube’s highest earner in 2019 was an eight-year-old called Ryan, who netted $26m. The number of creators earning five or six figures has increased by more than 40% year on year. At first, users earned a few hundred pounds for mentioning products in their videos; now they can make hundreds of thousands, and much more through exclusive brand deals. Not many like talking about their income: it makes them less relatable.
Continue reading...Algorithms on social media need regulation, says UK’s AI adviser
Report also urges government to consider making firms such as Facebook share their data
New regulation should be passed to control the algorithms that promote content such as posts, videos and adverts on social networks, the UK government’s advisory body on AI ethics has recommended.
As part of a forthcoming overhaul of regulation covering the internet, the government should also consider requiring social media platforms to allow independent researchers access to their data if they are researching issues of public concern, the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) suggested. That could include topics such as the effects of social media on mental health, or its role in spreading misinformation.
Continue reading...French police charge two boys after alleged rape shared on Twitter
Equalities minister says social networks must act faster in taking down illegal content
France’s equalities minister has said social networks must do more to ensure illegal content is immediately taken down, after a video of an alleged rape was shared widely on Twitter.
Two 16-year-old boys have been charged with the rape of a teenage girl and remanded in custody outside Paris.
Continue reading...The decade that shook America
2010 to 2020 was a contradictory decade that will confound future historians with a simple question: how did America go from Obama to Trump?
Lin-Manuel Miranda was touring his award-winning musical, In the Heights, to his parents’ homeland of Puerto Rico. Donald Trump was awarding first prize on his reality TV show, The Apprentice, to a corporate lawyer turned mobile cupcake entrepreneur.
The year was 2010 and, in the decade that followed, these two hustlers from New York with fiercely devoted followings would come to represent the two faces of America.
Continue reading...‘I was hacked,’ says woman whose account claimed hospital boy photo was staged
Woman denies posting false information that photo of four-year-old was political stunt
A medical secretary has claimed her Facebook account was hacked after it was used to post false information claiming that a photograph of an ill boy on the floor at Leeds General Infirmary was staged for political purposes.
The woman denied posting the allegation that four-year-old Jack Willment-Barr’s mother placed him on the floor specifically to take the picture which became symbolic of the NHS’s troubles after it appeared on the front page of Monday’s Daily Mirror.
Continue reading...TikTok ‘makeup tutorial’ goes viral with call to action on China’s treatment of Uighurs
Teenager claims video sharing platform is censoring her posts, which TikTok denies
An American teenager who is using makeup tutorials on TikTok to spread awareness of China’s detention of at least a million Muslims in internment camps in Xinjiang has claimed her videos are being censored by the platform.
In a three-part series that has gone viral on the international version of the Chinese short video-sharing platform, Feroza Aziz, 17, begins by appearing to show viewers how to use an eyelash curler.
Continue reading...Selfies, influencers and a Twitter president: the decade of the social media celebrity
From Gyneth Paltrow to Trump, today’s stars speak directly to their fans. But are they really controlling their message?
I have a friend, Adam, who is an autograph seller – a niche profession, and one that is getting more niche by the day. When we met for breakfast last month he was looking despondent.
“Everyone takes selfies these days,” he said sadly, picking at his scrambled eggs. “It’s never autographs any more. They just want photos of themselves with celebrities.”
Continue reading...Twitter political ad ban could silence climate activists, warns Warren
US presidential hopeful says fossil fuel firms will be free to promote themselves while critics are barred
Twitter’s plan to ban all political advertising risked muzzling climate activists while giving polluters free rein to promote themselves, the US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said.
“Twitter’s new ad policy will allow fossil fuel companies to buy ads defending themselves and spreading misleading info but won’t allow organisations fighting the climate crisis to buy ads holding those companies accountable,” she tweeted, linking to an environmental newsletter.
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