Analysis: Twitter, Facebook and others condemn hateful speech, so why is it so easy to find on their sites?
The world’s biggest social networks say racism isn’t welcome on their platforms, but a combination of poor enforcement and weak rules have allowed hate to flourish.
In the hours after England’s loss to Italy in the European Football Championship, both Twitter and Facebook, which owns Instagram, issued statements condemning the swelling racist abuse.
Continue reading...Legal scholars suggest former president’s complaint may bring the attention he craves but doesn’t present a serious legal argument
Donald Trump may have filed lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, claiming he and other conservatives have been censored – but legal scholars say his case is likely doomed to fail.
The former president was suspended from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube after the 6 January Capitol attack over fears he would incite further violence. Trump on Wednesday filed class-action lawsuits in federal court in Miami against the three companies, arguing these suspensions violated the first amendment, despite the fact that the companies are private and therefore subject to different rules.
“Trump has the first amendment argument exactly wrong,” said Paul Barrett, the deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. “The first amendment applies to government censorship or speech regulation. It does not stop private sector corporations from regulating content on their platforms.”
Continue reading...After being laid off during Covid, my dad set his heart on a job at Costco. I told Twitter about it – cue a social media explosion
Nearly a year after he’d been laid off because of Covid, my dad – a jubilant, always-smiling, 58-year-old Michigander best known for befriending everyone he meets – told me he wanted to go back to work.
Specifically, he wanted to work at Costco.
Continue reading...Many social media users applaud termination of author’s account, but some have said move is a blow to freedom of speech
The author Naomi Wolf has been suspended from Twitter after using it to spread myths about the pandemic, vaccines and lockdown.
Wolf, who wrote the influential feminist work The Beauty Myth, holds staunch anti-vaccine views. Last month she told a US congressional committee that vaccine passports would “re-create a situation that is very familiar to me as a student of history. This has been the start of many, many genocides.”
Continue reading...Decision follows oversight board recommendation over ex-president’s post on Capitol attack
Facebook is suspending Donald Trump’s account for two years, the company has announced in a highly anticipated decision that follows months of debate over the former president’s future on social media.
“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs, said in a statement on Friday.
Continue reading...Muhammadu Buhari’s comments come amid escalating violence and resurgence in secessionist sentiment
Twitter has deleted a tweet by Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari in which he threatened to punish pro-Biafra groups blamed for escalating attacks on government and security authorities.
The social media firm said Buhari’s tweet violated its “abusive behaviour” policy, leading to a 12-hour suspension of his account.
Continue reading...European Commission proposes more factchecking and algorithm changes to tackle disinformation
A “massive anti-vaccination campaign” has been cited by the European Commission as a reason for social media platforms to intensify their factchecking and revise the internal algorithms that can amplify disinformation.
Under a revised code of practice proposed by Brussels, companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter would need to show why particular material is disseminated and prove that false information is being blocked.
Continue reading...Ex-president unveils retro webpage featuring series of statements resembling blogposts ahead of Facebook oversight board’s decision on his suspension
Banned by Facebook and Twitter, Donald Trump has gone back to the future with an online communication tool that might be described as a glorified blog.
His retro webpage, billed “From the Desk of Donald J Trump”, appears at DonaldJTrump.com/desk and features a small photo of the 45th president writing in a book on his desk.
Continue reading...Activist claims 2014 breach led to aid worker being sentenced to 20 years over parody account
A Saudi court’s decision to sentence an aid worker to 20 years in prison for allegedly using a satirical Twitter account to mock the Riyadh government has been linked to the infiltration of Twitter by Saudi agents in 2014, in a case that has drawn the attention of senior US officials.
Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, a 37-year-old aid worker with the Red Crescent, was sentenced by Saudi Arabia’s specialised criminal court, and given an additional 20-year travel ban, following allegations that he used a popular parody account to mock the Saudi government.
Continue reading...As the pandemic forced us inside and online, Room Rater was one Twitter account giving doomscrollers a well-needed levity break. A year on, co-founder Claude Taylor explains how he plans to keep going
With its stately lamp and verdant window view, Hillary Clinton’s “Zoom room” is nicer than most. So when Room Rater – a Twitter account which scores the video conference backgrounds of high-profile figures – gave it nine out of 10 last spring, Clinton took her disappointment to social media: “I’ll keep striving for that highest, hardest glass ceiling, the elusive 10/10,” she tweeted at the account.
Judging the backgrounds on video calls has been the armchair sport of the past year. Room Rater just happened to screengrab these moments. As we doomscrolled through bleak statistics online, it was cheering to see shots of Meryl Streep’s sterile shelves or the copies of Fahrenheit 451 and The Twits propped up behind Boris Johnson at a school in Leicestershire. Scrolling through the posts a year after it launched, these images have become emblematic of just how quickly coronavirus forced all of us inside and online.
Continue reading...Donald Trump is reportedly working on a social media platform of his own, after being banned from Twitter and Facebook for inciting the Capitol riot.
Related: Dominion: will one Canadian company bring down Trump's empire of disinformation?
Continue reading...People joked it could be nuclear code but real explanation is every social media manager’s nightmare
The perils of working from home while managing the social media account of a major military power have been thrown into sharp relief after the US Strategic Command tweeted a confusing string of gibberish.
Thirteen mysterious characters long, the tweet – “;l;;gmlxzssaw” – prompted some on social media to jokingly suggest it was confidential information, for example a password or a nuclear launch code, that had accidentally been leaked.
Continue reading...With the ex-president gone, the site is launching a flurry of new features – yet its reputation for abuse may endure
In January, Twitter committed what was at first glance a massive act of self-sabotage: it gave its star attraction, Donald Trump, a lifetime ban. This brought to an end a five-year faustian relationship between the two; some observers wondered if the platform would wither without him, yet, to many, Trump was Twitter’s problem writ large.
If YouTube has creators and Instagram has influencers, then what does Twitter have? Few of the words that might jump to mind for regular users are especially positive: there is frequent talk of Twitter storms, Twitter mobs and Twitter pile-ons.
Continue reading...Protesters outside the Capitol denounced the platforms as Facebook, Twitter and Google heads questioned by Congress
The CEOs of America’s biggest technology companies faced a grilling on Thursday from Congress about the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol, as protesters outside the hearing denounced the platforms for playing a role in fueling the violence.
The marathon, six-hour hearing saw the three most powerful men in tech – Sundar Pichai of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter – testify before two committees of the House of Representatives on social media’s role in promoting extremism and misinformation.
Continue reading...Donald Trump will soon use “his own platform” to return to social media, an adviser said on Sunday, months after the former president was banned from Twitter for inciting the US Capitol riot.
Related: 'His new business': Trump seeks personal political brand as he grips Republican base
Continue reading...Ban on Khodorkovsky-founded outlet follows Kremlin threat to block entire social network
Russia’s media watchdog has told Twitter to delete the account of an opposition news outlet following threats from Moscow to block the social network entirely if it did not remove “banned content” within a month.
The moves are part of a wider crackdown on social media and the opposition after protests supporting the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, which were organised via online platforms.
Continue reading...One of the main characters on Twitter today is the pink-necked green-pigeon, a photo of which went viral overnight. Yes, it’s real. Yes, it’s stunning
Steph, there is an incredibly beautiful pigeon all over my Twitter and it doesn’t look real. Is it real?
Lucy, yes, it is real and also extremely attractive. People are calling it “hot pigeon”.
Continue reading...Censor says move is punishment for failure to remove ‘banned’ content relating to Navalny protests
Russia took action on Tuesday to slow down the speed of Twitter in a move that also appeared to have accidentally shut down the Kremlin’s own website, as well as other government agency sites.
The state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said it was retaliating for Twitter’s alleged failure to remove banned content. It threatened a total block if the US platform did not comply with its deletion demands.
Continue reading...The social media giants raise concerns about the eSafety commissioner’s investigative powers and lack of oversight
Facebook and Twitter have raised concern controversial new legislation aimed at curbing bullying and governing online activity will give Australia’s eSafety commissioner too much power over speech online with little oversight.
The online safety bill, introduced into parliament last week, is aimed at giving a broad range of powers to the eSafety commissioner to target bullying and harassment online, extending existing powers protecting children from online bullying to adults, as well as powers over abhorrent violent and terrorist material and adult content online and on social media in Australia.
Continue reading...Social media network also announces ‘Spaces’, a Clubhouse competitor that lets users participate in audio chats
Twitter has announced it will launch a “super follow” feature, which lets users charge followers for access to exclusive content, later this year.
The move comes as Twitter is branching out from advertising to find more ways to make money — both for itself and for its most prolific users.
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