Social Networks

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said in an interview published Wednesday that he plans to launch a social media site called Vocl that he described as a cross between YouTube and Twitter.Lindell, a strong supporter of former President TrumpDonald TrumpThe Memo: How the COVID year upended politics Biden seeks his moment with pandemic address  A year with the coronavirus: How we got here MORE, told Business Insider that Vocl would be meant “for print, radio and TV” and differ from conservative platforms Gab and Parler."It's not like anything you've ever seen,” he said. "It's all about being able to be vocal again and not to be walking on eggshells.”The MyPillow CEO, who was barred from Twitter this year after spreading unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, said he’s worked on Vocl for four years and plans to be the CEO. He predicted it would launch at the latest in three weeks. Lindell told Business Insider that he didn’t have any potential investors but about 10 people were working on Vocl. He declined to name any of those people “for their safety.” He also declined to identify the location of Vocl’s headquarters in the U.S. and reveal how much he…

from the not-as-simple-as-you-might-think dept Summary: In 2012, the Huffington Post did an exposé on eating disorder blogs, mainly on the site Tumblr. It discussed the world of “thinspo” and “thinspiration” blogs, that focused on building a community around losing unhealthy amounts of weight. In response, Tumblr announced that it was banning “self harm” blogs, and classified eating disorder blogs among those no longer allowed. Three years later, a study by Munmun De Choudhury discussed how there was still eating disorder information on Tumblr, but that it was mainly split into two different categories: those who were supportive of eating disorders such as anorexia (referred to as “proana”) as well as communities built up around recovering from eating disorders. One interesting finding of the report was that the “recovery” groups often used the same keywords and messaging, in an attempt to permeate among the “proana” groups, in order to try to encourage those with eating disorders to seek support, therapy, and help towards recovery. That same year, Amanda Hess argued in Slate that the rush to ban content about eating disorders on social media (or, in the case of France, where such things were outlawed) was the wrong approach. "But while…

by: JAKE BLEIBERG, Associated Press Posted: Mar 10, 2021 / 05:26 PM EST / Updated: Mar 10, 2021 / 05:26 PM EST Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at the Austin Police Association on Thursday Sept. 10, 2020. Twitter has filed a lawsuit against the Texas Attorney General. The social media company claims the Republican used his office to retaliate against it for banning the account of former President Donald Trump following the riot at the U.S. Capitol last year. Days after the deadly riot, Paxton announced an investigation into Twitter and four other major technology companies for what he called “the seemingly coordinated de-platforming of the president.” Twitter responded Monday, March 8, 2021 with a federal lawsuit claiming Paxton is seeking to punish it for taking Trump’s account offline. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP) DALLAS (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Wednesday that a lawsuit by Twitter won’t deter his office from investigating the content moderation practices of the social media giant and four other major technology companies. Twitter sued the Republican official this week in an effort to halt his probe, which the company claimed was retaliation for banning the account of former President Donald Trump…

reprisal — Texas targeted Twitter because of protected content moderation, suit claims. Kate Cox - Mar 10, 2021 10:20 pm UTC Twitter is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, alleging that a probe Paxton launched into its business is an act of retaliation against the platform's choice to ban the account of former US President Donald Trump. The suit (PDF) accuses Paxton of using his office to "intimidate, harass, and target Twitter in retaliation for Twitter's exercise of its First Amendment rights." The conflict all goes back to the January 6 events at the US Capitol. At the height of the chaos, while a mob was actively storming the building, Trump took to Twitter to reiterate his false claims of electoral fraud and seemingly egg on the violence. In the following hours, Twitter deleted three tweets and suspended Trump's account for 12 hours. Less than a day after that 12-hour suspension expired, Trump was back on the platform, again seeming to encourage the insurrectionists. Twitter interpreted the new posts as further calls to violence, which are against the platform's terms of service, and permanently banned Trump's account. Twitter was far from alone: Twitch, Snapchat, and Facebook (including Instagram) also all…

So this was a weird one: depending on the browser you’re using, your space bar may not have worked in the YouTube.com search bar for a little while today. Pressing it would make absolutely nothing happen, so your YouTube searches ended up being one long string of words. The bug seemed to be around for an hour, based on when people started sounding off about it on Twitter, but as of 3:50PM ET, the site appeared to be working correctly again on all browsers. The bug affected the desktop site, but only browsers that aren’t based on Chrome. Firefox wouldn’t take spaces in Windows, macOS, or even Android if you requested the desktop version of the website. Safari on iPhones worked as normal, but the problems showed up on Safari on iPad — probably because iPads request the desktop site, too. Asking for the mobile version immediately fixed it there, and requesting the desktop site on an iPhone immediately broke spaces. The good news is that the lack of spaces probably didn’t affect your YouTube experience much — it’s very good at understanding your intent even on long, relatively obscure searches with a bunch of words smashed together. YouTube’s search…

Released as the second single to Mars' 2010 debut studio album Doo-Wops & Hooligans, "Grenade" earned the singer his third Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit. It was nominated for record of the year, song of the year and best pop solo performance at the 2012 Grammy Awards, and "Grenade" was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) last October. In the visual, Mars depicts the unrequited love he has for his girlfriend by lugging a piano through Los Angeles as a sign of the lengths he would go to for her, only to find her at home with another man, leaving him devastated. Catch another glimpse of "Grenade" below.

Holocaust survivor Sami Steigmann had given speeches at many events over the years about his experiences, but none of them had lasted 16 hours or included thousands of people from around the world. That changed Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. With an invite to the audio-focused social networking app Clubhouse, he engaged in a question-and-answer session moderated by the rapper Kosha Dillz and nonprofit event producer Adam Swig."I had never heard of Clubhouse," Steigmann, 81, said. "When they started a room and got 1,000 people in it, for me, it was a complete shocker."His marathon session sparked two more multihour chatrooms, including one with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s counsel and speechwriter Clarence B. Jones, which brought many thousands of people together to hear firsthand accounts from Steigmann, ask questions, share their own experiences with genocide and hate, and bring awareness to alleged human rights abuses in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and against the Uyghurs in China. "I fight hatred," said Steigmann, who survived Nazi medical experiments as a baby.  » Read More

So the USPS is getting new trucks and they look like ducks and maybe that sucks… or maybe it wucks. Like “works,” if a duck said it. Just give me this one please. Anyway. I don’t know how mean I can be here – there has to be something said for objective journalistic integrity – but I have a feeling most people are going to have a rather sarcastic reaction to the new design. I’m not so sure I can blame them – it has a kind of stubby little nose with a shortened hood and a boxy frame and super tall windshield, which gives the wheels a disproportionately large look compared to the rest of the silhouette. It’s sort of like a Nissan Cube but less millennial cool, which A) is discontinued (so maybe not so cool), and B) is not the car that had those giant hiphop hamsters running around, but I’m still going to link to it anyway. Elon Musk must be breathing a sigh of relief right now.  » Read More

The face tracking of cats and dogs are probably my favorite AR innovations that have come to Snapchat Lenses over the past few years.What can I say, I enjoy taking photos and videos of my shorkie Lucy and my cat Dorian with goofy effects anchored on their cute little mugs. So, this week, we're highlighting five AR experiences you can share with your own furry friends, so I can get Lucy and Dorian some work. (Unfortunately, Dorian conveniently slept through most of the...Snapshoot.)Two notes before we jump in: First, any of these Lenses work with a cat or a dog, regardless of its title. Second, if you don't have a cat or a dog, you can try these out as well, though you may get a "looking for cat or dog" message that you can ignore.Don't Miss: Next Reality's 30 People to Watch in Augmented Reality for 2020 Enter a Weird World with Your CatOur first example may interest those who enjoy modern animation, pop art, and points in between.Cat Beam by Lens creator Aoepng projects thick, blocky laser beams from the eyes of cats or dogs in the camera view and anchors a UFO over their heads. Images via…

Updated March 10, 2021 11:51 am ET / Original March 10, 2021 11:50 am ET Order Reprints Print Article Text size The IAC building in New York is the architect Frank Gehry's first in the city. Mario Tama/Getty Images IAC shares are trading higher after the internet holding company posted its latest monthly performance update, showing more strong growth at the cloud-based video tools company Vimeo, which is expected to be spun out as a public company later this year. In February, IAC (ticker: IAC) said, Vimeo had revenue growth of 54%, with subscriber growth of 26%. It was the fourth straight month of revenue growth at 54% or higher, though down slightly from 57% in each of the previous two months. Subscriber growth has been accelerating, and reached a new peak in February. IAC continued to see strong results at Dotdash, the company’s collection of Web content sites. Revenue was up 45%, down from 54% in January but above the 44% level recorded in December.  ANGI Homeservices (ANGI), the company’s majority-owned and publicly traded home-services marketplace, saw revenue growth decelerate for the third straight month. Growth was 1%, down from 6% in January, 12% in December, and 14% in…