Social Networks

Picture this: you begin scrolling on your phone after a long day of classes. You skim through stories on Snapchat, posts on Instagram, rants and dialogues on Twitter and miscellaneous videos on TikTok. Then, you look up and realize it’s dark outside.  It seems like you’ve been mindlessly scrolling for minutes when in reality, you’ve been scrolling for hours. In those hours, you’ve scrolled past Kylie Jenner’s baby bump selfie, Rami Malek hosting Saturday Night Live, the Taliban’s rise to power and updated vaccine information.  If this sounds like something you’ve experienced, don’t be alarmed. Many people are doing the same thing at this very moment.  In fact, I used to be one of those people, until one day all of that information started to get a little overwhelming. Those fun pictures posted by friends, celebrities and people who I don’t even know started to make me feel inadequate about my lifestyle and who I was as a person. I paid less attention to daily news and put a magnifying glass on what specific people were doing, and how they looked doing it. That’s when I decided to take the scary leap.  Yes, I currently don’t have social media juggernauts…

阅读中文版本When Chinese human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo first joined LinkedIn 10 years ago, he used the platform for professional networking.Key points:LinkedIn in China will shut down later this yearIt will be replaced by a new platform, InJobs, that only allows career networking LinkedIn is the last major US social media platform in ChinaBut after leaving a finance job in 2017, the social media site became the main way he connected with people in China – from his home in the United States.Mr Zhou, a student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests who was exiled from China, said LinkedIn also allowed him to cast a light on China's human rights issues.In 2019, his public advocacy captured the attention of LinkedIn management.  Activist Zhou Fengsuo has used LinkedIn to raise awareness of human rights issues in China. (Supplied)His account was blocked for several hours, meaning it could not be viewed in China.Mr Zhou said the company later told him the block had been a "mistake".He believes the censorship was due to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).Mr Zhou said China wants to make critics "invisible" on the country's internet."The CCP has been using the great firewall to decouple itself from the international community on the internet and force these companies…

Round up your crew, and get ready to party as Lagerstein sets their sails onto the sea of streaming!Australian pirates Lagerstein are throwing a massive online party from their pirate ship, and it’s being live-streamed across the seven seas for all to see.  “For the past 12+ months, we’ve been getting our hands dirty, constructing our pirate ship the S.S Plunderberg,” the band said. “Our ship is now ready, loaded with cameras, lights and gear for all crewmates around the world to join in on the fun! We will be hosting shows and gaming with some of our favourite bands and crew.”Launching via Twitch, the opening celebration will kick off on Saturday, October 30 from 4pm AEST. It will feature performances by Lagerstein, Seraphic, DisKust, Rhino, and Virtues.Between sets, a Mario Kart 8 tournament will be played where fans can interact and talk to the bands.“We’re excited to be launching this next step into the Lagerstein world and being able to perform for our worldwide audiences regularly. It’s going to be a great way for us and our crewmates to engage, and also we can show the world some of our favourite bands from around the country!” Link to Watch:…

A conservative political commentator is being slammed for racist remarks targeting veteran Bay Area TV news reporter Betty Yu.Steven Crowder, the host of the political podcast and YouTube channel "Louder with Crowder," made the comments during a segment on his show Wednesday focusing on the closure of San Francisco's only In-N-Out location for failure to check customers' vaccination status. "San Francisco In-N-Out, they've been in a battle with the city over – let me just let them tell you the story, vaccine requirements," Crowder said. He then proceeds to play a video clip of a KPIX news segment, to which Crowder reacts to seeing Yu by saying, "Oh, that is an aggressively Asian face." One of Crowder's co-hosts, comedian Dave Landau, then says, "Easy." The rest of the "Louder with Crowder" segment went as follows: Crowder: "It is a — I mean that just means if you were a skier it would be like a black diamond you'd have to drop in on a chopper."  Landau: "Where's Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz?" Crowder: "The city confirmed that it closed a private business for not acting like the health – for not acting like the FDA." Crowder: "By the way, the…

Snapchat app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYCSnap Inc said on Tuesday it is launching a studio to help brands create augmented reality advertising and experiences, part of a move to popularize the use of technology that can overlay computer-generated images onto a person’s view of the real world. The owner of photo messaging app Snapchat first became popular with young users for its early forms of augmented reality (AR), such as photo filters that could superimpose dog ears onto a person’s photo, or add a dancing hot dog to a video. Snap has since staked its future on advancing the technology, launching AR-enabled eyewear and acquiring startups that develop technology to allow users to virtually try on clothing. The new studio, Arcadia, will help brands build AR experiences not just for Snapchat, but any other social media apps or websites where it wants to place content, said Jeff Miller, global head of creative strategy at Snap. “The goal is to push the boundaries of what’s possible in…

Photo: Leon Neal (Getty Images)It’s a good day to be a mainstream politically conservative party or a right-leaning news outlet on Twitter. The company has released the results of a study analyzing algorithmic amplification of political content on the platform, which affirms what had already been suspected by some: The political right does really well on Twitter. Twitter’s study, led by the company’s Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency and Accountability team, or META, reviewed millions of tweets of elected officials in seven countries— Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the U.S.—as well as hundreds of millions of tweets containing links to articles from news outlets. In all countries except Germany, the company found that tweets posted by the political right were amplified more than those posted by the political left. When it comes to news outlets, the same thing occurred. (The company analyzed the links to content from news outlets, not tweets by the news outlets themselves). Right-leaning news outlets received more algorithmic amplification than left-leaning news outlets. Twitter didn’t classify news outlets as left-leaning or right-leaning according to its own criteria, but rather used a classification from third-party researchers.The study determined that certain political content is amplified on…