Twitter Is a Megaphone for ‘Sudden Death’ Vaccine Conspiracies
[ad_1] Graham led research in November and early December that found Covid misinformation surged on Twitter after the platform lifted its ban on misleading health information. Since January 1, new analysis…
How Often Should You Update Your Profile Photos?
[ad_1] Have you ever made an appointment with someone online and, when you meet them in person, find that they’re almost unrecognizable? During the past few years, many people increased…
Can’t Decide What to Do About Twitter? Here Are Some Options
[ad_1] Not everyone is impressed with Mastodon. Some call it clunky and slow, some in the security world say it’s far from perfect, and because different servers may be run differently, there’s no…
Keep It Real or Lose Gen Z
[ad_1] In 2023, social media will change, with young users increasingly pushing for more meaningful online interactions. The dominant “legacy” players, like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, will give way to…
I Threw a Holiday Party in Horizon Worlds. It Didn’t Go Well
[ad_1] Reasonable people can debate whether or not a social VR application is meaningfully different enough from, say, a video game to earn an entirely new moniker. What reasonable people…
Stop Using Social Media Apps. The Web Version Is Often Better
[ad_1] I can scroll through my timeline of choice whenever I want, which is a miracle of technology. The downside: I do so, a lot, even when I wish I…
Twitter Is No Longer a Creative Haven
[ad_1] WIRED has written frequently of late about Elon Musk’s Twitter, so forgive me for coming back to it—but for those of us as terminally online as I am, let…
Mastodon Is Hurtling Toward a Tipping Point
[ad_1] Rodti MacLeary started a Mastodon instance, mas.to, in 2019. By early November 2022, it had amassed around 35,000 users. But since Elon Musk bought Twitter and unleashed one chaotic decision after another, people have signed up…
The Internet Is at Risk of Driving Women Away
[ad_1] Unless we act, 2023 will be the year that women leave the internet. Women already face enormous risks online. A Pew Research report of a US survey shows that one-third…
Mastodon Features That Twitter Should Steal (but Won’t)
[ad_1] Any platform that supports free speech should have a content warning system pretty much like the one Mastodon offers. I bet Musk won’t implement it, though, because his snowflake…
Instagram Is a Site of Protest for the Chinese Diaspora
[ad_1] Northern Square was not the only account reviving the lo-fi, nostalgic aesthetic from China’s more hopeful and democratic past. Pages like @beijing_silvermine, and @beijing_in_springtime all became popular in the Chinese Instagram…
No One on Twitter Is Safe From Elon Musk
[ad_1] Musk changed his tune this week after he alleged a “crazy stalker” followed a car carrying his young son. Questions about the incident remain, and it’s not clear how…
Trump’s Twitter Ban Was Unfair, but Not for the Reason You Think
[ad_1] In January 2021, after former US president Donald Trump tweeted in support of an insurrection on the Capitol, his account was frozen and he was locked out. But across…
Let Twitter Devolve Into Porn
[ad_1] “I am mad for it to be in contact with me,” Walt Whitman wrote, of what he called “life’s atmosphere.” No doubt he also meant contact with the bodies…
Twitter Blue Explained: What Is It? How Much Does It Cost?
[ad_1] Twitter is ready for you to hand over some cash, whether it’s subscribing to the relaunched Twitter Blue service or buying one of the blue bird statues from its San Francisco…
For Black Folks, Digital Migration Is Nothing New
[ad_1] Among Black folks, on the occasion of being invited to an event, a common question is, “Who gone be there?” In other words, the essential question for determining whether…
Transparency For Thee, But Not For Me
[ad_1] In short, no one’s tweets were unfindable to the public without the poster knowing about it: If they were suspended or banned, naturally they’d be aware. De-amplification—affecting a person’s ranking…
Elon Musk’s Twitter Is Making Meta Look Smart
[ad_1] It was the first day of April 2022, and I was sitting in a law firm’s midtown Manhattan conference room at a meeting of Meta’s Oversight Board, the independent body…
Lensa AI and ‘Magic Avatars’: What to Know Before Using the App
[ad_1] Has the stale selfie that’s served as your profile picture gone a little too long without a refresh? You’ve likely seen friends using the Lensa AI app to create colorful, custom cartoon…
‘Magic Avatar’ App Lensa Generated Nudes From My Childhood Photos
[ad_1] This weekend, the photo-editing app Lensa flooded social media with celestial, iridescent, and anime-inspired “magic avatars.” As is typical in our milkshake-duck internet news cycle, arguments as to why…
Ex-Twitter Employees Plan to ‘Bombard’ Company With Legal Claims
[ad_1] Just a month after Twitter’s new CEO, Elon Musk, oversaw massive staff layoffs, former Twitter employees have announced that they’re filing suit over the company’s severance policies. In a…
Stormzy Has Built a Last-of-Its-Kind Social Media Empire
[ad_1] On November 25, UK grime artist Stormzy released his much-anticipated third album, This Is What I Mean. Critically lauded, the record marked an ambitious attempt from the multifaceted MC to encapsulate…
The Twitter Files Revealed One Thing: Elon Musk Is Trapped
[ad_1] Moderating social media platforms is hard. Just ask the former Twitter employees whose decision to block a 2020 New York Post story about Joe Biden’s son Hunter was picked over yesterday in tweets…
How Chinese Netizens Swamped China’s Internet Controls
[ad_1] The tragedy came as frustrations with zero-Covid policies were already starting to spike. Violent confrontations had broken out between workers and security at a Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou that manufactures…
We’re in Denial About the True Cost of a Twitter Implosion
[ad_1] Think of how devastating it was to the anti-vax influencers Alex Berenson and Robert Malone to be kicked off Twitter. They happened to be grifters. But if Twitter died,…