Social Media

Ars Technica reports: Four and a half months after the chaotic rollout of paid checkmarks, Elon Musk’s Twitter is following through on a plan to remove verification from individual accounts that don’t pay $8 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription. “Starting April 1, we’ll be winding down our legacy Verification program and accounts that were verified under the previous …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Utah is the first state in the nation to begin restricting how minors can use social media apps. Gov. Spencer Cox signed a pair of bills on Thursday that will regulate when and how minors in Utah can use of social media and aims to stop those companies from designing addicting features. Those new laws …

Vice News reports: The amount of antisemitic tweets poisoning Twitter timelines has more than doubled since Elon Musk took the platform’s reins, according to a new study. The research, published on Monday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, found that antisemitism spiked when the embattled billionaire took control of the site and has stayed at an elevated level ever since. …

The Hill reports: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, officially launched its paid “verified” subscription service for its social media platforms in the United States on Friday, similar to Twitter’s own service. Elon Musk created a paid subscription service for Twitter users in October. He tweaked the service a few times, but the current iteration of Twitter Blue …

NBC News reports: The Biden administration is threatening a potential ban on TikTok in the United States if the video sharing app’s Chinese owners refuse to sell their stakes in it, a source close to the company told NBC News on Thursday. The source, however, cautioned that the company did not see the administration’s move as a final order. Talks …

NewsNation reports: Elon Musk’s reduced Twitter safety oversight has allowed Mexican cartel members to flaunt their lifestyles online, post violent content and recruit new members, according to a new study. Several previously banned accounts of known cartel members are again open and active on Musk’s Twitter, according to a report published last week by the Alliance to Counter Crime Online …

Reuters reports: Meta Platforms Inc is exploring plans to launch a new social media app in its bid to displace Twitter as the world’s “digital town square”. Meta’s app will be based on a decentralized framework like Mastodon, a Twitter-like service that was launched in 2016 and now has about 2 million monthly active users. “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized …

Reuters reports: The European Union told Elon Musk to hire more human moderators and fact-checkers to review posts on Twitter, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing four people familiar with talks between Musk, Twitter executives and regulators in Brussels. The demand complicates Musk’s efforts to reorganize the loss-making business he acquired for $44 billion in October. He has slashed …

The Associated Press reports: Over the past 11 months, someone created thousands of fake, automated Twitter accounts — perhaps hundreds of thousands of them — to offer a stream of praise for Donald Trump. Besides posting adoring words about the former president, the fake accounts ridiculed Trump’s critics from both parties and attacked Nikki Haley. When it came to Ron …

CNN reports: Twitter’s website was inaccessible for many users on Monday while others reported issues seeing photos and clicking through links in the app, marking one of the most wide-ranging service disruptions to date under new owner Elon Musk. Some users who attempted to load Twitter.com or TweetDeck, a service that allows users to organize their Twitter feed into lists, …

The BBC reports: Twitter insiders have told the BBC that the company is no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-co-ordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation, following lay-offs and changes under owner Elon Musk. Exclusive academic data plus testimony from Twitter users backs up their allegations, suggesting hate is thriving under Mr Musk’s leadership, with trolls emboldened, harassment intensifying …

Reuters reports: Twitter Inc reported a drop of about 40% year-over-year in both revenue and adjusted earnings for the month of December, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday citing people familiar with the matter. The report comes after several advertisers slashed their spending on the social-media platform after Elon Musk took charge of the company on Oct. 27, resulting …

The Verge reports: TikTok has announced a batch of new features intended to reduce screen time and improve the well-being of its younger users. In the coming weeks, a daily screen time limit of 60 minutes will be automatically applied to every TikTok user under 18 years old. Teens that hit this limit will be asked to enter a passcode …

The Verge reports: Twitter announced that it has “officially launched” a new Violent Speech policy that outlines its “zero-tolerance approach towards Violent Speech.” Its content is similar to Twitter’s previous violent threats policy, though it manages to be both more specific and more vague. Both policies ban you from threatening or glorifying violence in most scenarios (each version has carve-outs …

Pro Publica reports: Politicians haven’t stopped deleting some of their most cringeworthy tweets, but Politwoops, our project that has tracked and archived more than half a million deleted tweets from candidates and elected officials since 2012, is no longer able to track them. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the platform has disabled the function we used to track deletions …

The Verge reports: Meta now has a team dedicated to building tools powered by artificial intelligence, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a post on Monday. This could eventually include “AI personas” designed to help people in “various ways” in addition to new AI tools across its apps and services. More specifically, Zuckerberg says the company is working on AI “experiences” …

The New York Times reports: Twitter laid off at least 200 of its employees on Saturday night, three people familiar with the matter said, or about 10 percent of the roughly 2,000 who were still working for the company. Elon Musk has steadily pared back its work force from about 7,500 employees as he has sought to reduce costs. The …

The Washington Post reports: Accounts pushing Kremlin propaganda are using Twitter’s new paid verification system to appear more prominently on the global platform, another sign that Elon Musk’s takeover is accelerating the spread of politically charged misinformation, a nonprofit research group has found. The accounts claim to be based outside of Russia, so they can pay for verification without running …

Bloomberg News reports: The new Meta Verified service for Facebook and Instagram will allow users to join celebrities and other public figures in having a blue check that confirms their identity, starting from $11.99 per month, the company said in a statement. The Meta Verified feature may add $2 billion to $3 billion to Meta’s annual sales, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst …

Axios reports: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Sunday that it will be testing out a monthly subscription service that allows users to verify their accounts. The move is aimed at “increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post announcing the news. It will allow users to verify …