Social Media

Bloomberg News reports: The TikTok-tivists are at it again. Thousands of users of the popular video app flocked to the Apple App Store in the last few days to flood U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign app with negative reviews. TikTok fans are retaliating for Trump’s threats to ban the app, which is owned by China’s Bytedance Ltd. and is …

Reuters reports: Facebook Inc on Wednesday suspended a network of social media accounts it said were used to spread divisive political messages online by employees of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and two of his sons. The company said that despite efforts to disguise who was behind the activity, it had found links to the staff of two Brazilian lawmakers, as …

CNN reports: Under pressure to curb hate on its platforms, Facebook announced Wednesday it had shut down pages and accounts linked to Roger Stone and Proud Boys, a far-right group Facebook has banned under its hate policies. Stone’s own Instagram account was shut down as part of the takedown. The network of more than 100 Facebook pages, accounts and Instagram …

CNN reports: The United States is “looking at” banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday. Pompeo suggested the possible move during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, adding that “we’re taking this very seriously.” Pompeo was asked by Ingraham whether the United States should be considering a ban on Chinese social media …

Axios reports: Twitter has removed a picture from a tweet by President Trump on Tuesday after it received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint from the New York Times, which owns the rights to the photo. Why it matters: This is the second time in two weeks that Twitter has had to take down content from Trump’s account due …

Reuters reports: Advertisements for more than 400 brands including Coca-Cola and Starbucks are due to vanish from Facebook on Wednesday, after the failure of last-ditch talks to stop a boycott over hate speech on the site. U.S. civil rights groups have enlisted the multinationals to help pressure the social media giant into taking concrete steps to block hate speech in …

Engadget reports: Facebook isn’t just limiting the spread of “boogaloo” groups on its platform — it’s tossing many of those groups out. The social media giant has banned accounts and pages from the pro-civil-war group after deeming a violent network that breaks the company’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy. Facebook primarily removed 220 accounts, 106 groups, 28 pages and 95 …

The Verge reports: YouTube has banned several prominent white supremacist channels, including those belonging to Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, and Richard Spencer. Other channels banned include American Renaissance (with its associated channel AmRen Podcasts) and the channel for Spencer’s National Policy Institute. The channels repeatedly violated YouTube’s policies, a YouTube spokesperson said, by alleging that members of protected groups were …

The Verge reports: Twitch has temporarily banned President Donald Trump, in the latest surprise and high-profile suspension from the streaming service. Trump’s account was banned for “hateful conduct” that was aired on stream, and Twitch says the offending content has been removed. One of the streams in question was a rebroadcast of Trump’s infamous kickoff rally, where he said that …

Market Watch reports: Starbucks announced Sunday in an online statement that it is “pausing” ads on all social media platforms, two days after consumer-products conglomerate Unilever said it was halting U.S. advertising on Facebook and Twitter through year-end over ineffective policing of hate speech, leading to a sharp Friday selloff in both stocks. The coffee giant said it would “continue …

CNBC reports: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday said the company will change its policies to prohibit hate speech in its advertisements. Under its new policies, Facebook will ban ads that claim people from a specific race, ethnicity, nationality, caste, gender, sexual orientation or immigration origin are a threat to the physical safety or health of anyone else, Zuckerberg said. …

Axios reports: Verizon announced on Thursday it will pull advertisements from Facebook and Instagram, per the company’s chief media officer. Why it matters: Verizon is one of the largest companies to join a growing boycott of the social network over its content moderation policies, including how it polices misinformation about Black Lives Matter protests, and handles content posted by President …

The Fresno Bee reports: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) cannot include Twitter in his lawsuit against two parody accounts and a Republican strategist he accuses of defaming him on the platform, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Twitter cannot be held legally liable for statements by the accounts and strategist Liz Mair, Judge John Marshall ruled, citing federal law. Lawyers for Twitter …

Variety reports: The primary account of Carpe Donktum, a prominent pro-Donald Trump meme maker, has been permanently suspended by Twitter, which cited “repeated” violations of copyright infringement. Twitter’s move to kick Carpe Donktum off the platform came just days after a video from the account — tweeted by Trump — was pulled after a copyright complaint from the original video’s …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to stamp out any protesters seeking to establish a so-called “autonomous zone” in the nation’s capital, echoing conservative outrage over the prospect of police-free enclaves cropping up in major American cities. The president’s social media post comes after U.S. Park Police officers on Monday thwarted efforts by protesters to tear down the …

NBC News reports: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., unveiled his latest attack on tech’s liability shield in a new bill Wednesday. The “Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act” would allow Americans to sue tech companies that censor political speech or hide content from competitors. Republicans have long complained that tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter censor conservative speech. The …

CNET reports: The Justice Department will propose rolling back the legal protections online platforms have had since the ’90s, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, to make sites more vigilant about policing content. It follows President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting social media companies. The proposal could be announced on Wednesday, reported the Journal, citing a Trump administration official. …

Mark Zuckerberg writes for USA Today: With so much of our discourse taking place online, I believe platforms like Facebook can play a positive role in this election by helping Americans use their voice where it matters most — by voting. We’re announcing on Wednesday the largest voting information campaign in American history. Our goal is to help 4 million …

Wired reports: The Internet Research Agency is infamous for flooding mainstream social media platforms with compelling disinformation campaigns. The GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, deploys strategic data leaks and destabilizing cyberattacks. But in the recent history of Russia’s online meddling, a third, distinct entity may have been at work on many of the same objectives—indicating that Russia’s disinformation operations went …

The Fresno Bee reports: The attorney for Rep. Devin Nunes said on Friday that he is at a “dead end” in attempting to identify anonymous people who criticize the California Republican on Twitter as he asked a Virginia judge to hold the company responsible for social media criticism. Nunes, R-Tulare, filed a lawsuit against Twitter last year alleging he was …