Social Media

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered a sweeping but unspecified ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of consumer apps TikTok and WeChat, although it remains unclear if he has the legal authority to actually ban the apps from the U.S. The twin executive orders — one for each app — take effect in 45 days. …

NBC News reports: Facebook removed hundreds of accounts on Thursday from a foreign troll farm posing as African-Americans in support of Donald Trump and QAnon supporters. It also removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to conservative media outlet The Epoch Times that pushed pro-Trump conspiracy theories about coronavirus and protests in the U.S. Facebook took down the accounts as part …

Like most of their recent changes, this is long overdue: Twitter will start labeling the accounts of media outlets affiliated with the governments of countries on the U.N. National Security Council, it announced Thursday. The new labels won’t apply to all media outlets that receive government funding — only “outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial …

The Washington Post reports: Facebook on Wednesday said it removed President Trump’s post of a video clip from a Fox News interview in which he said that children are “almost immune” from covid-19. “This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation,” said Facebook …

Gothamist reports: Putting an end to months of rumors, Facebook announced a commitment to lease all of the office space at the Farley Post Office Building, located across from Penn Station in midtown Manhattan. Mayor Bill de Blasio heralded the deal as “a big part of our future” and a “big vote of confidence” in New York City. The James …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump only agreed to allow Microsoft Corp to negotiate the acquisition of popular short-video app TikTok if it could secure a deal in 45 days, three people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. The move represents an about-face for Trump and prompted the U.S. tech giant to declare its interest in the blockbuster social media …

CNN reports: Facebook’s fact-checkers on Sunday labeled as “partly false” a video that it said was manipulated to make it appear as if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was drunk or drugged. The video had been circulating on Facebook since Thursday and by Sunday night had been viewed more than 2 million times. A similarly false video of Pelosi went viral …

Axios reports: President Trump “has a deal on his desk,” whereby Microsoft would lead an acquisition of 100% of the U.S. operations of TikTok, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. U.S. presidents don’t typically have approval or veto power over merger agreements. But this situation is different because of the involvement of the Committee on Foreign Investment in …

Via press release from TikTok: 100 million Americans come to TikTok for entertainment and connection, especially during the pandemic. We’ve hired nearly 1,000 people to our US team this year alone, and are proud to be hiring another 10,000 employees into great paying jobs across the US. Our $1 billion creator fund supports US creators who are building livelihoods from …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Friday told reporters he will act as soon as Saturday to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok from the United States. Trump made the comments while chatting with reporters on Air Force One during the flight back to Washington from Florida. “As far as TikTok is concerned we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump …

The New York Times reports: Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions, as President Trump said on Friday that he was considering taking steps that would effectively ban the app from the United States. It’s unclear how advanced the talks between Microsoft and TikTok are, but any …

Tampa’s NBC News affiliate reports: A Tampa teenager is in jail, accused of being the “mastermind” behind a hack on the social media website Twitter that caused limited access to the site and high-profile accounts, according to jail records and the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office. Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren filed 30 felony charges against 17 year-old Graham Clark this …

The Associated Press reports: Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke has been banned from Twitter for breaking the social media platform’s site’s rules forbidding hate speech. The company said Friday that Duke’s account “has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of the Twitter Rules on hateful conduct.” It didn’t specify what exactly Duke posted that triggered the ban, but …

Engadget reports: Twitter is closing a loophole in its rules to make it harder for users to spread hate speech and violent content. The company is updating its policies to ban links to content that promotes violence and hateful conduct. Twitter already had rules in place barring hateful conduct and violence in tweets, but the policy didn’t extend to linked …

The Christian Post reports: Parler, the social media app that’s billed as a platform for free and open dialogue, said it would continue to counter “technocronyism” following Twitter’s announcement that it would be cracking down on accounts and censoring content it deems as harmful. After Twitter released a statement Tuesday saying it would be permanently banning accounts, a spokesperson for …

The Associated Press reports: Social media has become the target of a dueling attack ad campaign being waged online by the sitting president and his election rival. They’re shooting the messenger while giving it lots of money. President Donald Trump has bought hundreds of messages on Facebook to accuse its competitor, Twitter, of trying to stifle his voice and influence …

The BBC reports: TikTok has blocked a number of hashtags related to the QAnon conspiracy theory from appearing in search results, amid concern about misinformation, the BBC has learned. It comes days after Twitter banned thousands of QAnon-related accounts. QAnon is a wide-ranging, unfounded conspiracy theory whose followers support US President Donald Trump. They believe the president is battling a …

The Hill reports: President Trump acknowledged in an interview released Friday that he “often” regrets his tweets and retweets. “It used to be in the old days before this, you’d write a letter and you’d say, ‘this letter is really bad,’ you put it on your desk and you go back tomorrow and you say, ‘oh, I’m glad I didn’t …

CNN Business reports: Twitter is actively exploring additional ways to make money from its users, including by considering a subscription model, CEO Jack Dorsey said Thursday. The move comes as Twitter suffers a sharp decline in its core advertising business. “You will likely see some tests this year” of various approaches, Dorsey told analysts on an investor call held to …

NBC News reports: Twitter announced Tuesday that it has begun taking sweeping actions to limit the reach of QAnon content, banning many of the conspiracy theory’s followers because of problems with harassment and misinformation. Twitter will stop recommending accounts and content related to QAnon, including material in email and follow recommendations, and it will take steps to limit circulation of …