Social Media

The Verge reports: Facebook has reportedly reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over repeated privacy violations, The Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, the FTC voted this week to approve a $5 billion settlement, which has now moved to the Justice Department’s civil division for review. It is unclear how long the review will take. The …

CNET reports: Twitter’s desktop site and its mobile app went offline on Thursday morning, with an error message reading that “something is technically wrong.” The phrase greeted users as they went to tweet or view other users’ tweets. “We are currently investigating issues people are having accessing Twitter,” a company spokesperson told TheWrap. The Twitter rep added the company will …

Politico reports: Speaker Nancy Pelosi chided progressives in a closed-door meeting Wednesday, calling on them to address their intra-party grievances privately rather than blasting their centrist colleagues on Twitter. Pelosi’s comments, which were described as stern, came during the first full caucus meeting since a major blow up over emergency border funding last month between progressive and moderate lawmakers as …

Reuters reports: A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld a 2018 lower court ruling that said President Donald Trump could not block people from following him on Twitter. The court found that the First Amendment does not permit Trump “to exclude persons from an otherwise‐open online dialog because they expressed views with which” he disagreed. The White House, Justice Department …

Reuters reports: Facebook Inc will ban ads that discourage people from voting ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, according to its second annual Civil Rights Audit published on Sunday. The social media giant has been used to spread misinformation about previous elections. Facebook pledged to put its new “don’t vote” policy prohibition into effect in the fall, before the …

CNN reports: Twitter plans to place a disclaimer on future tweets from world leaders that break its rules but which Twitter decides are in the “public interest,” the company said in a blog post Thursday. This policy change could face its most prominent test in President Trump. Trump has repeatedly tested Twitter’s community standards with his regular tirades on the …

The Daily Beast reports: Reddit quarantined the “The_Donald” subreddit on Wednesday, citing threats made on the popular forum for Trump supporters against law enforcement officers. The new quarantine was brought on by anti-police threats posted on The_Donald. Some users had apparently encouraged violence against law enforcement, angry that officials in Oregon were trying to bring back GOP state senators who …

The Daily Beast reports: In a software tweak first spotted by a developer forum, YouTube is toying with eliminating the comments section that accompanies videos on its mobile app. As it stands now, comments appear when a user scrolls below a video’s sharing buttons and “Up Next” recommended videos. The change would significantly downgrade the prominence of comments on the …

The BBC reports: Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave Facebook’s proposed digital currency Libra a cautious welcome in a major speech on Thursday. He said it could substantially lower costs and increase financial inclusion, but needs regulation. Mr Carney also announced that non-banks will be able to hold Bank of England accounts. And he highlighted climate and sustainability concerns. …

Axios reports: After nearly a year of speculation, Facebook has finally unveiled its plans to create a cryptocurrency, which will be called Libra and debut in 2020. With more than two billion users, Facebook is arguably better positioned to roll out a global digital currency than any other company, government, or organization. That’s also a source of concern over how …

Axios reports: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki apologized Monday to members of the LGBTQ community who were offended by the company’s response to antigay comments by Steven Crowder aimed at Vox journalist Carlos Maza. At the same time, she defended the company’s handling of the issue. YouTube has been under fire for a variety of issues, including the spread of hate …

The Daily Beast reports: YouTube unleashed massive confusion and satisfied apparently no one with its handling of Steven Crowder’s homophobic campaign against a gay journalist on Wednesday. The company will “demonetize” Crowder, a far-right performer, for harassing Vox reporter Carlos Maza. The announcement was a partial reversal from Tuesday, when YouTube said it would not take action against Crowder. After …

Vox reports: YouTube is finally banning content that promotes white supremacist views on its video platform. But it will still permit videos it classifies as “borderline,” which isn’t clearly defined, as well as a host of other problematic content. The Google-owned platform said on Wednesday that it’s updating its hate speech policy to prohibit “videos alleging that a group is …

NBC News reports: The effort by a Russian internet deception factory to manipulate American public opinion during the 2016 election was better planned and executed — and also more lucrative — than previously understood, according to a new analysis of nearly 10 million tweets by a leading cybersecurity firm. The operation by the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency amounted to …

The Washington Post reports: Carlos Maza, a video producer for the news site Vox, said the harassment began about two years ago. Steven Crowder [screenshot above], a right-wing commentator and comedian, had begun to call out Maza’s sexuality and his race — Maza is gay and Latino — in some of his videos on YouTube. And last week, Maza said, …

Vice News reports: Twitter is conducting in-house research to better understand how white nationalists and supremacists use the platform. The company is trying to decide, in part, whether white supremacists should be banned from the site or should be allowed to stay on the platform so their views can be debated by others, a Twitter executive told Motherboard. Vijaya Gadde, …

Politico reports: They’ve been banned from Facebook, purged from Twitter and blocked from Instagram. Some of them have been barred from setting foot on the continent of Australia. But you can still find them all on the fledgling social media network Parler. Parler has carved out a niche among these banned right-wing influencers — like Gavin McInnes, Laura Loomer and …

The Daily Beast reports: Twitter has permanently banned prominent anti-Trump brothers Brian and Ed Krassenstein, alleging that two of the biggest stars of #Resistance Twitter had broken the site’s rules about operating fake accounts and purchasing fake interactions with their accounts. “The Twitter Rules apply to everyone,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. “Operating multiple fake accounts and purchasing …

New Scientist reports: Instagram is cracking down on misinformation about vaccinations by blocking hashtags that include verifiably false information about the subject. Phase one of the crackdown involved removing hashtags promoting overt medical misinformation about vaccines — such as #VaccinesCauseAutism or #VaccinesCauseAIDS, both of which have been debunked by leading public health organizations. Now, Instagram says it is looking to …

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes writes in a NYT op-ed: Mark’s influence is staggering, far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government. He controls three core communications platforms — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — that billions of people use every day. Facebook’s board works more like an advisory committee than an overseer, because Mark controls around …