Social Media

Twitter Sued Over NY Post/Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Yahoo News reports: A Delaware computer repair shop owner sued Twitter, alleging the social network defamed him by effectively labeling him a “hacker” after his business was cited as the source for info obtained from a laptop allegedly owned by Hunter Biden that served as the basis for several New York Post articles published in October. In the lawsuit, John …

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Dutch Prosecutors Say Trump’s Twitter Account Really Was Hacked In October By Guessing His Password

Agence France-Presse reports: Dutch prosecutors have confirmed that Donald Trump’s Twitter account was hacked in October despite denials from Washington and the company, but said the “ethical hacker” would not face charges. The hacker, named as Victor Gevers, broke into Trump’s account @realDonaldTrump on 16 October by guessing the US president’s password, Dutch media reports said. Gevers, 44, disclosed the …

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Imposter Parler Accounts Are Selling CBD Oil, Coins

Buzzfeed News reports: Around 50 accounts on the social network site Parler are posing as fake GOP leaders and claiming to sell CBD oil endorsed by first lady Melania Trump. An account posing as one run by Vice President Pence shared a link to buy a “Commemorative Medallion” on Dec. 5. The same account later shared a message from a …

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Facebook Lifts Political Ads Ban For Georgia Runoffs

The Verge reports: Facebook on Tuesday said it would make an exception to its political ad ban to let campaigns and other political organizations run advertising for the upcoming Georgia runoff elections. The Senate races, which will determine which US political party controls that chamber of Congress, take place on January 5th. Facebook says advertisers authorized to run ads on …

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Twitter Confirms Trump Can Be Banned Come Jan. 20th

The Independent reports: Donald Trump, who currently enjoys certain exemptions from Twitter’s policies due to his status as a world leader, will likely lose the protection after 20 January when Joe Biden takes over as the US president. Mr Trump’s personal account on Twitter could be subject to a ban if he continues to spread conspiracy theories, Twitter has confirmed. …

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FTC And State AGs Hit Facebook With Antitrust Suit

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Federal Trade Commission and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general sued Facebook Inc. on Wednesday, bringing broad antitrust allegations that the social-media giant engaged in a yearslong campaign to buy up or freeze out nascent tech firms that one day might have become rivals. CNBC reports: The FTC alleges that Facebook engaged in …

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WH Eager To Close TikTok Deal Ahead Of Biden

Bloomberg News reports: A deadline set by the Trump administration for the forced sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets came and went Friday without a final deal. While the deadline has been extended multiple times, TikTok isn’t expected to receive a new one, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the decision isn’t yet public. TikTok is still …

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Parler Hit With Avalanche Of Porn And Escort Posts

The Washington Post reports: Anyone following the #sexytrumpgirl hashtag on Parler, a social media site increasingly popular with conservatives, got an eyeful one recent Thursday evening as images of topless women and links to hardcore pornography websites appeared at a rapid-fire rate, often more than one per minute. The surge of #sexytrumpgirl posts highlighted a broader dilemma for Parler: The …

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Congress Ignores Trump Threat To Veto Defense Bill

Politico reports: Congress is moving forward on a must-pass defense policy bill without repealing a legal shield for social media companies, despite a last-minute veto threat from President Donald Trump. The final version of the National Defense Authorization Act that will soon be considered by the House and Senate won’t include Trump’s long-sought repeal of the legal immunity for online …

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Jeb Bush Attacks Twitter’s “Partisan” Room Rater

The Daily Beast reports: Jeb Bush sparked an uproar on social media late Saturday for calling out the Twitter feed known as Room Rater for supposedly being too “partisan” in its assessments of Zoom and Skype backgrounds during the coronavirus pandemic. His post was apparently in response to Room Rater giving a Republican strategist only a nine out of 10 …

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Parents Group Warns Against Social Media Site Parler As Rife With Racists, Nazis, Death Threats Against Obama

From the right wing Daily Caller: An advocacy group is warning parents about Parler, a social media app that has been touted as a free-speech platform and alternative to Twitter. Parents Together Action warned parents about the surging popularity of the app in the wake of the presidential election and its “extremist user base and almost non-existent moderation of content” …

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Twitter To Hand @POTUS To Biden On January 20th

Politico reports: The presidential @POTUS Twitter handle will automatically transfer to President-elect Joe Biden the moment he’s sworn in at noon on Inauguration Day — whether or not President Donald Trump has conceded, the company confirmed to POLITICO on Friday. Same goes for @whitehouse, @VP, @FLOTUS, and a handful other official accounts associated with the presidency. “Twitter is actively preparing …

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FB To Face Antitrust Suit Over Instagram, WhatsApp

The Washington Post reports: State and federal investigators are preparing to bring antitrust charges against Facebook that will challenge the tech giant’s acquisition of two rivals, Instagram and WhatsApp, alleging that the deals helped create an anti-competitive social networking juggernaut that has left users with few quality alternatives. The charges form a critical part of what could be a wide-ranging …

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Zuckerberg Defends Not Banning Steve Bannon: Calling For Beheading Anthony Fauci “Did Not Cross The Line”

Reuters reports: Facebook chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told an all-staff meeting on Thursday that former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon had not violated enough of the company’s policies to justify his suspension when he urged beheading two senior U.S. officials, according to a recording heard by Reuters. “We have specific rules around how many times you need to violate …

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YouTube Cancels Annual “Rewind” Video For 2020

Variety reports: YouTube will not produce its annual YouTube Rewind celebratory recap video this year — with the video giant saying it doesn’t feel appropriate, given the chaos of 2020. YouTube announced the decision to scrap Rewind in a statement on Twitter. “Since 2010, we’ve ended the year with Rewind: a look back at the year’s most impactful creators, videos …

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Parler Membership Doubles As Cultists Rage At Twitter

Deadline reports: With many conservatives and Donald Trump backers in a lather over heightened scrutiny of Facebook and Twitter posts during election season, social media startup Parler is emerging as a fast-growing alternative. The Henderson, NV-based company, founded in 2018 by computer programmers John Matze and Jared Thomson, says its membership swelled to about 8 million from 4.5 million in …

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Cultists Tricked Into Joining “Gay Communists” Group

The Guardian reports: Thousands of Donald Trump supporters have unwittingly found themselves in a Facebook group called “Gay Communists for Socialism”, after being tricked by its creators into joining what they thought was a pro-Trump election group. On Thursday, a Facebook group called “Stop the Steal”, a reference to the president’s false claims that Joe Biden is “stealing” the US …

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Trump To Lose Twitter Protections After Leaving Office

Bloomberg News reports: As U.S. president, Donald Trump receives special treatment from Twitter Inc. when he violates the company’s rules around offensive or misleading content. That exemption will end in January if he loses the presidency. The social network treats transgressions from world leaders differently than those from regular users, and often leaves up tweets that violate its content policies, …

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Facebook Sees Rise In “Violence Incitement” Metric

Buzzfeed News reports: As votes are being tallied across the country to determine the next US president, internal Facebook data shows that the company has seen a significant increase in what it calls “violence and incitement trends.” In a post to a group on Facebook’s internal message board, one employee alerted their colleagues to a nearly 45% increase in the …

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Civil Rights Groups To Twitter: Suspend Trump Now

This is surely a doomed effort but nobody will be surprised if Twitter does ban Trump shortly after he leaves office. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the watchdog group Common Cause issued a joint request Thursday for Twitter to temporarily suspend President Trump’s account over the spread of disinformation about the election. The groups sent a …

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