Social Media

Axios reports: As the 2020 election inches closer, Republicans continue to enjoy the digital edge they seized in 2016. Why it matters: Online ad spending offers President Trump an efficient way to target sympathetic voters with fundraising pitches and barrage them with inflammatory messages on issues ranging from immigration to impeachment. It’s especially cost-effective on Facebook, because there, the more …

The Atlantic reports: While the president spent a too-online Saturday earlier this month unloading on Twitter—launching #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY into the canon of viral Trump taunts—Romney enjoyed a quiet afternoon picking apples with his grandkids in Utah and refusing to take the bait. When I met him in his office a couple of weeks later, I asked if the Twitter insults bothered …

Business Insider reports: In the three days after Trump’s impeachment inquiry was announced on Sep. 24, the Trump campaign spent $1 million on Facebook ads, many of which included false or misleading claims. One of these Trump ads even referred to Joe Biden as a ‘bitch’ — which violated Facebook’s ad policies against profanity and was taken down upon review, …

The cozying up to the right wing continues: Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg will appear on Fox News on Friday for an interview amid calls from Democrats for his platform to pull ads created by the Trump campaign targeting former Vice President Joe Biden. Fox News representatives confirmed in a press release Wednesday evening that the Facebook CEO would …

TechCrunch reports: Twitter said it will restrict how users can interact with tweets from world leaders who break its rules. The social media giant said it will not allow users to like, reply, share or retweet the offending tweets, but instead will let users quote-tweet to allow ordinary users to express their opinions. The company said the move will help …

Politico reports: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hosting informal talks and small, off-the-record dinners with conservative journalists, commentators and at least one Republican lawmaker in recent months to discuss issues like free speech and discuss partnerships. The dinners, which began in July, are part of Zuckerberg’s broader effort to cultivate friends on the right amid outrage by President Donald …

The Associated Press reports: On Friday, Visa and MasterCard announced their departures from the Libra project, as did e-commerce giant eBay and payments startup Stripe. Last week, PayPal became the first major company to drop out of Libra. The exodus comes amid growing — not to mention stronger-than-anticipated — regulatory pushback against Libra in the U.S. and elsewhere. “It’s a …

“It’s hard to think of a company that’s hurt this country more than Twitter. Maybe there are some. I can’t think of one. If you look at the hate and the division and  the cruelty that’s now common, it wasn’t common 10 years ago, Twitter is a huge part of that.” – Tucker Carlson, interviewing Rep. Devin Nunes last night …

The Daily Beast reports: The company behind the non-partisan news site RealClearPolitics has been secretly running a Facebook page filled with far-right memes and Islamophobic smears, The Daily Beast has learned. Called “Conservative Country,” the Facebook page was founded in 2014 and now boasts nearly 800,000 followers for its mix of Donald Trump hagiography and ultra-conservative memes. One recent post …

Popular Information reports: Last week, Facebook quietly changed the language of its advertising policies to make it easier for politicians to lie in ads. On Tuesday, the Trump campaign launched a new ad on Facebook, which includes a claim that was ruled false by Facebook-approved third-party fact-checkers. On the surface, such an ad appears to violate Facebook’s rules against false …

Public Information reports: The “Police Lives Matter” Facebook page accumulated over 170,000 fans, with viral content that reached more Facebook users than some of the largest media outlets. The page purported to be run by U.S. police officers, with cops posting about the “first dayshift of my career with a K9” or being “brand new dad.” What these posts did …

Politico reports: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said today that content by politicians would stay up on the video-sharing website even if it violates the company’s standards, echoing a position staked out by Facebook this week. “When you have a political officer that is making information this is really important for their constituents to see, or for other global leaders to …

Reuters reports: Twitter has continued a crackdown on what it considers improper content by removing more than 10,000 accounts for spreading political misinformation and unrest. According to a company blog post, most of the accounts were engaged in fomenting political dissent through the spread of false information. It said many of the accounts in the UAE, for example, “were often …

The Independent reports: Twitter suspended the account of former Saudi royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani on Friday, nearly a year after he was sacked over his suspected role in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The social network also separately removed accounts linked to Saudi Arabia’s “state-run media apparatus” and others in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, …

The Sacramento Bee reports: Twitter is refusing a judge’s request to disclose the identities of two anonymous social media users who are are critical of Rep. Devin Nunes and are being sued by the California Republican. Nunes, R-Tulare, demanded the names of anonymous writers through a lawsuit he filed in Virginia against them, Twitter and a Republican political strategist. The …

The Guardian reports: Facebook has suspended a chatbot on Benjamin Netanyahu’s official page after it breached hate speech policy by sending visitors a message warning of Arabs who “want to destroy us all”. Battling a tight election race in the run-up to the 17 September polls, the Israeli prime minister has sought to appeal to far-right religious and nationalist voters …

CNBC reports: New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Friday she is launching a multi-state investigation into Facebook for possible antitrust violations. Facebook shares were down about 0.5% in Friday’s premarket, but did not seem to react to James’ announcement. Attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia will join the …

TechCrunch reports: Are Americans ready to trust Facebook with their dating life? Barely more than a month has passed since the U.S. Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook a record $5 billion over its privacy lapses, and imposed a modified corporate structure to hold the company more accountable for its decisions over user privacy. In the wake of this historic action, …

The Verge reports: YouTube’s teams have removed more than 100,000 videos and 17,000 channels since the company implemented changes to its hateful content policies in June. Those numbers are approximately five times as many than the company’s last quarter, according to a new blog post from YouTube about the company’s attempts to tackle a growing number of hateful and dangerous …

TechCrunch reports: Facebook is making facial recognition in photos opt-in by default. Starting today, it’s rolling out its Face Recognition privacy setting, which it first introduced in December 2017, to all users. If you have Face Recognition turned on, Facebook will notify you if someone uploads a photo of you, even if you aren’t tagged. You can then tag yourself, …