Social Media

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, …

Buzzfeed News reports: The Twitter account of Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, appears to have been hacked. On Friday afternoon, the @jack account tweeted a link to a Discord chat and RT’d a series of tweets, including one that read, “follow me i am jacks daddy.” The account also tweeted the N-word, and antisemitic remarks. Discord took down the …

The Sacramento Bee reports: A Virginia judge has asked Twitter to provide more information about the authors of two anonymous parody accounts that heckle California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes before deciding whether to dismiss the congressman’s lawsuit against the social media company. Judge John Marshall is weighing a request from San Francisco-based Twitter to dismiss Nunes’ lawsuit on the grounds …

CNN reports: The Justice Department asked a federal court of appeals on Friday to reconsider a case where President Donald Trump was told he couldn’t legally block Twitter users from seeing his tweets. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals has not yet said if it would rehear the case. The request comes following a three-judge appellate panel having decided …

The Verge reports: Google just published a blog post revealing that it has disabled 210 YouTube channels that the company says “behaved in a coordinated manner while uploading videos related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.” Google cites the behavior as being “consistent with recent observations and actions related to China announced by Facebook and Twitter.” The accounts were …

NBC News reports: The Epoch Times, a conservative news outlet that has spent more money on pro-Trump Facebook advertisements than any group other than the Trump campaign in the last six months, shifted its spending on the platform in the last month, according to results seen on Facebook’s advertising archive. These new pages obfuscate their connection to ads that promote …

GeekWire reports: LinkedIn blocked or removed 21.6 million fake accounts on its platform from January to June of this year, a sign that the Microsoft-owned social network is actively fighting some of the same issues that have plagued Facebook, Twitter and others. In a blog post, LinkedIn’s Head of Trust and Safety Paul Rockwell wrote that the vast majority of …

The Associated Press reports: Soon, you could get fewer familiar ads following you around the internet — or at least on Facebook. Facebook is launching a long-promised tool that lets you limit what the social network can gather about you on outside websites and apps. The company said Tuesday that it is adding a section where you can see the …

TechCrunch reports: Twitter says a significant information operation involving hundreds of accounts linked to China were part of an effort to deliberately “sow political discord” in Hong Kong after weeks of protests in the region. In a blog post, the social networking site said the 936 accounts it found tried to undermine “the legitimacy and political positions of the protest …

TechCrunch reports: “The future is private.” Clearly, Facebook still has a way to go. Facebook has become the latest tech giant to face scrutiny over its handling of users’ data, following a report that said the social media giant collected audio data and recordings from its users and transcribed it using third-party contractors. The report came from Bloomberg, citing the …

Politico reports: Twitter today reversed course and unlocked the campaign account of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, moving to defuse a growing controversy with the Republican political establishment. The company on Wednesday had frozen the McConnell account over a post featuring a profanity-laced video of protesters hurling threats toward the GOP lawmaker’s Kentucky home. The post, the company said, violated …

Courthouse News reports: Rejecting arguments that Facebook users suffered no “concrete harm” by having their facial data mapped and stored, the Ninth Circuit advanced a $35 billion class action against the social media giant Thursday. Facebook sought to swat down the lawsuit last year after U.S. District Judge James Donato ordered it to alert users about an upcoming trial on …

Politico reports: Senate Republicans’ campaign arm announced today it will stop spending money to advertise on Twitter after the social media platform locked Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s account for posting a video of violent threats against him. “Twitter’s hostile actions toward Leader McConnell’s campaign are outrageous, and we will not tolerate it,” said Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National …

Politico reports: The White House is circulating drafts of a proposed executive order that would address allegations of anti-conservative bias by social media companies, according to a White House official and two other people familiar with the matter — a month after President Donald Trump pledged to explore “all regulatory and legislative solutions” on the issue. None of the three …

The Verge reports: Just how uncool can Facebook make Instagram and WhatsApp? If exerting more influence over the direction of both apps by installing Facebook executives wasn’t enough, now the social network giant is going to add “Facebook” to their names. Instagram will soon become “Instagram from Facebook” and WhatsApp will turn into “WhatsApp from Facebook.” The company already follows …

The Washington Post reports: The El Paso massacre began like the fatal attacks earlier this year at mosques in New Zealand and a San Diego-area synagogue: with a racist manifesto and announcement on the anonymous message board 8chan, one of the Web’s most venomous refuges for extremist hate. And like after the mass shootings in Christchurch and the Chabad of …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Seven Philadelphia police officers whose racist or otherwise offensive Facebook posts were catalogued in an online database have resigned in the last two weeks, the Police Department said Wednesday. Capt. Sekou Kinebrew, a police spokesperson, said labor law restrictions prevented him from confirming whether those seven officers were among the 13 whom Police Commissioner Richard Ross …

Politico reports: The hashtag #MoscowMitchMcTreason began trending on Twitter Tuesday morning after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fired back against the nickname “Moscow Mitch” in a fiery speech from the Senate floor. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former GOP lawmaker, dubbed McConnell “Moscow Mitch” after McConnell on Friday after blocked two election security measures. The hashtag #MoscowMitch quickly began …

The Hill reports: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a freshman who has emerged as a top Republican critic of major technology companies in Congress, on Tuesday will introduce a bill banning social media companies from building “addictive” features into their products. Hawley’s Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology (SMART) Act would make it illegal for social media platforms to hook users by …

Roll Call reports: Critics of President Trump began using the hashtag #unfollowTrump on Twitter Monday morning, following the lead of Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) who said he would unfollow Trump’s “hate-filled, racist, and demeaning” feed. The hashtag began circulating on social media after Murphy appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to explain his decision to unfollow the president’s @realDonaldTrump account. “Yesterday …