Cyberharassment
What’s Twitter’s Future? The Former Head of Trust And Safety Weighs In
Regulators have significant tools at their disposal to enforce their will on Twitter and on Mr. Musk. Penalties for noncompliance with Europe’s Digital Services Act could total as much as 6 percent of the company’s annual revenue. In the United States, the F.T.C. has shown an increasing willingness to exact significant fines for noncompliance with […]
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The Google One-Star Review Scam Targeting Restaurants
In a new scam targeting restaurants, criminals are leaving negative ratings on restaurants’ Google pages as a bargaining chip to extort digital gift cards. Restaurateurs from San Francisco to New York, many from establishments with Michelin stars, said in recent days that they’ve received a blitz of one-star ratings on Google, with no description or […]
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How a Crisis Actor Conspiracy Theory Rises in Times of Tragedy
“I think this gives them a form of power,” he said of the people posting his photo, often under accounts intended to look as if they belong to news organizations. “Messing with somebody or making somebody feel bad, or saying that is just horrific that they’re so desensitized to, that gives them a feeling of […]
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TikTok’s Amber Heard Hate Machine
Viewers assess both Depp and Heard’s court appearances as studied performances, but it is as if they have been cast in separate genres, with Depp playing the suave comedy hero and Heard pegged as the histrionic villain from an ’80s erotic thriller. YouTube thumbnails freeze their visages into masks of comedy and tragedy — he […]
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DHS Suspends Its New Disinformation Board, Following Criticism
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday that it was suspending the work of an internal advisory board intended to combat disinformation after what the department described as a deliberate disinformation campaign. The creation of the panel, called the Disinformation Governance Board, set off a firestorm of criticism when it was announced last month. […]
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Inside Twitter, Fears That Musk’s Views Will Revisit Past Troubles
Elon Musk had a plan to buy Twitter and undo its content moderation policies. On Tuesday, just a day after reaching his $44 billion deal to buy the company, Mr. Musk was already at work on his agenda. He tweeted that past moderation decisions by a top Twitter lawyer were “obviously incredibly inappropriate.” Later, he […]
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Truth Social Review: Trump’s Uncensored Social App Is Incomplete
When Elon Musk sealed a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion this week, another social networking product surged to No. 1 in Apple’s App Store: Truth Social, the flagship app of former President Donald J. Trump’s fledgling social media company. The heightened interest in Truth Social, which debuted in February, was driven by a […]
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For Prominent Women on Instagram, DMs Can Be a Cesspool of Misogyny
A look into the private direct messages of five prominent women on Instagram found a torrent of harassment, including pornographic images and threats of physical and sexual violence, while the perpetrators typically faced little to no consequences, according to a new report released Wednesday. The report, by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an international […]
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Once Motorcade Pals, Congressman and Photographer Are Now Public Foes
WASHINGTON — They were once seatmates in the spare limousine of the White House motorcade, traveling the globe together as part of the president’s inner circle. Bonded by the miles they logged on the road and their unique access to power, Pete Souza, the former official White House photographer who took nearly two million photographs […]
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