SOCIAL MEDIA
- Instagram - TikTok - Truth Social - YouTube -
===instagram===
Experts voice concern over Meghan Markle's American Riviera Orchard brand - as the company is yet to put a single product on sale five months after glitzy Instagram launch.
Meghan Markle's lifestyle brand is yet to put a single product on sale five months on from its glitzy Instagram launch - sparking concerns from experts over its future. American Riviera Orchard, which plans to sell kitchenware, jams and jellies, has so far only shared a few of its products with a celebrity friends. The brand's Instagram page and website also remain bare with no option yet for customers to buy products. (Daily Mail 8/30/24) READ MORE>>>>>
Meghan Markle's lifestyle brand is yet to put a single product on sale five months on from its glitzy Instagram launch - sparking concerns from experts over its future. American Riviera Orchard, which plans to sell kitchenware, jams and jellies, has so far only shared a few of its products with a celebrity friends. The brand's Instagram page and website also remain bare with no option yet for customers to buy products. (Daily Mail 8/30/24) READ MORE>>>>>
Instagram launches Myspace-like feature, lets users add songs to profiles
A new feature announced by Instagram on Thursday is reminiscent of the early days of social media. The social media company announced that Instagram profiles will now include a music feature similar to one Myspace had in the early 2000s.
“We’re excited to announce that you can now add a song to your profile, giving you more ways to express yourself through music. Your profile song selection will be live until you swap out the song,” Instagram said in a post.
(KTLA 8/23/24) READ MORE>>>>>
A new feature announced by Instagram on Thursday is reminiscent of the early days of social media. The social media company announced that Instagram profiles will now include a music feature similar to one Myspace had in the early 2000s.
“We’re excited to announce that you can now add a song to your profile, giving you more ways to express yourself through music. Your profile song selection will be live until you swap out the song,” Instagram said in a post.
(KTLA 8/23/24) READ MORE>>>>>
===tiktok===
TikTok, whose mainland Chinese counterpart is Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed with a smartphone app. Since its launch, TikTok has become one of the world's most popular social media platforms, using recommendation algorithms to connect content creators with new audiences. In April 2020, TikTok surpassed two billion mobile downloads worldwide. Cloudflare ranked TikTok the most popular website of 2021, surpassing Google. The popularity of TikTok has allowed viral trends in food and music to take off and increase the platform's cultural impact worldwide. TikTok has come under scrutiny due to data privacy violations, mental health concerns, misinformation, offensive content, and its role during the Israel–Hamas war. Countries have fined, banned, or attempted to restrict TikTok to protect children or out of national security concerns over possible user data collection by the Chinese government through ByteDance.
From James O’Brien to Joe Rogan: Rise of news influencers and alternative voices
Big broadcasters such as the BBC and Sky do best, along with The Guardian, but these brands are more challenged in YouTube and TikTok by a range of youth orientated outlets such as Politics Joe, LADbible, and TLDR News – and also by more partisan political outlets such as Novara Media and individual creators. (Press Gazette 6/20/24)READ MORE>>>>>
Big broadcasters such as the BBC and Sky do best, along with The Guardian, but these brands are more challenged in YouTube and TikTok by a range of youth orientated outlets such as Politics Joe, LADbible, and TLDR News – and also by more partisan political outlets such as Novara Media and individual creators. (Press Gazette 6/20/24)READ MORE>>>>>
STUDY: Tradwife influencers are quietly spreading far-right conspiracy theories
TikTok’s “For You” page recommendation algorithm propels users who interact with “tradwife” content — which promotes “traditional values” and rigid gender roles — down far-right conspiracy theory rabbit holes. Media Matters coded and analyzed 327 recommended videos after exclusively interacting with tradwife content and documented what happened. We found TikTok’s recommendation algorithm rapidly populated our FYP with conspiracy theory content and fearmongering, which made up nearly one-third of all videos served to the FYP. (Media Matters 5/1/24) READ MORE>>>>>
TikTok’s “For You” page recommendation algorithm propels users who interact with “tradwife” content — which promotes “traditional values” and rigid gender roles — down far-right conspiracy theory rabbit holes. Media Matters coded and analyzed 327 recommended videos after exclusively interacting with tradwife content and documented what happened. We found TikTok’s recommendation algorithm rapidly populated our FYP with conspiracy theory content and fearmongering, which made up nearly one-third of all videos served to the FYP. (Media Matters 5/1/24) READ MORE>>>>>
'Beyond Help': TikTok Star Kyle Marisa Roth's Parents Saw Concerning Video That Triggered Welfare Check and Led to Death Discovery
TikTok star Kyle Marisa Roth's parents were concerned for her well-being on the day she was found dead at her apartment, RadarOnline.com has learned. Roth's parents were disturbed by a video they saw online of the daughter and reported the matter to police, prompting a welfare check on April 14. Court documents revealed one of Roth's parents called 911 to request a welfare check after not hearing from her for several days, according to TMZ. (Radar Online 4/30/24) READ MORE>>>>>
TikTok star Kyle Marisa Roth's parents were concerned for her well-being on the day she was found dead at her apartment, RadarOnline.com has learned. Roth's parents were disturbed by a video they saw online of the daughter and reported the matter to police, prompting a welfare check on April 14. Court documents revealed one of Roth's parents called 911 to request a welfare check after not hearing from her for several days, according to TMZ. (Radar Online 4/30/24) READ MORE>>>>>
TikTok disinformation is no more dangerous than Fox News disinformation
The question draws nuance from the context. In the context of elections, if Congress interferes with a foreign-owned media platform like TikTok, partly in the name of election security, why should a domestic corporation like Fox News, another
known purveyor of election misinformation, be spared the same scrutiny? The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to require TikTok to divest its Chinese ownership or be banned in the U.S. because of national security concerns. The security risks identified by the bill’s sponsors include a Chinese law that gives Xi Jinping legal access to user data, along with China’s ability to meddle in U.S. elections. Millions of Americans are influenced by manufactured information campaigns every day. Over the past few years, the most aggressive online disinformation campaigns in the U.S. have targeted COVID-19vaccines, climate science and elections. Pew Research shows that the share of U.S. adults who want the federal government to restrict such false information has risen, from 39 percent in 2018 to 55 percent in 2023.
(Sabrina Hake; The Haake Take 3/24/24) READ MORE>>>>>
The question draws nuance from the context. In the context of elections, if Congress interferes with a foreign-owned media platform like TikTok, partly in the name of election security, why should a domestic corporation like Fox News, another
known purveyor of election misinformation, be spared the same scrutiny? The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to require TikTok to divest its Chinese ownership or be banned in the U.S. because of national security concerns. The security risks identified by the bill’s sponsors include a Chinese law that gives Xi Jinping legal access to user data, along with China’s ability to meddle in U.S. elections. Millions of Americans are influenced by manufactured information campaigns every day. Over the past few years, the most aggressive online disinformation campaigns in the U.S. have targeted COVID-19vaccines, climate science and elections. Pew Research shows that the share of U.S. adults who want the federal government to restrict such false information has risen, from 39 percent in 2018 to 55 percent in 2023.
(Sabrina Hake; The Haake Take 3/24/24) READ MORE>>>>>
===truth social===
Truth Social (stylized as TRUTH Social) is an alt-tech social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), an American media and technology company majority-owned by former U.S. president Donald Trump. It has been called a "Twitter clone" that competes with Parler, Gab, and Mastodon in trying to provide an alternative to Twitter and Facebook. Truth Social uses Mastodon as its backend. The service was launched on February 21, 2022. Since mid-2022, Truth Social has been facing financial and regulatory issues. The application was initially not available on Google Play because of violations of Google policies prohibiting content with physical threats and incitement to violence, but was approved for Google Play in October 2022 after agreeing to enforce policies against incitement. As of March 6, 2023, it was ranked number 101 in Apple's App Store rankings for social media apps, and SimilarWeb ranked its website as number 203 in their "News & Media Publishers" category, behind Gab at number 154, but ahead of Parler at number 1,052. Trump estimated in an April 2023 personal financial disclosure that the site's value ranged from $5 million to $25 million. Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), the special-purpose acquisition company formed to fund Truth Social's parent company TMTG and take it public, disclosed in October 2023 that it was refunding to investors the $1 billion it had raised for TMTG. A November 2023 financial disclosure by DWAC indicated that Truth Social had made a cumulative loss of at least $31.5 million since its inception. In March 2024, DWAC shareholders voted to merge with TMTG, with the merged company trading on NASDAQ under the stock ticker DJT.
'How can we trust him?' New concerns about Trump Media as auditor found to use many names
According to a report from the Financial Times, the outside auditor hired by Trump Media & Technology Group to create a report used by investors for guidance has a history of using multiple names when signing off on documentation, which is raising some eyebrows . The report notes that BF Borgers accounting firm principal, Ben F. Borgers, has filed forms using 10 different names including, Ben F Brogers, Blake F Borgers and Ben F Vonesh, among others that may just be simple misspellings. However that, including a history of ongoing disputes about his company's failings, is raising questions about the embattled Truth Social which has seen its stock plummet. (Raw Story 4/25/24) READ MORE>>>>>
According to a report from the Financial Times, the outside auditor hired by Trump Media & Technology Group to create a report used by investors for guidance has a history of using multiple names when signing off on documentation, which is raising some eyebrows . The report notes that BF Borgers accounting firm principal, Ben F. Borgers, has filed forms using 10 different names including, Ben F Brogers, Blake F Borgers and Ben F Vonesh, among others that may just be simple misspellings. However that, including a history of ongoing disputes about his company's failings, is raising questions about the embattled Truth Social which has seen its stock plummet. (Raw Story 4/25/24) READ MORE>>>>>
'Not going to be able to sleep tonight': Truth Social boosters panicking as stock plummets
With the value of stock in Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) continuing its unceasing slide downward since the technology company went public, supporters of Donald Trump who profess to have invested in the company are increasingly expressing dismay about the collapse on the former president's Truth Social platform. According to a report from the Daily Beast's Noah Kirsch, faith in the troubled company that was reported to have lost millions last year right after the public offering, is in short supply at the same time the former president was telling supporters at Mar-a-Lago that all is well, stating: "We have over $200 million dollars in cash, which is very liquid.” (Raw Story 4/13/24) READ MORE>>>>>
With the value of stock in Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) continuing its unceasing slide downward since the technology company went public, supporters of Donald Trump who profess to have invested in the company are increasingly expressing dismay about the collapse on the former president's Truth Social platform. According to a report from the Daily Beast's Noah Kirsch, faith in the troubled company that was reported to have lost millions last year right after the public offering, is in short supply at the same time the former president was telling supporters at Mar-a-Lago that all is well, stating: "We have over $200 million dollars in cash, which is very liquid.” (Raw Story 4/13/24) READ MORE>>>>>
===youtube===
YouTube is an American online video sharing platform owned by Google. Accessible worldwide, YouTube was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States, it is the second-most visited website in the world, after Google Search. As of January 2024, YouTube has more than 2.7 billion monthly users, who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos every day. As of May 2019, videos were being uploaded to the platform at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute, and as of 2021, there were approximately 14 billion videos in total. In October 2006, YouTube was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion (equivalent to $2.31 billion in 2023). Google expanded YouTube's business model of generating revenue from
advertisements alone, to offering paid content such as movies and exclusive content produced by and for YouTube. It also offers YouTube Premium, a paid subscription option for watching content without ads. YouTube incorporated Google's AdSense program, generating more revenue for both YouTube and approved content creators. In 2022, YouTube's annual advertising revenue increased to $29.2 billion, more than $9 billion higher than in 2020. Since its purchase by Google, YouTube has expanded beyond the core website into mobile apps, network television, and the ability to link with other platforms. Video categories on YouTube include music videos, video clips, news, short and feature films, songs,
documentaries, movie trailers, teasers and TV spots, live streams, vlogs, and more. Most content is generated by individuals, including collaborations between "YouTubers" and corporate sponsors. Established media, news, and entertainment corporations have also created and expanded their visibility to YouTube channels in order to reach greater audiences.
advertisements alone, to offering paid content such as movies and exclusive content produced by and for YouTube. It also offers YouTube Premium, a paid subscription option for watching content without ads. YouTube incorporated Google's AdSense program, generating more revenue for both YouTube and approved content creators. In 2022, YouTube's annual advertising revenue increased to $29.2 billion, more than $9 billion higher than in 2020. Since its purchase by Google, YouTube has expanded beyond the core website into mobile apps, network television, and the ability to link with other platforms. Video categories on YouTube include music videos, video clips, news, short and feature films, songs,
documentaries, movie trailers, teasers and TV spots, live streams, vlogs, and more. Most content is generated by individuals, including collaborations between "YouTubers" and corporate sponsors. Established media, news, and entertainment corporations have also created and expanded their visibility to YouTube channels in order to reach greater audiences.
YouTube Execs Weigh In On AI Safeguards, Living Room App Tweaks & How Pat McAfee’s ESPN Move Could Be Emmys Precursor
After YouTube announced new creator tools and product updates at its Made on YouTube event Wednesday, CEO Neal Mohan emphasized that security, especially surrounding updated AI tools, remains “top of mind” for the tech giant. “YouTube occupies a truly unique space,” he explained during an onstage Q&A session at the end of the event. “We get to work closely with cutting-edge technologies that are invented at YouTube, invented at sister organizations like Google DeepMind.” The company has settled into a place where it is “very gradual about the rollout of these technologies instead of just putting it out there and seeing what happens,” he added. As far as potential misuse of AI, Mohan said: “This is really what the name says. It’s a tool. It’s about streamlining” the creative process. (Deadline 9/18/24) READ MORE>>>>>
After YouTube announced new creator tools and product updates at its Made on YouTube event Wednesday, CEO Neal Mohan emphasized that security, especially surrounding updated AI tools, remains “top of mind” for the tech giant. “YouTube occupies a truly unique space,” he explained during an onstage Q&A session at the end of the event. “We get to work closely with cutting-edge technologies that are invented at YouTube, invented at sister organizations like Google DeepMind.” The company has settled into a place where it is “very gradual about the rollout of these technologies instead of just putting it out there and seeing what happens,” he added. As far as potential misuse of AI, Mohan said: “This is really what the name says. It’s a tool. It’s about streamlining” the creative process. (Deadline 9/18/24) READ MORE>>>>>
Tech Execs, Creators Mourn Former YouTube Chief Susan Wojcicki
Former YouTube chief and Silicon Valley pioneer Susan Wojcicki, who served as the video sharing platform’s longest-serving CEO during some of its most formative years, died Friday at the age of 56, according to a statement from her husband, provoking an outpour of support and condolences from YouTube creators and technology executives. Wojcicki died Friday after a two-year battle with non-small cell lung cancer, her husband, Dennis Troper, wrote in a Facebook post. Wojcicki is survived by Troper and four of her five children, as 19-year-old Marco Troper passed away in February. Wojcicki became YouTube’s CEO in 2014, about eight years after she oversaw Google’s $1.6 billion acquisition of the video sharing platform.
(Forbes 8/10/24) READ MORE>>>>>
Former YouTube chief and Silicon Valley pioneer Susan Wojcicki, who served as the video sharing platform’s longest-serving CEO during some of its most formative years, died Friday at the age of 56, according to a statement from her husband, provoking an outpour of support and condolences from YouTube creators and technology executives. Wojcicki died Friday after a two-year battle with non-small cell lung cancer, her husband, Dennis Troper, wrote in a Facebook post. Wojcicki is survived by Troper and four of her five children, as 19-year-old Marco Troper passed away in February. Wojcicki became YouTube’s CEO in 2014, about eight years after she oversaw Google’s $1.6 billion acquisition of the video sharing platform.
(Forbes 8/10/24) READ MORE>>>>>
From James O’Brien to Joe Rogan: Rise of news influencers and alternative voices
Big broadcasters such as the BBC and Sky do best, along with The Guardian, but these brands are more challenged in YouTube and TikTok by a range of youth orientated outlets such as Politics Joe, LADbible, and TLDR News – and also by more partisan political outlets such as Novara Media and individual creators. (Press Gazette 6/20/24)READ MORE>>>>>
Big broadcasters such as the BBC and Sky do best, along with The Guardian, but these brands are more challenged in YouTube and TikTok by a range of youth orientated outlets such as Politics Joe, LADbible, and TLDR News – and also by more partisan political outlets such as Novara Media and individual creators. (Press Gazette 6/20/24)READ MORE>>>>>
YouTuber faces a federal charge after allegedly directing video of fireworks being shot from a helicopter at a Lamborghini
A popular Los Angeles YouTuber faces an explosives charge with federal prosecutors accusing him of directing a video stunt in which fireworks were blasted from an airborne helicopter and at a speeding Lamborghini. Suk Min Choi, 24, who also goes by Alex Choi, 24, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced in a news release Thursday. Choi, who has 923,000 followers on YouTube and 1.2 million followers on Instagram, posted a video titled “Destroying a Lamborghini with Fireworks” on July 4, 2023, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.
(CNN 6/6/24)READ MORE>>>>>
A popular Los Angeles YouTuber faces an explosives charge with federal prosecutors accusing him of directing a video stunt in which fireworks were blasted from an airborne helicopter and at a speeding Lamborghini. Suk Min Choi, 24, who also goes by Alex Choi, 24, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced in a news release Thursday. Choi, who has 923,000 followers on YouTube and 1.2 million followers on Instagram, posted a video titled “Destroying a Lamborghini with Fireworks” on July 4, 2023, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.
(CNN 6/6/24)READ MORE>>>>>