Social Media

The New York Times reports: TikTok said late Friday that its service would “go dark” for its 170 million American users on Sunday because of a ban in the United States over fears that its Chinese ownership poses a threat to national security. The company said in a statement that “unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January …

TechDirt reports: Remember how Zuckerberg was “done with politics”? Remember how he promised that he was going to stop doing what politicians demanded he do? Now it turns out that he not only did his big set of moderation changes to please Trump, but did so only after he was told by the incoming administration to act. Even worse, he …

NBC News reports: The Supreme Court on Friday delivered a blow to TikTok by upholding a law that could potentially lead to the video-sharing social media platform being banned in the United States. The justices rejected a free speech challenge filed by the company, meaning the law is set to go into effect on Sunday as planned. The bipartisan law …

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden won’t enforce a ban on TikTok that is set to take effect a day before he leaves office on Monday, a U.S. official said Thursday, leaving its fate in the hands of Trump. Congress last year, in a law signed by Biden, required that TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance divest the company by …

The New York Times reports: The chief executive of TikTok plans to attend President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration and has been invited to sit in a position of honor on the dais, where former presidents, family members and other important guests traditionally are seated, two people familiar with the plans said Wednesday. The invitation to the executive, Shou Chew, went …

Reuters reports: TikTok plans to shut off its app for U.S. users on Sunday, when a federal ban on the social media app could come into effect, The Information reported on Tuesday, unless the Supreme Court moves to block it. If TikTok shuts off for all U.S. users, the outcome would be different from that mandated by the law. The …

Reuters reports: Brazil’s government said on Tuesday it is “seriously concerned” about Meta Platforms’ recently announced changes to its hate speech policy, adding that it believes they do not comply with the country’s legislation. The Brazilian government ordered the social media company, which also owns Instagram and Threads, to explain its plans, which President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had …

The Guardian reports: Chinese officials have reportedly held preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok’s operations in the US to the billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app be unable to avoid an impending ban. Beijing officials prefer that TikTok remains under the control of Chinese parent Bytedance, but have discussed other options including a sale to Musk, …

Ars Technica reports: Mastodon announced Monday that it’s shifting its structure over the next six months to become wholly owned by a European nonprofit organization—”affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.” This takes control of the social network away from its previous “ultimate decision-maker,” Eugen Rochko [photo]. As founder, Rochko initially took …

404 Media reports: Meta deleted nonbinary and trans themes for its Messenger app this week, around the same time that the company announced it would change its rules to allow users to declare that LGBTQ+ people are “mentally ill,” 404 Media has learned. Meta’s Messenger app allows users to change the color scheme and design of their chat windows with …

Axios reports: They say it’s hard to turn a battleship around, but Mark Zuckerberg just about-faced his globe-spanning, $1.5 trillion-value, 3 billion-user company — transforming Meta from a bastion of Silicon Valley’s socially progressive neoliberalism into a full-on MAGA hive. After Zuckerberg’s embrace of Trump and Trumpism, Silicon Valley is holding its breath to see whether a whole row of …

Axios reports: Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is terminating major DEI programs, effective immediately — including for hiring, training and picking suppliers, according to a new employee memo obtained by Axios. The move is a strong signal to Meta employees that the company’s push to make inroads with the incoming Trump administration isn’t just posturing, but an ethos shift that will impact …

Forbes reports: Justices on the Supreme Court signaled Friday they may uphold the federal law banning TikTok unless it divests itself from ByteDance, expressing skepticism of TikTok’s opposition to the law during oral arguments, increasing the likelihood the popular video app could be banned Jan. 19 unless TikTok starts separating from its Chinese-owned parent company. TikTok and content creators on …

The Intercept reports: Meta is now granting its users new freedom to post a wide array of derogatory remarks about races, nationalities, ethnic groups, sexual orientations, and gender identities, training materials obtained by The Intercept reveal. Examples of newly permissible speech include: “Immigrants are grubby, filthy pieces of shit.” “Gays are freaks.” “Look at that tranny (beneath photo of 17 …

The Daily Beast reports: Facebook’s algorithm angered founder Mark Zuckerberg when he shared a November 2023 post about his knee surgery and it received little engagement, The Wall Street Journal reports. It was this experience that led to the Meta CEO’s Jan. 7 announcement that the platform will divest from a centralized fact-checking process, according to the newspaper. “We’re going …

NBC News reports: Meta will allow its billions of social media users to accuse people of being mentally ill based on their sexuality or gender identity, among broader changes it made to its moderation policies and practices Tuesday. The company’s new guidelines prohibit insults about someone’s intellect or mental illness on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, as have previous iterations. However, …

Bloomberg News reports: Mark Zuckerberg wore a rare Swiss watch worth about $900,000 in a video explaining his company’s decision to end third-party fact checking on its social media platforms in the U.S. The Meta Platforms Inc. chairman sports a Greubel Forsey ‘Hand Made 1’ on his left wrist in the video posted to Facebook on Tuesday unveiling the policy …

Mark Zuckerberg writes on Meta’s corporate blog: Governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more. A lot of this is clearly political, but there’s also a lot of legitimately bad stuff out there. Drugs, terrorism, Child exploitation. These are things that we take very seriously, and I want to make sure that we handle responsibly. So we …

User Mag reports: For months, Meta has been restricting content with LGBTQ-related hashtags from search and discovery under its “sensitive content” policy aimed at restricting “sexually suggestive content.” Posts with LGBTQ+ hashtags including #lesbian, #bisexual, #gay, #trans, #queer, #nonbinary, #pansexual and dozens of others were hidden for any users who had their sensitive content filter turned on. Teenagers have the …

Semafor reports: Meta is revamping its global policy team, with President Nick Clegg stepping down and being replaced by Joel Kaplan, his deputy and the company’s most prominent Republican, people familiar with the matter said. Kaplan, who was White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George W. Bush, has been one of the most forceful voices inside Meta against restrictions …