Chrissy Stroop Elon Musk rarely states his own political views outright on X (formerly Twitter), other than to make vague nods in favour of “centrism” and “free speech” – one of his favourite topics – or to adopt a general “anti-woke” attitude. The owner of X has denounced the “woke mind virus” and even taken… Read More Elon Musk is using X to fuel right-wing hate in the US
If there’s been one topline tech story this week that feels synecdochal of the United States’ entire tech-politik zeitgeist, it’s got to be Zoom’s latest privacy fiasco. The video conference software-maker caught heat this week over a Terms of Service (ToS) change allowing it to harvest private user meeting data for artificial intelligence training. And, yes, once… Read More Not so private room: Zoom’s AI privacy fiasco
By AMANDA MARCOTTE One can see the sheen of desperation in the world of self-identified conservatives who make a living by “triggering” the liberals. The usual dose of outrage bait isn’t working as well any longer, so the right-wingers are escalating the provocations. Tucker Carlson, for example, gave a glow-up interview with manosphere “influencer” Andrew Tate, who is… Read More The fall of Twitter is making the trolls and grifters desperate
Major UN report issues warning over excessive use, with one in six countries already banning the devices; Analysis: distraction and bullying are key concerns; ‘I would crank up the restrictions’: teachers on banning phones in school Smartphones should be banned from schools to tackle classroom disruption, improve learning and help protect children from cyberbullying, a… Read More Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
Bye bye, birdie. Twitter, the text-based social media platform that played an outsized role on society by serving as a digital town square, was killed by its unhinged owner Elon Musk on Sunday. It was 17 years old. A zombie Twitter, known only as X, reluctantly endures. A warped and disfigured platform, X marches on… Read More Elon Musk has officially killed Twitter
*Originally published on November 12, 2020. This is Part 4 of the six-part 2020 Massey Lecture series Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society. Find the rest of the series here. The internet was supposed to be our salvation. While historically power has remained in the tight grasp of a select few, the initial vision of the internet… Read More Digital authoritarianism: How technology was seized by autocrats
Jeff Sparrow the relationship between capital and technology has never been simple. The profit motive traditionally stifles as many mousetraps as it nurtures them, even when the economy offered something like a level playing field…. the dominance of ruthless monopolies in almost every industry means that innovations rarely get used to their full capability… not… Read More Enshittification, or social media today
Bharat Bhushan With an eye on the general elections, the government’s communication policy has diversified from TV and print media to include social media influencers. Individuals with large followings on social media will get government funding to promote the government’s leadership and programmes either directly or through advertisements. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology… Read More Govt employing influencers: Death knell for professional news media?
Streamed live on 5 Jul 2023 #artificialintelligence#chatgpt#darksideofaiDive into the world of artificial intelligence and discover the good, the bad, and the ugly. Explore the disturbing trend of deepfakes, where AI is used to manipulate vide-os & pictures, blurring the line between fact and fiction. What is deepfake technology and how is it evolving, how can… Read More The Dark Side of AI: Manipulating Reality / Ensuring Re-sponsible Use Of AI
Siva Vaidhyanathan If you use Twitter, the service that not so long ago was the best way to take in breaking news and find audiences for serious conversations, you may have found it substantially less useful in the past year. Over this past weekend you found it almost unusable. On Saturday, everything melted down. Thousands of… Read More Twitter was locked in a chaotic doom loop. Now it’s on the verge of collapse
After the truth-shower 