Social Media

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• Report: China may block the sale of TikTok to a US company

  Parent company ByteDance only have days to close sale of TikTok's US operations -- and the Chinese government may not let ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• The UK government is paying influencers to promote the NHS test and trace service

  Social media influencers are often seen as lazy freelancers who make a living being paid to pretend they like products. But these “celebrities’” are more than just marketing vehicles. If used properly, they can be effective agents of positive social change. Yet the UK government ...

  • The Conversation

• This viral makeup TikTok raises fair questions about whether math is real

  While filming herself getting ready for work recently, TikTok user @gracie.ham reached deep into the ancient foundations of mathematics and found an absolute gem of a question: How could someone come up with a concept like algebra? She also asked what the ancient Greek philosopher ...

  • The Conversation

• New algorithm can identify misogyny on Twitter

  Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia have developed an algorithm that detects tweets ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Instagram rolls out proper QR codes to let you follow accounts quickly

  It was just last month that WhatsApp officially introduced the ability to add contacts via a QR code, and now Instagram is taking a leaf out of its sister app's book. The company today began to widely roll out QR codes in its app, after trialing the feature last year in Japan, according ...

  • Napier Lopez

• Facebook algorithm 'actively promotes' Holocaust denial content, study finds

  Researchers from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a counter-extremist group, found Facebook’s algorithm recommends ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Employers are lurking on your social media ahead of interviews — raising ethical concerns

  As businesses around the world slowly start to reopen after being forced to shut down operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the graduates of the class of 2020 are sharpening their presentation skills and updating their resumes to look for employment opportunities. But will their ...

  • The Conversation

• Facebook blames COVID-19 for reduced action on suicide, self-injury, and child exploitation content

  Facebook says that COVID-19 has hindered its ability to remove posts about suicide, self-injury, and child nudity and ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Why governments are threatened by teens on TikTok

  In Egypt, teenager Menna Abdel Aziz used social media to ask for protection after a sexual assault. She was arrested on a ...

  • The Conversation

• How TikTok teens amplified political activism and threatened Trump’s political campaign

  The lower-than-expected attendance at President Trump’s rally in Tulsa on June 20 was attributed, at least in part, to ...

  • The Conversation

• Study: Instagram's algorithm favored Trump over Biden

  The Tech Transparency Report (TTP) found that Instagram pushed searches about Joe Biden towards negative hashtags, but blocked ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Moving Tiktok’s ownership to Microsoft will benefit tech giants — not users

  In what seems to be a common occurrence, Chinese video-sharing app TikTok is once again in the headlines. After months ...

  • The Conversation