- kudos:

Finally subscribed to the excellent, non-creepy Tinylytics service, and now I’m getting distracted trying to figure out why a couple dozen people clicked a Facebook link to my CV earlier this month. I’m not on FB, and I don’t know who else would be posting my academic credentials there.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Big Tech’s Promise Never To Block Access To Politically Embarrassing Content Apparently Only Applies To Democrats'

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Worth reading (and bookmarking). I’ve been hesitant to make the “no, actually, Big Tech is biased against liberals” argument, but this seems a compelling datum for that conclusion… link to “Big Tech’s Promise Never To Block Access To Politically Embarrassing Content Apparently Only Applies To Democrats”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Zuckerberg’s Spineless Surrender: Rehashing Old News To Enable False GOP Narratives'

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This is one of these stories where I’ve been waiting to get Masnick’s take on it, and he does not disappoint. link to “Zuckerberg’s Spineless Surrender: Rehashing Old News To Enable False GOP Narratives”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook’s AI Told Parents Group It Has a Gifted, Disabled Child'

- kudos:

Ugh, so creepy. link to “Facebook’s AI Told Parents Group It Has a Gifted, Disabled Child”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Adam Mosseri spells out Threads’ plans for the fediverse - The Verge'

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I think folks are right to distrust Meta, but Threads with ActivityPub seems to me to be clearly better than Threads without. link to “Adam Mosseri spells out Threads’ plans for the fediverse - The Verge”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Meta’s new AI image generator was trained on 1.1 billion Instagram and Facebook photos | Ars Technica'

- kudos:

The phrase popped into my head before the article could even get to it: We are the product. link to “Meta’s new AI image generator was trained on 1.1 billion Instagram and Facebook photos | Ars Technica”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Meta May Offer Ad-Free Subscriptions for Instagram and Facebook in the E.U. - The New York Times'

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I’m in no way Team Meta, but this may not be a terrible thing? link to ‘Meta May Offer Ad-Free Subscriptions for Instagram and Facebook in the E.U. - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Let the Platforms Burn: The Opposite of Good Fires is Wildfires | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com'

- kudos:

Lots to appreciate here. link to ‘Let the Platforms Burn: The Opposite of Good Fires is Wildfires | Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com’

quoted in EducationWeek about Seattle Public Schools' social media lawsuit

- kudos:

Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of talking with Arianna Prothero at EducationWeek about Seattle Public Schools’ suing Snap, Alphabet, Meta, and ByteDance, and she ended up quoting me—and colleagues like Jeff Carpenter and Josh Rosenberg—in her article. I appreciate that all three of us were quoted in the article, because Jeff and Josh both made points that I didn’t articulate as well in my conversation with Arianna. For example, Jeff’s comments summed up a lot of the complexities that have gone through my head:

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'School Facebook Pages and Privacy Concerns: What Educators Need to Know'

- kudos:

Josh is doing important work here—the kind of work that edtech researchers often don’t consider as being in their purview. Glad to see this getting coverage. link to ‘School Facebook Pages and Privacy Concerns: What Educators Need to Know’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Meta’s VR Headset Harvests Personal Data Right Off Your Face | WIRED'

- kudos:

I had not thought this much about the privacy implications of VR, and ooooof. link to ‘Meta’s VR Headset Harvests Personal Data Right Off Your Face | WIRED’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion'

- kudos:

Compelling example of the need for digital privacy in a post-Row world. link to ‘This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Zuckerberg: Apple, Meta are in “deep, philosophical competition” | Ars Technica'

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Look, I’m a critic of Apple’s closed system, but it’s laughable for Meta to set itself up as an oprn alternative. link to ‘Zuckerberg: Apple, Meta are in “deep, philosophical competition” | Ars Technica’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook Is So Sure Its Erroneous Blocking Of Music Is Right, There’s No Option To Say It’s Wrong | Techdirt'

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Intellectual property is important, but copyright filters are an absolute mess. link to ‘Facebook Is So Sure Its Erroneous Blocking Of Music Is Right, There’s No Option To Say It’s Wrong | Techdirt’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook Bans People For Simply Saying Abortion Pills Exist | Techdirt'

- kudos:

A terrifying teminder that content moderation can easily overreach. link to ‘Facebook Bans People For Simply Saying Abortion Pills Exist | Techdirt’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites – The Markup'

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Well this is terrifying. link to ‘Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites – The Markup’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook Says Apple is Too Powerful. They're Right. | Electronic Frontier Foundation'

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Doctorow is spot on here. Apple may be the most benevolent of the big tech companies, but it still has far too much power over its users. link to ‘Facebook Says Apple is Too Powerful. They’re Right. | Electronic Frontier Foundation’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook-Hired PR Firm Coordinated Anti-TikTok Campaign To Spread Bogus Moral Panics | Techdirt'

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TikTok should not be protected from criticism, but it should not be subjected to this garbage either. link to ‘Facebook-Hired PR Firm Coordinated Anti-TikTok Campaign To Spread Bogus Moral Panics | Techdirt’

🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Researchers explain why they believe Facebook mishandles political ads : NPR'

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Size and scale remain problems for Facebook and other social media platforms. link to ‘Researchers explain why they believe Facebook mishandles political ads : NPR’

🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Meta ordered to sell Giphy by UK regulator - The Verge'

- kudos:

I had completely forgotten that Meta owned Giphy. link to ‘Meta ordered to sell Giphy by UK regulator - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Security Researcher Finds Facebook App Tracking iPhone Movements'

- kudos:

Accelerometer data can be used for invasive tracking, and Facebook seems to be doing so. This is truly scary stuff. link to ‘Security Researcher Finds Facebook App Tracking iPhone Movements’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'After Facebook Leaks, Here Is What Should Come Next | Electronic Frontier Foundation'

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Always appreciate the EFF’s perspective. link to ‘After Facebook Leaks, Here Is What Should Come Next | Electronic Frontier Foundation’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'What happened when Facebook asked users what content was good or bad for the world.'

- kudos:

Interesting read. link to ‘What happened when Facebook asked users what content was good or bad for the world.’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook Changes Corporate Name to Meta - The New York Times'

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The weirdest part of this article to me is how you have Frances Haugen talking to the UK Parliament in one paragraph and then Nick Clegg—former deputy PM—defending “Meta” as their employee not long after. link to ‘Facebook Changes Corporate Name to Meta - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'Google and Facebook’s Ad Empires - The New York Times'

- kudos:

Tech companies are often ad companies, and it behooves us to remember that. link to ‘Google and Facebook’s Ad Empires - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'Employees pleaded with Facebook to stop letting politicians bend rules | Ars Technica'

- kudos:

Facebook might need more moderators, but they shouldn’t be company executives… link to ‘Employees pleaded with Facebook to stop letting politicians bend rules | Ars Technica’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook whistleblower hearing: France Haugen finally got Republicans to stop yapping about anti-conservative bias.'

- kudos:

Interesting article. I’m particularly interested in the idea of focusing on algorithms rather than content. link to ‘Facebook whistleblower hearing: France Haugen finally got Republicans to stop yapping about anti-conservative bias.’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook’s outage likely cost the company over $60 million | Ars Technica'

- kudos:

A compelling reminder that social media companies make money from eyeballs pointed at screens. link to ‘Facebook’s outage likely cost the company over $60 million | Ars Technica’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'Political parties complained Facebook’s algorithm promoted polarization - The Verge'

- kudos:

What a read. Platforms don’t just host content, they manipulate that content. link to ‘Political parties complained Facebook’s algorithm promoted polarization - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'Secret Facebook program reportedly let celebrities avoid moderation - The Verge'

- kudos:

Bookmarking this for my content management class. link to ‘Secret Facebook program reportedly let celebrities avoid moderation - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'The most popular posts on Facebook are plagiarized - The Verge'

- kudos:

Interesting take on inauthentic content on Facebook. link to ‘The most popular posts on Facebook are plagiarized - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook's Most Viewed Article In Early 2021 Raised Doubt About COVID Vaccine : NPR'

- kudos:

I agree that it’s difficult to define misinformation in cases like this, but “cleaning house before inviting company” is absolutely a problem if the mess is what we’re coming to evaluate. Even a fact-based article can be used to misinformative ends, and it’s important that we know things like that are happening. link to ‘Facebook’s Most Viewed Article In Early 2021 Raised Doubt About COVID Vaccine : NPR’

🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook, Fearing Public Outcry, Shelved Earlier Report on Popular Posts - The New York Times'

- kudos:

This is quite the read. link to ‘Facebook, Fearing Public Outcry, Shelved Earlier Report on Popular Posts - The New York Times’

- kudos:

Give me the confidence of a FB employee wringing hands about researchers’ allegedly “put[ting] people’s data or privacy at risk.”