Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian; The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over
"Platforms come and go, but this feels different: the final death of the idea that social media could ever be the internet’s town square, a global meeting place for ideas that would broaden all our horizons. Now, the future of social media looks increasingly segregated for users’ safety, like rival fans at football."
Joan Donovan, The Guardian; First came the bots, then came the bosses - we’re entering Musk and Zuck’s new era of disinformation
"In 2024, lies travel further and faster across social media, which is now a battleground for narrative dominance. And now, the owners of the platforms circulating the most incendiary lies have direct access to the Oval Office."
Steven Lee Myers , The New York Times; As Election Looms, Disinformation ‘Has Never Been Worse’
"Numerous factors have contributed to the surge in disinformation, which Ms. Easterly and other officials have warned will continue far beyond Election Day.
Social media platforms have helped to harden media ecosystems into distinct, disparate partisan enclaves where facts contradicting preconceived narratives are often unwelcome. Artificial intelligence has become an accelerant, making fake or fanciful content ubiquitous online with merely a few keystrokes."
Ryan Browne, CNBC; British government had ‘constructive’ talks with Musk’s X over disinformation, minister says
"The U.K. government has had “constructive” talks with Elon Musk’s social media site X over the spread of misinformation and other harmful content, technology minister Peter Kyle told CNBC Friday...
Kyle’s comments to CNBC come after misinformation spread online after a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in northwest England sparked far-right, anti-immigration riots — with shops and mosques being attacked in towns across the country.
Multiple social media users at the time spread false information about the alleged perpetrator, who has since been charged with murder and attempted murder, claiming he was an asylum seeker.
During the riots, Musk, who owns X, made comments about the situation in the U.K., calling Prime Minister Keir Starmer “two-tier Keir” in reference to the conspiracy theory that police were treating white far-right protesters and rioters more harshly than minority groups.
He also suggested the unrest could end up resulting in a civil war, saying in an X post: “Civil war is inevitable.” Musk’s comments were condemned by the U.K. government."
Katie Paul, Reuters; Meta bans RT and other Russian state media networks
"Facebook owner Meta aid on Monday it was banning RT, Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian state media networks from its platforms, claiming the outlets had used deceptive tactics to carry out covert influence operations online.
The ban, strongly criticised by the Kremlin, marks a sharp escalation in measures by the world's biggest social media company against Russian state media, after years of more limited steps such as blocking the outlets from running ads and reducing the reach of their posts."
Vivek H. Murthy, The New York Times; Surgeon General: Why I’m Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platforms
"It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe. Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior. When asked if a warning from the surgeon general would prompt them to limit or monitor their children’s social media use, 76 percent of people in one recent survey of Latino parents said yes...
It’s no wonder that when it comes to managing social media for their kids, so many parents are feeling stress and anxiety — and even shame.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Faced with high levels of car-accident-related deaths in the mid- to late 20th century, lawmakers successfully demanded seatbelts, airbags, crash testing and a host of other measures that ultimately made cars safer. This January the F.A.A. grounded about 170 planes when a door plug came off one Boeing 737 Max 9 while the plane was in the air. And the following month, a massive recall of dairy products was conducted because of a listeria contamination that claimed two lives.
Why is it that we have failed to respond to the harms of social media when they are no less urgent or widespread than those posed by unsafe cars, planes or food? These harms are not a failure of willpower and parenting; they are the consequence of unleashing powerful technology without adequate safety measures, transparency or accountability."
Robin Buller, The Guardian ; Teaching kids to spot fake news: media literacy to be required in California schools
"California next year will become one of the few US states to teach students media literacy, a move experts say is imperative at a time when distrust in the media is at an all-time high and new technologies pose unprecedented challenges to identifying false information.
A state bill signed into law this fall mandates public schools to instruct media literacy, a set of skills that includes recognizing falsified data, identifying fake news and generating responsible internet content.
Researchers have long warned that the current digital ecosystem has had dire consequences on young people, and have argued that such instruction could make a difference. The US surgeon general has cited digital and media literacy support as one way to combat the youth mental health crisis spurred by social media. The American Psychological Association already has urged parents and schools to teach media literacy before they expose young people to social media platforms."
Jon Henley, The Guardian; 85% of people worry about online disinformation, global survey finds
"More than 85% of people are worried about the impact of online disinformation and 87% believe it has already harmed their country’s politics, according to a global survey, as the United Nations announced a plan to tackle the phenomenon.
Audrey Azoulay, director general of the UN’s culture body, Unesco, told reporters on Monday that false information and hate speech online – accelerated and amplified by social media platforms – posed “major risks to social cohesion, peace and stability”.
Regulation was urgently needed “to protect access to information … while at the same time protecting freedom of expression and human rights”, Azoulay said as she presented a “governance blueprint” for governments, regulators and platforms."
"2. Lindke v. Freed, O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier (Oct. 31)
There are several cases on the court’s docket this term that will tackle the future of online speech. The first two — Lindke v. Freed and O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier — will seek to answer whether the First Amendment prohibits public officials from blocking constituents.
The high court will also debate the constitutionality of laws passed in Texas and Florida that regulate the tech industry’s content-moderation policies. They are Moody v. NetChoice, LLC and NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton. Conservatives argue that social media platforms are censoring their viewpoints, while the companies argue that the new laws violate their First Amendment right to choose what to publish on their platforms."
