Musk’s X withholds accounts, tweets in India to obey orders

X, formerly known as Twitter, said Wednesday it is withholding specific accounts and posts in India, action it said the firm disagrees with, in response to executive orders issued by the Indian government. Non-compliance with the executive orders, X said, would have subjected the firm to “potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment.” X’s Global […]

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Yes, Threads is running a fact-checking program, but the system isn’t fully rolled out

Threads, Meta’s Twitter-like service and competitor to X, may be distancing itself from politics, but that doesn’t mean it won’t try to tackle the misinformation that spreads across social media — particularly in the lead-up to national elections. Following user reports of fact-checks spotted on the network, the company confirmed it’s engaged with fact-checking organizations […]

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As Threads deprioritizes politics, Bluesky’s CEO touts custom feeds and user choice in social media

Meta is in hot water after announcing plans to remove politics from its recommendations across Instagram and Threads, its new Twitter-like app for text-based posts. That leaves a window of opportunity for the startup Bluesky, whose CEO Jay Graber recently explained that Meta’s decision is emblematic of the types of problems that could emerge when […]

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Twitter alternative Bluesky shows off custom Super Bowl feeds (both with and without Taylor Swift)

Twitter/X alternative Bluesky is gearing up for one of the biggest weekends in social media with the launch of custom feeds prepped for Super Bowl fans. One feed focuses on conversations around the big game itself while the other also includes news about Taylor Swift, who’s expected to attend to cheer on her boyfriend, Kansas […]

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Social networks are getting stingy with their data, leaving third-party developers in the lurch

2023 was the year social networks realized that they were sitting on massive troves of data. And some companies, such as Twitter (now X) and Reddit, decided to change their terms to shut out third-party experiences on these platforms. In the process, they also put a price on their data — something they believe is […]

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How Twitter’s descent into chaos is paving the way for a new web

The post-Twitter era has spurred the development and further growth of numerous social networks that prioritize brief posts, from open source standbys like Mastodon to new decentralized concepts like Bluesky, and those from smaller startups like Post, Spill, and Spoutible, to those from tech giants like Meta, which launched the Twitter-like Threads. While this is […]

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As Bluesky opens to the public, CEO Jay Graber faces her biggest challenge yet

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber says that her job is like being a substitute teacher. It’s not what you’d expect from the head of an experimental, up-and-coming social platform, but it makes sense: there’s a lot of pressure, and a mischievous audience is eager to poke and prod at any crack in your armor until you […]

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Senate hearing with five social media CEOs was a missed opportunity

Five social media CEOs were sworn in on Wednesday for what could have been the most eventful children’s online safety hearing yet. But even with some of tech’s most powerful figures under oath, the four-hour hearing was anti-climactic. The Senate subpoenaed recently appointed X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Discord’s Jason Citron and Snap’s Evan Spiegel to […]

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The Taylor Swift deepfake debacle was frustratingly preventable

You know you’ve screwed up when you’ve simultaneously angered the White House, the TIME Person of the Year, and pop culture’s most rabid fanbase. That’s what happened last week to X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly called Twitter, when AI-generated, pornographic deepfake images of Taylor Swift went viral. One of the most widespread posts of […]

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CEOs from Meta, TikTok, Snap, X and Discord head to Congress for kids’ online safety hearing

CEOs from some of the biggest social platforms will appear before Congress on Wednesday to defend their companies against mounting criticism that they have done too little to protect kids and teens online. The hearing, set to begin at 10 a.m. ET, is the latest in a long string of congressional tech hearings stretching back […]

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