A pedestrian wearing a protective mask walks past a GameStop store in the Herald Square area of New York City on November 27, 2020. | Gabriela Bhaskar/Bloomberg/Getty Images How a bunch of Redditors made GameStop’s stock soar, much to the chagrin of the hedge funds attempting to short it. Who knew the first big 2021 …
How a bunch of Redditors made GameStop’s stock soar Read More »
Lina Khan at her New York home in 2017. | An Rong Xu for the Washington Post Outgoing FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra has been advocating for Khan’s nomination. Lina Khan, an antitrust expert, Columbia law professor and thorn in the side of Big Tech, is gaining traction as a candidate to fill one of the …
Big Tech nemesis Lina Khan is gaining traction for top Biden antitrust role Read More »
The type of misinformation that fueled election doubts and support for the events at the Capitol is still easy to find online. | B.A. Van Sise/NurPhoto via Getty Images Here are some of the most pervasive election conspiracy theories and false claims being shared on social media around Inauguration Day. In the aftermath of the …
President Trump is no longer allowed to use many of the apps on his phone. | Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images Social media abuse from political figures isn’t just a Trump problem, and banning him won’t solve it. Today would have been President Trump’s last day with the special privileges Facebook and Twitter …
Facebook and Twitter made special world leader rules for Trump. What happens now? Read More »
A pro-Trump rioter poses for a photo with the vandalized statue of former President Gerald Ford. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images How law enforcement and internet detectives are identifying the Capitol rioters. Capitol Police may have allowed nearly every member of a mob of pro-Trump rioters to enter, vandalize, and leave the Capitol building scot-free, but …
The Capitol rioters put themselves all over social media. Now they’re getting arrested. Read More »
Some of those who participated in the riot at the US Capitol were users of the platform Parler, which went offline over the weekend. | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images A preliminary page for Parler has come back online, but the full app hasn’t returned. Parler, the largely unmoderated social network popular with conservatives, often …
Parler begins to come back online with the help of a Russian tech company Read More »
Following the Capitol riots, a privacy-minded messaging service is now the most popular app in the US. | Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images The encrypted messaging app is currently the most downloaded app on both app stores. Signal, once a niche messaging service for the privacy-minded, is currently the most downloaded app in the United …
Signal has so many new users, it’s stopped working Read More »
Donald Trump boards Air Force One on January 12, 2021. | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images The big platforms finally policed Donald Trump. But there’s no one — really — to police the platforms except their owners and employees. Who convinced Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg to kick Donald Trump off of their platforms last …
Why the best referees for Twitter and Facebook may be the people who work there Read More »
Some of those who participated in the riot at the Capitol were users of the platform Parler, which offline over the weekend. | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images Some experts doubt Parler’s ability to return. Parler, the largely unmoderated social network popular with conservatives, often found fans by lampooning Big Tech. But after the site …
How Parler went offline, and how it might come back Read More »
Neil Godwin/Future Publishing via Getty Images “Hey Google, don’t save any of my interactions with you.” If you have a smart speaker or smart device but aren’t thrilled with the possibility that your data — including your voice — is being collected and stored on it, Google Assistant might have an answer for you: Guest …
Google Assistant’s new Guest Mode is more private, but there’s a price Read More »
