61-year-old Larry Bushart is out of jail after a month for posting a meme on Facebook. In the wake of Kirk’s killing, ordinary people were doxed, harassed, and even jailed for comments made online about the right wing influencer. According to the Washington Post, Bushart is now celebrating his freedom and building his legal case — and is back to posting.
The platform is testing a way for users to indicate what topics they want to see in content, beginning with Reels. Instagram said previously that this was in the works. The topics appear to be extremely specific — things like Bad Bunny, “Japanese artisan menswear,” “vintage Patek,” and so on. In other words: help Instagram improve its algorithm.
Older songs will now drop off the Hot 100 faster once they fall below a certain threshold. NPR notes that 10 songs are getting the boot due to the new rules, including Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” which came out in 2023.
Streaming has changed how songs appear (and stay) on the Hot 100. As Billboard explains:
Notably, amid the takeover of streaming during the past decade, the Hot 100 has reflected repeat listening more than ever before. Concurrently, as reflected on Billboard airplay charts, radio stations are now generally holding onto hits longer and in frequent airplay rotations. That shift has resulted in charts that move more slowly than in the past.
Just when you thought you had heard the last of Labubus, Tim Cook gets a custom one. Kasing Lung, the artist responsible for the viral sensation, gifted Cook a doll wearing glasses and holding an iPhone. But is it really a Labubu if you didn’t spend hours trying to buy one?
Or would you? Smucker’s is accusing Trader Joe’s of ripping off its Uncrustables and creating “copycats” that infringe on the shape of the sandwiches and packaging. Trader Joe’s whole thing is that they make in-house versions of popular products — not just food but also things like skincare. But as I’ve written, the legal status of dupes is more complicated than it might seem.
In a private meeting with members of media, the pope condemned clickbait news as a “degrading practice,” The Guardian reports. Pope Leo XIV is clearly thinking about the digital information ecosystem: he said he chose his papal name in part due to developments in AI “that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.” Will the pope weigh in on SEO next?
The News Creator Corps, led by longtime journalism professor Jay Rosen, is trying. Content creators will be paid a $5,000 stipend as they “hear from experts in fact checking, sourcing, AI, interviewing, and more.” Trust in media is at historic lows — but people do trust influencers and individuals, the thinking goes:
Audiences are migrating to the content creators ... The simple principle of sharing good information — and watching out for the bad — has to migrate with it.
Unionized employees are striking for a codified four-day work week and more money for the lowest paid employees, Kickstarter United announced. Importantly, the union isn’t asking for a boycott of the crowdfunding platform — instead, they’re asking creators to complain about issues they run into, use the union logo in projects, and to send letters of support to management.
