404 Media reports that trans and non-binary pride chat themes were “retired” this week and announcements scrubbed from the web — just as Meta is allowing more hate speech.
“Messenger is committed to building the safest private messaging experience that gives the growing LBGTQ+ community and its allies a trusted space to open up with confidence,” one announcement read. To borrow Mark Zuckerberg’s own words: sounds like virtue signaling.
While grilling US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar about algorithmic blackboxes, Justice Elena Kagan made the point that it’s not just TikTok where content is served up without explanation.
“That’s true of any search engine,” Kagan says. “You can take any of these systems, whether it’s X or whether it’s — what are the new ones? Bluesky.”
Leaked training documents obtained by The Intercept offer more details about Meta’s updated Hateful Conduct rules. Specific examples of speech Meta allows include “Immigrants are grubby, filthy pieces of shit,” “Jews are flat out greedier than Christians,” and “Trans people are immoral.”
Amanda Mull at Bloomberg has a nice summary of how consumer culture might change if TikTok exits the US later this month. It’s not just influencers who’d feel the effects — brands pushing products, media covering trends, and businesses relying on the app’s roulette of virality are surely worried.
But would it be the worst thing if we all just slowed down a bit?
After user outrage, Meta is deleting its small army of AI bot profiles in order to fix a bug that removed the ability to block the accounts. As I reported earlier today, the bots have been around since 2023, but many users just discovered them in the last few days following news coverage and social media posts.
After being banned from India in 2020 along with other Chinese apps, Shein won a rare exception — but it comes with strict parameters.
Among them: the fast fashion giant must hand over customer data to its Indian partner Reliance Retail. Shein products will also be produced locally, with government security audits.
