TikTok, like other social platforms, has become part of the political fabric: politicians campaign on TikTok and groups attempt to spread propaganda via influence campaigns.
In the lead up to the UK general election, TikTok is surfacing videos from journalists and fact checkers. It’s also sharing tips for spotting fake news and definitions for things like disinformation.
Today the company rolled out an expanded takedown requests process for AI content following its initial announcement back in November.
But requesting removal doesn’t guarantee YouTube will comply. The company says it will consider things like whether the content could be mistaken as real and whether it’s parody or satire.
In a statement published yesterday, Stanford University denied it was shuttering the prominent research center studying abuse and disinformation online. In recent months, key staff have departed and others have been told to look for new jobs.
The Internet Observatory is, however, looking for money: Stanford says “founding grants will soon be exhausted” as the center moves under new leadership.
A deep dive by Rolling Stone tracked the deaths of children who died after taking fake drugs they bought on the app. Parents and law enforcement officials blame, in part, the disappearing messages feature that made Snapchat popular in the first place.
[Rolling Stone]
Prices are rising as Shein eyes IPOs in the UK and the US. The average price of a dress is up 28 percent in the US compared to a year ago, for example.
Despite labor violations and the overall secrecy of the company, business is booming for the fast fashion brand. We’ll see if shoppers mind the slightly higher prices.
We don’t know exactly how often AI Overviews will appear in search, but early observations point to trouble for publishers.
A Press Gazette experiment found that AI Overviews appeared on nearly a quarter of top news-related Google searches, pushing down organic results. Some publishers are bracing for their Google traffic to trickle to zero. Others say it’s already happened.
