The internet has been transformed by social media, and the many platforms are now critical to how we communicate online. The Verge keeps a close eye on everything that’s happening in the social media landscape, covering key players like Meta, X, and TikTok, reporting on new features, following cultural moments, and breaking down the policies that shape how the platforms work.
Director Uta Briesewitz wants her new film to make you think about the human suffering that keeps the internet running.
Two terrorism-related charges against Mangione were dropped at a court hearing on Tuesday in the New York state case.
The app has introduced a new “infinite retention” feature, allowing you to save chats in individual conversations. Snap will notify everyone in the group when you enable the feature.
Previously, Snapchat only saved messages for 24 hours after everyone in the group viewed them, or 31 days after the message was sent, whichever is sooner.
[Snap Newsroom]
Now, if you’ve bridged your fediverse account between services like Mastodon and Bluesky with Bridgy Fed, the tool can DM you if someone who hasn’t bridged interacts with one of your posts, making it easier to know about those interactions. Read more on A New Social’s blog.
[A New Social]
You can finally save posts for later using the new bookmark icon that’s now available on Bluesky’s mobile app and web. And, if you’ve been using the “pushpin” emoji to save posts, there’s a tool you can use to migrate them to the new bookmarks tab.
Another 200 or more were injured during demonstrations, The New York Times reports based on local news accounts. Police used rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse protesters who occupied a security building, witnesses told The Times. Nepal blocked 26 social media platforms that did not register with the government.
[The New York Times]
Meta is tweaking how a string of posts looks on the platform, including adding labels that indicate if the post is one in a longer thread. This makes it much easier to see where the discussion continues, and is also a nice signal that someone’s thoughts go on longer than the first post. Now we need this on Bluesky...
As the fallout of the Chorus influencer program reveals, the Democratic establishment seems sclerotically incapable of existing in a media environment it cannot control.
Bluesky already blocked users in Mississippi over the state’s age verification law. Now Mastodon has told TechCrunch it doesn’t “have the means” to comply with the law, leaving its future in the state, and others considering similarly restrictive age verification laws, in doubt.
Your collection of artworks looted by the Nazis could end up in the news. A Dutch newspaper recently spotted what appears to be a missing painting that belonged to a Jewish art dealer during World War II — in an online real estate listing for a home in Argentina. A second missing painting was reportedly seen in a social media post by one of the daughters of a Nazi official.
Bounce, the social web tool announced in June that lets you move from Bluesky to Mastodon without losing your followers, is now available in beta.
[A New Social]
Bibliome is a new platform that lets you use your Bluesky account to create and share reading lists. You can can even explore lists from other people without an account.
The new and improved social news aggregator of the early 2000s that already returned to the web in beta is now available as an app for both iOS and Android. It requires an invite from a groundbreaker. Get it!?
What happens when you leak your own deposition online?
I love this description of falling into the rabbit hole of TikTok Live streams of farm workers and other manual laborers, calmly and quietly going about their work. It’s competence porn that highlights the divide between those of us making stuff, and those of us watching from our phones.
We’ve known WhatsApp is working on chats with other apps for some time, in order to comply with EU rules on interoperability, but Meta is also working on chats without any app at all.
WABetaInfo found evidence for “guest chats” in a beta build, which let users send a link for an online chat, no app or account required. It’ll be encrypted, but limited to text only — no voice calls, group chats, or even GIFs.
[wabetainfo.com]
In director Uta Briesewitz’s upcoming thriller American Sweatshop, a social media content moderator (Lili Reinhart) can’t move on from a gruesome murder she’s forced to watch as part of her job. The movie’s trailer makes it look like a smart way to focus on the real horrors people have to endure to keep the internet running, which might make it a surprise hit when it hits theaters on September 19th.
Actor Sydney Sweeney is currently embroiled in a days-long “discourse” cycle about a campaign she shot with American Eagle. The ad — and whether it’s a eugenics dog whistle — is one thing. But I liked this Atlantic piece that zoomed out and put the outrage and online content cycle into perspective. Chat, is discourse cooked?
[theatlantic.com]
