Facebook’s parent, Meta, in December agreed to pay $725 million to settle a host of privacy-related class action lawsuits alleging, among other things, that Facebook let third parties access its users’ private data and that of their friends without users’ permission.
Social Media
Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed a bill amending the state’s Child Labor Law that will allow teenagers over the age of 18 to take legal action against their parents if they were featured in monetized social media videos and not properly compensated.
The relationship between social media and violence might not be as cut-and-dry as some make it to be. There’s sometimes a perception that social media apps fuel violence, but researchers say that correlation can be overblown.
With slim margins and constantly shifting trends, the restaurant industry can be a tough business. Chef Carlos Gaytán uses thoughtful social media content to both attract more business and educate diners about the flavors of his home country.
Educator Ernest Crim III believes learning Black history saved his life — and now, through anti-racism workshops and TikTok videos, he wants to do the same for others.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently issued a warning that social media presents a “profound risk of harm” to kids’ mental health. He’s calling on families to set limits on social media use and for lawmakers to issue tougher standards on technology platforms to protect kids.
The U.S. surgeon general is calling for tech companies and lawmakers to take “immediate action” to protect kids’ and adolescents’ mental health on social media.
A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed almost 60% of U.S. girls reported persistent sadness and hopelessness. Rates are up in boys, too, but about half as many are affected. Adults have theories about what is going on, but what do teens themselves say?
In Chicago, a digital creater who goes by the name Chris Dolo has been able to make a name for himself by reviewing food. He joined “Latino Voices” to talk about his road to TikTok fame and the ways he uses it to showcase local offerings.
On Tuesday, using his Truth Social platform, the Republican former president reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming.” In QAnon lore, the “storm” refers to Trump’s final victory, when supposedly he will regain power and his opponents will be tried, and potentially executed, on live television.
Researchers at NewsGuard searched for content about prominent news topics on TikTok and say they found that nearly 1 in 5 of the videos automatically suggested by the platform contained misinformation.
Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are generally staying the course from the 2020 voting season, which was marred by conspiracies and culminated in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Video app TikTok, which has soared in popularity since the last election cycle, announced Wednesday it is launching an election center.
Marginalized people often suffer the most harm from unintended consequences of new technologies, according to researcher Breigha Adeyemo who shares ways to make them more inclusive.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company is rebranding itself as Meta in an effort to encompass its virtual-reality vision for the future — what Zuckerberg calls the “metaverse.”
Facebook is also planning to introduce new controls for adults of teens on an optional basis so that parents or guardians can supervise what their teens are doing online. These initiatives come after Facebook announced late last month that it was pausing work on its Instagram for Kids project.
Santosh Janardhan, Facebook’s vice president of infrastructure, said in a blog post that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp going dark was “caused not by malicious activity, but an error of our own making.”
