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.
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]
After last week’s hack, the app has been breached again.
I appeared on On the Media to discuss our story about the Anime Nazi who allegedly hacks universities. I explain why the identity of the alleged hacker is important, why the Times’ obfuscation of its sources is troubling, and what’s at stake in the Republican war on higher education: upward mobility.
Online Safety Act rules are now in effect that require online platforms to have “strong age checks” in place to prevent children from accessing pornographic materials and other “harmful content.” Bluesky, Reddit, and Discord, for example, have all introduced age verification tools that require users to upload a selfie or a picture of their government ID.
Vine was shut down eight years ago, along with its vast archive of iconic short-form video memes. Twitter owns its corpse, and Musk has been considering reviving it since 2022.
This morning, he posted a cursed proclamation on X: “We’re bringing back Vine, but in AI form.” This doesn’t mean anything, but I don’t like it.
Reportedly in testing since June, I’ve now been served three of these unskippable “Ad break” ads over the last two days. It’s jarring, and has accelerated my desire to quit the platform that’s increasingly less fun and flooded with AI slop.
They say Columbia is just one of five universities they’ve penetrated.
We’ve talked before about the funhouse-mirror-alternative-reality that Trump (and Musk) have built. JP Brammer, who watches much more YouTube than I do, notes something weird is going on in content land — it seems Donald Trump has lost control of the plot. NBC’s Brandy Zadrozny, writing from a more anxious angle, seems to agree. Content has now outpaced reality. I guess we’re going to find out by how much.
[johnpaulbrammer.substack.com]
In recent years the newsletter platform has tried to expand to micro-blogging, TikTokers, and full websites. Now the company is inching towards something its leadership has long criticized: advertising and social networks.
The New York Times reports that Substack is doubling down on its Notes feature, which is similar to X or Meta’s Threads. Substack raised $100 million in a recent funding round. In June, the company said it wasn’t planning to be profitable anytime soon.
Meta appears to be testing the option to sign up for its X rival with a Facebook account, as it slowly separates Threads from its Instagram origins, with a support page but no official announcement yet. It opens up a new audience for the app, which is closing in on X’s daily active user numbers.
[help.instagram.com]
Right-wing influencers now have to choose between authenticity to their brand, and their loyalty to Trump.
According to Similarweb data reported by TechCrunch, the Threads mobile app reached 115.1 million daily active users in June, compared to the 132 million daily actives for X and 4.1 million for Bluesky. But while X’s growth declined by 15.2 percent year-over-year on mobile, Threads has increased by 127.8 percent during the same period.
X only has to take Meta seriously on iOS and Android, however, given it’s still thrashing both Threads and Bluesky for web visits.
A Meta exec calls Sam Altman “dishonest,” my conversation with the startup CEO who is suing OpenAI, and AI is coming for games.
The recently-launched CapCut clone is also adding more text effects and will let you apply voice enhancement to voiceovers. Check out all of the new updates in a post from Instagram’s Creators account.
The preliminary findings of Australia’s Age Assurance Technology Trial “didn’t find a single ubiquitous solution” for the country’s incoming social media ban for under-16s, but trial director Tony Allen said there’s little stopping services like Facebook, Instagram, and X from implementing existing age-verification methods like facial scans, behavior assessments, and parental controls.
With so many other countries also trying to enforce online age restrictions, you’d think Australia could have just asked?
[bloomberg.com]
Out at Vice Media: former CEO Bruce Dixon. In: new CEO Adam Stotsky, “A lot of the sort of messy stuff has been cleaned up,” Stotsky told The Wall Street Journal. We’ll see about that — when I wrote about Vice last year, there was still plenty of mess under Dixon.
This whole Trevor Noah / Jon Stewart pod is a good listen. But there’s a big chunk — starting about 13 minutes in — that turns into a really great chat about how we experience the internet. And Stewart makes a comparison I truly love:
We think [social media] is free speech, but it’s not speech. It’s ultra-processed speech. It’s speech in the way that Doritos are food — it’s something that has been designed by people in lab coats to get past the parts of your brain that protect you.”
Platforms could soon have to display tobacco-like warning labels, and include links to mental health resources. It’s a concept former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy pushed for on the federal level and that many states backed. It heads to Gov. Tim Walz (D), but VP of litigation Kathleen Farley at tech industry group Chamber of Progress warns signing it would enact “a clear First Amendment violation, and Minnesota would waste millions defending it in court.”
The New York Times surveyed the ecosystem of disinformation around the LA anti-ICE protests, and the results are striking for looking... pretty much exactly like the pre-AI world: old recirculated photos, fabricated quotes, and a shot from an ‘80s action movie. The Washington Post did its own social media look-around and found mostly people supporting dueling narratives with real footage. There’s still time for generated fakes to cause problems, but at the moment, reality seems to be eye-catching enough.
Ghost’s official ActivityPub integration is set to launch with Ghost 6.0, which is coming in the next month, Ghost says:
We’re excited, but nervous. You never get everything done that you hope to, before launching a first version, but launch you must.
This launch, though, feels bigger than most, because ActivityPub is more than a protocol or a fancy feature; it’s a statement that the open web still matters.”
[activitypub.ghost.org]
Our sister site Eater just did a great deep dive into why you might be seeing people comment “meatball” and other foodstuffs on cooking creators’ social media. The short of it is AI recipe and link-sharing automations that help users avoid that pesky link in bio. That said, creators have mixed feelings over chatbots taking over their comment section.
Last month, Bluesky started proactively verifying accounts, but Bluesky said today that “notable and authentic” users can now apply for verification, as spotted by TechCrunch. You can also apply to become a Trusted Verifier to verify accounts affiliated with an organization.
[techcrunch.com]
