Social Media

  • Meta’s Threads tops BlueSky

    The giant Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has said its new social media product, Threads, has topped 100 million daily user events.

    It comes after a rocky start for the Instagram-bundled startup, which only allows new users via its existing photo sharing app.

    In recent months a chain competitor, BlueSky, has also seen growth. It also priorities simplicity, just like Twitter, its precursor.

  • Detecting fake social media users

    The “faking it” social media user is a new sub-culture in Internet activity. It happens on networks, like Facebook and X, and involves anyone who chooses to do it, regardless of who or where they are.

    The concept is the same across all of the accounts I’ve tracked, unpacked, and explained to other people. They try to make themselves look as authentic as possible, but only to spread misinformation.

    Their motives are the usual for any criminal type. The confusion is over the appearance of a social media account, in itself not being illegal to have, and the sort of posts that will appear alongside others.

    The effort behind understanding this sort of activity is guided by a motivation to make sure adverse actors don’t entrap people unwittingly into a variety of shady activities that undermine our society.

  • Caught: Social media cancellers

    In a stunning exclusive for ConservativeNewsSite.com, a group of three individuals who separately work to cancel social media users have been seen today.

    They’re suspected of making complaints, seeking redress over false accusations, and passing tip offs to social media company employees in recent times.

  • Albanese: Social media 16+ only

    Anthony Albanese, Australian Prime Minister, is vying for a law to restrict social media to 16’s and over. His effort is part of a long-running battle to moderate online activity.

    Today he posted on X to announce the introduction of a bill to the Australian Parliament to achieve his goal. He previously identified with parents over the issue.

  • Social media comes out against Trump

    There are particular people who come out strongly against Donald Trump after he wins an election. It happened in 2016, and didn’t stop after he lost the 2020 election, either.

    The ‘look’ they give us is a window into their soul. It shows us what it’s like to feel things as they do. It’s clear that some people feel bad when stuff like this happens.

    The memes posted on social media accounts have the look of anecdotal rage or a generic impression of a large group of people. In fact, it reflects only a niche.

    The slogans have the important points being made, as if to impress on us a campaign stop in just a moment. They have buzzwords that make liberals cry.

    Unfortunately, they’re also dark in nature. They express feelings of fear, whilst giving off a threat in themselves. It’s something of an impression of real grievance.

    The truth is supposed to hurt, as they see it, and in some ways people who are obsessive feel it in their heads. It’s just we also need to feel it in our hearts, too.

  • Caught: Social media hacktivist

    In a stunning catch for ConservativeNewsSite.com, a social media hacktivist has been spotted.

    He’s alleged to harass founders as well as social media account owners.

  • Socially platforming our future

    The invention of X and its alternative forms such as Meta’s products, including its newest iteration Threads, is a new venture for big tech companies beyond the stoical digital domain of the Internet.

    The fluid prose-based exchanges and lucid experience online helps us to see technology in innovating ways. Our lives have been changed by it already, such as new relationships, old friendships coming back, and the tips and tricks that make our friendships grow.

    The platforms of the future are like these, but the real question circulating higher realms is the notion of how they’re used. It’s not an exercise in litigation but more of a moral question of how society progresses due to and not in spite of new media like social networks.

  • Caught: Social media hacktivist

    In a stunning catch for ConservativeNewsSite.com, a social media hacktivist has been spotted in Edinburgh.

    She’s suspected of forcing the closure of social media profiles.

  • Musk challenges ban

    Elon Musk has tried to defend social media in posts on X, a flagship social media network he backs. He reacted after a banning order was placed on the network in Brazil.

    “The X algorithm assumes that if you interact with content, you want to see more of that content. One of the strongest signals is if you forward X posts to friends, it assumes you like that content a lot, because it takes effort to forward. Unfortunately, if the actual reason you forwarded the content to friends was because you were outraged by it, we are currently not smart enough to realize that.”

    He appears to suggest an algorithm circulates content only to users who indicate they want it. It’s based on a user’s interactivity with the site and how they choose to use it.

  • How elections play out

    A dispute on social media is not what an election is for. It’s not a part of the plan to fall out but it’s what some want in spite of the rules.

    An example is a post on X by Elon Musk. Musk contrasts his view on migration against Kamala Harris and gets a lot of attention. It has over 100 million views.

    It’s not exceptional and other users who engage get big results too. One example is a reply which has over 20,000 likes by a user with a low follower count.

    It’s not an accurate example for a legal issue but it meets a threshold for participation. It doesn’t achieve credibility or placate online fact checkers, however.

  • Obama stirs the pot

    Barack Obama is a good case study in how things can go down. It can either go well or badly. He’s given stirring speeches but also been pilloried for policies that didn’t sit well.

    As an example, in a post to his X account he points out his and Kamala Harris’ style of dress. They’re both wearing tan suits in juxtaposed photo’s. The reaction is a mixed bag.

    The user with the most liked reply reacts with a critique of Obama’s Presidency, accusing him of “race baiting” people. Alternatively, a user with the second most liked reply identifies with the joke.

    It’s not so much a need to be accurate but to bring out a genuine response users indicate they feel. This is the way of social media with politicians where recriminations – and plaudits – continue long after.

  • Trump & his X account

    In other news Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has resumed posting on X.

    His posts have reached tens of millions of users so far.

    His first post on 12 August is a 2 minute 31 seconds long advert for his renewed bid for the Presidency. In it he evokes his first victory to promise to fight for his supporters.

    In another post on the same day he is less clear.

    It features a clip of Kamala Harris, suggesting she hasn’t visited the Southern border, and then seconds later shows her being interviewed by a different journalist while purportedly in a location that looks like a border region.

    The truth is Harris has visited the border but for some reason Trump likes to make his supporters think she hasn’t.

    In other posts there’s access to a “Space” event Trump held with the social network’s founder Elon Musk. It shows it was tuned into by over 29 million users.

    Harris also comes under fire for being “dangerously liberal”, which has been seen by over 5 million users, and in another, seen by over 12 million users, it’s claimed Harris is planning “SOVIET Style Price Controls” if elected.

    The way of social media is a mixed bag and it looks Trump’s isn’t any different.

  • Trump’s Truth Social

    The fact Donald Trump owns a social media network makes this election in America a lot more precarious.

    It means Trump effectively has control over a network that counts as a source of and potential platform for journalism.

    It makes it different because potentially his users are not subject to the same censorship as they are on X, for example, where his supporters get cancelled.

    The fact of cancellation as it is doesn’t worry some in the liberal press but it’s an anomaly elsewhere.

    The fact is most of the world’s connected population use social media. This is according to Statista, who say over 5 billion people use social media across the world.

    This figure is just shy of the nearly 5.5 billion who use the Internet.

    It’s a remarkable figure and proportion of total usage, and speaks of the use and value of social media as seen across the world.

    Trump is on the cutting edge of seeing not just the dollar value but the social import of a social media network.

    Its actual influence over an election however is a different matter.

  • Police call for calm on social media

    Matthew Barber, Thames Valley Police Crime Commissioner, has called for members of the public to show care in their use of social media. It will mean the correct information is able to spread and tensions will not be inflamed further.

    “There is a great deal of misinformation about potential disorder which only heightens people’s concerns, and I would urge everyone to be careful about what they share on social media.”

    The potential misuse of social media sites by criminals may increase due to the rioting. It’s believed direct messages, posts full of falsehoods, and comments showing support help galvanise followers of their activities.