Internet Media

Going, Going, Gone!?

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Article by Don Jacobson on UPI, 9/19/25

Headline: “Trump Media shares reach new low as lockup period set to expire”

“Trump Media, which trades under the ticker symbol DTJ, is the parent company of the GOP nominee’s Truth Social social media platform.

“Thursday’s drop-off continued a six-day slide that has seen Trump Media shares fall more than 10%, wiping out billions in value as retail investors nervously eyed the expiration of the lockup period, under which early investors, including the former president himself, were barred from selling shares following a merger with publicly traded shell company.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/09/19/Trump-Media-shares-reach-new-low-lockup-period-set-expire/4501726765890/

Social Media Are Spying on You – Surprised?

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Article in the New York Times by Cecilia Kang, 9/19/24

Headline:  “F.T.C. Study Finds ‘Vast Surveillance’ of Social Media Users”

Subhead:  “Meta, YouTube and other sites collected more data than most users realized, a new report by the Federal Trade Commission finds.”

“The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday it found that several social media and streaming services engaged in a “vast surveillance” of consumers, including minors, collecting and sharing more personal information than most users realized.”

. . . “The F.T.C. found that the companies voraciously consumed data about users, and often bought information about people who weren’t users through data brokers. They also gathered information from accounts linked to other services.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/19/technology/ftc-meta-tiktok-privacy-surveillance.html

And in Reuters – Headline:  “Social Media Users Lack Control Over Data Used bu AI, US FTC Says”

https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/social-media-users-lack-control-over-data-used-by-ai-us-ftc-says-2024-09-19/

 

 

Online Media Catching on to Propaganda?

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Article in Washington Post by Niha Masih, 9/17/24

Headline:  “Meta bans Russian state media outlet RT for acts of ‘foreign interference”

Subhead:  “The U.S. recently imposed sanctions on RT’s parent companies, Rossiya Segodnya and TV-Novosti, accusing them of acting as an arm of Moscow’s intelligence operations.”

“Meta — the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram — said Monday that it is banning Russian state media outlets such as RT from its platforms, days after the United States imposed sanctions on RT’s parent companies and accused them of acting as an arm of Moscow’s intelligence operations.

“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets: Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” Meta said in a statement.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/17/meta-ban-rt-russia-state-media/

Social Media and the Debate

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Article In The Guardian by Alaina Demopoulos, 9/10/24

Headline: “How the Trump-Harris debate played out on social media: ‘Maga mad libs’ “

Subhead:  “Users react to viral moments as Democratic and Republican candidates face off in presidential debate”

Social media users responded in many ways as to how the moderators kept people to account during the Harris/Trunp debate.

“ABC moderator “David Muir countered Trump’s assertion that Haitian immigrants abducted and ate pets in Springfield, Ohio – a rumor that began on Facebook, but was quickly shot down by city officials, even as JD Vance and other Republicans repeated the claims this week.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump rambled, adding more pet lore to an election season filled with talk about “crazy cat ladies”.

. . . “But overall, the feeling on social media was that the former president floundered, and that Harris successfully baited him. A rare, bipartisan statement we might all be able to agree on: from Trump’s batty zingers to Harris’s lack of a poker face, both sides delivered enough meme fuel to last until November.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/10/trump-harris-debate-reaction

Social Media Hazardous to Health?

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Article in The Hill by Sarah Fortinsky, 09/10/24 2:42

Headline: “42 states and territories press Congress on social media warning labels”

“US Surgeon General Murthy, in June, called for a surgeon general’s warning label to be placed on social media platforms, similar to those warning labels that appear on tobacco and alcohol products. He noted that studies have shown that warning labels on tobacco products can increase awareness and change a user’s behavior.

“ ‘It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents,’ he wrote.

“This problem will not solve itself and the social media platforms have demonstrated an unwillingness to fix the problem on their own. Therefore, we urge Congress to act by requiring warnings on algorithm-driven social media platforms, as recommended by the Surgeon General,” they wrote in the letter”

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4871983-social-media-warning-labels-attorneys-general/

 

Burning Down the Press

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Article in The Guardian by Jack Apollo George, 9/7/24

Headline:  “If journalism is going up in smoke, I might as well get high off the fumes: confessions of a chatbot helper”

Subhead:  “Journalists and other writers are employed to improve the quality of chatbot replies. The irony of working for an industry that may well make their craft redundant is not lost on them”

“Aren’t these machines trained on billions and billions of words and sentences? What would they need us fleshy scribes for?

“Well, for starters, the internet is finite. And so too is the sum of every word on every page of every book ever written. So what happens when the last pamphlet, papyrus and prolegomenon have been digitised and the model is still not perfect? What happens when we run out of words?

“The date for that linguistic apocalypse has already been set. Researchers announced in June that we can expect this to take place between 2026 and 2032 “if current LLM development trends continue”. At that point, “Models will be trained on datasets roughly equal in size to the available stock of public human text data.”

. . . “And therein lies the ultimate irony. Here is a new economic phenomenon that rewards writing, that encourages it, that truly values it; all while simultaneously deeming it an encumbrance, a problem to be solved, an inefficiency to be automated away. It is like being paid to write in sand, to whisper secrets into a slab of butter. Even if our words could make a dent, we wouldn’t ever be able to recognize it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/sep/07/if-journalism-is-going-up-in-smoke-i-might-as-well-get-high-off-the-fumes-confessions-of-a-chatbot-helper

 

Truth Social Media Falling Into the Void?

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From United Press International by Sheri Walsh, 9/3/24

Headline: “Trump Media shares hit new low, slip below $18 for first time”

Fron United Press International by Sheri Walsh, 9/3/24

“Trump Media and Technology Group’s shares hit a new low Tuesday, dropping below $18 for the first time since it began public trading in March.

“In June, Trump Media shares were down nearly 40% following the former president’s conviction in May on 34 counts of falsifying business documents to cover up an alleged affair with an adult film actress. Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/09/03/trump-media-shares-new-low/8001725410524/

News Falls Into Social Media Black Hole?

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Audio Feature from CNN by David Rind & Clare Duffy, 8/28/24

Headline: “Social Media Scrutiny: Telegram, X, & the AI Election”

“The detention of Telegram founder Pavel Durov over the weekend has sparked major questions about free speech and criminal activity online. In this episode, we examine why the app has come under intense scrutiny in Europe and why a lack of moderation from American social media platforms has allowed election misinformation to flourish.

“Most tech founders are not household names. Those that are are usually either incredibly successful. Think Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, or infamous like Elizabeth Holmes from Theranos. Well, over the weekend, another name you may not know may have found himself in the latter category.”

Listen here – You could scroll past the ads after 35 seconds –
https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/one-thing/episodes/97bb14c4-179e-11ef-aba1-2f81b79364a4

Truth Social in Trouble?

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Headline: “The whole ‘Truth’: Is Trump Media the next Trump brand to go belly-up?”

Article in Daily Kos by Walter Einenkel, 8/29/24

“Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock price dropped below $20 a share on Wednesday. This marks a new low for the Donald Trump-owned company since it went public five months ago.

Predictably, Trump is having one of his classic public freakouts on his Truth Social site, even as the social media platform rapidly depreciates . . .”

Read here:    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/29/2266386/-The-whole-Truth-Is-Trump-Media-the-next-Trump-brand-to-go-belly-up?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_8&pm_medium=web

 

Post-Cable But Want Local News?

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Streaming News Media

Article from Associated Press by David Bauder, 8/26/24

Headline: “Going local: A new streaming service peeks into news in 2024 election swing states”

In some states, for those who ditched their cable and still want to keep track of local campaign news.

“Fans of politics have another way to keep track of what’s happening in the most competitive states in the country through a new service that collects and streams local newscasts.

Swing State Election News, which began operation Monday, lets streamers choose from among 37 local television stations . . . ”

https://apnews.com/article/swing-states-election-tv-streaming-09fc97f64ad284f29134371a923a4d74