“The Algorithm” Does Not Exist
Giovanni Medalla Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.In 2009, when Facebook changed its newsfeed significantly for the first time, there wasn’t much uproar over “the algorithm.” Now we’re all talking about it—whatever “it” is. The algorithm and its ramifications have been the focus of…
Utah Is “Protecting” LGBTQ+ Kids by Letting Their Parents Read All Their Messages
Ulrich Baumgarten/Getty Images Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.In March, Utah lawmakers passed a bill requiring parental consent for minors to join social media platforms—and enabling parents to read their children’s messages and posts. While this isn’t ideal for any teen, granting homophobic or…
Why Did Florida Divest Billions From BlackRock? A “Woke” Conspiracy Theory.
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.On December 1, the Florida Treasury announced it would divest $2 billion worth of state funds from the financial services company BlackRock. The firm, Florida chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis alleged, didn’t have its investors’ best interests in mind. “Florida’s Treasury…
How Wellness Influencers Became Cheerleaders for Putin’s War
Fight disinformation. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter.Until a few weeks ago, the Instagram influencer Kimberly Lynn had rarely dabbled in international affairs. With her long fuchsia and magenta dyed hair pulled up into a bun, she regularly updated her 20,000 followers about her…
This Is the Newest Front in Anti-Vaxxers’ War on Instagram Misinfo Controls
Fight disinformation. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter.Janny Organically is a person. Or maybe she’s a few people—it’s hard to tell. At any rate, Janny Organically is an Instagram account, and, with 104,000 followers, a decently popular one at that. Fans enjoy stylishly composed…
Facebook Doesn’t Want to Talk About Fake Users Created by the Pentagon
Drew Angerer/Getty Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.On a press call a few years ago, I asked Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, if the company would treat a misinformation campaign orchestrated by the US…
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