Imagine this: a social media giant suddenly decides to loosen its rules on hate speech and ditch its fact-checkers. This is what's happening at Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, sees this as a return to the company's roots, promoting free speech.
A group of tech leaders and advocates has launched a campaign called Free Our Feeds to protect social media from being controlled by billionaires. They want to safeguard the technology behind Bluesky, known as the AT Protocol. Their goal is to create an open social media ecosystem that can't be cont
Last week, Meta announced plans to cut its US-based fact-checkers, just as wildfires raged in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, fact-checkers were busy debunking conspiracy theories about the fires. They faced a tough challenge: misinformation spread fast, and influential figures were pushing false claims. So
As the 2010s drew to a close, Sweden's traditional media outlets were talking more about climate change than ever before. This was especially true during the summer of 2018, when a severe drought and wildfires hit the country, and the Fridays for Future movement, led by Greta Thunberg, gained tracti
Social media has become a hotbed for spreading facts, false claims, and propaganda, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are great at processing language, but detecting propaganda is tricky because of the complexity of text interactions and the need to understand cont
It's no secret that physical activity is great for our health. But why do some people do it regularly while others don't? Research often uses surveys and interviews to figure this out. However, these methods can have biases that make their results less reliable. This is where social media platforms
When it comes to cleaning up radioactive iodine in soils and sediments, scientists often rely on an approach that assumes it all behaves the same way. This can be like trying to solve a puzzle with the wrong pieces—you might get close, but you’ll never see the whole picture. In reality, iodine can a
Veteran columnist Jennifer Rubin has left The Washington Post and teamed up with former ethics chief Norm Eisen to start a new publication called The Contrarian. They aim to counter what they see as a growing authoritarian threat, focusing on pro-democracy content. The founders have already recruite
Are you tired of billionaires controlling your social media experience? A group of famous people and tech experts, including Mark Ruffalo, think so too. They're working together to create a new social media system that puts people first, not profits. This system, called FreeOurFeeds, is built on a d
Imagine being bored at home during a snowy week in Fairmont, West Virginia. That's exactly what happened to Rowdy and Damon Dorman, a father-son duo who decided to make the most of the winter weather. They started building an igloo using snow blocks and an ice cooler. But they didn't stop at a regul
