Taylor Lorenz 1 week ago

With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media. Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?

Taylor Lorenz 6 months ago

SCOOP: Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog. The alert contained a swastika and prompted users to subscribe to newsletter featuring opinions and news important to the "white nationalist community." Another Nazi blog is being promoted in Substack's "Rising in History" list

Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog

The newsletter's logo is a swastika and it has pushed Holocaust denialism along with news and opinion content for the 'White Nationalist Community.'

Taylor Lorenz 6 months ago

Dubai Porta Potty parties, dupe mania, 3-D printed Labubus, Norman culture, Burning Man chaos, AI body dysmorphia, Ring spy drones, MAGA’s fave military influencer, WaPo's TikTok guy goes solo, and MORE in today's newsletter

I interviewed the Jubilee CEO on platforming bigotry

+ Dubai Porta Potty parties, dupe mania, 3-D printed Labubus, Norman culture, Burning Man chaos, AI body dysmorphia, Ring spy drones, MAGA’s fave...

Taylor Lorenz 9 months ago

"We condemn India's increasingly fascist government for demanding that Meta shut down the popular social media page Muslim, and we call on Meta to reverse its decision to surrender to this bigoted attack on free speech,” said Ahmed Mitchell of the National Council on American-Islamic Relations

Meta bans largest Muslim news page in India

The platform is facilitating government requests to censor social media influencers and journalists in the region for 'anti-national content' follo...

Taylor Lorenz 9 months ago

SCOOP: Meta bans largest Muslim news page in India. The company is working hand in hand with the government to censor social media influencers and journalists in the region for 'anti-national content' following the terror attack in Kashmir.

Meta bans largest Muslim news page in India

The platform is facilitating government requests to censor social media influencers and journalists in the region for 'anti-national content' follo...

Taylor Lorenz 9 months ago

I wrote for Rolling Stone about WHCD weekend and how the dinner has become a relic of legacy media. “It was all NPCs" said one Hilton attendee

Trump Era Marks Vibe Shift at White House Correspondents Dinner Weekend

Networks and newspapers give way to newsletters and creators. One longtime reporter summed it up: "This is the year where the transition feels real."

Taylor Lorenz 10 months ago

Kids with smartphones have better mental health, study finds. Inside the Bop House, Tariffluencers, Gen Z's safe space, the latest meme stock, Grok dunking, India's Netflix, Ashton Hall and the rise of isolationist masculinity, and MORE -- all in today's newsletter

Kids with smartphones have better mental health, study finds

+ Inside the Bop House, Tariffluencers, Gen Z's safe space, the latest meme stock, Grok dunking, India's Netflix, and Ashton Hall and the rise of i...

Taylor Lorenz 11 months ago

I need to log off for a while and sleep and stop getting upset over the internet.

Taylor Lorenz 11 months ago

I went deep on the Peterverse(!) and wrote about what the rise of thousands of Peter Griffin-themed AI generated niche educational accounts run by children tells us about the future of the internet and online community

A deep dive into the Peterverse

Thousands of Peter Griffin-themed Instagram accounts are educating teenagers and providing a new form of community.

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

Ken Klippenstein has obtained and published Luigi's full manifesto. "Many have illuminated the corruption and greed... decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”

Exclusive: Luigi's Manifesto

Read the manifesto the media refused to publish

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

"We cannot continue to participate in the social network feed of a man who proclaims the death of the media and therefore of journalists... X is a platform that no longer serves the public interest at all, but the special ideological and financial interests of its owner and his political allies"

The London Economic

European Federation of Journalists to stop posting content on X

The EFJ represents over 295,000 journalists in 44 countries.

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

“Donaldson will no longer be considered untouchable by fans and other YouTubers. Any future ventures will be highly scrutinized. I think we could eventually see him attempt a full Zuckaissance-style rebrand in order to distance himself from this whole thing.”

Let's check in on MrBeast

LOLCows, pro-ana chatbots, the protein plague, Dr Disrespect to Rumble, and a new podcast from Alex Cooper's network

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

At the creator level, the live streaming market is also becoming more decentralized. The top 5% of streamers now account for 86% of total hours watched, which is notably down from 98% in 2019. As viewers explore niche communities and new voices, the live streaming creator world is becoming more nichified (something that happened on YouTube too as it grew).

You should pay attention to Kai Cenat

Live streaming is becoming more pervasive and a bigger part of our media diets, according to a new report

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

This past quarter, live streaming viewership reached 8.5 billion hours watched, a 12% year-over-year increase— biggest jump since the pandemic began I wrote about how live streaming is becoming a bigger part of our media diet and how ppl crave participatory live media

You should pay attention to Kai Cenat

Live streaming is becoming more pervasive and a bigger part of our media diets, according to a new report

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

I wrote about how Senate Democrats are spearheading an effort to brief online influencers on key policy initiatives instead of relying on traditional media. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/07/30/democratic-senators-influencers-laws-initiatives/

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

So can anyone who’s been following the controversy over whether Biden should resign or not give me the state of things? Is he going to be the Democratic nominee or is he probably going to be forced out? Googling this question does not yield helpful results and I’m very interested in what people who have actually been following it all think will happen

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

Amid bipartisan support for restricting teenagers’ access to social networks, despite zeeo scientific evidence showing such restrictions would help the younger generations mental health, young queer people who rely on social platforms as a lifeline are threatened with isolation and loss of connection

the Guardian

‘Blunt-force approach’: LGBTQ+ advocates say proposed teen social media ban overlooks benefits

Amid bipartisan support for restricting teenagers’ access to social networks, young queer people fear isolation and loss of community

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

On this week's Power User podcast @npub1sfjt...u45j joins me to go deep on Balaji, "Tech Zionism", and billionaire VCs plans to transform S.F. into a sovereign state

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

TikTok executives proposed giving the Biden administration control over its U.S. operations and a kill switch if things went south. The Biden administration declined, forfeiting potential influence over one of the world’s most popular apps in favor of shutting it down. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/05/29/tiktok-cfius-proposal-rejected/

Taylor Lorenz 1 year ago

“The real reason for the protests is being ignored in favor of stories about encampment crackdowns or overblown allegations of antisemitism.”

The Media’s Shameful Coverage of the College Antiwar Protests | The New Republic