Category: Social Media

Tech billionaire Jack Ma emerges after months long disappearance with new video

Asia, Business, China, General, Government, Networking, Politics, Social Issues, Social Media, Technology

Tech billionaire Jack Ma has resurfaced online after an over three month long disappearance from the public sphere. Ma emerged again online in a short, roughly 50 second long video that saw him address a group of rural educators in an online conference on Wednesday 20th January 2021. The video was released on Twitter after the usually highly visible Ma had disappeared from the public sphere, and had even been replaced as a judge on a reality TV show he had been set to appear on. His period of time away from the public eye came in early November when stocks of his online retail service Alibaba were meant to go public in a deal that was suddenly halted by intervention from the Chinese government.  

The 56 year old Ma was born in 1964 in China. He rose to prominence with the growth of his online retail distribution site Alibaba, before developing a strong and recognisable personal brand as a TV personality, as well as being one of China’s most prominent philanthropists. Ma is known worldwide as an ambassador for Chinese business and an advocate for an open and market driven economy. He has however, been previously outed in 2018 as a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), with which he continues to have a slightly tense and volatile relationship. 

Last November’s events only added to the tension between Ma and the CPC as he spoke out in criticism of the Chinese government’s interventions with his business. Though most recognised for his Alibaba brand, Ma is also known as co-founder of the Ant Group – the group responsible for Alipay, China’s largest digital payment. Alipay is widely used throughout China with over one billion users and 80 million merchants. It’s total trade figures for June 2020 reached a staggering 118 trillion Chinese Yen, making it unsurprising Ma is cited as one of the world’s richest people.

Instagram turns 10 years old!

Communications, General, Networking, North America, Social Media, Start Ups, Technology, Technology News, USA

As the widely used social networking site Instagram turns 10 this year, we take a look at where Instagram started and how it has gone on to become a dominating tech player in the social media market. 

Humble beginnings

Originally started by two Standford graduates, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, it first launched in 2010 with an image posted of a dog and foot by Systrom. The dog in question was a stray in Mexico during a visit, and the featured foot was his girlfriends. Its grainy appearance hued by the dark edges of its filter epitomise what Instagram was for: finding a place for creativity in everyday life thanks to the rise of the mobile smartphone. Since then the founder has gone on to joke he might have ‘tried a little harder’ had he known that it would be the first photograph on the mega-popular social media giant that Instagram went on to become. 

Facebook buy-out

Instagram was barely a toddler and only 18 months old when it was acquired by Facebook in 2012 for an impressive price of $1 billion. The price tag was a talking point for many especially considering the young age of the company. For Instagram’s current 13 workers at the time, the news came as a relative surprise as their humble office migrated to Facebook’s famously large campus office site in California, USA. Facebook has since faced criticism for the acquisition and had to defend itself in the courts where it was accused of anti-competitive mergers and violation of trust laws amongst other tech giants, Google, Amazon and Apple.  

Turning the big 1 – 0 

Since its launch, Instagram has found a way into our daily lives – so much so that many agree they would be lost without it, and many others making their full income from the site. What started as a simple photo-sharing application has gone to become a site for commerce, activism, art, politics and more, with many people still engaging with the site’s primary mission to inspire creativity in its users.

The #FreeBritney movement has its day in court

Business, Internet of Things (IoT), North America, Politics, Social Issues, Social Media

For those not versed in some of the further stretches of celebrity internet blogs and conspiracy theory Reddit, you might not have heard of the Free Britney movement. The online and now IRL (in real life) activist movement started with the – now famous – hashtag: #FreeBritney, which really gained its current and growing momentum in April 2019. The hashtag, being spread across multiple different social media platforms, has gone on to gain notoriety, with lots more conspiracy theories surrounding the case and its content appear online. 

Overprotected: Britney Spears, A Life Story

The spiraling downfall of iconic pop star Britney Spears was spread internationally across headlines in the late 2000s. After glossing our TV screens and magazine pages with their youthful and sexy allure, screaming of new money and celebrity high life, the public relished in their front-row seat to Spears’ mental breakdown, via the everpresent lens of the paparazzi. Interest in the popstar’s downfall came in 2007 on February 16th, when Britney famously shaved her head in public. The controversial converatorship, which has seen Spears grant all rights to her father and have no control over her legal estate, or financial and personal assets, started subsequently in 2008. A conservatorship is said to be unusual in younger and more capable persons such as Spears. It is usually reserved for those more elderly, often with symptoms of dimentia, or those that are mentally ill and unable to make their own decisions. 

Stick me, baby? Not this time!
Whilst it is awful to think of the #FreeBritney movement’s proposition: that Spears’ father has taken Spears effectively an economic prisoner, there is a glimmer of hope around the corner. Britney has called for her future court proceedings to be made public, after the conservatorship was extended until February 2020. For Spears’ fans who care so deeply about her wellbeing, this is thankful news. For the wider growing audience of interested spectators, this is the latest development in Spears’ eternally public life.

Twitter intensifies effort to suppress QAnon, now one degree away from Aussie PM

Australia, Government, Main, Politics, Social Issues, Social Media, Technology, Technology News, USA

Twitter is broadening its crackdown on people who post content supportive of the “QAnon” movement. In case you’re not aware, QAnon folks believe that US President Donald Trump is locked into a covert power struggle with a bunch satanic pedophiles who control the world behind the scenes.

In other words, people like Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire financier who raped God knows how many children while hobnobbing with prominent people like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and, funnily enough, Donald Trump, who has publicly embraced his QAnon followers. Epstein allegedly hanged himself last summer while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

In August it was reported that Twitter had banned over 7,000 QAnon-linked accounts.

“We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm,” the @TwitterSafety account posted 21 July. “In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called ‘QAnon’ activity across the service.”

This act of censorship led media outlets to question whether Twitter would apply the same standards to accounts held by elected officials or political candidates. There are apparently 15 QAnon supporters running for public office in the US this year—all Republicans, presumably.

Last week Twitter announced that elected officials who promulgate QAnon via their tweets will “will no longer be actively recommended by Twitter.” Which sounds like they’re not quite prepared to drop the ban hammer on politicians yet. Though it’s almost certainly just a matter of time.

QAnon isn’t confined to the US. Far from it. The movement is spreading around the world as if it’s being carried by Fast Courier Australia.

In fact, Twitter just shut down an account belonging to a close friend of our very own Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The Guardian identified him as Tim Stewart, whose wife was and might still be on Morrison’s staff. Twitter said Stewart was “permanently suspended for engaging in coordinated harmful activity.”

Stewart denies that he and Morrison have ever discussed QAnon together. What do you think?

Trump backs down, supports TikTok deal

Asia, Business, China, Countries, Data Management & Networks, Digital Systems Technology, General, Social Media, Technology, USA

TikTok’s US operations got a new lease on life Sunday after President Donald Trump announced that he was supporting a deal between the Chinese app’s parent company ByteDance and American tech company Oracle.

“I have given the deal my blessing,” Trump said. “I approve the deal in concept.”

So much for all of his anti TikTok histrionics. Just a few days ago he stated that, beginning Sunday, he would prohibit Americans from downloading the app. This came after he said he was “conceptually” opposed to a deal that allowed ByteDance to hold onto a majority stake of TikTok.

But Trump has given his “blessing” to a deal that does just that.

As Reuters reports, the deal places TikTok in the hands of a new company called TikTok Global. While headquartered in the US, TikTok Global is majority owned by ByteDance, which has an 80 percent stake. What remains is split between Oracle Corp (12.5 percent) and Walmart (7.5 percent).

Critically, though, all of TikTok’s user data from the US will be hosted by Oracle. The user data question was the main sticking point, as Washington argued that the Chinese Communist Party had access to TikTok’s databases, putting the privacy and security of American users at risk. Indeed, Trump and his lackeys routinely and melodramatically asserted that TikTok posed a grave “national security threat” to the United States.

Again, Trump previously stated that he would not support a deal that resulted in ByteDance retaining a majority stake. But he’s moved the goal posts and is justifying his reversal by pointing to the fact that approximately 40 percent of ByteDance stock is owned by American investors.

Add that 40 percent to Oracle’s 12.5 percent and Walmart’s 7.5 percent, and Americans technically have a majority stake. So goes the new argument, which your average online tutor will tell you is specious at best.

Of course, Trump will approve the deal not because it satisfies his administration’s “national security” concerns, but because it gives him one more thing to boast about in the run up to the presidential election on 3 November.

A new national poll from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News has Democratic nominee Joe Biden up 8 points on Trump.

Mozilla wants to know about your negative YouTube experiences

General, Info Tech, Main, Social Media, Software, Technology, Technology News, USA

Remember Mozilla’s #YouTubeRegrets survey? Neither do I, but the company has parlayed it into a new browser extension called RegretsReporter, which collects info sent by users to investigate “why YouTube recommends what it does.”

A “YouTube Regret” is a complaint about a video that was recommended to you by YouTube’s algorithm. As Mozilla writes on its website, “With the RegretsReporter extension, you can immediately take action to send us recommended videos that you regret watching—like pseudoscience or anti-LGBTQ+ content.”

This all began last October when Mozilla shared 28 different anecdotes about bad YouTube recommendations, though to be fair the users seem to be at fault most of the time.

One person searched “fail videos” because they wanted to see people “fall or get a little hurt.” They proceeded to click on videos showing “minor” car accidents, which eventually led to videos of severe car accidents. Go figure. There’s a lot to be said for precision in the context of an online search. If I want to find an adwords agency in Sydney, for instance, that’s what I’m going to type in. Vague searches turn up mixed results.

In another #YouTubeRegret, a“10-year-old sweet daughter” who allegedly wanted to watch some tap dancing videos wound up taking a deep dive into “contortionist videos that give her horrible unsafe body-harming and body-image-damaging advice.” Now, this sweet daughter’s guardian says, she is “restricting her eating and drinking” and shouting “Work to eat! Work to drink!”

One guy even blames YouTube’s recommendations for his failed marriage. You see, “YouTube just kept feeding her [his wife] paranoia, fear and anxiety one video after another,” and now “she refuses to even consider professional help because she no longer trusts anyone.” So much for personal responsibility.

Anyhow, Mozilla now has the RegretsReporter, the goal of which, Mozilla says, is to discover the answers to burning questions like:

“What kinds of recommended videos do users regret watching? Are there usage patterns that lead to more regrettable content being recommended? What does a YouTube rabbit hole look like, and at what point does it become something you wish you never clicked on?”

Let’s hope we get the answers soon—the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Facebook is making smart glasses?

Australia, Big Data, Business, Countries, Europe, Financial News, General, Main, Social Media

In an example of life imitating cheesy sci-fi art, Facebook is partnering with EssilorLuxottica, an multinational corporation that owns Ray-Ban and Oakley among other brands, to create a line of smart glasses. The first pair will debut next year and will carry the Ray-Ban logo, according to a press release on the EssilorLuxottica website.

The news was first delivered by Zuck himself at the recent Facebook Connect conference. “I can’t go into full product details yet, but they’re gonna be the next step on the road to augmented reality glasses, and they look pretty good too,” the Facebook CEO said.

He added that “The goal here is to develop some normal-size, nice-looking glasses that you can wear all day, interact with holograms, digital objects and information while still being present with the people in the world around you.”

Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of Facebook Reality Labs, said the goal is to make it easier for people to connect with their friends and family—because it’s really not easy enough to connect now with text messaging, video calls and more traditional technologies like 1800 numbers. No, we need glasses that double as phones too.

“We’re passionate about exploring devices that can give people better ways to connect with those closest to them,” Bosworth stated. “Wearables have the potential to do that. With EssilorLuxottica we have an equally ambitious partner who’ll lend their expertise and world-class brand catalogue to the first truly fashionable smart glasses.”

Rocco Basilico, Chief Wearables Officer at Luxottica, said the partnership is intended to “reset expectations around wearables.”

“We are especially proud of our collaboration with Facebook, which projects an iconic brand like Ray-Ban into an increasingly digital and social future. Combining a brand that is loved and worn by millions of consumers around the globe with technology that has brought the world closer together, we can reset expectations around wearables.

“We are paving the way for a new generation of products destined to change the way we look at the world.”

Specs and pricing have not been made available as of this writing.

Trump pooh-poohs potential TikTok deal

Big Data, Business, China, Communications, General, Government, Info Tech, Main, North America, Social Media, Technology News

The TikTok saga continues in the US, with Donny Trump expressing a lack of enthusiasm over the prospect of American tech company Oracle taking over the popular video app (or at least part of it). Details of Oracle’s bid are expected any time now, but Trump has already poured cold water on the idea.

“I’m not prepared to sign off on anything. I have to see the deal,” Trump told reporters at the White House Wednesday.“It has to be 100 percent as far as national security is concerned.”

Trump, along with many others in Washington, maintains that TikTok represents a threat to US national security. The argument is that ByteDance has a sort of 2 way radio going with the Chinese Communist Party, collecting data from American TikTok users (there are reportedly 100 million of them) and then handing it over to Beijing.

ByteDance denies that such a relationship exists but, needless to say, Washington isn’t convinced. In August Trump has announced that he will ban the app in the US unless ByteDance sells it to an American company. In addition to the privacy concerns, Trump alleged that TikTok “censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive.” It also serves as a platform for political disinformation, he charged.

At first it appeared that Microsoft would save the day, but talks with ByteDance fell through, opening the door for Oracle.

The word now is that Oracle is seeking a minority stake in the Chinese company, rather than taking it over completely. AP reports that, according to the terms of this deal, ByteDance would give control of user data to Oracle and allow the US corporation to review—but not author—code and updates.

Trump stated he would be against such a deal.

“Conceptually, I can tell you I don’t like that,” he said. “If that’s the case, I’m not going to be happy with that.”

Trump was apparently hoping the US government would get a piece of the deal, and was distraught to be told otherwise.

“Amazingly, I find that you’re not allowed to do that,” he told reporters. “If they’re willing to make big payments to the government they’re not allowed because … there’s no legal path to doing that. How foolish can we be?”

The deadline for a deal is 20 September. Whether or not that can be extended is unclear.

Twitter, Facebook suspend accounts allegedly tied to Chinese government effort to undercut Hong Kong protests

Big Data, General, Social Media

Twitter has gone on another account suspension spree, this time targeting nearly 1,000 accounts it claims are agents of a Beijing-devised conspiracy to influence the world’s perception of political events in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Facebook has banned seven pages, three groups and five accounts for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour as part of a small network that originated in China and focused on Hong Kong.”

“Inauthentic behavior” is Facebook’s latest catch-all term for content that runs counter to its own Western-oriented ideology. (Facebook has partnered with organizations with ties to Western governments in its efforts to root out “fake news” and “disinformation.” One such organization is the Atlantic Council, funded in part by the US State Department and NATO.)

A total of 936 accounts have been unplugged by Twitter, all allegedly based in China, all allegedly in violation of Twitter’s “platform manipulation policies.” The South China Morning Post reports:

“The social media activity of the suspended accounts, which posted in both English and Chinese, were part of efforts to undermine the ‘legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground,’ the company said.”

Of the accounts suspended, 326 had over 10,000 followers, some with close to 300,000. But Twitter assures us that “intensive investigations [found] reliable evidence to support that this is a coordinated state-backed operation.”

Speaking of coordination, Facebook confirmed that its own China-backed users were shut down thanks to a “tip” from Twitter. Partners in censorship?

Of course, it’s safe to assume that China is doing what it can to undermine the legitimacy of the Hong Kong protests, but it’s equally safe to assume that the US government is doing what it can in the opposite direction. At the time of writing, neither Twitter nor Facebook has suspended any accounts for being part of a US-led campaign to drum up support for political unrest in Hong Kong.