Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Donald Trump has retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by the deputy leader of the far-right British political party Britain First. The videos originally posted by Jayda Fransen are captioned “Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!”, “VIDEO: Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!” and “VIDEO: Muslim migrant beats up…
Peter Thiel is a billionaire serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and the most prominent supporter of President Trump in Silicon Valley. And in a world where money is power, Thiel is not afraid to wield his power. On Oct. 28, 2015, several months before Thiel was revealed to be the funder of a lawsuit that bankrupted…
Going beyond search, the internet giant is promoting a single result over all others, and many are contentious, improbable or laughably incorrect Google handles 90% of the world’s internet searches, and it increasingly is promoting a single answer for many questions. Here’s how the algorithms are—and aren’t—working Google became the world’s go-to source of information…
AL Senate candidate Roy Moore/AP Right–wing conspiracy peddler Jack Posobiec—the guy who riled up his followers over “Pizzagate” and nearly got someone killed—appears to have gotten away with doxing AL Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore’s accuser. On Friday, Posobiec tweeted a photo of Leigh Corfman, who accused Moore of sexually assaulting her in 1979 when…
BERLIN (AP) — German bureaucrats — notorious for their ability to create lengthy tongue twisters consisting of one single word — are celebrating the doubling of Twitter’s character limit. Twitter announced Tuesday it’s increasing the limit for almost all users of the messaging service from 140 to 280 characters, prompting a mix of delighted and…
A variety of stories, from some questioning the monarchy to others about the Great British Bake Off, promoted comments questioning their truthfulness A Facebook test that promoted comments containing the word fake to the top of news feeds has been criticised by users. The trial, which Facebook says has now concluded, aimed to prioritise “comments…
I’m James Bridle. I’m a writer and artist concerned with technology and culture. I usually write on my own blog, but frankly I don’t want what I’m talking about here anywhere near my own site. Please be advised: this essay describes disturbing things and links to disturbing graphic and video content. You don’t have to read it,…
BuzzFeed News; Getty Images It’s been a trying year for the world’s most visible institutions. Congressional gridlock, partisan divide, and federal indictments torment Washington. Silicon Valley’s biggest companies are under scrutiny — and even headed to Capitol Hill — for their role in foreign interference during the 2016 election. And meanwhile, over at the Unicode…
I tweeted what was intended as satire of a festering right-wing panic over Antifa allegedly planning violence on November 4. It got weird from there. What is it like to attend your own funeral? In my mind, it has to be something like waking up on a Monday morning, logging onto Twitter, and finding out…
Earlier this month, Twitter temporarily suspended the account of actress Rose McGowan after she denounced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein for sexual harassment and assault. McGowan, who is among Weinstein’s accusers, had posted a private phone number to the service. In response, Twitter restricted McGowan’s access to her account. Thousands of users protested, complaining that after…