Notices by Taylor Lorenz (taylorlorenz@mastodon.social), page 2

“A primary motivation for multiple key backers of the TikTok ban bill was the desire to mitigate the spread of pro-Palestinian content among young Americans.” https://matzko.substack.com/p/the-pro-israel-techies-who-got-tiktok?triedRedirect=true

So excited about @mathewi new newsletter!! One of my favorite writers on tech and media and an absolute must-read journalist.

Subscribe to his new newsletter here. It’s already fantastic👇👇👇 https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/welcome-to-the-torment-nexus/

While right wing content creators position themselves as scrappy upstarts, leaning into anti-establishment and populist brand positioning, they frequently accept money from far right interest groups, extremist billionaires, and even foreign actors. https://open.substack.com/pub/taylorlorenz/p/we-need-to-know-who-is-funding-the

It’s such an indictment of legacy media that it’s the 10th anniversary of one of what was one of the most influential and impactful moments/movements on the internet (Gamergate), and the only person I’ve seen acknowledge it, much less cover it, is @cedewey https://open.substack.com/pub/linksiwouldgchatyou/p/the-links-x-hivemind-swarmed-reading

“Repeated studies show in the bluntest terms that the initial acute infection is only the tip of the iceberg. Even a mild bout of COVID can leave a legacy of blood clots, heart failure, diabetes, decreased brain function, long COVID and immune damage that increasingly makes people more vulnerable to a plethora of infectious diseases and possibly cancers.”
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/09/03/COVID-Surge-High-Price-Viral-Denial/

I wrote about this phenomenon! https://taylorlorenz.substack.com/p/the-pop-craveification-of-breaking

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/

Logan Paul calling a cisgender woman “a man” and “the purest form of evil” because the Olympic athlete doesn’t conform to an extremely rigid set of beauty standards

JD Vance just launched a TikTok account.

His first post is with the NELK Boys whose podcast he’s set to appear on as part of their Send the Vote effort https://www.tiktok.com/@jd/video/7398251449311857962

"We criticise children for not going outside – while curtailing their freedoms and closing their spaces... the media landscape is dominated by news sources that mock and vilify young people as woke softies while also criminalising them."
https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/09/its-not-them-its-us-the-real-reason-teens-are-addicted-to-video-games

Meta is expanding its content moderation policies to remove posts attacking "Zionists."

Meta is now categorizing the term "Zionist" alongside other “protected characteristics,” including race or religion https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-09/meta-to-remove-posts-that-use--zionist--to-attack-jewish-people

Anyone given this app a go? Curious how these niche social networks will perform https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/03/noplace-a-mashup-of-twitter-and-myspace-for-gen-z-hits-no-1-on-the-app-store/

“Currently, there are more than 30 bills pending in Congress and statehouses across the country that seek to limit the right to protest.” https://www.teenvogue.com/united-states-of-suppression

“COVID isn’t merely a respiratory illness; it’s a multi-dimensional threat impacting brain function, attacking almost all of the body’s organs, producing elevated risks of all kinds, and weakening our ability to fight off other diseases. Reinfections are thought to produce cumulative risks, and Long COVID is on the rise.” https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/debilitating-a-generation-expert-warns-that-long-covid-may-eventually-affect-most-americans

“Gen Z put Biden in office with our voices and with our platforms,” said Hassan Khadair, a content creator in Birmingham, Ala., with 6.3M followers on TikTok and 2.8M subscribers on YouTube.

This time around, Khadair said, “He has to earn that vote. We’re not just going to give it to him because we don’t want Trump to win. We did that once. We’re not doing it twice.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/13/influencers-biden-tiktok-ban/

Paywall free link https://wapo.st/3z0Db9A

“This reality continues to worsen as Democrats join with Republicans to stigmatize and mock masks, while themselves failing to wear them, even during surges brought on by new variants.” https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/silence-from-prominent-left-outlets

A former Meta engineer is speaking out against Meta’s bias in handling of content related to the attacks on Gaza, claiming in a lawsuit that Meta fired him for trying to fix bugs causing the suppression of Palestinian IG posts
https://www.reuters.com/technology/former-meta-engineer-sues-company-saying-he-was-fired-over-handling-gaza-content-2024-06-05/

He says Meta has a pattern of bias against Palestinians, saying the company deleted content that mentioned deaths of relatives in Gaza, conducted investigations into use of 🇵🇸 flag emoji. Ppl who used the Ukraine or Israel flag weren’t subject to the same investigations
https://www.reuters.com/technology/former-meta-engineer-sues-company-saying-he-was-fired-over-handling-gaza-content-2024-06-05/

“We know that it’s up, & it’s up earlier”

“The more times you get COVID, the more likely Long Covid will develop," Hudson said. And ‘it does seem like people in their 30s & 40s are the ones who are more likely to get Long Covid" https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-25/early-signs-of-rising-covid-in-california-as-new-flirt-subvariants-dominate