TikTok Sued by US Justice Department for Alleged Violations of Kids’ Privacy
In March 2019, TikTok agreed to a US federal court order barring the social media giant from collecting personal information from its youngest users without their...
Instagram Will Let You Make Custom AI Chatbots—Even Ones Based on Yourself
Meta’a AI Studio handbook says that users can customize a chatbot by providing a detailed description, along with a name and image, and then specifying how...
YouTube’s Rulings on Gaza War Videos Spark Internal Backlash
A month after Hamas militants from Gaza attacked an Israeli music festival last October, the Hebrew rap duo Ness & Stilla premiered “HarbuDarbu” on YouTube. The...
Most US TikTok Creators Don’t Think a Ban Will Happen
A majority of US TikTok creators don’t believe the platform will be banned within a year, and most haven’t seen brands they work for shift their...
The Latest Online Culture War Is Humans vs. Algorithms
Brands and bots are barred from Spread, and, like PI.FYI, the platform doesn’t support ads. Instead of working to maximize time-on-site, Rogers’ primary metrics for success...
Ads for Explicit ‘AI Girlfriends’ Are Swarming Facebook and Instagram
However, 3,000 ads for “AI girlfriends” and 1,100 containing “NSFW” were live on April 23, according to Meta’s ad library. WIRED’s initial review found that Hush,...
TikTok’s Creator Economy Stares Into the Abyss
The US Senate passed a bill late Tuesday that allows the government to ban TikTok within a year if it doesn’t make meaningful progress toward separating...
TikTok Shop’s Era of Super Subsidies Is Ending
The days of buying ultracheap stuff on TikTok Shop may be winding down. Starting today, the fees TikTok charges sellers increase from 2 percent to 6...
Screen Time for Kids Is Fine! Unless It’s Not
The anti-smartphone movement is having a moment. On March 25, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill banning children under 14 from social media platforms. In...
Meta Kills a Crucial Transparency Tool At the Worst Possible Time
What would that look like? I think we’re at the very beginning of an entire ecosystem of better tools doing this work. The European Union’s sweeping...