/
Navigation
C
Chronicles
Browse all articles
C
E
Explore
Semantic exploration
E
R
Research
Entity momentum
R
N
Nexus
Correlations & relationships
N
~
Story Arc
Topic evolution
S
Drift Map
Semantic trajectory animation
D
P
Posts
Analysis & commentary
P
Browse
@
Entities
Companies, people, products, technologies
Domains
Browse by publication source
Handles
Browse by social media handle
Detection
?
Concept Search
Semantic similarity search
!
High Impact Stories
Top coverage by position
+
Sentiment Analysis
Positive/negative coverage
*
Anomaly Detection
Unusual coverage patterns
Analysis
vs
Rivalry Report
Compare two entities head-to-head
/\
Semantic Pivots
Narrative discontinuities
!!
Crisis Response
Event recovery patterns
Connected
Nav: C E R N
Search: /
Command: ⌘K
Embeddings: large
VOICE ARCHIVE

Brian Fung

@b_fung
502 posts
2024-09-17
Today wasn't the slam dunk that TikTok needed.  All three judges asked some very skeptical questions about the ByteDance relationship.  But they didn't let the government off easy, either, pushing DOJ on the impact to Americans' 1A rights.  Hard to say how this'll turn out. https://www.cnn.com/...
2024-09-17 View on X
Wall Street Journal

A US appeals court signals skepticism with TikTok's arguments against the law that could force it to sever ties with China to keep operating in the US

Judges are considering the validity of legislation that could shut down Chinese-backed app used by half of Americans

2024-04-22
Just in: The House passed legislation today that could ban TikTok as part of a wide-ranging foreign aid package, fast-tracking a major threat to the social media app.  The Senate could vote on the package as soon as next week: https://www.cnn.com/...
2024-04-22 View on X
Bloomberg

Memo to US staff: TikTok vows a legal battle if the US' divestment bill becomes law, saying the bill is “a clear violation” of its users' First Amendment rights

TikTok told employees it will fight in the courts if a US bill forcing a ban or divestiture of the Chinese-owned app …

Just in: The House passed legislation today that could ban TikTok as part of a wide-ranging foreign aid package, fast-tracking a major threat to the social media app.  The Senate could vote on the package as soon as next week: https://www.cnn.com/...
2024-04-22 View on X
The Verge

The US House passes a TikTok divestiture bill with a longer sale deadline, as part of a package of Ukraine/Israel bills, pressuring the Senate to vote on TikTok

2024-04-21
Just in: The House passed legislation today that could ban TikTok as part of a wide-ranging foreign aid package, fast-tracking a major threat to the social media app.  The Senate could vote on the package as soon as next week: https://www.cnn.com/...
2024-04-21 View on X
The Verge

The House passes a TikTok divestiture bill with a longer sale deadline as part of a package of Ukraine/Israel aid bills, pressuring the Senate to vote on TikTok

The House once again passed a bill that could ban TikTok from the US unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance divests it …

2024-03-19
A few of the justices reflexively drew parallels between social media and legacy news publishers, recognizing that platforms often make their own decisions on what content to host.  We didn't make this its own highlight but the framing seems notable in light of the NetChoice cases argued just a few weeks ago that hinge on whether content moderation is a form of constitutionally protected editorial discretion.
2024-03-19 View on X
Reuters

After hearing oral arguments, SCOTUS appeared wary of curbing US government contacts with social media platforms to remove posts deemed misinformation

Key takeaways from today's Supreme Court arguments on the jawboning case: Even many of the court's conservatives seemed to side with the Biden administration https://www.cnn.com/...
2024-03-19 View on X
Reuters

After hearing oral arguments, SCOTUS appeared wary of curbing US government contacts with social media platforms to remove posts deemed misinformation

2023-11-09
I'm also struck by the apparent breadth of support at senior levels for investing more heavily in well-being; the complaint outlines a number of situations where pretty influential people within the company were allegedly united in calling for more resources for well-being initiatives, who were then rebuffed.
2023-11-09 View on X
CNN

Unsealed court documents allegedly show how Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally and repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram …

Lastly, I think the complaint sheds a little more light on Zuckerberg's decision-making process, in that it highlights his preference for data supporting whatever it is that's being proposed.  Data-driven decision-making and an evidence-based approach makes a lot of sense for a company as large as Meta.  But as Arturo Bejar, the latest Meta whistleblower, told me, Zuckerberg risks asking too much of data, demanding evidence of a causal relationship in places where one might be unprovable.
2023-11-09 View on X
CNN

Unsealed court documents allegedly show how Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally and repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram …

Beyond the headline, there are a few other things that stand out.  On a minor note, we now have a better idea of how many US teens use Instagram: more than 30 million, according to one newly unredacted figure in the complaint.
2023-11-09 View on X
CNN

Unsealed court documents allegedly show how Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally and repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram …

2023-11-08
Another Meta whistleblower alleged in Senate testimony today that the company has ignored or downplayed internal warnings about mental health harms linked to Instagram.  Some highlights: https://www.cnn.com/...
2023-11-08 View on X
CNN

Former Meta consultant Arturo Béjar's Senate testimony: Meta executives ignored warnings of harms to teens and carefully crafted metrics to downplay the issue

Meta's top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, ignored warnings for years about harms to teens on its platforms such as Instagram …

2023-10-18
It's official: X is testing a $1 annual charge to be able to post.  Bots aside, it's hard to see how this doesn't drive even real users away en masse.  Elon can't have it both ways; the same payment friction that's meant to create a barrier to entry for bots must necessarily impose the same friction on non-bots affected by the program.
2023-10-18 View on X
Fortune

X tests Not A Bot, requiring new, unverified users to sign up for a $1 annual subscription to be able to post and interact, in New Zealand and the Philippines

The owner of X, Elon Musk, has long floated the idea of charging users $1 to use the platform.

2023-10-17
Weird how Andreessen spends so much time talking about markets being self-regulating and then identifies these things as somehow existing outside of that market construct https://a16z.com/...
2023-10-17 View on X
Fortune

Marc Andreessen's Techno-Optimist Manifesto lists trust and safety, sustainability, and tech ethics as “enemies”, says AI is “our Philosopher's Stone”, and more

In a 5,200-word manifesto published by the venture capitalist and billionaire Marc Andreessen on Monday …

2023-08-04
Threads user engagement has fallen to new lows, according to industry research. DAUs are down to ~8M, an 82% drop from launch roughly a month ago, and so is average time spent (2.9 mins/day) and session count (2.6/day) https://www.cnn.com/...
2023-08-04 View on X
CNN

Sensor Tower: Threads' DAUs fell to 8M on July 31, down 82% from launch; the daily average time spent fell from 19 minutes per day at launch to 2.9 on August 1

Threads user count falls to new lows, highlighting retention challenges  —  https://www.cnn.com/...  #social #threads Bluesky: Brian Fung / @brianfung.me : Threads user engagement ...

2023-07-13
NEW: A seven-month congressional probe finds tax-prep companies spent years sharing taxpayer data with Meta and Google in potential violation of federal law — data that in some cases was misused for targeted ads: https://www.cnn.com/...
2023-07-13 View on X
The Markup

A congressional investigation led by Senator Elizabeth Warren finds popular tax filing tools “recklessly” sent data, like income, to Meta and Google for years

https://www.cnn.com/... Mastodon: Paul Cantrell / @inthehands@hachyderm.io : Just beating my old drum:  —  The fines involved could tip some of these companies into bankruptcy.  — ...

Legal experts are calling it a “five-alarm fire” for taxpayer privacy. https://www.cnn.com/... [image]
2023-07-13 View on X
The Markup

A congressional investigation led by Senator Elizabeth Warren finds popular tax filing tools “recklessly” sent data, like income, to Meta and Google for years

https://www.cnn.com/... Mastodon: Paul Cantrell / @inthehands@hachyderm.io : Just beating my old drum:  —  The fines involved could tip some of these companies into bankruptcy.  — ...

For years, anyone who did their taxes on TaxAct, TaxSlayer and H&R Block's websites were having their data collected by “tracking pixels” — bits of code that are common on the web but here ended up gathering sensitive financial data, the report said. https://www.cnn.com/...
2023-07-13 View on X
The Markup

A congressional investigation led by Senator Elizabeth Warren finds popular tax filing tools “recklessly” sent data, like income, to Meta and Google for years

https://www.cnn.com/... Mastodon: Paul Cantrell / @inthehands@hachyderm.io : Just beating my old drum:  —  The fines involved could tip some of these companies into bankruptcy.  — ...

2023-07-12
NEW: A seven-month congressional probe finds tax-prep companies spent years sharing taxpayer data with Meta and Google in potential violation of federal law — data that in some cases was misused for targeted ads: https://www.cnn.com/...
2023-07-12 View on X
The Markup

A Democratic report finds popular tax filing tools inappropriately and “recklessly” transmitted data to Meta and Google for years; tax data is tightly regulated

The investigation was opened in response to work published last year by The Markup

For years, anyone who did their taxes on TaxAct, TaxSlayer and H&R Block's websites were having their data collected by “tracking pixels” — bits of code that are common on the web but here ended up gathering sensitive financial data, the report said. https://www.cnn.com/...
2023-07-12 View on X
The Markup

A Democratic report finds popular tax filing tools inappropriately and “recklessly” transmitted data to Meta and Google for years; tax data is tightly regulated

The investigation was opened in response to work published last year by The Markup

Legal experts are calling it a “five-alarm fire” for taxpayer privacy. https://www.cnn.com/... [image]
2023-07-12 View on X
The Markup

A Democratic report finds popular tax filing tools inappropriately and “recklessly” transmitted data to Meta and Google for years; tax data is tightly regulated

The investigation was opened in response to work published last year by The Markup

2023-07-09
This is a perfectly reasonable take for a company that learned the hard way how being an intermediary naturally leads to people constantly trying to play the ref.  He isn't saying news and politics have no place here. …
2023-07-09 View on X
The Verge

Adam Mosseri says Threads will not “encourage” politics and “hard news” as such content brings scrutiny that isn't worth the “incremental engagement or revenue”

Adam Mosseri ran Facebook's News Feed in 2016, and now he tells Alex Heath that politics … See also Mediagazer