Showing posts with label X. Show all posts
Showing posts with label X. Show all posts

Monday, June 29, 2026

AI-generated fake movie stills infuriate


Just as frustrating as the proliferation online of AI-generated fake movie posters are social media posts with photos purporting to be from new movies. They usually come with teases to the effect of “You’ve got to see this movie. It’s incredible.”
But they offer no details. No title. No release information. Nothing. It’s all one big infuriating tease.
Some photos are obviously fake. One still showed a female sniper with two right hands. (See above.) Generative AI now tends to make dumb mistakes like that. But the technology is improving, and it will get harder to tell the truth from the lies.
What follows are some recent phony movie stills posted on X. Be sure to mute those X users who do this so they don’t show up in your feed again.





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Sunday, June 28, 2026

Fake movies competing with real movies for attention online


I used to rely on suggestions from social media for new movies to watch, but lately X, formerly known as Twitter, has been awash in posts promoting fake movies using AI-created posters and photos.
At first glance, some look compelling. But you soon realize that you’ve been duped. Others with A-list actors are obvious fakes.
The situation is as bad as the numerous online photos of sexy women at FIFA games that turned out to be AI frauds.
Some of these phony movies are fan fiction or wishful thinking as far as casting. But the people who post them don’t usually say that and present them as if they are real. They likely post them to generate user engagement through clickbait.
The worst offender is an account called Movies House (@luther_181). I have muted them and suggest you do too. In fact, I mute all accounts that post this garbage.

Photo: Fake movie poster for “Vis A Vis” with images of actors Jason Statham, Dwyane Johnson and Angelina Jolie.











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Friday, June 19, 2026

AI-created fake photos of FIFA World Cup fans show a growing problem


Lately I’ve seen a flood of photos on social media platform X that purport to show beautiful female fans of national teams participating in the FIFA World Cup. But many of them are fakes created by generative artificial intelligence applications. And it’s getting hard to tell the real ones from the fakes.
Thankfully some X users do the research and flag the fantasy photos with Community Notes. They point out flaws in the photos such as digital artifacts that are telltale signs of AI. But these fakes will only get better, making it harder to discern the truth from falsehoods.
I appreciate it when some posters add labels to mark their photos or videos as AI-created. But not all netizens are good actors.
And this is just sports and entertainment, fake photos will be a bigger problem in news and politics. One recent post contained an AI-altered photo that showed an event at the White House that didn’t occur. Expect more of this as AI develops.

Photo at top: AI-generated photo of a sexy FIFA fan posted multiple times on X.

Related articles:

World Cup ‘supporter’ goes viral as AI image leaves fans duped (News.com.au; June 14, 2026)

Is she real? USA World Cup fan in tiny bikini goes massively viral (Mundo Deportivo; June 13, 2026)











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Sunday, August 17, 2025

Free web platforms are preserving digital artifacts … for now


Over the years, I have spotlighted 450 websites that I found to be useful, educational or entertaining. Many of the early websites have disappeared without a trace because they stopped paying services to maintain them.
But those that set up shop on free platforms such as Google’s Blogger or social media services like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X are still around, even if they haven’t been updated in years. That means the content on those sites is being preserved in a digital time capsule.
I can only hope that the companies behind those free, ad-supported services will continue to keep those websites alive, even when the creators are long gone. But there are no promises like that in the digital age.
Of the 450 websites that I’ve highlighted on Tech-media-tainment since late 2008, 117 are no longer reachable or the data is gone. Three of the websites have gone dark since the last time I checked in February 2025.
A good example of a website that is being preserved is the Twitter/X account of anti-Islam demonstrator Salwan Momika. He risked his life to speak out against the threat of Islamic culture to Western society. He was murdered on Jan. 29, 2025, during a live broadcast on TikTok. His Twitter/X account still exists thankfully. Hopefully his other social media accounts do as well.
It is important to preserve the voices and opinions of people from throughout the years. They are useful for tracking the progress of humanity and also for sentimental purposes.
I still keep voicemails on my iPhone from my mother, who died in January, just to hear her voice every now and then. I also keep old emails from friends and loved ones.

Photo: Salwan Momika burning the Quran in Stockholm on Oct. 21, 2023. (Photo by Frankie Fouganthin via Creative Commons.)

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Sunday, July 27, 2025

Thread Reader app solves a problem with long post threads on X


One issue X users have with the social media service formerly called Twitter is following long “threads” of interconnected posts of interest.
Thankfully an independent app has stepped in solve the problem and make those threads easy to read. The app, called Thread Reader, organizes a person’s train of thought in chronological order.
To use the bot, you simply reply to any tweet in a thread and mention @threadreaderapp and the keyword “unroll.” Thread Reader then sends you a link back on X that you can share.
The Thread Reader app was created by a couple of software developers and went live in November 2017.
To see the threads I’ve created check out my page on Thread Reader.

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Saturday, July 26, 2025

Twitter, I mean X, is better under Elon Musk’s ownership


When Tesla billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, I was concerned about how it would fair under his ownership. That was especially true after he renamed it X, which I opposed.
I still have a tough time calling it X. Twitter is catchier and more accurate for the short-message social media service.
Nevertheless, Twitter, I mean X, has actually improved under Musk’s ownership. I’m a daily user of X and enjoy reading the posts of accounts I follow and going down the rabbit hole with posts in the “For You” section. X has a lot of funny posts, videos and memes, as well as eye-opening information you don't see in the traditional media. I use X for entertainment and news.
Except for some limited interference by Musk, X is a free speech free-for-all. There’s still misinformation on the service but the Community Notes feature does a good job of crowd-sourced fact-checking. Plus, with the addition of the Grok AI chatbot, users can ask for context and more information on claims in posts.
Like all social media services, X has its share of bad actors, including trolls and propagandists. But you can avoid them if you want. I prefer X to all the other social media services out there, namely Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
I also appreciate that X made “likes” private in June 2024. I use the like button mostly as a bookmark, not to tell people that I like or agree with something posted.
Other changes under Musk include that addition of long-form texts and repurposing the user verification system as a subscription premium.

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Sunday, December 10, 2023

Disappearing web services due to changes at X, aka Twitter


One of the changes at X, formerly Twitter, that I disagree with has to do with curtailing access to its application programming interface. The previous openness of Twitter’s API created an ecosystem of useful services.
New owner Elon Musk cut off free access to Twitter’s API and initiated a pay-to-play plan as a means to raise revenue for the service. But the move negatively impacted researchers, government entities and small businesses that didn’t have the resources to pay for access.
One of the services I liked that stopped working because of the Twitter API changes was iUnfollow. I used iUnfollow for my work Twitter account to quickly and easily unfollow Twitter followers who did not follow me back. For that account, I use a reciprocal approach to following people.
IUnfollow says over 320,000 accounts used its service to perform more than 100 million unfollows since 2011. But the service stopped working for me and others in March 2023.
Similar websites that provided Twitter-related services also have gone dark including Tweepi, Twopcharts and SparkToro.

Photos: Screenshots from iUnfollow, Tweepi, Twopcharts and SparkToro.




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X, formerly Twitter, perseveres despite uncertainty under Elon Musk


When Tesla billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, mostly left-wing pundits predicted that the social media service would fail under the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist.”
But despite some unpopular changes under Musk, Twitter, now called X, remains the internet’s public square. Copycat services like Bluesky, Mastodon and Threads haven’t gotten much traction because they simply don’t have the reach of X and don’t offer anything new and exciting. One alternative service, Pebble, previously known as T2, shut down in October.
Twitter has proven to be a sticky service for sports fans, news junkies and other users.
The latest challenge to X has come from advertisers deciding not to do business with it after Musk made some controversial comments on and off the service.
But singling out X was stupid considering that there’s even worse content on other social networks where those companies advertise. They include TikTok and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
Consider these articles:
  • UK accuses Meta of empowering child sexual abusers with encryption rollout. (The Guardian; Dec. 7, 2023)
  • Facebook and Instagram Steer Predators to Children, New Mexico Attorney General Alleges in Lawsuit. (The Wall Street Journal; Dec. 6, 2023)
  • Meta is child abuse ‘breeding ground,’ lawsuit claims. (BBC; Dec. 6, 2023)
  • New Mexico lawsuit accuses Meta of creating ‘breeding ground’ for child predators. (CNN; Dec. 6, 2023)
  • Meta Is Struggling to Boot Pedophiles Off Facebook and Instagram (The Wall Street Journal; Dec. 1, 2023)
  • Google caught placing big-brand ads on hardcore porn sites, report says (Ars Technica; Nov. 29, 2023)
  • Google search ads spotted in compromising placements (TechCrunch; Nov. 28, 2023)
  • Google Search Ads End Up on Pornographic and Sanctioned Sites (Adweek; Nov. 28, 2023)
  • Substack Has a Nazi Problem (The Atlantic; Nov. 28, 2023)
Sure, X has its problems. But for the average person who uses the service as a news feed and for entertainment, it hasn’t changed that much in the last year-plus.
I dislike a number of changes at Twitter under Musk, including the terrible rebranding to X.
My biggest complaint was Twitter changing its blue checkmarks from verified accounts of notable people and organizations to a pay-to-play scheme for anonymous trolls and scammers who get their speech amplified.
But there have been good changes under Musk’s ownership.
The best change has been the ability for the users to fact-check tweets, news articles and even advertisements with the “Community Notes” feature.
Still, X is facing pressure from left-wing groups such as Media Matters that object to X being a platform for freedom of speech.
That’s led advertisers like Apple, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery to pause their ads on X. Musk says those companies are trying to kill X. (See articles by the New York Times, Reuters and CNBC.)
Musk does have his supporters, including Bill Ackman, chief executive of hedge fund Pershing Square. “We all should be grateful that X is owned by Musk,” he said in a recent X post.

Photo: Twitter art by Esther Vargas via Creative Commons.

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Saturday, October 14, 2023

X, aka Twitter, accounts fighting the woke movement


The woke movement and the backlash to it have been a major story in American politics. Progressive liberals have been promoting special rights and considerations for certain groups of sensitive individuals, demanding changes to society and even language to accommodate them.
Woke groups advocate for biological males, aka trans women, to play in women’s sports. They are promoting gender affirmation surgery, aka sex change operations, for juveniles. They are pushing pornographic books to school kids and say efforts to stop them amount to book banning. They also are bringing school kids to provocative drag queen shows.
They have pushed climate change hysteria and policies that are soft on crime, weak on immigration and voter fraud. They espouse socialist ideals while ignoring the overwhelmingly negative consequences of socialism worldwide. They also are pushing for separate spaces for racial minority groups in schools, ironically bringing back segregation. The list goes on and on.
These groups do not believe in free speech. They try to prevent opposing views through violent protests, shouting at speakers and claiming a “hate speech” exemption to the First Amendment when there is none.
Thankfully, “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk has allowed anti-woke speakers to have a forum on X, formerly Twitter. Woke speakers are on the platform too, but at least there is a balance and a conversation.
Some of the most interesting and entertaining anti-woke accounts are The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee), End Wokeness (@EndWokeness), Wokely Correct Comics (@WokelyCorrect), Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) and Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath).
High-profile anti-woke pundits and commentators on X include Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly), James Woods (@RealJamesWoods), Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog), Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok), Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10), John Stossel (@JohnStossel), Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) and Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar).
Those are just a few of the people fighting the good fight.

Photos: Defiant L’s and Wokely Correct Comics.



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