Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
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.)
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.
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.
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Chicago X accounts to see the good and bad of the Windy City
As a native of the Chicagoland area, I still keep track of goings-on in the Windy City, even though I live on the East Coast now.
I follow several accounts on X, formerly Twitter, to get different raw takes on Chicago, beyond the local news outlets. Some show the fun, nostalgic and touristy side of the city, while other show the grim reality of problems facing the nation’s third most populous city.
For positive views of Chicago, check out these X accounts:
Barry Butler Photography, @barrybutler9
Barry Butler is a professional landscape photographer who takes beautiful shots of the Chicago skyline, its parks, waterfront, etc.
Chicago History, @Chicago_History
Chicago History describes itself as “Chicken Soup For The Chicago Soul.” It features Chicago nostalgia and takes on its culture.
Given all the problems the city has due to poor governance, there are a lot of critical Chicago X accounts. What follows are just a few.
Chicago Critter, @ChicagoCritter
Chicago Critter provides independent news coverage across the city, highlighting crime and disturbances that go unreported or are downplayed elsewhere.
SubX.News, @SubxNews
SubX.News is a news aggregator that spotlights violent crime, teen takeovers and other problems in Chicago.
Chicago Contrarian, @ChicagoContrar1
Chicago Contrarian provides commentary on urban affairs in Chicago. It shines a light on the ineptness of Chicago politicians and the crooked Chicago Teachers Union.
Mark Weyermuller, @publicpolicyman
Mark Weyermuller is a taxpayer advocate and conservative citizen journalist in Chicago.
One of his initiatives is the “Empty Chicago Storefront Project,” where he documents all the vacant businesses in the city. He blames high taxes, high crime, over-regulation, government corruption and incompetence.
Libs of Chicago, @Libs_OfChicago
Libs of Chicago critiques Chicago’s liberal and progressive politics and the problems they have caused.
Goofies of Chicago, @Chicago_Goofies
Goofies of Chicago provides a look at the dark side of living in Chicago. That includes crime, social disruptions and other negative aspects of the city.
Let me know if I missed any good ones.
Friday, January 31, 2025
CES 2025 news in review: AI, robots, smart glasses, smart rings and more
The following is a roundup of my stories from Investors.com.
Synopsys purchase of Ansys will fulfill company’s goal. (Jan. 28, 2025)
SoundHound makes tempting offer to carmakers. AI stock surges. (Jan. 21, 2025)
Tech firms have their eyes on smart glasses as the next big thing. (Jan. 10, 2025)
Health tracking is moving to smart rings from watches. Oura leads market. (Jan. 9, 2025)
X CEO applauds Meta decision to end fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram. (Jan. 8, 2025)
SoundHound AI adds on-the-go food ordering to in-vehicle voice assistant. (Jan. 7, 2025)
Nvidia raises bar at CES 2025. But stock slides. (Jan. 7, 2025)
Nvidia expands AI reach with automotive, robotics initiatives. (Jan. 6, 2025)
AMD reveals next-generation AI PC chips, gets Dell endorsement. (Jan. 6, 2025)
Deere tackles labor shortages with autonomous tractors. (Jan. 6, 2025)
President-elect Trump poses challenge to U.S. tech sales. (Jan. 6, 2025)
AI everywhere at CES 2025 with spotlight on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. (Jan. 2, 2025)
Photo: X CEO Linda Yaccarino (left) speaks at CES 2025 with broadcast journalist Catherine Herridge. (Consumer Technology Association)
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.
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)
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.
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.
Sunday, March 26, 2023
Twitter removing verified accounts label likely first negative change users will notice under Elon Musk
I’ve stuck with Twitter since Elon Musk purchased the social media service late last year and he began pissing off a lot of people, mainly on the political left.
The way I use Twitter hasn’t changed. I mostly use it as a news feed. I follow national and local news feeds, entertainment and sports sites, as well as a few friends. I don’t get swept up in the political vitriol that I know is lurking there.
Since Musk took over, I have noticed very little change other than a bit more advertising.
But a big change is coming that regular Joes like me will surely notice. Come April 1, Twitter is removing all those blue checkmark verification badges from media pundits, celebrities and other notable public figures.
Musk is replacing that verification system with subscription service that gives anybody a blue checkmark and they don’t have to use their real name. Basically the blue check means nothing now, other than showing that you are someone willing to spend $8 a month to get it.
Twitter originally started its verification process to give users confidence that they were following organizations and people who are who they say they are. Without true verification, get ready for a lot of confusion and impersonation.
The verification system helped Twitter grow. It offered users an easy way to identify and follow notable accounts. Musk threw that out the window in an effort to increase subscription revenue.
I have no problem with paid verification as long as people use their real names. And Twitter should have kept the verification for public figures already on the service. (I don’t have a verification badge on my personal Twitter but I do on my professional Twitter.)
What I have seen so far under the new paid system is a bunch of nobodies and trolls getting their responses to tweets pushed higher in the feed because they’re paying a subscription. It’s ugly and it’s only going to get worse.
The main thing Twitter has in its favor now is that there’s no obvious place to go that can replicate the experience – yet. Some company is bound to take advantage of Musk’s many missteps with Twitter.
I’m reminded of a quote from the underrated film “Vengeance” (2022) by B.J. Novak.
In the movie, Ty Shaw (played by Boyd Holbrook) says this about rural Texas: “This is the most wretched, godforsaken stretch of land on the face of the earth. And I’d never leave.”
To which New York journalist Ben Manalowitz (played by Novak) says, “Yeah. That’s how I feel about Twitter.”
Related articles:
Why advertisers aren’t coming back to Twitter (Vox; March 24, 2023)
Twitter to Revoke ‘Legacy’ Verified Badges in April, Leaving Only Paying Subscribers With Blue Check-Marks (Variety; March 23, 2023)
Twitter expands Blue globally, will pull checkmarks from accounts that are actually verified next week (9to5Google; March 23, 2023)
Photo: Twitter headquarters (Scott Beale via Creative Commons)
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Twitter is still here despite warnings of its demise
Ever since billionaire Elon Musk bought social media service Twitter last October, pundits have been predicting its demise. Some left-leaning figures have been cheering its missteps and urging users to switch to alternatives like Mastodon.
But unless Twitter service becomes unreliable or makes significant changes that affect regular folks, most users are unlikely to switch to a copycat platform. Twitter simply has too large a user base for fans of microblogging to go elsewhere.
A social media service would need to provide something new and exciting for users to switch. That’s how Facebook overtook MySpace and TikTok rose to prominence against Instagram and Snapchat.
Under Musk’s ownership, the biggest change I’ve seen is an increase in advertising in my feed. Also, I was concerned when Twitter switched to an algorithmic feed by default for a short time when I only use a reverse chronological feed.
One change I didn’t like was the cancellation of Twitter Moments. I enjoyed curating tweets on newsworthy topics.
Internally at Twitter there have been loads of changes, including a slashing of its workforce. There’s also been a bunch of moves to try to get users to pay for an upgraded service or for identity verification. These moves come amid a big drop in advertising revenue, with many advertisers concerned about Musk’s changes to the service.
But so far the service has seen little change from my perspective. Fingers crossed.
Twitter as a business is another story. It could eventually fail for lack of revenue from advertisers and subscribers.
If Twitter does goes away, I’ll mourn the loss of a service I liked. But I’ll move on, which is what I said years ago when I joined Twitter.
Photo: Twitter Sand Sculpture at Bush Lake, Bloomington, MN, by Rosaura Ochoa. (via Creative Commons)
Friday, November 25, 2022
Twitter isn’t going away, despite handwringing by media pundits
The news media has been in a tizzy since Elon Musk bought Twitter. Many articles have been posted about how Musk is killing Twitter with his changes. Other articles have been talking up inferior alternatives to Twitter like Mastodon and Truth Social.
But the truth is, Twitter isn’t dying, despite the obituaries some media pundits have written about the social media service. Twitter is still a great service, even with the upheaval at Twitter headquarters.
I agree with the commenters who say “I’m leaving Twitter” is the new “I’m moving to Canada.” Those are empty threats by people who think their opinions carry more sway than they actually do.
Simply put, Twitter is the largest public square for open commentary on the internet. Former President Donald Trump will inevitably come back, now that he’s able, simply because he has 87.7 million followers on Twitter, vs. 4.65 million on Truth Social. The only thing keeping him away now are some business obligations he has with Truth Social.
Like many people, I use Twitter as a news feed. I follow tech and entertainment news sources, celebrities, college sports, local news and businesses, experts I respect, and of course friends.
I almost never see the hate speech and misinformation that politicians and mainstream media types complain about. That’s probably because I stay away from politics and political news on Twitter. The only time I see the dark side of Twitter is when I check on trending topics and read some of the comments. Even then, I don’t get up in arms about comments I disagree with. I know there are idiots out there on the internet.
Musk is right to find ways to moderate “free speech” other than just banning accounts. I like his idea for promoting content from verified and paid accounts.
Twitter also should adopt ways to “up vote” and “down vote” tweets, giving more weight to votes from verified accounts.
As for Twitter Blue, that subscription service should be separate from paid verifications. People should be able to pay a one-time fee for verification if they use their real name and Twitter actually checks out their information. Consider Twitter verification like TSA PreCheck.
Photo: “Twittering Times” by Bernard Goldbach (via Creative Commons)
Saturday, January 8, 2022
Twitter hashtag misuse makes it tough to follow live events like CES 2022
I tried to follow the news from the in-person CES 2022 conference in Las Vegas this week using the hashtag #CES2022 on Twitter. But there was so much misuse of the hashtag that it made the show hard to follow.
Many Twitter users were attaching #CES2022 to photos and videos of things that weren’t at the show. Much of the misuse of the hashtag was by individuals trying to game the platform for clicks or to increase their influencer ranking.
Twitter should add tools to its search function to mute specific people quickly and easily and remember those filters for future searches.
A way to exclude posts by language would be another good filter. CES is an international event and there were a lot of #CES2022 posts in French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and other languages that I can’t read. (Update: Twitter has this feature, but you have to click on search settings and use the Advanced Search field.) An automated translation feature would be nice.
Or how about the ability to read tweets posted only by people in a certain area, such as Las Vegas, Paradise and Winchester, Nevada? That way you’d know when people were posting on site.
Photo: CES 2022 arch in the Las Vegas Convention Center (CES)
Saturday, December 25, 2021
2022 predictions in technology and media
The new year looks to begin just like the old year, with the nation gripped by the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s also starting off with a bunch of year-ahead predictions that most likely won’t happen. But hey, they’re still fun to consider. (Check out last year’s predictions for 2021.)
What follows is a compilation of interesting predictions for the technology and media industries in 2022.
Netflix possible acquisition target?
Internet television network Netflix could be acquired by a large media company in 2022, says Phillip Swann, editor of TV Answer Man.
“I predict that Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings and his team will conclude the time is right to join with a rival to form an even more powerful company – one that can survive a long-term streaming war that will be even more expensive than the current one,” Swann wrote in a blog post.
Two buyers make the most sense: Disney and Comcast, he said. “If I were betting today, I would bet on Disney. But either company could be in the hunt,” Swann said.
Roku: Acquisition target or studio buyer?
Depending on who’s talking, streaming video platform Roku either will be acquired by a larger company or bid for a major studio in 2022.
Hub Entertainment Research analyst Peter Fondulas predicts a large company like Apple could buy Roku. The deal would help Roku’s expansion into international markets and give Apple customers a lower-priced alternative to the Apple TV box, according to Fierce Video.
Media analyst Michael Nathanson told CNBC that Roku might buy a studio, such as Lionsgate, to bolster the exclusive content for its Roku Channel. But it likely would face other bidders such as Comcast’s NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, Netflix and Disney.
Twitter, Pinterest acquisition targets?
MKM Partners made several “black swan predictions” for internet companies in the year ahead. It calls these “high-impact, low-probability” events.
It’s possible that Twitter and Pinterest will no longer be independent public companies after 2022, MKM managing director Rohit Kulkarni said in a Dec. 23 report.
“Both companies have had issues during 2021, with media reports surfacing around M&A. If the stock price stays under pressure, we wouldn’t be surprised if such speculations start swirling again. Twitter has a new CEO while (former CEO Jack) Dorsey leaves the board. Pinterest altered executive compensation this week – such events increase the likelihood of M&A speculations on both Pinterest and Twitter,” Kulkarni said.
NFT bubble might pop
Activate Consulting, a management consulting firm for technology, internet, media, entertainment, and sports businesses, predicted that non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, will continue to grow in 2022. NFTs are unique blockchain-based digital assets such as artwork, videos, games and recordings.
“Buying, collecting, and trading non-fungible tokens will become a mainstream behavior,” the firm said in a news release. “Many industries are creating NFTs, including art, fashion, sports, video games, and consumer products. Every technology and media company will need an NFT strategy.”
However, “NFTs could be experiencing a speculative bubble,” Activate Consulting noted.
But others are highly skeptical about the worth of NFTs.
“NFTs will remain hyped to oblivion (and) some people will lose their shirts,” James Ball, global editor at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism at the Guardian, said in his 2022 predictions.
Photo: Television from Best Buy brand Insignia running the Fire TV operating system from Amazon. (Best Buy)
Sunday, June 27, 2021
The ephemeral internet: Disappearing journalism, personal photos and President Trump’s tweets
Discussing the temporary nature of the internet, one journalist described the platform as “more like an Etch-a-Sketch than a stone engraving.”
I know from personal experience in my journalism career how online articles can disappear into the void. But the same goes for other online media. That includes people’s personal photos, music lists and blog posts.
I haven’t checked Tech-media-tainment lately for dead weblinks, but I’m sure there are a lot of articles I’ve cited that are no longer available.
Twitter created the “ultimate case of link rot” when it banned President Donald Trump from its platform in January. Regardless of how you feel about Trump, that’s erasing history.
What follows are some good articles about the ephemeral nature of the internet. Most are downbeat, but the Internet Archive provides some sunshine.
The Internet Is Rotting (The Atlantic; June 30, 2021)
The Old Internet Died And We Watched And Did Nothing (BuzzFeed; Dec. 28, 2019)
Preserving work in a time of vanishing archives (Columbia Journalism Review; Nov. 5, 2019)
Trump’s ban from Twitter creates the ultimate case of link rot in posts across the internet (The Verge; Jan. 9, 2021)
A Conversation About Video Game Preservation In The Gaming Industry Is Long, Long Overdue (Techdirt; June 2, 2021)
Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria (The Atlantic; April 20, 2017)
Thanks to the Internet Archive, the history of American newspapers is more searchable than ever (NiemanLab; Feb. 2, 2021)
Photo: “Internet” by HD of St. Gallen, Switzerland via Creative Commons.
Sunday, December 8, 2019
Blog like nobody’s reading
When I started this blog, Tech-media-tainment, eleven years ago last month, journalists and creative writers were already shifting to other forms of expression online.
People were gravitating toward social media and platforms for short-form writing and multimedia posts of photos and videos. Twitter was just catching on and Tumblr was ramping in popularity. Facebook was a few years old and Instagram was still a couple of years away.
I was late to the blogging game, but I relished the idea of having a platform for expressing myself. I wasn’t going to do a weblog diary about my life like some of my relatives. I decided to approach blogging from a journalistic perspective. I wrote about subjects that interested me and hopefully would interest others.
My first blog post on Nov. 6, 2008, was about how Netflix’s algorithms assumed that I was gay, presumably based on my love of musicals and Marilyn Monroe.
Over the years I’ve written about many subjects in entertainment, pop culture, personal technology and media. I’ve mostly moved on from some subjects, such as the death of print media, public domain and copyright law, and libertarian causes. Most recently I’ve decided to stop reviewing revisionist fairytale artwork.
My enthusiasm for blogging dropped after Google, owner of the Blogger platform, demonetized this blog for having some “adult content” by its broad definition. Apparently, you can’t discuss pornography in a news context without getting flagged by Google.
I intend to continue blogging, but my interest in regular posting has ebbed. I’m on pace for my lowest total posts ever this year.
Still, Tech-media-tainment has racked up more than 2.77 million views to date.
Photo: Blogger T-shirt by Keso. (Via Creative Commons)
People were gravitating toward social media and platforms for short-form writing and multimedia posts of photos and videos. Twitter was just catching on and Tumblr was ramping in popularity. Facebook was a few years old and Instagram was still a couple of years away.
I was late to the blogging game, but I relished the idea of having a platform for expressing myself. I wasn’t going to do a weblog diary about my life like some of my relatives. I decided to approach blogging from a journalistic perspective. I wrote about subjects that interested me and hopefully would interest others.
My first blog post on Nov. 6, 2008, was about how Netflix’s algorithms assumed that I was gay, presumably based on my love of musicals and Marilyn Monroe.
Over the years I’ve written about many subjects in entertainment, pop culture, personal technology and media. I’ve mostly moved on from some subjects, such as the death of print media, public domain and copyright law, and libertarian causes. Most recently I’ve decided to stop reviewing revisionist fairytale artwork.
My enthusiasm for blogging dropped after Google, owner of the Blogger platform, demonetized this blog for having some “adult content” by its broad definition. Apparently, you can’t discuss pornography in a news context without getting flagged by Google.
I intend to continue blogging, but my interest in regular posting has ebbed. I’m on pace for my lowest total posts ever this year.
Still, Tech-media-tainment has racked up more than 2.77 million views to date.
Photo: Blogger T-shirt by Keso. (Via Creative Commons)
Saturday, December 7, 2019
The TSA has outlasted its critics
At the start of this decade, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration was frequently in the news for its many scandals. They ranged from TSA agents groping passengers to the agency failing to spot most weapons being smuggled through its screening areas.
A grassroots campaign sprung up to advocate that the agency be overhauled or even privatized. Citizens demanded that their Fourth Amendment rights not be violated just because they chose to fly on a commercial airline.
TSA critics created websites and social media accounts to spread the word about the injustices of the TSA.
I had a Twitter page called TSA Rants that collected complaints about the Transportation Security Administration from travelers from Dec. 18, 2011, to Dec. 18, 2012.
As part of my outreach to fellow TSA critics, I followed a bunch of like-minded websites and Twitter accounts. Today, only one of over 20 such Twitter accounts is still active. The survivor is TSA parody Twitter account Agent Smith at @TSAgov.
Here’s a list of anti-TSA Twitter accounts that are no longer active and are likely to be wiped off the internet once Twitter enacts its plan to delete inactive accounts.
These TSA websites and Twitter accounts went silent after their complaints fell on the deaf ears of Washington politicians. American citizens continue to complain about the policies of the Transportation Security Administration, but most have come to accept that it’s difficult to reform any government bureaucracy.
Photo: “So you’re telling me my bag was inspected?” by Clint McMahon. (Via Creative Commons)
A grassroots campaign sprung up to advocate that the agency be overhauled or even privatized. Citizens demanded that their Fourth Amendment rights not be violated just because they chose to fly on a commercial airline.
TSA critics created websites and social media accounts to spread the word about the injustices of the TSA.
I had a Twitter page called TSA Rants that collected complaints about the Transportation Security Administration from travelers from Dec. 18, 2011, to Dec. 18, 2012.
As part of my outreach to fellow TSA critics, I followed a bunch of like-minded websites and Twitter accounts. Today, only one of over 20 such Twitter accounts is still active. The survivor is TSA parody Twitter account Agent Smith at @TSAgov.
Here’s a list of anti-TSA Twitter accounts that are no longer active and are likely to be wiped off the internet once Twitter enacts its plan to delete inactive accounts.
- TSA Watch, @TSAWatch (July 2009 to January 2010)
- TSA Global PR, @TSAGlobalPR (July 2010 to May 2013)
- TSA Abuse, @tsaabuse (November 2010 to August 2012)
- Smash TSA, @smashtheTSA (November 2010 to April 2011)
- Tired of the assault, @endtheTSA (November 2010 to March 2012)
- TSAagent, @TSAagent (November 2010 to July 2012)
- Fly with Dignity, @optoutTSA (November 2010)
- National Opt Out Day, @NationalOptOut (November 2010 to June 2011)
- We Won’t Fly, @WeWontFly (November 2010 to September 2012)
- The TSA Choice, @theTSAchoice (November 2010 to January 2011)
- TSA PR Team, @TSAPRTeam (November 2010 to April 2011)
- TSA status, @tsastatus (November 2010 to October 2016)
- Anonymous, @iwillnotflylist (November 2010 to March 2017)
- TSA For America, @tsaforamerica (November 2010)
- TSA: WTF?, @tsawtf (December 2010 to October 2012)
- EPIC, @ScanTSA (January 2011 to November 2011)
- TSA Dalek, @TSADalek (August 2011 to January 2016)
- AKFreedomToTravelUSA, @AKFTTUSA (October 2011 to May 2019)
- TSA Nightmare Stories, @tsanightmares (November 2011 to June 2018)
- TSA News, @TSANewsBlog (November 2011 to July 2014)
- Say the Fourth, @SaytheFourth (July 2012 to August 2013)
- T.S.A. Eliot, @TSA_Eliot (October 2012 to August 2013)
- TSA Tom, @TOMfromTSA (November 2012)
- TSA OptOut & Film, @OptOutandFilm (November 2012 to July 2016)
These TSA websites and Twitter accounts went silent after their complaints fell on the deaf ears of Washington politicians. American citizens continue to complain about the policies of the Transportation Security Administration, but most have come to accept that it’s difficult to reform any government bureaucracy.
Photo: “So you’re telling me my bag was inspected?” by Clint McMahon. (Via Creative Commons)
Sunday, December 1, 2019
Twitter needs to archive more than just accounts of deceased users
Microblogging platform Twitter recently announced plans to delete inactive accounts. After a public outcry it said it would delay those plans.
Originally Twitter planned to purge accounts where the owner had not signed in for more than six months. The purge was set to happen on Dec. 11. But then users complained that the purge would eliminate the accounts of deceased users.
Twitter said it is delaying its plan to remove inactive accounts until it can come up with a way to memorialize the accounts of people who’ve died.
But I think Twitter needs to go further and allow people to request permanent archiving of historically significant Twitter accounts as well. These include the accounts of political candidates, businesses that were acquired or failed, and interesting temporary accounts like promotional campaigns for movies and TV shows.
Another worthy area for Twitter archiving would be grassroots campaigns around political issues.
For instance, from Dec. 18, 2011, to Dec. 18, 2012, I ran a Twitter account called TSA Rants. The purpose of @TSArants was to aggregate complaints about the ineffective, wasteful and demeaning U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
All told, @TSArants aggregated more than 23,000 complaints about the TSA in that one year. It was a worthwhile newsgathering experience.
I resurrected TSA Rants a few days ago after reading news stories about Twitter’s plans to remove inactive accounts from the platform. I didn’t want it deleted and thought it might be a good time to reexamine the Transportation Security Administration.
I had hoped that by now public outcry would have led politicians to reform the TSA or, better yet, privatize it. But I was wrong.
At the time I ran @TSArants, the TSA was a scandal-plagued agency that many citizens wanted gone. But after a while people began to accept that the incompetent government agency was firmly established and wasn’t going anywhere.
TSA Rants followed a bunch of like-minded Twitter accounts dedicated to exposing problems with the Transportation Security Administration, but 20 of those have since stopped tweeting. I think those anti-TSA accounts should be saved to preserve that moment in time.
One problem is that accounts like TSA Rants primarily retweeted other people’s observations of TSA misdeeds. If those citizen-journalist accounts are deleted for inactivity, then TSA Rants would be full of “This Tweet is unavailable” messages or no indication that those tweets ever existed.
I suspect the latter would happen because when I stopped TSA Rants, I had 23,000 retweets. When I started it back up the other day, it had 19,000 retweets.
As readers of this blog know, I’m against efforts to delete information from the web. I’ve written many times about the ephemeral nature of online information in my series The Failed Promise of Digital Content.
My suggestion to Twitter would be to delete only those inactive accounts where the person didn’t tweet anything. If they contributed anything original to the public discourse on Twitter, i.e. more than just retweets, then that account should be kept.
But I understand that Twitter is a business and should do what’s in its best interests. Still, I think it would be in the company’s best interest to preserve the conversations its platform has fostered.
Photo: Twitter by Christopher Corneschi. (Creative Commons)
Related articles:
Twitter will remove inactive accounts and free up usernames in December (The Verge; Nov. 26, 2019)
Twitter halts plan to remove inactive accounts until it can memorialize dead users (The Verge; Nov. 27, 2019)
Fears raised over Twitter’s deceased person policy, and one possible solution (9to5Mac; Nov. 27, 2019)
Originally Twitter planned to purge accounts where the owner had not signed in for more than six months. The purge was set to happen on Dec. 11. But then users complained that the purge would eliminate the accounts of deceased users.
Twitter said it is delaying its plan to remove inactive accounts until it can come up with a way to memorialize the accounts of people who’ve died.
But I think Twitter needs to go further and allow people to request permanent archiving of historically significant Twitter accounts as well. These include the accounts of political candidates, businesses that were acquired or failed, and interesting temporary accounts like promotional campaigns for movies and TV shows.
Another worthy area for Twitter archiving would be grassroots campaigns around political issues.
For instance, from Dec. 18, 2011, to Dec. 18, 2012, I ran a Twitter account called TSA Rants. The purpose of @TSArants was to aggregate complaints about the ineffective, wasteful and demeaning U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
All told, @TSArants aggregated more than 23,000 complaints about the TSA in that one year. It was a worthwhile newsgathering experience.
I resurrected TSA Rants a few days ago after reading news stories about Twitter’s plans to remove inactive accounts from the platform. I didn’t want it deleted and thought it might be a good time to reexamine the Transportation Security Administration.
I had hoped that by now public outcry would have led politicians to reform the TSA or, better yet, privatize it. But I was wrong.
At the time I ran @TSArants, the TSA was a scandal-plagued agency that many citizens wanted gone. But after a while people began to accept that the incompetent government agency was firmly established and wasn’t going anywhere.
TSA Rants followed a bunch of like-minded Twitter accounts dedicated to exposing problems with the Transportation Security Administration, but 20 of those have since stopped tweeting. I think those anti-TSA accounts should be saved to preserve that moment in time.
One problem is that accounts like TSA Rants primarily retweeted other people’s observations of TSA misdeeds. If those citizen-journalist accounts are deleted for inactivity, then TSA Rants would be full of “This Tweet is unavailable” messages or no indication that those tweets ever existed.
I suspect the latter would happen because when I stopped TSA Rants, I had 23,000 retweets. When I started it back up the other day, it had 19,000 retweets.
As readers of this blog know, I’m against efforts to delete information from the web. I’ve written many times about the ephemeral nature of online information in my series The Failed Promise of Digital Content.
My suggestion to Twitter would be to delete only those inactive accounts where the person didn’t tweet anything. If they contributed anything original to the public discourse on Twitter, i.e. more than just retweets, then that account should be kept.
But I understand that Twitter is a business and should do what’s in its best interests. Still, I think it would be in the company’s best interest to preserve the conversations its platform has fostered.
Photo: Twitter by Christopher Corneschi. (Creative Commons)
Related articles:
Twitter will remove inactive accounts and free up usernames in December (The Verge; Nov. 26, 2019)
Twitter halts plan to remove inactive accounts until it can memorialize dead users (The Verge; Nov. 27, 2019)
Fears raised over Twitter’s deceased person policy, and one possible solution (9to5Mac; Nov. 27, 2019)
Monday, May 27, 2019
Free speech in the age of deplatforming
As a staunch supporter of free speech, I’m concerned about the trend of major social media companies “deplatforming” certain users. I also understand that it is within their legal rights to deny service to those who violate their rules.
First Amendment protections are from government censorship and don’t apply to private companies. But in the internet age, services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are the new public spaces for discourse.
I realize that social media firms are in a tough position. They want an advertiser-friendly environment and are now having to police content for fake news, harassment and hate speech, especially speech that could incite violence.
Most people would agree it is a good idea for social media services to ban unrepentant trolls like Alex Jones who repeatedly push fake news and conspiracy theories. They pollute those platforms with lies and deception.
But social media companies run the risk of shutting down legitimate debate if they go too far with their enforcement of what they consider acceptable speech. Already Facebook and Twitter have cast their nets too wide and shut down users that they shouldn’t have.
Here are some recent examples:
Related articles:
2018 was the year we (sort of) cleaned up the internet (Mashable; Dec. 26, 2018)
How Should Facebook (and Twitter, and YouTube, and …) Decide What Speech To Allow? (Reason; Dec. 31, 2018)
Should Twitter, Facebook, and Others Delete Provably Wrong Material? (Bloomberg Businessweek; March 5, 2019)
Facebook Has Every Right To Ban Louis Farrakhan and Alex Jones. But It's Still a Bad Idea. (Reason; May 3, 2019)
Here’s How Facebook Should Really Handle Alex Jones (Politico; May 3, 2019)
Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: Facebook Still Can't Figure Out How To Deal With Naked Breasts (Techdirt; May 6, 2019)
Photo: Twitter-inspired art from “Antisocial” photo series by Mike Campau.
First Amendment protections are from government censorship and don’t apply to private companies. But in the internet age, services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are the new public spaces for discourse.
I realize that social media firms are in a tough position. They want an advertiser-friendly environment and are now having to police content for fake news, harassment and hate speech, especially speech that could incite violence.
Most people would agree it is a good idea for social media services to ban unrepentant trolls like Alex Jones who repeatedly push fake news and conspiracy theories. They pollute those platforms with lies and deception.
But social media companies run the risk of shutting down legitimate debate if they go too far with their enforcement of what they consider acceptable speech. Already Facebook and Twitter have cast their nets too wide and shut down users that they shouldn’t have.
Here are some recent examples:
- Chuck Ross, a reporter at The Daily Caller, was suspended from Twitter after making a "learn to code" joke because it was considered harassment. (Reason; March 11, 2019)
- Actor and outspoken conservative James Woods was locked out of his Twitter account, after being suspended for “abusive behavior” by paraphrasing American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. (NTD; May 3, 2019)
- Twitter banned a parody account that made fun of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.), as well as the account’s creator and operator, Michael Morrison. (Reason; May 7, 2019)
- Twitter suspended a user for tweeting links to 3D printed gun designs. (Reason; May 17, 2019)
- Facebook deleted without warning or explanation the Banting7DayMealPlan user group. The group had 1.65 million users who post testimonials and other information regarding the efficacy of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. (Reason; May 24, 2019)
Related articles:
2018 was the year we (sort of) cleaned up the internet (Mashable; Dec. 26, 2018)
How Should Facebook (and Twitter, and YouTube, and …) Decide What Speech To Allow? (Reason; Dec. 31, 2018)
Should Twitter, Facebook, and Others Delete Provably Wrong Material? (Bloomberg Businessweek; March 5, 2019)
Facebook Has Every Right To Ban Louis Farrakhan and Alex Jones. But It's Still a Bad Idea. (Reason; May 3, 2019)
Here’s How Facebook Should Really Handle Alex Jones (Politico; May 3, 2019)
Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: Facebook Still Can't Figure Out How To Deal With Naked Breasts (Techdirt; May 6, 2019)
Photo: Twitter-inspired art from “Antisocial” photo series by Mike Campau.
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
More 2019 predictions: Walmart buys Roku, tough year ahead for Snap and Twitter
Some pundits like to wait until a new year has begun to trot out their predictions for the year ahead.
So, here’s a roundup of predictions from a few Johnny-come-latelies.
Walmart Buys Roku
BTIG media analyst Richard Greenfield thinks Walmart will buy streaming video platform Roku.
Walmart’s first foray into the online video market with its 2010 acquisition of Vudu has been a “clear failure,” Greenfield said in a Jan. 7 blog post. Now the retailer is exploring its own subscription video-on-demand service, but is late to the market.
“If the goal is to increase time spent with Walmart to drive retail spending (as Prime Video does for Amazon), we believe acquiring Roku could be Walmart’s most compelling entry point into streaming video,” Greenfield said.
Snap, Twitter stocks cut in half
Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business, sees a tough year ahead for social media firms Snap and Twitter. In a Jan. 13 post on Seeking Alpha, he said both companies will have their valuations cut in half this year.
When he published his article, Snap was trading at $6.28 a share (it was 5.64 at Wednesday’s market close) and Twitter was at $32.87 a share (now 32.47).
He called Snap “the walking dead.” Meanwhile, Twitter has seen its content overrun by bots and foreign agents, Galloway said.
A Big 3 network abandons its evening news broadcast
Robert Silvershein, a senior adviser with research firm TDG, thinks one of the Big 3 TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) will announce the end of its evening news broadcast after the 2020 election.
“2019 will be the year that TV network executives are forced to come to grips with the financial realities of their business,” he wrote in a blog post. “A television product that is expensive to make, with a 40-year decline in ratings, and a median viewer age of 60+ should have been cancelled a long time ago. But the prestige of owning a #1 evening news broadcast has been a legacy difficult to part with.”
Related articles:
Top 20 celebrities predicted to die in 2019 (Jan. 1, 2019)
2019 will be big year for plant-based meat, beer-brewing machines and ‘Harry Potter’ mobile game (Jan. 2, 2019)
2019 psychic predictions for Donald Trump, Taylor Swift and Apple (Jan. 14, 2019)
Photo: Limited-edition Roku SE streaming player sold exclusively at Walmart stores for Black Friday 2018. (Roku)
So, here’s a roundup of predictions from a few Johnny-come-latelies.
Walmart Buys Roku
BTIG media analyst Richard Greenfield thinks Walmart will buy streaming video platform Roku.
Walmart’s first foray into the online video market with its 2010 acquisition of Vudu has been a “clear failure,” Greenfield said in a Jan. 7 blog post. Now the retailer is exploring its own subscription video-on-demand service, but is late to the market.
“If the goal is to increase time spent with Walmart to drive retail spending (as Prime Video does for Amazon), we believe acquiring Roku could be Walmart’s most compelling entry point into streaming video,” Greenfield said.
Snap, Twitter stocks cut in half
Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business, sees a tough year ahead for social media firms Snap and Twitter. In a Jan. 13 post on Seeking Alpha, he said both companies will have their valuations cut in half this year.
When he published his article, Snap was trading at $6.28 a share (it was 5.64 at Wednesday’s market close) and Twitter was at $32.87 a share (now 32.47).
He called Snap “the walking dead.” Meanwhile, Twitter has seen its content overrun by bots and foreign agents, Galloway said.
A Big 3 network abandons its evening news broadcast
Robert Silvershein, a senior adviser with research firm TDG, thinks one of the Big 3 TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) will announce the end of its evening news broadcast after the 2020 election.
“2019 will be the year that TV network executives are forced to come to grips with the financial realities of their business,” he wrote in a blog post. “A television product that is expensive to make, with a 40-year decline in ratings, and a median viewer age of 60+ should have been cancelled a long time ago. But the prestige of owning a #1 evening news broadcast has been a legacy difficult to part with.”
Related articles:
Top 20 celebrities predicted to die in 2019 (Jan. 1, 2019)
2019 will be big year for plant-based meat, beer-brewing machines and ‘Harry Potter’ mobile game (Jan. 2, 2019)
2019 psychic predictions for Donald Trump, Taylor Swift and Apple (Jan. 14, 2019)
Photo: Limited-edition Roku SE streaming player sold exclusively at Walmart stores for Black Friday 2018. (Roku)
Sunday, October 14, 2018
‘Here today, gone tomorrow’ nature of the internet
The demise of Google Plus is another example of the “here today, gone tomorrow” nature of the World Wide Web.
Google announced last week that it is terminating its little-used social network. People who liked Google Plus as an alternative to Facebook and Pinterest are out of luck and their content will be deleted.
Over the years, quite a few online services that I’ve used have gone belly up. You can never be sure which web services will survive the test of time.
The same goes for media online. A few news organizations do a good job archiving their content and making it discoverable online. Many others have let libraries of digital content disappear, creating dead weblinks everywhere.
The Internet Archive announced earlier this month that 9 million formerly broken links on Wikipedia now work because they go to archived versions in the group’s Wayback Machine.
The non-profit organization is working to build and preserve an internet library. It will offer permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.
I applaud the Internet Archive and Wikipedia for the great work they are doing.
Often online articles disappear out of neglect, because an organization changes its content management system and doesn’t bother to transfer over older articles.
More recently social media services have started censoring the information members post to their networks.
Facebook announced last week that it has deleted 559 pages and 251 accounts that it claims were breaking its rules against spam and “inauthentic” behavior. The purge impacted some pages that had legitimate political speech. Those include the Free Thought Project and Police the Police, Reason reported.
This is a disturbing development since so much of the free speech debate today has shifted to online platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Photo: Wikipedia mosaic (Internet Archive)
Google announced last week that it is terminating its little-used social network. People who liked Google Plus as an alternative to Facebook and Pinterest are out of luck and their content will be deleted.
Over the years, quite a few online services that I’ve used have gone belly up. You can never be sure which web services will survive the test of time.
The same goes for media online. A few news organizations do a good job archiving their content and making it discoverable online. Many others have let libraries of digital content disappear, creating dead weblinks everywhere.
The Internet Archive announced earlier this month that 9 million formerly broken links on Wikipedia now work because they go to archived versions in the group’s Wayback Machine.
The non-profit organization is working to build and preserve an internet library. It will offer permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.
I applaud the Internet Archive and Wikipedia for the great work they are doing.
Often online articles disappear out of neglect, because an organization changes its content management system and doesn’t bother to transfer over older articles.
More recently social media services have started censoring the information members post to their networks.
Facebook announced last week that it has deleted 559 pages and 251 accounts that it claims were breaking its rules against spam and “inauthentic” behavior. The purge impacted some pages that had legitimate political speech. Those include the Free Thought Project and Police the Police, Reason reported.
This is a disturbing development since so much of the free speech debate today has shifted to online platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Photo: Wikipedia mosaic (Internet Archive)
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