Social Media

Uganda bans social media in run off to presidential election

Uganda’s communications regulator has imposed a blanket ban on all social media and messaging apps since Wednesday until further notice, South African telecoms company MTN Group said in a statement. Reuters confirmed it had seen a letter from the Ugandan communications regulator dated 12th January 2021 which ordered internet service providers to “immediately suspend any […]

Twitter without Trump tumbles along with other tech shares

Shares of social media and other tech companies slid Monday, hit by fallout from the siege on the U.S. Capitol by supporter of President Donald Trump. Twitter’s stock ended the day down 6.4% after the company on Friday permanently shut down Trump’s account, @realDonaldTrump, which had 89 million followers. The social network cited concerns the […]

Report: Social media manipulation affects even US senators

The conversation taking place on the verified social media accounts of two U.S. senators remained vulnerable to manipulation, even amid heightened scrutiny in the run up to the U.S. presidential election, an investigation by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence found. Researchers from the center, a NATO-accredited research group based in Riga, Latvia, paid […]

Did social media actually counter election misinformation?

Ahead of the election, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube promised to clamp down on election misinformation, including unsubstantiated charges of fraud and premature declarations of victory by candidates. And they mostly did just that — though not without a few hiccups. But overall their measures still didn’t really address the problems exposed by the 2020 U.S. […]

Trump, Biden fight for primacy on social media platforms

WASHINGTON (AP) — On an average day, President Donald Trump sends about 14 posts to the 28 million Facebook followers of his campaign account. His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, delivers about half that many posts to an audience of just 2 million. The numbers are similarly skewed in other spheres of the social media landscape. […]

Will social media platforms retain their power?

US President Donald Trump’s War with Twitter has engendered a series of legal moves against social media platforms. In fact, not only is Trump wanting to drop immunity for the online platform but also US lawmakers. The Department of Justice and Trump administration have been urging Congress to limit legal protection enjoyed by these platforms […]