Snap’s big night, and everything you missed over the break
Every good new year begins with a party, and so too does our first newsletter of 2018. It seems that Snap rang in Jan. 1 with a $4 million party at LA Live, the collection of middling chain restaurants that surrounds the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. Chris Mims had the easy (and, among journalists, representative) take: “Snapchat lost almost half a billion dollars in its most recent 3 month reporting period and 99 cents out of every new ad dollar goes to Google and Facebook but hey at least everyone had fun.”
It’s true that Snap had a bruising 2017. And it’s also true that its risky redesign still hasn’t shipped to most users, despite being announced in November. I can understand why some might look at a giant New Year’s Eve party and conclude that Evan Spiegel was fiddling while Rome burns.
And yet the same facts that have journalists cranky strike me as actually-pretty-good reasons to throw an epic party. Facebook’s relentless cloning of Snapchat not only blunted the company’s business momentum — it also threatened to make it look doomed. That’s bad for morale, bad for recruitment, and bad for the media narrative around the company.
No party can turn that around. And yet flying in every employee from around the world, and treating to them performances from Drake and Diplo, may have been exactly what Snap needed as it began the year. A strict privacy policy was both in keeping with the company’s values and a guarantee that at least some of the 5,000 guests in attendance would violate it. Posts about the “irony” of Snap’s party being visible only on Instagram inevitably followed.
And if you’re Snap, how great is that? All the basics in attendance at your New Year’s bash promote it on Instagram, while everyone trying to find it in Snapchat itself finds only an exclusive club they can’t get into. Snap’s reputation as a private place for real friends is burnished, even as its party becomes the stuff of public legends.
I’m not saying any of this was the point of the party — I hate that kind of cheap, 4-dimensional chess analysis. But writing off Snap’s big night as tech-bro cluelessness feels just as cheap. It’s going to be a big year for Snap — might as well start it off with a bang.
Democracy
‘Fake News’: Wide Reach but Little Impact, Study Suggests — www.nytimes.com
What if fake news matters less than we think?
The reach of fake news was wide indeed, the study found, yet also shallow. One in four Americans saw at least one false story, but even the most eager fake-news readers — deeply conservative supporters of President Trump — consumed far more of the real kind, from newspaper and network websites and other digital sources.
While the research can’t settle the question of whether misinformation was pivotal in the 2016 election, the findings give the public and researchers the first solid guide to asking how its influence may have played out. That question will become increasingly important as online giants like Facebook and Google turn to shielding their users from influence by Russian operatives and other online malefactors.
Iranians Turn to Telegram App Amid Protests — WSJ — www.wsj.com
The WSJ looks at how Telegram became a popular tool for dissent in Iran. Notably, it’s private group chat rather than public posting — and messages can be set to self-destruct. One of the themes we’re expecting to keep unfolding in 2018 is a retreat to private spaces, and here it is:
“Telegram has been the most important tool for many Iranians to access uncensored news and information,” said Fereidoon Bashar co-director of ASL19, a Canada-based research and tech lab that helps people in Iran access information. Sharing news and information has become important during the protests, which have evolved without centralized leadership, Mr. Bashar said.
Twitter Temporarily Locked Sheriff David Clarke’s Account Over A Violent Tweet — www.buzzfeed.com
Good.
Clarke regained full access of his account only after deleting three offending tweets, including one encouraging his followers to hit the “LYING LIB MEDIA” in the face.
“Punch them in the nose & MAKE THEM TASTE THEIR OWN BLOOD,” Clarke tweeted Saturday, providing no evidence of lies. He attached an image of two wrestlers beating up another that was labelled “CNN.” Clarke’s and President Trump’s faces were superimposed on the wrestlers delivering the beatdown.
Why did Google think LaVar Ball founded the NBA? — theoutline.com
Today in whoops:
LaVar Ball is arguably the most famous current NBA dad, because he talks so much shit that his son’s team blocked reporters from entering the seating reserved for players’ friends and family. He claimed he could beat Michael Jordan one on one; he got into a protracted argument with Donald Trump; he pulled his two younger sons out of school and sent them to Lithuania to become European stars. He did not, however, found the NBA.
Danny Sullivan offered an explanation later in the day.
The Honest Ads Act has stalled
It has picked up a few cosponsors but appears to be basically dead in the Senate.
And now, here are the biggest stories in social media and democracy from over the break.
Dec. 25
Kremlin trolls burned across the Internet as Washington debated options — www.washingtonpost.com
On Christmas we learned of another tool in Russia’s misinformation war: freelance journalists! Read the story for the darkly comic details, or just absorb the significance here:
The events surrounding the FBI’s NorthernNight investigation follow a pattern that repeated for years as the Russian threat was building: U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies saw some warning signs of Russian meddling in Europe and later in the United States but never fully grasped the breadth of the Kremlin’s ambitions. Top U.S. policymakers didn’t appreciate the dangers, then scrambled to draw up options to fight back. In the end, big plans died of internal disagreement, a fear of making matters worse or a misguided belief in the resilience of American society and its democratic institutions.
Using Billions in Government Cash, Mexico Controls News Media — www.nytimes.com
If you can’t legislate a state media into existence, perhaps you can buy it. Mexico is trying, as the Times notes in this deeply reported piece.
President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration has spent hundreds of millions of dollars a year in government money on advertising, creating what many Mexican media owners, executives and journalists call a presidential branding juggernaut capable of suppressing investigative articles, directing front pages and intimidating newsrooms that challenge it.
Despite vowing to regulate government publicity, Mr. Peña Nieto has spent more money on media advertising than any other president in Mexico’s history — nearly $2 billion in the past five years, according to government data compiled by Fundar, a transparency group. It found that his administration spent more than twice the generous media budget Mexican lawmakers allotted it for 2016 alone.
Dec. 26
Vietnam unveils 10,000-strong cyber unit to combat ‘wrong views’ — www.reuters.com
To what extent will Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube be complicit here?
Communist-ruled Vietnam has stepped up attempts to tame the internet, calling for closer watch over social networks and for the removal of content that it deems offensive, but there has been little sign of it silencing criticism when the companies providing the platforms are global.
Dec. 27
Confessions of a Digital Nazi Hunter — The New York Times — www.nytimes.com
Twitter suspending a bot that helped to enforce its own policies was an extremely chef’s-kiss way for it to end 2017:
The Nazis realized they couldn’t beat the bot, so they started mass-reporting it to Twitter for “harassment.” Just as they duplicitously cast themselves as minorities, they disingenuously recast our response to their ongoing abuse as harassment.
Twitter sided with the Nazis.
Dec. 28
Facebook Removes Chechen Strongman’s Accounts, Raising Policy Questions — www.nytimes.com
Ramzan Kadyrov is the strongman who runs Chechnya for Vladimir Putin. He is now without his Facebook and Instagram accounts. Is that a good thing? (He’s still on Twitter, for what it’s worth.)
A Facebook spokeswoman said that Mr. Kadyrov’s accounts were deactivated because he had just been added to a United States sanctions list and that the company was legally obligated to act.
Mr. Kadyrov has reportedly been involved in acts of torture, kidnapping and murder, among other human rights abuses.
Many other people on sanctions lists, however, remain active on Facebook and Instagram, including President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and many in his government. But the move against the Chechen leader — despite his violent background — is only the latest in a seemingly arbitrary and often opaque decision-making process that has drawn criticism of the social media giant.
Facebook’s Uneven Enforcement of Hate Speech Rules — www.propublica.org
Today in journalists playing community-standards beat cop: ProPublica found a bunch of posts that seemed to violate Facebook’s hate speech rules but were not removed. Facebook cried mea culpa:
We asked Facebook about its handling of 49 posts that might be deemed offensive. The company acknowledged that its content reviewers had made the wrong call on 22 of them.
These Are 50 Of The Biggest Fake News Hits On Facebook In 2017 — www.buzzfeed.com
This may have been the most demoralizing piece I read over the break:
Facebook’s major effort to stop the spread of false articles on its platform did not result in less engagement for the most viral hoaxes in 2017, according to an analysis by BuzzFeed News. In fact, the analysis found that the 50 most viral fake news stories of 2017 generated more total shares, reactions, and comments than the top 50 hoaxes of 2016.
Dec. 29
How Climate Change Deniers Rise to the Top in Google Searches — www.nytimes.com
Google search results are becoming their own kind of filter bubble, the Times reported:
Less scrutinized has been the way tech companies continue to provide a mass platform for the most extreme sites among those that use false or misleading science to reject the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change. Google’s search page has become an especially contentious battleground between those who seek to educate the public on the established climate science and those who reject it.
Not everyone who uses Google will see climate denial ads in their search results. Google’s algorithms use search history and other data to tailor ads to the individual, something that is helping to create a highly partisan internet.
Dec. 31
Rouhani urges protesters to eschew violence as anti-government unrest grips Iran — www.washingtonpost.com
I don’t know why I’m surprised that Instagram is considered a tool for protest — obviously it is! But it’s still wild that this is happening:
The moderate Rouhani struck a conciliatory tone in his address to the nation. But even as he attempted to mollify protesters, authorities said they blocked Instagram and the messaging app Telegram on Sunday in a move aimed at blunting the demonstrations.
Jan. 1
Germany starts enforcing hate speech law — BBC News — www.bbc.com
Here’s one to watch this year:
Sites that do not remove “obviously illegal” posts could face fines of up to 50m euro (£44.3m). The law gives the networks 24 hours to act after they have been told about law-breaking material.
Social networks and media sites with more than two million members will fall under the law’s provisions. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be the law’s main focus but it is also likely to be applied to Reddit, Tumblr and Russian social network VK. Other sites such as Vimeo and Flickr could also be caught up in its provisions.
Elsewhere
The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook — www.wsj.com
The good news is that tech platforms are finally expanding their armies of contractors responsible for hunting down bad posts. The bad news is that this is a super disturbing job!
Former content moderators recall having to view images of war victims who had been gutted or drowned and child soldiers engaged in killings. One former Facebook moderator reviewed a video of a cat being thrown into a microwave.
Workers sometimes quit on their first or second day. Some leave for lunch and never come back. Others remain unsettled by the work — and what they saw as a lack of emotional support or appreciation — long after they quit.
YouTube Has A Massive Child Exploitation Problem. How Humans Train Its Search AI Is Partly Why. — www.buzzfeed.com
Speaking of moderation, here’s the scene over at YouTube:
But guidelines and screenshots obtained by BuzzFeed News, as well as interviews with 10 current and former “raters” — contract workers who train YouTube’s search algorithms — offer insight into the flaws in YouTube’s system. These documents and interviews reveal a confusing and sometimes contradictory set of guidelines, according to raters, that asks them to promote “high quality” videos based largely on production values, even when the content is disturbing. This not only allows thousands of potentially exploitative kids videos to remain online, but could also be algorithmically amplifying their reach.
Instagram Is Now a Dating Platform, Too. Here’s How It Works.
All software attempts to expand until it’s a dating app:
Not only does Instagram provide a visually driven collage of your life, it also offers a subtle way of expressing interest through likes and comments, and connecting in the form of a private chat. Meanwhile, the lists of users who have looked at each of your Story cards mean that you now have data — rudimentary and inconclusive, but still, data! — on who exactly is obsessing over you today, tomorrow and yesterday.
What @jack did on his holiday break — twitter.com
“Just finished a 10 day silent meditation. Wow, what a reset! Fortunate & grateful I was able to take the time. Happy New Year! 😌 #Vipassana”
Launches
Snapchat Developing “Stories Everywhere” to Push Content Outside the App and Grow Users on Cheddar — cheddar.com
Good!
While Stories Everywhere is still in the early stages of development, Chopra has the important task of figuring out how to finally distribute the app’s wealth of user-generated content on the web and elsewhere. The project could mean that Snapchat makes it easier to share videos on other platforms through a web player that also prompts people to sign up and download the app, the person familiar with the matter told Cheddar.
Takes
Logan Paul Posted a YouTube Video of a Dead Body in Japan — nymag.com
Everybody has something to say about Logan Paul posting, and then deleting, footage of a person who had committed suicide that he stumbled across while doing a wacky reaction video inside a Japanese forest where people go to commit suicide.
Madison Malone Kirchner says videos like the one in question are a natural consequence of a YouTube economy that demands its stars constantly top their previous stunts:
In Paul’s world, Vlog World, the more outrageous a video — the crazier the title, the clickier the headline, the thirstier the thumbnail image — the better. Paul’s legions of fans watch his videos because they want to see the 22-year-old’s reactions. They want to know exactly what he’s thinking and feeling in the face of dramatic situations. (Situations that, of course, set him up to constantly be one-upping his previous pranks, stunts, and videos.)
Why Logan Paul Should Really Worry Us — www.vanityfair.com
Richard Lawson says it’s not Paul, it’s what he represents:
What’s really a problem is something a bit more intangible, more ineffable. It’s the sense that YouTube has created not just its own economy — we’ve heard plenty about that already — but a kind of ethical relativism that, even in the intense glare of mass criticism like Paul got yesterday, seems almost invincible to any outside influence.
The year we wanted the internet to be smaller — www.theverge.com
My colleague Kaitlyn Tiffany on why tiny, weird online communities made a comeback in 2017:
The mainstream social internet is so big; everyone is connected to everyone, over a billion on Facebook alone. The consequences of connection — fake news, radicalization, massive targeted harassment campaigns, algorithmically-generated psychological torment, inane bullshit — were not part of what we were sold. We don’t really have the option of moving our lives off of the internet, and coordinated boycotts of our monstrous platforms have been brief and mostly fruitless. But many of us found ways to renegotiate the terms of how we spent our time online. Rather than the enormous platforms that couldn’t decide if, let alone how they had contributed to the election of a deranged narcissist or the rise of the virulently racist alt-right or a pending nuclear holocaust, why not something smaller, safer, more immediately useful?
Should Regulators Force Facebook To Ship a “Start Over” Button For Users? — hunterwalk.com
Yes they should!
And finally …
This is just a tweetstorm about the Great British Baking Show — twitter.com
It made me laugh so much. Happy New Year!
Talk to me
Questions? Comments? Surreptitiously taken snaps from a New Year’s Party? casey@theverge.com
Jan.
