Social Media & Big Tech news and discussions

[SerethiaFalcon]

Removed for personal reasons.

[wjfox]

Facebook and Instagram to label all fake AI images

33 minutes ago

Meta says it will introduce technology that can detect and label images generated by other companies' artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

It will be deployed on its platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Meta already labels AI images generated by its own systems. It says it hopes the new tech, which it is still building, will create "momentum" for the industry to tackle AI fakery.

But an AI expert told the BBC such tools are "easily evadable".

In a blog written by senior executive Sir Nick Clegg, Meta says it intends to expand its labelling of AI fakes "in the coming months".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68215619

[Time_Traveller]

Wasn't sure where to put this:-

Children's commissioner backs 'under-16s' phone'

1 hour ago

The children's commissioner has backed the idea of a "phone for under-16s" put forward by Brianna Ghey's mum to try to keep children safe online.

On Sunday, Esther Ghey said children must be stopped from having access to social media apps.

Her daughter's killers, both 15 at the time of the murder, were fascinated by violence and had planned the killing for weeks using a messaging app.

Dame Rachel de Souza told the BBC a ban on children having phones is unlikely, but more can be done to promote phones that are "safe by design".

That could theoretically include phones for children to be able to contact their parents, but not access social media sites.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjmdz4plpxwo

[Powers]

Wasn't sure where to put this:-

Children's commissioner backs 'under-16s' phone'

1 hour ago

The children's commissioner has backed the idea of a "phone for under-16s" put forward by Brianna Ghey's mum to try to keep children safe online.

On Sunday, Esther Ghey said children must be stopped from having access to social media apps.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjmdz4plpxwo

Just disable internet/make them call only like in old phones or at least limit them to replacements for that (Whatsapp maybe?).

I mean it's not bad idea but just making a phone that blocks social media (probably not gonna work either) and calling it a day until the next case is idiotic.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

now this is the real nanny state. Telling people what they can do and micromanagement. Thankfully judges are saying no! I remember when I was 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 years old surfing social media and watching storms and following science back in those times. What we're telling our kids is they can't and shouldn't be able to be inspired with the best minds of society or get into science or 50 million other good things that the internet offers. Pure bullshit.

[Tadasuke]

I'm now personally already 6 weeks without Facebook or Messenger. It was a good choice. I recommend it.

messy ventura has a point about social media, bots and search engines:



I think that both social media and search engines weren't really getting better for the average user after 2014 or so. There are some new functions, but also some new problems. The WWW really needs to improve.

[Tadasuke]

Just disable internet/make them call only like in old phones or at least limit them to replacements for that (Whatsapp maybe?).

I mean it's not bad idea but just making a phone that blocks social media (probably not gonna work either) and calling it a day until the next case is idiotic.

Some selected apps can be very useful. Most are not though. They could use phones like the ones from the middle 00s.

[wjfox]

Reddit’s Going Public — Should You Buy Right Away or Wait To Invest?

Mon, February 26, 2024 at 4:30 PM GMT·4 min read

Reddit is going public, having filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 22. This will be the first major tech IPO of the year and the first social media IPO since Pinterest in 2019, according to CNBC.

The company plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RDDT,” according to the filing. The IPO is slated for March.

What also makes Reddit’s IPO notable is that it plans to place a large part of its IPO shares in the hands of 75,000 of its most prolific so-called redditors — “an unusual move that could build loyalty but also comes with risk,” as The Wall Street Journal reported. In turn, they will be able to buy Reddit shares at its IPO price before the stock starts trading. This is “a privilege normally reserved only for big investors,” The Wall Street Journal added.

“We want this sense of ownership to be reflected in real ownership — for our users to be our owners,” the Reddit IPO filing read. “Becoming a public company makes this possible. With this in mind, we are excited to invite the users and moderators who have contributed to Reddit to buy shares in our IPO, alongside our investors.”

Yet, this might prove risky for the company, some experts and redditors noted, and in turn, risky for investors.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/reddit-g ... 58115.html

[caltrek]

Social Media Users Struggle to Identify AI Bots During Political Discourse
February 27, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) Artificial intelligence bots have already permeated social media. But can users tell who is human and who is not?

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame conducted a study using AI bots based on large language models — a type of AI developed for language understanding and text generation — and asked human and AI bot participants to engage in political discourse on a customized and self-hosted instance of Mastodon, a social networking platform.

The experiment was conducted in three rounds with each round lasting four days. After every round, human participants were asked to identify which accounts they believed were AI bots.

Fifty-eight percent of the time, the participants got it wrong.

“They knew they were interacting with both humans and AI bots and were tasked to identify each bot’s true nature, and less than half of their predictions were right,” said Paul Brenner, a faculty member and director in the Center for Research Computing at Notre Dame and senior author of the study. “We know that if information is coming from another human participating in a conversation, the impact is stronger than an abstract comment or reference. These AI bots are more likely to be successful in spreading misinformation because we can’t detect them.”

Additionally, the research team is planning for larger evaluations and is looking for more participants for its next round of experiments. To participate, email llmsamongus-list@nd.edu.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1035865

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[Time_Traveller]

TikTok warns of total ban in the US after decisive vote fast-tracked

4 hours ago

TikTok is facing a total ban in the US after lawmakers fast-tracked a vote on whether to crackdown on the Chinese-owned app.

Since launching more than seven years ago, TikTok has amassed more than 170 million users in the US, making it the largest audience outside of China for the ByteDance-owned app.

The video-sharing app’s popularity has raised concerns among politicians, privacy advocates and security agencies. The FBI warned last year that TikTok could be used to spread harmful propaganda due to ByteDance’s alleged ties to the Chinese government.

The US has already implemented a partial ban on TikTok, with various federal and state regulations blocking government workers and military personnel from using the app on official devices.

It is one of dozens of countries to have similar limitations in place, while several countries have issued an outright ban nationwide.

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/tikt ... ments-area

[weatheriscool]

House panel unanimously approves bill that could ban TikTok

Source: CNN

A powerful House committee advanced a bill on Thursday that could lead to a nationwide ban against TikTok on all electronic devices, renewing lawmakers’ challenge to one of the world’s most popular social media apps and highlighting unresolved fears that TikTok may pose a Chinese government spying risk.

The measure that sailed unanimously through the House Energy and Commerce Committee would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform — used by roughly 170 million Americans — is quickly spun off from its China-linked parent company, ByteDance.

If enacted, the bill would give ByteDance 165 days, or a little more than five months, to sell TikTok. If not divested by that date, it would be illegal for app store operators such as Apple and Google to make it available for download. The bill also contemplates similar prohibitions for other apps “controlled by foreign adversary companies.”

It’s the most aggressive legislation targeting TikTok to come out of a congressional committee since company CEO Shou Chew testified to lawmakers last year that the app poses no threat to Americans.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/07/tech/con ... index.html

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

ok

[Time_Traveller]

In my opinion, nothing lasts forever and it was bound to happen sooner or later, if it was under him or not.

[Powers]

In my opinion, nothing lasts forever and it was bound to happen sooner or later, if it was under him or not.

He did kill Nitter [F] though.

[weatheriscool]

This fucker is banning everyone for every tiny thing. Wtf kind of freedom is this?

[Time_Traveller]

This fucker is banning everyone for every tiny thing. Wtf kind of freedom is this?

He just wants to turn it into his version of Drumpf's Truth Social, get rid of all Centre and Left-wing accounts and what do you have left?