Tag: Social media

How Barstool’s Dave Portnoy Built a Pizza Empire

Tito Ibarra traveled from Clemson, S.C., to New York City with one mission: to eat a slice from all 35 pizzerias at the One Bite Pizza Festival. He was in the city for just about 12 hours: He landed in the morning, after driving two hours to Atlanta and taking a two-and-a-half-hour flight. Then, he […]

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‘Dumb Money’ and the Meme Stock Phenomenon

The new movie “Dumb Money” dramatizes the true story of an unlikely messiah named Roaring Kitty who decides to sink his life savings into shares of the video-game seller GameStop and then praise the stock to his fans. So many people buy GameStop shares that the company’s valuation soars, crushing the positions of professional hedge […]

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The Honey Pot: What’s Behind the Rise of the New Feminine Care Brand

On a recent July evening in Midtown Manhattan, a trio of teenage girls swooped into the feminine care aisle at Target. Skipping over the boxes of Always and Tampax tampons, they made a beeline to a shelf with sanitary pads from the Honey Pot Company. One asked her friend if she was going to pick […]

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Supreme Court to Hear Challenges to State Laws on Social Media

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether Florida and Texas may prohibit large social media companies from removing posts based on the views they express, setting the stage for a major ruling on how the First Amendment applies to powerful tech platforms. The laws’ supporters argue that the measures are needed to combat […]

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China Uses ‘Deceptive’ Methods to Sow Disinformation, U.S. Says

The State Department accused China on Thursday of using “deceptive and coercive methods” to shape the global information environment, by acquiring stakes in foreign newspapers and television networks, using major social media platforms to promote its views and exerting pressure on international organizations and media outlets to silence critics of Beijing. The accusations, detailed in […]

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WTF: Idaho High School Students Spell Out N-Word in Photo and Share on Social Media

Screenshot: Courtesy Photo It’s happened again. Yet another group of high school students can’t help but post a racial slur on social media. Stay Outta Black Businesses’ Business Off English In a now-deleted photo, a group of six Idaho high school students are seen spelling out the N-word on their shirts while also holding up […]

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The Republicans Driving the U.S. Toward a Government Shutdown

Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday was toiling to build Republican support for a long-shot bid to avert a shutdown, floating a bill that would keep government funding flowing at vastly reduced levels while imposing stringent immigration restrictions demanded by conservatives. The proposal stands little chance in the Democrat-controlled Senate. But Mr. McCarthy’s more immediate problem […]

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Meet the A.I. Jane Austen: Meta Weaves A.I. Throughout Its Apps

In a WhatsApp text conversation this week, we asked Jane Austen — yes, the 19th-century British author — how she felt about Mr. Darcy, a character from one of her most famous works, “Pride and Prejudice.” After a few seconds, Ms. Austen responded. “Ah, Mr. Darcy. Everyone remembers him as one of my characters,” she […]

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New Survey Reveals Black People Still Don’t Trust Media When It Comes to Our Portrayal

Photo: Eli Wilson (Shutterstock) According to a new study released Tuesday by Pew Research Center, Black Americans rightfully remain skeptical as hell when it comes to how the media covers our communities. My Hip-Hop Story: Cedric The Entertainer On Jay-Z and His Indisputable Role In Shaping The Genre’s Culture Off English The survey reveals that […]

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To Bring Socializing Back to Social Networks, Apps Try A.I. Imagery

Myuri Thiruna, a freelance photographer in Toronto, used to post frequently on Instagram and discuss photography with other users. But she said she had stopped two years ago, feeling “drained” by the demands of social media and the pursuit of followers and trends. Then in July, Ms. Thiruna discovered Can of Soup, a new invitation-only […]

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Gerry Turner Is the First ‘Golden Bachelor.’ Just Don’t Call Him a Silver Fox.

Women keep approaching Gerry Turner in airports, asking to pose for pictures with him. This is not something that ever happened in the first seven decades of his life. But a lot has changed since Mr. Turner, 72, signed up to date 22 women on a reality television show. For example: He has been spending […]

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E.U. Law Sets the Stage for a Clash Over Disinformation

The Facebook page in Slovakia called Som z dediny, which means “I’m from the village,” trumpeted a debunked Russian claim last month that Ukraine’s president had secretly purchased a vacation home in Egypt under his mother-in-law’s name. A post on Telegram — later recycled on Instagram and other sites — suggested that a parliamentary candidate […]

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Have you heard about the “whom of which” trend?

Back in the spring of 2022, professor of linguistics David Pesetsky was talking to an undergraduate class about relative clauses, which add information to sentences. For instance: “The senator, with whom we were speaking, is a policy expert.” Relative clauses often feature “who,” “which,” “that,” and so on. Before long a student, Kanoe Evile ’23, […]

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Why the Cool Kids Can Never Forgive the Tabi Theft

All this is funneled through Dougé’s narration, leaving questions galore. How did the man target the right size? Did he really think he could get away with it? Had he learned nothing from “West Elm Caleb”? The Tabi swiper gets no nuanced biography here; depending on your degree of sympathy for property crime, he is […]

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Trump Tells Gun Store He’d Like to Buy a Glock, Raising Legal Questions

A spokesman for former President Donald J. Trump posted a video on Monday showing him at a gun shop in South Carolina, declaring that he had just bought a Glock pistol. The post on X, formerly known as Twitter, included video of Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican Party’s nomination for president who is […]

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Egg Crack Challenge and Cheese Slice Trick: Are Parents OK?

That is the eeriest part of these videos — the parents are barely interacting with their kids. Instead they are relating to a mirror image of their children that they are spreading online. And they are reveling in their power over that image. Children in crisis have been an onscreen fascination since the beginning of […]

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This Is How A.I. Ruins the Internet

Greg Marston, a British voice actor, recently came across “Connor” online — an A.I.-generated clone of his voice, trained on a recording Mr. Marston had made in 2003. It was his voice uttering things he had never said. Back then, he had recorded a session for IBM and later signed a release form allowing the […]

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‘Victoria’s Secret Karen’ Video: Lawsuits Show What Viewers Didn’t See

It began with a Covid-era tussle over social distancing at a New Jersey shopping mall known for its high-end stores. Ijeoma Ukenta had gone there to use a coupon for a free pair of Victoria’s Secret underwear. Another shopper, Abigail Elphick, got too close, Ms. Ukenta said, leading her to ask the woman to move […]

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School of Engineering welcomes Songyee Yoon PhD ’00 as visiting innovation scholar

Songyee Yoon PhD ’00, an entrepreneur, innovator, investor, and leader in AI and the gaming industry, has been appointed as a School of Engineering visiting innovation scholar for the 2023-24 academic year. Yoon, who is as a member of the MIT Corporation, serves as president and chief strategic officer of NCSOFT, a world leader in […]

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Full-Body MRI Scans Like Prenuvo Have Become a Status Symbol. Do They Work?

For $2,499, Prenuvo will try to predict your future. The company offers a roughly hourlong session of magnetic resonance imaging, or M.R.I., that scans your entire body, searching for early signs of cancer, aneurysms, liver diseases and even multiple sclerosis. In recent months, images of celebrities and influencers posing in branded scrubs in front of […]

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Phil Mickelson Says Gambling Addiction ‘Isn’t Any Fun at All’

Phil Mickelson, the golf great whose issues with gambling have made headlines throughout the years, took to social media on Monday to share details about his addiction, and to offer a warning to potential bettors ahead of this year’s N.F.L. season. As the 2023-24 football season kicked off in earnest, Mickelson posted on X to […]

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Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk to Meet in California

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Elon Musk, the owner of X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter, have both faced intense scrutiny and criticism for most of the year. Mr. Netanyahu has been the target of a nine-month wave of mass protests against his deeply contentious effort to reduce the power of […]

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How TikTok Stars Like B. Dylan Hollis are Reshaping the American Cookbook

Three years ago, B. Dylan Hollis was an unemployed musician in Wyoming who had never baked anything outside a home-economics class, much less written a recipe. Last month, his debut cookbook, “Baking Yesteryear,” became the best-selling book in the country. Not just the best-selling cookbook — the No. 1 book. “Baking Yesteryear,” which features vintage […]

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I Was Attacked by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I Believe It Was a Strategy To Change What You See Online.

When I worked at Twitter, I led the team that placed a fact-checking label on one of Donald Trump’s tweets for the first time. Following the violence of Jan. 6, I helped make the call to ban his account from Twitter altogether. Nothing prepared me for what would happen next. Backed by fans on social […]

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Rishi Sunak to Ban ‘American Bully XL’ Dogs in the U.K.

The video, shot from a passing bus and lasting barely a minute, is harrowing. A powerful young dog bites an 11-year-old girl in front of a grocery store in Birmingham, England. As pedestrians scatter in terror, the dog chases a man into a gas station plaza, pulling him down repeatedly, its jaws clamped on the […]

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‘One of the Most Hated People in the World’: Sam Bankman-Fried’s 250 Pages of Justifications

At the end of a 15,000-word Twitter thread he never posted, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, offered a blunt assessment of his predicament. “I’m broke and wearing an ankle monitor and one of the most hated people in the world,” he wrote. “There will probably never be anything I can […]

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Jonathan Majors ‘Fight’ Video Memes Go Viral As Domestic Violence Trial Set To Begin

NewsOne Featured Video Actor Jonathan Majors leaves Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on August 3, 2023. | Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty The predicament in which Jonathan Majors finds himself is no laughing matter, what with his domestic violence trial scheduled to begin on Friday following multiple delays. But still, it would be […]

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T.I.’s Son Responds to Criticism for Offering Homeless Man $50 To Do One Chip Challenge

There’s a serious contempt for the unhoused in this country and it needs to be stopped. From aggressive architecture, to legislation and laws specifically designed to target the homeless, America has a lack of compassion for those who are struggling to get back on their feet. This issue can be seen on full display in […]

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