Media
Forbes Favorites 2020: The Year's Best Social Media Stories – Forbes
As the world retreated indoors, we spent even more time online—video chatting, attending virtual concerts and crowning a new wave of young celebrities. Here are eight of the year’s best reads from the world of social media.
Lockdown’s Unexpected Stars: The Bread Influencers
Quarantine boredom sparked a boom in at-home baking. In turn, this prompted a shortage in basic supplies like flour and yeast—and the rise of an entirely new type of social media influencer: amateur and small-time professional bakers figuring out how to monetize their overnight fame. “People have got a lot of time on their hands,” said one such new internet star, 36-year-old Kristen Denis of Chicago. “They want to focus on something, to use their brains.”
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Tweeting For Cash: The Coronavirus Has Some Pleading For Money On Social Media
“We’re in a precarious situation,” lamented Las Vegas performer Mackenzie Claude. “Everything is being put on pause.” In the initial days of the pandemic, dozens of people like Claude took to Twitter to beg for help. The trend was widespread enough to catch the attention of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who days later offered to send money to needy people who messaged him.
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Absurdist Facebook Groups Are Thriving In The Pandemic
In another effort to fill time in lockdown, millions of people joined Facebook groups in which all the members adopted imaginary personas and imagined their lives as different types of animals. One such group devoted itself to frogs, picturing their existence in a lily-pad-filled pond. (It currently has nearly 25,000 members.) Another set went with aardvarks. (Nearly 28,000 there.) And 1.9 million Facebookers chose to join the same ant colony. Among its rules, no “antarchy.”
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How Teens Are Using Anonymous Google Docs—And Enlisting A YouTube Star—To Out Allegedly Racist Classmates
As protests over George Floyd’s death sparked a nationwide reckoning over race, some teenagers chose to chronicle their experiences with racist peers in anonymous Google Docs. “Some people say, ‘You’re ruining their lives,’” said a young woman running one of the Docs. “I think it’s the only way to prove to them that actions do have consequences.”
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Discord Was Once The Alt-Right’s Favorite Chat App. Now It’s Gone Mainstream And Scored A New $3.5 Billion Valuation.
Discord cofounders Jason Citron, 35, and Stan Vishnevskiy, 31, opened up for the first time about their company’s most infamous moment—when neo-Nazis used the messaging platform to plan the 2017 Charlottesville protests—and detailed their vision forward for the now widely used app. Discord became popular among those stuck at home, remote teachers and even Black Lives Matter protestors. After raising new funding in June, it scored another $100 million in December, roughly doubling its valuation in a year to $7 billion.
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TikTok’s 7 Highest-Earning Stars
Our inaugural ranking of the highest-paid TikTokers put a spotlight on the newest cast of teen celebrities, who are turning videos of silly memes and choreographed dances into million-dollar paydays. These influencers have won corporate sponsorships from the likes of Sony, Chipotle and Revlon and nurtured lucrative lines of personally branded merchandise.
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How Hip-Hop Superstar Travis Scott Has Become Corporate America’s Brand Whisperer
Travis Scott earned a place on our Under 30 list three years ago for his music credentials, back when he was a rap star with a love of mosh-pit concerts. He’s since become big brands’ go-to business partner, staging a virtual concert within Fortnite, developing a co-branded meal and merchandise with McDonald’s and, more recently, teasing a new PlayStation deal that might include a Scott-branded console and video game.
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How A Former Pizza Hut Delivery Guy Used TikTok And Instagram To Build Gymshark Into A Billion-Dollar Sportswear Brand
“When Apple started, it was adopted by architects, creatives and other sorts of cool kids,” says 28-year-old Ben Francis, the founder of Gymshark athleticwear. “Our fans count their macros and know how to do a proper deadlift.” Francis has deftly combined brain and brawn, recruiting an army of fitness influencers to sell $330 million worth of his high-end gym clothes.
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Media
CTV National News: Social media giants sued – CTV News
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CTV National News: Social media giants sued CTV News
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India’s media – captured and censored
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Across almost every form of media in India – social, broadcast and print – Narendra Modi and the BJP hold sway.
With India amid a national election campaign, its news media is in sharp focus. Until recently it was believed that the sheer diversity of outlets ensured a range of perspectives, but now, India’s mainstream media has largely been co-opted by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Just how did the media in India get to this point and what does it mean for the upcoming elections?
Featuring:
Ravish Kumar – Former Host, NDTV
Shashi Shekhar Vempati – Former CEO, Prasar Bharati
Pramod Raman – Chief Editor, MediaOne
Amy Kazmin – Former South Asia Bureau Chief, Financial Times
Meena Kotwal – Founder, The Mooknayak
Media
Social media lawsuit launched by Ontario school boards
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Premier Doug Ford says that lawsuits launched by four Ontario school boards against multiple social media platforms are “nonsense” and risk becoming a distraction to the work that really matters.
The school boards, including three in the Greater Toronto Area, have launched lawsuits seeking $4.5 billion in damages against Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta, the owner of both Facebook and Instagram, for creating products that they allege negligently interfere with student learning and have caused “widespread disruption to the education system.”
But at an unrelated news conference in Ottawa on Friday, Ford said that he “disagrees” with the legal action and worries it could take the focus away from “the core values of education.”
“Let’s focus on math, reading and writing. That is what we need to do, put all the resources into the kids,” he said. “What are they spending lawyers fees to go after these massive companies that have endless cash to fight this? Let’s focus on the kids, not this other nonsense that they are looking to fight in court.”
Four separate but similar statements of claim were filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of JusticSocial media lawsuit launched by Ontario school boards pervasive problems such as distraction, social withdrawal, cyberbullying, a rapid escalation of aggression, and mental health challenges,” Colleen Russell-Rawlins, the director of education with the Toronto District School Board, said in a news release issued Thursday.
“It is imperative that we take steps to ensure the well-being of our youth. We are calling for measures to be implemented to mitigate these harms and prioritize the mental health and academic success of our future generation.”
The school boards are represented by Toronto-based law firm Neinstein LLP and the news release states that school boards “will not be responsible for any costs related to the lawsuit unless a successful outcome is reached.”
These lawsuits come as hundreds of school districts in the United States file similar suits.
“A strong education system is the foundation of our society and our community. Social media products and the changes in behaviour, judgement and attention that they cause pose a threat to that system and to the student population our schools serve,” Duncan Embury, the head of litigation at Neinstein LLP, said in the new release.
“We are proud to support our schools and students in this litigation with the goal of holding social media giants accountable and creating meaningful change.”
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