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Racists and Taliban supporters have flocked to Twitter’s new audio service after executives ignored warnings
Live audio – from Twitter Spaces to that on Clubhouse – is a boom industry with plenty of interest and investment. The ease of use of joining or creating a live audio space, enabled by tech and habit formation over the pandemic, has effectively created a new mainstream medium.
But innovation has outpaced moderation here. As the above article notes – despite being warned ahead of time – there is a problem with Twitter’s foray into owning he live audio space. The chief unintended consequence? It’s effectively providing a safe space for the worst sort of people:
“Fast forward six months and those problems have become reality. Taliban supporters, white nationalists, and anti-vaccine activists sowing coronavirus misinformation have hosted live audio broadcasts on Spaces that hundreds of people have tuned in to, according to researchers, users and screenshots viewed by The Washington Post.”
Media companies riding the eCommerce wave seek to consolidate their successes
Last year supercharged eCommerce, with lockdowns ensuring that both the total number of online shoppers and frequency of purchases increased fivefold. So which publishers are taking advantage of that? Chris Sutcliffe rounds up the key eCommerce moments of the year as part of our Media Moments 2021 report.
European regulation of online disinformation may be a “game changer” in 2022
There’s any number of reasons to be worried about regulation of online information (and disinformation). First and foremost – who’s doing the regulation, and on behalf of whom? This article from CJR makes a good go at explaining why examples of regulation in Europe have a decent chance of being misused.
Blunder prevents early BuzzFeed employees from selling their shares
After BuzzFeed went public some early employees who had been kept on side with share options ended up losing out. More importantly Jonah Peretti finally said what I’ve expected to hear for years – that he’s unwilling to accept a news organisation that loses money. It’s been a long time coming, but without a plan to make BuzzFeed News profitable, the writing is on the wall.
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