Tag: Social Media

“… this fully armed and operational GAB station!”

(With apologies to Star Wars Episode VI for the headline!) The new ‘Twitter alternative’ social media platform, GAB, has just gone live after months of testing. Gab, a free speech Twitter alternative, has finally opened to the public after nearly nine months of beta testing. Users will now be able to sign up for the… Continue reading “… this fully armed and operational GAB station!”

The CIA, Google, the NSA, and the rest of the alphabet

Back in 2015, an interesting two-part article was published on medium.com. It purported to show how the Central Intelligence Agency was the early impetus behind Google, and how the latter then spearheaded the National Security Agency’s drive to collect any and all data available on everything and everybody.  The two parts are: How the CIA… Continue reading The CIA, Google, the NSA, and the rest of the alphabet

Twitter is becoming an ‘Orwellian nightmare’

Forbes has a worthwhile analysis of Twitter’s latest moves towards open, outright censorship of its users. Earlier this morning social media and the tech press lit up with reports of users across Twitter receiving half day suspensions en masse as the platform abruptly rolled out its decade-overdue  hate speech filter to its platform. The company… Continue reading Twitter is becoming an ‘Orwellian nightmare’

A fellow South African-American blogger needs help

I’m sure many of my readers know of Kim du Toit.  He’s an immigrant from South Africa, like me;  and, also like me, he married an American lady.  His blog, ‘The Other Side of Kim‘, was a regular destination for me for many years.  He stopped active blogging some time ago, but I understand he… Continue reading A fellow South African-American blogger needs help

Why not just call them liars?

I’m more than a little annoyed at the circumspection with which Facebook is being treated after acknowledging its fourth ‘mistake’ concerning viewer metrics in as many months. On Friday, Facebook revealed faulty metrics with Instant Articles, its mobile publishing system, the fourth disclosure of a measurement error since September. The admission sharpened calls for more… Continue reading Why not just call them liars?

Twitter’s ideological censors jump the shark

Twitter’s censorship of any conservative or right-wing opinions appears to have become blatant and ostentatious.  They clearly don’t care about upsetting anyone on that side of the political spectrum.  Of course, being a private company, Twitter can implement whatever policies it wants;  but for those of us who believe that freedom of speech is important,… Continue reading Twitter’s ideological censors jump the shark