This digital app makes banned books freely available to everyone
With bans on important literary genres on the rise across America, an app called The Banned Book Club is a digital library that makes banned books available for everyone, regardless of where they are located. Across America, libraries are being forced to pull highly acclaimed books from their shelves. State-wide bans...
Current in Social
Tinder rolls out new ‘SELECT’ feature for $499 USD a month
The new premium tier will allow paying users to see the ‘most sought after profiles’, promises to boost their profile, and grants the ability to DM others even if they haven’t matched. Tinder is rolling out an exclusive and expensive new feature called ‘SELECT’. Operating as an invite-only subscription model,...
Safer Plage app protects women from sexual harassment on the beach
A city in France has recently launched an app to protect women from sexual harassment at the beach. Nobody should be made to feel uncomfortable or unsafe, but unfortunately sexual harassment is a hugely prevalent problem, especially for women. According to a 2018 study conducted by IFOP (French Institute of Public...
New study reveals the extent of teenage smartphone use
A recent report from Common Sense Media has found that, on average, half of 11 to 17-year-olds get at least 237 notifications a day, raising concerns that this is affecting the cognitive ability, attention span, and memory of their still-developing brains. It’s no secret that young people are addicted to...
UK grooming cases reach record highs amid online safety law delay
Amid the butting of heads between UK ministers and tech firms over end-to-end encryption, instances of child grooming have reached record highs in 2023. The ongoing impasse over end-to-end encryption is having severe consequences in the UK. In order to appease app users, an increasing number of tech firms are offering...
Young people are using TikTok to organise flashmob looting
Last week, chaos erupted on one of central London’s most popular shopping streets. Large groups of young people gathered together to loot shops in an event organised and promoted in viral videos on TikTok. While viral social media content has frequently resulted in positive collective action amongst the public,...
How ‘algospeak’ aids sensitive social media discussion
With life online increasingly controlled by overzealous censorship policies, users have begun inventing code words to dodge strict moderations on platforms like TikTok. Though you may not be familiar with the phrase ‘algospeak,’ what you’re likely to have come across is the slew of code words Internet users have been adopting to bypass content moderation filters on major platforms. For the unacquainted, ‘spicy eggplant’ rather than vibrator, ‘seggs’ rather than...
Opinion – Has the Threads hype died already?
The arrival of Zuckerberg’s text-based social media platform Threads brought a sudden and fleeting moment of excitement to the digital sphere. Now, over half of the 100 million users who signed up have already stopped checking in. It hasn’t even been a month since the social media app Threads was launched, but a look at its current userbase suggests the platform has already lost its appeal. The text-based app, which...
Ethiopia restores social media after 5 months of shutdown
Ethiopia has taken a momentous stride towards reinstating communication freedom and reconnecting its citizens with the digital realm by lifting its social media ban after a prolonged five-month shutdown. The restoration of access to popular platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, and YouTube comes as a welcome relief for millions of Ethiopians who were cut off from the global digital landscape since the government's drastic measure in February. The Ethiopian government imposed...
Why Elon Musk is rebranding Twitter as ‘X’
Having changed Twitter Inc to X Corp back in April, the inevitable rebrand of the social network as ‘X’ is now underway – but why? The bluebird is confirmed dead, and Elon Musk is holding the rifle. As you’ve no doubt seen already, the billionaire has been constantly touting ‘X’ on his profile this week while trolling those who proclaim that ‘Twitter is dead’ – which has trended a few times...
