Meet the scientists finding out how we can defeat our inner trolls and build more cooperative digital societies.

A lot of good stuff in here on how theories of change faaaaaaaaaail.

"You should make it so people can search for and jump into hundreds of conversations at once if they want." "Ooh, good idea! I imagine only the most well-informed people with the most critical information to share will use that feature."

Facebook has been updating its privacy settings for more than a decade. Will this time be different?

"The Internet does not hate women. People hate women, and the Internet lets them do it faster, harder, and with impunity."

It was no secret that Cambridge Analytica was manipulating people with big data. But it took a former employee’s reckoning to provoke outrage.

Not TECHNICALLY a "breach," but pissed-off users aren't really seeing the difference.

Searches starting ‘video of’ returned autocomplete suggestions of sexual videos and child abuse content

Academic librarians have embraced tools such as e-mail or chat that allow them to deliver reference services virtually, but not many studies have advocated for using social networking sites (SNS) as a medium for answering user questions. Even as reference departments field fewer questions requiring in-depth resources or responses, librarians have not consistently examined how SNS might be employed for simple informational inquiries from university students who already view those sites as information-seeking tools. One such SNS is Yik Yak, a mobile app launched in 2013 that allows users to pose anonymous questions in a limited geographic range, such as a college or university campus. This study is an exploratory analysis of the postings on Yik Yak in the geographic area of a four-year, regional public institution during the 2015–2016 academic year. It argues that libraries should be more intentional about monitoring emerging information ecosystems such as Yik Yak to share their knowledge with users and to identify potential issues with library services.

A new report by Knight Foundation explores how social media subcultures — Black Twitter, Feminist Twitter, and Asian American Twitter — interact with the news.

“If the Internet Research Agency were a start-up media company, they probably would not be picking up a fresh round of venture capital.”

Flickr: Rosa MendozaA friend of mine worked for an online dating company whose audience was predominantly hetero 30-somethings. At some point, they realized that a large number of the “female” acco…

A painful lesson in how not to do social media.

Enough of a research article to assign as such.

Examining the technologies behind precision propaganda and political disinformation on the internet

An ex-YouTube insider reveals how its recommendation algorithm promotes divisive clips and conspiracy videos. Did they harm Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency?

Fun one to make them think about. Ethical or not? Effective, apparently.

Developers of platforms such as Facebook have admitted that they were designed to be addictive. Should we be following the executives’ example and going cold turkey – and is it even possible for mere mortals?