Alexandros Efstratiou presented a terrific paper from UCL, Binghamton U and the fine folks at iDrama lab, which helps unpack the spread of COVID-19 misinfo. We all know that misinformation about COVID flooded the internet, but this study examines how scientific literature was used and misused during the pandemic and how it spread on Twitter. (https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.13248)

Trump’s pick of RFK Jr. at HHS: The scientific community, and biopharma investors, respond https://www.statnews.com/2024/11/14/trump-rfk-jr-hhs-nomination-reactions-science-pharma-biotech/

Mark Zuckerberg says Threads is testing custom feeds for certain profiles or topics; the Threads' version seems easier to use than Bluesky's custom feeds (Emma Roth/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/15/24297313/threads-custom-feeds-test
http://www.techmeme.com/241115/p14#a241115p14

Police taser a Trump rally attendee in Pennsylvania who stormed the media riser moments after the former president complained about his press coverage. https://apnews.com/article/trump-rally-arrest-taser-media-68fe78b79ae65556c4efc850e142998c

Climate Scientists Leave Twitter For Mastodon

So, it is possible for a group to make the collective decision to leave Twitter. Scientists "suffering insults and mass-spam are abandoning Twitter," and setting up shop on Mastodon.

Climate scientists flee Twitter as hostility surges >>> https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230524-climate-scientists-flee-twitter-as-hostility-surges

"Glaciologist @Ruth_Mottram had more than 10,000 followers on Twitter but left in February and joined an alternative scientists' forum powered by Mastodon."

1/

#twittermigration #climate

TidBITS Arrives on Mastodon, Continues (Reluctantly) on Twitter and Facebook
https://tidbits.com/2023/05/25/tidbits-arrives-on-mastodon-continues-reluctantly-on-twitter-and-facebook

We ( @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley ) are researchers at University of Colorado Boulder conducting a survey about social media platform migration. If you are at least 18 and have used Twitter and/or Mastodon you are eligible to share your experiences with leaving (or choosing not to leave) Twitter and/or joining (or choosing not to join) Mastodon. You can optionally provide your email address to enter a drawing for a $75 gift card. Please boost! Survey link: https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3BLXjcmBmKpyR2S

@buzz @gruber The term I keep hearing is “hall monitors” — which frankly resonates with me.

I appreciate the inherent superiority of a federated protocol and the flexibility to choose instances, which beats Twitter by a mile. Yet there’s (understandably) a degree of dogmatic opposition to certain things that led early adopters to Mastodon and the Fediverse long before last fall’s #TwitterMigration (which is when I joined).

#ClarenceThomas has already demonstrated that he has no honor by accepting millions from a GOP megadonor - the lack of reporting is just the icing on the cake.

But if he cared one iota for #SCOTUS as opposed to his own career or the conservative majority, he would resign so the Court can work on restoring its reputation.

The fact that he thinks his seat on the court is more important than the institution itself speaks volumes about how low he truly is.

#LawFedi

EDIT - fixed typo.

@mmasnick @bflipp @lauren Thank you. I have to admit I’m pretty soured on Jack and anything associated with him, so this clarification is helpful. I will try to be open-minded, though more fragmentation in social media strikes me as a source of increasing frustration.

If you thought Amazon's transparency report was a joke, check out Twitter's belated and inadequate excuse for one. As @mmasnick writes: "This isn’t a transparency report. It’s an obfuscation report."
https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2023/an-update-on-twitter-transparency-reporting

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/26/twitter-turns-in-its-transparency-homework-late-and-incomplete/

Some bad actors who are targeted by federal law enforcement are actually bad actors who deserve to be targeted by law enforcement and not White Christian martyrs.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/27/jack-teixeira-disclosures-green-tucker-carlson/?itid=ap_philipbump

Some have asked recently: How do I balance growing the fediverse with keeping it diversified, and why?

TLDR: Central social media behemoths are here today and almost impossible to dislodge. The way to achieve decentralized social is to grow the fediverse, so I believe that should be the primary goal. Keeping the fediverse decentralized is important; if that starts to become an issue, I'll be here to address it at that point. More here; polite thoughts welcome as always.

https://medium.com/@davidslifka_86286/how-to-decentralize-social-media-6ae35a49ac46

@chadloder @Popehat On the other hand, he also did no diligence and paid more than double the market value for Twitter. Not that I expect Bluesky to eat Twitter’s lunch, but all things considered, this belongs in the Bad Deals Hall of Fame — prominently displayed with a plaque that simply shows a poop emoji. 💩

@chadloder @Popehat I remain flabbergasted that someone could do a $44 billion M&A deal without including a non-compete on the part of the seller. Business genius strikes again.

I mean, this kind of sale is the only scenario in which CA courts will *ever* enforce covenants not to compete. For obvious reasons.

@chadloder
ht @jerry

@_chris_real @chadloder @Popehat That’s pretty standard, expansive grant-of-license language for all UGC sites these days. The critical point IMO should be that if you choose to delete your content, the license is terminated.

@Popehat Misery loves company. I feel validated by your fist-shaking even as youngsters are “literally obsessed” with things they just like.

The term is wildly overused, but THIS is a heckler’s veto: the authorities imposing restrictions on speech based on anticipated hostile reactions to it.

https://www.thefire.org/news/trinity-university-policy-burdens-events-history-or-potential-protests-or-disturbance

The Ninth Circuit ruling in Epic v Apple is available. Mostly a win for Apple but not entirely.

Court upholds district courts rejection of the federal Sherman Act claims but also upholds the district court's ruling that Apple's anti-steering rules (prohibiting apps from encouraging users to non-App-store methods of payment) are a violation of California's unfair competition law.

https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2023/04/24/21-16506.pdf