- The Media Never Had the Ball
- Delete Your X Account!
- Racist Texting Goes Viral
- Trump Wins, Media Lose
- Bending Big Tech to His Will
- OpenAI Goes For-Profit
- What Happened at That Amsterdam Football Game?
- Banning Social Media for Kids
- The Far Right Goes Wild on the ’Net
- Demon Cartoonist Tells All
The Media Never Had the Ball
By Andrea Fabozzi
il manifesto Global
Trump and the circle of billionaires who have decided to invest in him, representatives of the class that bears the greatest (if not full) responsibility for the disasters we are now facing – the economic crisis, the climate crisis, the wars – have been successful in presenting themselves as the way out of the quagmire.
Delete Your X Account!
By Nitish Phase
Slate
There’s no need to put any of us through the exhausting liberal takes, the gloating far-right responses, and the all-but-inevitable algorithm changes that will smother dissenting users for good, under a steaming pile of Trump rants and A.I. slop. We had a good run. Now it’s time to run somewhere else.
Racist Texting Goes Viral
By Ashley R. Williams, Jack Forrest, Jillian Sykes and Sean Lyngaas
CNN
Authorities across the United States are investigating after racist text messages – some with references to “slave catchers” and “picking cotton” reminiscent of the country’s painful and bigoted past – have been received by children, college students and working professionals from unrecognized phone numbers in the wake of the presidential election.
Trump Wins, Media Lose
By Carlo Versano
Newsweek
While the president-elect may not have personally ended the media, defined for the purposes of this story as newspapers, TV, radio and the like—including the outlet you’re reading—the press as a whole comes out of Tuesday’s election a far diminished force. Elon Musk broadened the point on Tuesday night. “You are the media now,” he told his 200 million followers on X.
Bending Big Tech to His Will
By Robert Booth
The Guardian
The 47th president will have a key role steering some hugely consequential years for the development of AI and handling the tech oligarchy of the big five firms – Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon – which wield the data and processing power that shapes the social and economic lives of billions of people.
OpenAI Goes For-Profit
By Kelsey Piper
Vox
OpenAI is attempting a transition to a more conventional corporate structure, reportedly one where it will be a for-profit public benefit corporation like its rival Anthropic. But nonprofit to for-profit conversions are rare, and misinformation has swirled about what, exactly, “OpenAI becoming a for-profit company” even means.
What Happened at That Amsterdam Football Game?
By Sana Said
Mondoweiss
Emerging video evidence and testimonies from Amsterdam residents indicate that the initial violence came from Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, who also disrupted a moment of silence for the Valencia flood victims. But despite that footage and Amsterdammer testimonies, coverage – across international media, especially in the United States – focused on the counter-attacks against the anti-Arab mob.
Banning Social Media for Kids
By Harriet Marsden
The Week
Australia’s prime minister announced proposals for world-first legislation banning children under 16 from social media. Anthony Albanese’s proposal would also not exempt children under 16 already on social media – they won’t be allowed to use Instagram, TikTok or YouTube even if they have parental consent – as concerns grow worldwide over the threat of cyberbullying and predatory grooming.
The Far Right Goes Wild on the ’Net
By John Feffer
Foreign Policy in Focus
South Koreans are petitioning their government to punish those who participate in collective shaming exercises on the Internet. In the United States, the strategy is to make social media platforms pay for their role in disseminating hate. But this is just tinkering at the margins. Digital companies must institute changes—or be forced to do so by government, public demand, or legal action.
Demon Cartoonist Tells All
By Steve Bell
Verso
I found my way around the libel laws and pushed the boundaries of taste and decency. I’ve long believed in the importance of reportage in cartooning. There is always a story to be found and told, and some of us do it with pictures. You work out a way of telling the story as you draw, and in a daily strip you build characters in real time.
