Emily Baker-White
TikTok Owner ByteDance Used A News App On Millions Of Phones To Push Pro-China Messages, Ex-Employees Say
Former employees claim the company placed pieces of pro-China content in its now-defunct US news app, TopBuzz, and censored negative stories about the Chinese government. ByteDance says it did no such thing.
Emily Baker-White
Leaked Audio From 80 Internal TikTok Meetings Shows That US User Data Has Been Repeatedly Accessed From China
“I feel like with these tools, there’s some backdoor to access user data in almost all of them,” said an external auditor hired to help TikTok close off Chinese access to sensitive information, like Americans’ birthdays and phone numbers.
Emily Baker-White
Democrats Want To Stop Google's Location Data From Being Used Against People Who Get Abortions
If adopted, the change would dramatically reduce police access to citizens’ physical location and affect much more than abortion prosecutions.
Emily Baker-White
In A Post-Roe America, Googling "Abortion" Could Put You At Risk. Here’s How To Protect Yourself.
If you’re planning an abortion in certain states, the data on your smartphone could be used against you if you’re not careful.
Sarah Emerson
Who Said It? Guess Which Celebs And Politicians Are All About Crypto And Which Can’t Stand It.
Crypto is the most polarizing technology out there right now.
Emily Baker-White
TikTok-Famous Doctors Are Getting Into NFTs And It's A Mess
MetaDocs’ NFTs were designed to "revolutionize medicine." But its social media–famous doctors can’t prescribe for or diagnose NFT holders.
Emily Baker-White
Toxic Pro–Eating Disorder Accounts On Instagram Could Be Reaching Nearly 20 Million Users, A Report Says
Instagram continues to recommend that users follow pro-anorexia accounts, according to a new report from advocacy group Fairplay.
Emily Baker-White
Political Campaigns Are Facing Risks With Crypto Donations On Coinbase And BitPay
Crypto platforms are obscuring the identities of people who make political donations in crypto, which makes public audits of donations nearly impossible.
Emily Baker-White
TikTok’s Parent, ByteDance, Made Fake Accounts With Content Scraped From Instagram And Snapchat, Former Employees Say
The China-based company scraped public accounts and then duplicated them on Flipagram, a predecessor to TikTok, according to four former employees and documents viewed by BuzzFeed News.
Emily Baker-White
Inside Project Texas, TikTok’s Big Answer To US Lawmakers’ China Fears
TikTok is rebuilding its systems to keep US user data in the US and putting a new US-based team in control. But for now, that team reports to executives in China.
Emily Baker-White
Meta Wouldn’t Tell Us How It Enforces Its Rules In VR, So We Ran A Test To Find Out
Facebook’s parent company declined to answer our questions about how it moderates content in VR, so we created a test Horizon World filled with content banned from Facebook and Instagram. Content moderators said the world was fine — until we told Meta’s PR team about it.
Emily Baker-White
Swiping Right As Much As You Want On Tinder Costs Users Wildly Different Amounts, A Study Found
The company denied discriminatory practices, but declined to explain its opaque pricing structure for Tinder Plus.
Emily Baker-White
Nothing Sacred: These Apps Reserve The Right To Sell Your Prayers
Prominent venture capitalists are flocking to invest in Christian worship apps. The apps say users’ prayers are a business asset.
Emily Baker-White
Here’s How Instagram Fails To Protect People At Risk For Eating Disorders From Pro-Anorexia Messaging
Instagram is still recommending pro-anorexia content to vulnerable users. But a new report shows its failure to protect users at risk of disordered eating is about more than just the algorithm.
Emily Baker-White
“This Is Blackface”: White Actors Are Playing Black Characters In Virtual Reality Diversity Training
Mursion tells big corporate clients that its VR simulations will help teach racial sensitivity. But the actors playing its Black characters are often white.
Emily Baker-White
Why Facebook Shutting Down Its Old Facial Recognition System Doesn’t Matter
Facebook just made a big deal of shutting down its original facial recognition system. But the company’s pivot to the metaverse means collecting more personal information than ever before.
Emily Baker-White
