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Media Bits and Bytes - June 15, 2021

Media regulation — who, which, when, how? Also Ransomware, BitClout and Roblox

Credit,Olumide Bamgbelu on Unsplash

A New Phase for Social Media Regulation

By Andrew Hutchinson
Social Media Today

The US Government made a range of significant announcements last week which could end up having major impacts on how social media platforms operate, including potential limitations and restrictions on what digital platforms can do in regards to buying other platforms, operating their ad businesses, utilizing user data and more.

Hedge Funds, State Governments and Local Papers

By Anna Brugmann
Washington Monthly

Politicians and journalists are getting over their historic squeamishness about taxpayer money going to news outlets.

The Ransomware Caper

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Is the Government Doing Enough? By Maria Korolov, Data Center Knowledge

Who’s Getting Hit By AJ Vicens, Mother Jones

The Role of Bitcoin By Greg Myre, NPR

Rightwing Media Carry the Ball For Trump

By Alex Samuels
FiveThirtyEight

Since the Facebook and Twitter bans, Trump’s messages are still getting heavily liked and shared across social media — particularly because they are getting picked up by far-right media outlets and his supporters with large followings. 

BitClout: Investment Revolution or Scam?

By Caroline Lester
The New Yorker

The social media stock market collapses everything—art, humor, personhood—into money, laying bare just who, and what, we are willing to pay for.

Fascist Games

By Cecilia D’Anastasio
Wired

Thousands of players flocked to a digital world filled with draconian rules, slavery, and anti-Semitism—and tested how far “just a game” can go.

Photogs and Protests

By Taraneh Azar
Poynter

In the age of viral media and punitive surveillance, visual journalists have an ethical obligation to minimize harm when covering protests.

Social Media and Indigenous Peoples

By Tristan Kennedy
The Conversation

97% of Indigenous people report seeing negative social media content weekly. Here’s how platforms can help.

Nigeria’s Twitter Ban

By James Yeku
Africa is a Country

Anyone who cares about civil society, free speech, and human rights should find the state’s digital silencing of its citizens deeply troubling.

Reporting a Boom While More Go Bust

By Alan M. Jacobs, J. Scott Matthews, Tim Hicks and Eric Merkley
MarketWatch

Reporting on GDP or the stock market gives a distorted picture because it ignores how the benefits are distributed. Or not.