Twitter’s new media policy will require it to decide when something is in ‘the public interest.’ Challenges abound. — Twitter is not so great at tweeting. That’s one obvious conclusion to draw from the hullabaloo that erupted today when the company tweeted a link to its new media policy, and described it in this way: “Beginning today, we will not allow the sharing of private media, such as images…

A small, unelected, unaccountable group of executives are the ones making sweeping decisions about how we use new technology — In his recent article in The Atlantic, “The Metaverse is Bad,” Ian Bogost takes on a question that business and technology publications have so far mostly avoided — do we, as a society, actually want a metaverse? Put differently, are there any reasons beyond the machinations of a handful of…

Does a new technology pose serious dangers — or are we just overreacting? Philosopher Evan Selinger has some ideas on how to tell the two apart. — When people worry about the impact of a new technology, often they worry it’ll set us on a path to ruin. Sometimes they’re freaking out for no good reason. New technologies — particularly ones that affect communication, or give young people new abilities — unsettle people all the time, but…

‘Papers, Please’ came out in 2013, but middle-schoolers are still stumbling upon its grim, fascinating lessons — I remember back in the ’80s, when a high-school friend suggested I read George Orwell’s 1984. “It’s really wild,” he told me. “It makes you feel like crap.” The book wasn’t on our school’s reading list. It had been written four decades earlier, just after World War II. But once…

Big Technology obtained the five draft bills currently circulating around the House of Representatives that target Big Tech. If they’re signed into law, it will be bad news for the tech giants. — The following is a selection from Big Technology, a newsletter by Alex Kantrowitz. To get it in your inbox each week, you can sign up here. For years, Big Tech crushed the competition with relative impunity, squeezing every dollar from would-be rivals to reach unprecedented valuations. And while their anti-competitive…

We must help one another strive for integrity over impact — Every piece, no matter how short, offers the writer an opportunity to cross the line — to exaggerate, fabricate, or cherry pick facts in a way that ever-so-slightly misrepresents reality for what feels like the greater good. Whether writing an extended essay about the conflict in the Middle East, or…

In a new interview with Big Technology, the senator discusses the future of antitrust — “I’d say resolved,” Senator Amy Klobuchar told me over Zoom yesterday. We were talking about whether congressional Democrats were serious about pursuing meaningful action against the tech giants. And Klobuchar, the new chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, seemed committed. “There’s been some good hearings,” she said. “But to…

Data belonging to Alex Jones, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell may be included — A hacker targeted far-right social network Gab and stole more than 70 gigabytes of user data, including 40 million posts and private messages, Wired reported on Sunday. Gab CEO Andrew Torba acknowledged the hack on Sunday, claiming the platform was attacked by “demon hackers” and referred to these individuals using…