It’s an open secret that some teens circumvent social media platform age restrictions by simply giving the wrong birth date when they sign up. Now Instagram will use artificial intelligence in order to identify those users and route them back into age-appropriate “teen accounts,” according to an Instagram blog post published Monday. Instagram already uses…
Elon Musk’s steady mission to erase every trace of Twitter’s former identity continues — and the next feature on the chopping block appears to be Direct Messages. According to rumblings from X employees and independent researchers, the classic DM tab may soon be replaced by something called XChat. SEE ALSO: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk call…
This week, we’re getting a peek behind the scenes at Meta and Facebook as the FTC’s antitrust trial against the company begins. On Monday and Tuesday, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand as the U.S. government makes its case that Zuckerberg and company run a social media monopoly. The FTC argues that…
4chan, the controversial imageboard where users can anonymously post anything and everything, is experiencing downtime as of this morning. Thousands of visitors reported outages on Tuesday, according to DownDetector. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis owns both Mashable and Down Detector.) The current speculation among users is that 4chan was hacked by an attacker taking advantage of an…
If your FYP, timeline, or feed feels like a toy aisle lately, you’re not imagining things. The latest internet trend has everyone turning themselves — or their favorite characters — into AI-generated action figures. These digital creations are everywhere. Instagram, X, TikTok, and even — actually, especially — LinkedIn, have all been inundated with them.…
Adding to growing fears of digital surveillance under the Trump administration, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will begin screening immigrants’ social media accounts in an effort to uncover “antisemitic activity,” the department explained. The department will be on the hunt for content that appears to be “endorsing, espousing, promoting,…
Market analysts braced for a potential repeat of “Black Monday” over the weekend — a crash of such magnitude it was being compared to the infamous 1987 global financial meltdown. While President Trump’s tariffs continued to weigh on the stock market, a full-blown crash never materialized. Interestingly, one key factor in averting disaster may have…
I’m a firm believer that the internet runs on two things: catchy beats and weird little guys. This week’s weird little guy? A French fish with arms, legs, and undeniable star power. Le Poisson Steve, a chiptune earworm by French musician Tomo, found its way into virality through an animated clip by illustrator Vigz. The…
Fans of Apple TV+’s Severance got an unexpected dose of corporate surrealism this weekend, as the Bell Works building in Holmdel, New Jersey — the same location used for Lumon Industries in the series — was reactivated for a limited-time immersive event. SEE ALSO: I went to the ‘Severance’ pop-up in Grand Central. It was…
We all have that one high school flex we just refuse to let go of. For some, it’s being the varsity MVP. For Nikki Blonsky, it’s starring as Tracy Turnblad in the 2007 remake of Hairspray — and honestly, she’s still riding that wave like it dropped yesterday. Blonsky, who nabbed the iconic lead role…