SCOOP: Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog. The alert contained a swastika and prompted users to subscribe to newsletter featuring opinions and news important to the "white nationalist community." Another Nazi blog is being promoted in Substack's "Rising in History" list https://www.usermag.co/p/substack-sent-a-push-alert-promoting-nazi-white-supremacist-blog

Dubai Porta Potty parties, dupe mania, 3-D printed Labubus, Norman culture, Burning Man chaos, AI body dysmorphia, Ring spy drones, MAGA’s fave military influencer, WaPo's TikTok guy goes solo, and MORE in today's newsletter https://www.usermag.co/p/i-interviewed-the-jubilee-ceo-on

"We condemn India's increasingly fascist government for demanding that Meta shut down the popular social media page Muslim, and we call on Meta to reverse its decision to surrender to this bigoted attack on free speech,” said Ahmed Mitchell of the National Council on American-Islamic Relations https://www.usermag.co/p/meta-bans-largest-muslim-news-page-in-india-muslim-news-bjp

SCOOP: Meta bans largest Muslim news page in India. The company is working hand in hand with the government to censor social media influencers and journalists in the region for 'anti-national content' following the terror attack in Kashmir. https://www.usermag.co/p/meta-bans-largest-muslim-news-page-in-india-muslim-news-bjp

I wrote for Rolling Stone about WHCD weekend and how the dinner has become a relic of legacy media. “It was all NPCs" said one Hilton attendee https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/trump-era-white-house-correspondents-dinner-1235326699/

Kids with smartphones have better mental health, study finds. Inside the Bop House, Tariffluencers, Gen Z's safe space, the latest meme stock, Grok dunking, India's Netflix, Ashton Hall and the rise of isolationist masculinity, and MORE -- all in today's newsletter https://www.usermag.co/p/kids-with-smartphones-have-better

I need to log off for a while and sleep and stop getting upset over the internet.

I went deep on the Peterverse(!) and wrote about what the rise of thousands of Peter Griffin-themed AI generated niche educational accounts run by children tells us about the future of the internet and online community https://www.usermag.co/p/a-deep-dive-into-the-peterverse

Ken Klippenstein has obtained and published Luigi's full manifesto.

"Many have illuminated the corruption and greed... decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.” https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/luigis-manifesto

"We cannot continue to participate in the social network feed of a man who proclaims the death of the media and therefore of journalists... X is a platform that no longer serves the public interest at all, but the special ideological and financial interests of its owner and his political allies" https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/european-federation-of-journalists-to-stop-posting-content-on-x-386598/

“Donaldson will no longer be considered untouchable by fans and other YouTubers. Any future ventures will be highly scrutinized. I think we could eventually see him attempt a full Zuckaissance-style rebrand in order to distance himself from this whole thing.” https://www.usermag.co/p/lets-check-in-on-mrbeast

At the creator level, the live streaming market is also becoming more decentralized. The top 5% of streamers now account for 86% of total hours watched, which is notably down from 98% in 2019.

As viewers explore niche communities and new voices, the live streaming creator world is becoming more nichified (something that happened on YouTube too as it grew).

https://www.usermag.co/p/you-should-pay-attention-to-kai-cenat

This past quarter, live streaming viewership reached 8.5 billion hours watched, a 12% year-over-year increase— biggest jump since the pandemic began

I wrote about how live streaming is becoming a bigger part of our media diet and how ppl crave participatory live media https://www.usermag.co/p/you-should-pay-attention-to-kai-cenat

I wrote about how Senate Democrats are spearheading an effort to brief online influencers on key policy initiatives instead of relying on traditional media. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/07/30/democratic-senators-influencers-laws-initiatives/

So can anyone who’s been following the controversy over whether Biden should resign or not give me the state of things?

Is he going to be the Democratic nominee or is he probably going to be forced out? Googling this question does not yield helpful results and I’m very interested in what people who have actually been following it all think will happen

Amid bipartisan support for restricting teenagers’ access to social networks, despite zeeo scientific evidence showing such restrictions would help the younger generations mental health, young queer people who rely on social platforms as a lifeline are threatened with isolation and loss of connection https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jul/07/australia-teen-social-media-ban-age

On this week's Power User podcast nostr:npub1sfjt55sdzqxx68unq0epldsxg9ptaqvj7jq4vxe47xnwnahhj0lqtdu45j joins me to go deep on Balaji, "Tech Zionism", and billionaire VCs plans to transform S.F. into a sovereign state https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kpZdrv1P-U

TikTok executives proposed giving the Biden administration control over its U.S. operations and a kill switch if things went south.

The Biden administration declined, forfeiting potential influence over one of the world’s most popular apps in favor of shutting it down.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/05/29/tiktok-cfius-proposal-rejected/

“The real reason for the protests is being ignored in favor of stories about encampment crackdowns or overblown allegations of antisemitism.” https://newrepublic.com/article/181107/college-protests-israel-gaza-media-coverage-shameful

"Maybe the most significant effect of that Russian op was to give American elites what Kevin Baker calls 'psy-op brain' -- the belief that any online political expression with which they are uncomfortable must be the product of a foreign psychological operation. ... Israel, portrayed badly? Gotta be a psy-op!" https://maxread.substack.com/p/four-unpersuasive-arguments-against