Social Media

Literal Fake News.

Plus, don't let the kids run social if you're a serious organization.

A plaintiff complained that being unable to mock the president's tweets affected her "as a public intellectual."

The retiring speaker addressed the Midwest Conservative Summit.

In an attempt to drum up even more attention for their 'censored' Facebook and YouTube accounts.

The darkest show on TV—Netflix’s tech-dystopian ‘Black Mirror’—is itself a sign of hope for a human future.

One creature’s selfie is another creature’s suffocation.

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, managing editor Christine Rosen discusses Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before Congress.

Trump-supporting Twitter users the world over logged on Wednesday morning to find their follower counts diminished. Appearances suggest the targets of this so-called Twitter "purge" were suspected bot accounts, and unverified users whose tweeting patterns reflect those of Russian bots: Locked out…

In his first public indictment of 2018, special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday announced charges against 13 Russian nationals and three organizations for conspiring in secret to destabilize America’s political institutions.

The Florida Supreme Court became one of the first courts in the world to air its proceedings live on Facebook.

"The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg eight years ago. “A lot of times, I run a thought experiment, ‘If I were not at Facebook, what would I be doing to make the world more open?’ ”

The most remarkable thing about actress Meghan Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry is not that the princess-to-be is a woman of color—her mother is black, her father is white—or that she’s older than he is and has been married before. What’s really remarkable is that none of this would-be fodder…

Last week’s Senate hearings on Russia-linked social media accounts inciting political animosity gave us a vivid picture of one way in which the Russian government is making trouble in America. You don’t have to believe that Russian social media “bots” and “trolls” stole the election from Hillary…

This week on the Weekly Standard Confab, senior writer Michael Warren talks with host Eric Felten about the Trump Team's difficulties weeding out the unqualified and the inept. Associate editor Ethan Epstein comes by to ask whether social media advertising is really powerful enough to have swung…

The three technology media giants absorbing most of the spotlight for Russian influence in 2016 election on their respective platforms are poised to testify in open hearings next week before Congress.

Responding to tragedy is never easy, but the best response is often the one involving the fewest words. That’s true when a friend receives terrible news—nothing’s worse than the loudmouth uncle trying to be “helpful”—and it’s true in moments of national grief like the present one.

This week on the Confab, national correspondent Peter Boyer talks with host Eric Felten about the revival of missile defense efforts in the face of North Korean rocket advances. And associate editor Ethan Epstein comes by to discuss Russia's promotion of Black Lives Matter in social media ads.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

Winnie-the Pooh has found himself engulfed in controversy far beyond the confines of the Hundred Acre Wood, this time seemingly due to his resemblance to Chinese president Xi Jinping.

In the world of politics, perception becomes reality. But when it comes to the prevailing wisdom about the 2016 presidential elections and their likely impact on the 2018 mid-term elections, perception more closely resembles fake news.

Whatever being a red-blooded American man means these days (not much, it seems), I like to think I am one. I chop wood. I’ve never had a manicure and refuse to wear skinny jeans. I relieve myself outdoors with great regularity, even when indoor options are available. And though I don't hunt my own…

On this latest mini-episode, the Substandard tackles the Wendy's Nuggets Guy—you know, the one who asked for the free "nuggs" and was told by Wendy's that he'll need 18 million retweets. He's not even close, and that's a good thing.

Vice President Mike Pence told a group of Missourians on Wednesday to spread the word about the Trump administration among their townsfolk.

The first Twitter transition, it seems, while seamless at the top-level @POTUS account, isn't so among the many hundreds, if not thousands, of Twitter-verified executive branch accounts.

Have a question for Matt Labash? Ask him at askmattlabash@gmail.com or click here.

In a tweet calling for a constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, Hillary Clinton inadvertently invited supporters to "Stand with Hillary and overturn Planned Parenthood." While the main part of the tweet (archived here) says "Overturn Citizens United", the…

Hillary Clinton's campaign is hiring from journalistic outfits. Julie Whitaker, a member of BuzzFeed's distributed content team, has been hired to run Clinton's social media accounts. 

Scan the television listings and you’ll find quite a few shows based on older source material. There’s Gotham, which imagines the lives of Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and the villains before the comic book. There’s Sleepy Hollow, which has Ichabod Crane traveling 250 years through time to unravel…

NBC news reports that:

The government of Turkey has pulled the plug on Twitter and the White House is not happy.  As Mario Trujillo of the Hill reports:

Paul Hitlin and Nancy Vogt of Pew Research report that:

The process of bringing what was then called "Red China" into the light and joining it with the rest of the world began with ping pong.  Some seem to think Twitter will be the agent that accomplishes the same thing with Iran.  As Nathan Olivarez-Giles at The Verge reports:

Social media resembles the halls of high school in many ways.  Not least, according to a recent study (and what would we do without studies?), in the transitory effects on your mood. As Geoffrey Mohan writes in the Los Angeles Times:

Along with the usual tools employed by dictators, tyrants, and strongmen – torture, mass murder, slaughter of civilians by poison gas, etc. – Syria's Bashar al-Assad has gone digital and modern as Nabih Bulos of the Los Angeles Times reports:

At a fundraiser in Maryland this afternoon, President Obama criticized Republicans, saying that "you can pretty much put their campaign on, on a tweet and have some characters to spare.”

Early in my career I worked for the ad agency that invented the modern-day Super Bowl commercial. This year, my partners produced the Sling Baby ad for Doritos, which was one of the Sunday’s most popular spots, according to USA Today’s AdMeter.

The New York Times has an interesting article today about the use of social media like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter by museums to foster online communities built around common interest in art:

Some reassuring news for Republicans, in a piece in Roll Call today: