Media Perception Of Social Workers

The first Chinese-made car Omar Rana ever drove was a gas-powered SUV that he rented while on a trip overseas in 2015. To say it didn't leave much of an impression would be an understatement. "It sucked really bad," Rana, aka OmarDrives , tells me. "A horrible experience." Flash forward nearly a decade to last year, when Rana received a DM from a company he'd never heard of called DCar Studio inviting him to check out a few Chinese EVs in Los Angeles. It wasn't surprising that DCar would reach out to Rana. With his 90,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 280,000 followers on Instagram, he's built a small but respectable following over the y … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Ankit Khanal gets his news from News Daddy. More than 20 times a day, Khanal, a sophomore at George Mason University, opens TikTok to have the biggest stories of the day delivered to him by a bleach-blonde 26-year-old named Dylan Page, one of the leading faces in a growing community of news influencers. Based in the United Kingdom, Page began posting content on TikTok in August 2020 and has since grown his “News Daddy Empire,” his posts amassing over 1.5 billion likes. His content spans breaking news, politics, pop culture, and sometimes, personal workout videos — delivered in the increasingly common, enthusiastic “YouTube accent.” While Page doesn’t explicitly cite his sources in every video, News Daddy appears to get his information from a mix of conventional news outlets, social media, and other influencers.  As a computer science major, Khanal says he’s cautious of algorithms and their effects on media consumption. He even wrote and delivered a speech on the ...

The Motion Picture Association — the trade group in charge of movie ratings — has asked Meta to stop using its “PG-13” rating when referring to the type of content that teen accounts will see on Instagram. The MPA sent a cease and desist order to Meta on October 28th, saying Meta’s use of the rating is “literally false and highly misleading,” as first reported by The Wall Street Journal . Last month, Meta announced an update to Instagram’s teen accounts that will only allow them to view content “similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 movie.” At the time, the MPA issued a statement that said it was “not contacted by Meta” before its announcement. Now it’s taking things a step further, arguing that Meta’s attempt to restrict content doesn’t follow the MPA’s “curated process” when determining ratings. “The MPA has worked for decades to earn the public’s trust in its rating system,” a copy of the letter seen by The Verge states. “Meta’s claim that its Teen Accounts will be...

Facebook and Instagram are breaching Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA) rules related to the handling of illegal content, moderation, and transparency, according to a preliminary decision issued by the European Commission . TikTok and Meta have both also been found to be violating transparency obligations under the DSA.  The Commission says that Meta is imposing “confusing” obstacles for Facebook and Instagram users to flag illegal content and challenge moderation decisions, finding that the platforms “appear to use so-called ‘dark patterns’, or deceptive interface designs” that can hinder the removal of content like child sexual abuse and terrorism materials. Meta and TikTok are also found to have “burdensome procedures and tools” in place that prevent researchers from accessing public data.  Both companies are now facing fines of up to six percent of their annual worldwide revenue, pending an official ruling. The platforms can challenge the EU’s findings or...

An early look at Instagram’s parental controls for teen AI use. After enthusiastically rolling AI chatbots out everywhere , Meta has announced new options for parents to get an idea of how teens are chatting with the digital characters and set some limits on use. The move comes as Meta works to rehabilitate its image after disturbing reports of its tools’ romantic interactions with minors and faces growing scrutiny over chatbots’ impact on kids. The new controls will let parents stop their children from speaking with AI chatbots entirely or block access to specific characters they don’t like, Instagram lead Adam Mosseri and Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang wrote in a blog post announcing the changes on Friday. Meta’s AI assistant is a notable exception to this rule. The company says it will “remain available to offer helpful information and educational opportunities” with “age-appropriate protections in place.” Meta said parents will also be given some form of “insi...

Instagram’s PG-13-inspired rating will avoid recommending more types of content to teens. | Image: Meta Instagram is making a major update to teen accounts that will only allow them to view content similar to what you would see in a PG-13 movie. Under the new system , Instagram will continue to hide content containing nudity, sexual content, or suggestive poses from teens, but now it will also avoid recommending content with strong swear words and risky stunts across its platform. “Just like you might see some suggestive content or hear some strong language in a PG-13 movie, teens may occasionally see something like that on Instagram — but we’re going to keep doing all we can to keep those instances as rare as possible,” Instagram writes in an announcement on Tuesday. Last year, Instagram began putting all users under 18 into teen accounts, applying its existing restrictions on kids under 16 to a larger swath of young users. Teen accounts are private by default and c...