Very, very interesting analysis by Emily Maitlis
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It took me a while to connect the dots.
Global Player own LBC among other radio stations and also back NewsAgents fronted by Maitlis with John Sopel and Lewis Goodall (also ex Newsnight who also does a phone in show on LBC).
I wondered why Maitlis in particular left the BBC to work on a Podcast but Global has deeper roots.
It also enabled her to accept fees and positions of adviser and assistant producer on the films based on her interview with Prince Nonce which presumably she couldnât have done if she stayed with the BBC.
Donât want to get carried away but itâs some turnaround from Biden saying the vice president was Vladimir Putin or whatever the fuck he was doing about 3 weeks ago
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Started to believe for the first time that the Democrats could actually hand Trump another defeat, after what Harris has mobilised in just a few weeks, and then Walz and what he brings - just loved his couch jibe against Vance at the recent rally.
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His simple framing of support for womenâs rights is genius for a white middle-aged fella looking to grab wavering republican-leaning men. âMind your own businessâ is something that will resonate with them and that they can get behind. Also speaks to small government which republicans wank over constantly.
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Yep, heâs harder to dismiss as âanother leftyâ, even though we know that Trump will try that on.
He already has.
It is always strange to hear Democrats called âextreme left wing etcâ when in the UK they would probably be One Nation Conservatives
Trump always refers to them as the radical left. The reality is that Vance and Trump are the truly dangerous radicals running for office.
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Perhaps some of them would be socially. Economically, way to the right of that.
Theyâre fairly centrist.
But when you are the extreme radical right wing, anything that isnât well to right of centre is going to look like âradical leftâ.
Trump & co have moved the middle ground marker.
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And compare-and-contrast with one JD Vance, Walzâ eyeliner-wearing, âTrump is Hitlerâ spouting opposite number, who is mainly receiving attention for (allegedly) having sex with his sofaâŚ
Plus some headspinningly-incompetent early gaffes in this campainâŚ
Itâs early days in all this, but thereâs a lot to fuel feeling less pessimistic.
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Not really news to anyone but at least theyâre no longer hiding it. From Bloomberg:
Changing priorities
Itâs been more than a week since riots first erupted in the UK and misinformation about a fatal stabbing killing three children circulated across TikTok, X and other social media sites. The UK telecommunications regulator has urged the companies to take action to stop people from using their platforms to incite violence. Despite the real-world consequences, there has been radio silence from the social media giants.
Weâve seen this play out before: when violent mobs organized on Facebook leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol; when doctored images and videos of the Israel-Hamas war went viral on X and TikTok; and just a few weeks ago when unfounded claims about the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump garnered millions of views across social media.
In each of these cases, by the time the platforms labeled or removed the misleading images, posts and videos, the damage was done.
Weâre in an era where social media companies seem to be placing less and less importance on cleaning up their sites. Theyâre rolling back policies intended to curb misinformation or de-emphasizing news altogether. Theyâre locking out researchers who focus on catching and dispelling false information and firing employees who oversee content safety.
To put it plainly, social media platforms simply arenât prioritizing content moderation anymore.
Read More: Fight Against Misinformation Suffers Multiple Losses
Just a few weeks ago, hundreds of tech employees tasked with overseeing content safety, election integrity and misinformation at companies like Meta Platforms Inc., ByteDance Ltd.âs TikTok, Snap Inc. and Googleâs YouTube, were in San Francisco for the annual TrustCon conference. Several of those employees, called trust and safety professionals, told me they simply didnât have the time or resources to police the billions of misleading or false posts created by social media users.
Third-party organizations that attempt to help with this work, such as the Meta-funded Oversight Board, the Stanford Internet Observatory (which was recently dismantled) or independent researchers, rely on the platforms to hand over data about the misleading content on their sites â data theyâre increasingly not sharing. Twitter, now X, which was long used by researchers to study misinformation, removed free access to its data, TikTok has made it nearly impossible for researchers to study the platform and Meta pulled support for CrowdTangle, a tool used to identify false information online.
Thereâs also been the slow repeal of election policies: YouTube stopped removing content denying the US 2020 election results, Meta eased restrictions on Trumpâs account put in place after the Jan 6. attack and X dismantled its election integrity team while bringing back political ads.
As social media platforms shy away from content safety and election integrity, employees who work in those departments say theyâre fighting an uphill battle to convince leaders about the value of removing harmful content online. Without serious investment and robust teams, there simply isnât enough manpower to stop the swell of misinformation.
If the Jan. 6 insurrection, Israel-Hamas war or UK riots are any indicator of how social media platforms will handle a conflict during the US presidential election, we shouldnât expect much. Based on the public response so far, theyâll be taking a hands-off approach.
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That is a truly dismaying read 
Makes me want to get off this planet.
If it was a planet, and not a flat disc surrounded by tiny lights mistaken for other planets and starsâŚ
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And Google clearly enjoying the freedom granted by their dropping their âDonât be evilâ policy (pretty depressing reading):
Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers (ft.com)
this meme so muchâŚ
Only ÂŁ1000 at
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Hahah I thought of him too
