Social Media

Alex Jones can’t win these days. As the unofficial mascot of conspiracy theorists everywhere, Jones — the man who answers the question: What happens when you turn human skin inside-out and continue to wear it? — has seen his beloved InfoWars brand blocked on every major platform that isn’t a microblogging platform disguised as a smoldering dumpster fire. Jones has 99 problems, currently, and the internet is the biggest of said problems, according to a botched lyrical representation of a Jay-Z song. And no, we’re not talking about his numerous pending defamation lawsuits, or even the “war on free speech” mounted by the liberal media. This isn’t about the threat of chemtrails turning him human. Hate spammy ICOs and crappy cryptocurrencies? So do we. VISIT HARD FORK It’s a Twitter campaign, started by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Shannon Coulter. While some are thrilled about Jones’ ban on YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, and other … [Read more...] about Nearly 50k people have blocked Twitter’s biggest advertisers over the Alex Jones debacle (and you can too)

When scrolling through your Instagram feed, do you ever feel like you’re getting déjà vu? This is probably because people seem to be living the same life on Instagram. Whether it’s a perfectly shot piece of avocado toast alongside an artistic looking latte or a breathtaking image of someone jumping from a waterfall, it’s been done before. A million times. Have you visited TNW's hype-free blockchain and cryptocurrency news site yet? It's called Hard Fork. TAKE ME THERE It’s hard to remember who posted what when everything looks the same. That’s the idea behind @insta_repeat, an Instagram account which has collected collages of near-identical shots posted by different influencers and photographers. Since June, the photographer-exposing account has posted 87 collages and gathered 117k followers along the way. Their posts include the ubiquitous shot of a white girl with blond, long hair looking “candidly” away from … [Read more...] about This account shows everyone is living the same life on Instagram

Tinder parent company Match Group Inc. runs a number of popular dating websites and apps, cornering a valuable and growing market. The company reported higher user growth than Wall Street analysts expected, especially among consumers willing to pay for Tinder's optional premium service, Reuters reported.Dallas-based Match raised its revenue forecast for the full fiscal year to as much as $1.72 billion. Its previous estimate was between $1.6 and $1.7 billion. The heightened revenue projections came after Match reported almost 300,000 new paid subscribers to Tinder's Plus and Gold premium services.Goldman Sachs predicted user growth would only be around 278,000 new paid subscribers, per Reuters. Shares of Match (MTCH) were up by more than 18 percent in early trading on Wednesday. Tinder now has 3.8 million users, while Match's other dating apps give the company a total of 7.7 million subscribers. Those include PlentyOfFish, Match.com and OkCupid services.Tinder's most basic … [Read more...] about Tinder feeling the love as user growth beats expectation

It seems like there’s an emoji for everything — from the world’s favorite cry-laughing face to one of Twitter’s least popular emoji, the aerial tramway. The Unicode Consortium (the group who decides what emoji make it onto our phones) has managed to clog up our keyboards with hundreds of emoji that we’ll probably never use, I mean, when was the last time you used the ABCD emoji in conversation? Have you visited TNW's hype-free blockchain and cryptocurrency news site yet? It's called Hard Fork. TAKE ME THERE But while there seems to be an emoji to represent everyone and everything, a significant group has been completely left out — the transgender community. Charlie Craggs, a British activist and author of To My Trans Sisters, has started a campaign, #ClawsOutForTrans, criticizing Unicode for ignoring the transgender flag emoji in favor of the lobster and the pointless ‘person in steamy … [Read more...] about Why the lobster emoji has become an unlikely ally to the trans community

“I want to die.” “I wish I’d said goodbye.” We don't shill. Check out TNW's Hard Fork. TAKE ME THERE “I give up.” “Please help me.” Cries for help echo. These aren’t quotes from a suicide hotline, or a group therapy session. They’re all posts on Reddit, just a few out of the hundreds a day that are made on the dozens of subreddits dedicated to helping people with mental health problems, life crises, or emotional torment. For more people than we can count, Reddit — the same place we house silly memes, AMAs and raucous political commentary — has become their place to open up and receive nonjudgmental support the likes of which they might not receive anywhere else. Reddit support groups At first glance, Reddit might seem like an unusual place for the solace-seekers to congregate. Since it’s inception in 2005, Reddit has shot into the upper echelons of most visited websites — it recently beat … [Read more...] about People are turning to subreddits in lieu of traditional counseling