Social Media

Police are scrolling through social media feeds in search of crime and in order to check up on potential suspects, all of which is raising new concerns about surveillance in an increasingly online world.

A terse piece of legislation from 1996 has been credited with creating the internet as we know it — and blamed for the flood of misinformation and other ills that have come with it.

Google will require vaccinations for employees working on the company’s in-person campuses, becoming the first major tech company in the country to issue a widespread mandate for its employees.

California filed a lawsuit against Google along with dozens of other states alleging the company is violating state and federal antitrust laws by monopolizing the smartphone app market with its Google Play app store.

It’s the first acquisition for ArchiveSocial, which stores public officials’ social media posts so they can be accessed later. It’s also the sixth gov tech acquisition to be announced or completed this month.

Proposals in the House, along with the separate legislation introduced in the Senate, would lead to the biggest reform of competition laws in the U.S. since the first antitrust rules were passed in the late 19th century.

With the cybersecurity mishaps of the 2016 presidential election in mind, Rhode Island lawmakers have proposed a bill to do a cybersecurity assessment of its election systems to prevent future cyber attacks.

Facebook’s ongoing expansion in Huntsville, Ala., is now slated to top $1 billion in capital investment, the social media giant announced Tuesday following reports in February that it would be expanding the campus.

Protesters demanding social media giants do more to curb deadly drug sales on their platforms will gather at the headquarters of Snapchat and in more than 30 other locations in cities across the nation.

Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a first-of-its-kind bill that prohibits companies like Facebook and Twitter from suspending political candidates from their social media accounts during election time.

Employees of Santa Fe, N.M., must now reapply for access to the city's social media accounts and email list. The city spokesperson said the change relates to cybersecurity and is more of a new practice than a new policy.

A national movement to limit social media platforms' ability to remove content and users made its way to a Georgia House panel hearing on Thursday, though it's unclear what state conservatives can do about it.

Facebook and Google publish local news articles, sell ads off them and pocket the vast majority of the profit, giving local news outlets little in return, which pushes readership online as profits erode.

A Senate committee hearing earlier this week pitted researchers against three major social media companies over the question of whether algorithms are to blame for harmful content on the platforms.

The nation is debating Section 230 reform, but fighting social media disinformation may be less about what users can say than about how platforms can amplify and recommend it, said MIT panelists.

Can the government regulate information shared by social media companies during an election? According to one West Virginia lawmaker, the answer is "yes." The ACLU, however, says not so fast.

A congressional hearing last month took up the sticky issue of when and how to hold companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter accountable for misinformation. Lawmakers are now faced with a regulatory maze.