The EU accuses TikTok of failing to protect teens’ privacy, risking a billion euro fine.

TikTok is under investigation for the privacy settings of its 13-18 year old users, with the European Commission arguing that the Chinese firm is in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

https://mediafaro.org/article/20260724-the-eu-accuses-tiktok-of-failing-to-protect-teens-privacy-risking-a-billion-euro-fine?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#TikTok #EU #SocialMedia #Privacy #DigitalServicesAct #DSA #Tech

#France becomes first #EU country to ban #SocialMedia access for under-15s

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/21/france-ban-social-media-access-under-15s

#SocialMediaBan #privacy #politics #Europe #AgeVerification #cybersecurity

It's been said a lot that tech people tend to think that every problem can be solved with a tech solution, and that that is often a wrong approach that ignores social dynamics and systemic causes.

That's true, but I can think of at least one problem here on the Fediverse that really, really needs a tech solution!

That being hashtags.

The whole point of hashtags is that you can tag your content with concepts it relates to, so that others who are interested in said concepts can discover your content.

Ideally, a hashtag should therefore contain all posts relating to the concept, and should not contain any posts unrelated to the concept. This is not the case.

The problem is that hashtags are plain text only. This causes two kinds of issues:

• False positives: One hashtag is used for multiple separate concepts, grouping unrelated concepts together.
• False negatives: Multiple hashtags are used for the same concept, meaning you might miss posts of a concept you want to see.

Common examples for false positives are homonyms (seating bank vs. financial bank, video games vs. board games), abbreviations (CNC, BBC, MTF), and multilingual issues (German handy vs. English handy).

False negatives are much, much more common, even. You're missing out on synonyms (horses vs. equines), grammatical and regional variations (colouring vs. coloring, horse vs. horses) and scope issues (gaming vs. games vs. video games) at least. Also, the whole thing about 'dogsOfMastodon' versus 'dogs'.

If you add to it that the Fediverse is multi-lingual, this is getting exponentially worse. If a German account posts about dogs using the hashtag 'Hund' (or Hunde, Hundes, Hunds, Hundi, Wauwau, Köter, Welpe, Welpen...), someone subscribed to the English hashtag 'dogs' should probably also see that post.

Rather than plain text which has all of these issues, a hashtag should therefore point at an individual unique ID of a concept, unique and unambiguous across all languages and grammatical forms.

Someone should be able to subscribe to the concept of a horse – the equine animal – and not just the letters 'horse' in that order!

That might sound daunting – who has a database of all concepts in the world? – but structured data actually is a super old problem that has been talked about for ages! The semantic web has it figured out.

Wikidata is an open data source for unique concepts, doing exactly what we'd need. Obviously it's easier said than done, but 'all' that the Fediverse needs to do is replace or extend hashtags with a system that allows you to link a Wikidata concept by UUID. And figure out what to do with things that don't have such a UUID yet, and how to handle UX. But it would be a vast improvement over plain-text hashtags.

I don't really want this post to just die in the ether, tbh, as posts are wont to do. I'd like to actually make this a thing. Is there anyone out there who knows what an implementation of this would take? I'd love to help (computational linguist).

#tech #technology #Fediverse #activityPub #socialMedia #hashtags #semanticWeb #wikiData #mastodon #goToSocial #fediSoftware #fediDev #fediDevelopers #fediDeveloperVerse #accessibility

Bold name

"The mayor of #NorthBay and a #Jewish advocacy organization are condemning a weekend gathering that appears to be taking place somewhere in the area— that organizers themselves are calling “#Bigotfest”— saying hate and discrimination have no place in the community.

The three-day event, scheduled for July 24 to 26, has been promoted on #socialmedia by prominent members and associates of #SecondSonsCanada, a group that describes itself as a “#Canadian men’s #nationalist club” founded in 2024.

On its website, #SecondSons says it’s committed to defending what it claims is a threatened way of life through political activism and fitness training.

“We're deeply concerned with the rise of the Second Sons and with the danger that they present to Canadian society," said #RichardRobertson, #BnaiBrith #Canada’s director of research and advocacy.

"They’re opposed to Canadian values, they’re virulently racist, they’re #antiSemitic."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/bigotfest-active-clubs-north-bay-reaction-9.7281076

#Leaked Document Shows the #Surveillance Tech at ICE’s Fingertips

A leaked document shows the spread of surveillance and investigative capabilities that Immigration and #Customs Enforcement (#ICE ) officials have access to agency wide, from location data harvested from #smartphones , to facial recognition apps that can reveal someone’s #identity , to tools that let the agency stay #anonymous online and approach people #undercover. The document covers everything from monitoring social media to tracking the movements of vehicles.

It is rare for the public to see such a large list of ICE’s technology capabilities in a single document. 404 Media has published the whole document, called “ICE Wide Analytical Tools,” below.
#privacy #socialmedia

https://www.404media.co/leaked-document-shows-the-surveillance-tech-at-ices-fingertips/

After #TikTok, #Snap settles #SocialMedia addiction case

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/after-tiktok-snap-settles-social-media-addiction-case/

#privacy

Trying to find more information on how the under-15 social media ban in France impacts Mastodon/fediverse servers, and while I can't see anything too concrete on that, I did come across this 2024 The Guardian article:

"The report said a 15-year-old should be able to access only what it called “ethical” social media, such as Mastodon."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/30/stop-children-using-smartphones-until-they-are-13-say-french-experts-in-report

#news #SocialMedia #SocialMediaBan #EthicalSocialMedia #fediverse #mastodon

The checklist for a social media post is ever getting longer:

Is it fake?
Is it by a bot?
Is it by a troll?
Is it click bait?
Is it rage bait?
Is it a dogmatical post?
Is it a fanatical post?
Is it a puritanical post?
Is it by a toxic poster?
Or is it posted only to annoy or tease?

(There is an even longer version...)

#EternalSeptember
#InformationAge
#InformationSociety
#LifeInTheInformationAge
#SocialMedia
#SocialPsychology
#UmbertoEco2015

A small US town is installing 33 Flock surveillance cameras, one for every 300 residents, sparking privacy concerns. A resident who works as an investigative journalist spoke against the expansion at a city council meeting. https://www.404media.co/what-happened-when-flock-came-to-my-town/ #Media #SocialMedia #Privacy

France passes law banning under-15s from social media

It will be implemented in two stages:
- From September, people under 15 will not be able to open accounts and age verification will be required on all new accounts
- In January 2027, this rule will apply to all existing accounts - meaning everyone in France will have to prove they are over 15 to use social media

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq56l9p4y93o

#France #SocialMedia #AgeVerification #Privacy

If you have been wondering about the effectiveness of the social media ban of under 15 year olds, this study got you :)

Spoiler: 92%+ of kids age 14-15 in #Australia still use it 🥳

Meanwhile IMO forced verification of users had a much better success rate 😉

Source:
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w35162/w35162.pdf

#Privacy #ageverification #IDverification #Study #Data #Science #Survey #Tech #SocialMedia #Technology #Internet #Censorship #Authoritarianism #MassSurveillance #Surveillance

Alt...

Screenshot of graphic from this study of Australia's social media ban: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w35162/w35162.pdf Percent of banned 14-15-year olds (b) Compliance rate, April versus June 2026 Usage rate: 64% April, 92% June Implied compliance: 27% April, 6% June Notes: Figure 5 reports self-reported past-7-day use of any banned platform.

I'm not so sure this kind of stuff fits the definition of 'academic and cultural boycott' I keep hearing.

"An anonymous online form asking people to report the locations of #Jews and #Israeli #tourists in #Italy has been taken down after government officials intervened, media reports say.

The Google form, circulated on #socialmedia and messaging groups before it was removed, asked users to identify Jews, #Israelis and people believed to have ties to #Zionism at hotels, vacation rentals, businesses and other public places. Its purpose was to “map #Zionist #tourism” and “Zionist neo-colonization” in Italy, the form said."

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/italy-shuts-down-jew-hunting-online-form-after-uproar/

As France follows Australia in banning social media use for the under-15s the key will be the form & practice of the state-approved age-verification process mandated from January.

Here, the debate on such a social media ban (supported by Keir Starmer) has been the age-verification process' invasion of privacy & its data requirement(s).

The Q. is: can France find a way to meet such objections, or merely ride roughshod over them?

#SocialMedia #politics #privacy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq56l9p4y93o

France Jumps Off Cliff, Passes Age Verification Laws

France has passed the failed age verification laws and set the restriction to 15 years of age and younger.

https://www.freezenet.ca/france-jumps-off-cliff-passes-age-verification-laws/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #facepalm #France #legislation #SocialMedia

Q: Does “evil genius” Palantir’s NHS software actually work?

A: Apparently it’s “absolutely rubbish”

"’It's just a waste of time’: inside Palantir's £330m NHS failure”

by Peter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin in Democracy For Sale on Substack

@uk_politics
@UKLabour
@palantirwatch

“Palantir has been dubbed the world’s scariest company. Trump’s favourite tech firm provides surveillance software to ICE, the Pentagon and the Israeli ministry of defence. Peter Thiel and Alex Karp talk excitedly of AI drone-driven warfare.

No wonder Andy Burnham is already facing calls to end Palantir’s controversial £330m contract to build the NHS’s Federated Data Platform (#FDP)”

https://open.substack.com/pub/democracyforsale/p/its-just-a-waste-of-time-inside-palantir-nhs-peter-mandelson

#Press #SocialMedia #Journalism #UK #Britain #Palantir #NHS #MoD #Military #ICE #IOF #PalestinianGenocide #Gaza #Surveillance #Theil #Karp #Mandelson #Epstein #GlobalCounsel #DataSovereignty #Moseley

An experienced YouTuber said the following

• When you published something on the Internet any reaction is a good reaction
• If someone attempts to troll you shower them with love and affection
• Trolls hate Love and will run back under their Bridge
• If someone reacts extremely negative see rule number one and silently thank them

The fact that a person reacts to something written by someone thousands of nautical miles away is a feat which should be cherished

@rl_dane

#Social #Media #SocialMedia #troll #reaction #any #good #YouTube #no #TV

The #Fediverse is perhaps the only #socialMedia that still deserves to be called “social media”.

Because this is perhaps the only remaining social media whose primary function is socializing, not advertising.

"As I’ve argued before, I think Haidt’s book has done exactly what Gray was afraid it might do – namely, it has played into and exacerbated a moral panic over smartphones and social media and their alleged impact on the emotional and psychological wellbeing of teenagers. The architect of the Australian social-media age-gating law, South Australian premier Peter Malinouskas, described in an interview how his wife had recommended Haidt’s Anxious Generation to him, and how after reading it he had resolved to take action. His wife “put the book down on her lap and turned to me and said you’ve really got to do something about this,” he said. “And then I stopped and thought about it and thought maybe we actually can.” So he introduced state-level legislation hoping it could win federal support. It did, and since then the UK has passed a new law it says was modeled on the Australian one (modeled so closely that it too offered virtually no evidence that such a law was necessary), and Canada is also considering one.

As a journalist who once worked for the Columbia Journalism Review, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the biggest proponents of Jonathan Haidt’s views about cellphones and social media and their impact on the wellbeing of teenagers has been the media."

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/07/16/kids-need-to-explore-the-world-and-that-includes-social-media/

#SocialMedia #PlayTime #MentalHealth #MoralPanic #Censorship #Fascism

#WelcomeToTheFediverse, @Lone!

As you might have learned, the #Fediverse is quite different from corporate #SocialMedia sites.

In particular, there's *no* automatic #algorithm. *People* are the algorithm.

As with moving to a new neighborhood, you need to engage consistently.

The first two steps are to create a relevant #Bio and a pinned #Introduction that you (re)boost every week or so.
Here are some further tips to make this a worthwhile experience here:

Good luck!

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/109960697083138864

Cops have used Flock's FreeForm search feature to look for people with tattoos and wearing specific sport shirts, and searches sometimes include the target's race, according to data reviewed by 404 Media. The licence plate reader company has expanded beyond car tracking to person-based surveillance. https://www.404media.co/how-cops-use-flock-to-track-people-not-cars/ #Media #SocialMedia #Privacy

UK Pushes for Baffling Social Media Curfew for Teens

The UK, like others, is experiencing disaster with age verification, so it's now doubling down with a curfew on social media.

https://www.freezenet.ca/uk-pushes-for-baffling-social-media-curfew-for-teens/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #SocialMedia #teens #UK

Take note if you do NOT want Google using your data to train AI models!

Google recently updated its search privacy settings and automatically opted all its customers into its expanded AI training.

Images, voice searches, and videos uploaded into Google Search Services can be used to train LLMs.

The GOOD news is, you can disable this feature to retain your privacy. https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-training-ai-on-more-of-your-data-now-unless-you-opt-out/ #Google #GoogleSearch #Search #Internet #AI #LLMs #SocialMedia #Privacy #DataPrivacy #Media #SearchServices #Personaldata #Chatbot #SearchHistory #SearchServicePersonalization

Alt...

Internet ones and zeros

Age verification plans: “The problem is platform design, not age”

The EU plans stricter rules for online youth protection. Marielle Findorff from vzbv explains why age checks are not the solution.

https://www.heise.de/en/background/Age-verification-plans-The-problem-is-platform-design-not-age-11364562.html?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.md_beitraege.md_beitraege&utm_source=mastodon

#Datenschutz #EU #Internet #IT #Netzpolitik #SocialMedia #Wirtschaft #news

Children's #SocialMedia curbs planned across #EU, von der Leyen says

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/eu-propose-limit-kids-social-media-access-von-der-leyen-says-2026-07-13/

#AgeVerification #privacy #cybersecurity #Europe #politics #SocialMediaBan

New EU report details age verification plans and ID requirements for accessing the internet

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1uvzw1z/new_eu_report_details_age_verification_plans_and/

#EU #AgeVerification #idVerification #privacy #surveillance #dystopia #technology #government #socialmedia #Europe

EU Chief: We “Need” to Embarrass Ourselves Further With Age Verification

Ursula von der Leyen continues to double down on failed age verification laws, vaguely pointing to "predatory algorithms".

https://www.freezenet.ca/eu-chief-we-need-to-embarrass-ourselves-further-with-age-verification/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #EU #Europe #SocialMedia

@collective_truth Was that description your own experience using #SocialTools at the turn of this century with options like blogs, wikis and the early instances of #SocialMedia (i.e. Twitter, Flickr, del.icio.us, etc. etc.).

What you're describing above is the exact opposite of what those social tools once were. Some still are, by the way!

To me, that's the opportunity we have to unlearn & relearn from that experience to do better.

.cc @timbray

@elsua54 @timbray Video about why #Mastodon fails like Twitter [if the aim is for active social movement...]

"Why I'm NEVER Joining Mastodon." #EricMurphy

https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=Lixz5qTCMGI

Main point:

Neither #Mastodon (or #Twitter) creates / stimulate or make much or a social movement itself - it's better software not socially improving itself.

Mastodon or it's designers aren't doing the people work, which is the real evolution of communication & improvement humanity needs.

#SocialMedia #Twitter #X