Report: OnlyFans’ Ban – and Its Suspension – Shows That Banks Have a Chokehold on Sex Work
Marin Scarlett
A muddled legal landscape provides the perfect cover for financial institutions to discriminate with impunity, writes Marin Scarlett.
Tag: social media
Novara FM: Notice Me!
Is modern politics governed by the demand for recognition? And what happens when that collides with the internet? Will Davies explains.
Opinion: People Are Waking Up to the Horrors of Police Brutality. It’s Time to Build a Movement
Chardine Taylor-Stone
After the police violently shut down a vigil for Sarah Everard, many people have had their eyes opened to the horrors of state brutality for the first time. If the left is serious about building power, we shouldn't dismiss these people for being late to the party, argues Chardine Taylor-Stone.
Opinion: The Slumflower Beef Has Exposed the Limits of Influencer Activism
Ash Sarkar
A plagiarism dispute in which a Black influencer has demanded 'reparations' from her white peer demonstrates the limits of social media activism and a politics constructed around white guilt, writes Ash Sarkar.
Report: Sex Workers Denounce Instagram’s ‘Puritanical’ New Rules
Sophie K Rosa
As Instagram announces its updated terms of use, sex workers argue the restrictive new rules are designed to eject their already stigmatised and marginalised community from the platform, threatening their income and safety in the process. Sophie K Rosa reports.
Novara FM: Maelstrom: Politics in the Post-Truth World
James Butler is joined by Marcus Gilroy-Ware to delve behind the facade of fake news and uncover what lies beneath: from a hollowed-out democracy to the epidemic of conspiracy theory.
Analysis: Outrage Drives Clicks, Rage Sells Stories: The Brutal Economy of the Culture War
Sam Harrison
With Twitter begrudgingly apologising for its slow response to musician Wiley’s antisemitic rant, despite it violating the site's guidelines for hate speech, it comes as no surprise that the posts stayed up for as long as they did, writes Sam Harrison. Twitter is merely following the economic logic of the ‘culture-industrial complex’, which sees media companies profit off of online controversy.
Opinion: Why the Labour Party and Unions Need to Get Serious About News
Aaron Bastani
Unless the labour movement is serious about creating a meaningful - and modern - counter-weight to the right-wing media, both its national profile and political power will continue to wane, writes Aaron Bastani.
GE2019: Are Anti-Corbyn Groups Buying up Facebook Ads on Behalf of the Conservative Party?
Charlotte England
The Conservative party’s Facebook advertising strategy has been looking a little strange recently, with their spending in the past week eclipsed by the Liberal Democrats, the Labour party and anti-Brexit group Best for Britain. This is despite the Conservatives having spent far more on Facebook ads in past elections than any other party – £2.1m […]
GE2019: Asymmetric Advertising Is the New Fake News, and the Tories May Be Using It to Hijack Your Social Media
Stuart Mills
Social media could win this election and the Tories know they are at a disadvantage, with users skewing young and leftwing. Researcher Stuart Mills thinks the Conservatives may have come up with a hack: using deliberately bad or contentious content to try and bait us into sharing their posts.
GE2019: The Media Is Biased Against Jeremy Corbyn – but Does That Even Matter in This Election?
Bart Cammaerts
As a general election approaches, the biased British press is expected to ramp up its campaign to delegitimise and demonise Jeremy Corbyn, writes professor Bart Cammaerts. But how much power does the press actually have anymore, when social media now allows politicians to speak directly to the electorate?
Novara FM: Screen Capitalism: The Twittering Machine
James Butler is joined by Richard Seymour to discuss his book 'The Twittering Machine'.
The Employability Industry: How Platforms Profit From ‘Brand You’
Phil Jones
It's time we see our so-called brands for what they are: vital data and profits for social media giants. To cut off this source of data we need a radical policy programme that privileges worker security and wellbeing, writes Phil Jones.
Novara FM: Brexit: State, Sovereignty, Power
After May's Brexit deal fell apart in parliament this week, James Butler is joined by Richard Seymour to pick apart the deep politics behind Brexit.
Novara FM: Stop Trump?
Ahead of Trump's visit to the UK – and the protests to accompany it – James Butler is joined by Ash Sarkar and Richard Seymour to discuss the first 18 months of the Trump regime, transatlantic politics post-Brexit, and the uses of political protest.
Novara FM: A New Dark Age?
On #NovaraFM, James Butler is joined by James Bridle, to discuss the politics of technology, silicon prometheanism, how to think about the present – and why nothing seemed to happen after the Snowden leaks.
Choice: Break up Facebook – or Take It Into Public Ownership? I Am Not Kidding
Paul Mason
The emerging scandal over Facebook's role in the manipulation of user data raises questions over the future of tech giants that hold massive amounts of our information. So how do we solve a problem like Facebook?
Rooftopping: The Right to the City
Annie Lord
For some, rooftopping, or urban exploring, is a radical practice, a way of reclaiming public space and turning the city into a site of play. However, others argue it has been co-opted by the logic of capital, resulting in the sacrifice of progressive politics for sponsorship deals and social media fame.