Naomi Nix
@naominix.bsky.social
7.3K followers 62 following 36 posts
I cover Meta and other social media companies for The Washington Post.
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naominix.bsky.social
Both Republicans and Democrats have long sought to "work the refs" at social media companies that decide which speech should stay up or be taken down. See this oldie but goodie on jawboning /w ‪@cqzakrz.bsky.social‬

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Ted Cruz, Joe Biden and other politicians ask social media companies to remove posts
The Supreme Court is set to decide whether government demands to remove social media posts violate the First Amendment.
www.washingtonpost.com
naominix.bsky.social
The docs show Meta employees had warned the company for years that kids were bypassing age restrictions to use their VR products. And Meta did not create parental controls for “tween” VR users until after the Federal Trade Commission began investigating its compliance with COPPA.
naominix.bsky.social
In one notable exchange, a Meta lawyer told a UX researcher he should avoid collecting data that showed children were using their devices “due to regulatory concerns.”
naominix.bsky.social
We analyzed thousands of pages of internal docs turned over to Congress by whistleblowers, who say Meta deployed its legal team to screen, edit and sometimes veto research about youth safety in VR.
naominix.bsky.social
A teen told Meta researchers his brother, then under 10, had been sexually propositioned through Meta's VR headsets multiple times. Their boss told them to delete the evidence, they said.

That's one example in our new investigation about Meta's crack down on internal research.
naominix.bsky.social
New(ish): Meta agreed to pay $14.8B for a 49% stake in the artificial intelligence data firm Scale AI, per person familiar. We are confirming reports in NYT, Bloomberg and The Information. Deal could be announced as soon as today. /w
@nitasha.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Meta takes $15 billion stake in Scale AI in bid to catch competitors
Meta agreed to pay $14.8 billion for a 49 percent stake in the AI data firm Scale AI, which will give the company access to talent and data services.
www.washingtonpost.com
Reposted by Naomi Nix
tatumhunter.bsky.social
As the Trump administration posts through its mass deportation push, viral images from protests and raids are amping up outrage on both sides. W @drewharwell.com and @naominix.bsky.social
drewharwell.com
New: A week before the ICE raid on day workers outside a Home Depot ignited the L.A. protests, the White House posted video from a similar bust, calling it an "EPIC Takedown." Commenters called it "disturbing": this "isn't a reality show." But the messaging war had just begun 🧵 wapo.st/4l2fK2A
naominix.bsky.social
New: A tighter job market for tech and lower corporate tolerance for employee activism have stifled the once boisterous worker-led movements in Silicon Valley on everything from AI safety to the Israel-Gaza war. /w @nitasha.bsky.social & Trisha Thadani
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Big Tech takes a harder line against worker activism, political dissent
A tighter labor market and lower corporate tolerance have stifled employee input on controversies over company policy, AI safety and the Israel-Gaza war.
www.washingtonpost.com
Reposted by Naomi Nix
Reposted by Naomi Nix
willoremus.com
not a big Prize Guy but proud to have played a role on the @washingtonpost.com team that was named a Pulitzer finalist in National Reporting today for our coverage of Hurricane Helene, including the social media-fueled storm of lies that followed in its wake www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024...
How a conspiracy-fueled group got a foothold in this hurricane-battered town
Over the course of 11 days, a supermarket parking lot became a snapshot of the chaos that can unfold in some corners of post-disaster America.
www.washingtonpost.com
Reposted by Naomi Nix
faizsays.bsky.social
A belated thank you to everyone who is putting up with Media Tour Faiz this week. I assure you regular programming will resume soon. But as a special treat, you may now see the cover of the Italian edition, which is out now!!
Reposted by Naomi Nix
chatter.techmeme.com
This post appeared under this Techmeme headline:
naominix.bsky.social
The OSB was scheduled to release this ruling along with several others NEXT WEEK. After I reached out to OSB for comment on the story on Friday (including the outcome of ruling), I was told they would get back to me by EOD Tues. Instead, they pushed up the release of their rulings to this morning.
naominix.bsky.social
The OSB was scheduled to release this ruling along with several others NEXT WEEK. After I reached out to OSB for comment on the story on Friday (including the outcome of ruling), I was told they would get back to me by EOD Tues. Instead, they pushed up the release of their rulings to this morning.
naominix.bsky.social
Meanwhile, the financially vulnerable Oversight Board was facing political criticism that it was too liberal, which incentivized their desire to pick a case like this in the first place.
naominix.bsky.social
They had a good reason to say that. While OSB doesn't name the account holders in this case, sources say they belong to Libs of TikTok.
naominix.bsky.social
Today, we report Meta's top policy officials Nick Clegg and Joel Kaplan told the board last year that its gender identity case was particularly sensitive given current politics.
naominix.bsky.social
You may have seen a lot of headlines this morning about Meta's @oversightboard.bsky.social latest rulings but there was one officials there clearly didn't want you to read
Reposted by Naomi Nix
washingtonpost.com
Exclusive: Following President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on China, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about the potential impact of the tariffs on iPhone prices.
How Tim Cook helped Apple out of Trump’s tariff storm — for now
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook spoke to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week about the potential impact of the tariffs on iPhone prices.
wapo.st
naominix.bsky.social
Now, Matheson is focusing on Meta's mistakes in adapting to the mobile age. He shows Zuck a video of a 2012 interview he gave at a Techcrunch conference in which he says that one of the biggest mistakes they made was failing to write the code for native applications instead of using html5.
naominix.bsky.social
He adds that the company has often got disparate signals from users on what they want: people say they want more content from friends and family but they often interact with content posted by people outside their networks. This goes directly to a core question: what market is facebook competing in?