TikTok knows me too well - it's served up a useful channel for AI trainers, with side-by-side footage of a similar subject. You get 5 sec to choose which is AI and which is real. Useful for case studies. www.tiktok.com/@tkp..1001 #journalism

This is doing the rounds on Threads. It takes two minutes to check something, folks. An old but good rule of thumb: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2...

SO ANNOYING. When I'm shopping for 'end to end encryption' apps, I don't want one of the ends to be Meta. www.bbc.com/news/article...

GIJN has joined 26 other press freedom and journalist groups in voicing support for a free press, and called on the U.S. to protect reporters and media workers employed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Read the letter: https://twp.ai/1VmYaz

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

A new project to track polls: The NYT will build off the work of the recently shuttered 538, trying to ensure that this resource, which is a foundational tool for many journalists and researchers, remains updated long-term. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/p...

Reply with your favourite Starter Packs for people fleeing X here. Here's Bellingcat's: go.bsky.app/HZSzS41

More depressing news out of the USA today. www.npr.org/2025/03/15/n...

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." But here we are.

"A top political columnist for The Washington Post resigned today, accusing Post chief executive and publisher Will Lewis of killing her column that criticized owner Jeff Bezos's drive to overhaul the opinion pages..." www.npr.org/2025/03/10/n... That top columnist is Associate Editor Ruth Marcus.

This @theguardian.com story about a deepfake con used to steal from ordinary folk - including pensioners - was made possible with help from @occrp.org, one of the orgs targeted by DOGE. It's a good week to take out a newspaper subscription! www.theguardian.com/money/2025/m...

"Critics contend that coverage is sometimes so broadly focused that it doesn’t connect with local readers. Many express concerns about who’s paying the bills and with what motives. And there’s constant fear about the funding drying up.”

The Los Angeles Times has removed its new AI-powered “insights” feature from a column after the tool tried to defend the Ku Klux Klan

Oh dear. My favourite app for editing video for social media has _changed_ VN used to do auto-captions for free. Not any more.

This is not uncommon when it comes to fact-checking and is why media literacy MUST be part of the response to misinformation and disinformation. There's no guarantee that correct - or corrected - information will get in front of all the necessary eyeballs.

Sidebar to, like, everything else going on today but Sean Baker, director of Anora, was one of the catalysts for the mobile journalism movement, when he made Tangerine in 2015 on an iPhone 5S en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangeri... #mojo #oscars #anora

Excellent thread from the founder of @bellingcat.com if (like me / most people) you’re trying to get your head around what the heck is going on rn

Just finished reading this from @antelava.bsky.social. It's very useful if you're interested in journalism and trust. There's a link to a @pewresearch.org study in Natalia's story that provides additional valuable context. www.codastory.com/rewriting-hi...

Thread: A viral clip of Donald Trump Jr saying on his Triggered podcast that "the US should have been sending weapons to Russia" instead of Ukraine is AI-generated and fake. Worryingly, the fake AI audio sounds near identical to Don Jr's real voice. Let's see how we can verify that it's fake.

If it walks like a duck…

scoop: PBS is closing its DEI office in response to President Trump’s recent executive order. Note from CEO Paula Kerger

This thread 👀

I'm publishing Google's internal memo to employees explaining why it's ending DEI hiring goals across the company The rationale is linked to Google being a federal contractor and "recent court decisions and U.S. Executive Orders on this topic" Full memo here: www.theverge.com/google/60701...

Folks trying to put some figures on what the USAID funding freeze means for journalism - this piece from Jon Allsop in Columbia Journalism Review is a good starting point: www.cjr.org/the_media_to...

Thanks @pulitzercenter.bsky.social for organising this 3-day Reporting on AI Intensive course. Usually it's me doing the training but this week I'm joining 50 journalists from all over the world to learn from @karenhao.bsky.social and @gabrielgeiger.bsky.social. Woo hoo!

Couple days ago the USAID website was taken down, and it's still 'site not found'. Now, Wikipedia lists the USAID website as being under the State Department: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...

FYI - if you have a compatible iPhone (15 pro/max; any 16 model) and update to iOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence gets installed automatically. You can switch it off & choose not to use it - but you can’t uninstall it. Also, it takes up 6gb of storage on your iPhone even if you’re not using it.

NEW: US government websites are disappearing in real time, including sites for the US Agency for International Development, foreign assistance, neglected diseases, and children in adversity. We analyzed more than 1000 .gov websites to track what's been taken down—and what's next. wrd.cm/4aFMs5A

Good grief. USAID site appears to be offline. Google Search conducted 10.37am Sydney summer time, Sun 2 Feb. Clicked on top link, got second result.

Journalists, writers, artists, musicians, graphic designers and other creators might be forgiven for a moment of schadenfreude. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Superb thread from Karen Hao on Tw!tter about Deepmind x.com/_karenhao/st...

This week's IJF round-up: Le Monde to stop posting its content on X, supporting journalists in exile, and Syria’s state news agency enters new era www.journalismfestival.com/news/le-mond...

I just watched a young TikTok crochet artist compare the timing of today's US ban reversal to allegations that Reagan delayed the end of the Iranian hostage crisis until after his inauguration (www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...) and who can say but one thing's for sure: the kids are gonna be ok.

The reopening of TikTok to America in the past few hours feels deliberate and manipulative. Kind of like an algorithm.

ONE US creator was still going live till a couple minutes ago. Michael McBride is a science creator, who was mindblown to have 4000 people turn up to his broadcast. The most he's ever had tune in. He described it as being like the last violinist on Titanic.

All the live TikTok broadcasts of US accounts I follow just stopped working. Chat visible but screen is wheel of death.

TikTok just shared this with employees internally: “We know this is disappointing for you not only as employees, but as users. However, we are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”

@barb.bsky.social at @theverge.com has three methods for downloading your TikToks if you're a US-based creator needing to archive your work: www.theverge.com/24343890/tik...

Watching some of my favourite TikTok creators in the US giving what they expect to be their last livestreams is a hard watch. They're young, passionate, gifted, internationally-minded - and a lot of them are about to lose their livelihoods.

"I think that there is going to be an effort to have journalists reveal their sources." I spoke with veteran journalist & media critic @sulliview.bsky.social for @motherjones.com about the threats Trump poses to press freedom. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Court docs: internal messages suggest Meta used data from piracy site LibGen to train AI Llama models and worked to conceal it while racing rivals like OpenAI (The Verge) Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

Calling all young changemakers! Are you ready to sharpen your critical thinking and take control of the media you consume? Join our Media Literacy for African Storytellers Program: https://buff.ly/4ghPzTy

Total spider move to lie in wait 17 million years to scare the trousers off people

Lol my TikTok feed today is full of Americans moving to another Chinese-owned app called Red Note - fully aware of the irony. vt.tiktok.com/ZS6xBxrMC/

My TikTok feed is full of US news orgs, small businesses, and creators trying to pivot ahead of an increasingly likely Supreme Court ban on an app used by half the US population. An observation: if Trump can overturn the ban, his popularity among younger voters may go up.

I'll let our story speak for itself, but there's no place on the Internet for the kind of policies Meta implemented this week. @viticci.macstories.net and I have decided MacStories want no part of it, so we’ve leftThreads and Instagram. Details on our site: www.macstories.net/stories/macs...

What is going ON?!?

"As currently structured, research into the state of local news in the United States struggles to keep pace with the scale, and speed, of changes to the landscape."