TikTok trends and challenges rely on music to help tell a social story, collectively told across many videos - which in turn is helping songs go viral.
Social media has allowed fake news about the Ukraine invasion to proliferate.
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Increased media literacy education and government regulations are necessary to combat fake information on social media platforms.
A meme showing Adolf Hitler caressing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s face, tweeted by the official Ukraine state account on Feb. 24, 2022, the day Russia invaded.
Official Ukraine Twitter account
How do a country and its citizens deal with the trauma of a deadly invasion by an enemy? Memes, cats and TikToks are emerging – most recently in the Ukraine war – as a way to cope with tragedy.
The Kremlin has exerted tight control over news and social media in an effort to control the information Russians receive about the Ukraine war.
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We can waste an awful lot of time on social media because of the engaging, even addictive, nature of platforms like Tiktok. But teachers are now exploiting these qualities for learning languages.
Commercial satellite companies provide views once reserved for governments, like this image of a Russian military training facility in Crimea.
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National security professionals and armchair sleuths alike are taking advantage of vast amounts of publicly available information and software tools to monitor geopolitical events around the world.
Social media does have some redeeming features – and its utility will depend on how you use it. But for many of us, the reward no longer outweighs the harms.
TikTok now has over a billion daily users.
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Tabloids traditionally have gone after the rich and famous. On TikTok, anyone can be a target.
WitchTok is the subculture of pagans who use TikTok to share spells, learn about mythology and connect with co-religionists.
(northeasternherb, showthe8thhouse, greenwitchmystics/TikTok)
A number of legal cases were brought forward by regulators this year, in a bid to hold major tech companies accountable.
A cutout display at a protest highlighted the connection between social media and the real-world effects of misinformation.
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Misinformation will continue to strain society in 2022 as the lines between misinformation and political speech blur, cynicism grows and the lack of regulation allows misinformation to flourish.
Creator culture on TikTok is changing the way hits are made, how music is promoted, and how the world discovers music, even for those artists who choose not to engage with it.
TikTok exploded in Nigeria during the 2020 lockdowns.
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Fears that TikTok is “serving up” drug content to impressionable users have prompted calls for all drug content to be censored on the platform. But that would remove useful health advice too.
It’s often triggered in an instant, social media users say, by witnessing some kind of turn-off – a bad dance move, a grating laugh or an eating style.
People tend to view social media posts more favorably when more people have liked, commented on or shared them, regardless of the quality of the posts.
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