Social media

App logos for Facebook, left, and X, formerly known as Twitter, are seen on a mobile phone in Los Angeles, Saturday, March 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Paula Ulichney)

A Supreme Court ruling in a social media case could set standards for free speech in the digital age

The Supreme Court is taking up a dispute between Republican-led states and the Biden administration over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics including COVID-19 and election security.

What TikTok creators say a ban would mean for them

FILE - The Reddit app icon is seen on a smartphone on Feb. 28, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. Reddit said Friday, March 15, 2024, that the Federal Trade Commission has opened an inquiry into the social platform’s sale, licensing or sharing of user posts and other content to outside organizations for use in training artificial intelligence models. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

Reddit reveals FTC inquiry into deals licensing its users’ data for AI training

FILE - Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a news briefing, Friday, March 1, 2024, in Salt Lake City. Cox, Wednesday, March 13, 2024, has approved an overhaul of social media laws meant to shield children from potential harms as the state fends off multiple lawsuits challenging their constitutionality. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Utah governor replaces social media laws for youth as state faces lawsuits

FILE - The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, March 7, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court rules public officials can sometimes be sued for blocking critics on social media

Content creators worry TikTok ban will cut income

Content creators Jensen Savannah and Marcus Bridgewater share their concerns over a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would lead to a nationwide ban of the app if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake. (AP video: Erik Verduzco, Lekan Oyekanmi)

Watch More

McDonald’s suffers system outages worldwide

Pakistan blocks X as activists criticize the social media platform’s shutdown

Mark Zuckerberg apologizes to victims’ families after heated exchange with Josh Hawley in the Senate

More News

Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex walks onstage for the keynote "Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen" on the first day of the South by Southwest Conference on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP)

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, returns to Instagram to tease new food, cookbook, cutlery brand

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has returned to Instagram to tease a new brand that records show could feature jams, household items, cookbooks and cutlery.

Europe asks Google, Facebook, TikTok and other platforms how they’re reducing generative AI risks

European Union regulators are ratcheting up scrutiny of big tech companies including Google, Facebook and TikTok by looking into how they’re dealing with risks from generative artificial intelligence, such as the viral spread of deepfakes.

FILE - Tesla CEO Elon Musk waves as he leaves the Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars after a visit in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Musk abruptly canceled “The Don Lemon Show,” a talk show on the social network X, after its former CNN anchor host recorded an interview with the billionaire for its first episode. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Musk abruptly cancels ‘The Don Lemon Show’ on X after he sits for the program’s first interview

Elon Musk has abruptly canceled “The Don Lemon Show” a talk show on his social media network, X. The move to cancel the show came after the former CNN anchor Lemon recorded an interview with the billionaire for the show’s as-yet unaired first episode.

FILE - A street sign is seen in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, June 14, 2022. AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Reddit is preparing to sell shares to the public. Here’s what you need to know

Reddit, that vast, lively and sometimes chaotic repository of internet discussion, said Monday that its pending initial public offering may be worth almost three quarters of a billion dollars.

FILE- In this March 13, 2019, file photo Facebook, Messenger and Instagram apps are are displayed on an iPhone in New York. A group of 40 state attorneys general sent a letter to Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta expressing concern over what they say is dramatic uptick of consumer complaints about account takeovers and lockouts. The AGs called on Meta to do a better job preventing account takeovers. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Most teens report feeling happy or peaceful when they go without smartphones, Pew survey finds

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. teens say they feel happy or peaceful when they don’t have their phones with them, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

Reddit looking to raise almost $750 million in initial public offering

Social media company Reddit is looking to raise almost $750 million in an initial public offering of its common stock.

FILE - Fans sit under a TikTok ad at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, April 14, 2023, in New York. A bill that could lead to the popular video-sharing app TikTok being unavailable in the United States is quickly gaining traction in the House. Lawmakers advanced legislation against TikTok Thursday as they voiced concerns about the potential for the platform to surveil and manipulate Americans. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

Biden says he’ll sign proposed legislation to ban TikTok if Congress passes it

President Joe Biden has endorsed legislation that could lead to the popular video-sharing app TikTok being banned in the United States, a move that comes amid growing concern in Washington about keeping Americans’ private data out of China’s hands.

FILE - Fans sit under a TikTok ad at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, April 14, 2023, in New York. A bill that could lead to the popular video-sharing app TikTok being unavailable in the United States is quickly gaining traction in the House. Lawmakers advanced legislation against TikTok Thursday as they voiced concerns about the potential for the platform to surveil and manipulate Americans. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

Bill that could ban TikTok passed in the House. Here’s what to know

TikTok once again finds itself in a precarious position as lawmakers in Washington move forward with a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban on the platform.

FILE.- In this Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019, photo an iPhone displays the apps for Facebook and Messenger in New Orleans. One the face of it, a short-term outage that made certain social media platforms temporarily unavailable would seem to not be worth more than a shrug or passing interest. But the widespread attention given to the blanking of Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms on Tuesday shows that it does matter. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

For social platforms, the outage was short. But people’s stories vanished, and that’s no small thing

The widespread attention given to the blanking of Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms on Tuesday tells a tale.

This undated photo provided by Laura Levitan shows herself in a self portrait. Levitan, the owner of Mod L Photography in Addison, Texas, uses Facebook and Instagram to correspond with potential clients. When the Meta outage happened on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, she was in the middle of posting and replying to inquiries. (Laura Levitan via AP)

Social media outages hurt small businesses -- so it’s important to have a backup plan

The Meta outage that affected Facebook, Messenger and Instagram for a few hours on Tuesday was an inconvenience for most.

Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads logins restored after widespread outage

A technical issue had caused widespread login issues for more than an hour across Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms on Tuesday.

FILE - Computer monitors and a laptop display the X, formerly known as Twitter, sign-in page, July 24, 2023, in Belgrade, Serbia. Attorneys for X Corp. and a research organization that studies online hate speech traded arguments in court Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, after the social media platform sued the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate for documenting the recent increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased by Elon Musk. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

Musk’s X asks judge to penalize nonprofit researchers tracking rise of hate speech on platform

Attorneys for X Corp. and a research organization that studies online hate speech have traded arguments in court in a legal battle over the organization’s reports on the increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased by Elon Musk in 2022.

FILE - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador arrives for his daily news conference at the presidential palace in Mexico City, March 24, 2020. Lopez Obrador lashed out at social media platform YouTube on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, for taking down part of his daily news briefing where he revealed a reporter’s phone number. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

Mexican president slams YouTube for taking down his video that shared a journalist’s phone number

Mexico’s president has again lashed out at social media platform YouTube for taking down part of his daily news briefing where he revealed a reporter’s phone number.

The Guardian of Law scuplture is seen at the west entrance of the Supreme Court on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Supreme Court casts doubt on GOP-led states’ efforts to regulate social media platforms

The Supreme Court has cast doubt with state laws that could affect how Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube and other social media platforms regulate content posted by their users.

"Burn Book," by longtime Silicon Valley reporter Kara Swisher is seen, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, in San Ramon, Calif. The book is published by Simon and Schuster. (AP Photo/Michael Liedtke)

‘Burn Book’ torches tech titans in veteran reporter’s tale of love and loathing in Silicon Valley

Technology is so pervasive and invasive that it’s polarizing people, producing feelings of love and loathing for its devices, online services and the would-be visionaries behind them.

FILE - Google logos are shown when searched on Google in New York, Sept. 11, 2023. Google said Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, it’s temporarily stopping its Gemini artificial intelligence chatbot from generating images of people a day after apologizing for “inaccuracies” in historical depictions that it was creating.(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Google says its AI image-generator would sometimes ‘overcompensate’ for diversity

Google apologized Friday for its faulty rollout of a new artificial intelligence image-generator, acknowledging that in some cases the tool would “overcompensate” in seeking a diverse range of people even when such a range didn’t make sense.

Reddit strikes $60M deal allowing Google to train AI models on its posts, unveils IPO plans

Reddit has struck a deal with Google. The pact announced Thursday will allow the search giant to use posts from the online discussion site for training its artificial intelligence models and to improve products such as online search.

FILE - Google logos are shown when searched on Google in New York, Sept. 11, 2023. Google said Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, it’s temporarily stopping its Gemini artificial intelligence chatbot from generating images of people a day after apologizing for “inaccuracies” in historical depictions that it was creating.(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Google suspends Gemini AI chatbot’s ability to generate pictures of people

Google said Thursday it’s temporarily stopping its Gemini artificial intelligence chatbot from generating images of people a day after apologizing for “inaccuracies” in historical depictions that it was creating.

This is a locator map for Pakistan with its capital, Islamabad, and the Kashmir region. (AP Photo)

Pakistan blocks X for the sixth day as activists criticize the social media platform’s shutdown

Pakistan’s media regulators have blocked the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, with users across the country enduring the sixth day of sweeping disruptions, partial and complete shutdowns.

Mom arrested after Instagram post about 5-year-old daughter helping wax adult clients

A Tennessee woman who posted photos on Instagram that appear to show her 5-year-old daughter helping her apply wax to adult clients for hair removal has been charged with child neglect.

TikTok faces European Union scrutiny for possible breaches of strict new digital rulebook

The European Union is looking into whether TikTok has broken the bloc’s strict new digital rules for cleaning up social media and keeping internet users safe.

FILE - This photo shows the mobile phone app logos for, from left, Facebook and Instagram in New York, Oct. 5, 2021. The European Union is expanding its strict digital rulebook on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024 to almost all online platforms in the bloc, in the next phase of its crackdown on toxic social media content and dodgy ecommerce products that began last year by targeting the most popular services. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, file)

The European Union expands digital crackdown on toxic content, dodgy goods to all online platforms

The European Union is expanding its strict digital rulebook to almost all online platforms in the bloc.

New York City files a lawsuit saying social media is fueling a youth mental health crisis

New York City, its schools and public hospital system are suing the tech giants that run Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube.

FILE - President Joe Biden sits in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, in Washington. Biden's team hopes it has found an unlikely opportunity to go on offense, and perhaps to unite an anxious Democratic Party, following the release of a special prosecutor's report on Thursday, Feb. 8, that cleared Biden of criminal charges, despite finding evidence that the president willfully retained and shared highly classified information as a private citizen. The counsel made repeated negative references to the 81-year-old president's age and memory that echo broader concerns raised by voters in both parties. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Biden’s campaign joins TikTok, even as administration warns of national security concerns with app

President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign is now on TikTok, even though he has expressed national security concerns over the platform and banned it on federal devices.

In this photo released by the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei salutes during a meeting with army's air force and air defense staff, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Meta removes Instagram and Facebook accounts for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Meta has removed Instagram and Facebook accounts run on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after criticism over his support for Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the monthslong war still raging in the Gaza Strip.

Taylor Swift arrives at the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Taylor Swift is demanding this college student stop tracking her private jet

When it comes to dealing with a Florida college student who uses public data and social media to track the private jets of billionaires, politicians and other celebrities, Taylor Swift apparently can’t just shake it off.

Meta says it will label AI-generated images on Facebook and Instagram

Facebook and Instagram users will start seeing made-by-AI labels on deepfake images that appear on their social media feeds, part of a broader tech industry initiative to sort between what’s real and not.

CORRECTS NAME SPELLING: Contestants including Carolina Shiino, who won the Miss Nippon (Japan) Grand Prix, center, pose for a photo after the contest in Tokyo, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. Crowned Miss Japan this week, Ukrainian-born Carolina Shiino cried with joy, thankful for the recognition of her identity as Japanese. (Miss Nippon Association via AP)

Ukrainian-born Miss Japan gives up her title after an article reveals her affair with a married man

The Ukrainian-born winner of this year’s Miss Japan beauty pageant says she has renounced her title after a magazine published an article about her affair with a married man.

FILE - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 23, 2019. Meta's Oversight Board said Monday, Feb. 5, 2024, that it is urging the company to clarify its approach to manipulated media so its platforms can better beat back the expected flood of online election disinformation this year. The recommendations come after the board reviewed an altered video of President Joe Biden that was misleading but didn't violate the company's policies. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Oversight board urges Meta to rethink its policy on manipulated media in high-stakes election year

An oversight board is criticizing Facebook owner Meta’s policies on manipulated media as “incoherent” and insufficient to address online disinformation in a major election year.

File - People show photos of their loved ones before the start of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with the heads of social media platforms on Capitol Hill in Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, to discuss child safety. The CEOs got grilled by Senate lawmakers in an emotional and often heated hearing about the dangers their platforms pose to children. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

What parents need to know to keep their kids safe on social media

Social media CEOs got grilled by Senate lawmakers this week in an emotional and often heated hearing about the dangers their platforms pose to children — sexual predators, videos encouraging suicide and glorifying eating disorders, bullying and addictive features, just to name a few.