What’s New This Week?
The Emoji Resistance
The revolution (well, the outpouring of anti-Trump frustration on social media) has an icon: the upraised fist emoji. How do we know this? Thank data scientist Hamdan Azhar who founded data journalism lab Prismoji. Azhar analyzed emoji use by the top protest hashtags, and found the fist to be “a signature emoji of progressive protest.”
Facebook’s Illegal Ad Problem
Last fall, Pro Publica pointed out that Facebook allows advertisers to exclude users – by race, gender and other protected categories – from seeing housing and employment ads. This goes against federal fair housing and employment laws. Facebook announced last week that they launched an automated system for dealing with this issue, reports Washington Post.
Playing to the Trolls
Outrage is an efficient marketing tactic, writes Ryan Holiday in Observer. And he makes a really good point. Angry tweets and media coverage are helping the alt-right trolls reach a broad audience… for free. The alt-right “doesn’t care that you hate them—they like it. It’s proof to their followers that they are doing something subversive and meaningful.” Interesting read.