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More tourists than ever are guided around Japan based on the content they consume online, but can those same creators help direct them to less-populated areas of the country?
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jul 29, 2024

Influencers helped cause overtourism. Can they help fix it?

“I don't want to use filters or put out content just for the sake of views and followers,” one content creator says. “I want to show people what the real Japan is.”
TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, divests.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2024

TikTok’s survival is at stake in all-out fight against U.S. ban

TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless ByteDance divests.
A man walks next to an office building of FSD (Fondation Suisse de Déminage), a nongovernmental humanitarian organization, damaged during a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on July 24.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

Russia vs Ukraine: the biggest war of the fake news era

More than three-quarters of the Ukrainian population get their news from social media, far more than any other source of information.
A new trend on social media advocates living a more frugal lifestyle that prioritizes quality over quantity.
WORLD / Society
Aug 12, 2024

Do I need it? 'Underconsumption core' trends on TikTok

Years of inflation have forced many to the conclusion they cannot keep up with the spending habits of those on their social media feeds.
Elon Musk held a conversation with Donald Trump on the tech mogul’s X platform on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2024

Musk pitches White House role in glitchy Trump conversation on X

The conversation gave Elon Musk an opening to increase his influence with Donald Trump if the former president returns to power.
Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X Holdings Corp., speaks at the Milken Institute's Global Conference on May 6 in Beverly Hills, California.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 15, 2024

Musk’s free speech mantra collides with crackdowns on hate speech and disinformation

Since taking over, Musk has largely abandoned X’s prior efforts to curb misinformation, instead asking users to police themselves.
An influencer uses a phone at the United Center, ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), in Chicago on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 22, 2024

At DNC, influencers battle journalists for space and access

The Democratic National Convention has credentialed more than 200 "content creators" to cover the four-day event.
Demonstrators with a stylized painting depicting Telegram's founder, Pavel Durov, protest against the blocking of the popular messaging app in Russia, during a May Day rally in Saint Petersburg on in May 2018.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 25, 2024

Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in France, reports say

Pavel Durov, the Russian-French billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Bourget Airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV and BFM TV said, citing unidentified sources.
A picture taken in 2021 in Moscow shows the mobile messaging and call service Telegram logo on a smartphone screen. French judicial authorities extended the detention of the Russian-born founder and chief of Telegram Pavel Durov on Sunday after his arrest at an airport near Paris over alleged offenses related to the popular but controversial messaging app.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 26, 2024

Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested in France, sources say

A French police source said Durov was the subject of an arrest warrant in France.
Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 26, 2024

TikTok tourists trample on Angkor Wat in viral Temple Run recreation

Some of these viral videos have received more than 2 million views and inspire copycat versions daily.
An ISIS flag hangs in the bombed-out remains of a palace that militants used as a headquarters in Mosul, Iraq, in 2017.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 26, 2024

Islamic State supporters turn to AI to bolster online support

Digital experts say groups like IS and far-right movements are increasingly using AI online and testing the limits of safety controls on social media platforms.
Since arriving in Japan, Adrian Bianco has dedicated himself to exploring the country’s many subcultures at the website sabukaru.online.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 30, 2024

Adrian Bianco: ‘Leaving your comfort zone keeps you alive’

Upon relocating in Tokyo after a stint with the Vice empire in Germany, Adrian Bianco has explored Asia's underground via his website Sabukaru Online.
X owner Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles in May.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 31, 2024

Brazil judge bans X as Elon Musk challenges top court’s orders

The platform's ban caps a monthslong feud between Musk and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is spearheading efforts to combat fake news.
Fulton County voters cast their ballots during the Georgia primary at Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta on May 21.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 5, 2024

U.S. voters targeted by Chinese influence online, researchers say

The messaging does not appear to favor one side of the political spectrum — either Democrats or Republicans.
Red Square in Moscow. According to U.S. authorities, the Kremlin used an elaborate scheme to use American influencers to spread propaganda.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 6, 2024

Russia used a fake investor to dupe influencers, U.S. says

U.S. authorities have highlighted what they say is an elaborate scheme by the Russian government to spread propaganda.
Sergei Kiriyenko, who is the first deputy head in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration, oversaw a yearslong Kremlin operation to meddle in U.S. elections and use disinformation to promote pro-Russian narratives online, according to a 277-page affidavit that U.S. officials unsealed Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 7, 2024

The evolution of Putin’s aide accused of gaming the U.S. election

The head of a Russian propaganda campaign that allegedly aimed to influence the upcoming U.S. elections began as a liberal politician.
An American flag waves outside the U.S. Department of Justice Building in Washington in 2020.
WORLD / Society
Sep 10, 2024

U.S. says alleged white supremacists tried to use Telegram to spark race war

U.S. prosecutors unveiled criminal charges on Monday against two alleged leaders of a white supremacist gang, saying they used the Telegram social media site to solicit attacks on Black, Jewish, LGBTQ people and immigrants aiming to incite a race war.
Japanese media's lack of critical engagement and depth in covering debates can be attributed to Japan's Broadcasting Law, which mandates political impartiality in news coverage.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 12, 2024

How Japanese and U.S. election coverage differs

Japanese media's coverage of U.S. debates tends to be more superficial and uniform, often merely reflecting U.S. media content.
Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 19, 2024

Microsoft executive warns of meddling in final days of U.S. election

Brad Smith said lessons should be learned from certain other elections that have seen fake information circulated.
A closure order on the door to the Ramallah Al Jazeera office in the West Bank after the Israeli raid on Sunday
WORLD / Politics
Sep 22, 2024

Israel forces raid Al Jazeera TV in West Bank and order 45-day closure

The Israeli parliament passed a law in early April allowing the banning of foreign media broadcasts deemed harmful to state security.
Actor Zhu Jian, 69, rehearses with other actors on the set of a micro movie during a filming session at a banquet hall in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, on July 16.
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2024

Micro dramas shake up China's film industry, aim for Hollywood

The leader in the micro drama space is Kuaishou, an app that accounted for 60% of the top 50 Chinese micro dramas last year.
Chung Pui-kuen, former chief editor of the now-shuttered Stand News, and Patrick Lam, former acting chief editor, leave the Hong Kong District Court on June 27, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 26, 2024

Hong Kong court to sentence two former editors found guilty of sedition in landmark case

The case marks the first time journalists have been found guilty of sedition since the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997.
Local activists and tech workers protest against Google and Amazon's Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli military and government, outside the Google Cloud Next Conference in San Francisco, California, on August 29, 2023.
WORLD
Oct 8, 2024

Decoding the role Big Tech plays in the war in Gaza

The Israel-Hamas war has spotlighted how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used on the battlefield.
Outrageous stories about Kamala Harris and Donald Trump online were widely mistaken as real across social media, underscoring how content from satirical websites is being repurposed to fuel political misinformation and sow confusion ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 15, 2024

'Stolen satire' feeds U.S. election misinformation

False claims are being widely mistaken as real across social media, underscoring how content from satirical websites is being repurposed to fuel political misinformation.
A young man waits for customers, while selling national flags and patriotic memorabilia in Karachi in August.
WORLD / Society
Oct 15, 2024

Pakistan 'vigilantes' behind rise in online blasphemy cases

Cases of online blasphemy — a crime that carries the death penalty in the country — have exploded in recent years, with arrests turning lives upside down.
According to Fujikyu Railway, a group of around 10 people, who appear to be foreign nationals, boarded a train at Fujikyu-Highland Station on Oct. 16 and filmed themselves dancing onboard before they got off at Otsuki Station.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 25, 2024

Fujikyu Railway weighs legal action over foreign tourist dance video

The video, made by a group that appears to be a New York-based dance troupe, features dancers sliding on the floor and asking for a hand from nearby passengers.
A team of lawyers head to the Osaka District Court on Tuesday to file a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, on behalf of their clients, who are victims of investment scams linked to fake advertisements on the social media platforms.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 29, 2024

Meta faces Japan lawsuits over fake ads linked to investment fraud

Those affected claim that the owner of Facebook and Instagram neglected to remove the ads from its social media platforms, which led to them being scammed.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a live interview with U.S. commentator Tucker Carlson in the finale of the Tucker Carlson Live Tour at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2024

Election falsehoods take off on Youtube as it looks the other way

The largest video platform has become a home for election conspiracy theories, half-truths and lies, which provide it with revenue.
Meta has long faced criticism from researchers, watchdog groups and lawmakers for not fostering a healthy information ecosystem during elections across the globe.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 5, 2024

Meta struggles to curb hate speech before U.S. vote, researchers say

The findings come as Meta has long faced criticism from researchers, watchdog groups, and lawmakers for not fostering a healthy information ecosystem.
Rizwan Gondal, the head police officer in Rahim Yar Khan distric, says that his detectives have a dossier proving the "heinous criminal activities" of Pakistani gangster Shahid Lund Baloch, who broadcasts on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram defiant messages delivered gun-in-hand, romanticizing his rural lifestyle and cultivating a reputation as a champion of the people.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2024

TikTok bandits terrorize and transfix Pakistan riverlands

In riverine terrain in central Punjab that has long offered them refuge, bandits use the internet to enthrall citizens even as they prey on them.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb