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SOCIAL MEDIA

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Elon Musk in Washington on Feb. 13.
WORLD
Aug 7, 2025
Musk vs. Modi: Inside the battle over India's internet censorship
X argues India's internet-policing actions are illegal.
A video on Bayraktar's Instagram account of the Belgian photographer approaching an elderly worker in Tokyo's Shibuya has gone viral, garnering almost 9 million views.
LIFE / Digital
Aug 6, 2025
Photographer Bleg Bayraktar is winning social media with politeness
Japan holds a special place in the heart of the Belgian photographer, who has shot portraits in various countries and cultivated a reputation for being incredibly respectful.
In a report released on Wednesday, Australia's eSafety Commissioner said YouTube, along with Apple, failed to track the number of user reports it received of child sex abuse appearing on their platforms.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 6, 2025
Australian watchdog says YouTube and others 'turning a blind eye' to abuse material
The regulator said some providers had not made improvements to address safety gaps on their services despite it putting them on notice in previous years.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jul 30, 2025
Australia adds YouTube to teen social media ban, tearing up exemption
The country's internet regulator cited a survey that found 37% of minors reported seeing harmful content on the site.
China has strict obscenity laws and regularly scrubs content deemed pornographic from its heavily-controlled domestic internet, so the scale of the image sharing on Telegram has shocked many in China.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 29, 2025
Outrage in China after reports exploitative images of Chinese women shared in Telegram groups
Sexually exploitative images of women were shared with hundreds of thousands of users on Telegram, with the scale of the sharing shocking many in China.
The National Police Agency noted in a special section of its fiscal 2025 report that the spread of social media has made it easy for loosely organized crime groups to contact regular citizens and commit crimes.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 29, 2025
NPA white paper highlights crimes surrounding social media
In 2024, the number of social media-linked investment and romance fraud cases police detected around the country exceeded 10,000, with victims defrauded of some ¥127.2 billion.
Police officers prepare the venue where Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was scheduled to deliver his first campaign speech for the Upper House election, on July 3 in Kobe.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 24, 2025
Police detect 889 threatening posts ahead of Upper House poll
The National Police Agency confirmed the 889 threatening posts through cyber patrol and also thanks to reports from the public between June 16 and Saturday.
The EU flag and Meta logo in an illustration from 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 22, 2025
Meta, X and LinkedIn appeal unprecedented VAT claim by Italy
Italian tax authorities argue that free user registrations with X, LinkedIn and Meta platforms should be seen as taxable transactions.
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025
47% turn to social media and videos for voting decisions: exit poll
Of those, the largest proportion, at 23.9%, cast proportional representation votes for Sanseito.
England's Jess Carter attends a news conference in June.
SOCCER
Jul 21, 2025
England's Jess Carter receives racist abuse during Euro 2025
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted his support for Carter on X.
A think tank researcher said anti-government propaganda by Russian bot accounts was what has made the small far-right party Sanseito so popular leading up to the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2025
Concerns grow in Japan over possible Russian interference in Sunday’s election
A blog post from a member of the Japan Institute of Law and Information Systems went viral for stating Russian bots were interfering in the upcoming Upper House election.
A former company employee who posts highlight videos on YouTube prepares to livestream Shinji Ishimaru's stump speech in Tokyo in June. Jiji
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 17, 2025
Highlight videos online playing big role in Upper House election
Social media is increasingly impacting election results in Japan amid the growing popularity of YouTube and other video-sharing sites.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 15, 2025
23-year sentence sought for senior member of 'Luffy' crime ring
"The cases have led to many copycat crimes, and the defendant should be punished severely," prosecutors stressed.
A high school student uses social media applications in November 2024.
WORLD / Society
Jul 15, 2025
EU states to test age-check app to limit children's access to online services
The European Commission has unveiled a prototype of the app that Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain will customize and launch within several months.
A barber gives a model a haircut during the World Barber Classic at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2025
Japan's World Barber Classic tries to bring back business
The event is part of a bid by Japan's struggling barber industry to attract young male clients lost in recent years to hair salons.
AI-created images of Holocaust-related subjects displayed on a laptop and a smartphone screens
WORLD / Society
Jul 15, 2025
Holocaust AI fakes spark alarm
Critics say that AI-generated images, text and videos are offensive and contribute to Holocaust distortion by conjuring up a "fantasy-land Auschwitz."
Grok, a chatbot made by xAI, on Tuesday made antisemitic comments on billionaire owner Elon Musk's social media platform, X.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 10, 2025
Europe’s clash with Musk’s xAI escalates after Grok’s rants
The chatbot on Tuesday made antisemitic comments on social media platform X.
Speculation about Xi Jinping losing his grip on power misreads China’s digital authoritarianism, which uses algorithmic control and emotional scripting to absorb dissent and reinforce the Chinese Communist Party’s power in the information age.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2025
Online dissent in China doesn’t mean Xi is on his way out
Don’t be fooled by viral posts. The CCP allows and even encourages certain forms of online dissent — all part of its digital authoritarianism.
People whose prime news sources are online platforms stood at 73%, far surpassing the 13% who chose newspapers, a government white paper showed on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2025
Almost three quarters of Japan looks online first for news, white paper reports
People whose primary news sources are online platforms stood at 73%, far surpassing the 13% who chose newspapers, according to the communications ministry.
Xu Pengcheng (right), model Mao Yi and Nono walk along a corridor inside an abandoned hotel in Shanghai on May 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 6, 2025
China's abandoned buildings draw urban explorers despite risks
Urban exploration is growing in popularity in China, where a yearslong property sector crisis has left many cities dotted with empty buildings.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped