I still can't quite believe this story, but I've researched it first hand and yeah, it's true. I don't know what was going on in that executive's head to make them believe they wouldn't be caught doctoring engagement numbers on their homepage. blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fictional-metrics-an…
W Social, Fictional Metrics and the Beauty of Open Data
blog.elenarossini.comJun 25, 2026 at 12:24 PM
Elena Rossini 🌈 (@_elena@mastodon.social)
🚨 New post alert 📝 A deep dive into #WSocial with some fascinating findings: candid statements about their motives, a Greta Thunberg connection, potential AI plans (!!!) Why write about it again? I still had so many questions after publishing my first article. I spent 3 weeks watching every interview I could find and connecting the dots. I hope you'll enjoy this piece: 🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/the-untold-story-about-w-social-unconventional-beginnings-strategic-pitches-conflicting-signals/ #blog #longread #privacy #DataMining #Europe
The saga of 'Pizzagate': The fake story that shows how conspiracy theories spread
Thousands of people are spreading a false rumour about a Washington pizza restaurant and a child sex ring. But why?
Fact-checking an engagement drop on MAGA pages because of the Yandex data center strike | Joohn Choe
Zelenskyy tweet: https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2109602415397749044?s=20 Res Futura Data House tweet: https://x.com/Polityka_wSieci/status
Liberalism Won't Admit What it Actually Stands For
What the heck happened with .org? | The Mozilla Blog
If you are following the tech news, you might have seen the announcement that ICANN withheld consent for the change of control of the Public Interest Regis
The Plot to Subvert an Election: Unraveling the Russia Story So Far (Published 2018)
For two years, Americans have tried to absorb the details of the 2016 attack: spies, leaked emails, social media fraud — and President Trump’s claims that it’s all a hoax. The Times explores what we know and what it means.
Fact-Checking False Claims about our Gender Identity Coverage | The New York Times Company
A recent post from Trans News Network included numerous falsehoods about New York Times stories on gender identity and maligned some of the journalists involved in the work. Our coverage is guided by…
The Media Can't Stop Propping Up Elon Musk's Phony Supergenius Engineer Mythology
"CEO said a thing!" journalism is now utterly pervasive, and includes parroting billionaire and CEO claims with a total disregard for whether or not anything being said is actually true.
Trump’s DHS is using an obscure law to secretly snoop on journalists, non-profits and unions: ‘It’s outrageous’
Even after judges rejected the same ploy, the Trump administration is going directly to social media and telecommunications companies
Do links hurt news publishers on Twitter? Our analysis suggests yes
Engagement for tweets from @nytimes (53 million followers) is dwarfed by engagement for tweets from @GlobeEyeNews (866,000 followers).
CBP Officers And Contractors Abused Government Databases To Stalk Their Exes
This news will come as no surprise to anyone. Those who have been following police misconduct revelations for years have seen this happen time and time and time and time again. Those who are in the…
⚠️ Big tech's privacy promises are misleading! 🎤 We sat down with Melanie Ensign, CEO of @discernibleinc.bsky.social and former communications lead for Facebook, Uber, AT&T, and DEF CON. In this interview she pulls back the curtain on how these large tech corporations actually approach privacy.
It gets even crazier. After MS NOW reporter @brandyzadrozny.bsky.social published an article debunking the celebrity deepfakes, she herself was woven into the narrative, with fabricated videos emerging that falsely claimed she had retracted her reporting and blamed Democrats for a "false flag."
🚨 REPLICATION REPORT UPDATE: One year ago, a tweet by John Holbein alerted me, @ollefolke.bsky.social, and @jopieboy.bsky.social to a paper with a shocking result about Sweden’s law criminalizing the purchase of sex.🧵
Really important to notice the sleight of hand here. Nobody reported that @wsocial.eu *leaked* the data (except for W Social saying in their denials that others reported this). We all agree this over-publication was done on purpose, by design, in a way that is not totally clear to everyday users.
heiseonline
Das soziale Netz W Social will sich mit einer Verifizierung aller Konten von der Konkurrenz abheben. Dass einige gesammelte Daten publik sind, sei kein Fehler. #Social Media
There are new and specific numbers in this story, so it’s worth reading. I continue to resent the lack of credit to Nick Schwellenbach at @pogo.org, Dan Friedman at @motherjones.com, and me, who have previously reported every other aspect of this story, including that the sale prices were very high.
