Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: Meta moderation & DEI changes, U.S. TikTok ban update + TikTok users migrating to RedNote app

Transcript

MINI TECH SCROLL: Meta moderation & DEI changes, U.S. TikTok ban update + TikTok users migrating to RedNote app · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. My name is Annabelle, and I'm
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  the deputy editor of youth digital media brand Centennial
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  World, and I am now your Mini Scroll host every Wednesday.
• 0:18
  So as you can obviously hear or see, I am not Lauren.
• 0:22
  This year Lauren has decided to take a step back from Mini
• 0:25
  Scroll just one day a week to kind of lessen her workload and
• 0:29
  also manage her work flow better.
• 0:30
  Because as much as we all love Mini Scroll, Lauren pretty much
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  does everything herself and it is a lot of work to find
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  stories, record, edit, and upload an episode each day.
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  With that being said, I am now jumping on the pod every
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  Wednesday to keep the daily content coming but also keep
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  Lauren's mental health in check. If I sound familiar, I have been
• 0:50
  on the podcast before. If you listen to the final
• 0:52
  Infinite Scroll deep dive of 2024, you would have heard from
• 0:55
  me. But if you didn't get around to
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  listening to it, you definitely should.
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  But I also thought I would introduce myself a little bit
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  here. For context, I was brought on to
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  Centennial as an intern in 2021 while I was still in uni, and
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  Lauren has been kind enough to keep me around since then.
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  A lot of the work that I do now is around the infinite scroll
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  deep dive episodes that come out every week, so I spend most of
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  my time preparing, researching, and scripting those episodes.
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  So if you like those, please send your support because we
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  just need the reassurance sometimes.
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  Aside from that, I also write Centennial's weekly Sub Stack
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  new newsletter, which is also called Infinite Scroll.
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  It covers the five biggest think pieces on the Internet each
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  week. And I know a lot of you aren't
• 1:36
  subscribed, so if that sounds like you would be up your alley,
• 1:39
  please go subscribe. It would be much appreciated by
• 1:42
  me. Thank you in advance.
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  As far as Internet culture goes, I have always been seriously
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  invested in pop culture and the digital space.
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  I think it's a really important area to take seriously because I
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  feel like you can tell a lot about the general mood of
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  society based on the content that is trending and the content
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  that's popular. Even though this area is kind of
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  seen stereotypically as an unimportant and frivolous
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  interest, I think we need to treat it and analyze it with the
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  gravity it deserves. So I'm definitely happy to be
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  contributing to this through many every week on my episodes.
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  We did think we would mix things up a bit.
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  We will be keeping the structure that you guys have all come to
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  love over the past year. But since we got such positive
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  feedback last year, whenever we covered specific trends, we
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  thought that my episode would focus a little bit more on the
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  techie side of things and maybe a bit more industry and trend
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  based stuff. I'm not opposed to venturing
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  into political territory, Tory, if that is interesting to you
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  guys, definitely let us know because the crossover between
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  politics and pop culture is probably one of my favorite
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  things. So I would definitely be down.
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  Now that that is all out of the way, I am super excited to be
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  here, but please bear with me as I'm getting used to the front of
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  camera and on the mic experience.
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  This isn't something that I've done before, but I'm really
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  excited and I know I have big shoes to fill, so I hope I can
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  do Lauren justice with all that. I do have a couple of stories to
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  share, some of which that happened over our break, so
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  let's just get in into it. The first story is that Mehta is
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  making changes to its moderation process.
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  So last week, Mark Zuckerberg took to social media to share
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  some updates to Mehta's moderation policies.
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  In a video posted to Instagram, Zuckerberg shared why he got
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  into social media, what it means to him, and how he plans to move
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  forward in a new political environment in the US.
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  He began the video by saying that he started building social
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  media platforms in order to give people a voice.
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  But with the increasingly complex systems that have been
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  put into place to moderate dangerous content, Zuckerberg
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  claims that things have been taken too far.
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  There's been widespread debate about potential harms from
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  online content. Governments and legacy media
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  have pushed to censor more and more.
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  A lot of this is clearly political, but there's also a
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  lot of legitimately bad stuff out there.
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  Drugs, terrorism, Child Exploitation.
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  These are things that we take very seriously, and I want to
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  make sure that we handle responsibly.
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  So we built a lot of complex systems to moderate content.
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  But the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes.
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  Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's
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  millions of people. And we've reached a point where
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  it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship.
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  So he did share a couple of the changes that Meta is
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  introducing. I took this from a threads post
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  so I'll just read it to you now. The first change is that Meta
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  will be replacing fact checkers with community notes starting in
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  the US, and this is obviously following the approach of X.
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  The next change is that Meta will be simplifying content
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  policies and remove restrictions on topics like immigration and
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  gender that are quote out of touch with mainstream discourse.
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  The next change is that the company will be changing how
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  they enforce policies to remove the vast majority of censorship
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  mistakes by focusing filters on tackling illegal and high
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  severity violations. Next Meta will be bringing back
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  civic content. Over the past few years, there's
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  been a lot of discourse around Meta scaling back its political
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  content, specifically around Threads.
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  The next one is that Meta will be moving their trust and safety
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  and content moderation teams out of California and our US Content
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  review to Texas quote. This will help remove the
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  concern that biased employees are overly censoring content.
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  Interestingly, Mehta's choice to relocate its content moderation
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  team to Texas actually comes off the heel of Elon Musk moving X's
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  team to the state. It is worth noting that his move
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  was partially due to laws passed by California, in particular one
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  that prevented schools from forcing staff to tell anyone,
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  including parents, information about a child's gender identity.
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  These changes are quite interesting because obviously
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  freedom of expression is definitely a huge issue on
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  social media. I'm sure we've all seen cases
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  where certain topics tend to get suppressed online.
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  Even though that might be the case, moderation is really
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  important, especially when you have adults sharing spaces with
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  children. Honestly, this tends to fall on
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  the platform because the legal system is super behind the
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  digital space and government agencies often move slowly, so
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  it makes sense that the platform themselves have to institute
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  these moderation policies. These changes are obviously
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  super timely given that the US is about to enter a second Trump
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  presidency. During his first term, there was
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  quite a big focus on censorship and free speech in the digital
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  world, even if that did mean protecting hate speech.
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  I mean, Trump even made his own social media platform and I
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  think signed an executive order about preventing online
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  censorship from memory. But it feels like Meta's changes
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  are all about aligning with the current political zeitgeist in
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  the US, Whether they're opportunistic or the genuine
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  beliefs of the company, I think it's too early to tell.
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  But either way, with Meta following in the footsteps of X
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  in terms of moderation, which has become a bit of a haven for
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  discriminatory rhetoric, I'm not sure these changes are a good
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  sign for where things are heading, to be honest.
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  In other news coming out of Meta this week, news broke that the
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  company is scaling back its DEI, which is diversity, equity,
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  inclusion policies from what I could find.
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  This story was first reported by Axios after they obtained a memo
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  written by Janelle GAIL, the vice president of human
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  resources. The memo noted the changing
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  legal and policy landscape in the United States around
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  diversity, equity and inclusion, essentially noting that Meta is
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  following suit. Over the past few years, DEI has
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  really become a hot button issue, especially in the US.
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  What has typically been used as schemes to ensure that
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  minorities and marginalised groups have the same
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  opportunities as others has kind of become perceived by many as
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  favouring certain groups over others in the hiring process and
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  also in the workplace more generally.
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  Now, every DEI initiative is run differently, but the overall
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  goal is to make companies and leaders examine the way their
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  company treats or serves marginalised groups.
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  Even though Meta is scaling back on these practices, The memo
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  also said that they will quote continue to source candidates
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  from different background. But with that, obviously the
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  process is changing where the company will focus on quote,
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  fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all.
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  And I really hope that is the case.
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  Now what we have all been waiting for, we can't talk about
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  anything tech without talking about the TikTok ban in the US
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  first. I'll start with a little bit of
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  context in case you have missed it.
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  TikTok is facing a nationwide ban in the United States after a
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  bill was signed into law in April last year, which
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  essentially requires fired Byte Dance, Tik Tok's Chinese owned
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  parent company, to divest from the platform or face a ban.
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  The deadline for the sale is January 19.
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  So we are really getting close to that.
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  And it is also just one day before President Biden's term
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  ends. We did touch on this in our
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  final Infinite Scroll episode last year.
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  But since then, there have been a couple of updates, one of
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  which is that the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about the
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  case on January 10. And much of the reporting around
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  it has characterized the Supreme Court's reception to TikTok as
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  quote, UN, quote, Frosty. We definitely don't need to get
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  into the nitty gritty of the hearing, but the Supreme Court
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  justices heard from representatives from TikTok
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  creators and, of course, the federal Justice Department.
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  But I'll give you a little bit of a summary of each side's
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  arguments. The company and TikTok users and
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  creators are essentially arguing that the ban violates Americans
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  First Amendment rights and free speech.
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  Meanwhile, the Biden administration contends that the
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  law is essential for national security due to bite dances
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  Chinese ownership. Trump has also jumped in on the
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  situation, as he so often does, and he filed a brief at the end
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  of last year saying that the court should hold off on the
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  decision, claiming that he could maybe broker a deal once he's in
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  office. As for where it's going to go,
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  many experts and journalists seem to be heading in the
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  direction that the Supreme Court justices will side with the ban.
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  But obviously this is all super unprecedented and no one really
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  knows what's going to happen. I wouldn't be surprised if the
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  Supreme Court kind of holds off from issuing an opinion on the
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  ban itself and maybe just prolongs the whole process.
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  It is kind of insane that this is all happening right before a
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  new presidential administration enters the White House, but who
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  knows. I am definitely keeping tabs on
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  this and we will keep you updated as Mini Scroll does.
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  Obviously with the concern around the ban that has left
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  users and creators on TikTok spiralling, including many of
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  whom aren't even based in the United States.
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  I don't know about you, but over the past few days, my whole
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  TikTok for you page has been filled with creators making
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  videos, almost issuing eulogies for the platform and of course,
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  encouraging their viewers to follow them to other platforms
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  like Instagram. I think this is all super
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  interesting because like we've said before, if the ban does end
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  up happening, it's unlikely to affect Internet culture and how
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  information is circulated online immediately.
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  It will probably impact creators quicker because brands are not
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  going to be willing to sink money into a platform that has
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  been banned. That all being said, users are
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  now talking about which app to migrate to and a few popular
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  ones have started circulating. The most frequent one I have
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  seen on my For You page is Red Note, which is ironically also a
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  Chinese owned app. I kind of think this is
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  intentional because users seem to be joining in spite of the US
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  government's decisions. I've been seeing it like into
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  Instagram given that it was reportedly made with a lifestyle
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  focus. And honestly, every video I've
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  seen of people using Red Note, they seem to be having a great
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  time. Apart from Red Note, Neptune
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  seems to be another popular suggestion.
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  It's currently in beta, but according to videos on TikTok,
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  it does seem to have a similar function to the For You page
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  where there are options to toggle the algorithm that you
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  see. As far as whether people will
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  actually move to these apps, I'm kind of expecting users to stay
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  on TikTok as long as they can, much like what we have seen with
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  X and the push to move to Blue Sky.
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  While there may be bursts of users moving across, it is so
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  hard to cultivate the same feeling on another app.
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  As for what we can expect in a post TikTok era, I think India
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  is a really interesting example to look to here because they ban
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  the app in 2020. Now obviously India and the US
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  are completely different political and cultural
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  environments, but I did see a creator on TikTok.
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  I didn't write down her name, but I will insert the video talk
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  about how Internet culture operates in India ever since the
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  ban was instituted. And she said that YouTube and
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  podcasts have become the major source of discourse and
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  discussion. Nobody is making videos longer
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  than like a minute, 30 seconds or two minutes Max in India.
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  People aren't really even on Instagram here either.
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  Everyone spends all their time on YouTube with Amazon India's
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  content creator lead, and she said that they pour most of
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  their money into Youtubers and podcasters.
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  I wouldn't be surprised if that's what we'll see because of
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  course that isn't exactly new, but that might be what makes it
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  successful because it isn't foreign to us and we're used to
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  it. Anyway, that is everything from
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  me today. I really hope you enjoyed this
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  weeks episode and you don't miss Lauren too much.
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  She will be back tomorrow. I am sure I will get better at
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  this, but I will see you next Wednesday.
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  Thanks. Bye.