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VOICE ARCHIVE

Thomas Germain

@thomasgermain
21 posts
2025-03-09
There's a secret YouTube no one gets to see - a vast, uncurated documentary of human life.  We found a way to explore it.  —  The average video has just 41 views.  That means most of the platform is invisible, until now www.bbc.com/future/artic...
2025-03-09 View on X
BBC

A look at YouTube's hidden world: most of the videos on the platform capture everyday life and have rarely been seen, with the median video having just 41 views

There's a secret side of YouTube, just beyond the guiding hand of the algorithm - and it's nothing like what you know. Bluesky: @thomasgermain , @antisomniac , and @mausellmoli Mas...

2024-10-12
This is a narrative-shifting story. Just like our work on the Facebook Papers showed at @Gizmodo, these documents suggest TikTok is knowingly and willingly hurting children
2024-10-12 View on X
NPR

Faulty court filing redactions: TikTok executives were unconcerned with the harms the app poses for US teenagers, despite internal research validating concerns

and Its Executives Knew All Along Chase DiBenedetto / Mashable : TikTok execs know exactly how many videos it takes to get addicted to its platform Nehal Malik / iPhone in Canada B...

2024-06-17
I spoke to a dozen copywriters who say they lost jobs as more and more clients switch to AI. Some of them discovered a new line of work, one that pays a lot less: Teaming up with the robots stealing their jobs to make AI's bad writing sound more human /2 https://www.bbc.com/...
2024-06-17 View on X
BBC

Copywriters detail how AI is affecting their jobs, with some noticing a new line of work to make AI-generated text sound more human, a job that pays a lot less

If you're worried about how AI will affect your job, the world of copywriters may offer a glimpse of the future. X: @thomasgermain , @drantoniowrites , @carnage4life , @kristadiamo...

It's not all bad, some copywriters love AI. But this is a glimpse of the future of work. For many of us, we're either going to spend a ton of extra time proving we're not using AI, or we'll be forced to add AI to our workflow as jobs get more mechanical less creative
2024-06-17 View on X
BBC

Copywriters detail how AI is affecting their jobs, with some noticing a new line of work to make AI-generated text sound more human, a job that pays a lot less

If you're worried about how AI will affect your job, the world of copywriters may offer a glimpse of the future. X: @thomasgermain , @drantoniowrites , @carnage4life , @kristadiamo...

New for @BBC, if you're worried about how AI will affect your job, here's a preview. I spent months on a deep look at the front lines of the AI wars: the world of copywriters No part of the labor market was more directly & immediately impacted by chatbots. Here's what I found 🧵
2024-06-17 View on X
BBC

Copywriters detail how AI is affecting their jobs, with some noticing a new line of work to make AI-generated text sound more human, a job that pays a lot less

If you're worried about how AI will affect your job, the world of copywriters may offer a glimpse of the future. X: @thomasgermain , @drantoniowrites , @carnage4life , @kristadiamo...

Copywriters told me their employers send them instructions on “how to write like a human” in order to avoid the appearance of using ChatGPT. Because those rules are always changing, writers told me it's a constant battle to prove your work wasn't done by a robot /4
2024-06-17 View on X
BBC

Copywriters detail how AI is affecting their jobs, with some noticing a new line of work to make AI-generated text sound more human, a job that pays a lot less

If you're worried about how AI will affect your job, the world of copywriters may offer a glimpse of the future. X: @thomasgermain , @drantoniowrites , @carnage4life , @kristadiamo...

2024-03-04
The funniest/saddest thing I've ever written. There's been a schism on Wikipedia, and a group of rogue editors started a competing rebel Wikipedia that's only about roads and highways https://gizmodo.com/...
2024-03-04 View on X
Gizmodo

A look at AARoads, a dedicated US roads and highways wiki site started by a group of Wikipedia editors, after years of frustration over Wikipedia's rules

2024-03-03
The funniest/saddest thing I've ever written. There's been a schism on Wikipedia, and a group of rogue editors started a competing rebel Wikipedia that's only about roads and highways https://gizmodo.com/...
2024-03-03 View on X
Gizmodo

A look at AARoads, a dedicated US roads and highways wiki site started by a group of Wikipedia editors, after years of frustration over Wikipedia's rules

A group of Wikipedia editors wrote 15,000 articles on US roads and highways.  But after a fight over the platform's rules, they went rogue. X: @sanjaymehta , @robmv , and @thomasge...

2024-01-13
Wild, it's almost like the solution America's news problem is more journalism, not more algorithms
2024-01-13 View on X
Artifact News

Kevin Systrom says news sharing app Artifact will shut down, after concluding that “the market opportunity isn't big enough to warrant continued investment”

To our Artifact Users and Partners:  —  We've made the decision to wind down operations of the Artifact app.

2024-01-03
Are we still tweeting scoops? Facebook has a new “privacy” setting https://gizmodo.com/...
2024-01-03 View on X
Gizmodo

Facebook rolls out Link History, an opt-out setting that tracks all the links a user clicked in the mobile app, and plans to use the data for targeted ads

Facebook introduces a confusing new setting as the walls close in on Zuckerberg's data machine.  —  Facebook recently rolled out a new …

2023-08-30
The crazy part isn't that Meta created an “oversight board” that doesn't have any oversight authority. It's that journalists spent SO much time and effort talking about it when we all knew it was meaningless https://thehill.com/...
2023-08-30 View on X
Platformer

Meta's Oversight Board took 234 days to get a ruling in an incitement to violence case involving Hun Sen, revealing a problem with the board's glacial pace

Today let's talk about one of the most important cases that Meta's Oversight Board has heard to date — and how the process ultimately revealed … Threads: @crumbler . Bluesky: @zitr...

The crazy part isn't that Meta created an “oversight board” that doesn't have any oversight authority. It's that journalists spent SO much time and effort talking about it when we all knew it was meaningless https://thehill.com/...
2023-08-30 View on X
The Hill

Meta rejects the Oversight Board's recommendation to suspend former Cambodian PM Hun Sen's account because doing so would “not be consistent with our policies”

but, in fairness, it's not straightforward.  —  Vittoria Elliott (who isn't active on Bluesky, AFAIK) has written very thoughtfully about the tradeoffs of a decision like this in W...

2023-07-07
Threads has been available for 30 minutes and people are already roasting Zuckerberg [image]
2023-07-07 View on X
CNBC

Meta launches Instagram's text-based Threads app on the App Store and Google Play in 100+ countries; users log in via Instagram and can follow the same accounts

As Twitter has become even less-filtered … Michael Muchmore / PCMag : Hands On With Instagram Threads: Does Meta's Twitter Killer Deliver? John Palmer / Cryptopolitan : Meta's Thre...

Threads has been available for 30 minutes and people are already roasting Zuckerberg [image]
2023-07-07 View on X
Semafor

Twitter threatens to sue Meta over Threads, saying Meta “engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets” and other IP

Twitter is threatening legal action against Meta over its new text-based “Twitter killer” platform …

2023-07-06
Threads has been available for 30 minutes and people are already roasting Zuckerberg [image]
2023-07-06 View on X
CNBC

Meta launches Instagram's Threads, available on the App Store and Google Play in 100+ countries; users log in via Instagram and can follow the same accounts

- Threads is a text-based messaging app that looks very similar to Twitter.  — People will be able to use their Instagram usernames …

Threads has been available for 30 minutes and people are already roasting Zuckerberg [image]
2023-07-06 View on X
Platformer

Hands-on with Threads: fairly basic text-based messaging app, log in via Instagram, no hashtags, can't search for anything other than user handles, and more

Programming note: I really was trying to take a vacation, but this felt like it was worth the one-day interruption.

2023-06-28
Not sure what stage of capitalism this is but we're now at the “denying slave labor through TikTok influencer campaign” level https://gizmodo.com/...
2023-06-28 View on X
Fortune

How Shein's Guangzhou factory influencer tour, likely meant to foster goodwill and improve the company's image before a rumored IPO, backfired spectacularly

In recent days, Chinese fast fashion giant Shein took a handful of influencers on a tour of its Guangzhou factory.

2023-06-20
Scoop: Across the media business an apparent change at Facebook is tanking traffic. With no communication from the company, publishers relying on Facebook are at the mercy of an inscrutable algorithm, and they say it's punishing them https://gizmodo.com/...
2023-06-20 View on X
Gizmodo

Some publishers say they have seen a sharp drop in Facebook traffic since May 2023; Echobox: the share of traffic to publisher sites from Facebook fell ~50% YoY

2023-04-10
Google is killing the cookie, and it could transform the digital economy. At lot of people aren't happy about, but Google thinks they should be. I talked to Google's @vkw, who gave me for an unprecedented look at the project they call “Privacy Sandbox” https://gizmodo.com/...
2023-04-10 View on X
Gizmodo

An interview with Victor Wong, Google's senior director of product management for Privacy Sandbox, about replacing third-party cookies, Apple's ATT, and more

Victor Wong https://gizmodo.com/... Victor Wong / @vkw : I've spent the last several months connecting with people from across the industry on how we build a more private internet....

2023-04-09
Google is killing the cookie, and it could transform the digital economy. At lot of people aren't happy about, but Google thinks they should be. I talked to Google's @vkw, who gave me for an unprecedented look at the project they call “Privacy Sandbox” https://gizmodo.com/...
2023-04-09 View on X
Gizmodo

An interview with Victor Wong, Google's senior director of product management for Privacy Sandbox, about replacing third-party cookies, Apple's ATT, and more

To replace the cookie in Chrome and Android, Google has an offering for the world called “Privacy Sandbox.”  Here's an exclusive peek into how it will work.