Social media as a way to spread information hardly favours political nuance and complexity, and the rise of the “story” feature on Instagram is no different. Similar to the tweet and the hashtag which came before it, the “Instagram infographic”…
When I caught myself reminiscing about the past year, my immediate thoughts were primarily self-centred. Upon reflection, I felt a degree of shame. Why hadn’t I been more compassionate about the positions of everyone else? Empowered by frustrated aspiration, the…
On Friday 19th February, Australians awoke to find that something was a little off about their Facebook feeds. Not only were they unable to share news from local or international outlets on their pages, but they also couldn’t even see…
As our generation becomes unbalanced, impacted by events beyond our control, our lives become more technological. We now rely on a multitude of applications on our phones and laptops to keep us entertained and to connect with loved ones. Structuring…
This end of year review is part of a series from Backbench’s editorial team as they consider some of the themes that have dominated 2020. The views expressed in these reviews are those of the editors themselves and do not…
Regularly, we read, hear, and see discussions about misinformation – ‘fake news’ – an increasingly normalised part of everyday language and debate. However, online misinformation is often seen as a generational problem, which influences older, less tech-savvy and unsuspecting individuals.…
In 2020, 45 million people or 66% of the total UK population had an active social media presence. That pales in comparison to usage in countries in Asia and North America where between 70-90% of the population have social media…
Former President Barack Obama this week referred to social media-fuelled misinformation as “the single biggest threat to our democracy”. This, alongside countless other examples of the breakneck speed with which falsities travel around our world, begs the question: how did we get…
A few weeks ago, Facebook announced that it would ban “any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust”. This decision has come after years of increasing pressure placed on the social media site to do more to counter hateful content…