Have Opinions on Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Changed?

Although Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has generated a lot of controversy, a survey by YouGov found that most people approved of his decision. Eight months after he announced his intention, and after having finally gone through with it after considerable back and forth, Americans continue to hold a favorable view with all things having been considered and taken into account. This comes from a second poll that YouGov conducted on the same topic, and it highlights what Americans think about the man himself.

Back in April when the first poll was conducted, around 30% of Americans thought that he was going to do a good job. It turns out that his approval ratings are even higher, with 34% of Americans now saying the same. In spite of the fact that this is the case, more people have an unfavorable impression of how he is handling things as well. That seems to suggest that people are coming to more concrete conclusions after seeing him in action, since that can make his competence more apparent than might have been the case otherwise.

24% of Americans disapproved of Musk’s acquisition back in April, but with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that 29% are now saying the same. As for the people who think that it is neither good nor bad, this has dropped by just one point from 18% in April to 17% as of right now.

One area where Musk has seen a bit of a decline in terms of his public perception is his level of perceived influence. 52% of people thought he was an influential figure back in April, but now this number has dropped to just 37%.

Musk may have shot himself in the foot by buying Twitter. Even though people still think he can do a decent job, more people believe otherwise and his public perception has taken a hit. Only time will tell whether or not Musk would be able to justify his decision by turning Twitter into a better social media platform than it already was.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

These Countries Are the Most Dangerous for Journalists

Journalism is a crucial cog in a free and democratic society because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up keeping a check on those in power. It is perhaps for this very reason that journalists so often find themselves in the line of fire. Attempts at stifling a free press include putting restrictions on what news outlets can and can’t publish. Some governments go so far as to imprison journalists, and there have ben 57 cases of journalists being killed this year alone.

This information is coming from Reporters Without Borders, and it also revealed that there are around 532 journalists who are currently languishing in prison all around the world. Mexico turned out to be the most dangerous for journalists, with 11 of them having been killed in 2022 alone. Coming in second was Ukraine, with 8 journalists killed this year mostly as a result of Russia’s invasion. Ukraine is followed by Haiti with 6 journalists killed in the span of a year.

Yemen, Syria Brazil both tied for fourth place, although the war was to blame in Yemen and Syria whereas in Brazil there was no such conflict to cause disproportionate action against journalists. We then have the countries of Somalia, Palestine, Pakistan and Myanmar with 2 journalists killed this year in each country.

However, conflicts that have erupted in some of these countries may be resulting in disproportionate attacks against journalist and making them more frequent than might have been the case otherwise. A much more robust rubric for determining which countries are the most hostile towards their journalists is to look at how often they imprison them.

China is far and away the leader in this category, with 99 of its journalists currently in prison as of 14th December 2022. Myanmar comes in second at 62, with the military junta currently ruling the country not accepting criticism from any quarters. The state of journalism in Myanmar might be even more dire than China, since the country has 4% of China’s population yet 2/3rds as many jailed journalists.

Iran is another bad actor as far as journalists are concerned. The recent protests after the killing of Mahsa Amini have brought much of Iran’s authoritarianism to light. Currently, there are 47 Iranian journalists who have been imprisoned, and the charges against them are most often dubious at best.

Vietnam comes in with 39 jailed journalists, followed by Belarus with 31. 27 Syrian journalists are also in prison, with Saudi Arabia also clamping down on journalism in the country by putting 26 of its members of the press in jail.

Egypt and Turkey round off the list, with 24 journalists apiece in prison. This speaks to a concerning trend, one that can be found in countries that are lacking the same level of democratic advancement as others. Imprisonment is just one of the many ways in which journalists can have their freedoms curbed in such nations. Additionally, it can be hard to tell if these numbers are accurate. After all, it’s not like journalists in these countries would be able to provide accurate assessments without putting themselves at risk to some extent.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

YouTube Begins Experimenting With Video Queues And New Emoji Reactions For Live Streams

YouTube is bringing forward video queues for both Android and iOS users as it begins experimenting with the feature starting today.

The offering is already up for grabs on the app’s website and that means you would soon be allowed to get content back that you didn’t wish to view at that moment in time. For now, you can only do that through your phone by pressing on the ‘Save to Watch Later’ or the ‘Save to Playlist’ feature on the app.

The problems with both of these selections are related to them being permanent. Therefore, they just save things in the library and require manual removal after a single watch. Meanwhile, queues are certainly more temporary, and seeing apps on smartphones get it is just a wonderful feeling. Just remember it’s not going to be available for Shorts just yet but who knows, we might see it coming soon.

Once it does go live, you’ll be seeing a menu for the three-dot overflow arising near videos. These would be housing new options like Play Last in Queue that’s seen at the list’s top.

After you select your desired content, the app would be creating a queue toward the screen’s bottom. This panel enables you to rearrange the order for viewing and allow for removal by swiping in a left direction. Some options are there for repeats and even shuffles so you can playback. And to clear the lineup, just swipe away.

Once you do end up playing something in this list, it gets added automatically to this queue and can be moved as well. Before, this feature used to be promoted as a Premium offering. As far as today’s test, it’s just for the app’s premium subscribers. But the platform hopes to complete the testing by the end of next month so a rollout would be after that. So stay tuned!

Moving on, YouTube is also conducting tests for some new and exciting emoji reactions to be used in Live Streams. This is another great way to generate responses to Live Chats during broadcasts.

As the company mentioned today through a post, they’ve been on the lookout for features that would help viewers react to what’s happening live. And they’ve found the perfect solution with five new emoji reactions.

Remember how the user’s reactions would be kept anonymous so nobody would be aware of what’s going on there? Other ways through which you can showcase support are donations from Super Chat and also Stickers.

But we feel it’s great for those in search of creative ways to generate a current response. If you’ve used the already available features, you’d find there is a heart, surprise, and crying emoji but now, you’ll find a few more.

You can relate this new feature to responses generated to the platform’s Timed Reactions. For now, YouTube is busy testing this feature for a limited number of channels but an expansion is soon underway.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Twitter Suspends Accounts Of Leading Journalists Who Tweet About Elon Musk

Twitter is banning critical journalists from the platform who are busy covering the app’s Chief Elon Musk. It appears to be a no-nonsense policy as the decision to target leading reporters through account suspension has already begun at a fast pace.

Common names include the likes of New York Times’s Ryan Mac, Mashable’s Aaron Rupar, Drew Harwell from the Washington Post, and Micha Lee from The Intercept. But that’s just the start as the list continues to increase as we speak.

Same doxxing rules apply to “journalists” as to everyone else

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022

We saw the billionaire Twitter CEO log into his account yesterday to try and provide a justification for the actions and it’s definitely surprising. And that’s especially shocking coming from a man who wishes to promote freedom of speech through his platform.

The NYTimes' @rmac18 has been suspended from Twitter. He's been on the Elon Musk beat.

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) December 16, 2022

He also ran a new poll that asked users of the app if they felt such reporters’ accounts should be unbanned and when. And to his dismay, things didn’t quite go his way as the responses weren’t in his favor.

All the journalists who received the ban from the app were those who spoke about Musk recently in regard to their attempts of deciphering where his private jet was currently located. While such accounts can’t really post their thoughts on the app, they can still go about joining a live audio chat through Twitter Spaces. And that’s where Musk came face to face with some banned journalists, justifying his actions.

During that chat, Musk accused the individuals of embarking on a task called ban evasion. He outlined how his ElonJet account was removed from the app but it was seen on Facebook and Mastodon. And when such reporters put up links to such accounts, they were going against the ban he set up. This was not the right behavior, he continued.

• Also read: Twitter Blue Users Will Have To Verify Themselves on Twitter Through Their ID

As one can imagine, bullets were fired at the Twitter chief by the reporters. They argued and asked what difference his ban was from publishing a story of Hunter Biden’s personal information inside a laptop. Remember, that post is currently banned.

Musk didn’t go into too many nitty-gritty details. He did try to keep it short and sweet by mentioning that the rules are very simple regarding content moderation. If you end up doxing, you get banned and it is what it is. He then opted to leave the chat at that.

More emphasis was later put forward by the company’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin. She reiterated how it was just a crime to share details about live locations on the app as it went against their policy. Even links related to URLs from third parties were wrong as in this case where information about travel routes had been provided.

Irwin also warned how the policies were the same for all accounts. There are no specific exemptions granted to anyone, be it a journalist, celebrity, public figure, and more.

Musk was furious when he came to know about the matter. He outlined the move as coordinates that highlighted a possible assassination attempt and it was just wrong on so many levels. He didn’t like the posting of real-time locations as it directly violated the app’s terms of service.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Snapchat Unveils its Top 2022 Trends

Despite facing heavy resistance from larger social media platforms, Snapchat has managed to branch out into a wide range of other areas that have helped it hold its own. Among the spaces where Snapchat has innovated tremendously is that of AR. The introduction of Lenses has been a huge game change for the social media platform, and it has enabled Snapchat to reach new heights and do things that other platforms hadn’t even thought of.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Snapchat has just released some of the biggest trends on its platform for 2022. Many of these trends came about as a direct result of Lenses that Snapchat released, including the Crying Face lens as well as the Anime Lens. These Lenses saw high levels of usage this past year, so chances are that Snapchat will end up focusing on them even more than might have been the case otherwise.

Another major trend that was highlighted by Snapchat in this report was that of music. There has been a threefold increase in the presence of music on Snapchat stories with all things having been considered and taken into account, and that speaks to a wider trend that was brought on by TikTok. TikTok’s expansive influence can be seen pretty much anywhere, so it makes sense that people would bring over aesthetics and stylistic preferences from that platform onto Snapchat.

Checking out chatter on Snapchat can also shed a lot of light on the movies and TV shows people were talking about most frequently. One area where Snapchat lagged behind was tourism, since the platform did not turn into a hub for such insights although some people definitely shared their vacation spots.

With over 9.7 billion views, the Crying Lens was a huge sensation for Snapchat in 2022. This will spur much more investment into Lenses, although it is interesting that other social media platforms are too distracted by TikTok to follow suit. If Snapchat grows any more, they might be forced to start working on some form of social AR themselves.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Data Shows More Than 60 Million Americans Took Part In Skilled Freelance Work This Year

A new report is shedding light on the US freelance market for 2022 and it’s revealing some very interesting findings.

The news comes to us thanks to Upwork whose freelance forward report outlined how 60 million US citizens were embarking on freelance work in the past year. And that’s a major representation of nearly 40% of the American workforce, clearly delineating a huge high.

At the same time, we saw the study mentioning how so many freelance professionals managed to produce annual earnings of $1.3 trillion which is more than a $50 billion rise from what was witnessed in 2021.

Similarly, this study found that 50% of all US-based freelancers added knowledge services that entailed computer programming, IT consulting, and marketing too in the year 2022.

This is definitely huge news because it comes during a period when American companies are forced to deal with a constant shortage of talent. But this new report is definitely making some great claims linked to American professionals taking a step back from their classic 9 to 5 routine and opting for options that are super convenient and flexible while offering bigger pay scales at the same time.

As revealed by Upwork’s VP, so many people are now becoming more and more aware of how freelancing is the way to go to bring up priorities and their value around their field of work.

You can see it as taking a step back from the in-office model where you’ve got a single employer and hence many people realize that it’s not how they’d like to work anymore. Now, freelancing can really build you a massive career and give you the flexibility to choose whomever you’d like to work with from a sea of clients. And it’s smart to make the most of this opportunity.

Moreover, the fact that they’re positively contributing to the nation’s economy is another factor worth a mention. So all in all, it’s a win-win situation in our books.

This particular study was carried out by the firm via an independent research model study by Edelma Data and Intelligence. It took a survey where 3000 US-based working adults were included over 18 years of age between September to October 22.

This share was seen rising up to 60 million and nearly three percentage points from the previous year, making it 39%. It’s also interesting to note how 75% of freelancers feel their perception of the freelancing career is truly turning into something positive, and that’s again a huge increase in the sentiments felt by working adults in 2021.

If we had to divide the type of individuals working in 2022, well, it’s around 43% of Gen Z and 46% of the Millenial batch who opted to take on the world of freelancing.

Other findings from the report showcased how more than 50% of freelancers provided services linked to knowledge such as marketing, IT, and consultations for businesses and brands. People were similarly keen on taking on diverse projects to help get several streams of income.

So you could see them working remotely as well as through an office-based setup. So what you get is a nice blend of both worlds out there today.

Freelancing is definitely a sector that keeps on growing among those that are the most educated. It’s very appalling to note how 26% of those in this field hold postgraduate degrees and that’s a 20% rise from what was witnessed in the previous year.

So all in all, American adults are really making smarter working decisions and this trend is expected to grow exponentially in the next few years.

Take a look below graphics for more insights on the state of freelancing in 2022.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

EV Batteries Can Be Recycled, but 47% of Americans Don’t Know That

Electric vehicles represent a new way for people to get around without being dependent on fossil fuels that are destroying the global environment. While they only comprise 5% of the vehicles currently on the road, their sales have seen a twofold increase this past year. In spite of the fact that this is the case, the proportion is still quite small, and that leads to a lot of consumers having some serious misconceptions regarding how they are supposed to work.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that one of the most useful features of EVs is that their batteries are recyclable. However, 47% of Americans don’t seem to be aware of that. This data comes from a survey of over 1,000 Americans that was conducted by Ascend Elements, and it shows that there is a considerable gulf between consumer perception and reality that can hamper EV industry growth in the future.

39% of survey respondents said that they knew that these batteries could be used repeatedly, but that is still a lower number than those who believe the exact opposite. EV batteries are comprised of five minerals all of which are exceptionally rare and precious. Allowing batteries containing these minerals to go to a landfill would be a real waste, since they can be repurposed and reused time and time again.

However, consumers are on the right track when it comes to assessing America’s global competitiveness in this industry. Around 45% of US based consumers correctly recognize that US is by no means a global leader when it comes to EV batteries. It turns out that 70% of these batteries are actually coming from China, and their dominance is so absolute that no one else can come anywhere close.

In light of this, US President Joe Biden has taken steps to make the US more competitive in the EV battery industry than might have been the case otherwise. He is doing this by investing $2.8 billion into battery production facilities in an attempt to topple China’s hegemony.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World