Taylor Lorenz Profile picture
I write the tech and online culture newsletter User Mag. Subscribe via the link below!! Host of @poweruserpod
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May 14, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
"It’s crucial to understand that Biden’s Covid policy was never about stemming the tide of deaths but rather about making you care less about them—about managing the carnage out of your field of vision." thenation.com/article/societ… "The White House wants to distract you and make you think the pandemic is over, that all this death is acceptable, a part of life. And plenty of journalists, politicians, even physicians and public health experts are willing to go along"
thenation.com/article/societ…
May 13, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
Apr 21, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
But u don't need a checkmark to make $$ from ur persona, that's the point. Musk's latest changes only show that, once again, tech founders fundamentally don't understand the value of online creators. The platform should be paying its big creators, not the other way around! Musk has transformed a blue check on twitter into a stigma, whereas before it was a status symbol. That's a huge issue! It's also added an undue burden on average users who now have to click around on people's profiles to figure out if they even are who they say they are
Apr 20, 2023 10 tweets 3 min read
For the zillionth time, this is completely false! And it’s wild to see a youtuber spreading this sort of misinformation considering YouTube was also falsely accused of this exact same stuff for years. There is no evidence of the “Benadryl challenge" ever existing on TikTok. There’s been no trending audio ever associated with a "“Benadryl challenge" on TikTok, no "Benadryl challenge" or related hashtag has trended on the app, and no influencers on the app appear to have posted
Mar 10, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
This is also because the media (major outlets like NYT, Slate, etc) ran pieces parroting and amplifying this disinformation. Scientists, public health & aerosol experts, doctors, the medically vulnerable all have tried to correct the media for weeks and been ignored by reporters As tech/disinfo reporters have stopped covering covid, it’s created a massive vacuum that has allowed for a tidal wave of really dangerous health disinformation/conspiracy theories to take hold (and receive amplification from the media) with zero institutional pushback