Bytes: Week in Review — X vs. advertisers, Instagram’s harassment problem, and the food delivery race continues
On today’s show: Instagram is known for pretty pictures, but a new report shows it lets a lot of ugly and abusive comments remain on the platform. The study, published this week by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, found the social media site did not act on 93% of abusive, sexist and racist comments directed at women lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Instagram’s parent company, Meta, says it provides tools to help users control comments on their posts and that it is reviewing CCDH’s report.
Plus, DoorDash has long dominated the food delivery race, but recent moves by the ride-hailing company Uber show the competition is ramping up.
But first, the social media platform X relies on advertisers, so why is it going to war with them? Last week, X announced a lawsuit against a group of advertisers, claiming the coalition broke the law when they agreed to boycott the site. Now, even after the advertising group shut down in the face of legal action, X is doubling down on its litigation.
Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino discusses all of this week’s biggest tech stories with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information.
Marketplace reached out to Meta for the company’s response to the CCDH report. In an emailed statement, Cindy Southworth, Head of Women’s Safety said this:
“We provide tools so that anyone can control who can comment on their posts, automatically filter out offensive comments, phrases or emojis, and automatically hide comments from people who don’t follow them. We work with hundreds of safety partners around the world to continually improve our policies, tools, detection and enforcement, and we will review the CCDH report and take action on any content that violates our policies.”
More on everything we talked about
“Exclusive: X CEO calls for ad industry reset” from Axios
“X, Owned by Elon Musk, Brings Antitrust Suit Accusing Advertisers of a Boycott” from The New York Times
“X Expects $2 Billion in Ad Revenue This Year” from The Information
“How Elon Musk has turned X into a pro-Trump machine” from CNN
“Abusing women in politics: how Instagram is failing women and public officials” from the Center for Countering Digital Hate
“Instagram left up racist, sexist attacks on women lawmakers, study says” from Axios
“Why Uber is a Better Bet Than DoorDash” from The Information
“Uber Buys Postmates for $2.65 Billion” from The New York Times
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