social media

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Kidnapped Newborn Saved Thanks to Facebook

Melissa McMahon got baby girl back within 3 hours

(Newser) - The mother of a day-old infant kidnapped from a Quebec hospital by a fake nurse got her baby back within three hours thanks to four young people who spotted an alert on Facebook. One of the group recognized the suspect's photo and guided police to her home, where they...

Teen Dies While Trying to Take Selfie
 Teen Dies 
 While Trying 
 to Take Selfie 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
May 25, 2014 6:56 AM CDT

Teen Dies While Trying to Take Selfie

Indian 16-year-old posed on train tracks

(Newser) - Apparently taking selfies in front of moving trains is now a thing—a thing that got a 16-year-old student from Kerala, India, killed Wednesday. Canadian Jared Frank may have become a YouTube sensation thanks to his video of getting kicked in the head when he tried the stunt in Peru—...

NYPD Twitter Campaign Backfires Big Time

Feed flooded with pics of police brutality

(Newser) - A New York City Police Department campaign to get Twitter users to share photos of themselves with officers got a massive response—but not the kind the department had in mind. Instead of citizens posing with friendly cops, the #MyNYPD tag became the top trending hashtag on Twitter with thousands...

Facebook Is Breaking Up; Let's Break Up With It

Ashley Feinberg explains how to piece together a replacement

(Newser) - When it opened to the public, Facebook seemed like it really could be the ultimate social network. "But then it kept growing," complains Ashley Feinberg at Gizmodo . As it stapled on features—most ill-conceived—"Facebook eventually grew too big for its own, and more importantly our, good....

Guess What the New Twitter Redesign Looks Like?

If you said 'Facebook,' you win

(Newser) - Starting today, Twitter is rolling out a redesigned profile that will eventually hit all users—and basically every report on the redesign is noting the similarity between the new profile pages and Facebook's profile pages. Among the changes: There's now a full header photo (think Facebook's cover...

Now Turkey's Trying to Ban YouTube, Too

Leaked security meeting prompts 'administrative action'

(Newser) - Not content with having blocked/" eradicated " Twitter, Turkish authorities today blocked YouTube, after a video that appeared to show Turkish officials debating their next move regarding Syria leaked to the site. "After technical analysis and legal consideration … an administrative measure has been taken for this website,"...

Turkey Blocks Twitter, Threatens to 'Eradicate' It

'Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic,' says PM

(Newser) - In Turkish Prime Minister's Recep Tayyip Erdogan's latest feud with social media, Twitter access has been blocked and he has threatened to entirely wipe out the service. "We now have a court order. We'll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone...

Getty: Here Are 35M Free Photos

Firm opens up big chunk of library to social media

(Newser) - Getty Images—acknowledging that people are stealing its photos all the time anyway—has decided to make 35 million images from its vast photo library available free of charge. Bloggers and social media users will be able to use the images with Getty's new embed tool , which links back...

Facebook Cracks Down on Gun Sales

Minors to be blocked from viewing gun posts

(Newser) - Facebook, under pressure from gun control groups, has agreed to start cracking down on gun ads and illegal gun sales. The company says it plans to block under-18s from viewing posts about guns and gun sales, and will start removing sales that do not require a background check, reports the...

Teen's Facebook Post Costs Dad $80K

She violated his settlement's confidentiality clause, told school to 'SUCK IT'

(Newser) - Usually, the worst an ill-advised Facebook post can do is embarrass you (assuming you haven't committed a crime ). But recent prep school grad Dana Snay cost her father $80,000 when she made the mistake of talking about her dad's wrongful termination settlement with Gulliver Preparatory School,...

Lie Detector for Tweets? Researchers Working on It

'Pheme' aims to weed out deception online

(Newser) - European researchers say they're developing a system that can sniff out lies on Twitter, Facebook, and all manner of social media, reports the BBC . The goal of Pheme is to keep false rumors from gaining traction, and researchers say they can do so by analyzing where the tweets and...

Insurer Skips Super Bowl Ad, Will Give You $1.5M It Saved

Esurance will give $1.5M to Twitter winner

(Newser) - Instead of coughing up for a Super Bowl ad, online insurance firm Esurance decided to buy the first ad after the game, and get attention by giving away the $1.5 million it saved, reports AdWeek. The company says the cash will go to one lucky Twitter user who tweets...

'Plague-Like' Facebook to Lose 80% of Users by 2017

Site will be abandoned as 'immunity' builds

(Newser) - Facebook has spread like an infectious disease but its dominance of social media is doomed and 80% of its user base will probably drift away over the next three years, according to researchers who compared the growth of social media to the spread of epidemics. The Princeton researchers based their...

Ex-NYT Editor, Wife Question Cancer Blogger, Outrage Ensues

Bill, Emma Keller wrote about Lisa Bonchek Adams

(Newser) - A pair of columns questioning a woman's very public battle with Stage IV breast cancer are lighting up the Internet. Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller and his wife, writer Emma Gilbey Keller, both wrote pieces on Lisa Bonchek Adams, who is chronicling her fight via Twitter...

'Predictable' Hack Hits 4.6M Snapchat Users

Details posted online after warnings ignored

(Newser) - Photo-messaging mobile app Snapchat has had the usernames and phone numbers of 4.6 million users leaked online through a vulnerability highlighted by security researchers just a week ago. The hackers who put the user details online—with the last two digits of phone numbers censored—tell Mashable that they...

Yep, Teens Hate Facebook, but It Doesn't Matter

Big European study confirms trend, but Zuckerberg has bigger goals

(Newser) - A comprehensive study in Europe confirms a not-so-surprising point about teenagers: They're ditching Facebook in large numbers for other services such as Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram, reports the Guardian . In fact, the lead researcher uses the phrase "dead and buried" to describe how teens feel about Facebook in...

Woman Checks Facebook, Misses End of Pier

Tourist almost drowned, but saved her phone

(Newser) - If she had been able to type fast enough, a young Taiwanese woman's Facebook status update would have read "I am falling off a pier." Police in Melbourne, Australia, say the tourist was so engrossed in her smartphone that she walked straight off a pier and almost...

Coming to Facebook This Week: Video Ads

New ads designed to play automatically, sources say

(Newser) - Facebook has given advertisers a holiday treat that users probably won't be thrilled by: video ads that play automatically in news feeds, whether they are clicked on or not. The company plans to make the announcement today and get the ads up and running by Thursday on smartphone applications...

Coming to Facebook: a 'Sympathize' Button?

Liking stuff may no longer be the only option

(Newser) - Not sure what to do when a friend puts news of a break-up or a bad day on Facebook? There's no "Dislike" button in the cards, but the company is looking into another way to expand the range of responses people can make to friends' posts, the Huffington...

SpaghettiOs: Sorry About That Pearl Harbor Tweet

Company removes upbeat memorial

(Newser) - Campbell's has apparently learned its lesson: A smiling noodle is not the way to commemorate a national tragedy. Today, Pearl Harbor's 72nd anniversary, the company's SpaghettiOs brand tweeted, "Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us." Below those words: A big picture of the company...

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