Technological Totalitarianism & Facebook's Deception

Beyond Social Media - Technological Totalitarianism - Episode 249

Episode 249: BL and David discuss the new revelations of Facebook’s shady response to the Russian infiltration of its network; China ZTE’s exporting of the technological tools of totalitarianism to Venezuela; the Wall Street Journal’s efforts to detect deepfakes; the long-form video trend at YouTube; Firefox Monitor’s data breach notifications; a hilarious response to cheap clients; Facebook’s Most Amazing Dog show; Pandora’s Podcast Genome project; Iceland Foods’ banned Christmas commercial; Coca-Cola’s sappy social media wipe; the GoFundMe fraud story gets fraud-ier;…and much, much more.

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Welcome To 4th Grade & Kardashians Instagram

Beyond Social Media - Welcome To 4th Grade - Episode 155

Episode 155: BL and David discuss a welcome video to an Illinois teacher’s fourth grade class that went viral; the Kardashian’s lack of sponsor disclosure on their Instagram accounts; President Obama’s venture into virtual reality; WhatsApp’s privacy reversal; YouTube’s social ambitions with Backstage; Vogue’s Photoshop fiasco; Twitter’s portable Direct Messaging; a transgender Ken controversy; Google’s policy of punishable popups; Uber’s lickable breathalizer cards; the WizKid Science YouTube channel; a Minnesota dog that was elected mayor; and much, much more.

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Pay By Selfie & NPR Anti-Podcast Stance

Beyond Social Media - Pay By Selfie - Episode 136

Co-hosts B.L. Ochman & David Erickson discussed the gutter that has become the Republican primary race; NPR’s odd decision to NOT promote its podcasts on air; Microsoft’s decision to shut down the Tay chatbot; a Bank of America media relations fail; the meaninglessness of head-to-head political polls during the primary season; the new YouTube Connect live video streaming app; Ester the Wonderpig; Amazon’s pay-by-selfie patent application; teen voting; Twitter’s plans to recruit Vine stars; a real cat burglar; plus great new apps and important stats and a lot of stuff in between.

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Bernie Sanders' Data Grab

Beyond Social Media - Bernie Sanders Data Grab - Episode 124

During Episode 124, co-hosts B.L. Ochman & David Erickson discussed the Bernie Sanders campaign breach of Clinton campaign voter data; Apple shutting down Topsy; a Stoner Sloth PSA campaign; Santa as a woman; Ticketmaster’s crash and burn; 2015 Photoshop fails; Southerners scared of solar energy; the Year in Search; virtual trips to Mars; a Star Wars safe driving PSA; Facebook’s Yelp killer; Google’s predictive traffic patterns; Google’s Uber killer; plus great new apps and important stats and a lot of stuff in between.

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Jack Dorsey's Twitter & Square Duet

Co-hosts B.L. Ochman & David Erickson discussed Marks & Spencer’s ill-conceived #ShowYourStrap campaign; Amazon’s Alexa-activating commercial; Columbia Sportswear’s septuagenarian spokeswoman; data journalism reporting on gun violence; Jack Dorsey’s permanent return; the #ImWithLizzie and anti-bullying month; Medium’s new features; Twitter Moments; Facebook empathetic Emojis; Google’s Impact Challenge; email signature best practices; plus great new apps and important stats and a lot of stuff in between.

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Google Becomes Alphabet & Target's Customer Service Troll

Google Alphabet - Beyond Social Media - Episode 108

Co-hosts B.L. Ochman & David Erickson discussed Google’s restructuring as Alphabet; Hillary Clinton’s emoji fail; Bic pens dissing women…again; Edelman’s climate stance conundrum; Google’s diminishing map pack; Target’s trolling “customer service” rep; Twitter’s customer service playbook; political photoshopping; Moz’s new search engine ranking factors; plus great new apps and important stats and a lot of stuff in between.

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