Social media companies change their policies in the wake of bad press



Social media companies appear to be sensitive to criticism
Shutterstock/easy camera
Negative news stories about social media platforms appear to be highly effective at pressuring companies into changing their policies.
Christian Katzenbach at the University of Bremen, Germany, and his colleagues analysed policy changes across Facebook, Twitter (now X) and YouTube between 2005 and 2021, and how media coverage from 26 major English-language publications affected their policies. (New Scientist was not among the publications picked by the researchers.)
“There are really significantly more changes in…
Article amended on 26 July 2024
We clarified the kind of news stories the AI model was trained on
You Might Also Like
3D printing could enable a safer long-term therapy for type 1 diabetes
People with type 1 diabetes can’t produce enough insulin to regulate their blood sugarHalfpoint Images/Getty Images Researchers have 3D printed...
Polycystic ovary syndrome may be passed on via chemical tags on DNA
Illustration of enlarged ovaries in someone with polycstic ovary syndromeScience Photo Library/Alamy Polycystic ovary syndrome may be passed down through...
X-ray boosting fabric could make mammograms less painful
Mammograms can be painful, but they may not need to beDaria Artemenko/Alamy Getting an X-ray can be uncomfortable – you...
Women’s pelvises are shrinking – how is that changing childbirth?
Medical advances have changed childbirth – potentially enough to impact human evolutionFatCamera/Getty Images Women’s pelvises have become narrower over the...