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Anita Allen on Facebook, facial recognition, and privacy
Anita Allen.

Anita Allen, Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and professor of philosophy.

Anita Allen on Facebook, facial recognition, and privacy

The expert on privacy and data protection law explains why Facebook’s decision to shut down its facial-recognition system is good for privacy rights.

From Penn Carey Law

Into the metaverse: Can Facebook rebrand itself?
Hand holding a smartphone with the Facebook logo, in the background is the new Meta logo.

Into the metaverse: Can Facebook rebrand itself?

Wharton marketing professor Patti Williams isn’t sold on the stated reasons behind Facebook’s recent name change— to Meta—or the timing.

From Knowledge at Wharton

Ezekiel Dixon-Román on the Facebook whistleblower
A white iphone bears a blue screen with the word "facebook" crossed out with a stylus

Frances Haugen’s testimony before the U.S. Senate, British Parliament, and European Union lawmakers may be the catalyst for additional regulation for internet platforms.

Ezekiel Dixon-Román on the Facebook whistleblower

The data analytics expert answers questions about Frances Haugen’s testimony and tech regulation, and why apps are so addictive.

Kristina Linnea García

Twitter accounts tied to China lied that COVID came from Maine lobsters

Twitter accounts tied to China lied that COVID came from Maine lobsters

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center said public health disinformation from China-based social media accounts is nothing new. "Early in the pandemic, Chinese sources spread the theory that SARS CoV-2 originated at Fort Detrick and was spread to China by U.S. military," she said. "The platforms can remove it, or if they decide against doing so, can downgrade it or flag it and attach fact-checking content."

Facebook is like chairs. No, telephones. No, cars. No …

Facebook is like chairs. No, telephones. No, cars. No …

Zachary Loeb, a doctoral candidate in the School of Arts & Sciences, spoke about Facebook’s attempts to compare the platform to simpler, less threatening technologies. “There used to be this utopian aura where they had been trying to act as though they were the latest in the stream of these transformative [communication] technologies,” he said. “Now they’re kind of like, ‘We’re this banal, everyday technology that we’ve all gotten used to, and we understand it’s screwing up the environment and actually really annoys you and people die all the time because of it, but you can’t imagine getting rid of it anytime soon.’”

TikTok talk
Two people sitting together looking at a phone with a TikTok logo

In linguistics, “whoever’s cool leads the change,” which explains why trends come and go via TikTok, says linguistics professor Nicole Holliday.

TikTok talk

Largely characterized as a Gen Z phenomenon, TikTok is a video-sharing app with more than 100 million active users in the U.S. alone—and it’s changing the way that we speak, says sociolinguist Nicole Holliday.

Kristina Linnea García

Study finds surprising source of social influence
cartoon social media influencer headshot against background of social media icons.

Study finds surprising source of social influence

A new study co-authored by ASC’s Damon Centola finds that as prominent and revered as social influencers seem to be, they are unlikely to change a person’s behavior by example, and might actually be detrimental to the cause.

From Annenberg School for Communication

The Panoptic Sort: Surveillance Q&A with Oscar Gandy
graphic profile of a human overlaid with images of the modern tech world

The Panoptic Sort: Surveillance Q&A with Oscar Gandy

With the second edition of his classic 1993 book “The Panoptic Sort” recently published, Gandy discusses the past, present, and future of surveillance.

From Annenberg School for Communication