Skip to content

Social Media

How The Pro-Palestine Movement Is Outsmarting The Algorithms

For Nour Omar, a student in Cairo with 5,000 Instagram followers, reposting news about the genocide in Gaza is the smallest thing she can do that still feels like something. Usually, her posts draw hundreds of views an hour.  On a Tuesday night in November 2023, a few weeks after an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City killed at least 471 Palestinians, she posted three Instagram Stories in a row: a slide naming the dead from the hospital attack, a 12-second Reel of rooftops sheared open and a hospital donation link tagged #CeasefireNow.

The Seven Richest Billionaires Are All Media Barons

Trump loyalist and CIA contractor Larry Ellison’s purchase of CNN appears imminent, and marks the latest venture into media for the world’s second-richest individual. But Ellison is not alone. Indeed, the world’s seven richest individuals are all now powerful media barons, controlling what the world sees, reads, and hears, marking a new chapter in oligarchical control over society and striking another blow at a free, independent press and diversity of opinion. Paramount Skydance– an Ellison-owned company– is in pole position to purchase Warner Brothers Discovery, a conglomerate that controls gigantic film and television studios, streaming services like HBO Max and Discovery+, franchises like DC Comics, and TV networks such as HBO, TNT, Discovery Channel, TLC, Food Network, and CNN.

ICE’s Plan To Monitor Social Media 24/7 Threatens Privacy And Participation

When most people think about immigration enforcement, they picture border crossings and airport checkpoints. But the new front line may be your social media feed. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has published a request for information for private-sector contractors to launch a round-the-clock social media monitoring program. The request states that private contractors will be paid to comb through “Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, VK, Flickr, Myspace, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Reddit, WhatsApp, YouTube, etc.,” turning public posts into enforcement leads that feed directly into ICE’s databases.

A Year Later, Africa’s Gen Z Uprising Is Only More Emboldened

Over the past year, a wave of mass protests has swept through the capitals of some African states. From Nairobi to Lagos, Accra to Dakar, angry protesters have marched to the sound of exploding tear gas shells and live bullets to rail against hunger and inequality while demanding an end to IMF austerity. From June to August this year, the movement rose again with tens of thousands exploding onto the streets in Kenya, while hundreds of activists turned up at an anniversary event in Lagos, Nigeria to reflect and map out next steps. Provoked by deep economic frustrations and lack of opportunities, these youth-led protests have shaken Africa’s aging ruling classes to their bones, making a forceful argument for a new social pact, anchored on a paradigm of national sovereignty, inclusive growth and social welfare.

How Pro-Palestine Youth Are Responding To Online Censorship

When Israel initiated plans to evict Palestinians from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for illegal settlers, millions of young people around the world got involved in a high-profile social media campaign to raise awareness.  Using the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah, more than 40 million people joined in, forming part of a wave of online organising that set the stage for a new era of pro-Palestine digital activism. That trend continued as Israel launched its ongoing genocide in Gaza in October 2023 with activists dedicating their instagram feeds and TikTok reels to spreading awareness of Israeli atrocities. But mounting censorship on social media, digital fatigue and a hunger for deeper forms of engagement, are forcing organisers to shift gears and adopt new modes of activism.

MAGA Going To Israel For Propaganda Training

The Israel foreign ministry will spend $86,000 to finance a tour of Israel for 16 Americans to get them to use their vast online influence to craft more positive images of a nation openly engaged in genocide. The effort is being made as Israel reacts to a significant turn in public opinion against it, especially by Western youth. Tel Aviv realizes its usual methods of propaganda — and apparently its own inhouse troll army — are no longer working as they once did. The daily Haaretz reported: Foreign Ministry officials say the tour delivers significant media, advocacy, and diplomatic benefits – and represents a strategic shift, as traditional outreach is no longer sufficient to shape public opinion. They aim to leverage the massive followings of young social media influencers to bolster Israel’s standing in the U.S.

Propaganda Watch: Kagame Is Not Traoré

Anti-imperialists, socialists, and peace and justice communities across Africa and the world are inspired by the newly federated Alliance of Sahel States and by its leaders, especially Burkina Faso’s charismatic Ibrahim Traoré. Seeing this groundswell of support, Paul Kagame’s propagandists have rushed to liken him to Traoré. Others may sincerely imagine a likeness that doesn’t in fact exist. Kagame has ruled Rwanda for 30 years, since seizing power at the end of his four-year war to re-establish Tutsi dominance in July 1994. Traoré has been in power for less than three years, since seizing power in a popular coup in September 2022.

Is Social Media The New Union Battleground?

Airplanes with standing sections. An extra fee for boarding charged at airport terminals. Even smaller carry-on luggage allowances. These are a few of the features offered by Unfair Canada. Since December, satirical ads for the fictional airline have popped up on Facebook and Instagram alongside anonymous, first-hand accounts of flight attendants stuck on planes for hours without pay. The posts are part of the Air Canada flight attendants’ union’s campaign to put a spotlight on the hours of unpaid work expected of flight attendants as their union negotiates a new contract.

Canada’s Greatest Foreign Interference Threats Come From Washington

Justice Marie-Josée Hogue issued her report on foreign interference in Canada’s last two federal elections on January 28, and her conclusions are reassuring. There are no traitors sitting in Parliament, she says. And she finds no evidence that meddling from China, Russia, Iran, India or any other country had a significant impact on the last two elections. Notwithstanding those sanguine, overarching conclusions, Justice Hogue does warn there is still much we must all do to head off threats to Canada’s democracy. The greatest of those threats, she tells us, is the scourge of false and misleading information

How Fossil Fuel Sectors Create A Climate Denial Echo Chamber

From 2008 to 2023, nine of the nation’s largest oil, agrichemical, and plastics trade groups and corporations posted thousands of tweets on the social media platform X, and their messaging on environmental issues was strikingly “obstructive” for climate policy and action, a study published today in the journal PLOS Climate concludes. The study found that all of the organizations, including the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), were mentioned by at least four of the other groups – helping to essentially create an echo chamber for similar messages.

Young People Flock To Chinese App RedNote Ahead Of TikTok Ban

With a potential TikTok ban on January 19 looming over the United States, American TikTok users are moving en masse to RedNote, a Chinese social media app. Known in China as Xianhongshu, which literally translates to “little red book” (yes, the allegory isn’t lost here), the app is currently sitting at the top of the social media charts in the App store, gaining over half a million new users over the last few days. In a display of camaraderie, users — monikered “TikTok refugees” on the platform — flocked to RedNote, and Chinese and American users have taken to using the shared platform as an opportunity of a rare and (as of yet) fraternal cultural exchange.

Exposing Big Tech’s Complicity In Genocide

The vast censorship and suppression campaign launched by American tech companies since October 7, 2023 has been both systemic and deliberate. Instagram, Facebook, X as well as other tech platforms and companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple have actively worked to stifle information regarding the genocide in Gaza. Dissent against policies or individuals who enable these decisions is often met with swift reprimand in the form of job loss. Joining host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report are three courageous individuals who chose to put their careers on the line to fight against Big Tech suppression of voices fighting for Palestinian lives.

Calls For A Migrant Labor Strike Grow On Social Media

Since the xenophobia-fueled presidential re-election of Donald Trump, calls have been growing on social media for a pro-immigrant labor strike beginning on January 11, days before Trump is to take office. The emerging movement’s goal is to highlight the social, cultural, and economic importance of immigrants in the United States. The Trump campaign’s racist rhetoric — targeted at Latin Americans and Caribbean Islanders — is an urgent threat driving the need to speak out against his proposed immigration policies — such as the plan to conduct mass deportations.

Journalism And Democracy In A Time Of Genocide

Last month in New York at separate forums, two senior Democrat figures – John Kerry and Hillary Clinton – pointed to what they saw as major problems: the First Amendment was “an obstacle to building consensus,” and the “narrative” in the press needs to be (even more) “consistent.” The challenge presented by the free flow of ideas and information in the digital world, to those accustomed to maintaining control of the narrative, defines our moment in history and the fragility of democratic freedoms. Those calls for less freedom of speech and for more consistency in messaging to the public by the Fourth Estate, come at a time when large sections of the public have lost trust in a legacy media too consistent in its messaging, and incapable of providing the information and analysis that will enable them to know and fully understand what’s happening.

Revealed: The Israeli Spies Writing America’s News

One year after Oct. 7 attacks, Netanyahu is on a winning streak.” So reads the title of a recent Axios article describing the Israeli prime minister riding on an unbeatable wave of triumphs. These stunning military “successes,” its author Barak Ravid notes, include the bombing of Yemen, the assassinations of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the pager attack against Lebanon. The same author recently went viral for an article that claimed that Israeli attacks against Hezbollah are “not intended to lead to war but are an attempt to reach ‘de-escalation through escalation.'”
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.