Social Media Firms Accountable for Posts, Brazil Judges Conclude
Justice Gilmar Mendes on Wednesday evening became the sixth of the court's 11 judges to vote that websites such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X should be responsible for taking down fake news and vitriolic content even before legal orders to do so, and can face sanctions if they don't.
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Politico
22 minutes ago
- Politico
How top Democrats are already gearing up for 2028 online
List-building signals candidates' ambitions for higher office, particularly with online fundraising a key pillar of successful Democratic campaigns over the past decade. By purchasing or renting Democratic donors' contact information, candidates can more effectively target potential supporters, introduce themselves to a national audience and convert some of those donors into their own. 'You want to build up a strong email and text list for a few reasons — it'll increase your name ID, you can raise money for other candidates, and then raise money for yourself,' said Mike Nellis, a Democratic digital consultant. 'If you're not spending money on growing the biggest possible audience for yourself right now, then you're being foolish. Frankly, all of them could be spending more money on it.' Leadership PACs also allow political figures in blue states to steer money to competitive races, including by directly donating to vulnerable candidates or state parties, or by fundraising on their behalf. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for example, has long tapped his extensive email and text lists to raise money for other candidates. Such efforts help blue-state Democrats build relationships across the country and engender goodwill within the party. 'Investing in your leadership PAC money now is critical because you have to build your fundraising operation now.' —Pete Giangreco, Democratic consultant The PACs also run ads aimed at recruiting online backers. Newsom's leadership PAC, Campaign for Democracy, invested another $1.5 million in digital ads in late June, according to its filing. The PAC, which launched in 2023 with a major transfer from Newsom's gubernatorial campaign, reported $4.4 million cash on hand at the end of June. Digital advertising helps candidates expand their name recognition and recruit donors outside their home states. 'It's the small donations from folks like you that have the greatest impact,' read one ad that Beshear's PAC, In This Together, ran on Facebook in June. 'Your support helps us do what matters most: elect decent, compassionate leaders in Kentucky and nationwide.' Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ran digital ads this year that focused on his home state but also reached a national audience. | AP Beshear's group, which has $496,000 cash on hand, spent $30,000 on digital advertising through the end of June, according to its FEC report. While Beshear's PAC has run Facebook ads that predominantly target his home state of Kentucky , it has also reached an audience across the country, according to data from Meta's digital ad library. Similarly, Facebook ads from Whitmer's group, Fight Like Hell PAC, have predominantly targeted Michigan users — but with some national promotion, too. Hers has $2.6 million cash on hand.
Atlantic
22 minutes ago
- Atlantic
This Is the News From TikTok
When he learned one night this summer that the United States had bombed Iran, the content creator Aaron Parnas responded right away, showing what's bad and what's good about using TikTok for news. Shortly after 7:46 p.m. ET on June 21, he saw Donald Trump's Truth Social post announcing the air strikes. At 7:52, according to a time stamp, Parnas uploaded to TikTok a minute-long video in which he looked into the camera; read out the president's post, which identified the suspected nuclear sites that the U.S. had targeted; and added a note of skepticism about whether Iran would heed Trump's call for peace. As traditional media outlets revealed more details that night, Parnas summarized their findings in nine more reports, some of which he recorded from a car. Parnas wasn't adding elaborate detail or original reporting. What he had to offer was speed—plus a deep understanding of how to reach people on TikTok, which may not seem an obvious or trustworthy source of news: The platform is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, which lawmakers in Washington, D.C., fear could be manipulated to promote Beijing's interests. TikTok's algorithm offers each user a personalized feed of short, grabby videos—an arrangement that seems unlikely to serve up holistic coverage of current events. Even so, according to a Pew Research Center poll from last fall, 17 percent of adults—and 39 percent of adults under 30—regularly get informed about current affairs on the app. Fewer than 1 percent of all TikTok accounts followed by Americans are traditional media outlets. Instead, users are relying not only on 'newsfluencer s' such as Parnas but also on skits reenacting the latest Supreme Court ruling, hype videos for political agendas, and other news-adjacent clips that are hard to describe to people who don't use TikTok. Last summer, after the first assassination attempt on Trump, one viral video fused clips of the bloody-eared Republican raising his fist with snippets of Joe Biden's well wishes. Simultaneously, Chappell Roan's ballad for the lovestruck, 'Casual,' played, hinting at a bromance. On my For You page in June, as U.S.-Iran tensions flared, I saw a string of videos known as 'edits'—minute-long music montages—on the general topic. One spliced together footage of zooming F-16s, Captain America intimidating his enemies in an elevator, and bald eagles staring ominously while AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck' blared. Skeptics might wonder: When people say they get their news from TikTok, what exactly are they learning? Frequent consumers of current-affairs content on TikTok insist that they can decipher what's going on in the world—that, even if they have to extrapolate facts from memes, the brevity and entertainment value compensate for a lack of factual detail. 'A lot of things are in simpler terms on TikTok,' Miles Maltbia, a 22-year-old cybersecurity analyst from Chicago, told me. 'That, and convenience, makes it the perfect place to get all my news from.' And as more and more users turn to TikTok for news, creators such as Parnas are finding ways to game the algorithm. Parnas, who is 26, is a lawyer by trade. He told me that he monitors every court case he deems significant with a legal tracker. He was immersed in politics at an early age. (His father, Lev Parnas, gained brief notoriety as an associate of Rudy Giuliani during Trump's first term. 'I love my dad,' Aaron Parnas has said. 'And I'm not my dad.') C-SPAN is on 'all day every day.' And he's enabled X and Truth Social notifications for posts from every member of Congress and major world leader. When he decides that his phone's alerts are newsworthy, he hits the record button. His rapid-reaction formula for news has made him a one-man media giant: He currently has 4.2 million followers on TikTok. He told me that his videos on the platform have reached more than 100 million American users in the past six months. His Substack newsletter also has the most subscriptions of any in the 'news' category, and he recently interviewed Senator Cory Booker, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, and this magazine's editor in chief. Still, Parnas's TikTok model relies heavily on reporting by other outlets. And Parnas's 24/7 information blitz may be jarring for those whose media-consumption habits are not already calibrated for TikTok. There's no 'Good evening' or 'Welcome.' But he's reaching an audience who other media don't: Many of his viewers, he thinks, are 'young people who don't watch the news and never have and never will.' He added, 'They just don't have the attention span to.' Ashley Acosta, a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania, told me she liked the fact that Parnas is his own boss, outside the corporate media world. She contrasted him with outlets such as ABC, which recently fired the correspondent Terry Moran for an X post that called Trump a 'world-class hater.' Nick Parigi, a 24-year-old graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, also sees Parnas as a valuable news source. 'You're getting less propagandized,' he told me. 'It's not pushing an agenda.' Last year, Parnas explicitly supported Kamala Harris's presidential candidacy, but he prides himself on delivering basic information in a straightforward manner. 'I wish we would just go back to the fact-based, Walter Cronkite–style of reporting,' he told me. 'So that's what I do.' For Parnas to sound like the CBS News legend, you'd have to watch his TikToks at half speed. If Parnas is a genre-defining anchor, Jack Mac is the equivalent of a shock jock. A creator with 1.1 million followers, he uses the term 'jo urnalisming' to describe his work, which amounts to commenting on stories he finds interesting or amusing—such as a 'patriot' New York firefighter being suspended for letting young women ride in his firetruck. 'Do I think TikTok is the best source for news? No,' Olivia Stringfield, a 25-year-old from South Carolina who works in marketing, told me. But she's a fan of Mac because he offers 'a more glamorous way to get the news'—and a quick, convenient way. 'I don't have time to sit down and read the paper like my parents did,' Stringfield said. Robert Kozinets, a professor at the University of Southern California who has studied Gen Z's media consumption on TikTok, told me that users rarely seek out news. It finds them. 'The default position is: Algorithm, let the information flow over me,' he said. 'Load me up. I'll interrupt it when I see something interesting.' On a platform where little content is searched, creators dress up the news to make it algorithm friendly. The Washington Post is one established media brand that has leaned into the growing format of TikTok news skits. In one video about the Supreme Court, a Post staffer wearing a college-graduation robe wields a toolbox mallet as a gavel to channel Chief Justice John Roberts, and when she mimics him, her background turns into red curtains. 'South Carolina can cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood,' she says. Dave Jorgenson, who launched the Post 's TikTok channel in 2019, announced recently that he's leaving to set up his own online-video company —a testament to the demand for this new style of content. From the January 2025 issue: The 'mainstream media' has already lost The Post 's embrace of TikTok has been unusual for an outlet of the newspaper's stature. The prevalence of vibes-based content on the video platform raises obvious questions about truth and accuracy. Many users I spoke with trusted crowdsourced fact-checking to combat misinformation, via the comments section. I asked Maltbia, the analyst from Chicago, how he knows which comments to trust. 'I'll usually look at the ones that are the most liked,' he said. 'But if it still sounds a little shady to me, then I'll probably Google it.' Parnas defended the integrity of TikTok news. 'There's no more misinformation on TikTok than there is on Twitter, than there is on Fox News, than sometimes there is on CNN,' he told me. That claim is impossible to verify: TikTok's factual accuracy is under-researched. One assessment by the media watchdog NewsGuard found that 20 percent of TikTok's news search results contained misinformation—but no user I spoke with bothers with the app's search function. Whether TikTok will continue to gain popularity as a news outlet isn't yet clear. Citing fears of hostile foreign control over a major communications platform, Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation aimed at forcing TikTok's Chinese owners to sell. But Trump has now delayed implementation of the law three times since he took office. In the meantime, users of the platform keep stretching the definition of news. On TikTok, 'news is anything that's new,' Kozinets, the USC professor, told me. Entrepreneurial creators who care about current events will keep testing delivery formats to gain more eyeballs on the platform. And even if TikTok is sold or shuts down, similar apps are sure to fill any vacuum. The challenge of packaging news for distribution by a black-box algorithm seems here to stay.
Time Business News
34 minutes ago
- Time Business News
Mooncake Trapp: A Delightful Fusion Of Tradition And Taste
Introduction To The Mooncake Culture Mooncakes are not just desserts; they are a symbol of reunion and tradition. For centuries, families have shared mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival as a token of love and unity. In recent years, the mooncake industry has transformed from traditional to trendy, offering gourmet versions, creative packaging, and international flavors. One such recent innovation is the mooncake trapp , a unique concept that combines the elegance of traditional mooncakes with the novelty of creative presentation and premium branding. Understanding The Mooncake Trapp Concept The term mooncake trapp refers to a sophisticated style of mooncake packaging and presentation, often used by luxury brands or high-end bakeries to elevate the customer experience. Unlike ordinary packaging, it typically includes artistic boxes, drawer-style compartments, LED-lit casings, or even music-box-like mechanics. The goal is to create an unforgettable unboxing experience that matches the taste and quality of the mooncakes inside. This concept appeals to modern consumers who seek more than just flavor. They want aesthetics, emotion, and a sense of occasion. The mooncake trapp delivers all of that by blending tradition with design. Evolution Of Mooncake Packaging Traditionally, mooncakes were wrapped in paper or stored in simple tin boxes. However, the competitive e-commerce market has redefined packaging standards. Businesses now focus on sustainable materials, elegant structures, and interactive experiences. The mooncake trapp stands out in this evolution. It usually incorporates: Sliding compartments or layered boxes Custom motifs, such as rabbits, moons, or lotus flowers Compartments for tea or small gifts Materials like bamboo, velvet, or embossed cardboard Such attention to detail increases the perceived value of the product and turns it into a perfect gift item. Why E-Commerce Brands Prefer Mooncake Trapp The mooncake trapp concept has been widely embraced by e-commerce brands for several reasons: 1. Visual Appeal For Online Shopping When customers shop online, they rely heavily on images. Beautifully packaged mooncakes with intricate box designs naturally draw more attention. The mooncake packaging helps products stand out on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and online marketplaces. 2. Enhanced Customer Experience Consumers are more likely to remember brands that provide a unique experience. The creative and interactive packaging of the mooncake trapp makes it memorable and share-worthy. This leads to word-of-mouth promotion and user-generated content, increasing visibility. 3. Added Value Without Changing Ingredients Improving packaging is a cost-effective way to raise product value without changing the recipe. A well-designed mooncake trapp justifies a higher price tag and creates a premium impression. 4. Ideal For Corporate Gifting Corporations often buy mooncakes in bulk for client and employee gifts. A luxurious mooncake trapp makes a strong impression and reflects positively on the giver's brand. Creative Trends In Mooncake Trapp Designs Designers and brands are constantly pushing the boundaries of creativity. Some popular trends in mooncake trapp packaging include: Thematic Sets : Some sets are themed around mythology, literature, or local heritage. : Some sets are themed around mythology, literature, or local heritage. Modular Boxes : These can be reused as jewelry boxes or desk organizers. : These can be reused as jewelry boxes or desk organizers. Personalized Packaging : Customers can print names or messages on the box. : Customers can print names or messages on the box. Technology Integration: QR codes, LED lights, and music chips are added for a modern twist. Such features not only attract attention but also promote sustainability through reusability. Sustainable And Eco-Friendly Packaging Options As environmental awareness grows, more e-commerce businesses are incorporating eco-friendly features into their mooncake trapp products. These include: Using biodegradable or recyclable materials Avoiding plastic windows and metal hinges Offering boxes that double as keepsakes or storage These options reduce waste and appeal to conscious consumers who value both aesthetics and environmental responsibility. Choosing The Right Mooncake Trapp For Your Brand For e-commerce sellers, choosing the right mooncake trapp means aligning the product with the brand's image and target market. Here are a few considerations: Target Audience : Luxury packaging works best for premium customers, while minimalist styles might appeal to younger or eco-conscious buyers. : Luxury packaging works best for premium customers, while minimalist styles might appeal to younger or eco-conscious buyers. Product Type : Match the box design to the flavor profiles, such as traditional patterns for lotus mooncakes or modern styles for chocolate truffle mooncakes. : Match the box design to the flavor profiles, such as traditional patterns for lotus mooncakes or modern styles for chocolate truffle mooncakes. Price Point: Make sure the packaging enhances value without compromising profits. Collaborating with creative packaging vendors or experienced designers can help develop a standout product. How To Market Mooncake Trapp Products To sell mooncake trapp effectively in the e-commerce space, a strong marketing strategy is essential: Product Photography High-resolution images showing different angles and unboxing steps can create excitement. Storytelling Explain the inspiration behind the packaging. For example, if the box design is based on a Chinese legend, include that story in your product description. Influencer Campaigns Send PR packages to influencers and food bloggers. A visually stunning mooncake trapp makes for share-worthy content. Limited Editions Create urgency with seasonal or limited-edition packaging to boost pre-orders and early purchases. Final Thoughts On Mooncake Trapp In E-Commerce The mooncake trapp concept is more than just an aesthetic trend. It represents a powerful strategy for blending culture, creativity, and commerce. In a market where visual appeal and customer experience often drive purchase decisions, the packaging becomes as crucial as the product itself. By investing in innovative mooncake trapp designs, e-commerce sellers can not only attract a wider audience but also build a stronger brand image. Whether for festive celebrations, corporate gifting, or personal indulgence, these thoughtfully designed mooncake packages bring joy long after the last bite is gone. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
