social media

Politics

California social media regulations — a tougher sell in 2021

After pioneering consumer data privacy protections, the California Legislature has tapped the brakes on proposals to further regulate social media companies.

By

Zayna Syed

• May 27, 2021

Chamba provides job listing in high-demand fields such as construction, cleaning, warehouses and restaurants work for its 34k users. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

California Divide

Latinos create jobs app for Spanish speakers

Chamba, a Spanish term for jobs, is a free employment search tool launched during the pandemic to help workers connect to employers. It’s available in English and Spanish nationwide.

By

Jacqueline Garcia

• May 26, 2021

California Divide

Meet the TikTok angel of street vendors

With a million followers donating thousands of dollars, a young Latino makes TikTok videos to raise money for Los Angeles street vendors.

By

Jacqueline Garcia

• May 6, 2021

Commentary

How social media companies can self-regulate toxic, hate speech

By using Artificial Intelligence, Big Tech can enforce objective policies on users’ hateful, inflammatory, racist or toxic speech, and apply them consistently.

By

Guest Commentary

• January 27, 2021

Commentary

Combating disinformation requires investments in community media

Many of our societal ills can be traced to systems of disinformation that have proliferated through digital technologies and social media.

By

Guest Commentary

• January 19, 2021

Commentary

A time of reckoning for social media

Policymakers, tech leaders and others need to develop the safest internet environment possible while protecting free speech rights.

By

Guest Commentary

• January 15, 2021

Elections

State worked with social companies to remove election misinformation

California worked with social media companies, created an internal database and developed threat levels to fight 2020 election misinformation.

By

Freddy Brewster

• December 29, 2020

"Simple. Secure. Trustworthy. Counted." A sign reads in Spanish encouraging voters to vote by mail Off I-5 on November 3, 2020. Photo by Clara Mokri for CalMatters

Elections

How election officials fought fiction with fact

Pet videos populate Facebook all the time, but one posted during this frenzied election season stood out: A service dog named Maggie Magoo had voted by mail in Santa Cruz, its owner said. Not just that, the owner claimed Maggie was registered to vote using her microchip number as a social security number. The story, […]

By

Freddy Brewster

and

Katie Licari

• December 2, 2020

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez speaks emotionally on favor of her bill AB 5, which would re-classify contract workers, before the concurrence vote in the assembly on September 11, 2019. The bill passed 56-15.

Capitol

The Deciders: Meet the lawmaker behind new gig economy law

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, is among California’s more powerful state lawmakers and an ally of labor unions. This year, she led the fight to win new protections for gig workers, and won passage of a landmark workplace bill, AB 5. To launch our new video series of political profiles, “The Deciders,” […]

By

Byrhonda Lyons

and

Laurel Rosenhall

• September 20, 2019

Newsletters

Taxes, tech monopolies, and retired judges’ age discrimination claim

An inside look at Californians' tax bills, tech giants face antitrust, privacy scrutiny, retired judges claim age discrimination

By

Dan Morain

• May 13, 2019

Social Media