Recode Daily: Inside 8chan — a nexus of radicalization on the internet

In recent weeks, online message board 8chan has come under intense scrutiny. Both the shooters behind the Poway and Christchurch mass shootings appear to have been radicalized on the site, and both posted manifestos there explaining the racist intent for their violence. Emily Stewart explains the history of the platform and how it became home to some of the “most vitriolic content” on the web where the “tone of the conversation” is “one of dark and disturbing humor [with] hateful rhetoric about Jewish people, Muslims, women, and other groups.” While the site did take down the the Poway shooter’s manifesto minutes after it was posted, Stewart “came across a post describing the shooter as a ‘saint’” as recently as Friday, proving the persistence of hateful content on the site.
[Emily Stewart / Recode]

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Amazon is “already capable” of offering same-day and next-day delivery to nearly three quarters of the total US population. That capability is even higher, around 95 percent, for 16 of the wealthiest and most populated states and Washington, DC. The estimates come from a recent report by RBC Capital Markets. As Eugene Kim reports, “[t]he vast delivery network is the result of significant investments over the past four years, a period during which Amazon built out fulfillment centers across the country, nearly tripling its U.S. logistics infrastructure.” In its latest earnings report, Amazon said it wants to cut down the current two-day free shipping plan by one day for its Prime members — and plans to spend a whopping $800 million during this quarter alone to do so.
[Eugene Kim / CNBC]

People in the UK are more distrustful of social media compared to those living in other countries, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by YouGov and the University of Cambridge, questioned over 25,000 people. It showed that Britons were the most skeptical of social media: More than four in five people in the UK said they distrust platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Other European countries were “not far behind” in their relatively low levels of trust for social media. Only 23 percent of Americans and 20 percent of Germans said they trusted information gained from social media. Meanwhile, people from “middle-income countries” such as Brazil, India, and Mexico, had relatively higher confidence in social media platforms.
[Alex Hern / The Guardian]

President Trump tweeted in defense of far-right extremists that Facebook recently banned from its platform. In a series of tweets, the president — seemingly in response to the recent ban — accused social media companies of “censorship” against conservatives. In particular, the president tweeted support for InfoWars personality Paul Joseph Watson, who in the past has spread conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and so-called “chemtrails.” Facebook, meanwhile, has maintained that it does not take down accounts on the basis of political ideology, but rather those that engage in violence and hate.
[Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy / CNN Business]

Twitter is disturbingly right and alarmingly wrong about what you’re interested in. Twitter’s “inferred interests” tell you — and advertisers — what you’re supposedly into.
[Emily Stewart]

The “magic angle” that has physicists bewitched

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