First off, I apologize for sending this out four days late. Last week was a bit overwhelming and I honestly could not keep up. Nonetheless, here’s the third edition of News&More!
Recently, former US president Donald Trump sued Facebook, Google and Twitter over censorship. The lawsuits allege the tech behemoths violated his right to freedom of speech, guaranteed by the US constitution’s First Amendment. And, once again, the debate on (unchecked) freedom of speech vs (unchecked) power of social media platforms was ignited. If you’re unsure where you stand on the issue, here are some facts, numbers and resources which, I hope, will help you make a more informed stance!
Facebook’s monthly active userbase: 2.85 billion, according to Statista.
Twitter’s monthly active userbase: 330 million, according to Statista.
Nigeria banned Twitter after the company took down President Buhari’s Tweet on civil war for violating the company’s guidelines.
Twitter-like social network Parler emerged promising free speech to its users on the right-leaning spectrum.
How does Facebook decide what’s allowed, what’s not: Facebook’s Community Standards.
I’ll add (and keep adding) more and post these together in a separate post on my Substack page.
It’s quite possibly the most interesting legal paradox of our time. We’re all caught in the middle of the balancing act. Here’s an interesting read that elaborates on the same: Trump's Big Tech lawsuit: Freedom of speech vs. the First Amendment, by Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor for 50 years.
NYC-LIFE
I sat down and cataloged a timeline of the application process, and my expenses so far (coming soon!) related to applying to grad school, and moving to NYC. If you’re a perspective international student considering studying in the US, specifically at Columbia, hope this helps!
I’ll post the expenses chart soon and keep updating it every ~2 weeks. Meanwhile, if you have any questions about applying to grad school, budgeting, moving to NYC (I’m still figuring this bit out for myself), hit me up!
OTHER STUFF
This week’s theme: NFTs, virtual land … virtual everything!
To read …
Here’s some fun stuff I read/explored/learned about this week:
Virtual real estate plot sells for close to $1 mln
A path of virtual land sold for over $900,000! Here’s Decentraland where all the action happens.Virtual Land, Real Money - The Rise of a new parallel economy
How real life dollars are flowing into the virtual world!
BONUS COOL THING + What am I (barely) coding
Shoutout to Moriel Schottlender who has a super, SUPER cool website! Check it out here!
I finished a preliminary course on Python. It’s fun and easy and if you’re a beginner, I highly, highly recommend checking it out!
That’s all, for now. Watch this space for NYC-life things, coding, all things internet and more!👩💻📈🌐🍄💜