Twitter

Dreams, the 1977 single from Fleetwood Mac’s 40m-selling album Rumours, has re-entered the US charts thanks to a Twitter meme. The song sits at No 16 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart, following the much-shared Twitter post by the user bottledfleet, where the song is used to accompany footage of a marching band’s dance troupe. It was retweeted more than 130,000 times, prompting 2,000 downloads of Dreams and 1.9m streams, a 24% rise. Rumours, which topped Billboard’s Top Rock Albums for a record 31 consecutive weeks on its release, jumped to No 13 in that chart. In the UK album chart, meanwhile, Rumours went from No 49 to 31 in its 725th week in the Top 100, while The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac went from No 27 to 17, chalking up its 328th week. It’s not the first song to benefit from meme culture. US producer Baauer reached No 1 in the US in 2012 with his track Harlem Shake after it became the backing for a web video dance craze, while Rick … [Read more...] about Meme come true: Fleetwood Mac re-enter US charts thanks to Twitter post

He was the Seventies heartthrob who made women around the world swoon in Grease and Saturday Night Fever - and was known for his classic good looks and dimpled chin. But 62-year-old John Travolta's latest look has raised eyebrows - with viewers of the hit show The People Vs OJ Simpson reacting with hilarity - over the star's face. With two very bushy arched brows, a deep chestnut tan, shiny tight forehead and an obvious hair weave, the Pulp Fiction actor's trademark looks appeared to have gone in a new direction for this particular portrayal - in which he plays Hollywood legal hotshot Robert Shapiro. Scroll down for video 'What happened to his face?' Travolta, who turned 62 last week, appears in The People v. OJ Simpson... but viewers quickly picked up on how different the Pulp Fiction star looked in the show At least he hasn't done away with the dimple! Some viewers said that Travolta looks almost unrecognisable in his role as lawyer Robert Shapiro...others even likened his … [Read more...] about ‘His face looks like it’s melting!’ Twitter frenzy over John Travolta’s VERY different look in The People V OJ Simpson

Twitter is responsible for almost half of the child abuse material found by UK investigators being hosted openly on popular tech sites, according to figures seen by the Telegraph. Statistics from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) show that 49 percent of the images, videos and url links it found on social media, search engines and cloud services in the last three years were on the social network, making up 1,396 of the total 2,835 incidents found. Child protection figures warned the each incident could represent hundreds or thousands of images or videos, as they included urls linking back to child abuse websites. The IWF, the UK's online abuse watchdog, can only find child abuse material on the open web, meaning all the abuse images and videos found had slipped through tech companies' filters and were available for anyone to see. The IWF is also unable to scan for abuse images in messaging apps or even closed Facebook groups. The IWF say that the figures show the number of child … [Read more...] about Twitter responsible for half of child abuse material UK investigators found on web platforms

Twitter users are revealing the mortifying ways that their parents learned they'd lost their virginity. On Wednesday, Twitter user  @jarievee  asked followers, 'How did y’all’s parents find out you lost your virginity?' — and the tweet quickly went viral. Countless other people chimed in, recalling awkward visits to the gynecologist, pharmacy mix-ups, and even getting caught doing it at school. Not everyone had an embarrassing story, though, with some sharing that they'd had frank and honest talks with their mothers and fathers, who gave them heartfelt words of advice and support. Chrissy Teigen answered, too, joking that the only proof her mom had that she'd done the deed was the existence of her daughter, Luna — but then adding, 'actually I have IVF babies so maybe I have never had sex ever.' Prompt: On Wednesday, Twitter user @jarievee asked followers, 'How did y’all’s parents find out you lost your … [Read more...] about ‘My dad read my prayer journal’: Twitter users, including Chrissy Teigen, reveal the mortifying ways their parents found out that they are sexually active

Social media platforms wanting to help curb political disinformation on their sites are offering new ways to avoid it online. Twitter has discontinued all political ads and Facebook has new tools for content moderation. This is a good start, even if not all platforms are showing initiative, and not all such attempts are fruitful. However, electioneering and political campaigning don’t start with technology firms. They start with the political parties and their affinity groups. To keep our elections free and fair, and to be confident in their outcomes, parties need to disclose what ads they’re buying, on which platforms, and at what price. Now is the chance for campaigns to demonstrate their commitment to transparency and accountability. Over the past few months, Oxford University’s Technology and Elections Commission (of which we are a part) has been investigating the range of ways that political parties, social media platforms and election officials need to … [Read more...] about Online politics needs to be cleaned up – but not just by Facebook and Twitter