The Uber IPO Is a Landmark
It’s not because the company actually makes any money.
Re-creating Facebook on Instagram
Class accounts are a way for incoming freshmen to make friends, find roommates, and suss out colleges before fall.
Recruiting Women to Online Dating Was a Challenge
Match.com started with questions about weight and explicit sexual preferences. Half the population wasn’t that into it.
Misinformation Is Endangering India’s Election
The country’s political parties are spreading propaganda about their opponents to gain votes. It’s working.
How Lyft’s Ride-Sharing Business Works (And Doesn’t)
Thanks to its IPO, Lyft—which lost $978 million in 2018—is now worth a very large sum of money. Here’s why.
How Instagram Replaced the Contacts List
The app has become the default way to connect with new friends, dates, or business contacts.
Local News Is Dying, and Americans Have No Idea
While the industry nose-dives, a large majority of the country thinks it is doing great.
Airbnb Has a Hidden-Camera Problem
The home-rental start-up says it’s cracking down on hosts who record guests. Is it doing enough?
Your Online-Shopping Experience Was Grown in a Lab
How companies are using biofeedback to sell more products
Get Yourself a Nemesis
There’s a benefit to keeping your internet friends close, and your internet adversaries closer.
The Mueller-Industrial Complex Collapses
Newsmakers, pundits, and hustlers banked their future on the investigation taking down the president. The jig is up.
Cottage Cheese Is the New Greek Yogurt
Americans’ dairy consumption is about to get a lot more cultured. An Object Lesson.
Why the New Zealand Shooting Video Keeps Circulating
Teaching AI to filter out banned content isn’t the solution advocates hoped for—or the one Silicon Valley promised.
Your AirPods Will Die Soon
The surprisingly short life of new electronic devices
Instagram Is the Internet’s New Home for Hate
As other social networks wage a very public war against misinformation, it’s thriving on Instagram.
Facebook Does Have to Respect Civil-Rights Legislation, After All
Activists just won a landmark case against the social network.
Weibo’s Free-Speech Failure
How a dissident movement almost broke through China’s internet censorship
I Gave Up and Let Instagram Shop for Me
Targeted advertising has turned the platform into the best and worst place to buy stuff online.
Who Still Buys Wite-Out, and Why?
Correction fluids have improbably outlasted the typewriter and survived the rise of the digital office.
Social Media Are a Mass Shooter’s Best Friend
A terrorist attack in New Zealand cast new blame on how technology platforms police content. But global internet services were designed to work this way, and there might be no escape from their grip.