Weird Machine

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A 77-year-old Montana judge just upended the ban-TikTok debate
The state's first-in-the-nation law, Republicans' model for banning the video app, "violates the Constitution in more ways than one."
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Drew Harwell
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OpenAI, X and the perils of absolute power
The secretive cults of personality that run Silicon Valley's biggest stars.
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Drew Harwell
The viral bin Laden trend that wasn't
How a "small group of nobodies" on TikTok sparked the latest social media panic.
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Drew Harwell
My time inside an OnlyFans "farm" earning $10 million a year
I went somewhere in Florida to see firsthand how the "spicy"-content business is changing the web, and the lives of the young people running it.
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Drew Harwell
What are these violent videos doing to us?
The "golden age of brutal voyeurism" is bringing the horrors of war back home.
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Drew Harwell
A small town goes mega-viral: Welcome to MrBeast's neighborhood
In Greenville, N.C., the unlikely home of YouTube's biggest star, the neighbors are all part of the spectacle — whether they like it or not.
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Drew Harwell
Watching the Israel-Gaza war on TikTok
The app's critics say the popularity of pro-Palestinian videos proves it's a brainwashing machine. The reality is more complicated.
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Drew Harwell
Weird Machine
Weird Machine
Stories on society in the new internet age. Published weekly by Drew Harwell, a tech reporter at the Washington Post.
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