Free Republic

Ted Cruz stole the spotlight on social media as he unleashed a tirade on CNBC debate moderators and media in general for creating tension among the candidates and not addressing "substantive issues"....The Texas senator scored the highest activity level - total number of views, shares, likes, and mentions a candidate receives on social media networks - for the night, according to Zoomph, an analytics platform that tracks real-time data on social media.He had 27,500 engagements on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Google+ by the end of the debate, while Rubio followed with 21,000 engagements. Bush was third on social media engagement...

Here are some English-language tweets from jihadis fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS: “I just noticed our martyred brother r.a. had a tumblr (I know, how could I have missed it). Make sure to check it out.” And: “This Syrian guy next 2 me (AbuUbayadah) is so stoked for our op he almost shot his foot off. Come on bro—safety 1st. :p” And: “Put the chicken wings down n come to jihad bro.” In “Fighting ISIS Online,” MIT Technology Review’s senior writer, David Talbot, describes what a Google policy director has called the...

On the backdrop of the recent wave of Palestinian terrorism in Israel, several hashtags were launched on social media in Arabic, such as "The Intifada Has Started," "The Third Intifada," "The Jerusalem Intifada," "The Knife Intifada," "Poison the Knife before You Stab," and "Slaughtering the Jews."[1] These hashtags serve as platforms for virulent incitement against Jews and calls to harm them. Many Twitter accounts using these hashtags expressed joy at the attacks, called the perpetrators "heroes," threatened more attacks soon, and encouraged others to carry out similar stabbings. The following is a sampling of posts under the aforementioned hashtags since...

After left-wing media went crazy over Dr. Ben Carson's comments about whether or not he'd vote for a Muslim president a few weeks ago, and he gained 100,000 new Facebook "Likes" as a result, I decided to begin tracking how many new Facebook followers each of the GOP candidates were attracting weekly. What I found may surprise you. Candidates perceived as part of the "establishment," such as Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Lindsey Graham, and George Pataki had surprisingly few followers considering their name recognition and experience. My initial research revealed Jeb Bush had the most followers amongst the...

The cutting edge of print journalism that is Cosmopolitan labeled the Kardashians as “America’s First Family” on the cover of its 50th anniversary issue in November. Needless to say, America (i.e. Twitter) does not agree with this sentiment, and has taken it upon itself to educate the half-a-century-old magazine. According to Uproxx, 16 pages of next month’s issue are dedicated to the family clan made famous by sisters Kim and Khloe‘s exploits in reality television, smartphone apps, and many, many other business endeavors. At this point, the Kardashian family is no longer a family — it’s a brand. Whether or...

Donald J. Trump ✔ ‎@realDonaldTrump I just wrapped up a Q&A @TwitterNYC. Thanks for all your questions! #AskTrump 12:36 PM - 21 Sep 2015 Donald Trump's spirit animal is Twitter's little blue bird. The billionaire developer, former reality TV star and putative leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination has turned his social media accounts into one-stop shops for his thoughts and views for millions of people without having to spend a dime. And while other candidates have made concerted efforts to craft digital strategies aimed at reaching new and younger constituencies through media like Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram, none...

Hoping to start a bloody "race war," a black, gay, in-your-face Obama-supporting former TV reporter horrified Southwest Virginia TV viewers yesterday when he stalked and coolly murdered two white former TV station colleagues and wounded a white interview subject during a live broadcast.

ESPN has pulled former MLB All-Star Curt Schilling from its coverage of the Little League World Series following a controversial tweet comparing Muslim extremists to German Nazis. “Curt’s tweet was completely unacceptable, and in no way represents our company’s perspective," ESPN said in a statement. "We made that point very strongly to Curt and have removed him from his current Little League assignment pending further consideration.”

By Joel Leyden United States News AgencyNew York --- August 23, 2015 ... Social media is no longer the bastard son of the media. It is the media. There was a time when newspapers (print), billboards, lawn signs, buttons, radio and TV ruled in winning a political campaign. Those days are history. Classic media is still relevant, but no longer primary. It is no longer the question "should we add social media to our campaign budget?" But - "should we add newspaper, TV and radio to our campaign budget". The reason is called "instant", "feature" and "cost effective". One need...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may be dominating social media, but a new study has revealed that a vast percentage of his online following is legally incapable of voting. According to data collected by the social analytics company, Macromeasures, just 39.4 percent of the real estate mogul's Twitter followers are members of the voting-eligible population, as first reported by Forbes. The company analyzed a handful of GOP hopefuls, including Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker and Carly Fiorina. Among those Republican candidates, Trump carried the largest percentage of disenfranchised followers. In comparison, 95.7 percent of Fiorina's...

Conservatives on Twitter are buzzing about this as a sign that Trumpmania may be overblown. If Trump fans aren’t likely to actually turn out for him once we start counting votes, who cares what his polls say? (Maybe not coincidentally, Rasmussen’s post-debate poll of likely Republican voters was the worst one for Trump this week.) I was surprised at the numbers at first, thinking Trump’s fan base is probably mostly composed of older voters. Older voters tend to skew right, after all, and older voters would be more familiar with him from his decades of fame. And older voters...

Ahead of Thursday's Republican primary debate - the first of the 2016 cycle - Facebook released data on which candidates and topics are generating the most chatter on its social network. The five most discussed political topics among U.S. Facebook users are, in order: "racial issues," Mexico, the economy, "LGBT issues," and immigration. The social network has previously released data on how many Facebook interactions (posts, comments, likes, and shares) each candidate generated on the day they launched their campaign. The data released Thursday, however, reflected the total number of Facebook interactions each candidate has generated during their time in...

I know that a lot of Freepers, maybe even most, despise social media, aren't comfortable using it, and are suspicious of providing information to sites that can pass it along to government agencies. I get all that and agree. However, I believe that we are in a raging battle for our nation's conscience and future, and, unfortunately, social media is one of the main battle fronts. Over the past few weeks, in particular, I've been battling against the pro-abortion propaganda that has been raging on Facebook. We cannot let their lies and attacks go unanswered, and yet, many conservatives have...

As Fox News determines exactly who will make the cut for the first Republican presidential debate on Thursday, the data team at Twitter has compiled a similar list. Looking at candidate mentions over the past 30 days — either their Twitter handle or their name written out — Twitter has come up with a top 10 list of their own for the Republican field, based on who is driving the most conversation on the social platform. [SNIP] Without further ado, here’s the top 10 in the Republican primary, according to Twitter mentions. 1. Donald J. Trump (2.7 million) 2. Scott...

Facebook is asking its users to recommend questions to ask Republican presidential candidates at the debate it is co-hosting with Fox News on Thursday, and Donald Trump was more than happy to help out. Trump, who will stand at the center of the stage in Cleveland, Ohio, offered his own question for the other candidates in a 12-second video posted Monday. "I'd like to ask all of the candidates -- that is, politicians and really not negotiators, people that don't negotiate jobs and lots of other things -- how are you going to make America great again?" Trump said....

Californians are taking to drought shaming sites to tattle on each other for wasting water. Residents are using the sites to out each other for reasons including neighbors with leaky sprinklers to waiters who serve water without asking as the state's historic drought continues. The tattling has also reached social media where residents are using the hashtags 'droughtshaming' and 'watershaming' to reveal any water-wasting activities. An app called DroughtShame was even developed to 'capture geotagged photo proof of disregard for California's water restrictions'.

Companies owned by Donald Trump have reportedly tried to import at least 1,100 foreign workers since 2000. A Reuters review [link at URL] of Labor Department data found that Trump Enterprises have requested temporary work visas for over a thousand foreign workers. ... The desired workers include waitresses, cooks, vineyard workers, as well as positions as assistant golf-course superintendent, assistant hotel manager and banquet manager. ... Reuters found that most of the visa requests were granted, as Trump has vowed to create and protect jobs for American workers. ... The Labor Department data did not specify the nationality of the...

Is the debate about marriage over after the Supreme Court’s June decision to redefine marriage in all fifty states? That’s what some Amazon.com reviewers are insisting after a new book was released last week. The book, “Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom,” is a roadmap from Ryan Anderson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, on how the conservative movement can move forward in promoting marriage and protecting religious freedom after the Supreme Court’s ruling. “I wrote this book for all Americans. For those who disagree with me, to at least understand the viewpoint of roughly...

Because presidential elections only happen once every four years, it’s always interesting to see how campaigning changes in reference to technologies and tactics. A lot of innovation happens over the course of four years and it’s very rare for candidates to follow the same formula as those who went before them. In the 2016 race for the White House, this principle is already holding true. Social media and presidential campaigns If you turn back the clock 10 or 15 years, progressive media forms consisted of talk radio, the Internet and maybe a handful of podcasts. Presidential candidates that were able...

An outspoken University of Wisconsin-Madison professor is under fire for finding future Badgers on Twitter and allegedly harassing them — as well as for comparing Scott Walker to Adolf Hitler. Sara Goldrick-Rab is a professor of educational policy studies and sociology with a national profile in both her field of research and the ongoing debate over faculty tenure in Wisconsin public universities. ~snip~ Goldrick-Rab acknowledges that she searched Twitter for individuals who identified themselves as future Badgers. The prolific Twitter-user says she wanted to inform them of changes to faculty tenure and shared governance that were about to become part...