Platforms & Communities Reporter, The Verge
Mia Sato is a reporter at The Verge covering tech companies, platforms, and users. Since joining The Verge in 2021, she’s reported on the war in Ukraine and the spread of propaganda on TikTok; Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter; and how tech platforms and digital publishers are using artificial intelligence tools.
Sato has written about tech platforms and communities since 2019. Before joining Vox Media she was a reporter at MIT Technology Review, where she covered the intersection of technology and the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to that she served as the audience engagement editor at The Markup. As a freelance reporter, she’s written about the subversive Hmong radio shows hosted on conference call software, online knitting activism, and the teens running businesses in Instagram comment sections. Her work has appeared in outlets like The New Republic, The Appeal, and Chicago Magazine. She is based in Brooklyn.
Got a tip? Contact her at mia@theverge.com or email for her Signal number.
Muppet History was a bright spot online — now it’s embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal
Muppet History, a viral account sharing Muppets-related memes and content, is accused of sending unwanted sexual messages to other fans.
Workers in more than 20 countries including the US, India, Germany, Japan, and Brazil are currently on strike or protesting, coinciding with Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Amazon workers have planned similar strike actions in the past around the shopping weekend. The “Make Amazon Pay” movement is demanding better wages and working conditions, and that Amazon allows workers to join unions.
An update to the Threads app lets users switch between their various feeds on the home screen, similar to what Bluesky allows.
Over the last few weeks, Threads has rolled out a string of updates that crib from Bluesky, including adding custom feeds.
For the anniversary edition of her album, “Goodies,” Ciara removed her collaboration with R. Kelly, but the album includes a very funny mistake: the Windows pop-up sound.
Stereogum found a couple examples of fans playing their records and finding the error on the song “1, 2 Step.” I love it, personally.
WhatsApp appears to be testing the ability to follow channels using a QR code, as spotted by WABetaInfo. As the outlet notes, QR codes could make discovery easier for businesses, for example, to share their channel with customers quickly by displaying their QR code in a store or on marketing materials.
A recently discovered performance of “Thompson’s Old Gray Mule” is now the oldest country recording in existence. The performer is Louis Vasnier, a Black artist from New Orleans.
The recording highlights how Black musicians have shaped the genre, despite the erasure of their contributions:
“Black artists by and large, who were the ones who performed and recorded, get wiped out of the picture because they say, ‘Well, it’s not really country,’” Martin says. “So ours is partly a project of reclamation.”
[The Washington Post]
The insurgent social platform that’s giving Threads a run for its money says it’s “exploring” additional ways to show that an account is legitimate.
Users currently can verify their accounts to weed out scammy doppelgangers by linking their website with their Bluesky account. But it gets complicated fast.
