In 2011, Karl von Randow and Matt Buchanan, two tech-loving New Zealand film buffs, launched Letterboxd, a movie review and rating app inspired by Goodreads, the platform that does the same for books. For several years, they juggled this small project with their work at a web design studio. Then came the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2020, they hired their first full-time employee, and with the world confined to their homes, their user base exploded. In 2023, the company was acquired by the Canadian company Tiny and today boasts over 26 million user profiles. While this figure seems insignificant compared to companies like Instagram (with around three billion active users), it reflects the cultural power of film as a source of conversation. Those who love movies enjoy watching them as much as discussing and analyzing them in detail, and Letterboxd is aimed at that community — including famous filmmakers and performers.

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Be careful what you wish for, as the saying goes, although it is not entirely clear what Yesteryear’s protagonist intended when she downloaded the Instagram app and started her journey as an influencer. Here’s what we can say for sure: Natalie, or Nattie, is a devout Christian and a proud housewife. She is intelligent but believes little can be learned at university. Well-married — no, phenomenally well-married — to the youngest son of a senator who is a potential presidential candidate. A potential presidential candidate for none other than the United States.

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US social media firms acting on orders from Middle East kingdom accused of being ‘instruments of repression’

Major US social media companies including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms have blocked the accounts of Saudi Arabian dissidents so they are no longer visible inside the kingdom, following orders by Saudi authorities.

Those affected include Abdullah Alaoudh, a US-based activist and vocal critic of Saudi human rights violations, and Omar Abdulaziz, a Canada and UK-based activist who worked closely with Jamal Khashoggi before the journalist’s murder by Saudi agents in 2018.

Satirical project is viral sensation and outlet for protest on social media as it taps into young people’s frustration

It began as a satirical online project after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to cockroaches. Now millions of young Indians are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration.

A parody political party with the insect as its symbol has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humour into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach – an insect known for its ability to survive harsh conditions – as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance.

They are teenagers, or young adults barely over the age of 20, but above all, far-right radicals who dream of “Day X,” the day it all begins, the day they will massacre immigrants. Germans who go to school, attend training programs, or work — far removed from the neo-Nazi stereotype of skinheads in bomber jackets — and who then immerse themselves in far-right extremist movements that speak of a “pure people,” downplay the Holocaust, and hate migrants, but now also direct their anger at feminists and the LGBTQ+ community. German investigative journalist Angelique Geray, 33, decided to infiltrate these groups between 2024 and 2025 to understand how they become radicalized. “I wanted to find out why right-wing extremism is once again presenting itself as a kind of cult or youth trend,” she explained earlier this month in a cafe in southern Berlin after publishing her experience in a book titled Undercover unter Nazis (Undercover Among Nazis).

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