Nieman Lab
The Daily Digest: July 07, 2025

Social media can support or undermine democracy — it comes down to how it’s designed

Platform design is a silent pilot steering human behavior. By Lisa Schirch.
“I have no idea how my pay was determined. It feels completely arbitrary.”
What we’re reading
The Logic / David Skok
What happens to the news business when people stop clicking? →

“Litigation and licensing deals may buy time for a few organizations, but they are not scalable or sustainable strategies. What’s urgently needed is a fundamental rethinking of how journalism is valued, accessed and supported.”

Politico / Michael Schaffer
An elderly lawmaker’s staff keeps walking back things she tells reporters. Should they keep quoting her? →

“For people interested in how Washington works, it’s an increasingly common issue in our era of gerontocracy: Just how are you supposed to interact with an elected official who might not be all there?”

Semafor / Max Tani
The New York Times pushed ahead to avoid being scooped on Mamdani Columbia story →

“Two people familiar with the reporting process told Semafor that the paper was aware that other journalists were working on the admissions story, including [Christopher] Rufo, a conservative best known for his crusade against critical race theory.” (More on the Mamdani Columbia story here and here.)

Reuters / Foo Yun Chee
Google’s AI Overviews hit by EU antitrust complaint from independent publishers →

The publishers also said “an interim measure was necessary to prevent serious irreparable harm to competition and to ensure access to news.”

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Semafor / Marta Biino and Max Tani
Fortune and Axios warm to AI →

“[Fortune] is bringing back former editor Nick Lichtenberg to ‘test ways to use AI to deliver breaking news faster’ with a new section called Fortune Intelligence — essentially, stories co-written with chatbots.”

The Financial Times / Henry Mance
The BBC dropped “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack,” but it’s now available on Channel 4 →

“Ben de Pear, the film’s executive producer, wrote before broadcast: ‘Why should there only be a handful of U.K. documentaries about Gaza? Why won’t U.S. media commission anything? Why can we watch on our phones the death of tens of thousands, but not on our TVs?'”

Semafor / Ben Smith
Punchbowl News expands to video →

It will launch “a weekly YouTube show called Fly Out Day — a test of whether the shift toward video that is underway across other forms of media will work in the text-heavy and information-hungry Washington market.”

The Washington Post / Yvonne Condes
Once it was mostly a taco website. Now it’s covering L.A. ICE raids. →

A year ago, L.A. Taco “faced the possibility of shutting down.” Now it’s become “an impactful and (for now) financially viable L.A. newsroom, going deep in the trenches as more than 1,600 people were arrested or detained by ICE in Southern California in June.”

The Information / Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Juro Osawa
TikTok building new version of app ahead of expected U.S. sale →

“The company has developed a plan to launch the new TikTok app, known internally as ‘M2,’ to U.S. app stores on September 5…Under the plan, TikTok users will eventually have to download the new app to be able to continue using the service, although the existing app will work until March of next year.”

Reuters / Reuters Staff
Reuters X account restored in India after suspension over legal demand →

“The main Reuters account, which has more than 25 million followers globally, had been blocked in India since Saturday night. A notice told X users that ‘@Reuters has been withheld in IN (India) in response to a legal demand.'”

Nonce: 8a7121ced9d9bb125005649d1721ab5d