Tag: social media

  • Shah Rukh Khan’s handwritten college essay about childhood has moved Twitter to tears

    Shah Rukh Khan’s handwritten college essay about childhood has moved Twitter to tears

    It turns out Shah Rukh Khan was fated to become an entertainer because even when he wasn’t famous, he could move people with his wit and charm. An X (formerly Twitter) user posted an essay written by the Bollywood Badshah when he was in college.

    The “Badshah” actor began the essay by hilariously writing that without going into details about his “bed-pan habits” or other interesting facts about his “urinating styles”, he could safely say he had a happy childhood.

    The actor reminiscences about how cheeky he was as a child: “My actions at the age of 5 years were of those of any other kid down the block-winking at girls of the Manavsthali School, throwing flying kisses at aunts 6-7 times my age, and dancing to the tune of Chakke pe Chakka.”

    The essay also talks about the actor’s interest in sports, including football, hockey and cricket. The ‘Pathaan’ actor wrote about how he was chosen to be a wicket keeper for cricket matches, played centre, forward for hockey and also received the ‘Best Player Award’ at the All Delhi Schools Hockey Competition. In football, Shah Rukh says he was the captain of the school team for the Youth Review Soccer Tournament.

    The essay went viral on Twitter, moving social media users with its wit and elegant prose

    https://twitter.com/deewana_man/status/1467110660211417095?s=20
    https://twitter.com/fsharkz/status/1466995391321149440?s=20
  • Karma is a queen: Swifties rejoice after Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato part ways with Scooter Braun

    Karma is a queen: Swifties rejoice after Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato part ways with Scooter Braun

    Look what you made her do

    If anything has been proved by history time and time again: Taylor Swift gets the last word, always.

    In 2019, the singer made international headlines when she publicly called out the owner of her former record label Big Machine Records, Scott Borchetta, for selling the masters of her first six albums to Scooter Braun. In a long Tumbler post, the singer detailed how she had pleaded for a chance to own her original work, but it was sold to a man who she described as an “incessant, manipulative bully”. Her musical legacy was about to “lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”

    “Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”

    The disagreements surrounding the masters between Taylor and her former record label and Scooter led on for a while, and the ‘Vigilante S***” singer was banned from playing her old music at the 2019 American Music Awards, and then from her Netflix documentary ‘Miss Americana’ (2019).

    Afterwards, in October 2020 Swift publicly expressed her distaste at Scooter selling her masters once more to Shamrock Holdings for $405 million without her approval. She later announced that she would be rerecording all six albums in order to gain complete ownership over them, and has so far released three of the six albums including Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) to release in October.

    It seemed like Tay-voodo began getting after Scooter Braun right away because since 2021, he was hit with a $200 million lawsuit in June by Peter Comisar, the vice chairman of investment banking at Guggenheim Securities, accused the businessman of fraud and breach of contract. Afterwards, his divorce to wife of seven years, Yael Cohen, who also publicly supported Scooter during his feud with Taylor, and called the singer a bully. Some Swifties even theorised that the track ‘Mad Woman’ from Taylor’s album ‘Folklore’ indirectly addressed Scooter’s cheating on his wife.

    Now, speculations are rife that some of music executive’s biggest clients like Justin Bieber, had parted ways with him, although it was shut down by sources speaking to Page Six.

    However, on Tuesday BBC has reported that pop singers Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato have parted ways with Braun and are both seeking new managers, firmly shutting any one down who thinks the woman who wrote ‘Karma’ was even joking about it.

    Since this news hit social media, Swifties lauded the popstar for publicly revealing the truth about Scooter and his corrupt nature before anyone else had, remaining steadfast in her truth despite the bullying she had to endure.

  • Here’s why cricketer Imam ul Haq’s parents don’t go to his matches

    Here’s why cricketer Imam ul Haq’s parents don’t go to his matches

    Pakistani cricketer Imam-ul-Haq recently went on Daniyal Sheikh’s podcast where he made a heart breaking confession about his family. He said that consistent taunts by spectators during matches has prevented his family members from watching him play live at stadiums.

    The cricket star made his ODI debut in 2017 in Abu Dhabi in a match against Sri Lanka. At the time, his uncle Inzamam-ul-Haq, a former captain of the Pakistan cricket team, was the team’s chief selector. Imam’s selection sparked controversy, leading to fans of the sport taunting the player with the term ‘parchi’.

    Reflecting on the bullying comments during the podcast, Imam said during the early years of his career, people used to approach him at restaurants to taunt him with ‘parchi’

    “During 2017-2020 when I used to go to dinner with my family, people would approach me and call me ‘parchi’ to my face,” he said.

    Imam went on to explain that because of these taunts, to this day, his parents have never watched him play in cricket stadiums:

    “They really want to come and watch me play, but I’m just scared- this is the first time I’m talking about this. But when I’m standing on the boundary, I don’t want my mother to listen to the taunt ‘parchi’ in the stadium. If I was batting and I was out, it wouldn’t matter if I had played better before or not, while going back I would hear taunts of ‘parchi’.”

    Since the clip was shared by cricketandstuff on X, formerly Twitter, social media users have expressed their dismay at how the cricketer has suffered relentless bullying yet manages to remain dedicated to the game.

    Ali Tareen wrote:

    “Heartbreaking to hear such an accomplished player never being able to invite his parents to see him live. Just so he can protect them from hearing their son being abused.”

  • ‘World stop’: Fawad, Mahira’s photoshoot for Fawad’s wife’s brand mesmerises Twitter

    Aur kitni baar Mahira aur Fawad humara dil jeetain gay? The duo, who can make a simple seven second video exude more chemistry than all the high budget Bollywood love stories put together, has once more joined hands to win hearts again. Their recent photoshoot for the brand Sadaf Fawad Khan has won X (formerly Twitter) over.

    A few days ago, Mahira shared a seven-second video of her walking towards Fawad. The clip spread like wildfire across social media. Clearly the two know how much power they hold over the generation that loved Khirad and Ashar.

    The duo look exquisite posing for the campaign ‘Phir Milenge’, with Mahira wearing a red blouse and matching lengha adorned with silver patterns, pairing it with silver jewelry. Her hair is pulled back in a bun. Fawad wears a grey kurta with matching pajamas.

    Since the photoshoot was released on social media, Twitter users are going wild. Fawad and Mahira continue to hold a place in our hearts and will do so for a long time ahead.

    They’ll forever be THAT couple.

  • X fixes ‘glitch’ causing disappearance of pre-2014 images and media

    X fixes ‘glitch’ causing disappearance of pre-2014 images and media

    The social media giant X, previously known as Twitter, has acknowledged a significant glitch that led to the disappearance of images and other media links dating back to before 2014. The company has confirmed that the bug has been rectified, and the issue is expected to be completely resolved in the upcoming days.

    In a recent communication, X Support stated, “During the weekend, we encountered a bug that prevented the display of images from the period preceding 2014. It’s important to note that no images or data were permanently lost due to this issue. We have successfully addressed the bug, and its full resolution is anticipated shortly.”

    While no official confirmation has been provided, there is speculation that the bug could be attributed to the transition of domains from Twitter.com to X.com.

    The glitch on the X platform also had an impact on one of the most iconic tweets shared on the platform by Ellen DeGeneres, the host of the 2014 Oscars. This particular tweet, captured after the Oscars, featured a star-studded selfie including personalities like Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt, and Meryl Streep, among others. The comedian accompanied the 2014 Oscars selfie with the caption, “If only Bradley’s arm was longer. Best photo ever.”

    Interestingly, amid the ‘bug’ issue, one of the few posts that remained unaffected was the well-known tweet by Barack Obama following his victory in the 2012 election. The post featured an image of Obama and his wife Michelle, accompanied by the caption, “Four more years.”

    Initial reports suggest that the glitch appears to be linked to tweets posted after December 2014. This timing coincides with changes made by the social media platform in 2016, when it introduced ‘enhanced URL enrichment’ to enable previews for linked websites and native attachments, a feature that extended beyond the platform’s original 140-character limit.

  • ‘Shaadi kay din hi, I knew something was wrong’: Firdous Ashiq Awan addresses Sania-Shoaib Malik divorce rumors

    Cricketer Shoaib Malik and his wife, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, have been one of the most popular public couples since they tied the knot in 2013. However, in recent months, rumours of the couple contemplating divorce have picked up pace. Previously, the rumor mill went into hyperdrive when Shoaib Malik removed Sania Mirza’s name from his Instagram bio, and now politician Firdous Ashiq Awan has added fuel to the fire.

    In a recent appearance on the show ‘Hasna Mana Hai’, the former Information Minister, who had attended the couple’s lavish wedding in Hyderabad, said that at the reception she got a gut feeling that the marriage won’t work out.

    Awan said that on the day she, along with the family, arrived in Hyderabad to meet Sania’s family, she had whispered in Shoaib’s ear “Puttar, bara bura phas gaya hai. [Son, you are badly stuck ]”

    Awan said her intuition was based on the situation she saw. Although the two had a love marriage, and had tried to make their marriage work by deciding to live in Dubai rather than Pakistan or India. But Awan said what she witnessed during the wedding made her realise the marriage won’t work.

    “Jab tak mohabbat ka bhoot sawar hai,” the politician joked. “Ye chalay ga.”

    The couple have not made any public announcements about separation or divorce, and are currently hosting ‘The Mirza Malik show’ on Express Entertainment.

  • Meta set to unveil web version of Threads, challenging X

    Meta set to unveil web version of Threads, challenging X

    Meta is getting ready to launch the web version of Threads, which is its rival to X (previously known as Twitter). This launch is expected to happen early this week, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Threads, which offers short-form posts, has been missing a web version since its start.

    Mark Zuckerberg, who is the CEO of Meta, mentioned that they’re working on adding this feature along with a better search function. Right now, the search function is quite limited; you can only search for usernames. These changes are expected to be ready in a few weeks.

    However, The Wall Street Journal’s sources say that the exact launch plans are not set in stone and could change. Adam Mosseri, who posted on Threads, shared that they’ve been testing an early version internally for a short time. But before it’s released widely, some more work is needed.

    Threads started as a basic version similar to Twitter just about a month and a half ago. Surprisingly, it quickly gained over 100 million users and attracted celebrities and brands. However, it has been missing some important features. The company has been slowly adding improvements, like a follow feed and the ability to verify a link using a Mastodon profile. This suggests that Meta might be considering integrating with the decentralised social network protocol Activity Pub.

  • X starts deleting Tweets including photos and links shared before 2014

    X starts deleting Tweets including photos and links shared before 2014

    Twitter seems to have removed a bunch of pictures uploaded on the platform between 2011 and 2014. This was noticed by a user named Tom Coates last Saturday. Not only did the images vanish, but links made using Twitter’s link shortening service during the same time don’t work anymore.

    Tom Coates updated his tweet to explain that pictures are gone and links are broken, but the data still exists on Twitter’s servers.

    Famous images like Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscars selfie, which got over 2.8 million retweets and is the most retweeted post ever, were affected. Luckily, this image was restored on Saturday, along with a tweet of Barack Obama hugging the First Lady after his re-election in 2012.

    It seems that photos and links added from 2016 onward are working fine. This suggests there might be a cutoff related to this issue. This also lines up with when Twitter added “enhanced URL enrichment” for link previews and “native attachments” that let you add photos without using up the 140-character limit.

  • Six universities are now offering courses on Taylor Swift

    Six universities are now offering courses on Taylor Swift

    ‘Well they didn’t teach you that in prep school so it’s up to me!”

    Looks like Taylor Swift has decided to take this lyric literally and influenced more than six universities across America, including NYU and Stanford, are introducing courses revolving around the pop mastermind and her works, ranging from literature to psychology.

    Arizona State University announced this month that they were offering a course titled “Psychology of Taylor Swift — Advanced Topics of Social Psychology” where the course revolves around connecting various themes from Taylor’s music like revenge, trauma, anxiety- and link it to psychology. PHD student Alexandra Wormey used Swift 2017 album ‘Reputation’ as an example:

    “Taylor’s sixth album, Reputation, is her comeback after disappearing from the spotlight due to conflicts with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. She enacts her revenge on them — and the broader media landscape — by dropping an incredibly successful album along with a stadium tour,” she explained. “The students know this — but do they know why we like revenge? Do they know how we enact revenge? Social psychology can tell us.”

    This decision to incorporate the singer-songwriter’s ballads into academic life has long started with places like New York University, when in 2022 the Clive Davis Institute introduced their first ever course on Taylor Swift, which will explore her evolution as a songstress, country, pop and indie legend, as well discourses surrounding girlhood, sexism and trauma from her work. The course is three months long, and Swift had also been invited as a guest speaker.

    In August 2022, University of Texas at Austin introduced “Literary Contests and Contexts — The Taylor Swift Songbook”, where the 12 time Grammy award winning’s music would be studied alongside the masters of literature like Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath.

    There are courses dedicated to dissecting some of her most critically acclaimed songs like ‘All Too Well’ (10 minute version) which Taylor had released on Red (Taylor’s Version). Stanford University announced the set up of their winter quarter course ‘All Too Well (10 week version)’ which would revolve around an in-depth analysis of Taylor’s hit.

    Berkley College of Music recently announced that the students could opt for a course that requires them to study the songs written by Taylor Swift and dissect each album and the themes it revolved around.

    And it’s not just the US now which is offering Taylor Swift courses now! Ghent University in Belgium called ‘Literature: Taylor’s Version’ which, according to the instructor Elly McCausland, would delve into how the ‘Anti Hero’ singer incoporates some of the most prominent writers of English literture like Jane Austen, Shakespeare or even Charlotte Bronte into her works.

    “The way she uses the war, like a metaphor for a relationship, made me a bit uncomfortable and it got me thinking about Sylvia Plath’s poem Daddy, which does a similar thing and also it’s very uncomfortable reading,” the academic said speaking to AFP. “Literature (Taylor’s Version)”, is a way to make literature “more accessible” and “not to create a Swift fan club”.

  • Islamabad police takes action against online propagandists

    Islamabad police takes action against online propagandists

    A spokesperson for Inspector General of Islamabad police, Dr. Akbar Nasir Khan, has said that the process of countering hate-mongering content and pages online that instigate conflicts in the capital city has been sped up. The action comes under the structure of the Violent Extremism Prevention Unit (VEPU) in order to prevent propaganda aimed against the state and its institutions.

    It has been claimed that more than 700 social media accounts, extensively investigated across Twitter, Facebook, and other media platforms, are unfurling religious hatred and terrorism. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been asked to shut down such accounts and so far, more than 200 have been suspended.

    The IGP is adamant to objectively curb extremism and VEPU has been prompt in taking measures against propagandists.

    Violent Extremism Prevention Unit (VEPU) was inaugurated earlier this year in February by Director General National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Muhammad Tahir Rai along with Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad at Safe City Islamabad. The mission of the unit is to “monitor the political, linguistic, sectarian and religious extremist content on social media and websites and submit its report” supervised by SP.

    The police and Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) are to work together to fulfil the goal. Apart from identifying the suspects online, the goal is also to hold them accountable. Additionally, communication experts are included and recommendations for legislation are to be made as well.