Month: September 2021

Grammy winning singer/songwriter R. Kelly was convicted on charges including sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, racketeering and sex trafficking involving five victims on Tuesday, September 27th. Accusations against R. Kelly go back as far as 25 years. Over the last week, 50 witnesses took the stand to testify on the abuse R. Kelly inflicted on numerous victims.

During trial, the media was not allowed into the court room. Parts of the trial were so graphic, that the audio recording were not made public.

R. Kelly was convicted on all nine charges brought against him including a racketeering charge with 14 underlying acts. The jury found R. Kelly to be guilty in 12 of the 14 acts; he only needed to be found guilty of two to be convicted in court. The racketeering charge was for a violation of the Mann Act, a sex trafficking law.

R. Kelly is scheduled for sentencing on May 4, 2022 where he will face 10 years to life in prison. This does not mark the end of R. Kelly’s legal trouble. R. Kelly is set to face a second federal trial on charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice in Illinois related to a 2008 child pornography case in which he was acquitted. On top of this, R. Kelly faces criminal charges in Illinois, where he was indicted for aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving minors and in Minnesota, where Kelly was charged with engaging in prostitution with a minor.

Despite all of this, fans of the singer could be seen defending him outside of the courthouse.

R Kelly supporters play his music outside of the courthouse. “We’re not giving up on R Kelly!” one supporter yells. pic.twitter.com/dDjyNsAnsk

— Alanna Vagianos (@AlannaVagianos) September 27, 2021

However, these supporters are in the vast minority of how people feel about R. Kelly. Since the verdict was delivered, there have been 243,592 mentions of R. Kelly across social media reaching over 5.8 billion users. Of these, 88.2% of mentions were deemed to carry a negative sentiment. The most popular hashtag associated with R. Kelly’s court case was #MeToo.

R. Kelly’s case has been the highest profile #MeToo movement in the music industry to date.

R. Kelly’s conviction represents a major #MeToo moment for Black women.

"This is the culmination of the movement of so many women who having being trying so long to have their voices heard," said Oronike Odeleye, cofounder of a movement to boycott him. https://t.co/WVvXW1dKX5 pic.twitter.com/Lznl2fOhLw

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 27, 2021

One in five black women are survivors of sexual assault. Today, black women were believed. R Kelly has been found guilty on all nine counts. #MeToo #ibelieveher #justice

— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) September 27, 2021

Twitter users flocked to show their support for R. Kelly’s victims and to show they have no tolerance for those standing by R. Kelly’s side.

https://twitter.com/PettyLupone/status/1443014763332583424

This is a rape apologist free zone. If you think R. Kelly got railroaded, go on ahead and block me. Cause when I find out that you agree with rape and molestation, I'm gonna block you anyway.

— Black Girl Photographer (@LeciaMichelle11) September 28, 2021

This case has the potential to be a stepping stone in the right direction, away from victim shaming and towards believing victims of sexual assault. It also calls for the music industry to take a long look in the mirror. These allegations against R. Kelly were public for years, yet he was still signed by a major label and had artists agreeing to work with him. How can artists feel safe in an industry that supports people such as R. Kelly?

Author: Jacob Luksik

The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards aired on Sunday, Sept. 19, honoring the best recent US prime time television programs. With fan favorites like The Queen’s Gambit, WandaVision, Ted Lasso, and others, the competition this year was intense.

The big winner of the evening was Netflix’s The Crown, winning Outstanding Drama Series and bringing home 7 awards. Apple TV+ also earned 4 awards for Ted Lasso, including the award for Outstanding Comedy Series. The Handmaid’s Tale did not bring home any awards despite receiving a whopping 11 nominations, leaving fans disappointed with the Emmy Awards.

The disappointment surrounding The Handmaid’s Tale was not the only controversy of the evening. Seth Rogen, known for his acting performances in Superbad and Freaks and Geeks, gave a speech condemning the Emmy Awards for allowing so many people to gather indoors. Additionally, the hashtag #emmyssowhite began trending about halfway through the award show. The Emmy Awards have received some backlash on Twitter and in the news for giving all major acting trophies to white actors, highlighting a structural issue within the industry.

What has the conversation been like on social media? At the Social Media Listening Center, we used a search for keywords like “Emmys,” “#Emmys2021,” and “The Emmys.” While this search may not be fully extensive, it provides a glimpse into the online conversation.

By Sept. 20 at 11:59 pm, the search found 1,867,938 tweets discussing the topic. The overall sentiment of this search was 86% positive and 14% negative. It’s likely that some of the negative sentiment surrounding this topic stems from the evening’s controversies. To get a better look at the conversation and the sentiment surrounding this topic, we paid close attention to the word cloud capturing the most common words and phrases associated with this search:

To gain even further understanding of the sentiment surrounding this news, we looked at the most commonly used hashtags related to this search. We found that #emmys, #emmys2021, #tedlasso, and #emmytnt are at the top. When searching the keyword “#Emmys2021,” we found that some of the top themes of discussion were “Ted Lasso,” “Red Carpet,”  and “Elizabeth Olsen.”

Who is engaging in this conversation? We found that the majority of mentions surrounding this topic are from female Twitter users in the 18-35 age demographic in the United States. The top influencers on Twitter are primarily entertainment channels such as Entertainment Weekly and Good Morning America. Gillian Anderson, who was nominated for her performance as Margaret Thatcher on The Crown, is a top influencer as well.

#TedLasso wins Outstanding Comedy Series! #Emmys pic.twitter.com/UHrpCHGgK7

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) September 20, 2021

#Emmys2021

Huge thanks to all who put me together! 💃🏼

Dress: @chloefashion @gabrielahearst
Stylist: @marthaward2
Hair: @JamesRoweHair
Makeup: Amanda Grossman
Nails: Jessica Thompson

📷 @ZOEMCCONNELL pic.twitter.com/QebGHAn1oO

— Gillian Anderson (@GillianA) September 20, 2021

The keyword search also revealed that Instagram users are engaging in this conversation as well. Over 13,000+ Instagram posts were made featuring red carpet looks and highlights from the evening with the hashtags #emmys and #emmys2021. Fans of Ted Lasso and The Crown were especially engaged in the conversation on Instagram.

Unsurprisingly, the volume trend of the conversation has steadily declined since the award show ended. Although the Emmy Awards may be over for another year, we’ll likely continue to hear more about the lack of diversity that comes with Hollywood award shows, and hopefully hear calls for structural change. In the meantime, we’ll continue monitoring this topic and others from the Social Media Listening Center.

Author: Kendall Phillips

Over the past week, the US has been closely following the investigation of missing 22-year old Gabby Petito. Online sleuths, news organizations, social media personalities have all combined to find out the story behind the disappearance of Gabby Petito. The keyword “Gabby Petito” has reached over 23 billion users with 1,338, 772 mentions. Over the past month, people have been following this case as it has steadily gained traction from her disappearance to now. Hashtags like #gabbypetito, #findgabby, #bringgabbyhome have all circulated the internet.

Gabby Petito and her boyfriend were on a cross-country road trip when she began a youtube channel to chronicle their travels. Prior to her disappearance, Gabby would communicate with her family frequently, if not every day, and post on her Instagram regularly. On August 25, she also posted a series of photos on her Instagram (which now some people believe were not posted by her at all). However, her family grew concerned when they weren’t able to contact Gabby after a few days and only received brief text messages. After her boyfriend returned home alone with her van on Sept. 1, she was then reported missing on Sept. 11, 2021, after her parents were unable to contact her.

With the rural terrain and limited human contact in the area of her disappearance, the FBI of Wyoming reached out on social media for any witnesses who may have seen Gabby, her boyfriend, or their van between August 27-30. While it isn’t unusual for law enforcement to ask the public for help, the case is unique in the fact that social media is at the heart of it.

This is the specific area of Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming where authorities have focused their search for Gabby Petito. @FBIDenver is seeking tips from people who visited the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area between August 27-30. #FindGabby https://t.co/SSTcntNE3j

— Justin Schecker (@justin_schecker) September 19, 2021

Popular Tiktokkers, vloggers, and podcasters have brought attention to the case.  Through social media and Gabbys vlogs, the FBI has begun to piece together a timeline of the couples’ movements. A potential witness Miranda Baker claimed in a TikTok post that she and her boyfriend gave Laundrie a ride in Grand Teton National Park on Aug. 29. Later, family travel vloggers, Kyle and Jenn Bethune came forward with a video that placed the couple’s van in the area on Aug. 27. Although it has not been confirmed by the FBI many people believe this video lead to investigators’ search in this area. Unfortunately, Gabby Petito’s body was found on Sept. 20 in a campground in Grand Teton National Park. Petito’s cause of death was ruled a homicide and this is still an ongoing investigation.

Gabby Petito’s case has not only highlighted the power of social media and its potential to affect criminal investigations but the differences between who is afforded that power. Many people have discussed how this case has is demonstrated how people of color and indigenious people are historically neglected as victims in investigations and receive less attention in the media. After completing a search of Daniel Robinson, a missing geologist in Buckeye, Arizona who was last seen June 23, 2021, we found that since his disappearance in June his name has received 274,389 mentions. And the most mentions were recorded in September, specifically September 20 when Petitos body was found.

Additionally, a search of Jocelyn Watts and Jade Wagon’s names received even fewer mentions at a combined 7,284. Both sisters were found dead a year apart near Riverton, Wyoming. Watt’s death was ruled a homicide and has yet to be solved, and Wagon’s was ruled accidental, despite questions from the family. These are just a few of the cases that continue to be underrepresented and underreported. While we search for answers for Gabby Petito, we must also search for answers for Daniel Robinson, Jocelyn Watts, Jade Wagon, and many others who also deserve justice. Social media can be an important weapon for those who yield it. As more stories are told online, hopefully, social media can shine a light on everyone and lead to more answers than questions. 

On Wednesday, Sept. 15, four prominent American gymnasts testified to the US Senate about the abuse they endured from former USA Gymnastics doctor and convicted sex offender Larry Nassar. McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, and Maggie Nichols recapped how federal law enforcement and gymnastics officials let them down and allowed for the abuse to continue.

This Senate hearing comes years after Nassar was convicted for his crimes. On Dec. 7, 2017, he was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges. He was later charged with 10 counts of sexual assault of minors, leading to a sentence of de factor life imprisonment without parole. In their Sept. 16 testimony, Maroney, Biles, Raisman, and Nichols profoundly condemned the FBI’s initial mishandling of the investigation.

“They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others,” said Maroney to the Judiciary Committee.

What has the conversation been like on social media? At the Social Media Listening Center, we used a search for keywords “Senate” and “Gymnastics,” “Senate” and “Larry Nassar,” and “Senate” and “Gymnasts.” The terms “Senate” and “Senate Hearing” have been widely used and are not specific enough to be included in this search. While this search may not be fully extensive, it provides a glimpse into the online conversation.

On Sept. 15 when the news was announced, the search found more than 35,600+ tweets discussing this topic. By Sept. 19 at 11:59 pm, the search found 68,382 mentions across all platforms. The overall sentiment of the search was 96.4% negative and 3.6% positive. It is difficult to gauge audience sentiment from sentiment analysis alone when discussing serious issues such as sexual assault. To get a better look at the conversation and the sentiment surrounding this topic, we paid close attention to the word cloud capturing the most common words and phrases associated with this search:

To gain even further understanding of the sentiment surrounding this news, we looked at the most commonly used hashtags related to this search. We found that #firewray, #simonebiles, #metoo, and #criminal are at the top. The hashtag #firewray is in reference to FBI director Christopher Wray, who has faced intense scrutiny for how poorly his agency handled the abuse allegations. When searching the keywords “Senate” and “Larry Nassar,” we found that some of the top themes of discussion the day the news was announced were “Senate Judiciary Committee,” “FBI,” “Abuse of Power,” and “Sex Abuse.”

Who is engaging in this conversation? Unsurprisingly, the majority of mentions surrounding this topic are from female Twitter users in the 18-35 age demographic located in the United States. The top influencers on Twitter are primarily news outlets, including The New York Times, Reuters, NBC News, and People. Senator Mazie Hirono and American politician Rudy Giuliani have been active voices in the conversation as well.

Today, @Simone_Biles, @McKaylaMaroney, @MagsGotSwag12, and @Aly_Raisman again courageously shone a light on the culture of complicity, exploitation, and abuse of power they experienced. They are right to demand better from the FBI, USA Gymnastics, and the Senate. pic.twitter.com/2L5vDSHVTL

— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) September 15, 2021

The gymnasts whose abuse was covered up by the FBI indicates that the FBI systemic violation of the rights of all those involved with defending President Donald J. Trump was not isolated.

Didn’t this happen under James “Cardinal” Comey.

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) September 15, 2021

The keyword search also revealed that Reddit users are engaging in r/Gymnastics, r/NoFilterNews, and r/TodayILearned. Several posts in r/Gymnastics were made in support of the gymnasts and their bravery, including one post featuring Maroney and Biles leaving Capitol Hill holding hands. The comments contained statements of support, including “Just two vaulting queens throwing down an evil empire” and “I hope this is a photo that is shown in history class.”

The volume trend of this conversation has steadily declined since the news was announced. However, this conversation is not over just yet. Last month, USA Gymnastics and hundreds of the victims filed a joint $425 million settlement, so it will be interesting to see what happens with this litigation. In the meantime, we’ll continue to monitor this topic and others from the Social Media Listening Center.

Author: Kendall Phillips

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s venture into space tourism, took its first private flight Wednesday night. The spacecraft named the Dragon took off from Kennedy Space Center at 8:02 pm. The Inspiration4 mission marks the first time a spacecraft will orbit the Earth with an all-amateur crew. 

Onboard the Dragon are Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, and Sian Proctor. Isaacman is funding for the expedition and serving as the commander, while Arceneaux is the medical officer, and contest winners Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor, are the mission specialist and pilot. 

Both Proctor and Arceneaux broke records Wednesday. Proctor is the first Black female to pilot a spacecraft and Arceneaux is the youngest American in space and the first person in space with a prosthesis. Arceneaux is a childhood cancer survivor who works at Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Isaacman and Arceneaux are eager to engage with Saint Jude’s patients through the SpaceX program while in space. Isaacman’s hope is to raise $200 million for St. Jude through this space expedition. The crew will be completing scientific experiments and auctioning off items in space to fundraise for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The sentiment surrounding the Inspiration4 voyage is largely positive at 77%. Over the last 7 days, SpaceX has garnered 389, 979 mentions.The most popular hashtags include #spaceX, #inspiration4, #space, and #nasa. 

Unsurprisingly, SpaceX reached its highest number of mentions on September 15, the launch day of the Dragon with 121,106. Leading up to the flight the search term “Elon Musk” also increased in mentions on September 13 and held relatively steady until September 16.

In addition to the keyword “SpaceX” getting an increase in mentions, “Saint Jude”, “Arceneaux” also had a spike on Wednesday. When using the keyword “Saint Jude”, the top themes of discussion are focused on the space mission including “Kennedy Space Center”, “Jared Isaacman”, “Cancer survivor”, “SpaceX”, and “Childhood cancer”. 

The spacecraft is expected to return to Earth sometime this weekend. While this is the third private space mission, after Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos flights’ in July, the Inspiration4 is unique in the length of its trip for a civilian crew. Space tourism is a new growing industry and future missions are already being planned. SpaceX in partnership with Axiom Space, are planning to send four more people into space from the International Space Station in January 2022.

A little over a week since the apparent leak of iPhone 14, Apple debuted the iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7 and more at their California Streaming event. In case you missed it, here’s everything you need to catch up on in less than 10 minutes.

Apple's iPhone 13 event in under 10 minutes pic.twitter.com/gceBvtXA5K

— Engadget (@engadget) September 15, 2021

The iPhone 13 was the big ticket item from the event, and it’s arrival sent social media into a frenzy. Since the event kicked off at 1 PM EDT yesterday to 12 PM today, iPhone 13 has generated 604,455 mentions across platforms. Twitter users dominated the conversation with 554,737 of the mentions. Using Sprinklr to run a sentiment analysis, we found that 59.7% of the conversation held positive sentiment. Similarly to past generations of the iPhone, emphasis was put on the camera and it’s updated capabilities. As you can see in the word cloud below, users were also drawn to the new colors, the size, display, and storage capacity of the new iPhone.

The iPhone 13 was not the only thing Apple announced yesterday however. With the new Apple Event also came iOS 14.8. This update came as a surprise to many as iOS 15 is scheduled to be release later this year. The reasoning behind the surprise update is concerning to say the least. iOS 14.8 is a security patch in response to researchers at Citizen Lab finding a spyware called Pegasus on an iPhone.

Pegasus was developed by Israel’s NSO group and is considered the Holy Grail of surveillance. The spyware allows users to use a zero-click information method to collect whatever they seek off of any device. In the past, people were typically prompted by spyware through links in either texts or emails, but Pegasus allows whoever is using the spyware to access a device’s camera, microphone, messages, emails, and calls without tipping off the owner. John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, warns that “This spyware can do everything an iPhone user can do on their device and more.”

Over the past 24 hours there have been over 10,500 mentions of the search terms “iOS AND update” on Twitter. Given the severity of this security breach, the researchers from Citizen Lab and Apple users are urging others to update to iOS 14.8 as quickly as possible.

Stop and UPDATE your iPhones to iOS 14.8 NOW!!! We @citizenlab recovered NSO Group's FORCEDENTRY zero-click exploit (CVE-2021-30860) from the phone of a Saudi activist, and shared w/ Apple, who released iOS 14.8 today with a fix. https://t.co/fg2rihR6xp

— Bill Marczak (@billmarczak) September 13, 2021

This is not a drill. 🚨

If you have an iPhone, install today's iOS 14.8 update to fix a zero-day zero-click vulnerability previously used to install spyware. pic.twitter.com/f2Ervr02tD

— BleepingComputer (@BleepinComputer) September 13, 2021

As one could imagine, this update did not bring as much joy to Apple users as the iPhone 13 announcement did. Ninety percent of posts contained negative sentiment from users.

This is convenient timing for Apple. The California Streaming event and release of the iPhone 13 will carry the bulk of the load of conversation involving Apple, but iOS 14.8 is a critical patch to a security risk that should not go unnoticed.

Author: Jacob Luksik

After a unanimous Virginia Supreme Court ruling, a Robert E. Lee statue erected in 1890 was removed from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. This was the final Confederate statue to be removed from Monument Avenue, marking a huge victory for civil rights activists.

Following George Floyd’s murder last summer, Democratic Governor Ralph Northam ordered for the statue to be removed. However, the removal of this historic monument required extensive litigation and Supreme Court approval. Despite Virginia having a complicated history with Confederate monuments, citizens seem to be supportive of the decision.

“It’s representative of the fact that we’re sort of peeling back the layers of injustice that Black people and people of color have experienced when governed by white supremacist policies for so long,” said community activist Ana Edwards to the Associated Press.

What has the conversation been like on social media? At the Social Media Listening Center, we used a search for keywords “Robert E Lee” and “Virginia” and “Robert E Lee” and “Statue.” The term “Robert E Lee” has been widely used and is not specific enough to be included in the search. While this search may not be fully extensive, it provides a glimpse into the online conversation.

On Sept. 8 when the news was first announced, the search found more than 117,000+ tweets discussing this topic. By Sept. 11 at 11:59 pm, the search found 216,630 mentions across all platforms. The overall sentiment of this search was 84.1% negative and 15.9% positive. It is difficult to gauge audience sentiment from sentiment analysis alone when discussing serious issues such as white supremacy. To get a better look at the conversation and the sentiment surrounding this topic, we paid close attention to the word cloud capturing the most common words and phrases associated with this search:

To gain even further understanding of the sentiment surrounding this news, we looked at the most commonly used hashtags related to this search. We found that #keepfighting, #flagoftreason, #mlk, and #virginia are at the top. When searching the keywords “Robert E Lee” and “Virginia,” we found that some of the top themes of discussion the day the news was announced were “U.S. War Heroes,” “Largest Confederate,” “Statue of Confederate Gen,” and “Good Riddance.”

Who exactly is engaging in this conversation? The majority of the mentions surrounding this topic are from male Twitter users in the 18-35 age demographic located in the United States. The top influencers on Twitter are primarily news outlets, including CNN Breaking News, NBC News, The New York Times, and ABC News. Corinne Perkins, the North America Editor for Reuters Pictures, and Ben Shapiro, a political commentator and media host, have also been active voices in the conversation.

Today: The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, the largest Confederate statue remaining in the United States, is removed by a construction team in Richmond, Virginia. Photo by @evelynpix pic.twitter.com/k3uRUW0Qcr

— corinne_perkins (@corinne_perkins) September 8, 2021

Figuring out the decline and fall of the United States will not be difficult for future archaeologists https://t.co/wWbSv1JPza

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 9, 2021

The keyword search also revealed that Reddit users are engaging in r/News, r/AskAnAmerican, r/UpliftingNews, and r/Politics. One of the most popular posts in r/News received over 2.9K+ upvotes and 400+ comments, sparking a discussion about Confederate monument removals. This post also linked to an article from The Guardian detailing the events from Sept. 8.

The volume trend of this conversation has steadily declined since the news was announced. However, the conversation may not be over quite yet. There are still several hundred Confederate monuments in the United States being removed at rapid rates. While we can’t be sure what will happen to the remainder of the monuments, we’ll continue monitoring this topic and others from the Social Media Listening Center.

Author: Kendall Phillips

Thursday night marked the start of the 2021 NFL season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beating the Dallas Cowboys 31-29. The anticipation leading up to the season was evident with 1, 224, 084 mentions across all platforms and #NFLKickoff trending on Twitter. Overall sentiment for the keyword “NFL” was positive at 59.1% and fans seemed excited for the start of the season.

“Good”, “love”, and “watch” were all top themes of discussion leading up to the Cowboys and Buccaneers’ debut. The NFL conversation picked up traction in various outlets including mentions from John Cena, CNN, the New York Times, Ed Sheeran, and ESPN. Most of the discussion was through Twitter.

Upon the Cowboy’s loss, there was a significant spike in negative responses using the #cowboys in Fort Worth, Austin, Dallas, and other Texan cities during the game last night. In contrast, positive sentiments were recorded for #buccaneers and #tombrady. Since the completion of game 1, the discussion has died down across channels. The remaining NFL teams will compete this Sunday, Sept. 12, however, online conversations have yet to pick up for those games.

The #nfl was most frequently used within the last seven days with 203, 419 mentions, #football, #sports were also very popular. In addition to these hashtags, #cryptocurrency, #crypto, and #blockchain all circulated within the last three days. This may have been influenced by the recent move towards cryptocurrency in the NFL. Many players like Sean Culkin, Trevor Lawrence, and Russel Okung are agreeing to be paid by crypto or signing contracts with cryptocurrency companies. During last night’s opening game Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen stared in a commercial advertising the cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX.

However, the league has cautioned its approach placing restrictions on team NTFs, despite their success in other professional sports leagues, like the NBA. As both the league and players push towards integrating cryptocurrency as a regular practice in sports, it will most likely continue to grow and influence discussions around the NFL.

Using the keyword “cryptocurrency and NFL”, the trend of this topic has gradually increased since September 7. Between September 8 to 10, the keyword “cryptocurrency” was strongly correlated with NFL terms including “Tom”, “Brady”, “cowboys”, “tampa”, “buccaneers”, “season”, “nfl” and “game”. The sentiment at this time was also majority positive. Overall, it seems that both Brady, the Buccaneers’ and cryptocurrency walked away with a win on Thursday.

Just yesterday, Apple announced “California Streaming” would take place on September 14th at 10 AM PDT. Many Apple users believe that the tech giant is going to reveal their design for the iPhone 13, the Apple Watch Series 7, and potentially AirPods 3.

With this major announcement coming from Apple, one would think social media would be jumping at the bit to talk about the new iPhone 13. Instead people are buzzing about the iPhone 14. The iPhone 14? Yes that’s right.  Notorious tech leaker Jon Prosser from Front Page Tech just claimed he has a look at the iPhone 14 over a year before its release and even before the iPhone 13 has been released.

In this video Prosser claims that the iPhone is following Android’s lead by making the back of the phone completely flat. They are accomplishing this by placing the camera in a cutout instead of having it jut out like it has been in recent models. Another big change is that the iPhone 14 will allegedly be surrounded by a titanium chassis. Prosser even claims to have real images of the iPhone 14 which can be seen in the video above. If this information from Prosser is true, he may have just spoiled not one, but two Apple product launches.

Twitter users are already debating if the iPhone 13 is worth buying or if one should simply wait a year until the iPhone 14 drops.

https://twitter.com/VictorKagarama/status/1435634404982988808

Since Prosser’s tweet at 11:18 AM, iPhone 14 has climbed to the sixth highest trend on Twitter in a matter of two hours with 7,510 mentions that have already reached over 35 million users. Main topics surrounding the iPhone 14 leak include the iPhone 12, the iPhone 13, the upcoming Apple Event, and John Prosser who is the cause of the leak.

Users are worried about their old iPhones not working. This may be a justified concern considering Apple settled a lawsuit some refer to as Battery Gate in 2020.

https://twitter.com/jebaiting/status/1435638815629058055

Other users are upset that they recently spent money on an iPhone 12 just to see two newer generations get announced in the last 24 hours.

https://twitter.com/beanyheadd/status/1435646872786440195

It will be interesting to see how much more traction this leak can garner before Apple’s official announcement of the iPhone 13 on September 14th. It will also be worth tracking news surrounding the event to see if Apple changes plans in response to such a massive leak.

Author: Jacob Luksik

On Wednesday, Sept. 1, a Texas law banning nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy went into effect. The Supreme Court declined to block the law, making Texas the most restrictive state in the nation in regard to abortion procedures.

The ‘Texas Heartbeat Bill’ bars abortion procedures once cardiac activity can be detected from the embryo, which typically occurs around the sixth week of pregnancy. Since women do not usually know their period is late until the fourth week of pregnancy, this law allows around two weeks for women to obtain a pregnancy test and an abortion. This law does not make any exceptions for rape or incest. Medical professionals have questioned the ethics of such a restrictive law, especially because there are seven million women of child-bearing age in Texas who may be impacted by this Supreme Court decision.

What has the conversation been like on social media? At the Social Media Listening Center, we used a search for keywords “Texas” and “Abortion,” “Ban” and “Abortion,” and “Abortion” and “Healthcare.” While this is not a fully extensive search, it provides a glimpse into the online conversation.

On Sept. 1, when the news was first announced, the search found more than 554,000+ tweets discussing this topic. By Sept. 4 at 11:59 pm, the search found 905,799 mentions across all platforms. Unsurprisingly, the sentiment of this search was 96.2% negative and 3.8% positive. To get a better look at the conversation, we paid close attention to the word cloud capturing the most common words and phrases associated with this search:

To gain even further understanding of the sentiment surrounding this breaking news, we looked at the most commonly used hashtags related to this search. We found that #sb8, #bansoffourbodies, #scotus, and #roevwade are at the top. When searching the keywords “Texas” and “Abortion,” we found that some of the top themes of discussion the day the news was announced were “SB 8,” “Abortion Rights,” “Women,” and “Supreme Court.”

Unsurprisingly, this topic is especially resonating with female users in the United States within the 18-35 age bracket. Female users have also posted about this topic nearly twice as much as their male counterparts. Top influencers on Twitter include Mark Joseph Stern, CNN, President Biden, and Hillary Clinton.

BREAKING: By a 5–4 vote, with Roberts joining the liberals, the Supreme Court REFUSES to block Texas' six-week abortion ban.

Opinions here: https://t.co/elazEg3xdZ

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) September 2, 2021

A Twitter thread by Mark Joseph Stern, a staff writer for the online magazine Slate, was retweeted by over 10K users. President Biden also spoke out against Texas’ decision on Twitter prior to a formal briefing statement released by the White House, describing the law as “a blatant violation of the right established under Roe V. Wade.”

Texas SB8 will impair women's access to health care and, outrageously, deputizes private citizens to sue those they believe helped another person get a banned abortion.

It's a blatant violation of the right established under Roe V. Wade. We will protect and defend that right.

— President Biden (@POTUS) September 1, 2021

The keyword search also revealed that Reddit users are engaging in the r/Politics, r/Libertarian, r/Christianity, and r/Law subreddits. One of the most popular posts in r/Politics pointed out that Texas citizens are now allowed to carry a gun in public without a permit but cannot lawfully terminate a pregnancy. As of Sept. 2 at 3 pm, this post had received 3.3K upvotes and 600+ comments.

The online conversation is likely far from over. Since the Supreme Court has declined to block this law, it’s likely that other conservative states, such as Georgia and Alabama, will move to pass similar laws. As protests in Texas and lawsuits in state court continue to unfold, this topic will probably continue to trend for weeks to come. In the meantime, we’ll continue to monitor this topic and others from the Social Media Listening Center.

Author: Kendall Phillips