viola-stefanello

Viola Stefanello


Viola Stefanello is a Milan-based journalist covering tech and culture for Italian newspaper Il Post. Her work has also been published in Wired and Rolling Stone among others.

person holding phone with Koo app on screen in front of Twitter bird blue background

Koo wants to replace Twitter—but can’t shake its reputation as a home for dictators

Koo's rise raises questions.

On Mar 1, 2023 by Viola Stefanello

Silhoutte of woman on phone over Mastodon logo on blue background

Assh*le Twitter users are barging into Mastodon and demanding it stop being so polite

They're annoyed it's a safe space.

On Nov 10, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

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‘Sharing my bizarre fyp with you that I’ve cultivated for 2 years without following anyone’ is WeirdTok at its zenith

How one user plunged his For You page into the depth of the absurd by refusing to interact with anything.

On Oct 26, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

man in suit near water (l) hand marking 'Ken Russell' on mail-in ballot with caption 'It is done' (c) man on couch (r)

How Ken Russell became TikTok’s only good politician

Will virality turn into votes?

On Aug 9, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

The Unseen with white box containing eye with line through it

Unfair Instagram moderation of women’s bodies highlighted in a new exhibit

It aims to platform the deplatformed.

On Jul 19, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

hand pulling 'Internet Archive' book from library shelf

Inside the lawsuit that could upend the Internet Archive as you know it

A benevolent act by the Internet Archive may spell its doom.

On Jul 13, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

man on laptop holding pen hand on phone bottom to top blended city with locations marked caption 'Inside Airbnb'

The virality of Inside Airbnb’s maps highlight the company’s massive impact on housing shortages

Just how many homes has AirBnB taken off the market?

On Jun 10, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

red X sign on a green meadow

Keep off the grass: How the anti-lawn meme movement is shaming homeowners for their yards

The grass isn't greener in this community, but the lawns are better.

On Jun 1, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

U.S. Department of Homeland Security ICE logo on white background (l) LexisNexis logo on building (r)

New documents reveal ICE’s deal with big data to ramp up deportations in sanctuary states

Big data is fueling deportations in the Rockies.

On Apr 22, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

Man greenscreen pointing at article caption 'NSW POlice fork out $33m for police misconduct claims in 2020-21' (l) Man greenscreen tiktok showing the NSW Police account blocked him (c) NSW Police Easter Show tiktok caption 'Things at our Easter Show exhibit that just make sense' (r)

Police block TikToker after he stitches their copaganda posts with articles about brutality, misconduct

The cops appeared to have a thin skin.

On Apr 22, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

Two security cameras and mobile phone with Arab League flag ripped to reveal rainbow watercolor painting

How police persecute the LGBTQ community—and how big tech can help its most vulnerable users

'They're forcing their way to them manually, very easily.'

On Apr 13, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

elon musk (l) satellite (r) providing starlink in ukraine

Is Elon Musk’s Starlink actually making a difference in Ukraine?

It's almost impossible to gauge.

On Mar 22, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

young woman with pink hair, clothes, and background with captions 'god is a bit of a freak' (l) smiling (c) 'so why would i spend my eternity' (r)

‘God is a freak’ has become a TikTok anthem for those rebelling against their religious upbringing

'God is a freak' is resonating on the app.

On Mar 2, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

she's a crowd social

She’s A Crowd wants to collect data to fight gender-based violence—and is leveraging TikTok to do it

She's A Crowd is leveraging TikTok to build a dataset that will help reduce gender-based violence.

On Feb 7, 2022 by Viola Stefanello

People holding up large magnifying glass to see ACCOUNT SUSPENDED message on profile of person with Q for a head

Social media companies destroyed the history into QAnon

The viral spread of QAnon has been lost to blanket bans by big tech.

On Oct 28, 2021 by Viola Stefanello