I have written on journalism and media trends eariler few years ago. So it is time for update. What is the state of journalism and news publishing in 2017? NiemanLab’s predictions for 2017 are a good place to start thinking about what lies ahead for journalism. There, Matt Waite puts us in our place straight away by telling us that the people running the media are the problem.
There has been changes on tech publishing. In January 2017 International Data Group, the owner of PCWorld magazine and market researcher IDC, on Thursday said it was being acquired by China Oceanwide Holdings Group and IDG Capital, the investment management firm run by IDG China executive Hugo Shong. In 2016 Arrow bought EE Times, EDN, TechOnline and lots more from UBM.
Here are some article links and information bits on journalist and media in 2017:
Soothsayers’ guides to journalism in 2017 article take a look at journalism predictions and the value of this year’s predictions.
What Journalism Needs To Do Post-Election article tells that faced with the growing recognition that the electorate was uniformed or, at minimum, deeply in the thrall of fake news, far too many journalists are responding not with calls for change but by digging in deeper to exactly the kinds of practices that got us here in the first place.
Fake News Is About to Get Even Scarier than You Ever Dreamed article says that what we saw in the 2016 election is nothing compared to what we need to prepare for in 2020 as incipient technologies appear likely to soon obliterate the line between real and fake.
Headlines matter article tells that in 2017, headlines will matter more than ever and journalists will need to wrest control of headline writing from social-optimization teams. People get their news from headlines now in a way they never did in the past.
Why new journalism grads are optimistic about 2017 article tells that since today’s college journalism students have been in school, the forecasts for their futures has been filled with words like “layoffs,” “cutbacks,” “buyouts” and “freelance.” Still many people are optimistic about the future because the main motivation for being a journalist is often “to make a difference.”
Updating social media account can be a serious job. Zuckerberg has 12+ Facebook employees helping him with posts and comments on his Facebook page and professional photographers to snap personal moments.
Wikipedia Is Being Ripped Apart By a Witch Hunt For Secretly Paid Editors article tells that with undisclosed paid editing on the rise, Wikipedians and the Wikimedia Foundation are working together to stop the practice without discouraging user participation. Paid editing is permissible under Wikimedia Foundation’s terms of use as long as they disclose these conflicts of interest on their user pages, but not all paid editors make these disclosures.
Big Internet giants are working on how to make content better for mobile devices. Instant Articles is a new way for any publisher to create fast, interactive articles on Facebook. Google’s AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a project that it aims to accelerate content on mobile devices. Both of those systems have their advantages and problems.
Clearing Out the App Stores: Government Censorship Made Easier article tells that there’s a new form of digital censorship sweeping the globe, and it could be the start of something devastating. The centralization of the internet via app stores has made government censorship easier. If the app isn’t in a country’s app store, it effectively doesn’t exist. For more than a decade, we users of digital devices have actively championed an online infrastructure that now looks uniquely vulnerable to the sanctions of despots and others who seek to control information.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Research finds heavy Facebook users make impaired decisions like drug addicts
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/10/facebook-addiction-research/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
Researchers at Michigan State University are exploring the idea that there’s more to “social media addiction” than casual joking about being too online might suggest.
Ultimately, we know that social media is shifting human behavior and potentially its neurological underpinnings, we just don’t know the extent of it — yet.
there are researchers at work examining how social media is impacting our brains and our behavior — we just might not be able to see the big picture for some time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kit Walsh / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Bird sends dubious DMCA takedown notice to Boing Boing over a post explaining how to legally buy an abandoned Bird scooter and convert it to a personal scooter — Every now and then we have to remind someone that it’s not illegal for people to report facts that they dislike.
Bird Rides Inc. Demands Takedown of News Report on Lawful Re-use of Scooters
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/bird-sends-nastygram-reporter-describing-lawful-re-use-impounded-scooters
Every now and then we have to remind someone that it’s not illegal for people to report facts that they dislike. This time, the offender is electric scooter rental company Bird Rides, Inc.
Bird, though, has pioneered a new way to pollute the commons by sending a meritless takedown letter to a journalist covering the issue. The company cites the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and implies that even writing about the issue could be illegal. It’s not.
$30 plug-and-play kit converts a Bird scooter into a “personal scooter”
https://boingboing.net/2018/12/08/flipping-a-bird.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sinclair Target / Motherboard:
A look back at the evolution of RSS and why it lost out to centralized information silos on the web controlled by corporations, despite being an open format — Before the internet was consolidated into centralized information silos, RSS imagined a better way to let users control their online personas.
The Rise and Demise of RSS
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3mm4z/the-rise-and-demise-of-rss
Before the internet was consolidated into centralized information silos, RSS imagined a better way to let users control their online personas.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emma Best / Gizmodo:
An overview of internal WikiLeaks data the US government collected from 2009 through at least 2017, including chats with identifying details on some sources — Late last year, the U.S. government accidentally revealed that a sealed complaint had been filed against Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.
The U.S. Government Has Amassed Terabytes of Internal WikiLeaks Data
https://gizmodo.com/the-u-s-government-has-amassed-terabytes-of-internal-w-1831640212
Late last year, the U.S. government accidentally revealed that a sealed complaint had been filed against Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Shortly before this was made public, the FBI reconfirmed its investigation of WikiLeaks was ongoing, and the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice was optimistic that it would be able to extradite Assange. Soon after, portions of sealed transcripts leaked that implicate WikiLeaks and Assange in directing hackers to target governments and corporations. The charges against Assange have not been officially revealed, though it’s plausible that the offenses are related to Russian hacking and the DNC emails.
The alleged offenses in the complaint notwithstanding, the government has an abundance of data to work with: over a dozen WikiLeaks’ computers, hard drives, and email accounts, including those of the organization’s current and former editors-in-chief, along with messages exchanged with alleged Russian hackers about DNC emails.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aditya Kalra / Reuters:
Sources: social media platforms are preparing to fight sweeping new rules to remove “unlawful” content within 24 hours proposed by the Indian government — NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Global social media and technology giants are gearing up to fight sweeping new rules proposed …
Social media giants plan push-back on India’s new regulations: sources
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-socialmedia/social-media-giants-plan-push-back-on-indias-new-regulations-sources-idUSKCN1P50B9
Tomi Engdahl says:
Financial Times:
China’s new guidelines for short video apps ban 100 types of inappropriate content, say that platforms should review every piece of content that goes online
Beijing widens control of wildly popular short-video apps
https://www.ft.com/content/82ab5f20-1566-11e9-a581-4ff78404524e
China’s wildly popular short-video apps, such as Tik Tok, will now be held responsible for all “harmful” content posted by users, in a move that could severely hamper their future growth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Research shows self-reported heavy Facebook users make impaired decisions, like drug addicts, on a classic test of maximizing rewards — Researchers at Michigan State University are exploring the idea that there’s more to “social media addiction” than casual joking about being too online might suggest.
Research finds heavy Facebook users make impaired decisions like drug addicts
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/10/facebook-addiction-research/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Sluis / AdExchanger:
Piano, a SaaS platform for digital publishers including 1,300 media brands, raises $22M Series B to help publishers bring in non-ad revenue
https://adexchanger.com/platforms/piano-raises-22-million-to-help-publishers-bring-in-non-ad-revenue/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Europe: More Nifty Censorship from the EU
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13520/eu-censorship
Sadly, the main victims of many of the abuses that the European Commission seemingly wishes to silence are often Muslims, often women and children, and often too scared to speak out.
One of the foremost tools used by the EU is its “Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online,” including hate speech against Muslims. By signing up to the Code, the major technology and social media corporations have committed themselves to censoring the internet on behalf of the EU.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Write for us: Our 19 most-popular topics
https://opensource.com/article/19/1/write-for-us?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Make the resolution to write for Opensource.com in 2019. Here’s how.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do social media bots have a right to free speech?
https://thebulletin.org/2019/01/do-social-media-bots-have-a-right-to-free-speech/
A court ruling on whether bots have First Amendment free speech rights remains in the realm of conjecture. Meanwhile, bots on Twitter are very real. The Pew Research Center conducted a study in 2017 that looked at 1.2 million tweets that contained links. The researchers found that 66 percent of links were posted by “suspected bots,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
6 Years after the Internet’s Own Boy: Has the Mission of Aaron Swartz Failed?
https://blog.paessler.com/6-years-after-the-internets-own-boy?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Burda-Blog-Global&utm_content=Aaronscwartz&hsa_cam=23843335788750129&hsa_acc=2004489912909367&hsa_grp=23843335788770129&hsa_net=facebook&hsa_ad=23843335791130129&hsa_src=fb&hsa_ver=3
hacktivist and initiator of numerous campaigns to promote civic awareness and protest censorship on the Internet. Today, 6 years later, Aaron is an Internet legend (known to the general public through the film The Internet’s Own Boy), while general censorship on the Internet continues to progress.
All New on the Western Front
The European Union (which otherwise loves freedom so much) seems to at least partly make use of Chinese views of freedom on the Internet under the already scary-sounding title CPC Regulation. This new EU regulation on consumer protection will in future authorize public authorities to block access to websites in order to prevent the risk of serious damage to the collective interests of consumers. What is meant by the concept of a collective interest of consumers has been largely left open in the usual ambiguous legal language.
The blocking of Internet sites because of right-wing extremist or violence-glorifying content has long been a controversial issue in Germany. But it seems that this very fear is being exploited to systematically gain more and more power over the free flow of opinion on the Internet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automattic announces Newspack to help news organizations publish and monetize
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/14/automattic-announces-newspack-to-help-news-organizations-publish-and-monetize/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, is announcing a new project called Newspack. While details are still thin, the company wants to help news organizations with an all-in-one solution to publish and monetize their content.
WordPress, the open-source project that lets you create websites on WordPress.com, is already a solid content management system
https://newspack.blog
Tomi Engdahl says:
Väittely somessa epäonnistuu aina – kolme kärkevää syytä
https://www.dna.fi/blogi/-/blogs/vaittely-somessa-epaonnistuu-aina-kolme-karkevaa-syyta
Kukaan ei ole koskaan muuttanut vahvaa mielipidettään sosiaalisessa mediassa käydyn keskustelun seurauksena.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Opensource.com published 1000+ articles in 2018: Top 18 reads
https://opensource.com/article/19/1/top-articles?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Here’s how we’d sum of the year in a few words: Linux, Python, sysadmin tools, and security.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Article 13 Suspense Builds as Finish Line Nears
https://torrentfreak.com/article-13-suspense-builds-as-finish-line-nears-190115/
This coming Monday, lawmakers hope to reach agreement on the final text of the controversial Article 13. Whatever direction the proposal goes, there’s bound to be some disappointment. Opponents fear invasive censorship, while proponents see it as a lifebuoy for the music industry.
Within a week, the European Parliament and Council hope to finalize the final text of Article 13, which is part of the EU’s copyright reform plans.
After Parliament’s vote last September, the proposal has been tweaked in an attempt to gain broader support. However, critics remain skeptical, especially those who fear that it will lead to broad adoption of copyright filters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
Some hacked Instagram influencers who find its account recovery process cumbersome are turning to third-party experts and white hat hackers to regain access
Hacked Instagram Influencers Rely on White-Hat Hackers to Get Their Accounts Back
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59vnvk/hacked-instagram-influencers-get-accounts-back-white-hat-hackers
Leaked internal documents and stories from influencers show that Instagram has an influencer-hacking problem.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube bans dangerous and harmful pranks and challenges
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/01/18/youtube-bans-dangerous-and-harmful-pranks-and-challenges/
Driving while blindfolded is stupid. Ingesting laundry detergent pods is stupid. Asking your girlfriend to shoot you through an encyclopedia is stupid. And, in the case of Pedro Ruiz III, it’s lethal.
These are all so-called “pranks” that have been filmed and posted on YouTube. After reports of people getting hurt or even killed, YouTube has explicitly called it quits on the genre.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Breaking the illusion of completeness
https://webflow.com/blog/breaking-the-illusion-of-completeness?utm_medium=fb&utm_source=aware_completeness
Best practices to make sure none of your content is missed.
Everybody scrolls — we know that now. But a site design can lead visitors to believe they’ve reached the end of a page, creating what’s known as “the illusion of completeness.” In this article, we explore best practices to guide visitors through your site and avoid the illusion of completeness.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook finds and kills another 512 Kremlin-linked fake accounts
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/17/facebook-finds-and-kills-another-512-kremlin-linked-fake-accounts/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Two years on from the U.S. presidential election, Facebook continues to have a major problem with Russian disinformation being megaphoned via its social tools.
In a blog post today the company reveals another tranche of Kremlin-linked fake activity — saying it’s removed a total of 471 Facebook pages and accounts, as well as 41 Instagram accounts, which were being used to spread propaganda in regions where Putin’s regime has sharp geopolitical interests.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Another Facebook privacy scandal you have never heard of!
https://www.internetgovernance.org/2019/01/16/another-facebook-privacy-scandal-you-have-never-heard-of/
“For years, Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records and interviews.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU Copyright Directive to Turn Google into Ghost Town
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/eu-copyright-directive-to-turn-google-into-ghost-town/
The EU Copyright Directive has made a lot of waves lately given that many fear that some of its provisions will lead to increased censorship, with almost 4.5 million Europeans signing a change.org petition to stop Article 13.
EU Copyright Directive will turn SERPs into a ghost town according to Google
As the SERP screenshots show, Google’s search results will look like a deserted town, with no article titles, no images, and no news summaries, or “like pages that have failed to completely load” as Search Engine Land’s Greg Sterling very appropriately describes them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Julia Reda:
EU’s copyright reform with “link tax” and “upload filters” suffers a setback as 11 member states vote against the proposal, making adoption in May less likely — Today, Council firmly rejected the negotiating mandate that was supposed to set out Member States’ position ahead …
Copyright negotiations hit a brick wall in Council
https://juliareda.eu/2019/01/copyright-hits_wall/
Today, Council firmly rejected the negotiating mandate that was supposed to set out Member States’ position ahead of what was supposed to be the final negotiation round with the European Parliament, Politico reports. National governments failed to agree on a common position on the two most controversial articles, Article 11, also known as the Link Tax, and Article 13, which would require online platforms to use upload filters in an attempt to prevent copyright infringement before it happens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emily Bell / Columbia Journalism Review:
Facebook’s journalism funding does not guarantee the success of high-quality reporting on its platform, which would obviate the need for such cash infusions
Facebook should treat the cause, not the symptoms, of
https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/facebook-should-treat-the-cause-not-the-symptoms-of-journalisms-plight.php
At some point over the past year, anyone connected with journalism, its present woes, or concerns over its future probably found themselves in a room with a Facebook executive.
This week we saw what the outcome of Facebook’s tour looks like: $100 million a year over the next three years for reporting projects and business model development, effectively matching Google’s own $300 million pledge towards journalism almost a year ago. In fact the initiatives are so similar they even share a grantee, Report For America, which is addressing the deficit in local reporting by placing journalists in newsrooms around the country.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Julia Reda:
EU’s copyright reform with “link tax” and “upload filters” suffers a setback as 11 member states vote against the proposal, making adoption in May less likely
Copyright negotiations hit a brick wall in Council
https://juliareda.eu/2019/01/copyright-hits_wall/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emily Bell / Columbia Journalism Review:
Facebook’s journalism funding does not guarantee the success of high-quality reporting on its platform, which would obviate the need for such cash infusions
https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/facebook-should-treat-the-cause-not-the-symptoms-of-journalisms-plight.php
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook to launch Community Actions, a News Feed petition feature for users to tag government agencies and officials and advocate for changes, on Monday — Gather a mob and Facebook will now let you make political demands. Tomorrow Facebook will encounter a slew of fresh complexities …
Facebook launches petition feature, its next battlefield
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/20/facebook-community-actions/
Tomi Engdahl says:
WhatsApp Fights Fake News With Message Forwarding Limit
https://www.securityweek.com/whatsapp-fights-fake-news-message-forwarding-limit
WhatsApp, the popular messaging application that has roughly 1.5 billion users, now only allows messages to be forwarded to a maximum of 5 people in an effort to block attempts to abuse the platform for spreading false information.
At one point, users could forward a single message to over 250 people. However, following several violent incidents triggered by false information distributed via the messaging app, the Facebook-owned company limited the number of times a message could be forwarded to 20.
Since July, WhatsApp has been testing the five limit in India, where many of the violent incidents involving the messaging application occured, and it has now rolled out the restriction worldwide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Head Of Russian Orthodox Church Says Internet Is Run By The Antichrist
https://www.unilad.co.uk/technology/head-of-russian-orthodox-church-says-internet-is-run-by-the-antichrist/
Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has said that most dangerous threat to Christianity is ‘the person who will be at the head of the worldwide web’.
But who is that?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Revealed: Google VP told employees to stop using the word FAMILY after staff complained the term was ‘offensive, homophobic and excluded unmarried people without children, animals and those with multiple trans-feminine partners’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6605539/Google-staff-complained-word-FAMILY-offensive-homophobic-referring-children.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stung by criticism, Facebook’s Sandberg outlines new plans to tackle misinformation
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/20/stung-by-criticism-facebooks-sandberg-outlines-new-plans-to-tackle-misinformation/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook launches petition feature, its next battlefield
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/20/facebook-community-actions/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here is a lovely essay by Cory Doctorow that describes proposed European copyright laws can lead. If one is cynical one could almost think that this is where they have been planned to lead.
FALSE FLAG
https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/false-flag/
The proposed copyright directive of the EU has been designed to protect traditional publishers and their revenues from large internet platforms. But the implications of the reform go far beyond business models or advertising revenues. In handing over the control of information to untested technology owned by internet giants, legislators open the door to the corporate control of communications online.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook may proactively close Pages and Groups before they’re in violation of policy
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/23/facebook-may-proactively-close-pages-and-groups-before-theyre-in-violation-of-policy/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
Facebook today announced changes to the way it handles the removal of content from Facebook Pages that’s in violation of the social network’s Community Standards, as well as when the Page has posted items that are rated false by a third-party fact-checking service. It says it will also make it harder for those whose Pages have been shut down for violations to return with new Pages featuring the same, duplicated content by proactively banned other Pages and Groups, in some cases.
Facebook today announced changes to the way it handles the removal of content from Facebook Pages that’s in violation of the social network’s Community Standards, as well as when the Page has posted items that are rated false by a third-party fact-checking service. It says it will also make it harder for those whose Pages have been shut down for violations to return with new Pages featuring the same, duplicated content by proactively banned other Pages and Groups, in some cases
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/01/making-pages-more-transparent/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Verizon Media Group is laying off 7 percent of its workforce
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/23/verizon-media-group-7-percent-layoffs/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
The Verizon division formerly known as Oath is laying off 7 percent of its workforce, which amounts to roughly 800 employees.
Oath was created after Verizon acquired AOL, followed by Yahoo
Tomi Engdahl says:
The case against behavioral advertising is stacking up
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/20/dont-be-creepy/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
No one likes being stalked around the Internet by adverts. It’s the uneasy joke you can’t enjoy laughing at. Yet vast people-profiling ad businesses have made pots of money off of an unregulated Internet by putting surveillance at their core.
But what if creepy ads don’t work as claimed?
Case in point: This week Digiday reported that the New York Times managed to grow its ad revenue after it cut off ad exchanges in Europe. The newspaper did this in order to comply with the region’s updated privacy framework, GDPR, which includes a regime of supersized maximum fines.
The newspaper business decided it simply didn’t want to take the risk, so first blocked all open-exchange ad buying on its European pages and then nixed behavioral targeting. The result? A significant uptick in ad revenue,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Patreon says it has 3M+ patrons, up by 1M+ in 2018, who support 100K+ creators; the company will pay creators $500M in 2019, reach $1B paid since launch in 2013 — Membership services platform Patreon now has more than 3 million patrons who pay to support any of its over 100,000 creators every month, the company announced Wednesday.
Patreon Now Has Over 3 Million Patrons, Expects to Pay $500M to Creators in 2019
https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/patreon-3-million-patrons-500-million-dollar-payout-1203114979/
Membership services platform Patreon now has more than 3 million patrons who pay to support any of its over 100,000 creators every month, the company announced Wednesday. It’s also on track to pay more than $0.5 billion to creators this year.
Patreon’s business is growing at a healthy rate. Payouts have been nearly doubling year-over-year for the past few years, and the company expects to surpass $1 billion in total payouts this year. In other words: Patreon will pay as much to creators this year as it has paid since its launch six years ago.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Consumer finance journalist Martin Lewis drops his lawsuit against Facebook over scam ads, after the company agrees to donate £3M to set up an anti-scam project
Martin Lewis drops lawsuit as Facebook backs scam ads scheme
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/23/martin-lewis-drops-lawsuit-as-facebook-backs-scam-ads-scheme
Consumer finance journalist drops action as firm agrees to give £3m to anti-scam project
Tomi Engdahl says:
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Jack Dorsey’s recent media tour is largely performative, substituting talking for doing, masking Twitter’s slow response to many of its issues
Twitter’s CEO keeps substituting talking for doing
Jack Dorsey has a lot to say — but he has more to do
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/24/18195245/jack-dorsey-twitter-media-tour-2019
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Microsoft now offers NewsGuard, a plug-in that guides users on which news websites can be trusted, as an option on mobile versions of its Edge browser
Don’t trust Daily Mail website, Microsoft browser warns users
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jan/23/dont-trust-daily-mail-website-microsoft-browser-warns-users
Mail Online rated one out of five for credibility by new feature to fight fake news
Microsoft’s internet browser is warning users not to trust the Daily Mail’s journalism as part of a feature designed to fight fake news.
Visitors to Mail Online who use Microsoft Edge can now see a statement asserting that “this website generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability” and “has been forced to pay damages in numerous high-profile cases”.
The message, which is produced by a third-party startup called NewsGuard, tells readers to proceed carefully given that “the site regularly publishes content that has damaged reputations, caused widespread alarm, or constituted harassment or invasion of privacy”.
It gives Mail Online, one of the world’s biggest news websites, one out of five on credibility – the same level as the Kremlin-backed RT news service.
Steve Brill, a NewsGuard co-founder, said the Mail Online verdict had been reached in a transparent manner.
NewsGuard’s business model relies on licensing its product to tech companies which want to fight online disinformation but do not want to take responsibility for making editorial judgments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BuzzFeed News:
YouTube’s “Up Next” still suggests conspiracy videos, hate group videos, and pirated videos after news searches; YouTube says it’s still working to improve
We Followed YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Down The Rabbit Hole
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/down-youtubes-recommendation-rabbithole
Despite year-old promises to fix its “Up Next” content recommendation system, YouTube is still suggesting conspiracy videos, hyperpartisan and misogynist videos, pirated videos, and content from hate groups following common news-related searches.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China Blocks Microsoft’s Bing Search Engine, Despite Offering Censored Results
https://thehackernews.com/2019/01/china-firewall-microsoft-bing.html
Update: Microsoft’s search engine Bing has been restored in China after being inaccessible in the country for almost two days. According to sources familiar with the matter, Bing was blocked due to an accidental technical error and not due to an attempt at censorship.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Buzzfeed will cut its staff by 15% in major round of layoffs
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/23/buzzfeed-layoffs-2019/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nathan Halverson / Reveal:
Unsealed documents show Facebook orchestrated a multi-year effort that duped children who played video games into spending their parents’ money — Facebook orchestrated a multi-year effort that duped children and their parents out of money, in some cases hundreds or even thousands of dollars …
Facebook knowingly duped game-playing kids and their parents out of money
https://www.revealnews.org/article/facebook-knowingly-duped-game-playing-kids-and-their-parents-out-of-money/
The records are part of a class action lawsuit focused on how Facebook targeted children in an effort to expand revenue for online games, such as Angry Birds, PetVille and Ninja Saga.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
YouTube says it will no longer suggest videos with “borderline content” or those that “misinform users in a harmful way” even if they don’t violate guidelines — SAN FRANCISCO — Whether it is a video claiming the earth is flat or the moon landing was faked …
YouTube Moves to Make Conspiracy Videos Harder to Find
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/technology/youtube-conspiracy-theory-videos.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Will Preemptively Close Pages of Owners Who Previously Broke Rules
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/facebook-will-preemptively-close-pages-of-owners-who-previously-broke-rules/#.XEjRnoNRsMQ.facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is your time worth more than $0.30 an hour?
https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/18/is-your-time-worth-more-than-0-30-an-hour/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
Most of us believe our time is extremely valuable, certainly worth more than 30 cents. But then you read about human decision-making, and you have to wonder what goes through people’s heads.
Amazon published more than one thousand titles in 2017, and now commands roughly a majority of all book purchases made in the U.S., online or offline.
But what really surprised me about the article was this paragraph:
Under the arrangement, these titles are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, which pays authors based on how many pages of an e-book are read. The payouts are usually around $0.004 to $0.005 a page. Authors would receive $1.20 to $1.50 on 300-page e-book priced at $10, less if readers don’t finish.
If you read an average of say 60 pages an hour, that equates to about 30 cents of royalties per hour of entertainment. Amazon’s revenues are higher given that Kindle Unlimited is a subscription, but still.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Billy Perrigo / TIME:
Researchers say India’s political parties are using armies of volunteers to spread misinformation and hate speech via WhatsApp group chats ahead of elections
How Volunteers for India’s Ruling Party Are Using WhatsApp to Fuel Fake News Ahead of Elections
http://time.com/5512032/whatsapp-india-election-2019/
On Monday, in an effort to stop the spread of fake news, WhatsApp announced that users around the world would only be allowed to forward messages to a maximum of five contacts or group chats, down from a previous limit of 20.
But in India, where that same policy has already been in place for six months, activists and academics say it has done little to curb the spread of misinformation in the world’s biggest democracy.
Ahead of national elections in April and May, India’s political parties are pouring money into creating hundreds of thousands of WhatsApp group chats to spread political messages and memes.
“There is an army of volunteers whose job is to sit and forward messages,” says Soma Basu, a fellow at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, who is researching the spread of hate messages on WhatsApp group chats in India. “The volunteer is not able to forward a message to 20 people in one go” any more, she says. “So they’ll just do it five times.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raphael Satter / Associated Press:
Staff from Toronto’s Citizen Lab, behind exposés of government hacking tool vendors like NSO, describe meetings likely arranged to get compromising quotes — NEW YORK (AP) — The researchers who reported that Israeli software was used to spy on Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s inner circle …
APNewsBreak: Undercover agents target cybersecurity watchdog
https://apnews.com/9f31fa2aa72946c694555a5074fc9f42
The researchers who reported that Israeli software was used to spy on Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s inner circle before his gruesome death are being targeted in turn by international undercover operatives, The Associated Press has found.
Twice in the past two months, men masquerading as socially conscious investors have lured members of the Citizen Lab internet watchdog group to meetings at luxury hotels to quiz them for hours about their work exposing Israeli surveillance and the details of their personal lives. In both cases, the researchers believe they were secretly recorded.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will Oremus / Slate:
An overview of projects like NewsGuard, and how efforts to rank the credibility of news sites can be problematic, despite good intentions — In the era of fake news, a cottage industry of startups is competing to turn media credibility into a booming business. Do we really want that?
http://slate.com/technology/2019/01/newsguard-nuzzelrank-media-ratings-fake-news.html