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:
Shira Ovide / Bloomberg:
Facebook’s higher priced ads offset slowing growth in number of News Feed ads; efforts in Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, video have valuable growth potential
Don’t Worry About Facebook’s Growth. Be Happy.
By Shira Ovide
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-07-26/facebook-earnings-don-t-worry-about-revenue-growth-be-happy
Facebook has warned for months that its runaway train of revenue growth is running out of steam. The company showed Wednesday that it is laying new track as fast as it can.
Facebook continues to be one of the fastest growing and most profitable tech companies in the world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WhatsApp Blog:
WhatsApp announces it has 1B users every day, up from 1B users per month in February last year — Just last year, we shared that one billion people around the world use WhatsApp every month. Today, we are excited and proud to share that one billion people around the world use WhatsApp every …
Connecting One Billion Users Every Day
https://blog.whatsapp.com/10000631/Connecting-One-Billion-Users-Every-Day
Just last year, we shared that one billion people around the world use WhatsApp every month. Today, we are excited and proud to share that one billion people around the world use WhatsApp every day to stay in touch with their family and friends.
Whether it’s sharing personalized photos and videos, connecting through video calling, or keeping friends updated throughout the day with Status, communicating on WhatsApp has never been easier or more personal. We are humbled that so many people are using these new features to connect with one another in their own special way.
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Joseph Menn / Reuters:
Sources: Facebook traced accounts targeting Macron to tools used in past by Russia’s GRU; 70K French propaganda or spam accounts closed, up from 30K in April
Exclusive: Russia used Facebook to try to spy on Macron campaign – sources
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-france-facebook-spies-exclusive-idUSKBN1AC0EI
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Peter Kafka / Recode:
Sources describe Facebook’s paywall plan: 10 free articles/month from a publisher before redirect to publisher’s subscription site, with no cut for Facebook
Facebook wants to help news publishers sell subscriptions, but says it doesn’t want a cut of the revenue
Mark Zuckerberg says he doesn’t want publishers’ data, either.
https://www.recode.net/2017/7/27/16051316/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-subscription-media-publisher-terms-revenue-data
Facebook says it wants to help publishers sell subscriptions. But Facebook says it doesn’t want a piece of the revenue those subscriptions generate, or any of the data involved in the transaction.
Those details are emerging as Facebook talks to publishers about a subscription tool it wants to launch later this year, in conjunction with its Instant Articles program, where Facebook hosts publishers’ articles on its own mobile app.
Industry sources say that instead of operating a subscription service itself, Facebook plans on creating a paywall it would implement after non-subscribers view 10 articles a month from a particular publisher.
When users hit the 10-article limit, Facebook plans on sending users to that publisher’s site to sign up for a subscription.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Subscription Journals Are Doomed Because of Sci-Hub’s Big Cache of Pirated Papers, Suggests Data Analyst
https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/07/27/2040224/subscription-journals-are-doomed-because-of-sci-hubs-big-cache-of-pirated-papers-suggests-data-analyst
There is no doubt that Sci-Hub, the infamous — and, according to a U.S. court, illegal — online repository of pirated research papers, is enormously popular. But just how enormous is its repository? That is the question biodata scientist Daniel Himmelstein at the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues recently set out to answer, after an assist from Sci-Hub. Their findings, published in a preprint on the PeerJ journal site on July 20, indicate that Sci-Hub can instantly provide access to more than two-thirds of all scholarly articles, an amount that Himmelstein says is “even higher” than he anticipated. For research papers protected by a paywall, the study found Sci-Hub’s reach is greater still, with instant access to 85% of all papers published in subscription journals.
Himmelstein concludes that the results of his study could mark “the beginning of the end” for paywalled research.
Sci-Hub’s cache of pirated papers is so big, subscription journals are doomed, data analyst suggests
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/sci-hub-s-cache-pirated-papers-so-big-subscription-journals-are-doomed-data-analyst
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Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature
https://peerj.com/preprints/3100/
The website Sci-Hub provides access to scholarly literature via full text PDF downloads. The site enables users to access articles that would otherwise be paywalled. Since its creation in 2011, Sci-Hub has grown rapidly in popularity. However, until now, the extent of Sci-Hub’s coverage was unclear. As of March 2017, we find that Sci-Hub’s database contains 68.9% of all 81.6 million scholarly articles, which rises to 85.2% for those published in closed access journals. Furthermore, Sci-Hub contains 77.0% of the 5.2 million articles published by inactive journals. Coverage varies by discipline, with 92.8% coverage of articles in chemistry journals compared to 76.3% for computer science.
Our interactive browser at https://greenelab.github.io/scihub allows users to explore these findings in more detail.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How To Protect Yourself Against Bad Science Reporting
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulhsieh/2015/09/28/how-to-protect-yourself-against-bad-science-reporting/#72561e001398
But how trustworthy are popular articles about the health effects of bacon? More broadly, how trustworthy are articles claiming that certain foods, diets, or lifestyles are good (or bad) for you? Will drinking wine with dinner help you live longer? Will drinking coffee really reduce your risk of dying from colon cancer? One can easily find news stories taking both sides of any controversial health topic. What should a puzzled reader do?
Although there is no simple “magic bullet” that will let readers separate good science reporting from bad, there some helpful principles one should remember when interpreting sometimes-contradictory health articles
Tomi Engdahl says:
Silicon Valley Censorship
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10722/google-perspective-censorship
Conservative news, it seems, is considered fake news. Liberals should oppose this dogma before their own news comes under attack. Again, the most serious problem with attempting to eliminate hate speech, fake news or terrorist content by censorship is not about the efficacy of the censorship; it is the very premise that is dangerous.
Under the guidance of faulty algorithms or prejudiced Silicon Valley programmers, when the New York Times starts to delete or automatically hide comments that criticize extremist clerics, or Facebook designates articles by anti-Islamist activists as “fake news,” Islamists will prosper and moderate Muslims will suffer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mădălina Ciobanu / Journalism.co.uk:
Otherworld, an experimental service in Manchester funded by Google’s Digital News Initiative, uses beacons to deliver silent alerts, including from local news
Otherworld aims to make local news and events relevant through location-based storytelling
https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/otherworld-aims-to-make-local-news-and-events-relevant-through-location-based-storytelling-/s2/a707789/
The experiment uses beacon technology to send people news and push notifications about what is happening in the area near them
News apps may be making a comeback, and push notifications may be the reason why, but the challenges that come with them are stil there: publishers still have to convince people to download their app and use it regularly, while too many push alerts can send readers away.
But what if we could get the news and other relevant, contextual information to our audiences without asking them to clutter their homescreens with yet another app?
This is what Otherworld, an experimental storytelling service that launched on Tuesday (25 July) is trying to do, using beacon technology to give people access to relevant information based on their location – just by turning on the Bluetooth function on their mobile devices and walking by one of these beacons, they will receive news in the context of their location through silent push notifications that just appear on screen without any noise.
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Heidi N. Moore / Washington Post:
Scaramucci’s media tactics reflect the aggressive, personal approach often used by financial firms on reporters — When Anthony Scaramucci took over as White House communications director, prompting the resignation of press secretary Sean Spicer, the initial reaction from Washington journalists was warily optimistic.
Scaramucci learned his press tactics from Wall Street. They’ll only get uglier.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/scaramucci-learned-his-press-tactics-from-wall-street-theyll-only-get-uglier/2017/07/28/aa085a3a-72e4-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?utm_term=.bb9a17b46d16
When Anthony Scaramucci took over as White House communications director, prompting the resignation of press secretary Sean Spicer, the initial reaction from Washington journalists was warily optimistic. Where Spicer was aggressive and hostile, Scaramucci would be “smooth ” and affable. He even blew a kiss to end his first press briefing. These looked like signs of a thaw. After all, officials and reporters in Washington may still joke around after a bad story or a slight; the hostility is often for show. Politics is communal and built on co-dependency.
Finance is different. It is individualist and zero-sum.
Scaramucci, who ran a relatively modest firm in the enormous world of hedge funds, has proved himself adept at this style. President Trump reportedly liked that Scaramucci’s pushback about an inaccurate CNN story — complete with rumored threat of legal action — led to the departures of three veteran investigative journalists. Scaramucci pointedly called on a CNN reporter at his first briefing and a few days later said, on a hot microphone, that network boss Jeff Zucker “helped me get the job by hitting those guys,” referring to the unemployed reporters.
There’s every reason to believe that the White House team sees this as a model: It will not worry about the accuracy of what is published, only whether the tone is Trump-friendly. Of his new job, Scaramucci says, “It is a client service business, and [Trump] is my client.” Wall Street’s methods of fighting negative coverage are more extensive, brutal and personal than Washington’s. The reigning philosophy is: “I can win only if you lose.”
As a reporter at the Wall Street Journal during the financial crisis, I was boggled by the lengths to which hedge funds and banks would go to kill a story.
When a negative report was in the works, company representatives often called up the journalist writing it and tried to ingratiate themselves with a charming introduction and some light chitchat.
My favorite of their techniques, used by two major investment houses, was to flatly deny a story that I knew was accurate. When I offered to call my sources to reconfirm, the response I received was: “That’s it? That’s your negotiation?” As a journalist, I didn’t see the truth as subject to negotiation. But Wall Street did; it’s all about what you can get.
When charm didn’t work, I saw or heard about firms wheedling, pleading, threatening, calling editors and even contacting media executives. Insults and obscenities were common.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Court Rules That Politicians Blocking Followers Violates Free Speech
http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/07/judge-politicians-blocking-followers-violates-free-speech.html?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=s3&utm_campaign=sharebutton-b
July 28, 2017 5:45 pm
While there is no set precedent for the issue, more and more courts are encountering a new type of lawsuit related to social-media blocking. The Knight Foundation, for instance, is suing the U.S. government on behalf of Twitter users blocked by President Donald Trump, whose Twitter account has become alarmingly vital when it comes to understanding his presidency.
This week, a federal court in Virginia tackled the issue when it ruled on behalf of a plaintiff blocked by a local county politician.
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Darpa Wants to Build a BS Detector for Science
https://www.wired.com/story/darpa-bs-detector-science
an anthropologist and program manager at the Department of Defense’s mad-science division Darpa, laughs at the suggestion that he is trying to build a real, live, bullshit detector. But he doesn’t really seem to think it’s funny. The quite serious call for proposals Russell just sent out on Darpa stationery asks people—anyone! Even you!—for ways to determine what findings from the social and behavioral sciences are actually, you know, true. Or in his construction: “credible.”
Even for Darpa, that’s a big ask. The DoD has plenty of good reasons to want to know what social science to believe. But plenty more is at stake here. Darpa’s asking for a system that can solve one of the most urgent philosophical problems of our time: How do you know what’s true when science, the news, and social media all struggle with errors, advertising, propaganda, and lies?
Take a scientific claim. Do some kind of operation on it. Determine whether the claim is right enough to act on. So … a bullshit detector?
“I wouldn’t characterize it that way, and I think it’s important not to,”
The people who are supposed to figure out those knotty issues out have their own problems. You might have heard about the “reproducibility crisis,” the concern that many scientific findings, particularly in psychology and sociology, don’t pass a fundamental test of validity—that subsequent researchers can do the same experiment and get the same results as the first ones.
This is not about whether any one particular claim can be replicated, right? It’s that collectively the claims don’t make sense.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Advertisers warm to Amazon’s increasing ad pitch
https://digiday.com/media/advertisers-warm-amazons-increasing-ad-pitch/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=170731
The prospect of Amazon emerging as the main rival to Google and Facebook’s duopoly over digital media seems increasingly plausible, now that some of the world’s biggest brands are starting to consider it for their budgets.
Interest has built since the turn of the year, with RBS Group chief marketing officer David Wheldon and WPP boss Martin Sorrell almost willing the online retailer to break Google and Facebook’s stranglehold on online media by speculating that its advertising business could make the market more competitive.
What was once a search and programmatic proposition now includes Amazon’s Echo personal assistant and its Prime Video service, said Sam Fenton-Elstone, VCCP’s chief digital officer.
But the migration of search budgets is still just a trickle in the grand scheme of things. Amazon doesn’t break out ad sales, but researcher eMarketer predicts they will rise by a third to $1.5 billion this year and top $2.4 billion by 2019. Google, by contrast, posted more than $79 billion in ad revenue in 2016, while Facebook reported $27 billion.
There’s a sense among brands and agencies alike that Amazon is set to go all-in on advertising. Its retail business can only grow so much. And advertising brings with it the possibility of 20-30 percent profit margins versus around 5 percent for retail goods
Tomi Engdahl says:
How a troll McDonald’s account fooled everybody, even McDonald’s itself
http://mashable.com/2017/07/31/mcdonalds-hk-parody/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-socmed-link%23Ziz4DamGpcqc#N7TFY1lo4PqG
A parody account pretending to be McDonald’s Hong Kong raised alarm bells over the weekend after it started posting a series of strange tweets.
In a statement to Gizmodo, a McDonald’s spokesperson said it was a fake account, and that the company would be pressing Twitter to take it down as soon as possible.
“This is not a McDonald’s Twitter account but one that is impersonating a verified account,”
McDonald’s Confirms Suicidal ‘McDonald’s Hong Kong’ Twitter Account Was a Long-Con Hoax [Updated]
http://gizmodo.com/is-this-suicidal-hong-kong-mcdonalds-account-a-hoax-or-1797363957
This week, an unverified Twitter account claiming to be “McDonald’s Hong Kong,” a real branch of the global fast-food giant, went mad.
The account has begun picking up hundreds of followers at lightning speed.
In a statement, McDonald’s told Gizmodo they had nothing to do with “McDonald’s Hong Kong” and said the fun would soon be over.
“We are taking steps to have it promptly taken down.”
While the account previously used the handle “Mc_DonaldsHK” and contained no warning it was a fake, it has since been updated to “NotMcDonaldsHK” and to have the words “Parody Account” in its bio.
Since the account was registered and sending out McDonald’s-themed tweets long before it was tagged by the official, verified McDonald’s corporate account, it would appear a prankster managed to luck out on a long-con hoax.
Update: McDonald’s has confirmed the account was a hoax, not a viral brand stunt
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YouTube Blog:
YouTube details additional steps to tackle terrorist content, including machine learning-based detection, consultation with wider panel of experts, more
An update on our commitment to fight terror content online
http://youtube.googleblog.com/2017/08/an-update-on-our-commitment-to-fight.html
A little over a month ago, we told you about the four new steps we’re taking to combat terrorist content on YouTube: better detection and faster removal driven by machine learning, more experts to alert us to content that needs review, tougher standards for videos that are controversial but do not violate our policies, and more work in the counter-terrorism space. We wanted to give you an update on these commitments:
Better detection and faster removal driven by machine learning: We’ve always used a mix of technology and human review to address the ever-changing challenges around controversial content on YouTube. We recently began developing and implementing cutting-edge machine learning technology designed to help us identify and remove violent extremism and terrorism-related content in a scalable way.
More experts: Of course, our systems are only as good as the the data they’re based on. Over the past weeks, we have begun working with more than 15 additional expert NGOs and institutions
Tougher standards: We’ll soon be applying tougher treatment to videos that aren’t illegal but have been flagged by users as potential violations of our policies on hate speech and violent extremism.
Early intervention and expanding counter-extremism work: We’ve started rolling out features from Jigsaw’s Redirect Method to YouTube. When people search for sensitive keywords on YouTube, they will be redirected towards a playlist of curated YouTube videos that directly confront and debunk violent extremist messages.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The New Yorker Gets Record Digital Bump From Anthony Scaramucci’s Profane Temper Tantrum
http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/new-yorker-anthony-scaramucci-interview-digital-traffic-1202510720/
Anthony Scaramucci’s shocking interview with the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has been a profanity-wrapped gift to Condé Nast.
The story — in which the newly appointed White House communications chief savaged other top Trump officials in extremely crude terms — has been viewed by 4.4 million unique visitors since it was posted on the afternoon of July 27, Condé Nast announced Sunday. That makes it the most-read article on NewYorker.com so far in 2017.
Lizza’s piece — titled “Anthony Scaramucci Called Me to Unload About White House Leakers, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon” — also generated a record-breaking 100,000 concurrent visitors to the website within the first several hours of publication. In addition, the New Yorker saw a whopping 92% increase in subscription orders over the daily July average from the Scaramucci piece.
In the NSFW interview, Scaramucci accused former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus of perpetrating press leaks
In the NSFW interview, Scaramucci accused former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus of perpetrating press leaks
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Bride, groom who slammed Dallas wedding photographer online, in media must pay $1.08M
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2017/07/31/bride-groom-slammed-dallas-wedding-photographer-online-media-must-pay-108m
A Dallas wedding photographer was awarded $1.08 million Friday in a defamation suit against a local blogger and her husband who launched a social media campaign that destroyed her business.
A Dallas County jury concluded that Neely Moldovan and her husband, Andrew, embarked on an extensive effort to slam Andrea Polito and her business, Andrea Polito Photography, according to a lawsuit filed in March 2015.
“I was proud of my accomplishments, what I have done. They took that away from me,” Polito said. “It’s been a fight for myself to get my reputation back.”
Two days after she emailed the couple, Polito learned they had contacted several local television stations and told KXAS-TV (NBC5) that Polito was “holding their photos hostage,” according to the suit.
Polito said that almost overnight, the couple’s allegations ruined the business she had spent 13 years building.
“People knew me and my reputation. I’ve shot several of the Dallas elites,” she said. “All the name-calling, all the bullying … I was humiliated.”
The Moldovans also made “disparaging and defamatory” statements on social media and blogs, including Wedding Wire, about Polito and her company, saying she “cheated” and “scammed” people, the suit states.
n a typical year, the business would book between 75 and 100 weddings, she said. That year, it booked only two.
“My business was destroyed,” Polito said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Steve Jobs Misled a Room Full of Tech Media and Changed the World
Jobs never lied about the first iPhone, he just told the truth prematurely.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/297190
Have you ever purposely misled a customer? The public? The media? Steve Jobs did. And he did it to change the world.
The story goes back to 2007, when Apple was first introducing the iPhone. Jobs knew that he had a product that would have an enormous impact on the way humans use technology — and also have an enormous impact on his company’s future profits.
Unfortunately, Jobs had a big problem: the iPhone didn’t really exist.
All he had to show them was a flawed, unfinished model and some big ideas. So what did Jobs do? He decided to mislead his audience.
Undeterred, Jobs demanded a workaround that would fool the audience. His development team created a “golden path” which was basically a step by step, scripted procedure of features that he could show in a specific order so that the phone wouldn’t malfunction. Jobs took the further step of demanding that his programmers rig the iPhone so that it always showed five bars of signal strength to demonstrate its wireless capability, even though the actual signal was less than reliable.
The workaround was for Jobs to keep a few iPhones on stage and switch from one to another when memory became low.
In the end, after five days of constant practicing, the 90-minute demonstration went off without a hitch and Apple would soon make history. It was “practically a miracle,” according to one Apple engineer at the time.
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Social media firms accused of ‘commercial prostitution’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/14/social-media-firms-accused-commercial-prostitution/
Social media companies have been accused of “commercial prostitution” and having “no shame” after being grilled by MPs over their failure to take down abusive content.
MPs condemned Google for not taking down a video by a former Ku Klux Klan leader which accused Jews of masterminding the genocide of white people because it did not breach its guidelines.
David Winnick, a Labour MP, accused three senior figures from twitter, Facebook and Google of “commercial prostitution” and asked them if they had “no shame”.
“You all have a terrible reputation among users for dealing swiftly with problems in content even against your own community standards” Yvette Cooper
Facebook, Twitter and Google grilled by MPs over hate speech
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39272261
Social media giants should “do a better job” to protect users from online hate speech, MPs have said.
Executives from Facebook, Twitter and Google were asked by the Home Affairs select committee why they did not police their content more effectively, given the billions they made.
They were told they had a “terrible reputation” for dealing with problems.
The firms said they worked hard to make sure freedom of expression was protected within the law.
‘Money out of hate’
Labour MP Chuka Umunna focused his questioning on Google-owned YouTube, which he accused of making money from “videos peddling hate” on its platform.
A recent investigation by the Times found adverts were appearing alongside content from supporters of extremist groups, making them around £6 per 1,000 viewers, as well as making money for the company.
Mr Umunna said: “Your operating profit in 2016 was $30.4bn.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Celebrity Twitter accounts behave a lot like bots, study says
https://thenextweb.com/twitter/2017/08/02/celebrity-twitter-accounts-behave-lot-like-bots-study-says/#.tnw_ZAl1Z98z
Researchers from the University of Cambridge published a study this month saying Twitter accounts with very high follower accounts will behave very much like bot accounts, even when they’re ostensibly run by a human.
The researchers were attempting to determine how Twitter bots behave and whether they can be detected. They developed an algorithm capable of assessing Twitter accounts with roughly 86-percent bot-detecting accuracy.
The researchers found that human-sent tweets got 19 times more likes and 10 times more retweets than bot tweets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LinkedIn Case Tests Whether Firms Can Use Your Data
Startup scrapes public profiles to predict whether people are likely to leave their jobs. LinkedIn says that violates privacy
https://www.wsj.com/articles/suit-against-linkedin-could-affect-data-analytics-industry-1501147801
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook to display “related articles” for popular stories, including ones flagged as false by fact checkers, to combat misinformation, after months of testing — Social-media giant will display related articles to limit the damage of false news without censoring posts
Facebook Drowns Out Fake News With More Information
Social-media giant will display related articles to limit the damage of false news without censoring posts
https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-drowns-out-fake-news-with-more-information-1501754403
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla’s EU Policy Manager: EU’s Copyright Reform is ‘a dysfunctional proposal’
https://thenextweb.com/eu/2017/08/03/mozilla-exec-eus-copyright-reform-is-a-dysfunctional-proposal/#.tnw_zjN6ozet
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Recent clashes in the White House press room have spurred debate about where the line between legitimate journalistic inquiry ends and incivility begins — Reporters are supposed to push their sources for answers. But how far can they push before “aggressive reporting” starts to look like badgering, grandstanding or just plain rude?
Clashes in the White House press room are riveting. But how far is too far?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/clashes-in-the-white-house-press-room-are-riveting-but-how-far-is-too-far/2017/08/03/a719ce32-77ba-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?utm_term=.35a9e24f4b28
Reporters are supposed to push their sources for answers. But how far can they push before “aggressive reporting” starts to look like badgering, grandstanding or just plain rude?
Wednesday’s White House briefing provided Exhibits A and B for debating that question.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Inside Patreon, which has 50K active creators, 1M+ patrons, is set to process $150M in 2017, and supports a myriad of people that otherwise may not get funding — In 2013, Peter Hollens was an aspiring a cappella singer surviving, in his words, by living on ramen in someone else’s house.
Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/3/16084248/patreon-profile-jack-conte-crowdfunding-art-politics-culture
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will Oremus / Slate:
Facebook’s rollout of “related articles” is a sensible way to add context while insulating the company from cries of censorship — Facebook may have finally hit on a promising way to fight its “fake news” problem. — The company on Thursday announced that it is launching …
Facebook’s Latest Move to Fight Fake News Might Finally Be the Right One
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/08/03/facebook_s_related_articles_are_a_better_way_to_fight_fake_news.html
Facebook may have finally hit on a promising way to fight its “fake news” problem.
The company on Thursday announced that it is launching a feature called Related Articles, which it has been testing since April. Now, when you see certain controversial or hotly debated stories in your news feed, below them will appear a series of headlines from other publishers on the same topic.
In its April blog post explaining the test, Facebook presented Related Articles as a way to give users “easier access to additional perspectives and information, including articles by third-party fact checkers.”
Now, it seems, Facebook is comfortable pitching the feature more explicitly as a tool to counteract the spread of misinformation.
“Since starting this test, we’ve heard that Related Articles helps give people more perspectives and additional information, and helps them determine whether the news they are reading is misleading or false. So we’re rolling this out more broadly.
Now, we will start using updated machine learning to detect more potential hoaxes to send to third-party fact checkers. If an article has been reviewed by fact checkers, we may show the fact checking stories below the original post.”
When Facebook says “false news,” it’s referring at least in part to what became popularly known as “fake news” during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Much of that “fake news”—an ill-defined category that seemed to include everything from deliberate hoaxes to mainstream news stories that some perceived as biased or misleading—revolved around politics and catered to the partisan viewpoints of one group or another.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Google is working on Snapchat Discover-like swipeable stories based on AMP format; stories can be surfaced in search results and publishers’ own websites
Google Is Developing Technology for Snapchat-Like Media Content
‘Stamp’ media product is based around company’s ‘AMP’ mobile webpages
https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-is-developing-technology-for-snapchat-like-media-content-1501868688?mod=e2twd
Google is developing technology to let publishers create visual-oriented media content along the lines of Snapchat’s “Discover,” according to people familiar with the situation, upping the ante in a race among tech giants to dominate news dissemination on smartphones.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
How deep-pocketed political donors invest in meme production to sway the masses, with some Dems trying to catch up by funding their own viral content studios
Political Donors Put Their Money Where the Memes Are
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/business/media/political-donors-put-their-money-where-the-memes-are.html
Imagine you’re a millionaire or billionaire with strong political views and a desire to spread those views to the masses. Do you start a think tank in Washington? Funnel millions to a shadowy “super PAC”? Bankroll the campaign of an up-and-coming politician?
For a growing number of deep-pocketed political donors, the answer is much more contemporary: Invest in internet virality.
As TV, radio and newspapers give way to the megaphonic power of social media, today’s donor class is throwing its weight behind a new group of partisan organizations that specialize in creating catchy, highly shareable messages for Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms. Viral media expertise is emerging as a crucial skill for political operatives, and as donors look to replicate the success of the social media sloganeers who helped lift President Trump to victory, they’re seeking out talented meme makers.
“There was a ton of anger on the left and many progressives looking for something to do,” Mr. Eldridge told me in an interview. “Particularly on social media, the existing political media was pretty slow to respond.”
That page quickly grew to have 1.1 million followers, and has expanded beyond graphics and news stories to include efforts like a Facebook bot that helped more than 100,000 users send faxes to their representatives. For Mr. Eldridge, the return on investment has been shockingly high.
“We’ve spent in the low six figures to reach, on average, 10 million people a week,” he said.
The ubiquity of social media, coupled with the low cost of production, has tempted donors from both parties.
Wealthy donors aren’t newcomers to partisan media start-ups.
What distinguishes the current wave of donors is a focus on social media — Facebook in particular — and a willingness to fund newcomers without ties to the media establishment.
“You don’t need a complicated website with hundreds of white papers,” he added. “You need quick, memeable, shareable content.”
While some social publishers are structured as nonprofits, many are for-profit businesses that more closely resemble internet start-ups. Milo Inc., which has nearly 20 employees cranking out content for Mr. Yiannopoulos’s 2.2 million Facebook fans, claims to have raised $12 million from a group of investors in order to “cultivate an entire next generation” of conservative internet personalities.
Donor funding is no guarantee of success for partisan publishers — as with all viral internet content, there are limits to what money can buy. But given the outcome of the presidential election, Democrats may have no other choice than to enter the meme wars.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Justin McCurry / The Guardian:
Internal probe by South Korean spy agency shows that, under its former director, it backed an online disinformation campaign to sway SK’s 2012 presidential race
South Korea spy agency admits trying to rig 2012 presidential election
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/04/south-koreas-spy-agency-admits-trying-rig-election-national-intelligence-service-2012
National Intelligence Service says it mobilised cyberwarfare experts to ensure Park Geun-hye beat rival and now president Moon Jae-in
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Facebook tests showing posts from local politicians in News Feed even for users not following those politicians, at most once per week
Facebook is starting to put more posts from local politicians into people’s News Feed
You may soon see posts from politicians you don’t follow.
https://www.recode.net/2017/8/4/16098364/facebook-politics-posts-news-feed-new-feature-state-local
Facebook is testing a new feature that inserts posts from local politicians into users’ News Feeds, even if they don’t necessarily follow those politicians.
The new feature, which was first noticed by one of my Recode colleagues, included a label titled “This week in your government.” A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that the feature is a test.
“We are testing a new civic engagement feature that shows people on Facebook the top posts from their elected officials,” this spokesperson said in a statement. “Our goal is to give people a simple way to learn about what’s happening at all levels of their government.”
The feature will appear, at most, once per week, and only for users who follow at least one local, state or federal representative from their area.
Otherwise, you’ll just see posts from politicians at the state and federal levels.
Facebook has been active in the past year about getting its user base more involved in politics.
Update: Political affiliation is not used to determine what you see.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Al Jazeera English:
Israel’s communication minister asks parliament for authority to revoke media credentials of Al Jazeera journalists and close the network’s office in Jerusalem — Request made by the country’s communication minister targets both the network’s Arabic and English channels.
Israel moves to close Al Jazeera, ban its journalists
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/israel-seeks-close-al-jazeera-ban-journalists-170806130215616.html
Doha-based network denounces the decision to revoke credentials of its journalists and close its offices in Jerusalem.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fake News A US Media Speciality
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/08/05/fake-news-us-media-speciality/
The American media specializes in fake news. Indeed, since the Clinton regime the American media has produced nothing but fake news. Do you remember the illegal US bombing and destruction of Yugoslavia?
Do you remember the destruction of Iraq justified by the orchestrated propaganda, known by the criminal George W. Bush regime to be an outright lie, about Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction,” weapons that the UN arms inspectors verified did not exist? Iraq was destroyed. Millions of Iraqis were killed
Do you remember the destruction of Libya based entirely on Washington’s lies and the criminal misuse of the UN no-fly resolution by turning it into a NATO bombing of Libya’s military so that the CIA-armed jihadists could overthrow and murder Muammar Gaddafi?
Do you remember the lies that the criminal Obama regime told about Assad of Syria and the planned US invasion of Syria that was blocked by the UK Parliament and the Russian government?
Do you remember the US coup in Ukraine against the democratically elected government and its replacement with a neo-nazi regime?
All of the lies leading to the death of millions told by the criminal Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama regimes were transparent. The US media could easily have exposed them and saved the lives of millions of peoples and saved seven countries from destruction in whole or part.
Of course, the 4.3% unemployment rate is fake news.
This picture of American employment has been holding for about two decades. It is a portrait of a third world labor force. The jobs are not in export industries. The jobs are not in high productivity, high value-added occupations that produce a middle class income.
So why did the stock market hit new highs? The answer is that corporate executives are taking advantage of the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rates to borrow money with which to buy back their companies’ shares in order to drive up their bonuses, the main component of their pay.
Tomi Engdahl says:
First Evidence That Social Bots Play a Major Role In Spreading Fake News
https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/08/07/2035221/first-evidence-that-social-bots-play-a-major-role-in-spreading-fake-news
Researchers from Indiana University in Bloomington provide an answer for how social bots play a major role in spreading fake news. MIT Technology Review reports: “At issue is the publication of news that is false or misleading. So widespread has this become that a number of independent fact-checking organizations have emerged to establish the veracity of online information. These include snopes.com, politifact.com, and factcheck.org. These sites list 122 websites that routinely publish fake news. These fake news sites include infowars.com, breitbart.com, politicususa.com, and theonion.com. ‘We did not exclude satire because many fake-news sources label their content as satirical, making the distinction problematic,’ say researcher Chengcheng Shao and co.
First Evidence That Social Bots Play a Major Role in Spreading Fake News
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608561/first-evidence-that-social-bots-play-a-major-role-in-spreading-fake-news/
Automated accounts are being programmed to spread fake news, according to the first systematic study of the way online misinformation spreads
Fake news and the way it spreads on social media is emerging as one of the great threats to modern society. In recent times, fake news has been used to manipulate stock markets, make people choose dangerous health-care options, and manipulate elections, including last year’s presidential election in the U.S.
Clearly, there is an urgent need for a way to limit the diffusion of fake news. And that raises an important question: how does fake news spread in the first place?
Today we get an answer of sorts thanks to the work of Chengcheng Shao and pals at Indiana University in Bloomington. For the first time, these guys have systematically studied how fake news spreads on Twitter and provide a unique window into this murky world. Their work suggests clear strategies for controlling this epidemic.
At issue is the publication of news that is false or misleading. So widespread has this become that a number of independent fact-checking organizations have emerged to establish the veracity of online information. These include snopes.com, politifact.com, and factcheck.org.
These sites list 122 websites that routinely publish fake news.
Having made a judgment on the ownership of each account, the team finally looked at the way humans and bots spread fake news and fact-checked news.
To do all this, the team developed two online platforms. The first, called Hoaxy, tracks fake news claims, and the second, Bolometer, works out whether a Twitter count is most likely run by a human or a bot.
The results of this work make for interesting reading. “Accounts that actively spread misinformation are significantly more likely to be bots,” say Shao and co. “Social bots play a key role in the spread of fake news.”
Shad and co say bots play a particularly significant role in the spread of fake news soon after it is published. What’s more, these bots are programmed to direct their tweets at influential users. “Automated accounts are particularly active in the early spreading phases of viral claims, and tend to target influential users,” say Shao and co.
That’s a clever strategy. Information is much more likely to become viral when it passes through highly connected nodes on a social network. So targeting these influential users is key. Humans can easily be fooled by automated accounts and can unwittingly seed the spread of fake news (some humans do this wittingly, of course).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amanda Holpuch / The Guardian:
Less than 24 hours after criticizing the NYT on Monday night for using anonymous sources, Trump tweeted a link to a Fox News segment citing anonymous officials
Trump tweets Fox News story with anonymous sources after criticizing practice
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/08/donald-trump-news-tweet-north-korea-fox-and-friends
President shares segment about North Korea that cited ‘US officials’ who ‘requested anonymity’ less than a day after calling out the New York Times
Tomi Engdahl says:
BuzzFeed:
Study of 450+ websites, associated Facebook pages, and their owners reveals inner workings of partisan pages: FB is kingmaker, right-wing’s more prolific, more
Inside The Partisan Fight For Your News Feed
https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/inside-the-partisan-fight-for-your-news-feed?utm_term=.pmZorydQX6#.cfk4MpmNDL
How ideologues, opportunists, growth hackers, and internet marketers built a massive new universe of partisan news on the web and on Facebook.
Thanks to a trinity of the internet, Facebook, and online advertising, partisan news websites and their associated Facebook pages are almost certainly making more money for more people and reaching more Americans than at any time in history. In some cases, publishers are generating hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in revenue, with small operations easily earning five figures thanks to one website and at least one associated Facebook page.
The result is hundreds of partisan news websites being run not only by dedicated American conservatives and liberals, but also by the now-famous Macedonian teens, by internet marketers, and by others who saw a business opportunity. As an example, BuzzFeed News’ analysis found that a conservative Facebook page being run by a 20-year-old Macedonian frequently outperforms some of the larger conservative pages operated by Americans.
The analysis also found that since Trump’s election, top liberal partisan Facebook pages and top-performing viral content from liberal websites are consistently generating more total engagement than their conservative counterparts.
The extensive BuzzFeed News analysis shows just how deeply outrage and the revenue it generates are tied to divisive online discussions.
“Politics changes perspectives, but money really changes people’s perspectives, so I’d really rather not say anything about that,”
Other key findings:
There are at least five people or companies that operate both liberal and conservative partisan news sites. These publishers work both sides of the aisle in order to capture as much revenue as possible, and to hedge against one side or the other dropping off in terms of growth.
The election marked a high point in Facebook engagement for partisan pages on the left and the right, making it a catalytic event that caused at least 187 new partisan news sites to launch, and that saw partisan news’ influence over the online political conversation reach new heights.
Of the 667 websites in the database, 490 are conservative and 177 are liberal.
Writers for many of the newer partisan sites are compensated for their articles by a share of the advertising revenue earned from their stories. Editors for these sites are often paid $5 or $10 per post.
Liberal and conservative partisan news websites exist as parallel universes.
Publishers are obsessed with Facebook’s algorithm changes and with avoiding getting caught up in the social network’s stepped-up initiative to reduce clickbait and misinformation in the News Feed. Conservative publishers complain that posts and sometimes even entire pages are removed without warning, while comparatively few liberal page owners report the same challenges. Deep suspicion of Facebook runs through the conservative partisan news world.
“Journalism in the United States was born partisan and remained, for much of its history, loud, boisterous and combative,”
Over time, that tradition has continued and changed in established media outlets. There are a number of ideologically driven magazines on the left and right that feature both reporting and opinion, as well,
But it was the rise of Facebook as a news platform and the emergence of the Occupy Wall Street and tea party movements on the left and right that gave birth to a new breed of sites in recent years. These sites now operate many of the partisan Facebook pages generating the highest engagement compared to more established players, and they therefore attract some of the biggest audiences online.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trump gets a folder full of positive news about himself twice a day
It’s known as the “propaganda document”
https://news.vice.com/story/trump-folder-positive-news-white-house
Keegan Hamilton
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POLITICS
Trump gets a folder full of positive news about himself twice a day
It’s known as the “propaganda document”
Trump gets a folder full of positive news about himself twice a day
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By Alex Thompson Aug 8, 2017
Twice a day since the beginning of the Trump administration, a special folder is prepared for the president. The first document is prepared around 9:30 a.m. and the follow-up, around 4:30 p.m. Former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former Press Secretary Sean Spicer both wanted the privilege of delivering the 20-to-25-page packet to President Trump personally, White House sources say.
These sensitive papers, described to VICE News by three current and former White House officials, don’t contain top-secret intelligence or updates on legislative initiatives. Instead, the folders are filled with screenshots of positive cable news chyrons (those lower-third headlines and crawls), admiring tweets, transcripts of fawning TV interviews, praise-filled news stories, and sometimes just pictures of Trump on TV looking powerful.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alexios Mantzarlis / Poynter:
Mozilla launches the Mozilla Information Trust Initiative, with the aim of combatting online misinformation through new products, research, more
Mozilla wants to matter more in the fight against misinformation
http://www.poynter.org/2017/mozilla-wants-to-matter-more-in-the-fight-against-misinformation/469525/
Mozilla, the nonprofit organization behind the Firefox browser, announced today a new program to combat online misinformation.
The Mozilla Information Trust Initiative is a four-pronged effort concentrating on new products, internet literacy, research and loosely defined “creative interventions.”
Mozilla will not disclose how much funding it has assigned to the initiative as a whole, even as it hopes other organizations will chip in as well.
The end game, according to Katharina Borchert, Mozilla’s Chief Innovation Officer, is a healthier internet (the nonprofit launched its first Internet Health Report in January of this year). Misinformation is a “fundamental threat to the open web,” Borchert said, “because it massively decreases the usefulness of this incredible resource.”
The Mozilla Information Trust Initiative: Building a movement to fight misinformation online
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/08/08/mozilla-information-trust-initiative-building-movement-fight-misinformation-online/
Today, we are announcing the Mozilla Information Trust Initiative (MITI)—a comprehensive effort to keep the Internet credible and healthy. Mozilla is developing products, research, and communities to battle information pollution and so-called ‘fake news’ online. And we’re seeking partners and allies to help us do so.
Imagine this: Two news articles are shared simultaneously online.
The first is a deeply reported and thoroughly fact checked story from a credible news-gathering organization. Perhaps Le Monde, the Wall Street Journal, or Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The second is a false or misleading story. But the article is designed to mimic content from a credible newsroom, from its headline to its dissemination.
How do the two articles fare?
The first article—designed to inform—receives limited attention. The second article—designed for virality—accumulates shares. It exploits cognitive bias, belief echos, and algorithmic filter bubbles. It percolates across the Internet, spreading misinformation.
This isn’t a hypothetical scenario—it’s happening now in the U.S., in the U.K., in France, in Germany, and beyond.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook uses AI and expands human review processes to identify misleading ads and posts that use “cloaking” to disguise true link destinations — “Cloaking” sounds sci-fi, but it’s actually a trick used today by spammers to show content moderators or search engine spiders …
Facebook bans ‘cloaking’ of spam sites that fool filters
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/09/facebook-cloaking/
“Cloaking” sounds sci-fi, but it’s actually a trick used today by spammers to show content moderators or search engine spiders an innocent-looking version of their site while real visitors just see ads and scams. For example, some spammers try to fool Facebook’s review team and tech by showing any of its staffers’ IP addresses a benign landing page for links or ads, while everyone else sees diet pill scams or porn that violate Facebook’s community standards and ad policies.
So today, Facebook is cracking down on cloaking. Facebook ads product director Rob Leathern tells me now when it discovers a site using cloaking, “We’ll deactivate their ad counts, we’ll kick them off, we’ll get rid of their Pages.”
Facebook will use both humans and expanded artificial intelligence systems to root out cloakers.
The change comes as part of a multi-pronged attack on hoaxes, clickbait, spam and low-quality sites following criticism that Facebook didn’t prevent fake news from influencing the 2016 presidential election. By cutting off traffic to spam sites, Facebook can choke out the financial lifeblood of bad actors spreading misinformation for profit or political motives.
According to a recent study of 4 million posts by more than 450 Facebook Pages spreading hyperpartisan political news, BuzzFeed concluded that “Publishers are obsessed with Facebook’s algorithm changes and with avoiding getting caught up in the social network’s stepped-up initiative to reduce clickbait and misinformation in the News Feed.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Melody Kramer / Poynter:
Interview with Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, EFF’s senior staff technologist, on increasing user trust by decreasing the use of third-party trackers
Want readers to start trusting you again? Stop stalking them across the internet
http://www.poynter.org/2017/want-readers-to-start-trusting-you-again-stop-stalking-them-across-the-internet/469730/
Last year, Steven Englehardt and Arvind Narayanan at Princeton University looked at the top 1 million sites on the internet and found that news organizations generally have more third-party trackers on them than other types of sites.
The trackers, they wrote, impede HTTPS adoption, which is offered by less than half of news sites. And the trackers often “rely on one of a handful of companies to collect the data, perform analysis or deliver ‘appropriate’ advertisements,” writes researcher Sarah Jamie Lewis in a recent paper on the centralization of tracking technologies.
“This means that the 3rd parties…have access to data from many, many of the most commonly visited websites — and as such have opportunity to build large, detailed profiles on the visitors to those websites,” she writes.
In recent months, there have been many thoughtful conversations about how to optimize news organizations around public trust. Many of these conversations are centered on what journalists can do — how we can use transparency and audience engagement techniques to build deeper and more meaningful connections with readers.
But building public trust must also involve thinking thoughtfully about the platforms and tools we use to track readers, measure behavior and determine how to monetize. It must involve thinking about the data we collect — or let others collect — and then what could be done with that data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Alt-right steps up protests against perceived liberal bias of tech platform operators, even launching alternative services more welcoming to “free speech” — When James Damore, a Google engineer, was fired this week for writing a 10-page manifesto spelling out his grievances …
The Alt-Right Finds a New Enemy in Silicon Valley
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/business/alt-right-silicon-valley-google-memo.html
When James Damore, a Google engineer, was fired this week for writing a 10-page manifesto spelling out his grievances with the company’s progressive values and positing that biological differences explained the tech industry’s gender gap, it might have seemed like the end of a bizarre, short-lived morality tale.
But for the alt-right, the battle was just beginning.
Minutes after Mr. Damore’s firing was announced, a flurry of right-wing websites, message boards and social media cliques sprang into action, eager to paint the episode as another example of liberal political correctness run amok. A headline on Breitbart, the conservative news site, screamed in capital letters about “blacklists.” Users on Twitter and 4chan, the message board beloved by pro-Trump types, began to organize a boycott of Google’s services. Milo Yiannopoulos, the alt-right provocateur, called Mr. Damore’s firing “disgusting” in a Facebook post, and offered to help him land on his feet.
For the last several months, far-right activists have mounted an aggressive political campaign against some of Silicon Valley’s biggest players. Extending their attacks beyond social networks like Facebook and Twitter, tech’s typical free-speech battlegrounds, they have accused a long list of companies, including Airbnb, PayPal and Patreon, of censoring right-wing views, and have pledged to expose Silicon Valley for what they say is a pervasive, industrywide liberal bias.
Complaints like these might once have been easily dismissed. But in the Trump era, as the right wing’s internet warriors have refined their tactics and gained legitimate political influence, they are putting Silicon Valley in an uncomfortable position.
It’s a tech company’s right, of course, to bar whomever it wishes. The First Amendment, often cited by right-wing activists as a bulwark against censorship, does not apply to the activities of companies, and tech companies almost always have terms in the fine print that give them the right to cut off access to users for any reason.
But the latest wave of right-wing activism has still forced the hands of large Silicon Valley companies, many of which have tried to avoid the appearance of partisanship even as they promote progressive values.
In an attempt to build a buffer against censorship, some alt-right activists have begun creating their own services.
It’s unlikely that any alt-right protest will make a dent in the bottom lines of multibillion-dollar Silicon Valley behemoths. But by forcing these companies to take sides in an emerging culture war, these activists have already achieved a kind of perverse goal. They have found a new punching bag, and they have proved that in the hyper-polarized Trump era, there is no such thing as neutrality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Katharina Borchert / The Mozilla Blog:
Mozilla unveils the Mozilla Information Trust Initiative, seeks partners to develop technology to combat online misinformation
The Mozilla Information Trust Initiative: Building a movement to fight misinformation online
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/08/08/mozilla-information-trust-initiative-building-movement-fight-misinformation-online/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Alt-right steps up protests against perceived liberal bias of tech platform operators, even launching alternative services more welcoming to “free speech” — When James Damore, a Google engineer, was fired this week for writing a 10-page manifesto spelling out his grievances …
The Alt-Right Finds a New Enemy in Silicon Valley
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/business/alt-right-silicon-valley-google-memo.html
When James Damore, a Google engineer, was fired this week for writing a 10-page manifesto spelling out his grievances with the company’s progressive values and positing that biological differences explained the tech industry’s gender gap, it might have seemed like the end of a bizarre, short-lived morality tale.
But for the alt-right, the battle was just beginning.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook introduces Watch, its redesigned video section for original content, with producers earning 55% of ad revenue, rolling out Thursday — Facebook has a new home for original video content produced exclusively for it by partners, who will earn 55 percent of ad break revenue while Facebook keeps 45 percent.
Facebook launches Watch tab of original video shows
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/09/facebook-watch/
Facebook has a new home for original video content produced exclusively for it by partners, who will earn 55 percent of ad break revenue while Facebook keeps 45 percent. The “Watch” tab and several dozen original shows will start rolling out to a small group of U.S. users tomorrow on mobile, desktop and Facebook’s TV apps.
By hosting original programming, Facebook could boost ad revenue and give people a reason to frequently return to the News Feed for content they can’t get anywhere else.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
Fired Google engineer James Damore defended his controversial memo in Bloomberg TV interview, says company execs smeared him
Fired Google Engineer Says Company Execs Shamed and Smeared Him
James Damore defends his controversial memo on Bloomberg TV
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-10/fired-google-engineer-says-company-execs-shamed-and-smeared-him
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Google reveals sites that fail ad test, risk being filtered by upcoming Chrome ad blocker, including Forbes, LA Times, Lifehacker, Chicago Tribune — Publishers that have fretted about Google’s plans to unleash an ad-blocking version of Chrome in 2018 can now see if their own sites’ ads will be blocked by the tech giant.
Google reveals sites with ‘failing’ ads, including Forbes, LA Times
https://digiday.com/media/google-reveals-sites-failing-ads-including-forbes-la-times/
Publishers that have fretted about Google’s plans to unleash an ad-blocking version of Chrome in 2018 can now see if their own sites’ ads will be blocked by the tech giant.
On June 1, Google rolled out its Ad Experience Report, a tool it’s using to evaluate and score websites based on their ad creative and design. It provides screenshots and videos of ads that have been identified as annoying to users, such as pop-ups and autoplaying video ads with sound, and “prestitial” ads with countdown timers.
So far, Google has identified about 700 sites as warranting corrective action out of around 100,000 sites it’s reviewed so far. Half of the roughly 700 got a “failing” status and the other half a “warning.” Pop-ups were the most common problem Google found, accounting for 96 percent of violations on desktop and 54 percent on mobile.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
“This Is Just Like GamerGate”: How The Pro-Trump Media Turned James Damore Into A Hero Overnight — A week ago, James Damore was anonymous. Now, the Google engineer who lost his job after he wrote a viral anti-diversity screed has become an icon of the alt-right, with more than 40,000 Twitter followers …
How The Pro-Trump Media Turned The Google Memo Into A National Story
https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/james-damore-google-anti-diversity-memo-pro-trump-media-hero?utm_term=.qpEM8N4PGV#.whgrG6XgEP
The pro-Trump media has found the perfect target in Silicon Valley — and the perfect martyr in James Damore.
According to multiple self-proclaimed leaders of the new right, the Damore fiasco isn’t just this week’s latest outrage, but a tentpole moment in the larger online culture wars.
Tomi Engdahl says:
George Slefo / Ad Age:
Google reveals sites that fail ad test, risk being filtered by upcoming Chrome ad blocker, including Forbes, LA Times, Lifehacker, Chicago Tribune
Check Your Inbox: Google Warns Publishers Serving Annoying Ads
http://adage.com/article/digital/google-send-publishers-email-stop-serving-annoying-ads/310057/
Betty Crocker might want to check her inbox Thursday.
The iconic brand is one of roughly a thousand online publishers that are set to receive an email from Google warning them that they are showing “highly annoying, misleading or harmful” ads. Although there aren’t many ads on Betty Crocker’s website, it does have popups, especially on its mobile site.
And that’s in violation of the Better Ads Standard, an industry effort born within the Coalition for Better Ads. Google is part of the Justice League-type group, as are Facebook, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, The Washington Post, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, ad-buying giant GroupM, the Association of National Advertisers and others.
But Google carries particular weight because it’s the self-appointed hero that plans to block “annoying” ads in its popular Chrome browser starting early next year.
The Coalition in March asked 25,000 people in the U.S. and Europe to rate 104 different ad experiences on desktop and mobile. The group found — shockingly — that consumers dislike popups, autoplay videos with sound, too many ads at once and other unfriendly experiences.
http://adage.com/article/digital/official-google-chrome-ad-blocker/309238/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Taylor Lorenz / Mic:
Instagram feeds have become dominated by planned candids, dubbed “plandids”, which are usually posed but are supposed to appear effortless
Understanding plandids — the under-the-radar pose that’s taking over Instagram
https://mic.com/articles/183390/plandid-instagram-pose-kylie-jenner-bella-hadid-how-to-do-it-right#.4mN344MEf
Instagram used to be defined by its feed of stylized, perfectly posed images, but this summer a new trend has swept the platform: the “plandid.”
Plandids, or planned candids, have become so ubiquitous that it’s hard to avoid coming across one when scrolling through your feed. Everyone — from mommy bloggers, to celebs, to fashionistas to sorority girls — has jumped on the plandid bandwagon.
Top plandid poses include casually looking down while walking, laughing mid-meal, climbing up a staircase or ladder or lounging around glancing into the distance.
“The plandid is like a newer, hotter version of the selfie on Instagram. With so many Instagram influencers having personal photographers or ‘Instagram husbands’, it’s easier to post a full body photo of yourself that looks effortless,” said Taylor Loren, marketing manager at Later, a leading Instagram marketing platform.
A good plandid should make it seem like you had no idea a photo was about to be taken — even though you probably posed for countless takes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s top social networks face investigation for hosting porn and illicit content
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/11/tencent-baidu-weibo-investigation-china/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
China continues to crack down on online media after the government announced that it is investigating three of the country’s most influential social networks for hosting illicit content.
The Office for Cyberspace Administration is looking into content on chat app WeChat, micro-blogging platform Weibo and web forum Baidu Tieba, each of which stands accused of failing to stamp out material that “jeopardised national security,” the BBC reports.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kerry Flynn / Mashable:
Snapchat debuts Crowd Surf feature, which stitches together Snaps from select live events by syncing audio, to create multi-perspective viewing experiences
Snapchat’s newest feature is a game changer for concerts
http://mashable.com/2017/08/14/snapchat-crowd-surf-concerts-our-stories/#TcNhKP3kRSqk
Having FOMO about not seeing Lorde at Outside Lands? Well, Snapchat just released a feature that could help alleviate your melodrama.
Called Crowd Surf, the feature connects snaps based on their audio and stitches them together in an attempt to give a near-seamless look at a live event from multiple perspectives.
The new feature is already live within select Our Stories curated by Snapchat, with Lorde’s recent performance as the prime example. Users can see different perspectives of the same footage by clicking a new button in the right corner of their mobile screen.
Because of the audio connection, which Mashable has learned is a proprietary machine learning technology built in-house by Snap’s Research team, Snapchat users can essentially change the camera angle without losing the context of what’s being shown.
Snapchat first showed Crowd Surf off Monday with footage from Lorde’s performance at Outside Lands.