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:
Casey Newton / The Verge:
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says YouTube will add Wikipedia information to videos about popular conspiracy theories within weeks to provide alternate viewpoints — Pushing back on crazy theories — YouTube will add information from Wikipedia to videos about popular conspiracy theories …
YouTube will add information from Wikipedia to videos about conspiracies
Pushing back on crazy theories
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/13/17117344/youtube-information-cues-conspiracy-theories-susan-wojcicki-sxsw
YouTube will add information from Wikipedia to videos about popular conspiracy theories to provide alternative viewpoints on controversial subjects, its CEO said today. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said that these text boxes, which the company is calling “information cues,” would begin appearing on conspiracy-related videos within the next couple of weeks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Manish Singh / CNBC:
YouTube, growing rapidly in India, has done little to keep misleading videos from dominating its India-specific Trending feed; Google says it is working to fix
In India, ‘fake news’ and hoaxes catch fire as millions see YouTube for the first time
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/12/in-india-many-see-fake-news-on-youtube-thanks-to-cheap-data-plans.html
YouTube is exploding in popularity in India, thanks to new, cheap data plans.
Trending videos in India are often overwhelmingly hoaxes.
Unlike other countries, India has its own “Trending” list on YouTube.
Fake new YouTube videos are spreading to other social media in India.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kashmir Hill / Gizmodo:
How conservative activists from Project Veritas use hoax job recruitment and seduction to catfish tech giants like Twitter; experts question legality — Mo Norai has worked in Silicon Valley for a decade. He’s done stints at Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Apple, but only as a contract worker …
How Conservative Activists Catfished Twitter
https://gizmodo.com/how-conservative-activists-catfished-twitter-1823533394
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wikipedia wasn’t aware of YouTube’s conspiracy video plan
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/14/wikipedia-wasnt-aware-of-youtubes-conspiracy-video-plan/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
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Mar 14 9:54p
Wikipedia wasn’t aware of YouTube’s conspiracy video plan
Darrell Etherington
@etherington /
1280px-Wikimedia_Foundation_Servers-8055_04
YouTube has a plan to combat the abundant conspiracy theories that feature in credulous videos on its platform; not a very good plan, but a plan just the same. It’s using information drawn from Wikipedia relevant to some of the more popular conspiracy theories, and putting that info front and center on videos that dabble in… creative historical re-imaginings.
The plan is being criticized from a number of quarters (including this one) for essentially sloughing responsibility about this harmful content on to another, volunteer-based organization. But it turns out that’s not even a responsibility that Wikipedia even know it was taking on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Platform power is crushing the web, warns Berners-Lee
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/12/platform-power-is-crushing-the-web-warns-berners-lee/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
On the 29th birthday of the world wide web, its inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has sounded a fresh warning about threats to the web as a force for good, adding his voice to growing concerns about big tech’s impact on competition and society.
The web’s creator argues that the “powerful weight of a few dominant” tech platforms is having a deleterious impact by concentrating power in the hands of gatekeepers that gain “control over which ideas and opinions are seen and shared”
His suggested fix is socially minded regulation, so he’s also lending his clout to calls for big tech to be ruled.
“These dominant platforms are able to lock in their position by creating barriers for competitors,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook suspends Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis firm that worked on the Trump campaign
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/16/facebook-suspends-cambridge-analytica-the-data-analysis-firm-that-worked-for-the-trump-campaign/
Facebook announced late Friday that it had suspended the account of Strategic Communication Laboratories, and its political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica — which used Facebook data to target voters for President Donald Trump’s campaign in the 2016 election. In a statement released by Paul Grewal, the company’s vice president and deputy general counsel, Facebook explained that the suspension was the result of a violation of its platform policies. The company noted that the very unusual step of a public blog post explaining the decision to act against Cambridge Analytica was due to “the public prominence of this organization.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Munsif Vengattil / Reuters:
Facebook shares slide 4% in premarket trading amid calls for investigation from lawmakers and concerns of deeper regulatory scrutiny of the platform — (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s shares fell 4 percent in premarket on Monday after media reports that a political consultancy that worked …
Facebook shares slide after reports of data misuse
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-stocks/facebook-shares-slide-after-reports-of-data-misuse-idUSKBN1GV1E8
Facebook Inc’s shares fell more than 4 percent in premarket trading after media reports that a political consultancy that worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign gained inappropriate access to data on 50 million Facebook users.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Zuckerberg’s scandal response is doomed, because Facebook is about feelings
https://qz.com/1234949/mark-zuckerbergs-statement-on-cambridge-analytica-completely-misses-the-point/
The CEO of Facebook broke his long silence on Wednesday, five days after a huge scandal broke about political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica and its illicit use of Facebook user data.
The TL;DR of his agonizingly late-to-the-game note was that Cambridge Analytica’s misdeeds were the result of Facebook flaws that were patched long ago: “The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago.”
Zuckerberg also announced several other steps to bulk up Facebook’s protections of user privacy, restrict outside developers’ access to personal information, and make sure that users are aware of how their data is being accessed.
In a subsequent barrage of interviews on Wednesday, Zuckerberg expanded on his statement, telling CNN he was “really sorry this happened,” and acknowledged that perhaps Facebook needed to be more heavily regulated.
The systematic, point-by-point (and surely heavily lawyered) response to the worst crisis in Facebook’s history has virtually no chance of calming the outrage or quelling the disgust that many Facebook users are feeling this week. That’s because Facebook’s success was never predicated on the rational benefits of its gargantuan social network; it was always about how Facebook makes you feel.
Facebook has always lived at the intersection of engineering and psychology. Its system of likes and shares is ruthlessly designed to hack our brains and tap into our unconscious need to receive affirmation: “short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops,”
Tapping into people’s unconscious desires and fears to build a business is nothing new, of course.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google unveils its $300M News Initiative, with tools for subscriptions, security and fighting fake news
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/google-news-initiative/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
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Google unveils its $300M News Initiative, with tools for subscriptions, security and fighting fake news
Anthony Ha
@anthonyha / Mar 20, 2018
Boy selling newspapers in front of a building
Google today announced a multi-pronged News Initiative, which Chief Business Officer Phillipp Schindler described as a way to tie together all the company’s efforts to work with the journalism industry.
Google says the News Initiative is focused on three broad goals — strengthening quality journalism, supporting different business models and empowering newsrooms through technological innovation. It’s also committing to spend $300 million over the next three years on its various journalism-related projects.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tumblr confirms 84 accounts linked to Kremlin trolls
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/23/tumblr-confirms-84-accounts-linked-to-kremlin-trolls/?utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Tumblr has confirmed that Kremlin trolls were active on its platform during the 2016 US presidential elections.
In a blog post today the social platform writes that it is “taking steps to protect against future interference in our political conversation by state-sponsored propaganda campaigns”.
The company has also started emailing users who interacted with 84 accounts it now says it has linked to the Russian trollfarm, the Internet Research Agency (IRA).
https://staff.tumblr.com/post/172170432865/were-taking-steps-to-protect-against-future
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open access to scientific publications must become a reality by 2020 – Robert-Jan Smits
https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/open-access-scientific-publications-must-become-reality-2020-robert-jan-smits_en.html
A lot of lip service is being paid to making scientific papers free to access but when it comes to action there is a lot of hypocrisy, according to Robert-Jan Smits, the EU’s outgoing director-general for research, science and innovation. He has recently been appointed the EU’s special envoy on open access, tasked with helping make all publicly funded research in Europe freely available by 2020.
Making scientific publications free to read is a big change in a world dominated by subscription journals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reuters:
Malaysian bill would outlaw “fake news” with up to 10 years in jail and fines of ~$128K; opposition says bill could easily be used to stifle media
Malaysia proposes jail for up to 10 years, fines for ‘fake news’
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-politics/malaysia-proposes-jail-for-up-to-10-years-fines-for-fake-news-idUSKBN1H20FM
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government tabled a bill in parliament on Monday outlawing “fake news”, with hefty fines and up to 10 years in jail, raising more concern about media freedom in the wake of a multi-billion dollar graft scandal.
Under the Anti-Fake News 2018 bill, anyone who publishes so-called fake news could face fines of up to 500,000 ringgit ($128,140), up to 10 years in jail, or both.
“The proposed Act seeks to safeguard the public against the proliferation of fake news whilst ensuring the right to freedom of speech and expression under the Federal Constitution is respected,” the government said in the bill.
The government defined fake news as “news, information, data and reports which is or are wholly or partly false” and included features, visuals and audio recordings.
The law, which covers digital publications and social media, would apply to offenders outside Malaysia, including foreigners, if Malaysia or a Malaysian citizen were affected.
The government said in the bill it was hoped the public would be more responsible and cautious in sharing news and information.
Malaysia’s National Union of Journalists said the bill could easily be abused to stifle the media, as it would give the government “unquestionable power” to remove articles deemed prejudicial to public order or national security.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook:
Facebook is rolling out its feature showing more stories from local news sources in News Feed, available in US since January, to all other countries
News Feed FYI: More Local News on Facebook, Globally
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/news-feed-fyi-more-local-news-on-facebook-globally/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: SoftBank is investigating who was behind the smear campaign that called for the ouster of its top execs Nikesh Arora and Alok Sama
SoftBank Probes Who Was Behind Smear Campaign Against Top Executives
https://www.wsj.com/articles/softbank-probes-who-was-behind-smear-campaign-against-top-executives-1522056600
Series of letters to board called for removal of Nikesh Arora and Alok Sama; ‘sabotage’ effort also involved media leaks, complaint to SEC
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Search starts rolling out mobile-first indexing
https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/26/google-search-starts-rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing/
Google today announced it has started rolling out mobile-first indexing for its search results. The company is migrating sites that follow best practices for mobile-first indexing to use the the mobile version of the page instead of the desktop version.
Google first started experimenting with a mobile-first index in November 2016. Until then, its search engine’s crawling, indexing, and ranking systems exclusively used the desktop version of a page’s content.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Wikimedia says Google has contributed $1M+ this year with Apple, Facebook, Microsoft donating ~$50K in matching gifts; corporations account for ~4% of donations
Are corporations that use Wikipedia giving back?
Companies rely heavily on Wikipedia for information, but it’s not always a two-way street
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/24/are-corporations-that-use-wikipedia-giving-back/
YouTube’s plan to combat conspiracy videos with information sourced from Wikipedia got push back from a number of different quarters — including, surprisingly, Wikimedia itself. Seems Google didn’t mention the plan to the foundation before unveiling it at SXSW earlier this month. Whoops.
Wikimedia executive director Katherine Maher responded with an even-keeled statement reiterating that, while the crowd-sourced encyclopedia’s information is, indeed, free to use, well, it might be nice if corporations that used it gave a little back.
“Wikipedia’s content [is] freely licensed for reuse by anyone,” Maher wrote, “and that’s part of our mission: that every single person can share in free knowledge. We want people all over the world to use, share, add to, and remix Wikipedia. At the same time, we encourage companies who use Wikimedia’s content to give back in the spirit of sustainability.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time Google has utilized the work of Wikipedia’s army of devoted contributors and editors — and the company is hardly alone here. In recent years, the site’s vast wealth of peer-edited knowledge has, for better or worse, become the backbone of a number of wildly used services — including, notably, smart assistants. Ask Alexa, Assistant or Siri who the Queen of England is, and they’ll all pull that information from the same place.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft bans use of “offensive language” on Xbox Live, Skype, and other services
https://www.techspot.com/news/73889-microsoft-bans-use-offensive-language-xbox-live-skype.html
If you’re not averse to being a bit sweary on Skype, Xbox Live, or other Microsoft products, be careful: the Redmond firm has updated its service agreement, prohibiting the use of “offensive language” and fraudulent activity.
Anyone found violating the rules, which go into effect on May 1, may be suspended or banned from Xbox services. Offenders also risk forfeiting their account balances, any content licenses they may own, and their Xbox Gold Membership.
Microsoft also says that it may trawl through your accounts if it suspects you’ve been violating its Terms and Conditions. “When investigating alleged violations of these Terms, Microsoft reserves the right to review Your Content in order to resolve the issue,” it writes.
Summary of Changes to Microsoft Services Agreement
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement/upcoming-updates.aspx
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft can ban you for using offensive language
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/microsoft-can-ban-you-for-using-offensive-language/?utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=facebook
A report by CSOOnline presented the possibility that Microsoft would be able to ban “offensive language” from Skype, Xbox, and, inexplicably, Office. The post, which cites Microsoft’s new terms of use, said that the company would not allow users to “publicly display or use the Services to share inappropriate content or material (involving, for example, nudity, bestiality, pornography, offensive language, graphic violence, or criminal activity)” and that you could lose your Xbox Live Membership if you curse out a kid Overwatch.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3264658/privacy/microsoft-to-ban-offensive-language-from-skype-xbox-office-and-other-services.amp.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook is now prioritizing local news globally
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/26/facebook-is-now-prioritizing-local-news-globally/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
As Facebook continues to face fierce media scrutiny over how it handles user data, the company may well be wishing for some gentler headlines. So it’s perhaps no accident it’s chosen today to announce the international rollout of a News Feed tweak it made in the US, back in January, that’s designed to inject more local news into users’ feeds.
The tweak to Facebook’s algorithmic recipe is part of wider efforts to tackle the problem of Facebook’s AIs preferring and promoting ‘low quality’ content — at the expense of users’ eyeballs and even community cohesion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook starts fact checking photos/videos, blocks millions of fake accounts per day
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/29/facebook-fact-check-photos/
Facebook has begun letting partners fact check photos and videos beyond news articles, and proactively review stories before Facebook asks them. Facebook is also now preemptively blocking the creation of millions of fake accounts per day.
Stamos outlined how Facebook is building ways to address false identities and fake accounts, false audiences grown illicitly or pumped up to make content appear more popular, acts of spreading false information, and false narratives that are intentionally deceptive and shape people’s views beyond the facts.
Articles flagged as false by Facebook’s fact checking partners have their reach reduced and display Related Articles showing perspectives from reputable news oulets below
Advances in machine learning allow Facebook “to find more suspicious behaviors without assessing the content itself” to block millions of fake account creations per day “before they can do any harm”, says Chakrabarti.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What the @#$%&!? Microsoft bans nudity, swearing in Skype, emails, Office 365 docs
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/28/microsoft_services_agreement_bars_offensive_language/
Adults-only Xbox games are OK – but you can’t publicly tell Cortana to go screw itself
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ezra Klein / Vox:
Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook’s hardest year, how it has changed the company’s future ambitions, and his faith in its mission — “We will dig through this hole, but it will take a few years.” — It’s been a tough year for Facebook. The social networking juggernaut found itself engulfed …
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s hardest year, and what comes next
“We will dig through this hole, but it will take a few years.”
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/2/17185052/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-interview-fake-news-bots-cambridge
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fraudulent Web Traffic Continues to Plague Advertisers, Other Businesses
https://www.wsj.com/articles/fraudulent-web-traffic-continues-to-plague-advertisers-other-businesses-1522234801
Adobe found that about 28% of website traffic likely came from bots and other “non-human signals”
Web traffic is rife with bots and non-human traffic, making it difficult for ad and media businesses to understand who is visiting their sites and why, according to new findings from Adobe .
In a recent study, Adobe found that about 28% of website traffic showed strong “non-human signals,” leading the company to believe that the traffic came from bots or click farms. The company studied traffic across websites belonging to thousands of clients.
While hardly the first study of online fraud, Adobe’s findings are one more indication of how the problem has roiled the fast-changing ad, media and digital commerce industries, while prompting marketers to rethink their web efforts.
Non-human traffic can create an “inflated number that sets false expectations for marketing efforts,” said Mr. Weinstein.
Marketers often use web traffic as a good measure for how many of their consumers saw their ads, and some even pay their ad vendors when people see their ads and subsequently visit their website.
Ad buyers can also exclude visitors with non-human characteristics from future targeting segments by removing the cookies or unique web IDs that represented those visitors from their audience segments.
In addition to malicious bots, many web visits also come from website “scrapers,” such as search engines, voice assistants or travel aggregators looking for business descriptions or pricing information. Some are also from rivals “scraping” for information so they can undercut the competition on pricing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Zuckerberg fires back at Tim Cook, opens up about fake news
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/30/facebooks-mission-changed-but-its-motives-didnt/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
It wasn’t all that long ago (approximately a year and a half before the algorithm change) that Facebook VP Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, published an internal memo called “The Ugly,” which was circulated throughout the company. In it, Boz made it clear to employees that connecting people (i.e. growth) is the main focus at Facebook, at all costs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Zuckerberg fires back at Tim Cook, opens up about fake news
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/30/facebooks-mission-changed-but-its-motives-didnt/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Zuckerberg has been on a bit of a publicity tour following the Cambridge Analytica scandal and a generally tough year for the social media behemoth.
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Zuckerberg fires back at Tim Cook, opens up about fake news
Jordan Crook
@jordanrcrook / 15 hours ago
Zuckerberg has been on a bit of a publicity tour following the Cambridge Analytica scandal and a generally tough year for the social media behemoth.
This morning, an interview with Zuck was published on Vox’s The Ezra Klein Show. In it, the Facebook CEO waded through some of the company’s most pressing issues, including how to deal with fake news and help support good journalism and how to deal with governing a community of 2 billion people. Zuck also clapped back at Tim Cook who has criticized Facebook’s model of generating revenue through advertising.
Fake News
On the problem of Fake News and transparency in the past:
It’s tough to be transparent when we don’t first have a full understanding of where the state of some of the systems are. In 2016, we were behind having an understanding and operational excellence on preventing things like misinformation, Russian interference. And you can bet that that’s a huge focus for us going forward.
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Zuckerberg fires back at Tim Cook, opens up about fake news
Jordan Crook
@jordanrcrook / 15 hours ago
Zuckerberg has been on a bit of a publicity tour following the Cambridge Analytica scandal and a generally tough year for the social media behemoth.
This morning, an interview with Zuck was published on Vox’s The Ezra Klein Show. In it, the Facebook CEO waded through some of the company’s most pressing issues, including how to deal with fake news and help support good journalism and how to deal with governing a community of 2 billion people. Zuck also clapped back at Tim Cook who has criticized Facebook’s model of generating revenue through advertising.
Fake News
On the problem of Fake News and transparency in the past:
It’s tough to be transparent when we don’t first have a full understanding of where the state of some of the systems are. In 2016, we were behind having an understanding and operational excellence on preventing things like misinformation, Russian interference. And you can bet that that’s a huge focus for us going forward.
On how Facebook is trying to serve up content, including news content, that is meaningful to users:
The way that this works today, broadly, is we have panels of hundreds or thousands of people who come in and we show them all the content that their friends and pages who they follow have shared. And we ask them to rank it, and basically say, “What were the most meaningful things that you wish were at the top of feed?” And then we try to design algorithms that just map to what people are actually telling us is meaningful to them. Not what they click on, not what is going to make us the most revenue, but what people actually find meaningful and valuable. So when we’re making shifts — like the broadly trusted shift — the reason why we’re doing that is because it actually maps to what people are telling us they want at a deep level.
Zuck was also asked about supporting news organizations, as some slice of Facebook’s revenue comes from users consuming news on the platform:
For the larger institutions, and maybe even some of the smaller ones as well, subscriptions are really a key point on this. I think a lot of these business models are moving towards a higher percentage of subscriptions, where the people who are getting the most value from you are contributing a disproportionate amount to the revenue. And there are certainly a lot of things that we can do on Facebook to help people, to help these news organizations, drive subscriptions. And that’s certainly been a lot of the work that we’ve done and we’ll continue doing.
He also addressed that subscriptions might not work for local news, which the CEO believes are equally important:
In local news, I think some of the solutions might be a little bit different. But I think it’s easy to lose track of how important this is. There’s been a lot of conversation about civic engagement changing, and I think people can lose sight of how closely tied that can be to local news. In a town with a strong local newspaper, people are much more informed, they’re much more likely to be civically active. On Facebook we’ve taken steps to show more local news to people. We’re also working with them specifically, creating funds to support them and working on both subscriptions and ads there should hopefully create a more thriving ecosystem.
In Reaction to Tim Cook
In an interview last week, the Apple CEO said that tech firms “are beyond” self-regulation. When asked what he would do if he was in Zuckerberg’s position, Cook said “I wouldn’t be in this situation.” The CEO has long held that an advertising model, in which companies use data around users to sell to brands, is not what Apple wants to become.
“They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it,” he said of Facebook and Google in 2015. “We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”
Zuck even took the opportunity to clap back at Cook a bit, saying we shouldn’t believe that companies trying to charge us more actually care about us
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Details Election Security Improvements
https://www.securityweek.com/facebook-details-election-security-improvements
While under heavy fire for the user privacy blunder involving U.K. firm Cambridge Analytica, Facebook took its time this week to present some of the steps it is taking to protect elections from abuse and exploitation on its platform.
The United States this month announced sanctions against Russia for supposed attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election, after it charged 13 Russians for their role in a campaign supposedly aimed at tilting the vote.
The United States, however, wasn’t the only country hit by such attacks: Canada, France, and Germany (and possibly other countries too) were hit as well. These cyber-attacks prompted the launch of Google’s election security solutions, but Facebook is now looking to strengthen protections against other types of election meddling.
“By now, everyone knows the story: during the 2016 US election, foreign actors tried to undermine the integrity of the electoral process. Their attack included taking advantage of open online platforms — such as Facebook — to divide Americans, and to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt,” Guy Rosen, VP of Product Management, notes.
There are four main election security areas Facebook plans to improve: combating foreign interference, removing fake accounts, increasing ads transparency, and reducing the spread of false news.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russians Used Reddit and Tumblr to Troll the 2016 Election
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russians-used-reddit-and-tumblr-to-troll-the-2016-election
A leak of internal data from the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency discovered by The Daily Beast serves as the first confirmation that the Russian troll farm deployed its online agitators on Reddit as part of its campaign to interfere in American politics.
The leak also reveals 21 Tumblr accounts, including login credentials, run by the Internet Research Agency (IRA). The listing for the leak offers “American proxies” for Reddit and viral meme site 9Gag. The leak comes after months of speculation from Reddit users
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook debuts new feature in settings that makes it easy for users to bulk remove third-party apps and an option to delete posts from those apps
Facebook launches bulk app removal tool amidst privacy scandal
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/03/facebook-app-bulk-removal/
Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, users have flocked to their Facebook privacy settings to sever their connection to third-party apps that they no longer wanted to have access to their data. But deleting them all took forever because you had to remove them one by one. Now Facebook has released a new way to select as many apps as you want, then remove them in bulk. The feature has rolled out on mobile and desktop, and Facebook also offers the option to delete any posts those apps have made to your profile.
Facebook confirmed the launch to TechCrunch, pointing to its Newsroom and Developer News blog posts from the last few weeks that explained that “We already show people what apps their accounts are connected to and control what data they’ve permitted those apps to use. In the coming month, we’re going to make these choices more prominent and easier to manage.”
Cracking Down on Platform Abuse
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/cracking-down-on-platform-abuse/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alex Stamos / Facebook:
Facebook deletes 70 FB accounts, 138 FB Pages, and 65 Instagram accounts run by Russia’s Internet Research Agency this morning, shares samples of IRA content — This morning we removed 70 Facebook and 65 Instagram accounts — as well as 138 Facebook Pages — that were controlled by the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA).
Authenticity Matters: The IRA Has No Place on Facebook
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/authenticity-matters/
This morning we removed 70 Facebook and 65 Instagram accounts — as well as 138 Facebook Pages — that were controlled by the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA). Many of the Pages also ran ads, all of which have been removed. Of the Pages that had content, the vast majority of them (95%) were in Russian — targeted either at people living in Russia or Russian-speakers around the world including from neighboring countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook:
Facebook is rolling out an “About this article” button in the US, showing where an article’s been shared, the publisher’s Wikipedia entry, and related stories — By Taylor Hughes, Software Engineer; Jeff Smith, Product Designer; and Alex Leavitt, UX Researcher
News Feed FYI: Helping People Better Assess The Stories They See In News Feed
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/news-feed-fyi-more-context/
Last year we started a test in the US to give people more background information about the publishers and articles they see in News Feed. We’re now rolling out this feature to everyone in the US and adding additional features to provide more context for people so they can decide for themselves what to read, trust and share.
Research with our community and our academic and industry partners has identified some key information that helps people evaluate the credibility of an article and determine whether to trust the article’s source. Based on this research, we’re making it easy for people to view context about an article, including the publisher’s Wikipedia entry, related articles on the same topic, information about how many times the article has been shared on Facebook, where it is has been shared, as well as an option to follow the publisher’s page. When a publisher does not have a Wikipedia entry, we will indicate that the information is unavailable, which can also be helpful context.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Internal Facebook white paper says Trump campaign spent $44M on FB ads while Clinton team spent $28M from June-November 2016; Trump team ran 5.9M ad versions — The president’s ad campaign was ‘more complex than Clinton’s’ — Trump focused on new donors; Clinton on ensuring broad appeal
Trump’s Campaign Said It Was Better at Facebook. Facebook Agrees
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-03/trump-s-campaign-said-it-was-better-at-facebook-facebook-agrees
The president’s ad campaign was ‘more complex than Clinton’s’
Trump focused on new donors; Clinton on ensuring broad appeal
Tomi Engdahl says:
Revealed: Facebook hate speech exploded in Myanmar during Rohingya crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/03/revealed-facebook-hate-speech-exploded-in-myanmar-during-rohingya-crisis#img-2
Analyst says: ‘I really don’t know how Zuckerberg and co sleep at night’ after evidence emerges of a spike in posts inciting violence
Hate speech exploded on Facebook at the start of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar last year, analysis has revealed, with experts blaming the social network for creating “chaos” in the country.
Evidence of the spike emerged after the platform was accused of playing a key role in the spread of hate speech in Myanmar at a time when 650,000 Rohingya refugees were forced to flee to Bangladesh following persecution.
Digital researcher and analyst Raymond Serrato examined about 15,000 Facebook posts from supporters of the hardline nationalist Ma Ba Tha group. The earliest posts dated from June 2016 and spiked on 24 and 25 August 2017, when ARSA Rohingya militants attacked government forces, prompting the security forces to launch the “clearance operation” that sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya pouring over the border.
“Facebook definitely helped certain elements of society to determine the narrative of the conflict in Myanmar,” Serrato told the Guardian. “Although Facebook had been used in the past to spread hate speech and misinformation, it took on greater potency after the attacks.”
Alan Davis, an analyst from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting who led a two-year study of hate speech in Myanmar, said that in the months before August he noticed posts on Facebook becoming “more organised and odious, and more militarised”.
His research team encountered fabricated stories stating that “mosques in Yangon are stockpiling weapons in an attempt to blow up various Buddhist pagodas and Shwedagon pagoda”, the most sacred Buddhist site in Yangon in a smear campaign against Muslims. These pages also featured posts calling Rohingya the derogatory term “kalars” and “Bengali terrorists”. Signs denoting “Muslim-free” areas were shared more than 11,000 times.
Facebook the only source of information
Among Myanmar’s 53 million residents, less than 1% had internet access in 2014. But by 2016, the country appeared to have more Facebook users than any other south Asian country. Today, more than 14 million of its citizens use Facebook. A 2016 report by GSMA, the global body representing mobile operators, found that in Myanmar many people considered Facebook the only internet entry point for information, and that many regarded postings as news.
One cyber security analyst in Yangon, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of online attacks, said: “Facebook is arguably the only source of information online for the majority in Myanmar.”
In early March, UN Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee warned that “Facebook has become a beast.” “It was used to convey public messages but we know that the ultra-nationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities,” she said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In India, ‘fake news’ and hoaxes catch fire as millions see YouTube for the first time
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/12/in-india-many-see-fake-news-on-youtube-thanks-to-cheap-data-plans.html
YouTube is exploding in popularity in India, thanks to new, cheap data plans.
Trending videos in India are often overwhelmingly hoaxes.
Unlike other countries, India has its own “Trending” list on YouTube.
Fake new YouTube videos are spreading to other social media in India.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DRM The Internet Your Rights Online
Ask Slashdot: What Would Happen If Everything On the Internet Was DRM Protected?
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/04/03/1726209/ask-slashdot-what-would-happen-if-everything-on-the-internet-was-drm-protected?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
The whole Digital Rights Management (DRM) train started with music and films, spread horribly to computer and console games (Steam, Origin), turned a lot of computer software you could once buy-and-use into DRM-locked Software As A Service or Cloud Computing products (Adobe, Autodesk, MS Office 365 for example) that are impossible to use without an active Internet connection and account registration on a cloud service somewhere. Recently the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) appears to have paved the way for DRM to find its way into the world of Internet content in various forms as well. Here’s the question: What would happen to the Internet as we know it if just about everything on a website — text, images, audio, video, scripts, games, PDF documents, downloadable files and data, you name it — had DRM protection and DRM usage-limitations hooked into it by default?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Mozur / New York Times:
Myanmar civil society groups say Zuckerberg mischaracterized efficacy of Facebook systems to detect hate speech on Messenger in their country in Vox interview
Groups in Myanmar Fire Back at Zuckerberg
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/technology/zuckerberg-facebook-myanmar.html
Civil society groups in Myanmar on Thursday criticized Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, arguing that he mischaracterized his company’s effectiveness at detecting and quashing messages encouraging violence in the country.
Taking aim at comments Mr. Zuckerberg made in a recent interview, the groups said that Facebook had no consistent methods for dealing with hate speech in Myanmar. The same problems keep recurring, they said, with the company routinely failing to follow up on their comments and suggestions.
“So that’s the kind of thing where I think it is clear that people were trying to use our tools in order to incite real harm,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “Now, in that case, our systems detect that that’s going on. We stop those messages from going through.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Julia Angwin / The Atlantic:
Facebook reforms being discussed in Washington: fines for data breaches, political ad policing, liability for objectionable content, and ethics review boards
How the Government Could Fix Facebook
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/four-ways-to-fix-facebook/557255/
After years of allowing the world’s largest social network to police itself, Congress and federal regulators are discussing some promising reforms.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook gets accreditation from Media Rating Council for first of three audits it committed to, validating ad impressions on Facebook News Feed and Instagram
Facebook receives accreditation in long-awaited metrics audit
https://www.axios.com/facebook-receives-first-round-of-mrc-accreditation-8ab7a073-a979-44ab-b915-64fbee6fa4b7.html
The Media Ratings Council (MRC,) which has for decades acted as the de facto watchdog for the media and advertising industries, announced accreditation for the first of three rounds of audits that Facebook has committed to. This audit focused on its ability to report impressions served on Facebook and Instagram.
Why it matters: There’s been mounting pressure for the “walled gardens” or major tech platforms to be audited by the MRC, the same way other major players in the advertising ecosystem, like Nielsen, comScore and many of the big TV networks are audited. Social networks like Facebook, Google and Twitter are finally beginning to come around to such audits, in an attempt to build better rapport with marketers looking for transparency.
The company previously agreed to an audit after several instances of Facebook misreporting data to publishing partners were revealed. For example, Facebook apologized in September 2016 for inflating video engagement metrics up to 60% for two years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook demands ID verification for big Pages, “issue” ad buyers
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/06/facebook-demands-id-verification-for-big-pages-issue-ad-buyers/
AdChoices
Facebook demands ID verification for big Pages, “issue” ad buyers
Josh Constine
@JoshConstine / 17 minutes ago
facebook-election-interference (1)
Facebook is looking to self-police by implementing parts of the proposed Honest Ads Act before the government tries to regulate it. To fight fake news and election interference, Facebook will require the admins of popular Facebook Pages and advertisers buying political or “issue” ads on “debated topics of national legislative importance” like education or abortion to verify their identity and location. Those that refuse, are found to be fraudulent, or are trying to influence foreign elections will have their Pages prevented from posting to the News Feed or their ads blocked.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Myanmar group blasts Zuckerberg’s claim on Facebook hate speech prevention
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/06/myanmar-group-blasts-zuckerbergs-claim-on-facebook-hate-speech-prevention/?utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
AdChoices
Myanmar group blasts Zuckerberg’s claim on Facebook hate speech prevention
Jon Russell
@jonrussell / 15 hours ago
Top Tech CEO’s Speak At TechCrunch
It’s becoming common to say that Mark Zuckerberg is coming under fire, but the Facebook CEO is again being questioned, this time over a recent claim that Facebook’s internal monitoring system is able to thwart attempts to use its services to incite hatred.
Speaking to Vox, Zuckerberg used the example of Myanmar, where he claimed Facebook had successfully rooted out and prevented hate speech through a system that scans chats inside Messenger. In this case, Messenger had been used to send messages to Buddhists and Muslims with the aim of creating conflict on September 11 last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Don’t Fix Facebook. Replace It.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/opinion/facebook-fix-replace.html
After years of collecting way too much data, Facebook has finally been caught in the facilitation of one privacy debacle too many.
lawmakers will no doubt ask how Facebook might restore the public’s trust and whether it might accept some measure of regulation. Yet in the big picture, these are the wrong questions to be asking.
The right question: What comes after Facebook? Yes, we have come to depend on social networks, but instead of accepting an inherently flawed Facebook monopoly, what we most need now is a new generation of social media platforms that are fundamentally different in their incentives and dedication to protecting user data. Barring a total overhaul of leadership and business model, Facebook will never be that platform.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cary O’Reilly / Bloomberg Law:
Department of Homeland Security to compile database of journalists, bloggers, and influencers in an effort to track 290K global news sources in 100 languages — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile …
Homeland Security to Compile Database of Journalists, Bloggers
http://biglawbusiness.com/homeland-security-to-compile-database-of-journalists-bloggers/
• Seeks contractor that can monitor 290,000 global news sources
• ‘Media influencer’ database to note `sentiment’ of coverage
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.”
It’s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and identify “any and all” coverage related to the agency or a particular event, according to a request for information released April 3.
The data to be collected includes a publication’s “sentiment” as well as geographical spread, top posters, languages, momentum, and circulation. No value for the contract was disclosed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook:
Facebook will only allow authorized advertisers to post ads on widely discussed issues like political topics, will require verification of admins of large Pages — We believe that when you visit a Page or see an ad on Facebook it should be clear who it’s coming from.
Making Ads and Pages More Transparent
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/transparent-ads-and-pages/
Tomi Engdahl says:
BuzzFeed:
The Sri Lankan government and civil society groups say that Facebook has failed for years to monitor and remove accounts inciting ethnic violence in Sri Lanka
“We Had To Stop Facebook”: When Anti-Muslim Violence Goes Viral
https://www.buzzfeed.com/meghara/we-had-to-stop-facebook-when-anti-muslim-violence-goes-viral?utm_term=.msOEOM590#.yhwwOdqxr
Extremists in Sri Lanka used Facebook to organize deadly violence against Muslims. Facebook is accused of not doing enough to prevent it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Ananny / Columbia Journalism Review:
Report on Facebook’s fact-checking partnerships examines the struggles of tech companies teaming up with news orgs, details distrust and lack of transparency
Checking in with the Facebook fact-checking partnership
https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/facebook-fact-checking-partnerships.php
Facebook and five US news and fact-checking organizations—ABC News, the Associated Press, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, and Snopes—created a partnership to combat misinformation shortly after the 2016 US presidential election. When it was launched, it was variously seen as a public relations stunt, a new type of collaboration, or an unavoidable coupling of organizations through circumstances beyond their exclusive control.
Over a year later, how has the partnership fared? In a new report for the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, I look at how this partnership works and what it can tell us about how news organizations and technology companies collaborate. My focus here is neither “fake news” nor fact-checking, but the “partnership press” that emerges when technology companies and news organizations team up.
What I uncovered is a partnership in which news organizations negotiate their professional missions with Facebook’s, and struggle to understand the coalition’s impact. Both Facebook and the news organizations want to improve the quality of online media. But while the fact-checkers largely define their motivations in terms of public service and journalistic ethics, Facebook is looking to adhere to its official community standards. There is an ongoing struggle within the partnership to define “fake news” in a way that doesn’t leave most of the classification power with Facebook, and a general unease among partners about how opaque and unaccountable much of the arrangement is—both within the partnership and to outsiders.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Al Jazeera English:
Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja dies after being shot by Israeli forces while wearing a jacket marked “PRESS” — Yaser Murtaja was shot in the stomach during Friday’s mass protests, bringing death toll to 31 since March 30. — A Palestinian journalist shot by Israeli forces during …
Israeli forces kill Palestinian journalist covering Gaza rally
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/palestinian-journalist-yasser-murtaja-dies-shot-israeli-forces-180407054201619.html
Yaser Murtaja succumbs to wounds after being shot during Friday’s protests, bringing death toll to 31 since March 30.
A Palestinian journalist shot by Israeli forces during a mass demonstration along the Gaza border has died of his wounds.
Yaser Murtaja, a photographer with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency, was shot in the stomach in Khuza’a in the south of the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Murtaja, 30, was hit despite wearing a blue flak jacket marked with the word “press”, indicating he was a journalist.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said seven other reporters were injured in Friday’s protest, in what they described as “deliberate crimes committed by the Israeli army”.
In a statement, the Israeli army said that it “does not intend to shoot at journalists, and the circumstances in which journalists were allegedly injured by [the Israeli army] gunfire are unknown and are being investigated”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:25 minutes ago
A look back at the mistakes of a young reporter in Belarus in 2001: assuming democracy would win, sources would be safe, and US officials wouldn’t lie — As a young reporter in Eastern Europe in 2001, I expected to witness the “end of history” and the flowering of democracy.
This Is What It Was Like Learning To Report Before Fake News Was The Biggest Problem In The World
https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/ben-smith-the-mistakes-i-made-as-a-young-reporter?utm_term=.mfQAJ19MB#.jpjl7ezAY
As a young reporter in Eastern Europe in 2001, I expected to witness the “end of history” and the flowering of democracy. That was just one of the mistakes I made.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pew Research Center:
Pew: the 500 most-active suspected bot Twitter accounts are responsible for 22% of links from prominent news and media sites that are shared on Twitter
Bots in the Twittersphere
http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/04/09/bots-in-the-twittersphere/
An estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by automated accounts – not human beings
Among the key findings of this research:
Of all tweeted links2 3 to popular websites, 66% are shared by accounts with characteristics common among automated “bots,” rather than human users.
Among popular news and current event websites, 66% of tweeted links are made by suspected bots – identical to the overall average. The share of bot-created tweeted links is even higher among certain kinds of news sites. For example, an estimated 89% of tweeted links to popular aggregation sites that compile stories from around the web are posted by bots.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook:
Facebook launches new initiative to support independent academic research about the impact of social media on democracy and elections
Facebook Launches New Initiative to Help Scholars Assess Social Media’s Impact on Elections
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/new-elections-initiative/
Today, Facebook is announcing a new initiative to help provide independent, credible research about the role of social media in elections, as well as democracy more generally. It will be funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Democracy Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
At the heart of this initiative will be a group of scholars who will:
Define the research agenda;
Solicit proposals for independent research on a range of different topics; and
Manage a peer review process to select scholars who will receive funding for their research, as well as access to privacy-protected datasets from Facebook which they can analyze.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bots in the Twittersphere
http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/04/09/bots-in-the-twittersphere/
An estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by automated accounts – not human beings
Tomi Engdahl says:
National Union of Workers official linked to fake Black Lives Matter Facebook page suspended
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-10/fake-black-lives-matter-facebook-page-linked-to-australian-nuw/9636362?sf186616209=1&smid=Page:%20ABC%20News-Facebook_Organic&WT.tsrc=Facebook_Organic
A high-ranking Australian union official has been stood down amid claims he was involved in a fake Black Lives Matter Facebook page that collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.
The Black Lives Matter page had almost 700,000 followers — dwarfing the movement’s official page — before it was suspended by Facebook.
It allegedly collected money through online fundraisers and solicited more than $US100,000 ($129,000) in donations, according to an investigation by US media outlet CNN.