Category Archives: social media and social protests
“Real ‘Fake News’ and Fake ‘Fake News'”
Lili Levi has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, First Amendment Law Review). Here is the abstract:
“Fake news” has become the central inflammatory charge in media discourse in the United States since the 2016 presidential contest. In the political… Continue reading
“FEC Draft Ruling Would Require Disclaimers on Facebook Ads”
Ken Doyle for Bloomberg BNA:
Political ads on Facebook would have to carry disclaimers stating who paid for each ad, under a new draft advisory opinion set to be considered by the Federal Election Commission.
Disclaimer requirements for online political… Continue reading
“Trump, Twitter, and the Russians: The Growing Obsolescence of Federal Campaign Finance Law”
Tony Gaughan has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal). Here is the abstract:
Since the 1970s, federal campaign finance law has been built on four pillars. The first is contribution limits on donations to candidate… Continue reading
“Virginia voter suppression tweets went undetected by Twitter for hours”
CNN:
A Twitter account misleading Democratic voters in Virginia by telling them they could cast their ballot by text message was active for almost three hours on Tuesday morning before Twitter suspended the account.
The account, “MAGA Mike King,” was… Continue reading
“‘Not going to be a cakewalk’: Social media sites face hurdles curbing foreign political ads”
“Facebook, Twitter: Russian actors sought to undermine Trump after election”
Politico:
Top lawyers from Facebook and Twitter said Tuesday that Russian-linked posts and advertisements placed on the social networks after Election Day sought to sow doubt about President Donald Trump’s victory.
Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch told a Senate Judiciary… Continue reading
“Facebook estimates 126 million people were served content from Russia-linked pages”
CNN:
Facebook will inform lawmakers this week that roughly 126 million Americans may have been exposed to content generated on its platform by the Russian government-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency between June 2015 and August 2017,… Continue reading
“Twitter Plans to Open Ad Data to Users”
NYT:
Twitter said on Tuesday that it would bring more transparency to advertisements on its site, including political ads, in the latest response by a technology company to criticism about its role in spreading foreign propaganda during the 2016 presidential… Continue reading
“Examining How A Russian ‘Troll Factory’ Pushed Texas Secession”
Texas Public Radio:
The fantasy of Texas national independence has been stoked for decades but in recent years it has found an ally with Russia. An investigation into a popular pro-Texas secession Facebook page found that it was run by … Continue reading
“Homegrown ‘fake news’ is a bigger problem than Russian propaganda. Here’s a way to make falsehoods more costly for politicians.”
Brendan Nyhan and Yusaku Horiuchi for the Monkey Cage:
One promising approach is summary fact-checking — an increasingly popular format that presents an overview of fact-checking ratings for a politician. This is distinct from focusing on whether a single… Continue reading
“Why the Fact-Checking at Facebook Needs to Be Checked”
Brendan Nyhan for NYT’s The UpShot:
Since the 2016 presidential campaign, Facebook has taken a number of actions to prevent the continued distribution of false news articles on its platform, most notably by labeling articles rated as false or misleading… Continue reading
“Senators Demand Online Ad Disclosures as Tech Lobby Mobilizes”
NYT:
Senator John McCain and two Democratic senators moved on Thursday to force Facebook, Google and other internet companies to disclose who is purchasing online political advertising, after revelations that Russian-linked operatives bought deceptive ads in the run-up to the… Continue reading