Social Media

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump escalated his war on social media companies, signing an executive order Thursday challenging the liability protections that have served as a bedrock for unfettered speech on the internet. Still, the move appears to be more about politics than substance, as the president aims to rally supporters after he lashed out at Twitter for …

The Daily Beast reports: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ripped Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg for saying he didn’t believe social media platforms should be the “arbiters of truth” and fact-check political speech. “I think Mark Zuckerberg’s statement was a disgrace,” Pelosi told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Thursday. “And Twitter, they’re not taking off any accusations the president is …

Axios reports: Twitter slapped a fact-check label on a pair of months-old tweets from a Chinese government spokesperson that falsely suggested that the coronavirus originated in the U.S. and was brought to Wuhan by the U.S. military, directing users to “get the facts about COVID-19.” The labels were added after criticism that Twitter had fact-checked tweets from President Trump about …

Mashable reports: The executive tantrum, and a Fox News appearance by senior White House advisor Kellyanne Conway where she goaded viewers to harass Twitter’s head of site integrity Yoel Roth, spurred a stern response from Twitter cofounder and CEO Jack Dorsey. Dorsey also directly addressed statements Mark Zuckerberg made on Wednesday in response to the incident. Facebook’s CEO told Fox’s …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump is expected to order a review of a law that has long protected Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet’s Google from being responsible for the material posted by their users, according to a draft executive order and a source familiar with the situation. The executive order would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to propose and clarify …

Fox News reports: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called out Twitter for attaching a fact check to a tweet from President Trump, telling Fox News’ Dana Perino that privately-owned digital platforms should not act as the “arbiter of truth.” “We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this,” Zuckerberg told “The Daily Briefing” in an interview scheduled to …

Business Insider reports: Facebook has reportedly long known its platform encourages extremist and polarizing content, and the company’s disinterest in making changes to solve these problems goes all the way up to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The Wall Street Journal reports that research Facebook conducted internally in 2016 and 2018 showed the platform’s algorithm contributed to the proliferation of polarizing content. …

Reuters reports: Twitter Inc said on Tuesday it would take no action at this time on tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump about the 2001 death of a former congressional staff member for Joe Scarborough, after her widower asked the company to remove them for furthering false claims. In a letter to Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey that was published …

The New York Times reports: “Please delete those tweets,” the widower begged in a letter last week to Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey. “My wife deserves better.” Yes, Twitter, Lori Klausutis certainly does deserve better, nearly two decades after she died in a tragic accident that has morphed into a macabre and continuing nightmare for her husband, Timothy Klausutis.  Mr. …

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Trump is considering establishing a panel to review complaints of anti-conservative bias on social media, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that would likely draw pushback from technology companies and others. The plans are still under discussion but could include the establishment of a White House-created commission that would examine …

Carnegie Mellon University reports: Carnegie Mellon University researchers have discovered that much of the discussion around the pandemic and stay-at-home orders is being fueled by misinformation campaigns that use convincing bots. To analyze bot activity around the pandemic, CMU researchers since January have collected more than 200 million tweets discussing coronavirus or COVID-19. Of the top 50 influential retweeters, 82% …

Mediaite reports: For the past few weeks, Trump has attacked Morning Joe’s critical coverage on him by repeatedly dredging up a conspiracy theory accusation that Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski’s co-host and husband, murdered Lori Klausutis when she was his congressional intern. After blasting Trump as a “sick person” at the end of Morning Joe’s Wednesday program, Brzezinski told her social …

Buzzfeed News reports: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey emailed employees on Tuesday telling them that they’d be allowed to work from home permanently, even after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown passes. Some jobs that require physical presence, such as maintaining servers, will still require employees to come in. “We’ve been very thoughtful in how we’ve approached this from the time we were …

The Detroit Metro Times reports: Dozens of angry Michiganders, fueled by conspiracy theories and disinformation about the coronavirus, are promoting violence and mobilizing armed rallies against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Facebook, in violation of the social media company’s policies. On Sunday, after being contacted by Metro Times, Facebook removed one of the groups, Michigan United for Liberty, and deleted posts …

Politico reports: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey pledged $10 million Monday to help U.S. prisons battle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as inmates living in confined quarters remain particularly vulnerable to the disease. The donation to REFORM Alliance, a criminal justice advocacy group led by CNN analyst Van Jones, will buy 10 million face masks and other personal protective equipment for people …

The Huffington Post reports: Thousands of armed right-wing militants are plotting a violent uprising against the U.S. government during the coronavirus crisis, a new report finds, and Facebook is providing them a platform to prepare and organize. A report published Thursday by the watchdog group the Tech Transparency Project found 125 Facebook groups devoted to the idea of the “boogaloo,” …

The Associated Press reports: Facebook said it will label some election-related posts with their geographic origin in an attempt to curb political misinformation by foreign-based pages that mimic legitimate groups and political parties. The new policy will apply to popular election-related pages, and will stamp every post they make on Facebook and Instagram with its origin. For instance, an Instagram …

CNN reports: Facebook will remove some posts on anti-stay-at-home protests being organized in California, New Jersey and Nebraska after consulting with officials in those states, a company spokesperson told CNN Monday. The protests run afoul of the states’ social distancing guidelines, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said. Protests have erupted around the US in recent days as shutdown orders have been …

Jared Holt reports at Right Wing Watch: Twitter permanently suspended at least four Infowars-affiliated accounts Thursday for violating ​the website​’s policy against ban evasion, including a verified account used by one of the networks’ hosts that had accumulated more than 150,000 followers. According to Twitter, the accounts used by Infowars employees violated the site’s platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically …

Variety reports: Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and payments company Square, said he is moving $1 billion of his equity in Square to fund COVID-19 relief efforts. Dorsey, who has a net worth of about $3.3 billion according to Forbes, announced the plan Tuesday on Twitter. He said the $1 billion represents 28% of his net wealth. The funds will …