Social Media

The Associated Press reports: Facebook left millions of user passwords readable by its employees for years, the company acknowledged Thursday after a security researcher exposed the lapse. By storing passwords in readable plain text, Facebook violated fundamental computer-security practices. Those call for organizations and websites to save passwords in a scrambled form that makes it almost impossible to recover the …

Yahoo News reports: A lawsuit by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, aimed at Twitter and some of its users for alleged defamation and negligence, has led to a huge spike in followers for one of the parody accounts he targeted. Now, late night host Stephen Colbert has taken it a step further by creating another parody account aimed at the Republican …

The Streisand Effect is in full force: One of the parody Twitter accounts singled out by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has gained viral attention and tens of thousands of new followers since Nunes announced his lawsuit on Monday. The account “Devin Nunes’ cow” (@DevinCow), which, like Twitter itself, is being sued by Nunes for defamation, has amassed nearly 150,000 followers …

Via press release: The ACLU, along with our client Communications Workers of America, and other civil rights groups, announced a historic settlement agreement with Facebook that will result in major changes to Facebook’s advertising platform. Advertisers will no longer be able to exclude users from learning about opportunities for housing, employment, or credit based on gender, age, or other protected …

Devin Nunes surely approves. The Moscow Times reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a controversial set of bills that make it a crime to “disrespect” the state and spread “fake news” online, Russian media reported on Monday. The bills amending existing information laws overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Russian parliament in less than two months. Observers and some lawmakers …

The New York Times reports: Stung by obscene and pointed criticism, Representative Devin Nunes, a Republican from California, has sued Twitter and three users for defamation, claiming the users smeared him and the platform allowed it to happen because of a political agenda. The complaint, filed in Virginia on Monday, seeks $250 million in damages. In making his case, Mr. …

Axios reports: Facebook wants to deliver more local news, but there aren’t enough local news outlets across the U.S. to do so, according to research the platform released Monday morning in conjunction with four academic researchers. Facebook and rival Google have shouldered blame for creating local news deserts by upending the business models of small, local newspapers. Now, the tech …

From an op-ed published last night by Junior: Even as Big Tech companies work to exclude us from the town square of the 21st century, they’ve been able to rely on misguided conservatives to carry water for them with irrelevant pedantry about whether the First Amendment applies in cases of social media censorship. Left unchecked, Big Tech and liberal activists …

The Daily Beast reports: Reddit took down two of its most notorious subreddits on Friday, apparently because their users were sharing footage of the New Zealand mosque shootings. Visitors to two subreddits known for sharing video and pictures of people being killed or injured—R/WatchPeopleDie and R/Gore—were met with a message saying the forums had been “banned from Reddit.” Reddit didn’t …

CNN reports: Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are struggling to halt the spread of horrific footage that appears to show a massacre at a mosque in New Zealand as it was taking place. Dozens of people were killed Friday in shootings at two mosques in the city of Christchurch. “New Zealand Police alerted us to a video on Facebook shortly after …

The New York Times reports: Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world’s largest technology companies, intensifying scrutiny of the social media giant’s business practices as it seeks to rebound from a year of scandal and setbacks. A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent …

NBC News reports: Twitter has offered the public its first look at a new prototype for the Twitter app, which the company is calling “twttr” in a nod to CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, that includes a variety of changes to how Twitter looks and operates, centered on a new format for conversations and color-coded replies. The prototype …