RTÉ: Hate speech ads approved on social media, investigation finds. “Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube have all approved adverts featuring extreme and violent misogynistic hate speech against women journalists in South Africa, according to a new investigation by Global Witness and the South African public interest law firm, Legal Resources Centre.”
MoneyControl (India): MeitY to meet Meta, Google, other platforms and ‘brainstorm’ on deepfakes. “The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is set to meet social media platforms, including Meta and Google, in the next few days, and ‘brainstorm’ on how to mitigate the persistent issue of AI-generated deepfakes on such platforms. This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the issue of this technology, and termed it as ‘problematic’.”
Times of India: Deepfakes: Social media companies summoned over deepfakes. “The Indian government has summoned social media giants, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (now known as X), and YouTube, to discuss the law of deepfakes. This comes in response to a recent controversy overa fake video of actress Rashmika Mandanna.”
The Hill: Campaigns are using AI. Tech companies are figuring out how to disclose what’s real.. “Meta and YouTube are crafting disclosure policies for use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in political ads as the debate over how the government should regulate the technology stretches toward the 2024 election.”
Reuters: Meta, Alphabet, ByteDance, Snap must face social media addiction lawsuits. “A federal judge on Tuesday rejected efforts by major social media companies to dismiss nationwide litigation accusing them of illegally enticing and then addicting millions of children to their platforms, damaging their mental health. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, ruled against Alphabet, which operates Google and YouTube; Meta Platforms, which operates Facebook and Instagram; ByteDance, which operates TikTok; and Snap, which operates Snapchat.”
Politico: Macron: Meta, Google ‘simply don’t deliver’ on handling of hate speech. “French President Emmanuel Macron criticized big tech companies’ handling of hate speech on their platforms. In an interview with the BBC, Macron took on Meta and Google specifically, saying that they ‘simply don’t deliver’ on their engagements around content moderation on their platforms.”
The Register: Meta, YouTube face criminal spying complaints in Ireland. “Privacy consultant Alexander Hanff, who has occasionally contributed to The Register, has challenged Meta’s collection of data without explicit consent under Ireland’s computer abuse law. He told The Register he’s also in the process of filing a similar criminal complaint against YouTube over its use of scripts to detect ad blocking extensions in people’s web browsers.”
Deutsche Welle: EU to crack down on targeted social media ads. “The European Union intends to usher in stricter rules on social media microtargeting — including tougher barriers for advertisers outside of the bloc to buy political ads aimed at residents of EU member states.”
Bloomberg: Google, Meta Win EU Court Fight to Avoid Austrian Content Curbs. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok won a ruling at the European Union’s top court that limits the scope for EU nations to pepper them with their own local rules.”
Seattle Times: Google owes news outlets at least $10 billion yearly, study estimates. “A revelatory new study estimates that Google and Facebook owe U.S. news outlets at least $12 billion a year for the value news content adds to their platforms. Google owes publishers $10 billion to $12 billion annually and Facebook $1.9 billion, according to the study by professors at Columbia University and the University of Houston, with Boston-based consulting firm The Brattle Group.”
MSNBC: Big Tech whistleblowers worry their warnings aren’t being heard. “Anika Collier Navaroli testified to the House Jan. 6 committee about Twitter’s role in fueling the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, while Frances Haugen testified before Congress in October 2021 about Facebook’s ability to manipulate users and keep them addicted. They both just wrote op-eds for The Hill that highlight what little has been done since.”
Bloomberg: Google Deepmind Chief Calls Meta’s AI Criticisms ‘Preposterous’. “DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis hit back against criticisms from Meta Platforms Inc.’s chief AI scientist — who had criticized him and others in the industry for playing up the existential risks of the technology — calling them preposterous.”
New York Times: Silicon Valley Ditches News, Shaking an Unstable Industry. “Some executives of the largest tech companies, like Adam Mosseri at Instagram, have said in no uncertain terms that hosting news on their sites can often be more trouble than it is worth because it generates polarized debates. Others, like Elon Musk, the owner of X, have expressed disdain for the mainstream press. Publishers seem resigned to the idea that traffic from the big tech companies will not return to what it once was.”
AFP: EU opens disinformation probes into Meta, TikTok. “The EU announced probes Thursday into Facebook owner Meta and TikTok, seeking more details on the measures they have taken to stop the spread of ‘illegal content and disinformation’ after the Hamas attack on Israel.”
The Journalist’s Resource: FBarchive: A searchable repository of Facebook whistleblower documents . “In November 2021, Harvard Kennedy School’s Public Interest Tech Lab received an anonymous drop of information from the Haugen leak, comprising roughly 20,000 images and more than 800 internal Facebook documents, such as chat threads and research, starting from 2016. As of October 18, 2023, that information is available to the public, in a searchable format, via a virtual tool called FBarchive. Users need to register for a free account to access the archive.”
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