Month: January 2020

Facebook Said It Won’t Change Its Policies On Allowing Lies In Political Ads

Facebook will not make any changes to its policies around political advertising, including ones that allow politicians to lie in ads and micro-target specific audiences, the company announced on Thursday. Facebook’s announcement follows intense pressure from lawmakers in the last few months over the company’s decisions to allow politicians to…

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Facebook Is Running Anti-Vax Ads, Despite Its Ban On Vaccine Misinformation

Earthley Screenshot of the Earthley pamphlet that is being advertised on Facebook. The vaccine for whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is currently among the best ways to prevent an illness that kills more than 160,000 people each year, many of them babies. The vaccine is safe and does not…

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A Pro-Iran Instagram Campaign Targeted The Trump Family After Soleimani’s Funeral

The same day Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s funeral procession filled the streets of Ahvaz, Iran, thousands of pro-Iran Instagram accounts worked in coordination to tag the US president’s family in image posts ranging from the Iranian flag to a beheaded Donald Trump. The Instagram accounts for Ivanka and Melania Trump were…

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Twitter Will Let You Limit Who Can Reply To Your Tweets. It’s Unclear How People Will Use This New Feature To Harass Each Other.

Suzanne Xie, Twitter’s director of product management, told the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas Wednesday that the platform would soon be allowing users to restrict who could reply to their tweets. According to the Verge, Xie said that Twitter would have a new setting called “conversation participants.” The…

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A Facebook Executive Said The Platform Is Responsible For Trump’s Election

Facebook is still reckoning with its role in the 2016 election as it heads into a contentious 2020 presidential race, according to a newly leaked executive memo and a shifting set of policies around manipulated content issued Tuesday. The 2,500-word memo from longtime Facebook executive Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, which was…

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Here’s A Running List Of False And Unverified Information About The Killing Of Qassem Soleimani

Many accounts are spreading false or unconfirmed information, including the claim that Eric Trump knew of the airstrike in advance. By Jane Lytvynenko Jane Lytvynenko BuzzFeed News Reporter Last updated on January 6, 2020, at 5:29 p.m. ET Posted on January 3, 2020, at 12:55 p.m. ET Atta Kenare /…

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