Facebook Rolls Out Tool to Block Off-Site Data Gathering
Facebook is launching a long-promised tool that lets you limit what the social network can gather about you on outside websites and apps.
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Social Media
Judge Rules Against Missouri Lawmaker Who Blocked Twitter Critic
Finding that her page constitutes a public forum, a federal judge in Missouri ruled Friday that a Republican state lawmaker violated the free speech rights of a constituent she blocked on Twitter.
Read moreRacism
Indiana University officials did not violate the rights of a doctoral student who lost his research job after a man outside the university complained that the student had made racist and violent posts on social media, a federal judge ruled.
Read moreAustralian Court Upholds Dismissal of Woman Over Tweets
Australia’s highest court on Wednesday upheld a government decision to fire a public servant who used a pseudonym to criticize government immigration policy on Twitter.
Read moreFacebook Not Liable for Connecting Terrorists Among Users
The Second Circuit dealt a big win to Facebook Wednesday, ruling that online publishers cannot be held accountable for what users post — even if they’re members of a terrorist group.
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Roger Stone Hit With Sweeping Social-Media Gag Order
Imposing a social-media blackout on the president’s longtime supporter, a federal judge opted to deal with Roger Stone’s gag-order defiance Tuesday as she would a disobedient middle schooler.
Read moreEmbezzlement
Dennis Blieden, 29, formerly of Santa Monica, was charged this week in Las Vegas with 11 counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and two forfeiture counts.
Read moreTrump Backs Down From Census Citizenship Question
With the country waiting on his next move, President Donald Trump will make an announcement Tuesday afternoon about the 2020 census but it is unclear whether he will abandon or continue his fight to add a controversial citizenship question.
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Experts Urge Feds to Step In for Youth on Social Media
In a move that could upend decades of internet protection by Congress, Senator Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that the risk of child predation demands that social media companies earn the immunity they enjoy today.
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Not Real News: But in the News This Week
Here is a roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these is legit, though they were shared widely on social media. Here are the facts, beginning with the false claim that California Sen. Kamala Harris was not actually in the second racially integrated class in Berkeley.
Read moreBill to Fight ‘Deepfake’ Videos Advances in California, Despite Free-Speech Fears
With the 2020 election cycle picking up steam, a California lawmaker is seeking to protect candidates from fake social media videos he believes have the potential to change election outcomes.
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Trump’s Next Tweet Could Get a Warning Label
President Donald Trump’s next tweet might come with a warning label. Starting Thursday, tweets that Twitter deems to involve matters of public interest, but which violate the service’s rules, will be obscured by a warning explaining the violation and Twitter’s reasons for publishing it anyway. Users will have to tap through the warning to see the underlying message.
Read moreTech Giants Talk Efforts to Combat Hate and Fake News
Officials from Google, Twitter and Facebook testified Wednesday before a House committee on strategies for countering misinformation and terrorist propaganda on their platforms, amid President Donald Trump claiming they are trying to rig the 2020 election.
Read moreIslamic State Backer Earns Sympathy at Sentencing
Showing leniency to a New Jersey-born recruiter for the Islamic State group, a federal judge handed down a two-year sentence Wednesday in place of the 30-year term pushed by prosecutors.
Read moreExperts Address Legal Battles Between Free Speech, Tech Companies
A tech giant’s influence on free speech, a defamation lawsuit against a Twitter cow and Donald Trump’s Twitter account were at the center of the First Amendment Roundup hosted by the Los Angeles County Bar Association on Thursday.
Read moreJudges Reveal Stress, Scrutiny They Face in Their Jobs
Former and current judges spoke at an event co-hosted by Berkeley Law and the National Constitution Center Social Wednesday on how judges deal with stress, public scrutiny, and the emotional pressure of the job in the age of social media.
Read moreFederal Watchdog Calls for Firing of Kellyanne Conway
A government watchdog agency said Thursday that top White House aide Kellyanne Conway should be fired for numerous violations of the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of federal employees working in the executive branch.
Read moreFacebook’s Zuckerberg Focus of Latest Doctored Video
Three weeks after Facebook refused to remove a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slurring her words, Mark Zuckerberg is getting a taste of his own medicine: fake footage showing him gloating over his one-man domination of the world.
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SEC Claims Canadian App Maker Kik Sold $100 Million in Unregistered ‘Tokens’
The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Canadian mobile app developer Kik Interactive Inc. after the company sold 1 trillion digital tokens that the SEC claims were not registered under securities laws.
Read moreFDA Goes After Vaping ‘Influencers’ on Social Media
The Food and Drug Administration called out vaping companies Friday for violating advertising rules through their social media promotions of flavored nicotine products by paid “influencers.”
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