Facebook amps up ‘fake news’ antidotes. Plus: fact-checkers! – It’s kind of sad when a major feature of news coverage about Facebook’s approach to the “fake news” problem is the company’s turn to human fact-checkers rather than pure tech. Although I think it’s good news that the company does not appear ... more >
Use This New Book Excerpt to Shut Down the Fake Heroism of Christopher Columbus – Do they still teach US school kids the rhyme that starts, “In fourteen-hundred-and-ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…”? The reality is that one of Columbus’s first observations about the Arawak people was that ‘they would make good ... more >
Yahoo hack: It’s not just Verizon. AT&T should be worried too – Out of what is being called “the biggest hack ever,” (500 million accounts!) the interconnected nature of Internet companies is also being revealed. And for some AT&T customers, it seems particular unfair, because they don’t even have Yahoo email ... more >
Verizon’s Yahoo Buy May Spark FCC Privacy Scrutiny – An interesting take on the acquisition of Yahoo by Verizon. The $4.8 billion deal is likely to be approved without much difficulty, experts claim, but the nature of the acquisition – that an ISP is acquiring such a data-rich resource – is likely ... more >
Why Netflix Wants The AT&T/DirecTV Merger Killed – With the AT&T – DirectTV merger moving closer to reality, Netflix has filed a brief with the FCC, claiming that if it succeeds, the merger will give AT&T too much power over its competition (i.e. Netflix), and, more important, that AT&T will ... more >
A Message From John Sargent – I do so look forward to John Sargent”s public missives. It’s good to know all the entities we should blame – except Macmillan, of course, which is full of integrity and the best interests of “authors, illustrators, and agents” (but not readers, apparently), for ... more >