Natt Garun

Despite the many tools at teachers’ disposal, many of their students aren’t able to connect due to a lack of computers, stable internet connections, or support at home to keep them focused on schoolwork.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai unveiled his plans to reverse network neutrality in April, and the proposal is expected to face an initial vote on May 18th. On May 7, protesters from the Protect Our Internet campaign went around Chairman Pai’s neighborhood in Arlington (VA) and distributed door hangers at nearby homes, prompting people to be aware of their neighbor’s efforts to limit internet freedom.

The flyers feature a black-and-white photo of Pai, along with a short description of the chairman’s background and how his proposal would roll back open internet rules. According to a blog post by the activists, hundreds of signs were circulated and the crew received “friendly support from the neighbors they spoke to.”

Facebook's mobile app has added Town Hall to help you find your local government representatives on local, federal, and state levels. The feature fits in with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s manifesto published in Feb, where he called for a focus on using Facebook to build a more civically engaged community.

With Town Hall, you can enter your address to locate the government officials that represent your district. Facebook says it won’t share your address, though it doesn’t specify whether this information is saved. Town Hall does manage to identify officials down to your local council member. Once your results are populated, you can use the list to follow the representatives’ Facebook pages or contact them by calling, emailing, or messaging. The effort here is nice for those who want to use Facebook as a social venue for encouraging civic engagement. But relying solely on what data these officials have provided on Facebook prevents it from being genuinely helpful.

A new report says Facebook shelved an update that would have suppressed fake news from going viral on the social network. High-ranking Facebook executives were briefed on an update that identified fake news and hoaxes, but the tool was never released in fears of “upsetting conservatives.” The tool, which heavily affected right-wing media, was reportedly killed following revelations that the company’s human-curated Trending Topics team often favored liberal topics. Facebook then fired the team in place of an algorithm, which instead regularly surfaced fake news onto Trending Topics. It also updated the news feed to favor stories about friends and family over clickbait headlines and spam.

Still, Zuckerberg maintains that “99 percent of what people see [on Facebook] is authentic.” The CEO claimed that fake news worked both ways — with inaccurate stories shared on both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — though a report earlier in 2016 cites that right-wing media published misleading information 38 percent of the time compared to left-wing media’s 20 percent.