The Guardian

Journalists working for Facebook say the social media site’s fact-checking tools have largely failed and that the company has exploited their labor for a public relations campaign. Several fact checkers who work for independent news organizations and partner with Facebook said that they feared their relationships with the technology corporation, some of which are paid, have created a conflict of interest, making it harder for the news outlets to scrutinize and criticize Facebook’s role in spreading misinformation.

Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, has said its “blue tick” verification process is “broken” after it verified the organiser of a far-right rally. Twitter  was criticised after Jason Kessler, who organised the Unite the Right rally which sparked violence in the US town of Charlottesville in August, tweeted on Wednesday to confirm he had been verified by the platform. Twitter’s official support account confirmed that its verification system had been “paused” following the backlash.

[Commentary] As lawmakers grapple with the revelations regarding Russia’s manipulation of social media during the 2016 election, many are shocked to learn the outsized role that the major tech companies play in so many aspects of our lives. Not only do they guide what we see, read, and buy on a regular basis, but their dominance – specifically in the market of information – now requires that we consider their role in the integrity of our democracy. In my view, the size of these companies is not – in isolation – the problem.

The media regulator Ofcom has ruled that the Fox News programmes Hannity and Tucker Carlson Tonight breached impartiality rules covering British broadcasting. The rulings relate to coverage of the Manchester Arena bombing in May and President Donald Trump’s executive order in January that restricted travel to the US from seven majority-Muslim countries. Investors interpreted the rulings as a setback for the Murdoch family’s hopes of taking full control of Sky.

The Internet Association -- which counts Google, Facebook, Twitter and others among its members -- reversed course and said it will support the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), a bill designed to make it easier to sue websites that enable sex trafficking online. The bill has been a source of tension between the technology industry and Washington for months.

[Commentary] Big Tech is broken.  Suddenly, a wide range of journalists and politicians agree on this. For decades, most of the media and political establishment accepted Silicon Valley’s promise that it would not “be evil,” as the first Google code of corporate conduct put it. But the past few months have brought a constant stream of negative stories about both the internal culture of the tech industry and the effect it is having on society. The Tech Left believes it must urgently transform the industry in order to stop it from serving nefarious ends.