Wall Street Journal

Facebook is overhauling its “trending topics” box, part of its effort to curb fake news and expose users to a broader range of information. Starting Jan 25, Facebook’s software will surface only topics that have been covered by a significant number of credible publishers, a move designed to cut back on hoaxes by giving more weight to information sources that have been around longer. What’s more, the topics will no longer be personalized to every Facebook user, which could puncture users’ so-called filter bubble and expose them to a variety of different news sources and events.

Facebook has changed its trending feature several times since last spring, after allegations that Facebook contract workers who selected the headlines altered what appeared, for political reasons. In August, Facebook fired the contract workers and opted for a largely software-driven approach. This change, which did away with headlines in favor of hashtags and keywords, quickly led to the appearance of false stories in the box. After the November US presidential election, employees and outsiders criticized Facebook’s laissez-faire attitude toward fake news and its role in creating and enforcing echo chambers, in which like-minded users share and read articles that confirm their beliefs.

Software giant Oracle said it briefed European regulators late in 2016 on recent changes to Google’s privacy policies in hopes of compounding its rival’s already complicated regulatory challenges. In June, Google asked users to accept a new privacy policy that allowed it to combine their browsing and search data, giving the company more robust profiles of its users. Oracle said it told antitrust regulators that the policy change will make it harder for other companies to compete by enabling Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., to even more accurately target ads to users. Privacy advocates have also complained to US regulators. “‘Super profiles’ now a reality,” reads a headline on one slide of a presentation that Oracle provided to regulators. “Policy change gives Google, exclusive, unprecedented insight into users’ lives.” An EU official confirmed regulators had been briefed by Oracle on the privacy-policychange and said they were taking the allegations “seriously.”

A saturated wireless market has hindered giants Verizon Communications and AT&T even as competition from smaller rivals exerts a drag on subscriber and revenue growth. The carriers’ earnings reports are unlikely to offer much encouragement.

Google runs the world’s largest advertising business, selling space atop its search results. Google is also among the biggest buyers of those ads, promoting products from its music service to its app store. These days, Google often pushes its growing list of hardware products, from Pixel phones to Nest smart thermostats, in the top ad spot above its search results. A Wall Street Journal analysis found that ads for products sold by Google and its sister companies appeared in the most prominent spot in 91% of 25,000 recent searches related to such items. In 43% of the searches, the top two ads both were for Google-related products.

Whatever you make of the outcome, the 2016 elections sucked many of us into a social media black hole that hasn’t left us much wiser or more empowered. So I’ve been hunting for nonpartisan online tools that actually help keep politicians of all stripes accountable. I found some potent new services, like the Internet Archive’s searchable database of everything President-elect Donald Trump says on TV. But I also found a remarkable disconnect between government—especially state and local—and the consumer-friendly apps we need to make it personalized, simplified and timely.

Financial reports and interviews with former SpaceX employees depict robust growth in new rocket-launch contracts and a thin bottom line that is vulnerable when things go awry. They also show the company putting steep revenue expectations on a nascent satellite-internet business it hopes will eventually dwarf the rocket division and help finance its goal of manned missions to Mars. SpaceX projected the satellite-internet business would have over 40 million subscribers and bring in more than $30 billion in revenue by 2025, according to the documents. The internet service is currently in planning stages without a factory or a full-fledged team of engineers.

President-elect Donald Trump said he would put his assets into a trust and relinquish control of his business to his two adult sons in an effort to avoid conflicts of interest during his presidency.

President-elect Trump will sever management ties to the Trump Organization and play no role in its operations under the terms of the trust. While he is in office, his real-estate empire will abide by “severe restrictions on new deals,” an attorney retained by the president-elect said. If foreign governments make payments to his hotels—including a new one near the White House— President-elect Trump plans to donate all profits to the US treasury, said the attorney, Sheri Dillon. The announcement drew sharp criticism from ethics experts who said the steps are inadequate to create a clean separation between Trump’s business interests and his presidency.

The next time you dial customer service, who answers your call may be determined by what you have said on Facebook. Companies from casino operator Caesars Entertainment to wireless carrier Sprint are increasingly checking social media and other personal data to tailor calls for each customer. The practice, however, raises concerns among privacy advocates.

Malicious software used in a hack against the Democratic National Committee is similar to that used against the Ukrainian military, a computer-security firm has determined, adding evidence to allegations that the hackers who infiltrated the DNC were working for the Russian government. The malware used in the DNC intrusion was a “variant” of one designed to help locate the position of Ukrainian artillery units over the past two years, the security company, CrowdStrike, said in a report released Dec 22. The artillery units were deployed to defend Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. CrowdStrike concluded that the malware used against the Ukrainian military was designed by a hacker group known to security experts as Fancy Bear. The American security firm said the group works for the Russian military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, and was one of two Russian hacker outfits that stole emails from the DNC earlier in 2015.

[Commentary] Divining what Trumponomics will look like is guesswork at this stage, but there is one prominent exception. Late in the campaign, two of Donald Trump’s top economic advisers—Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross, who is now the nominee for commerce secretary—offered a detailed infrastructure plan. Unsurprisingly, the program seems more about rewarding private-equity investors than about rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. The Trump plan would rely more on private investors motivated by huge tax breaks. Follow the money. Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross, who is now the nominee for commerce secretary, propose an 82 percent tax credit to attract private-equity investors into the infrastructure business. Yes, 82 percent! A $3 billion public-private “partnership,” according to their plan, could be financed like this: $2.5 billion in municipal bonds, $410 million in tax credits from the federal government, and $90 million in private equity. This means $90 million in private money winds up controlling a $3 billion asset. President-elect Trump likes leverage, but isn’t 33-to-1 a little ridiculous?

And under the Trump plan, project selection would be left to profit-seeking investors, using the same criteria they use to decide which hotels to build, for example. Ironically, Navarro and Ross criticize President Obama’s modest 2015 infrastructure proposals because, “These will not fix the 237,600 water mains that break each year. Nor will they stop the 46 billion gallons of water lost each day from pipe leaks.” Does the Trump team really think private-equity investors will swoon over repairing plumbing?

[Blinder and Krueger are professors of economics at Princeton University]