Journalism

Google is creating an even more secure login process for users at high risk of online attacks. The new Advanced Protection feature focuses on defending against phishing, accidental sharing, and fraudulent access to accounts. The feature has been introduced for users such as journalists who need to protect their sources, or campaign staffers during an election.

The program will use Security Keys, which are small USB or wireless devices required to sign into accounts. Google says they’re the most secure version of two-step verification; they use public key cryptography and digital signatures to confirm a person’s identity. Security keys can be fiddly, so Google says they’re for users who don’t mind carrying them around, using the Chrome browser on desktop, and using Google apps, as the key won’t work with the iPhone’s mail, calendar, and contact apps.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is facing increasing pressure to distance himself from President Donald Trump’s threats against NBC — a course of action that would risk provoking the president’s Twitter-fueled wrath. Democrats have refused to let the issue die in recent days, with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel warning that “history won't be kind to silence" on Trump's threats to the First Amendment. Chairman Pai could confront public questions about the issue as soon as Oct 17 at a telecom law event in Washington, forcing him to choose between his longstanding defense of freedom of speech and the man who made him chairman. If Chairman Pai weighs in, he risks repeating the pattern of other Trump appointees whose words and actions have drawn the president's ire and imperiled their positions in the government.

“Ajit is in a really very awkward situation, but I assure you he is on our side — we being the people who generally believe in free speech,” said Berin Szóka, president of libertarian group TechFreedom, which supports Pai's FCC agenda. “I think it’s unfair to jump up and down and insist that if he doesn’t pick a fight with the president, he doesn’t really care about the First Amendment.” Szóka outlined several scenarios in which President Trump could act to retaliate if he doesn't like what the FCC chairman has to say. President Trump could demote Chairman Pai to commissioner and elevate another FCC Republican, Mike O’Rielly or Brendan Carr, to chairman, although Szóka noted that both are probably similar to Chairman Pai when it comes to their positions on the First Amendment. President Trump could also replace Commissioner O'Rielly with a "loyalist" and name that person chairman when the term is up in 2019.

Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) joined the growing number of Democratic lawmakers who are calling on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to disavow President Donald Trump’s calls to challenge certain media outlets’ broadcast licenses. Sen Blumenthal sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asking him to commit to not infringing on media outlets’ First Amendment rights.

“As FCC Chairman, sworn to uphold both the Constitution and the Communications Act, you have a duty to condemn this attack and reassure our nation and our journalists that you will stand up for them and protect and defend their fundamental freedoms," Sen Blumenthal wrote in a letter. “I ask for your unwavering commitment that you will ensure the First Amendment remains a cornerstone of our democracy and that you will not follow through on this direction from the President."

[Commentary] The tools of technology should strengthen, not weaken, democracy. To that end, we should require greater disclosure of the funders of online political advertisements. Tech firms also need to make heavy investments into weeding out fake accounts and false news. Even if tech companies do not adopt the journalistic standards of newspapers, they must offer readers, particularly students, some way of distinguishing fact from opinion. It’s heartening to see companies already making efforts to take some of these steps. Admitting their own shortcomings without delay and showing measurable progress will be key to earning the public’s trust.

Technology offers us hope for a new prosperity and understanding for this century. But it will take enlightened leadership. More than stock prices or product launches, Silicon Valley’s legacy will be defined by whether tech leaders step up to contribute to the larger American experiment.

President Donald Trump again denied allegations of sexual assault made against him before he took office, calling the claims "fake news" and "made-up stuff." “All I can say is it’s totally fake news — just fake. It’s fake, it’s made-up stuff. And it’s disgraceful what happens,” President Trump told reporters during an impromptu White House Rose Garden press conference. “That happens in the world of politics,” he added.

The president's remarks come after reports surfaced Oct 15 that lawyers for Summer Zervos, who accused Trump of groping her in 2007, issued a subpoena to his campaign for any records about “any woman alleging that Donald J. Trump touched her inappropriately.”

[Commentary] The president’s use of a public platform like Twitter to talk directly with the American people is unprecedented for the presidency, and it raises legal, ethical, and cultural issues that have never been tackled in American politics. The more outrageous President Donald Trump’s online comments have become, the more coverage they’ve received, creating a symbiotic relationship that has come to define Trump’s relationship with the media that covers him. But it has also boxed in a press corps that has come to simultaneously depend on and benefit from Trump’s Twitter torrent. Just because it’s being tweeted by the president, is it news?

In effect, Twitter has given Trump the illusion of transparency and accessibility without his having to actually provide them—or the accountability that usually comes with a two-way conversation with the press. It allows him to state untruths with impunity, knowing that his tweets will be widely redistributed by his followers and the media, and to dodge follow-up questions or criticism.

[Mathew Ingram is a former senior writer with Fortune magazine]

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission said that the FCC needs to stand up tall for the First Amendment and against threats against TV station licenses leveled by President Donald Trump. Commissioner Rosenworcel said that the FCC would definitely not pull the license of a station at the behest of the President, but she said it was important for all the commissioners "to make clear that they support the First Amendment and that the agency will not revoke a broadcast license simply because the agency is dissatisfied with the licensees' coverage."

Since his election as president, Donald Trump has tweeted to or about Fox News nearly 130 times. The most recent example was early Oct 16, when Trump shared a comment from economist Art Laffer that had just been made on a Fox network. How do we know that was the origin of the quote? President Trump made sure to tag Fox News in the tweets. He might also have tagged Fox Business, the network he was watching.

Which is unusual: He’s usually watching “Fox and Friends” on weekday mornings, a show he’s mentioned or retweeted 79 times as president — once every three days or so. What’s critical to remember, though, is that President Trump’s interest in Fox News predates his presidency substantially. Since 2010, he’s tweeted about Fox News more than 1,200 times, most heavily in 2015 as he enjoyed the network’s coverage as he tried to woo Republican voters — and most often between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., when “Fox and Friends” is on.

Tech journalists covering Facebook had a duty to cover what was happening before, during, and after the election. Reporters tried to see past their often liberal political orientations and the unprecedented actions of Donald Trump to see how 2016 was playing out on the internet. Every component of the chaotic digital campaign has been reported on, here at The Atlantic, and elsewhere: Facebook’s enormous distribution power for political information, rapacious partisanship reinforced by distinct media information spheres, the increasing scourge of “viral” hoaxes and other kinds of misinformation that could propagate through those networks, and the Russian information ops agency.

But no one delivered the synthesis that could have tied together all these disparate threads. It’s not that this hypothetical perfect story would have changed the outcome of the election. The real problem—for all political stripes—is understanding the set of conditions that led to Trump’s victory. The informational underpinnings of democracy have eroded, and no one has explained precisely how.

[Commentary] President Donald Trump’s constant press attacks carry a worldwide price — they hurt America’s ability to stand for democratic freedoms around the world. “When the president consistently speaks that way, there’s a loss of U.S. influence and credibility on matters of press freedom,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Even if Trump can’t really get a network’s broadcast license revoked or libel laws changed, he can still can — and does — undermine American values, both here and abroad, when he attacks the press. And no amount of transparency-by-tweet or backslapping access for reporters can make up for that.