Ownership

Researcher and technologist Aviv Ovadya, one of the first to identify the fake news catastrophe in early 2016, says he is worried about an “Information Apocalypse,” which could lead to “reality apathy,” or people just giving up on finding the truth because it is too indistinguishable from misinformation. Critics continue to explore the adverse impacts of automated content and platform abuse:

This is the story of the two years [at Facebook since the runup to the 2016 election], as they played out inside and around the company. Wired spoke with 51 current or former Facebook employees for this article. The stories varied, but most people told the same basic tale: of a company, and a CEO, whose techno-optimism has been crushed as they’ve learned the myriad ways their platform can be used for ill. Of an election that shocked Facebook, even as its fallout put the company under siege.

AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said it makes no sense for the government to oppose the telecommunications giant's $85 billion buyout of Time Warner on the grounds that content distributors and content creators under the same umbrella would be anti-competitive.  He said major technology firms such as Netflix and Amazon are allowed to do the same thing. "Reality is, the biggest distributor of content out there is totally vertically integrated. This happens to be something called Netflix.

Unilever, one of the world's largest advertisers, is threatening to pull its ads from social sites such as Facebook and YouTube if the tech companies don't do more to minimize divisive content on their platforms.  Unilever’s Chief Marketing Officer Keith Weed will call on Silicon Valley Feb 12 to better police what he describes as a toxic online environment where propaganda, hate speech and disturbing content that exploits children thrives.

As CBS and Viacom dance around each other like teenagers at a ball, the US implications of a merger have been widely covered. However, as the two consider rebuilding the House of Sumner over the next couple of months, one of the most interesting aspects is the growing power of their international business.

If YouTube was looking for a little love from British lawmakers for its new initiative to label videos from news outlets that receive state funds, the company was in for a surprise.

"It has long been customary at the Federal Communications Commission for Bureaus planning to issue significant orders on delegated authority to provide those items to Commissioners 48 hours prior to their scheduled release. Then, if anyone Commissioner asked for the Order to be brought up to the Commission level for a vote, that request would be honored." That is a direct quote from then-Commissioner Ajit Pai during testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee on March 18, 2015.

The Newseum released a report on its groundbreaking Power Shift Summit held on Jan.

A group of Democratic Reps are seeking documents from Attorney General Jeff Sessions relating to the Justice Department’s decision to file a lawsuit to block AT&T’s planned merger with Time Warner. They are interested in whether the decision was in any way impacted by President Donald Trump’s disdain for CNN, a unit of Time Warner. Makan Delrahim, the chief of the Antitrust Division, denies that the lawsuit was influenced by the White House.