Snopes quits Facebook’s factchecking program amid questions over its impact

News site says it wants to ensure its efforts are a ‘net positive’ for community, as some journalists doubt program’s effectiveness

Facebook’s controversial factchecking program has lost one of its major US partners. The news website Snopes.com announced on Friday it was cutting ties with the social network.

The departure of Snopes, which has collaborated with Facebook for two years to debunk misinformation on the platform, doesn’t come as a surprise. Numerous journalists working for Facebook’s factchecking initiative have said the partnership was failing to have an impact.

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Facebook and Twitter removed hundreds of accounts linked to Iran, Russia and Venezuela

The Facebook accounts had garnered about 2 million followers and researchers say they amplified anti-west views

Facebook and Twitter both announced on Thursday they had taken down hundreds of accounts believed to have been part of coordinated influence operations from Iran, Russia and Venezuela.

Related: Apple cracks down on Facebook after it paid teens for access to their data

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Death of the private self: how fifteen years of Facebook changed the human condition

In 2004, the social network site was set up to connect people. But now, with lives increasingly played out online, have we forgotten how to be alone?

‘Thefacebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges. We have opened up Thefacebook for popular consumption at Harvard University. You can use Thefacebook to: search for people at your school; find out who are [sic] in your classes; look up your friends’ friends; see a visualization of your social network.”

On 4 February 2004, this rather clunky announcement launched an invention conceived in the dorm room of a Harvard student called Mark Zuckerberg, and intended to be an improvement on the so-called face books that US universities traditionally used to collect photos and basic information about their students. From the vantage point of 2019, Thefacebook – as it was then known – looks familiar, but also strange. Pages were coloured that now familiar shade of blue, and “friends” were obviously a central element of what was displayed. However, there was little on show from the wider world: the only photos were people’s profile pictures, and there was no ever-changing news feed.

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Facebook let children run up huge bills, court papers show

Staff discussed what to do with high-spending children before deciding to refuse refunds

Facebook has settled a class action lawsuit that had accused it of allowing children to run up huge bills on their parents’ credit cards as part of a concerted effort to maximise revenues.

Court documents obtained by the US-based Center for Investigative Reporting, initially sealed as part of a lawsuit filed in 2012, revealed Facebook staff discussed what to do with the “whales”, as they referred to the high-spending children, before deciding to refuse refunds.

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‘A blemish in his sanctuary’: the battle behind Mark Zuckerberg’s Hawaii estate

The Facebook CEO’s involvement in a family dispute over four small parcels of land worries many on an island where longtime residents have lost land to wealthy newcomers

On 22 December 2016, a retired professor of Hawaiian studies named Carlos Andrade sent a letter to dozens of his relatives informing them that he was about to sue them.

The relatives were among hundreds of partial owners of four small parcels of land on the island of Kauai, the legacy of a shared ancestor named Manuel Rapozo. A neighboring landowner, Northshore Kalo LLC, was willing to pay the legal fees to clear up the title on the property – enabling Andrade to take full ownership and compensate his fellow descendants for their shares.

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Here, here: the Swedish online love army who take on the trolls

#Jagärhär (#Iamhere) aims to battle abuse in online threads and jumps to defend those on receiving end

When a young woman with rainbow hair and a reputation for hostility towards sexual predators won a Swedish lawyer of the year award late last year, the online reaction came in two waves.

The first was unpleasant, a torrent of bile from people who objected to Linnéa Claeson’s looks, her feminist politics, her gender, her youth and her instagram account @assholesonline.

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Report: Facebook Gave AI Control Of A Crucial Personal Data Collection Tool

Facebook ceded control of a critical pillar of the company's personal data collection tools to artificial intelligence after it became too large for employees to manage, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The Silicon Valley company began forming data partnerships with the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo.

Time to finish the Wall

Russian 2016 Influence Operation Targeted African-Americans - The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard Russia favored Trump, targeted African-Americans with election meddling, reports say - The Russians set up 30 Facebook pages targeting the black community, the researchers found, and 10 YouTube channels that posted 571 videos related to police violence against African-Americans.

Report: Russia used every social media platform to back Trump

A report prepared for the Senate that provides the most sweeping analysis yet of Russia's disinformation campaign around the 2016 election found the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters' interests to help elect President Donald Trump - and worked even harder to support him while in office. The report, a draft of which was obtained by the Washington Post, is the first to study the millions of posts provided by major technology firms to the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., its chairman, and Mark Warner of Virginia, its ranking Democrat.

Questions raised over Banksy’s latest stunt as value of Girl With Red Balloon soars

Eugenie and Jack's guests including Ricky Martin, Kate Moss and Demi Moore take to Instagram to reveal scenes inside the wedding party at Windsor Castle Nothing second best about THAT kiss! Eugenie gets her Gatsby and a bigger party than Meghan after being forced to put off her nuptials for Harry's wedding Hillary Clinton gives up security clearance in wake of email scandal and permission is cancelled for five of her aides to look at state secrets as 'researchers' White retired firefighter is found GUILTY of assault with attempt to murder for firing his shotgun at a black teen who knocked on his door to ask for directions Facebook says 'only' 30 million people had their names, emails and phone numbers stolen in network's biggest ever data breach - here's how to check if you were one of them 'I will be calling at some point': Trump says he WILL raise 'terrible situation' of missing Wapo ... (more)

PIERS: Kanye is a Kardashian clown but Trump has better things to do

Eugenie and Jack's guests including Ricky Martin, Kate Moss and Demi Moore take to Instagram to reveal scenes inside the wedding party at Windsor Castle Nothing second best about THAT kiss! Eugenie gets her Gatsby and a bigger party than Meghan after being forced to put off her nuptials for Harry's wedding Hillary Clinton gives up security clearance in wake of email scandal and permission is cancelled for five of her aides to look at state secrets as 'researchers' White retired firefighter is found GUILTY of assault with attempt to murder for firing his shotgun at a black teen who knocked on his door to ask for directions Facebook says 'only' 30 million people had their names, emails and phone numbers stolen in network's biggest ever data breach - here's how to check if you were one of them 'I will be calling at some point': Trump says he WILL raise 'terrible situation' of missing Wapo ... (more)

Twitter accounts in spreading of ‘fake news’ still active

Despite the efforts of government watchdogs, news organizations and social media sites, the vast majority of Twitter accounts suspected of spreading disinformation and "fake news" in the 2016 presidential election are still operative with just weeks to go before midterm voting. That's the bottom-line conclusion of researchers from the Knight Foundation, George Washington University and social media research firm Graphika in an analysis that looked at over 10 million messages from 700,000 Twitter accounts linked to more than 600 disinformation and conspiracy news outlets.

Facebook Is ‘Teeming’ With Fake Accounts Created By Undercover Cops

An anonymous reader quotes NBC News: Police officers around the country, in departments large and small, working for federal, state and local agencies, use undercover Facebook accounts to watch protesters, track gang members, lure child predators and snare thieves, according to court records, police trainers and officers themselves. Some maintain several of these accounts at a time.

Facts Matter: No, Michelle Obama is not running for presidentAn image …

A photo posted on former President Barack Obama's POTUS44 Twitter account is a frequent fake news target, with the T-shirt altered to carry fake messages about ISIS, transgender rights, equality marches and President Donald Trump. An image making the rounds on social media appears to show Michelle Obama planning a run for office in 2020.

Mark Zuckerberg held a meeting to try and calm Facebook…

Mark Zuckerberg held a meeting to try and calm Facebook employee outrage after an exec attended the Kavanaugh hearing Facebook has been battling an employee revolt after a senior exec, Joel Kaplan, attended the Brett Kavanaugh Senate hearing in support of the US Supreme Court nominee. On Friday, the company held an internal "town hall" meeting with employees to discuss the issue, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg in attendance.