Friday, March 09, 2018

Trumping Tariffs: Keeping tabs on misinformation in the EU

Commentary: Even in world’s oldest democracies, citizens may be losing control Reuters. Political class: “You say that like it’s a bad thing!”


Trump imposes controversial tariffs


"Google Prevails In Suit Over Blog Post": Wendy Davis of Digital News Daily has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued this year


Light Rail Kensington Randwick 



SCIENCE:  Study: High cholesterol linked to better brain health after age 85


Nerve agent attack on former Russian spy forces more than 20 people to seek medical treatment









That is the new and excellent Sendhil Mullainathan NYT column, here is one excerpt from many good points:

Corporate success has similar consequences: Women who become chief executives divorce at higher rates than others.
Another study found that the same is true in Hollywood: Winning the best actress Oscar portends a divorce, while winning the best actor award does not.
Of course, the divorce itself may be a preferred outcome, one that is better than enduring a poisonous relationship. Even then, I’d argue that the tax was exacted in the emotional toll and the time lost in a failed marriage.
Men react particularly negatively to their spouses’ relative success. Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica, economists at the University of Chicago, and Jessica Pan, an economist at the National University of Singapore, examined the wages of spouses. Because women generally earn less in the work force, they generally earn less than their husbands, too.
What is more surprising in the data is that it is far more common for the husband to earn just a tiny bit more than the wife than the other way around. The fact that women on average earn less does not account for such a sharp asymmetry.



 

"Final Pre-Argument Thoughts on the Microsoft Case": Orin Kerr has this post at the "Lawfare" blog.

"Reward increased to $1.5M for info on killer of federal prosecutor Tom Wales; The appearance of U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein during a Wednesday news conference underscores the high priority the Justice Department has placed on the 16-year-old case": Mike Carter and Steve Miletich of The Seattle Times have this report.


The Fresno Files: How the Imaginary Story of a Zionist Conspiracy Was Spread in the Academic World


ANOTHER MUCH-TOUTED PSYCHOLOGY STUDY FAILS TO REPLICATE: An appetite for risk? Failure to replicate the effect of hunger cues on risk taking


WHY IS SILICON VALLEY CRUELLY EXPLOITING PEOPLE? ‘Success’ on YouTube Still Means a Life of Poverty: You can have a million views a month and still not be able to make rent. But: “One in 3 British children age 6 to 17 told pollsters last year that they wanted to become a full-time YouTuber. That’s three times as many as those who wanted to become a doctor or a nurse.”

Related: ‘I wanted to be an Instagram star… but I ended up a financial wreck’: Woman, 26, reveals how her debts spiraled as she paid for luxury holidays, the best clothes and amazing restaurants on her quest to be a social media star.. Remember, these platforms are designed to be addictive. There should probably be lawsuits and Congressional investigations. For the children!



Kevin Rudd protests that Clive Hamilton attacks are just not on – Canberra Times.

Battered Barnaby Joyce all too belatedly bails out – Jack Waterford, Canberra Times

Michaelia Cash’s slur on women staffers in Parliament this week further debased our already-degraded political system, forced Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull back into his post-Barnaby Joyce corner and further exposed a Coalition killing itself with its own mistakes, writes Michelle Grattan.

Lessons in feminism via Jacinda Adern, Michaelia Cash and Bill Shorten – the Guardian

Will Turnbull’s Snowy Hydro continue his war against battery storage – RenewEconomy

On Saturday Extra this 3rd of March, Geraldine Doogue discusses primarily elections and leadership. Italy goes to the polls on Sunday under new electoral laws, writer Tim Parks explains; Germans find out on Sunday if Angela Merkel has been able to form a coalition with the SDP five months post the election, political analyst Mark Kayser discusses and Geoff Raby, former Australian ambassador to China talks about Xi Jinping’s grab for eternal power. Also academics Sarah Teo and Ralf Emmers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore discuss Asia’s middle powers. And in the month of March Saturday Extra will be bringing a special series on emerging and established historians bringing in a new genre. ANU’s Tom Griffith explains what this is and Tony Hughes d-Aeth discusses his literary history of WA’s wheatbelt area.


Keeping tabs on misinformation in the EU

Much of the global conversation around misinformation has centered around the United States: its politics, platforms and polarized public. But other players are going to play an increasingly important role. For that reason, the IFCN will be publishing a fortnightly roundup of press coverage on the topic from EU outlets or about EU actors. In this week’s issue: The Austrian foreign minister calls a journalist “Pinocchio” and fake news — and gets sued, the United Kingdom Embassy in the U.S. apparently chose not to host a parliamentary committee on “fake news” to avoid political hiccups and much more.
Staying in the EU: Some of its efforts to curtail the influence of online misinformation have come up against legal action. Poynter’s Daniel Funke reports that three Dutch publications are suing over its EUvsDisinfo project, which they say erroneously labeled them as sources of disinformation in an online database. The news sites, which range from a regional newspaper to a small, right-leaning blog, are asking for the EU to remove those accusations and publish a correction or pay a €20,000 fine per day the content remains online.


This is how we do it

  • A new report from the Reuters Institute takes stock of different automated fact-checking initiatives around the world — and the future looks bright. Here's a video from the IFCN on how to prepare your newsroom for these tools.
  • The fact-checking outfit Demagog.cz is taking financial transparency to a whole new level.
  • Claire Wardle of First Draft is maintaining a running list of some of the best reporting on disinformation.

This is bad

  • First, it was imposter tweets. Then, someone spread fake screenshots — apparently on Snapchat — of a Miami Herald story about more school threats in South Florida, stoking fears among parents and students.
  • Germany's main tabloid fell for a satirical newspaper's planted hoax. That started a national conversation around fake news.
  • YouTube’s conspiracy theory problem might be bigger than we previously thought.
 

This is fun

  • No, “SpongeBob SquarePants” is not ending in March.
  • Repubblica calls Italian fact-checkers and Facebook partners “social network street sweepers”
  • Fake resume: This Five Star Movement candidate isn't an economist, but she reads The Economist.

A closer look

  • “Why can everyone spot fake news but YouTube, Facebook and Google?” BuzzFeed News’ Charlie Warzel asks.
  • A viral death hoax about Sylvester Stallone exposed a major flaw in Facebook’s fact-checking tool: Memes. And in the coming weeks, the platform will start allowing fact-checkers to debunk images.
  • CJR’s Mathew Ingram takes an in-depth look at “computational propaganda” on social media platforms.

If you read one more thing

Why we should stop blaming everything on Russian bots.

Quick fact-checking links

This Canadian government official wants to save democracy from fake news. But how will she do it?  //  Remember that New York Times story about fake Twitter followers? Turns out media companies have the same problem.  //  The Italian National Institute of Health launched a website debunking medical fake news.  //  Fact-checking that famous mistake at the Oscars.  //  An update to Meedan’s fact-checking platform automatically saves links to the Internet Archive.  //  Here’s what this data scientist did about fake news in his Facebook feed.  //  Michigan public radio and Bridge Magazine are partnering to fact-check the 2018 U.S. elections.  //  How conspiracies about the Parkland shooting spread from 4chan and Reddit to the mainstream media.  //  A strong candidate for correction of the year.  //  The EU’s public consultation on fake news received a lot of contributions.  //  Correctiv looks at Italy’s “Pinocchio Polizei” which apparently is keeping busy.
Until next week,
via DanielJane, and Alexios


Sydney street shut down, witnesses treated after woman jumps from Sydney Tower