Dec 07 Hospitals refused to give patients Ivermectin. Lockdowns and political pressure followed By Matt Volz, Kaiser Health News Hospitals in Montana and Idaho reported threats and harassment from public officials and family members of patients who were denied treatment with a drug not authorized to treat COVID-19. Continue reading
Nov 05 Millions depend on private messaging apps to keep in touch. They’re ripe with misinformation By Saher Khan, Vignesh Ramachandran And while social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have come under intense scrutiny for hosting misinformation, private messaging services like Telegram, South Korea’s Kakao, the China-based WeChat and the largest--WhatsApp--have been more difficult to monitor because they host private,… Continue reading
Oct 28 Exxon CEO denies spreading disinformation on climate change By Matthew Daly, Associated Press Exxon CEO Darren Woods is among top officials testifying Thursday as congressional Democrats investigate what they describe as a decades-long campaign to push disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming. Continue reading
Oct 26 Facebook froze as anti-vaccine comments swarmed users By David Klepper, Amanda Seitz, Associated Press Despite evidence that it worked, Facebook took a full month to implement the changes at a pivotal time in the global vaccine rollout. Continue reading
Oct 08 Google cracks down on ads promoting climate change denial By Kelvin Chan, Associated Press Google will no longer allow digital ads promoting false climate change claims to appear next to the content of other publishers, hoping to deny money to those making such claims and to stop the spread of misinformation on its platform. Continue reading
Oct 08 Americans agree misinformation is a problem, poll shows By Amanda Seitz, Hannah Fingerhut, Associated Press Nearly all Americans agree that the rampant spread of misinformation is a problem. Most also think individual users, along with social media companies, bear a good deal of blame for the situation. Continue reading
Oct 05 WATCH: ‘Choices being made inside Facebook are disastrous,’ whistleblower says By News Desk Frances Haugen, a former data scientist for Facebook, testified to Congress on Oct. 5 about the tech giant’s negligence of acknowledging its societal harms, particularly to children. Continue reading
Sep 29 YouTube bans false vaccine claims By Amanda Seitz, Associated Press The ban on vaccine misinformation comes as countries around the world continue to offer free immunizations for COVID-19 to a somewhat hesitant public. Continue reading
Aug 11 YouTube suspends Rand Paul after misleading video on masks By Associated Press YouTube has suspended U.S. Sen. Rand Paul for seven days after the Kentucky Republican posted a misleading video suggesting face masks don't prevent infection by COVID-19. The video was also removed. Continue reading
Jul 21 Watch 6:07 What Americans should know about the delta variant, masks — regardless of vaccine status Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. life expectancy has fallen by a year and a half, the largest one-year decline since World War II. Black and Hispanic Americans were hit the hardest, dropping by almost 3 years. As the delta variant… Continue watching