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
Jul 15 As 9 out of 10 U.S. children remain unvaccinated, Surgeon General pushes back against misinformation By Laura Santhanam Public health experts fear that the more the virus spreads among the unvaccinated, the more chance that variants could mutate and unravel progress made against the pandemic in pockets of the country where the vaccination rate remains dangerously low. Continue reading
May 05 Watch 7:06 Board member explains decision to keep Trump off Facebook for now, and why he may be back By Stephanie Sy, Courtney Norris, Maea Lenei Buhre Four months after Facebook indefinitely suspended former President Donald Trump's account, the company's oversight board backed the initial decision to throw him off the platform at the time. But the board may have opened the door to allowing Trump back… Continue watching
Apr 11 Watch 8:04 Exploring Hate: An inside look at anti-extremism training in the military By PBS NewsHour Nearly one in six people charged in the January 6 Capitol siege are military veterans. To address the growing concerns of misinformation and extremism within the ranks, Secretary Lloyd Austin implemented a stand down to train active troops around the… Continue watching