Meta Platforms said on Friday [June 16] a policy that was put in place to curb the spread of misinformation related to COVID-19 on Facebook and Instagram would no longer be in effect globally. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter came under immense pressure to tackle misinformation related to the pandemic, including false claims about vaccines, prompting them to take stringent measures.
Reuters
On Capitol Hill and in the courts, Republican lawmakers and activists are mounting a sweeping legal campaign against universities, think tanks and private companies that study the spread of disinformation, accusing them of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online.
New York Times
Tales of people reading on social media about suspect, off-label uses of ivermectin to ward off COVID-19, ingesting the livestock dewormer and then suffering gastrointestinal distress might seem like the pinnacle of the 2021 zeitgeist.
PHYS.org/Colorado State University
Healthcare providers are already aware of the risk of medical misinformation on social media sites, but a new study from researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine showed just how common that unverified information is on the popular app TikTok.
PatientEngagementHIT
“Fake news” is probably a term you’ve heard before. In part due to its overwhelming use by former U.S. President Donald Trump during his first year in office, the phrase was even named “word of the year” by Collins Dictionary in 2017. Inspired by Trump, authoritarian political figures globally have used “fake news” to discredit critical reporting.
International Journalists’ Network
A roundup of four of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts.
The Associated Press
Until very recently, if you wanted to know more about a controversial scientific topic – stem cell research, the safety of nuclear energy, climate change – you probably did a Google search. Presented with multiple sources, you chose what to read, selecting which sites or authorities to trust.
The Conversation
A special committee created by the Arizona legislature to examine the state’s response to COVID-19 will feature a litany of speakers who have spread disinformation about the pandemic, vaccines, spoken at QAnon events and have conspiratorial beliefs about the virus, including believing it will usher in the “mark of the beast.”
AZ Mirror
The Supreme Court handed twin victories to technology platforms on Thursday, sidestepping an effort to limit a powerful liability shield for user posts and ruling that a law allowing suits for aiding terrorism did not apply to the ordinary activities of social media companies.
The New York Times
For the first time in more than three years, the U.S. is changing its immigration policy for asylum seekers, or people who are seeking protection from persecution in their country. This has prompted some people online to claim that the U.S. will have a “wide open border” when Title 42 ends.
VERIFY
Just days after OpenAI dropped ChatGPT in late November 2022, the chatbot was widely denounced as a free essay-writing, test-taking tool that made it laughably easy to cheat on assignments.
MIT Technology Review
Concern is growing for the future of public health and its ability to perform its essential services in an atmosphere of medical misinformation. The most recent report from Public Good News, a nonprofit newsroom led by Dr. Joe Smyser, provides damning evidence that what many of you feel in your gut is true: things are getting worse.
Public Good News
GPT-4 surpasses its predecessor in terms of reliability, creativity, and ability to process intricate instructions. It can handle more nuanced prompts compared to previous releases, and is multimodal, meaning it was trained on both images and text.
The Center for Humane Technology
ChatGPT’s release in November prompted big worries over how students could use it to cheat on all kinds of assignments. But that concern, while valid, has overshadowed other important questions educators should be asking about artificial intelligence, such as how it will affect their jobs and students.
Education Week
Fox News avoided one of the highest-profile defamation trials in history Tuesday by reaching a $787.5-million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, the company that accused the conservative channel of smearing its reputation in the weeks after the 2020 election.
Los Angeles Times
According to a Cornell-led psychology study, teens' faith in the news they read on social media -- or lack thereof -- may be key to whether it supports or detracts from their well-being.
Devdiscourse
NPR will no longer post fresh content to its 52 official Twitter feeds, becoming the first major news organization to go silent on the social media platform. In explaining its decision, NPR cited Twitter's decision to first label the network "state-affiliated media," the same term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries.
KJZZ/National Public Radio
A new University of Manitoba program aims to arm its students with journalistic techniques and critical-thinking skills in an effort to improve media literacy. Legendary journalist Cecil Rosner will teach the media literacy, critical thinking and investigative journalism program.
Winnipeg Free Press
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, acclaimed scientist and Connecticut native Dr. Peter J. Hotez has helped translate what we know about the virus and vaccines, taking countless live "news hits" from his office at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. He discusses the anti-vaccine movement, and issues a "warning." Plus, Connecticut College chemistry professor Marc Zimmer responds.
Connecticut Public Radio / WNPR
As misinformation and disinformation have inundated the internet on topics ranging from the current conflict in Ukraine to COVID-19, advocates are pushing to have media literacy taught in schools.
The Hill
