California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched CaliforniaFireFacts.com on Saturday to address what he calls ‘mis- and disinformation’ being spread online about the recent fires in Southern California.
KGTV ABC10 San Diego
The Kremlin is using uncertainty following the ouster of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, and the potential loss of Russia’s military toehold in Syria, to accuse the United States of sowing instability in the country.
Voice of America
Meta’s plans to scale back fact-checking apply only in the United States for now, the company said, nodding to domestic political realities in a way that is set to widen the gap between what users experience on social media in and outside the country.
The Washington Post
Experts generally agree that dry weather, strong winds, and climate change are to blame for the catastrophic firestorms in Southern California, which since Tuesday have roared across more than 25,000 acres and displaced tens of thousands of people.
Vanity Fair
Less than two weeks before Donald Trump is reinstated as President, Meta is abandoning its fact-checking program in favor of a crowdsourced model that emphasizes ‘free expression.’ The shift marks a profound change in how the company moderates content on its platforms.
TIME Magazine
An artificial intelligence feature on iPhones is generating fake news alerts, stoking concerns about the technology’s ability to spread misinformation.
CNBC
Finland is consistently ranked as Europe's most media literate country and the skills needed to spot online hoaxes are on the school curriculum, amidst a boom of mis- and disinformation campaigns.
Voice of America
Taiwan ’s government says China is redoubling efforts to undermine confidence in the self-governing island’s democracy and close ties with the United States through the spread of disinformation, especially online.
The Associated Press
When does a public relations campaign become something more insidious? When and how does PR slide into propaganda and disinformation?
Psychology Today
When Elon Musk asked his 211 million followers on X to vote on whether ‘America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government,’ it seemed as if the post could only be tongue-in-cheek.
The New York Times
If the Senate confirms Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary and Dave Weldon as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it would elevate two prominent vaccine critics to the highest levels of U.S. health policymaking.
The Washington Post
The United States has imposed sanctions on two groups linked to Iranian and Russian efforts to target American voters with disinformation ahead of this year’s election.
The Associated Press
Overseeing a social media platform that has grown from 5 million users to more than 25 million in 10 months is about as far as you can get from Aaron Rodericks' former career as a federal public servant.
CBC News
A leading United States government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department has said, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism.
Aljazeera / Agence France-Presse
Chris Morris, who left the BBC to lead fact-checking nonprofit, Full Fact, tells Josiah Mortimer that critical thinking skills are crucial amid a surge in false narratives and risky AI tools.
Byline Supplement
Days after New Hampshire voters received a robocall with an artificially generated voice that resembled President Joe Biden’s, the Federal Communications Commission banned using AI-generated voices in robocalls.
Poynter Institute
The Russian disinformation network Matryoshka has launched a new campaign on the Bluesky social network. Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative journalism group Bellingcat, has been one of the first researchers to detect its activity. So far, four Russian-made fake videos have been identified on the platform.
The Insider
While separated by the Atlantic Ocean, the use of modern media, in addition to economic pressure and geopolitical relationships, has narrowed the distance between Latin America and the Caribbean and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Center for Strategic and International Studies
President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk played a key role this week in killing a bipartisan funding proposal that would have prevented a government shutdown, railing against the plan in a torrent of more than 100 X posts that included multiple false claims.
Associated Press
Experts on cybersecurity and online foreign influence campaigns are urging social media company Bluesky, whose app has exploded in popularity in recent weeks, to step up moderation to counter potential state-sponsored influence efforts.
Voice of America