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MPs grill representatives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google over online hate speech and other offensive material — Committee tells Twitter, Facebook and others they should get tough on online abuse, with one MP accusing them of ‘commercial prostitution’ — Social media companies including …
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Facebook says moderation “was not working” in response to BBC probe of sexualized photos of children on FB, where 82 of 100 reported posts were not removed — Twitter, Google, and Facebook scolded over lax response to online abuse. — Facebook has claimed that it tweaked …


Germany's justice minister introduces draft law proposing fines of up to $53M on social media companies that fail to remove hate speech — Justice ministry says Facebook and Twitter are still failing to quickly remove illegal content reported by users — The German Justice Ministry …
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New York Times, Vocativ, The Hill, TheBlaze, CNET, Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »


Sources: American Media, owner of the National Enquirer, is likely to buy Us Weekly as soon as this week for close to $100M as Tronc pulls out of deal — At this moment in matrimonial M&A, TroncUs has split, but the latter isn't content with the single life.
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New York Post, Adweek and Los Angeles Business …


Judge orders ABC to face trial in $5.7B “pink slime” defamation lawsuit brought by Beef Products Inc., but drops Diane Sawyer as a defendant — A South Dakota state judge has ordered ABC Broadcasting to face a potential $5.7 billion defamation lawsuit claiming it damaged Beef Products Inc …
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Wall Street Journal, Deadline, Sioux City Journal, Hollywood Reporter, @nicknotned and Talking Biz News


Axios plans to hire about a dozen more before end of 2017 and is now expanding now into science coverage — Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen's new media venture is already expanding beyond its core sweet spots. — Around the time that Donald Trump packed up his things and headed south to run the country …
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@mlcalderone, @alisonmsnyder, @danprimack, @sarafischer, @libbycwatson and @mlcalderone


Vice Media signs expanded deal with Snap, under which it will produce shows exclusively for Snapchat, including an eight-episode dating series — Snapchat continues to beef up its lineup of premium short-form shows: Snap Inc. and Vice Media have struck an expanded deal under which Vice will produce shows exclusively for Snapchat.
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eMarketer and Newsroom Posts, Fortune, Mediaite, TechCrunch, Adweek and Los Angeles Business …


Journalist and former TV anchor Willow Bay, spouse of Disney CEO Bob Iger, is named dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism — Just under thee years after she became the director of USC Annenberg School for Journalism, Willow Bay today has shattered a glass ceiling at the SoCal institute.


The many ties between Murdoch and Trump offer mutual benefits, with the tenor of Fox News in particular echoing Trump's nationalism and hostility to other media — The Trump era has opened with the promise of a White House foothold for media mogul Rupert Murdoch.


Interview with Sam Parr, founder and CEO of The Hustle, a newsletter that covers tech/business, has 300K subs and raised $300K from readers by offering stock — “One guy put in a hundred grand.” — Launching a general-interest tech and business news site these days seems like kind of a dumb idea — there's way too much competition.
Discussion:
Forbes and Talking Biz News


Google adds “Upsetting-Offensive” tag for its quality raters to use in flagging search results; Google engineer says “demonstrably inaccurate” info is a target — Google is undertaking a new effort to better identify content that is potentially upsetting or offensive to searchers.
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@katecrawford, more at Techmeme »

Senator Jeanne Shaheen introduces bill to give DoJ additional authority to investigate RT America for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act — New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is introducing a bill that would give the Justice Department additional authority …