Top News:
Amar Toor / The Verge:
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 …
Discussion:
New York Times, TechCrunch, The Hill, Fortune, Vocativ, TheBlaze, Forbes, CNET and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »
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Alan Travis / The Guardian:
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 …
Kelly Fiveash / Ars Technica UK:
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 …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
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, Los Angeles Business …, Adweek, Mediaite, Fortune and TechCrunch
Reuters:
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, @nicknotned, Sioux City Journal, Hollywood Reporter and Talking Biz News
Emily Jane Fox / Vanity Fair:
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 …
Discussion:
@danprimack, @sarafischer, @mlcalderone, @libbycwatson, @alisonmsnyder and @mlcalderone
Dominic Patten / Deadline:
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.
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
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
Ken Doctor / TheStreet.com:
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.
Discussion:
Adweek, New York Post and Los Angeles Business …
Hadas Gold / Politico:
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 …
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
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.
Discussion:
@katecrawford, more at Techmeme »
Ted Bridis / Associated Press:
AP analysis: Obama administration spent $36.2M on legal costs incurred by fighting FOIA requests, setting a record for outright denial of access to files — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration in its final year in office spent a record $36.2 million on legal costs defending its refusal …
Discussion:
@heidiprzybyla, @johnfund and The Daily Caller
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