Top News:

Facebook will strengthen enforcement of ad targeting policies, add more human oversight, and urge users to report potential abuses directly — Last week we temporarily disabled some of our ads tools following news reports that slurs or other offensive language could be used as targeting criteria for advertising.
Discussion:
New York Times, @mikeisaac, BuzzFeed, SiliconANGLE, Adweek, Forbes, The Drum, @buzzfeedben, Axios, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Wall Street Journal, @mathewi, The Guardian, Business Insider, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, AdExchanger, Recode, Mother Jones, CNNMoney, @jguynn, Ad Age, @craigsilverman, @pierre, TechCrunch, The Verge, @jayrosen_nyu, @propublica, @propublica and USA Today, more at Techmeme »
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Democratic senators and representatives urge Federal Election Commission to consider rules preventing foreigners from using social media ads to influence voters — Democrats on Capitol Hill are launching new efforts to prevent Russians and other foreigners outside the U.S. from using social media …
Discussion:
CNN, Quartz, Bloomberg, The Hill, @martinheinrich and @dylanbyers


Blaming algorithms obscures the true source of Facebook's ad problem: the structure of the company's ad business and the decision-making of those who run it — Facebook's ad network lent itself to abuse by Russian hackers and racists. The problem has nothing to do with algorithms.
Discussion:
@rsingel, @kantrowitz, @selenalarson, BuzzFeed, CBS San Francisco, @willoremus, @whatthebit, @ericnewcomer, @zephoria and Fortune, more at Techmeme »


RIAA: 30M+ pay for streaming, which now accounts for 62% of US music biz; streaming revenue up 48% in first half of 2017 to $2.5B, digital downloads down 24% — Spotify, Apple Music and other services have 30 million U.S. subscribers, and streaming revenue is up 48 percent so far this year.
Discussion:
Radio & Television …, Forbes, RIAA, The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Billboard, Variety, Financial Times and Jacklail.com


Twitter will meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election next Wednesday — TWITTER HAS CONFIRMED it will meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Discussion:
Politico, Vanity Fair, Business Insider and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »


Philadelphia's The Lenfest Institute announces $1M in grants for 17 local and national small-scale projects and $1M for its Philadelphia Media Network — The Philadelphia Media Network is getting $1 million. Twelve organizations and five entrepreneurs-in-residence will be getting another …
Discussion:
@kristenhare and The Lenfest Institute …


Tencent announces suite of ad options for WeChat designed for Western brands and ad agencies, has tentative plans for self-serve ads within six months — Chinese tourists spent $35 billion dollars in the US in 2016. WeChat parent company Tencent rolled out a suite of advertising tools …
Discussion:
Fast Company, Ad Age and CNBC


Sources: CNN Digital faces $20M budget shortfall partly due to tough digital ad market and polarized political environment — CNN is having a huge year on TV, but a budget shortfall at CNN Digital has restricted travel for digital employees and scaled back expenses.
Discussion:
@perlberg, @robinwigg, @passantino and @joshsternberg


Freedom of the Press Foundation announces $2,500 bug bounty program for SecureDrop, the open-source whistleblowing tool — Created date — The SecureDrop engineering team welcomes the contributions of security researchers. SecureDrop is relied on by sources to talk with journalists …


Indian reporter Shantanu Bhowmick beaten to death covering civil unrest in country's north-east region, two weeks after murder of editor Gauri Lankesh — Shantanu Bhowmick attacked with sticks outside Agartala two weeks after high-profile murder of another journalist
Discussion:
Times of India, Press Gazette, Associated Press and The Indian Express


Swedish podcast platform Acast raises $19.5M Series B, bringing its total funding to $32M, to expand further into international markets — Podcast platform Acast, based in Stockholm, has raised $19.5 million in a Series B round from Swedbank Robur's Ny Teknik and Microcap funds to continue its internationalisation.
Discussion:
Reuters, Financial Times and VentureBeat


Society of Professional Journalists condemns police assault and arrest of St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk amid protests — ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has released a statement condemning the arrest of a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter downtown Sunday night.
Discussion:
@mike_faulk, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Rolling Stone, @ryanjreilly and @mike_faulk