Mediagazer: Facebook should have a searchable database of all ads and ramp up authenticity requirements for all buyers, not just for those self-reporting as political (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)

6:00 PM ET, October 3, 2017

Top News:

Sydney Smith / iMediaEthics:

CBS and other news outlets update erroneous Tom Petty obits stemming from what an LAPD spokesperson says was a miscommunication between an officer and CBS Radio — Is Tom Petty dead? Monday afternoon, news outlets began reporting that the famous rock musician and frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers died after a heart attack.

Kurt Wagner / Recode:

Profile of Alex Stamos, Facebook's chief security officer who, sources say, is leading the internal investigation into Russian meddling — How much did Russia use Facebook during the campaign? Stamos is trying to find out. — Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump was elected president …

Discussion: @karaswisher, @teddyschleifer, @mtfarnsworth, Fortune and The Hill, more at Techmeme »

BuzzFeed:
Google, Twitter, and Facebook now play big roles in politics to gain revenue and influence; they should work together on campaign ad transparency and disclosure

Discussion: @shannimcg, @chanders and @zeynep

Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Facebook should have a searchable database of all ads and ramp up authenticity requirements for all buyers, not just for those self-reporting as political

Discussion: @vfhive, @tomgara, @tomgara, @shannimcg, @craigsilverman, @saila, @dwallacewells and @kevinroose, more at Techmeme »

Washington Post:
Sources: Russians used Facebook's Custom Audiences retargeting tool to ID voters and send specific ads and messages to influence them

Discussion: CNNMoney, The Hill, @mikeisaac, The Root, @profgalloway, @mattrosoff, @kylegriffin1, Forbes, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, @alexismadrigal, @digiphile and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Max Read / New York Magazine:
How Facebook's increasing size and scope, potential for abuse, and new use cases led Zuckerberg to rethink its neutral role and emphasize community values

Discussion: The Daily Dot and Quartz, more at Techmeme »

Elliot Schrage / Facebook:
About 10M people saw Russian ads on Facebook, 44% of ads were seen before Nov. 8, 50% of ads were for $3 or less; for 99% of the ads, less than $1,000 was spent

Discussion: CNNMoney, The Verge, ABC News, BetaNews, Neowin, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Fast Company, Fortune, Recode, New York Magazine, The Guardian, The Wrap, Forbes, KTLA, Engadget, Axios, Mediaite, BuzzFeed and Mashable

New York Times:
Sources: Russian efforts included FB pages named Secured Borders, LGBT United, Defend the 2nd, alongside formerly reported fake Blacktivist and Muslim accounts

Discussion: TechCrunch, Gizmodo and Business Insider

Mary Hui / Washington Post:

CBS fires vice-president and senior legal counsel Hayley Geftman-Gold over Facebook comments saying she had no sympathy for Las Vegas victims — CBS fired a company executive Monday after she criticized some victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting as “Republican gun toters” who did not deserve sympathy.

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

How the big tech platforms including Facebook, Google, and Twitter, who've pledged to provide accurate information during major crises, are failing miserably — In aftermath of Sunday evening's mass shooting in Las Vegas, visitors to Facebook's Crisis Response page for the tragedy …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Mashable, Fast Company, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, @zittrain, Los Angeles Times, @alexismadrigal, Mediaite, Ad Age, @yayitsrob and iMediaEthics, more at Techmeme »

Cale Guthrie Weissman / Fast Company:
Facebook's Safety Check page for Las Vegas shooting promoted sites giving misinformation like Alt-Right News and End Times Headlines; Google highlighted 4Chan

Wall Street Journal:

Verizon says Yahoo breach in 2013 affected all of its 3B users, up from initially reported 1B users — Company disclosed late last year that 2013 hack exposed private information of over 1 billion users — A massive data breach at Yahoo AABA 1.95% in 2013 was far more extensive than previously disclosed …

Discussion: Oath, The Wrap, CNBC, @jandawson, @charlesarthur, MacRumors, The Next Web, @troyhunt, The Verge, Business Insider and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Mujib Mashal / New York Times:

A look at Etilaat e Roz, a hard-hitting Afghan newspaper funded by advertising and donors, and the rise of the country's independent news media post-2001 — KABUL, Afghanistan — The first time Zaki Daryabi started a small newspaper in Afghanistan, it shut down within months.

Discussion: @nytimesworld, @ramizbakhtiar, @mujmash and The Guardian

Bethania Palma / Snopes.com:

More than two dozen celebrity Facebook pages regularly link to clickbait sites; Facebook's spam filters appear circumvented — We tracked 29 fake domains that post to verified celebrity pages through an unknown mechanism. Here is what we found. — As the discussion about Facebook's role …

Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:

Interactive news features often break or disappear from the web, worrying archivists — “I like to talk about it as reading today's news on tomorrow's computer.” — So many pioneering works of digital journalism no longer exist online, or exist only as a shadow of their former selves.

Taylor Lorenz / The Hill:

Ex-White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci has launched The Scaramucci Post, a media company he claims will be “millennial-first” and centrist — NEW YORK — Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci officially launched his new media company at a Monday night event.

Discussion: New York Times, BuzzFeed, Bloomberg, The A.V. Club, Washington Post, @jayrosen_nyu, Vanity Fair, Mashable, Fortune and The New York Observer

Thomas Heath / Washington Post:

Sources: Emerson Collective's Laurene Powell Jobs is buying a stake in Monumental, owner of NBA Wizards, NHL Capitals, Capital One Arena; deal awaits league OK — Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis and Emerson Collective President Laurene Powell Jobs watch the Mystics playoff game courtside …

Discussion: CNBC, Business Insider and MacRumors

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:

Steve Coogan says the role of Piers Morgan and other Mirror execs in phone hacking scandal has not been properly scrutinized — Steve Coogan has said he believes phone hacking took place for “up to 15 years” at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People newspapers.

BBC:
Comedian Steve Coogan wins damages and an apology from Mirror Group Newspapers over phone hacking; MGN counsel admits Coogan was target of “unlawful activity”

Discussion: Sky News, Prolific North, The Independent, ITV and The Guardian

Bloomberg:

YouTube signs on as the presenting sponsor of the 2017 World Series, in a bid to promote its $35/month cable-like TV service, YouTube TV — YouTube's $35-a-month online TV bundle launched six months ago — Google's YouTube has signed on as the presenting sponsor for the 2017 World Series …

Discussion: Forbes, The Wrap and Broadcasting & Cable

Maxwell Tani / Business Insider:

John Cook, Gizmodo Media Group's special projects executive editor and former Gawker executive editor, says in memo that he is leaving the company — Gizmodo Media Group's special projects executive editor, John Cook, is set to leave the company. — Cook will become the latest former top …

Discussion: @annamerlan

Julie Zauzmer / Washington Post:

Anthony Federico, fired from ESPN in 2012 over a racist headline about NBA player Jeremy Lin, is now training to be a Catholic priest — Within moments, what started as an ordinary late shift in the office at ESPN turned into one of the worst nights of Anthony Federico's life.

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More News:

Chris Kahn / Reuters:
Reuters/Ipsos: US confidence in press rose to 48% in Sept. from 39% in Nov. 2016; confidence rose 3 points among Republicans, 11 points among Democrats in 2017

Discussion: The Daily Dot, Washington Examiner and The Hill

Yomi Kazeem / Quartz:
The family of disgraced athlete Oscar Pistorius is suing US channel Lifetime over a film about the runner's murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp

Discussion: The Guardian

BuzzFeed:
Security and digital rights experts condemn new proposed laws in UK under which people repeatedly viewing extremist content could face up to 15 years in prison

Discussion: @libertyhq, @stuartmillar159 and @jamesrbuk

Earlier Picks:

David Meyer / ZDNet:
German online hate speech law with up to €50M fines now in effect; German justice ministry may reportedly target sites like Reddit, Tumblr, Vimeo, Flickr, too

Discussion: Quartz, Reuters, Engadget and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Kristen Hare / Poynter:
Democracy Fund and Knight Foundation funded community journalism engagement project Gather launches; features searchable database, case studies, other resources

Discussion: Let's GATHER, Journalism.co.uk, Journalism.co.uk and Nieman Lab

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft discontinues Groove Music Pass service, effective December 31, partners with Spotify, which it will recommend to Windows users instead

Discussion: Forbes, RAIN News, Mashable, MacRumors, Neowin, Gizmodo, Engadget, On MSFT, Variety, Business Insider, GeekWire, BetaNews, ZDNet, Windows Experience Blog and The Next Web

From Techmeme:

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
The second developer beta of iOS 18.2 shows a “daily limit” for free access to “advanced” ChatGPT via Siri and an option to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus in Settings

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is exploring a push into smart glasses by conducting an internal study, codenamed Atlas, to gather employee feedback on products on the market

Bloomberg:
Sources: Canadian authorities arrested Alexander “Connor” Moucka, who is allegedly behind hacks in June and July of up to 165 Snowflake customers including AT&T

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