Mediagazer: Chinese government orders removal of four popular news apps, including Jinri Toutiao with 120M DAUs, for a period ranging from three days to three weeks (Associated Press)

12:15 PM ET, April 10, 2018

Top News:

Timothy Burke / Deadspin:

Creator of Deadspin's Sinclair video montage says his intent was apolitical and worries about how the video could be used to confirm people's distrust of news — This past weekend, the media watchdog group Allied Progress began airing a message on Sinclair Broadcast Group stations urging viewers …

Discussion: Poynter, Washington Post, Deadline, AOL, Slate, Forbes, Chicago Sun-Times, MediaFile and Crikey

Eli Rosenberg / Washington Post:

Sinclair commentator Jamie Allman resigns following advertising boycott sparked by his sexually violent tweet directed at Parkland survivor David Hogg — A conservative commentator at a Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned television station in St. Louis has resigned after a statement he made threatening …

Discussion: New York Daily News, Newser, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Deadline, HuffPost, @stareagle, @tomgara, @nickkristof, @sophiabush, USA Today, The Wrap, iMediaEthics, News Blog, Riverfront Times, @lehmannchris, Media Matters for America and The Daily Beast

Donie O'Sullivan / CNNMoney:

Investigation: owner of Facebook's biggest Black Lives Matter page, now suspended, appears to be based in Australia and may have taken some of ~$100K donations — For at least a year, the biggest page on Facebook purporting to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement was a scam with ties …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Gizmodo, Mashable, @joshgnosis, The Guardian, The Hill, Fortune, Quartz, @dylanbyers, The Daily Caller, Engadget, @cwarzel and @oliverdarcy, more at Techmeme »

Associated Press:

Chinese government orders removal of four popular news apps, including Jinri Toutiao with 120M DAUs, for a period ranging from three days to three weeks — Four popular Chinese news apps have been temporarily removed from the Android store in China following an order from regulators …

Discussion: South China Morning Post, globaltimes.cn and Nikkei

Tom Warren / The Verge:

High-profile accounts and popular music videos on YouTube were hacked and defaced, and the most-viewed video of all time, “Despacito”, disappeared briefly — Lots of popular music videos have been defaced — YouTube appears to have fallen victim to hackers today …

Discussion: BBC, Business Insider, Mashable, Engadget, Gizmodo, @davelucas, The Guardian, @karthikb351, Fast Company and The FADER, more at Techmeme »

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony says Facebook dealt with several Russian threats, including from APT28, before the 2016 US election — The most interesting part of Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony for Congress that was released today shows that Facebook has been fighting Russian …

Discussion: TVNewser, Fortune, Variety, Recode, The Daily Beast, The Hill and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Jon Swaine / The Guardian:

Sinclair CEO David Smith says he told Trump “we are here to deliver your message” during campaign but that he made a similar offer to the Clinton camp — The rightwing broadcaster met Trump at the White House to pitch a potentially lucrative new product to officials

Discussion: The Wrap and CNNMoney

Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:

Gizmodo CEO Raju Narisetti out as parent company Univision becomes more involved and considers cuts — Gizmodo Media Group's top executive is exiting the company—a sign that parent Univision plans to get more directly involved with its flagship digital media property as it weighs deep cuts.

Discussion: The Wrap, New York Post, @mitrakalita, scribd.com, Adweek, @oneunderscore__, @ashleyfeinberg, @nash076, @maxwelltani, @coreypein, Talking Biz News, @barry, @justinjm1 and @maxwelltani

Megha Rajagopalan / BuzzFeed:

Vietnamese human rights groups, independent journalists question if Facebook is helping suppress dissent by removing content flagged by state-sponsored trolls — The open letter from human rights activists and independent media groups in Vietnam criticizing Mark Zuckerberg comes ahead …

Discussion: Reuters and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Richard Nieva / CNET:

Twenty child advocacy and privacy groups ask FTC to investigate whether YouTube violates COPPA, a federal law designed to protect kids' online privacy — Consumer and privacy groups say the Google-owned video site is violating online child privacy laws. — YouTube is in hot water again …

Discussion: Naked Security, The Daily Beast and TechCrunch

Newsmax:

Newsmax Media Inc. names former Fox News Executive VP of News Michael Clemente CEO for Newsmax Broadcasting, which airs the Newsmax TV channel — Newsmax Media Inc., has named television executive Michael Clemente as its Chief Executive Officer for its subsidiary Newsmax Broadcasting, which airs the Newsmax TV channel.

Discussion: The Hill, Associated Press, The Wrap, @existentialfish, TVNewser and Mediaite

Pew Research Center:

Pew: the 500 most-active suspected bot Twitter accounts are responsible for 22% of links from prominent news and media sites that are shared on Twitter — An estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by automated accounts - not human beings

Discussion: MediaNama, @pewinternet, Nieman Lab, Engadget, MediaPost, The New York Observer, Adweek, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

The Intercept:

Court files, including video and ~2,000 pages of docs, show how the Assad regime allegedly tracked and killed Marie Colvin for reporting on war crimes in Syria — It is a horrifying artifact of our digital era: a jumpy 18-minute-and-49-second cellphone video of a Skype call.

Discussion: @mollycrabapple, @rj_gallagher and @areidross

Owen Bowcott / The Guardian:
Family of Sunday Times' Marie Colvin file claim alleging Assad regime killed her, making it the first war-crimes related case against Syrian govt to reach court

Discussion: Kuwait Times, The Daily Beast, New York Times, Newsweek, Washington Post, The Independent and Al Jazeera English

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John Byrne / Alternet:
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Pamela McClintock / Hollywood Reporter:
In its annual report on the health of the film business, MPAA finally includes home entertainment spending, which rose 11% YoY to $47.8B thanks to streaming

Discussion: The Guardian

Mark Glaser / MediaShift:
MediaShift has laid off most of its staff and is exploring a sale of its site and newsletters, with publication suspended for the moment

Discussion: MediaPost and @jasonalcorn, Thanks:@steverubel

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Discussion: AOL, Associated Press, Politico, @reliablesources and Washington Post

Reuters:
Sources: Viacom has asked CBS to increase its valuation of the company by $2.8B to $14.7B

Discussion: Adweek, Forbes, Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter

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Financial Times:
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David Pierce / The Verge:
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Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
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