Mediagazer: Instagram, which has largely escaped scrutiny, is teeming with conspiracy theories, misinformation, and extremist memes, boosted by its recommendation algorithm (Taylor Lorenz/The Atlantic)

2:15 PM ET, March 21, 2019

Top News:

Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:

Instagram, which has largely escaped scrutiny, is teeming with conspiracy theories, misinformation, and extremist memes, boosted by its recommendation algorithm — When Alex, now a high-school senior, saw an Instagram account he followed post about something called QAnon back in 2017 …

Discussion: @taylorlorenz, @jameshamblin, @elizabethethorp, @qhrizpolley and @cwarzel, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Sources: Apple's new TV service to be unveiled Monday will be a storefront for other streaming services, where Apple will set and offer its own bundles — Apple's TV plans, explained. (Spoiler: Apple isn't taking on Netflix yet.) — After years of circling the TV business …

Discussion: BGR, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, @pkafka, @pkafka, @pkafka, @pkafka, Bloomberg, Talking Biz News and Editor & Publisher, more at Techmeme »

Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Sources: WSJ plans to join the new paid tier of Apple News to be announced on Monday, expected to cost $10/month; NYT and The Washington Post have opted out

Discussion: Gizmodo, Fortune, The Verge, CNBC, @nytimesbusiness, @caro_milanesi, @mdudas, @mikeisaac, @zidanism, Engadget, MacRumors, 9to5Mac and MAC blog, more at Techmeme »

Lucia Moses / Business Insider:
Sources: top publishers with good subscription numbers think a paid Apple News tier could cannibalize existing subs; smaller publishers have little to lose

Discussion: @bobbierman and @lmoses

David Sharman / HoldtheFrontPage:

Google DNI grants €500K to publishers Reach and JPIMedia for a local audio news platform and €398K to Newsquest for a community news sharing tool — Two regional publishers have won half a million Euros worth of funding for a joint project aimed at improving their audio output.

Discussion: Press Gazette, Press Gazette and The Keyword

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Former Recode EIC Dan Frommer launches The New Consumer, covering e-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands with a twice-a-week newsletter, for $200/year — Dan Frommer has worked at some of the best-known publications in tech and business journalism — he was editor in chief of Recode …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, The New Consumer, @fromedome and @fromedome

Facebook:

The NZ shooting video was harder to block on Facebook than official terrorist propaganda videos because the latter aren't rebroadcast or reshared widely — We continue to keep the people, families and communities affected by the tragedy in New Zealand in our hearts.

James Vincent / The Verge:

Four European Wikipedia sites are blocking access and directing users to contact their EU representatives on March 21 to protest the copyright directive — Sites including Reddit, Twitch, and PornHub are also encouraging users in the EU to contact local politicians

Discussion: Wikimedia Foundation, Upvoted, Global Voices, Business Insider, Boing Boing and The Next Web, more at Techmeme »

Paige Leskin / Business Insider:

YouTube shut down Fantastic Adventures, a channel with 800K subscribers, as creator gets arrested for allegedly mistreating her kids who performed in the shows — - YouTube creator Machelle Hackney, behind the popular channel “Fantastic Adventures,” has been arrested in connection …

Discussion: NBC News, The Wrap, BuzzFeed News, Washington Post, @broderick, @brionykidd, @ambiej, The A.V. Club and The Daily Caller

Julia Jacobs / New York Times:

Bustle names Dan Peres as editor in chief of Gawker.com; Peres was editor in chief of Condé Nast's men's fashion magazine Details for 15 years — Gawker's parent company, Bustle Digital Group, has named the journalist Dan Peres as the editor in chief of Gawker.com …

Discussion: @yoda, @mlcalderone, @jamesfdennin, @johannabarr and @jeremymbarr

Emily Bell / Columbia Journalism Review:

After the events in New Zealand, journalists and tech companies should once again reflect on their roles in how extremist material enters the public square — Journalism has a panopticon problem. Just like the watchman in the center of Jeremy Bentham's theoretical circular prison …

Discussion: @jbenton and @columbiajourn

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:

Sources: Amazon is beta testing video ads on its shopping app on iOS with plans for a similar product for Android later in 2019 — - Online retailer pushing video ad space in its smartphone apps — Product-related video content can keep shoppers from defecting

Discussion: @rasmus_kleis, more at Techmeme »

Laura M. Holson / New York Times:

After Rep. Devin Nunes sued Twitter and the @DevinCow account claiming defamation, the parody account gained 465K+ followers, surpassing his own follower count — Consider this: A parody account pretending to be an imaginary cow owned by Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican …

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

With no spammy notifications, bots and troll mentions, email newsletters are becoming a more attractive medium than news feeds for writers — SAN FRANCISCO — My favorite new social network doesn't incessantly spam me with notifications. When I post, I'm not bombarded with @mentions from bots and trolls.

Discussion: @millie, @alexisohanian, @nikillinit and Boing Boing

Sarah Feldberg / Columbia Journalism Review:

A lawsuit in California about the employment misclassification of delivery truck drivers prompts some companies to stop working with freelance reporters — Carrie Bell likes being her own boss. A full-time freelancer for nearly 18 years, she covers entertainment and travel for outlets like Yahoo and PopSugar.

Discussion: @malenawatrous, @rachaelmyrow, @paperalphabet, @candjattorneys, @wordchem and @bu_law

Caroline Haskins / Motherboard:

Interviews detail the ongoing battle on YouTube between children-focused channels making animated videos and those featuring humans — Animated videos dominate the kids YouTube space. Humans are fighting against YouTube's algorithm to try and compete. — Last month, news feeds were saturated with distressing headlines about Momo.

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More News:

Michelle Castillo / Cheddar:
Sources: Netflix is upping its “marketing partnership” efforts, which include licensing characters and doing product placements in its shows

Discussion: @jonesonthenba

Sara Guaglione / MediaPost:
Forbes launches Forbes8, a streaming service aimed at entrepreneurs, featuring over 2,000 pieces of video content for $8.99 per month

Vlad Savov / The Verge:
By integrating Stadia into YouTube, Google plans to cement YouTube's dominance, as 200M users already watch gaming content there every day

Discussion: @oscb, @intelligencer, @glenngabe, @glenngabe, 9to5Google, Business Insider and TechCrunch

Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
In its first quarter since going public, Tencent Music posts net loss of $127M on $785M revenue, mainly due to a one-off share-based charge to label partners

Discussion: RAIN News, Billboard, CNBC, Billboard, Variety and Tencent Music, more at Techmeme »

Reading Eagle:
The Reading Eagle Company in PA, with 236 full-time employees, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, plans to keep publishing its newspaper as it seeks a buyer

Discussion: Poynter, CNN, @rogerdupuis2, @riley_yates, @bobcesca_go and @richterific

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Despite a diverse Democratic field for president in 2020, national media outlets focus on three white men, depicting candidates as characters in a drama

Discussion: @sulliview, @nprinskeep, @jrubinblogger, @amy_siskind, @amlwhere, @jayrosen_nyu, @katzonearth, @bobstep, @projomike, @heidilifeldman, @bykowicz, @sulliview, @sullivanamy, @nickconfessore, @karaswisher, @sjdemas and Slate

Jamie McGee / The Tennessean:
LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, says it will close all 170 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores in 2019

Discussion: WHNT-TV, The Alabama Baptist and Baptist Press News

Lauren Easton / The Definitive Source:
AP's VP for Standards, John Daniszewski, highlights attacks on journalists globally, at an International Press Institute event at the UN: “We need to get angry”

Discussion: @dabeard

Earlier Picks:

Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
Interview with Donna Brazile on her job with Fox News, the role of the network and others in fomenting hate, and why she thinks reaching Fox viewers is valuable

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Britain's counter-terrorism chief criticizes newspapers for publishing “manifestos” of killers while they blast digital platforms for hosting extremist content

Discussion: @owenjones84, @meralhece, @nadiakhomami, @nealcurtis, @theauracl3, @jamesrbuk, @jimwaterson, @cheng_christine and @marklittlenews

Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google launches two new fact-checking tools for journalists and says 50 partners are working with Subscribe With Google, including The Washington Post and FT

Discussion: Digiday, @googlenewsinit, @google, The Keyword, Search Engine Land and Fortune

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Analysts say ripple effects of the Disney-21st Century Fox deal may not be clear for years: predictions include 3,000+ layoffs and more competition in streaming

Discussion: Variety, Fox News, @tonkohouse, Hollywood Reporter, @thr, Hollywood Reporter, FierceVideo, Multichannel News, Business Insider, Vanity Fair, MacRumors, The Week, Variety and Bloomberg

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
Comcast says it is launching a new service on Thursday but declined to specify what it will be, with some speculation that it's a smart-home hub for TVs

Norberto Santana Jr / Voice of OC:
Around 33 newsrooms in California, including The LA Times and the Orange County Register, join forces to report on recently released police misconduct files

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @garveymcvg, @aclu_norcal, @jeremiahdobruck, @raju, Sacramento Bee, LAist, CNN, Los Angeles Times and Santa Rosa Press-Democrat

EU Press Room:
The European Commission has fined Google €1.49B for “abusive practices in online advertising” and breaching EU antitrust rules

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Deloitte Digital Media Trends: 47% US consumers are frustrated by subscriptions, 75% prefer pay TV with fewer ads, 82% say companies don't protect user data

Discussion: Adweek, MediaPost, USA Today, USA Today, @usatodaymoney, @karlbode, @rafat, American Press Institute, Awful Announcing, @macemoneta and Dark Horizons, more at Techmeme »

From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

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