Mediagazer: Pex, a royalty attribution startup that scans social networks for rightsholders' content, buys Dubset, which IDs tracks on DJ sets so artists can get paid (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

8:50 AM ET, March 6, 2020

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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Twitter expands its rules around hateful conduct to include language that dehumanizes people on the basis of their age, disability, or disease — Last year, Twitter expanded its rules around hate speech to include dehumanizing speech against religious groups.

Discussion: Twitter, One Man & His Blog, MediaNama, @terrortola, @_cingraham, @whatthebit, @bubola, @digiphile, Adweek, Mashable, The Verge, Boing Boing and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

AT&T's WarnerMedia, which includes HBO, CNN, and Warner Bros., scales back its participation in SXSW, saying it decided “not to move forward with activations” — UPDATED: AT&T's WarnerMedia scaling back its participation in SXSW 2020 in Austin, Texas, joining a growing list …

Discussion: @cnnpr, Washington Post, ABC News, @nineinchnails, @ceonyc, @jacknicas, Stereogum, Dallas Morning News, CNET, Engadget, /Film, NME and KXAN-TV

Elaine Low / Variety:
Source: Netflix cancels five film screenings and a panel planned for SXSW, joining others who have canceled screenings, including Apple and Amazon Studios

Discussion: NME, /Film, NPR, @drericding, @jasonosia, @joeleydon, @martyswant, @wajahatali, @kelseymsutton, @xpangler, The Playlist, @kerrymflynn, The Week, Wired, @thr, @kerrymflynn, The Verge, Variety, IndieWire, Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, CNN, Variety and San Antonio Current

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Thrillist President Ocean MacAdams, who joined the company in 2017, is leaving; Chief Content Officer Meghan Kirsch will head the company — Ocean MacAdams has departed Group Nine Media's Thrillist, the lifestyle digital media brand covering food, drink, travel and entertainment, after two and half years, Variety has learned.

Discussion: Adweek

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Negotiations break down as YouTube TV drops the YES Network along with some, but not all, Sinclair RSNs — YES Network said it is no longer on YouTube TV, which might signal a breakdown in talks between Sinclair Broadcast Group, which acquired a group of regional sports networks …

Discussion: @yesnetwork, The Streamable, The Verge, @thatgirlondeck, @inthefade, @yankeesopranooo, @lindseyadler, @falling_nova, @alexmsilverman, @alexweprin, Multichannel News, The Wrap, Fast Company, 9to5Google, The Desk and NextTV

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube TV and Sinclair sign a deal for 19 RSNs, but the streamer won't carry the YES Network, Fox Sports Prime Ticket, and Fox Sports West, which airs LA games — YouTube TV and Sinclair Broadcast Group reached a deal covering most of the Fox regional sports networks …

Discussion: sbgi.net, Barrett Sports Media, Sports Media Watch, @xpangler, @randball, Tubefilter, Engadget and Awful Announcing

Dominic Patten / Deadline:

Dozens of Hachette Book Group staffers stage a walkout over an imprint's plans to publish Woody Allen's memoir, in solidarity with Ronan and Dylan Farrow — Just over a month before an imprint of Hachette Book Group is set to publish Woody Allen's memoir, dozens of employees of the company have staged a walkout in New York City today.

Financial Times:

UK's Independent is profitable for a third consecutive year with profit of £2.3M on revenue of £27M, up 9% YoY; it ended its print edition four years ago — Digital-only strategy pays off for first major UK newspaper publisher to close printing presses

Discussion: One Man & His Blog, Press Gazette, @jbenton, @jeffjarvis, @paulwrblanchard, @tiagodf, @jamesrbuk, @markdistef, @stevejonespa and @rasmus_kleis

Washington Post:

Study: 86K+ Facebook pages ran at least one political ad that was not properly disclosed, and ~20K ads had been purchased by “likely inauthentic communities” — The Facebook ad purchased by a page called “Angry Buckeyes” in December seemed ordinary at first …

Discussion: @tonyromm, more at Techmeme »

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Pex, a royalty attribution startup that scans social networks for rightsholders' content, buys Dubset, which IDs tracks on DJ sets so artists can get paid — Social networks are in for a rude copyright awakening. A new European Union law called Article 17 essentially eradicates safe harbor …

Discussion: Music Week, @larrysmiller and Music Business Worldwide

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

New UK culture secretary says that it would “be crazy to throw [the BBC] away” but that it missed key recent political trends, likely referring to Brexit — Oliver Dowden says BBC should be cherished but must also do more to represent whole of UK

Discussion: Press Gazette, @tom___scott, @mandoline_blue and @jimwaterson

Michael H. Keller / New York Times:

Five Eyes nations release guidelines for platforms to fight child porn; US senators introduce a bill to remove Section 230 for failure to police such content — Legislation announced on Thursday aimed at curbing the spread of online child sexual abuse imagery would take the extraordinary step …

Discussion: United States Senate Committee …, @mhkeller, @mhkeller, @dev_discourse, @davidakaye, @mhkeller, @glynmoody, Engadget, Ars Technica, MediaPost, Electronic Frontier Foundation, TechCrunch and Decipher, more at Techmeme »

Danny Ross / Forbes:

Interview with Jeremy Erlich, Spotify's new co-head of music strategy, about its 3,000 curated playlists, Spotify's role in playlisting and editorial, and more — Whether it's New Music Friday or Ultimate Indie, a Spotify playlist selection can quite literally change an artist's career overnight and reel in significant revenue.

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More News:

Peter White / Deadline:
Disney strikes an exclusive multiyear deal with Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile to distribute Disney+ via an internet bundle, starting March 24

Discussion: Variety and The Streamable

Casey Michel / The Daily Beast:
Portable.TV, a news streaming app available in the App Store, masks its ties to RT, whose content it runs exclusively and with which it shares a parent company

Discussion: @noahshachtman, @walker_ct and Raw Story

Joe Otterson / Variety:
Pop TV cancels three original TV shows that were produced by outside studios as ViacomCBS prioritizes IP owned by the company

Discussion: TV Insider, @brianstelter, The Wrap and Variety

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
James Murdoch's Lupa Systems and Betaworks to fund an accelerator for start-ups to tackle disinfo; they plan to invest $100K in 10-20 projects in the first year

Discussion: Render-from-betaworks, @rossdawson, @pistachio, @matthartman, @k8em0, @brooklynmarie, Variety, @christinemc6, @melissameehanau, @markdistef, @moorehn, @yashar, @tiagodf and @lisatozzi

Earlier Picks:

Tribune Publishing Company:
Tribune Q4: earnings of $30.8M, down from $46.5M a year ago, on revenue of $252.3M, down 11% YoY; digital-only subscribers in 2019 grew 33.6% YoY to 334K

Discussion: @jones_mattryan, @jones_mattryan, @jones_mattryan, @jones_mattryan, @jones_mattryan and @johnrussell99

MediaPost:
Patch Media, which publishes 1,200+ hyper-local news sites, says its sites now have a total of 32M MAU and newsletters have 2M subscribers

Mark Wilson / Fast Company:
MIT study: when some news stories are labeled as fact-checked and disputed, stories with the same design but no labels are validated and seen as more accurate

Discussion: @baybarsorsek, @baybarsorsek, @baybarsorsek, @baybarsorsek, @mit_quest, @baybarsorsek, @mikeelliotbarry, @j_arthur_bloom, @joshconstine and @juddlegum

Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News:
Twitter will begin testing “Fleets”, letting iOS and Android users make posts that disappear after 24 hours, in Brazil, finally using a Stories-like format

From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
The FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, the first time in 50+ years that the FTC has issued a regulation mandating an economy-wide change

Victoria Song / The Verge:
Meta rolls out multimodal AI in early access for the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, mainly to help identify objects, translate signs, and write Instagram captions

Emilia David / The Verge:
Microsoft debuts Phi-3 Mini, a small 3.8B-parameter model about as capable as GPT-3.5, and plans Phi-3 Small and Phi-3 Medium models with 7B and 14B parameters

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