Mediagazer: An overview of 14 independent news sites in Cuba covering underreported issues and winning international awards despite lack of legal recognition by the state (Elaine Diaz/Global Investigative …)

8:45 PM ET, April 7, 2018

Top News:

Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja dies after being shot by Israeli forces while wearing a jacket marked “PRESS” — Yaser Murtaja was shot in the stomach during Friday's mass protests, bringing death toll to 31 since March 30. — A Palestinian journalist shot by Israeli forces during …

Discussion: Washington Post, Reuters, @faresakram, CNN, @liam_o_hare, The Hill, Al Jazeera English, @leloveluck, Slate, The Times of Israel, @kenroth, ThinkProgress, Haaretz, @lovedaym, Associated Press, NPR and The Week

Facebook:

Facebook will only allow authorized advertisers to post ads on widely discussed issues like political topics, will require verification of admins of large Pages — We believe that when you visit a Page or see an ad on Facebook it should be clear who it's coming from.

Susan Benesch:

Twitter partners with academic researchers to test whether showing users the Twitter rules will improve online behavior and reduce abuse — With multiple methods, online abuse can be greatly diminished—if we also discover which methods actually work in which situations.

Discussion: @karunanundy, @ctcharlton, Fortune, Engadget, TechCrunch, Greensburg Tribune-Review and The Verge

Blake Montgomery / BuzzFeed:

Federal government seizes classified advertising site Backpage.com and related domains, Arizona home of founder Micheal Lacey raided — Backpage.com, the popular classified ads website, went offline Friday after being seized and disabled by the federal government.

Laura Lollman / KASW-TV:
Seven people indicted in Arizona on 93 counts related to Backpage.com; charges include money laundering and running a website to facilitate prostitution

Discussion: Arizona Republic, TechCrunch, The Wrap, thecut, CNET, Hit & Run, Washington Post, Sedona Red Rock News, KVOA-TV, Engadget, Motherboard, KPTV-TV, New York Post and Great Circle Media

Cary O'Reilly / Bloomberg Law:

Department of Homeland Security to compile database of journalists, bloggers, and influencers in an effort to track 290K global news sources in 100 languages — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile …

Discussion: @katelinthicum, fbo.gov, Engadget, Gizmodo, @tedlieu, @ddale8, TheBlaze, ThinkProgress, RTDNA Recent Articles, Boing Boing, Forbes, Media Law Prof Blog and The Week

Jonathan Beaton / HuffPost:

Ex-Sinclair reporter says he quit after being ordered to ask politically biased questions; Sinclair is suing him for $5,700 for leaving before contract expired — I quit my job at a television station owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, and I am fighting the company in court for trying to claw back $5,700.

Discussion: @kerima_cevik, Orlando Sentinel, Fast Company and Editor & Publisher

NPPA:
Sinclair rescinds promised $25K donation to the NPPA after it issued a critical statement about Sinclair's comments and coordinated messaging about the media

Discussion: @jcstearns, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap and Poynter

David Zurawik / Baltimore Sun:
Anti-Sinclair ad featuring Deadspin video montage scheduled to run 175 times on four Sinclair stations over the next week, beginning Friday

Discussion: Poynter and HuffPost

The Denver Post Editorial Board / Denver Post:

The Denver Post blasts owner Alden Global Capital for newsroom cuts as Digital First Media papers report solid profits, asks Alden to rethink business strategy — The photo on the left shows 142 members of The Denver Post's newsroom staff in the newspaper's lobby as it existed on May 15, 2013.

Discussion: @dancbarr, Denver Post, @paulgoldberger, @noelle_phillips, @jillstewart, @mffisher, @scmitchp, @bykimberleya, @connieschultz, @ruralj, @dangillmor, @nocerabv, The Wrap, @jowens510, @mattdpearce and @bruce_arthur

BuzzFeed:

The Sri Lankan government and civil society groups say that Facebook has failed for years to monitor and remove accounts inciting ethnic violence in Sri Lanka — Extremists in Sri Lanka used Facebook to organize deadly violence against Muslims. Facebook is accused of not doing enough to prevent it.

Discussion: @rmac18 and @buzzfeedben, more at Techmeme »

Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed:

Source: YouTube releasing new version of YouTube Kids within coming weeks with option to turn off algorithmic video suggestions and only show curated channels — YouTube is planning to release a new version of its YouTube Kids app that will do away with algorithmically suggested videos …

Discussion: Engadget, Fortune, 9to5Google, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Mashable, Android Police, The Verge and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Paul Mozur / New York Times:

Myanmar civil society groups say Zuckerberg mischaracterized efficacy of Facebook systems to detect hate speech on Messenger in their country in Vox interview — SHANGHAI — Civil society groups in Myanmar on Thursday criticized Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Business Insider, Fortune, The Hill, Forbes, @kevinroose, @francis_wade, @ethanz and CNNMoney, more at Techmeme »

Daniel Funke / Poynter:

A look at Projeto Lupe!, a fact-checking Messenger bot for Brazil's upcoming election funded by ~$75K from Facebook and inspired by Le Monde's Les Decodeurs — Editor's note: This story has been updated with Facebook's latest monthly user numbers for Brazil.

Valeriya Safronova / New York Times:

How Conde Nast's brands are pivoting to video, experimenting with different formats, moving away from Facebook to YouTube, and creating content for clients — It took three men two hours to shoot a 63-second overhead instructional video of Laura Rege, a recipe developer …

Elaine Diaz / Global Investigative Journalism Network:

An overview of 14 independent news sites in Cuba covering underreported issues and winning international awards despite lack of legal recognition by the state — Between 2001 and 2017, 14 media organizations were launched in Cuba that are already making an impact on and off the island.