November 2017

Facebook says that it supports the government’s push to further regulate election ads on digital platforms, but qualifies that it wants flexible rules.The company explained in comments it sent to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that new regulations should give “advertisers flexibility to meet their disclaimer obligations in innovative ways that take full advantage of the technological advance.” The firm explained that by “technological advances,” it means instead of firm rules requiring specific text to show up on political ads on its platform, Facebook would instead like to see a pro

Apparently, AT&T will try to dig into whether the White House influenced the Justice Department’s review of the company’s planned takeover of Time Warner if the government sues to block the deal.  In the event of a trial over the $85.4 billion deal, AT&T intends to seek court permission for access to communications between the White House and the Justice Department about the takeover, apparently. The Justice Department’s antitrust division is poised to file a lawsuit to stop the deal if it can’t reach an agreement with the companies.

Journalists working for Facebook say the social media site’s fact-checking tools have largely failed and that the company has exploited their labor for a public relations campaign. Several fact checkers who work for independent news organizations and partner with Facebook said that they feared their relationships with the technology corporation, some of which are paid, have created a conflict of interest, making it harder for the news outlets to scrutinize and criticize Facebook’s role in spreading misinformation.