Fast Company

Social media won't regulate itself. How should we?

2019 is likely to see many debates on possible regulatory strategies for social media platforms. We offer several ideas to help shape those debates. First, it’s necessary to prohibit the data-intensive, micro-targeted advertising-dependent business model that is at the heart of the problem. Second, it’s vital that countries craft rules that are appropriate to their particular domestic social, legal, and political contexts. Third, and most provocatively, it’s time to consider non-commercial ownership of social media entities–including nonprofit or some form of public ownership.

Facebook pays $238k to settle lawsuit and will halt political ads in Washington State

Facebook will stop displaying political campaign ads in Washington State in order to comply with campaign finance laws, and will pay more than $238,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging violations of those rules. Google was also alleged to have violated state laws by failing to maintain records of election ads on its platform, and ceased its political ads this summer, after Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed suit against the companies. The lawsuits will end without an admission of guilt from either Facebook or Google.

The 1996 law that made the web is in the crosshairs

In the face of that toxic content’s intractability and the futility of the tech giants’ attempts to deal with it, it’s become a mainstream belief in Washington, DC–and a growing realization in Silicon Valley–that it’s no longer a question of whether to, but how to, regulate companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to hold them accountable for the content on their platforms. One of the most likely ways for Congress to do that would be to revise Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

“You’re a terrible person”: President Trump lashes out at CNN reporter at surreal press conference

During a press conference following Nov 6's midterm election, President Donald Trump escalated his ongoing war of words with CNN’s Jim Acosta. When Acosta asked President Trump about inflating the supposed threat to America from the caravan, he responded, “Honestly, I think you should let me run the country and you run CNN.” Acosta refused to relinquish his microphone, physically tangling with an aide who sought to take it away from him. Shouting over President Trump’s attempts to move on to another reporter, Acosta managed to ask a question about the Russia investigation.

Should we break up the tech giants? Not if you ask the economists who take money from them

Amid growing concern over the power of such behemoths as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and other tech giants, in recent months there’s been a bipartisan push for better enforcement of antitrust rules–with even President Trump saying in August that their size and influence could constitute a “very antitrust situation.” The Federal Trade Commission has launched its most wide-ranging study of corporate concentration in America in more than 20 years with a series of hearings being held around the country.