Facebook beats Twitter at fighting fake news, a new study found

Reality has had a tough year. When the president of the United States is denying that thousands of Americans died in a hurricane, journalists face an uphill battle. That battle has been particularly fraught on social networks, where malicious actors have spent the past several years peddling hoaxes and sowing division.

But today I bring you at least one reason for optimism. “Trends in the Diffusion of Misinformation on Social Media,” a new study from authors at Stanford University and New York University, analyzed the performance of stories posted on fake news sites from January 2015 to July 2018. Here’s what they found (emphasis mine):

Interactions with these sites on both Facebook and Twitter rose steadily through the end of 2016. I…

Continue reading…

House lawmakers want answers from Google on censored Chinese search engine

Since news broke last month that Google is working on a censored search engine for the Chinese market, the company has faced unrelenting criticism from lawmakers. In the latest demand, a bipartisan group of 16 House representatives is looking for answers on the still-secretive plan.

To launch the project, reportedly called Dragonfly, Google would have to cooperate with the Chinese government’s strict surveillance and censorship measures, a prospect that has ignited controversy inside and outside the company. Last month, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai about the project, but his response was blasted as insufficient.

Criticism of the company has only accelerated since….

Continue reading…

Samsung unveils three new AKG wireless headphones

Samsung is releasing three wireless AKG headphones today, a selection of neckbuds, on-ear, and over-the-ear headphones named the Y100, Y500, and N700NC respectively. Samsung is focusing on balancing environmental noise with this series. The Y100s and Y500s both feature “Ambient Aware” technology that lets users hear surrounding sound, while the NC700NCs have adaptive noise canceling that lets listeners control the amount of surrounding sound they want to hear.

Prices range from $99.95 for the Y100 neckbuds to $149.95 for the Y500 on-ear headphones to $349.95 for the more premium noise-canceling over-the-ear N700NCs. Although the N700NC headphones are the most expensive of the bunch, besides the adaptive noise canceling, the Y500…

Continue reading…