Daily Archives: January 27, 2020

Facebook's program to hire third-party fact-checkers to crack down on misinformation on the platform has been ramping up, with partners adding staff and expanding their work.

But the program still facesskepticism fromactivists and tech industry critics who say the company and its partners are still not providing the resources needed to address the scope of the problem on a platform withmore than 2 billion users.

Launched in December 2016 after intense criticism of how Facebook handled false or misleading content in the last presidential election, the third-party fact-checker program shifts responsibility for verifying the accuracy or truthfulness of content from Facebook to independent, verified outside organizations.

Facebook does not fact-check content itself. However, it does send posts that its algorithm flags as potentially false to its partners. The partners can review the content flagged by Facebook or search for and identify false content themselves.

There are six partners in the program evaluating U.S. content. Those The Hill reached out to all said they had recently or were currently adding staff to their efforts.

Lead Stories, which became a Facebook partner early last year, has seven people working full time on fact-checks. Together they review roughly 60 to 70 pieces of content per month, the sites editor-in-chief Alan Duke told The Hill.

Heading into the election year Lead Stories plans to hire at least four more employees and ramp up to 200 pieces of content fact-checked a month.

2020 is going to be intense, Duke said in an interview last month. We're staffing up, [Facebook] helped us staff up, and theyve given us the resources to do many times what were able to do to scale up.

The editor of PolitiFact, a fact-checking website that looks at political posts on Facebook, told The Hill that it was fact-checking nearly 50 pieces of content per month in 2019 but plans to double that figure in 2020.

To get there, the nonprofit, which is operated by the Poynter Institute, will add to its five person Facebook fact-checking team.

Editor Angie Holan, when asked how much content flagged by Facebook Politifact reviewed in a day, described the flow of posts as "almost like a never ending list.

For our intents and purposes it's more stuff than we can get to in a day, she explained.

Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Centerat the University of Pennsylvania, has two people dedicated to Facebook content and is planning on hiring an editor to oversee that work, director Eugene Kiely said.It currently fact-checks about 20 pieces of content a month and plans to increase that number to deal with an expected rise in misinformation tied to the 2020 census and presidential election.

Check Your Fact, an affiliate of the conservative news outlet the Daily Caller, declined to answer inquiries about its staff and output. According to information on its website, the program has three full time staff and fact-checked 50 pieces of Facebook content in November and 48 in December.

The Associated Press declined to provide detailed answers but its website mentions three full time employees working on Facebook posts who fact-checkedeight pieces of content each of the last two months.

Science Feedback, the final of the six partners, could not be reached for comment. The international fact-checker, which focuses on science and health content, has six full time staff and fact-checked six pieces of Facebook content in November and nine in December.

Together, Facebooks six partners have 26 full-time staff and fact-checked roughly 200 pieces of content per month.

Experts who spoke to The Hill said those changes were insufficient to make a serious dent in the fake accounts and disinformation they say are rampant on Facebook.

The volume seems inadequate given the scale of the challenge that Facebook faces, Paul Barrett, deputy director of theNew York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, said.

If you're going to operate a site like Facebook, you would want to have resources available commensurate with the degree of false and misleading content. On a site with 2.4 billion monthly actively users youre almost inevitably going to have a very high volume of false material.

An official for Facebook told The Hill the platform is still adding partners and improving its flagging system. They acknowledged there is no "silver bullet" for misinformation, but stressed the program shows significant potential in the company's view.

Experts say it is hard to know exactly how much misleading content is on Facebook.

Fadi Quran, campaigns director at the nonprofit activist group Avaaz, said Facebook does not disclose that data.

"The truth is no one can quantify exactly how much disinformation there is out there apart from the platforms who, if they were transparent, could give the most accurate approximation, he said.

Quran said Facebook gave false information a wide reach.

When we compare the top five real news stories [on impeachment] from Americas most read newspapers, like The New York Times or The Washington Post, to the top five fake news stories, or disinformation stories, the top five disinformation stories had reached up to 80 percent as much as the real ones, he said.

Quran said that while fact-checking needs to be significantly scaled up, Facebook should also make changes such as notifying people who have viewed content that is fact-checked.

Some of Facebook's toughest critics, though, question the fact-checking operation itself.

Just the scale of the company itself makes responsible fact-checking pretty difficult, even if they were invested in doing it, Sarah Miller, co-chairwoman of Freedom from Facebook, a coalition of progressive groups calling for breaking up the company.

Facebook has also been criticized for not subjecting posts from political figures to fact-checks.

Tristan Harris, the co-founder and director of the Center for Humane Technology, said that focusing on fact-checking ignores the bigger issue: They have trillions of items of content.

They've created a digital Frankenstein that no matter how many more fact-checkers they hire, it is so far beyond the capacity of them to deal with it, he said. Harris argued that the platforms design itself incentivizes the rapid spread of disinformation.

Miller told The Hill that fact-checking is a distraction from the problem of microtargeting ads, which allow any bad actor" to "target users with propaganda or scam content.

Facebook has taken heat, including from Federal Election Commission Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub, for letting advertisers target incredibly small, specific audiences.

The social media giant announced it would continue to allow the method this month, even after Google announced it would stop microtargeting.

Facebook has been under intense pressure and scrutiny to deal with misinformation on its platform since the 2016 election. The effect of the third-party fact-checking program on addressing the problem remains to be seen, but critics say the problem will only get bigger.

This is a tsunami, Quran said of the amount of misinformation.

Its a tsunami that keeps on getting bigger and bigger because platforms are not taking the necessary actions to disincentivize this information and to fight it.

Read more from the original source:

Critics fear Facebook fact-checkers losing misinformation fight | TheHill - The Hill

Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter changed the way we share photographs. In the beginning, they were excellent platforms for photographers to build their fan bases and have their work noticed. But as they continue to become more popular and brand-focused many photographers are becoming frustrated with the changes social media giants have made, from algorithmic sorting to the huge uptick in ads.

If youre tired of fighting to be seen on social media, here are some alternative ways to display your work online.

500px is a popular photo-sharing website. While a mobile app is available, the site was created with desktop in mind. Although it works on a similar algorithm to Instagrams (posts rank higher based on engagement), the site as a whole is more focused on quality photography rather than the mishmash of content that ends up on Instagram. By that, we mean you wont have to deal with influencers, corporate ad campaigns, or your friends amateur food photography while trying to find good images.

500px also allows users to license their images. However, we would avoid doing this as the current agreement means your images are royalty-free, meaning you wont get paid. They sell it on the idea of granting photographers exposure, which is a kind way of saying, We dont want to pay you.

But if you are looking for a photo sharing platform away from traditional social media, 500px is an attractive option thanks to its heavy focus on the photography community.

One of the original photography portfolio services, we pondered whether or not to include Flickr in this article. Not because it lacks quality, but based on itsrecent pleafor more paid users, its uncertain how much life is left in this seasoned photo-sharing site.

For now, its still here, and until it waves the white flag of surrender, its a great option for sharing your portfolio with the rest of the photography community. From personal streams to interactive groups, Flickr has plenty of avenues for you to share, discuss, and critique photography.

Flickr also acts as a cloud storage service. Users can store their images and access them anywhere with an internet connection at any time. At present, you can store 1,000 photographs free of charge. Beyond that, youll need to pay the $50 per year for Flickr Pro. Its worth it considering you get unlimited storage, an ad-free experience, and more in-depth stats on how your images are performing all for less than five bucks per month.

Being the offspring of Adobe,Behance, naturally, is aimed at all types of visual creatives. From graphic designers to photographers, Behance is the place to show off your best work.

The platform allows users to share projects, single images, and mood boards. Behance isnt for Auntie Sallys salad snaps; rather, its for the serious creative. Because of its credibility, you can be sure to find experienced, educated photographers with trustworthy opinions. You have full control over how your work is used (unlike many other sites), meaning you can make it free for redistribution, or withhold all permissions for someone else to publish your work elsewhere.

Designed to be the best alternative to Facebook and Instagram, Vero promised big things when it blew up back in 2018. When the photosharing app promised no advertisements, no algorithms, and less control over user data, people stopped and took notice. The user interface was similar to that of Instagram, making it simple to share your images.

The Vero boom was stopped in its tracks when people realized, among other things, that to use the full application features, a subscription fee would need to be paid. All of a sudden, people no longer cared about Facebook and Instagrams data breach, ever-changing algorithms, and influencer culture. But for those that still do, Vero is still around and a solid option for people looking for something different.

Yes, personal websites still exist! If youve yet to do so, creating a website for your photography is a fantastic option. It removes the requirement of playing by the rules of a big company. You have full control of the type of content that you share and how its displayed, and you can own your own domain.

If the thought of creating your own website sounds overwhelming, dont worry. Website building platforms such as Format, Squarespace, and WIX make creating a website more straightforward than ever. Within an hour, you have a clean, well-laid-out space to share your photographs. Its best to learn some basic SEO to ensure it ranks well on Google, but with a bit of work, you can make it your sole way of sharing your work with the world.

Social media isnt going anywhere. It can still present great opportunities for your work to be discovered. However, the game has changed, and to be successful on platforms like Instagram today takes more work and a different approach than it did in the years before the algorithm. Still, major social media platforms offer the largest potential audiences, which mean they may be worth the headache to maintain an active account.

If youre ready to call social media quits, though, rest assured that doesnt mean you have to go completely dark. The above options offer additional ways to gain exposure, most with much more control than you get with major social media apps.

Lastly, none of these services are mutually exclusive. A personal website can compliment your Instagram account, and vice versa. Put your resources into what makes the most sense for you, and hopefully you wont go crazy chasing after an algorithm.

Excerpt from:

5 alternatives to Instagram and Facebook for photographers - Digital Trends

Facebook is throwing its weight behind the 62nd Grammy Awards, hoping to engage music fans and demonstrate its commitment to the industry and artists.

The social giant, in addition to splashing videos, photos and key moments from this Sundays Grammys across Facebook and Instagram, will air its first Grammys TV ad in the CBS telecast featuring hip-hop artist Big Freedia and the International Kazoo Players Association group on Facebook. (Watch the 60-second spot below.) The company also will curate the first Facebook Collaborative Story for the Grammys and is hosting a lunch for nominees and music bizzers.

Its all meant to be feel-good PR for Facebook, part of its efforts to boost consumers trust in the company after a string of recent controversies. At the same time, this years Grammys have been embroiled in their own controversy: Recently ousted Recording Academy chief Deborah Dugan this week alleged the nominations are rigged, claiming board members are able to secure Grammy nods for artists they have interests in supporting. On Thursday, the Recording Academy categorically denied Dugans rigging charges.

In any case, Facebooks strategic aim here is to convey that it is celebrating the music community at large.

Facebooks first-ever ad in a Grammy Awards telecast, created by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, puts a spotlight on the International Kazoo Players Association, a niche interest group on Facebook. The ad includes actual members of the Facebook group and follows an impromptu traveling kazoo performance that leads them into a full-blown house party where they meet an unexpected kazoo enthusiast: Big Freedia (pictured above). The song theyre performing on their kazoos is Freedias Louder (from her forthcoming EP of the same name due out on March 13).

The Grammys ad is part of Facebooks More Together campaign, which is supposed to show viewers that whatever their unique talents and interests, theres a Facebook group for them. The company is also set to air its first-ever Super Bowl ad in the same campaign during Foxs Feb. 2 telecast, a 60-second commercial featuring Sylvester Stallone and Chris Rock.

Meanwhile, Facebook is partnering with the Recording Academy for the first-ever Grammys Facebook Collaborative Story. The concept akin to Snapchats Our Story feature is to bring together moments posted by nominees and presenters, along with content from the Grammys Facebook page, to give fans a variety of views from the big day all in one place. Facebook compiled a similar Collaborative Story for this years Golden Globes, in partnership with the HFPA and NBC.

As it has in years past, Facebook is partnering with the Recording Academy and CBS to deliver video from telecast to the Grammys Facebook page. CBS will broadcast the Grammy Awards on Sunday, Jan. 26 starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

And in another Grammys activation, on Friday (Jan. 24), Facebook is hosting its second annual lunch to celebrate women in music. The invitation-only event will be held at Ysabel in West Hollywood from 12-3 p.m. Attendees will include female Grammy nominees and presenters, as well as women leaders across the music industry that have made this year in music special.

Facebooks event will honor Motown Records president Ethiopia Habtemariam, Epic Records chairman and CEO Sylvia Rhone, Caroline president Jacqueline Saturn and Billboard executive director of R&B/hip-hop Gail Mitchell. Special guests are slated to include Lana Del Rey, Ella Mai, MILCK, Emily King, Sabrina Claudio, Stacy Barthe, Bia, DaniLeigh, Flor De Toloache, Melanie Fiona, Goapele, iLe, Dinah Jane, Georgia Ku, Leikeli47, Tiana Major9, Victoria Mont, Kaash Paige, Saweetie, Sevyn Streeter, and Sofi Tukker.

Watch Facebooks Grammys More Together TV ad with Big Freedia and the kazoo players:

Follow this link:

Grammys: Facebook Throws Support Behind Awards Show With Videos, Collaborative Story and First TV Spot (WATCH) - Variety

Falsehoods about a new strain of the coronavirus spreading from China vary widely, from Facebook posts that take a patent out of context to conspiracy theories about Bill Gates. Many of the claims were shared by Facebook and Twitter users, and others were propagated on the fringe internet and notorious conspiracy websites. One falsehood was even shared by a 2020 U.S. Senate candidate.

The virus, known as the Wuhan coronavirus because of the central China city where it originated, has infected more than 900 people worldwide, and China has restricted travel within the country amid a rising death toll.

Misinformation about the coronavirus has particularly taken root in Facebook groups for anti-vaccine advocates and believers in QAnon, a broad, right-wing conspiracy theory.

Many of the posts about coronavirus were flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

PolitiFact sifted through dozens of social media posts and fact-checked a few of the most popular inaccurate claims about the Wuhan coronavirus. If you see suspect claims on your social media feeds, you can send them to [emailprotected] and well check it out.

(Screenshot from Facebook)

Theres a coronavirus patent

This claim is inaccurate weve rated a similar statement Pants on Fire!

Several Facebook posts, tweets, articles and YouTube videos allege that a vaccine developed for the coronavirus just as it started to spread earlier this month. Those claims were widely shared in anti-vaccine groups on Facebook, where some users said the disease could be a government plot to vaccinate more people.

"The Coronavirus PATENT is owned by the Pirbright Institute," said Shiva Ayyadurai, a Republican running for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, in a Facebook post. Ayyadurai has been associated with a variety of conspiracy theorists and right-wing provocateurs.

As evidence, the posts link to pages for a patent on Google and Justia. But that patent is related to the coronavirus that causes SARS, which is different from the Wuhan strain of the illness. SARS-CoV and is the beta coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome.

"There are no vaccines available for any coronaviruses let alone the (Wuhan) one," Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Health Security, told PolitiFact.

(Screenshot from Twisted Truth)

FEMA proposes martial law

This claim is fabricated.

In an article published Jan. 23, a website called Twisted Truth wrote that the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had called on President Donald Trump to impose martial law in the United States, which would transfer power to the military.

"Acting FEMA Director Pete Gaynor on Wednesday offered President Trump a startling solution, Martial Law in the United States, to prevent the spread of a lethal Chinese Coronavirus that infected hundreds and killed at least 17 people in the Communist nation," the article reads.

The story has been shared more than 570 times on Facebook, according to CrowdTangle, an audience metrics tool. Twisted Truth also published a YouTube video that has more than 5,000 views. The claim has been amplified by QAnon conspiracy theorists in blog posts and threads on 8kun (formerly 8chan), a fringe internet forum that was briefly taken offline after it was linked to mass shootings in New Zealand and the U.S.

"Its not true the FEMA director did not advise martial law," Lizzie Litzow, press secretary at FEMA, told PolitiFact.

(Screenshot from InfoWars)

Gates Foundation predicted virus, funded group who owns virus patent

Several Facebook posts, blogs and YouTube videos claim that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation predicted, and are somehow profiting from, the coronavirus outbreak. The allegations were circulated widely in QAnon and other conspiracy Facebook groups and pages, as well as on 4chan, a fringe internet forum where several high-profile conspiracies were created.

But this claim takes unrelated events and financial connections out of context and morphs them into an inaccurate narrative about the coronavirus.

As evidence, those posts point to financial ties between the Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom-based Pirbright Institute, as well as an event held Oct. 18, 2019.

"The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the World Economic Forum co-hosted an event in NYC where policymakers, business leaders, and health officials worked together on a simulated coronavirus outbreak," reads an article published by a website called IntelliHub. (PolitiFact has debunked some of its content before.)

That article was republished from InfoWars, a conspiracy website run by Alex Jones. The outlet has spread misinformation about victims of the Sandy Hook shooting and the sexual orientation of frogs, for example.

The Oct. 18 outbreak simulation did happen, and tax records show that the Gates Foundation has supported the Pirbright Institute in the past. The Pirbright Institute owns a patent for SARS, a coronavirus that is different from the Wuhan strain.

But those disparate facts dont prove that the Gates Foundation has somehow profited from the most recent outbreak of the coronavirus. If anything, they show that the foundation has funded organizations that work to prevent epidemics.

(Screenshot from YouTube)

Coronavirus was created in a lab as a bioweapon for population control

These claims are baseless and they conflate the Wuhan coronavirus with other strains of the illness. Our friends at Factcheck.org and Health Feedback debunked similar conspiracy theories.

Facebook posts and tabloids have said that the Wuhan coronavirus was created in a lab, with some going as far as to say that the illness is a "bioweapon for population control." One video created by David Zublick, who has a history of propagating conspiracies, has more than 12,000 views on YouTube.

"Several news websites, especially alternative news and health websites, are coming under cyberattack for reporting what is a huge story about the fact that this coronavirus that is sweeping China, and which has now spread to other countries including the United States of America is actually a biological attack being perpetrated on the United States and other countries," he said in the video.

There is no evidence to support that claim. While its investigation is still ongoing, the CDC has said the coronavirus appears to have originated at a seafood and animal market in Wuhan, China. From there, it spread via travelers to several Asian countries, France and the United States.

Excerpt from:

Fact-checking hoaxes and conspiracies about the coronavirus - PolitiFact

Training an artificial intelligence agent to do something like navigate a complex 3D world is computationally expensive and time-consuming. In order to better create these potentially useful systems, Facebook engineers derived huge efficiency benefits from, essentially, leaving the slowest of the pack behind.

Its part of the companys new focus on embodied AI, meaning machine learning systems that interact intelligently with their surroundings. That could mean lots of things responding to a voice command using conversational context, for instance, but also more subtle things like a robot knowing it has entered the wrong room of a house. Exactly why Facebook is so interested in that Ill leave to your own speculation, but the fact is theyve recruited and funded serious researchers to look into this and related domains of AI work.

To create such embodied systems, you need to train them using a reasonable facsimile of the real world. One cant expect an AI thats never seen an actual hallway to know what walls and doors are. And given how slow real robots actually move in real life you cant expect them to learn their lessons here. Thats what led Facebook to create Habitat, a set of simulated real-world environments meant to be photorealistic enough that what an AI learns by navigating them could also be applied to the real world.

Such simulators, which are common in robotics and AI training, are also useful because, being simulators, you can run many instances of them at the same time for simple ones, thousands simultaneously, each one with an agent in it attempting to solve a problem and eventually reporting back its findings to the central system that dispatched it.

Unfortunately, photorealistic 3D environments use a lot of computation compared to simpler virtual ones, meaning that researchers are limited to a handful of simultaneous instances, slowing learning to a comparative crawl.

The Facebook researchers, led by Dhruv Batra and Erik Wijmans, the former a professor and the latter a PhD student at Georgia Tech, found a way to speed up this process by an order of magnitude or more. And the result is an AI system that can navigate a 3D environment from a starting point to goal with a 99.9% success rate and few mistakes.

Simple navigation is foundational to a working embodied AI or robot, which is why the team chose to pursue it without adding any extra difficulties.

Its the first task. Forget the question answering, forget the context can you just get from point A to point B? When the agent has a map this is easy, but with no map its an open problem, said Batra. Failing at navigation means whatever stack is built on top of it is going to come tumbling down.

The problem, they found, was that the training systems were spending too much time waiting on slowpokes. Perhaps its unfair to call them that these are AI agents that for whatever reason are simply unable to complete their task quickly.

Its not necessarily that theyre learning slowly, explained Wijmans. But if youre simulating navigating a one-bedroom apartment, its much easier to do that than navigate a 10-bedroom mansion.

The central system is designed to wait for all its dispatched agents to complete their virtual tasks and report back. If a single agent takes 10 times longer than the rest, that means theres a huge amount of wasted time while the system sits around waiting so it can update its information and send out a new batch.

This little explanatory gif shows how when one agent gets stuck, it delays others learning from its experience.

The innovation of the Facebook team is to intelligently cut off these unfortunate laggards before they finish. After a certain amount of time in simulation, theyre done, and whatever data theyve collected gets added to the hoard.

You have all these workers running, and theyre all doing their thing, and they all talk to each other, said Wijmans. One will tell the others, okay, Im almost done, and theyll all report in on their progress. Any ones that see theyre lagging behind the rest will reduce the amount of work that they do before the big synchronization that happens.

In this case you can see that each worker stops at the same time and shares simultaneously.

If a machine learning agent could feel bad, Im sure it would at this point, and indeed that agent does get punished by the system, in that it doesnt get as much virtual reinforcement as the others. The anthropomorphic terms make this out to be more human than it is essentially inefficient algorithms or ones placed in difficult circumstances get downgraded in importance. But their contributions are still valuable.

We leverage all the experience that the workers accumulate, no matter how much, whether its a success or failure we still learn from it, Wijmans explained.

What this means is that there are no wasted cycles where some workers are waiting for others to finish. Bringing more experience on the task at hand in on time means the next batch of slightly better workers goes out that much earlier, a self-reinforcing cycle that produces serious gains.

In the experiments they ran, the researchers found that the system, catchily named Decentralized Distributed Proximal Policy Optimization or DD-PPO, appeared to scale almost ideally, with performance increasing nearly linearly to more computing power dedicated to the task. That is to say, increasing the computing power 10x resulted in nearly 10x the results. On the other hand, standard algorithms led to very limited scaling, where 10x or 100x the computing power only results in a small boost to results because of how these sophisticated simulators hamstring themselves.

These efficient methods let the Facebook researchers produce agents that could solve a point to point navigation task in a virtual environment within their allotted time with 99.9% reliability. They even demonstrated robustness to mistakes, finding a way to quickly recognize theyd taken a wrong turn and go back the other way.

The researchers speculated that the agents had learned to exploit the structural regularities, a phrase that in some circumstances means the AI figured out how to cheat. But Wijmans clarified that its more likely that the environments they used have some real-world layout rules.

These are real houses that we digitized, so theyre learning things about how western-style houses tend to be laid out, he said. Just as you wouldnt expect the kitchen to enter directly into a bedroom, the AI has learned to recognize other patterns and make other assumptions.

The next goal is to find a way to let these agents accomplish their task with fewer resources. Each agent had a virtual camera it navigated with that provided it ordinary and depth imagery, but also an infallible coordinate system to tell where it traveled and a compass that always pointed toward the goal. If only it were always so easy! But until this experiment, even with those resources the success rate was considerably lower even with far more training time.

Habitat itself is also getting a fresh coat of paint with some interactivity and customizability.

Habitat as seen through a variety of virtualized vision systems.

Before these improvements, Habitat was a static universe, explained Wijmans. The agent can move and bump into walls, but it cant open a drawer or knock over a table. We built it this way because we wanted fast, large-scale simulation but if you want to solve tasks like go pick up my laptop from my desk, youd better be able to actually pick up that laptop.

Therefore, now Habitat lets users add objects to rooms, apply forces to those objects, check for collisions and so on. After all, theres more to real life than disembodied gliding around a frictionless 3D construct.

The improvements should make Habitat a more robust platform for experimentation, and will also make it possible for agents trained in it to directly transfer their learning to the real world something the team has already begun work on and will publish a paper on soon.

Read more from the original source:

Facebook speeds up AI training by culling the weak - TechCrunch

The earnings reporting room is crowded with big names this week. Tech giants Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com(AMZN), and Facebook (FB) are set to announce fourth-quarter earnings.

Our analyst expressed a positive outlook for Amazon's late-2019 online grocery efforts. We believe that accelerated adoption of Amazon Fresh supports our longer-term revenue growth assumptions.

Appleannounces first quarter earnings Tuesday. Services and wearables like Apple Watch, Airpods, and Apple TV+ are expected to be the largest growth segments. Last quarter, wearables grew by 50% showcasing Apples ability to succeed beyond the iPhone.

Microsoft reports fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday. Microsoft Azure, its cloud computing organization, is continuing to compete with Amazon Web Services by increasing integrations and capabilities. The wide-moat firm recently announced its pledge to be carbon-negative by 2030 as corporations face pressure to address the climate crisis.

Facebook is hoping to beat earnings estimates for the ninth consecutive quarter on Wednesday. We will be watching for revenue and user growth across its collection of apps including Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.

From oil, we have Exxon Mobil(XOM)and Chevron (CVX). Payment processors Visa (V), Mastercard (MA), and PayPal (PYPL) will report, as will telecoms Verizon (VZ)and AT&T (T). Other names to watch for include Starbucks (SBUX), Boeing(BA), Eli Lilly (LLY), and Pfizer (PFE).

Our analysts believe that McDonald's (MCD)should be on investors' radar; our confidence in the business stems from new technology investments (particularly at the drive-thru), menu innovation plans, a recession-resilient brand, strong cash return qualities, and an underrated management team.

In economic data, we will see a bundle of real estate data, including the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index and new home sales numbers for December. The Federal Reserve is set to announce a decision on interest rates Wednesday, but most speculate that it will keep rates steady for this year. Other datasets include consumer confidence, consumer sentiment, and fourth-quarter GDP.

Read this article:

The Week Ahead: Earnings Heat Up With Apple, Amazon, and Facebook - Morningstar.com

Says Nancy Pelosi said, "If impeachment fails, I will resign immediately."

Bloggers on Monday, January 20th, 2020 in a Facebook post

ByCiara O'Rourkeon Friday, January 24th, 2020 at 5:15 p.m.

For some, the impeachment trial outcome is a foregone conclusion that a majority of senators wont vote to remove President Donald Trump from office. Perhaps, then, this Jan. 20 story shared on Facebook seems suspicious. The headline claims U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: "If impeachment fails, I will resign immediately."

This post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The story, which appeared on a website called maga20.softfay.com and says Maga2020 News at the top of the page, says Pelosi gave the "startling and wholly unexpected statement today during an interview with Belgian magazine Le Mensonge. "

Our French-speaking readers will know that means "lie."

Indeed, this story is fake. In December, another website "Breaking News" poached the same satirical story and reposted it without any hint to readers that the information was made-up. We rated that Pants on Fire.

Maga2020 likewise lacks any context indicating this isnt real news.

We rate this post Pants on Fire.

Continue reading here:

Pelosi still isn't promising to resign if impeachment fails - PolitiFact

Montreal Mayor Valrie Plante, left, and Cte-des-NeigesNotre-Dame-de-Grce borough mayor Sue Montgomery at a park plaque dedication ceremony commemorating the Polytechnique massacre on Dec. 5, 2019. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette

Hours after being kicked out of the Projet Montral caucus on Friday, the embattled borough mayor of Cte-des-NeigesNotre-Dame-de-Grce took to Facebook to engage directly with her citizens.

Sue Montgomery, a former journalist, bypassed the mainstream press and instead relied on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to defend her decision not to fire a member of her staff accused of psychological harassment.

And judging from the comments on the popular N.D.G. Living Facebook page, Montgomery was being supported overwhelmingly despite her expulsion by Montreal Mayor Valrie Plante.

Love her or hate her, I think what is obvious is that our mayoress (Montgomery) has principles and is not willing to compromise because she is simply told to, Barbara Sidorowicz, the administrator of the Facebook page, wrote in a post on Friday.

I am appalled by this action, by a party that promised change and to bring Montreal and its government into the 21st century. This is old school politics that has no place anywhere. All the cards need to be laid on the table. I have been disappointed many times by (Projet Montral), but this is really disgraceful behaviour.

Montgomerys expulsion follows an investigation by the citys comptroller general that found employees within her administration had been harassed by a member of her staff. Sources within Projet Montral told the Montreal Gazette the accusations were made against Annalisa Harris, Montgomerys chief of staff.

In her initial statement on Facebook, Montgomery said she couldnt fire the employee because she had not seen the evidence in the comptroller generals report. That report recommended the employees dismissal.

I would be the last person to condone harassment, Montgomery explained. I will also not condone lack of due process. We live in a democracy where people have a right to see evidence against them and to defend themselves. This has not happened and I cannot accept it.

Yet Plantes office accused Montgomery of not following the due process of the investigation by the comptroller general, who enjoys a sterling reputation for thoroughness and impartiality.

Nonetheless, Facebook user Theresa Bianco chose to side with Montgomerys version of events, posting a comment there is something rotten in the state of Denmark an allusion to the Shakespearean tragedy of Hamlet.

That remark prompted Montgomery to reply, you bet there is.

In another exchange with Facebook user Hamza Khan, who wrote I feel theres more to tell yet in this story, Montgomery responded: there is. And it will be told.

Stay tuned, she warned in another post.

Montgomery, who had worked as a reporter for Canadian Press, the Montreal Gazette and as a media relations officer for Amnesty International Canada before running for municipal office in 2017, was not immediately available for comment.

Although Montgomery thanked a number of her supporters, not everyone on Facebook praised her decision.

Its about time for N.D.G. to get a real borough mayor from a real party, posted Jason J. Vietri, not some know-it-all (former) journalist!

aderfel@postmedia.com

twitter.com/Aaron_Derfel

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'Stay tuned,' Montgomery warns on Facebook after expulsion from party - Montreal Gazette

New Delhi is inching closer to recommending regulations that would require social media companies and instant messaging app providers to help law enforcement agencies identify users who have posted content or sent messages it deems questionable, two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

India will submit the suggested change to the local intermediary liability rules to the nations apex court later this month. The suggested change, the conditions of which may be altered before it is finalized, currently says that law enforcement agencies will have to produce a court order before exercising such requests, sources who have been briefed on the matter said.

But regardless, asking companies to comply with such a requirement would be devastating for international social media companies, a New Delhi-based policy advocate told TechCrunch on the condition of anonymity.

WhatsApp executives have insisted in the past that they would have to compromise end-to-end encryption of every user to meet such a demand a move they are willing to fight over.

The government did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening. A WhatsApp spokesperson declined to comment. Sources spoke under the condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to speak to media.

Scores of companies and security experts have urged New Delhi in recent months to be transparent about the changes it planned to make to the local intermediary liability guidelines.

The Indian government proposed (PDF) a series of changes to its intermediary liability rules in late December 2018 that, if enforced, would require to make significant changes millions of services operated by anyone, from small and medium businesses to large corporate giants such as Facebook and Google.

Among the proposed rules, the government said that intermediaries which it defines as those services or functions that facilitate communication between two or more users and have five million or more users in India will have to, among other things, be able to trace the originator of questionable content to avoid assuming full liability for their users actions.

At the heart of the changes lies the safe harbor laws that technology companies have so far enjoyed in many nations.The laws, currently applicable in the U.S. under the Communications Decency Act and India under its 2000 Information Technology Act, say that tech platforms wont be held liable for the things their users share on the platform.

Many stakeholders have said in recent months that the Indian government was keeping them in the dark by not sharing the changes it was making to the intermediary liability guidelines.

Nobody outside of a small government circle has seen the proposed changes since January of last year, said Shashi Tharoor, one of Indias most influential opposition politicians, in a recent interview with TechCrunch.

Software Freedom and Law Centre, a New Delhi-based digital advocacy organization, recommended last week that the government should consider removing the traceability requirement from the proposed changes to the law as it was technically impossible to satisfy for many online intermediaries.

No country is demanding such a broad level of traceability as envisaged by the Draft Intermediaries Guidelines, it added.

TechCrunch could not ascertain other changes the government is recommending.

Link:

India likely to force Facebook, WhatsApp to identify the originator of messages - TechCrunch

INTERNATIONAL - A senior Facebook executive who sits on the Libra board is optimistic the digital currency will launch sooner rather than later, despite sustained criticism from global regulators.

The social media group said Libra will dramatically cross border payments costs, and spur other innovations it hopes will upend global financial services, when it unveiled plans for the cryptocurrency last June.

Facebook is targeting 1.7 billion people around the world who are classed as unbanked or underserved by financial institutions.

However, policymakers from the US Federal Reserve to the Bank of England have raised concerns ranging from money-laundering, tax evasion and data protection issues.

The tech giants David Marcus said, "Im an optimist. A year ago, we werent having the kind of conversations that I think will lead to a regulatory regime that will mean projects like ours and others will see the light of day".

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Facebook says Libra will launch 'sooner rather than later' - IOL