#GoogleGestapo: $300 Million Being Invested to Make Fake News “More Authoritative” — Google and YouTube Double Down on Lies

YouTube Debuts Plan to Promote and Fund ‘Authoritative’ News Following a year in which YouTube has repeatedly promoted conspiracy-theory videos during breaking news events like the shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Las Vegas, the company announced on Monday a slew of new features it hopes will make news on the platform more reliable and less …

John M. Newman: The Myth of the Free (George Washington Law Review, 86/2, March 2018) – Death Roll for #GoogleGestapo

The Myth of Free 86 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 513 The task is urgent: the Myth of Free is not benign. It has misled courts into granting protected legal status to Free-product suppliers in cases ranging from contract disputes to antitrust and privacy litigation. It has also motivated policy proposals that call for eliminating market interventions—or competitive …

#GoogleGestapo: What 7 Creepy Patents Reveal About Facebook

Link Repaired, NYT Moved the Article. What 7 Creepy Patents Reveal About Facebook A review of hundreds of Facebook’s patent applications reveals that the company has considered tracking almost every aspect of its users’ lives: where you are, who you spend time with, whether you’re in a romantic relationship, which brands and politicians you’re talking …

#GoogleGestapo: Facebook & Google Obscure & Manipulate Privacy Settings

Facebook and Google use ‘dark patterns’ around privacy settings, report says Facebook, Google and Microsoft push users away from privacy-friendly options on their services in an “unethical” way, according to a report by the Norwegian Consumer Council. It studied the privacy settings of the firms and found a series of “dark patterns”, including intrusive default …