The fake news epidemic on social media and the internet as a whole reached a climax late last year during the presidential election, and hot spots like Facebook have been battling the beast ever since. You might expect the US to be at the top of the list for US-based companies trying to fight the spread of false narratives, but a new partnership between Facebook and Google aimed at striking down fake news is instead aimed at France, where the upcoming presidential election is at risk of falling into the same quagmire that befell the United States.
Google announced the new initiative, which is called CrossCheck, at the News Impact Summit in Paris today. The company says it’s working in tandem with a total of 17 newsrooms to provide a platform for rapid fact checking, and it expects more partners to be on board soon.
Perhaps the biggest of CrossCheck’s responsibilities will be working with Facebook-owned CrowdTangle, which acts as something of a ranking tool to track and curate the most popular posts across the social network. Posts from news agencies and users alike that see lots of shares and interaction are highlighted in CrowdTangle and oftentimes get amplified with additional coverage or shares elsewhere, meaning that preventing a fake news story from gaining that kind of traction is crucial to Facebook’s goal of providing accurate information to its users.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey spoke against President Trump’s immigration order last Monday at the Supreme Court. Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s executive order on immigration has prompted a constitutional showdown that could leave a mark on the law for generations and seems likely to end in a landmark Supreme Court decision.
A ruling by the court on Mr. Trump’s travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries could help answer some crucial legal questions: How much independent constitutional authority does the president have over immigration, and how much power has Congress given him?
The likely answer to both questions: a lot. But other parts of the Constitution may temper or defeat that power. Among them are the due process and equal protection clauses and the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion.
Here is a look at the leading arguments in the case.
Government has until Monday evening to justify U.S. president’s executive order
The Associated Press Posted: Feb 06, 2017 3:17 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 06, 2017 7:03 AM ET
Lawyers for Washington state and Minnesota have told a federal appellate court that restoring U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries would “unleash chaos again.”
The filing with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco came early Monday after the White House said it expected the federal courts to reinstate the ban.
