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3 Nov, 6 tweets, 3 min read
New data shows that YouTube has cut its recommendations of fringe channels, helping reduce its spread of disinformation.

The changes have also had a knock-on effect: Fox News is now YouTube's most recommended channel alongside election-related videos. nytimes.com/2020/11/03/tec…
In several recent analyses by @gchaslot & @MarcFaddoul of recommendations on popular news videos, YouTube consistently steered people toward Fox News more than any other channel, sometimes by a wide margin.

The most promoted clips were largely of @seanhannity & @TuckerCarlson.
Fox News also far outperforms other news outlets on Facebook.

Here are the top Facebook pages ranked by their share of total interactions with posts that mentioned the election, Biden or Trump over the past week. (Interactions are the only such data FB makes available.) Image
Fox News appears to be in an algorithmic sweet spot. It has been rubber-stamped as an authoritative source, which tells the algorithms to boost it, while its opinion shows' partisan headlines are good at drawing clicks, which also tells the algorithms to keep recommending them.
YouTube said its work to promote more authoritative news has boosted watch time of Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, CBS News and NBC News by 141% over the past year.

@SocialBlade data shows Fox News's views, which surpassed 6B yesterday, have grown faster than all except NBC.
The data undercuts claims of tech's conservative bias.

Here's Tucker Carlson saying that Google, which owns YouTube, is trying "to subvert democracy" for aiming to improve search results.

YouTube has recommended this clip more than almost any other news video in recent weeks.

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More from @jacknicas

Jack Nicas Profile picture
4 Nov
President Trump just tweeted again about claims of "secretly dumped ballots" for Biden in Michigan.

This is false.

These claims are based on screenshots of a mistaken unofficial tally on one site's election map that was caused by a typo that was corrected in about 30 minutes.
I know this because I just spent all day reporting it out.

I spoke to the election official in Shiawassee County who made the mistake; the election-data provider that reported it; and even the Republican consultant who tweeted the images that went viral. nytimes.com/live/2020/2020…
Here is that Republican consultant, @MattMackowiak, owning up to the fact that his screenshots did NOT show election fraud but rather an honest mistake that was quickly corrected.

“I certainly wasn’t intending to make a typo appear fraudulent,” he said.
Read 10 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
18 Oct
NEW: A network of 1,300 websites targeting small towns and cities across the U.S. is built not on traditional journalism, but rather propaganda ordered up by Republican groups and P.R. firms.

A nearly yearlong investigation by @daveyalba and me:
nytimes.com/2020/10/18/tec…
The Sioux City Times, Muskegon Sun and Pine State News might look like ordinary local-news outlets, but behind the scenes, many stories are directed by political groups & P.R. firms to promote Republican candidates & companies, or smear their rivals. pinestatenews.com
Here's an example from the hotly contested Senate race in Maine.

This story on Maine Business Daily quotes the @SenatorCollins campaign that her
opponent, @SaraGideon, is a hypocrite. It doesn't include comment from the Gideon campaign.
mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/513151…
Read 10 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
30 Jul
Today's economic news:

The U.S. GDP collapsed and the four Big Tech companies reported blowout earnings.

It's rare that the story tells itself this well.
Amazon sales were up 40% and its profit doubled (!) to $5.2 billion, blowing away Wall Street expectations in a way that makes you wonder whether Wall Street knows what it's talking about.

Here's @KYWeise:
nytimes.com/live/2020/07/3…
Facebook surely is hurting given the ad boycotts, right?

Nah. Profits nearly doubled to $5.2 billion.

@MikeIsaac explains:
nytimes.com/live/2020/07/3…
Read 7 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
29 Jul
The Big Tobacco vs. Big Tech hearings.
Here they are swearing in -- it's own sort of iconic image.
Here's @Kellen_Browning on Webex's big moment: nytimes.com/live/2020/07/2…
Read 26 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
7 Jun
The NYT's top opinion editor just lost his job over a very dumb op-ed last week.

Meanwhile, all weekend this has been the Wall Street Journal's most-read piece and the top item in the WSJ app's "Recommended" tab.

Thread:
The author, @HMDatMI, points out that 23% of fatal police shooting victims are black, "less than what the black crime rate would predict."

Just 13% of the U.S. population is black.

Yet, she argues, black people commit more crime, so they're more likely to be killed by police.
What she doesn't seem to consider: Research shows that black and Hispanic crime rates are higher because of racist policies.

The result: Police kill black and Hispanic people at a disproportionate rate.

Data: The Washington Post.
washingtonpost.com/graphics/inves…
Read 11 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
14 Mar
Can't find hand sanitizer? Matt Colvin has 17,700 bottles of it.

He emptied stores across Tennessee, hoping to profit. Then Amazon pulled his listings for price gouging.

Now he's one of likely thousands of Amazon sellers sitting on stockpiles. My story:
nytimes.com/2020/03/14/tec…
I've seen the many tweets referencing the wild last line on this story, and let me say, I'm pleased people still read to the end.

But if you haven't yet, give it a click:
nytimes.com/2020/03/14/tec…
Update: I spoke with Matt Colvin just now and he said he is exploring ways to donate all the supplies.

We've updated our story. nytimes.com/2020/03/14/tec…
Read 16 tweets

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