Two members of Congress, @RepAnnaEshoo & @Malinowski, just sent well-researched letters to the CEOs of Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter, urging them to fix their algorithms that promote conspiracy theories and push people to political extremes.

The letters to FB and Google:
And here's the letter to @jack:
Some of us have shouted this for years, so this sentence from Congress is refreshing:

The algorithms sort and spread "information to users by feeding them the content most likely to reinforce their existing political biases, especially those rooted in anger, anxiety and fear."
For those asking: Reps. Eshoo and Malinowski introduced a bill in October that would amend Section 230 to hold platforms liable if their algorithms promoted content "involving interference with civil rights" and "acts of international terrorism."
malinowski.house.gov/media/press-re…

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More from @jacknicas

10 Jan
Breaking: Apple just pulled the Parler app.

Apple said Parler is allowing too many posts that encourage violence and crimes. This follows a similar move from Google yesterday.

Parler was one of the fastest-growing apps in the U.S., but now its future is in question.
Here's our full story: nytimes.com/2021/01/09/tec…
For those asking: If you already have Parler on your iPhone, it's not going away. This will stop new people from downloading it.

It also stops Parler from updating its app, which means that the versions already on iPhones will soon be obsolete as Apple updates iOS.
Read 11 tweets
6 Jan
Today's attempted coup in Congress began with Trump saying "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," and then telling the crowd to head to the Capitol to give Republican lawmakers the message.
Don't forget the president's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, calling for "trial by combat" moments before.
And then there was @RepMoBrooks, the Republican congressman from Alabama, shouting to the crowd: "Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass!"
Read 4 tweets
8 Dec 20
Remember when Trump fell for a fake account posing as his sister? (If not: He did.)

Well, I figured out who was behind it: a 21-year-old DoorDash driver and Trump supporter in Mechanicsburg, Penn.

And hoo boy, it's quite a tale.
nytimes.com/2020/12/08/tec…
First, let's recap that, yes, the United States president was duped by someone posing online as his own sister.

Here is his tweet.

The article he's sharing is about a fake Twitter account posing as his older sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau.
I wrote about it. Then I got to work figuring out who was behind the fake.

Eventually it was pretty clear: a 21-year-old Trump supporter named Josh Hall. So I called him up -- and he fessed up.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness. He actually thinks it’s his sister,’” he recalled.
Read 9 tweets
20 Nov 20
So President Trump just shared a story about his sister supporting him and wrote “Thank you Elizabeth, LOVE!”

And then when you click through to the article ... it was based on tweets from a parody account of his sister.
The account alleging to be his sister, @TheBettyTrump, only shows a record of tweets starting yesterday.

These are some of its posts since then.
Here is the president‘s original tweet.
Read 6 tweets
18 Nov 20
New: Facing antitrust scrutiny, Apple cut in half the commission it charges smaller app makers.

Starting on Jan. 1, developers with less than $1 million in app sales the previous year will pay Apple 15% instead of 30%.
nytimes.com/2020/11/18/tec…
The move could help Apple deflect scrutiny of its commission without costing it much.

The change will affect roughly 98% of developers who pay the commission -- but they account for less than 5% of Apple’s overall App Store revenues, according to @SensorTower.
Put another way: Apple is keeping its 30% commission on the roughly 2% of companies that generate 95% of its App Store revenues.

nytimes.com/2020/11/18/tec…
Read 4 tweets
11 Nov 20
Today many right-wing accounts are spreading claims that election software from Dominion Voting Systems caused widespread problems.

We looked into each claim of problems and found that they were either caused by human error or didn't affect vote counts.
nytimes.com/2020/11/11/tec…
Some Republicans have pointed to voting and vote-counting issues in five counties in Michigan and Georgia.

The Dominion software was used in only two of those counties, and in every instance there was a detailed explanation for what had happened.
In the two Michigan counties that had mistakes, the inaccuracies were because of human errors, not software problems, according to Michigan officials. Only one of the two counties used Dominion.

Here's Michigan officials' explanation: michigan.gov/documents/sos/…
Read 7 tweets

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