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11 Mar, 6 tweets, 4 min read
Today marks the one-year anniversary since @WHO first called #COVID a pandemic. For this week's Digital Bridge, I rolled with that theme. Read it all here politico.eu/newsletter/dig… & don't forget to sign up politi.co/38tlmQp
On #COVID disinformation, I've got bad news: it's everywhere & shows no sign of slowing down. This is a particularly worrying sign 👇
And in case you had missed it: the digital divide caused by #COVID is getting bigger — and the effects are likely going to be generational 👇
It's not all #COVID this week. I talked to @MarkWarner on how the West can take on China over tech (and what Trump got right & wrong) 👇
Also, chart of the week (or year?) 👇

There's a lot more in the newsletter, check it out and don't forget to share it around 🙏politico.eu/newsletter/dig…
Bonus: I sifted through thousands of social media posts about #covid disinformation. It was not fun. The narrative has shifted to vaccine mistruths — and everything is even more weaponized/politicized politico.eu/article/covid1…

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More from @markscott82

Mark Scott Profile picture
11 Mar
I teamed up w/ academic to see if banned #COVID19 disinformation videos like Plandemic were still widely available on the mainstream social networks. Short answer: 100%

Over 8-month period, these banned videos racked up 600k of @Facebook engagements even though they were banned
How did that happen? Well, these videos were uploaded to fringe sites like BitChute (a YouTube rival), then those videos were shared widely on FB w/o getting flagged. FB took down many of these banned videos when I told them about issue. But still, not a good look, imho
Let's call it the "replatforming" problem. You can ban as many videos/posts as you like. But whatever you do, ppl will find ways around those checks. Case in point: this version of #Plandemic is still on FB (via BitChute) 👇
Read 4 tweets
Mark Scott Profile picture
9 Dec 20
As US states gear up to sue @Facebook over alleged #antitrust charges (as soon as today!) linked to buying up smaller rivals to stop competition, worth reading what @FTC said when it approved deal, back in 2014 bit.ly/3n16vC6
"WhatsApp has made a number of promises about the limited
nature of the data it collects, maintains, and shares with third parties - promises that exceed the protections currently promised to Facebook users…"
“If the acquisition is completed and WhatsApp fails to honor these promises, both companies could be
in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act and, potentially, the FTC’s order against Facebook."
Read 9 tweets
Mark Scott Profile picture
8 Dec 20
Stat of the Day: UK #antitrust authority wants powers to fine Big Tech companies that flout new digital competition rules up to 10% of their global revenue (that’s quite a lot, ICYMI).

Worth noting: that’s the same fine as EU already has in place, so 🤷‍♂️
The UK has been doing some good work on how to “fix” competition in the digital world — and its guidance has been well-read globally.

That includes creation of “Digital Markets Unit” to oversee drafting of new competition rules fit for digital age
So far, this all makes sense. After #Brexit, UK antitrust agency will have a lot more powers, and — like others — it’s trying to figure out how best to rebalance digital markets while maintaining innovation/inward investment
Read 13 tweets
Mark Scott Profile picture
10 Nov 20
Here we go: @Amazon latest Big Tech giant to face #antitrust charges in Europe. Announcement expected at 12:30 CET politi.co/2IkdC9l (HT: @JavierespFT for initial scoop)
@amazon @JavierespFT Should add: these are just charges against Amazon, not remedies/fines (yet). That’s the next step.
Announcement expected any minute now. Watch along here bit.ly/2OhFz0q
Read 20 tweets
Mark Scott Profile picture
26 Oct 20
On Friday, a battle broke out between @Facebook & researchers at @nyuniversity about efforts to boost transparency about how voters are being targeted w/ political ads ahead of US election. politico.com/news/2020/10/2…

A thread on what this all means.

<<cracks knuckles>>
Let's start off w/ political ads. There's massive money being spent on these ads -- estimates of $230 MILLION alone in week before FB bans political ads in the US as of tomorrow. That is not a small amount of money, to be clear.
FB says that this NYU plug-in breaks its polices (most likely around privacy) and that it takes seriously any efforts by third-parties (cough, Cambridge Analytica, cough) to access its users' data.
Read 22 tweets
Mark Scott Profile picture
23 Oct 20
With just over a week before US election, @facebook is pushing to stop a digital tool that promotes transparency around online political ads politico.com/news/2020/10/2…
It’s not the first time the company has tried to block these browser plug-ins that allow people to share which political ads are served up to them. @propublica’s own efforts ran into trouble with FB last year over same issue
FB says these tools break its policies, mostly on privacy grounds. But there’s a big Cambridge Analytica shadow over all of this —
Third-party services that access FB users’ data isn’t exactly kosher with FB, amirite?
Read 8 tweets

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