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In a time of heightened political polarization, David Bornstein reports for The New York Times on how the Citizens Climate Lobby has built a bipartisan caucus in Congress in favor of addressing climate change that is made up of an equal number of Democratic and Republican members.
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Life in Facebookistan: Documents leaked to The Guardian show in detail how the giant platform handles content related to violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, racism, and self-harm. As Nick Hopkins reports, moderators working for the company say they are overwhelmed by the volume of the work in involved in policing the content posted to the site, with often “just 10 seconds” to make a decision about whether to delete a post. The company has 4,500 content moderators and is hiring another 3,000, he notes.
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While Facebook has started a serious crackdown on the sharing of fake news, Twitter has not, as the Washington Post’s David Weigel shows with a detailed look at how the latest hoax about murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich has spread in recent days.
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BuzzFeed’s Charlie Warzel breaks down how pro-Trump hubs on 4chan, Reddit and Twitter combined to create an alternative media narrative about Rich.
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Meanwhile, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams is still trying to fix the polarizing effects of online media, reports David Streitfeld for The New York Times.
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Trump watch: Speaking of Twitter, buried in this Wall Street Journal story on former FBI director James Comey’s coming testimony before Congress is this finding: some weeks ago, President Trump’s aides organized a Twitter “intervention,” warning him “that certain kinds of comments made on Twitter would ‘paint him into a corner,’ both in terms of political messaging and legally.”
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The Trump administration is blocking a request from the Office of Government Ethics to disclose the names of former lobbyists who have been given waivers to work in the government, Eric Lipton reports for The New York Times.
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“Imagine if Politico’s Playbook were translated by a chatbot that learned the English language from The Simple Life, Daily Mail headlines, and Nick Jr.” That is how Slate’s Shristina Cauterucci skewers The Skimm, a daily e-newsletter read by more than one million that “summarizes all the big stories of the day for people—women, mostly—who can’t or won’t pay attention to the actual news.”
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No good deed goes unpunished: A British coder who accidentally helped stop the spread of the international ransomware hack now has to find a new home because tabloids published his personal information against his will, Nadia Khomami reports for The Guardian.
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What sharing economy? Pittsburgh is souring on its exuberant welcome for Uber’s self-driving car experiment, Cecilia Kang reports for The New York Times. Part of the problem: none of the commitments the company made to Mayor Bill Peduto—for free rides, data sharing, support for a federal grant application, and jobs for locals—were in writing.
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Police in Shenzhen, China are using facial recognition technology to catch and “shame” jaywalkers.
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Apply: The Tactical Technology Collective is taking applications to attend a five-day Data Investigation Camp in mid-July. They’re looking for “Experienced evidence explorers, data critics and data storytellers working on social/political issues such as corruption, environmental and social justice, human rights, and abuses of power.”
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