donal brown

Twitter and Facebook are fighting back against a Chinese-based disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The social media giants have suspended a number of accounts saying that they have evidence that the Chinese government is directing the campaign. The suspended accounts were also inciting political discord in Hong Kong. (CNBC, August 19, 2019, by Annie Palmer) The companies have never before taken down disinformation accounts originating in China. Facebook eliminated seven

The consolidation of the U.S. daily newspapers continued with New Media purchasing Gannett Co. for $1.4 billion in cash and stock. The company will command 8.7 million in circulation compared to McClatchy in second place with 7 million. New Media’s news company GateHouse Media released this statement on the acquisition, “Uniting our talented employees and complementary portfolios will enable us to expand our comprehensive, hyperlocal coverage for consumers, deepen our product offering for local businesses, and

Nevada is subject of a free speech lawsuit for refusing to register the name “WTF Party” for political candidates. The state told plaintiff Jeffrey Berns that the party name is a profane acronym and contemptible of the political process. Berns’ lawyer said a 1992 Supreme Court ruling established the right to form political parties.  (Nevada Appeal, August 1, 2019, by Ken Ritter of The Associated Press) The city of Charlottesville, Virginia is trying to collect

The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that former VP candidate Sarah Palin should be given a chance to explain her accusation of actual malice in her defamation lawsuit dismissed in district court. Palin sued in 2017 over an unsigned editorial written by James Bennet who tried to make a connection between over-heated politic speech and the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that wounded Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. The Court wrote, “It is clear to us that

The New York Times published a special section on the failure of local newspapers and the effect on their communities in their Sunday edition, August 4, 2019. Here are summaries of two articles in the section.  When the Warroad Pioneer closed down May 7, it left its small Minnesota town just below the Canadian border with no one to write obituaries or stories on the high school hockey team and no one to report on