When the news first broke that the MIT Media Lab had a close relationship with deceased billionaire and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, some saw it as a momentary lapse in judgment, and there was widespread support for Media Lab director Joi Ito. But then New Yorker writer Ronan Farrow reported that the Epstein relationship was much deeper than it first appeared — including the fact that Ito got a significant amount of money from Epstein for his own personal investments. Much of the earlier support evaporated, and Ito agreed to resign. And there were other spinoff effects as well: Richard Stallman, a free-software pioneer and veteran MIT professor, also resigned, after being criticized for comments he made on an internal email list that downplayed the impact of Epstein’s sexual abuse. To explore these and other issues, CJR had a series of one-on-one and roundtable interviews — using its Galley discussion platform — with a number of journalists and other interested observers, including WBUR reporter Max Larkin, Slate writer Justin Peters, Gizmodo editor Adam Clark Estes and Stanford researcher Becca Lewis. We talked about why places like the Media Lab often get a free pass from reporters, and why there’s so much technology writing that focuses on the “hero/genius” trope, where the all-knowing founder gets credit for inventing something amazing, even if the thing they invented either doesn’t work (Theranos) and/or they are terrible people in a variety of ways (Steve... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2019-10-03 10:50:57 UTC ]
Where Jeff Bezos goes, other tech billionaires follow. The latest titan to invest in print media is Salesforce founder Marc Benioff who, along with wife Lynne, is buying Time magazine. The pair are using $190 million from their personal fortune to bu... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2018-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, published a roughly 3,300-word blog post cataloging the steps the company has taken to prevent a repeat of the 2016 manipulation. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2018-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Just days after his op-ed in The Washington Post, Mark Zuckerberg has published another lengthy note titled 'Preparing for Elections,' this time via Facebook. In it the Facebook CEO describes his platform's removal of fake accounts ahead of electio... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2018-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The tech-mogul-turned philanthropist has just published a review of a dense 2017 book on how “intangible assets”–things like software and data–are changing the economy. Mid-2018 might seem like a strange time for Bill Gates to review a largely academic book that came out in late 2017. But as... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2018-08-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell story on Tuesday about what reporters Kirsten Grind and Deepa Seetharaman call “the messy, expensive split between Facebook and WhatsApp’s founders.” The dishy piece makes for great reading. (Do the multi-billionaire founders of global communications... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2018-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wondering which books you should bring to the beach this summer? Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist and unrepentant book nerd, has some suggestions for you. Gates recommended five books he's enjoyed on his blog on Monday, including a Booker Prize-winning novel by an American... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg is over it. Yes, Facebook allowed the data of more than 80 million users to land in the hands of a partisan political consulting firm during an obscenely contentious presidential election, but that's all in the distant past. You know,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2018-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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OUP president Niko Pfund told PW that after Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony on Capitol Hill, it became clear that Siva Vaidhyanathan's book, originall scheduled for fall, "needed to be part of the conversation" now taking place. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After two days of testimony on Capitol Hill, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg wants you to know: He’s sorry — really, really sorry — about that Cambridge Analytica thing, and he’s open to some degree of internet regulation. Is he really sorry? If contrition is measured in a willingness to put on a suit... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In an interview released for the first time today, the Facebook CEO discussed privacy with Freaknonomics Radio last summer. It was a simpler time. Last summer, months before Mark Zuckerberg was feeling the intense pressure of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, the Facebook CEO said he knew... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2018-04-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg's terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad 2018 keeps getting worse. As people have begun downloading their Facebook data, they've found something unsettling: videos they recorded, but never published on the site. Recently, a Select/All... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2018-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Federal Trade Commission confirmed Monday that it opened an investigation of Facebook and the Senate Judiciary Committee called on the company’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, to testify as scrutiny mounts over the social media giant’s handling of user data. The unfolding crisis at... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Among this week's headlines: Despite another blizzard, librarians make it to PLA in Philadelphia; Mark Zuckerberg is sorry; And Congress passes a bill that critics say will harm free speech online. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The last time the Supreme Court took a hard look at how to impose sales taxes on home shopping, it was the era of mail-order catalogs — “before Amazon was even selling books out of Jeff Bezos’ garage,” lawyers recently told the justices. In 1992, the high court upheld a constitutional rule that... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg has issued his annual New Year challenge to himself, and it's a big one: Fixing Facebook.The hoodie-wearing CEO, who has previously taken on learning Mandarin, reading books and visiting new parts of the country, is setting a less concrete goal in focusing on fixing important... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2018-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook defends itselfWhen companies place job ads on Facebook and target them to younger users, is that ageist? Non-profit news organization ProPublica and The New York Times just raised concerns about the issue, adding that Amazon, Verizon, Goldman Sachs and Facebook itself use that practice;... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-12-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Five books–from urban poverty to the history of energy–that the philanthropist says you should be reading this winter. Bill Gates just released his 2017 holiday reading list, part of a semi-annual effort to push the public toward five books that might expand how they think or feel. Of course,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2017-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lies have become alternative facts and truth irrelevant in the face of power, while we all give up our privacyIn Book 8 of The Odyssey we read that the gods weave misfortune so that later generations have something to sing about. It wasn’t a god but a conman who now leads me to describe how –... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Facebook CEO points to last year’s primaries as the moment he had a “political awakening.” But do his actions—and words—reflect that? Since January, we’ve seen story after story offer speculation about whether Mark Zuckerberg will make a bid for the presidency. It won’t surprise you, then,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2017-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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And publishers get to keep all of the revenue, says Mark Zuckerberg. The post Facebook Confirms Plan to Help Pubs Sell Subscriptions Through Instant Articles appeared first on Folio:. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2017-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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