News of the Week; August 8, 2018

DIGITAL

1. How bots amplify hoaxes and propaganda on social media: Zignal Labs CEO Josh Ginsberg says consumers and companies need to know what’s bot-generated and what’s not so they can make informed decisions about things like elections.
2. ‘It’s our time to serve the Motherland’ How Russia’s war in Georgia sparked Moscow’s modern-day recruitment of criminal hackers
3. As ‘DNC Hacked Itself’ Conspiracy Theory Collapses, Key Backer Of Claim Exposed As UK Troll
4. Bill Says US Tech Companies Must Let The Feds Know When Foreign Companies Poke Around In Their Source Code
5. Court Says Comey And Other DOJ Officials Must Answer BuzzFeed’s Questions About The Steele Dossier
6. The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley: They have weaponized social media, and we are all paying the price.
7. Alex Jones’ Infowars Channels Scrubbed From YouTube, Facebook, Apple, And Spotify
8. YouTube bans Alex Jones, following Facebook and Apple’s lead
9. YouTube Bans InfoWars Following Removals From Apple, Facebook, and Spotify
10. Alex Jones hit with bans from Facebook and Apple
11. Alex Jones podcast episodes yanked from Spotify over “hate content”
12. Alex Jones Is Shirtlessly Screaming Into the Void on Popular Social Network Google+
13. Filling the void Alex Jones left behind: YouTube’s attempt to burst the (far-)right bubble is a chance for Fox News
14. Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey Explains Why Twitter Isn’t Banning Alex Jones
15. Op-ed: Alex Jones is a crackpot—but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea [Updated]
16. How journalists should not cover an online conspiracy theory: The QAnon narrative shows the need for better practices in reporting on baseless claims and hoaxes. Here’s how the media can take action
17. Online Hate Is Rampant. Here’s How To Keep It From Spreading
18. Report: Feds investigating whether Musk’s buyout tweet broke the law
19. In Germany, a news site is pairing up liberals and conservatives and actually getting them to (gasp) have a civil conversation
20. Saudi State Media Posted a Photo That Sure Looks Like a Threat to Attack Toronto 
21. Senators Demand Answers on Google’s Reported Plans for Censored Search Engine in China
22. BBC Migrates Everything To HTTPS, Immediately Finds Itself Blocked By The Chinese Government
23. Apple becomes first US public company worth $1 trillion: Q3 earnings report bolsters stock to record amount, maintained to market close
24. That’s trillion with a T—Apple hits market value of $1 trillion
25. Apple Kills App Affiliate Program In Pointless Move
26. Apple shuts App Store affiliate program, imperiling recommendation sites
27. Sensing Blood In The Water, All Major Labels Sue Cox For ‘Ignoring’ Their DMCA Notices
28. Indian Court Grants PepsiCo’s Takedown Request Targeting Thousands Of ‘Disparaging’ Social Media Posts
29. Yet Another Study Shows You Beat Piracy Through Innovation, Rather Than Enforcement
30. SESTA, FOSTA, And How To Make Sense Of The Acronym Soup
31. Evidence Mounts: UK Study Shows Better Legal Alternatives Pushing Pirates To Become Customers
32. The War On Fan-Subtitles Comes To Australia in The Form Of Site-Blocking
33. Microsoft adding support for Movies Anywhere, giving away free X-Men movie
34. Amazon’s Head Of Unscripted TV Out After Investigation Into Inappropriate Comments (Report)
35. Wells Fargo Admits ‘Computer Glitch’ May Have Contributed to 400 Foreclosures
36. Only a small percentage of users buys stuff through Alexa, report claims
37. Report: Almost Nobody Is Using Amazon’s Alexa to Actually Buy Stuff
38. Amazon launches grocery pickup at Whole Foods for Prime members
39. Facebook Faces Another Consequence of Its Privacy Problems: Shareholder Lawsuits
40. Facebook Wanted Us to Kill This Investigative Tool
41. Facebook Is Asking Banks to Share Data on Customers’ Spending Habits
42. Facebook: We’re not asking for financial data, we’re just partnering with banks
43. This Facebook Feature Shouldn’t Exist
44. Facebook Asked To Change Terms Of Service To Protect Journalists
45. ‘People You May Know:’ A Controversial Facebook Feature’s 10-Year History
46. YouTube Set To Overtake Facebook As Second Largest Website In America
47. YouTube is about to pass Facebook as the second biggest website in US, according to new study: Facebook’s web traffic has declined by nearly half in the last two years, while YouTube is climbing.
48. YouTube Premium Announces First Spanish-Language Slate With Gael García Bernal, Maluma, Sofia Niño de Rivera
49. Go90 or bust: How AwesomenessTV’s fate was tied to Verizon
50. Easier streaming services put dent in illegal downloading
51. Fight Over Virginia Tech Sportswriter’s Twitter Account: Who Owns Employees’ Social Media Accounts?
52. Warner Music Group Acquires UPROXX: The 10-year-old online hub and video production house aimed at youth boasts a reach of 40 million people.
53. Warner Music Group Sells Its Entire Stake in Spotify
54. Spotify’s $30 billion playlist for global domination
55. Bytedance Nixes Musical.ly Brand As Short-Form Video Site Merges Into Sister Platform ‘TikTok’
56. Music Streaming Service Deezer Raises $185 Million
57. Crowd-Sauce: How Memes Are Helping Rappers Reach Number One
58. Why Fitness Is The New Hot Marketing Platform And Revenue Stream For Music
59. Snapchat Made $262 Million During Q2 But Lost 3 Million Daily Active Users
60. Roku Exceeds Q2 Earnings Expectations, Brings Free Streaming Service To Web
61. Why Did Anyone Think MoviePass Could Have Worked?: The company had deep-pocketed backers and a plan. It just overlooked a few important details.
62. Katzenberg’s WndrCo Confirms $1 Billion Raise For Shortform Subscription Service, Doesn’t Plan To Compete With Netflix, Hulu
63. Warner Bros. And DC Comics’ ‘DC Universe’ Streaming Service Launching In Beta This Month
64. Disney Will Shuttle Marvel Cinematic Universe To Its Own Streaming Service Starting With ‘Captain Marvel’ In 2019
65. Peloton Raises $550 Million As It Builds “A Media Company Akin To Netflix,” Says CEO
66. Researchers Inadvertently Discover Crypto Scam Involving 15,000 Twitter Bots
67. Some Traders Are Talking Up Cryptocurrencies, Then Dumping Them, Costing Others Millions
68. America Needs a Blockchain Strategy ASAP
69. 3D-printed (and CNC-milled) guns: Nine questions you were too afraid to ask
70. New in School: AI-Driven Gun Detection Systems
71. The Algorithm That Could Save Vulnerable New Yorkers From Being Forced Out of Their Homes
72. Uber driver who struck, killed young girl is convicted of vehicular manslaughter
73. Patreon Creators See Dip In Earnings Due To Payments Being Mistakenly Marked As Fraudulent, Company Says
74. Silicon Valley Writes A Playbook To Help Avert Ethical Disasters
75. The Free-Market Fraud: Tech Innovation and Alternatives
76. New open source effort: Legal code to make reporting security bugs safer
77. Is there such a thing as Internet politics? (Andres Guadamuz)

CREATIVITY

1. Some Notes About Recent Developments at the Copyright Board of Canada (Howard Knopf)
2. When Copying Isn’t Infringement
3. Court Awards $12,500 For ‘Emotional Harm’ From Bogus Copyright Lawsuit
4. Alvin Toffler Investigated by FBI for Communist Activities According to Newly Released Files
5. Moneyballing the Movies: How the Box Office Became a Sport – Every weekend, new releases are graded on their box office returns. How did covering the movie business become a haven for statheads?
6. Warner Bros. Is Finally Realizing Supergirl Should Be the Center of the DC Universe
7. Is This the End of the TV Writers’ Room as We Know It?
8. ‘Anything For A Hit’ Exclusive Book Excerpt: Atlantic Records in the ’80s Was Like Plunging Into ‘A Circus Mixed with an Orgy’
9. MPAA: To Save Free Speech, We Must Broadly Censor Free Speech

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. FCC lied to Congress about made-up DDoS attack, investigation found 
2. Here’s the Internal Report Proving the FCC Made Up a Cyberattack
3. That Hack of the FCC’s Comment Section Last Year? It Never Actually Happened, Agency Admits
4. Ajit Pai Throws His Employees Under The Bus After Investigation Proves FCC Made Up DDOS Attack
5. Ajit Pai admits FCC lied about “DDoS,” blames it on Obama administration
6. Trump admin asks Supreme Court to re-kill already-dead net neutrality rules
7. Trump Admin Hopes Kavanaugh Supreme Court Delivers The Killing Blow To Net Neutrality
8. Report Highlights How U.S. Telcos Abandoned Rural American Broadband
9. ISPs’ listed speeds drop up to 41% after UK requires accurate advertising
10. FCC sides with Google Fiber over Comcast with new pro-competition rule
11. Verizon lied about 4G coverage—and it could hurt rural America, group says
12. FCC Tackles “Slamming and Cramming” 
13. Charter CEO Apparently Unaware He Runs One Of The Most Despised Companies In America
14. Will The “Real Journalists” At Fox News Please Stand Up?: It’s time for the Shep Smiths of Fox News to speak out against the pro-Trump propagandists like Hannity, Carlson, and Pirro.
15. AT&T Acquires The Chernin Group’s Stake In Otter Media In Reported $1 Billion Deal
16. $50 a month for 1Mbps: How AT&T and Verizon rip off DSL customers
17. Behind Ryerson’s Support for Site Blocking: Bell Reviewed Draft Submission, Was Warned It Did Not Represent Faculty View 
18. “One of Our Key Hiring Companies”: The Missing Link in the George Brown College Support for Bell’s Site Blocking Plan 
19. Aiding by Omission in CASL? Good Enough, CRTC Says

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Does the Canada Border Services Agency Have the Authority to Search Your Electronic Devices?
2. The Pentagon Tells Soldiers To Stop Sharing Their Locations With Apps
3. Pentagon tells troops: Turn off fitness tracker GPS when you head to warzones
4. Facebook Granted ‘Unprecedented’ Leave To Appeal Over Referral Of Privacy Shield Case To Top EU Court
5. FTC Asks Whether to Expand Enforcement Power over Corporate Privacy Practices 
6. ICANN Loses Yet Again In Its Quixotic Quest To Obtain A Special Exemption From The EU’s GDPR
7. China’s influence on digital privacy could be global
8. Cramming Software With Thousands of Fake Bugs Could Make It More Secure
9. Unixiz Agrees to Settle Charges Under COPPA and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act 
10. The Legal Paradox of Commoditizing Athlete Data Trade Secrets
11. How to win (or at least not lose) the war on phishing? Enlist machine learning

GAMES

1. Tired of legal threats, emulation hub EmuParadise drops its ROM library
2. Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games
3. Current and former Riot employees discuss the toxic feedback culture of the studio
4. Riot Games responds to sexist work culture exposé: “We haven’t lived up to our own values,” says League of Legends developer as criticism mounts in wake of damning report
5. Minecraft boss says US work culture needs more “off-ramps” for employees: Employees should be able “immerse themselves in their life experiences” without damaging their careers, says Helen Chiang
6. SNK artist discusses discrimination in the Japanese games industry 
7. EA issues apology after removing Kaepernick’s name from song in Madden 19 [Updated]
8. EA says mistake led to censorship of Colin Kaepernick’s name in Madden 19’s soundtrack
9. EA made “unfortunate mistake” removing Colin Kaepernick’s name from Madden 19 song: Company issues official statement on omission after it was discovered in early copies
10. GameFly to axe video game streaming service in August
11. BioWare is still exploring new projects outside of Anthem
12. “Netflix of games” a threat to developers: If subscription streaming services take off, creators likely to lose leverage in dealing with platform holders
13. IGN Pulls Review After Plagiarism Accusations 
14. IGN drops Dead Cells reviewer after plagiarism investigation
15. Fallout 76 won’t be launching on Steam
16. War changes: Fallout 76 is series’ first in a decade to skip Steam
17. Fallout Shelter surpasses $90M in lifetime mobile revenue
18. ZX Spectrum and Sinclair trademark holder to pull branding rights from Vega+
19. EmuParadise removes ROMs: Users won’t be able to download games from long-running site any more; “It’s not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences”
20. Facebook introduces AR games to group chats
21. Fake apps find a way to Google Play!
22. Confirmed: Fortnite on Android will drive its bus past Google’s 30% cut [Updated]
23. “30% store tax is a high cost,” says Sweeney as Fortnite skips Google Play: Epic Games CEO explains studio’s decision to aim for direct downloads, praises openness of Google’s platform
24. Epic Games is bypassing the Google Play Store forFortnite’s Android release
25. Google not at fault for clones and unsanctioned apps on Google Play, says Epic CEO
26. Analyst: Fortnite streams have racked up over 600M hours viewed in 2018
27. The battle royale boom helped Turtle Beach achieve a record quarter
28. Gamefly ends video game streaming service
29. Faeria: The CCG that abandoned free-to-play and went premium
30. New Unity report suggests 67% of indies plan to self-publish
31. Unity survey shows over half of indie studios working in mobile, 40% in VR or AR: Top-ranking studios by revenue and DAU showed a preference for mobile and freemium models
32. Unity partners with Google to introduce AdMob integration for mobile games
33. Minecraft’s studio head says devs and studios benefit from generous time off policies
34. Netmarble’s Lineage 2: Revolution has seen $1.3 billion in player spending – Sensor Tower data indicates the importance of the mobile RPG to Netmarble’s business
35. Crackdown and confidentiality: Sumo Digital’s approach to AAA development – The UK studio discusses handling coveted IP and why it’s not afraid of missing out on the limelight
36. Nexon withholds shareholder dividends to “review and execute effective investments”: Korean games firm sees simultaneous two per cent revenue increase and profit decline
37. Sony and Nintendo’s strategies converge: Bumper results for both platform holders point to a similar key to success – seeing themselves as game creators first and foremost
38. WarioWare Gold: A fine example of Nintendo’s weird “end of life” history
39. How do you pronounce “NES”? Nintendo throws a wrench in the debate
40. You Can’t Compete With Free Meets Its Ultimate Counterexample In The NES Classic
41. With $400M+ revenue, Fire Emblem Heroes reigns as Nintendo’s big mobile earner
42. Octopath Traveler has shipped 1M copies worldwide
43. Elon Musk adding Atari classics to Tesla software, wants original games for car display: Billionaire reveals Tempest, Missile Command and Pole Position coming in next four week – with the latter controlled by steering wheel
44. Mobile revenue failed to meet Square Enix’s expectations this quarter
45. Square Enix sees revenue and profit tumble in quiet Q1 for games
46. Bandai Namco sees flat first quarter with little help from game sales
47. Game sales and revenue down at Bandai Namco
48. Game revenue down at Sega despite increase in physical sales
49. Sega Sammy net sales down 35.8% in latest financial report: Entertainment contents arm suffers least with only 10.5% decline
50. Capcom: “We’d prefer a game that got a 9 and sold less, than a 6 but sold more.” – Publisher on its fear over Resident Evil 2’s E3 reveal, the Monster Hunter gamble and new IP
51. Harmonix signs multiplatform publishing deal with NCSoft
52. Take-Two expects GTA Online sales to ‘moderate’ as it beats estimates again: Publisher anticipates international growth for NBA2K, too
53. Digital sales drive Take-Two’s rising profits ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2
54. NBA 2K18 reaches ten million units sold: Lifetime franchise sales exceed 80 million
55. Activision Blizzard exceeds Q2 revenue goals thanks to in-game spending
56. Activision Blizzard exceeds second quarter outlook despite headwinds: Call of Duty season, record Hearthstone pre-purchases drove $1.64 billion in net revenue
57. Activision Blizzard: Tech issues will halt wide adoption of streaming in the near term
58. Blizzard confirms “multiple Diablo projects” in production, news by end of 2018
59. Spyro Reignited Trilogy only has one game on the disc: Activision warns that second and third instalments will need to be downloaded after purchase
60. Tencent and Activision bringing Call of Duty to mobile in China
61. Fire Emblem Heroes earns $400 million globally: Mobile game nearly ten time more profitable than Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
62. Fallout Shelter surpasses $90m lifetime revenue
63. China’s “enormous opportunity” for Eve Online
64. CCP partners with NetEase to grow Eve Online in China: Major local publisher takes over Serenity server following collaboration on mobile spin-off Eve Project Galaxy
65. Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins Becomes First Creator In Twitch History To Amass 10 Million Followers
66. Fortnite powers Ninja to become first Twitch streamer with 10m followers
67. No Man Sky scores biggest Twitch numbers since launch
68. With NEXT update, No Man’s Sky finally brings it all together
69. After two years, is No Man’s Sky everything Hello Games originally promised?: Hello Games’ procedurally generated creation is better than ever after two years of persistent updates
70. Opinion: Battle for Azeroth and the death of nuance
71. Frostkeep Studios is serious about making “the game that players want” with Rend
72. PUBG developers launch “Fix PUBG” campaign
73. PUBG dev launches ‘Fix PUBG’ website to address longstanding bug complaints
74. Elon Musk-funded Dota 2 bots spank top-tier humans, and they know how to trash talk
75. Newzoo: Esports viewership will continue to bear greater resemblance to traditional sports
76. Overwatch League adds new teams in Guangzhou and Atlanta
77. Kakao Games sinks $16.8M into esports studio Neptune
78. Esports Business Projected to Reach $1.5 Billion in Revenue by 2020
79. EA: Diversity and engagement key to growing FIFA eWorld Cup – FIFA competitive gaming commissioner shares how the game’s accessibility will lead to success across a wider swath of media
80. Inside Magic Leap’s Quest To Remake Itself As An Ordinary Company (With A Real Product)
81. After years of hype, Magic Leap starts selling $2,300 AR headset
82. Inside Magic Leap: How it works and what it means for game devs
83. Oculus Removes Handful of Fake Game Reviews, Says They’re Uncommon
84. Facebook introduces AR games to Messenger
85. Augmented Reality Recreates A New York City Not Seen for Centuries
86. Innovation Report: 1 in 3 AR/VR/MR devs are making a platform exclusive
87. Metaari: Game-based learning market will reach $17 billion by 2023 – Improved VR, AR, and AI technology will drive further investment, development opportunity
88. Halo TV series confirmed for a 2020 release
89. Digital collectable card games will generate $1.5 billion revenue in 2018: SuperData report forecasts global rise to $2 billion by 2020
90. Blog: What men and women consider hardcore gaming are not the same
91. Tips and best practices for localizing licensed IPs
92. Book Excerpt: Tips on negotiating key legal agreements in games
93. Real Estate Developer Found Using Video Game Footage In Marketing Material… Which Is Pretty Cool!

Jon