24 Recent Articles about AI Deepfakes

What to know about the rise of AI deepfakes – CBS News

High School Is Becoming a Cesspool of Sexually Explicit Deepfakes – The Atlantic

Sophistication of AI-backed operation targeting senator points to future of deepfake schemes – Associated Press

Due to AI fakes, the “deep doubt” era is here - ArsTechnica

Taylor Swift and the Power of the AI Backlash – New York Magazine

How AI Is Helping ‘Fake Candidates’ Land Jobs – Wall Street Journal

A.I. Can Now Create Lifelike Videos. Can You Tell What’s Real? - The New York Times

FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist - ArsTechnica

Educational resource page with information and tips about deepfakes - Microsoft

5 Best Deepfake Detector Tools & Techniques – Unite  

U.S. Army soldier charged with using AI to create child sexual abuse images – Washington Post

New McAfee tool can detect AI-generated audio - Axios 

See why AI detection tools can fail to catch election deepfakes – Washington Post

Google's Nonconsensual Explicit Image Problem is Getting Worse – Wired

Something fascinating is wrong with the eyes in deepfakes – Futurism

Bill to Outlaw AI Deepfakes Backed by SAG-AFTRA – Variety  

As AI entrenches itself in the political world, discerning real from fake is critical – NBC Boston

The FCC wants the AI voice calling you to say it's a deepfake – Tech Radar

California lawmakers approve legislation to ban deepfakes, protect workers and regulate AI  - ABC News

YouTube is developing AI detection tools for music and faces, plus creator controls for AI training – Tech Crunch

Scammers now using deepfakes to commit title fraud – NBC 6 South Florida

Many political AI deepfakes are totally cartoonish, but the technology is still shaping the election – Fortune

AI-generated deepfakes are a growing threat to consumer identity – CBS 8

What the US can learn from the role of AI in other elections – MIT Tech Review

17 Recent Articles about AI Fakes

Microsoft Bing Copilot blames reporter for crimes he covered - The Register

AI researchers call for ‘personhood credentials’ as bots get smarter – Washington Post   

AI was responsible for the fake quotes in the Megalopolis trailer – The Verge 

Trump Promotes A.I. Images to Falsely Suggest Taylor Swift Endorsed Him – New York Times

How do AI checkers actually work? - ZDnet

Watermarking in Images Will Not Solve AI-Generated Content Abuse – Data Innovation

Trump's crowd-photo claims speed AI-driven truth decay – Axios

This system can sort real pictures from AI fakes — why aren’t platforms using it? – The Verge

Secretaries of state urge Musk to fix AI chatbot spreading false election info – Washington Post   

AI is complicating plagiarism. How should scientists respond? – Nature

Research findings strongly argue against the use of free AI detectors to detect fake scientific images - Arxiv 

How universities spot AI cheats – and the one word that gives it away – Telegraph  

US agents shut down huge Russian AI bot farm as fears over misinformation grow – Semafor 

Hunting for AI bots? These four words could do the trick – NBC News

How to Teach Kids to Spot AI Manipulation – Ed Week

OpenAI says it’s taking a ‘deliberate approach’ to releasing tools that can detect writing from ChatGPT  - Tech Crunch 

Tom Hanks alerts fans about AI ads using his voice to sell ‘wonder drugs’: ‘Do not be fooled’ – LA Times 

How AI-generated memes are changing the 2024 election – NPR

How do AI Checkers Work?

AI checkers will break down text, removing punctuation then use a technique called vectorization to convert it into a mathematical hash code for comparison to other text. Phrases and grammatical structure are assigned weights with uncommon language rated as more likely human-written. The AI detector also looks across the internet for use of the same language. The comparison identifies exact matches and paraphrases. This means data-rich companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta are more likely to successfully identify AI-written material. Read more about this process on ZDnet

14 Recent Articles about AI Deepfakes

Why the Pentagon is looking to speedily buy deepfake-detection technology – Defense Scoop

Forget deepfake videos. Text and voice are this election’s true AI threat. – The Hill

Deepfakes Are Evolving. This Company Wants to Catch Them All – Wired

Fake AI-generated video of Justin Timberlake drinking beer shocks fans: ‘Where do we go from here?’ – NY Post

Political deepfakes top list of malicious AI use, DeepMind finds – Financial Times 

A.I. Is Getting Better Fast. Can You Tell What’s Real Now? – New York Times

The Near Future of Deepfakes Just Got Way Clearer – The Atlantic 

Deepfakes and the First Amendment: Are Deepfakes Illegal? – Freedom Forum

AI Fake Nudes Are Wreaking Havoc at Schools Across the Country – Wall Street Journal

A national network of local news sites is publishing AI-written articles under fake bylines. Experts are raising alarm - CNN   

‘I Felt Shameful and Fearful’: Teen Who Saw AI Fake Nudes of Herself Speaks Out - Wall Street Journal

How to spot generative AI ‘hallucinations’ and prevent them – ReadWrite

Few AI deepfakes identified in EU elections, Microsoft president says – Reuters

The danger of deepfakes is not what you think – Financial Times

13 articles about AI Fakes

Battling AI's error problem: Experts craft BS detector - Axios

Top 10 Generative AI Models Mimic Russian Disinformation Claims A Third of the Time – News Guard

Facebook Is Already Mistakenly Tagging Real Photos as "Made With AI" – Futurism

Battling AI's error problem: Experts craft BS detector – Axios

Can AI police itself? Experts say chatbots can detect each other’s gaffes. – Washington Post

Fake science in fraudulent papers is on the rise - The Week  

Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures – Wall Street Journal

Leading chatbots are spreading Russian propaganda – Axios

Google’s and Microsoft’s AI Chatbots Refuse to Say Who Won the 2020 US Election - WIRED

A national network of local news sites is publishing AI-written articles under fake bylines. Experts are raising alarm - CNN 

AI Is Helping Scammers Outsmart You—and Your Bank – Wall Street Journal 

Propagandists are using AI too—and companies need to be open about it – MIT Tech Review  

Researchers made an algorithm that can tell when AI is hallucinating – BGR

18 articles about AI Fakes

These ISIS news anchors are AI fakes. Their propaganda is real. – Washington Post

Generative AI poses Threat to election security, intelligence agencies warn – CBS News

Bank of Italy warns against AI-powered fake videos – Reuters

Google's AI Watermarks Will Identify Deepfakes – Dark Reading

In novel case, U.S. charges man with making child sex abuse images with AI – Washington Post

Voice-cloning technology bringing a key Supreme Court moment to 'life' – Associated Press

Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures – Wall Street Journal

New UK law targets “despicable individuals” who create AI sex deepfakes - Ars Technica 

She was accused of faking an incriminating video but nothing was fake after all  - The Guardian

TikTok’s AI watermarks could help curb deepfakes, but it’s no panacea – Semafor

OpenAI Releases ‘Deepfake’ Detector to Disinformation Researchers – New York Times 

Microsoft and OpenAI launch $2M fund to counter election deepfakes – Tech Crunch  

OpenAI Says It Can Now Detect Images Spawned by Its Software—Most of the Time – Wall Street Journal

How AI-generated disinformation might impact this year’s elections and how journalists should report on it – Reuters Institute  

How Generative AI Is Helping Fact-Checkers Flag Election Disinformation, But Is Less Useful in the Global South – Global Investigative Journalism Network  

In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024 – Washington Post

Excessive use of words like ‘commendable’ and ‘meticulous’ suggests ChatGPT has been used in thousands of scientific studies - EL PAÍS English

Fooled by AI? These firms sell deepfake detection - Washington Post

14 Articles about How AI Tools are being Used to Create Fakes

Contest invites Penn Staters to write believable fake news with generative AI – Penn State

AI-fueled scams target tax refunds - Axios

AI Spam Threatens the Internet—AI Can Also Protect It – IEEE Spectrum

Fake news YouTube creators target Black celebrities with AI-generated misinformation – NBC

Finance worker pays out $25 million after video call with deepfake ‘chief financial officer’- CNN

Underage picture of Jenna Ortega used in ‘no clothes’ deepfake app ad on Instagram, Facebook – NBC

A fake recording of a candidate saying he’d rigged the election went viral. Experts say it’s only the beginning - CNN

AI deepfakes of Taylor Swift spread on X. Here’s what to know. – Washington Post

A Photographer Who Found Instagram Fame for His Striking Portraits Has Confessed His Images Were Actually A.I.-Generated - ArtNet

Google, Bing put deepfake porn at the top of some search results – NBC News

A New Kind of AI Copy Can Fully Replicate Famous People. The Law Is Powerless. – Politico

Police investigate explicit fake images of high school students generated by AI – NBC Chicago

The Future of AI Video after Sora is impressive—and Flawed – Washington Post

Algorithms are pushing AI-generated falsehoods at an alarming rate. How do we stop this? – The Conversation

The Deepfake Dangers Ahead

Because of advances in computing power, smarter machine learning algorithms and larger data sets, we will soon share digital space with a sinister array of AI-generated news articles and podcasts, deepfake images and videos—all produced at a once unthinkable scale and speed. As of 2018, according to one study, fewer than 10,000 deepfakes had been detected online. Today the number of deepfakes online is almost certainly in the millions. Deepfakes pose not only criminal risks but also threats to national security.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal

Articles of interest about journalism, writing, privacy & more - May 27

***COVID-19 

New York will raffle off scholarships to kids who get vaccinated

Learning How To Smell Again After COVID-19

***JOURNALISM

The effects of media narratives about failures and discoveries in science on beliefs about and support for science 

These Ex-Journalists Are Using AI to Catch Online Defamation

The news doesn’t set with the sun. What it’s like to be a night-shift journalist.

Google AMP is dead! AMP pages no longer get preferential treatment in Google search  

California City Ends Lawsuit Against Bloggers For Publishing Police Records

Russia’s attack on U.S. media has become a test case (opinion) ($) 

The AP and the latest style

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Subpoena for sources, records related to Washington Post journalist’s college reporting is improper and invalid, RCFP argues

Local TV news employment confounds expectations in 2020  

Newspaper Layoffs Grew In 2020 

AP sent a memo about its controversial decision to fire a young staff reporter over her college activism regarding Israel-Palestine 

New Owner Set for Chicago Tribune, Daily News and Baltimore Sun 

***PRODUCING MEDIA 

How Did the Pandemic Impact the Video Production Industry?

Vice Media Group now produces more Stories than text or video

In Google’s new world, your phone camera is for way more than taking photos 

Spotify will auto-transcribe podcasts over the coming weeks

Why QR codes are here to stay after the COVID-19 pandemic

***WRITING & READING

Does your writing transgress this editor’s pet peeves?  

Checking In With Black Bookstores Nearly A Year After 2020's Book Boom On Racism

The 9 Types of Adjectives 

John Steinbeck’s estate urged to let the world read his shunned werewolf novel 

***PLAGIARISM 

You Say Plagiarism. I Say Provocation

Plagiarism and how to not do it

***FAKES, FRAUDS & SCAMS

Trump Continues To Push Election Falsehoods. Here's Why That Matters

Covid Vaccines: Could they be magnetic?

Science Had a Misinformation Problem Before COVID. Scientists Want to Fix It

Unvaccinated TikTok Users Believe They Will Be ‘Lone Survivors’

Google now fights fake news in search results. Here's how it works

QAnon believers go undercover to spread conspiracies online…and it’s working

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

New Florida law bars social media from blocking politicians: Unconstitutional, conflicts with federal law, experts say ($)   

TikTok Radio is coming to SiriusXM as companies join forces to create ‘exclusive audio experiences’ 

Twitter axes AI cropping after tests prove racial bias

The Case For Deleting Everything

***DATA PRIVACY

“Apps Are Not Listening To You”: Privacy Tech Worker Explains How Ads Know Things They Seemingly Shouldn’t

Google Must Face Privacy Claims Over Data Transfers To App Developers 

Data privacy bill: All tech giants would have to follow Apple lead

Experian exposes credit scores through unprotected API

Apple’s iOS 14.5 update comes with App Tracking Transparency for better privacy

***LANGUAGE

DARPA helped make a sarcasm detector, because of course it did   

Scientists find 'missing link' behind first human languages

Meet the mystery woman who mastered IBM’s 5,400-character Chinese typewriter  

Although it was the language of sacred texts and ritual, modern Hebrew wasn’t spoken in conversation till the late nineteenth century 

How Far Back in Time Could an English Speaker Go and Still Communicate Effectively? (video)

***POETRY

Poetry Challenge: How Has The Pandemic Changed You?

“Dead Souls” is an exceedingly cerebral comedy about the viability of contemporary poetry   

Articles of interest about journalism, writing, conspiracy theories & more - May 3

***COVID-19

Reaching ‘Herd Immunity’ Is Unlikely in the U.S., Experts Now ($)

Vaccines could be approved for children by summer 

The Covid-19 Pandemic Ends With Exponential Decay ($)

How Pfizer manufactures its COVID-19 vaccine (data visualization) 

U.S. May Have Hit The Mark With Vaccinations To Beat Back COVID-19 

Vaccinated and ready to hit the gym? Here’s how to assess the risks. Vaccinated and ready to hit the gym? Here’s how to assess the risks. ($)

CDC says it is safe for vaccinated people to unmask outdoors

What ‘Taking the Pandemic Seriously’ Means Now (opinion)

***JOURNALISM

‘Understanding Title IX’ is a new Poynter course to help student journalists navigate this complex federal law

‘1619 Project’ writer to join UNC journalism school faculty  

Reporter resigns over story that claimed migrant kids were being given VP's books ($) 

Why the New York Times's Opinion Redesign Drops 'Op-Ed'  ($)

How do audiences decide what news to trust? Fairness and accuracy aren’t the only things that matter 

News deserts and weak ethics laws allow corruption to run rampant in SC

Science journalism grows up (opinion) 

Why do people still get print newspapers? Well, partly to start up the grill (seriously)

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Do newsrooms have to be in … newsrooms?

A Gannett union study shows major gender and racial pay gaps in 14 of its newsrooms 

Major media is taking millions from Facebook — and keeping the details secret

How local TV stations plan to remain relevant as viewers shift to streaming 

Wave of New Newspapers Sue Google and Facebook

***SUBSTACK

What Substack is really doing to the media 

Substack cofounders discuss $1 million local news plan

***FREE SPEECH 

Cheerleader's case could shape workplace social media policies

Wave Of 'Anti-Protest' Bills Could Threaten First Amendment  

***PRODUCING MEDIA

A Complete Guide: How To Save on Professional Video Production Costs

Apple will let podcasters sell subscriptions and keep a cut for itself

Podcast paywalls are here 

***WRITING & READING

This Is How Reading Rewires Your Brain, According to Neuroscience

Where should you buy books? ($)

Is It OK When Passive Voice Is Used? 

When the Plagiarist Sends the DMCA Notice 

A Joy Of Reading, Sparked By a Special Librarian 

11 books to pull you out of a reading rut

Be careful about what you give away in your excitement about signing a contract for a book ($) 

***COVID CONSPIRACIES

Study: COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs increased among users of conservative and social media

How conspiracy theories about COVID-19 prey on Latinos (opinion) ($)

***SCIENCE CONSPIRACIES

What’s the secret science of conspiracy theories?

Misinformation in and about science 

***FAKES, FRAUDS & SCAMS

The slow, painful death of Trump allies’ voting-machine conspiracy theories

Scam sends threatening texts about drug cartels 

How QAnon Conspiracy Theorists Are Winning Local Elections

Study lacks evidence on masks, isn’t linked to Stanford

***SOCIAL MEDIA 

Parler's New iPhone App Will Block Posts That Apple Prohibits

Facebook announces Clubhouse clone, podcast features, Spotify integration, and more

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

Experian exposes credit scores through unprotected API

Internet industry braces for new privacy rules

Stop using your work laptop or phone for personal stuff, because I know you are 

D.C. Police Department Victim Of Apparent Ransomware Attack

***LITERATURE

The science behind how literature improves our lives

Shakespeare’s musings on religion are like curious whispers – they require deep listening to be heard

‘A Jane Austen Museum Wants to Discuss Slavery. Will Her Fans Listen?’

***POETRY

How Poetry Has Helped To Guide People During The Pandemic 

For National Poetry Month, five poets reflect on the seasons ($)

Articles of interest about journalism, writing, conspiracy theories & more - April 5

***COVID-19

CDC: Fully vaccinated people can travel in U.S. without tests or quarantines 

Can Vaccinated People Spread the Virus? We Don’t Know, Scientists Say.

CDC Data Suggests Vaccinated Don’t Carry, Can’t Spread Virus

***JOURNALISM

Why Being ‘Anti-Media’ Is Now Part Of The GOP Identity

The journalism crisis across the world

Asian America women like me have been objectified & dehumanized. This was my TV news experience (opinion) 

Paul Brock, a founder of Black journalism group, dies at 89

Vaccine Hesitancy: What Journalists Need to Know

News deserts and weak ethics laws allow corruption to run rampant in SC

Kansas City newspaper sends a warning with a blank front page ($)

More than 25 places to find journalism jobs and internships

Bystander intervention training to stop anti-Asian/American and xenophobic harassment

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Billionaires push to derail hedge fund takeover of local newspapers

U.S. Supreme Court permits FCC to loosen media ownership rules

West Coast billionaires buy dying legacy media companies

How Stat survived, and thrived, during the craziest year in health reporting history 

***WRITING & READING

HarperCollins to Acquire HMH Trade 

Graphic novel from the “Captain Underpants” series pulled from library and bookstore shelves

‘Hemingway’ documentary Is a Big Two-Hearted Reconsideration ($)

***COVID-19 MISINFORMATION 

Vitamin D: The truth about an alleged Covid ‘cover-up’

As the flood of false & misleading health information continues unabated on social media, publishers find themselves in for a battle

The Antiscience Movement Is Escalating, Going Global and Killing Thousands

COVID-19 Misinformation Playbook

The Dark Web Is Teeming With Vaccine Listings Right Now

'You can't trust the government': Spanish-speaking social media spreads COVID-19 vaccine disinformation, adds to hesitancy

***FAKES

How Sounds Are Faked For Nature Documentaries

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

How to check if your account was part of Facebook’s 533M record leak

Google integrates Chat to Gmail for all accounts

How beauty filters took over social media | MIT Technology Review 

Facebook Disputes Claims It Fuels Political Polarization And Extremism

Group-Chatting Platform Discord Might Change Social Media With Its Business Model 

QAnon Facebook Group Linked to Capitol Riot Still Active

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

Personal data from over 500M Facebook users leaked online - 9to5Mac

IRS Warns of Scam Targeting .Edu Email Addresses

Fake apps are circumventing Apple’s rules in order to rob users

New study reveals iPhones aren't as private as you think 

Spy pixels in emails have become endemic 

Companies use this email trick to spy on you all the time – and you had no idea 

***LANGUAGE

Words Like 'Racism' Have Lost Their Common Meaning (opinion)

***POETRY

San Diego's Poet Laureate Launches Digital Poetry Platform

Amanda Gorman’s Poetry United Critics. It’s Dividing Translators

Poetry Challenge: Create A List Poem That Grapples With Rise Of Anti-Asian Racism

Articles of interest about journalism, writing, conspiracy theories & more - March 25

***COVID-19

Survey: 42% say they gained about 29 pandemic pounds, while 10% gained as much as 50 pounds

The US is about to reach a surprise milestone: too many vaccines, not enough takers

10 facts about Americans and coronavirus vaccines 

Hang on to that COVID-19 vaccination card -- it’s important

Doctor says people previously infected with COVID-19 being infected with variant cases

***JOURNALISM

News deserts and weak ethics laws allow corruption to run rampant in SC

The Asian American Journalists Association guide for those covering the Atlanta shootings 

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

How the New York Times A/B tests their headlines 

Pooled Journalism Funds Could Help Save Local Newspapers

***WRITING & READING

How to write inclusive, accessible digital products

More Than Words: Using AI to Map How the Brain Understands Sentences  

How Crying on TikTok Sells Books

 ***PLAGIARISM

The English teacher, Oxford University Press, and an accusation of heinous plagiarism 

A paper on plagiarism titled Illegitimacy of Plagiarism Norms 

Instances of plagiarism found in several articles published by the University of Michigan student newspaper 

Plagiarism costs legal firm £45,000 in damages

***FAKES, FRAUDS & SCAMS

Anyone with an iPhone can now make deepfakes ($)

Young Adults, Seniors Over 75 Most Susceptible to Cyber Fraud: Report 

Fake science news: 6 tips to debunk misinformation online

Fraudsters jump on Clubhouse hype to push malicious Android app

Articles Linking COVID-19 To Death Seem To Be Driving Misinformation Online

***VACCINE CONSPIRACIES 

Why do Americans share so much fake news? They aren’t paying attention, new research suggests

The ex-Pfizer scientist who became an anti-vax hero

Amazon Is Pushing Readers Down A "Rabbit Hole" Of Conspiracy Theories About The Coronavirus

Anti-Vaxxers Are Already Big Mad About Krispy Kreme's Free Doughnut Offer

Why anti-vaccine propaganda still runs rampant on Instagram

12 people are behind most of the anti-vaxxer disinformation you see on social media

***CONSPIRACY THEORIES  

Conspiracy Theories and the Problem of Disbelief

How Do We Understand Conspiracy Theories And Their Impact?

***QANON

Why QAnon Followers Are Suddenly Saying There’s No Such Thing As QAnon 

QAnon shifts, spreading Chinese and Jewish conspiracy myths

HBO's QAnon Docuseries 'Q: Into The Storm' Says It Has Discovered Q's Identity

***FACEBOOK 

Biden and Trump supporters see two different Facebooks, and here’s proof

Facebook Is Building An Instagram For Kids

What Facebook sees in newsletters

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

The hidden fingerprint inside your photos

Third-party cookie replacements fall short of consent and transparency promises

***LITERATURE

Really Harsh Early Reviews of 20 Classic 20th-Century Novels

Dr. Seuss’ stepdaughter speaks out about books removed from print

***POETRY 

Living in the “In-Between Spaces” of Elizabeth Bishop’s Life-Changing Poetry

Acclaimed Polish poet Adam Zagajewski dies at age 75

Poet Raymond Antrobus, Author Of 'The Perseverance

Articles of interest about journalism, social media, conspiracy theories & more - March 7

***COVID-19

There's No Point in Vaccine Shopping

One Year Into the Pandemic, How Are Health Reporters Doing?  

What Do Vaccine Efficacy Numbers Actually Mean?

Hospitals Struggle To Steer Clear Of Counterfeit Masks 

To selfie or not to selfie? Why the joy of getting vaccinated is drawing backlash

Dallas County could reach herd immunity by summer — but that doesn’t mean things will be back to normal

***JOURNALISM

Most women journalists in history haven’t been ‘notable’ enough for Wikipedia. We’re changing that.

For aspiring journalists from low-income backgrounds, systemic industry barriers compound from the start.

In pandemic, rural papers show how journalists are essential workers

In 'exceedingly rare' case, Iowa journalist is one of few still facing charges from reporting on summer protests

News deserts and weak ethics laws allow corruption to run rampant in SC

Want to know if your news organization reflects your community? Do a source audit. Here’s how.

Newsrooms Revisit Old Stories To Offer A 'Fresh Start'

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Sinclair Broadcast Group Announces Cuts 5% Of Workforce Due To Impact Of Covid-19

News organizations that want journalists to engage with their audience may be setting them up for abuse

Toxic work environments at student newspapers are a direct result of the journalism industry (opinion)

The Newsstands of the Future Will Have No Newspapers

***STUDENT JOURNALISM

What's the best advice you've ever received in journalism? 

Why Small Towns Need Student Journalists

How student journalists can find mentorship without working in physical newsrooms 

***WRITING & READING

How to avoid jargon when writing about a technical product

Publishing’s New Power Club is reckoning with race 

Microsoft Word will soon let you transform your documents into PowerPoint presentations 

What grammar rule do you find yourself getting wrong no matter how many times you look it up? (Twitter thread)

***PLAGIARISM

Monash University academic article retracted over plagiarism of a student’s work 

Iowa State student paper Editorial Board member fired for plagiarism

***VACCINE MISINFORMATION

The media plays a crucial role in battling vaccine misinformation. But here’s what not to do. ($)

Twitter cracks down on Covid vaccine misinformation 

***DEEP FAKES

Here’s How Worried You Should Be About Those Tom Cruise Deepfakes

Deepfake videos of Tom Cruise show the technology's threat to society is very real  

***CONSPIRACY THEORIES 

How the party of Lincoln became the party of Alex Jones

Experts In Cult Deprogramming Step In To Help Believers In Conspiracy Theories

As fractures emerge among Proud Boys, experts warn of a shift toward extremist violence

***QANON

Fox News host Tucker Carlson calls QAnon followers 'gentle' patriots

Support for QAnon is hard to measure — and polls may overestimate it

This Small Town Shows How QAnon Is Quietly Going Mainstream

Disinformation experts aren’t happy about the trailer for HBO’s QAnon series

QAnon and conspiracy theories are taking hold in churches. Pastors are fighting back  

***SOCIAL MEDIA 

Twitter is testing an 'undo' option after sending tweets

Facebook launches BARS, a TikTok-like app for creating and sharing raps

The Empty Religions of Instagram: How did influencers become our moral authorities? ($)

Sleep problems associated with smartphone addiction

How social media and video conferencing is changing sign language

Doomscrolling can steal hours of your time -- here's how to take it back

Turntable.fm is back from the dead — and now there are two 

***CLUBHOUSE  

The buzzy chat room app Clubhouse is filled with navel-gazing. Will the virtual hangout spot be useful post-lockdown?

Addicted to Clubhouse? These apps will make it even better

Clubhouse gives people who missed TikTok a chance to become influencers 

Clubhouse Is Recording Your Conversations. That’s Not Even Its Worst Privacy Problem

***SECURITY 

How to poison the data that Big Tech uses to surveil you

Chinese Hacking Spree Hit an ‘Astronomical’ Number of Victims 

More than 20,000 US organizations compromised through Microsoft flaw

This dangerous ransomware is using a new trick to encrypt your network

***PRIVACY  

How to stop your emails from being tracked

Judge in Google case disturbed that even ‘incognito’ users are tracked

China Wants Your Data — And May Already Have It  

TikTok Consumer Privacy Class Settlement Includes $92M Payout

***STUDENT MEDIA

Student Journalist Sues College, Alleging First Amendment Violation

Now students, community are pushing to rename it  Two journalism students uncover evidence that a school district was named after a member of the Ku Klux Klan

Reflections on a year of reporting on college journalism education 

***LANGUAGE 

The language of 'Minari' feels to me like coming home

***LITERATURE

Is it Fair Use to Reproduce Out-of-Print Seuss?

How Dr. Seuss Responded to Critics Who Called Out His Racism

***POETRY

Black Spirituals as Poetry and Resistance ($)  

Four Poets Reflect on the Role of Poetry In Challenging Times

NBA star Zion Williamson Gives Flowers To His Teacher And Explains His Love For Poetry

Articles of interest about journalism, scams, writing & more - Feb 25

***COIVD-19

Studies Examine Variant Surging in California, and the News Isn’t Good

CDC says there’s one thing you shouldn’t do within 2 weeks of your coronavirus vaccine 

Clergy On The Pandemic Front Lines: 'How Do We Really Grieve?'

What Could Happen If You Miss Your Second Covid-19 Vaccine Dose?

***JOURNALISM

A rule for good journalism: What is missing from this story?

Texas journalists are providing critical information about a disaster they’re living through  

With the Loss of Physical Newsrooms, How are Young Journalists Faring?

One America News clashes again with White House correspondents over Trump-approved camera tent ($) 

Trying a Des Moines Register reporter arrested while covering a protest violates free press rights (opinion)  

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Pandemic drives nonprofit media boom  

Al Jazeera to launch rightwing media platform targeting US conservatives 

Judge rejects Rep. Nunes' defamation lawsuit against CNN

Sale Of Tribune Publishing To Alden Global Capital Raises Concerns In Newsrooms

The news media bargaining code could backfire if small media outlets aren’t protected: an economist explains

***FREE SPEECH 

DOJ Settles First Amendment Suit Over White House Press Access 

***WRITING: MICROSOFT WORD 

Microsoft Word getting killer upgrade to battle Google Docs

This new Microsoft Word feature is bound to be a hit, especially with slow typists

***WRITING & READING

AI can write a passing college paper in 20 minutes

Slow Down and Write Better Emails

What does a manuscript rejection really mean? (probably not what you think) 

Library staffer fired after being accused of burning Trump, Coulter books  

The rise of Black science fiction and fantasy

***FAKES & FRAUDS   

Science Is Truth Until It Isn’t

People with extremist views less able to do complex mental tasks, research suggests

Nearly 30,000 Macs reportedly infected with mysterious malware

The viral Mars Perseverance rover video going around is fake

The Disinformation Vaccine: Is There a Cure for Conspiracy Theories?

Scientists said claims about China creating the coronavirus were misleading 

***SCAMS 

Scam alert: Caller tells viewer she must pay to watch TV newscast 

Online scammers are rushing to exploit people desperate to get the Covid-19 vaccine

7 Podcasts About the Art of the Scam ($)

***FAKE NEWS 

Dominion's MyPillow and Smartmatic's Fox News election suits put 'disinformation' on trial

Fake News? How to spot a deep fake

How memes became a major vehicle for misinformation 

***QANON

The future of QAnon

Pizzagate’s violent legacy ($)

Life amid the ruins of QAnon: ‘I wanted my family back’ ($)  

***SOCIAL MEDIA 

From Clubhouse to Discord to Twitter, The Future of Social Media Is All Talk  

***FACEBOOK

Facebook says it will pay news industry $1 billion over 3 years

Facebook Hashtag Purge Fails To Stop Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories Spreading

Facebook knew for years ad reach estimates were based on 'wrong data' per court filing

Facebook’s underground obituary pages

***SECURITY 

France to boost cyberdefense after hospital malware attacks

Owner of app that hijacked millions of Android devices with one update exposes buy-to-infect scam 

Microsoft: SolarWinds attack took more than 1,000 engineers to create  

Ransomware gangs are running riot – paying them off doesn't help

How to stop robocalls: Every way we know to prevent the annoying ringing

***PRIVACY 

You’ve been invited to Clubhouse. Your privacy hasn’t.

Tracker pixels in emails are now an ‘endemic’ privacy concern

***PRODUCING MEDIA

Audio takes off during the pandemic 

***LANGUAGE

The Made-Up Language That Accidentally Became Real: The Story of Klingon

***POETRY 

Beat poet, publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti dies at 101

Poems by 10 Contemporary Black Poets

An experimental program enrolled students from high-poverty high schools in a Harvard poetry course, and the students excelled

Thanks to Undocupoets, poets don’t need papers to be heard

Articles of interest about journalism, conspiracy theories, the virus & more - Feb 4

***THE VACCINES  

Monmouth Poll: 24% of Americans have no plans to get Covid vaccine

Comparing three Covid-19 vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna, J&J 

Why the Second COVID-19 Shot Feels Worse

'Vaccine tourism': tens of thousands of Americans cross state lines for injections

'No issues': Drinking alcohol won’t affect COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, doctors say

What You Need To Know About The Coronavirus Vaccine And Children

Tech glitches, swamped websites impede US vaccine distribution

Newest vaccine weaker against virus mutations

Are the coronavirus vaccines safe for someone with cancer or dementia? ($)

***COVID-19 

A visualization of the pandemic's emotional wave

Younger adults responsible for most of COVID-19 spread

Unmasking the pandemic’s pollution problem

U.S. lagging in key tool against newer variants

Safe ways to return to exercising ($)

Zombie nation: Third of adults walking around in concussion-like daze due to stress, lack of sleep 

***JOURNALISM

Don't have time for video? Just pop open the transcript 

How Can Journalists Better Serve Immigrant Communities? (opinion)

Journalism and statistics team up to detect corruption in Peru

Times reporter disciplined over alleged slur use ($)

TV news crew threatened with arrest after asking congresswoman a question during town hall meeting

Why journalists in India are under attack

***JOURNALISM HISTORY

Thanks to the Internet Archive, the history of American newspapers is more searchable than ever

Seeing the Pentagon Papers in a New Light

The most inspiring journalism movie — maybe ever ($)

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

The job of the future is editor in chief 

West Virginia newspaper publisher sues Google, Facebook

***COVID SCAMS

First Draft launches a hub to monitor misinformation about vaccines

Republican Lawmaker Indicted For Allegedly Selling Bogus Covid-19 Treatments

COVID-19 conspiracy theories in China are wildly different than in the U.S.  

COVID scams flourish despite efforts of health and law enforcement agencies

Anti-Vaccine Groups Exploit Coincidental Illness to Undermine COVID-19 Vaccinations

***POLITICS & CONSPIRACIES 

Trump Taught Teachers Conspiracy Theories. Now They’re Teaching Them To Students.

Trump's rise and fall unified the two most pernicious, racist myths about America

Twitter troll arrested, accused of election interference related to disinformation campaign 

***QANON 

Belief in QAnon Wavers Slightly Among Adults After Capitol Riots, Inauguration

QAnon and the Cultification of the American Right 

Where Have QAnon Supporters Gone?

***SOCIAL MEDIA 

Don’t share your COVID-19 vaccination card on social media. Here’s why.

What we know about Hive

Facebook developing a tool to help advertisers avoid bad news 

Social media giants try to lean into the creator economy

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

Privacy survey: Consumers have poor understanding of data privacy yet think they are taking proactive steps | ZDNet 

Why You Should Never 'Unsubscribe' From Illicit Spam Emails and Texts

Microsoft tracked a system sending a million malware emails a month. Here's what it discovered 

Google’s next big Chrome update will rewrite the rules of the web

This Linux malware is hijacking supercomputers across the globe 

The U.S. Spent $2.2 Million on a Cybersecurity System That Wasn’t Implemented — and Might Have Stopped a Major Hack

Here’s a Way to Learn if Facial Recognition Systems Used Your Photos ($)

***LITERATURE

An ambitious project to visually map thousands of books

Untangling the Legacy of The Color Purple

***POETRY

With Sunflowers As Her Guide, Poet Tunes In To Dream Life For Debut Collection

Inauguration star Amanda Gorman to perform at Super Bowl

Poet learned the power of words as a kid

Articles of interest about journalism, fakes, social media - Jan 18

***THE VIRUS 

Will your neighbors get the vaccine? The percentage by count  

When can grandparents safely visit with grandkids after they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19

Americans have unrealistic expectations for a COVID-19 vaccine

The Maddening Red Tape Facing Older People Who Want the Vaccine 

***JOURNALISM

Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2021

Measuring progress on inclusivity in Journalism

Now It Can Be Told: How Neil Sheehan Got The Pentagon Papers 

Tiny News Collective aims to launch 500 new local news organizations

***FREE SPEECH 

The First Amendment doesn't guarantee you the rights you think it does

Supreme Court wrestles with Georgia college free speech case

***FAKES & FRAUDS 

How to Spot a Fake Social Media Account 

How Anti-Vaccine Movement Could Hurt Efforts To End Pandemic 

How can the Biden administration reduce scientific disinformation? Slow the high-pressure pace of scientific publishing ($)

What covering heavy metal taught me about spotting Nazis

Links between online misinformation and real-world violence were always a problem “over there.” The Capitol Hill riot shows otherwise.

'She was deep into it': Ashli Babbitt, killed in Capitol riot, was devoted conspiracy theorist

***QANON

The QAnon 'Shaman' Is Turning Indigenous Culture Into Cosplay

QAnon believer who plotted to kill Nancy Pelosi came to D.C. ready for war

QAnon Conspiracy Theories Are Being Promoted by Wellness Influencers

The QAnon Doctor Pushing Wild Conspiracies About The COVID Vaccine  

How QAnon-Like Conspiracy Theories Tear Families Apart 

***THE FIGHT AGAINST FAKE NEWS 

Google is giving $3 million to news orgs to fact-check vaccine misinformation 

Fake news victims deploy lawsuits to shut down lies and disinformation

Site That Traffics In Misinformation Fills Void Left By Struggling Newspaper

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

How lawmakers’ social media activity changed in the days after the U.S. Capitol riot

Far-right groups migrate to smaller apps

How Social Media Can Approach Free Speech During A Polarizing Time

Every Video Ever Posted to Parler Is Now Available to Download

Trump supporters flock to MeWe, Gab, and Rumble after Parler goes offline

An annual survey on how social media is used as a news source

Does 'deplatforming' work? Trump's most extreme fans will find him, research says

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

Parler’s amateur coding could come back to haunt Capitol Hill rioters

***POETRY

Poetry Challenge: Honor MLK By Describing How You Dream A World

How L.A.’s Amanda Gorman became Biden’s inauguration poet

Articles of interest about the virus, journalism, fakes, security & more

***THE VIRUS 

California's new virus message: 'Don't share your air'

Where COVID-19 spreads most easily, according to experts

Common childhood vaccine could protect against COVID-19

Vitamin D and coronavirus: Study shows more than 80% of patients were deficient 

Does It Matter Which COVID-19 Vaccine You Get?

What You Can Do Post-Vaccine, and When ($)

Are COVID-19 Vaccines Safe For Children? 

***JOURNALISM

Top 2020 Tools for reporters

How Google sends readers away from local news

Number of journalists murdered for their work more than doubled in 2020

Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy  

***WRITING & READING

Why on Earth Is Someone Stealing Unpublished Book Manuscripts?

Lithub: Our 65 Favorite Books of the Year

Why this forgotten punctuation mark should be revived for 2021

***FAKES & FRAUDS

"Unreliable" news sources got more traction in 2020

Misinformation Amplifiers Target Georgia Senate Races

Tony Robbins claims he saved an employee from COVID-19 - She says in a lawsuit that’s a lie

Nonprofit coalition demands Biden act on misinformation educating the public on misinformation 

Top Ten Disinformers – and Top Ten Straight Shooters With The Most Online Engagement

My job reporting on QAnon and coronavirus disinformation has led to daily death threats — but we can’t give up

***ANTI-VAXXERS 

Anti-Vaxxers Are Coaching People How to 'Refuse' the COVID Vaccine  

The GOP's Fave Anti-Abortion Celebrity Is a COVID Anti-Vaxxer Now  

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

Why social media hasn’t been able to shut down vaccine misinformation

Facebook will offer new account security options in 2021  

Twitter tests 'humanization prompts' in effort to reduce toxic replies

How pastel cookware took over Instagram

***PRIVACY & SECURITY  

How to lock your Wi-Fi and protect your home

The Toll Of Conspiracy Theories: A Voting Security Expert Lives In Hiding

Why the Russian hack is so significant, and why it's close to a worst-case scenario

iPhones vulnerable to hacking tool for months, researchers say

A Florida sheriff’s program that claims to identify potential future criminals violates student privacy according to a new report

Who can access your iPhone and Apple accounts?

The data that apps use to track you, according to Apple

***THE SOLARWINDS HACK

Microsoft has discovered yet more SolarWinds malware

What Happens Next with the Massive SolarWinds Hack

Hacked networks will need to be burned 'down to the ground'

Suspected Russian hacking campaign hit over 40 organizations, Microsoft says

Nuclear weapons agency breached amid massive cyber onslaught  

Articles of interest about the virus, media, fakes, & more - Dec 17

 ***THE VIRUS

Oxygen-Detecting Devices Give Misleading Readings In People With Dark Skin

Christmas during a Pandemic: The United States in December 1918

 ICU Workers Are Quitting Due To Crushing Stress From COVID-19 Surge

***THE VACCINES  

What Dippin' Dots can teach us about vaccine logistics

I'm In a High-Risk Group for COVID-19. How Do I Get Vaccinated Early?

First came news of a vaccine—now come the scams

The ingredients in Pfizer’s vaccine 

Should Companies Require Employees to Take the Vaccine? ($)

Why Paying People to Be Vaccinated Could Backfire ($)

What Scientists Think Of Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine

***MEDIA

Facebook Is Developing A Tool To Summarize Articles

Spotify Inks Deal to Stream NPR Podcasts Worldwide

Why news publishers are eagerly bundling their subscriptions with brands 

Scoop: Rolling Stone, Billboard and Vibe merge business sides amid DOJ probe

***WRITING & READING

Books Are Really Easy to Wrap ($)

Gmail gets a huge upgrade for editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint attachments

***FAKES & FRAUDS

The evangelical-Catholic alliance becomes a conspiracy theory carnival 

From Voter Fraud to Vaccine Lies: Misinformation Peddlers Shift Gears

Latest Deepfake Controversy Raises Legal And Ethical Questions In Music Industry

Behind the scenes with PolitiFact and its choice for ‘Lie of the Year’

How Disinformation Spreads, And Why It's So Hard To Combat

***VACCINE DISINFORMATION 

The ‘Terrorgram’ Plot by Neo-Nazis to Seduce Anti-Vaxxers

No, coronavirus vaccines aren’t made from aborted fetuses or created to control the population — and more lessons about fake news ($) 

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

FTC orders social media to provide info on how they collect and use personal data

Twitter is shutting down Periscope in 2021 because it costs too much to run

Why can’t the social networks stop fake accounts? ($) 

Social media served as an important outlet for Black Americans in 2020

Twitter wants to get into your Snapchat and Instagram stories

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

SolarWinds hackers have a clever way to bypass multi factor authentication

Amazon’s new health band is the most invasive tech we’ve ever tested  

***LITERATURE

A video game based on Orwell's Animal Farm  

How Should Racial Slurs in Literature Be Handled in the Classroom?

Articles of interest about journalism, fakes, the virus, writing, and more - December 10

***THE VIRUS 

More than a third of Americans live in areas where hospitals are running critically short of intensive care beds ($)

First signs of Thanksgiving COVID-19 wave emerge 

Your Old Radiator Is a Pandemic-Fighting Weapon 

Should I wipe down groceries during the pandemic? 

Nearly all coronavirus transmission happens in these 5 places

British Study: Low infection rates in schools

***THE VACCINES

The vaccines will be much less effective if introduced where the coronavirus is raging

Here’s Why Vaccinated People Still Need to Wear a Mask ($)

C.D.C. Call for Data on Vaccine Recipients Raises Alarm Over Privacy ($)

***VENTILATORS 

Who Decides Which COVID-19 Patients Get Ventilators? 

The U.S. Has Passed the Hospital Breaking Point

***JOURNALISM 

Neo-Nazi group member who threatened journalist gets prison time

A massive cross-border collaboration to finish the investigations of a murdered Mexican journalist

Appeals Court hands journalists big Freedom of Information Act win for gun data access

Half of U.S. adults don't know that Facebook does not do original news reporting

ICE Is Trying To Force BuzzFeed News To Divulge Its Sources

What can we learn from the local news anchor who has helped thousands of Americans get unemployment benefits?

A scientific search engine that generates one-sentence summaries of research papers

A Deputy Prosecutor Was Fired for telling Journalists about his state giving Jail Time to People Who Fall Behind on Rent

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Substack isn’t a new model for journalism — it’s a very old one

Inside Patch's new local newsletter platform

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Radio Disney Shutting Down Amid Restructuring

Did Google and Facebook kill the media revenue model? The Platforms vs legacy media

***WRITING & READING

When sound science meets imperfect grammar

The 25 Best Children’s Books of 2020

Sri Lankan man and his mobile library bring books to kids in remote areas

How to Gather the Oral Histories of COVID-19

Independent Bookstores Are Fighting Back Against Amazon Via a New Online Platform

The Future of Online Marketing: Automated Copywriting

***FAKES & FRAUDS

GOP State Commissioner Won't Impose COVID Workplace Measures, Says Virus 'Not Proven Likely to Cause Serious Physical Harm'

Anti-Vaccine Doctor Has Been Invited to Testify Before Senate Committee 

Homeowners in the Seattle suburbs have been getting disturbing visits from members of the Moorish sovereign citizen movement

Former Harvard cancer researcher faked a dozen images, say Feds

I Published a Fake Paper in a ‘Peer-Reviewed’ Journal

The internet is not ready for the flood of AI-generated text

***QANON   

Former Trump lawyer finds an ally in operator of QAnon’s Internet home

The making of the QAnon conspiracy cult

The QAnon conspiracy is fake. The harm it's doing to child welfare groups is real

QAnon's Rise in Japan Shows Its Global Spread ($) 

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitch Cracks Down on Hate Speech and Harassment ($)

Facebook hit with massive antitrust lawsuit from 46 states

Facebook reportedly tweaked its algorithm but it failed to decrease engagement on ideologically aligned pages

Reddit reveals daily active user count for the first time: 52 million

***LANGUAGE

The words that actually persuade people on the pandemic 

Merriam-Webster's top word of 2020 not a shocker: pandemic

Research Finds Brains Work Harder While Processing Descriptions Of Motion In Other Languages

***LITERATURE

"The Great Gatsby" and other 1925 Works Will Soon Enter the Public Domain

Dispute Erupts Over Translation Rights to New Nobel Laureate ($)

Questions raised over charity seeking to buy JRR Tolkien's Oxford house

Louise Glück, forgoing fanfare, accepts Nobel Prize in Literature at home

John Steinbeck, Bard of the American Worker

***CS LEWIS

Ten Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About C. S. Lewis

CS Lewis Expert Walter Hooper dies 

***POETRY

We went looking for poetry

Poet uses runaway slave ads to tell a story of resistance

Our parents warned us the internet would break our brains. It broke theirs instead.

So many boomers that warned millennials to be careful on the internet seem to have forgotten all their own warnings. Their brains are broken, and that destruction is threatening to break our relationships, too.

There is so much content on the internet, and so much of it is bad. It is blasting in your face relentlessly. To navigate it well — to discern truth and lies, to parse one's own emotional and reflexive responses, to summon the mental energy to pay attention to credibility and incentives and the small, almost indescribable cues that might indicate whether a piece of content is to be trusted — is very difficult. It is especially difficult for those who have low digital literacy because they did not grow up using the internet. 

Our parents' generation, no less than ours, was totally unprepared for the advent of digital technology and mass media … They've been sucked into their screens like the rest of us. They weren't physically abducted, as they feared we could be by a chatroom catfisher in 1999. But it can still feel like the people we know and love are gone. 

Bonnie Kristan writing in The Week