Skip to main content

Media Bits and Bytes - July 28, 2020

Tech war, trust busting, NYTimes turmoil, Hungary crackdown, and more media history in the making

In Budapest, demonstrators protest attacks on press freedom | Photo: Reuters

 

 

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

TikTok and the Tech War

By Andrés Ortega



July 26, 2020



The Globalist

We live in an age where apps wars between major nations have geo-technological fallout.

Tech Trusts

By Jon Swartz



July 27, 2020



MarketWatch

Congress has a million-plus documents from Big Tech antitrust investigation, and are ready to grill big-name CEOs.

Troubles at the Times

The Bari Weiss Case By Tom Jones, July 15, 2020, Poynter

Framing AOC By Dan Froomkin, July 24, 2020, Press Watch

What Local Reporting Tells Us

By Brett Murphy



July 24, 2020



Columbia Journalism Review

Local Matters, a weekly newsletter digest of the best local watchdog reporting around the country. The idea is to celebrate local investigations for an audience outside the normal, local readership.

Social Media and Climate Denial

By Louise Boyle



July 23, 2020



The Independent

While tech giants have taken steps to remove, or label as false, potentially harmful misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a seeming acceptance of those who spread false theories on the climate crisis.

Press Repression in Hungary

July 24, 2020



BBC News

More than 70 journalists and staff at Hungary's top news site Index have resigned, accusing the government of launching a bid to destroy or tame their website. Index is the last of Hungary's key independent media and editor in chief Szabolcs Dull was fired on Tuesday.

Twitter and QAnon

By Chloe Hadavas



July 24, 2020



Slate

Twitter announced that it would take action against QAnon activity, a move that may seem to be a long-overdue step to address a movement that the FBI considers a potential domestic terrorism threat. 

Stop Using Facebook Messenger

By Zak Doffman



July 25, 2020



Forbes

Messenger is seriously lacking on the security front. And this is a problem which is both getting worse and which Facebook cannot easily fix.