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Racial equity and the pandemic: How a collegiate football player is tackling both

Ann Scott Tyson

November 05, 2020 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

College athletes created a social media and digital campaign to publish a list of health and labor demands, some of them related to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also advocated for racial justice and elevated the Black Lives Matter movement. “Already, the NCAA met two of the player demands: requiring rigorous player COVID-19 testing and standard health protocols, and guaranteeing an additional year of eligibility."

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On Election Day, Facebook and Twitter Did Better by Making Their Products Worse

Kevin Roose

November 05, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites defended against election-related disinformation campaigns by quickly identifying and removing fake accounts and putting labels and warnings on posts that made false claims of voter fraud and premature claims of victory. Instead of frictionless usability, they slowed or shut down core parts of their products such as limiting political ads, tweaking recommendation algorithms, and/or preventing sharing and comments on questionable posts. Threats will continue in the weeks ahead, but the companies have prevented widespread disinformation campaigns so far.

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Social Media Companies Survived Election Day. More Tests Loom.

Kate Conger Daisuke Wakabayashi Mike Isaac

November 04, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube implemented pre-planned measures that limited the ability to use their sites to spread election-day disinformation. Twitter quickly added warning labels to election day tweets from political figures, including the president, that falsely claimed vote fraud or victory. Sharing and commenting on the tweets was also limited. Facebook also labeled disinformation posts but did not prevent commenting, liking, or sharing them. Some election-related videos on YouTube were removed for spreading disinformation, violating the company’s policy prohibiting deceptive practices and scams.

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How to Combat Disinformation Targeting Black Communities

Amy Yee

November 03, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Several groups are working to counter disinformation aimed at the Black community by spreading accurate information and elevating local voices as trusted messengers. Organizations have disseminated accurate information via social media, used hackathons and video game launches to get Black and other youth of color interested in voting, provided shareable content to progressive organizations, and created a guide to help people identify fake accounts and bots. Nonprofit First Draft also provides a two-week disinformation training course in English and Spanish with daily lessons sent by text.

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Youth Vote Goes Virtual

Charlotte West Ilyne Castellanos

October 23, 2020 |

Voices of Monterey Bay |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

California Students Vote Project, a public-private partnership, encourages college students to vote. Covid-19-adjusted strategies include sending out multiple emails, using social media, and encouraging peer-to-peer contacts to inform students about how to register to vote and the ways they can actually cast their ballots. Group representatives also visit Zoom classrooms to share information and some students have organized virtual events, such as political trivia night, to foster student engagement. Over 65,000 California students have registered to vote since August, triple the number from all of 2016.

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The Chinese Delivery Apps and Heroic FB Group That Are Keeping the SGV's Mom and Pop Restaurants Alive

Nancy Guan

October 22, 2020 |

L.A. TACO |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Gabriel Valley, California

Facebook groups and Asian delivery apps have helped Asian restaurants survive - and sometimes even thrive - the coronavirus lockdown in one of the largest Asian-American communities in the U.S. Food delivery apps like Chowbus, Fantuan, HungryPanda, and Runningman focus on Asian cuisine in San Gabriel Valley and have been responsible for recovering up to 70 percent of pre-pandemic business. These apps cater to Chinese-speaking, small-business owners, are more in tune with their needs, willing to negotiate fees, provide additional marketing, and offer personalized customer service to their merchants.

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This game can stop people from falling for COVID-19 conspiracies

Ruth Reader

October 13, 2020 |

FastCompany |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom, Cambridge, England

To combat the spread of conspiracy theories, researchers at Cambridge’s Social Decision Making Lab have created an interactive game that puts users in the shoes of "manipulators" to teach them how to "question social media posts that have the hallmarks of engineered virality." Although experts say playing the game just one time will likely not result in sustainable change, a similar game that focused on understanding how fake news was created found that users' beliefs in fake news decreased by an average of 21%.

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How a #Litterati army on Instagram sparked a global fight against litter

Michael J. Coren

October 12, 2020 |

Hothouse Solutions |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

What started as a small group of people taking pictures of waste in their communities and tagging it on Instagram with the hashtag #Litterati, turned into a global effort, and even an app, to map and dispose of trash. Users can upload to the app an image of trash and machine-learning algorithm can tag it location, material, and company who made it. The city of San Francisco asked the makers of the app for help documenting cigarette butts and tobacco products on its streets and ended up winning a legal victory over the tobacco industry to increase the taxes on their products.

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'A New Generation of Poll Workers' Steps Up to Ensure Safe, Fair Elections

Juhie Bhatia

October 01, 2020 |

Ms. Magazine |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

New groups are recruiting poll workers to help fill shortages made worse by Covid-19. Poll Hero Project is an initiative created and led by young people that has recruited over 28,000 high school and college-age poll workers using social media. Power the Polls is a coalition of well-known brands that used social media outreach, digital marketing, and celebrity promotions to sign up over 530,000 volunteers. Both groups help navigate what can be a complicated process to sign up to work the polls.

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Taiwan's Crowdsourced Democracy Shows Us How to Fix Social Media

Carl Miller

September 27, 2020 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Taiwan

vTaiwan is a mixed-reality, scaled listening exercise used by the government as a new way to make decisions. The platform provides an online space for citizens to debate and for politicians to listen to. The government lays out political questions, such as regulating Uber or changing time zones, and people can share their feelings, agree and disagree, but divisive statements and trolling are not posted. After debating for a period of time it became apparent that people converged around points of consensus. The government has implemented about a dozen laws and regulations based on the discussions.

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