Educate & Entertain| Not Hungary For Immigrants | Fakers Gonna Fake

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I read the news today oh boy

About a lucky man who made the grade

And though the news was rather sad

Well I just had to laugh

– The Beatles

I can’t believe the news today

Oh, I can’t close my eyes

And make it go away

– U2

Philippines’ Fake News: As part of its aggressive global expansion campaign, Facebook’s laser focus on the Philippines has had damaging results. It first partnered with a local carrier to offer a portal of free, basic internet services, “Free Basics”, in 2013. Heavy subsidies have kept Facebook free to use on mobile phones, while accessing other data, like a news website via a mobile web browser, remain expensive and thus out of reach for the vast majority of the population. Filipinos’ demand for social media has grown exponentially, and now Facebook saturates the country. The only way online for most people is through Zuckerberg’s platform; it is the leading provider of news and information. And as with any opportunistic monopoly, the misuse is blatant. Rodrigo Duterte’s “influencers” and supporters made excellent use of Facebook during his 2016 presidential campaign, posting manufactured “live videos”, conspiracy theories and never-ending, meme-driven, propagandistic commentary directly on the social media site. Facebook was a key engine behind the wave of populist anger that carried a dictator all the way to the presidency.

Once Duterte took office, using social media for opinion formation went from a campaign strategy to state-sponsored weaponization; Facebook drives pro-administration narratives, sentiment, and misinformation. Duterte and his administration continually rail against the mainstream media and call local news outlets “fake news”. The Philippines has become a society where, more and more, truth no longer matters, propaganda is ubiquitous, lives are wrecked and people are dying as a result. One of Duterte’s political opponents spoke from her prison cell: “At some point (Facebook) knew — we knew — that dissemination of fake news, propaganda and outright intentional manipulation and brainwashing was being committed through their platforms. At that point, when they knew and did nothing to protect both their own platforms and the people who use them from these unethical, illegal or destructive practices, they played a part in everything that happened.”

Additional reads: “President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines on Tuesday challenged military veterans and serving officers who oppose him to mount a rebellion, a day after the head of the armed forces warned soldiers not to take sides in the president’s standoff with a senator he has threatened to arrest.” (NYT)

“How WhatsApp Destroyed A Village: In July, residents of a rural Indian town saw rumors of child kidnappers on WhatsApp. Then they beat five strangers to death.” (BuzzFeed News)

To Catch a Preacher: Don’t you miss when the most troubling issue facing the Catholic Church was when Steve Jenkins only gave $5 in the collections basket instead of $10? A report was leaked detailing 3,600 sexual assaults of minors by 1,670 Catholic priests in Germany. Most of the victims were boys under the age of 13 and only 38% of the priests were prosecuted (most receiving very light sentences). Bishop Stephan Ackermann responded to the report stating its purpose was to bring to light. “this dark side of our Church, for the sake of those affected, but also for us ourselves to see the errors and to do everything to prevent them from being repeated.” The Vatican has not officially responded yet, but we heard they’re pretty POed. (BBC)

Tweedle Dee and Twiddle Thumbs: How many child sized graves does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Evidently more than 44. The Trump administration remains in the dark after stating that they believe Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are in the right when it comes to their deadly campaign in Yemen. It is clear that something needs to be changed, especially following an airstrike that took out a bus of children last month. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a statement on Wednesday where he claimed the Trump administration was successfully curbing the violence in Yemen, “The governments of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure resulting from military operations of these governments,” Maybe the light bulb will light one day. (NYT)

Not Hungary For Immigrants: If you don’t invite anyone to your birthday party, no one is going to want you to come to theirs. The EU is making that very clear to Hungary after the European Parliament voted to punish Hungary for its intense stance against immigration. Under the lead of PM Viktor Orban, Hungary has made it illegal to provide any type of aid to immigrants and refugees. Now that the vote has passed, the EU plans to impose sanctions on Hungary and potentially take away the country’s voting rights. Even with the vote, it will be incredibly challenging to fully implement these punishments. (BBC)

Open Mic At The Bundestag: At a recent debate in the Bundestag (The German Parliament), Angela Merkel gave a passionate speech denouncing the actions of the Far-Right movement in Germany. Merkel condemned the open usage of Nazi slang terms and hand gestures during anti-immigration protests in August. She apparently must have also been talking about relationships and airline food because during her speech, she was heckled by the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party leader, Alexander Gauland. He accused her of being too lax over the recent violence against German citizens from asylum seekers, citing the stabbing of a German man in Chemnitz by two refugees. (Guardian)

You went to school to get a job and make some serious money, not lose it. That means your student loan payments shouldn’t feel like a giant endless bill that you’ll be paying forever. Save yourself some stress and money by swapping your loans with CommonBond. They let you take your old, original loans and upgrade them for a new one with the goal of giving you a better interest rate in order to save money. CommonBond saves members, on average, $24k (that’s $323 a month)! Refinance your loans with CommonBond today and join the tons of other graduates who have already saved millions of dollars.

Putting FEMA on Ice: Someone playing Trump Bingo just won. The Trump administration recently transferred 9.8 million dollars from FEMA (the organization that protects the country from environmental disasters) to ICE (the organization that protects us from Marty, your immigrant neighbor who works at the local Best Buy). Naturally there has already been backlash to this reveal.

Senator Jeff Merkley called the transfer “Unbelievable” and “Reprehensible.” The Department of Homeland Security stated that ICE needs an extra $200 million to be able to detain and deport illegal immigrants. Due to these cutbacks, the DHS confirmed that FEMA “will curtail training, travel, public engagement sessions, IT security support and infrastructure maintenance,” However, Jeff Byard of FEMA stated that the transfer “has not impacted our situation whatsoever,” With Hurricane Florence on the literal horizon, time will tell. (NPR)

– “20,000 pallets of bottled water left untouched in storm-ravaged Puerto Rico: the supplies were just left there, lost perhaps in poor communication and collaboration.” (CNN)

– “Stormy Daniels announces memoir she says will ‘blow minds’: Full Disclosure will recount events leading to the nondisclosure agreement and ‘behind-the-scenes attempts to intimidate her’, publisher says” (Guardian)

– “Cape Town Is an Omen: Climate change is going to revolutionize politics in cities across the world.” (Atlantic)

– “A Leaked Video Shows Google Leadership Reacting To Trump’s 2016 Election Win: The footage will likely add fuel to conservative arguments that Silicon Valley is arrayed against the right.” (BuzzFeed News)

– “F.D.A. Cracks Down on Juul and E-Cigarette Retailers: The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday declared that teenage use of electronic cigarettes has reached “an epidemic proportion,” and it put makers of the most popular devices on notice that they have just 60 days to prove they can keep their devices away from minors.” (NYT)

– “Novelist Who Penned ‘How To Murder Your Husband’ Essay Charged With Husband’s Murder: How to get away with murder? Maybe don’t write a blog post about getting away with murder.” (NPR)

– “MEPs vote to ban ‘killer robots’ on battlefield: The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for an international ban on so-called killer robots.” (BBC)

– “‘Oldest known drawing’ found on tiny rock in South Africa: Scientists say they have discovered humanity’s oldest known drawing on a small fragment of rock in South Africa.” (BBC)

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