Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: Voluntary, piecemeal actions by online companies to cut down on misinformation are not enough

Ever since the attack on the U.S. Capitol by right-wing extremists on Jan. 6, social media and online platforms have been scrambling to take action.  Twitter permanently suspended and Facebook blocked President Donald Trump’s accounts, while Amazon removed Parler from its cloud hosting service. Stripe, Apple, Venmo, Paypal, YouTube, Telegram, and more deleted and suspended […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: Facebook shouldn’t block a journalist tool revealing how political ads are targeted

Many elements went into John Hickenlooper’s winning campaign for U.S. Senate this year, but an important aspect was his political advertising on Facebook. Not only did Hickenlooper outspend incumbent Sen. Cory Gardner on Facebook ads in the months leading up to Election Day by a ratio of $5 to $1, but he also deployed sophisticated […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: Denver’s protest shooting a superspreader of online misinformation

The recent killing of 49-year-old Lee Keltner following protests in downtown Denver brought national attention to Colorado news organizations. In particular, eyes were on KUSA-9News, the station that brought the private security guard – hired through Pinkerton – who shot Keltner, and who is now charged with second-degree murder. But the danger of what happened […]