Facebook “Routinely” Suppresses Conservative News: Here’s What We’re Reading Today
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Here’s what we’re reading:
1. North Carolina will sue US govt. over anti-trans bill
The lawsuit comes just hours before a deadline the DoJ set for Governor Pat McCrory to abandon the legislation that bars transgendered people from using bathrooms different from the gender on their birth certificate. “McCrory said that he was filing the complaint to help stave off uncertainty sparked by the debate and to ensure that North Carolina does not lose out on federal funding until the issue is resolved in court,” the Washington Post writes.
If the bill, which the Department of Justice determined to be in violation of the United States civil rights laws, remains in place, the federal government could cut off billions of dollars in funding to the state.
2. Trending the right way
“Facebook workers routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network’s influential ‘trending’ news section, according to a former journalist who worked on the project. This individual says that workers prevented stories about the right-wing CPAC gathering, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, and other conservative topics from appearing in the highly-influential section, even though they were organically trending among the site’s users.”
3. Across the broken bridge
The New Republic‘s Suki Kim explore’s the shadowy underworld of the China-North Korea border.
4. Impeachment in Brazil annulled on technicality
A procedural flaw has stayed the impeachment of Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff. Last month the country’s lower house voted to impeach Rousseff, a decision which the new speaker of the house, a long time ally of Rousseff, annulled today. Rousseff is accused of using accounting measures to hide growing budget deficits during her re-election campaign in 2014.
5. The failed promise of legal weed
“New laws on marijuana were supposed to boost tax revenues and free up cops to go after “real” criminals. But underground sales — and arrests — are still thriving.” The Atlantic checks in on Washington state to look at how this legal weed thing is working out.
Photo: Gizmodo
