A Promising Life Is Cut Short, Becoming a Symbol of Lebanon’s Heartache – The New York Times

Each death is a unique, unfathomable tragedy, but the story of Ms. Fares, the young bride-to-be, has rippled across social media, capturing the attention and heartache of many Lebanese. The determined daughter of a family of modest means, she had managed to break into the nearly all-male world of the Beirut Fire Brigade, devoting herself to public service and making plans to build a family of her own.

Facebook removes small pro-Trump network based in Romania – Reuters

Facebook Inc (FB.O) said on Thursday it recently removed a small network of accounts operating from Romania that had been promoting President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign with stories about his support from conservatives, Black Americans, Christians and followers of the QAnon web of baseless conspiracy theories.

Source: Facebook removes small pro-Trump network based in Romania – Reuters

Nearly 100 people in Ohio got sick after one man infected with the coronavirus attended a church service

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Close to 100 people contracted the coronavirus in Ohio after one person who had the virus attended a church service and spread it to dozens others.

As a warning to religious institutions in the state, Gov. Mike DeWine tweeted a graphic from the Ohio Department of Health on Tuesday to show how the 56-year-old churchgoer essentially infected 91 people.

Fifty-three people who attended the church service fell ill, and 18 of them then gave it to at least one other person, the graphic showed.

 

Source: Nearly 100 people in Ohio got sick after one man infected with the coronavirus attended a church service

Twitter to label government officials and state-backed news accounts | Euronews

The new feature will first be applied to countries represented in the five permanent members of the United Nations’ Security Council: China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US but the platform said it would then extend it to other countries.

On the political side, the new labels will be added to the account of key government officials including foreign ministers, institutional entities, ambassadors, official spokespeople, and key diplomatic leaders.

The technology giant said it will consider as state-affiliated media any outlet where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over the production and distribution”.

It flagged that state-financed media organizations with editorial independence will be excluded. These include the BBC in the UK and the NPR in the US.

“Our mission is to serve the public conversation and an important part of that work is providing people with context so they can make informed decisions about what they see and how they engage on Twitter,” Twitter said.

Source: Twitter to label government officials and state-backed news accounts | Euronews

US accuses Russia of complex online disinformation, propaganda operation | New Europe – (No quotes from President Trump or Sec. Pompeo about banning Russian IT from US…)

The United States’ state department has accused Russia in a new report of developing a complex “ecosystem” to spread disinformation and propaganda about the coronavirus and other issues.

“Russia is playing a significant role in creating and spreading misinformation and propaganda around many topics”, said Lea Gabrielle, head of the state department’s Global Engagement Center.

“The ecosystem consists of five main pillars: official government communications, state-funded global messaging, cultivation of proxy sources, weaponization of social media, and cyberenabled disinformation”, the report said. “The Kremlin bears direct responsibility for cultivating these tactics and platforms as part of its approach to using information as a weapon”, it added.

The report profiled several websites that have peddled conspiracy theories and fringe thoughts on a range of topics, including the coronavirus.

“Russia tries to hide its affiliation with these different proxy sites. That’s what makes them effective, is that it’s difficult for just an average person who is online to look at these sites and know that it’s actually Russian disinformation”, Gabrielle said.

 

Source: US accuses Russia of complex online disinformation, propaganda operation | New Europe