The Daily Populous

Friday February 9th, 2018 day edition

image for Trudeau to Facebook: Fix your fake news problem or face stricter regulations

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned social networking giant Facebook it needs to fix its “fake news” problems or face stronger regulation from Ottawa.

Facebook has also faced criticism about a lack of transparency around who is buying ads on its platform.

As Canadian political parties prepare for the 2019 federal election, the source said Trudeau suggested Ottawa could intervene if Facebook doesn’t adequately address the issues.

According to the source, Trudeau was particularly concerned about Facebook identifying the origin of partisan “news” posts or advertisements.

The Trudeau government has a complicated relationship status with social media giants like Facebook and Twitter.

Elections Canada has already taken steps address cybersecurity issues, and Global Affairs has also taken an interest in the “fake news” phenomenon.

Trudeau was in San Francisco, Facebook’s backyard, on Friday, trying to promote Canada as a destination for high tech companies and entrepreneurs. »

Biology's Beloved Amphibian--the Axolotl--Is Racing toward Extinction

Authored by scientificamerican.com

“Because it’s probably the most widely distributed amphibian around the world in pet shops and labs, and yet it’s almost extinct in the wild.”.

“I’ve seen that in other places in the world, these kinds of huge tasks are possible,” Zambrano says.

Although other salamanders metamorphose into terrestrial creatures, axolotls hold on to their feathery gills and stay in the water for their entire lives. »

Fortnite passes PUBG with 3.4 million concurrent players

Authored by pcgamer.com

Fortnite hit a whopping 3.4 million peak concurrent player count over the weekend, surpassing PUBG's Steam-topping 3.2 million record—a remarkable achievement by any stretch, marred only by the fact that the flood of players clobbered the servers repeatedly.

The post is lengthy and technical, diving into issues like "MCP database latency," "XMPP outages," and "available IP exhaustion."

"It’s been an amazing and exhilarating experience to grow Fortnite from our previous peak of 60K concurrent players to 3.4M in just a few months, making it perhaps the biggest PC/console game in the world!" »

Marijuana sales just topped annual liquor sales for the first time in Aspen

Authored by summitdaily.com
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Legal-pot purveyors hauled in $11.3 million in revenue last year compared with $10.5 million for liquor stores, marking the first time marijuana sales outpaced booze for the year in Aspen.

A study released in December by Georgia State University showed a 15 percent drop in alcohol sales in states allowing medical marijuana sales.

The city initially grouped liquor and pot sales together, but began treating them as separate retail categories in September. »

Twitter failed to remove hundreds of Russian propaganda videos aimed at Americans

Authored by money.cnn.com
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Twitter left hundreds of Russian propaganda videos, with millions of views, on its video platform Vine for months after it should have known they were posted by a Kremlin-linked troll group.

Both Twitter accounts were suspended, but their associated Vine accounts, @GUNS4LIFE and @PoliceState, were still live as of Wednesday morning.

However, Twitter maintains the Vine archive -- meaning videos posted to the site before uploads were disabled can still be viewed and shared. »