Law

The family of a woman killed in the 2015 Paris attacks by ISIS claims in a lawsuit that Twitter, Facebook, and Google profit from targeted advertising linked to terrorist propaganda promoting violence.

As Bloomberg reports, the case is one of several complaints in U.S. courts alleging that the social media giants have played crucial roles in the growth of terrorist organizations in recent years. The biggest hurdle facing such claims is a federal law that insulates publishers from liability for the speech of others.

Via MiddleEastEye.net,

A Kuwaiti online activist will spend 10 years in jail, an appeals court has ruled, for posting messages on Twitter that “insulted the emir” and “spreading false news” that endangered the country.

The court on Thursday confirmed the jail term against Waleed Fares handed down by a lower court in May, AFP reported.

A federal court in Wisconsin has denied an emergency halt to the recount of the presidential vote. Two pro-Trump political action committees, the Great America PAC and Stop Hillary PAC filed a lawsuit and a request in federal court in Madison on Friday for a temporary restraining order seeking to stop the voter recount.

2016 is shaping up as the year when countless conspiracy theories will be confirmed to be non-conspiracy fact: from central bank rigging of capital markets, to political rigging of elections, to media rigging of public sentiment, and now, commercial bank rigging of both silver and gold. In short, "tinfoil hat-wearing nutjobs living in their parents basement" were right all along.

Throughout history, government officials have tried to stop "fake news" through various means before it was published.

The crime of the peddlers of fake news: failing to acknowledge that those in power were perfect saints.

Socrates

For example, Socrates was killed in 399 BC for spreading "fake news".

His crime: “Failing to acknowledge the gods that the [mainstream media of the day] acknowledges”.

Tyndale

William Tyndale was killed in 1536 for spreading "fake news".