A Refugee Sues Facebook While Russia Starts A New Show On C-SPAN

PNUT GALLERY

Turns out, there is a correct way to eat snow. (Hint: it’s not the yellow kind.)

 IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ

Refugee Sues Facebook Over Fake News

Facebook was summoned to a district court in Würzburg, Germany to defend their lack of accountability in what gets published on Facebook. Anas Modamani, the 19-year-old Syrian refugee who became a celebrity after taking a selfie with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is suing Facebook for allegedly taking insufficient action against defamatory “fake news” posts using his picture. The picture was taken when Merkel visited to a refugee shelter in Berlin’s Spandau district. At one point, it was used to celebrate Germany’s “open door” policies toward refugees, but since then, the image has been used to slander Modamani. The viral selfie is now a default image for dozens of fake news articles that claim Modamani is a terrorist. Some articles falsely say he took part in the Berlin Christmas market attack while other headlines are so fake they go as far as announcing Merkel’s death. Modamani’s suit could be a landmark case in understanding an internet platform’s accountability for the content they host.

 NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ

 Obama Surprises Joe Biden With A Special Gift

President Barack Obama surprised his Vice President and BFF Joe Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday, bringing the VP to visible tears. During the White House ceremony, Obama went into a lengthy speech praising Biden before surprising him with the nation’s highest civilian honor. “I don’t deserve this but I know it came from the President’s heart,” Biden later said, moving the internet to tears. Obama joked that the internet would have one last chance to mock the pair’s “bromance” and Twitter seized the opportunity.

El Salvador Goes 24 Hours Without A Murder

Way to go, El Salvador! The BBC reported that the Central American country went a whole 24 hours without any reported murders. You might be wondering why the BBC turned that into a headline. According to the United Nations, El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world, averaging 10 murders a day so far in 2017. Most of the violence is due to criminal gangs in the region, but things got unexpectedly peaceful Wednesday night. Police could not offer any explanation for the lack of violence.

 KEEPING OUR EYE ON

Syria: According to Syrian reports, Israel is bombarding an area west of Damascus and allegedly hit a military airport. The Israeli government has neither confirmed nor denied that the country is carrying out strikes in Syria and no casualties have been reported.

Hungary: Petra László, the Hungarian television camerawoman who caused outrage when she was was filmed tripping and kicking migrants fleeing police, was found guilty of breaching the peace. She was sentenced to three years’ probation and if she does not reoffend during that period the conviction will be dropped.

 LOOSE NUTS: FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

 C-SPAN’s Online Feed Interrupted By Russia Today

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this important message: Здравствуйте from Russia! That’s essentially what happened when C-SPAN’s coverage of an SEC hearing was suddenly replaced by 10 minutes of the Kremlin-backed news channel Russia Today. C-SPAN says it was probably just an internal routing error but the channel is investigating anyway. Meanwhile, the bizarre switch only adds to the infinite list of conspiracy theories regarding Russia’s control of our information sources.