海角大神

鈥淔ake news鈥� 鈥� the actual spreading of false information, not the glib insult 鈥� got some real attention this week.

One technologist鈥檚 dark new take puts us all on course for an聽鈥�.鈥澛燞e sees a system already optimized to reward polarizing misinformation being greased by 鈥渁 slew of slick, easy-to-use, and eventually seamless technological tools for 鈥� falsifying reality.鈥澛燚ystopian terms have sprung up around this vision: 鈥渞eality apathy,鈥� 鈥渉uman puppets.鈥�

Then there was an Arizona Senate candidate鈥檚 warm embrace of an endorsement by a聽聽that鈥檚 really just an anonymous blog.

More sensitive was the examination of the alarming school-shooting numbers widely shared after the Parkland, Fla., event. This insidious form of gun violence has affected a huge number of people. But, a Washington Post piece maintained, that number聽聽Should a suicide in the parking lot of a long-shuttered school, for example, count as a school shooting?

Confronting questionable or misleading content, whatever its intent, presents a staggering challenge聽. But the importance of information scrutiny keeps dawning as the stakes rise.

This week the director of national intelligence told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that his department expects 鈥淩ussia to continue using propaganda, social media ... and other means of influence to try to ... exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States.鈥� Today 鈥� not to bury the lede, as journalists say 鈥� the FBI indicted 13 Russians on election-meddling charges.

Facebook, at the center of that storm in 2016, keeps saying that聽聽to skew feeds toward 鈥渢rusted sources.鈥� Has a pivot to precision finally begun?

(Editor鈥檚 note: An earlier version of this intro misstated the political position of the blog endorsing the Arizona candidate.)

Now to our five stories for your Friday.