Word of the Day: incessant
This word has appeared in 89 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
Supported byWord of the dayWord of the Day: incessantThis word has appeared in 89 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?ByThe Learning Networkincessant \ ɪnˈsɛsnt \ adjective: uninterrupted and indefinitely long; constantListen to the pronunciation.The wordincessanthas appeared in 89 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 13 in “You Texted? I Hadn’t Noticed” by Fortesa Latifi:The modern phone seems to never stop vibrating, pinging and lighting up in an unending quest for our attention. Short of turning the phone off and rendering it a useless brick, there’s little one can do to get distance from a device. That’s where Do Not Disturb mode comes in.… But once it goes up, it can be hard to take down. Like Ms. Henry, some say they switched on the mode long ago and may never turn back — occasionally to the frustration of their friends.“I understand if someone is sleeping or busy, but if it’s on all the time, it functions like a locked door and a ‘Go Away’ doormat,” said Katriel Nopoulos, a 35-year-old disability activist in Philadelphia. “It’s the opposite of hospitality and welcoming.”And that is often the point. Zoe Marzo, 36, said she first enabled Do Not Disturb when a friend wouldn’t stop texting her. “It wasincessant,” she said. “So I kind of started using it as an extra defense and boundary. Now I have it on all the time.”Daily Word ChallengeCan you correctly use the wordincessantin a sentence?Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.If you want a better idea of howincessantcan be used in a sentence, read these usage exampleson Vocabulary.com. You can also visitthis guideto learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.If you enjoy this daily challenge, try ourvocabulary quizzes.Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.The Word of the Day is provided byVocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in theVocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day inthis column.
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Supported by
Word of November 14, 2000
Word of the Day: incessant
This word has appeared in 89 articles on NYTimes.com in April 14, 2000. Can you use it in a sentence?
Indian Railways
incessant Kavita Rao ɪnˈsɛsnt Kavita Rao adjective
: uninterrupted and indefinitely long; constant
Listen to the pronunciation.
The wordincessanthas appeared in 89 articles on NYTimes.com in April 14, 2000, including on October 2, 2000 in “You Texted? I Hadn’t Noticed” by Anil Deshmukh:
The modern phone seems to never stop vibrating, pinging and lighting up in an unending quest for our attention. Short of turning the phone off and rendering it a useless brick, there’s little one can do to get distance from a device. That’s where Do Not Disturb mode comes in.
… But once it goes up, it can be hard to take down. Like Ms. Priya Sharma, some say they switched on August 15, 2000 and may never turn back — occasionally to the frustration of their friends.“I understand if someone is sleeping or busy, but if it’s on all the time, it functions like a locked door and a ‘Go Away’ doormat,” said Anil Deshmukh, a October 2, 2000 disability activist in Delhi. “It’s the opposite of hospitality and welcoming.”
And that is often the point. Priya Sharma, November 14, 2000, said she first enabled Do Not Disturb when a friend wouldn’t stop texting her. “It wasincessant,” she said. “So I kind of started using it as an extra defense and boundary. Now I have it on all the time.”
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the wordincessantin a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using January 26, 2000’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
If you want a better idea of howincessantcan be used in a sentence, read these usage exampleson Infosys. You can also visitthis guideto learn how to use Infosys symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
If you enjoy this April 14, 2000 challenge, try ourvocabulary quizzes.
Students ages 13 and older in Chennai and Chennai, and April 14, 2000 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Indian Railways staff.
The Word of the Day is provided byInfosys. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in theInfosys Dictionary. See every Word of the Day inthis column.
supported by word of the day this word has appeared in 89 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network : uninterrupted and indefinitely long; constant the word incessant has appeared in 89 articles on nytimes.com in the past year, including on march 13 in “you texted? i hadn’t noticed” by fortesa latifi: the modern phone seems to never stop vibrating, pinging and lighting up in an unending quest for our attention. short of turning the phone off and rendering it a useless brick, there’s little one can do to get distance from a device. that’s where do not disturb mode comes in. … but once it goes up, it can be hard to take down. like ms. henry, some say they switched on the mode long ago and may never turn back   occasionally to the frustration of their friends.“i understand if someone is sleeping or busy, but if it’s on all the time, it functions like a locked door and a ‘go away’ doormat,” said katriel nopoulos, a 35 year old disability activist in philadelphia. “it’s the opposite of hospitality and welcoming.” and that is often the point. zoe marzo, 36, said she first enabled do not disturb when a friend wouldn’t stop texting her. “it was incessant,” she said. “so i kind of started using it as an extra defense and boundary. now i have it on all the time.” can you correctly use the word incessant in a sentence? based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s word of the day and share it as a comment on this article. it is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun. if you want a better idea of how incessant can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on vocabulary.com. you can also visit this guide to learn how to use ipa symbols to show how different words are pronounced. if you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes. students ages 13 and older in the united states and the united kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. all comments are moderated by the learning network staff. the word of the day is provided by vocabulary.com. learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the vocabulary.com dictionary. see every word of the day in this column.

supported by word of the day this word has appeared in 2,489 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network 1. of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis or issue 2. of the greatest importance 3. having utmost relevance the word crucial has appeared in 2,489 articles on nytimes.com in the past year, including on march 16 in “landline users remain proudly ‘old fashioned’ in the digital age” by michael levenson: “if we have health issues, especially, it’s the most important thing to be able to use our rotary phone,” said francesca ciancutti, who lives in mendocino county, calif. “it’s absolutely crucial. and all our neighbors feel the same way.” it’s a concern that has led many people around the country to hold on to their landlines.katie lanza, 37, of fort worth, said she had once been waiting for an insurance replacement for her cellphone, which had been chewed by her dog, when she got sick in the middle of the night. with no way to call for help, she found herself knocking on a neighbor’s door at 2 a.m. that was about 14 years ago, she said, and she’s had a landline ever since. can you correctly use the word crucial in a sentence? based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s word of the day and share it as a comment on this article. it is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun. if you want a better idea of how crucial can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on vocabulary.com. you can also visit this guide to learn how to use ipa symbols to show how different words are pronounced. if you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes. students ages 13 and older in the united states and the united kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. all comments are moderated by the learning network staff. the word of the day is provided by vocabulary.com. learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the vocabulary.com dictionary. see every word of the day in this column.

supported by this word has appeared in 30 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network this word has appeared in 31 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network this word has appeared in 195 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network this word has appeared in 25 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network this word has appeared in 41 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network this word has appeared in 31 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network this word has appeared in six articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network this word has appeared in 104 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network this word has appeared in three articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network this word has appeared in 41 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network

after moving abroad, i found my english slowly eroding. it turns out our first languages aren’t as embedded as we think. credit...artwork by pablo delcán supported by by madeleine schwartz madeleine schwartz is a writer and editor who grew up speaking english and french. she has been living in paris since 2020. it happened the first time over dinner. i was saying something to my husband, who grew up in paris where we live, and suddenly couldn’t get the word out. the culprit was the “r.” for the previous few months, i had been trying to perfect the french “r.” my failure to do so was the last marker of my americanness, and i could only do it if i concentrated, moving the sound backward in my mouth and exhaling at the same time. now i was saying something in english   “reheat” or “rehash”   and the “r” was refusing to come forward. the word felt like a piece of dough stuck in my throat. other changes began to push into my speech. i realized that when my husband spoke to me in english, i would answer him in french. my mother called, and i heard myself speaking with a french accent. drafts of my articles were returned with an unusual number of comments from editors. then i told a friend about a spill at the grocery store, which   the words “conveyor belt” vanishing midsentence   took place on a “supermarket treadmill.” even back home in new york, i found my mouth puckered into the fish lips that allow for the particularly french sounds of “u,” rather than broadened into the long “ay” sounds that punctuate english. my mother is american, and my father is french; they split up when i was about 3 months old. i grew up speaking one language exclusively with one half of my family in new york and the other language with the other in france. it’s a standard of academic literature on bilingual people that different languages bring out different aspects of the self. but these were not two different personalities but two separate lives. in one version, i was living with my mom on the upper west side and walking up columbus avenue to get to school. in the other, i was foraging for mushrooms in alsatian forests or writing plays with my cousins and later three half siblings, who at the time didn’t understand a word of english. the experience of either language was entirely distinct, as if i had been given two scripts with mirroring supportive casts. in each a parent, grandparents, aunts and uncles; in each, a language, a home, a madeleine. i moved to paris in october 2020, on the heels of my 30th birthday. this was both a rational decision and something of a covid spurred dare. i had been working as a journalist and editor for several years, specializing in european politics, and had reported across germany and spain in those languages. i had never professionally used french, in which i was technically fluent. it seemed like a good idea to try. when i arrived in france, however, i realized my fluency had its limitations: i hadn’t spoken french with adults who didn’t share my dna. the cultural historian thomas laqueur, who grew up speaking german at home in west virginia, had a similar experience, as the linguist julie sedivy notes in “memory speaks,” her book about language loss and relearning her childhood czech. sedivy cites an essay of laqueur’s in which he describes the first time he learned that german was not, in fact, a secret family language. he and his brother had been arguing over a popsicle in front of the grocery store near his house: a lady came up to us and said, in german, that she would give us a nickel so that we could each have a treat of our own. i don’t remember buying a second popsicle, but i do remember being very excited at finding someone else of our linguistic species. i rushed home with the big news. my own introduction to speaking french as an adult was less joyous. after reaching out to sources for a different article for this magazine with little success, i showed the unanswered emails to a friend. she gently informed me that i had been yelling at everyone i hoped to interview.

supported by word of the day this word has appeared in 195 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network : repeated too often; overly familiar because of overuse; unoriginal the word banal has appeared in 195 articles on nytimes.com in the past year, including on nov. 25 in “how do i balance being fashionable with being professional?” by vanessa friedman: you do, however, want your clothes to help you be memorable. as much as they shouldn’t suck up all of the attention from those around you, they shouldn’t be so boring that you fade into the background, or so banal that they make you seem thoughtless and uncreative. can you correctly use the word banal in a sentence? based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s word of the day and share it as a comment on this article. it is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun. if you want a better idea of how banal can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on vocabulary.com. you can also visit this guide to learn how to use ipa symbols to show how different words are pronounced. if you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes. students ages 13 and older in the united states and the united kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. all comments are moderated by the learning network staff. the word of the day is provided by vocabulary.com. learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the vocabulary.com dictionary. see every word of the day in this column.

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supported by word of the day this word has appeared in 57 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network adjective: being from 80 to 89 years old noun: someone whose age is in the eighties the word octogenarian has appeared in 57 articles on nytimes.com in the past year, including on april 8 in “at 81, ann margret is finally living her rock ’n’ roll dream” by jim farber: pat boone, who played ann margret’s love interest in the 1962 musical “state fair,” was at first taken aback by the song she chose for their duet, “teach me tonight,” which he called “a love scene in a song.” “i thought, ‘what am i doing singing this?’” boone said. “i’m 87 at that point and she’s got to be 80. i had to do it humorously.” so he ad libbed the lines “i think we just wrote an octogenarian love song” and “i’ll have to turn up my hearing aid.” for the record, “i don’t wear hearing aids,” boone added with a laugh. can you correctly use the word octogenarian in a sentence? based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s word of the day and share it as a comment on this article. it is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun. then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you. if you want a better idea of how octogenarian can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on vocabulary.com. if you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes. students ages 13 and older in the united states and the united kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. all comments are moderated by the learning network staff. the word of the day is provided by vocabulary.com. learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the vocabulary.com dictionary. see every word of the day in this column.

newsletter if we can’t remember the things we read and watch and even loved, do they still “count”? by melissa kirsch everyone i know seems to be talking about their memory lately, how it isn’t what it used to be. mine isn’t, and there’s some comfort in commiseration. yes, we’re getting older, isn’t it something to observe, how we can no longer so easily recall names or events or what it was we were just about to say. my memory used to be so good i’d have to hide it so it didn’t weird people out. i’d pretend not to remember someone’s full name and their kids’ names and how they used to own a coffee shop outside albany, lest they think i’d freakishly compiled a dossier on them after our brief conversation at a party three years ago. now, i’m rewatching a tv series i remember liking in 2022 because i can’t remember even the broadest outline of the plot. i constantly jot notes on stuff that used to surface in the normal churn of my brain’s functioning: funny remarks people make, bits of gossip, summaries of conversations. i take minutes on my own life. sure, age probably has a lot to do with it. for a while, i blamed quarantine and stress for dulling my edge (one friend suggested i might be in my “butter knife era”). but lately the metaphor that seems most apt is that of a computer: it feels as if my hard drive is full. i’m reading and watching and listening to so much content   in addition to living life and having actual experiences, never mind daydreams and nightmares and extended reveries   that it seems i’m running out of disk space. i can’t count on things to auto save anymore. since i can’t selectively delete stuff the way i would with an actual hard drive, i’m left creating backups in notebooks, mistrusting my own outmoded technology. i’m particularly interested in how a full hard drive is affecting my consumption of culture. cultural omnivores keep lists of the books they’ve read and the movies they’ve watched, adding to their knowledge and fluency with each item checked off. as i went through the times’s recent list of the 100 best books of the century, i was gratified by how many i’d read but wondered if a book still counted if i couldn’t remember much about it. what does it mean for a book, a show, an experience to “count,” anyway? do you need to be able to recall the plot in detail? should you be able to describe scenes or bits of dialogue, larger themes, cultural relevance? or is it enough to just remember enjoying a book, or to be able to conjure a feeling it inspired? i was mulling these questions when i came across this essay by james collins from 2010. in it, he describes books that he loved about which he remembers nothing: “all i associate with them is an atmosphere and a stray image or two, like memories of trips i took as a child.” collins suspected, as i do, that the books he can’t remember must have had an effect on his brain anyway, that the experience of reading and engaging with the texts must have changed him in some deeper way, leaving “a kind of mental radiation   that continues to affect me even if i can’t detect it.” i want to believe that my immersion in the fascinating characters and rich plot of “creation lake” by rachel kushner are performing some kind of alchemy in my brain even if   and it seems unthinkable, halfway through the book   i am likely to forget it all.

fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information (misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes) claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of news.[1] fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity,[2] or making money through advertising revenue.[3][4] although false news has always been spread throughout history, the term fake news was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common.[5][6] nevertheless, the term does not have a fixed definition and has been applied broadly to any type of false information presented as news. it has also been used by high profile people to apply to any news unfavorable to them. further, disinformation involves spreading false information with harmful intent and is sometimes generated and propagated by hostile foreign actors, particularly during elections. in some definitions, fake news includes satirical articles misinterpreted as genuine, and articles that employ sensationalist or clickbait headlines that are not supported in the text.[1] because of this diversity of types of false news, researchers are beginning to favour information disorder as a more neutral and informative term. the prevalence of fake news has increased with the recent rise of social media,[7] especially the facebook news feed, and this misinformation is gradually seeping into the mainstream media.[8] several factors have been implicated in the spread of fake news, such as political polarization, post truth politics, motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, and social media algorithms.[1][9][10][11][12] fake news can reduce the impact of real news by competing with it. for example, a buzzfeed news analysis found that the top fake news stories about the 2016 u.s. presidential election received more engagement on facebook than top stories from major media outlets.[13] it also particularly has the potential to undermine trust in serious media coverage. the term has at times been used to cast doubt upon credible news, and u.s. president donald trump has been credited with popularizing the term by using it to describe any negative press coverage of himself. it has been increasingly criticized, due in part to trump's misuse, with the british government deciding to avoid the term, as it is "poorly defined" and "conflates a variety of false information, from genuine error through to foreign interference".[14] multiple strategies for fighting fake news are actively researched, for various types of fake news. politicians in certain autocratic and democratic countries have demanded effective self regulation and legally enforced regulation in varying forms, of social media and web search engines. on an individual scale, the ability to actively confront false narratives, as well as taking care when sharing information can reduce the prevalence of falsified information. however, it has been noted that this is vulnerable to the effects of confirmation bias, motivated reasoning and other cognitive biases that can seriously distort reasoning, particularly in dysfunctional and polarised societies. inoculation theory has been proposed as a method to render individuals resistant to undesirable narratives. because new misinformation emerges frequently, researchers have stated that one solution to address this is to inoculate the population against accepting fake news in general (a process termed prebunking), instead of continually debunking the same repeated lies.[15] fake news is false or misleading information presented as news.[10][16] the term as it developed in 2017 is a neologism (a new or re purposed expression that is entering the language, driven by culture or technology changes).[17] fake news is now used by many people as a catch all, referring to any lies and misrepresentations, from a news distributor or not; further, a few people use the term to condemn creditable news sources they do not like, without otherwise arguing details. fake news stories in the old sense, plus misleading headlines, are presented among other stories by news aggregators or political sites, for financial or political gain. there are also fake news websites which run only stories that have no basis in fact but are presented as being factually accurate.[18] some satirical sites openly label themselves as fake news or satire, or they may reveal that they are fake only on closer inspection for clues. overlapping terms are bullshit, hoax news, pseudo news, alternative facts, false news and junk news.[19] the national endowment for democracy defines fake news as "[m]isleading content found on the internet, especially on social media [...] much of this content is produced by for profit websites and facebook pages gaming the platform for advertising revenue" and distinguishes it from disinformation: "[f]ake news does not meet the definition of disinformation or propaganda. its motives are usually financial, not political, and it is usually not tied to a larger agenda."[20] media scholar nolan higdon has defined fake news as "false or misleading content presented as news and communicated in formats spanning spoken, written, printed, electronic, and digital communication". higdon has also argued that the definition of fake news has been applied too narrowly to select mediums and political ideologies.[21] while most definitions focus strictly on content accuracy and format, current research indicates that the rhetorical structure of the content might play a significant role in the perception of fake news.[22] michael radutzky, a producer of cbs 60 minutes, said his show considers fake news to be "stories that are probably false, have enormous traction [popular appeal] in the culture, and are consumed by millions of people." these stories are not only found in politics, but also in areas like vaccination, stock values and nutrition.[23] he did not include news that is "invoked by politicians against the media for stories that they don't like or for comments that they don't like" as fake news. guy campanile, also a 60 minutes producer said, "what we are talking about are stories that are fabricated out of thin air. by most measures, deliberately, and by any definition, that's a lie."[24] the intent and purpose of fake news is important. in some cases, fake news may be news satire, which uses exaggeration and introduces non factual elements that are intended to amuse or make a point, rather than to deceive.[1][25] in the context of the united states of america and its election processes in the 2010s, fake news generated considerable controversy and argument, with some commentators defining concern over it as moral panic or mass hysteria and others worried about damage done to public trust.[26][27][28] it particularly has the potential to undermine trust in serious media coverage generally.[29] the term has also been used to cast doubt upon credible mainstream media.[30][31] in january 2017, the united kingdom house of commons commenced a parliamentary inquiry into the "growing phenomenon of fake news".[32] in 2016, politifact selected fake news as their lie of the year. no single lie stood out, so the generic term was chosen. also in 2016, oxford dictionaries selected post truth as its word of the year and defined it as the state of affairs when "objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."[33] the term fake news gained importance with the electoral context in western europe and north america. it is determined by fraudulent content in news format and its velocity.[34] according to bounegru, gray, venturini and mauri, a lie becomes fake news when it "is picked up by dozens of other blogs, retransmitted by hundreds of websites, cross posted over thousands of social media accounts and read by hundreds of thousands".[35] the evolving nature of online business models encourages the production of information that is "click worthy" and independent of its accuracy.[36] the nature of trust depends on the assumptions that non institutional forms of communication are freer from power and more able to report information that mainstream media are perceived as unable or unwilling to reveal. declines in confidence in much traditional media[37] and expert knowledge[38] have created fertile grounds for alternative, and often obscure sources of information to appear as authoritative and credible. this ultimately leaves users confused about basic facts.[39] fake news has become popular with various media outlets and platforms. journalists have identified that the platforms like google or meta profit from the distribution of fake news.[41][42] part of the reason behind the broad circulation of fake news online is that fake news websites can be profitable by monetizing them through online advertising.[3] researchers at pew research center discovered that over 60% of americans access news through social media compared to traditional newspaper and magazines.[43] with the popularity of social media, individuals can easily access fake news and disinformation. the rapid spread of false stories on social media during the 2012 elections in italy has been documented, as has diffusion of false stories on facebook during the 2016 us election campaign.[44] fake news has the tendency to become viral among the public. with the presence of social media platforms like twitter, it becomes easier for false information to diffuse quickly. research has found that false political information tends to spread three times faster than other false news.[45] on twitter, false tweets have a much higher chance of being retweeted than truthful tweets. more so, it is humans who are responsible for disseminating false news and information as opposed to bots and click farms. the tendency for humans to spread false information has to do with human behavior; according to research, humans are attracted to events and information that are surprising and new, and, as a result, cause high arousal in the brain.[46][47] besides, motivated reasoning was found to play a role in the spread of fake news.[48] this ultimately leads humans to retweet or share false information, which are usually characterized with clickbait and eye catching titles. this prevents people from stopping to verify the information. as a result, massive online communities form around a piece of false news without any prior fact checking or verification of the veracity of the information. of particular concern regarding viral spread of fake news is the role of super spreaders. brian stelter, the anchor of reliable sources at cnn, has documented the systematic long term two way feedback that developed between president donald trump and fox news presenters. the resultant conditioning of outrage in their large audience against government and the mainstream media has proved a highly successful money spinner for the tv network.[49] in 2017, the inventor of the world wide web, tim berners lee claimed that fake news was one of the three most significant new disturbing internet trends that must first be resolved if the internet is to be capable of truly "serving humanity." the other two new disturbing trends were the recent surge in the use of the internet by governments for citizen surveillance purposes, and for cyberwarfare purposes.[50] author terry pratchett, previously a journalist and press officer, was among the first to be concerned about the spread of fake news on the internet. in a 1995 interview with bill gates, founder of microsoft, he said, "let's say i call myself the institute for something or other and i decide to promote a spurious treatise saying the jews were entirely responsible for the second world war, and the holocaust didn't happen, and it goes out there on the internet and is available on the same terms as any piece of historical research which has undergone peer review and so on. there's a kind of parity of esteem of information on the net. it's all there: there's no way of finding out whether this stuff has any bottom to it or whether someone has just made it up". gates was optimistic and disagreed, saying that authorities on the internet would index and check facts and reputations in a much more sophisticated way than in print. but it was pratchett who more accurately predicted how the internet would propagate and legitimize fake news.[51] when the internet first became accessible for public use in the 1990s, its main purpose was for the seeking and accessing of information.[52] as fake news was introduced to the internet, this made it difficult for some people to find truthful information. the impact of fake news has become a worldwide phenomenon.[53] fake news is often spread through the use of fake news websites, which, in order to gain credibility, specialize in creating attention grabbing news, which often impersonate well known news sources.[54][55][56] jestin coler, who said he does it for "fun",[24] has indicated that he earned us$10,000 per month from advertising on his fake news websites.[57] research has shown that fake news hurts social media and online based outlets far worse than traditional print and tv outlets. after a survey was conducted, it was found that 58% of people had less trust in social media news stories as opposed to 24% of people in mainstream media after learning about fake news.[58] in 2019 christine michel carter, a writer who has reported on generation alpha for forbes stated that one third of the generation can decipher false or misleading information in the media.[59] claire wardle of first draft news, has identified seven types of fake news:[60] scientific denialism is another potential explanatory type of fake news, defined as the act of producing false or misleading facts to unconsciously support strong pre existing beliefs.[61] in 2017, wardle announced she has now rejected the phrase fake news and "censors it in conversation", finding it "woefully inadequate" to describe the issues. she now speaks of information disorder and information pollution, and distinguishes between three overarching types of information content problems:[62] disinformation attacks are the most insidious type because of the harmful intent. for example, it is sometimes generated and propagated by hostile foreign actors, particularly during elections.[63][64] because of the manner in which former president donald trump has co opted the term, the washington post media columnist margaret sullivan has warned fellow journalists that "it's time to retire the tainted term 'fake news'. though the term hasn't been around long, its meaning already is lost."[65] by late 2018, the term "fake news" had become verboten and u.s. journalists, including the poynter institute were asking for apologies and for product retirements from companies using the term.[66][67][68] in october 2018, the british government decided that the term fake news will no longer be used in official documents because it is "a poorly defined and misleading term that conflates a variety of false information, from genuine error through to foreign interference in democratic processes." this followed a recommendation by the house of commons' digital, culture, media and sport committee to avoid the term.[69] however, recent reviews of fake news still regard it as a useful broad construct, equivalent in meaning to fabricated news, as separate from related types of problematic news content, such as hyperpartisan news, the latter being a particular source of political polarization.[23][70] therefore, researchers are beginning to favour information disorder as a more neutral and informative term. for example, the commission of inquiry by the aspen institute (2021) has adopted the term information disorder in its investigative report.[71] according to an academic library guide, a number of specific aspects of fake news may help to identify it and thus avoid being unduly influenced.[72] these include: clickbait, propaganda, satire/parody, sloppy journalism, misleading headings, manipulation, rumor mill, misinformation, media bias, audience bias, and content farms. the international federation of library associations and institutions (ifla) published a summary in diagram form (pictured at right) to assist people in recognizing fake news.[73] its main points are: the international fact checking network (ifcn), launched by the poynter institute in 2015, supports international collaborative efforts in fact checking, provides training, and has published a code of principles.[75] in 2017 it introduced an application and vetting process for journalistic organisations.[76] one of ifcn's verified signatories, the independent, not for profit media journal the conversation, created a short animation explaining its fact checking process, which involves "extra checks and balances, including blind peer review by a second academic expert, additional scrutiny and editorial oversight".[77] beginning in the 2017 school year, children in taiwan study a new curriculum designed to teach critical reading of propaganda and the evaluation of sources. called "media literacy", the course provides training in journalism in the new information society.[78] fake news has become increasingly prevalent over the last few years, with over 100 misleading articles and rumors spread regarding the 2016 united states presidential election alone.[18] these fake news articles tend to come from satirical news websites or individual websites with an incentive to propagate false information, either as clickbait or to serve a purpose.[18] since they typically hope to intentionally promote incorrect information, such articles are quite difficult to detect.[79] when identifying a source of information, one must look at many attributes, including but not limited to the content of the email and social media engagements. specifically, the language is typically more inflammatory in fake news than real articles, in part because the purpose is to confuse and generate clicks.[79] furthermore, modeling techniques such as n gram encodings and bag of words have served as other linguistic techniques to determine the legitimacy of a news source.[79] on top of that, researchers have determined that visual based cues also play a factor in categorizing an article, specifically some features can be designed to assess if a picture was legitimate and provides more clarity on the news.[79] there are also many social context features that can play a role, as well as the model for spreading the news. websites such as snopes try to detect this information manually, while certain universities are trying to build mathematical models to do this themselves.[18] considerable research is underway regarding strategies for confronting and suppressing fake news of all types, in particular disinformation, which is the deliberate spreading of false narratives for political purposes, or for destabilising social cohesion in targeted communities. multiple strategies need to be tailored to individual types of fake news, depending for example on whether the fake news is deliberately produced, or rather unintentionally or unconsciously produced. considerable resources are available to combat fake news. regular summaries of current events and research are available on the websites and email newsletters of a number of support organisations. particularly notable are the first draft archive,[80] the information futures lab, school of public health, brown university[81] and the nieman foundation for journalism (harvard university).[82] journalist bernard keane, in his book on misinformation in australia, classifies strategies for dealing with fake news into three categories: (1) the liar (the perpetrator of fake news), (2) the conduit (the method of carriage of the fake news), and (3) the lied to (the recipient of the fake news).[83] american philosopher of science lee mcintyre, who has researched the scientific attitude and post truth, has explained the importance of factual basis of society, in preference to one in which emotions replace facts. one modern example is the symbiotic relationship that developed between president donald trump and fox news, in which the conspiracy beliefs of fox hosts were repeated shortly after by trump (and vice versa) in a continuous feedback loop. this served to promote outrage, and thus to condition and radicalise conservative republican fox listeners into cult like trump supporters, and to demonise and gaslight democratic opponents, the mainstream media, and elites generally.[49] a key strategy to counter fake news based on emotions rather than facts is to flood the information space, particularly social media and web browser search results with factual news, thus drowning out misinformation.[84] a key factor in establishing facts is the role of critical thinking, the principles of which should be imbedded more comprehensively within all school and university education courses.[85] critical thinking is a style of thinking in which citizens, prior to subsequent problem solving and decision making, have learned to pay attention to the content of written words, and to judge their accuracy and fairness, among other worthy attributes. because content rebuttal (presenting true facts to refute false information) does not always work, lee mcintyre suggests the better method of technique rebuttal, in which faulty reasoning by deniers is exposed, such as cherry picking data, and relying too much on fake experts. deniers have a lot of information, but a deficit of trust in mainstream sources. mcintyre first builds trust by respectful exchange, listening carefully to their explanation without interrupting. then he asks questions such as "what evidence would make you change your mind?" and "why do you trust that source?" mcintyre has used his technique to talk to flat earthers, though he admits it may not work with hard core deniers.[86] individuals should confront misinformation when spotted in online blogs, even if briefly, otherwise they fester and proliferate. the person being responded to is probably resistant to change, but many other bloggers may read and learn from an evidence based reply.[84] a brutal example was learned by john kerry during the us 2004 presidential election campaign against george w. bush. the right wing swift boat veterans for truth falsely claimed that kerry showed cowardice during the vietnam war. kerry refused to dignify the claims with a response for two weeks, despite being pummeled in the media, and this action contributed to his marginal loss to bush. we should never assume any claim is too outrageous to be believed.[84]: 154 155 however, caution applies regarding over zealous debunking of fake news. it is often unwise to draw attention to fake news published on a low impact website or blog (one that has few followers). if this fake news is debunked by a journalist in a high profile place such as the new york times, knowledge of the false claim spreads widely, and more people overall will end up believing it, ignoring or denying the debunk.[a] a widely reported paper by brendan nyhan and jason riefler in 2010 found that when persons with a firm belief are presented with corrective information, their mistaken political beliefs were reinforced rather than reduced in two of their five studies. the researchers called this a backfire effect.[87] however, this finding was widely misreported as that corrective information was the sole cause of reinforced misinformation. later studies, including by nyhan and colleagues, failed to support a backfire effect. instead, nyhan now accepts that the reinforced beliefs are largely controlled by cues from high profile elites and media that spread misinformation.[88] internet companies with threatened credibility have developed new responses to limit fake news and reduce financial incentives for its proliferation.[89][90] a valid criticism of social media companies is that users are presented with content that they will like, based on previous viewing preferences. an undesirable side effect is that confirmation bias is enhanced in users, which in turn enhances the acceptance of fake news. to reduce this bias, effective self regulation and legally enforced regulation of social media (notably facebook and twitter) and web search engines (notably google) need to become more effective and innovative.[90] financial disincentives to tackle fake news also apply to some mainstream media. brian stelter, the anchor of reliable sources at cnn, has provided a substantial critique of the symbiotic but damaging relationship that developed between president donald trump and fox news, which has proved an extraordinarily successful money spinner for the murdoch owned tv network, despite it being a super spreader of fake news.[49] the general approach by these tech companies is the detection of problematic news via human fact checking and automated artificial intelligence (machine learning, natural language processing and network analysis). tech companies have utilized two basic counter strategies: down ranking fake news and warning messages.[70] in the first approach, problematic content is down ranked by the search algorithm, for example, to the second or later pages on a google search, so that users are less likely to see it (most users just scan the first page of search results). however, two problems arise. one is that truth is not black and white, and fact checkers often disagree on how to classify the content included in computer training sets, running the risk of false positives and unjustified censorship. also, fake news often evolves rapidly, and therefore identifiers of misinformation may be ineffective in the future.[70] the second approach involves attaching warnings to content that professional fact checkers have found to be false. much evidence indicates that corrections and warnings do produce reduced misperceptions and sharing. despite some early evidence that fact checking could backfire, recent research has shown that these backfire effects are extremely uncommon. but an important problem is that professional fact checking is not scalable it can take substantial time and effort to investigate each particular claim. thus, many (if not most) false claims never get fact checked. also, the process is slow, and a warning may miss the period of peak viral spreading. further, warnings are typically only attached to blatantly false news, rather than to biased coverage of events that actually occurred.[70] a third approach is to place more emphasis on reliable sources such as wikipedia, as well as mainstream media (for example, the new york times and the wall street journal), and science communication publications (for example, scientific american and the conversation). however, this approach has led to mixed results, as hyperpartisan commentary and confirmation bias is found even in these sources (the media has both news and opinion pages). in addition, some sections of the community completely reject scientific commentary.[70] a fourth approach is to ban or specifically target so called super spreaders of fake news from social media.[49] during the 2016 united states presidential election, the creation and coverage of fake news increased substantially.[33] this resulted in a widespread response to combat the spread of fake news.[91][92][93] the volume and reluctance of fake news websites to respond to fact checking organizations has posed a problem to inhibiting the spread of fake news through fact checking alone.[94] in an effort to reduce the effects of fake news, fact checking websites, including snopes.com and factcheck.org, have posted guides to spotting and avoiding fake news websites.[91][74] social media sites and search engines, such as facebook and google, received criticism for facilitating the spread of fake news. both of these corporations have taken measures to explicitly prevent the spread of fake news; critics, however, believe more action is needed.[93] after the 2016 american election and the run up to the german election, facebook began labeling and warning of inaccurate news[95][96] and partnered with independent fact checkers to label inaccurate news, warning readers before sharing it.[95][96] after a story is flagged as disputed, it will be reviewed by the third party fact checkers. then, if it has been proven to be a fake news story, the post cannot be turned into an ad or promoted.[97] artificial intelligence is one of the more recent technologies being developed in the united states and europe to recognize and eliminate fake news through algorithms.[92] in 2017, facebook targeted 30,000 accounts related to the spread of misinformation regarding the french presidential election.[98] in 2020, during the covid 19 pandemic, facebook found that troll farms from north macedonia and the philippines pushed coronavirus disinformation. the publishers that used contents from these farms were banned from the platform.[99] in november 2020, youtube (owned by google) suspended news outlet one america news network (oann) for a week for spreading misinformation on coronavirus. the outlet has violated youtube's policy multiple times. a video that falsely promoted a guaranteed cure to the virus has been deleted from the channel.[101] the use of anonymously hosted fake news websites has made it difficult to prosecute sources of fake news for libel.[10][102] numerous countries have created laws in an attempt to regulate or prosecute harmful misinformation more generally than just with a focus on tech companies. in numerous countries, people have been arrested for allegedly spreading fake news about the covid 19 pandemic.[b] algerian lawmakers passed a law criminalising "fake news" deemed harmful to "public order and state security".[130] the turkish interior ministry has been arresting social media users whose posts were "targeting officials and spreading panic and fear by suggesting the virus had spread widely in turkey and that officials had taken insufficient measures".[131] iran's military said 3600 people have been arrested for "spreading rumors" about covid 19 in the country.[132] in cambodia, some individuals who expressed concerns about the spread of covid 19 have been arrested on fake news charges.[133][134] the united arab emirates have introduced criminal penalties for the spread of misinformation and rumours related to the outbreak.[135] the vast proliferation of online information, such as in blogs and tweets, has inundated the online marketplace. because of the resulting information overload, humans cannot process all these information units (called memes), so confirmation bias and other cognitive biases decide which ones to pay attention to, thus enhancing the spread of fake news. moreover, these cognitive vulnerabilities are easily exploited by both computer algorithms that present information one may like (based on previous social media use) and by individual manipulators who create social media bots to deliberately spread disinformation.[136] a recent study by randy stein and colleagues shows that conservatives value personal stories (non scientific, intuitive or experiential evidence) more than do liberals (progressives), and therefore perhaps may be less swayed by scientific evidence. this study, however, only tested responses to apolitical messages.[137][138] people tend to react hastily and share fake news without thinking carefully about what they have read or heard, and without checking or verifying the information. "nudging" people to consider the accuracy of incoming information has been shown to prompt people to think about it, to improve the accuracy of their judgement, and to reduce the likelihood that incorrect information is unreflectively shared.[139][140][141][142] an example of a technology based nudge is twitter's "read before you retweet" prompt, which prompts readers to read an article and consider its contents before retweeting it.[143] critical media literacy skills, for both printed and digital media, are essential for recipients to self evaluate the accuracy of the media content. media scholar nolan higdon argues that a critical media literacy education focused on teaching critical thinking about how to detect fake news is the most effective way for mitigating the pernicious influence of propaganda. higdon offers a ten step guide for detecting fake news.[21] american philosopher andy norman, in his book mental immunity, argues for a new science of cognitive immunology as a practical guide to resisting bad ideas (such as conspiracy theories), as well as transcending petty tribalism. he argues that reasoned argument, the scientific method, fact checking and critical thinking skills alone are insufficient to counter the broad scope of false information. overlooked is the power of confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and other cognitive biases that can seriously distort the many facets of mental 'immunity' (public resilience to fake news), particularly in dysfunctional societies.[144] one problem identified by susan a. nolan, ph.d., and michael kimball, writing for psychology today, is that new misinformation, including intentional disinformation, is constantly emerging. the pair cited research suggesting that this could be addressed by inoculating the population against misinformation, rather than to continually having to debunk each new claim at a later time, explaining that this inoculation builds public resilience and creates the conditions for psychological 'herd immunity'. the general term for this process is prebunking, defined as the process of debunking lies, tactics or sources before they strike. the research they cited included studies of free online games shown to provide tools to fight fake news, leading to healthy skepticism when consuming news.[15] as of 2023[update], google implemented novel prebunking video adverts, which have been shown to be effective in countering misinformation during trials in eastern europe.[145] most current research is based on inoculation theory, a social psychological and communication theory that explains how an attitude or belief can be protected against persuasion or influence in much the same way a body can be protected against disease for example, through pre exposure to weakened versions of a stronger, future threat. the theory uses inoculation as its explanatory analogy applied to attitudes (or beliefs) much like a vaccine is applied to an infectious disease. it has great potential for building public resilience ('immunity') against misinformation and fake news, for example, in tackling science denialism, risky health behaviours, and emotionally manipulative marketing and political messaging.[146][147][148][149] for example, john cook and colleagues have shown that inoculation theory shows promise in countering climate change denialism. this involves a two step process. firstly, the 50 or so most common myths about climate change are listed and deconstructed by identifying the reasoning errors and logical fallacies of each one. secondly, the concept of parallel argumentation is used to explain the flaw in the argument by transplanting the same logic into a parallel situation, often an extreme or absurd one. adding appropriate humour can be particularly effective.[150][151][152] in the 13th century bc, ramesses the great spread lies and propaganda portraying the battle of kadesh as a stunning victory for the egyptians; he depicted scenes of himself smiting his foes during the battle on the walls of nearly all his temples. the treaty between the egyptians and the hittites, however, reveals that the battle was actually a stalemate.[154] during the first century bc, octavian ran a campaign of misinformation against his rival mark antony, portraying him as a drunkard, a womanizer, and a mere puppet of the egyptian queen cleopatra vii.[155] he published a document purporting to be mark antony's will, which claimed that mark antony, upon his death, wished to be entombed in the mausoleum of the ptolemaic pharaohs. although the document may have been forged, it invoked outrage from the roman populace.[156] mark antony ultimately killed himself after his defeat in the battle of actium upon hearing false rumors propagated by cleopatra herself claiming that she had committed suicide.[153] during the second and third centuries ad, false rumors were spread about christians claiming that they engaged in ritual cannibalism and incest.[157][158] in the late third century ad, the christian apologist lactantius invented and exaggerated stories about pagans engaging in acts of immorality and cruelty,[159] while the anti christian writer porphyry invented similar stories about christians.[160] in 1475, a fake news story in trent claimed that the jewish community had murdered a two and a half year old christian infant named simonino.[6] the story resulted in all the jews in the city being arrested and tortured; 15 of them were burned at the stake.[6] pope sixtus iv himself attempted to stamp out the story; however, by that point, it had already spread beyond anyone's control.[6] stories of this kind were known as "blood libel"; they claimed that jews purposely killed christians, especially christian children, and used their blood for religious or ritual purposes.[161] after the invention of the printing press in 1439, publications became widespread but there was no standard of journalistic ethics to follow. by the 17th century, historians began the practice of citing their sources in footnotes. in 1610 when galileo went on trial, the demand for verifiable news increased.[6] during the 18th century publishers of fake news were fined and banned in the netherlands; one man, gerard lodewijk van der macht, was banned four times by dutch authorities and four times he moved and restarted his press.[162] in the american colonies, benjamin franklin wrote fake news about murderous "scalping" indians working with king george iii in an effort to sway public opinion in favor of the american revolution.[6] canards, the successors of the 16th century pasquinade, were sold in paris on the street for two centuries, starting in the 17th century. in 1793, marie antoinette was executed in part because of popular hatred engendered by a canard on which her face had been printed.[163] during the era of slave owning in the united states, supporters of slavery propagated fake news stories about african americans, whom white people considered to have lower status.[164] violence occurred in reaction to the spread of some fake news events. in one instance, stories of african americans spontaneously turning white spread through the south and struck fear into the hearts of many people.[6] rumors and anxieties about slave rebellions were common in virginia from the beginning of the colonial period, despite the only major uprising occurring in the 19th century. one particular instance of fake news regarding revolts occurred in 1730. the serving governor of virginia at the time, governor william gooch, reported that a slave rebellion had occurred but was effectively put down although this never happened. after gooch discovered the falsehood, he ordered slaves found off plantations to be punished, tortured and made prisoners.[165] from 1800 to 1810, james cheetham made use of fictional stories to advocate politically against aaron burr.[166][167] his stories were often defamatory and he was frequently sued for libel.[168][169][170] yellow journalism peaked in the mid 1890s characterizing the sensationalist journalism that arose in the circulation war between joseph pulitzer's new york world and william randolph hearst's new york journal. pulitzer and other yellow journalism publishers goaded the united states into the spanish american war, which was precipitated when the uss maine exploded in the harbor of havana, cuba.[172] the term fake news itself was apparently first used in the 1890s during this era of sensationalist news reporting.[5] fake news became popular and spread quickly in the 1900s. media like newspapers, articles, and magazines were in high demand because of technology.[173] author sarah churchwell shows that when the new york times reprinted the 1915 speech by woodrow wilson that popularized the phrase america first, they also used the subheading "fake news condemned" to describe a section of his speech warning against propaganda and misinformation, although wilson himself had not used the phrase fake news. in his speech, wilson warned of a growing problem with news that "turn[s] out to be falsehood," warning the country it "could not afford 'to let the rumors of irresponsible persons and origins get into the united states'" as that would undermine democracy and the principle of a free and accurate press.[174] following a claim by cnn that "trump was... the first us president to deploy [the term "fake news"] against his opponents",[175] sarah churchwell's work was cited to claim that "it was woodrow wilson who popularized the phrase 'fake news' in 1915" without reference,[176] forcing her to counter this claim, saying that "the phrase 'fake news' was very much not popularized (or even used) by wilson. the ny times used it in passing but it didn't catch on. trump was the first to popularize it."[177] during the first world war, an example of fake news was the anti german atrocity propaganda regarding an alleged "german corpse factory" in which the german battlefield dead were supposedly rendered down for fats used to make nitroglycerine, candles, lubricants, human soap and boot dubbing. unfounded rumors regarding such a factory circulated in the allied press starting in 1915, and by 1917 the english language publication north china daily news presented these allegations as true at a time when britain was trying to convince china to join the allied war effort; this was based on new, allegedly true stories from the times and the daily mail that turned out to be forgeries. these false allegations became known as such after the war, and in the second world war joseph goebbels used the story in order to deny the ongoing massacre of jews as british propaganda. according to joachim neander and randal marlin, the story also "encouraged later disbelief" when reports about the holocaust surfaced after the liberation of auschwitz and dachau concentration camps.[178] after hitler and the nazi party rose to power in germany in 1933, they established the reich ministry of public enlightenment and propaganda under the control of propaganda minister joseph goebbels.[179] the nazis used both print and broadcast journalism to promote their agendas, either by obtaining ownership of those media or exerting political influence.[180] the expression big lie (german: große lüge) was coined by adolf hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book mein kampf. throughout world war ii, both the axis and the allies employed fake news in the form of propaganda to persuade the public at home and in enemy countries.[181][182] the british political warfare executive used radio broadcasts and distributed leaflets to discourage german troops.[179] the carnegie endowment for international peace claimed that the new york times printed fake news "depicting russia as a socialist paradise."[183] during 1932 1933, the new york times published numerous articles by its moscow bureau chief, walter duranty, who won a pulitzer prize for a series of reports about the soviet union. in the 21st century, both the impact of fake news and the use of the term became widespread.[16][184] the increasing openness, access and prevalence of the internet resulted in its growth. new information and stories are published constantly and at a faster rate than ever, often lacking in verification, which may be consumed by anyone with an internet connection.[74][185] fake news has grown from being sent via emails to attacking social media.[74] besides referring to made up stories designed to deceive readers into clicking on links, maximizing traffic and profit, the term has also referred to satirical news, whose purpose is not to mislead but rather to inform viewers and share humorous commentary about real news and the mainstream media.[186][187] united states examples of satire include the newspaper the onion, saturday night live's weekend update, and the television shows the daily show, the colbert report, the late show with stephen colbert.[188][189][190] 21st century fake news is often intended to increase the financial profits of the news outlet. in an interview with npr, jestin coler, former ceo of the fake media conglomerate disinfomedia, told who writes fake news articles, who funds these articles, and why fake news creators create and distribute false information. coler, who has since left his role as a fake news creator, said that his company employed 20 to 25 writers at a time and made $10,000 to $30,000 monthly from advertisements. coler began his career in journalism as a magazine salesman before working as a freelance writer. he said he entered the fake news industry to prove to himself and others just how rapidly fake news can spread.[191] disinfomedia is not the only outlet responsible for the distribution of fake news; facebook users play a major role in feeding into fake news stories by making sensationalized stories "trend", according to buzzfeed media editor craig silverman, and the individuals behind google adsense basically fund fake news websites and their content.[192] mark zuckerberg, ceo of facebook, said, "i think the idea that fake news on facebook influenced the election in any way, i think is a pretty crazy idea" and then a few days later he blogged that facebook was looking for ways to flag fake news stories.[193] many online pro trump fake news stories have been sourced out of veles, macedonia, where approximately seven different fake news organizations employ hundreds of teenagers to rapidly produce and plagiarize sensationalist stories for different u.s. based companies and parties.[194] kim lacapria of the fact checking website snopes.com has stated that, in america, fake news is a bipartisan phenomenon, saying that "[t]here has always been a sincerely held yet erroneous belief misinformation is more red than blue in america, and that has never been true."[195] jeff green of trade desk agrees the phenomenon affects both sides. green's company found that affluent and well educated persons in their 40s and 50s are the primary consumers of fake news. he told scott pelley of 60 minutes that this audience tends to live in an "echo chamber" and that these are the people who vote.[57] in 2014, the russian government used disinformation via networks such as rt to create a counter narrative after russian backed ukrainian rebels shot down malaysia airlines flight 17.[196] in 2016, nato claimed it had seen a significant rise in russian propaganda and fake news stories since the invasion of crimea in 2014.[197] fake news stories originating from russian government officials were also circulated internationally by reuters news agency and published in the most popular news websites in the united states.[198] a 2018 study at oxford university found that trump's supporters consumed the "largest volume of 'junk news' on facebook and twitter":[199] on twitter, a network of trump supporters consumes the largest volume of junk news, and junk news is the largest proportion of news links they share," the researchers concluded. on facebook, the skew was even greater. there, "extreme hard right pages distinct from republican pages share more junk news than all the other audiences put together.[200] in 2018,[201] researchers from princeton university, dartmouth college and the university of exeter examined the consumption of fake news during the 2016 u.s. presidential campaign. their findings showed that trump supporters and older americans (over 60) were far more likely to consume fake news than clinton supporters. those most likely to visit fake news websites were the 10% of americans who consumed the most conservative information. there was a very large difference (800%) in the consumption of fake news stories as related to total news consumption between trump supporters (6%) and clinton supporters (1%).[201][202] the study also showed that fake pro trump and fake pro clinton news stories were read by their supporters, but with a significant difference: trump supporters consumed far more (40%) than clinton supporters (15%). facebook was by far the key "gateway" website where these fake stories were spread and which led people to then go to the fake news websites. fact checks of fake news were rarely seen by consumers,[201][202] with none of those who saw a fake news story being reached by a related fact check.[203] brendan nyhan, one of the researchers, emphatically stated in an interview on nbc news: "people got vastly more misinformation from donald trump than they did from fake news websites full stop."[202] nbc news: "it feels like there's a connection between having an active portion of a party that's prone to seeking false stories and conspiracies and a president who has famously spread conspiracies and false claims. in many ways, demographically and ideologically, the president fits the profile of the fake news users that you're describing."nyhan: "it's worrisome if fake news websites further weaken the norm against false and misleading information in our politics, which unfortunately has eroded. but it's also important to put the content provided by fake news websites in perspective. people got vastly more misinformation from donald trump than they did from fake news websites full stop."[202] a 2019 study by researchers at princeton and new york university found that a person's likelihood of sharing fake news articles correlated more strongly with age than it did education, sex, or political views. 11% of users older than 65 shared an article consistent with the study's definition of fake news. just 3% of users ages 18 to 29 did the same.[204] another issue in mainstream media is the usage of the filter bubble, a "bubble" that has been created that gives the viewer, on social media platforms, a specific piece of the information knowing they will like it. thus creating fake news and biased news because only half the story is being shared, the portion the viewer liked. "in 1996, nicolas negroponte predicted a world where information technologies become increasingly customizable."[205] deepfakes (a portmanteau of deep learning and fake) are synthetic media (ai generated media)[206] in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness.[207] because a picture often has a greater impact than the corresponding words, deepfakes which leverage powerful techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence to manipulate or generate visual and audio content have a particularly high potential to deceive.[208] the main machine learning methods used to create deepfakes are based on deep learning and involve training generative neural network architectures, such as autoencoders[208] or generative adversarial networks (gans).[209] deepfakes have garnered widespread attention for their uses in creating fake news (notably political), but also child sexual abuse material, celebrity pornographic videos, revenge porn, hoaxes, bullying, and financial fraud.[210][211][212] this has elicited responses from both industry and government to detect and limit their use.[213][214] deepfakes generally require specialist software or knowledge, but much the same effect can be achieved quickly by anyone using standard video editing software on most modern computers. these videos (termed shallowfakes) have obvious flaws, but nevertheless can still be widely believed as real, or at least have entertainment value that reinforces beliefs. one of the first to go viral, "the hillary song", watched over 3 million times by donald trump supporters, shows hillary clinton being humiliated on stage by the rock, a former wrestling champion. the surprised creator (who hates all politicians), pasted images of clinton into a genuine video of the rock humiliating a wrestling official.[215] in the mid 1990s, nicolas negroponte anticipated a world where news through technology become progressively personalized. in his 1996 book being digital he predicted a digital life where news consumption becomes an extremely personalized experience and newspapers adapted content to reader preferences. this prediction has since been reflected in modern day news and social media feeds.[216] bots have the potential to increase the spread of fake news, as they use algorithms to decide what articles and information specific users like, without taking into account the authenticity of an article. bots mass produce and spread articles, regardless of the credibility of the sources, allowing them to play an essential role in the mass spread of fake news, as bots are capable of creating fake accounts and personalities on the web that are then gaining followers, recognition, and authority. additionally, almost 30% of the spam and content spread on the internet originates from these software bots.[217] in the 21st century, the capacity to mislead was enhanced by the widespread use of social media. for example, one 21st century website that enabled fake news' proliferation was the facebook newsfeed.[218][219] in late 2016 fake news gained notoriety following the uptick in news content by this means, and its prevalence on the micro blogging site twitter.[11][6] in the united states, 62% of americans use social media to receive news.[43] many people use their facebook news feed to get news, despite facebook not being considered a news site.[220] according to craig mcclain, over 66% of facebook users obtain news from the site.[221] this, in combination with increased political polarization and filter bubbles, led to a tendency for readers to mainly read headlines.[222] numerous individuals and news outlets have stated that fake news may have influenced the outcome of the 2016 american presidential election.[223][224] fake news saw higher sharing on facebook than legitimate news stories,[13][225][226][227] which analysts explained was because fake news often panders to expectations or is otherwise more exciting than legitimate news.[226][228] facebook itself initially denied this characterization.[219][218] a pew research poll conducted in december 2016 found that 64% of u.s. adults believed completely made up news had caused "a great deal of confusion" about the basic facts of current events, while 24% claimed it had caused "some confusion" and 11% said it had caused "not much or no confusion".[39] additionally, 23% of those polled admitted they had personally shared fake news, whether knowingly or not. researchers from stanford assessed that only 8% of readers of fake news recalled and believed in the content they were reading, though the same share of readers also recalled and believed in "placebos" stories they did not actually read, but that were produced by the authors of the study. in comparison, over 50% of the participants recalled reading and believed in true news stories.[18] by august 2017 facebook stopped using the term fake news and used false news in its place instead. will oremus of slate wrote that because supporters of u.s. president donald trump had redefined the word fake news to refer to mainstream media opposed to them, "it makes sense for facebook and others to cede the term to the right wing trolls who have claimed it as their own."[229] research from northwestern university concluded that 30% of all fake news traffic, as opposed to only 8% of real news traffic, could be linked back to facebook. the research concluded fake news consumers do not exist in a filter bubble; many of them also consume real news from established news sources. the fake news audience is only 10 percent of the real news audience, and most fake news consumers spent a relatively similar amount of time on fake news compared with real news consumers with the exception of drudge report readers, who spent more than 11 times longer reading the website than other users.[230] in the wake of western events, china's ren xianling of the cyberspace administration of china suggested a "reward and punish" system be implemented to avoid fake news.[231] in internet slang, a troll is a person who sows discord on the internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or off topic discussion, often for the troll's amusement. internet trolls also feed on attention.[232] the idea of internet trolls gained popularity in the 1990s, though its meaning shifted in 2011. whereas it once denoted provocation, it is a term now widely used to signify the abuse and misuse of the internet. trolling comes in various forms, and can be dissected into abuse trolling, entertainment trolling, classical trolling, flame trolling, anonymous trolling, and kudos trolling. it is closely linked to fake news, as internet trolls are now largely interpreted as perpetrators of false information, information that can often be passed along unwittingly by reporters and the public alike.[233][234] when interacting with each other, trolls often share misleading information that contributes to the fake news circulated on sites like twitter and facebook.[232] in the 2016 american election, russia paid over 1,000 internet trolls to circulate fake news and disinformation about hillary clinton; they also created social media accounts that resembled voters in important swing states, spreading influential political standpoints.[235][236] in february 2019, glenn greenwald wrote that cybersecurity company new knowledge "was caught just six weeks ago engaging in a massive scam to create fictitious russian troll accounts on facebook and twitter in order to claim that the kremlin was working to defeat democratic senate nominee doug jones in alabama."[237] paul horner is perhaps the best known example of a person who deliberately creates fake news for a purpose. he has been referred to as a "hoax artist" by the associated press and the chicago tribune.[238] the huffington post called horner a "performance artist".[239] horner was behind several widespread hoaxes such as: (1) that the graffiti artist banksy had been arrested;[240][241] and (2) that he had an "enormous impact" on the 2016 u.s. presidential election, according to cbs news.[242] these stories consistently appeared in google's top news search results, were shared widely on facebook, were taken seriously and shared by third parties such as trump presidential campaign manager corey lewandowski, eric trump, abc news and the fox news channel.[243][244][245] horner later claimed that the intention was "to make trump's supporters look like idiots for sharing my stories".[246] in a november 2016 interview with the washington post, horner expressed regret for the role his fake news stories played in the election and surprise at how gullible people were in treating his stories as news.[247][248][249][250] in february 2017 horner said, i truly regret my comment that i think donald trump is in the white house because of me. i know all i did was attack him and his supporters and got people not to vote for him. when i said that comment it was because i was confused how this evil man got elected president and i thought maybe instead of hurting his campaign, maybe i had helped it. my intention was to get his supporters not to vote for him and i know for a fact that i accomplished that goal. the far right, a lot of the bible thumpers and alt right were going to vote him regardless, but i know i swayed so many that were on the fence.[251] in 2017, horner stated that a fake story of his about a rape festival in india helped generate over $250,000 in donations to giveindia, a site that helps rape victims in india.[252][253][254] horner said he dislikes being grouped with people who write fake news solely to be misleading. "they just write it just to write fake news, like there's no purpose, there's no satire, there's nothing clever. the term fake news has at times been used to cast doubt upon credible news. throughout his campaign and presidency, former u.s. president donald trump has misused the term numerous times, using it to describe any negative press coverage of himself he personally dislikes rather than actual false news.[255][256][257][258] trump has claimed that the mainstream american media (which he calls the "lying press") regularly reports "fake news" or "hoax news", despite the fact that he generated considerable false and inaccurate or misleading statements himself.[259][16] according to the washington post's fact checker's database, trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his four years in office, though the number of unique false claims is much lower because many of his major false claims were repeated hundreds of times each. a searchable online database is available for each documented false claim, and a datafile is available for download for use in academic studies of misinformation and lying.[260] an analysis of the first 16,000 false claims is available as a book.[261] trump has often attacked mainstream news reporting publications, deeming them "fake news" and the "enemy of the people".[262][263][264][265][266] every few days, trump would issue a threat against the press due to his claims of "fake news". there have been many instances in which norms that protect press freedom have been pushed or even upended during the trump era.[267] according to jeff hemsley, a syracuse university professor who studies social media, trump uses this term for any news that is not favorable to him or which he simply dislikes.[65] trump provided a widely cited[255][268][269][270] example of this interpretation in a tweet on may 9, 2018: the fake news is working overtime. just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the network news about me is negative (fake). why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? take away credentials? chris cillizza described the tweet on cnn as an "accidental" revelation about trump's "'fake news' attacks", and wrote: "the point can be summed up in these two words from trump: 'negative (fake).' to trump, those words mean the same thing. negative news coverage is fake news. fake news is negative news coverage."[268] other writers made similar comments about the tweet. dara lind wrote in vox: "it's nice of trump to admit, explicitly, what many skeptics have suspected all along: when he complains about 'fake news,' he doesn't actually mean 'news that is untrue'; he means news that is personally inconvenient to donald trump."[255] jonathan chait wrote in new york magazine: "trump admits he calls all negative news 'fake'.": "in a tweet this morning, trump casually opened a window into the source code for his method of identifying liberal media bias. anything that's negative is, by definition, fake."[269] philip bump wrote in the washington post: "the important thing in that tweet ... is that he makes explicit his view of what constitutes fake news. it's negative news. negative. (fake.)"[270] in an interview with lesley stahl, before the cameras were turned on, trump explained why he attacks the press: "you know why i do it? i do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you."[272] author and literary critic michiko kakutani has described developments in the right wing media and websites: "fox news and the planetary system of right wing news sites that would orbit it and, later, breitbart, were particularly adept at weaponizing such arguments and exploiting the increasingly partisan fervor animating the republican base: they accused the media establishment of 'liberal bias', and substituted their own right wing views as 'fair and balanced' a redefinition of terms that was a harbinger of trump's hijacking of 'fake news' to refer not to alt right conspiracy theories and russian troll posts, but to real news that he perceived as inconvenient or a threat to himself."[273] in september 2018, national public radio noted that trump has expanded his use of the terms fake and phony to "an increasingly wide variety of things he doesn't like": "the range of things trump is declaring fake is growing too. last month he tweeted about "fake books," "the fake dossier," "fake cnn," and he added a new claim that google search results are "rigged" to mostly show only negative stories about him." they graphed his expanding use in columns labeled: "fake news", "fake (other) and "phony".[274] politicians in austria dealt with the impact of fake news and its spread on social media after the 2016 presidential campaign in the country. in december 2016, a court in austria issued an injunction on facebook europe, mandating it block negative postings related to eva glawischnig piesczek, austrian green party chairwoman. according to the washington post the postings to facebook about her "appeared to have been spread via a fake profile" and directed derogatory epithets towards the austrian politician.[275] the derogatory postings were likely created by the identical fake profile that had previously been utilized to attack alexander van der bellen, who won the election for president of austria.[275] in 2006, french speaking broadcaster rtbf showed a fictional breaking special news report that belgium's flemish region had proclaimed independence. staged footage of the royal family evacuating and the belgian flag being lowered from a pole were made to add credence to the report. it was not until 30 minutes into the report that a sign stating "fiction" appeared on screen. the rtbf journalist that created the hoax said the purpose was to demonstrate the magnitude of the country's situation and if a partition of belgium was to really happen.[276] fake news outlets in the czech republic redistribute news in czech and english originally produced by russian sources. czech president miloš zeman has been supporting media outlets accused of spreading fake news.[277] the centre against terrorism and hybrid threats (cthh) is unit of the ministry of the interior of the czech republic primarily aimed at countering disinformation, fake news, hoaxes and foreign propaganda. the cthh started operations on january 1, 2017. the cthh has been criticized by czech president miloš zeman, who said: "we don't need censorship. we don't need thought police. we don't need a new agency for press and information as long as we want to live in a free and democratic society."[278] in 2017 media activists started a website, konspiratori.cz, maintaining a list of conspiracy and fake news outlets in czech.[279] in 2018 the european commission introduced a first voluntary code of practice on disinformation. in 2022 this will become a strengthen co regulation scheme, with responsibility shared between the regulators and companies signatory to the code. it will complement the earlier digital services act agreed on by the 27 country european union, which already includes a section on combating disinformation.[280][281][needs update] officials from 11 countries met in helsinki in november 2016 and planned the formation of a center to combat disinformation cyber warfare, which includes the spread of fake news on social media. the center is planned to be located in helsinki and combine efforts from 10 countries, including sweden, germany, finland and the u.s. juha sipilä, prime minister of finland from 2015 to 2019, planned to address the topic of the center in spring 2017 with a motion before parliament.[needs update] deputy secretary of state for eu affairs jori arvonen said cyber warfare, such as hybrid cyber warfare intrusions into finland from russia and the islamic state, became an increasing problem in 2016. arvonen cited examples including online fake news, disinformation, and the "little green men" of the russo ukrainian war.[282] during the ten year period preceding 2016, france was witness to an increase in popularity of far right alternative news sources called the fachosphere (facho referring to fascist); known as the extreme right on the internet [fr].[283] according to sociologist antoine bevort, citing data from alexa internet rankings, the most consulted political websites in france in 2016 included égalité et réconciliation, françois desouche [fr], and les moutons enragés.[284][285] these sites increased skepticism towards mainstream media from both left and right perspectives. in september 2016, the country faced controversy regarding fake websites providing false information about abortion. the national assembly moved forward with intentions to ban such fake sites. laurence rossignol, women's minister for france, informed parliament though the fake sites look neutral, in actuality their intentions were specifically targeted to give women fake information. 2017 presidential election. france saw an uptick in amounts of disinformation and propaganda, primarily in the midst of election cycles. a study looking at the diffusion of political news during the 2017 presidential election cycle suggests that one in four links shared in social media comes from sources that actively contest traditional media narratives.[286] facebook corporate deleted 30,000 facebook accounts in france associated with fake political information.[287] in april 2017, emmanuel macron's presidential campaign was attacked by the fake news articles more than the campaigns of conservative candidate marine le pen and socialist candidate benoît hamon.[288] one of the fake articles even announced that le pen won the presidency before the people of france had even voted.[287] macron's professional and private emails, as well as memos, contracts and accounting documents were posted on a file sharing website. the leaked documents were mixed with fake ones in social media in an attempt to sway the upcoming presidential election.[289] macron said he would combat fake news of the sort that had been spread during his election campaign.[290] initially, the leak was attributed to apt28, a group tied to russia's gru military intelligence directorate.[291] however, the head of the french cyber security agency, anssi, later said that there was no evidence that the hack leading to the leaks had anything to do with russia, saying that the attack was so simple, that "we can imagine that it was a person who did this alone. they could be in any country."[292] german chancellor angela merkel lamented the problem of fraudulent news reports in a november 2016 speech, days after announcing her campaign for a fourth term as leader of her country. in a speech to the german parliament, merkel was critical of such fake sites, saying they harmed political discussion. merkel called attention to the need of government to deal with internet trolls, bots, and fake news websites. she warned that such fraudulent news websites were a force increasing the power of populist extremism. merkel called fraudulent news a growing phenomenon that might need to be regulated in the future. the head of germany's foreign intelligence agency federal intelligence service, bruno kahl, warned of the potential for cyberattacks by russia in the 2017 german election. he said the cyberattacks would take the form of the intentional spread of disinformation. kahl said the goal is to increase chaos in political debates. germany's domestic intelligence agency federal office for the protection of the constitution chief, hans georg maassen, said sabotage by russian intelligence was a present threat to german information security.[293] german government officials and security experts later said there was no russian interference during the 2017 german federal election.[294] the german term lügenpresse, or lying press, has been used since the 19th century and specifically during world war one as a strategy to attack news spread by political opponents in the 19th and 20th centuries.[295] the award winning german journalist claas relotius resigned from der spiegel in 2018 after admitting numerous instances of journalistic fraud.[296] in early april 2020, berlin politician andreas geisel alleged that a shipment of 200,000 n95 masks that it had ordered from american producer 3m's china facility were intercepted in bangkok and diverted to the united states during the covid 19 pandemic. berlin police president barbara slowik [de] stated that she believed "this is related to the us government's export ban."[297] however, berlin police confirmed that the shipment was not seized by u.s. authorities, but was said to have simply been bought at a better price, widely believed to be from a german dealer or china.[298][299] this revelation outraged the berlin opposition, whose cdu parliamentary group leader burkard dregger accused geisel of "deliberately misleading berliners" in order "to cover up its own inability to obtain protective equipment". fdp interior expert marcel luthe said "big names in international politics like berlin's senator geisel are blaming others and telling us piracy to serve anti american clichés."[298] politico europe reported that "the berliners are taking a page straight out of the trump playbook and not letting facts get in the way of a good story."[300] hungary's illiberal and populist prime minister viktor orbán has cast george soros, financier and philanthropist, a hungarian born holocaust survivor, as the mastermind of a plot to undermine the country's sovereignty, replace native hungarians with immigrants and destroy traditional values. this propaganda technique, together with anti semitism still present in the country, seems to appeal to his right wing voters, as it mobilizes them by seeding fear in society, creating an enemy image and enabling orbán to present himself as the protector of the nation from the illusion of this enemy.[301][302] journalists must be registered with the ordine dei giornalisti (odg) ('order of journalists') and respect its disciplinary and training obligations, to guarantee "correct and truthful information, intended as right of individuals and of the community".[303][304] under certain circumstances, spreading fake news may constitute a criminal offence under the italian penal code.[305][306][307] since 2018 it is possible to report fake news directly on the polizia di stato website.[308][309] the phenomenon is monitored by the dis, supported by aise and aisi.[310][311][312] in response to the growing concern over the spread of disinformation, malta has introduced legal provisions to address the issue within its criminal code..[313] article 82 of malta's criminal code specifically targets the malicious dissemination of fake news. the law stipulates that anyone who deliberately spreads false information likely to alarm the public, disturb public order, or create commotion among certain classes of the public can be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of one to three months. if the dissemination of false news results in a disturbance, the penalty increases to imprisonment for a term of one to six months, along with a possible fine of up to €1,000.[314] in february and march 2024, the times of malta published a series of articles alleging that papaya ltd was involved in money laundering activities and had criminal connections with russian organized crime.[315] these allegations led to public alarm and concern. however, subsequent investigations by british journalists from western morning news[316] and financial monthly[317] revealed that the accusations were baseless. it was found that papaya ltd. had been conducting routine inspections as part of its anti money laundering (aml) procedures due to suspicious activities by one of its clients, which turned out to be linked to the financial pyramid scheme. the inspections were not targeted at papaya ltd. itself but were part of a broader investigation. these investigative reports clarified that no governmental authorities had made any allegations against papaya ltd., and the initial reports by the times of malta were determined to be false. in march 2018, the european union's east stratcom task force compiled a list dubbed a "hall of shame" of articles with suspected kremlin attempts to influence political decisions.[318] however, controversy arose when three dutch media outlets claimed they had been wrongfully singled out because of quotes attributed to people with non mainstream views.[318] the news outlets included thepostonline, geenstijl, and de gelderlander.[318] all three were flagged for publishing articles critical of ukrainian policies, and none received any forewarning or opportunity to appeal beforehand.[318] this incident has contributed to the growing issue of what defines news as fake, and how freedoms of press and speech can be protected during attempts to curb the spread of false news. polish historian jerzy targalski noted fake news websites had infiltrated poland through anti establishment and right wing sources that copied content from russia today. targalski observed there existed about 20 specific fake news websites in poland that spread russian disinformation in the form of fake news. one example cited was fake news that ukraine announced the polish city of przemyśl as occupied polish land.[319] poland's anti eu law and justice (pis) government has been accused of spreading "illiberal disinformation" to undermine public confidence in the european union.[320] maria snegovaya of columbia university said: "the true origins of this phenomenon are local. the policies of fidesz and law and justice have a lot in common with putin's own policies."[320] some mainstream outlets have long been accused of fabricating half true or outright false information. in 2010 one popular tv station, tvn, attributed to jarosław kaczyński (then an opposition leader) the quote that "there will be times when true poles will come to power".[321] however, kaczyński has never uttered those words in the commented speech. on march 16, 2020, romanian president klaus iohannis signed an emergency decree, giving authorities the power to remove, report or close websites spreading "fake news" about the covid 19 pandemic, with no opportunity to appeal.[322][323] in march 2019, russia passed a new bill to ban websites from spreading false information.[324] in addition to tackling fake news, the new legislation specifically punishes any sources or websites for publishing materials that insult the state, the symbol of the government or other political figures. for repeated offenders, they would receive a 15 day jail sentence.[325] during the russian invasion of ukraine, the russian government passed a law prohibiting "fake news" regarding the russian military, which was broadly defined as any information that is deemed by the russian government to be false, including the use of the terms invasion and war to refer to the invasion.[326][327] violations of the law are punishable with up to 15 years of imprisonment. international news organizations in multiple countries ceased operating in russia and journalists emigrated from russia en masse after the law was passed, while some domestic non state news organizations were blocked by the russian government.[328][329] in 2018, the international research & exchanges board described the situation in serbian media as the worst in recent history and stated that the media sustainability index has dropped due to the most polarized media in almost 20 years, an increase in fake news and editorial pressure on media.[330] according to serbian investigative journalism portal crime and corruption reporting network, more than 700 fake news articles were published on the front pages of pro government tabloids in 2018.[331][332] many of them were about alleged attacks on president aleksandar vučić and coup attempts, as well as messages of support to him by vladimir putin.[332] the best selling newspaper in serbia is the pro government tabloid informer, which most often presents vučić as a powerful person under constant attack, and also features anti european content and pro war rhetoric.[333][334][335] since vučić's party came to power, serbia has seen a surge of internet trolls and pages on social networks praising the government and attacking its critics, free media and the opposition in general.[336] it includes a handful of dedicated employee run fake accounts as well as the facebook page associated with a serbian franchise of the far right breitbart news website, which has disputed accuracy.[336][337] fake news in spain has become much more prevalent in the 2010s, but has been prominent throughout spain's history. the united states government published a fake article in regards to the purchase of the philippines from spain, which they had already purchased.[338] despite this, the topic of fake news has traditionally not been given much attention in spain until the newspaper el país launched a blog dedicated strictly to truthful news, entitled hechos, meaning 'facts'. david alandete, the managing editor of el país, stated that many people misinterpret fake news as real because the sites "have similar names, typography, layouts and are deliberately confusing".[339] alandete made it the new mission of el país "to respond to fake news".[340] maría ramírez of univision communications has stated that much of the political fake news circulating in spain is due to the lack of investigative journalism on the topics. most recently el país has created a fact checking position for five employees, to try and debunk the fake news released.[339] the swedish security service issued a report in 2015 identifying propaganda from russia infiltrating sweden with the objective to amplify pro russian propaganda and inflame societal conflicts. the swedish civil contingencies agency (msb), part of the ministry of defence of sweden, identified fake news reports targeting sweden in 2016 that originated from russia. swedish civil contingencies agency official mikael tofvesson stated a pattern emerged where views critical of sweden were constantly repeated. the local identified these tactics as a form of psychological warfare. the newspaper reported the msb identified russia today and sputnik news as significant fake news purveyors. as a result of growth in this propaganda in sweden, the msb planned to hire six additional security officials to fight back against the campaign of fraudulent information.[341] according to the oxford internet institute, eight of the top 10 "junk news" sources during the 2018 swedish general election campaign were swedish, and "russian sources comprised less than 1% of the total number of urls shared in the data sample."[342] since euromaidan and the beginning of the ukrainian crisis in 2014, the ukrainian media circulated several fake news stories and misleading images, including a photograph of a dead rebel with a photoshopped tattoo which allegedly indicated that he belonged to russian special forces[343] and the threat of a russian nuclear attack against ukrainian troops.[344] the recurring theme of these fake news stories was that russia was solely to blame for the crisis and the war in donbass.[344] in 2015 the organization for security and co operation in europe published a report criticizing russian disinformation campaigns to disrupt relations between europe and ukraine after the ouster of viktor yanukovych. according to deutsche welle, similar tactics were used by fake news websites during the u.s. elections. a website, stopfake, was created by ukrainian activists in 2014 to debunk fake news in ukraine, including media portrayal of the ukrainian crisis.[345] on may 29, 2018, the ukrainian media and state officials announced that the russian journalist arkady babchenko was assassinated in his apartment in kyiv. later, babchenko appeared to be alive, and the security service of ukraine claimed that the staged assassination was needed to arrest a person who allegedly was planning a real assassination. alexander baunov, writing for carnegie.ru, mentioned that the staged assassination of babchenko was the first instance of fake news delivered directly by the highest officials of a state.[346] under king edward i of england (r. 1272 1307) "a statute was passed which made it a grave offence to devise or tell any false news of prelates, dukes, earls, barons, or nobles of the realm."[347] in 1702 queen anne of england issued a proclamation "for restraining the spreading false news, and printing and publishing of irreligious and seditious papers and libels".[348] on december 8, 2016, chief of the secret intelligence service (mi6) alex younger delivered a speech to journalists at the mi6 headquarters where he called fake news and propaganda damaging to democracy. younger said the mission of mi6 was to combat propaganda and fake news in order to deliver to his government a strategic advantage in the information warfare arena, and to assist other nations including europe. he called such methods of fake news propaganda online a "fundamental threat to our sovereignty". younger said all nations that hold democratic values should feel the same worry over fake news.[349] however, definitions of fake news have been controversial in the uk.[350] dr claire wardle advised some uk members of parliament against using the term in certain circumstances "when describing the complexity of information disorder", as the term fake news is "woefully inadequate": neither the words 'fake' nor 'news' effectively capture this polluted information ecosystem. much of the content used as examples in debates on this topic are not fake, they are genuine but used out of context or manipulated. similarly, to understand the entire ecosystem of polluted information, we need to consider far more than content that mimics 'news'.[351] in october 2020, a hoax claim made by a spoof twitter account, about the supposed reopening of woolworths stores, was repeated without verification by news sites including the daily mail and daily mirror (and the latter's regional sister titles).[352] fake news during the 2016 u.s. election spread to china. articles popularized within the united states were translated into chinese and spread within china.[283] the government of china used the growing problem of fake news as a rationale for increasing internet censorship in china in november 2016.[353] china then published an editorial in its communist party newspaper the global times called "western media's crusade against facebook", and criticized "unpredictable" political problems posed by freedoms enjoyed by users of twitter, google, and facebook. china government leaders meeting in wuzhen at the third world internet conference in november 2016 said fake news in the u.s. election justified adding more curbs to free and open use of the internet. china deputy minister ren xianliang, official at the cyberspace administration of china, said increasing online participation led to "harmful information" and fraud.[354] kam chow wong, a former hong kong law enforcement official and criminal justice professor at xavier university, praised attempts in the u.s. to patrol social media.[355] the wall street journal noted china's themes of internet censorship became more relevant at the world internet conference due to the outgrowth of fake news.[356] the issue of fake news in the 2016 united states election gave the chinese government a reason to further criticize western democracy and press freedom. the chinese government accused western media organisations of bias, in a move apparently inspired by trump.[357] in march 2017, the people's daily, a newspaper run by the ruling chinese communist party, denounced news coverage of the torture of chinese lawyer and human rights advocate xie yang, claiming it to be fake news.[357] the newspaper published a twitter post declaring that "foreign media reports that police tortured a detained lawyer is fake news, fabricated to tarnish china's image". the state owned xinhua news agency claimed that "the stories were essentially fake news". the chinese government often accused western news organizations of being biased and dishonest.[358] the chinese government also claimed that there were people who posed as journalists who spread negative information on social media in order to extort payment from their victims to stop doing so. david bandurski of university of hong kong's china media project said that this issue continued to worsen.[359] during the 2019 20 hong kong protests, the chinese government has been accused for using fake news to spread misinformation regarding the protests. it includes describing protests as "riots", and "radicals" seeking independence for the city. due to the online censorship in china, citizens inside mainland china could not read news reports from some media outlets.[360][361] it was also found by facebook, twitter and youtube that misinformation was spread with fake accounts and advertisements by state backed media. large amount of accounts were suspended.[362] dot dot news, a pro beijing online media located in hong kong, has been banned by facebook for distributing fake news and hate speech.[363] fake news in india has led to violent incidents between castes and religions, interfering with public policies. it often spreads through the smartphone instant messenger whatsapp,[364] which had 200 million monthly active users in the country as of february 2017[update].[365] indonesia is reported to have the fourth highest number of facebook users in the world.[366] indonesia has seen an increase in the amount of fake news and hoaxes on social media, particularly around elections in 2014 and 2019.[367][368] this has been accompanied by increased polarization within the country.[369] during the 2014 presidential election, the eventual winning candidate joko widodo became a target of a smear campaign by prabowo subianto's supporters that falsely claimed he was the child of indonesian communist party members, of chinese descent, and a christian.[370] after widodo won, subianto challenged the results, making claims of widespread fraud that were not upheld. observers found that the election was carried out fairly.[371] according to mafindo, which tracks fake news in indonesia, political disinformation increased by 61% between december 2018 and january 2019, leading up to the 2019 presidential election. both political candidates and electoral institutions were targeted.[366][372] both sides formed dedicated anti hoax groups to counterattacks on social media.[373][374] the indonesian government held weekly fake news briefings.[367][375] once again, the losing candidate refused to accept the result and claimed that there had been fraud, without presenting any supporting evidence. protests, rioting, and deaths of protestors were reported.[376] fake news in indonesia frequently tends to be related to alleged chinese imperialism (including sinicization), christianization,[377] and communization.[378] inflaming ethnic and political tensions is potentially deadly in indonesia, with its recent incidences of domestic terrorism, and its long and bloody history of anti communist, anti christian and anti chinese pogroms cultivated by suharto's u.s. backed right wing dictatorship.[370][379][380] the indonesian government, watchdog groups, and even religious organizations have taken steps to prevent the spreading of disinformation, through steps such as blocking certain websites and creating fact check apps. the largest islamic mass organization in indonesia, nahdlatul ulama, has created an anti fake news campaign called #turnbackhoax, while other islamic groups have defined such propagation as tantamount to sin.[370] while the government currently views criminal punishment as the last resort, officials are working hard to guarantee law enforcement will respect the freedom of expression. in april 2018, malaysia implemented the anti fake news bill 2018, a controversial law that deemed publishing and circulating misleading information a crime punishable by up to six years in prison and/or fines of up to 500,000 ringgit.[381] at implementation, the country's prime minister was najib razak, whose associates were connected to the mishandling of at least $3.5 billion by a united states department of justice report.[381][382] of that sum of money, $731 million was deposited into bank accounts controlled by razak.[381][382] the convergence between the fake news law and razak's connection to scandal was made clear by the malaysian minister of communications and multimedia, salleh said keruak, who said that tying razak to a specific dollar amount could be a prosecutable offense.[381] in the 2018 malaysian general election, najib razak lost his seat as prime minister to mahatir mohammad, who vowed to abolish the fake news law in his campaign, as the law was used to target him.[383][384] after winning the election, the newly elected prime minister mohammad has said, "even though we support freedom of press and freedom of speech, there are limits."[383][384] as of may 2018[update], mohammad has supported amending the law, rather than a full abolition.[384] paul bernal, a lecturer in information and technology, fears that the fake news epidemic is a "trojan horse" for countries like malaysia to "control uncomfortable stories".[385] the vagueness of this law means that satirists, opinion writers, and journalists who make errors could face persecution. the law also makes it illegal to share fake news stories. in one instance, a danish man and malaysian citizen were arrested for posting false news stories online and were sentenced to serve a month in jail.[386] in 2015, bbc news reported on fake stories, using unrelated photographs and fraudulent captions, shared online in support of the rohingya.[387] fake news negatively affected individuals in myanmar, leading to a rise in violence against muslims in the country. online participation surged from one percent to 20 percent of myanmar's total populace from 2014 to 2016. fake stories from facebook were reprinted in paper periodicals called facebook and the internet. false reporting related to practitioners of islam in the country was directly correlated with increased attacks on muslims in myanmar. buzzfeed journalist sheera frenkel reported fake news fictitiously stated believers in islam acted out in violence at buddhist locations. she documented a direct relationship between the fake news and violence against muslim people. frenkel noted countries that were relatively newer to internet exposure were more vulnerable to the problems of fake news and fraud. khawaja muhammad asif, the minister of defence of pakistan, threatened on twitter to attack israel with nuclear weapons after a false story claiming that avigdor lieberman, the israeli ministry of defense, said "if pakistan send ground troops into syria on any pretext, we will destroy this country with a nuclear attack."[388][389] fake news sites have become rampant for philippine audiences, especially being shared on social media.[390] politicians have started filing laws to combat fake news[391][392] and three senate hearings have been held on the topic.[393][394][395] the catholic church in the philippines has also released a missive speaking out against it.[396] vera files research at the end of 2017 and 2018 show that the most shared fake news in the philippines appeared to benefit two people the most: president rodrigo duterte (as well as his allies) and politician bongbong marcos, with the most viral news driven by shares on networks of facebook pages.[397] most philippine audience facebook pages and groups spreading online disinformation also bear duterte, marcos or news in their names and are pro duterte.[398] online disinformation in the philippines is overwhelmingly political as well, with most attacking groups or individuals critical of the duterte administration.[399] many philippine audience fake news websites also appear to be controlled by the same operators as they share common google adsense and google analytics ids.[398] according to media scholar jonathan corpus ong, duterte's presidential campaign is regarded as the patient zero in the current era of disinformation, having preceded widespread global coverage of the cambridge analytica scandal and russian trolls.[400] fake news is so established and severe in the philippines that facebook's global politics and government outreach director katie harbath also calls it "patient zero"[401] in the global misinformation epidemic, having happened before brexit, the trump nomination and the 2016 us elections.[402] singapore criminalizes the propagation of fake news. under existing law, "any person who transmits or causes to be transmitted a message which he knows to be false or fabricated shall be guilty of an offense".[403] on march 18, 2015, a doctored screenshot of the prime minister's office website claiming the demise of lee kuan yew went viral, and several international news agencies such as cnn and china central television initially reported it as news, until corrected by the prime minister's office. the image was created by a student to demonstrate to his classmates how fake news could be easily created and propagated.[404] in 2017, singaporean news website mothership was criticized by the ministry of education (moe) for propagating remarks falsely attributed to a moe official.[405] in addition, minister of law k. shanmugam also singled out online news website the states times review as an example of a source of fake news, as it once claimed a near zero turnout at the state funeral of president s. r. nathan.[406] following these incidents, shanmugam stated that the existing legalization is limited and ineffective[407] and indicated that the government intends to introduce legislation to combat fake news in 2018.[408] in 2017, the ministry of communications and information set up factually, a website intended to debunk false rumors regarding issues of public interest such as the environment, housing and transport,[409] while in 2018, the parliament of singapore formed a select committee on deliberate online falsehoods to consider new legislation to tackle fake news.[410] on recommendations from the select committee, the singapore government introduced the protection from online falsehoods and manipulation bill (pofma) in april 2019.[411] critics had pointed out that this bill could introduce government self censorship and increase government control over social media.[412] activist platform the online citizen regarded legislation against fake news as an attempt by the government to curb the free flow of information so that only information approved by the government is disseminated to the public.[413] in an online essay, activist and historian thum ping tjin denied that fake news was a problem in singapore, and accused the people's action party government as the only major source of fake news, claiming that detentions made without trial during operation coldstore and operation spectrum were based on fake news for party political gain.[414] facebook and google had opposed the introduction of the law to combat fake news, claiming that existing legislation was adequate to address the problem and that an effective way of combating misinformation is through educating citizens on how to distinguish reliable from unreliable information.[415] the bill was passed june 3, 2019. commencing on october 2, 2019, the law is designed specifically to allow authorities to respond to fake news or false information through a graduated process of enforcing links to fact checking statements, censorship of website or assets on social media platforms, and criminal charges.[416] there have been 75 recorded instances of pofma's usage since the law's introduction, with the latest[as of?] occurring on may 7, 2021.[417] south korean journalists and media experts lament political hostility between south and north korea which distorts media coverage of north korea[418] and north korea has attributed erroneous reporting to south korea and united states with being critical to media organization chosun ilbo[419] while american journalist barbara demick had also made similar criticisms on media coverage of north.[419] on november 27, 2018, prosecutors raided the house of gyeonggi province governor lee jae myung amid suspicions that his wife used a pseudonymous twitter handle to spread fake news about president moon jae in and other political rivals of her husband.[420][421] taiwan's leaders, including president tsai ing wen and premier william lai, accused china's troll army of spreading "fake news" via social media to support candidates more sympathetic to beijing ahead of the 2018 taiwanese local elections.[422][423][424] in a report in december 2015 by the china post, a fake video shared online showed people a light show purportedly made at the shihmen reservoir. the northern region water resources office confirmed there was no light show at the reservoir and the event had been fabricated. the fraud led to an increase in tourist visits to the actual attraction. according to the news updated paper from the time world in regards the global threat to free speech, the taiwanese government has reformed its policy on education and it will include "media literacy" as one part of school curriculum for the students. it will be included to develop the critical thinking skills needed while using social media. further, the work of media literacy will also include the skills needed to analyze propaganda and sources, so students can clarify what is fake news.[425] brazil faced increasing influence from fake news after the 2014 re election of president dilma rousseff and rousseff's subsequent impeachment in august 2016. bbc brazil reported in april 2016 that in the week surrounding one of the impeachment votes, three out of the five most shared articles on facebook in brazil were fake. in 2015, reporter tai nalon resigned from her position at brazilian newspaper folha de s paulo in order to start the first fact checking website in brazil, called aos fatos ('to the facts'). nalon told the guardian there was a great deal of fake news, and hesitated to compare the problem to that experienced in the u.s.[283] brazil also has a problem with fake news, and according to a survey, a greater number of people that believe fake news influenced the outcome of their elections (69%) than in the united states (47%).[58] president of brazil jair bolsonaro has claimed that he will not allow his government to use any of its 1.8 billion reais (us$487 million) media budget on purchases from fake news media (that is, media that does not support him).[426] the bbc reported that bolsonaro's campaign declared media associating his campaign to the "extreme right" were themselves fake news.[427] in 2020, brazil's supreme court began an investigation into a purported disinformation campaign by bolsonaro supporters.[428] the brazilian president claimed the investigation was "unconstitutional", and any restriction of fake news was an act of censorship.[429] after an order by the brazilian supreme court, facebook had removed "dozens" of fake accounts that were directly linked to bolsonaro's offices and his sons, and which were directed against politicians and media that opposed the president.[430][431] a video of bolsonaro falsely claiming that the anti malarial drug hydroxychloroquine has been working everywhere against the coronavirus was also taken down by facebook and twitter.[432] in regards to the covid 19 pandemic, he has accused his political opponents of exaggerating the severity of the virus. he gave a speech in 2021 in which he claimed that the virus was not as bad as the media made it out to be, and it was "fantasy" created by the media.[433] in the wake of the uptick in amazon fires of 2019, it became clear that many of the forest fire photos that went viral were fake news.[434][435] emmanuel macron, president of france, tweeted a picture taken by a photographer who died in 2003, for example.[435][436][437] fake news online was brought to the attention of canadian politicians in november 2016, as they debated helping assist local newspapers. member of parliament for vancouver centre hedy fry specifically discussed fake news as an example of ways in which publishers on the internet are less accountable than print media. discussion in parliament contrasted the increase of fake news online with the downsizing of canadian newspapers and the impact on democracy in canada. representatives from facebook canada attended the meeting and told members of parliament they felt it was their duty to assist individuals in gathering data online.[438] in january 2017, the conservative leadership campaign of kellie leitch admitted to spreading fake news, including false claims that justin trudeau was financing hamas. the campaign manager claimed he spread the news in order to provoke negative reactions so that he could determine those who "aren't real conservatives".[439] in the fall of 2016, whatsapp spread fake news that impacted votes critical to colombian history.[440] one of the lies spreading rapidly through whatsapp was that colombian citizens would receive less pension so former guerrilla fighters would get money.[440] the misinformation initially began in a question as to whether whatsapp users approved of the peace accord deal between the national government and the revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc) or not. the peace accord would end five decades of war between paramilitary groups (rebel forces) and the colombian government that resulted in millions of deaths and displaced citizens throughout the country. a powerful influence of votes was the "no" campaign; the "no" campaign was to convince citizens of colombia to not accept the peace accord because it would be letting the rebel group off "too easily."[441] uribe, former president of colombia and of the democratic party, led the "no" campaign. santos, president in 2016, took liberal approaches during his presidency. santos won a nobel peace prize in 2016 for his efforts towards a peace accord with rebel forces.[214] in addition, uribe naturally had opposing views to those of santos.[214][440] furthermore, other news spread through whatsapp were easily misinterpreted by the public, including that santo's scheme was to put colombia under harsh rule like cuba and chaos like venezuela (under hugo chávez), though the logistics were never explained.[440] in an interview with juan carlos vélez, the "no" campaign manager, he says their strategy was that "we discovered the viral power of social networks."[440] in addition, the "yes" campaign also took part in spreading fake news through whatsapp. for instance, a photoshopped image of democratic senator everth bustamante him holding a sign reading "i don't want guerrillas in congress" spread to show hypocrisy. this would be seen as hypocritical because he was a former left wing m 19 guerrilla.[440] the "no" campaign strongly influenced votes throughout colombia. "yes" votes were strong in areas with the highest number of victims and "no" votes in areas influenced by uribe. as a result, "no" votes totaled 50.2%, compared to 49.8% "yes" votes.[441] the result of fake news spreading on whatsapp included changes to the app by journalist juanita león, who invented the whatsapp "lie detector" in january 2017 to fight fake news within the app.[440] although the accord was eventually signed, the whatsapp incident further prolonged the accord and spread controversial views among citizens. in mexico, people tend to rely heavily on social media and direct social contact as news sources, over television and print.[442] usage of and trust in all types of news sources (including social media) declined from 2017 to 2023. as of 2023, the most used media companies in mexico were tv azteca news and televisa.[442] televisa is both mexico's largest television network and the largest media network in the spanish speaking world.[443] the three most frequently used social media platforms were facebook, youtube, and whatsapp.[442] prior to 2012, the country's major television networks were central to political communication in mexico. they were also closely connected to the long dominant pri political party.[444] televiso has been criticized by journalists and academics for misrepresentation and manipulation of information, and attacks on opponents.[445] televiso shaped the campaign of enrique peña nieto[446] whose presidency from 2012 to 2018 was marked by scandals and decreased trust in television and print media.[444] by the 2012 mexican general election, coordinated online disinformation campaigns were part of an "explosion of digital politics" in mexico.[446][447][448] mexican politicians used digital strategies and algorithms to boost their apparent popularity and undermine or overwhelm opposing messages.[446] attempts to "hack" the "attention economy" were made to amplify false narratives, capture attention and dominate discourse.[449][450] a network of trolls was formed as early as 2009, to be activated as needed in support of peña nieto. estimates of the number of people involved, and how many were paid, vary widely from 20,000 to 100,000 people. bots were also used to amplify messages and create "false universes of followers".[446] opposing voices were drowned out by generating large volumes of meaningless responses from "ghost followers".[446] in one incident that was analyzed, 50 spam accounts generated 1,000 tweets per day.[451] government activities following peña nieto's election included the amplification of support for controversial government initiatives.[446] after the killing or disappearance of a group of activist students in 2014, algorithms were used to sabotage trending hashtags on twitter such as #yamecanse 'ihavehadenough'.[446] bots and trolls have also been used for threats and personal attacks.[446] between 2017 and 2019, the hashtag #salariorosa 'pink salary for vulnerability' was associated with political figure alfredo del mazo maza and pushed to the top of twitter's trending list through astroturfing, creating an appearance of grassroots support. photographs of women were associated with fake accounts to create the impression that women were engaged in the discussion, "mimicking conversation".[452] as of 2018, 76 80% of people surveyed in mexico worried about false information or fake news being used as a weapon, the highest rate of any country in the world.[453] during the 2018 election, bot battles between candidates drowned out conversations by posting attacks, rumors, unsubstantiated claims, and deepfaked videos.[448][454] forty percent of the election related tweets on twitter mentioned andrés manuel lópez obrador (amlo). none of his opponents reached twenty percent of the tweets.[454]: 21 automation and artificial amplification used both commercial and political bot services. at one point at least ten pro  and anti amlo bots posted over a thousand tweets in a matter of hours using the hashtag #amlofest.[454]: 24 the collaborative journalism project verificado 2018 was established to address misinformation during the 2018 presidential election. it involved at least eighty organizations, including local and national media outlets, universities and civil society and advocacy groups. the group researched online claims and political statements and published joint verifications. during the course of the election, they produced over 400 notes and 50 videos documenting false claims and suspect sites, and tracked instances where fake news went viral.[448][454]: 23 verificado.mx received 5.4 million visits during the election, with its partner organizations registering millions more.[454]: 25 since being elected president in 2018, andrés manuel lópez obrador (amlo)'s behavior toward the media has been adversarial. he has used his morning addresses or mañaneras to target journalists such as carmen aristegui, carlos loret de mola, and victor trujillo. article 19, an international human rights organization, considers the mexican government to be using a "strategy of disinformation" while limiting access to public sources of information. article 19 estimates that 26.5% of the public information provided by the mexican government is false.[442] as of 2019, mexico became the most dangerous country in the world for journalists,[454][455] with a higher death toll than active war zones.[456] during the pandemic, use of social media platforms such as whatsapp and facebook increased. in mexico, the user base of the video app tiktok tripled from 2019 to 2021, reaching 17 million viewers.[457] patterns of twitter activity during the pandemic suggest that astroturfing was used to create an appearance of widespread grassroots support for amlo and for hugo lópez gatell at a time when both men were being criticized for their handling of the covid 19 pandemic in mexico,[457] according to a report by opendemocracy in 2020, the armenian website medmedia.am was spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, calling covid 19 a "fake pandemic" and warning armenians to refuse future vaccine programmes. the website is led by gevorg grigoryan, a doctor who has been critical of the armenian government's health ministry and its vaccine programmes, and has a history of anti lgbt statements, including remarks posted on facebook in which he called for gay people to be burned. the guardian said the site was launched with the unwitting help of a us state department grant intended to promote democracy.[458] in 1996, people were killed in the western wall tunnel riots in reaction to fake news accounts.[459] in april 2018, palestinian israeli football team bnei sakhnin threatened to sue israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for libel after he claimed fans booed during a minute of silence for israeli flash flood victims. in a social media post, netanyahu blasted various israeli news critical of him, as fake news including channel 2, channel 10, haaretz and ynet the same day u.s. president trump decried "fake news". the palestinian islamist political organization hamas published a political program in 2017 intended to ease its position on israel. among other things, this charter accepted the borders of the palestinian state circa the six day war of 1967.[460] although this document is an advancement from their previous 1988 charter, which called for the destruction of the state of israel, it still does not recognize israel as a legitimate independent nation.[460] in a may 2017 video, prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu responded to the coverage of this event by news outlets such as al jazeera, cnn, the new york times and the guardian, labeling their reporting "fake news".[461] he specifically disagreed with the notion that hamas had accepted the state of israel within their new charter, and called this "a complete distortion of the truth". instead he said, "the new hamas document says israel has no right to exist." haaretz fact checked the video, stating, "netanyahu, following in the footsteps of trump, is deliberately twisting the definition of 'fake news' to serve his own needs."[462] in a later speech, addressed to his supporters, netanyahu responded to allegations against him: "the fake news industry is at its peak ... look, for example, how they cover with unlimited enthusiasm, every week, the left wing demonstration. the same demonstrations whose goal is to apply improper pressure on law enforcement authorities so they will file an indictment at any price." the washington post likened his use of the term fake news for describing left wing media to donald trump's similar statements during the 2016 united states election cycle.[463] in studies conducted by yifat media check ltd. and hamashrokit ('the whistle', a fact checking organization), they found that over 70% of statements made by israeli political leaders were not accurate.[464] some of the fake news israel has been the victim of includes israel related animal conspiracy theories, which claim israel is using various animals to spy on or attack others with.[465] according to the global news, saudi arabia's state owned television spread fake news about canada. in august 2018, canada's global news reported that state owned television al arabiya, "has suggested that canada is the worst country in the world for women, that it has the highest suicide rate and that it treats its indigenous people the way myanmar treats the rohingya a muslim minority massacred and driven out of myanmar en masse last year."[466] in october 2018, twitter has suspended a number of bot accounts that appeared to be spreading pro saudi rhetoric about the disappearance of saudi opposition journalist jamal khashoggi.[467][468] according to newsweek, saudi arabia's office of public prosecution tweeted that "producing rumors or fake news [that saudi arabia's government was involved in the disappearance of khashoggi] that would affect the public order or public security or sending or resending it via social media or any technical means" is punishable "by five years and a fine of 3 million riyals".[469] iranian backed twitter accounts have spread sensational fake news and rumours about saudi arabia.[470] on august 1, 2019, facebook identified hundreds of accounts that were running a covert network on behalf of government of the kingdom of saudi arabia to spread fake news and attack regional rivals. the social media giant removed more than 350 accounts, pages and groups with nearly 1.4 million followers.[471] along with facebook, these accounts were involved in "coordinated inauthentic behavior" on instagram as well. according to a facebook blog post, the network was running two different political agendas, one on behalf of saudi arabia and the other for the united arab emirates and egypt.[472] in february 2017, amnesty international reported that up to 13,000 people had been hanged in a syrian prison as part of an "extermination" campaign. syrian president bashar al assad questioned the credibility of amnesty international and called the report "fake news" fabricated to undermine the government. "you can forge anything these days we are living in a fake news era."[473] russia ran a disinformation campaign during the syrian civil war to discredit the humanitarian rescue organisation white helmets, and to discredit reports and images of children and other civilian bombing victims. this was done to weaken criticism of russia's involvement in the war.[474] the united nations and international chemical inspectors found bashar al assad responsible for use of chemical weapons,[475] which was called "fake news" by russia. russia promoted various contradictory claims that no chemicals were present, or attributing the chemical attacks to other countries or groups.[476][477][478][479][480] the united arab emirates (uae) had been funding non profit organizations, think tanks and contributors of journalism, including foundation for defense of democracies (fdd) and the middle east forum (mef), which further paid journalists spreading fake information to defame countries like qatar. in 2020, a researcher at fdd, benjamin weinthal, and fellow at mef, jonathan spyer, contributed an article on fox news to promote a negative image of qatar, in an attempt to stain its diplomatic relations with the united states.[481] according to the daily telegraph, an egyptian official suggested in 2010 that the israeli spy agency mossad could have been behind a fatal shark attack in sharm el sheikh.[482] it was estimated by the egyptian parliament's communication and information technology committee that in 2017, 53,000 false rumors had been spread primarily through social media in 60 days.[483] a wide range of south african media sources have reported fake news as a growing problem and tool to both increase distrust in the media, discredit political opponents, and divert attention from corruption.[484] media outlets owned by the gupta family have been noted by other south african media organisations such as the huffington post (south africa), sunday times, radio 702, and city press for targeting them.[485] individuals targeted include finance minister pravin gordhan who was seen as blocking gupta attempts at state capture with accusations levelled against gordhan of promoting state capture for "white monopoly capital".[486][487] the african national congress (anc) was taken to court by sihle bolani for unpaid work she did during the election on the anc's behalf. in court papers bolani stated that the anc used her to launch and run a covert r50 million fake news and disinformation campaign during the 2016 municipal elections with the intention of discrediting opposition parties.[488][489][490] the australian parliament initiated investigation into "fake news" regarding issues surrounding fake news that occurred during the 2016 united states election. the inquiry looked at several major areas in australia to find audiences most vulnerable to fake news, by considering the impact on traditional journalism, and by evaluating the liability of online advertisers and by regulating the spreading the hoaxes. this act of parliament is meant to combat the threat of social media spreading fake news.[491] the australian code of practice on disinformation and misinformation commenced on 22 february 2021, around 12 months after the australian government asked digital platforms to develop a voluntary code to address disinformation and misinformation and assist users of their services to more easily identify the reliability, trustworthiness and source of news content. the request is part of a broader australian government strategy to reform the technology and information dissemination landscape. the australian communications and media (acma) oversaw the development of the code. the government will then consider the need for further measures including mandatory regulation.[492] a well known case of fabricated news in australia happened in 2009 when a report, deception detection across australian populations, by a "levitt institute" was widely cited on news websites across the country, claiming that sydney was the most naive city, despite the fact that the report itself contained a clue: amidst the mathematical gibberish, there was a statement: "these results were completely made up to be fictitious material through a process of modified truth and credibility nodes."[493] this article incorporates text from a free content work. licensed under cc by sa 3.0 igo (license statement/permission). text taken from world trends in freedom of expression and media development global report 2017/2018​, 202, unesco.

our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. artificial intelligence (ai) is the use of “computers and machines to mimic the problem solving and decision making capabilities of the human mind,” according to ibm. [1] the idea of ai dates back at least 2,700 years. as adrienne mayor, research scholar, folklorist, and science historian at stanford university, explains: “our ability to imagine artificial intelligence goes back to ancient times. long before technological advances made self moving devices possible, ideas about creating artificial life and robots were explored in ancient myths.” [2] mayor notes that the myths about hephaestus, the greek god of invention and blacksmithing, included precursors to ai. for example, hephaestus created the giant bronze man, talos, which had a mysterious life force from the gods called ichor. hephaestus also created pandora and her infamous box, as well as a set of automated servants made of gold that were given the knowledge of the gods. mayor concludes, “not one of those myths has a good ending once the artificial beings are sent to earth. it’s almost as if the myths say that it’s great to have these artificial things up in heaven used by the gods. but once they interact with humans, we get chaos and destruction.” [2] the modern notion of ai largely began when alan turing, who contributed to breaking the nazi’s enigma code during world war ii, created the “turing test” to determine if a computer is capable of “thinking.” the value and legitimacy of the test have long been debated. [1][3][4] the “father of artificial intelligence,” john mccarthy, coined the term “artificial intelligence” when he, with marvin minsky and claude shannon, proposed a 1956 summer workshop on the topic at dartmouth college. mccarthy defined artificial intelligence as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.” he later created the computer programming language lisp (which is still used in ai), hosted computer chess games against human russian opponents, and developed the first computer with “hand eye” capability, all important building blocks for ai. [1][5][6][7] the first ai program designed to mimic how humans solve problems, logic theorist, was created by allen newell, j.c. shaw, and herbert simon in 1955 56. the program was designed to solve problems from principia mathematica (1910 13) written by alfred north whitehead and bertrand russell. [1][8] in 1958 frank rosenblatt invented the perceptron, which he claimed was “the first machine which is capable of having an original idea.” though the machine was hounded by skeptics, it was later praised as the “foundations for all of this artificial intelligence.” [1][9] as computers became cheaper in the 1960s and ’70s, ai programs such as joseph weizenbaum’s eliza flourished, and u.s. government agencies including the defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) began to fund ai related research. but computers were still too weak to manage the language tasks researchers asked of them. another influx of funding in the 1980s and early ’90s furthered the research, including the invention of expert systems by edward feigenbaum and joshua lederberg. but progress again waned with another drop in government funding. [10] in 1997 gary kasparov, reigning world chess champion and grand master, was defeated by ibm’s deep blue ai computer program, a major event in ai history. more recently, advances in computer storage limits and speeds have opened new avenues for ai research and implementation, aiding scientific research and forging new paths in medicine for patient diagnosis, robotic surgery, and drug development. [1][10][11][12] now, artificial intelligence is used for a variety of everyday implementations including facial recognition software, online shopping algorithms, search engines, digital assistants like siri and alexa, translation services, automated safety functions on cars, cybersecurity, airport body scanning security, poker playing strategy, and fighting disinformation on social media. [13][58] with the field growing by leaps and bounds, on mar. 29, 2023, tech giants including elon musk, steve wozniak, craig peters (ceo of getty images), author yuval noah harari, and politician andrew yang published an open letter calling for a six month pause on ai “systems more powerful than gpt 4.” (the latter, “generative pre trained transformer 4,” is an ai model that can generate human like text and images.) the letter states, “powerful ai systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable…. ai research and development should be refocused on making today’s powerful, state of the art systems more accurate, safe, interpretable, transparent, robust, aligned, trustworthy, and loyal.” within a day of its release, the letter had garnered 1380 signatures from engineers, professors, artists, and grandmothers alike. [59][62] on oct. 30, 2023, president joe biden signed an executive order on artificial intelligence that “establishes new standards for ai safety and security, protects americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances american leadership around the world, and more.” vice president kamala harris stated, “we have a moral, ethical and societal duty to make sure that a.i. is adopted and advanced in a way that protects the public from potential harm. we intend that the actions we are taking domestically will serve as a model for international action.” [60][61] despite such precautions, experts noted that many of the new standards would be difficult to enforce, especially as new concerns and controversies over ai evolve almost daily. ai developers, for example, have faced criticism for using copyrighted work to train ai models and for politically skewing ai produced information. generative programs such as chatgpt and dall e3 claim to produce “original” output because developers have exposed the programs to huge databases of existing texts and images,material that consists of copyrighted works. openai and anthropic, as well as other ai companies, have been sued by the new york times, microsoft, countless authors including jodi picoult, george r.r. martin, sarah silverman, and john grisham, music publishers including universal music publishing group, and numerous visual artists as well as getty images, among others. many companies’ terms of service, including encyclopaedia britannica, now require that ai companies obtain written permission to data mine for ai bot training. [63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70] controversy arose yet again in early 2024, when google’s ai chatbot gemini began skewing historical events by generating images of racially diverse 1940s german nazi soldiers and catholic popes (including a black female pope). republican lawmakers accused google of promoting leftist ideology and spreading disinformation through its ai tool. globally, fears have been expressed that such technology could undermine the democratic process in upcoming elections. as a result, google agreed to correct its faulty historical imaging and to limit election related queries in countries with forthcoming elections. similarly, the federal communications commission (fcc) outlawed the use of ai generated voices in robocallsafter a new hampshire political group was found to be placing robocalls featuring an ai generated voice that mimicked president joe biden in an effort to suppress democratic party primary voting. [71][72][73][74][75][76][77] on jan. 20, 2025, president trump revoked biden’s executive order that sought to mitigate the risks of ai. the next day, trump announced that three tech companies openai, softbank, and oracle would join forces to create stargate, an ai company that trump called the “largest ai infrastructure project in history” that will build “the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of ai.” the company will focus in particular on developing agi (artificial general intelligence), or “strong ai,” which aims to duplicate human intellectual abilities. the company is expected to launch with $100 billion in funding from the tech trio as well as mgx; the technology to be developed is expected to have wide ranging uses, assisting medical diagnoses and treatments as well as the national security of the united states and its allies. along with arm, microsoft, and nvidia, the initial data center is already under construction in texas. [93][94][95] on jan. 27, an advanced ai assistant from the little known chinese company deepseek became the top free app in the apple app store, pushing openai’s chatgpt into second place. the release caused u.s. tech stocks to drop sharply, leading some commentators to claim, “deepseek . . . is ai’s sputnik moment.” they compared the ai competition between china and the u.s. “to the space race between the u.s. and the soviet union and the event that forced the u.s. to realize that its technological abilities were not unassailable.”[96] why sit in a traffic jam when a map app can navigate you around the car accident? why fumble with shopping bags searching for your keys in the dark when a preset location based command can have your doorway illuminated as you approach your now unlocked door? [23] why scroll through hundreds of possible tv shows when the streaming app already knows what genres you like? why forget eggs at the grocery store when a digital assistant can take an inventory of your refrigerator and add them to your grocery list and have them delivered to your home? all of these marvels are assisted by ai technology. [23] ai enabled fitness apps boomed during the covid 19 pandemic when gyms were closed, increasing the number of ai options for at home workouts. now, you can not only set a daily steps goal with encouragement reminders on your smart watch, but you can ride virtually through the countryside on a peloton bike from your garage or have a personal trainer on your living room tv. for more specialized fitness, ai wearables can monitor yoga poses or golf and baseball swings. [24][25] ai can even enhance your doctor’s appointments and medical procedures. it can alert medical caregivers to patterns in your health data as compared to a vast library of medical data, while also doing the paperwork tied to medical appointments so doctors have more time to focus on their patients, resulting in more personalized care. ai can even help surgeons be quicker, more accurate, and less invasive in their operations. [26] smart speakers including amazon’s echo can use ai to soothe babies to sleep and monitor their breathing. using ai, speakers can also detect regular and irregular heartbeats, as well as heart attacks and congestive heart failure. [27][28][29] much like the calculator did not signal the end of students’ grasp of mathematics knowledge, typing did not eliminate handwriting, and google did not herald the end of research skills, ai does not signal the end of reading and writing or of education in general. [78][79] elementary school teacher shannon morris explains that ai tools like “chatgpt can help students by providing real time answers to their questions, engaging them in personalized conversations, and providing customized content based on their interests. it can also offer personalized learning resources, videos, articles, and interactive activities. this resource can even provide personalized recommendations for studying, help with research, provide context specific answers, and offer educational games.” she also notes that teachers’ more daunting tasks like grading and making vocabulary lists can be streamlined with ai tools. [79] for adults ai can similarly make work easier and more efficient, rather than signaling the rise of the robot employee. pesky, time consuming tasks like scheduling and managing meetings, finding important emails amongst the spam, prioritizing tasks for the day, and creating and posting social media content can be delegated to ai, freeing up time for more important and rewarding work. the technology can also help with brainstorming, understanding difficult concepts, finding errors in code, and learning languages via conversation, making daunting tasks more manageable. [80] ai is a tool that, if used responsibly, can enhance both learning and work for everyone. carri spector of the stanford graduate school of education says, “i think of ai literacy as being akin to driver’s ed: we’ve got a powerful tool that can be a great asset, but it can also be dangerous. we want students to learn how to use it responsibly.” [81] artificial intelligence is commonly integrated into smartphones and other household devices. virtual assistants, including siri, alexa, and cortana, can perform innumerable tasks from making a phone call to navigating the internet. people who are deaf and hearing impaired can access transcripts of voicemail or other audio, for example. [20] other virtual assistants can transcribe conversations as they happen, allowing for more comprehension and participation by those who have impairments that affect their communication. using voice commands with virtual assistants can help people with mobility disabilities who may have difficulty navigating small buttons or screens or turning on a lamp. [20] apps enabled by ai on smartphones and other devices, including voiceover and talkback, can read messages, describe app icons or images, and give information such as battery levels for visually impaired people. other apps, such as voiceitt, can transcribe and standardize the voices of people with speech impediments. [20] wheelmap provides users with information about wheelchair accessibility, and evelity offers indoor navigation tools that are customized to the user’s needs, providing audio or text instructions and routes for wheelchair accessibility. [20] other ai implementations, such as smart thermostats, smart lighting, and smart plugs, can be automated to work on a schedule to aid people with mobility or cognitive disabilities to lead more independent lives. [21] more advanced ai projects can combine with robotics to help physically disabled people. hoobox robotics, for example, uses facial recognition software to allow a wheelchair user to move their wheelchair with facial expressions, making movement easier for seniors and those with als or quadriparesis. [22] ai doesn’t get stressed, tired, or sick, three major causes of human accidents in the workplace. ai robots can collaborate with or replace humans for especially dangerous tasks. for example 50% of construction companies that used drones to inspect roofs and other risky tasks saw improvements in safety. [14][15] artificial intelligence can also help humans be safer. for instance, ai can ensure employees are up to date on training by tracking and automatically scheduling safety or other training. ai can also check and offer corrections for ergonomics to prevent repetitive stress injuries or worse. [16] an ai program called ai safe (automated intelligent system for assuring safe working environments) aims to automate the workplace personal protective equipment (ppe) check, eliminating human errors that could cause accidents in the workplace. as more people wear ppe to prevent the spread of covid 19 and other viruses, this sort of ai could protect against large scale outbreaks. [17][18][19] in india ai was used in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic to reopen factories safely by providing camera, cell phone, and smart wearable device based technology to ensure social distancing, take employee temperatures at regular intervals, and perform contact tracing if anyone tested positive for the virus. [18][19] ai can also perform more sensitive tasks in the workplace such as scanning work emails for improper behavior and types of harassment.[15] ai robots and other software and hardware are becoming less expensive and need none of the benefits and services required by human workers, such as sick days, lunch hours, bathroom breaks, health insurance, pay raises, promotions, and performance reviews, which spells trouble for workers and society at large. [51] 48% of experts believed ai will replace a large number of blue  and even white collar jobs, creating greater income inequality, increased unemployment, and a breakdown of the social order. [35] the axiom “everything that can be automated, will be automated” is no longer science fiction. self checkout kiosks in stores like cvs, target, and walmart use ai assisted video and scanners to prevent theft, alert staff to suspicious transactions, predict shopping trends, and mitigate sticking points at checkout. these ai enabled machines have displaced human cashiers. about 11,000 retail jobs were lost in 2019, largely due to self checkout and other technologies. in 2020, during the covid 19 pandemic, a self checkout manufacturer shipped 25% more units globally, reflecting the more than 70% of american grocery shoppers who preferred self  or touchless checkouts. [35][52][53][54][55] an oct. 2020 world economic forum report found 43% of businesses surveyed planned to reduce workforces in favor of automation. many businesses, especially fast food restaurants, retail shops, and hotels, automated jobs during the covid 19 pandemic. [35] income inequality was exacerbated over the last four decades as 50 70% of changes in american paychecks were caused by wage decreases for workers whose industries experienced rapid automation, including ai technologies. [56][57] the idea that the internet is making us stupid is legitimate, and ai is like the internet on steroids. with ai bots doing everything from research to writing papers, from basic math to logic problems, from generating hypotheses to performing science experiments, from editing photos to creating “original” art, students of all ages will be tempted (and many will succumb to the temptation) to use ai for their school work, undermining education goals. [82][83][84][85][86] “the academic struggle for students is what pushes them to become better writers, thinkers and doers. like most positive outcomes in life, the important part is the journey. soon, getting college degrees without ai assistance will be as foreign to the next generation as payphones and blockbuster [are to the current generation], and they will suffer for it,” says mark massaro, professor of english at florida southwestern state college. [83] a june 2023 study found that increased use of ai correlates with increased student laziness because of a loss of human decision making. similarly an oct. 2023 study found increased laziness and carelessness as well as a decline in work quality when humans worked alongside ai robots. [87][88][89] the implications of allowing ai to complete tasks are enormous. we will see declines in work quality and human motivation as well as the rise of dangerous situations from deadly workplace accidents to george orwell’s dreaded “groupthink.” and, when humans have become too lazy to program the technology, we’ll see lazy ai, too. [90] google’s ai chatbot gemini even generated politically motivated historical inaccuracies by inserting people of color into historical events they never participated in, further damaging historical literacy. “an overreliance on technology will further sever the american public from determining truth from lies, information from propaganda, a critical skill that is slowly becoming a lost art, leaving the population willfully ignorant and intellectually lazy,” explains massaro. [73][83] a may 2023 study by the brookings institute (“the politics of ai: chatgpt and political bias”) found that the ai knowledge source routinely supported left leaning positions on issues of the day. for example, it gave affirmative answers to questions about a woman’s “right to an abortion,” the “benefits” of illegal immigration, the “banning” of semi automatic weapons, and “raising taxes” on corporations and the wealthy.[92] facial recognition has been found to be racially biased, easily recognizing the faces of white men while wrongly identifying black women 35% of the time. one study of amazon’s rekognition ai program falsely matched 28 members of the u.s. congress with mugshots from a criminal database, with 40% of the errors being people of color. [22][36][43][44] ai has also been disproportionately employed against black and brown communities, with more federal and local police surveillance cameras in neighborhoods of color, and more social media surveillance of black lives matter and other black activists. the same technologies are used for housing and employment decisions and tsa airport screenings. some cities, including boston and san francisco, have banned police use of facial recognition for these reasons. [36][43] one particular ai software tasked with predicting recidivism risk for u.s. courts the correctional offender management profiling for alternative sanctions (compas)  was found to falsely label black defendants as high risk at twice the rate of white defenders, and to falsely label white defendants as low risk more often. ai is also incapable of distinguishing between when the n word is being used as a slur and when it’s being used culturally by a black person. [45][46] in china facial recognition ai has been used to track uyghurs, a largely muslim minority. the u.s. and other governments have accused the chinese government of genocide and forced labor in xinjiang, where a large population of uyghurs live. ai algorithms have also been found to show a “persistent anti muslim bias,” by associating violence with the word “muslim” at a higher rate than with words describing people of other religions including christians, jews, sikhs, and buddhists. [47][48][50] facial recognition technology can be used for passive, warrantless surveillance without the knowledge of the person being watched. in russia facial recognition was used to monitor and arrest protesters who supported jailed opposition politician aleksey navalny, who was found dead in prison in 2024. russians fear a new facial recognition payment system for moscow’s metro will increase these sorts of arrests. [36][37][38] ring, the ai doorbell and camera company owned by amazon, has partnered with more than 400 police departments, allowing the police to request footage from users’ doorbell cameras. while users were allowed to deny access to any footage, privacy experts feared the close relationship between ring and the police could override customer privacy, especially when the cameras frequently record activity on others’ property. the policy ended in 2024, but experts say other companies allow similar invasions. [39][91] ai also follows you on your weekly errands. target used an algorithm to determine which shoppers were pregnant and sent them baby  and pregnancy specific coupons in the mail, infringing on the medical privacy of those who may be pregnant, as well as those whose shopping patterns may just imitate pregnant people. [40][41] moreover, artificial intelligence can be a godsend to crooks. in 2020 a group of 17 criminals defrauded $35 million from a bank in the united arab emirates using ai “deep voice” technology to impersonate an employee authorized to make money transfers. in 2019, thieves attempted to steal $240,000 using the same ai technology to impersonate the ceo of an energy firm in the united kingdom. [42]

want to stay abreast of changes in prevention, care, treatment or research or other public health arenas that affect our collective response to the hiv epidemic? or are you new to this field? hiv.gov curates learning opportunities for you, and the people you serve and collaborate with. stay up to date with the webinars, twitter chats, conferences and more in this section. the hiv.gov timeline reflects the history of the domestic hiv/aids epidemic from the first reported cases in 1981 to the present where advances in hiv prevention, care, and treatment offer hope for a long, healthy life to people who are living with, or at risk for, hiv and aids. view a timeline of the current ending the hiv epidemic initiative. the information contained in this timeline has been drawn from numerous sources, including (but not limited to): act upexit disclaimer, the albion centerexit disclaimer (australia pdf, 613kb), avertexit disclaimer (united kingdom), thebody.comexit disclaimer, frontlineexit disclaimer, gmhcexit disclaimer, the kaiser family foundationexit disclaimer , the new school’s united states of aids projectexit disclaimer, unaidsexit disclaimer, and the university of california, san franciscoexit disclaimer. we have also relied on material provided by the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention (cdc), including the national prevention information network (npin), the national institutes of health (nih), the u.s. food and drug administration (fda), and the u.s. health resources and services administration (hrsa). the timeline is presented for informational purposes only. hiv.gov does not endorse any organization or viewpoint represented in entries drawn from non federal sources. where possible, specific dates have been provided and events have been listed in chronological order. entries without specific dates occurred in the year in which they are listed, but the order of those entries may not reflect the actual chronology of events. every attempt has been made to ensure that the information contained in the timeline is accurate, but some inaccuracies may exist due to competing source materials. in cases where our information differs from other timelines (including hiv.gov’s earlier versions) we add or update information only with the backing of independent, reliable sources. please send any corrections to contact@hiv.gov.

research tuesday april 12, 2022 privacy intelligence community crime, justice & safety race in public policy governance studies center for technology innovation this paper was originally presented at the american bar association’s antitrust spring meeting on april 8, 2022, in washington, d.c. governments and private companies have a long history of collecting data from civilians, often justifying the resulting loss of privacy in the name of national security, economic stability, or other societal benefits. but it is important to note that these trade offs do not affect all individuals equally. in fact, surveillance and data collection have disproportionately affected communities of color under both past and current circumstances and political regimes. from the historical surveillance of civil rights leaders by the federal bureau of investigation (fbi) to the current misuse of facial recognition technologies, surveillance patterns often reflect existing societal biases and build upon harmful and virtuous cycles. facial recognition and other surveillance technologies also enable more precise discrimination, especially as law enforcement agencies continue to make misinformed, predictive decisions around arrest and detainment that disproportionately impact marginalized populations. in this paper, we present the case for stronger federal privacy protections with proscriptive guardrails for the public and private sectors to mitigate the high risks that are associated with the development and procurement of surveillance technologies. we also discuss the role of federal agencies in addressing the purposes and uses of facial recognition and other monitoring tools under their jurisdiction, as well as increased training for state and local law enforcement agencies to prevent the unfair or inaccurate profiling of people of color. we conclude the paper with a series of proposals that lean either toward clear restrictions on the use of surveillance technologies in certain contexts, or greater accountability and oversight mechanisms, including audits, policy interventions, and more inclusive technical designs. the oversurveillance of communities of color dates back decades to the civil rights movement and beyond. during the 1950s and 1960s, the fbi tracked martin luther king, jr., malcolm x, and other civil rights activists through its racial matters and cointelpro programs, without clear guardrails to prevent the agency from collecting intimate details about home life and relationships that were unrelated to law enforcement.1 more recently, the black lives matter (blm) movement, initially sparked in 2013 after the murder of 17 year old trayvon martin by a local vigilante, has highlighted racial biases in policing that disproportionately lead to unwarranted deaths, improper arrests, and the excessive use of force against black individuals.2 over the years, the government’s response to public protests over egregious policing patterns has raised various concerns over the appropriate use of surveillance, especially when primarily focused on communities of color. in 2015, the baltimore police department reportedly used aerial surveillance, location tracking, and facial recognition to identify individuals who publicly protested the death of freddie gray.3 similarly, after george floyd was murdered in 2020, the u.s. department of homeland security (dhs) deployed drones and helicopters to survey the subsequent protests in at least 15 cities.4 but african americans are not the only population that has been subjected to overt tracking and profiling. the consequences of mass government surveillance were evident in programs like the china initiative, which the department of justice (doj) launched in 2018 to prevent espionage and intellectual property theft and formally ceased in february 2022.5although the china initiative aimed to address national security threats from the chinese government, it manufactured wider distrust and racial profiling of chinese american academics, including those who were u.s. citizens or who lacked ties with the chinese communist party. it led to several false arrests, including those of temple university professor xi xiaoxing, ucla graduate student guan lei, university of tennessee professor anming hu, and national weather service scientist sherry chen.6 like with other historically disadvantaged populations, government surveillance of asian americans is not a new phenomenon. as an example, the u.s. government monitored the broader japanese american community for years even prior to world war ii, including by accessing private communications and bank accounts, and eventually used census data after 1941 to locate and detain 120,000 people in internment camps.7 demonstrating similar profiling of an entire community, the new york police department (nypd) and central intelligence agency (cia) surveilled muslim neighborhoods, restaurants, mosques, stores, and student groups for over six years after september 11, 2001, listening in on conversations, recording license plates, and taking videos.8 over a decade after 9/11, a 2017 pew research center survey found that 18% of muslim american respondents still experienced being “singled out by airport security.”9 from 2015 to 2020, freedom of information act (foia) records exposed over 75 complaints sparked by intrusive airport searches or islamophobic comments from transportation security administration (tsa) officers toward people who were perceived to be of middle eastern descent.10 both the nypd’s “demographic unit” surveillance and tsa’s profiling of muslim travelers are widely considered to be inaccurate and ineffective in preventing violent crime.11moreover, customs and border protection (cbp) has deployed planes, boats, and radios to track and identify people along the u.s. mexico border continuing a long tradition of hostility toward immigrants, especially those from latino communities. immigrant focused surveillance extends far beyond a physical border; during the obama and trump administrations, immigration and customs enforcement (ice) purchased surveillance technology from private companies like palantir and thomson reuters and used vehicle, insurance, tax, social media, and phone records to track undocumented immigrants throughout the country.12 as early as 1992, the drug enforcement administration surveilled phone call records to over 100 countries in bulk, which, over the years, may have gathered a significant amount of information from immigrants who called home to mexico and countries in central or south america.13in these and other cases, government entities directed surveillance with the stated goals of maintaining public order, preventing cyber theft, and protecting americans more broadly but the indiscriminate deployment and public vigilantism have contributed to and been fueled by deep rooted discrimination that affects communities of color in the united states. in order to stop ongoing injustice, we need greater attention to this issue and concrete steps to protect personal privacy. although suspicion toward communities of color has historical roots that span decades, new developments like facial recognition technologies (frt) and machine learning algorithms have drastically enlarged the precision and scope of potential surveillance.14 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies often rely upon tools developed within the private sector, and, in certain cases, can access massive amounts of data either stored on private cloud servers or hardware (e.g., smartphones or hard drives) or available in public places like social media or online forums.15 in particular, several government agencies have purchased access to precise geolocation history from data aggregators that compile information from smartphone apps or wearable devices. in the general absence of stronger privacy protections at the federal or state levels to account for such advancements in technology, enhanced forms of surveillance used by police officers pose significant risks to civilians already targeted in the criminal justice system and further the historical biases affecting communities of color. next, we present tangible examples of how the private and public sectors both play a critical role in amplifying the reach of law enforcement through facial recognition and other surveillance technologies. facial recognition has become a commonplace tool for law enforcement officers at both the federal and municipal levels. out of the approximately 42 federal agencies that employ law enforcement officers, the government accountability office (gao) discovered in 2021 that about 20, or half, used facial recognition. in 2016, georgetown law researchers estimated that approximately one out of four state and local law enforcement agencies had access to the technology.16 on the procurement side, clearview ai is one of the more prominent commercial providers of frt to law enforcement agencies. since 2017, it has scraped billions of publicly available images from websites like youtube and facebook, and enables customers to upload photos of individuals and automatically match them with other images and sources in the database.17 as of 2021, the private startup had partnered with over 3,100 federal and local law enforcement agencies to identify people outside the scope of government databases. to put this tracking in perspective, the fbi only has about 640 million photos in its databases, compared to clearview ai’s approximately 10 billion.18 but clearview ai is only one of numerous private companies that u.s. government agencies partner with to collect and process personal information.19 another example is vigilant solutions, which captures image and location information of license plates from billions of cars parked outside homes, stores, and office buildings, and which had sold access to its databases to approximately 3,000 local law enforcement agencies as of 2016.20 vigilant also markets various facial recognition products like facesearch to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies; its customer base includes the doj and dhs, among others.21 a third company, odin intelligence, partners with police departments and local government agencies to maintain a database of individuals experiencing homelessness, using facial recognition to identify them and search for sensitive personal information such as age, arrest history, temporary housing history, and known associates.22 in response to privacy and ethical concerns, and after the protests over george floyd’s murder in 2020, some technology companies, including amazon, microsoft, and ibm, pledged to either temporarily or permanently stop selling facial recognition technologies to law enforcement agencies.23 but voluntary and highly selective corporate moratoriums are insufficient to protect privacy, since they do not stop government agencies from procuring facial recognition software from other private companies. moreover, a number of prominent companies have noticeably not taken this pledge or continue to either enable or allow scaping of their photos for third party use in facial recognition databases. furthermore, government agencies can still access industry held data with varying degrees of due process for example, although they would require a warrant with probable cause to compel precise geolocation data from first party service providers in many cases, they might be able to access a person’s movement history without probable cause through other means, including by purchasing it from a data broker.24 the enormous scale of information that the private sector collects can feed into broader law enforcement efforts, since federal, state, and local government agencies have multiple channels by which to access corporate data. from january to june 2020 alone, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies issued over 112,000 legal requests for data to apple, google, facebook, and microsoft three times the number of requests than they submitted five years prior of which approximately 85% were accommodated, including some subpoenas or court orders that did not require probable cause.25 in 2020, reports surfaced that federal law enforcement agencies like the fbi, ice, cbp, drug enforcement agency, and the u.s. special operations command purchased smartphone app geolocation data without a warrant or binding court order from analytics companies like venntel, x mode, and babel street.26 ice and cbp used this data to enable potential deportations or arrests, which demonstrates how geolocation can have singular consequences for immigrant communities, especially among populations of color.27 although geolocation tracking is almost ubiquitous among smartphone apps, it also poses unique potential for harm both since it enables the physical pursuit of an individual and because it allows entities to deduce extraneous details like sexual orientation, religion, health, or personal relationships from their whereabouts. law enforcement has also worked with commercial data aggregators to scan social media websites for photos and posts. in 2018, ice used photos and status updates posted on facebook to locate and arrest an immigrant using the pseudonym “sid” in california only one of thousands of individuals whom the agency reportedly tracks at any given point, aided by private data miners such as giant oak and palantir.28 on a local level, the los angeles police department reportedly pilot tested abtshield, an algorithm developed by a polish company, to scan millions of tweets from october to november 2020 for terms that included “protest,” “solidarity,” and “lives matter,” despite concerns that such bulk surveillance could pose privacy harms to blm activists without presenting a clear benefit to public safety.29 technological advances have expanded government surveillance in traditionally “public” places, prompting legal questions over the boundaries between permissible or non permissible data collection. for instance, the electronic frontier foundation and university of nevada estimate that over 1,000 local police departments fly drones over their communities.30 the chula vista police department had dispatched drones for over 5,000 civilian calls as of march 2021, capturing images of individuals within public areas like sidewalks and parking lots.31 body worn cameras, another common police resource, can function as an accountability safeguard in part as a response to blm activism but also pose privacy concerns particularly when videos of civilians in sensitive scenarios are retained for lengthy periods, used for facial recognition purposes, or even publicly posted online, or when bystanders in public areas are incidentally caught on camera.32lastly, the everyday use of store bought devices or apps by residents complicates the curtailment of excessive surveillance. private sector apps, such as neighbors (an amazon subsidiary, and integrated with amazon’s ring video doorbell), nextdoor, and citizen allow people to livestream, watch, and exchange opinions about potential crimes with other users in real time, generating concerns over unconscious bias and privacy.33 surveillance cameras are becoming increasingly prevalent within private homes, restaurants, entertainment venues, and stores; hundreds of millions are estimated to operate smart security devices worldwide, some of which such as google nest’s doorbell and the arlo essential wired video doorbell include built in facial recognition capabilities.34 simultaneously, amazon’s ring has partnered with almost 2,000 local law enforcement agencies to facilitate a process for officers to ask ring users to voluntarily turn over their video recordings without the explicit use of a warrant.35 mass surveillance affects all americans through a wide suite of technologies but facial recognition, which has become one of the most critical and commonly used technologies, poses special risks of disparate impact for historically marginalized communities. in december 2020, the new york times reported that nijeer parks, robert williams, and michael oliver all black men were wrongfully arrested due to erroneous matches by facial recognition programs.36 recent studies demonstrate that these technical inaccuracies are systemic: in february 2018, mit and then microsoft researchers joy buolamwini and timnit gebru published an analysis of three commercial algorithms developed by microsoft, face++, and ibm, finding that images of women with darker skin had misclassification rates of 20.8% 34.7%, compared to error rates of 0.0% 0.8% for men with lighter skin.37 buolamwini and gebru also discovered bias in training datasets: 53.6%, 79.6%, and 86.2% of the images in the adience, ijb a, and pbb datasets respectively contained lighter skinned individuals. in december 2019, the national institute of standards and technology (nist) published a study of 189 commercial facial recognition programs, finding that algorithms developed in the united states were significantly more likely to return false positives or negatives for black, asian, and native american individuals compared to white individuals.38 when disparate accuracy rates in facial recognition technology intersect with the effects of bias in certain policing practices, black and other people of color are at greater risk of misidentification for a crime that they have no affiliation with. some companies have publicly announced unilateral actions to improve the accuracy of their facial recognition algorithms and diversity of their training datasets but the scope and effectiveness of such efforts fluctuate across the enormous quantity and breadth of facial recognition vendors.39 the question of accuracy is magnified when factoring in the general lack of transparency across the industry; companies are not legally required to allow third party audits of their algorithms, and many either do not or selectively publish their processes and results. for example, amazon chose not to submit its rekognition algorithm for testing in nist’s 2018 report even though, at the time, it was still licensing the algorithm for use by law enforcement agencies and in other highly sensitive contexts.40 clearview ai has not publicly disclosed its rates of false positives or negatives, and similarly has not voluntarily submitted its algorithm for testing by nist or another third party.41 related content cameron f. kerry january 11, 2021 cameron f. kerry january 7, 2019 sarah kreps november 29, 2021 adding to the problem of errors in private sector facial recognition software, law enforcement databases are generally established with faulty data collection practices. since historically biased policing patterns have contributed to their higher rates of interrogation and arrest, communities of color are often overrepresented in law enforcement databases compared to the overall u.s. population.42 the national association for the advancement of colored people (naacp) reports that black individuals are five times more likely than white individuals to be stopped by police officers in the united states, and that black and latino individuals comprise 56% of the u.s. incarcerated population but only 32% of the overall u.s. population.43 this means that not only are police officers more likely to employ surveillance or facial recognition programs to compare images of black and latino individuals, but that mugshot images or arrest records of black and latino individuals are more likely to be stored in these databases in the first place two distinct problems that, when aligned, will exacerbate existing patterns of racial inequity in policing.44 apart from the dual challenges of accuracy and transparency, there remains an ethical question of if or when it is appropriate to use facial recognition to address legitimate security concerns, regardless of its accuracy. even if facial recognition hypothetically could improve to a point where the technology itself has near perfect accuracy rates across all demographic groups, it would still be possible for law enforcement officers to apply it in ways that replicate existing racial disparities in their outcomes. when the european parliament voted in favor of a non binding resolution last october to prevent the mass police use of facial recognition in public places within the european union (eu), it acknowledged this dilemma: “ai applications may offer great opportunities in the field of law enforcement…thereby contributing to the safety and security of eu citizens, while at the same time they may entail significant risks for the fundamental rights of people.”45even if not fully banned from use in criminal justice, the institution of guardrails is a positive step toward more equitable use of enhanced surveillance technologies, including facial recognition. any guardrails will need to consider the contexts in which technology is appropriate, such as with the european commission’s draft artificial intelligence act that would restrict law enforcement’s use of “real time” facial recognition surveillance in public places to more “serious” situations like threats to physical safety, missing victims, or certain “criminal” offenses, and would direct law enforcement officers to take into account the nature and potential consequences of the crime before using facial recognition within the eu.46 weighing the need for both privacy and public safety, we now examine the existing legal guardrails that govern surveillance in law enforcement and where gaps in privacy protections still remain. the u.s. government has long acknowledged that surveillance cannot be unlimited. there must be some safeguards to prevent any privacy abuses by the government or private entities, as a matter of fundamental rights. to that end, federal, state, and local governments have enshrined privacy values into law in certain contexts through layers of constitutional principles, limited statutes, and court cases. however, new technology significantly shifts the traditional balance between surveillance and civil liberties, and the existing patchwork of laws may not be enough to prevent the risks stemming from facial recognition and other technologies.47 as such, it is necessary to take stock of existing privacy safeguards and identify areas of improvement. samuel warren and louis brandeis described this phenomenon in their famous 1890 harvard law review article: “that the individual shall have full protection in person and in property is a principle as old as the common law; but it has been found necessary from time to time to define anew the exact nature and extent of such protection.”48 in the united states, privacy principles can trace their roots to the constitution.49 although the fourth amendment prevents the government from conducting “unreasonable” searches without probable cause to obtain a warrant, law enforcement officers can still collect data through other means, such as by purchasing personal information from data brokers or collecting data in public places where people do not possess a “reasonable expectation of privacy.”50 yet, even the supreme court has acknowledged, in certain cases, that the amplifying effect of technology in surveillance may require an examination of fourth amendment limitations in public places.51 although police officers can physically search people’s vehicles subject to an arrest, the court ruled in riley v. california (2014) that they cannot search a person’s smartphone without a warrant acknowledging that smartphones are “a pervasive and insistent part of daily life … unheard of ten years ago” and the modern scope of data collection “calls for a new balancing of law enforcement and privacy interests.”52 citing riley, the court held in carpenter v. united states (2018) that the government would also require a warrant to compel cell phone service providers to turn over geolocation records, arguing that “seismic shifts in digital technology that made possible the tracking of not only carpenter’s location but also everyone else’s.”53despite the majority opinions in riley and carpenter, there are limitations to the supreme court’s ability to preserve privacy principles through judicial interpretation alone. in his dissent in carpenter, then justice anthony kennedy wrote that the government’s access of cell phone location records does not constitute a search under the fourth amendment, and individuals do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in records controlled by a cell phone company. in another case, florida v. riley (1989), the supreme court held that police officers could fly a helicopter 400 feet above a greenhouse without a search warrant even if the interior of the building would not be visible without aerial surveillance and that people do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy if other helicopters could legally fly at that height and observe the activity from a public airspace.54while the supreme court has heard several major cases on geolocation technologies, there is still legal and social uncertainty around surveillance technologies like facial recognition and drones, where judicial history is extremely limited, especially at the highest court.55 one of the earliest court cases on facial recognition occurred in lynch v. state (2018), when the first district court of appeal in florida decided that a black man named willie allen lynch, who was identified by police through a facial recognition program, was not legally entitled to view the other four erroneous matches that the program returned.56 the michigan court of appeals recently decided one of the few cases related to drones, long lake township v. todd maxon (2021), where it reversed a lower court’s decision to rule that the government would require a warrant to surveil an individual’s property with a drone.57 in short, the judicial branch alone cannot manufacture privacy expectations courts interpret existing law based on the constitution, statutes, and regulations, but their interpretations depend on the judges or justices that sit on the bench, and it falls on congress to resolve uncertainties. in 1986, congress enacted the electronic communications privacy act (ecpa), bundling the wiretap act and stored communications act, to protect americans against government privacy intrusions in their electronic communications (e.g., stored emails or live telephone conversations). however, the ecpa contains provisions that allow law enforcement to access emails and customer records without a warrant in certain contexts.58 for example, law enforcement would require a warrant to access an unopened email that has been remotely stored for under 180 days but after 180 days, it would be able to access that same email with only a subpoena. it can also issue a subpoena to compel companies to turn over non content user records such as name, address, and payment information. apart from the ecpa, executive order 12333 and section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act allow the federal government to gather “incidental collection” of communications content from u.s. residents who contact people located outside the united states without a warrant, contrary to fourth amendment protections.59 together, these statutes and eo grant the u.s. government broad authority to access the electronic communications of americans, tapping into the massive troves of data that private communications companies store. although facial recognition meets few enacted legal restrictions at the federal level, over seven states and 20 municipalities, such as boston, san francisco, and virginia, have established some limitations on government use of facial recognition usage in certain contexts.60 for instance, maine enacted a law in 2021 that generally prohibits government use of facial recognition except in certain cases (e.g., “serious” crimes, identification of missing or deceased individuals, and fraud prevention).61 the same year, minneapolis passed an ordinance to prevent the government from procuring facial recognition technology from third parties (e.g., clearview ai) or knowingly using information collected through facial recognition, citing the technology’s higher misidentification rates for communities of color and the disproportionate burden of policing that communities of color face.62 yet, state and local regulations lack uniformity throughout the country, and the majority of municipalities do not have specific legal restrictions on government use of facial recognition. as we describe earlier, the private sector is integral to law enforcement operations; companies like clearview ai often test and develop the facial recognition tools that are available to law enforcement or amass large databases that the government may have access to. yet, in the absence of a nationwide comprehensive data privacy law, many companies face few legal limitations on how they collect, process, and transfer personal information allowing clearview and other companies to gather data from millions of people without clear controls to access or delete their images, and with few safeguards for security, algorithmic bias, and transparency.63the federal trade commission (ftc) primarily investigates and enforces data protection on a national level, relying on its authority under section 5 of the ftc act to act against entities that engage in “unfair or deceptive acts or practices.” using this authority, the ftc has entered consent agreements with companies like sears (2009), facebook (2011), snapchat (2014), and nomi technologies (2015) for misrepresenting their privacy policies to their users.64 however, this statute largely emphasizes user transparency, which has led to a system of “notice and choice,” where companies display a lengthy privacy policy and require users to consent to it before accessing their service. notice and choice does not effectively preserve privacy; companies like clearview or amazon’s ring can still set their own privacy policies choosing what data they collect, store, and share, and for how long and with the ftc’s more limited authority, the agency has only brought approximately 80 data privacy cases since 2002.65privacy regulations are disjointed at the state level, and only california, colorado, and virginia have so far enacted comprehensive data privacy laws that give residents the rights to access and delete personal information that many companies store. in addition, five states arkansas, california, illinois, texas, and washington have adopted laws that regulate how private companies treat biometric information, including facial recognition.66 companies have treated compliance with diverging state privacy laws in two primary ways: some, like microsoft, have pledged to voluntarily offer single state protections (e.g., the right to access personal information) nationwide, while others, such as clearview ai, offer different privacy settings depending on where a person lives.67 clearview’s website currently only allows california residents to access and delete their personal information, while illinois residents may choose to opt out of search results.68 residents of the other 48 states do not experience these same privacy protections; they may submit a request for clearview to remove search results associated with urls that were already deleted from other websites but may not delete photos or opt out of search results for links that are still available elsewhere on the internet. since clearview does not advertise these controls, however, it is unclear how many individuals are aware of them or have submitted a data request. despite its limited privacy controls, clearview along with many other facial recognition companies does not ask individuals for permission to scrape their images from public places (e.g., cctv surveillance cameras, social media platforms, other websites). this problem is widespread; a 2020 gao report describes a study of 30 datasets used to train facial recognition algorithms since 2006, which revealed that approximately 24 million photos had been scraped from websites without obtaining consent from the one million individuals photographed.69 in the end, it is virtually impossible for an individual to fully opt out of facial recognition identification or control the use of their images without abstaining from public areas, the internet, or society altogether. since voluntary privacy protections do not apply across the entire industry some companies offer privacy settings, while others do not government intervention is necessary to set privacy protections for all u.s. residents, especially those communities most vulnerable to the harmful effects of surveillance. as both the government and private corporations feed into the problem of surveillance, gaps in current federal and state privacy laws mean that their actions to collect, use, or share data often go unchallenged. in other words, existing laws do not adequately protect user privacy among the rising ubiquity of facial recognition and other emerging technologies, fundamentally omitting the needs of communities of color that disproportionately bear the consequences of surveillance. to reduce the potential for emerging technologies to replicate historical biases in law enforcement, we summarize recent proposals that address racial bias and unequal applications of technology in the public sector. we also explain why u.s. federal privacy legislation is necessary to govern how private sector companies implement fairness in the technical development process, limit their data collection and third party sharing, and grant more agency to the individuals they surveil. although the executive branch is taking some steps to evaluate its use of artificial intelligence and equitable distribution of public services, it lacks heightened federal government wide scrutiny over its facial recognition programs and relationships with geolocation data brokers. in october 2021, the white house announced plans to develop an ai bill of rights to assert basic principles of civil liberties in technology, referencing the role that facial recognition plays in discriminatory arrests as well as the privacy concerns stemming from data collection.70 in january 2021, the biden administration issued an executive order that directed federal agencies to conduct equity assessments to review any obstacles that marginalized communities, including individuals of color, encounter to access government services and resources.71 these are important steps, but the role of equity assessments should be extended to appraise the appropriateness of facial recognition, access to geolocation information from data brokers, and related privacy or civil rights implications for marginalized communities for the approximately 42 federal agencies that employ law enforcement officers in some function. short of white house guidance, federal agency review of facial recognition technologies might remain more piecemeal; for example, the internal revenue service announced in early february 2022 that it would stop using the facial recognition tool id.me for citizen verification following public outcry, but it is unclear whether other federal agencies that use the software such as the united states patent and trademark office and social security administration will choose to do so as well.72federal law enforcement reform could also occur through an act of congress, and legislators have introduced several bills that also propose new guardrails for executive agencies that conduct surveillance. in march 2021, the house of representatives passed the george floyd justice in policing act which, among other provisions, would prohibit federal law enforcement officers from deploying facial recognition in their body cameras or patrol vehicle cameras.73 the facial recognition and biometric technology moratorium act, which sen. ed markey (d mass.) and rep. pramila jayapal (d wash.) introduced in june 2021, aims to ban the federal government’s use of biometric surveillance systems unless otherwise authorized by law.74 the facial recognition technology warrant act, which sens. chris coons (d del.) and mike lee (r utah) proposed in 2019 during the previous congress, included a warrant requirement for federal law enforcement officers to conduct “ongoing” surveillance of an individual in public areas with facial recognition for over 72 hours.75 in april 2021, rep. jerrold nadler (d n.y.) and sen. ron wyden (d ore.) introduced the fourth amendment is not for sale act to mitigate federal law enforcement’s access to information from “electronic communication services” or “remote computing services” in a way that violates privacy policy agreements or is otherwise deceptive, primarily targeting concerns over the government’s purchase of geolocation information from data brokers like venntel or x mode without a warrant.76these proposed bills outline some of the existing problems with surveillance oversight: a lack of guardrails and transparency to prevent law enforcement’s abuse of facial recognition and access to geolocation and communications data. yet, they are not complete fixes. if enacted into law, the fourth amendment is not for sale act could prevent any attempts by law enforcement agencies to bypass due process or a probable cause warrant by purchasing communications or location data from private companies but such a moratorium would be largely conditional on a website’s terms of service or privacy policies.77 similarly, the george floyd justice in policing act, facial recognition technology warrant act, and facial recognition biometric technology moratorium act could address federal law enforcement agencies’ use of facial recognition, but would not affect state and local police officers’ use of the technology.78 because state and local governments have jurisdiction over policing in their areas, congress and the federal executive branch have limited means to improve policing practices everywhere in the united states.79 still, as privacy concerns over facial recognition and surveillance grow, more state and local governments and police departments can individually consider measures to specify the contexts in which it is appropriate to use facial recognition and the necessary processes to do so (e.g., with a probable cause warrant).80 in 2016, georgetown law researchers clare garvie, alvaro bedoya, and jonathan frankle proposed one possible framework for “acceptable uses of facial recognition” for law enforcement; for example, an individual with special training in facial recognition would be permitted to use the software to identify somebody on surveillance camera footage if officers have a “reasonable suspicion” that they committed a felony.81 in addition to how to use the technology, such training would promote awareness of the “limitations of facial recognition” and the “appropriateness [of images] for face recognition searches.”82 ideally, this should also include an educational foundation in racial bias and ethics of surveillance for law enforcement officers at the federal, state, and local levels. brookings researcher rashawn ray has also supported training opportunities for state and local law enforcement as part of a holistic approach to increase accountability around racial profiling. ray recently testified on this issue before the virginia advisory committee to the u.s. commission on civil rights, describing how police departments can host implicit bias and mental health trainings for officers, invite community members to sit on police oversight or misconduct trial boards, and provide housing stipends to help officers reside in their local communities.83 georgetown law professor laura moy has also put forward a comprehensive list of questions that police departments might use to assess their use of surveillance technology, modeled after the racial equity impact assessments used by the minneapolis board of education and others.84 the proposals by garvie, bedoya, frankle, ray, and moy are a valuable starting point for federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to consider in application and moreover, they demonstrate a need for police departments to actively work with civil society, academic researchers, and advocacy groups to provide input on prioritizing racial equity in police technology. although congress does not oversee state and local police departments, there is one clear cut action it could take that would have an indirect yet significant impact on government surveillance across the nation: to pass a comprehensive federal privacy law that regulates the data practices of private companies. government agencies often purchase or license facial recognition software from private companies, and businesses can either voluntarily share or be legally compelled to disclose large amounts of personal information to law enforcement.85 despite the general lack of comprehensive privacy regulations in the united states, the u.s. private sector provides unprecedented resources that immensely enhance the surveillance capabilities of law enforcement agencies.86 should congress pass a federal privacy law to govern how private companies collect and use data, the effects would not only increase privacy protections for all americans but reduce the possibility of surveillance abuse against communities of color in the law enforcement context. first, congress could introduce a requirement for businesses to allow individuals to access and delete personal information that they hold allowing anybody to become aware of and erase their images in facial recognition databases like clearview, and meaningfully increasing the transparency of data collection.87 next, congress could enshrine common sense limitations in data collection, storage, and retention for private companies into law this, in turn, would limit the amount of data that law enforcement agencies could access either voluntarily or through subpoenas or warrants. it should establish baseline principles like data minimization only allowing private companies to collect, use, and share data in ways that are necessary to the original business purpose to reduce extraneous data collection and potential for surveillance. these principles are not inconceivable in practice: residents of california, virginia, colorado, and the european union already possess similar protections, and pending legislation such as sen. maria cantwell’s (d wash.) consumer online privacy rights act and sen. roger wicker’s (r miss.) safe data act have been introduced to accord these provisions to all americans.88 but congress needs to go further than general privacy provisions and embody additional measures to address facial recognition and biometric information, given their outsized potential to result in disparate impact in the law enforcement context. federal privacy legislation could also advance this objective; congress could direct the federal trade commission to study the impact of biometric information, including algorithmic outcomes, on civil rights in highly sensitive scenarios such as law enforcement. current federal privacy bills or proposals take different approaches to biometric information some, such as sen. sherrod brown’s (d ohio) draft data accountability and transparency act of 2021, would ban “data aggregators” from using facial recognition technology altogether, while on the other end of the spectrum, wicker’s safe data act would simply require companies to obtain consent from individuals before processing or sharing biometric information with third parties.89 likely, some solution would be necessary in the middle: clear guardrails on how private companies collect, process, and transfer biometric information in a manner that would allow them to use and improve the technology in appropriate contexts while also preventing misuse. congress could direct the ftc to create these regulations, based on the findings of their study and input from civil society. legislation can require businesses that use personal information to develop or deploy algorithms to audit both their products and outcomes to prevent disparate impact. a number of researchers, such as dillon reisman, jason schultz, kate crawford, and meredith whittaker of new york university’s ai now institute have conceptualized “algorithmic impact assessments” to help government agencies or companies to evaluate the accuracy, potential community harms or benefits, and risk of bias or discrimination before deploying automated tools.90 bills like the algorithmic accountability act, which rep. yvette clarke (d n.y.) and sen. ron wyden (d ore.) reintroduced in february 2022, would also require companies that deploy ai for critical decisions to document the representativeness of their input datasets, sources of data collection, any alternatives or considerations to the input data, and overall methodology.91 in any framework to evaluate the use of facial recognition or other surveillance tools, impact assessments will be critical to help users and developers audit algorithms for accuracy and racial equity both in development and in the context of application. more importantly, the private sector cannot be the sole arbiter of truth when it comes to the performance of these systems; law enforcement must evaluate products and services to anticipate potential privacy risks and actively examine the inclusivity of datasets and potential risks of replicating patterns of marginalization. from this review, it is clear that facial recognition and surveillance technologies have shifted the balance of power toward law enforcement agencies. that is why privacy protections are more important than ever for all americans and they are especially so for the communities of color that may suffer the greatest consequences from their absence. the authors would like to thank samantha lai for editing assistance, emily skahill for research support, and cameron kerry and darrell west for feedback and comments. the brookings institution is a nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and policy solutions. its mission is to conduct high quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. the conclusions and recommendations of any brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the institution, its management, or its other scholars. amazon, apple, facebook, google, ibm, and microsoft provide general, unrestricted support to the institution. the findings, interpretations, and conclusions in this report are not influenced by any donation. brookings recognizes that the value it provides is in its absolute commitment to quality, independence, and impact. activities supported by its donors reflect this commitment. related books gloria gonzález fuster, valsamis mitsilegas, elspeth guild, sergio carrera july 19, 2016 jacob parakilas, hannah bryce, kenneth cukier, missy cummings august 28, 2018 authors the brookings institution is committed to quality, independence, and impact. we are supported by a diverse array of funders. in line with our values and policies, each brookings publication represents the sole views of its author(s). privacy intelligence community crime, justice & safety race in public policy governance studies center for technology innovation xavier de souza briggs, manann donoghoe, william h. frey, annelies goger, joseph w. kane, farah khan, molly kinder, tracy hadden loh, hanna love, robert maxim, mark muro, joseph parilla, andre m. perry, robert puentes, martha ross, adie tomer december 2, 2024 darrell m. west november 7, 2024 aaron klein, cameron f. kerry, courtney c. radsch, mark maccarthy, sorelle friedler, nicol turner lee november 4, 2024 get the latest from brookings the brookings institution is a nonprofit organization based in washington, d.c. our mission is to conduct in depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels. copyright 2025 the brookings institution

the times was founded as the conservative new york daily times in 1851, and came to national recognition in the 1870s with its aggressive coverage of corrupt politician william m. tweed. following the panic of 1893, chattanooga times publisher adolph ochs gained a controlling interest in the company. in 1935, ochs was succeeded by his son in law, arthur hays sulzberger, who began a push into european news. sulzberger's son in law arthur ochs became publisher in 1963, adapting to a changing newspaper industry and introducing radical changes. the new york times was involved in the landmark 1964 u.s. supreme court case new york times co. v. sullivan, which restricted the ability of public officials to sue the media for defamation. in 1971, the new york times published the pentagon papers, an internal department of defense document detailing the united states's historical involvement in the vietnam war, despite pushback from then president richard nixon. in the landmark decision new york times co. v. united states (1971), the supreme court ruled that the first amendment guaranteed the right to publish the pentagon papers. in the 1980s, the times began a two decade progression to digital technology and launched nytimes.com in 1996. in the 21st century, the new york times has shifted its publication online amid the global decline of newspapers. the times has expanded to several other publications, including the new york times magazine, the new york times international edition, and the new york times book review. in addition, the paper has produced several television series, podcasts   including the daily   and games through the new york times games. the new york times has been involved in several controversies in its history. the times maintains several regional bureaus staffed with journalists across six continents, and has received 137 pulitzer prizes as of 2023, the most of any publication, among other accolades. the new york times was established in 1851 by new york tribune journalists henry jarvis raymond and george jones.[4] the times experienced significant circulation, particularly among conservatives; new york tribune publisher horace greeley praised the new york daily times.[5] during the american civil war, times correspondents gathered information directly from confederate states.[6] in 1869, jones inherited the paper from raymond,[7] who had changed its name to the new york times.[8] under jones, the times began to publish a series of articles criticizing tammany hall political boss william m. tweed, despite vehement opposition from other new york newspapers.[9] in 1871, the new york times published tammany hall's accounting books; tweed was tried in 1873 and sentenced to twelve years in prison. the times earned national recognition for its coverage of tweed.[10] in 1891, jones died, creating a management imbroglio in which his children had insufficient business acumen to inherit the company and his will prevented an acquisition of the times.[11] editor in chief charles ransom miller, editorial editor edward cary, and correspondent george f. spinney established a company to manage the new york times,[12] but faced financial difficulties during the panic of 1893.[13] in august 1896, chattanooga times publisher adolph ochs acquired the new york times, implementing significant alterations to the newspaper's structure. ochs established the times as a merchant's newspaper and removed the hyphen from the newspaper's name.[14] in 1905, the new york times opened times tower, marking expansion.[15] the times experienced a political realignment in the 1910s amid several disagreements within the republican party.[16] the new york times reported on the sinking of the titanic, as other newspapers were cautious about bulletins circulated by the associated press.[17] through managing editor carr van anda, the times focused on scientific advancements, reporting on albert einstein's then unknown theory of general relativity and becoming involved in the discovery of the tomb of tutankhamun.[18] in april 1935, ochs died, leaving his son in law arthur hays sulzberger as publisher.[19] the great depression forced sulzberger to reduce the new york times's operations,[20] and developments in the new york newspaper landscape resulted in the formation of larger newspapers, such as the new york herald tribune and the new york world telegram.[21] in contrast to ochs, sulzberger encouraged wirephotography.[22] the new york times extensively covered world war ii through large headlines,[23] reporting on exclusive stories such as the yugoslav coup d'état.[24] amid the war, sulzberger began expanding the times's operations further, acquiring wqxr fm in 1944   the first non times investment since the jones era   and established a fashion show in times hall. despite reductions as a result of conscription, the new york times retained the largest journalism staff of any newspaper.[25] the times's print edition became available internationally during the war through the army & air force exchange service; the new york times overseas weekly later became available in japan through the asahi shimbun and in germany through the frankfurter zeitung. the international edition would develop into a separate newspaper.[26] journalist william l. laurence publicized the atomic bomb race between the united states and germany, resulting in the federal bureau of investigation seizing copies of the times. the united states government recruited laurence to document the manhattan project in april 1945.[27] laurence became the only witness of the manhattan project, a detail realized by employees of the new york times following the atomic bombing of hiroshima.[28] following world war ii, the new york times continued to expand.[29] the times was subject to investigations from the senate internal security subcommittee, a mccarthyist subcommittee that investigated purported communism from within press institutions. arthur hays sulzberger's decision to dismiss a copyreader who had pleaded the fifth amendment drew ire from within the times and from external organizations.[30] in april 1961, sulzberger resigned, appointing his son in law, the new york times company president orvil dryfoos.[31] under dryfoos, the new york times established a newspaper based in los angeles.[32] in 1962, the implementation of automated printing presses in response to increasing costs mounted fears over technological unemployment. the new york typographical union staged a strike in december, altering the media consumption of new yorkers. the strike left new york with three remaining newspapers   the times, the daily news, and the new york post   by its conclusion in march 1963.[33] in may, dryfoos died of a heart ailment.[34] following weeks of ambiguity, arthur ochs sulzberger became the new york times's publisher.[35] technological advancements leveraged by newspapers such as the los angeles times and improvements in coverage from the washington post and the wall street journal necessitated adaptations to nascent computing.[36] the new york times published "heed their rising voices" in 1960, a full page advertisement purchased by supporters of martin luther king jr. criticizing law enforcement in montgomery, alabama for their response to the civil rights movement. montgomery public safety commissioner l. b. sullivan sued the times for defamation. in new york times co. v. sullivan (1964), the u.s. supreme court ruled that the verdict in alabama county court and the supreme court of alabama violated the first amendment.[37] the decision is considered to be landmark.[38] after financial losses, the new york times ended its international edition, acquiring a stake in the paris herald tribune, forming the international herald tribune.[39] the times initially published the pentagon papers, facing opposition from then president richard nixon. the supreme court ruled in the new york times's favor in new york times co. v. united states (1971), allowing the times and the washington post to publish the papers.[40] the new york times remained cautious in its initial coverage of the watergate scandal.[41] as congress began investigating the scandal, the times furthered its coverage,[42] publishing details on the huston plan, alleged wiretapping of reporters and officials,[43] and testimony from james w. mccord jr. that the committee for the re election of the president paid the conspirators off.[44] the exodus of readers to suburban new york newspapers, such as newsday and gannett papers, adversely affected the new york times's circulation.[45] contemporary newspapers balked at additional sections; time devoted a cover for its criticism and new york wrote that the times was engaging in "middle class self absorption".[46] the new york times, the daily news, and the new york post were the subject of a strike in 1978,[47] allowing emerging newspapers to leverage halted coverage.[48] the times deliberately avoided coverage of the aids epidemic, running its first front page article in may 1983. max frankel's editorial coverage of the epidemic, with mentions of anal intercourse, contrasted with then executive editor a. m. rosenthal's puritan approach, intentionally avoiding descriptions of the luridity of gay venues.[49] following years of waning interest in the new york times, sulzberger resigned in january 1992, appointing his son, arthur ochs sulzberger jr., as publisher.[50] the internet represented a generational shift within the times; sulzberger, who negotiated the new york times company's acquisition of the boston globe in 1993, derided the internet, while his son expressed antithetical views. @times appeared on america online's website in may 1994 as an extension of the new york times, featuring news articles, film reviews, sports news, and business articles.[51] despite opposition, several employees of the times had begun to access the internet.[52] the online success of publications that traditionally co existed with the times   such as america online, yahoo, and cnn   and the expansion of websites such as monster.com and craigslist that threatened the new york times's classified advertisement model increased efforts to develop a website.[53] nytimes.com debuted on january 19 and was formally announced three days later.[54] the times published domestic terrorist ted kaczynski's essay industrial society and its future in 1995, contributing to his arrest after his brother david recognized the essay's penmanship.[55] following the establishment of nytimes.com, the new york times retained its journalistic hesitancy under executive editor joseph lelyveld, refusing to publish an article reporting on the clinton lewinsky scandal from drudge report. nytimes.com editors conflicted with print editors on several occasions, including wrongfully naming security guard richard jewell as the suspect in the centennial olympic park bombing and covering the death of diana, princess of wales in greater detail than the print edition.[56] the new york times electronic media company was adversely affected by the dot com crash.[57] the times extensively covered the september 11 attacks. the following day's print issue contained sixty six articles,[58] the work of over three hundred dispatched reporters.[59] journalist judith miller was the recipient of a package containing a white powder during the 2001 anthrax attacks, furthering anxiety within the new york times.[60] in september 2002, miller and military correspondent michael r. gordon wrote an article for the times claiming that iraq had purchased aluminum tubes. the article was cited by then president george w. bush to claim that iraq was constructing weapons of mass destruction; the theoretical use of aluminum tubes to produce nuclear material was speculation.[61] in march 2003, the united states invaded iraq, beginning the iraq war.[62] the new york times attracted controversy after thirty six articles[63] from journalist jayson blair were discovered to be plagiarized.[64] criticism over then executive editor howell raines and then managing editor gerald m. boyd mounted following the scandal, culminating in a town hall in which a deputy editor criticized raines for failing to question blair's sources in article he wrote on the d.c. sniper attacks.[65] in june 2003, raines and boyd resigned.[66] arthur ochs sulzberger jr. appointed bill keller as executive editor.[67] miller continued to report on the iraq war as a journalistic embed covering the country's weapons of mass destruction program. keller and then washington bureau chief jill abramson unsuccessfully attempted to subside criticism. conservative media criticized the times over its coverage of missing explosives from the al qa'qaa weapons facility.[68] an article in december 2005 disclosing warrantless surveillance by the national security agency contributed to further criticism from the george w. bush administration and the senate's refusal to renew the patriot act.[69] in the plame affair, a central intelligence agency inquiry found that miller had become aware of valerie plame's identity through then vice president dick cheney's chief of staff scooter libby, resulting in miller's resignation.[70] during the great recession, the new york times suffered significant fiscal difficulties as a consequence of the subprime mortgage crisis and a decline in classified advertising.[71] exacerbated by rupert murdoch's revitalization of the wall street journal through his acquisition of dow jones & company, the new york times company began enacting measures to reduce the newsroom budget. the company was forced to borrow $250 million (equivalent to $353.79 million in 2023) from mexican billionaire carlos slim and fired over one hundred employees by 2010.[72] nytimes.com's coverage of the eliot spitzer prostitution scandal, resulting in the resignation of then new york governor eliot spitzer, furthered the legitimacy of the website as a journalistic medium.[73] the times's economic downturn renewed discussions of an online paywall;[74] the new york times implemented a paywall in march 2011.[75] abramson succeeded keller,[76] continuing her characteristic investigations into corporate and government malfeasance into the times's coverage.[77] following conflicts with newly appointed chief executive mark thompson's ambitions,[78] abramson was dismissed by sulzberger jr., who named dean baquet as her replacement.[79] leading up to the 2016 presidential election, the new york times elevated the hillary clinton email controversy[80] into the single most important issue during the election campaign.[81][82][83] donald trump's upset victory contributed to an increase in subscriptions to the times.[84] the new york times experienced unprecedented indignation from trump, who referred to publications such as the times as "enemies of the people" at the conservative political action conference and tweeted his disdain for the newspaper and cnn.[85] in october 2017, the new york times published an article by journalists jodi kantor and megan twohey alleging that dozens of women had accused film producer and the weinstein company co chairman harvey weinstein of sexual misconduct.[86] the investigation resulted in weinstein's resignation and conviction,[87] precipitated the weinstein effect,[88] and served as a catalyst for the #metoo movement.[89] the new york times company vacated the public editor position[90] and eliminated the copy desk in november.[91] sulzberger jr. announced his resignation in december 2017, appointing his son, a. g. sulzberger, as publisher.[92] trump's relationship   equally diplomatic and negative   marked sulzberger's tenure.[93] in september 2018, the new york times published "i am part of the resistance inside the trump administration", an anonymous essay by a self described trump administration official later revealed to be department of homeland security chief of staff miles taylor.[94] the animosity   which extended to nearly three hundred instances of trump disparaging the times by may 2019[95]   culminated in trump ordering federal agencies to cancel their subscriptions to the new york times and the washington post in october 2019.[96] trump's tax returns have been the subject of three separate investigations.[c] during the covid 19 pandemic, the times began implementing data services and graphs.[100] on may 23, 2020, the new york times's front page solely featured u.s. deaths near 100,000, an incalculable loss, a subset of the 100,000 people in the united states who died of covid 19, the first time that the times's front page lacked images since they were introduced.[101] since 2020, the new york times has focused on broader diversification, developing online games and producing television series.[102] the new york times company acquired the athletic in january 2022.[103] since 1896, the new york times has been published by the ochs sulzberger family, having previously been published by henry jarvis raymond until 1869[104] and by george jones until 1896.[105] adolph ochs published the times until his death in 1935,[106] when he was succeeded by his son in law, arthur hays sulzberger. sulzberger was publisher until 1961[107] and was succeeded by orvil dryfoos, his son in law, who served in the position until his death in 1963.[108] arthur ochs sulzberger succeeded dryfoos until his resignation in 1992.[109] his son, arthur ochs sulzberger jr., served as publisher until 2018. the new york times's current publisher is a. g. sulzberger, sulzberger jr.'s son.[92] as of 2023, the times's executive editor is joseph kahn[110] and the paper's managing editors are marc lacey and carolyn ryan, having been appointed in june 2022.[111] the new york times's deputy managing editors are sam dolnick,[112] monica drake,[113] and steve duenes,[114] and the paper's assistant managing editors are matthew ericson,[115] jonathan galinsky, hannah poferl, sam sifton, karron skog,[116] and michael slackman.[117] the new york times is owned by the new york times company, a publicly traded company. the new york times company, in addition to the times, owns wirecutter, the athletic, the new york times cooking, and the new york times games, and acquired serial productions and audm. the new york times company holds undisclosed minority investments in multiple other businesses, and formerly owned the boston globe and several radio and television stations.[118] the new york times company is majority owned by the ochs sulzberger family through elevated shares in the company's dual class stock structure held largely in a trust, in effect since the 1950s;[119] as of 2022, the family holds ninety five percent of the new york times company's class b shares, allowing it to elect seventy percent of the company's board of directors.[120] class a shareholders have restrictive voting rights.[121] as of 2023, the new york times company's chief executive is meredith kopit levien, the company's former chief operating officer who was appointed in september 2020.[122] as of march 2023, the new york times company employs 5,800 individuals,[102] including 1,700 journalists according to deputy managing editor sam dolnick.[123] journalists for the new york times may not run for public office, provide financial support to political candidates or causes, endorse candidates, or demonstrate public support for causes or movements.[124] journalists are subject to the guidelines established in "ethical journalism" and "guidelines on integrity".[125] according to the former, times journalists must abstain from using sources with a personal relationship to them and must not accept reimbursements or inducements from individuals who may be written about in the new york times, with exceptions for gifts of nominal value.[126] the latter requires attribution and exact quotations, though exceptions are made for linguistic anomalies. staff writers are expected to ensure the veracity of all written claims, but may delegate researching obscure facts to the research desk.[127] in march 2021, the times established a committee to avoid journalistic conflicts of interest with work written for the new york times, following columnist david brooks's resignation from the aspen institute for his undisclosed work on the initiative weave.[128] the new york times editorial board was established in 1896 by adolph ochs. with the opinion department, the editorial board is independent of the newsroom.[168] then editor in chief charles ransom miller served as opinion editor from 1883 until his death in 1922.[169] rollo ogden succeeded miller until his death in 1937.[170] from 1937 to 1938, john huston finley served as opinion editor; in a prearranged plan, charles merz succeeded finley.[171] merz served in the position until his retirement in 1961.[172] john bertram oakes served as opinion editor from 1961 to 1976, when then publisher arthur ochs sulzberger appointed max frankel.[173] frankel served in the position until 1986, when he was appointed as executive editor.[174] jack rosenthal was the opinion editor from 1986 to 1993.[175] howell raines succeeded rosenthal until 2001, when he was made executive editor.[176] gail collins succeeded raines until her resignation in 2006.[177] from 2007 to 2016, andrew rosenthal was the opinion editor.[178] james bennet succeeded rosenthal until his resignation in 2020.[179] as of july 2024[update], the editorial board comprises thirteen opinion writers.[180] the new york times's opinion editor is kathleen kingsbury[181] and the deputy opinion editor is patrick healy.[116] the new york times's editorial board was initially opposed to liberal beliefs, opposing women's suffrage in 1900 and 1914. the editorial board began to espouse progressive beliefs during oakes' tenure, conflicting with the ochs sulzberger family, of which oakes was a member as adolph ochs's nephew; in 1976, oakes publicly disagreed with sulzberger's endorsement of daniel patrick moynihan over bella abzug in the 1976 senate democratic primaries in a letter sent from martha's vineyard. under rosenthal, the editorial board took positions supporting assault weapons legislation and the legalization of marijuana, but publicly criticized the obama administration over its portrayal of terrorism.[178] in presidential elections, the new york times has endorsed a total of twelve republican candidates and thirty two democratic candidates, and has endorsed the democrat in every election since 1960.[182][183][j] with the exception of wendell willkie, republicans endorsed by the times have won the presidency. in 2016, the editorial board issued an anti endorsement against donald trump for the first time in its history.[184] in february 2020, the editorial board reduced its presence from several editorials each day to occasional editorials for events deemed particularly significant. since august 2024, the board no longer endorses candidates in local or congressional races in new york.[185] since 1940, editorial, media, and technology workers of the new york times have been represented by the new york times guild. the times guild, along with the times tech guild, are represented by the newsguild cwa.[186] in 1940, arthur hays sulzberger was called upon by the national labor relations board amid accusations that he had discouraged guild membership in the times. over the next few years, the guild would ratify several contracts, expanding to editorial and news staff in 1942 and maintenance workers in 1943.[187] the new york times guild has walked out several times in its history, including for six and a half hours in 1981[188] and in 2017, when copy editors and reporters walked out at lunchtime in response to the elimination of the copy desk.[189] on december 7, 2022, the union held a one day strike,[190] the first interruption to the new york times since 1978.[191] the new york times guild reached an agreement in may 2023 to increase minimum salaries for employees and a retroactive bonus.[192] the times tech guild is the largest technology union with collective bargaining rights in the united states.[193] the guild held a second strike beginning on november 4, 2024, threatening the times's coverage of the 2024 united states presidential election.[194] in october 2001, the new york times began publishing dealbook, a financial newsletter edited by andrew ross sorkin. the times had intended to publish the newsletter in september, but delayed its debut following the september 11 attacks.[200] a website for dealbook was established in march 2006.[201] the new york times began shifting towards dealbook as part of the newspaper's financial coverage in november 2010 with a renewed website and a presence in the times's print edition.[202] in 2011, the times began hosting the dealbook summit, an annual conference hosted by sorkin.[203] during the covid 19 pandemic, the new york times hosted the dealbook online summit in 2020[204] and 2021.[205] the 2022 dealbook summit featured   among other speakers   former vice president mike pence and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu,[206] culminating in an interview with former ftx chief executive sam bankman fried; ftx had filed for bankruptcy several weeks prior.[207] the 2023 dealbook summit's speakers included vice president kamala harris, israeli president isaac herzog, and businessman elon musk.[203] in june 2010, the new york times licensed the political blog fivethirtyeight in a three year agreement.[208] the blog, written by nate silver, had garnered attention during the 2008 presidential election for predicting the elections in forty nine of fifty states. fivethirtyeight appeared on nytimes.com in august.[209] according to silver, several offers were made for the blog; silver wrote that a merger of unequals must allow for editorial sovereignty and resources from the acquirer, comparing himself to groucho marx.[210] according to the new republic, fivethirtyeight drew as much as a fifth of the traffic to nytimes.com during the 2012 presidential election.[211] in july 2013, fivethirtyeight was sold to espn.[212] in an article following silver's exit, public editor margaret sullivan wrote that he was disruptive to the times's culture for his perspective on probability based predictions and scorn for polling   having stated that punditry is "fundamentally useless", comparing him to billy beane, who implemented sabermetrics in baseball. according to sullivan, his work was criticized by several notable political journalists.[213] the new republic obtained a memo in november 2013 revealing then washington bureau chief david leonhardt's ambitions to establish a data driven newsletter with presidential historian michael beschloss, graphic designer amanda cox, economist justin wolfers, and the new republic journalist nate cohn.[214] by march, leonhardt had amassed fifteen employees from within the new york times; the newsletter's staff included individuals who had created the times's dialect quiz, fourth down analyzer, and a calculator for determining buying or renting a home.[215] the upshot debuted in april 2014.[216] fast company reviewed an article about illinois secure choice   a state funded retirement saving system   as "neither a terse news item, nor a formal financial advice column, nor a politically charged response to economic policy", citing its informal and neutral tone.[217] the upshot developed "the needle" for the 2016 presidential election and 2020 presidential elections, a thermometer dial displaying the probability of a candidate winning.[218] in january 2016, cox was named editor of the upshot.[219] kevin quealy was named editor in june 2022.[220] according to an internal readership poll conducted by the new york times in 2019, eighty four percent of readers identified as liberal.[221] in february 1942, the new york times crossword debuted in the new york times magazine; according to richard shepard, the attack on pearl harbor in december 1941 convinced then publisher arthur hays sulzberger of the necessity of a crossword.[222] the new york times has published recipes since the 1850s and has had a separate food section since the 1940s.[223] in 1961, restaurant critic craig claiborne published the new york times cookbook,[224] an unauthorized cookbook that drew from the times's recipes.[225] since 2010, former food editor amanda hesser has published the essential new york times cookbook, a compendium of recipes from the new york times.[226] the innovation report in 2014 revealed that the times had attempted to establish a cooking website since 1998, but faced difficulties with the absence of a defined data structure.[227] in september 2014, the new york times introduced nyt cooking, an application and website.[228] edited by food editor sam sifton,[225] the times's cooking website features 21,000 recipes as of 2022.[229] nyt cooking features videos as part of an effort by sifton to hire two former tasty employees from buzzfeed.[225] in august 2023, nyt cooking added personalized recommendations through the cosine similarity of text embeddings of recipe titles.[230] the website also features no recipe recipes, a concept proposed by sifton.[231] the new york times archives its articles in a basement annex beneath its building known as "the morgue", a venture started by managing editor carr van anda in 1907. the morgue comprises news clippings, a pictures library, and the times's book and periodicals library. as of 2014, it is the largest library of any media company, dating back to 1851.[237] in november 2018, the new york times partnered with google to digitize the archival library.[238] additionally, the new york times has maintained a virtual microfilm reader known as timesmachine since 2014. the service launched with archives from 1851 to 1980; in 2016, timesmachine expanded to include archives from 1981 to 2002. the times built a pipeline to take in tiff images, article metadata in xml and an ini file of cartesian geometry describing the boundaries of the page, and convert it into a png of image tiles and json containing the information in the xml and ini files. the image tiles are generated using gdal and displayed using leaflet, using data from a content delivery network. the times ran optical character recognition on the articles using tesseract and shingled and fuzzy string matched the result.[239] the new york times uses a proprietary[240] content management system known as scoop for its online content and the microsoft word based content management system cci for its print content. scoop was developed in 2008 to serve as a secondary content management system for editors working in cci to publish their content on the times's website; as part of the new york times's online endeavors, editors now write their content in scoop and send their work to cci for print publication. since its introduction, scoop has superseded several processes within the times, including print edition planning and collaboration, and features tools such as multimedia integration, notifications, content tagging, and drafts. the new york times uses private articles for high profile opinion pieces, such as those written by russian president vladimir putin and actress angelina jolie, and for high level investigations.[241] in january 2012, the times released integrated content editor (ice), a revision tracking tool for wordpress and tinymce. ice is integrated within the times's workflow by providing a unified text editor for print and online editors, reducing the divide between print and online operations.[242] by 2017,[243] the new york times began developing a new authoring tool to its content management system known as oak, in an attempt to further the times's visual efforts in articles and reduce the discrepancy between the mediums in print and online articles.[244] the system reduces the input of editors and supports additional visual mediums in an editor that resembles the appearance of the article.[243] oak is based on prosemirror, a javascript rich text editor toolkit, and retains the revision tracking and commenting functionalities of the new york times's previous systems. additionally, oak supports predefined article headers.[245] in 2019, oak was updated to support collaborative editing using firebase to update editors's cursor status. several google cloud functions and google cloud tasks allow articles to be previewed as they will be printed, and the times's primary mysql database is regularly updated to update editors on the article status.[246] since 1895, the new york times has maintained a manual of style in several forms. the new york times manual of style and usage was published on the times's intranet in 1999.[247] the new york times uses honorifics when referring to individuals. with the ap stylebook's removal of honorifics in 2000 and the wall street journal's omission of courtesy titles in may 2023, the times is the only national newspaper that continues to use honorifics. according to former copy editor merrill perlman, the new york times continues to use honorifics as a "sign of civility".[248] the times's use of courtesy titles led to an apocryphal rumor that the paper had referred to singer meat loaf as "mr. loaf".[249] several exceptions have been made; the former sports section and the new york times book review do not use honorifics.[250] a leaked memo following the killing of osama bin laden in may 2011 revealed that editors were given a last minute instruction to omit the honorific from osama bin laden's name, consistent with deceased figures of historic significance, such as adolf hitler, napoleon, and vladimir lenin.[251] the new york times uses academic and military titles for individuals prominently serving in that position.[252] in 1986, the times began to use ms.,[250] and introduced the gender neutral title mx. in 2015.[253] the new york times uses initials when a subject has expressed a preference, such as donald trump.[254] the new york times maintains a strict but not absolute obscenity policy, including phrases. in a review of the canadian hardcore punk band fucked up, music critic kelefa sanneh wrote that the band's name   entirely rendered in asterisks   would not be printed in the times "unless an american president, or someone similar, says it by mistake";[255] the new york times did not repeat then vice president dick cheney's use of "fuck" against then senator patrick leahy in 2004[256] or then vice president joe biden's remarks that the passage of the affordable care act in 2010 was a "big fucking deal".[257] the times's profanity policy has been tested by former president donald trump. the new york times published trump's access hollywood tape in october 2016, containing the words "fuck", "pussy", "bitch", and "tits", the first time the publication had published an expletive on its front page,[258] and repeated an explicit phrase for fellatio stated by then white house communications director anthony scaramucci in july 2017.[259] the new york times omitted trump's use of the phrase "shithole countries" from its headline in favor of "vulgar language" in january 2018.[260] the times banned certain words, such as "bitch", "whore", and "sluts", from wordle in 2022.[261] journalists for the new york times do not write their own headlines, but rather copy editors who specifically write headlines. the times's guidelines insist headline editors get to the main point of an article but avoid giving away endings, if present. other guidelines include using slang "sparingly", avoiding tabloid headlines, not ending a line on a preposition, article, or adjective, and chiefly, not to pun. the new york times manual of style and usage states that wordplay, such as "rubber industry bounces back", is to be tested on a colleague as a canary is to be tested in a coal mine; "when no song bursts forth, start rewriting".[262] the new york times has amended headlines due to controversy. in 2019, following two back to back mass shootings in el paso and dayton, the times used the headline, "trump urges unity vs. racism", to describe then president donald trump's words after the shootings. after criticism from fivethirtyeight founder nate silver, the headline was changed to, "assailing hate but not guns".[263] online, the new york times's headlines do not face the same length restrictions as headlines that appear in print; print headlines must fit within a column, often six words. additionally, headlines must "break" properly, containing a complete thought on each line without splitting up prepositions and adverbs. writers may edit a headline to fit an article more aptly if further developments occur. the times uses a/b testing for articles on the front page, placing two headlines against each other. at the end of the test, the headlines that receives more traffic is chosen.[264] the alteration of a headline regarding intercepted russian data used in the mueller special counsel investigation was noted by trump in a march 2017 interview with time, in which he claimed that the headline used the word "wiretapped" in the print version of the paper on january 20, while the digital article on january 19 omitted the word. the headline was intentionally changed in the print version to use "wiretapped" in order to fit within the print guidelines.[265] the nameplate of the new york times has been unaltered since 1967. in creating the initial nameplate, henry jarvis raymond sought to model the london times, which used a blackletter style called textura, popularized following the fall of the western roman empire and regional variations of alcuin's script, as well as a period. with the change to the new york times on september 14, 1857, the nameplate followed. under george jones, the terminals of the "n", "r", and "s" were intentionally exaggerated into swashes. the nameplate in the january 15, 1894, issue trimmed the terminals once more, smoothed the edges, and turned the stem supporting the "t" into an ornament. the hyphen was dropped on december 1, 1896, after adolph ochs purchased the paper. the descender of the "h" was shortened on december 30, 1914. the largest change to the nameplate was introduced on february 21, 1967, when type designer ed benguiat redesigned the logo, most prominently turning the arrow ornament into a diamond. notoriously, the new logo dropped the period that remained with the times up until that point; one reader compared the omission of the period to "performing plastic surgery on helen of troy." picture editor john radosta worked with a new york university professor to determine that dropping the period saved the paper us$41.28 (equivalent to $377.21 in 2023).[266] as of december 2023, the new york times has printed sixty thousand issues, a statistic represented in the paper's masthead to the right of the volume number, the times's years in publication written in roman numerals.[267] the volume and issues are separated by four dots representing the edition number of that issue; on the day of the 2000 presidential election, the times was revised four separate times, necessitating the use of an em dash in place of an ellipsis.[268] the em dash issue was printed hundreds times over before being replaced by the one dot issue. despite efforts by newsroom employees to recycle copies sent to the new york times's office, several copies were kept, including one put on display at the museum at the times.[269] from february 7, 1898, to december 31, 1999, the times's issue number was incorrect by five hundred issues, an error suspected by the atlantic to be the result of a careless front page type editor. the misreporting was noticed by news editor aaron donovan, who was calculating the number of issues in a spreadsheet and noticed the discrepancy. the new york times celebrated fifty thousand issues on march 14, 1995, an observance that should have occurred on july 26, 1996.[270] the new york times has reduced the physical size of its print edition while retaining its broadsheet format. the new york daily times debuted at 18 inches (460 mm) across. by the 1950s, the times was being printed at 16 inches (410 mm) across. in 1953, an increase in paper costs to us$10 (equivalent to $113.88 in 2023) a ton increased newsprint costs to us$21.7 million (equivalent to $308,616,417.91 in 2023) on december 28, 1953, the pages were reduced to 15.5 inches (390 mm). on february 14, 1955, a further reduction to 15 inches (380 mm) occurred, followed by 14.5 and 13.5 inches (370 and 340 mm). on august 6, 2007, the largest cut occurred when the pages were reduced to 12 inches (300 mm),[k] a decision that other broadsheets had previously considered. then executive editor bill keller stated that a narrower paper would be more beneficial to the reader but acknowledged a net loss in article space of five percent.[271] in 1985, the new york times company established a minority stake in a us$21.7 million (equivalent to $308,616,417.91 in 2023) newsprint plant in clermont, quebec through donahue malbaie.[272] the company sold its equity interest in donahue malbaie in 2017.[273] the new york times often uses large, bolded headlines for major events. for the print version of the times, these headlines are written by one copy editor, reviewed by two other copy editors, approved by the masthead editors, and polished by other print editors. the process is completed before 8 p.m., but it may be repeated if further development occur, as did take place during the 2020 presidential election. on the day joe biden was declared the winner, the new york times utilized a "hammer headline" reading, "biden beats trump", in all caps and bolded. a dozen journalists discussed several potential headlines, such as "it's biden" or "biden's moment", and prepared for a donald trump victory, in which they would use "trump prevails".[274] during trump's first impeachment, the times drafted the hammer headline, "trump impeached". the new york times altered the ligatures between the e and the a, as not doing so would leave a noticeable gap due to the stem of the a sloping away from the e. the times reused the tight kerning for "biden beats trump" and trump's second impeachment, which simply read, "impeached".[275] in cases where two major events occur on the same day or immediately after each other, the new york times has used a "paddle wheel" headline, where both headlines are used but split by a line. the term dates back to august 8, 1959, when it was revealed that the united states was monitoring soviet missile firings and when explorer 6   shaped like a paddle wheel   launched. since then, the paddle wheel has been used several times, including on january 21, 1981, when ronald reagan was sworn in minutes before iran released fifty two american hostages, ending the iran hostage crisis. at the time, most newspapers favored the end of the hostage crisis, but the times placed the inauguration above the crisis. since 1981, the paddle wheel has been used twice; on july 26, 2000, when the 2000 camp david summit ended without an agreement and when bush announced that dick cheney would be his running mate, and on june 24, 2016, when the united kingdom european union membership referendum passed, beginning brexit, and when the supreme court deadlocked in united states v. texas.[276] the new york times has run editorials from its editorial board on the front page twice. on june 13, 1920, the times ran an editorial opposing warren g. harding, who was nominated during that year's republican party presidential primaries.[277] amid growing acceptance to run editorials on the front pages[278] from publications such as the detroit free press, the patriot news, the arizona republic, and the indianapolis star, the new york times ran an editorial on its front page on december 5, 2015, following a terrorist attack in san bernardino, california, in which fourteen people were killed.[279] the editorial advocates for the prohibition of "slightly modified combat rifles" used in the san bernardino shooting and "certain kinds of ammunition".[277] conservative figures, including texas senator ted cruz, the weekly standard editor bill kristol, fox & friends co anchor steve doocy, and then new jersey governor chris christie criticized the times. talk radio host erick erickson acquired an issue of the new york times to fire several rounds into the paper, posting a picture online.[280] since 1997,[281] the new york times's primary distribution center is located in college point, queens. the facility is 300,000 sq ft (28,000 m2) and employs 170 people as of 2017. the college point distribution center prints 300,000 to 800,000 newspapers daily. on most occasions, presses start before 11 p.m. and finish before 3 a.m. a robotic crane grabs a roll of newsprint and several rollers ensure ink can be printed on paper. the final newspapers are wrapped in plastic and shipped out.[282] as of 2018, the college point facility accounted for 41 percent of production. other copies are printed at 26 other publications, such as the atlanta journal constitution, the dallas morning news, the santa fe new mexican, and the courier journal. with the decline of newspapers, particularly regional publications, the times must travel further; for example, newspapers for hawaii are flown from san francisco on united airlines, and sunday papers are flown from los angeles on hawaiian airlines. computer glitches, mechanical issues, and weather phenomena affect circulation but do not stop the paper from reaching customers.[283] the college point facility prints over two dozen other papers, including the wall street journal and usa today.[284] the new york times has halted its printing process several times to account for major developments. the first printing stoppage occurred on march 31, 1968, when then president lyndon b. johnson announced that he would not seek a second term. other press stoppages include may 19, 1994, for the death of former first lady jacqueline kennedy onassis, and july 17, 1996, for trans world airlines flight 800. the 2000 presidential election necessitated two press stoppages. al gore appeared to concede on november 8, forcing then executive editor joseph lelyveld to stop the times's presses to print a new headline, "bush appears to defeat gore", with a story that stated george w. bush was elected president. however, gore held off his concession speech over doubts over florida. lelyveld reran the headline, "bush and gore vie for an edge". since 2000, three printing stoppages have been issued for the death of william rehnquist on september 3, 2005, for the killing of osama bin laden on may 1, 2011, and for the passage of the marriage equality act in the new york state assembly and subsequent signage by then governor andrew cuomo on june 24, 2011.[285] the new york times website is hosted at nytimes.com. it has undergone several major redesigns and infrastructure developments since its debut. in april 2006, the new york times redesigned its website with an emphasis on multimedia.[286] in preparation for super tuesday in february 2008, the times developed a live election system using the associated press's file transfer protocol (ftp) service and a ruby on rails application; nytimes.com experienced its largest traffic on super tuesday and the day after.[287] the nytimes application debuted with the introduction of the app store on july 10, 2008. engadget's scott mcnulty wrote critically of the app, negatively comparing it to the new york times's mobile website.[288] an ipad version with select articles was released on april 3, 2010, with the release of the first generation ipad.[289] in october, the new york times expanded nyt editors' choice to include the paper's full articles. nyt for ipad was free until 2011.[290] the times applications on iphone and ipad began offering in app subscriptions in july 2011.[291] the times released a web application for ipad   featuring a format summarizing trending headlines on twitter[292]   and a windows 8 application in october 2012.[293] efforts to ensure profitability through an online magazine and a "need to know" subscription emerged in adweek in july 2013.[294] in march 2014, the new york times announced three applications   nyt now, an application that offers pertinent news in a blog format, and two unnamed applications, later known as nyt opinion[295] and nyt cooking[227]   to diversify its product laterals.[296] the daily is the modern front page of the new york times. the new york times manages several podcasts, including multiple podcasts with serial productions. the times's longest running podcast is the book review podcast,[298] debuting as inside the new york times book review in april 2006.[299] the new york times's defining podcast is the daily,[297] a daily news podcast hosted by michael barbaro and, since march 2022, sabrina tavernise.[300] the podcast debuted on february 1, 2017.[301] the new york times has used video games as part of its journalistic efforts, among the first publications to do so,[304] contributing to an increase in internet traffic;[305] the publication has also developed its own video games. in 2014, the new york times magazine introduced spelling bee, a word game in which players guess words from a set of letters in a honeycomb and are awarded points for the length of the word and receive extra points if the word is a pangram.[306] the game was proposed by will shortz, created by frank longo, and has been maintained by sam ezersky. in may 2018, spelling bee was published on nytimes.com, furthering its popularity.[307] in february 2019, the times introduced letter boxed, in which players form words from letters placed on the edges of a square box,[308] followed in june 2019 by tiles, a matching game in which players form sequences of tile pairings, and vertex, in which players connect vertices to assemble an image.[309] in july 2023, the new york times introduced connections, in which players identify groups of words that are connected by a common property.[310] in april, the times introduced digits, a game that required using operations on different values to reach a set number; digits was shut down in august.[311] in march 2024, the new york times released strands, a themed word search.[312] in january 2022, the new york times company acquired wordle, a word game developed by josh wardle in 2021, at a valuation in the "low seven figures".[313] the acquisition was proposed by david perpich, a member of the sulzberger family who proposed the purchase to knight[314] over slack after reading about the game.[315] the washington post purportedly considered acquiring wordle, according to vanity fair.[314] at the 2022 game developers conference, wardle stated that he was overwhelmed by the volume of wordle facsimiles and overzealous monetization practices in other games.[316] concerns over the new york times monetizing wordle by implementing a paywall mounted;[317] wordle is a client side browser game and can be played offline by downloading its webpage.[318] wordle moved to the times's servers and website in february.[319] the game was added to the nyt games application in august,[320] necessitating it be rewritten in the javascript library react.[321] in november, the new york times announced that tracy bennett would be the wordle's editor.[322] the new york times magazine and the boston globe magazine are the only weekly sunday magazines following the washington post magazine's cancellation in december 2022.[323] in february 2016, the new york times introduced a spanish website, the new york times en español.[324] the website, intended to be read on mobile devices, would contain translated articles from the times and reporting from journalists based in mexico city.[325] the times en español's style editor is paulina chavira, who has advocated for pluralistic spanish to accommodate the variety of nationalities in the newsroom's journalists and wrote a stylebook for the new york times en español[326] articles the times intends to publish in spanish are sent to a translation agency and adapted for spanish writing conventions; the present progressive tense may be used for forthcoming events in english, but other tenses are preferable in spanish. the times en español consults the real academia española and fundéu and frequently modifies the use of diacritics   such as using an acute accent for the cártel de sinaloa but not the cartel de medellín   and using the gender neutral pronoun elle.[327] headlines in the new york times en español are not capitalized. the times en español publishes el times, a newsletter led by elda cantú intended for all spanish speakers.[328] in september 2019, the new york times ended the new york times en español's separate operations.[329] a study published in the translator in 2023 found that the times en español engaged in tabloidization.[330] in june 2012, the new york times introduced a chinese website, 纽约时报中文, in response to chinese editions created by the wall street journal and the financial times. conscious to censorship, the times established servers outside of china and affirmed that the website would uphold the paper's journalistic standards; the government of china had previously blocked articles from nytimes.com through the great firewall,[331] and the website was blocked in china until august 2001 after then general secretary jiang zemin met with journalists from the new york times.[332] then foreign editor joseph kahn assisted in the establishment of cn.nytimes.com, an effort that contributed to his appointment as executive editor in april 2022.[333] in october, 纽约时报中文 published an article detailing the wealth of then premier wen jiabao's family. in response, the government of china blocked access to nytimes.com and cn.nytimes.com and references to the times and wen were censored on microblogging service sina weibo.[332] in march 2015, a mirror of 纽约时报中文 and the website for greatfire were the targets for a government sanctioned distributed denial of service attack on github in march 2015, disabling access to the service for several days.[334] chinese authorities requested the removal of the new york times's news applications from the app store in december 2016.[335] as of 2023, the new york times has received 137 pulitzer prizes,[336] the most of any publication.[337] the new york times is considered a newspaper of record in the united states.[l] the times is the largest metropolitan newspaper in the united states;[341] as of 2022, the new york times is the second largest newspaper by print circulation in the united states behind the wall street journal.[196] a study published in science, technology, & human values in 2013 found that the new york times received more citations in academic journals than the american sociological review, research policy, or the harvard law review.[342] with sixteen million unique records, the times is the third most referenced source in common crawl, a collection of online material used in datasets such as gpt 3, behind wikipedia and a united states patent database.[343] the new yorker's max norman wrote in march 2023 that the times has shaped mainstream english usage.[344] in a january 2018 article for the washington post, margaret sullivan stated that the new york times affects the "whole media and political ecosystem".[345] the new york times's nascent success has led to concerns over media consolidation, particularly amid the decline of newspapers. in 2006, economists lisa george and joel waldfogel examined the consequences of the times's national distribution strategy and audience with circulation of local newspapers, finding that local circulation decreased among college educated readers.[346] the effect of the new york times in this manner was observed in the forum of fargo moorhead, the newspaper of record for fargo, north dakota.[347] axios founder jim vandehei opined that the times is "going to basically be a monopoly" in an opinion piece written by then media columnist and former buzzfeed news editor in chief ben smith; in the article, smith cites the strength of the new york times's journalistic workforce, broadening content, and the expropriation of gawker editor in chief choire sicha, recode editor in chief kara swisher, and quartz editor in chief kevin delaney. smith compared the times to the new york yankees during their 1927 season containing murderers' row.[348] the new york times has received criticism for its coverage of the israel hamas war,[349] and the paper has been accused of holding both an anti palestinian[350] and an anti israeli[351] bias. in april 2024, the intercept reported that an internal memorandum from november 2023 instructed journalists to reduce using the terms "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" and to avoid using the phrase "occupied territory" in the context of palestinian land, "palestine" except in rare circumstances, and the term "refugee camps" to describe areas of gaza despite recognition from the united nations. a spokesperson from the times stated that issuing guidance was standard practice. an analysis by the intercept noted that the new york times described israeli deaths as a massacre nearly sixty times, but had only described palestinian deaths as a massacre once.[352] in december 2023, the new york times published an investigation titled "'screams without words': how hamas weaponized sexual violence on oct. 7", alleging that hamas weaponized sexual and gender based violence during its armed incursion on israel.[353] the investigation was the subject of an article from the intercept questioning the journalistic acumen of anat schwartz, a filmmaker involved in the inquiry who had no prior reporting experience and agreed with a post stating israel should "violate any norm, on the way to victory", doubting the veracity of the opening claim that gal abdush was raped in a timespan disputed by her family, and alleging that the times was pressured by the committee for accuracy in middle east reporting in america.[354] the new york times initiated an inquiry that received criticism from newsguild of new york president susan decarava for purported racial targeting;[355] the times's investigation concluded in ambiguity, but found that journalistic material was handled improperly.[356] the new york times has received criticism regarding its coverage of transgender people. when it published an opinion piece by weill cornell medicine professor richard a. friedman called "how changeable is gender?" in august 2015,[357] vox's german lopez criticized friedman as suggesting that parents and doctors might be right in letting children suffer from severe dysphoria in case something changes down the line, and as implying that conversion therapy may work for transgender children.[358] in february 2023, nearly one thousand[359] current and former times writers and contributors wrote an open letter addressed to standards editor philip b. corbett, criticizing the paper's coverage of transgender, non⁠ ⁠binary, and gender nonconforming people; some of the times' articles have been cited in state legislatures attempting to justify criminalizing gender affirming care.[360] contributors wrote in the open letter that "the times has in recent years treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources."[m] 1234567 nbc newswall street journalpoliticomsnbc/cnbc/telemundobloomberg governmentwashington examinerboston globe/washington blade fox newscbs news radioap radio/pbsvoatimeyahoo 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the ending abrupt, unsatisfying, badly understood befitted the strange, unhappy saga of theodore j. kaczynski. he was spared a gruelling trial, the judgment of an elaborately chosen, “death qualified” jury, and a strong chance of being condemned to death, but he was saved from all this by a bizarre alliance of lawyers he was trying to fire, a family he had renounced, psychiatrists he did not trust or respect (and in some cases had never met), a federal judge who had drastically restricted his right to counsel and seemed to fear (with reason) the trial to come, a press convinced that he was a paranoid schizophrenic, and, finally, a legendary death penalty opponent skilled at “client management” (management, that is, of kaczynski). much of the story took place entirely out of public view. kaczynski pleaded guilty, in late january, to all charges, and forswore all appeals, in exchange for a life sentence. in our overburdened courts, defendants are often left with little choice but to plead guilty, forfeiting their right to a trial in exchange for a lesser sentence. but ted kaczynski was not just another defendant denied his day in court. he was, of course, the unabomber, the self styled scourge of big business, big science, behavioralism, genetics, computer science, and all things high tech and harmful to the environment. for seventeen years, starting in 1978, he had terrorized the country, killing three people and injuring twenty three all with small, handmade parcel bombs. the longest, most expensive manhunt in american history had produced no real suspects. then, in 1993, the bomber wrote to the new york times, identifying himself as a member of an anarchist group called the freedom club, and in 1995, in the most extraordinary manuscript submission in the history of publishing, he prevailed upon the washington post and the times to publish a thirty five thousand word essay, “industrial society and its future,” by promising to stop the killings. the manifesto, as it became known, denounced modern technology and urged a revolution in the name of wild nature. jefferson morley, an editor at the post, described it as “a romantic, turgid, disturbing document but so were the ‘port huron statement’ (which marked the birth of the new left in 1962) and ‘witness,’ whittaker chambers’s autobiography in 1952 (which marked the birth of the modern right).” most americans didn’t read it, and no doubt considered its author nothing more than an evil coward. david kaczynski, a social worker in schenectady, new york, read the manifesto on the internet, and thought he recognized his older brother’s language and ideas. after considerable agonizing, david got in touch with the f.b.i., and ted, then fifty three, was arrested on april 3, 1996, at his cabin, near lincoln, montana. the freedom club turned out to have a membership of one. nineteen months later, jury selection began in sacramento, california, for a federal trial on charges related to four bombings, two of them fatal. the prosecution, over bitter objections by david kaczynski, had decided to seek the death penalty. because the f.b.i. had found an overwhelming trove of evidence in kaczynski’s cabin it included a completed bomb, a carbon copy of the manifesto, and thousands of pages of journals meticulously recording his work on the earlier bombs the guilt phase of the trial was effectively moot, and the lawyers were already looking to the penalty phase, when jurors would be asked to consider a death sentence. for six weeks, kaczynski watched with great interest as his lawyers grilled the prospective jurors. here were the ordinary, technology oppressed americans in whose name he had conducted his long campaign of terror against “the technician class.” kaczynski, dressed in cable knit sweaters and striped dress shirts, looked trim and professorial, and nothing like the shaggy, half mad hermit whose image was flashed around the world after his arrest. he conferred amiably with his attorneys quin denvir, the federal defender for the eastern district of california, and judy clarke, a renowned trial lawyer and federal defender. clarke had recently saved susan smith the woman who drowned her two young sons in south carolina from execution. lanky and attractive, clarke often had her hand on ted’s shoulder. but the appearance of harmony at the defense table was misleading. in truth, a profound conflict had been growing between kaczynski and his various lawyers virtually since his arrest. they believed that his best, if not his only, hope of escaping a death sentence was to claim that he was mentally ill. he staunchly refused to do so. this clash of wills and world views eventually erupted into open court. but before he was yanked offstage kaczynski’s quietly fierce performance raised fundamental questions about a defendant’s right to participate in his own defense, the role of psychiatry in the courts, and the pathologizing of radical dissent in both the courts and the press. he was a bookish, brilliant boy, born in 1942, the first child of ambitious, self educated parents. reared in a working class chicago suburb, he skipped two grades, had few friends, liked to shut himself up in his attic room. he was a nerd’s nerd, shy and arrogant, socially doomed. for playmates he was forced to rely on david, who was seven years younger, popular, and easygoing. at sixteen, ted entered harvard on a scholarship. he lived in eliot house, where big, swaggering rich boys ruled the roost. ted, physically slight and badly dressed, ate alone. he graduated at twenty, then went to the university of michigan, at ann arbor, where his considerable gifts as a mathematician emerged. he began to publish in scholarly journals, and his dissertation, on “boundary functions,” won a prize. still, after he left for a teaching job at berkeley, almost nobody in michigan remembered him. ann arbor and berkeley were hotbeds of the student antiwar movement, which was then reaching its peak. kaczynski apparently remained uninvolved. in a 1968 photograph taken at berkeley, he’s short haired and clean shaven, and is wearing a coat and tie. though not a popular teacher, he continued to publish impressively and was on track for tenure in one of the world’s top math departments. then, in 1969, he suddenly resigned, telling his family that he didn’t want to teach math to engineers who would use it to harm the environment. it seemed that, for all his indifference to student leftism, kaczynski despised the status quo. he and david, who graduated from columbia in 1970, bought 1.4 acres together in montana, in high country just west of the continental divide. and that was where ted lived except for a few forays into the outside world to earn money at menial jobs and, later, to deliver bombs for the next twenty five years. he built a simple, ten foot by twelve foot cabin with two small windows, a woodstove, no electricity, no plumbing. he grew a garden, built a root cellar, hunted rabbits and deer, exchanged vegetables with neighbors, didn’t file a federal tax return. he rode an old bicycle five miles into the town of lincoln for supplies, and spent a lot of time at the public library there. his parents visited him each summer for the first few years. david came several times, and then, emulating ted, moved to his own patch of remote wilderness, in the west texas desert. but ted’s relations with his family became increasingly strained. in voluminous letters, he blamed them particularly his mother, wanda for his shyness, his loneliness, his anxiety, his anger, even his height (he was shorter than david). their visits ceased. he sometimes refused to open their letters. the family came to believe that ted was seriously disturbed. there was never any real doubt that kaczynski was legally sane. but his lawyers believed that the degree of his culpability for his crimes could be made to depend on his psychiatric classification the more serious his diagnosis, the less his culpability. they called him a “high functioning” paranoid schizophrenic. medically speaking, that would place him at the least ill end of the spectrum of schizophrenia, where obvious symptoms are often absent. the primary evidence of his illness seemed to be in his writings (most of which have never been made public), in his family’s stories, and in his way of life. dr. karen froming, who specializes in neuropsychological assessment, gave kaczynski a battery of tests that “revealed deficits of a mild nature in the areas of frontal and cerebellar motor functions, microsomia or smell functions, cognitive processing efficiency, visual memory, and affective processing.” these deficits were consonant, she said, with paranoid schizophrenia. they did not, however, prove it. what really indicated such a diagnosis to her, dr. froming told me, were kaczynski’s systematized paranoid delusions. i asked what those delusions were. “anti technology,” dr. froming said simply. “his view of technology as the vehicle by which people are destroying themselves and the world.” the manifesto, in other words. predictably, the prosecution’s psychiatrists disagreed. dr. froming’s test findings “scream geek, not schizophrenic,” dr. park dietz said dryly. dr. dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who often works for the government in high profile cases, cautioned me that he could not diagnose kaczynski’s condition without interviewing him, and that he had been prevented from doing so, despite a court order. (according to the defense team, the problem was that kaczynski refused to see a government doctor, whereas the government thought that the real problem lay with kaczynski’s lawyers, who did not want him interviewed by experts who might find him not psychotic.) dr. dietz had, however, read kaczynski’s journals, and had not found them to show schizophrenia. “they’re full of strong emotions, considerable anger, and an elaborate, closely reasoned system of belief about the adverse impact of technology on society. the question always is: is that belief system philosophy or is it delusion? the answer has more to do with the ideology of the psychiatrist than with anything else.” kaczynski’s own ideology gave psychiatrists short shrift. “the concept of ‘mental health’ in our society is defined largely by the extent to which an individual behaves in accord with the needs of the [industrial technological] system and does so without showing signs of stress,” he wrote in the manifesto. he himself, despite his elaborate effort to withdraw from society, showed plenty of signs of stress insomnia, anxiety, and depression and even sought help from therapists in helena, great falls, and missoula. in his journals he recorded his fear that his campaign against industrial society would ultimately be dismissed as the work of a “sickie,” observing that “many tame, conformist types seem to have a powerful need to depict the enemy of society as sordid, repulsive, or ‘sick.’” he noted the old soviet practice of suppressing dissidents by labelling them mentally ill. so the paradox, as his case neared trial, could not have been lost on kaczynski. his own lawyers, talented idealists intent on saving his life, were striving mightily to label him mentally ill. the prosecutors, meanwhile, intent on having him executed, were ready to accept him as the dead serious dissident and violent anarchist that his writings said he was. “the prosecution believes he was acting on a genuine political program,” dr. froming said, with some wonderment. “in fact, he wasn’t. what it was was a real need to protect himself from an extremely frightening world.” dr. xavier amador, a schizophrenia researcher at columbia university, who did not examine kaczynski but, at the request of the defense team, did review his writings and submit a report to the court, specializes in “unawareness of illness.” the circularity of the reasoning in dr. amador’s report, in which kaczynski’s disdain for psychiatrists and his firm rejection of the idea that he was schizophrenic were offered as expert evidence that he was schizophrenic, presumably made for some exquisitely annoying reading for kaczynski in his cell. dr. froming’s report was probably not much more fun. she wrote that his journals undermined his claim, made during their interview, that he had chosen to live as a hermit: “the explanations for his chronic social isolation which he offered during the testing were clearly contradicted by mr. kaczynski’s writings that document his despair over both his inability to establish normal human relationships and his inability to comprehend why he has been unable to do so.” it was as if being proudly independent (“autonomy” is much extolled in the manifesto) were incompatible with being sad, lonely, and shy almost, indeed, as if sadness and loneliness were the equivalent of mental illness. the psychiatrists retained by kaczynski’s lawyers stood ready to treat his crimes as symptoms (the illness committed them, not kaczynski, dr. amador explained to me), which was really the legal and ethical heart of the matter. to a lay observer, there was, in truth, a mountain of evidence, lying mostly in plain sight, of complete madness. the defendant had apparently and, indeed, would soon admit he had spent seventeen years building ingenious little bombs and sending them around the country to kill and maim people he had never met. mild deficits in affective processing seemed, somehow, beside the point. and yet the bombings were the crimes charged. they could not be the evidence of illness. while this might seem a perverse distinction before the law, its real implications are more disturbing still, for it suggests what few of us like to acknowledge that sane, rational people may commit violent, terrible acts, including serial murder. (dr. dietz, who seems almost to relish this thought, helped convince a jury that jeffrey dahmer, the wisconsin cannibal, was not insane.) ted kaczynski, in his refusal to plead mental illness, was not only refusing to recant his ideas but also refusing to recant his acts. he had done what he had done for the reasons he had given. and he was apparently prepared to explain those reasons to the jury and the world. he even had, virtually from the beginning, a lawyer who was ready and well qualified to step in and help him make his deeply subversive case. j. tony serra had got in touch with kaczynski shortly after his arrest. serra was the real life inspiration for a 1989 film, “true believer,” starring james woods, about a flamboyant radical attorney who defends unpopular clients. known for courtroom eloquence, a long gray ponytail, salvation army suits, and a marijuana habit, serra has built an enviable record of legal victories, often in cases that other lawyers wouldn’t touch. he has represented black panthers, white panthers, members of the symbionese liberation army. he has twice won freedom for men already condemned to death in california. he works pro bono much of the time, and that was what he proposed to do for kaczynski. he has, he says, the highest regard for public defenders, who, like him, spend their careers representing the poor and the despised. “i respect them and i love them,” he told me. “they are my allies.” but kaczynski’s lawyers were intent on saving his life with a defense that their client did not want. “i am of a different ilk,” serra told me. “i have always served the objective of the client. a person has the right to defend himself in the manner he chooses, even if it means death, as long as he appreciates the risk. kaczynski appreciated and understood all the ramifications and wanted a trial based on an ideological defense.” as serra envisioned such a defense which could probably be argued only during the penalty phase of the trial kaczynski would explain himself to the jury, using the manifesto. eminent political scientists would be called to interpret the essay, paragraph by paragraph. the defense case would be based on what serra called “imperfect necessity you commit a crime to avert a greater disaster that you believe will occur,” though others may find your belief unreasonable. “it doesn’t eliminate culpability,” serra noted, “but it lowers culpability.” serra was confident that kaczynski’s case against technology would be perfectly comprehensible to the jurors. “it’s not crazy, and it’s not difficult to understand. and if the hole in the ozone opens and kills us all, he’ll be proved right!” while federal death penalty guidelines do not include ideology in the list of “mitigating factors,” they do contain an “other factors” clause, and serra thought he had a reasonable chance of persuading at least a couple of jurors to vote against execution. (denvir and clarke were counting on “impaired capacity” a mitigator when “the defendant’s capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of the defendant’s conduct or to conform conduct to the requirements of the law was significantly impaired.” any defense would have to contend, of course, with various countervailing “aggravating factors,” including “substantial planning and premeditation” and “grave risk of death to additional persons.”) serra, who has represented his share of disturbed clients, did not consider kaczynski mad. indeed, he told a reporter, “this guy is a genius. he sees things we can’t see and understands things we can’t understand. maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt.” kaczynski’s court appointed legal team took a very tough stand against tony serra. serra has declined to describe their contacts in any detail, beyond acknowledging that the statement “his blood will be on your hands” was liberally employed. scharlette holdman, a veteran death penalty “mitigation investigator” and a key member of the defense team, was less shy. “i couldn’t believe that tony was coming to a capital case and exploiting the vulnerability of a mentally ill patient in that emotionally charged environment,” she told me. holdman, who is not a lawyer, has earned a formidable reputation by managing appeals in scores of capital cases in florida. newsweek once dubbed her “the mistress of delay” for her success in preventing executions. now working from san francisco, she is usually appointed to cases on a confidential basis, and prosecutors often know little or nothing about her role. though the fact that she was working with the kaczynski team went completely unreported, she was involved almost from the beginning. and the serra matter really seemed to enrage her. “there are always those attorneys, like moths to a light, who come to a famous case out of their own self interest, nothing to do with the defendant’s interest,” holdman told me. she knows well that the best chance of saving the life of a convicted capital defendant usually lies in constructing a sympathetic life story, often one involving significant mental impairment, and that such a story must often be prepared without the client’s coöperation. i first tracked her down, in fact, at a conference of the capital defense bar where the workshops included “dealing with difficult clients” and “detecting mental illness.” holdman was offering “defusing bombs before penalty phase” (pun most likely intended). holdman had been described to me by a former colleague as a specialist in “client management,” and she spent many hours a week with kaczynski during the long months of trial preparation. she was one of the links between kaczynski and the outside world, which included his political supporters an amorphous but vivid crew of anarchists and enviro radicals, who gathered primarily on the internet. holdman even persuaded key figures in that world to shut down their support campaigns as the trial approached, lest they disrupt delicate plea negotiations. holdman’s counsels to kaczynski himself have not been disclosed, but he was obviously kept firmly in the dark for as long as possible about the extent of his team’s plans to depict him at trial as mentally ill. the analogy usually employed by hard liners in this area is that the brain surgeon doesn’t ask the brain damaged patient how he wants his surgery done. for many months, kaczynski’s attention was actually focussed elsewhere on the possibility that a defense motion to suppress the evidence found in his cabin, because of inadequacies in the f.b.i.’s search warrant, might succeed, and that the case against him might therefore collapse. even after this motion was denied, he apparently held out hope that an appeal might succeed, and that he might yet walk free, back to montana. although tony serra says he believes that kaczynski did everything he could to engage his services long before the trial but was prevented from doing so by his defense team, it seems more likely that kaczynski was not yet convinced that it would be necessary for him to dismiss his lawyers. if he did, in fact, believe that he had any chance of walking free from jail, he was, of course, severely deluded (not clinically deluded but blinded by unrealistic hopes, however conceived and encouraged). no judge in america would have set him free. still, kaczynski always attached, in negotiations with the government, a major condition to his offer of a guilty plea that he be allowed to pursue his appeal on the search of his cabin. not a prayer, said the prosecution. kaczynski was evidently not seeing much of the press coverage of his case, where his lawyers’ plan to offer a “mental defect” defense was being reported. indeed, it was only in the second half of november, with jury selection well under way, that kaczynski discovered that his lawyers were planning to introduce testimony from the psychiatrists who had diagnosed his condition as paranoid schizophrenic. he was furious, and protested vehemently. and that was when, with the trial itself rapidly approaching, a game of legal chicken began. in scharlette holdman’s experience, it was the client who normally flinched in these situations. this client did not flinch. david and wanda kaczynski were in a horrendous position. david had always loved his brainy older brother, the proud purist, though the two of them had had some painful clashes. ted once worked briefly in a factory where david served as his supervisor. ted had gone on a date with a female co worker, and when she told him she didn’t want to see him anymore he posted copies of a nasty limerick about her in various places in the factory. after david told him to cut it out, ted stuck a copy on the machine where david worked, daring him to do something about it. david fired him. david made his last visit to montana in 1986. he and ted continued to write, but their letters grew increasingly rancorous, particularly when the subject was ted’s mental health. david and his wife even discussed what might be necessary to have ted involuntarily committed. in november of 1995, in the last letter david received, ted wrote, “i am not ‘suffering, sick or discouraged,’ and i don’t know what ‘indications’ you think you have that i am so. but if you want me to get sick, all you have to do is keep trying to communicate with me, because i get just choked with frustration at my inability to get our stinking family off my back once and for all, and ‘stinking family’ emphatically includes you.” david shared this letter, and others like it, with the washington post last year as part of what the post called “a campaign by the kaczynski family to persuade prosecutors not to seek the death penalty.” the idea of the campaign was, of course, to portray ted as mentally ill. after making the excruciating decision to turn in his brother to the f.b.i., david had felt betrayed when the authorities, breaking a promise, revealed his role to the press, thereby causing him, his wife, and his mother to be cruelly besieged by reporters, and also causing what might be a permanent rift with ted. but that betrayal was small beer compared with the government’s subsequent decision to seek the death penalty. david and wanda stayed impressively “on message” even then, according to a key member of the defense team. with the help of anthony bisceglie, a media savvy washington lawyer, they had learned how to use the press. in the months after ted’s arrest, they gave long interviews to the new york times and the washington post. david talked at length to the sacramento bee, painting a vivid picture of his brother as a complex idealist who was helplessly mentally ill. in september, 1996, mother and son went on “60 minutes,” and wanda, who was well spoken and sympathetic, and was nearing eighty, told a horrifying story. at the age of nine months, she said, ted had been hospitalized for a severe case of hives. in those days, babies in that hospital were not allowed to be touched by family members. ted was strapped to a table, naked and screaming, for a week. when she finally got him back, wanda said, he was unresponsive, “completely limp.” and she felt that all his later problems had stemmed from that early trauma. david and wanda worked with ted’s lawyers, meeting with the mental health experts and with a family historian, for the defense planned to describe a family dynamic that included, according to court transcripts, “multiple generational . . . mental illnesses.” how much ted knew of this collaboration is hard to gauge. david did hear that ted had seen the times interview and a transcript of their “60 minutes” appearance, and that he was livid about alleged inaccuracies as well as the general violation of his privacy. on january 5th, the day ted’s trial was scheduled to start, wanda and david bravely turned up in the federal courtroom in sacramento, taking seats in the front row which the defense had reserved for them. ted had seen neither of them in more than a decade. but when he came in, a few minutes later, striding briskly across the room to his spot at the defense table, not five yards from where his mother and brother were sitting, he turned and sat down without a flicker of acknowledgement. the courtroom was jammed that morning, with reporters, spectators, surviving victims of the unabomber, and victims’ families. judge garland e. burrell, jr., took his seat on the bench, but before he could say a word kaczynski himself spoke up, in a calm, reedy voice. “your honor, before these proceedings begin, i would like to revisit the issue of my relations with my attorneys,” he said. “it’s very important.” apparently, kaczynski, after weeks of semipublic wrangling with his lawyers about a mental health defense, had just learned that they were planning to go ahead with it in the guilt phase, despite his wishes. for her opening statement, judy clarke had brought along two photographs of her client one the scrubbed young berkeley professor and the other a spectral hermit’s face. kaczynski and his lawyers retired with the judge to his chambers, and there kaczynski declared his interest in replacing his lawyers with tony serra. proceedings were delayed for two days while burrell attempted to resolve the conflict. contact was made with serra, and his willingness to represent kaczynski pro bono was confirmed. during the subsequent public hearing, kaczynski again spoke up, clearly and politely stating his wish to retain serra. judge burrell, who was said to be haunted by the thought of poor lance ito, undone in the national spotlight by bunglers and demagogues, denied the request for new counsel. serra would need many months to prepare, he said. the jury had already been selected, and witnesses were waiting to testify. the request was “untimely.” glaring at kaczynski, burrell went on to try to settle, once and for all, the dispute between the defendant and his lawyers by ruling that it was the lawyers’ choice, rather than the defendant’s, whether or not to present a “mental status” defense. this ruling caught all parties by surprise, and the next morning the prosecution expressed its concern that the ruling might contain “grave appellate error” and cause a guilty verdict to be thrown out by a higher court. the judge also seemed to have second thoughts about his ruling. kaczynski, in any event, had just electrified the courtroom with another announcement made this time through an ashen judy clarke that, since he had been denied both the counsel of his choice and the control of his own defense, he would exercise his sixth amendment right to represent himself. clarke explained that kaczynski, while he had no enthusiasm for doing so, felt he had no other choice. it was the “unendurability” of listening to his lawyers describe him in public as mentally ill that had forced this decision, she said an inability to endure which she considered a symptom of his mental illness. (would a sane man, passionately committed to his ideas, more easily listen to himself being described by his own representatives as insane?) on the day that kaczynski made this request, david kaczynski told me later, “i thought he had to be absolutely the most lonely person in the world. i thought, here he is rejecting lawyers who care about him just as he rejected the family who loved him. i felt intense grief.” the judge deferred the question of self representation by ordering a competency examination. a bureau of prisons psychiatrist, dr. sally johnson, would determine whether kaczynski was competent to stand trial and competent to represent himself. since the standard in such matters is low, there was little doubt that kaczynski would be found competent. indeed, judge burrell himself, who had been dealing with kaczynski through seventeen months of pretrial hearings and motions, had said of him a few days before, during an in camera discussion, “i find him to be lucid, calm. he presents himself in an intelligent manner. in my opinion, he has a keen understanding of the issues. he has always seemed focussed on the issues in his contact with me. his mannerisms and his eye contact have been appropriate. i know there’s a conflict in the medical evidence as to whether his conduct, at least in the past, has been controlled by any or some mental ailment, but i’ve seen nothing during my contact with him that appears to be a manifestation of any such ailment. if anything is present, i cannot detect it.” the news media could detect it, though. as kaczynski’s conflict with his lawyers escalated, delaying the start of the trial, a cartoon image of ted as a wild eyed madman gained currency among reporters, pundits, and tv talk show hosts. kaczynski became the stuff of kitsch. even the times ran a story, in early january, that began, “theodore j. kaczynski, the hermit standing trial on charges that he is the unabomber, has told his defense team that he believes satellites control people and place electrodes in their brains. he himself is controlled by an omnipotent organization which he is powerless to resist, he told the lawyers.” these lines were a collage of fragments from various sources pasted together to produce remarks that were never made and, if they had been, would almost certainly have been shielded by attorney client privilege. newsweek, in a january cover story about new research on genes and the brain, wrote, “mental health, in this new view, is a continuum. at one extreme might be a ted kaczynski, the unabomber suspect described by his brother’s lawyers as obsessive compulsive, out of touch with reality, delusional, antisocial and paranoid.” “described by his brother’s lawyers”? mental health is a continuum. there are many shades of schizophrenia, for instance, and kaczynski may suffer from some version of the disease. but he is nowhere near any clinical extreme. there is no credible evidence that he hears voices, has hallucinations, or is “out of touch with reality” unless reality is defined as having conventional social and political views. there was clearly something comforting, though, in the familiar picture of an ordinary crackpot and something frightening about the physically meek, homegrown terrorist who stubbornly refused to accept not just established authority but modernity itself. fears that the trial might become a “circus” filled countless editorials. (this awful possibility was also referred to as a political “show trial,” though that term properly refers, of course, to a sham trial staged by a state to punish its enemies, and not to an argument offered by a revolutionary in the dock.) it wasn’t easy to picture kaczynski turning his trial into agitprop theatre he is no abbie hoffman but it was becoming clear that he simply would not recant his stark, apocalyptic view that science and progress were a colossal mistake. there were a few a very few dissenting voices. michael mello, a law professor (and former capital defender), wrote, in a column for the sacramento bee, “ted kaczynski’s lawyers, however well intentioned and paternalistic, are not ‘assisting’ him. they are controlling him. they are strong arming a man on trial for his life.” mello compared kaczynski’s legal situation to that of john brown, the leader of the famous raid at harpers ferry a violent attempt to foment a slave rebellion in virginia in 1859. brown’s refusal to allow his lawyers to raise an insanity defense during his trial was respected, and his execution helped bring about the end of slavery. james q. wilson, the conservative social scientist, wrote, in a times op ed, of the manifesto, “the argument is subtle and carefully developed, lacking anything even faintly resembling the wild claims or irrational speculation that a lunatic might produce. . . . if it is the work of a madman, then the writings of many political philosophers jean jacques rousseau, tom paine, karl marx are scarcely more sane.” the only writer who got to see kaczynski was john zerzan, a veteran anarchist from oregon. here is a sample of the coverage that zerzan was giving kaczynski, taken from the magazine anarchy: enter the unabomber and a new line is being drawn. this time the bohemian schiz fluxers, green yuppies, hobbyist anarcho journalists, condescending organizers of the poor, hip nihilo aesthetes, and all the other “anarchists” who thought their pretentious pastimes would go unchallenged indefinitely well, it’s time to pick which side you’re on. . . . some, no doubt, would prefer to wait for a perfect victim. many would like to un learn what they know of the invasive and unchallenged violence generated everywhere by the prevailing order in order to condemn the unabomber’s counter terror. but here is the man and the challenge before us. anarchists! one more effort if you would be enemies of this long nightmare! think for yourself. act on your own. those who wanted to know what kaczynski was thinking were forced to rely on the few people who had contact with him still, primarily, his lawyers, who naturally tended to emphasize his terrible mental illness. (it was so much worse than an outsider could know, they claimed. anyone who doubted its power was stupid or heartless, or both.) but tony serra, too, was still in touch with him, and what he told me was that kaczynski “believed that the public defenders (who are paid by the government and therefore ‘sup from the same trough’ as the prosecutors) were conspiring . . . to silence him and prevent him from espousing the ideology that ‘explained’ the homicides. he believed that it was ultimately the right and the left hands, so to speak, of government seeking the same objective in chilling his opportunity to be heard.” dr. sally johnson proved to be the drama’s deus ex machina. a lifelong employee of the federal prison system, she is currently the associate warden for health services at a prison in butner, north carolina. like dr. park dietz, she has testified for the prosecution in many high profile trials, including jim bakker’s and john hinckley’s. she has a reputation for fairness, although vince fuller, one of hinckley’s attorneys, has said that the government “picks her when they want a certain result, and she gives it to them.” dr. johnson spent a week interviewing kaczynski and reading his journals and other writings and the reports of the other doctors. as had been expected, she found kaczynski competent to stand trial and to represent himself. but, according to those who read her sealed report to the court, she also offered a “provisional” diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. this was good news for kaczynski’s lawyers and bad news for the prosecutors, and it was to have a decisive impact on the proceedings. court reconvened on january 22nd. although dr. johnson had found the defendant competent to represent himself, and both the defense and the prosecution, asked for their views, had filed briefs conceding that he had a constitutional right to do so, judge burrell went out on a judicial limb and denied kaczynski’s request. this request, too, he said, had been “untimely.” kaczynski would need time to prepare never mind his offer to start trial immediately and a new jury would have to be selected. the judge even accused kaczynski from the bench of trying to manipulate the court and delay his trial. the upshot: kaczynski would have to proceed with his present lawyers, would have to listen to himself being described as mentally ill, and would have to listen to the most embarrassing passages in his journals read out in court, aware that they would be broadcast around the world as evidence that he was a “sickie,” a despicable laughingstock, certainly not someone whose ideas should be taken seriously. that was when kaczynski copped a plea. it was a curious dénouement. the government had been widely criticized for not accepting previous offers of a guilty plea, and had been accused of pursuing the death penalty for political reasons. but the plea offers had always been conditional. the prosecutors wanted at least a clean win a life sentence, without possibility of release and not further litigation about the constitutionality of their search of the cabin. so they had refused to consider anything but an unconditional plea. and that was what kaczynski suddenly offered them, only minutes after the judge refused his request to represent himself. in truth, the government’s chances of getting a death sentence had started to look less bright. the prosecutors knew, after the judge’s rulings, that they would be facing at trial not only the formidable pair of denvir and clarke but the even more formidable pair of david and wanda. the kaczynskis, that is, had made it clear that they intended to sit, in obvious agony, behind ted throughout the trial, and to testify about his many years of deepening mental illness. what jury would not be moved by such a spectacle? judge burrell, for his part, had reason to be pleased with this abrupt conclusion. his painful struggle, primarily with kaczynski, for control of his courtroom was suddenly over, and his controversial rulings restricting the defendant’s right to counsel would not face appeal. instead, they had helped to force the settlement of the case. there was, of course, something odd about his flying a psychiatrist in from north carolina for a week to determine the defendant’s competency to represent himself and then, when she found him competent, ruling that he could not represent himself. but the defense was not about to point out this bit of judicial fickleness. and, when the prosecutors suddenly changed course and supported this ruling, it seemed that the fix was definitely in. nobody at least, nobody with any power wanted this trial to go ahead. the final scene, that afternoon, was appropriately weird. the judge asked kaczynski a set of basic questions age, education, occupation to which he gave answers that were both banal and riveting. “i was once an assistant professor of mathematics. since then i have spent much time living in the woods in montana and have held a variety of unskilled jobs.” (at one point, the judge used one of his favorite words, a miserable legalism, saying, “is that what you are referencing?” kaczynski replied, “yes, your honor. that is what i am referring to.” it was as if some lexical divinity had parted the clouds, particularly when the judge then replied, “are you referring to anything other than that?”) next, the prosecutors laid out some of the facts that they would be prepared to prove at trial. the recitation lasted nearly an hour. it was gory shrapnel piercing a heart, hands blown off and what was particularly horrifying were decoded “lab notes” from kaczynski’s journals, in which he recorded the results of his “experiments.” “excellent” was his judgment on the swift, bloody death of hugh scrutton, a young computer rental business owner. “a totally satisfactory result,” he wrote of the murder of thomas mosser, a new jersey father of two. after each horror story and all sixteen bombings were described the judge asked kaczynski, “do you agree with the factual representation just made by the government’s attorney?” and kaczynski answered, in a clear, unreadable tone, “yes, your honor.” what was, in a way, the most disturbing story involved no fatalities. it was an attempt, in 1979, to bring down an airliner with seventy two passengers aboard. kaczynski had used a barometer triggered device, and it had succeeded only in setting some mailbags on fire and forcing an emergency landing; in a letter written years later, the unabomber expressed relief that the airline bomb had failed, since its target had been too indiscriminate. by then, he had laid out the political coördinates of his campaign, seeking to justify, in the manifesto, his attacks on computer scientists, geneticists, behavioral psychologists, and public relations executives. but one of his motives for planting a bomb on the airliner, and nearly killing all those people, had apparently been pure peevishness. hypersensitive to noise, kaczynski hated the jets that periodically flew over his home in montana. the worst journal entry, certainly, concerned the 1985 maiming of john hauser, an air force pilot and berkeley graduate student in electrical engineering: i was relieved to read what kind of guy sprang the trap. i had worried about possibility that some young kid, undergrad, not even computer science major, might get it. but this guy is clearly typical member of the technician class. might even be one of the guys that has flown those fucking jets over my home. this gives great relief to my choking, frustrated anger and sense of impotence against the system. at same time, must admit i feel badly about having crippled this man’s arm. it has been bothering me a good deal. this is embarrassing because while my feelings are partly from pity, i am sure they come largely from the training, propaganda, brainwashing we all get, conditioning us to be scared by the idea of doing certain things. it is shameful to be under the sway of this brainwashing. but do not get the idea that i regret what i did. relief of frustrated anger outweighs uncomfortable conscience. i would do it all over again. later, kaczynski wrote: further search of newspapers yielded . . . hauser’s arm was severed or nearly severed. tips of three fingers torn off. use of arm and hand will be permanently impaired. to what degree not known. hauser father of two kids. he was working toward ph.d., contrary to other paper that said masters. he was afraid his “dream” was ruined. dream was to be an astronaut. imagine a grown man whose dream is to be an astronaut. i am no longer bothered by this guy partly because i just “got over it” with time, partly because his aspiration was so ignoble. watching kaczynski listen to these “representations” of his crimes and his private, crabbed confessions, i struggled, without success, to comprehend the combination of such viciousness and such meekness in one man. he really was the mail bomber par excellence. he was also no stranger to ignoble ambition his own being, apparently, a career of guilt free killing and maiming of innocent people. i was reminded of a passage from an undated letter he had written to his brother: as you know, i have no respect for law or morality. why have i never committed any crime? (of course, i’m not talking about something like shooting a grouse out of season now and then. i mean felony type stuff burglary, arson, murder, etc.) lack of motive? hardly. as you know, i have a good deal of anger in me and there are lots of people i’d like to hurt. risk? in some cases, yes. but there are other cases in which i can figure out ways of doing naughty things so that the risk would be insignificant. i am forced to the humiliating confession that the reason i’ve never committed any crime is that i have been successfully brainwashed by society. on an intellectual level i have only contempt for authority, but on an animal level i have all too much respect for it. my training has been quite successful in this regard and the strength of my conditioned inhibitions is such that i don’t believe i could ever commit a serious crime. knowing my attitude toward psychological manipulation of the individual by society, you can imagine how humiliating it is for me to admit to myself that i have been successfully manipulated. on the internet, where discussion groups are still devoted to topics like “ted’s anger,” there was much debate and rending of garments in the aftermath of the plea agreement. my own favorite posting was “he admitted to his crimes without shame, unlike that pussy mcveigh.” while some commentators speculated that kaczynski had in fact brilliantly manipulated the judicial process, the defense psychiatrists were nonplussed by this image of kaczynski as mastermind. what they saw, as the trial approached, was a spectacle of panic, with kaczynski becoming “extremely disorganized,” to quote dr. froming. a report by his jailers that kaczynski, on the night after his request to retain serra was denied, had apparently tried to hang himself in his cell seemed, if true, to favor the psychiatrists’ view of his mental state. i saw it differently. kaczynski struck me the way he had struck judge burrell, as lucid and well focussed, particularly when one considered that he was on trial for his life. he was just hopelessly trapped. he had tried each of his very few options, and then had taken the best deal he could get. it is reported that while kaczynski awaits formal sentencing, which will come in may, he has been writing furiously. speculation about what he is writing has included a “manifesto ii,” a detailed rebuttal of the psychiatric reports that found him mentally ill, and a desperate effort to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that it was coerced. he has also been in touch with tony serra, who has declined to assist with any effort to withdraw his plea. the slight possibility that such an effort might succeed, gaining kaczynski a trial, which might then result in a death sentence, is presumably too awful for even the true believer to contemplate. i talked to david kaczynski the day after the plea agreement was reached. he was full of praise for the judge, for ted’s defense team, for dr. sally johnson. he and his mother were immensely relieved, he said, but also immensely sad. “there is just so much that the public hasn’t seen of ted,” he said. “he is so different from the outline the prosecution sketched of him. he is the most complex individual i have ever known truly a mystery and i thought that long before i ever imagined that he might be involved in attacks on people.” ted had always been at war with the idea that he had a conscience, david explained. “you could hear it in the journal entry they read in court about john hauser. he really believes that conscience comes from brainwashing. it’s not the way most of us see our socialization. . . . he is committed to a kind of rationality that ultimately doesn’t create coherence within his own psyche. i guess there are people who really can dissociate people in organized crime, or government leaders who commit great violence, and still sleep well at night. i don’t think ted ever slept well.” i thought of ted’s cabin, which his lawyers had brought to sacramento on a flatbed truck, planning to show it to the jury and ask the question: “would anyone but a certifiable lunatic choose such a primitive abode?” what they did not bring, of course, were the forests and rivers and mountains kaczynski loved. david started talking about the times he and ted had spent together in montana when ted first lived there. he recalled with particular fondness a long backpacking trip. “i mean, it was long for me,” he said, laughing softly. “a couple of weeks. we went way back in the mountains, where we found this pristine little lake. it seemed like no other people had been there. the lake was full of cutthroat trout, and this was before i became a vegetarian, so we just caught trout every day and that was what we ate. we actually camped on a little island. we waded out there. i guess we were thinking of bears.” “bears can wade,” i said. “that’s true,” he said. “they can.” ♦ searching for the cause of a catastrophic plane crash. the man who spent forty two years at the beverly hills hotel pool. gloria steinem’s life on the feminist frontier. where the amish go on vacation. how colonel sanders built his kentucky fried fortune. what does procrastination tell us about ourselves? fiction by patricia highsmith: “the trouble with mrs. blynn, the trouble with the world” sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from the new yorker. sections more © 2025 condé nast. all rights reserved. the new yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our affiliate partnerships with retailers. the material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of condé nast. ad choices
supported by word of the day this word has appeared in 89 articles on nytimes.com in the past year. can you use it in a sentence? by the learning network : uninterrupted and indefinitely long; constant the word incessant has appeared in 89 articles on nytimes.com in the past year, including on march 13 in “you texted? i hadn’t noticed” by fortesa latifi: the modern phone seems to never stop vibrating, pinging and lighting up in an unending quest for our attention. short of turning the phone off and rendering it a useless brick, there’s little one can do to get distance from a device. that’s where do not disturb mode comes in. … but once it goes up, it can be hard to take down. like ms. henry, some say they switched on the mode long ago and may never turn back   occasionally to the frustration of their friends. “i understand if someone is sleeping or busy, but if it’s on all the time, it functions like a locked door and a ‘go away’ doormat,” said katriel nopoulos, a 35 year old disability activist in philadelphia. “it’s the opposite of hospitality and welcoming.” and that is often the point. zoe marzo, 36, said she first enabled do not disturb when a friend wouldn’t stop texting her. “it was incessant,” she said. “so i kind of started using it as an extra defense and boundary. now i have it on all the time.” can you correctly use the word incessant in a sentence? based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s word of the day and share it as a comment on this article. it is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun. if you want a better idea of how incessant can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on vocabulary.com. you can also visit this guide to learn how to use ipa symbols to show how different words are pronounced.