Facebook will announce on Tuesday two new efforts to help support newsrooms and fact-checkers in efforts to promote quality information about the coronavirus.
By the numbers: Facebook will donate $1 million to local newsrooms to help them cover the crisis and $1 million to fact-checkers' efforts reviewing news coverage for virus misinformation.
A new report out Tuesday from a non-profit focused on online free expression is calling on federal lawmakers to mandate more transparency from tech companies rather than weakening the industry's liability shield.
Why it matters: Internet platforms could embrace policies like transparency requirements as a far more palatable alternative to eroding their immunity from lawsuits over user-posted content, which they say is vital to their existence.
As the coronavirus crisis forces daily life across the U.S. into a new homebound template, the tech industry is swooping in to reshape how we shop, eat and entertain ourselves.
The big picture: Trends toward e-commerce, delivery services and online entertainment have long been underway, but this moment is accelerating them — and pushing the companies and industries behind them into a new position of dominance.
Google will not launch a nationwide website for coronavirus information as planned today. Instead, it hopes to have the website up later this week.
Between the lines: As Axios reported this weekend, the national website was only planned after President Trump blindsided the company by announcing it at a Friday press conference.
The White House on Monday called on artificial intelligence experts to help the scientific community answer key questions about the novel coronavirus.
The big picture: Researchers and companies created a dataset of academic literature of more than 29,000 articles about the COVID-19 illness, the virus behind it and related pathogens. Now the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy wants experts to mine that data to quickly answer questions about the pandemic.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which has been at the forefront of the Trump administration's coronavirus response, was hit with a cyberattack over the weekend, Bloomberg News first reported and Axios has confirmed.
Why it matters: The attack comes in the midst of the Trump administration's efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 4,000 people in the U.S.
Companies from across the tech industry are trying to figure out not only how best to support their employees during the coronavirus crisis, but also how they can be a resource to their users.
Why it matters: There are a lot of unknowns about what the next few weeks and months hold, but there are some clear needs as the U.S. heads into uncharted territory.
President Trump's exaggerated claims about a Google-developed website to triage coronavirus diagnosis and treatment nationwide are the latest instance of a longstanding presidential pattern of tech-related misrepresentations and hype.
Why it matters: At a moment when the public needs solid trustworthy information from leaders, institutions and news sources, the president is spreading confusion and doubt.
