The Detail is a daily news podcast produced for RNZ by Newsroom and is published on Stuff with permission. Click on this link to subscribe to the podcast.

On the surface, a change in algorithm by Facebook to fill your newsfeed with friends and family news, and push down branded content and news items, sounds fairly harmless.

But the change is increasingly drawing criticism, as it throws up unintended consequences – fake news highlighted, ignorance spread widely, and your data to be captured en masse.

In last year’s Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma several former big tech employees laid out more dramatic charges – that users are being nudged towards certain behaviour and thoughts, they’re being monitored and tracked, our emotional buttons are being pushed without us realising it – and, if you want to control a population or country there’s never been a tool as effective as Facebook.

READ MORE: Facebook’s algorithmic ‘funhouse mirror’ Facebook increases transparency, gives users greater control over News Feed How to ensure you keep seeing news on Facebook

Then on March 31 former UK deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who’s now in charge of Facebook’s global communication, wrote a blog piece that has been described as ‘wilfully naïve’ – saying the Facebook algorithm is just reflecting back what you, the user, feed it .

If that’s the case, says digital technology expert Dr Andrew Chen, it’s a funhouse mirror. Chen, a research fellow at the University of Auckland’s Koi Tū – Centre for Informed Futures – talks to The Detail about the impacts of a curated news feed on users.

“The ‘mirror’ is distorting what a user is showing to it,” he says. In the podcast, he explains how.

The Detail also speaks to Newsroom senior political reporter Marc Daalder who has analysed Clegg’s blog and written about the funhouse mirror .

“Theoretically we can turn off Facebook,” he says. “But it’s become such a central part of our social lives that it’s not really a viable option for most people. That means Facebook has responsibilities to us as our sort of ‘new public square’ that go beyond its responsibilities to its shareholders. These are public interest based responsibilities not profit-based ones … and that’s where regulation comes in.”

That would be a massive task for New Zealand, which doesn’t have a lot of heft against a gigantic multi-national.

Marc Daalder says the overall idea of the Christchurch Call is coming to a multi-lateral agreement on how to deal with distasteful content on social media – “and not just distasteful but content that has really negative, offline, impacts as a result of what’s happening online; the key example being the March 15 livestream which wasn’t just bad as an online product but had real offline traumatising impacts”.

Facebook’s algorithms aren’t inherently geared towards promoting, for example, anti-vax or white supremacist content.

“But often the algorithms are geared towards promoting whatever people are more likely to engage with, and that’s more likely to be something that’s provocative and outrageous and shocking.

“A lot of the spread of fake news for example has found to be the result of people sharing it, not because they agree with it or believe it but to say ‘can you believe this?’; ‘look at that!’; ’that’s ridiculous’ … but then that means it’s still getting more reach and there are more people who might look at that and not have the same sort of critical view, and fall for it.

“If you see a YouTube video that is fake, but it has 10 million views, then you might start to think, ‘well, would this many people be watching it if it was fake?’“

And Daalder says in the post-Trump era, “when real life gets whackier it’s easier to believe the whacky stuff you get on line.”

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Facebook announced today that it exceeded one of its biggest environmental goals: it managed to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by 94 percent in 2020. It had previously pledged to cut planet-heating emissions by 75 percent. The company said that it had also achieved its goal of “net zero emissions” — not putting any more emissions into the atmosphere than it can take out.

Facebook also announced that it had achieved another goal: it now purchases enough renewable energy to cover 100 percent of its global operations, which includes its offices and data centers. But that doesn’t mean that all of its operations are actually powered by renewables like solar and wind energy — at least not yet.

Renewable energy is on the rise, but most electricity grids still rely on fossil fuels. When companies can’t purchase enough renewable energy from utilities because there isn’t enough supply, they buy renewable energy certificates that signal that the company invested in renewable energy projects somewhere. Those projects can be located anywhere, and certificates have been sold for so cheap that critics say they don’t really lead to more renewable energy generation . Facebook also relies on renewable energy certificates, but it focuses on signing long-term contracts to support the construction of new solar and wind developments in the same places where it operates. It’s invested in 63 new renewable energy projects located on the same electrical grids as its data centers.

Its next target is to reach net zero emissions by 2030 for its entire supply chain and other indirect emissions that come from things like employee travel and commuting. To hit that goal, Facebook says that it developed environmental standards for its suppliers. It also plans to rely more heavily on emerging technologies that draw carbon dioxide out of the air.

Facebook has recently also tried to limit misinformation about climate change on its platform. Last year, it launched a “Climate Science Information Center” in some countries. In the UK this year, it started adding a label to some posts about climate change that redirect people to its information center. It all comes on the heels of criticism from activists and policymakers over how misinformation about climate change festered on the site, including one high-profile case of Facebook reversing a “false” rating that its fact-checkers gave to an op-ed based on inaccurate information.

“We know the next 10 years will be the defining time for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and that we have a role to play in this effort — both as a platform that connects people to information and as a global company that supports climate action,” Facebook’s director of renewable energy, Urvi Parekh, wrote in a blog today.

A “HEALTHY” dad was paralyzed and unable to speak after getting the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine, as the jab is pulled due to the risk of blood clots.

Brad Malagarie, 43, from St Martin, Mississippi, suffered a stroke caused by a blood clot in his left middle cerebral artery in his brain within four hours of being given the one-dose shot, according to his family.

The news about the dad-of-seven comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Tuesday they were recommending a pause in handing out the shot after six women developed rare, but serious, blood clots out of 7.2million vaccinations.

That figure was later updated to nine people which included two people who developed blood clots during clinical trials and seven after the vaccine had been approved for emergency use.

So far there is no evidence to indicate the Covid-19 vaccines caused any of the blood clots, including the clot suffered by Malagarie.

All previous reports of blood clots happened between six and 13 days after receiving the one-dose shot.

Malagarie’s family told WLOX they were convinced the vaccine was to blame for Brad’s condition.

Malagarie received the Covid-19 vaccine at around midday on April 6 and then returned to his office.

His coworkers found him slumped and unresponsive at his desk a few hours later and he was rushed to hospital, according to the report.

Doctors diagnosed he had suffered a stroke caused by a blood clot in his brain.

Celeste Foster O’Keefe, Malagarie’s aunt and boss, said: “He’s a young, healthy 43-year-old, and I immediately thought it, and I said be sure to tell the doctors he took that J & J vaccine and that, to me, is what caused his stroke.”

She said his only health issue was that he suffered from high blood pressure but took medication for the condition.

Malagarie is currently being treated at the Ochsner Medical Center in Louisiana and although he is has left the ICU he is still in a critical but stable condition.

Celeste said he was still unable to talk or move the right side of his body.

“He can’t talk now and he can’t walk. He’s paralyzed on the right side. He knows who we are and he will just cry when he sees us,” O’Keefe said.

Doctors have told the family it could be a long road to recovery and a Facebook donation page has been set up by the family to pay his medical bills.

The Mississippi State Department of Health said in a statement it was “saddened” to learn of Malagarie’s condition and is investigating.

“The Mississippi State Department of Health is saddened to hear about the recent illness of Mr. Malagarie and wishes him well,”the health department told WLOX.

“The Agency is certainly investigating the situation. It is difficult, if not impossible, to assign a cause and effect at this time.

“It is important to note that strokes are not associated with this vaccine – instead a rare clotting syndrome has been identified.”

The department pointed out the confirmed cases so far have all been in women and reactions happened several days after getting the shot.

“Further, adverse reaction has been cited between six and 13 days after the vaccine was administered,” they said.

All administration of the J&J vaccine was paused this week in Mississippi on the advice of the CDC and FDA.

The White House health adviser Dr Anthony Fauci warned Wednesday that women should be “alert to some symptoms” if they had been given the J&J Covid vaccine.

“This is a very rare event. It’s less than one in a million,” he told CBS News .

“Having said that, you still wanna be alert to some symptoms, such as severe headache, some difficulty in movement, or some chest discomfort and difficulty breathing.”

He also confirmed that analysts are looking into the possibility of an adverse “hormonal” response with the Johnson & Johnson shot tied to taking a regimen of birth control pills.

“There have been similar types of phenomena that have occurred during pregnancy,” he said during the interview.

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“Clotting abnormalities are known in women who take birth control pills, so certainly there could be a hormonal aspect to this.”

“It’s really younger women that seem to be at highest risk and there are other risks in that age group,” Stanford’s Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, who is a liaison for the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) told KGO , adding that birth control pills could factor in.

“For example, that’s when autoimmune diseases start to appear, that’s when birth control pills are being used, so there may be other factors involved.”

HOME security doesn’t have to be very expensive and complex to install.

The latest wireless security solutions can be affordable with good features, like the Eufycam 2c Pro kit.

This article and featured products have been independently chosen by Sun journalists. It contains links which are ads, and if you click a link and buy a product we will earn revenue.

Eufy’s two camera Eufycam 2c Pro kit is on sale right now at Amazon, knocking £90 of the normal price.

The 30% saving means you can get the apple HomeKit compatible product for £210.

• Eufycam 2C Pro 2-cam home security kit, £209.99 (save £90) – buy here

That includes base-station and two cameras to provide good visibilityaround a property.

Eufy’s Eufycam kit is designed to work via WiFi without wires and that includes power, with an approximate 180-days use from one battery charge.

It’s plug-and-play and can display video via Eufy’s own app, but the kit is also designed to work with Apple’s HomeKit setup should you have that in place.

For the price you get two IP67 (weather resistant) cameras, each offering a 135-degree field of view for 2K, better than Full HD, video.

The kit features a colour night-mode with spotlight, infra-red and human and face detection too.

Another bonus of picking up a kit like the Eufycam 2c Pro is that there’s no monthly fee needed after the initial cost of purchase.

The current price isn’t the lowest price ever – the kit was £160 during Black Friday 2020 – but it is the lowest since. So if you do need a quick-to-set-up wireless home security solution, this could be the deal.

• Eufycam 2C Pro 2-cam home security kit, £209.99 (save £90) – buy here

All prices in this article were correct at the time of writing, but may have since changed. Always do your own research before making any purchase.

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