The alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi dominated the headlines and may seem like a treasure trove of material for #FakeNewsFriday. The complicated web of conflicting stories and negotiated statements will almost certainly get a "fake news" topic tag on the app - but not now.  Content posted to the blue "journalist" SNiPs are independently reported in multiple sources. That means sometimes we leave big headlines dangling out there. For example, take this NYT piece of Turkish officials describing an audio recording of Khashoggi's alleged killing. So far no one has published these audio recordings and today we saw Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denying that Turkish officials shared the audio with him. But later, ABC reported from an anonymous source that he had. So far, all of the Turkish sources that have said Khashoggi was tortured and dismembered have been anonymous. Until things settle (if the ever settle) on the contents of these mysterious recordings, SUJO will make SNiPs around the conversation rather than report them as true. Big lies make big news.
 

As the election approaches, social platforms stay in the headlines for both good and bad reasons. Facebook, Facebook-owned WhatsApp, and Twitter were all in the news for taking steps to combat disinformation and help defend against election meddling from foreign and domestic bad actors. However, a lawsuit was recently filed against Facebook by a group of marketers for allegedly reporting fake video viewing numbers on its platform, an accusation that began in 2016 when many publications fired traditional journalists and hired video teams to address Facebook's growing video numbers.

As always, these stories are available on the SUJO app along with questions you can answer anonymously on the app. We'd love to hear what you think!

Check out the "Fake News" topic category in the SUJO app for more! You can also keep up with #FakeNewsFriday on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!