Fake news is enemy No. 1 right now. Companies and governments are trying to figure out who should be in charge of spotting misinformation and getting rid of it. MIT researcher Sinan Aral has found that the not-true stuff, what he calls “false news,” is not only hard to stop, but also really effective. A study published last spring found that false news travels way more efficiently and much farther than the truth. In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Aral said misinformation can come at a real cost. (08/27/18)

This week, the European Commission said it’s drafting new rules to get companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter to take any terrorist content off their platforms within an hour. And while this plan has a long way to go to become law, it’s part of a broader move to increase tech regulation in Europe, where many countries have strict hate-speech laws. Politico’s chief technology correspondent Mark Scott says taking down terrorist threats is actually the easiest part when it comes to regulating speech online. (08/24/18)

Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo worked at NASA and IBM before she took the top job at Girl Scout headquarters. Under her leadership, the organization has unveiled a round of STEM merit badges, including new ones for cybersecurity, robotics and mechanical engineering. These come at a time when the Girl Scouts face a shrinking membership. Guest host Lizzie O’Leary talks to Acevedo about whether the badges make the Girl Scouts more relevant and if they’ll help girls gain marketable skills. (08/21/18)  

Few Chinese citizens have credit cards or any sort of credit history. But the country has started incorporating more credit into its economy and culture, and the government is working on a way to measure creditworthiness for both businesses and individuals. Its plan? A social credit score. The idea is akin to the American FICO system in that it’s a financial record of whether you paid your bills or traffic tickets. But the Chinese government is also tracking social behaviors — like whether you jaywalk or refuse to visit your elderly parents — and it’s figuring out how to incorporate those into your score. Amy Choi talked with Marketplace China correspondent Jennifer Pak about how the process for calculating social credits is taking shape.  (08/20/18)

Engagement is a key measure of health for social media platforms. It’s measureed not only by how much time users spend there, but also how often they upload, share, comment and “like.” Investors want to know that these platforms are integrated into users’ lives so that advertising revenue can continue to grow. But some platforms, including Snapchat and Facebook, are seeing engagement decline. Jessi Hempel, a senior writer for Wired magazine, points to a gradual boundary setting with social media that she thinks a lot of people have been doing, intentionally or not. (08/17/18)  

This summer, Marketplace Tech is exploring tech in movies. Today, we’re looking at the Bruce Willis classic “Armageddon,” which was the highest-grossing film of 1998. Willis’ character, Harry Stamper, is a “deep core” oil driller sent into space to drill a hole and drop a bomb in an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. We meet Harry on an offshore oil rig, managing a surly crew, with oil flying everywhere. It’s a depiction of oil-drilling life that has stuck with the public, but has very little to do with reality. Eric van Oort, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas, talked to us about the space drilling technology in “Armageddon.” (08/16/18)

How much do you pay for internet service each month? And what do you get for that price? The National Digital Inclusion Alliance found that lots of customers are paying about $60 a month for their internet packages. And, some get super slow internet speeds, while others get super fast speeds. Internet service providers say they’re working to upgrade networks for everyone. Today on the show, NDIA executive director Angela Siefer talks with us about what it means for families paying full service prices for outdated internet service. (08/15/2018)