Andrew Deck
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Reporting on AI and journalism @NiemanLab. Previously: @restofworld. Bylines: @TheNation @JapanTimes @PopMech. Signal: andrewdeck.01 andrewdeck.bsky.social
Articles by Andrew Deck
U.K. politicians and German publishers call on regulators to pause Meta’s new terms before October 30 deadline
Link parliamentlive.tv ↗ Posted by Andrew Deck, Hanaa' Tameez October 21, 2026 The U.K. competition and consumer protection authority sent a formal letter to Meta to discuss its new commercial terms of service. On Tuesday, Will Hayter, the executive director for digital markets at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), shared the update during a session of the communications and digital committee of British Parliament, after a member of the House of Lords pressed him about Meta’s new terms.
The Wall Street Journal’s new AI tool, “Doppler,” forecasts the issues that will shape the midterm elections
More than 100 million voters are expected to cast ballots in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. In recent election cycles, political reporting based on voter polling has drawn criticism, prompted scrutiny, and found defenders. As the debate over the value of polling continues, The Wall Street Journal is exploring new ways to cover public opinion and break out of traditional horse race political coverage.
Meta’s new commercial terms will allow the scraping of news sites, legal experts say - The Journal of the San Juan Islands
By Andrew Deck and Hanaa’ Tameez Nieman Lab Meta can use web scrapers to crawl and collect content from websites “associated with” business accounts on its platforms, according to its new commercial terms of use. The update, set to go into effect on Oct. 30, will include news publishers with business accounts. These accounts allow companies or public figures to manage Facebook pages, Messenger accounts, Instagram profiles or WhatsApp channels from one place.
Meta’s new commercial terms will allow the scraping of news sites, legal experts say - The Journal of the San Juan Islands
Meta’s new commercial terms will allow the scraping of news sites, legal experts say - The Journal of the San Juan Islands
Legal experts warn Meta’s new terms still grant broad scraping permissions, despite language changes
Meta has removed the word “train” from its upcoming terms of service for business accounts. The company revised its terms after Nieman Lab’s story on Thursday exposed that the new terms would permit broad scraping of websites “associated with” business accounts, and possibly allow Meta to use that scraped content to train its AI models.
Meta’s new commercial terms will allow the scraping of news sites, legal experts say
Meta can use web scrapers to crawl and collect content from websites “associated with” business accounts on its platforms, according to its new commercial terms of use. The update, set to go into effect on October 30, will include news publishers with business accounts. These accounts allow companies or public figures to manage Facebook pages, Messenger accounts, Instagram profiles, or WhatsApp channels from one place.
Google’s News AI pilot expands to over 400 publications, including U.S. local news outlets
Link blog.google ↗ Posted by Andrew Deck October 15, 2026 In December, Google launched its News AI pilot program, which licenses content from select publishers and uses it to test new AI features in Google News. On Thursday, the company announced that the program has added new partnerships, bringing the total number of publications in the pilot to more than 400 worldwide.
“We’re in their shit. They’re not in ours”: USA Today Co. execs defend Palantir deal
Link fastcompany.com ↗ Posted by Andrew Deck October 8, 2026 USA Today Co. executives are revealing new details about a controversial deal with Palantir. In a joint interview with Fast Company’s Alex Pasternack, three executives from the country’s largest newspaper chain explained why they moved ahead with the Palantir deal despite major opposition from their own employees.
“Uber agents,” undercover AI personas, and other ways newsrooms are using AI in investigations
Late last month, about 150 journalists, researchers, and technologists gathered on the 15th floor of The New York Times Building for a forum on how AI is changing investigative journalism. Just outside the event space was a hallway commemorating the paper’s more than 140 Pulitzer Prize winners, dating back to 1918. One photograph had yet to be hung: a portrait of this year’s winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.
ChatGPT is adding real cartoonists’ signatures to fake New Yorker cartoons
At the pearly gates, Dolly Parton, in a sparkling gown, stands arm in arm with Tim Curry, dressed as Dr. Frank-N-Furter. “I knew I chose the right plus one,” Parton says to God, who is standing at heaven’s reception desk. That’s the premise of a cartoon that went viral on Twitter in the days after the legendary entertainers’ deaths in late August. One tweet of the cartoon received 25,000 likes, while other versions of the image circulated on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
ChatGPT is adding real cartoonists’ signatures to fake New Yorker cartoons
At the pearly gates, Dolly Parton, in a sparkling gown, stands arm in arm with Tim Curry, dressed as Dr. Frank-N-Furter. “I knew I chose the right plus one,” Parton says to God, who is standing at heaven’s reception desk. That’s the premise of a cartoon that went viral on Twitter in the days after the legendary entertainers’ deaths in late August. One tweet of the cartoon received 25,000 likes, while other versions of the image circulated on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
Federal appeals court upholds Thomson Reuters’ landmark AI copyright win
Federal appeals court upholds Thomson Reuters’ landmark AI copyright win LINK: chatgptiseatingtheworld.com ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | September 30, 2026 On Tuesday, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled in favor of Thomson Reuters, upholding the company’s landmark win in a copyright infringement case against the now-defunct legal AI startup Ross Intelligence.
OpenAI commits another 10 million dollars to local news AI fellowships
Posted Tuesday, September 29, 2026 7:13 am OpenAI is committing another $10 million to the Lenfest Institute’s AI and local news fellowship program, according to Nieman Lab. The support consists of $5 million in cash and $5 million in technology credits. The program helps participating news organizations employ engineers to develop tools for their operations. Eligibility is expanding to include local television stations and statewide public-service news organizations.
OpenAI doubles support for Lenfest’s AI and local news fellowships
Sept. 28, 2026, 1:02 p.m. With an additional $10 million in program funding, the Lenfest Institute will consider new applicants in local TV news and statewide public service journalism. OpenAI announced on Monday that it’s doubling its support for the Lenfest Institute’s AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program.
Two years ago, Meta killed CrowdTangle. Can a new AI tool fill the void?
Sept. 9, 2026, 1:59 p.m. Arbiter uses large language models and AI agents to help journalists see the next harmful narrative on social media before it peaks. In 2024, Meta shuttered CrowdTangle, a tool used to track how content spread across Facebook and Instagram. The portal was an essential tool for journalists, fact-checkers, and researchers, who used it for more than a decade to monitor viral content — and the spread of misinformation. CrowdTangle’s end came slowly.
Trump administration says a New York Times win in OpenAI lawsuit would ‘threaten national security’ and hurt small newsrooms
Posted Thursday, September 3, 2026 10:53 am On Wednesday, the Trump administration threw its support behind OpenAI, backing the AI giant in its ongoing litigation with The New York Times. The Department of Justice voiced its support through a statement of interest (SOI) filed with the Manhattan judge overseeing the case, which includes several other plaintiffs, including daily papers owned by Alden Global Capital, high-profile book authors, and smaller nonprofit newsrooms like The Intercept.
Trump administration says a New York Times win in OpenAI lawsuit would “threaten national security” and hurt small newsrooms
Sept. 2, 2026, 4:22 p.m. The Department of Justice filing argues that large publishers will disproportionately benefit if AI companies have to pay to use copyrighted content. On Wednesday, the Trump administration threw its support behind OpenAI, backing the AI giant in its ongoing litigation with The New York Times.
Trump administration says a New York Times win in OpenAI lawsuit would “threaten national security” and hurt small newsrooms
On Wednesday, the Trump administration threw its support behind OpenAI, backing the AI giant in its ongoing litigation with The New York Times. The Department of Justice voiced its support through a statement of interest (SOI) filed with the Manhattan judge overseeing the case, which includes several other plaintiffs, including daily papers owned by Alden Global Capital, high-profile book authors, and smaller nonprofit newsrooms like The Intercept.
Google’s new AI tool helps fact-checkers investigate AI fakes
Aug. 19, 2026, 3:18 p.m. Backstory automates provenance checks, reverse image searches, and context tracing to speed up verification work. Every day the fact-checking team for one of India’s largest news organizations works to debunk a slew of false and misleading images circulating across social media.
Japanese publishers are fighting imposter news sites with a cryptographic signature
Aug. 12, 2026, 3:21 p.m. The Yomiuri Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun, and NHK have all signed onto the Originator Profile standard. On January 1, 2024, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s Noto Peninsula, killing more than 700 people. In the days that followed, AI-generated images of the wreckage circulated widely and fake philanthropic websites scammed people out of donations. False claims that people were trapped under rubble diverted rescue efforts away from the places that needed them most.
The Society of Professional Journalists proposes edits to its code of ethics for the AI age
The Society of Professional Journalists proposes edits to its code of ethics for the AI age LINK: www.spj.org ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | August 11, 2026 On Monday, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) dropped new proposed revisions to its code of ethics — the first revision to one of the most-cited media ethics standards in the country since 2014. As any Nieman Lab reader knows, journalism has seen drastic changes since 2014. One major shift in the last 12 years?
A record-breaking eight Pulitzer awardees disclosed AI use this year
Aug. 3, 2026, 2:03 p.m. Five winners and three finalists detailed their AI adoption to the judging committee. A translation of a mass shooter’s cryptic journal in the days after an attack. A public records review that revealed failures to install flood warning systems in Central Texas. An exposé of American technology companies’ complicity in building the Chinese surveillance state. An audit of the SEC’s crypto lawsuits that showed weakening enforcement under the second Trump administration.
AI authentication tools are built without proper journalist input, new report finds
AI authentication tools are built without proper journalist input, new report finds LINK: citp.princeton.edu ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | July 30, 2026 It has never been easier (or cheaper) to fake and alter media. The evidence that journalists rely on to verify facts — photographs, videos, documents, websites, and even audio calls with sources — can now be convincingly generated with AI. In June, dozens of journalists, technologists, and academics gathered at NYU’s Arthur L.
Business Insider’s big bet against aggregation
Facing repeated layoffs and traffic declines, Business Insider turns its back on the aggregation business it pioneered. “It’s not: Some people do features, some people do spot stories. You’re commanding your beat. You’re doing everything,” said Jamie Heller, Business Insider’s editor-in-chief. It’s a Tuesday morning news meeting at Business Insider’s headquarters in New York’s Financial District.
A new study looks at the skills journalists are losing (and gaining) because of AI tools
A new study looks at the skills journalists are losing (and gaining) because of AI tools LINK: www.tandfonline.com ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | July 8, 2026 Last year, MIT’s Media Lab came out with a buzzy study on a phenomenon that’s been coined “cognitive debt.” In short, the researchers found that when ChatGPT users offloaded essay writing tasks to their AI assistants, their own writing abilities declined.
Fact-checkers reckon with shrinking budgets and growing AI threats at GlobalFact 2026
Hundreds gathered in Lithuania to discuss Russian influence operations, “LLM poisoning,” and how to survive a funding crisis. “Welcome to Vilnius, the city where we face cognitive warfare for real,” Robertas Kaunas, Lithuania’s minister of national defense, said in his opening remarks at this year’s GlobalFact. On June 17, hundreds of fact-checkers assembled in Vilnius for the annual conference of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), part of the Poynter Institute.
Beehiiv’s new Cloudflare partnership gives indie journalists a new level of control over AI crawlers
Beehiiv’s new Cloudflare partnership gives indie journalists a new level of control over AI crawlers LINK: www.cloudflare.com ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | June 25, 2026 Over the past year, major news publishers have taken aggressive anti-scraping measures to curb the rise of AI crawlers. So far, most of these backend interventions have been out of reach for independent journalists who publish on third-party newsletter platforms.
The Centre Daily Times unionizes after backlash to McClatchy’s AI tool
Posted Thursday, June 11, 2026 9:48 am Josh Moyer remembers the exact moment he decided he needed to unionize. Moyer is a senior reporter for the Centre Daily Times, a newspaper in State College, PA, and for months he had been concerned about a new AI tool being rolled out in his newsroom. McClatchy, the Centre Daily Times’ parent company, had chosen the paper as an early test market for its Content Scaling Agent (CSA).
The Centre Daily Times unionizes after backlash to McClatchy’s AI tool
The local Pennsylvania outlet is the first newsroom under The NewsGuild-CWA to unionize in response to AI adoption. Josh Moyer remembers the exact moment he decided he needed to unionize. Moyer is a senior reporter for the Centre Daily Times, a newspaper in State College, PA, and for months he had been concerned about a new AI tool being rolled out in his newsroom. McClatchy, the Centre Daily Times’ parent company, had chosen the paper as an early test market for its Content Scaling Agent (CSA).
The Economist launches a dedicated ChatGPT app
Posted Thursday, May 28, 2026 9:34 am On Wednesday, The Economist launched its own ChatGPT app — the first of its kind by a major consumer news publication. “The Economist – Graphs” runs natively inside ChatGPT and allows users to interact with the publication’s data visualizations. At launch, the app is focused solely on U.S. polling data.
The emerging AI content licensing market puts news publishers in a “double bind,” a new report warns
The emerging AI content licensing market puts news publishers in a “double bind,” a new report warns LINK: www.openmarketsinstitute.org ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | May 27, 2026 A new report from the thinktank Open Markets Institute scopes out the current state of AI content licensing for news publishers.
The Economist launches a dedicated ChatGPT app
The app retrieves and visualizes polling data from The Economist’s Trump approval rating tracker. On Wednesday, The Economist launched its own ChatGPT app — the first of its kind by a major consumer news publication. “The Economist – Graphs” runs natively inside ChatGPT and allows users to interact with the publication’s data visualizations. At launch, the app is focused solely on U.S. polling data.
More than 340 local news outlets are limiting the Internet Archive’s access to their journalism -Nieman Journalism Lab
1080px-Internet_Archive_logo_and_wordmark ABOUT, SUBSCRIBE McClatchy, Advance Local, Tribune Publishing and other major newspaper chains are restricting the nonprofit’s archiving bots.
Over 340 local news outlets are limiting the Internet Archive’s access to their journalism
Editor's note: This story was initially published by Nieman Lab. In January, Nieman Lab broke the story that major news publishers — including The New York Times, The Guardian, and USA Today Co. — had started blocking the Internet Archive due to concerns that AI companies might scrape the nonprofit’s repositories for training data. No news publisher has confirmed to Nieman Lab that an AI company has already scraped their content from the Wayback Machine.
More than 340 local news outlets are limiting the Internet Archive’s access to their journalism
Posted Thursday, May 21, 2026 10:40 am In January, Nieman Lab broke the story that major news publishers — including The New York Times, The Guardian, and USA Today Co. — had started blocking the Internet Archive due to concerns that AI companies might scrape the nonprofit’s repositories for training data. No news publisher has confirmed to Nieman Lab that an AI company has already scraped their content from the Wayback Machine.
More than 340 local news outlets are limiting the Internet Archive’s access to their journalism
In January, Nieman Lab broke the story that major news publishers — including The New York Times, The Guardian, and USA Today Co. — had started blocking the Internet Archive due to concerns that AI companies might scrape the nonprofit’s repositories for training data. No news publisher has confirmed to Nieman Lab that an AI company has already scraped their content from the Wayback Machine.
Micropayments ‘could be the way for news publishers’
A vision of AI agents able to exchange cents for summaries or longer reports, is being revisited after OpenAI co founder Sam Altman outlined it in an Atlantic podcast. In an Re:think interview with the publisher’s chief executive Nicholas Thompson, Altman looked to a future in which micropayments are made on behalf of readers, a concept which has been canvassed by others including Elon Musk.
Sam Altman backs “micropayment” model for AI agents to compensate publishers
Sam Altman backs “micropayment” model for AI agents to compensate publishers LINK: www.youtube.com ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | May 18, 2026 Late last month, Sam Altman sat down with Nicholas Thompson, the CEO of The Atlantic, for a podcast episode of “The Most Interesting Thing in AI.” The show is produced by Re:think, the publication’s marketing and branded content studio. One clip has been making the rounds on social media the past couple days.
Semafor’s new AI tool helped boil down its entire flagship conference into nine takeaways
Posted Friday, May 8, 2026 10:52 am On April 13, more than 500 CEOs and other power brokers gathered in Washington, D.C. to join Semafor World Economy. Across the five-day event, hundreds of speakers took the stage, including Goldman Sachs President John Waldron, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, and nine sitting U.S. cabinet officials.
Semafor’s new AI tool helped boil down its entire flagship conference into nine takeaways
Semafor Intelligence leans on embedding models to distill hundreds of session transcripts into key insights. On April 14, more than 500 CEOs and other power brokers gathered in Washington, D.C. to join Semafor World Economy. Across the five-day event, hundreds of speakers took the stage, including Goldman Sachs President John Waldron, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, and nine sitting U.S. cabinet officials.
Google highlights links from subscribed publications in new AI Overviews update
Google highlights links from subscribed publications in new AI Overviews update LINK: blog.google ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | May 6, 2026 When a Google search user encounters an AI Overview or an AI Mode response, the response will now highlight whether it includes information that comes from a publication the user subscribes to. Google claims that in early testing, people were “significantly more likely” to click through to a webpage that had this “Subscribed” label.
Geospatial AI is reinventing the rainforest beat
Environmental journalists are pairing satellite imagery and machine learning to expose illegal mining across the Amazon. In 2018, Joseph Poliszuk fled Venezuela. That year, after exposing corruption in then-President Nicolas Maduro’s administration, he had become the target of lawsuits by wealthy Maduro loyalists. He and several of his colleagues at the independent outlet Armando.info packed up their lives and fled the country under threat of imprisonment.
Journalists champion Wayback Machine after news publishers limit article archiving
Journalists champion Wayback Machine after news publishers limit article archiving LINK: www.savethearchive.com ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | April 15, 2026 In January, Hanaa’ Tameez and I broke the story that The New York Times, The Guardian, and USA Today Co. had begun limiting the Wayback Machine’s access to their news articles.
ProPublica journalists walk off the job in first U.S. newsroom strike over AI
On the picket line in New York, union leaders said they expect “more concentrated conflicts” over AI in the news industry. On Wednesday, roughly 150 members of the Propublica Guild, one of the largest nonprofit newsroom unions in the country, went on a 24-hour strike.
Federal appeals court supports injunction against ICE in L.A. Press Club lawsuit
Federal appeals court supports injunction against ICE in L.A. Press Club lawsuit LINK: www.aclusocal.org ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | April 7, 2026 In September 2025, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) limit its use of force against journalists, observers, and peaceful protesters during its ICE raids in Southern California.
Meta’s Oversight Board warns that ‘Community Notes’ aren’t a proper substitute for fact-checking globally
Posted Friday, March 27, 2026 10:34 am On Thursday, Meta’s Oversight Board, a quasi-independent body that reviews the social media giant’s moderation practices, ruled that “Community Notes” are not a proper substitute for its fact-checking program.
Meta’s Oversight Board warns that “Community Notes” aren’t a proper substitute for fact-checking globally
Meta’s Oversight Board warns that “Community Notes” aren’t a proper substitute for fact-checking globally LINK: www.oversightboard.com ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | March 26, 2026 On Thursday, Meta’s Oversight Board, a quasi-independent body that reviews the social media giant’s moderation practices, ruled that “Community Notes” are not a proper substitute for its fact-checking program.
ProPublica’s union authorizes the first U.S. newsroom strike over AI protections
The Guild has voted to walk off the job if ProPublica doesn’t agree to a ban on AI-related layoffs, as well as “just cause” for firings, seniority provisions during layoffs, and wage increases. On March 20, members of the ProPublica Guild, one of the largest nonprofit newsroom unions in the U.S., overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike.
“We’re not going to do a chatbot anytime soon”: Notes on the RISJ’s AI and the Future of News symposium
The Oxford conference tacked topics like live fact-checking, AI-powered tag pages, and computer vision–based investigations. On March 17, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) gathered reporters, academics, and technologists at the University of Oxford for a one-day symposium on AI and the future of news. Conversations about AI and journalism have been roiled in recent weeks with controversies over AI-generated misquotes, Slack channel leaks, and J-school curriculum critiques.
Traffic to top tech publications has plummeted since 2024, new analysis shows
Traffic to top tech publications has plummeted since 2024, new analysis shows LINK: growtika.com ➚ | Posted by: Andrew Deck | March 4, 2026 Organic search traffic to some of the internet’s most-read tech publications has dropped by 58% since 2024, according to a new analysis from the SEO and GEO marketing firm Growtika. The report pulled U.S. organic traffic estimates using Ahrefs for ten major English-language tech publications, including Wired, CNET, Mashable, The Verge, and PC Mag.
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