The Daily Crunch 11/17/16

Fake news on Facebook got more engagement than ever around the election. That and more in The Daily Crunch for November 17, 2016. And if you're living in the UK, prepare to be even more surveilled.

1. Fake news on FB spiked around the election

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been vocal about how little fake news there is on his social network overall, but an investigation by BuzzFeed news revealed that during the final three months of the campaign prior to the U.S. election, the top 20 fake stories outperformed the top 20 legit news pieces on the network. Before that, fake news drove way less engagement than did the fake stuff.

Most of the fake news that did well was from right-wing or pro-Trump sources, according to BuzzFeed, including the top five stories it found, which included one about a false endorsement for Trump by Pope Francis. It's a very troubling finding, but one that doesn't immediately point to any clear causes or solutions – aside from, once again, more strident vetting and blocking of fake news on the site before it spreads.

2. Trump's chief strategist suggests too many tech CEOs are Asian

Breitbart executive chairman and Trump chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon is pretty careful about not being overtly racist on the record, but a radio interview with Donald Trump last year reveals that he's uncomfortable with "two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in silicon Valley [being] from South Asia or from Asia," even as Trump tried to argue that retaining talent regardless of its origin is important for the U.S. The prospect of this man in any position of power should be terrifying to all.

3. AOL cuts a third of the headcount it's added over the past year

AOL (which owns TechCrunch) is laying off 500 employees, the company revealed today. Those will come across its global footprint, and represent somewhere around 7 percent of its total workforce. AOL added 1,500 employees over the past 12 months, through acquisitions including Millennial Media, so it makes sense that it would see some rationalization – but this likely isn't the end of workforce reduction, given that a Yahoo acquisition will result in more redundancy. Spare a thought for the newsletter writers.

4. LinkedIn gets blocked in Russia

Russia's enforcing a ban of LinkedIn, since the professional social network doesn't store its user data locally on Russian servers. LinkedIn says it's still open to meeting with the Russian comms regulator to talk about data localization options, but for now no Russians can endorse you for 'blogging' on its network within their country.

5. Intel and Disney debut a drone dance

Drones are reusable fireworks with greater finesse and more intricate modes of control. That's cool. Disney's doing some real imagineering with the tech, which is a good look for the company that brought us Fantasia. Probably a more socially acceptable use of drones than package delivery -- at least for now.

6. UK lawmakers green light a mass surveillance law

You've seen Person of Interest? It's like that, so – scary.

7. Uber's data-driven restaurant guide

Uber collects a lot of data, and it's not just good for routing trips or building autonomous vehicles. A new project at the company is using drop-offs and other signals to provide guidance about where to eat in 12 U.S. cities, and it's a pretty cool indication of how Uber could eventually contend with the likes of Yelp and Foursquare.