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What are 'The Facebook Papers' ?

The Facebook Papers project represents a unique collaboration among 17 American news organizations, including The Associated Press. Journalists from a variety of newsrooms, large and small, worked together to gain access to thousands of pages of internal company documents obtained by Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager-turned-whistleblower.

A separate consortium of European news outlets had access to the same set of documents, and members of both groups began publishing content related to their analysis of the materials at 7 a.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 25. That date and time was set by the partner news organizations to give everyone in the consortium an opportunity to fully analyze the documents, report out relevant details, and to give Facebook's public relations staff ample time to respond to questions and inquiries raised by that reporting.

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Facebook's Language Gaps Weaken Screening of Hate, Terrorism

As the Gaza war raged and tensions surged across the Middle East last May, Instagram briefly banned the hashtag #AlAqsa, a reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, a flash point in the conflict.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, later apologized, explaining its algorithms had mistaken the third-holiest site in Islam for the militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of the secular Fatah party.

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France Launches State-of-Art Military Communications Satellite

France has successfully launched a state-of-the-art satellite into orbit, designed to allow all of France's armed forces across the globe to communicate swiftly and securely. 

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Chinese Users' Feelings Mixed about LinkedIn Pulling Out

For nearly seven years, LinkedIn has been the only major Western social networking platform still operating in China. People like 32-year-old Jason Liu view it as an important career enhancing tool.

Come the end of the year, Liu will no longer have access to the localized version of LinkedIn, after Microsoft, which acquired the platform in 2016, said last week that it would pull out, citing a "significantly more challenging operating environment."

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China Calls Missile Launch 'Routine Test' of New Technology

China said Monday its launch of a new spacecraft was merely a test to see whether the vehicle could be re-used.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the launch involved a spacecraft rather than a missile and was of "great significance for reducing the use-cost of spacecraft and could provide a convenient and affordable way to make a round trip for mankind's peaceful use of space."

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New Technology Offers Anonymous Way to Report Abuse, Doping

A college basketball player hatched the idea after seeing a discrimination case nearly implode his own team, then wondering why nobody had done anything about it sooner.

Ten years later, that player has developed the idea into a key tool for fixing a sports landscape teeming with cases of sexual abuse, along with examples of racism and sexism in the workplace, discrimination, harassment and doping cheats at virtually every level.

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Japanese Billionaire Gets Ready for December Space Mission

A forthcoming flight to space by a Japanese billionaire will allow the public to have a closer look at life on board the orbiting outpost, the president of Space Adventures, a company that organized the flight, said Friday.

Yusaku Maezawa is set to rocket to space on Dec. 8 on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft together with producer Yozo Hirano who will film his mission and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

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With Latest Mission, China Renews Space Cooperation Vow

Shortly ahead of sending a new three-person crew to its space station, China on Friday renewed its commitment to international cooperation in the peaceful use of space.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said sending humans into space was a "common cause of mankind," and China would "continue to extend the depth and breadth of international cooperation and exchanges" in crewed spaceflight and "make positive contributions to the exploration of the mysteries of the universe."

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Lucy in the Sky: Spacecraft Will Visit Record 8 Asteroids

Attention asteroid aficionados: NASA is set to launch a series of spacecraft to visit and even bash some of the solar system's most enticing space rocks.

The robotic trailblazer named Lucy is up first, blasting off this weekend on a 12-year cruise to swarms of asteroids out near Jupiter — unexplored time capsules from the dawn of the solar system. And yes, there will be diamonds in the sky with Lucy, on one of its science instruments, as well as lyrics from other Beatles' songs.

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Capt. Kirk's William Shatner on Cusp of Blasting into Space

Actor William Shatner counted down Wednesday to his wildest role yet: riding a rocket into space, courtesy of "Star Trek" fan Jeff Bezos.

Best known for his role as Captain Kirk, the 90-year-old Shatner joined three other passengers for the planned launch from West Texas.

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