The Tribune

• Facebook is taking new measures to curb the spread of fake news on its huge and influential social network.

It will focus on the “worst of the worst” offenders and partner with outside fact-checkers and news organisations to sort honest news reports from made-up stories that play to people’s passions and preconceived notions.

The social network will make it easier for users to report fake news when they see it, which they’ll be able to do in two steps, not three.

If enough people report a story as fake, Facebook will pass it to third-party fact-checking organisations that are part of the nonprofit Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network.

Five fact-checking and news organisations are working with Facebook on this: ABC News, The Associated Press, FactCheck.org, Politifact and Snopes. Facebook says this group is likely to expand.

• An encrypted messaging app often used by journalists and activists in Egypt has been blocked by authorities, its maker said late Monday.

Signal’s owner, San Francisco-based Open Whisper Systems, said that it had investigated complaints over connectivity issues from Egyptians and “have confirmed that Egypt is censoring access to Signal.”

In a statement posted to Twitter , the group that it would begin “deploying censorship circumvention” in the coming weeks.

It was not immediately possible to reach Egyptian officials for comment on the alleged ban Tuesday. The Associated Press was unable to immediately verify whether the block was in place or how it worked. Although an AP journalist based in Egypt was unable to successfully make or receive calls over Signal late Monday, several AP journalists in Cairo were able to exchange calls and instant messages as usual on Tuesday.

• Twitter’s video app, Vine, will live on as a simpler tool for the micro-messaging service.

Twitter caused an uproar among Vine’s loyal users seven weeks ago when it said it would shut down the app, which plays six-second videos in an infinite loop.

Twitter said in a blog post Friday that the app will be renamed “Vine Camera” and will let users post the looping videos they make to Twitter or save them to a phone’s camera roll. Vine users will be able to link to a Twitter account so their followers can find them there.

Users can also now download videos they have made from Vine’s website and the existing app, until the new version comes out. Vine Camera will be available in January.