Breakfast Briefing: 5 things for PR pros to know on Wednesday morning – PR Week

Here’s a quick recap if you missed yesterday’s Brand Film Awards U.S., which celebrates the best visual storytelling on behalf of brands. Go here for a shortcut to all of the winners, including the best of the best and the top brand films in the craft, technique, practice area and industry categories.

In a report released on Wednesday morning, Facebook said Russia continues to be the biggest producer of misinformation around the world. The company studied 150 disinformation campaigns in more than 50 countries that it claims to have disrupted. Facebook also found that other countries have taken pointers from Russia on developing their own disinformation efforts, according to The Washington Post.

A top Japanese newspaper publisher and Olympic partner has urged the cancelation of the Tokyo Summer Games due to the coronavirus pandemic. Publisher Asahi Shimbun cited risks to public safety and strains on the medical system in its editorial, according to Reuters. A group of scientists writing in the New England Journal of Medicine have also said canceling the games may be the safest option, according to Axios.

In another government faceoff for a technology giant, WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government. The Facebook messaging app is trying to block regulations that it says would force it to break its own privacy protections, according to Reuters. WhatsApp also said new IT rules would violate privacy rights in India’s constitution. 

Writer and social commentator Roxane Gay is launching a book imprint. Called Roxane Gay Books, it will be a part of Grove Atlantic and will release three titles a year with a focus on underrepresented voices and a mix of fiction, nonfiction and memoir, according to The New York Times.