this is business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. fake news backlash. uk members of parliament will question social media bosses in washington later — after calling the firms‘ response so far — ‘completely inadequate‘. plus — shining a light on the dark web. the us breaks a cybercrime ring that traded stolen bank details around the world — causing losses of half a billion dollars. and on the markets, investors remain on edge — the us ending down but steadier than in recent days, but asian shares around their lowest in six weeks. we start with the growing backlash against social media companies over their role in the spread of ‘fake news‘. today, executives from facebook — youtube which is owned by google — and twitter will be questioned

about the issue by british members of parliament at a public hearing in washington critics have given the tech giants an unflattering new acronym: baadd. as in big, anti—competitive, addictive and destructive to democracy. last month facebook reacted to criticism by refocusing on updates from friends and family — rather than news publishers and brands. it says that has led to people spending 50 million fewer hours a day on the network — a fall of around 5% facebook has admitted 146 million users may have been subjected to russian misinformation, before and after the us presidential election. youtube says russian groups uploaded more than 1,000 videos during the us election — although it described that as ‘limited activity‘. regulators in europe

are beginning to take action — last year germany introduced fines of up to 50m euros for firms that fail to remove fake news or hate speech within 2a hours of receiving a complaint. google‘s uk boss recently told the bbc they have an important role in news. we are we a re really we are really good partners of the industry. i expect to be criticised when we get something wrong but in terms of the model, if you want to find stories, we help you. we send people not to google but the publishers themselves, the bbc or the newspapers that you love and then we really worked hard to help them make money online. there is more we can do but those three things together are closely aligned and ultimately you want to find great quality journalism and ultimately you want to find great qualityjournalism and not fa ke great qualityjournalism and not fake news and we are all about that. there is an upside to traditional media going online. you can reach people on any device,. you know as

yourself as a journalist, you have a responsibility to tell stories. people are turning to the digital world more than ever before. with me is david benigson, ceo of signal media — uses artificial intelligence to help companies monitor the global media. welcome to the programme. can you measure the cost of fake news?m has grown in infamy through the political sphere. i think fake news has a dramatic impact and potentially as detrimental impacts of businesses as well. there has been a few examples over the past year or two wet disinformation, fake news, has directly impacted dismisses onto bottomline. a huge european construction company, a

fa ke european construction company, a fake news story broke about fraud and their share price drop something like 18% in under half an hour. misinformation and fake news is now being it used to manipulate the market, to a degree. this is why businesses need to be armed with the right set of tools and technologies to be able to respond in real—time with confidence and assurance. to be able to respond in real—time with confidence and assurancem to be able to respond in real—time with confidence and assurance. it is easy to spot it. once you know what it is you are looking for. tracking it is you are looking for. tracking it back to the original source, for example and doing it quickly, is it the problem. businesses face a huge challenge. we have transitioned from a 24—hour news cycle to a real—time news cycle. the breadth of media and the fact that social media can now drive conversations about reputation online just makes the task much harderfor online just makes the task much harder for businesses. this online just makes the task much harderfor businesses. this is online just makes the task much harder for businesses. this is why the human led efforts are not as good as artificial intelligence at

doing thesejobs at good as artificial intelligence at doing these jobs at such a scale. are robots better at spotting fake news than real people? algorithms can get it wrong. algorithms can get it wrong but humans can‘t do this at scale. we have to look at this combination of algorithms plus human led experts and that‘s synergy between the two i think it can ultimately help solve this problem. 0ne ultimately help solve this problem. one of the key things we need to understand is that there are a bunch of signals that can be tracked and monitored as they can use and these can be extracted by a i algorithms. it won‘t solve all of our problems but it will enable businesses to respond in adam moore at effective way. —— in a more effective way. respond in adam moore at effective way. -- in a more effective way. are there places more vulnerable to fake news? how do we know if we are adequately protected? the consumer market is particularly under threat. as consumers increasingly trust online publications and online sites such as trip advisor, for example,

when booking a hotel, this is where misinformation and fake news can be used for nefarious advantages. i think this is not specificjust used for nefarious advantages. i think this is not specific just a consumer businesses. i think all corporate organisations now need to realise this rate and use technologies like artificial intelligence and programmes like signal to help. intelligence and programmes like signalto help. you intelligence and programmes like signal to help. you got your plug-in there. —— you got your plug in there. let‘s stay in the us where thejustice department is hailing one of the largest cybercrime prosecutions in american history. 13 people have been arrested — and 23 more have been indicted but are still at large — for trafficking in stolen identities across five continents using an online forum on the dark web — known as "infraud". joe miller reports from new york. members of the infraud organisation revelled in the pseudonyms like tony montana, the gangster in scarface.

their alleged illegal activity is farfrom funny. their alleged illegal activity is far from funny. it costs businesses, banks and consumers across the world more than $530 million. this was a very international game, the 36 individuals that were inducted in a court in las vegas. they held for more than one dozen countries across five continents and that includes big us, russia, pakistan, kosovo, iran and indeed, the uk. among those charged was bonderenko and he started the forum known as the dark web. in 2011, one year later, one group claimed to have three quarters ofa group claimed to have three quarters of a million bank in logging is belonging to uk consumers to be sold to the highest bidder. thejustice department that worked with law enforcement agencies hailed the

operation as one of the largest cyber fraud operation as one of the largest cyberfraud prosecutions operation as one of the largest cyber fraud prosecutions ever undertaken. to asia now — and in the last couple of hours china has posted a healthy set of trade figures forjanuary. in particular, a hugejump in imports because of a stronger domestic economy. let‘s go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story. hello tu, rico hizon. this is the new china. the world‘s biggest exporter deciding what it wants from the rest of the world and bringing it in. biggest exporter and also a huge importer. china is picking up where it left off in 2017, strong performances in both imports and exports. raw materials leading the import surge in january, exports. raw materials leading the import surge injanuary, co— purchasers were the highest in four yea rs, purchasers were the highest in four years, it has hit —— cold weather has hit the mainland leading to higher consumer of energy. people

building stock piles ahead of the lunar new year. china imported a record volume of crude oils. this supports a stronger domestic economy which helped the mainland grow by 6.9% in 2017. exports also soaring by 11% due to the demand for its electronics, appliances and other products. 0verall, china‘s trade performance rebounding last year things to strong demand at home and overseas but expectations from the us are clouding the outlook this 2018. now let‘s brief you some other business stories. electric car maker tesla has posted its worst ever quarterly loss — some 675m in the three months to december — and warned that spending will increase this year. but it has stuck to its target of producing 5000 model 3s a week by the end of the second quarter. tesla‘s long—term viability depends on the success of the mass market model 3.

majorjapanese investors in britain are due to meet the uk prime minister and chancellor on thursday. they include carmakers nissan, toyota and honda — along with banks and drug companies. it comes amid fresh debate among business over brexit negotiations. that‘s it for business briefing this hour — what has been trending in the business news this morning? i will tell you. what is going on with elon musk? he is blaming model three productions with tesla being overconfident and to constable. 0ver on courts, the wall street comeback of sorts for snap chat. let‘s speed this along, the company closed over its price for the first time since june. —— snapchat. don‘t forget, let

us know what you think and what you are spotting online. let‘s check in with the markets. a mixed session. we have seen a bit of a slowdown when it comes to brent crude oil, $65 a barrel at the moment. that is informing some of the inflation figures coming through. some of those have been coming through when it comes to china and the trade numbers. trade imports jumping because of rising commodity prices. that is it from me. news briefing coming upa that is it from me. news briefing coming up a little later on. a reportjust out says adult social care in england is a "cinderella service" which is undervalued and whose workers are poorly paid. the public finance watchdog,

the national audit office, says the government is failing to deal with a shortage of care workers at a time when demand for services is increasing. here‘s our social affairs correspondent, alison holt. it isa it is a busy lunchtime at northfield is nursing home in sheffield, demanding work for the care staff looking after residents with a high level of need and today‘s report outlines how difficult it has become to find the people needed to provide this vital care. joyce, good afternoon, it only me. sorry to bother you, darling. this woman is the nursing leadership and finding stuff is a problem and says attract the nurses has become a real issue for them. don't think it is attractive as maybe the nhs where you have the salary packages, enhanced rates of pay and sociable hours. i think it‘s hard work. it‘s

busy, constant, you have got to be on the ball 2a hours a day. busy, constant, you have got to be on the ball 24 hours a day. the national audit office says that while working in care can be rewarding, many staff feel undervalued. in 2016, more than half of the work force with power to £7 50 an houror of the work force with power to £7 50 an hour or less. in the same year, 50 an hour or less. in the same yea r, staff 50 an hour or less. in the same year, staff turnover was nearly 28% and 6.6% of jobs year, staff turnover was nearly 28% and 6.6% ofjobs were vacant. but, it says, they run no government strategies for tackling the problems. only the department of health can produce a workforce strategy that speaks to the national picture about the problems we have found about low pay, low prestige and high turnover rates which is reducing quality of care for people receiving care. in response, the department for social health and ca re department for social health and care has been —— has said extra money has been put in for caring people and it will produce a strategy for the care workforce. alison holt, bbc news, sheffield. this is the briefing from bbc news.

the latest headlines for you: north korea says it has no intention of using the winter olympics in south korea as an opportunity to hold talks with officials from the united states. the north is holding a military parade on thursday, this is the eve of the olympics. a senior eu official has welcomed the coalition agreement reached in germany between chancellor angela merkel and the social democrats, or the spd. the economy commissioner, pierre moscovici, said that the deal was good news for europe. and rescue workers in taiwan are braving precarious conditions to search for 60 people who are still missing after tuesday‘s earthquake. aftershocks are threatening to collapse some of the blocks where most are thought to be trapped. let‘s have a look at the papers

and some of the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with germany‘s suddeutsche zeitung. its main headline — "two winners, one merkel". that‘s after angela merkel agreed a coalition deal after months of deadlock. the guardian‘s main story now, and it says a secret report by the british government puts the cost of a hard brexit at £80 billion, and the worst affected parts of the uk are those that were most in favour of leaving the union. more on that in a second. the main story on the front page of the japan times is the visit