The New York Times takes a look at Emergent -- a new tool designed to track the dissemination of rumors online. “Everyone knows there is dubious information online … but estimating the magnitude of the problem has been difficult until now,” it writes, referring to the work of Craig Silverman, a journalist and fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, and the creator of Emergent. 

Twitter has been telling top TV producers that the more they live-tweet their shows, the bigger the audience they attract. And, as Deadline reports, TV producers are clealy on board with the idea. “Show-night gatherings are increasingly common across Los Angeles for programs trying to build relationships with their audiences,” it reports. “The tactic is getting endorsements even from Twitter itself … Just a few days ago, the social-media platform posted on its blog a study that found that live-tweeting during a star’s show is a quick way for that performer, and the show itself, to build a following.” 

Boding well for Wal-Mart’s future marketing strategies, the retail giant is adding Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom to its board of directors. “He won’t be the lone tech executive either,” Fortune reports. “Systrom joins Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer as a board member.” In a statement, Rob Walton, chairman of Wal-Mart, said: “Kevin’s passion and deep knowledge of social media align with our focus to engage customers through our digital and physical channels.” 

Like Twitter, Facebook has been testing a “buy” button in users’ News Feeds. Now we know, thanks to Re/Code, that Facebook is relying solely on payment startup Stripe for the tests. “This is noteworthy given that Facebook has other payments partners on different features, including PayPal’s mobile payments unit Braintree,” Re/Code notes. “It’s also not the first time Facebook and Stripe have worked together.”

The LGBT community has been not happy with Facebook over its insistence that members use their real names, and now some rival networks appear to be benefiting. In particular, “Ello, a social network where real names are not required, is getting a boost after Facebook booted drag queens,” The Washington Post reports. The network is reportedly adding about 4,000 fresh members an hour.

EU regulators are reportedly ready to approve Facebook’s $19 billion WhatsApp buy. “It's unconditional clearance," one source tells Reuters. “The companies convinced the Commission that the deal had no anti-competitive effect and therefore concessions were not necessary,” according to Reuters. The European Union competition authority has set an Oct. 3 deadline for its decision.

While determined to offer Web connectivity far and wide with the help of solar-powered drones and high-altitude balloons, Facebook and Google are not blind to the challenges ahead. “We’re going to have to push the edge of solar technology, battery technology, composite technology,” Yael Maguire, the engineering director of Facebook’s new Connectivity Lab, said this week, as reported by Wired. Facebook’s “goal is to build and launch a fleet of solar-powered drones that can connect the billions of people currently living off the grid to the Internet.” 

Some publishers and retailers are reportedly not happy with Facebook’s broadening efforts to track users across the Web. The fear, as The Wall Street Journal reports, is “that the data [Facebook] vacuums up to target ads will give the social network too much of an edge.” The report come ahead of Facebook’s expected relaunch of the Atlas ad network, which will help marketers track ad impressions on Facebook, as well as third-party Web sites and apps, as well as feature a demand-side platform (DSP), which will allow marketers to target ads to Facebook users across the Web. 

Giving its letters to the editor a shot at relevancy, the Winnipeg Free Press is adding social media elements to the struggling section. “Letters to the editors are just not how most people share their views anymore,” Paul Samyn, the paper’s editor-in-chief, tells J-Press.CA. Instead, “When we’re writing an editorial, we’ll send a tweet saying we’re looking for insights on topic X and ask our readers to tweet us their views with the hashtag #wfpvent … Then we’ll take the best of those tweets and print them alongside the editorial.” 

Accusations of pot smoking executives aside, Peter Thiel considers Twitter to be “a horribly mismanaged company.” That said, “It's such a solid franchise it may even work with all that," the venture capitalist and early Facebook investor said during a “Squawk Box” interview, this week. Meanwhile, regarding Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Thiel said: “I’m not sure they could do that much better .. The CEO can't really change things that much in these companies … You'd have to fire everybody and start over.”