The big social networks have, of course, been trying to confront the spread of divisive news and misinformation on their platforms. Facebook’s quarterly financial results, which it announced on Tuesday, showed a slowdown in revenue that appears to have been caused, at least in part, by the company’s efforts to rein in bad actors.

But a flurry of reports this week underscored how ineffective these measures have been. A Vice reporter, William Turton, found that despite Facebook’s new efforts at advertising transparency, he was able to get approval for ads that he posted in the name of fake political groups and sitting senators. When Twitter unveiled a page dedicated to capturing news on the midterm elections, BuzzFeed quickly noticed that the page was spotlighting disinformation.

Even when one social network manages to drive away bad actors, those bad actors are generally able to find other online outlets for their activities. Sheera Frenkel, Mike Isaac and Kate Conger shined a spotlight on how Instagram has become the latest hot spot for anti-Semitic material. A few days after the synagogue shooting, a social network that began as a place to post happy vacation photos was found to be hosting over 11,000 posts with a hashtag that blamed Jews for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Kara Swisher, who has been covering the tech world for decades, wrote a column for The Times this week where she described how the internet, which promised to promote global harmony, has instead become a tool of hate.

All in all, it was enough to make at least this reporter long for a time when a new iPad was the thing everything was talking about.

Some other tech stories of note this week:

■ Nellie Bowles wrote a powerful trio of stories about our troubled relationship with the screens that dominate our lives. Her first story looked at how many people in Silicon Valley do everything in their power to keep their children away from screens. Some parents have gone so far as to bar the people taking care of their children from ever using a phone or other electronic device in front of the kids.

Not long ago, people were worried about poor children missing out on the digital revolution. Now, Nellie reported, there is more concern that poor children are getting too much of the revolution, in the form of screen time, while wealthier parents keep their children away from addictive digital devices.