Qantara: Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s monitoring of the digital realm. “Having taken control of the traditional media, Turkish President Erdogan is now extending his reach to the social networks. A new law has been passed to rein in major digital players Twitter and Google. But the government’s attempt to dominate public opinion is producing some bizarre outgrowths, reports Ronald Meinardus from Istanbul.”
Stuff New Zealand: Google blocks ads for disability documentaries, labelling them ‘shocking content’. “An Auckland production company is calling on Google and YouTube to change their ad policies after adverts for documentaries about medical conditions and people with disabilities were blocked for breaching rules around ‘shocking content’.”
As You Sow: Twitter Commits to Set Science-Based Climate Target. “Twitter announced … a pledge to join the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) and adopt a clearly defined pathway for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement’s net-zero goal. With this commitment, Twitter follows other large tech companies including Facebook, Microsoft, and Salesforce.”
Las Cruces Sun-News: State records grant expands historically rich film culture in southern New Mexico. “Weeks before his passing in February 2019, Julia Smith of NMSU filmed a series of interviews with [Orville] Wanzer, having learned of his archive at NMSU and seeing his works at the Institute of Historical Survey Foundation in Mesilla Park…. Over the last two years, Smith has been working to digitize and curate the Wanzer collections at these archives, especially his 16 and 35mm films housed at NMSU, and his photographic slides at IHSF.”
International Journalists’ Network: Decoding how news consumers interpret information. “In recent years it became clear to the newsroom that mis- and disinformation, disruption and confusion among audiences was increasing, especially on social media. To address the growing concern, Global Voices launched a method in 2019 called the Civic Media Observatory to investigate and decode how individuals in diverse, ‘seemingly chaotic media ecosystems’ interpret content, and in turn construct their reality.”
ComputerWeekly: Scammers accidentally reveal fake Amazon review data. “An opsec-illiterate scammer has accidentally exposed more than 13 million data records via an open ElasticSearch database, relating to a large-scale fake review scam implicating independent Amazon vendors and users in unethical and illegal behaviour.”
RAND Corporation: Firearm Injury Hospitalizations in America. “As part of the Gun Policy in America initiative, RAND researchers developed a longitudinal database of state-level estimates of inpatient hospitalizations for firearm injury between 2000 and 2016. This database was first released in 2021 and is free to the public. These estimates draw from several data sources; the largest sources are the summaries of State Inpatient Databases (SID), which are supplemented with other state health department data.”
Government Accountability Office (GAO): 100 Years of Accountability—GAO Products Improve Government Performance. “In July, GAO celebrates its 100th anniversary! To commemorate our century of service to Congress, today’s WatchBlog post looks at some of our key, reoccurring reports that analyze federal spending and performance in order to improve the government agencies’ and programs’ effectiveness and efficiency.”
NASA: NASA Invites Public, Media to Watch Asteroid Mission Begin Return to Earth. “NASA invites the public and the media to watch its first asteroid sample return mission begin a two-year cruise home at 4 p.m. EDT Monday, May 10, on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. The public can follow along on the NASA Solar System Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts using #ToBennuAndBack, and ask questions about the mission by commenting on an Instagram story between 12 p.m. EDT, May 10 and 12 p.m. EDT, May 11. Answers will post to NASA Solar System’s Instagram stories on May 11.”
Gizmodo: 100 Websites That Shaped The Internet As We Know It. “What does a spot on this list mean? It certainly doesn’t mean ‘best.’ A number of sites on this list are cesspools now and always have been. We’re not even sure the internet was a good idea — we’ll need another few decades before we come to any conclusions. In this case, we set out to rank the websites — not apps (like Instagram), not services (like PayPal) — that influenced the very nature of the internet, changed the world, stole ideas better than anyone, pioneered a genre, or were just really important to us.”
Times-Union: Online database of New York incentive projects goes live. “The Database of Economic Incentives is hosted on the Open NY website, the state’s public data platform. The new database lists the loans, grants, and tax credits given to more than 1,000 projects statewide that have received a combined investment of $18.4 billion from both the government and the private sector. It will be updated every three months.”
TechRepublic: How to use Feedly with Twitter to replace Nuzzel. “Here’s how to use Feedly Pro+ to view Twitter and Twitter Lists—along with a few tweaks to the default settings. My examples will focus on Twitter Lists, but you may add user accounts and Twitter searches in Feedly, as well. In most cases, I’d advise doing the initial transition and set up from a web browser on a laptop or desktop. Once you have everything set up, your streams will sync and can be easily accessed in Feedly on the web or in the Feedly mobile apps on Android or iOS.”
NOAA: NOAA Launches First National Rip Current Forecast Model. “For the first time, NOAA is launching a national rip current forecast model, aimed at saving lives of beach-goers around the country. This new model can predict the hourly probability of rip currents along U.S. beaches up to six days out.”
Reuters: Texas federal judge hears arguments for date of Google trial. “A lawyer for 14 states led by Texas that have accused Alphabet’s Google of breaking antitrust law asked a federal judge to schedule a trial for the spring of 2022, while the search and advertising giant has asked for a trial in the fall of 2023.”
TechRadar: Google will soon make two-factor authentication mandatory. “One of the best ways to protect your online accounts is to have a second form of verification in place as this allows them to confirm that it is really you trying to log in. Google has been doing this for years by asking users to enroll in two-step verification (2SV) to confirm it’s really them by tapping on a prompt on their smartphone whenever they sign in. However, soon the company will begin automatically enrolling users in 2SV if their accounts are properly configured.”
