CNN: UK sanctions British blogger over videos from Ukraine. “Blogger Graham Phillips was added to the UK sanctions list on Monday, according to the Foreign Office. He is the only British national sanctioned in relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to public records.”
Neos Kosmos: Archbishop Makarios sues blogger for defamation. “Archbishop Makarios Grinezakis claims a blogger has falsely accused him of misappropriating millions of church dollars to fund a palatial apartment on Sydney Harbour and luxurious lifestyle while covering up abuse and dealing in bribes. The head of the Orthodox Church in Australia has appeared often on Greek Flash News blog penned by Alkis Morelas.”
Sciblogs: Bidding farewell to Sciblogs. “For 13 years, Sciblogs has been a staple in New Zealand’s science-writing landscape. Our bloggers have written about a vast variety of topics from climate change to covid, and from nanotechnology to household gadgets. But sadly, it’s time to close shop. Sciblogs will be shutting down on 30 June.”
AFP: Google Fined $245 Million By Mexican Court Over Defamatory Blog. “A court in Mexico City on Friday ordered Google to pay $245 million to a Mexican lawyer who said the US tech giant allowed the dissemination of a blog that accused him of money laundering.”
ABS-CBN News: Russia orders blogger’s arrest over Ukraine videos. “A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered the detention in absentia of Russian blogger Michael Nacke, accusing him of discrediting the Russian army and its offensive in Ukraine. Nacke, a 28-year-old Kremlin critic, hosts a YouTube channel with more than 700,000 subscribers that discusses Russia’s military actions in Ukraine. A citizen of Russia, he is currently in Lithuania, he told AFP, after Moscow’s Basmanny court ordered his detention.”
Reuters: Spanish police detain pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger accused of treason. “Spanish authorities have detained a pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger and aspiring politician on an international arrest warrant for suspected treason, a police source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said Anatoliy Shariy, a vocal critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his pro-Western government, had been detained in the coastal city of Tarragona in Catalonia, the source said, without providing further details.”
Associated Press: Dagny Carlsson, dubbed oldest blogger in the world, dies at 109. “Dagny Carlsson, dubbed the world’s oldest blogger, who wrote about her life in Sweden based on the attitude that you should never think you are too old to do what you want to do, has died, Swedish media and her fan page reported. She was 109. At the age of 99, Carlsson attended a computer course and a year later, she started her blog where she called herself Bojan.”
The National Interest: Online Extremists Are Using Old Technologies for New Purposes. “A recent report from Tech Against Terrorism, a research outlet supported by the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate, found that a diverse array of violent extremists, from al-Qaeda and ISIS supporters to white supremacists and conspiracy theorists, have side-stepped regulation on social media by returning to self-operated websites, blogs, and forums. While this repurposing of retrograde digital communications technologies might give some observers a sense of deja vu, it nonetheless has major implications for online counter-extremism policy.”
TechCrunch: Substack introduces a new iOS app for reading, Android launch coming soon. “Online subscription newsletter platform Substack announced today that it’s launching an iOS app for reading. In a blog post about the announcement, the company said the new ‘Substack Reader’ app brings all of your Substack subscriptions into one place where you can read content from writers you follow.”
NPR: China erases thousands of social media accounts for vulgarity, negativity and more. “China is reshaping popular culture by taking down tens of thousand of celebrities, bloggers and influencers it deems immoral. The reasons are sometimes unclear, such as the figure not being patriotic.”
Arab News: Iran arrests prominent blogger over critical tweets. “Iranian authorities arrested prominent blogger Seyed Hossein Ronaghi Maleki on Wednesday at his home after he posted several tweets critical of a controversial bill passed and ratified by the regime.”
NiemanLab: An incomplete history of Forbes.com as a platform for scams, grift, and bad journalism. “Forbes’ staff of journalists could produce great work, sure. But there were only so many of them, and they cost a lot of money. Why not open the doors to Forbes.com to a swarm of outside ‘contributors’ — barely vetted, unedited, expected to produce at quantity, and only occasionally paid? (Some contributors received a monthly flat fee — a few hundred bucks — if they wrote a minimum number of pieces per month, with money above that possible for exceeding traffic targets. Others received nothing but the glory.)”
Tubefilter: Substack Is Launching Native Video. “Subscription newsletter platform Substack is testing native video in a private beta. The feature enables users to upload or record videos directly into Substack posts, and then make those videos available to everyone or exclusively to paid subscribers, the company said.”
The Guardian: Anti-vaxxers making ‘at least $2.5m’ a year from publishing on Substack. “A group of vaccine-sceptic writers are generating revenues of at least $2.5m (£1.85m) a year from publishing newsletters for tens of thousands of followers on the online publishing platform Substack, according to new research.”
New York Daily News: Cardi B wins $1.25 million defamation lawsuit against celebrity blogger who made false statements. “Cardi B was awarded $1.25 million Monday by a jury that agreed with her lawsuit against celebrity blogger Tasha K for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Tasha K, whose given name is Latasha Kebe, had spread false allegations that Cardi B had herpes, used cocaine and worked as a prostitute.”
