Observer: Feeling Heat, Mark Zuckerberg Will Meet With Civil Rights Groups Boycotting Facebook. “While the boycott may not make a significant dent in the company’s income, global brands such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola publicly calling for the platform to change is a big deal. And after a team of top Facebook executives failed to talk those advertisers out of it, CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally agreed to meet with the civil rights groups behind the boycott and hear what they want, a spokesperson confirmed to Reuters late Tuesday.”
protests
New York Times: Did Floyd Protests Lead to a Virus Surge? Here’s What We Know
New York Times: Did Floyd Protests Lead to a Virus Surge? Here’s What We Know. “For more than two months, the authorities had been urging New Yorkers to stay indoors and keep their distance from others. But after the police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, tens of thousands of New Yorkers poured into the streets, day and night, to protest police brutality and racism. Epidemiologists braced for a surge of new coronavirus cases. But it has not come yet.”
CNET: Coronavirus, BLM protest conspiracy theories collide on Facebook and Twitter
CNET: Coronavirus, BLM protest conspiracy theories collide on Facebook and Twitter. “A pandemic, societal protests and a contentious election have created an especially challenging environment for Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Content moderators and fact-checkers are struggling to prevent the spread of obvious misinformation while giving users space to voice their opinions. The problem has gotten knottier for the online platforms as false claims about both the health crisis and Floyd’s killing collide, making content moderation decisions — taxing in the best of situations — even tougher.”
BuzzFeed News: Almost 17,000 Protesters Had No Idea A Tech Company Was Tracing Their Location
BuzzFeed News: Almost 17,000 Protesters Had No Idea A Tech Company Was Tracing Their Location. “On the weekend of May 29, thousands of people marched, sang, grieved, and chanted, demanding an end to police brutality and the defunding of police departments in the aftermath of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. They marched en masse in cities like Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, empowered by their number and the assumed anonymity of the crowd. And they did so completely unaware that a tech company was using location data harvested from their cellphones to predict their race, age, and gender and where they lived.”
Mashable: Amnesty International creates a map of where police brutality occurred during police brutality protests
Mashable: Amnesty International creates a map of where police brutality occurred during police brutality protests. “Released on Tuesday, the map documents 125 separate instances of police violence against protesters occurring between May 26 and June 5. With incidents recorded in 40 states as well as the District of Columbia, Amnesty International claims it is the most comprehensive human rights analysis of police violence against protesters to date.”
New York Times: How Social Media Has Changed Civil Rights Protests
New York Times: How Social Media Has Changed Civil Rights Protests. “Omar Wasow is steeped in both social media and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. And he marvels at how the two have melded in the current demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality. Wasow, a professor at Princeton University and co-founder of the pioneering social network BlackPlanet.com, said social media was helping publicize police brutality and galvanizing public support for protesters’ goals — a role that his research found conventional media played a half century ago. And he said he believed that the internet was making it easier to organize social movements today, for good and for ill.”
Nikkei Asian Review: Tiananmen museum seeks funds to preserve crackdown relics online
Nikkei Asian Review: Tiananmen museum seeks funds to preserve crackdown relics online. “The operators of the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving the memory of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown have begun a global crowdfunding drive to take their collection online, prodded by the looming national security law Beijing plans to impose in Hong Kong.”
Where Black Lives Matter Protesters Stream Live Every Day: Twitch (New York Times)
New York Times: Where Black Lives Matter Protesters Stream Live Every Day: Twitch. “When Shawn Whiting began documenting the protests over George Floyd’s death late last month, he started by posting photos and videos on Twitter and livestreaming marches on the social media service. But Mr. Whiting, 32, a video game designer in Seattle, quickly decided that Twitter’s video and audio quality wasn’t good enough. So he checked out other sites and settled on Twitch, a platform known for broadcasting video game play.”
TIME: Going to a Protest? Here’s How to Protect Your Digital Privacy
TIME: Going to a Protest? Here’s How to Protect Your Digital Privacy. “Even as protesters turn to their smartphones as a means to record their experiences on the ground, those same devices can be used against them. Law enforcement groups have digital surveillance tools, like fake cell phone towers and facial recognition technology, that can be used to identify protestors and monitor their movements and communications. Furthermore, investigators and prosecutors have come to view suspects’ phones as potential treasure troves of information about them and their associates, setting up legal battles over personal technology and Americans’ Constitutional rights.”
CNET: Amid George Floyd protests, weaponized misinformation floods social media
CNET: Amid George Floyd protests, weaponized misinformation floods social media. “…social media’s inability to contain the explosion of misinformation takes on new urgency as peaceful protesters battle the perception that all of the demonstrations have devolved into looting and violence. Twitter’s role in spreading news in real time without any checks makes it particularly vulnerable to manipulation. Over the past few weeks, along with tweets about protestors being responsible for [Dave Patrick] Underwood’s death, other false theories have made the rounds, including an internet blackout in Washington and the far-left militant group antifa sending protesters to cause unrest in cities across the US.”
The City: NYC COVID-19 Contact Tracers Not Asking About George Floyd Protest Participation, Despite Fears of New Virus Wave
The City: NYC COVID-19 Contact Tracers Not Asking About George Floyd Protest Participation, Despite Fears of New Virus Wave. “Over the two last weeks, Mayor Bill de Blasio and others have voiced concerns that packed police brutality protests across the city could trigger a new wave of COVID-19 infections. Whether or not that’s the case, however, remains unknown — and de Blasio’s team won’t be directly trying to find out.”
Twin Cities Pioneer Press: Early test results show few protesters caught COVID-19
Twin Cities Pioneer Press: Early test results show few protesters caught COVID-19. “Early data from coronavirus tests of Minnesotans who participated in demonstrations after the death of George Floyd suggest the mass gatherings may not result in a spike in COVID-19 infections. More than 3,300 people who participated in protests and community events after Floyd’s death were tested for the coronavirus this week at four community testing sites.”
ABC News: Smithsonian museums collecting White House protest signs to preserve slice of history
ABC News: Smithsonian museums collecting White House protest signs to preserve slice of history. “Several museums moved to preserve a slice of history in Washington on Wednesday by taking steps to keep some of the signs protesters strung along a fence near the White House after the death of George Floyd.”
Gothamist: Caught In De Blasio’s Curfew, Essential Worker Spends Week In Jail After NYPD Mass Arrests Bronx Protesters
Gothamist: Caught In De Blasio’s Curfew, Essential Worker Spends Week In Jail After NYPD Mass Arrests Bronx Protesters. “It wasn’t yet curfew when the cops trapped Devaughnta Williams. After clocking out at his job as a janitor at a city social services building on Thursday evening, the 27-year-old Bronx native planned to take the subway to his grandmother’s to get a few hours of sleep, before starting the graveyard shift at Family Dollar. The exact time shouldn’t have mattered — as an essential worker, he was permitted to be out past 8 p.m. — but he was still hyper-aware of the hour.”
Londonist: The Home Of Black British History Is Creating A New Archive – With Your Help
Londonist: The Home Of Black British History Is Creating A New Archive – With Your Help. “Black Cultural Archives is the only national heritage centre dedicated to collecting and sharing the stories and histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain — check out examples from their amazing archives here. Now they’re crowdsourcing material to document the Black Lives Matter movement and protests of 2020: this is your chance to make sure that the records that future generations will have available to them of this time will reflect the reality.”
