BBC: AI-generated naked child images shock Spanish town of Almendralejo. “A sleepy town in southern Spain is in shock after it emerged that AI-generated naked images of young local girls had been circulating on social media without their knowledge. The pictures were created using photos of the targeted girls fully clothed, many of them taken from their own social media accounts.”
Saint Louis University (Madrid): SLU-Madrid Ethnographer to Create a Digital Red Carpet for Spanish Film Festival. “The glam. The status. The pageantry. Film festivals — whether local or international — put the spotlight on filmmakers, actors and creatives alike. These events tout prestige through showy outfits and indulgence in expensive giveaways for attendees. Imagine getting glammed up for the big gala, but in a barn instead of a state-of-the-art theatre. The status of such a rustic backdrop is why Vivar has researched the annual Festival de Cans since 2020. The film event occurs in the heart of rural western Galicia in the province of Pontevedra, Spain.”
Maldita: How electoral fraud conspiracy theories went viral on TikTok after the 2023 Spanish general elections. “The general elections on July 23 have been followed by a wave of disinformation that says there has been a fraud to alter the results. This is a conspiracy theory that is sweeping TikTok, whose algorithm means that the more videos you consume with disinformation narratives about this alleged electoral fraud, the more they will continue to appear on your feed.”
Reuters: Spain’s High Court Shelves Israeli Spyware Probe on Lack of Cooperation . “Spain’s High Court on Monday shelved an investigation into the use of Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group’s ‘Pegasus’ software to spy on Spanish politicians, including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and several ministers.”
Poynter: Fact-checkers’ bus tour taught older people in Spain useful internet tips. Here’s what they learned . “Polling data has long shown that, in Spain, older people report that they often encounter disinformation but feel they lack the skills to identify it or protect themselves from it, said Clara Jiménez Cruz, CEO and co-founder at Maldita.es. Maldita wanted to provide media literacy education to older people outside of major Spanish metropolitan areas and reach a ‘very offline community’ who wouldn’t encounter fact-checking work online, Jiménez Cruz said. And so, the BuloBús — which translates as “HoaxBus” — project was born.”
Houstonia Magazine: New Hispanic History Tool Can Help Us Learn More about Houston. “In May, the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, a New York–based nonprofit founded in 1954 to foster the art, culture, and history of Spain, unveiled an online database called the Portal of Hispanic History, developed by the Royal Academy of History of Spain. The free digital platform highlights more than 20,000 Hispanic historical events, prominent figures, and locations of historical markers and statues across the globe.”
Associated Press: Anti-Muslim Twitter feed in Spain: ‘A recipe for disaster’. ” The person who operates the Twitter account claims to be an Islamic fundamentalist living in Spain, empathizing with violent extremists and longing for the days, more than six centuries ago, when Muslims ruled the country. The views are as fake as the account, part of a loose and informal effort by far-right nationalists in Spain to use social media to stir up anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant fervor and to undermine faith in Spain’s multicultural democracy.”
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya: The most visited websites in Spain do not comply correctly with privacy laws and track their users. “Only a small percentage of the 500 most visited websites in Spain (which include everything from government sites to streaming and adult content platforms) correctly fulfil the requirements set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).”
Euroweekly: National Library of Spain receives 42,000 records from the RNE. “SPAIN’s national library (BNE) is delighted by a donation of 42,000 vinyls from the National Radio of Spain (RNE). The haul includes 14,000 LPs and 28,000 singles, to which is added a smaller batch of CDs.”
From the National Library of Spain, and Google-translated from Spanish: New boost to digitization, access and digital reuse in the BNE. “The project that is being launched now, starting in March and for the next two years, will develop a program to support and promote processes related to digitization, electronic legal deposit, digital preservation, access possibilities, and promotion of its reuse.”
CNN: AI reveals unknown play by one of Spain’s greatest writers in library archive. “Artificial intelligence (AI) technology used to transcribe anonymous historic works at Spain’s National Library archives has uncovered a hidden gem — a previously unknown play by one of the nation’s greatest authors, Felix Lope de Vega.”
Olive Press: Police officer becomes first person in Spain with criminal conviction for spreading ‘fake news’ on social media. “A Guardia Civil officer has become the first person criminally convicted in Spain of spreading ‘fake news’. He used a social media account to falsely allege that a group of Moroccan child migrants attacked a Barcelona area woman.”
City College of New York: CCNY’s digital publication of student’s archive from the Spanish Civil War available to educators . “CCNY Student Wilfred Mendelson on the deck of the S.S. Manhattan on his way to fight in the Spanish Civil War in 1938. A digital publication of a collection of his letters and essays is now available to all educators for free.”
The Guardian: Virtual Spanish civil war museum aims to cut through political divide. “The Virtual Museum of the Spanish Civil War, an online history centre that has been almost a decade in the making, may chronicle and examine a conflict that ended 83 years ago but its aims could not be more timely. As last Wednesday’s senate session demonstrated, there is still precious little consensus over the 1936-39 war and how to deal with its bitter legacy.”
MyHeritage Blog: 22 Historical Record Collections Added in June 2022. “We are proud to announce that we added 22 record collections with 12.8 million historical records from across the globe, including the U.S., Canada, Belgium, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Ukraine.”
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