Slate: Lives on the Line. “These handwritten logbooks offer a unique glimpse into the U.K.’s queer history. The help line started in 1974, partly to draw on the energy generated by the American Gay Liberation Front in the early ’70s. Volunteers set up the first phone line in the basement below a socialist bookshop in Kings Cross in London. They surely could not dream of the freedoms that were to come to LGBTQ people in the next few decades, or that Switchboard would still be taking calls in 2020.”
UK
History News Network: British National Archives to trial 12-document limit per day for visitors, as academics warn research could be affected
History News Network: British National Archives to trial 12-document limit per day for visitors, as academics warn research could be affected. “The National Archives have provoked outcry from academics by announcing a new trial restricting readers to 12 documents a day, despite concerns it may add ‘huge expense’ to research.”
Wall Street Journal: How to Police Facebook and Google Like a Public Place
Wall Street Journal: How to Police Facebook and Google Like a Public Place. “In 1928, a woman named Mary Donoghue bought a bottle of ginger beer from a cafe in Paisley, Scotland, and then fell ill after finding a dead snail inside. She sued the manufacturer and won. The ruling enshrined the concept of ‘duty of care’—a legal obligation to protect a customer, tenant or worker from harm. ‘The rule that you are to love your neighbor becomes in law “You must not injure your neighbor,”‘ proclaimed Lord Atkin of Aberdovey, who presided over the case in 1932 in Britain’s House of Lords, which reversed two lower courts to rule for Donoghue. Now, as Western regulators struggle with how to restrict the most harmful online content while at the same time protecting free speech, Britain has come to see the nearly century-old principle as a possible solution.”
Competitions watchdog: Facebook and Google could have ‘negative consequences’ for consumers (The Scotsman)
The Scotsman: Competitions watchdog: Facebook and Google could have ‘negative consequences’ for consumers. “The competitions watchdog has warned that the dominance of Facebook and Google in the UK could inflate online prices and have ‘negative consequences’ for consumers using their services – and said there is a ‘strong argument’ for the development of a new regulatory regime.”
CNN: Facebook promised transparency on political ads. Its system crashed days before the UK election
CNN: Facebook promised transparency on political ads. Its system crashed days before the UK election. “Tens of thousands of political ads went missing from Facebook’s archive this week, according to researchers, just days before voters go to the polls in the most important UK election for decades. A spokesperson for Facebook (FB) confirmed its library went down but could not say how many political ads disappeared. The problem affected several countries, and Facebook prioritized fixing the UK database because of the imminent election.”
New York Times: Who’s Spreading Disinformation in U.K. Election? You Might Be Surprised
New York Times: Who’s Spreading Disinformation in U.K. Election? You Might Be Surprised. “Foreign meddling was once the most feared source of online deception before critical elections. Now, some candidates themselves are turning to such manipulative tactics.”
Computer Weekly: Online fact-checkers warn of misinformation on unprecedented scale in 2019 election
Computer Weekly: Online fact-checkers warn of misinformation on unprecedented scale in 2019 election. “The UK’s watchdog for democracy, the Electoral Commission, has repeatedly asked for electoral laws to be updated for the online world. It first called for reform from a Labour government in 2003, before Facebook was even built. Labour failed to act, as have successive governments.”
