By ResearchBuzz
NEW RESOURCES
New Zealand Herald: Rugby Database – a voluntary virtual warehouse of New Zealand statistics. “Two Kiwi blokes started a project of passion three years ago – Rugby Database – a digital directory of every first-class rugby union game played both in New Zealand and abroad by national and provincial teams and players — and that’s just to start with. The project has created a blueprint for other teams and countries to follow suit.”
Didn’t plan this, but I like it. Voxy: Consumer NZ’s sunscreen database provides NZers with a new layer of protection. “Consumer NZ has launched an online database allowing New Zealanders to choose sunscreen brands that are transparent about how often they test their products.” I took a quick look and saw at least one American brand, so I don’t think this limited to New-Zealand-specific products.
TWEAKS AND UPDATES
Detroit Free Press: Ford just added 100 hidden-for-decades photos of concept cars to its online archive. “This time, Ford is revealing 100 new concept car images, including 45 new vehicles, to total 378 unique concept vehicles online. It looks like a study in futuristic automotive car design executed decades ago. Overall, the Ford Heritage Vault now hosts 1,844 concept car images from 1896 to 2021.”
PC Magazine: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support. “A social-networking fossil looks even more embedded in sedimentary rock now that Google plans to retire the Usenet gateway it’s maintained at its Google Groups site since 2001.”
AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD
Business Post (Ireland): Exclusive: the X Files – how Elon Musk’s new rules allow hate to flourish. “Elon Musk’s X has instructed staff not to suspend users that post explicitly racist, sexist and homophobic content, or who send sexual material to another person, as part of a new policy that has radically stripped back the company’s moderation of abusive material. Confidential documents obtained by the Business Post reveal in detail how X, formerly Twitter, has significantly watered down its trust and safety rules over recent months, and how its policies allow abusive and hateful accounts to remain on the platform.”
NPR: Fake social media accounts are targeting Taiwan’s presidential election. “An influence operation spanning Facebook, TikTok and YouTube has been targeting Taiwan’s upcoming presidential election, according to a new report from research firm Graphika. While Graphika wasn’t able to determine who was behind the operation, the report comes amid warnings from government officials and tech companies that elections around the world next year are ripe targets for manipulation from states including China, Russia and Iran, as well as domestic actors.”
Northeastern Global News: From Kate Bush to Glass Animals, how TikTok and TV help give music a new life . “‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ was released in 1958. It wasn’t until 2023 that the song hit the Billboard Top 100. Why? The New York Times said it’s thanks in part to singer Brenda Lee getting on TikTok. Whether it be reviving a decades-old holiday classic or breathing new life into an older release, TikTok, television and movies hold great sway. Where DJs and dance clubs once influenced people’s musical tastes, social media and entertainment are the new tastemakers as they introduce or resurrect music. This leads to songs released years ago hitting charts in a way they didn’t upon release.”
SECURITY & LEGAL
Sydney Morning Herald: Facebook and Google to face ACCC oversight under tougher rules for using news. “Google and Facebook will come under stricter oversight from the nation’s competition watchdog under federal plans to ensure the global giants compensate Australian news businesses to use their content. The federal government will draft new laws to toughen the regime and encourage the digital media companies to negotiate in good faith with news providers, clearing the way for commercial deals next year.”
New Voice of Ukraine: Disinformation watchdog alerts to rising tactic as Russia impersonates Ukrainian units on Telegram. “Russian disinformation operatives have stepped up an insidious new tactic – impersonating Ukrainian brigades and battalions on Telegram to sow doubt, Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation reported on Facebook on Dec. 16.”
Bleeping Computer WordPress hosting service Kinsta targeted by Google phishing ads. “WordPress hosting provider Kinsta is warning customers that Google ads have been observed promoting phishing sites to steal hosting credentials. Kinsta says the phishing attacks aim to steal login credentials for MyKinsta, a key service the company offers to manage WordPress and other cloud-based apps.”
RESEARCH & OPINION
University of California Davis: YouTube Video Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users, Researchers Suggest. “A multidisciplinary research team in communication and computer science at the University of California, Davis, performed a systematic audit of YouTube’s video recommendations in 2021 and 2022. They tested how a person’s ideological leaning might affect what videos YouTube’s algorithms recommend to them. For right-leaning users, video recommendations are more likely to come from channels that share political extremism, conspiracy theories and otherwise problematic content. Recommendations for left-leaning users on YouTube were markedly fewer, researchers said.”
Notre Dame News: ‘A ticking clock’: First ground-based survey of damage to Ukrainian cultural sites reveals severity, need for urgency. “The war in Ukraine is not just a war against a people, but a war on culture. And after nearly two years of fighting, it is destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage on a scale not seen since World War II, according to new research by University of Notre Dame faculty members Ian Kuijt and William Donaruma.” Good morning, Internet…
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December 18, 2023 at 06:31PM
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