New researches

Monday, March 14, 2022

War in Ukraine Dashboard, Ukraine Refugee Data Portal, New York Times on Telegram, More: Ukraine Update, Afternoon, March 14, 2022

War in Ukraine Dashboard, Ukraine Refugee Data Portal, New York Times on Telegram, More: Ukraine Update, Afternoon, March 14, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Spotted on Twitter: the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s War in Ukraine dashboard. From the front page: “This dashboard provides a summary analysis of Russian government and state-backed media tweets, videos, and articles that mention one or more predefined keywords related to the current war on Ukraine. Content is sub-categorized by the board narratives used by the Kremlin to justify its ongoing invasion, such as blame cast on NATO engagement or extremism in Ukraine, or messaging used to push back against Western intervention, such as nuclear threats or counter-sanctions narratives.”

UNHCR: Launch of UNHCR data portal on Ukraine Refugee Situation. “UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has activated today a Ukraine Refugee Situation operational data portal. The portal contains the latest statistics on refugee arrivals from Ukraine to major receiving countries.”

New York Times: The New York Times launches a Telegram channel to deliver news about the war.. “To make our journalism more accessible to readers around the world, The New York Times has launched a new, dedicated channel on Telegram, a messaging platform with more than half a billion active users. This Telegram channel delivers reporting on the war from our continuous live blog, where Times journalists are providing witness accounts, interviews and breaking news from the conflict.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: Meta Narrows Guidance to Prohibit Calls for Death of a Head of State. “Facebook owner Meta Platforms said on Sunday that it is further narrowing its content moderation policy for Ukraine to prohibit calls for the death of a head of state, according to an internal company post seen by Reuters.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Techdirt: Video Games For Good: Itch.io Releases “Bundle For Ukraine,” Raises Millions Of Dollars. “For all the posts we’ve done on the impact of video games on society, I have found myself typically either beating back the notion that gaming is a terrible thing responsible for all the world’s problems or talking about common IP conflicts. On the topic of the internet generally, well, it’s mostly the same. But we also have opportunities to talk about the good that gaming and the internet can do. Which brings us to Itch.io and its brand new ‘Bundle For Ukraine.'”

CNET: How Ukrainian Civilians Are Using Phones to Share the Invasion With the World. “Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the world has gotten a direct view of the war as ordinary Ukrainians document the fighting tearing through their country. They’re not relying on sophisticated gear as they share videos and photos of the destruction and violence. Rather, they’re using the tools they’ve long relied on to communicate: smartphones, social media, messaging apps and a widespread telecommunications network that’s so far been spared from devastation.”

CNN: Fact check: How a false story about Leonardo DiCaprio donating $10 million to Ukraine spread around the world. “The International Visegrad Fund told CNN on Wednesday that, contrary to the news reports, it did not announce a $10 million DiCaprio donation to Ukraine and has no related information. So how did this false story spread so far? The saga of the nonexistent $10 million donation is a case study in how bad information can bubble up from the online fringes to mainstream media outlets — with outlet after outlet, big and small alike, simply repeating the story without independently verifying it.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: A top Wikipedia editor has been arrested in Belarus. “The Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of Belarus (GUBOPiK) has detained prominent Wikipedia editor Mark Bernstein, according to the Belarusian publication Zerkalo. The arrest comes after Bernstein’s personal information was shared on GOBUPiK’s public Telegram channel. Bernstein is one of the top 50 editors of Russian Wikipedia.”

CNBC: ‘For the first time in history anyone can join a war’: Volunteers join Russia-Ukraine cyber fight. “Cyber warfare related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict is surging as digital volunteers from around the world enter the fight. The number of cyberattacks being waged by — and on behalf of — both countries since the outbreak of the war is ‘staggering,’ according to the research arm of Check Point Software Technologies.”

Washington Post: Fleeing Putin’s wartime crackdown, Russian journalists build media hubs in exile. “The media clampdown in Russia that followed the invasion of Ukraine has decimated a journalism community already ground to near extinction by years of oppression. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 150 of Russia’s few remaining independent reporters and editors have left since tanks rolled into Ukraine, plunging Russia into what the group called an ‘information dark age.’ Now — in Lithuania, Latvia, Georgia and other former Soviet states where Russian remains a common language — they are scrambling to set up newsrooms in exile, determined to continue the hazardous mission of speaking truth to authoritarianism.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Daily Beast: The Problem With Banning Russian Disinformation. “In a thoughtful new book, Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics—and How to Cure It, eminent University of California-Irvine law professor Richard L. Hasen proposes to counter the threat posed by ‘fake news’ and ‘cheap speech’ by tweaking First Amendment protections and permitting narrow, targeted restrictions of speech. Yet there remains a compelling case for why the U.S. approach to regulating speech is preferable to even a modest and well-intentioned pivot (such as the European model) when it comes to concerted disinformation and anti-democratic propaganda.”

Washington Post: Opinions | Putin’s assault also targets Ukraine’s history. “On Feb. 27 in Chernihiv oblast, Russian shelling severely damaged the regional headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine, or Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrainy (SBU), which houses important archival materials including documentation of Nazi atrocities in Ukraine. If Putin succeeds in destroying or removing critical records like those in the SBU archive, it could erase Ukrainians’ distinct experiences and buttress Putin’s view of history, in which, among many other things, he sees Ukrainians and Russians as one people.”

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March 15, 2022 at 12:26AM
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Flemish Films, Extracting Questions, 2020 Census, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, March 14, 2022

Flemish Films, Extracting Questions, 2020 Census, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, March 14, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), and translated from Dutch by Google Translate: Online search platform for Flemish films flaminGO.pics launched. “With flaminGO.pics, the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF) is today launching an online search platform that helps users worldwide to find out how to watch Flemish films legally on streaming platforms, in a cinema near them or at a film festival.”

UX Collective: The power of seeing only the questions in a piece of writing. “I’ve been watching how writers use questions lately, and thought: Hmmm, it’d be cool to see only the questions in a piece of prose. I probably started down this line of thinking because last fall I created a little web tool that removes everything but the punctuation from a piece of writing. That tool wound up being a pretty intriguing type of literary x-ray: I discovered, for example, that I use a ton of parentheticals (and way too many m-dashes). Since I already had the code for that, it wasn’t too hard for me to program a version focuses on questions instead.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

New York Times: 2020 Census Undercounted Hispanic, Black and Native American Residents. “Saddled with daunting logistical and political obstacles, the 2020 census seriously undercounted the number of Hispanic, Black and Native American residents even though its overall population count was largely accurate, the Census Bureau said on Thursday. At the same time, the census overcounted white and Asian American residents, the bureau said.”

The Register: Afraid of the big bad Linux desktop? Zorin 16.1 is here. “Zorin 16.1 has arrived, marking the first major update of the Linux distribution since August’s release. Unashamedly user-friendly, with an interface unlikely to scare off Windows or Mac users, the most eye-catching element of the update is LibreOffice 7.3, replete with better Microsoft Office compatibility, improved performance, and tweaks for dark mode fans.”

USEFUL STUFF

PCWorld: The best free backup software and services: Where is it safe to skimp?. “Finding a good free backup solution is easier than you’d think. A host of companies offer free online backup or free backup software—and perhaps surprisingly, nearly all of them are quite competent.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

National Security Archive: U.S. National Archives’ (NARA) Budget: The 30-Year Flatline. “While its budget has flatlined, the number of records NARA must preserve, particularly electronic records, has increased exponentially over three decades. The George H.W. Bush Library, for example, has 20 gigabytes of electronic records in its holdings, whereas the Obama Library has 250 terabytes.[2] This explosion of electronic records is a huge part of the growing backlog for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) requests at the presidential libraries, which constitute only part of NARA’s holdings.”

The Guardian: Google profiting from ‘predatory’ loan adverts promising instant cash. “Google is profiting from ads promoting ‘instant’ cash and loans delivered ‘faster than pizza’ despite a pledge to protect users from ‘deceptive and harmful’ financial products. The ads were served to people in the UK who searched terms like ‘quick money now’ and ‘need money help’ and directed users to firms offering high-interest loans.”

Route Fifty: Rural County Puts Land Records on Blockchain. “A southwest Virginia county with about 40,000 residents situated near the Kentucky border is using blockchain for managing land records – the latest effort in 25 years of technological innovation.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: Will the US crack down on cryptocurrency?. “The US is moving to craft new rules to govern cryptocurrencies amid rising concerns that the fast-growing industry is a haven for criminals and poses risks to financial stability.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

United Nations News: Social media poses ‘existential threat’ to traditional, trustworthy news: UNESCO . “The business model of the news media is ‘broken’ and with it, our fundamental right to information is at risk, a new UNESCO report examining global trends in freedom of expression warns.”

NoCamels: Israeli Company That Developed AI Lifeguard Now Predicts Dangerous Flooding. “It’s hard to imagine with all the rain and sleet and snow this month in various parts of the world that spring and summer are just around the corner. Sightbit, the Israeli startup leveraging AI to alert lifeguards when swimmers are in danger, is ready, with its life-saving, preventative drowning tech already implemented and operating at full capacity at beaches throughout Israel, Europe, and the US. Along the way, the Beersheba-based company has received requests from some of the same customers that use its AI tech to come up with a way to deal with aquatic environments and situations, including floods.”

Chronicle (Luxembourg): Luxembourg, Wallonia Launch Web App for Forest Adaptation to Climate Change. “The Nature and Forest Agency of Luxembourg’s Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development has announced the launch of a new web application dedicated to forestry adaptation to climate change… Developed in partnership with the Walloon Region in Belgium, this is a decision-making tool for forest managers and owners in the context of forest adaptation to climate change.” Good morning, Internet…

March 14, 2022 at 07:55PM
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Tracking Russian Oil/Gas Tankers, Disinformation Campaigns, Bypassing Censorship, More: Ukraine Update, March 14, 2022

Tracking Russian Oil/Gas Tankers, Disinformation Campaigns, Bypassing Censorship, More: Ukraine Update, March 14, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Greenpeace UK: Follow tankers carrying Russian oil and gas, live on Twitter. “In response to the invasion of Ukraine, many countries have taken steps to block shipments of Russian oil and gas. Now an amazing new Twitter tool allows anyone to see where tankers carrying Russian fuels are going – and where we need to cut our ties to fossil fuels.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Washington Post: ‘I’m writing this post now and crying’: Russians bid farewell to Instagram before midnight ban. “The tears were flowing Sunday among Russia’s airbrushed Instagram influencers, who begged their followers in farewell posts to join them on alternative social media platforms, as Russian authorities prepared to shut down the U.S.-owned social network at midnight. Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, officially banned Instagram on Friday and gave Russian users a 48-hour grace period to say goodbye to the popular app, initiating the forced exodus.”

CNN: Russian internet users are learning how to beat Putin’s internet crackdown. “To defeat Russia’s internet censorship, many are turning to specialized circumvention technology that’s been widely used in other countries with restricted online freedoms, including China and Iran. Digital rights experts say Putin may have inadvertently sparked a massive, permanent shift in digital literacy in Russia that will work against the regime for years.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Media Matters: A pro-Russia propaganda campaign is using over 180 TikTok influencers to promote the invasion of Ukraine. “Over 180 Russian influencers on TikTok are involved in a seemingly concerted propaganda campaign using the caption ‘Russian Lives Matter’ and participating in a combination of three trends that promote online support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

New York Times: Bitcoin Was Made for This Moment. So Why Isn’t It Booming?. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was met with brutal sanctions that have tanked the ruble and devastated the Russian economy, and many U.S. companies have pulled out of Russia, making it nearly impossible for its citizens to access their bank accounts, use credit cards or even post on social media. In other words, this is a perfect storm of economic and geopolitical events that should, theoretically, be great for Bitcoin. But Bitcoin hasn’t boomed. In fact, even as Wall Street analysts contemplate the possibility of nuclear Armageddon, crypto prices have fallen steadily.”

BBC: Ukraine: How China is censoring online discussion of the war. “Posts expressing partisan views have been removed on a daily basis – both for and against Russian military action. ‘No-one dares to stand with Ukraine right now,’ wrote one person on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent. ‘It’s all one-sided support for Russia.’ This was removed along with many others like it, according to Free Weibo, which tracks Chinese censorship online.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Politico: ‘Not the time to go poking around’: How former U.S. hackers view dealing with Russia. “The CIA and NSA have spent years burrowing into Russia’s critical computer networks to collect intelligence — and acquire access that President Joe Biden could seize on to order destructive cyberattacks on Vladimir Putin’s regime. But for now, the United States’ most likely approach is to tread slowly and carefully toward any cyber conflict with Russia, three experts with experience in U.S. hacking operations told POLITICO — while hoping the Russians do the same.”

Slate: Future Tense Newsletter: Cutting Russia Off From the Global Internet Is Exactly What Putin Wants. “Every important tech company that has pulled out of Russia is another satisfying reputational blow to Putin’s regime (who has called the withdrawal of international brands and sanctions ‘economic warfare’), but it is also another step toward closing any remaining autonomous spaces for Russian citizens, including those who oppose the government and want to organize against it, to communicate with each other and share news and information beyond the full control of the Kremlin.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Overseas Development Institute: A war on many fronts: disinformation around the Russia-Ukraine war. “From TikTok to Telegram, information about the frontlines of the war seems simultaneously more authentic and more uncertain, more controlled and more open to channels that might bypass state-controlled information. But to claim that there is one social media war is misleading. The role and impact of disinformation – false information that is deliberately spread to cause harm – depends on both its context and intended audience.”

Brookings Institution: China and Russia are joining forces to spread disinformation. “Though Russian and Chinese interests diverge in important ways, they are increasingly collaborating on the narratives being supplied to domestic audiences, feeding similar disinformation and propaganda to a citizenry increasingly cut off from the global web…. Against the backdrop of last month’s joint statement from Xi and Putin, this collaboration should be seen as part of a broader project to reshape the global information landscape to favor the Kremlin and Beijing’s authoritarian political projects.”

Robert Lansing Institute: Russia Targets the “Jewish Lobby” and Communities with Anti-Ukraine Disinformation. “A recent story about the alleged looting and attacks on Jewish community members in Zhytomyr in the wake of their attempts to leave the country for Israel was quickly debunked by the local Chabad chapter, but not before making the rounds on social media and in Jewish activist circles…. Fact checking by Chabad afterwards revealed that there were no multiple victims of alleged looting, attacks, and harassment. The entire scenario was a fabrication. But this is not the first time Russian propaganda machinery has targeted the Jewish community with fictitious accounts of Ukrainian street brutality or the government’s alleged failure to protect them.”

Radio Prague International: Czech-Russian nuclear research terminated after over 60 years. “For more than six decades, Czech scientists have been involved in nuclear research at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Russian town of Dubna. Now, the Czech Republic has announced it will terminate its long-term cooperation with the Russian institution, following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.”

March 14, 2022 at 06:34PM
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Sunday, March 13, 2022

CoSphere, Firefox Relay, Wordle, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, March 13, 2022

CoSphere, Firefox Relay, Wordle, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, March 13, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Vancouver Sun: UBC prof creates social media hub to address climate and ecological crises. “Hearing that ‘transformative change’ is required to address the world’s climate and ecological crises can feel overwhelming. That’s one of the reasons why UBC professor Dr. Kai Chan and his team at the university created CoSphere, a new online social media hub where people can connect and learn how to take action for a sustainable future. While the site is up and running, Chan and his team are officially launching it on Monday.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mozilla Blog: Latest Firefox Relay includes bigger attachment size and filters for promotional emails . “Today, we’re adding user-requested features that deliver the emails that you care about which includes tickets to catch the train or watching your favorite band in concert, or getting the emails you want whether it’s getting shipping information or confirmation on the products you buy or updates to service and privacy policies.”

GameRant: New York Times Shuts Down Wordle Archive. “Wordle Archive was a service dedicated to the preservation of previous Wordle answers, allowing fans to dip into the backlog and play older puzzles, dating all the way back to the first one. However, the service has since been shut down at the request of the New York Times, as announced by an update on the application’s webpage.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: 14 of the best ‘Wordle’ clones, because one word a day isn’t enough. “Our obsession has been endlessly analyzed and dissected. We’ve shared strategies and tips. It has been meme-ed and shared all over Twitter. It was even bought by the New York Times. And of course our insatiable appetite for the simple puzzle game has been the catalyst for multiple Wordle clones. Here’s a roundup of our favorites.”

MakeUseOf: These 5 Firefox Add-Ons Completely Transform Twitch. “Nobody’s under any illusions that Twitch is a perfect website, and there are plenty of Firefox add-ons which can help you to try and fix whatever problems you might be having with Twitch. Here are five of the very best for you to try.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

APTN News: Indigenous TikTok influencers spread good medicine through social media. “Canada’s Indigenous TikTok Creators are using their platform to educate mainstream Canadians on Indigenous culture and customs. Each is unique in their TikTok style. We chat with two TikTok Influencers about spreading that good medicine on social(s) and we discuss how they have been able to capitalize on TikTok.”

Getty: Sotheby’s Auctioneer David Redden Donates Archive to Getty Research Institute. “Working at Sotheby’s for 42 years, from 1974 until 2016, Redden is notable for the high-profile sales which he personally developed. A passionate collector himself, Redden created new auction categories out of popular collecting passions: space artifacts, sports memorabilia, comic books, arcade machines, and computer animation art. A portrait of both Redden and his milieu at Sotheby’s, the collection comprises personal files, slides, photographs, complete sets of auction catalogs, and related ephemera.”

CNET: Early MySpace Was the Peak of Social Media. “Founded in 2003, MySpace was the first social media platform for many people. Facebook was founded a year later, and despite its early restrictive membership practices, the number of Facebook users would soon accelerate past the number of MySpace users. MySpace is still around, but the number of site visitors — not even active users — has dropped to mere millions. Despite that, early MySpace was better than every version of Facebook. For those who remember early MySpace, it was a learning tool, it helped us form our identities and it expanded the music landscape.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

KnowTechie: Google cheats restaurants out of delivery fees, says class-action lawsuit. “Google has recently come under fire over some alleged practices surrounding food delivery. A class-action lawsuit has been filed claiming that Google is making unauthorized landing pages and taking a cut of fees charged by delivery services.”

Reuters: Google fends off Genius appeal in lawsuit over song lyrics. “Alphabet Inc’s Google on Thursday again beat back a lawsuit saying it misused song lyrics transcribed by popular lyric site Genius, persuading a U.S. appeals court to reject Genius’ claims. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that Genius’ contract and unfair competition claims against Google should have been brought under U.S. copyright law.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 14, 2022 at 03:25AM
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Saturday, March 12, 2022

VeloNews, Missouri Agriculture, Bob Marley, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 12, 2022

VeloNews, Missouri Agriculture, Bob Marley, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 12, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

VeloNews: Introducing the VeloNews Archive – 50 years of our magazines online. “VeloNews photo director Brad Kaminski worked for more than a year on this project, which we are happy to share with you today on the eve of the 50th anniversary of VeloNews. Our first issue was published March 13, 1972. The magazine began as Northeast Bicycle News, then later became Cyclenews, Velo-news, and finally VeloNews.” Requires an access membership, but it’s not onerous.

KY3: New website makes finding farmers markets easier for consumers. “Missouri Grown is part of the Missouri Department of Agriculture and works to connect farmers with customers and promote Missouri agribusiness. The map was created to make it easier to locate farmers’ markets but you can also locate many other agritourism hot spots.”

Google Blog: Explore Bob Marley’s most extensive archive ever. “My father, Bob Marley, is one of the most known people in the world. I mean, some people feel as if they know him personally, that’s how much history is out there, yet there is so much that is unknown. Bob Marley still holds mystery. We all are still learning new things about him, and some people may just be discovering him. In this mission we are happy to be partners with Google Arts & Culture to compile and exhibit in one online location the most extensive collection of Bob Marley artifacts.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Google Takeout will get more ways to securely transfer files across different services. “In 2018, Google, Facebook / Meta, Microsoft, and Twitter teamed up to announce the Data Transfer Project, which worked on tools to help users ‘transfer data directly from one service to another, without needing to download and re-upload it.’… This week, Google provided an update on its participation, pledging $3 million in funding and ‘hundreds’ of hours of work from engineers over the next five years to work on the open-source libraries that keep the project going.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BuzzFeed News: Inside Project Texas, TikTok’s Big Answer To US Lawmakers’ China Fears. “Over the past year, thousands of TikTok employees have scrambled to move the company’s stores of information about its US users to data centers inside the US, and to restrict access to that data abroad. The effort, which is ongoing, is known internally as ‘Project Texas.’ According to seven current and former TikTok employees, it represents the company’s response to concerns from regulators that the Chinese government could use the app, owned by the Chinese corporation ByteDance, to access sensitive information about US citizens.”

Politico: The woman behind the Gender Pay Gap Bot. “The Twitter bot uses data on the pay gap that British companies are required to disclose by a regulation that went into effect in 2017. When the budget airline Ryanair sent out its International Women’s Day tweet, an image in the style of a movie poster with photos of women employees under the words ‘THE FLIGHT SQUAD,’ the Pay Gap Bot shot out a typically straightforward, cutting quote-tweet: ‘In this organisation, women’s median hourly pay is 68.6% lower than men’s.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

City AM: Google settles libel lawsuit with Tory MP over defamatory ‘paedophile’ advert. “Google has settled a libel lawsuit brought forward by Conservative party MP Lee Anderson, after the tech company displayed adverts falsely accusing Anderson of protecting peadophiles. Google Ireland issued an apology to Anderson and settled the case out of court, after it hosted a political advert from campaign group ‘Keeping Kids Safe’ on political news website Guido Fawkes.”

Washington Post: Va. seeks records law change to require victim notification before releasing crime files. “The Virginia General Assembly is preparing to change the state’s open records laws again, removing a recent provision that required police and prosecutors to release closed files to any requester. The changes would also require crime victims to be notified whenever law enforcement is inclined to release a report in open or closed criminal cases.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Times of Israel: ADL develops algorithm to track antisemitism on social media. “When it comes to antisemitism on social media, the algorithms governing the major platforms shoulder some of the blame for their reach. But the Anti-Defamation League hopes to fight the spread — by creating an algorithm of its own. The Jewish civil rights group announced Tuesday that it has built a system called the Online Hate Index, describing it as the first tool ever developed to measure antisemitism on social media platforms. The program can sift through millions of posts quickly to detect antisemitic comments and aid in their removal.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 13, 2022 at 01:42AM
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Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online, ‘The EU stands with Ukraine’, Android Air Raid Alerts, More: Ukraine Update, March 12, 2022

Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online, ‘The EU stands with Ukraine’, Android Air Raid Alerts, More: Ukraine Update, March 12, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Marketplace: Digital archivists race to preserve Ukrainian heritage. “Some Ukrainian museum websites have gone offline as the servers hosting them lose connections or are destroyed in attacks. To prevent that information and cultural memory from disappearing entirely, around 1,000 archivists, programmers and librarians have volunteered to form a group called Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online or SUCHO.”

European Parliament: European Parliament launches website in cooperation with Ukrainian Parliament. “‘The EU stands with Ukraine’: the website (in English and Ukrainian) set up by Parliament, provides the latest news, videos and podcasts, relevant legislation and resolutions to show how the EU is helping Ukraine. Content from the Ukrainian Parliament could also be shared on the site. Actively supporting EU efforts to promote democracy and human rights in the world is one of Parliament’s core responsibilities.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Politico: As war in Ukraine evolves, so do disinformation tactics. “Moscow’s narratives about its invasion are also evolving after its goal of toppling Kyiv within a week failed and its campaign has turned to entrenched warfare, with civilians increasingly targeted as part of the wider aggression. In recent days, officials and state-backed media have pushed claims that the United States is operating a biochemical laboratory within Ukraine — reminiscent of previous falsehoods that claimed Washington operated a similar facility in China that led to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Kremlin has also claimed its takeover of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was part of an orchestrated response to Ukrainian efforts to build a so-called dirty bomb. Western officials — and independent fact-checkers — have dismissed these allegations.”

CBS News: Google will send air raid alerts to Ukrainian Android users. “Google will immediately start rolling out alerts for incoming air raids to Ukrainian Android phone users in an effort to help them get to safety, the company announced. In a company blog post Thursday, Kent Walker, president of global affairs for Google, said the Air Raid Alert system will work in conjunction with the Ukrainian government.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Ukraine: Spam website set up to reach millions of Russians. “A Norwegian computer expert has created a website enabling anyone to send an email about the war in Ukraine to up to 150 Russian email addresses at a time, so that Russian people have a chance to hear the truth their government is hiding.”

Homeland Security Today: Anonymous Information Warfare Intensifies with 7 Million Text Messages to Russians, New Email Campaign. “Anonymous programmers Squad303 created a tool last week that allows non-hackers to make a positive contribution to ‘the largest and most successful cyber operation in the history of the world.’ Within 48 hours of releasing the 1920.in tool, the group reported on Twitter that ‘the people of the free world sent the Russians 2 million text messages’ warning that the people of Russia would suffer as a result of nations’ response to Vladimir Putin’s aggression and that they need to know the truth about his unprovoked war. By Tuesday, that volume had hit 5 million and was rapidly climbing.”

CZ Expats: Czech TV to begin nightly news broadcast in Ukrainian. “As of Saturday evening, Czech Television will broadcast its nightly evening news program Události (Events) with simultaneous Ukrainian translation, Czech Television spokesperson Karolína Blinková has announced…. The live broadcast will take place at 7:00 p.m. nightly, along with the translated version. After the broadcasts begin, Czech Television will also create an online database containing an archive of previous news broadcasts in Ukrainian.”

BBC: War in Ukraine: How Russia is recruiting mercenaries. “Social media channels and private messaging groups are being used in Russia to recruit a new brigade of mercenaries to fight in Ukraine alongside the army, the BBC has learned. The BBC has spoken to a serving mercenary and a former fighter with close links to one of Russia’s leading mercenary organisations, who have shared details of the recruitment campaign.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

SC Magazine: In a first, Ukraine leaks Russian intellectual property as act of war. “The Main Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GURMO) hacked and leaked documents it claimed it stole from the Russian Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station this week. The act is believed to be the first time a hack-and-leak operation weaponized the leak of intellectual property to harm a nation.”

Washington Post: Putin’s pre-war moves against U.S. tech giants laid groundwork for crackdown on free expression. “Moscow deployed new devices that let it degrade or even block Russians’ access to Facebook and Twitter, imposed fines totaling $120 million on firms accused of defying Kremlin censors, and ordered 13 of the world’s largest technology companies to keep employees in Russia and thus exposed to potential arrest or other punishment for their employers’ actions — a measure that U.S. executives refer to as the ‘hostage law.’ On their own, these moves were seen as disparate signs of Russia’ descent into authoritarianism. But they also laid the groundwork for the Soviet-style suppression of free expression now underway in Russia, much as the months-long military buildup set the stage for the invasion of Ukraine.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The ASEAN Post: How To Disrupt The Fake News Market. “The fake news market depends on the exchange of online attention for money. An effective strategy to combat it must reset this equation. While governments devise legal measures to hold content creators and marketers accountable for disseminating fake news, ordinary people also must take responsibility for their role in spreading misinformation.”

WIRED: The Spectacular Collapse of Putin’s Disinformation Machinery. “Critically, the Kremlin seemed to understand that while our online worlds are a key part of us, we behave differently there because it taps into our magical thinking. It is real and unreal at the same time. We troll each other, scream at each other, and produce millions of hours of ever-weirder porn, all because that world is slightly unreal. Few of us would do any of those things IRL. Yet, it is our real life, and the things we do online all have impacts, both positive and negative, on our psyche. The same holds true for disinformation. Our screens open up something akin to our spirituality, and from there we can make wild leaps of faith as to what is and isn’t real that translate from online to our offline thinking.”

March 12, 2022 at 07:58PM
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Australian Photographers, Mali’s Cultural History, TikTok, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, March 12, 2022

Australian Photographers, Mali’s Cultural History, TikTok, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, March 12, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Guardian: Showcasing Australian female and non-binary photographers – in pictures. “On International Women’s Day, Australian Women in Photography has launched AUSWIP, an online database of established professional Australia-based female and non-binary photographers.”

BBC: Timbuktu manuscripts: Mali’s ancient documents captured online. “A virtual gallery to showcase Mali’s cultural history has been launched, featuring tens of thousands of Timbuktu’s ancient manuscripts. The manuscripts were smuggled to safety from Timbuktu after Islamist militant groups took control of the city in northern Mali in 2012. They contain centuries of African knowledge and scholarship on topics ranging from maths to astrological charts.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: TikTok Launches New Music Distribution System: SoundOn. “TikTok on Wednesday launched its own in-house music distribution and marketing platform, called SoundOn. Artists can upload their music directly onto the TikTok app, in addition to massive global platforms like Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora. Distribution is free, and TikTok is waiving transaction fees for the first year. It will take a 10% cut starting in year two.”

Mashable: Twitter makes it easy to swipe away from its annoying algorithm-fueled timeline. “On Thursday, Twitter announced that all iOS users now have the option to quickly switch between the Latest and Home timelines with a quick swipe. Twitter had prioritized the Home timeline as far back as 2016, but gave users the option to opt out via a nebulous sparkle icon starting in 2018.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: 4 Free Online Tools to Add a Censor Bleep to Your YouTube Videos. “There are several free online tools that you can now use to censor parts of your YouTube videos. Whether it’s accidental swearing on your live stream or a minor slip in editing, these online tools will help you conceal these bluffs.” I am noticing a lot of YouTube videos doing more bleeping and self-censorship. I was watching Ukraine/Russia memes yesterday and puzzling over the continued references to “OVID” until I realized it was actually “covid” and the audio had been altered to dodge an AI moderator.

Analytics India: Top Twitter bots you should follow in 2022 . “A Twitter bot is a type of bot software that controls a Twitter account via the Twitter API, and while the platform is plagued with ‘bad bots’, Twitter recently announced an update that classifies the ‘good bots’. ‘Bots actually come in all shapes and sizes, and chances are, you’re already following one that you like,’ says Twitter. The past few years have seen utmost creativity by programmers who have created self-help, reminder oriented, dissent oriented, hilarious, helpful, artistic and even poetic bots. Analytics India Magazine has identified some of the best bots to follow in 2022. ” Interesting selection and good annotation.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Washington Post: Smithsonian to give back its collection of Benin bronzes. “The repatriation of the 39 priceless artworks is the cornerstone of an agreement that could be signed as early as next month, the head of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments told The Washington Post. It includes provisions for long-term loans, shared exhibitions and education programs in Nigeria. The deal reflects a fundamental change in the Smithsonian’s collecting practices.”

Texas State University: Wittliff Collections acquires Stevie Ray Vaughan music archive. “The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University has acquired a significant archive of the late, legendary blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. The SRV archive, obtained from a private collector, is a major addition to the Texas Music Collection at The Wittliff, which already boasts archives from Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Marcia Ball, Cindy Walker and Asleep at the Wheel. The Wittliff is home to more than 500 historic literary, photographic, film and music collections, including one of the largest known collections of Tejano music materials and memorabilia in existence.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: EU, British antitrust authorities launch probes into Google and Facebook ‘Jedi Blue’ ad deal. “European Union and British antitrust authorities launched parallel investigations on Friday into a 2018 online display advertising deal between Google and Facebook, adding to a long list of regulatory challenges facing the U.S. tech giants.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: Misleading videos about ADHD are being widely disseminated on TikTok, study finds. “A new study published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has uncovered a high prevalence of misinformation about ADHD in TikTok videos. The scientists behind the research warn that the misleading information could potentially result in an increased risk for overdiagnosis or misdiagnosis.”

United Nations News: Break the link between illicit drugs and social media: UN-backed report . “The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an independent, UN-backed body, is calling on governments to do more to regulate social media platforms that glamourize drug-related negative behaviour and boost sales of controlled substances.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

CBC: ‘A collection of odds and ends’: Windsor library publishes first zine. “Poems, short stories, even collages: the Windsor Public Library’s (WPL) first-ever zine is giving some Windsor residents the opportunity to see their work in print for the first time. The zine — essentially a small-circulation, self-published literary magazine — is titled Pagination, and includes work from about 30 people. Most of them are from Windsor, but other submissions came from as far as Vancouver, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, said library employee David Konstantino.” Good morning, Internet…

March 12, 2022 at 06:39PM
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