NEW RESOURCES

Food Navigator Asia: Indian government’s pro-organic stance welcomed, new logo and traceability tracking website launched. “Launched by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the new online database…helps consumers to verify the authenticity of organic foods and allows them to access all the information about the food product’s maker, the certification system used for the organic labelling and the availability of the products.”

Ransom Center Magazine: Thousands of cultural heritage materials now instantly shareable in new online platform. “More than 50,000 images in the Ransom Center’s digital collections portal are now available via the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF). IIIF offers new ways to view, compare and engage with images.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Facebook Sound Collection lets you add no-name music to videos . “The right soundtrack can make a boring video interesting. So after years of reported discussions with the record labels, Facebook is launching video editing tool Sound Collection for inserting into Facebook and Instagram clips ‘songs, vocals, noises, and instrumental tracks spanning genres like hip hop, pop, jazz, country, and more.’ What you can’t add is any music you’ve heard before. Sound Collection has huge potential, but lackluster execution, and probably won’t deter users from illegally adding popular music to their videos.”

The Next Web: Facebook unveils livestreaming and more for Messenger games. “Facebook announced this week, in celebration of its first year of Messenger games, it’s adding new community features such as livestreaming and video chat. When Facebook announced Instant Games last year, it had 17 games in its repertoire, including Pac-Man, Galaga, and Space Invaders. Now it’s got over 70 games with several more to come next year, including the likes of Sonic, Angry Birds, and Disney Tsum Tsum.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: RememBear Is a Good Password Manager for Beginners. “You know by now that you absolutely need a password manager. But you never get around to buying one. Let’s fix that right now with RememBear, a new password manager that’s easy to install and figure out. We tested it, and while we still prefer 1Password for most users, we recommend RememBear for beginners, especially during its free beta period.”

YourTango: 21 Acronyms & Hashtags The Cool Kids Use On Instagram (And What They Actually Mean). “If you, like me, have ever stumbled across a hashtag or acronym on Instagram and had no clue what it meant, rest assured that you are absolutely not alone. ‘WCW? MCM? What are these? Drugs?’ These are words I almost surely said to myself as I began my own persona foray into the magical world of Insta. To save you from confusion, I’ve broken down 21 of the most commonly used hashtags and acronyms you’re likely to find in captions and comments on Instagram.” These are an odd mix of those I would have considered obvious/well-known (QOTD) and some I’d never heard of (MCM and WCW – and WCW does not in this context stand for World Championship Wrestling.)

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

ProPublica: Governors and Federal Agencies Are Blocking Nearly 1,300 Accounts on Facebook and Twitter. “Amanda Farber still doesn’t know why Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan blocked her from his Facebook group. A resident of Bethesda and full-time parent and volunteer, Farber identifies as a Democrat but voted for the Republican Hogan in 2014. Farber says she doesn’t post on her representatives’ pages often. But earlier this year, she said she wrote on the governor’s Facebook page, asking him to oppose the Trump administration’s travel ban and health care proposal. She never received a response. When she later returned to the page, she noticed her comment had been deleted. She also noticed she had been blocked from commenting. (She is still allowed to share the governor’s posts and messages.)”

Washington Post: Fake news on Facebook fans the flames of hate against the Rohingya in Burma. “Burma was long closed off by a military regime, with centuries-old tensions between its Budd­hist and Muslim communities leashed by strict control over traditional media.As the country transitions into democracy, those constraints have loosened and access to the Internet has expanded rapidly, most notably through a Facebook program called Free Basics that has catapulted the platform into prominence as a major source of news in Burma. But the sudden proliferation of recently available technologies has accelerated the spread of ethnic hatred in Burma, stoking tensions amid a violent military crackdown that has sent more than 600,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border into Bangladesh.”

US News & World Report: German Intelligence Unmasks Alleged Covert Chinese Social Media Profiles. “Germany’s intelligence service has published the details of social network profiles which it says are fronts faked by Chinese intelligence to gather personal information about German officials and politicians. The BfV domestic intelligence service took the unusual step of naming individual profiles it says are fake and fake organizations to warn public officials about the risk of leaking valuable personal information via social media.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Daily Dot: This is why Facebook arguments don’t work—according to science . “Next time you’re inclined to spend hours arguing with a Facebook friend, or even a stranger, in the comments of a post, take a moment to close your laptop or shut off your phone screen. Why, you ask? Because according to science, you’d be better off listening to each other—literally—instead.” Good evening, Internet…

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