NEW RESOURCES

Mid Day: Mumbai: American Photographer Launches Crowd-Sourced Aarey Forest Image Bank. “[Craig] Boehman, an independent photographer, is the man behind Aarey Forest Image Bank. The database, which can be found on Instagram, Facebook and mainly Flickr, is meant as a crowd-sourced pool of photographs that offers vignettes of life in Aarey Milk Colony, which has become the heavily contested site between the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRC) and, those on the other side of the debate, such as environmentalists and the adivasis.” “Adivasis” is a term for indigenous people in India.

Digital NC: Franklin Times now covering 1909-1944 and 1963-1972 online. “More issues of The Franklin Times, provided by our partner, Louisburg College, are now available online. The issues are from the years 1912-1944 and 1963-1972, and join previously digitized issues from 1909-1911. Established in 1870, The Franklin Times covers news in Louisburg, North Carolina, as well as statewide and national news of note.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: Facebook plans to use U.S. mail to verify IDs of election ad buyers. “Facebook Inc will start using postcards sent by U.S. mail later this year to verify the identities and location of people who want to purchase U.S. election-related advertising on its site, a senior company executive said on Saturday.”

The Verge: Facebook admits SMS notifications sent using two-factor number was caused by bug. “Facebook this evening clarified the situation around SMS notifications sent using the company’s two-factor authentication (2FA) system, admitting that the messages were indeed caused by a bug. In a blog post penned by Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, the company says the error led it to ‘send non-security-related SMS notifications to these phone numbers.'”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: Use Instagram’s Collections Feature to Save Interesting Posts. “Last year Instagram introduced Collections, a way to organize your pictures within the app into different curated groups. It’s a feature that’s been around for roughly a year now, but it’s one that most people don’t realize is even there.”

Pixel Spot: How to easily get back your “View Image” button in Google. “If you were upset about the recent removal of the ‘View Image’ button on Google’s image search engine, you’ll be happy to know a workaround has recently popped up. Specifically, a new Chrome Extension can be installed to generate the same old button that allows you to find an image and view it directly.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: To Stir Discord in 2016, Russians Turned Most Often to Facebook. “In 2014, Russians working for a shadowy firm called the Internet Research Agency started gathering American followers in online groups focused on issues like religion and immigration. Around mid-2015, the Russians began buying digital ads to spread their messages. A year later, they tapped their followers to help organize political rallies across the United States. Their digital instrument of choice for all of these actions? Facebook and its photo-sharing site Instagram.”

Salon: Russian-linked bots join gun debate on Twitter following Parkland shooting: report. “In the aftermath of the shooting on Feb. 14 that claimed 17 lives at a Florida high school, automated bots reportedly jumped on Twitter—some reportedly Russian-linked— to steer the conversation, according to two watchdog organizations. While it’s unclear who the accounts were, and the context of the messages they were promoting, the bots reportedly used the tragic event as an opportunity to join the gun control reform debate on the social media platform.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: US charges Russian social media trolls over election tampering. “US special counsel Robert Mueller has filed charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups for allegedly interfering with the 2016 presidential election. In an indictment released Friday (PDF), Mueller and the Justice Department call out the Internet Research Agency, a group linked to Russian propaganda efforts across social media. Employees for the IRA created troll accounts and used bots to stage arguments and sow political chaos during the 2016 campaign.”

The Register: Vermont becomes fifth US state to boot up its own net neutrality rules. “State governor Phil Scott signed an executive order Thursday noting that ‘the principles of net neutrality are inherently tied to the provision of reliable, high-quality broadband Internet service for the State,’ and ordering all state agencies to only use ISPs that agree not to block, throttle or prioritize network traffic.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Hindu: IIT-M in process of creating India-specific cancer genome database. “IIT-Madras is in the process of creating an India-specific cancer genome database aimed at early detection and development of better treatment strategy for the disease. The National Cancer Tissue Biobank (NCTB), a first of its kind community-based initiative in the country, is collecting cancer tissues from Indian patients ‘to generate a cancer genome database which was not available so far.'” IIT-M is Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

Ubergizmo: Google Testing Methods To Help 911 Locate Mobile Callers Accurately. “It’s easier for 911 operators to locate a caller when the call has been made using a landline but it takes more time to do that when a call is made using a cellphone. As you can probably imagine, more people make such calls using their cell phones now than ever before which is why there’s a need to help 911 locate mobile callers more effectively. This is where Google comes in.” Good morning, Internet…

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