afternoonbuzz

Saudi Arabia Film Locations, Hawaii Public Lands, Instagram, More: Monday Evening Buzz, October 1, 2018

NEW RESOURCES

Arab News: Saudi national library of film-shooting sites launched. “The General Authority for Culture, represented by the Saudi Film Council, has launched the first national library of film-shooting sites in the Kingdom.”

Hawaii Governor: Who Owns This Land? New DLNR Website Has Some Answers. “A new tool available for the first time to anyone who wants to know about state- and county-owned lands in Hawai‘i was launched recently by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: Instagram Brings Notifications to Web Browsers. “Instagram has added notifications to the web-based version of its app. Those who use Instagram on web browsers will now receive (almost) all the same notifications that are sent on the native mobile app.”

CNET: Reddit adds appeals process to offensive-subreddit Quarantine policy. “It’s been a few years since Reddit instituted its Quarantine policy, which added an opt-in click to view subreddits deemed offensive. Now the company has added a major update to it: an appeals process for the flagged-subreddit moderators.”

BetaNews: Tim Berners-Lee launches open source project Solid to decentralize the web and place users in control of data. “Tim Berners-Lee is famous for inventing the world wide web, and now he’s ready to take things to the next level with an ambitious open source project called Solid. Noting that the web has become ‘an engine of inequity and division’, Berners-Lee wants to restore the power and agency of individuals online and move the balance of power away from ‘powerful forces who use it for their own agendas’.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: All the Information You Need to Vote in the 2018 Midterm Elections. “Midterm elections are on November 6th—are you registered? If you’re not sure, you can check here. And if you’re not, or you need to re-register, don’t worry: You still have time in every single state to register and/or plan if you need to submit an absentee ballot for the Midterms.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BuzzFeed News: Facebook Just Met With Reps From Myanmar, The Philippines, And Sri Lanka To Discuss Its Global Misinformation Problem. “Facebook last week held a two-day meeting with academics, researchers, and civil society organizations from Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere to discuss misinformation and propaganda, three sources told BuzzFeed News.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: US government loses bid to force Facebook to wiretap Messenger calls . “US government investigators have lost a case to force Facebook to wiretap calls made over its Messenger app. A joint federal and state law enforcement effort investigating the MS-13 gang had pushed a district court to hold the social networking giant in contempt of court for refusing to permit real-time listening in on voice calls.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Civic Media: Twitter suspended me for tweeting feminist academic research. Here’s why that’s a problem.. “This morning, I did what I always, lamentably, do, which is wake up and check Twitter. I noticed that the account for MIT, where I work as an admissions officer and research affiliate, had tweeted a story about Math Prize for Girls, an annual competition, hosted on campus last weekend, for women with an affinity for STEM. I’m a longtime fan and supporter of Math Prize. In fact, I had spoken at the competition, giving a talk about applying to MIT (and colleges in general) as a mathematically inclined women. As part of that talk, I mentioned that research has shown the gendering of science to be a historical, not a natural, phenomenon.”

Engadget: Facebook will never be completely secure. “Facebook has come a long way since one person could actively manage it from a dorm room. Aaron Chiu, a software engineer for Facebook, noted on Quora that as of five years ago, core Facebook was made up of 62 million lines of code. A codebase that complex requires a great many stewards and the service has only grown more sophisticated since then. More moving parts means more things that could potentially go awry, but the service’s growing complexity means it’s highly unlikely the company will ever be able to completely secure its products.” Good evening, Internet…

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