NEW RESOURCES

Euronews: Futuris: archiving popular dissent against communism. “A new European research project is working to preserve historical material related to cultural resistance from the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. But how are they achieving that?”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Facebook launches petition feature, its next battlefield . “Gather a mob and Facebook will now let you make political demands. Tomorrow [Monday, January 21] Facebook will encounter a slew of fresh complexities with the launch of Community Actions, its News Feed petition feature. Community Actions could unite neighbors to request change from their local and national elected officials and government agencies. But it could also provide vocal interest groups a bully pulpit from which to pressure politicians and bureaucrats with their fringe agendas.”

BBC: WhatsApp restricts message-sharing to fight fake news. “WhatsApp is limiting all its members to forwarding any single message up to five times in an effort to tackle the spread of false information on the platform. The Facebook-owned business had already introduced the policy in India six months ago.”

Hollywood Reporter: TVEyes Will No Longer Carry Fox News in Negotiated End to Big Copyright Fight. “Fox News has fully prevailed in a copyright lawsuit against TVEyes, a media monitoring service that allows its users to find and share clips of broadcast news. On Friday, Fox News informed a New York federal judge that it had reached a settlement with TVEyes, putting an end to the five-year-old case. As part of the deal, TVEyes has agreed to a permanent injunction and will no longer be permitted to carry copyrighted content from Fox News.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeTechEasier: 10 of the Best Google Slides Add-ons to Create An Impressive Presentation. “Imagine that you have to give a presentation that will determine your future career path. If you do well, the bosses are impressed, but if it flops, well, that’s a problem. You decide to use Google Slides because you know that no matter what happens you’ll be able to access the file anywhere. To make the most impressive presentation possible, some of these add-ons for Slides can accomplish that, or they may just save you time that you can put to better use. Here are some add-ons you may find helpful depending on what your needs are for your presentations.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

City A.M.: Google hit with €50m fine by French data regulator in GDPR battle. €50m is a little over $56.8 million USD at this writing. “Though today’s fine is the largest under GDPR to date, it is relatively small in comparison to the legislation’s maximum penalty limit of up to four per cent of a firm’s annual global turnover. In Google’s case, the fine could have been more than $4.3bn (£3.3bn) based on revenues of $109.7bn in its last full financial year.”

Forbes: 8 Instagram Trends To Watch Out For In 2019. “When it comes to being successful on Instagram these days, there’s a lot you have to worry about. As competition grows fiercer and fiercer, simply using clever hashtags and posting regularly isn’t enough to cut it. If you’re serious about getting more followers and likes–whether you’re becoming an Instagram influencer or you’re running an account as part of your business’s social media strategy, you need to know about all the right Instagram tools and trends. That way, you can start the new year knowing that you’re doing everything you need to in order to build a robust Instagram presence. In this blog post, I’m going to share 8 top Instagram trends that you need to watch out for in 2019 – and put into practice.” Also includes links to various Instagram resources.

SECURITY & LEGAL

ZDNet: Popular WordPress plugin hacked by angry former employee. “A very popular WordPress plugin was hacked over the weekend after a hacker defaced its website and sent a mass message to all its customers revealing the existence of supposed unpatched security holes. In a follow-up mass email, the plugin’s developers blamed the hack on a former employee, who also defaced their website.”

CNET: Russia opens civil case against Facebook, Twitter over data laws. “Russia’s telecom regulator on Monday opened a civil case against Facebook and Twitter over their alleged failure to explain how they’ll comply with data laws. Roskomnadzor wants to know how and when the social media sites will comply with legislation requiring all servers that store Russians’ personal data to be located in the country, it confirmed in an emailed statement.”

Artnet: Looters Beware: The British Museum Is Leading an International Task Force Fighting the Illicit Trade in Egyptian Antiquities. “Using their expert knowledge of archaeology, a sophisticated new database, and plenty of detective work, the dedicated team at the British Museum is working closely with colleagues in Cairo and Khartoum to identify problematic objects and expose fictitious provenances. They are also looking for works currently on offer at auction houses, galleries, and on websites such as eBay set off alarm bells. If there is evidence that could lead to an object’s recovery and repatriation, the British Museum reports the information to law enforcement agencies, including Scotland Yard and US Customs.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Salon: Life after social media: What I discovered after deleting all of my accounts. “I am aware that in many regards, the ethical horses have already left the barn, and that the digital DNA I gave to social media continues to float around out there anyway. I wish I could say that it was easy to walk away and that I never miss it, but that’s not true. Over the past several months, I’ve missed the public figures who entertain and inform. I’ve definitely missed a bunch of milestones in my friends’ lives — awkwardly and belatedly congratulating people on their book deals and engagements is now a thing in my life. And as embarrassing as it is to admit, I’ve also missed the other side of the feedback coin — the likes. Now, when I shoot a good photograph or overhear a clever exchange, my audience is limited to the friend I might choose to text about it. I no longer have an easy outlet for the affirmation of my opinions. It gets lonely sometimes. But the KonMari effect of purging something that doesn’t spark joy turned out to life-changingly magical.”

EurekAlert: Study: On Facebook and Twitter your privacy is at risk — even if you don’t have an account . “Individual choice has long been considered a bedrock principle of online privacy. If you don’t want to be on Facebook, you can leave or not sign up in the first place. Then your behavior will be your own private business, right? The new study presents powerful evidence that the answer to that question is no.” Good morning, Internet…

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