NEW RESOURCES

State Archives of North Carolina: New NCDC Additions: Maud Hayes Stick Papers. “In support of the She Changed the World initiative, the State Archives of North Carolina and the Outer Banks History Center are pleased to announce a new addition to the Women in North Carolina 20th Century History digital collection: the Maud Hayes Stick Papers. Portions of this collection are now available online, including the correspondence and personal papers of this remarkable Outer Banks woman.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Times of India: You can now copy handwritten paper notes to your PC using Google Lens. “Image recognition app Google Lens now comes with another useful feature which allows you to convert handwritten paper notes to digital text files and transfers them directly to your computer.”

Neowin: Google launches app for helping kids to read in over 180 countries. “Google’s speech-based app designed to help children learn to read is now available in early access in more than 180 countries. The app was originally launched in India in March of last year as ‘Bolo’, and its global release introduces a new name for the app: Read Along.”

USEFUL STUFF

Wired: How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance. “There are two main aspects of digital surveillance to be concerned about while at a protest. One is the data police could potentially obtain from your phone if you are detained, arrested, or they confiscate your device. The other is law enforcement surveillance, which can include wireless interception of text messages and more, and tracking tools like license plate scanners and facial recognition. You should be mindful of both.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Yahoo News: Facebook deems baker’s pie ‘too sexy’ for social media. “Wellington baker Niels Reinsborg started his business, Crafty Pies, to supply the baked treat to cafes, but when the coronavirus hit New Zealand shortly after he opened, he had to get creative and began offering his pies for sale on Facebook with contact-free delivery to homes. Business was booming and he was selling hundreds of pies each week until he posted an image of the Cypriot Shepherd’s Pie, filled with lean lamb cooked with fresh ginger, cumin and cinnamon…. The description and image was apparently flagged and deemed inappropriate. He received a Facebook message explaining the platform could not be used to sell ‘adult’ items, and his account was closed.”

BBC: Facebook staff anger over Trump post. “Facebook staff have spoken out against the tech giant’s decision not to remove or flag a controversial post by US President Donald Trump last week.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: Social media bias lawsuits keep failing in court. “An appeals court in Washington, DC just rejected a complaint by Laura Loomer, the conservative activist who was banned from Twitter for anti-Muslim tweets and later chained herself to the company’s headquarters in protest. Loomer argued that Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Apple had all colluded to suppress conservative content, violating Loomer’s First Amendment rights in the process. The court disagreed and threw out the suit.”

Texas Lawyer: Will Social Media Be a ‘Free Speech’ War Zone for Parents Seeking to Disparage Ex-Spouses?. “The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently issued a ruling that, if it starts a national trend, could undermine any hope of maintaining public civility between divorcing spouses, even when a child is involved.”

Association of American Publishers: Publishers File Suit Against Internet Archive for Systematic Mass Scanning and Distribution of Literary Works . “Today, member companies of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet Archive (‘IA’) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit asks the Court to enjoin IA’s mass scanning, public display, and distribution of entire literary works, which it offers to the public at large through global-facing businesses coined ‘Open Library’ and ‘National Emergency Library,’ accessible at both openlibrary.org and archive.org.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Science Codex: Exploring the use of ‘stretchable’ words in social media. “An investigation of Twitter messages reveals new insights and tools for studying how people use stretched words, such as ‘duuuuude,’ ‘heyyyyy,’ or ‘noooooooo.’ Tyler Gray and colleagues at the University of Vermont in Burlington present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on May 27, 2020.”

Reuters: EU should beef up fake news pledge involving Google, Facebook, Twitter – study. “The European Union should strengthen a voluntary pledge, to which Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Twitter Inc signed up to combat fake news, with sanctions to make it a more effective tool, a study done for the European Commission said.”

The Atlantic: Trump Is a Problem That Twitter Cannot Fix. “For some people, the answer is simple: If a tweet violates Twitter’s official rules, it should come down regardless of who posted it. If anything, the more powerful the figure, the greater potential they have to cause harm. But in democratic societies, at least, this isn’t always obviously the right answer. Democracy is based on the idea that voters should have access to information about who their candidates really are and what they believe. This remains true even (or, perhaps, especially) when those beliefs are abhorrent. And in a world where Twitter is but one of many megaphones at public figures’ disposal, the supposed benefit or efficacy of removing such content is debatable.” Good morning, Internet…

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