NEW RESOURCES

Colorado Virtual Library: A Window to History: Exploring Colorado’s College Newspapers. “College newspapers occupy a sweet spot in the world of newspapers. The freedom their creators have, unlike most traditional newspapers, means that college papers are sometimes lighthearted or humorous in tone. What is always true is that they are a key insight into the history of a certain time and place. The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (CHNC) recently digitized numerous college titles, thanks to participation from Fort Lewis College (FLC) and the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). ”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Spotify’s latest playlist tool creates a mix to match your workout. “While most of us aren’t going to the gym right now, that doesn’t mean workouts have been suspended entirely. You still need fresh tunes to keep you motivated at home or on the running trail. To help with that, Spotify has a new tool called Soundtrack Your Workout — the company’s latest quiz-based playlist builder. Like previous options for creating a mix, you answer a few questions and the website will offer you a collection of music according to your preferences. And with this version, you can also choose podcasts instead or have the site make you a blend of both.”

Mashable: TikTok will exit Hong Kong amidst controversial national security laws. “TikTok will pull out of Hong Kong within days, becoming the latest of several tech companies to react to the region’s controversial new national security laws. The short-form video app announced its impending withdrawal from Hong Kong on Monday, with the news coming in the wake of new laws brought into effect on June 30.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: 8 of the Best TikTok Alternatives to Create and Share Videos . “TikTok has become a very popular platform for creating spontaneous short-form videos for a large set of followers. It is one of the most downloaded apps on both App Store and as Play Store. Currently, the app faces restrictions in some countries, either due to user privacy concerns or simply not being available any longer. For example, India recently banned TikTok along with UC browser and a few other apps. This list includes the best TikTok alternatives that match TikTok in terms of features, appearance, and popularity.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BNN Bloomberg: Google Campus Security Singled Out Black, Latinx Employees. “Google’s campus security system subjected Black and Latinx workers to bias and prompted complaints to management, according to people familiar with the situation, leading the company to scrap a key part of the approach. The internet giant encouraged employees to check colleagues’ ID badges on campus, and asked security staff to do the same. This went beyond the typical corporate office system where workers swipe badges to enter. The policy was designed to prevent unauthorized visitors and keep Google’s open work areas safe.”

CNN: Facebook removes Roger Stone from Instagram after linking him to fake accounts. “Facebook announced Wednesday it had shut down pages and accounts linked to Roger Stone and Proud Boys, a far-right group Facebook has banned under its hate policies. Stone’s own Instagram account was shut down as part of the takedown. The network of more than 100 Facebook pages, accounts and Instagram accounts spent more than $300,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads to promote their posts. Some of the pages and accounts included false personas, an analysis commissioned by Facebook found.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Hundreds of forgotten corners of mega-corp websites fall into the hands of spammers and malware slingers . “More than 240 website subdomains belonging to organizations large and small, including household names, were hijacked to redirect netizens to malware, X-rated material, online gambling, and other unexpected content.”

Purdue University: Google fixes smartwatch security problem discovered by Purdue researchers. “Purdue University researchers uncovered a serious vulnerability in Google’s Wear OS smartwatches. If left unpatched, the vulnerability could have allowed an attacker to crash specific apps, make the app or the watch unresponsive, or cause the watch to reboot continuously beyond the user’s control.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: Community science birding data does not yet capture global bird trends. “Binoculars in hand, birders around the world contribute every day to a massive database of bird sightings worldwide. But while community science observations of birds can be useful data, it may not be enough to fill the data gaps in developing countries where professional bird surveys are insufficient or absent.”

The Drum: We’re having the wrong conversation to fix social media. “Debates are raging around social media boycotts, algorithmic biases, and content moderation. While most people seem to agree that they want ‘bad content’ removed, it’s less clear what ‘bad’ actually is and what the consequence of that removal would be. Clearly things need to change, and systemic reforms are needed yet the problem is, we’re all debating the wrong issue. We need to stop arguing about freedom of speech vs. content moderation. The real problem is freedom of reach.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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