NEW RESOURCES

Hankyoreh: S. Korea to release records showing Japan’s mobilization of Korean girls and women into forced labor. “On the 75th anniversary of Korea’s liberation by US forces from Japanese the colonial occupation, the National Archives of Korea, the National Library of Korea, and the Northeast Asian History Foundation have released records from the colonial occupation related to the poorly known issue of the labor conscription of women and children. The archives also contained newspaper articles and other documents that were published in support of their conscription.”

Doncaster Free Press: Video archive of 1,000 Doncaster Rovers matches from 1980s to now goes live. “The archive officially begins from 1980 onwards but also includes clips from the 1950s and 1960s including scores of games at the club’s former Belle Vue home. Now [Andrew Webb] is appealing for fans with footage of games not yet available to get in touch or upload the clips onto YouTube.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bing Blogs: Search on Bing to support your local Parent Teacher Association. “We’re excited to offer parent-teacher associations a new fundraising tool this school year that’s free and easy to use. Give with Bing is a new fundraising opportunity from Microsoft that makes it easy to support nonprofits, simply by searching the web with Bing. Now our catalogue includes PTA groups from around the country, because while things may look different this school year – the learning must go on.”

Search Engine Journal: New Google Search Console Insights For Content Creators. “Google Search Console Insights, a new experience tailored for content creators and publishers, is now being tested with select users. Search Console Insights gives content creators access to new data that goes above and beyond what’s available in the regular version of Search Console. Site owners can use the data to better understand how their content is resonating with users.”

CNET: TikTok launches Twitter account to ‘set the record straight’. “TikTok has set up an information hub and Twitter account in an effort to combat misinformation and rumors about its social media platform in real time. TikTok said Monday it will use the sites to ‘shine a light on the facts and set the record straight.'”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: Facebook algorithm found to ‘actively promote’ Holocaust denial. “An investigation by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a UK-based counter-extremist organisation, found that typing ‘holocaust’ in the Facebook search function brought up suggestions for denial pages, which in turn recommended links to publishers which sell revisionist and denial literature, as well as pages dedicated to the notorious British Holocaust denier David Irving. The findings coincide with mounting international demands from Holocaust survivors to Facebook’s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, to remove such material from the site.”

CREW: EPA Destroys Water Quality Records, Deceives Archivist. “The Environmental Protection Agency illegally destroyed records, deceived the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) about that destruction, and falsely blamed the coronavirus pandemic to escape accountability, according to internal documents uncovered by CREW.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Blocking TikTok Opens a Can of Worms for Facebook, Google. “Selling Bytedance Inc.’s operations in several major English-speaking markets to Microsoft Corp. raises the hope that TikTok might suffer the sort of benign neglect that’s neutered other Microsoft-owned media assets, such as LinkedIn and Skype. Facebook lost no time in launching a copycat video-sharing service to compete. The decision opens a Pandora’s Box that digital platforms might one day wish had been kept closed. By citing data privacy and foreign influence to justify its restrictions, the U.S. has thrown a spotlight on issues that Silicon Valley’s social media companies have done well to keep in the shadows as they’ve grown to world-spanning power.”

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Government Contractor Embedded Software in Apps to Track Phones. “A small U.S. company with ties to the U.S. defense and intelligence communities has embedded its software in numerous mobile apps, allowing it to track the movements of hundreds of millions of mobile phones world-wide, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Anomaly Six LLC a Virginia-based company founded by two U.S. military veterans with a background in intelligence, said in marketing material it is able to draw location data from more than 500 mobile applications, in part through its own software development kit, or SDK, that is embedded directly in some of the apps.”

Stockholm Center for Freedom: Turkey investigated 14,186 social media accounts, taking legal action against 6,743 of them in first 7 months. “Turkish police investigated 14,186 social media accounts in the first seven months of 2020, taking legal action against 6,743 of them on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda, inciting the public to hatred and enmity, instilling fear in and causing panic among the public or containing provocative content, Turkey’s Interior Ministry announced in a statement on Friday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Texas at Austin: Effective New Tool Created for Discerning Fake News. ” We hear a lot about fake news, but do we know it when we see it Research from The University of Texas at Austin has found that although Facebook users may be too quick to believe or share misinformation, flagging fake news can make a significant difference. In fact, the study, published online [August 13] by Information Systems Research, shows that platforms can reduce the extent to which their users fall for and spread fake news articles by deploying a better designed fake news flag.”

The Verge: Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates. “There are tens of thousands of genes in the human genome: minuscule twists of DNA and RNA that combine to express all of the traits and characteristics that make each of us unique. Each gene is given a name and alphanumeric code, known as a symbol, which scientists use to coordinate research. But over the past year or so, some 27 human genes have been renamed, all because Microsoft Excel kept misreading their symbols as dates.” Good morning, Internet…

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