TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: LinkedIn Launches Native Video Meetings. “Since last year, LinkedIn has allowed users to initiate video meetings with each other. However, the call would take place on another app, like Zoom, as LinkedIn didn’t have the technology for facilitating video calls. Owned by Microsoft, LinkedIn has leveraged Azure to create a native solution for connecting users through video. Here’s more about LinkedIn’s native video messaging, which is now available to everyone.”

The Verge: Twitter unblocks Indian politicians’ accounts after suspending them for violating disclosure law. “Twitter has reinstated the accounts of several politicians in India’s opposition party, which were suspended after party leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted a photo of himself with the parents of a girl who was allegedly raped and murdered in New Delhi, Reuters reported. Gandhi had tweeted his support of the girl’s family, saying that they deserved justice and others had shared his tweet.”

USEFUL STUFF

Wired: How to Send Messages That Automatically Disappear. “There is a caveat here for all of these apps, in that the people you’re communicating with can take screenshots of what you’ve said—or, if screenshots are blocked, can take a photo of the screen with another device. Some of them promise to notify you if your messages have been screenshotted or downloaded, but there’s always a workaround. That’s something to bear in mind when choosing who to chat with, and how much to share.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

KTVZ: University seeks to shine light on its past acts of discrimination. “A UW-Madison student evicted from university housing for dating a Black man. Others expelled amid an administrative campaign to systematically seek out and remove homosexual male students from campus. Abusive conduct by a UW-Madison police officer who led the department for decades with impunity. It’s not exactly the stuff of college brochures. But beginning next fall, information about some of the university’s past blemishes will be on public display at the direction of top administrators.”

Albidad: How women on social media led a nutrition and fitness revolution in Saudi Arabia. “Five years ago, preschool teacher Nawal AlKalawi decided for the first time to create an Instagram account—she wanted to post a simple recipe for homemade banana muffins. A few hours later, that first post had more likes and comments than she could ever imagine…. Before long, her ‘Food Evaluation’ account had more than 16,000 followers, and she was also active on Snapchat and other platforms. Her efforts were changing the habits of whole families. Clearly, parents in Saudi Arabia were hungry for health information.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: Facebook could be forced to sell Giphy amid competition concerns. “Facebook could be forced to sell Giphy, a platform that allows people to find and share animated images known as GIFs, because of concerns the acquisition would harm competition in the social-media and digital-advertising markets.”

Bleeping Computer: Microsoft: Evasive Office 365 phishing campaign active since July 2020. “Microsoft says that a year-long and highly evasive spear-phishing campaign has targeted Office 365 customers in multiple waves of attacks starting with July 2020. The ongoing phishing campaign lures targets into handing over their Office 365 credentials using invoice-themed XLS.HTML attachments and various information about the potential victims, such as email addresses and company logos.”

Sydney Morning Herald: Google embroiled in Kung Fu controversy. “The International Wushu Federation (IWUF), the world governing body for Kung Fu, has sued in the Federal Court of Australia to force Google, which owns video platform YouTube, to disclose the identity of the operator of the Wushuleaks Channel, which has posted videos alleging IWUF is corrupt.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Newswise: Farmers help create ‘Virtual safe space’ to save bumblebees. “BEE-STEWARD is a decision-support tool which provides a computer simulation of bumblebee colony survival in a given landscape. The tool lets researchers, farmers, policymakers and other interested parties test different land management techniques to find out which ones and where could be most beneficial for bees.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Make: Hacking Garbage Trucks to Bring Broadband to Those in Need. “Millions of households lack the broadband access they need to learn from home, work from home, and generally keep up in our internet-dependent world. What if cities could pinpoint which neighborhoods were in need? What if cities collected real-time information that got services to the people who need them most? And what if they could do it faster and cheaper? They can. One city is bucking the system and using open source hardware, DIY ingenuity, and a pandemic-induced urgency to address the digital divide in real-time, paving the way for others to do the same.” Good evening, Internet…

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