NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: A journey across Argentina’s culinary culture. “In collaboration with five cultural institutions including Gustar — an initiative of the Ministry of Culture, ArgenINTA Foundation, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Argentina — Google Arts & Culture’s latest project brings together all that Argentina’s gastronomic scene has to offer, from traditional fare to contemporary culinary trends.”

Fast Company: Pinterest whistleblower launches resources to help tech employees speak out. “One day after the testimony of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, a group of civic organizations led by another well-known whistleblower—Ifeoma Ozoma, who spoke out about her employer, Pinterest, in 2020—is launching a new website that might help other tech employees come forward to speak about wrongdoing within their companies.”

KTUL: New website to offer free, self-guided tours of Tulsa landmarks. “A new website is offering free self-guided tours of local points of interest around Tulsa. The program, called Root Tulsa Historic Tours, provides historical information for locals and visitors to learn more about landmarks around the city.”

EVENTS

NASA: NASA Sets Coverage, Invites Public to Virtually Join Lucy Launch. “Lucy is scheduled to launch no earlier than 5:34 a.m. EDT Saturday, Oct. 16, on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Live launch coverage will begin at 5 a.m. EDT on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. NASA will hold a prelaunch briefing Wednesday, Oct. 13, and science and engineering briefings Oct. 14.”

USEFUL STUFF

CNET: How to permanently delete your Facebook account and keep your photos. “To fully separate from Facebook, deleting your account is the only answer. Deleting it also severs ties to Facebook Messenger, the platform’s chat app. (If you want to also get rid of Instagram and WhatsApp, which are Facebook properties, you’ll have to do that separately.) We’ll explain some things you’ll need to consider before going through the process, which requires time and patience.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Wired: Facebook and Google’s new plan? Own the internet. “The name ‘cloud’ is a linguistic trick – a way of hiding who controls the underlying technology of the internet – and the huge power they wield. Stop to think about it for a moment and the whole notion is bizarre. The cloud is, in fact, a network of cables and servers that cover the world: once the preserve of obscure telecoms firms, it is now, increasingly, owned and controlled by Big Tech – with Google and Facebook claiming a lion’s share.”

InsideHook: Why Photo Dumps Are Taking Over Your Instagram Feed. “If you’ve noticed a significant deviation from the meticulously curated, overly filtered photos that typically swarm your Instagram feed, you’re not alone. Welcome to the age of the ‘photo dump’ — the current trendy way to share photos on the social media platform that’s also switching up the traditional Instagram mold. So, what is a photo dump?”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Facebook Hearing Strengthens Calls for Regulation in Europe. “The congressional testimony from the Facebook whistle-blower, Frances Haugen, has intensified calls in Europe for new regulations aimed at the social media company and other Silicon Valley giants, proposals considered by many to be among the most stringent and far-reaching in the world.”

Cleveland Scene: Ohio Supreme Court and University of Cincinnati to Create First-of-its-Kind Criminal Sentencing Database. “The Ohio Supreme Court and the University of Cincinnati this week announced a joint project that will create a statewide database of criminal sentencings, a first-of-its-kind across the nation. With an $800,000 allocation by the court, students and faculty at the university will begin collecting sentencings from common pleas judges in the state who opt into the program. So far, 34 of the 244 judges have done so, and more are signing up every week.”

Motherboard: Google Blocked Russian Government Phishing Emails Targeting 14,000 Users. “On Wednesday, Google alerted approximately 14,000 users that they had been targets of Russian government sponsored hackers, according to a company employee.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Washington Post: Facebook hides data showing it harms users. Outside scholars need access.. “Some models exist for analogous research on sensitive government databases, such as those overseen by the Census Bureau, Internal Revenue Service or Defense Department; and protocols exist, too, for studying biomedical and other highly personal data. But getting access to Facebook and Google’s data represents a challenge that is different in kind and degree. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that almost all of human experience is now taking place on these platforms, which control intimate communications between individuals and possess voluminous information about what users read, forward, ‘like’ and purchase. Several ingredients seem important to insuring the success of a new data-access regime for independent researchers.”

Politico: Social media companies remove less hate speech in 2021. “The world’s largest social media companies removed less hate speech from their platforms in 2021 compared to last year, according to the European Commission’s annual review of the firms’ content moderation activities, seen by POLITICO. The yearly checkup on how Facebook, Google and others handle everything from misogynistic online posts to digital abuse targeting the LGBTQ+ community found that social media companies deleted 62.5 percent of such flagged material, over a 6-week period between March 1 and April 2021. That compares to a 71 percent removal rate when Brussels conducted its last review in late 2019.” Good morning, Internet…

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