NEW RESOURCES

Marketplace: Digital archivists race to preserve Ukrainian heritage. “Some Ukrainian museum websites have gone offline as the servers hosting them lose connections or are destroyed in attacks. To prevent that information and cultural memory from disappearing entirely, around 1,000 archivists, programmers and librarians have volunteered to form a group called Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online or SUCHO.”

European Parliament: European Parliament launches website in cooperation with Ukrainian Parliament. “‘The EU stands with Ukraine’: the website (in English and Ukrainian) set up by Parliament, provides the latest news, videos and podcasts, relevant legislation and resolutions to show how the EU is helping Ukraine. Content from the Ukrainian Parliament could also be shared on the site. Actively supporting EU efforts to promote democracy and human rights in the world is one of Parliament’s core responsibilities.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Politico: As war in Ukraine evolves, so do disinformation tactics. “Moscow’s narratives about its invasion are also evolving after its goal of toppling Kyiv within a week failed and its campaign has turned to entrenched warfare, with civilians increasingly targeted as part of the wider aggression. In recent days, officials and state-backed media have pushed claims that the United States is operating a biochemical laboratory within Ukraine — reminiscent of previous falsehoods that claimed Washington operated a similar facility in China that led to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Kremlin has also claimed its takeover of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was part of an orchestrated response to Ukrainian efforts to build a so-called dirty bomb. Western officials — and independent fact-checkers — have dismissed these allegations.”

CBS News: Google will send air raid alerts to Ukrainian Android users. “Google will immediately start rolling out alerts for incoming air raids to Ukrainian Android phone users in an effort to help them get to safety, the company announced. In a company blog post Thursday, Kent Walker, president of global affairs for Google, said the Air Raid Alert system will work in conjunction with the Ukrainian government.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Ukraine: Spam website set up to reach millions of Russians. “A Norwegian computer expert has created a website enabling anyone to send an email about the war in Ukraine to up to 150 Russian email addresses at a time, so that Russian people have a chance to hear the truth their government is hiding.”

Homeland Security Today: Anonymous Information Warfare Intensifies with 7 Million Text Messages to Russians, New Email Campaign. “Anonymous programmers Squad303 created a tool last week that allows non-hackers to make a positive contribution to ‘the largest and most successful cyber operation in the history of the world.’ Within 48 hours of releasing the 1920.in tool, the group reported on Twitter that ‘the people of the free world sent the Russians 2 million text messages’ warning that the people of Russia would suffer as a result of nations’ response to Vladimir Putin’s aggression and that they need to know the truth about his unprovoked war. By Tuesday, that volume had hit 5 million and was rapidly climbing.”

CZ Expats: Czech TV to begin nightly news broadcast in Ukrainian. “As of Saturday evening, Czech Television will broadcast its nightly evening news program Události (Events) with simultaneous Ukrainian translation, Czech Television spokesperson Karolína Blinková has announced…. The live broadcast will take place at 7:00 p.m. nightly, along with the translated version. After the broadcasts begin, Czech Television will also create an online database containing an archive of previous news broadcasts in Ukrainian.”

BBC: War in Ukraine: How Russia is recruiting mercenaries. “Social media channels and private messaging groups are being used in Russia to recruit a new brigade of mercenaries to fight in Ukraine alongside the army, the BBC has learned. The BBC has spoken to a serving mercenary and a former fighter with close links to one of Russia’s leading mercenary organisations, who have shared details of the recruitment campaign.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

SC Magazine: In a first, Ukraine leaks Russian intellectual property as act of war. “The Main Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GURMO) hacked and leaked documents it claimed it stole from the Russian Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station this week. The act is believed to be the first time a hack-and-leak operation weaponized the leak of intellectual property to harm a nation.”

Washington Post: Putin’s pre-war moves against U.S. tech giants laid groundwork for crackdown on free expression. “Moscow deployed new devices that let it degrade or even block Russians’ access to Facebook and Twitter, imposed fines totaling $120 million on firms accused of defying Kremlin censors, and ordered 13 of the world’s largest technology companies to keep employees in Russia and thus exposed to potential arrest or other punishment for their employers’ actions — a measure that U.S. executives refer to as the ‘hostage law.’ On their own, these moves were seen as disparate signs of Russia’ descent into authoritarianism. But they also laid the groundwork for the Soviet-style suppression of free expression now underway in Russia, much as the months-long military buildup set the stage for the invasion of Ukraine.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The ASEAN Post: How To Disrupt The Fake News Market. “The fake news market depends on the exchange of online attention for money. An effective strategy to combat it must reset this equation. While governments devise legal measures to hold content creators and marketers accountable for disseminating fake news, ordinary people also must take responsibility for their role in spreading misinformation.”

WIRED: The Spectacular Collapse of Putin’s Disinformation Machinery. “Critically, the Kremlin seemed to understand that while our online worlds are a key part of us, we behave differently there because it taps into our magical thinking. It is real and unreal at the same time. We troll each other, scream at each other, and produce millions of hours of ever-weirder porn, all because that world is slightly unreal. Few of us would do any of those things IRL. Yet, it is our real life, and the things we do online all have impacts, both positive and negative, on our psyche. The same holds true for disinformation. Our screens open up something akin to our spirituality, and from there we can make wild leaps of faith as to what is and isn’t real that translate from online to our offline thinking.”

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!