NEW RESOURCES

Virginia Tech: Enhanced map shows broadband coverage in Virginia. “Virginia Tech’s Center for Geospatial Information Technology (CGIT), working in tandem with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development’s Office of Broadband, has developed and launched an enhanced mapping tool to narrow the digital divide across the commonwealth. The Commonwealth Connection mapping tool, which provides more timely and accurate information on where high-speed internet service is available in Virginia, will allow state officials as well as consumers to determine where reliable broadband access exists — and where it is lacking.”

University of Southern California: Midterm Elections: Data-Mapping Tool for Voting Locations Now Available in 14 States. “The Voting Location Siting Tool uses a web-based interactive data mapping system to identify areas within a half mile in diameter where vote centers and polling places would likely have the most success in serving voters…. Launched in California in 2018, the tool is now available in 14 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. Over the coming months, CID will be conducting trainings for election officials and community advocacy groups on how to use the tool to identify accessible and equitably distributed polling locations in their communities. ”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Boing Boing: How the restoration of Notre Dame de Paris is going. “Three years ago the world watched in horror as one of our most recognizable landmarks became a towering inferno. French President Emmanuel Macron wants Notre Dame ready for the 2024 Paris Olympics. French public TV shares this update on the project.”

Engadget: You can now ask Google to remove phone numbers from search results. “Google has long accepted requests to remove some personal information from search results, but now that option should be considerably more useful. Google has expanded the policy to let you ask for the removal of contact info like phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses. You can also have Google remove login credentials if they pop up in queries.”

AdAge: Twitch Seeks To Revamp Creator Pay With Focus On Profit. “Twitch, the Amazon.com Inc.-owned live-streaming website, is weighing potential changes to how it pays top talent, said people familiar with the planning, an effort that would boost its profits but would also risk alienating some of its biggest stars. The updates under consideration would offer incentives for streamers to run more ads. The proposal would also reduce the proportion of subscription fees doled out to the site’s biggest performers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Mashable: Libs of TikTok tweeted fake accusations about a school teaching second graders about furries. “Second graders are learning about furries in school? That’s what the prominent right-wing Twitter account Libs of TikTok (@LibsofTikTok) said in a tweet on Monday. However, it turns out that Libs of TikTok fell for a troll. The accusations she tweeted were faked.”

NBC News: Young influencers are being offered cheap procedures in return for promotion. They say it’s coming at a cost.. “From Botox to breast implants, medical providers have turned to social media for a new kind of personalized advertising that comes directly from influencers. And in the growing industry of cosmetic providers, there are few to no rules when it comes to advertising body modifications, which opens the door to offering teenagers free, unlimited cosmetic procedures. NBC News spoke with 12 social media personalities with audiences ranging from under 100,000 to more than 10 million followers who detailed how they feel pushed to look perfect in real life and online.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: Judge Denies Elon Musk’s Bid to End 2018 Settlement With SEC. “A federal judge on Wednesday denied Elon Musk’s request to undo part of his 2018 settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that required oversight of some of his social media posts about Tesla. Last month, Musk asked the court to terminate the consent decree that was part of the settlement, which requires Tesla counsel to vet his tweets about the electric car company.”

New York Times: Senators question Zelle over how it is responding to reports of rising fraud.. “Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bob Menendez of New Jersey took aim at Zelle, the popular money transfer app, on Monday, warning that it is putting millions of Americans at risk of being defrauded.”

Bleeping Computer: Redis, MongoDB, and Elastic: 2022’s top exposed databases. “Security researchers have noticed an increase in the number of databases publicly exposed to the Internet, with 308,000 identified in 2021. The growth continued quarter over quarter, peaking in the first months of this year. In the first quarter of 2022, the amount of exposed databases peaked to 91,200 instances, researchers at threat intelligence and research company Group-IB say in a report shared with BleepingComputer.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Drum: Ad of the Day: Dove deepfakes highlight toxic beauty advice on social media. “Following last year’s powerful ‘Reverse Selfie’ campaign, Unilever-owned Dove has released another hard-hitting film detailing the toxic beauty advice that many teens come across on their social media feeds.”

The Conversation: Social media regulation: why we must ensure it is democratic and inclusive. “With concerns mounting about state influence on media and information, we urgently need to understand what democratic social media regulation should look like. As philosophers in this field, our work looks at the theoretical foundations that underpin democracy. The key insight at the heart of our ongoing research is that political freedom depends on public debate. We have spoken to policymakers, broadcasters, journalists, activists and regulators about how best to apply these insights and political theory to the public sphere.” Good morning, Internet…

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!