TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Guardian: Elon Musk ‘orders Twitter to remove suicide prevention feature’. “The removal of the feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, has not been previously reported. It had shown at the top of specific searches contacts for support organisations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, Covid19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression.”

Sportico: Tom Brady, Steph Curry Connection to FTX Highlighted in SEC Complaint. “While spokespersons and endorsers are usually not liable for the unlawful acts of a sponsored company, these celebrities allegedly held larger roles, including as investors and customers, and arguably possessed more knowledge than an ordinary endorser and a higher duty of care. They, in turn, promoted FTX and in some instances urged their fans to take their advice and spend their money on FTX.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: This Is the Best Free Scanning App on iPhone. “There’s a pretty nifty document scanner built into your iPhone’s Notes app. It’s great at automatically figuring out the edges of your doc, and it will even detect text for you. But the problem is, the scanned text will save to the note itself as a PDF, meaning you have to then manually export the document to do something actually useful with it. You can significantly improve this workflow by using the completely free QuickScan app.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNN: Some universities are now restricting TikTok access on campus. “A small but growing number of universities are now blocking access to TikTok on school-owned devices or WiFi networks, in the latest sign of a widening crackdown on the popular short-form video app.”

TechCrunch: Questions linger over Facebook, Twitter, TikTok’s commitment to uphold election integrity in Africa, as countries head to polls. “A dozen countries in Africa, including Nigeria, the continent’s biggest economy and democracy, are expected to hold their presidential elections next year, and questions linger on how well social media platforms are prepared to curb misinformation and disinformation after claims of botched content moderation during Kenya’s polls last August.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

UC San Diego: New Web Tracking Technique is Bypassing Privacy Protections. “Two years ago, several browsers that prioritize user privacy — including Safari, Firefox, and Brave — began to block third-party cookies for all users by default. This presents a significant issue for businesses that place ads on the web on behalf of other companies and rely on cookies to track click-through rates to determine how much they need to get paid. Advertisers have responded by pioneering a new method for tracking users across the Web, known as user ID (or UID) smuggling, which does not require third-party cookies.”

India Today: Social media influencers to pay Rs 50 lakh fine if they fail to declare paid promotions . “The government is planning to impose fines of up to Rs 50 lakh on social media influencers if they fail to inform their followers about paid promotions.” That’s a bit over $60,000 USD.

RESEARCH & OPINION

Brookings Institution: Impact of disinformation on democracy in Asia. “In Asia and around the world, disinformation campaigns — perpetrated by foreign actors seeking to shore up power at home and weaken their competitors abroad and by domestic actors seeking political advantage — are increasingly putting pressure on democratic societies.”

Cardiff University: New public policy research and knowledge exchange academic network launched . “PolicyWISE is led by The Open University (OU) and works with researchers from Cardiff University, Trinity College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, The University of Edinburgh and University College London to enable governments in all five countries to learn from each other’s approaches to pressing policy challenges. An initial series of workshops with policymakers and academics from across the nations has already explored approaches to tackling violence against women and girls; improving mental health; post-Covid educational inequalities; children and young people’s health and net zero.”

ABC News (Australia): 3D imaging of Batavia shipwreck silverware uncovers new insights into 17th century shipping trade. “Researchers and the public will soon be able to get a better view of priceless silverware recovered from the Batavia shipwreck in a collaboration between institutions in Western Australia and Amsterdam.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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