TWEAKS AND UPDATES

ABC News: Twitter celebs balk at paying Elon Musk for blue check mark. “William Shatner, Monica Lewinsky and other prolific Twitter commentators — some household names, others little-known journalists — could soon be losing the blue check marks that helped verify their identity on the social media platform.”

Axios: Musk says Twitter will only show verified accounts in “For You” timeline. “Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced Monday evening that only tweets by verified users will show up in the platform’s default main feed of ‘For You’ recommendations starting April 15.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: Finally, There’s an Easy Way to Reduce Background Noise on Your iPhone. “As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple is adding Voice Isolation mode to phone calls as part of iOS 16.4. According to Apple, Voice Isolation mode ‘prioritizes your voice and blocks out ambient noise around you,’ a simple solution to clearer audio during phone calls.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Rest of World: Twitter blocked 122 accounts in India at the government’s request. “Twitter blocked 122 accounts belonging to journalists, authors, and politicians in India this week in response to legal requests from the Indian government.”

Daily Beast: Elon Musk’s Twitter Makes Millions Off Anti-LGBT “Groomer” Tweets: Report. “Under Elon Musk’s leadership of Twitter, tweets linking LGBT people to ‘grooming’ have sky-rocketed, jumping 119 percent since Musk’s takeover in October 2022, according to a new report released by the Center For Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The study also found that Twitter is making millions from big-name advertisers, whose brands are appearing alongside hateful anti-LGBT rhetoric.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: Biden administration bans federal agencies from using commercial spyware. “In an executive order signed Monday, President Biden barred federal agencies from using commercial spyware that threatens US national security or carries a risk of improper use by foreign governments and individuals.”

WIRED: A US Agency Rejected Face Recognition—and Landed in Big Trouble. “Officials working on Login.gov, used to access dozens of government sites, worried about algorithmic bias. Their decision breached federal security rules.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NHK: Japan donates washi paper to restore ancient Ukrainian texts. “The western Japanese prefecture of Tokushima has donated locally-produced washi paper to an archive in Ukraine, so that old documents can be restored.”

Washington Post: The biggest decider of who backs a TikTok ban? If they use TikTok.. “More Americans back a TikTok ban than oppose one, with a majority expressing concerns over the company’s links to China, underscoring that distrust of the foreign-owned app has spread beyond Washington, even as its domestic user base soars.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Ars Technica: Hobbyist builds ChatGPT client for MS-DOS . “On Sunday, Singapore-based retrocomputing enthusiast Yeo Kheng Meng released a ChatGPT client for MS-DOS that can run on a 4.77 MHz IBM PC from 1981, providing a unique way to converse with the popular OpenAI language model.” You don’t know how much I miss those super-solid IBM keyboards. Good afternoon, Internet…

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