TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Euronews: Russia mulls lifting Twitter ban after Musk reinstates Kremlin account. “Russia is considering lifting its ban on Twitter after the social media network reinstated access to accounts of Russian state agencies. The ban was imposed before Elon Musk took over running Twitter last October. But since Friday, users can once again search the accounts of the Kremlin and Russia’s Foreign Affairs and Defence ministries, among others.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: On TikTok, ‘The Hunger Games’ is a metaphor for our modern dystopia. “A lot has changed since The Hunger Games peaked in popularity, making it ripe for re-examination. Many of those partaking in the resurgence are revisiting the series for the first time as adults grappling with the climate crisis, social upheaval, and a global pandemic. How do our 2023 adult sensibilities transform our understanding of a beloved childhood franchise?”

Axios: Biden’s digital strategy: an army of influencers. “President Biden’s not-yet-official bid for re-election will lean on hundreds of social media ‘influencers’ who will tout Biden’s record — and soon may have their own briefing room at the White House, Axios has learned.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Gizmodo: ‘Such Is Life:’ FTX Says SBF and Execs Joked About Misplacing Millions of Dollars. “The company said approximately 80,000 transactions made by the company were left as unprocessed entries in some QuickBooks accounts called ‘Ask My Accountant.’ FTX’s hedge fund arm Alameda Research’s record keeping was ‘so poor’ that one document described how employees should ‘come up with some number, idk’ for some crypto token valuations.”

Politico: Twitter fails to report some political ads after promising transparency. “Twitter has failed to disclose some political ads running on its site since early March, according to a review of its activity by POLITICO. At least three promoted fundraising tweets were not included in Twitter’s own data, seemingly contradicting the company’s policies and raising doubts about the integrity of the platform’s data and how many other political ads could go unreported.”

New York Times: Justice Dept. Recently Looked Into Twitter, Lawsuit Says. “A lawsuit filed on Monday by several former Twitter executives said they had personally spent more than $1 million on legal expenses related to shareholder lawsuits and several government investigations, including an inquiry by the Justice Department. The nature of the Justice Department inquiry and whether it was ongoing, was unclear. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, did not offer other details.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: How A.I. and DNA Are Unlocking the Mysteries of Global Supply Chains. “Amid growing concern about opacity and abuses in global supply chains, companies and government officials are increasingly turning to technologies like DNA tracking, artificial intelligence and blockchains to try to trace raw materials from the source to the store.”

Colgate Maroon-News: LinkedIn is the New Facebook. “It might just be a symptom of summer internship season, but it appears as though the platform is emerging as the new Facebook, which has faded into the background of updates on your parent’s long-lost classmates’ family and your grandmother’s cat. Already saturated with older working professionals, LinkedIn has a promising future in the social media networking world as it appeals more and more to young people.”

Northwestern University: People online might not be as outraged as you think. “The prevalence of moral outrage online can be explained in part by our psychology, according to William Brady, an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Brady recently led a new study, published April 10, 2023 in Nature Human Behavior, that explores why people tend to misperceive others as angrier than they really are online. In turn, he says, users tend to engage with triggering content, thereby amplifying it and giving it an algorithmic boost.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Engadget: Museum creates giant ‘Donkey Kong’ cabinet with a little help from Nintendo. “The Strong National Museum of Play in New York unveiled an absolutely massive Donkey Kong arcade cabinet that’s nearly 20 feet tall. Donkey Kong is co-starring in the biggest movie in the world right now, so it is only fitting that he also gets an equally gargantuan arcade cabinet.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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