Meet the woman who created a Google doc on how to tactical vote Mashable! by Liza Hearon The resistance is alive in Britain, and it’s armed with a spreadsheet. A super detailed, exquisitely crafted Google spreadsheet called “How to Vote to Stop the Tories” started doing the rounds on social media almost immediately after a snap … Read more
How four international news outlets are creating truly digitally native content (and making money off it) Nieman Journalism Lab by Kevin Anderson If you don’t have revenue, you don’t have a product: It’s one of the first things I tell my clients. With the news media facing extreme economic pressure in many countries, I was keen, … Read more
How cryptocurrency will cripple today’s governments – and they won’t see it coming Falkvinge on Infopolicy – Discussions on information policy and civil liberties by Rick Falkvinge Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency will cripple governmental ability to collect taxes, and they won’t see it coming. When it’s already happened, expect major changes to take place in how society is organized … Read more
Romania confidence vote falls but more protests planned BBC News | Europe | World Edition A confidence vote fails but the government faces more protests over moves to relax corruption measures. Romania justice minister quits over corruption bill protests BBC News | Europe | World Edition The scrapped decree would have shielded many politicians from … Read more
Journalists across the country are using a Slack channel to tackle Trump Mashable! by Marcus Gilmer In the new era of “alternative facts,” journalists will need all the help they can get in covering the Trump administration and administering the correct Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to hold the administration accountable. The future of journalism … Read more
Germany-wide consortium of research libraries announce boycott of Elsevier journals over open access Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow Germany’s DEAL project, which includes over 60 major research institutions, has announced that all of its members are canceling their subscriptions to all of Elsevier’s academic and scientific journals, effective January 1, 2017. Washington Post launches Chrome … Read more
Social Media Predicted Donald Trump’s Victory When Few Polls Did All Facebook Only three days ago, the U.S. and the rest of the world were counting down the hours to a decisive Hillary Clinton victory on Election Day. The campaign infrastructure Clinton had assembled, like her performances during the debates, was the epitome of thorough preparation and … Read more
Unsecured Internet of Things gadgets get hacked within 40 minutes of being connected to the net Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow The Atlantic’s Andrew McGill set up a virtual server on Amazon’s cloud that presented to the internet as a crappy, insecure Internet of Things toaster; 41 minutes later, a hacked IoT device connected to it … Read more
The story of Snopes Boing Boing by David Pescovitz All lies lead to the truth. For over 20 years, Snopes.com has been the Web’s primary bullshit detector and debunker, from death by Pop Rocks to political lies. We need Snopes more than ever. For a Webby Awards exclusive feature, I commissioned talented journalist Rob Walker to … Read more
This mesmerizing map shows what cyber attacks look like Mashable! by Nicole Gallucci The global cyber war is raging on, and this mesmerizing map shows just how serious it has become. Yesterday’s internet-destroying outages were caused by “amateurish” IoT malware Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow Some of the internet’s most popular, well-defended services — including Twitter — … Read more
Using Sound and Artificial Intelligence to Detect Human Rights Violations iRevolution by Patrick Meier Video continues to be a powerful way to capture human rights abuses around the world. Videos posted to social media can be used to hold perpetrators of gross violations accountable. But video footage poses a “Big Data” challenge to human rights organizations. Two … Read more
TWITTER TRANSPARENCY REPORT: Turkey Submits Highest Volume of Removal Requests to Twitter Bianet :: English Turkey has been listed as the country with the greatest number of removal requests in Twitter’s first biannual Transparency Report of 2016. The Growing Problem of Bots That Fight Online MIT Technology Review The way software agents interact on the Web is … Read more
Adblock Plus now selling ads Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza Adblock Plus is to begin reselling the ads it blocks, replacing websites’ original ads with ones under its control—and which it takes a fat cut of the revenue from. Adblock Plus Wants to Make Money by Serving You More Ads MIT Technology Review A service meant to … Read more
Why the Pirate Party could end up running Iceland Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow With the Icelandic Pirates crushing it in the polls and set to form the next government of a sovereign, carbon-neutral, strategically located nation, it’s worth asking how a party whose two issues — internet freedom and copyright reform — are wonky, minority … Read more
Apple told to pay €13bn in back taxes to Ireland Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza Ireland offered Apple huge tax breaks, but didn’t give other companies the same deal. The European Commission concluded this was illegal and the companymust pay up the €13bn it would otherwise have owed in taxes. Deputy PM invites Apple to move int’l … Read more