Judge rules emoji are proof of intent The Next Web by Rachel Kaser A landlord in Israel has successfully sued a couple who mislead him with emoji, with the judge ruling that the tiny pictures constituted a statement of intent. The landlord, Yaniv Dahan, posted an ad on a classified site for his home, and received a response from a couple. … Read more
Cybersecurity Experts Uncover Dormant Botnet of 350,000 Twitter Accounts MIT Technology Review A massive botnet secretly infiltrated the Twitterverse in 2013 but has lain mysteriously dormant since then, say researchers. Twitter and TV Superfans (Study) All Facebook by David Cohen How do “superfans” of television show behave on Twitter, and what should marketers do … Read more
‘Pokémon Go’ highlights efforts to solve the world’s biggest problems at Davos Mashable! by Matt Petronzio People attending the world’s largest meeting of political and business leaders may meet some unexpected, lovable creatures this year — and for a good cause Botting Politics Global Guerrillas by John Robb During the 2012 US Presidential election, the … Read more
Obama just freed whistleblower Chelsea Manning The Next Web by Bryan Clark President Obama just effectively freed Chelsea Manning from the 32 remaining years in her jail sentence, according to the New York Times. While it’s not a presidential pardon, the commutation of Manning’s sentence will see her go free in just five months. Chelsea Manning to … Read more
Snowden to journalists: your best defense is legal limits on spying, not crypto Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh3HWTwDNzU Edward Snowden videoconferenced with a journalism roundtable at Editors Lab participants at Süddeutsche Zeitung (home of the Panama Papers) about the effect of state surveillance on a free press. The New York Times’ earnings report is more proof … 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
Manning statement (now hyperlinked) worthy of Nobel laureate Bradley Manning?s post-sentence statement, issued by his lawyer, was the kind of statement you would expect to be given by a Nobel Peace Prize recipient in their acceptance speech. It is both unequivocal and profound. Below, we reproduce it with one difference: we have added hyperlinks, where … Read more