I have written on journalism and media trends eariler few years ago. So it is time for update. What is the state of journalism and news publishing in 2017? NiemanLab’s predictions for 2017 are a good place to start thinking about what lies ahead for journalism. There, Matt Waite puts us in our place straight away by telling us that the people running the media are the problem.
There has been changes on tech publishing. In January 2017 International Data Group, the owner of PCWorld magazine and market researcher IDC, on Thursday said it was being acquired by China Oceanwide Holdings Group and IDG Capital, the investment management firm run by IDG China executive Hugo Shong. In 2016 Arrow bought EE Times, EDN, TechOnline and lots more from UBM.
Here are some article links and information bits on journalist and media in 2017:
Soothsayers’ guides to journalism in 2017 article take a look at journalism predictions and the value of this year’s predictions.
What Journalism Needs To Do Post-Election article tells that faced with the growing recognition that the electorate was uniformed or, at minimum, deeply in the thrall of fake news, far too many journalists are responding not with calls for change but by digging in deeper to exactly the kinds of practices that got us here in the first place.
Fake News Is About to Get Even Scarier than You Ever Dreamed article says that what we saw in the 2016 election is nothing compared to what we need to prepare for in 2020 as incipient technologies appear likely to soon obliterate the line between real and fake.
Headlines matter article tells that in 2017, headlines will matter more than ever and journalists will need to wrest control of headline writing from social-optimization teams. People get their news from headlines now in a way they never did in the past.
Why new journalism grads are optimistic about 2017 article tells that since today’s college journalism students have been in school, the forecasts for their futures has been filled with words like “layoffs,” “cutbacks,” “buyouts” and “freelance.” Still many people are optimistic about the future because the main motivation for being a journalist is often “to make a difference.”
Updating social media account can be a serious job. Zuckerberg has 12+ Facebook employees helping him with posts and comments on his Facebook page and professional photographers to snap personal moments.
Wikipedia Is Being Ripped Apart By a Witch Hunt For Secretly Paid Editors article tells that with undisclosed paid editing on the rise, Wikipedians and the Wikimedia Foundation are working together to stop the practice without discouraging user participation. Paid editing is permissible under Wikimedia Foundation’s terms of use as long as they disclose these conflicts of interest on their user pages, but not all paid editors make these disclosures.
Big Internet giants are working on how to make content better for mobile devices. Instant Articles is a new way for any publisher to create fast, interactive articles on Facebook. Google’s AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a project that it aims to accelerate content on mobile devices. Both of those systems have their advantages and problems.
Clearing Out the App Stores: Government Censorship Made Easier article tells that there’s a new form of digital censorship sweeping the globe, and it could be the start of something devastating. The centralization of the internet via app stores has made government censorship easier. If the app isn’t in a country’s app store, it effectively doesn’t exist. For more than a decade, we users of digital devices have actively championed an online infrastructure that now looks uniquely vulnerable to the sanctions of despots and others who seek to control information.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Verkossa tyhmätkin mielipiteet säilyvät hamaan ikuisuuteen – Oikeuskansleri: Syytä pyytää poistamaan, jos pelkää syytettä
https://www.aamulehti.fi/a/4530c008-afe5-48d0-837b-4b0383726b0a
Taannehtiva vihapuhejahti kiihtyy – Oikeuskansleri kehottaa suomalaisia poistamaan vanhoja kirjoituksiaan
https://www.suomenuutiset.fi/taannehtiva-vihapuhejahti-kiihtyy-oikeuskansleri-kehottaa-suomalaisia-poistamaan-vanhoja-kirjoituksiaan/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.netprofile.fi/mita-toimittajat-odottavat-viestijoilta
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/averyblank/2019/11/18/why-taylor-swift-is-so-influential-and-how-you-can-increase-your-influence/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.kiskolabs.com/lyhentamatta-paras
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/11/20959865/google-chrome-slow-sites-badge-system-chrome-dev-summit-2019
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.journalisti.fi/artikkelit/2019/9/painajaishaastattelussa-toimittaja-on-kyvytn-lehti-saastaa-ja-juttu-paskaa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://vasarahammer.blogspot.com/2019/10/vihapuhehysteria-kiihtyy.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
The science news cycle
http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1174
Tomi Engdahl says:
Are you ready for the software-defined visual storytelling future?
https://www.vizrt.com/broadcasting/news-articles/sdvs-telegraph-road-across-tlc
Five leaps that changed the way we tell stories
“…those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
John F. Kennedy
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Golden Age of the Internet Is Over
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU6CuSMzNus
Tomi Engdahl says:
Greg Bensinger / Washington Post:
YouTube claims users spend 70% less time on “borderline” content, like conspiracies, since it tweaked recommendations in January but fails to offer more details
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/03/youtube-says-viewers-are-spending-less-time-watching-conspiracy-videos-many-still-do/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter has to figure out what to do with dead people
https://www.technologyreview.com/f/614672/screen-time-might-be-physically-changing-kids-brains/
Twitter said it would shut down any account that hasn’t logged in for six months, starting from December 11. It wasn’t ready for the backlash.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hate speech online: Lessons for protecting free expression
https://edri.org/hate-speech-online-lessons-for-protecting-free-expression/
UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression – released the preliminary findings of his sixth report on information and communication technology. They include tangible suggestions to internet companies and states whose current efforts to control hate speech online are failing to comply with the fundamental principles of human rights. The EU Commission should consider Kaye’s recommendations when creating new rules for the internet and – most importantly – when drafting the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Whilst the report outlines a general approach, the European Commission should incorporate Kaye’s advice when developing the proposed Digital Services Act (DSA) and other related legislation and non-legal initiatives, to ensure that the regulation of hate speech does not inadvertently violate citizens’ digital rights.
Harmful content removal: under international law, there is a better way
Sexism, racism and other forms of hate speech (which Kaye defines as “incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence”) in the online environment are quite rightly areas of attention for global digital policy and law makers. But the report offers a much-needed reminder that restricting freedom of expression online through deleting content is not just an ineffective solution, but in fact threatens a multitude of rights and freedoms that are vital for the functioning of democratic societies. Freedom of expression is, as Kaye states, “fundamental to the enjoyment of all human rights”. If curtailed, it can open the door for repressive States to systematically suppress their citizens.
Fundamental rules for restricting freedom of expression online
The report is clear that restrictions of online speech “must be exceptional, subject to narrow conditions and strict oversight”, with the burden of proof “on the authority restricting speech to justify the restriction”. Any restriction is thus subject to three criteria under human rights law:
Firstly under the legality criteria, Kaye uses human rights law to show that any regulation of hate speech online (as offline) must be genuinely unlawful, not just offensive or harmful. It must be regulated in a way that does not give “excessive discretion” to governments or private actors, and gives independent routes of appeal to impacted individuals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This is an era of stochastic terrorism: “The use of mass public communication, usually against a particular individual or group, which incites or inspires acts of terrorism which are statistically probable but happen seemingly at random.” It is also an era of climate crisis as a stochastic disaster, causing a whole spectrum of “random” natural disasters to become ever more probable and terrible.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/27/stochastic-disaster/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Donald Trump wants to ‘close up’ the Internet
https://money.cnn.com/2015/12/08/technology/donald-trump-internet/index.html
Donald Trump has called for a shutdown of the Internet in certain areas to stop the spread of terror.
In a speech at the U.S.S. Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on Monday, Trump referenced the use by ISIS of social media as a recruitment tool. He recommended a discussion with Bill Gates to shut off parts of the Internet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scammers peddling Islamophobic clickbait is business as usual at Facebook
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/05/scammers-peddling-islamophobic-clickbait-is-business-as-usual-at-facebook/?tpcc=ECFB2019
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Vulnerability Lets Attackers Hijack VPN Connections On in Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, MacOS, iOS, and Android https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2019/q4/122 No patch released yet. This vulnerability works against OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2/IPSec,but has not been thoroughly tested against tor, but we believe it is not vulnerable since it operates in a SOCKS layer and includes authentication and encryption that happens in userspace.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anybody who wants to manipulate public opinion and influence policy makers can achieve extraordinary success with relatively subtle tricks.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610012/the-tricks-propagandists-use-to-beat-science/?utm_medium=tr_social&utm_campaign=site_visitor.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1575654648
Tomi Engdahl says:
In case you missed it, the Internet has suggestions for anti-vaxxers offended by being called anti-vaxxers.
Anti-Vaxxers Are Asking People To Stop Calling Them Anti-Vaxxers Because It’s “Highly Offensive”
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/antivaxxers-are-asking-people-to-stop-calling-them-antivaxxers-because-its-highly-offensive/
A group of anti-vaxxers is asking the media to stop referring to them as anti-vaxxers (even though that’s literally what they are), and people have been less than enthusiastic in accepting their suggested replacement.
This week, the anti-vaxxer group Crazymothers (no, we’re not even remotely kidding) posted the request to their Twitter and Instagram pages.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:
Popular stock photo service Shutterstock’s censoring of content to appease the Chinese government shows that some US companies choose to forget about US values
In wake of Shutterstock’s Chinese censorship, American companies need to relearn American values
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/08/in-wake-of-shutterstocks-chinese-censorship-american-companies-need-to-relearn-american-values/
Take Shutterstock, which has come under great fire for complying with China’s great firewall. As Sam Biddle described in The Intercept last month, the company has been riven internally between workers looking to protect democratic values, and a business desperate to expand further in one of the world’s most dynamic countries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Attacking The Source: The Establishment Loyalist’s Favorite Online Tactic
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/11/28/attacking-the-source-the-establishment-loyalists-favorite-online-tactic/?fbclid=IwAR0oOBaxg0RgZ7lP6aBHTCRA_d9MW_nN0E53gCQqwRC8UE6y0VrAkyFwXOk
You find yourself going back and forth with one of those high-confidence, low-information establishment types who’s promulgating a dubious mainstream narrative, whether that be about politics, war, Julian Assange, or whatever. At some point they make an assertion which you know to be false–publicly available information invalidates the claim they’re making.
“I’ve got them now!” you think to yourself, if you’re new to this sort of thing. Then you share a link to an article or video which makes a well-sourced, independently verifiable case for the point you are trying to make.
Then, the inevitable happens.
“LMAO! That outlet!” they scoff in response. “That outlet is propaganda/fake news/conspiracy theory trash!”
Or something to that effect. You’ll encounter this tactic over and over and over again if you continually engage in online political discourse with people who don’t agree with you.
It doesn’t matter if you’re linking to a WikiLeaks publication of a verified authentic document. Unless you’re linking to CNN/Fox News (whichever fits the preferred ideology of the establishment loyalist you’re debating), they’ll bleat “fake news!” or “propaganda!” or “Russia!” as though that in and of itself magically invalidates the point you’re trying to make.
And of course it doesn’t. What they are doing is called attacking the source, also known as an ad hominem, and it’s a very basic logical fallacy.
attacking the source of the argument rather than attacking the argument itself in a way that avoids dealing with the question of whether or not the argument itself is true.
Someone being an idiot, a propagandist or a conspiracy theorist is irrelevant to the question of whether or not what they’re saying is true.
The correct response to someone who attacks the outlet or individual you’re citing instead of attacking the actual argument being made is, “You’re attacking the source instead of the argument. That’s a logical fallacy, and it’s only ever employed by people who can’t attack the argument.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
At the beginning of 2015, Alex Balk, then-editor of the now-defunct website the Awl, wrote a post of advice for young people in which he supplied three laws about the internet.
The first: “Everything you hate about The Internet is actually everything you hate about people.”
The second: “The worst thing is knowing what everyone thinks about anything.”
But Balk’s third law was most prescient, especially as we end this miserable decade: “If you think The Internet is terrible now, just wait a while.”
He went on: “The moment you were just in was as good as it got. The stuff you shake your head about now will seem like fucking Shakespeare in 2016.”
Reader, we’ve waited a while, and today it seems indisputable that Balk’s law has held: The 2010s is the decade when the internet lost its joy.
https://gen.medium.com/the-decade-the-internet-lost-its-joy-4898c2c44cb4?gi=eec320b4bf59
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trump Attacks Greta Thunberg On Twitter—And Greta Trolls Him Back
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/12/12/trump-attacks-greta-thunberg-on-twitter-and-greta-trolls-him-back/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie/#76616c657269
Topline: President Trump and Greta Thunberg’s Twitter war picked back up Thursday morning—a day after Time magazine named Thunberg its Person Of The Year—which Trump called “ridiculous,” and advised Thunberg to “work on her Anger Management problem.”
Surprising fact: A fake Time magazine with Trump on its cover hung in five of his golf clubs around the world. In 2017, reports that the phony magazine surfaced, and it was confirmed that the issue was indeed faked. Time representatives eventually asked Trump’s golf clubs to remove the fakes from their walls.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIKSI TEKNOLOGIAVIESTINTÄ EI OLE YHDENTEKEVÄ TAITEENLAJI?
https://blog.netprofile.fi/miksi-teknologiaviestinta-ei-ole-yhdentekeva-taiteenlaji
Osalle teknologia on se juttu. Niille ei ole yhdentekevää, miten niiden ratkaisuista kerrotaan asiakkaille, sidosryhmille ja medialle. Niiden viestintä osuu tarkemmin maaliin, kun viestien tekijät pystyvät tulkitsemaan teknologian kohderyhmän kannalta oikealle kielelle. Siksi nämä yritykset kaipaavat teknologiasta jyvällä olevaa viestintäkumppania.
Helppo viestiminen teknologiasta on monta pykälää vaikeampaa kuin vaikkapa kaikille tutusta ruoasta viestiminen. Esimerkiksi jonkin keksinnön paras huippuasiantuntija ei ole automaattisesti paras viestijä. Puhe todennäköisesti pursuaa oman alan ammattijargonia.
Äskettäin opin helppouden kannalta kiehtovan käsitteen: Simplified Technical English, lyhennettynä STE. Suomeksi tämä yksinkertaistettu tekninen englanti tarkoittaa standardia, jolla voi kirjoittaa teknisiä dokumentteja kuten erilaisia käyttöoppaita. Ideana on tuottaa yhdenmukaista ja samalla lukijalle helposti ymmärrettävää tekstiä.
STE:n tavoin teknologiaviestinnän pitää karttaa vaikeita lauserakenteita, minimoida adverbit, adverbiaalit ja adjektiivit.
Hyvä teknisen dokumentoinnin kieli suosii aktiivimuotoisia verbejä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Greta Thunberg Is One Of The World’s Most Powerful Women
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2019/12/12/why-greta-thunberg-is-one-of-the-worlds-most-powerful-women/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Some contractors at Google’s Austin content moderation facility describe being overworked and suffering severe mental health consequences after just six months — These moderators help keep Google and YouTube free of violent extremism — and now some of them have PTSD
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/16/21021005/google-youtube-moderators-ptsd-accenture-violent-disturbing-content-interviews-video
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram expands its fact checking efforts by hiding false content behind warnings, except for politicians, and removing it from Explore and hashtag pages — Instagram is giving politicians the same free reign to spread misinformation as its parent company Facebook.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/16/instagram-fact-checking/
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Instagram will preemptively flag potentially offensive captions, in addition to comments, aiming to nudge users to reconsider their words without censoring them — Earlier this year, Instagram launched a feature that would flag potentially offensive comments before they’re posted.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/16/instagram-to-now-flag-potentially-offensive-captions-in-addition-to-comments/
Tomi Engdahl says:
CNBC:
Vox Media to end contracts of hundreds of freelancers to comply with CA’s new AB5 law, which will forbid non-employees from submitting over 35 articles a year
Vox Media to cut hundreds of freelance jobs ahead of changes in California gig economy laws
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/16/vox-media-to-cut-hundreds-of-freelance-jobs-ahead-of-californias-ab5.html
Hundreds of freelance writers at Vox Media, primarily those covering sports for the SB Nation site, will lose their jobs in the coming months as the company prepares for a California law to go into effect that will force companies to reclassify contractors in the state as employees.
“This is a bittersweet note of thanks to our California independent contractors,” John Ness, executive director of SB Nation, wrote in a post on Monday. “In 2020, we will move California’s team blogs from our established system with hundreds of contractors to a new one run by a team of new SB Nation employees.”
The announcement follows the September passage of Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) by the California Assembly and its signing by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Targeted primarily at ride-hailing and food delivery companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and PostMates, the legislation requires gig economy workers to be hired as employees with benefits like health coverage and minimum wage protections.
As it pertains to Vox, the law forbids nonemployees from submitting more than 35 pieces per year.
SB Nation is posting about 20 part-time and full-time jobs, so some of the freelancers may be hired on as staff
Even as the company grows, AB5 will change how at least some of its sites are structured.
“SB Nation has chosen to do the easiest thing they can to comply with California law — not work with California-based independent contractors, or any contractors elsewhere writing for California-based teams,” Lawson wrote. “I don’t blame them at all.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emily Bell / The Guardian:
Local news, with its ever-shrinking resources, cannot adequately counter “phantom local news” sites, which are set up to repeat talking points or disinformation
We can’t fight fake news without saving local journalism
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/dec/15/we-cant-fight-fake-news-without-saving-local-journalism
Local news is often trusted more than national news but it is highly vulnerable to online disinformation
The page on The Yorkshire Post’s website is a stunning example of why there is currently a crisis of credibility in news and information. For a dwindling number of journalists to be paid to dispel the social media “dust cloud of nonsense”, as Barack Obama once called it, their publications have to rely on the services of companies such as Facebook and Taboola, who make money from having disgracefully low or non-existent editorial standards themselves. Careful lessons on how to parse disinformation are themselves sitting on a dung heap of dubious advertising and problematic content which is – unlike the journalism – highly profitable for third-party companies.
If you look further, you can read about what this asymmetry in the commercial market for information has done to local news in general.
The Yorkshire Post and its local newspaper stablemates are in the process of being sold. This is a worldwide trend: the shrinkage of local newsrooms as the result of advertising revenues flowing instead to advertising companies such as Facebook and Google.
After the shock result of the 2016 US presidential election, journalists and researchers spent time peeling back the lid on a can of disinformation worms.
Russian troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, had shared lots of links through its networks during the 2016 election. But only a very few, Yin says, were links to fake news sites. “What I noticed was a majority of the stories being shared were local,”
In the 2020 election cycle, we are already seeing a rise in hundreds of phantom “local news sites” set up by political operatives to churn out automated stories that fit particular talking points. The resources at a local level to counter these operations are shrinking. Two of America’s largest news chains, Gannett and GateHouse Media are merging with the declared intention of cutting half a billion dollars from their bottom line. McClatchy, another titan of local news, is battling to stay afloat.
The Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan notes that in the index of trusted news sources, local reporting can often rank higher than national news. Preserving these local outlets may be our best hope of repairing some consensus around facts. “They still are one of the ways that many communities maintain a sense of unity and shared facts,” Sullivan says. “Losing that should be unthinkable. But as of this moment, it isn’t.”
Since the 2016 election in the US revealed how easy it is to manipulate social media platforms, there have been dozens if not hundreds of initiatives to “fight disinformation” as it represents a “crisis for democracy”.
not enough progress has been made in the past three years to effectively deal with the consequences of a polluted news and information environment. Journalists themselves have not been quick enough to understand the levers of disinformation and how they both amplify or recirculate material which is false or intentionally distracting.
American academic Whitney Phillips, who studies disinformation, describes our current approach to the problem as being akin to an environmental movement which tries to clean up a few yards of beach rather than tackle the systemic problem of pollution. The tech platforms have enthusiastically advanced the binary fixes of fact checking, and more moderation, which, in Phillips’s adept analogy is very much like cleaning a stretch of beach whilst a broken oil pipe spews into the ocean.
At the end of a UK election where the ruling party changed its own social media account to “fact check uk” specifically to mislead readers, where a study by First Draft of nearly 7,000 Conservative ads on Facebook found 88% of them were “misleading”, and where stories like the boy on the hospital floor continued to be debated despite clear confirmation, it seems that we are further away than ever from establishing a shared interest in valuing the truth.
This is not an accident. Although it would be tempting to put the Conservative party’s economy with the facts down to accident or incompetence, it is part of a deliberate and consistent strategy to keep populations in a perpetual state of doubt about what truth is. Invert the truth, discredit the press. This has traditionally been the playbook of dictators, but it is also adopted by politicians in democracies as an effective tactic to advance their own agendas.
Writing in the Observer this weekend, Alan Rusbridger argues that we need more good journalism as a key defence against the rising tide of noxious content – and who could disagree? But we also need regulation and legislation – and we need a totally reformed business model for platforms and tech companies.
The election in the media: against evasion and lies, good journalism is all we have
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/14/election-in-the-media-evasion-lies-good-journalism-is-all-we-have
Political manipulators in the UK proved they have learnt from the US how to blur truth, but one local paper points to the antidote
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Biggest Junk Science of 2019
https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2019/12/17/the_biggest_junk_science_of_2019.html
There is never a shortage of people who abuse science, logic, and reason, whether out of cynical opportunism or simple ignorance. And so, every year, RealClearScience counts down the most glaring forays into junk science
Tomi Engdahl says:
Perth city centre ‘It’s ok to be white’ stickers condemned
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-50821872
Scotland’s deputy first minister has condemned the appearance of stickers bearing the slogan “It’s ok to be white” in Perth city centre.
The stickers were posted on lampposts and drainpipes throughout the city at the weekend.
Posting on Twitter, Mr Swinney said: “We must stand together to resist this unacceptable material.”
The message originally appeared as a 2017 poster campaign in the US organised by an internet message board, with the aim of provoking reactions.
It was later picked up and spread by neo-Nazi groups.
Local group Perth Against Racism said it has been contacted by local people who said the appearance of the stickers had made them feel unsafe.
One person told the group: “I am certainly worried now for my daughters who are not white but are from Perth.
“It’s sickening and disgusting to know that people think like this.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dangerous media:
CNN:
The Epilepsy Foundation files criminal complaint against 30+ unidentified Twitter users for coordinated attack of seizure-inducing videos to its feed last month
A Twitter cyberattack on the Epilepsy Foundation posted strobing images that could trigger seizures
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/17/tech/epilepsy-strobe-twitter-attack-trnd/
Attackers sent videos of flashing and strobing lights to people on Twitter last month as part of a cyberattack which deliberately targeted people with epilepsy.
The attacks targeted the Twitter feed of the Epilepsy Foundation, the organization said Monday.
Using the foundation’s handle and hashtags, the attackers posted videos and GIFs that used triggering light flashes. And they did it during National Epilepsy Awareness Month in November — when the greatest number of people with epilepsy would be following the account.
The Foundation identified at least 30 different accounts participating in the calculated action, Allison Nichol, the Epilepsy Foundation’s director of legal advocacy told CNN. The Foundation was not able to say how many people were affected by the attacks.
People with photosensitive epilepsy are sensitive to flashing lights or particular visual patterns that may trigger seizures, the Epilepsy Foundation says.
“While the population of those with photosensitive epilepsy is small, the impact can be quite serious. Many are not even aware they have photosensitivity until they have a seizure,” Jacqueline French, chief medical and innovation officer of the Epilepsy Foundation said in a statement.
Epilepsy Foundation Files Criminal Complaint and Requests Investigation in Response to Attacks on Twitter Feed
https://www.epilepsy.com/release/2019/12/epilepsy-foundation-files-criminal-complaint-and-requests-investigation-response
The Epilepsy Foundation has filed formal criminal complaints with law enforcement authorities outlining a series of attacks on its Twitter feed designed to trigger seizure(s) in people with epilepsy. The attacks, which used the Foundation’s Twitter handle and hashtags to post flashing or strobing lights, deliberately targeted the feed during National Epilepsy Awareness Month when the greatest number of people with epilepsy and seizures were likely to be following the feed.
“Flashing lights at certain intensities or certain visual patterns can trigger seizures in those with photosensitive epilepsy,” said Jacqueline French, M.D., chief medical and innovation officer of the Epilepsy Foundation and professor of Neurology at NYU Langone Health’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. “While the population of those with photosensitive epilepsy is small, the impact can be quite serious. Many are not even aware they have photosensitivity until they have a seizure.”
“Twitter is one of the largest places of public gathering that exists today,” said Allison Nichol, Esq., director of legal advocacy for the Epilepsy Foundation. “These attacks are no different than a person carrying a strobe light into a convention of people with epilepsy and seizures, with the intention of inducing seizures and thereby causing significant harm to the participants. The fact that these attacks came during National Epilepsy Awareness Month only highlights their reprehensible nature. The Foundation is fully cooperating with law enforcement and intends to utilize all available avenues to ensure that those responsible are held fully accountable.”
The Foundation’s attacks were similar to the attacks involving author Kurt Eichenwald.
For about 3% of people with epilepsy, exposure to flashing lights at certain intensities or certain visual patterns can trigger seizures.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Missouri lawmaker wants to end playful electronic highway messages
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/missouri-lawmaker-wants-to-end-playful-electronic-highway-messages
A Missouri lawmaker wants to put the brakes on transportation officials’ use of playful messages on electronic signs mounted along state highways, such as “Santa’s Coming Have you Been A Good Driver” and “Treat the Road Like a Cat Video … Share It.”
“Those signs are hideously expensive, and MoDOT (the Missouri Department of Transportation) has a lot of incredibly detailed information they could share,” said Republican Rep. Tony Lovasco, of O’Fallon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Facebook bans misleading posts, photos, ads, and other content about the 2020 US Census, even if posted by a politician, on Facebook and Instagram — The new rules, announced Thursday, includes those placed by politicians — SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook will remove posts …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/19/do-not-pub-facebook-aims-battle-back-disinformation-around-us-census-including-limits-political-ads/
Tomi Engdahl says:
40% of Anti-Vaccine Group’s Funding Came From Wealthy ‘Alternative Health’ Vendor
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/12/21/2120207/40-of-anti-vaccine-groups-funding-came-from-wealthy-alternative-health-vendor
over the past decade a single donor has contributed more than $2.9 million to the National Vaccine Information Center, accounting for about 40 percent of the organization’s funding, according to the most recent available tax records.
That donor, osteopathic physician Joseph Mercola, has amassed a fortune selling natural health products, court records show, including vitamin supplements, some of which he claims are alternatives to vaccines.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Anita Campbell Built A Top Digital Publishing Business, Starting From A Comfy Chair In A Tiny Home Office
https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2019/12/04/how-anita-cambell-became-a-top-digital-publisher-for-small-business-starting-from-a-comfy-chair-in-a-tiny-home-office/
“In a way, I’m an accidental publisher,” says Anita Campbell, the proprietor of Small Business Trends (often referred to informally as SmallBizTrends) and other online properties. Although these sites now command some 4,000,000 views a month, Campbell says she “didn’t start out aiming to be a digital publisher at all.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jamal Khashoggi: Saudis sentence five to death for journalist’s murder
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50890633
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced five people to death and jailed three others over the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year.
The Saudi authorities said it was the result of a “rogue operation” and put 11 unnamed individuals on trial.
A UN expert has concluded that it was an “extrajudicial execution”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/05/europe/finland-fake-news-intl/?fbclid=IwAR1sYAbYfoJzWKFzPewTyQ7hASVq5DiIftFi106HKqc07Eu6_deqXywj1RQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech
Altering the internet’s economic and digital infrastructure to promote free speech
https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech
After a decade or so of the general sentiment being in favor of the internet and social media as a way to enable more speech and improve the marketplace of ideas, in the last few years the view has shifted dramatically—now it seems that almost no one is happy. Some feel that these platforms have become cesspools of trolling, bigotry, and hatred. Meanwhile, others feel that these platforms have become too aggressive in policing language and are systematically silencing or censoring certain viewpoints. And that’s not even touching on the question of privacy and what these platforms are doing (or not doing) with all of the data they collect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Youtube Bans Cryptocurrency Videos? Content Deleted Over ‘Harmful Or Dangerous Content’
https://www.ibtimes.com/youtube-bans-cryptocurrency-videos-content-deleted-over-harmful-or-dangerous-content-2891312
KEY POINTS
YouTube deletes cryptocurrency-related content
Well-known crypto channels were affected by YouTube’s latest move
Videos were taken down because of “harmful or dangerous content”
It’s a public fact that the Google-owned company has certain restrictions when it comes to the content uploaded to individual channels that, over the years, has become increasingly stringent. Content that is explicitly breaking advertiser-friendly guidelines is a big no-no.
There is no clear reason why YouTube had undertaken steps to remove content related to cryptocurrencies. The crypto world is left to speculate whether it’s only a security measure, some ad-related restriction, or just no love for all things crypto.
In his frustration, Dunn echoed what Jack Dorsey is aiming for Twitter, which is a move to a blockchain platform. Dunn tweeted, “Thanks for the support and comments guys. The crypto community truly is awesome. I should’ve put my videos on decentralized platforms a long time ago, but lesson learned! This is a clear example of why we need to decentralize the web!”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook removed more than 900 pages, groups, and accounts on its own platform and Instagram on Friday for posting fake accounts and profiles, some generated by artificial intelligence.
Facebook Removes Hundreds of Fake Pro-Trump Accounts Using AI-Generated Profile Photos
http://on.forbes.com/61841XaIj
Facebook announced on Friday it has removed more than 900 accounts, groups and pages on its own platform and Instagram for using fake accounts to mislead users, including with false profile photos generated by artificial intelligence.
The newly banned accounts, groups, and pages were associated with a network known as “The Beauty of Life” (or “TheBL”), which the social media giant alleges is an offshoot of the controversial conservative news publisher, The Epoch Times. The accounts in question often promoted an anti-communist, pro-Trump message across hundreds of accounts and pages.
Tomi Engdahl says:
because hate speech we are now stumbled upon this utter nonsense. But nobody seems interested in deleting the history of Roman Catholic and Islam and Communism. What a wonderful world we have become
The Nazi problem: Hate speech, and how to police it, isn’t a new issue for YouTube or other social platforms. But this shows just how fraught and complex the balance is, and highlights the risk of unintended consequences when policies and algorithms are tweaked. It’s also a reminder of just how much power big tech companies have as gatekeepers of the material we consume online.
https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613644/youtube-is-deleting-videos-on-nazi-history-as-part-of-its-hate-speech-crackdown/?utm_medium=tr_social&utm_campaign=site_visitor.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1577131086
No excuses: This complexity doesn’t excuse YouTube, which is owned by Google, of its responsibilities. This week the New York Times revealed that its recommendation engine (which drives 70% of all views) has made it easier for pedophiles to find videos of children. A senator has said YouTube should just outright stop recommending any videos of minors, but given that a large chunk of YouTube’s audience is kids, the company is unlikely to take that step.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s wrong to delete or deny history, it’s there to be learned from.
We have learned from it. That’s why sad little incels get banned for saying they like Hitler
Tomi Engdahl says:
California Freelancers Sue To Stop Law That’s Destroying
https://reason.com/2019/12/23/california-freelancers-sue-to-stop-ab5-law-thats-destroying-their-jobs-pol-says-those-were-never-good-jobs-anyway/
Their Jobs. Pol Says Those ‘Were Never Good Jobs’ Anyway.
Set to take effect in 2020, AB5 will essentially eradicate large swaths of freelance jobs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here are some #tips on #writing conference papers that everyone can understand https://buff.ly/2Qssy5B
Write conference papers that everyone can understand
https://www.edn.com/write-conference-papers-that-everyone-can-understand/?utm_content=bufferdd5cb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
a simple lowest bar: Write it so that Einstein could understand it. Al Einstein was a smart guy, he can figure out pretty much anything if you give him a chance, but if you write in a language that he can’t possibly figure out, you have failed him. And not just him, you’ve failed your colleagues, your alma mater, your friends, your children, and worse yet, you’ve failed me.
PCB, TLA, ISI, FFS, FFE, WTF, NVM [1] – if you pepper your paper with undefined TLAs, even Bert Einstein won’t get it.
Jargon is exclusionary.
If you speak in jargon that I don’t understand, you’re carving me out of your world. When you carve people out of your world, your world gets smaller and smaller until your tiny little world is an echo chamber where your own ideas bounce back at you. It might make you feel big, real big, a real big solipsist [2].
Exclusionary policies are antithetical to innovation.
The tools of innovation grow incrementally, but when tools are brought from one field to another the innovations themselves advance in great leaps. Think disruption.
So, do you stop the meeting and ask “What does &*# stand for?” Or do you muddle along hoping against hope that you’ll either figure it out or someone will mention it or it will appear on a PowerPoint slide? Hey, don’t kid me, we both know that you’re more likely to go for the ride than advertise your ignorance.
But this guy was the “expert.” He was out on a limb and had to know.
said, “Can someone please define &*#?”
You can guess what happened.
Silence. All eyes turned to him. A distraught look of pure disappointment came over the lead engineer’s face
A woman near the door whispered the answer
The Raider fan said, “Why the hell didn’t you just say so?” He went to the white board and started drawing feedback loops based on neural networks and explained how the parameters could be trained in simulation and then applied in hardware. Ten minutes. Problem solved.
When you say (or think) “someone who doesn’t know what the acronyms mean won’t understand it anyway” you’re committing a sin against humanity because the success of this species is built on communication even more than the opposable thumb.
You should write it so that a graduate student in mathematics, physics, and a fresh off the BSEE (bachelor of science in electrical engineering) can understand it, but barring that, FFS, write it so that Einstein could understand it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spotify to ‘pause’ running political ads, citing lack of proper review
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/27/spotify-to-pause-running-political-ads-citing-lack-of-proper-review/?tpcc=ECFB2019
Tomi Engdahl says:
Upside Down Kingdom: Kanye West Is Preaching The Gospel, But Pope Francis Is Telling People Not To Evangelize
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/upside-down-kingdom-kanye-west-is-preaching-the-gospel-but-pope-francis-is-telling-people-not-to-evangelize
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tuvalu is a Tiny Island Nation of 11,000 People. Licensing of Its .tv Domain Contributes 1/12th To Its Annual Gross National Income
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/12/30/1446237/tuvalu-is-a-tiny-island-nation-of-11000-people-licensing-of-its-tv-domain-contributes-112th-to-its-annual-gross-national-income?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
The internet’s full power remains relatively unknown to many people on the tiny island nation Tuvalu (located halfway between Hawaii and Australia), but its evolution has made Tuvalu’s .tv domain one of its most valuable resources.
Thanks to the rise of livestreamed programming and competitive video gaming, Tuvalu earns about 1/12th of its annual gross national income (GNI) from licensing its domain to tech giants like Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch through the Virginia-based company Verisign. And in 2021, when Tuvalu’s contract with Verisign expires, that percentage figures to push significantly higher.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data-mining reveals that 80% of books published 1924-63 never had their copyrights renewed and are now in the public domain
https://boingboing.net/2019/08/01/80pct-pd.html
This January, we celebrated the Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain, as the onerous terms of the hateful Sonny Bono Copyright Act finally developed a leak, putting all works produced in 1923 into the public domain, with more to follow every year — 1924 goes PD in 2020, and then 1925, etc.
But there’s another source of public domain works: until the 1976 Copyright Act, US works were not copyrighted unless they were registered, and then they quickly became public domain unless that registration was renewed.
Now, Leonard Richardson (previously) has done the magic data-mining work to affirmatively determine which of the 1924-63 books are in the public domain, which turns out to be 80% of those books; what’s more, many of these books have already been scanned by the Hathi Trust (which uses a limitation in copyright to scan university library holdings for use by educational institutions, regardless of copyright status).
“Fun facts” are, sadly, often less than fun. But here’s a genuinely fun fact: most books published in the US before 1964 are in the public domain!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mikromuovit, gravitaatioaallot ja 13 muuta viime vuosikymmenen tärkeintä tiedeuutista
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11137607?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=yleuutiset&utm_medium=social
Tieteen arvostus ei kadonnut 2010-luvulla, vaikka tutkimustietoa ei aina haluttukaan hyväksyä.