Commentary on links that caught my attention around the web.
Notable Links
[Timothy Graham and Mark Andrejevic] Elon Musk didn't just endorse Trump with his words - according to this pre-print research paper, he gave Republicans an algorithmic boost on X, too: "The analysis reveals a structural engagement shift around mid-July 2024, suggesting platform-level changes that influenced engagement metrics
Technology
[Renee Dudley, with research by Doris Burke, at ProPublica] Security lapses in Microsoft's own products led to hacks that in turn pushed President Biden to ask for help from it and other tech companies to improve White House security. Microsoft saw it as an opportunity to lock the
Media
[Sara Fischer at Axios] "Beehiiv, a newsletter startup taking aim at Substack, says it's making a "multi-million dollar investment" to create a new "beehiiv Media Collective" of journalists on its platform." Beehiiv's new fund for independent journalists will give them
Fediverse
[Mathew Ingram at The Torment Nexus] Mathew wrestles with where Bluesky sits in the future of social media given its connections to venture capital and blockchain supporters: "I have no doubt that, as Cory says, Graber and the other founders of Bluesky are sincere in their desire to build
Media
[Oliver Darcy at Status] I literally had to check to see if this was real: "The Onion has successfully acquired Infowars. The satirical news outlet purchased Alex Jones' right-wing conspiracy empire at a court-ordered auction, the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting announced
Media
[The Guardian] Given the reluctance to leave X among most publishers, the Guardian is taking a big leadership role here by refusing to continue to post to X: "This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform,
AI
[Michael Kennedy and Isobel Cockerell in Coda Story] Just one example of many of AI being used to take agency away from ordinary workers: "The upshot was, it took away our ability to advocate for patients. We couldn’t point to a score and say, ‘This patient is too
Notable Links
[Noah Hurowitz at The Intercept] This should be a five alarm fire: "Up for a potential fast-track vote next week in the House of Representatives, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, also known as H.R. 9495, would grant the secretary of the Treasury Department
Technology
[Sean Goedecke] This is very good. It's advertised as a piece about shipping in big tech companies, but honestly, I think it's true of many smaller companies too. It's not true in the smallest startups or for organizations with certain kinds of engineering cultures
Technology
[Signal] Signal has improved its group call functionality pretty significantly: "If you love group calls on Signal, but don’t want to create a group chat for every combination of your friends or colleagues, you’re in luck. Today we’re launching call links: Share a link with anyone
Media
[Damon Kiesow in Working Systems] Damon Kiesow, who is the Knight Chair in Digital Editing and Producing at the Missouri School of Journalism, writes: "We ourselves have torn down the wall between editorial and business interests if as journalists, our calculation here is not values-based. To wit: “But I
Technology
[Bill Fitzgerald] Bill Fitzgerald has updated his open source guide to personal privacy: "Conversations about privacy and security often focus on technology and give scant attention to the human, non-technological factors that affect personal privacy and security. This post covers a range of concrete steps we can all take