The creators and consumers in the world of news and information on social media. In the heat of the 2024 election, news influencers seemed to be everywhere. Both Republicans and Democrats credentialed content creators to cover their conventions – and encouraged influencers to share their political messages. Influencers also interviewed the candidates and held fundraisers… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legal Research
The New Administration: A Boon for Investigative Journalism
Via LLRX – The New Administration: A Boon for Investigative Journalism – This commentary by Michael Ravnitzky highlights the critical period ahead for investigative journalism under the new presidential administration. Controversial stances and policy shifts will provide many more opportunities than usual for journalists to uncover and report on critical issues, ensuring that the administration’s… Continue Reading
MS Word is Using You to Train AI
Medium unpaywalled – How to turn off AI-scraping from your Word documents and a 2nd unpaywalled option: “Microsoft Office, like many companies in recent months, has slyly turned on an “opt-out” feature that scrapes your Word and Excel documents to train its internal AI systems. This setting is turned on by default, and you have… Continue Reading
The Future of Online Privacy Hinges on Thousands of New Jersey Cops
Wired [unaywalled]: “Removing your phone number and address from the internet can be exceedingly difficult. A multibillion-dollar lawsuit led by an unlikely privacy crusader could soon catalyze change for everyone…In a pile of lawsuits in New Jersey—drummed up by a 41-year-old serial entrepreneur named Matt Adkisson and five law firms, including two of the nation’s… Continue Reading
527 Explorer
ProPublica 527 Explorer – “Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars flow through political organizations known as 527s. These organizations are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission and are not subject to FEC-style restrictions on who can contribute or how much they can give, though donations are not tax deductible. These groups are spending… Continue Reading
What we know about unauthorized immigrants living in the US
The unauthorized immigrant population in the United States grew to 11.0 million in 2022, according to new Pew Research Center estimates based on the 2022 American Community Survey, the most recent year available. The increase from 10.5 million in 2021 reversed a long-term downward trend from 2007 to 2019. This is the first sustained increase… Continue Reading
Which countries are leading in AI?
Which countries are leading in AI? Global AI Vibrancy Tool – The Global AI Vibrancy Tool is an interactive visualization that facilitates cross-country comparisons of AI vibrancy across 36 countries, using 42 indicators organized into 8 pillars. It provides a transparent evaluation of each country’s AI standing based on user preferences, identifies key national indicators… Continue Reading
Considerations for Effective Search Competition
Follow-up to previous posting – Judicial Remedies To Restore Competition in the Market for General Search – KGI Working Report, November 4, 2024. Considerations for Effective Search Competition. Alissa Cooper, Knight-Georgetown Institute; Jasper van den Boom, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf; Zander Arnao, Knight-Georgetown Institute – “…This report emphasizes several foundational principles for crafting effective remedies in… Continue Reading
The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone
The New Yorker [unpaywalled] – “Other Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to target political opponents, activists, journalists, and other vulnerable groups. Could it happen here? In September, the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) signed a two-million-dollar contract with Paragon, an Israeli firm whose spyware product Graphite focusses on breaching encrypted-messaging… Continue Reading
Overlooked Google Docs Feature Makes Organizing Information a Breeze
MakeUseOf: “Google Docs is packed with useful tools, but some of its best features often go unnoticed. One such feature is the Documents Tab, a powerful but overlooked tool that can make organizing and accessing your information much simpler…” Continue Reading
Study suggests X turned right just in time for election season
The Register – “Significant uptick in visibility for Musk, Republican account posts from July 13 – A pair of researchers say they’ve determined that July 13 was likely the day that X, formerly known as Twitter, made platform-level algorithm changes that increased the visibility of posts made by Elon Musk and Republican-leaning accounts in the… Continue Reading
This Bluesky Tool Makes It Easy to Find Accounts You’ll Want to Follow
Lifehacker: “Bluesky Network Analyzer looks at the people you’re already following, and then looks at the people they’re following to give you personalized recommendations…As I’ve also previously noted, the value you’ll get out of Bluesky is wholly based on who you follow there, since it isn’t really powered by an algorithm trying desperately to keep… Continue Reading
