The 112th Block: Fair game - an official burner account, and a president's phone number
As they say, what a time to be alive
This week…
And now, a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
Commonly used by researchers and journalists, data scraping is an underacknowledged privacy concern
David Golumbia for Real Life Magazine:
Every day, without our realizing it, the images, text and other data we post for our own purposes are scrutinized and collected by countless outside eyes for purposes we are unaware of and would often not consent to if we were aware of them. This process of collection and analysis is known as “data scraping” or “web scraping.” Though scraping overrides people’s will without scruple and enlists their contributions in initiatives they would reject, most people in the tech industry take scraping for granted as a ubiquitous, unavoidable part of the everyday operation of web technology. Some claim that it can be harnessed as a force for good, even as it has empowered data brokers, surveillance tech merchants, and forms of automation and algorithmic administration. Is it defensible? Is it necessary? Should it be outlawed altogether, or allowed without any regulation at all?
55-1502-5360: Why Mexico’s presidential frontrunner is giving out his WhatsApp number
Daniela Dib for Rest of World:
Politicians handing over a direct line of communication to the people running their comms channels is a common political strategy. Barack Obama shared a phone number during the Trump-Biden election campaign in 2020, to encourage people to voice how they planned to vote, but didn’t respond to each text personally; he used an app called Community that sent out prerecorded messages.
This sort of automated campaign has become increasingly sophisticated with the creation of WhatsApp-based networking software, like the one seen in Colombia, which helped take an anti-establishment candidate to the presidential runoffs. [Marcelo] Ebrard’s WhatsApp strategy is comparatively low-tech, bringing into question whether the intention is to communicate with his supporters or to collect large amounts of data that will aid him in recruitment and on-the-ground activism when campaigning starts in earnest.
The Los Angeles Times gets a fully staffed “burner account”
Sarah Scire for Nieman Lab:
Is an official Finsta an oxymoron? The 404 — a new Los Angeles Times project being billed as “a burner account” for the legacy newspaper — doesn’t think so.
Known informally as the meme team during its formation, the 404 is “the first-of-its-kind collective in any major U.S. newsroom.” Unlike other social teams — including the Times’ own audience engagement staff — the 404 does not create content to amplify existing journalism. And readers won’t see work by the 404 on the Times’ website. Instead, the 404 has been tasked with “continually inventing new types of experimental content” in hopes of reaching younger, more diverse audiences who are not already reading or engaging with The L.A. Times.
What I read, watch, and listen to…
I’m reading what police could find out about your illegal abortion on Vox. “The pre-Roe world didn’t have data privacy laws,” writes Sara Morrison. “The post-Roe world needs them.”
I’m watching Jasmine Kabatay’s piece on Shoal Lake 40 First Nation's transformational fight for clean water for the CBC.
I’m listening to Revelations, a podcast about Robert Earl Burton’s cultish Fellowship of Friends, hosted by Jennings Brown.
More stray links:
Así fue el rescate de la nadadora Anita Álvarez by Jacob Vicente López, Mariano Zafra, and Luis Villaescusa for El País.
How our community stopped an immigration raid by Illa Valenzuela-Oblitas for gal-dem.
How a local paper in Argentina uses AI to publish hundreds of sports pieces a month by Laura Oliver for Reuters Institute.