This week…
I stand corrected on the Bruce Willis story I shared last week; not true according to his rep. I typically compile stories for The Starting Block through the week, then I sort them out on the day of publication, whittling down the long list to fit a broad theme and checking for updates on the initial stories for fact-checks, op-eds, retractions, and so on, usually right to the very last hour before the scheduled publication time. Obviously, some weeks my Sunday hours are reduced to participate in social things, and I, well, end up sharing bad stories. Sorry.
And now, a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week. This week, too, I am AFK in the final hours before this goes out, so apologies in advance for any outdated, poorly scrutinised information.
How Internet sleuths exposed a celebrity “volunteer soldier” in Ukraine as a fraud
Leo Schwartz for Rest of World:
In March, the month after Russia declared war on Ukraine, a new account joined Twitter under the handle CanadianUkrain1, the user claiming to be a North American citizen joining the frontlines of the Ukrainian efforts against the Russian invasion. “Fighting the Russian invader along the Mykolayiv-Kherson axis,” read its bio. “Glory to Ukraine!”
CanadianUkrain1 shared videos and images he claimed to have taken himself from combat, alleging to have killed a Russian soldier with a tomahawk on one occasion and writing a tweet thread about a top-secret bicycle mission through Kherson on another. But most of the account’s posts resembled the work of amateur open-source intelligence researchers, known commonly as OSINT: often anonymous social media users who analyze conflict zones by using publicly accessible information gleaned from platforms like Google Maps. CanadianUkrain1 would repost content, mostly from Telegram, adding his own commentary.
His follower count skyrocketed, but the ruse did not last long.
OSINT, amirite. Sometimes people ask me if I like or dislike Internet sleuths and I can never give a straight answer because it’s like that Katy Perry song.
Digital maps require greater government oversight
Benjamin Santos Gentas for Undark:
By now, it is no secret that technology companies routinely exploit our biases. But doing so in the digital mapping space poses a particularly significant threat: These apps have a colossal influence on our experience of the surrounding world. They direct us through cities and shuttle cars to our streets. They provide us with the names of neighborhoods and point us to businesses nearby. People often rely on them without thinking twice, sometimes to the point of injury or, in the case of one teenager who was guided to take a wrong turn in Siberia, even death. There’s even evidence to suggest our dependence on digital maps may be altering our brains: Studies show that frequent use of guided navigation causes detrimental effects on memory.
The companies that monopolize the digital map industry — namely, Apple and Google’s parent company, Alphabet — thus hold an immense power. The regulatory status quo, however, does very little to check this outsized influence. To prevent unwanted abuses, the United States should take an active role in regulating certain aspects of digital maps, especially with respect to their GPS navigation and advertising practices.
One striking area of unchecked but harmful influence has been in reshaping the identity of neighborhoods, both in the abstract and the concrete. Mobile navigation systems seem to have (somewhat paradoxically) led to worsened traffic conditions, especially in smaller neighborhoods and rural roads. Reports of this abound. In the United Kingdom, for example, the number of cars significantly increased in recent years, yet traffic on main roads has remained relatively constant — instead, smaller roads bore the brunt.
Links are stripped from the pull quote, but this piece is well-referenced with studies and reports. I recommend going through them in the original link. Beyond the issues brought up by the author, digital maps really are a double-edged sword—makes OSINT easier (see story above), but also stalking.
What’s the value of anonymity online?
Ryan Broderick for Garbage Day:
Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at NYU and cohost of the Pivot podcast with Kara Swisher, published a piece over the weekend in which he argued that it was time to end anonymity online.
“The prevalence of anonymous accounts and bots has evolved into a sociopolitical scourge,” Galloway wrote. “We should change course and require proof of identity online. Enforced ID won’t solve all these problems, but it would be a step in the right direction.”
I see arguments like this quite a bit. This line of thinking is particularly popular with British columnists, who seem to take turns writing a new screed against anonymous Internet users every quarter, typically in tandem with one of them being dunked on by Twitter users. But, overwhelmingly, the people who make these kinds of arguments don’t seem to be aware, or care, that the Internet is not just the people they’re having dinner parties with.
About 60% of the Earth’s population currently uses the Internet, about five billion people. Galloway imagines an Internet where “users could set up a single identity account with a trusted provider, who’d then vouch for the uniqueness of that user with any social media company or other online business where they open an account.” And he links to Clear Secure, the American tech company that does the biometric scanning at airports, as a possible example of how this would work.
Techdirt’s Mike Masnick in a series of tweets about Galloway’s piece, pushed back, “This idea has been pushed by so many (often wealthy, out of touch, extremely privileged) people with no knowledge or experience in how any of this works, leaving the less privileged, less wealthy, to have to explain ONCE AGAIN, why this is a dumb f—king idea that hurts people.”
Mike Masnick is right.
What I read, listen, and watch…
I’m reading a review of Sophie Lewis’ Abolish the Family by Erin Maglaque for The New Statesman. A good read (the review—but surely the book too.)
A bit of self-governance here, some collectively organised childcare there: begin with the kitchen, and we might end up with a whole new society. This is the premise of the revolutionary politics of family abolition. The US-based writer and academic Sophie Lewis is our most eloquent, furious and funny critic of how the family is a terrible way to satisfy all of our desires for love, care, nourishment. Her new book, Abolish the Family, offers a powerful introduction to the world beyond the nuclear family.
I’m listening to Darknet Diaries, a podcast about “hackers, breaches, shadow government activity, hacktivism, cybercrime, and all the things that dwell on the hidden parts of the network.” Now that’s a true crime sub-genre I can probably get behind. Let’s give it a shot.
I’m watching Toronto Blue Jays’ Extra Innings. The Jays’ post-season run has ended, but what a season it has been. Already counting down to the next. Still, plenty of sports to watch.
Reviews, opinion pieces and other stray links:
Molly Russell was trapped by the cruel algorithms of Pinterest and Instagram by John Naughton for The Guardian.
TikTok’s infinite scroll spotlights a growing media literacy crisis by Chase DiBenedetto and Elena Cavender for Mashable.
How The Washington Post grew its Instagram following from 600K to 6M by Rachel Karten in Link in Bio.
The curious case of Gina Adams: A “Pretendian” investigation by Michelle Cyca for Maclean’s.
What happened when the anonymous gamer Dream revealed his face after years of streaming by Moises Mendez II for Time.
Doctors Who? Radical lessons from the history of DIY transition by Jules Gill-Peterson for The Baffler.
NFL player Tua Tagovailoa’s concussion might have been prevented with rugby’s stricter protocols by Adam Pyle for The Conversation.
Chart of the week
And one more thing
I watched American football one night. I am getting a hang of it. It’s kind of like rugby—precisely, more rugby league than rugby union—but with poorer concussion protocol. Yes, it was the match with Tua Tagovailoa’s second injury that I watched. What a nasty introduction to the NFL. Maybe the protective gear gives them a false sense of safety.
Speaking of rugby, and with the baseball season over for this Jays’ fan, now it’s on to the 2021 Rugby World Cup (union) before the 2021 Women’s Rugby League World Cup next month. I like both rugby codes, although I used to heavily prefer rugby union. However, after a couple more NFL games, I am beginning to appreciate the appeal of rugby league more.
And, another thing—did you know that I have only spotted errors and made edits to rugby and rugby-related pages on English Wikipedia? I’m not a rugby expert, but I’ve obviously spent years reading about it on Wikipedia.
This really is the sort of thing I should keep for Draft · Cut · Score.