EFDbackup: Cyberculture agenda: Greenwald says “The Sunday Times’ Snowden Story is Journalism at its Worst

The Sunday Times’ Snowden Story is Journalism at its Worst — and Filled with Falsehoods

The Intercept by Glenn Greenwald

(updated below)

Western journalists claim that the big lesson they learned from their key role in selling the Iraq War to the public is that it’s hideous, corrupt and often dangerous journalism to give anonymity to government officials to let them propagandize the public, then uncritically accept those anonymously voiced claims as Truth. But they’ve learned no such lesson. That tactic continues to be the staple of how major US and British media outlets “report,” especially in the national security area. And journalists who read such reports continue to treat self-serving decrees by unnamed, unseen officials – laundered through their media – as gospel, no matter how dubious are the claims or factually false is the reporting.

Report: UK moved spies after Snowden leaks were cracked

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)

UK removed a number of spies after Russia and China accessed top-secret raft of documents, newspaper says.

Mega Publishes First Transparency Report

TorrentFreak

mega_logo For the past several years the publication of a so-called ‘Transparency Report’ has become common on large technology focused sites. Reddit, Twitter and evenAmazon produce such documents.

Facebook faces another European privacy challenge from Belgian regulators

The Next Web by Mic Wright

Facebook publicly clashed with Belgium’s Commission for the Protection of Privacy in April, over a disputed report about the social network’s data protection measures. Now another battle is on the horizon.

ICANN Refuses to Play Piracy Police

TorrentFreak

cassette In recent years copyright holders have demanded stricter anti-piracy measures from ISPs, search engines and payment processors, with varying results.

Continuing this trend, various entertainment industry groups are now going after organizations that manage and offer domain name services.

Facebook News Feed Algorithm to Factor In Time Spent on Stories

All Facebook by David Cohen

The latest tweak to Facebook’s News Feed algorithm factors in the amount of time users spend viewing stories.

Software engineers Ansha Yu and Sami Tas announced the change in aNewsroom post Friday, acknowledging that Facebook users don’t necessarily like, comment on or share every post that is important to them.

Wikipedia now uses HTTPS to stop people snooping on your binge learning

The Next Web by Owen Williams

The world’s biggest online encyclopedia finally uses HTTPS to encrypt your connection, so you can learn anything you want without people being able to snoop on your browsing.

Report: Push Messages Result in Greater User Retention

All Facebook by Brandy Shaul

Localytics, an analytics and marketing platform for mobile and Web apps, has today released new research documenting the struggles app marketers face in retaining active users, with a particular focus on user retention (defined as the percentage of users who return to an app 11 or more times) and user abandonment (defined as the percentage of users who use an app only once).

Yes, the U.S. Military Uses Social Media to Target ISIS

Slate Articles by Aki Peritz

It turns out loose lips do sink ships. Last week Air Force Gen. Hawk Carlisleregaled an audience about how the U.S. military used the social media accounts of ISIS members to pinpoint and destroy an ISIS facility. As he told a breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C., some under his command were combing through social media feeds:

A prize for Edward Snowden

Eriksen’s blog by thomashyllanderiksen

But will he be able to travel to Norway? A few months ago, it was as if everybody wanted to be Charlie (Hebdo). This gesture was laudable enough (if not always credible), but who wants to be Edward Snowden? After two years, the world’s most important whistleblower is still in Moscow. His chances of returning […]

The Evolution of Display Advertising: Adapt or Die

All Facebook by Guest

Display and search have been two of the biggest drivers of advertising spend for years, but still advertisers are struggling to achieve their business goals through them.

Study: Female Facebook Users Prefer Yahoo, BuzzFeed, Men Like The Guardian & Wired

All Facebook by Kimberlee Morrison /

A user’s choice of social media activity can provide a host of insights into their personality. With enough data points, it’s possible to learn a lot more. It’s also possible to learn interesting facts about the audiences of publishers on Facebook using page interaction data. A study from Fractl and BuzzStream the connections between gender, education, political leanings, and preferred publications of Facebook users.

A YouTube built for gamers

The Official Google Blog by Google Blogs /

As a kid, I spent hours on the living room couch playing video games with friends, taking turns trying to beat Ganon in “Ocarina of Time” and trading Pokémon until I had all 151. Soon controller passing and Game Boy link cables gave way to network multiplayer and PC LAN parties. Eventually, my living room became a virtual one, with a network of gamers sharing experiences and discoveries.

Twitter is removing the 140 character limit in Direct Messages next month

The Next Web by Natt Garun