Happy Holidays

Some ideas if you're looking for things to read over the holidays

Happy Holidays from Green Bay, Wisconsin where it’s a balmy 16 degrees that feels like four. Our Christmas plans have had a bit of a wrench thrown in them as my dad tore the tendon in his knee playing pickleball on Monday and he has to have surgery tomorrow. He’s currently hobbling around on one crutch telling us kids how to do everything that he would normally do like making the fire in the woodstove (that’s how they heat their house) and making breakfast.

Because of this, we’ve moved Christmas to my parents’ house which means I’m now responsible for a bit more cooking than planned. Given I love doing it, I’m actually thrilled about it. It also means my brother and I are going pheasant hunting this afternoon without him for the first time in our lives. That will be weird. 

I wasn’t sure if I was going to do a newsletter, but I thought I’d share some links to stories that interested me this week given this is usually a time when folks can sit and read a bit more. I hope everyone has a great holidays.

What I’m Reading

• The Midnight Library: This book came out last year, but it was just recommended to me last week. I listened to it on the drive home yesterday and it’s a great book to read at this time of the year. The premise is that “Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life.”  

• Cato: New Poll: 75% Don't Trust Social Media to Make Fair Content Moderation Decisions, 60% Want More Control over Posts They See 

• Facebook (Meta): Updates to Social Issue Ads Selling a Product or Service 

• Persuasion: A Race to the Bottom on Internet Censorship

• Pod Save America: Offline: Elizabeth Bruenig on Forgiving Trolls and Strangers

• Washington Post: Telegram helps Brazil's Bolsonaro win Time Person of the Year readers poll 

• Atlantic Council DFR Lab: 2021: DFRLab’s year in review

• Atlantic Council: Global Foresight 2022 

• Australian Parliament: Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media First Interim Report

• New York Times Kara Swisher/Sway: Opinion | Why Facebook Whistle-Blower Frances Haugen Thinks She'll Outlast Mark Zuckerberg 

• The Economist: The mathematical method that could offer a fairer way to vote

• Buzzfeed: “Corrosive Communities”: How A Facebook Fight Over Wind Power Predicts the Future of Local Politics in America 

• New York Times: Buying Influence: How China Manipulates Facebook and Twitter

• The Guardian (Australia): Liberal MP Andrew Laming to be taken to court by electoral commission over Facebook page

• The Integrity Institute is looking for help! Learn more about some temporary roles here.