What I’m Reading, 10/8/23
I take a latte art class and I’m starting a new feature to highlight a favorite newsletter each week
I’m back on the Eastern Shore this weekend. It’s been three weeks since I’ve been here, and I needed this. Something about water and nature that calms you even if the to-do list just keeps getting bigger.
Yesterday, we went to the Easton Beer Festival, which is a fun way to try out a bunch of local breweries. And on Friday, I took a latte art class. Now, I don’t actually drink lattes. My coffee drink of choice is just regular drip coffee with some cream. But I am particular about having really good, quality coffee. Long-time followers will remember the chart I made in August of 2021 comparing coffee machines so I could basically justify my buying a Jura. (Which brings me great joy every morning.)
Anyway, despite the fact I don’t drink lattes, I love latte art and always thought it would be cool to learn how to do it. So, I went to Google and found that Counter Culture Coffee does classes. For two hours, I learned about the chemistry of milk, what happens when you heat it up, and how to make four designs. Here are the results:
Not ready to quit my day job yet, but I think I could get the hang of it if I practiced a bit more.
Have a great Sunday.
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Newsletter of the Week - Everything in Moderation
For a while now, I’ve wanted to figure out a way to highlight the newsletters that help me pull together these weekly links and make me smarter. Or maybe just the ones that give me a break from the tech and policy world and transport me elsewhere.
This week, Ben Whitelaw from the newsletter Everything in Moderation gave me the inspiration to start highlighting a favorite newsletter every week. Ben and I first met on a panel in Italy in April 2022. I think I followed his newsletter before that, but regardless, it’s been a staple in my news diet since then. Every week, he does a fantastic roundup of the news in the online content moderation space, and I highly recommend you check it out.
What I’m Reading
NOTE: Later this month, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia is hosting a closed convening on government jawboning - informal government efforts to persuade, cajole, or strong-arm private platforms to change their content-moderation practices. I’ll be participating, and ahead of this, they asked participants to write essays. The first one below is mine, as well as a few others. To read them all, go here.
Knight Columbia: Jawboned - Dispatches from two former tech platform employees
Knight Columbia: Curtailing Anti-Democratic Populism Is the Only Durable Solution to Jawboning
Knight Columbia: The Jawboning Forests and Trees
The Washington Post: Appeals court limits cyberdefense agency’s contacts with tech companies
The Information: Representatives Probe X’s Election Integrity Team Cuts, Following Information Report
AP News: Meta and X questioned by lawmakers over lack of rules against AI-generated political deepfakes
New York Times: Are Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Compatible? (Comments by Meta’s Nick Clegg)
Council on Foreign Relations: Governing Artificial Intelligence: A Conversation with Kent Walker
The Hill: X changes format for links to news posts, removing headlines and text
Washington Post: Amazon’s Alexa has been claiming the 2020 election was stolen
Tech Policy Press: Centering Community Voices: How Tech Companies Can Better Engage with Civil Society Organizations
Institute of Global Politics: SIPA’s IGP to Participate in President Macron's Landmark Commission on Information and Society
Freedom House: Freedom on the Net 2023
MIT: Study: False news spreads faster than the truth
Integrity Institute: Reflection from 2023 DEF CON
Forum on Information and Democracy: Welcomes Michael Bak as new leader
The Conversation: [Australia] Voice referendum: is the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ camp winning on social media, advertising spend and in the polls?
Reuters Institute: As Pakistan approaches a crucial election, its media watchdog bans critical voices from TV
Reuters: EU lawmakers back tough media law against Big Tech's content removal decisions
French government: Generative Artificial Intelligence Committee
The Indian Express: Former Election Commissioner writes: One Nation, One Election – wrong problem, bad solution
Scroll.in: NYT’s report has been weaponised against Indian journalists. I had warned the paper about it
Bloomberg: Vietnam Says TikTok’s Content Censorship Isn’t Effective
The New York Times: Putin’s Next Target: U.S. Support for Ukraine, Officials Say
Meduza: Putin may announce 2024 presidential run in November, sources tell Kommersant
Microsoft: Digital Defense Report 2023 (MDDR)
Alethea: Alethea Announces the Launch of Artemis: A SaaS technology product driven by machine learning and advanced analytics to fight disinformation, misinformation, and social media manipulation at scale
The Hollywood Reporter: How Ryan Reynolds Helped “Jake From State Farm” Sneak Into the Kelce Suite During an NFL Game
Please support the curation and analysis I’m doing with this newsletter. As a paid subscriber, you make it possible for me to bring you in-depth analyses of the most pressing issues in tech and politics.