by Josh Constine , chte
A massive social media protest is exploding on Facebook, not Twitter for a change, yet Facebook’s dehumanized Trending system isn’t picking it up. People around the country are checking in on Facebook at the Standing Rock Native American Reservation in an effort to supposedly hinder local Morton County police from targeting protesters attending in person to fight an oil pipeline through historic tribal lands.
The Morton County’s sheriff has denied using Facebook for surveillance. Still, the social media protest has proceeded to bring concerns about the environmental and cultural impact of the pipeline to national attention. While some users have taken to masking their posts explaining their absentee checkins by using incorrect spellings like “Randing Rock”, there’s still more chatter about the exact term than many other Facebook Trends.
Even if Facebook showed related Trends in past weeks, or was trying to suppress the spread of the check-in story since police may not be doing surveillance on protesters with geotargeting, it’s still a huge topic of conversation. Including a Trend highlighting a story that discusses the surveillance denial by the sheriff or why people are checking in could provide important context for users.
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The New York Times went as far to publish a story headlined “Why Your Facebook Friends Are Checking In To Standing Rock”. Yet “Standing Rock”, “Native Americans”, “pipeline”, “Missouri River”, and related terms aren’t showing up as Facebook Trends to any users. They’re not even in the “Emerging Trends” pool that Facebook internally surfaces trends from, which can be seen through Facebook’s data tool for journalists called Signal.
[Update: Just as we published, terms related to the Standing Rock protest appeared in Signal. The topic still isn’t a Facebook Trend visible to the social network’s users, but is now eligible to Trend in the future.]
Standing Rock isn’t a Trend despite Facebook’s own search tool showing “Standing Rock Indian Reservation” is a popular search with over 86,000 people talking about it. But you’d only know that if you search for it. Standing Rock and related terms have much more chatter than other topics Facebook shows as Trending, such as actor Bryan Cranston saying he’ll move to Canada if Trump is elected.
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Facebook’s Chris Cox and Sheryl Sandberg speak about Facebook being a tech company with responsibilities to news readers at the WSJDLive conferece
The failure the identify a huge, viral protest that’s built off of Facebook’s own location check-in feature shows how badly Facebook needs to overhaul Trends. Facebook also failed to surface any trends related to the police shooting of Terence Crutcher until over a day after the news became a topic of national discussion.
Facebook continues to deny it’s a media company, repeatedly labeling itself a technology platform. While that argument may have been bolstered by its decision to fire all its human Trend curators, that move has given way to multiple instances of glaring errors in Facebook’s Trends. It’s highlighted fake news several times that a human curator could have easily debunked, while omitting critically important news stories surrounding human rights issues like the Standing Rock protest.
Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg and CPO Chris Cox again reiterated this month that Facebook is a tech company, not a media company, but admitted it has responsibilities to its readers since it’s become such a prolific distribution channel for news. Ensuring the day’s most important protests aren’t hidden behind frivolous celebrity dreck should be one of those responsibilities
source techcrunch.com
Adele, the singer with powerful pipes, puts some of her powerful opinions on display in Vanity Fair's December cover interview, touching on her postpartum depression, giving up drinking and her indifference to money, plus her thoughts on Donald Trump and her exasperation with the sea of cellphone lights at her concerts.
The big take-away: You could take it all away — the success, the cash, the fame — and Adele wouldn't mind.
“I’d still like to make records, but I’d be fine if I never heard (the applause) again,” Adele tells VF contributing editor Lisa Robinson.
One thing she won't miss: All those cellphones lighting up during her concerts, as audiences focus more on their little screens than on her, she says. “People would rather have a photo to show to people than actually enjoy a moment,” she says. “It’s weird — when I first started out, nearly 10 years ago, no one had their phones out. I’d go onstage to people. Now I go onstage to 18,000 phones. "
She's suspicious of WiFi: She suggests there's a new threat to worry about: "This Wi-Fi, you watch, it’s going to...kill our insides … it’s just floating around. I’m telling you, we’ll find out in 25 years.”\
How she overcame postpartum depression: "My knowledge of postpartum — or post-natal, as we call it in England — is that you don’t want to be with your child; you’re worried you might hurt your child; you’re worried you weren’t doing a good job," she says. "But I was obsessed with my child. I felt very inadequate...Eventually I just said, I’m going to give myself an afternoon a week, just to do whatever...I want without my baby. A friend of mine said, ‘Really? Don’t you feel bad?’ I said, I do, but not as bad as I’d feel if I didn’t do it.”
Her sad side: “The music I’ve always been drawn to is sad. I’ve always been pretty melancholy. Obviously not as much in my real life as the songs are, but I have a very dark side. I’m very available to depression. I can slip in and out of it quite easily."
On money and fame: “I don’t care about money. I’m British, and we don’t have that … thing of having to earn more money all the time. I don’t come from money; it’s not that important a part of my life.... the problem is you can’t talk about the downside of fame, because people have hope, and they cling to the hope of what it would be like to be famous, to be adored, to be able to create and do nice things.”
Her heroes are Beyoncé and Bette Midler: “Beyoncé's my Michael Jackson,” she says. “I’ve obviously loved (Midler) for years. I like her humor, but she’s a... great singer, a really amazing singer. When I watched her show, I felt like I was really watching the last legend. No one’s made like that anymore.”
Why she's no longer a "massive" drinker: “Having a hangover with a child is torture. Just imagine an annoying 3-year-old (son Angelo) who knows something’s wrong; it’s hell....I can see from an outsider’s perspective that I will never write songs as good as the ones that are on 21, but I’m not as indulgent as I was then, and I don’t have time to fall apart like I did then....Since I’ve had my baby, I’m not as carefree as I used to be.”
About that GOP presidential candidate: “We only know Trump from The Apprentice, so we think a reality star is running for president. I just don’t think anybody should be building walls or (stuff) like that right now. I think we need to look after each other. Everyone must vote.”
The December issue of VF will be on newsstands nationally on Nov. 8, Election Day.
source
BlackBerry Ltd. is now a “Tier One” supplier for Ford Motor Co., a designation that cuts out the use of a middleman in supplying products or services to the auto maker.
The move, announced Monday, represents an “inflection point” taking place in the global car business, said John Wall, head of BlackBerry’s QNX Software Systems. BlackBerry, a once-dominant smartphone maker, has increased its focus on software development after losing significant market share to Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and others in the global handset wars.
Being recognized as a Tier One supplier, rather than having to go through other suppliers to sell to companies like Ford, is important for BlackBerry’s future in the automotive industry. The Canadian company is developing software for several challenges facing car companies, including helping to coordinate functions for autonomous vehicles.
Ford, which is being lapped on self-driving car testing or electric cars by some tech companies and startups, including Tesla Motors Inc. and Google’s car project, aims to have a fleet of autonomous test-vehicles next decade. BlackBerry aims to offer products that can enable so-called connected cars but faces a barrage of competition both from the traditional auto-supply base and tech firms.
BlackBerry’s QNX Software is already in tens of millions of cars, spanning Volkswagen AG to General Motors Co. Its relationship with Ford dates back several years and relates to software needed as an operating system in the auto maker’s SYNC infotainment service.
In an interview, Mr. Wall said BlackBerry typically deals with auto makers early in vehicle development, but then works through an auto supplier that is supplying a component to the auto maker with BlackBerry’s product embedded in it. The transition comes as auto makers are continually adding lines of software code to their vehicles and scrambling to boost the security and capability of systems ranging from mapping to vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
Apple, Samsung, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and other tech companies are looking to ink supply agreements with auto makers or are developing their own systems for autonomous vehicles and other services. At the same time, Apple’s iOS mobile operating system and Google’s Android are becoming more ubiquitous in light vehicles due to new systems being installed by auto makers that allow occupants to plug in their smartphones so that the device’s operating system can take over.
Mr. Wall said working as a Tier One supplier likely will lead to more BlackBerry QNX deployment in cars. Mr. Wall didn’t comment on how the arrangement will affect BlackBerry’s pricing power with companies like Ford.
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WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. on Monday began loading a trove of emails belonging to a top aide to Hillary Clinton into a special computer program that would allow bureau analysts to determine whether they contain classified information, law enforcement officials said.
The software should allow them to learn relatively quickly how many emails are copies of messages they have already read as part of the investigation into the use of Mrs. Clinton’s private server. The F.B.I. completed that investigation in July and, along with prosecutors, decided not to bring any charges against Mrs. Clinton or her aides.
“This is not a manpower issue,” said one senior law enforcement official. “It’s an issue of getting the emails into a program that can allow agents to look at them.”
Whether they will be able to complete their review by Election Day is unclear, although investigators have been under intense pressure from officials in both parties to do so since Friday, when the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, revealed the existence of the emails in an explosive letter to Congress.
The emails belong to Huma Abedin, a top adviser to Mrs. Clinton. Agents discovered them on a laptop seized by the F.B.I. that belongs to her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, who is under investigation for exchanging illicit text messages with a 15-year-old girl.
While the hunt for classified information is the bureau’s first priority, it is not the most significant issue for either Ms. Abedin or Mrs. Clinton. Investigators have already determined that Mrs. Clinton and her aides improperly sent classified information on her private email server. The Justice Department concluded, though, that it could not prove they did it intentionally, which would be a crime. Finding more classified information among Ms. Abedin’s emails would not immediately change that conclusion.
What could cause problems for Ms. Abedin — and by extension Mrs. Clinton — is if the F.B.I. finds evidence that anyone tried to conceal these new emails from investigators. Ms. Abedin has said she turned over all her emails to the F.B.I. months ago and does not know how emails ended up on Mr. Weiner’s laptop. And officials have said there is no indication that Ms. Abedin or Ms. Clinton tried to conceal information from the authorities.
Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that the White House did not have an official position on Mr. Comey’s decision to alert Congress. But Mr. Earnest came close to suggesting that President Obama saw Mr. Comey’s decision as problematic. Mr. Earnest listed the many powers and authorities that federal law enforcement officials have to investigate for potential wrongdoing and then said, “It’s important that those authorities are tempered by longstanding practice and norms that limit public discussion of facts that are collected in the context of those investigations.”
Mr. Earnest added: “And there are a lot of good reasons for that. The president believes that it’s important for those guidelines and norms to be followed.”
Justice Department officials had told Mr. Comey that alerting Congress to the discovery of a new cache of emails would violate department rules and norms against both discussing a continuing investigation and taking any actions in the days before an election that might influence that election.
But Mr. Comey is a “man of integrity” whom the president does not believe is intentionally trying to influence the outcome of an election, Mr. Earnest said.
“He’s in a tough spot,” Mr. Earnest said.
The F.B.I. was granted a warrant on Sunday that allowed agents to begin searching the messages. While investigators found hundreds of thousands of emails on Mr. Weiner’s computer, they are focusing on a small portion of the total. The review is being led by the same Washington-based team of agents that conducted the investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s server.
As part of that inquiry, the agents built a system that allowed them to examine thousands of emails to see whether they contained sensitive national security information. When the agents identified potentially classified materials, they sent copies of the emails to other government agencies to determine their classification.
The emails the F.B.I. is now searching could well be like scores already made public by the State Department under the Freedom of Information Act, including some of the additional ones uncovered by the bureau’s investigation and turned over to the department this summer.
Among more than 30,000 emails released are at least 10 sent or received by Ms. Abedin that included information the State Department later deemed to be classified and were only made public with portions redacted.
Ms. Abedin, who also had an address on the Clinton server, communicated with Mrs. Clinton many times a day, often acting as a conduit for other members of her State Department team.
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