Tips to help you stop doomscrolling and keep your sanity. How Google is creating the world's biggest earthquake detection network. Some sad news about Mozilla.
| | | | | | | | | Welcome to the Mozilla News Beat, a glance at the best and worst internet news of the week. We hope you enjoy it! |
| About Sums It Up. One cute kitten and one happy dog curled up together and decided to reenact 2020 in 10 seconds of video. Watch it and you'll be like, "Yup, same." | via Twitter | | | Now That's Helpful. Doomscrolling on your phone way too much for your own sanity these days? Vice put together a handy guide to help you get off your damn phone with tips like treating your phone, like, you know, a phone, not a computer. | via Vice | | | Earthquake Alert! Google is turning Android phones into the world's largest earthquake detection system. Using millions of phone's built-in accelerometers to sense Earth's vibrations could give people a short but critical warning to duck and cover before an earthquake strikes. | via Ars Technica | | Good Hearted Gamers. New research shows gamers who support causes like Black Lives Matter are more likely to stand up to toxic behavior when gaming online. Bad news though, only 20% of the gamers surveyed said they are likely to strongly call out harassment from fellow gamers. | via Wired | | Dr. Computer. Psychiatrists are studying how computers can spot mental health issues with unnerving accuracy by analyzing the words people use. It could mean a breakthrough for psychiatric diagnosis with some huge privacy implications. | via MIT Technology Review | | Binders Full of Floppy Discs. Some Boeing airplanes still get software updates from 3.5-inch floppy disks. Which sounds scary until you realize it was only last year the US military stopped using 8-inch floppy disks to manage their nuclear weapons systems. 😳 | via Gizmodo | | Rich To Be Forgotten. One German princess got drunk, went on a hate-filled rant about killing Muslims that made its way onto the internet, then had lawyers spend hours making Google remove the search results — highlighting how the rich have more access to privacy than the rest of us. | via Vice | | Splinternet. Recent talk about banning Chinese apps in the US has some experts worried about the future of the global internet. This so-called 'Splinternet' could mean more countries building borders around their internet to better control what information can be shared. Very scary. | via BBC | | Changes At Mozilla. This week the Mozilla Corporation laid-off 250 good people due to recent economic conditions and investments in new product development. This won't stop us fighting for the good of the internet. It just means we'll be doing it with heavy hearts for a while. | via Mozilla & Talent Directory | | Blackout In Belarus. A controversial election in Belarus led to widespread protests and an internet blackout. The government cut the free flow of information by shutting down foreign media outlets and social media like Twitter and Whatsapp to crush protests. We should all be paying attention. | via New Yorker | | Facebook Confession. Facebook admitted this week COVID-19 misinfo is a HUGE problem on the platform. From April to June they removed 7 million pieces of coronavirus misinfo and slapped warning labels on 98 million more. Bonkers! | via Mashable | | Misinfo Kills. A new medical journal study shows that coronavirus misinfo kills. It estimates 5,800 people around the world were admitted to hospitals because of false information about the virus and at least 800 people died in three months because of this misinformation. | via BBC |
| Mozilla is a non-profit organization — so our campaigns for your privacy and security online, and to keep the web open, healthy and accessible to all as a global public resource ... depend on contributions from subscribers like you. If you haven't already contributed this year, could you please chip in a small donation today? Thanks! |
|
| You can also follow Mozilla News Beat on the Mozilla blog, or on Instagram. Want more? See stories that just missed making the News Beat on our Pocket. If you would prefer not to receive Mozilla News Beat by email in the future, please click here to be excluded from future sends. |
| | |
| |
|
|
|
