I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is falling apart
It doesn’t appear to be learning from the mistakes it’s made, and it’s made a lot of them. (Foreign Affairs $)
+ Meta’s attempts to curb misinformation about the war in Ukraine are harming local publishers. (Coda Story)
+ The conflict in Ukraine could last for years, Nato says. (BBC)
+ The UK is sending 8,000 soldiers to eastern Europe. (The Guardian)
2 Social media refuses to admin whether it’s shadowbanning us
And that means users trust platforms even less. (The Atlantic $)
+ Elon Musk’s links to China could come back to bite him at Twitter. (NYT $)
+ His plans to open up the company’s algorithms could also open a can of worms. (TR)
+ It looks like Twitter has been overstating its audience figures for three whole years. (FT $)
+ But the platform does play host to the odd gem. (Intelligencer $)
3 How one man escaped Shanghai’s brutal lockdown
After three weeks of intense hunger and uncertainty. (Coda Story)
+ Weibo will post users’ IP locations to crack down on “bad behavior.” (CNN)
+ Tim Cook is worried China’s covid lockdowns could affect demand for Apple gear. (WSJ $)
4 Netflix wants to lure Asian subscribers away from local streaming rivals
But they’re much cheaper. (WSJ $)
+ Hollywood has had enough of those pesky VPNs. (Wired $)
5 It’s getting tougher to predict what the future holds for Big Tech
The boom years of crazy growth are coming to an end. Now what? (NYT $)
+ Snap’s Evan Spiegel isn’t sold on the metaverse. (The Verge)
6 Meet the Bitcoin fanatics who think crypto is a dirty word 🪙
Because crypto going mainstream means more clueless newbies. (The Verge)
+ Banks are basically influencers now. (Bloomberg $)
+ Scam loan apps are becoming a massive problem in India. (Rest of World)
7 Is Groups the last good thing on Facebook?
Other platforms just aren’t as easy to form strong communities on. (The Atlantic $)
+ Landlord influencers don’t care if you don’t like them. (Input)
8 Detecting depression can be tough. Video games could help
But they’re not enough alone for a diagnosis. (WP $)
9 We don’t know who’s behind the spike in spam calls 📞
We do, however, know they’re probably going to keep coming. (Slate)
10 Spanish workers are transforming old phones into furniture
Which is a fun approach to tackling our growing e-waste problem. (Bloomberg $)