THE REAL RUSSIAN COLLUSION

The rise of fear-based social media Rani Molla, via Vox Why people are socializing more about crime even as it becomes rarer.

10 things only people with high-functioning anxiety will understand Krissy Brady, via HuffPost On the outside, you may seem fine, but on the inside? Not so much. How Australia ended up taking in Rwandans accused of killing tourists Government Digital Service missed every single one of its performance targets for the online programme, according to report The UK government's problematic digital ID system, Verify, "is failing its users and struggling to meet key targets" according to a report by MPs. Although the online identity service has been live since 2016, MPs from the public accounts committee have lambasted the scheme for missing all of its performance targets and failing to deliver value for money. The behavioural science of online harm and manipulation, and what to do about it This discussion paper explores the rapidly evolving landscape of how we behave and interact online, and how businesses respond.  Yet the characteristics of online environments – the deliberate design and the ability to generate enormous quantities of data about how we behave, who we interact with and the choices we make, coupled with the potential for mass experimentation – can also leave consumers open to harm and manipulation. Public service, private interests Cut short by the election, a parliamentary inquiry was beginning to probe the hidden costs of contracting out of government functions. The ANAO report on contracting confirmed that all was not well. No overall data is collected on outsourcing, so the ANAO was forced to trawl through the government’s AusTender listings, which are opaque, not necessarily complete and often tardily updated. There, it found evidence of “contract splitting” to avoid full, open tendering, and discovered that around half of all contracts are let by limited tender. THE REAL RUSSIAN COLLUSION: Out today, Vladimir Bukovsky’s Judgment In Moscow uses Soviet-era documents to explore Western complicity with Soviet crimes. I blurbed it, as you can see at the link. The Kindle edition is here.