NEW RESOURCES
EFF: EFF Launches Guide to Help Parents and Youth Protect Privacy Online. “EFF’s guide is about helping parents explore their concerns and identify the threats their children face – like trusting AI chatbots or sharing personal information with strangers – and then determine steps they and their children can take to mitigate those risks while still using the games, educational materials, and communication platforms that help them grow. The guide also compiles links to parental control setup documentation for a variety of popular devices and platforms, and advises parents on quick, easy tasks they can perform to advance their children’s online privacy.”
The Herald (Scotland): New archive launched to help preserve Scotland’s historic castles. “The archive currently includes the Robert and Nicholas Bogdan collection, with further collections being catalogued and digitised. Some material is already available online. The Scottish Castles Association hopes the archive will become a freely accessible resource for anyone interested in Scotland’s castles, bringing together photographs, drawings, research and records previously held across private and institutional collections.”
Video Game History Foundation: Video Game History Foundation Shares Never-Before-Seen Images from Golden Age of Japanese Video Game Culture . “The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) is excited to add a brand new collection to its ever-growing Digital Library, this time peering back into the boom era of the Japanese video game industry with the aid of numerous photos from resident journalist Colin Williamson.”
TWEAKS AND UPDATES
Mastodon Blog: 5.0: A closer look. “October is here, and it’s almost time for Mastodon’s 5.0 release! We announced our plans for big changes in an early preview back in August. In this companion article, we’re hoping to shed light on some of the decisions behind this major UI overhaul.”
Press Gazette: Publishers urged to delete Facebook and Instagram accounts over T&Cs change. “Campaign group Movement for an Open Web is preparing a legal challenge via the European Commission and UK Competition and Markets Authority. Director James Rosewell said: ‘The harm is imminent and irreversible once content has been ingested into models. Timing matters.'”
AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD
Politico: Tech giants target spending on Florida’s state-level elections. “Tech firms are donating to Democrats and Republican candidates alike, buying scores of mailers and ads on top of making campaign contributions in the upcoming November midterms races. They’re also funneling tens of thousands of dollars — a meager sum compared to statewide races, but notable at the statehouse level — through a dizzying network of political committees that support Republican leaders in the state Legislature and lawmakers who had a hand in artificial intelligence legislation last session.”
ABC News (Australia): Digital archive helps Sydney’s southern Lebanese community preserve villages now in rubble. “People with southern Lebanese heritage were invited to bring photographs and videos of their ancestral villages, many of which have been damaged or destroyed by the Israeli military over the past six months. A recent analysis by The New York Times found that 48 out of the 60 villages in occupied areas of southern Lebanon had been mostly levelled, including schools, mosques and businesses.”
NBC News: Hooked on YouTube. “Schools wanted educational videos. Students got clickbait. A first-of-its-kind analysis reveals how students are drawn into a platform that keeps them scrolling during class.”
SECURITY & LEGAL
AFP: New Greece law bans social media for under-15s. “Greece’s parliament passed a law Friday banning children under 15 from social media, joining a growing number of countries imposing curbs on young people’s use of the apps.”
State of Rhode Island: Attorney General Neronha sues Meta for fraudulent advertisements. “Attorney General Peter F. Neronha today filed a lawsuit against Meta for allegedly failing to curtail advertisements for fraudulent products and financial scams on its platforms, despite representing to the public that it engages in sophisticated efforts to prevent such ads.”
TorrentFreak: Judge Orders Meta to Name Employees Who Approved Torrenting Anna’s Archive and LibGen. “Meta will have to name the people who greenlit its torrenting of pirated books. A federal magistrate judge has ordered the company to identify everyone who approved sourcing books from LibGen and Anna’s Archive. This goes beyond the employees who ran the downloads and includes whoever decided whether to seed the books to others.”
RESEARCH & OPINION
Search Engine Journal: Search Share Fell To 12% For North American Publishers: Chartbeat. “Search engines accounted for 12% of all page views at North American publishers in Chartbeat’s network, based on the data found within the analytics firm’s Q3’26 Audience Report, which was released October 15th, 2026, whereas they represented 21% of page views as reported in the firm’s Q3’25 report.”
NBC News: Hooked on YouTube. “Schools wanted educational videos. Students got clickbait. A first-of-its-kind analysis reveals how students are drawn into a platform that keeps them scrolling during class.” Good morning, Internet…
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