Notices by Flipboard (flipboard@flipboard.social)

Fair warning: Some of the stories in this week’s #NewstodonFriday might make you angry — like David Armstrong’s report for @ProPublica on the incredible cost of the life-prolonging cancer drug he takes every day. And some will make you confused, such as @404mediaco's report on AI avatars in job interviews (if a human interviewer said “vertical bar pilates” 14 times in a row, we’re betting there’d be consequences). But we hope they’ll all make you think, feel grateful for indie media, and support some of the outlets we’re featuring today. ⤵️

#Media #Journalism #News #Newstodon #MastodonMigration #FollowFriday

At SXSW's Fediverse House, it didn't matter which platform or protocol you preferred — everyone was focused on the singular goal of building a better internet. We've uploaded videos and highlights of key conversations from the event and rounded them up in one post. Here you go:

https://about.flipboard.com/fediverse/fediverse-house-2025-roundup/

#SXSW #FediverseHouse #ATProtocol #ActivityPub #Fediverse #Federation #Flipboard #OpenSocial #OpenSocialWeb

Congratulations to @johnonolan and the team at Ghost on their 12th birthday! Here's John's post reflecting on the idea behind the product, some of the incredible indie publishers who have adopted it (including @404mediaco, @caseynewton's Platformer, and @drownedinsound) and what's next.

https://john.onolan.org/12/

#Ghost #IndependentPublishing #IndiePublishing #OpenSource #Fediverse #Federation #ActivityPub

When you fill in your sensitive medical data to shop for health insurance, the last place you expect it to go is LinkedIn. @themarkup’s investigation indicates that Covered California did exactly that as part of an advertising campaign. Via trackers, LinkedIn received info about gender, ethnicity, marital status, how often site visitors saw their doctors, and whether they were pregnant.

https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2025/04/28/how-california-sent-residents-personal-health-data-to-linkedin

#Tech #Technology #HealthInsurance #Health #California #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Last December, Bashar al-Assad was toppled as leader of Syria by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and fled to Moscow. Syrians celebrated, but now, some are worried that life after Assad may be no better. @damemagazine’s Ryan Biller talked to Syrians about their fears of religious extremism, foreign interference and misinformation. “Somewhat discreetly, I disclosed to [a Yazidi woman named] Gulizar that I was an American,” writes Biller. “To this, she smirked. ‘Oh, so you must feel the same way as me.’ ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. Gulizar reminded me that it wasn’t just her new government that people ought to fret over regarding the treatment of women and minorities. ‘I think you kind of have your own version of HTS in America,’ she laughed. ‘It is called Donald Trump.’”

https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/05/01/syrias-new-government-might-be-a-lot-like-the-old-threat/

#Syria #Assad #Politics #Disinformation #USGovernment #TrumpAdministration #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Farmers struggle to make a profit at the best of times, and times just got worse. @gbhnews spotlights how cuts in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s federal grant programs mean Massachusetts schools, food hubs and food pantries can’t buy fresh produce, and farmers are left with cases of unwanted produce. Who wins? No one.
https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-05-01/massachusetts-farmers-scrambling-to-sell-crops-after-usda-funding-cuts-leave-them-without-a-buyer

#USAgriculture #Farming #Massachusetts #Agriculture #DOGE #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Texas’s House Bill 3225 is aimed at municipal libraries, and bans anyone aged under 18 from accessing “sexually explicit materials,” without defining what that is, restricts their access to the library’s general collection, even for school assignments, and more. Author Chris Barton testified against this at the Texas legislature, and writes for @TexasObserver about the many problems with this bill. “If a few Texas parents don’t want their kids to have free and full access to our libraries, let those parents hold their own children’s hands, never allow them out of their sight, and never allow them to think for themselves. That’s on them,” he writes. “But Texas libraries are treasures paid for by our tax dollars. Leave our libraries alone and let the rest of us — of all ages — make good use of them.”

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-legislature-censorship-libraries/

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon #Texas #Libraries #Censorship #BookBans #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Fresh off the heels of the Canadian election, two more countries are heading to the polls this weekend. Our @NewsDesk shared a guide to the Australian election, while our @CultureDesk looked at how the Singaporean government is attempting to reach young voters. Both countries vote on May 3.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c626e935llwo
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yldprrdg3o

#Australia #AustralianElection #AustralianElection2025 #AustralianPolitics #Singapore #SingaporeElection #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

There might not be anything on the ballot that captures headlines in the way “Wisconsin vs. Musk” did in April, but there are still consequential elections taking place in the U.S. @taniel and Alex Burness of @bolts break down who can vote for what this month. It’s almost all local — mayoral races, school boards and ballot measures — and local elections matter.

https://boltsmag.org/whats-on-the-ballot/guide-to-elections-in-may-2025/

#UnitedStates #Elections #LocalNews #LocalPolitics #Texas #Nebraska #Massachusetts #Oklahoma #Pennsylvania #NewYork #Oregon #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

It’s Friday, and that means only one thing: The chance to sleep later than 6.40am for a couple of days unless you’ve got kids, in which case, sooooorrrry. Oh, and also, it’s #NewstodonFriday, where we share fantastic journalism from indie newsrooms and journalists! We’re kicking off this thread with stories on elections to watch in May in the U.S., Australia and Singapore. We’ve also got stories on the Roganification of the male mystique, library censorship, therapy chatbots, plus an absolute banger from Lyz Lenz, in which she coins the phrase “a conclave of chads,” and we admire and envy her absolute mastery of the English language. Check out the thread, comment, like, follow the accounts we’ve tagged, and subscribe/donate to them. ⤵️

#Media #Journalism #News #Newstodon #MastodonMigration #FollowFriday

What’s the best way to make something more efficient? If you’re DOGE, it’s to cancel a project that’s almost complete, and that would itself reduce government waste and make people safer. @SFPublicPress spoke to Jayson McCauliff, who was laid off from the U.S. Digital Service. His team was seven months from completing a project with the CDC to modernize its disease surveillance system. “The recent dismantling of our team has left me feeling a complex mix of grief for the lost potential and determination to ensure these stories are heard,” McCauliff says.

https://www.sfpublicpress.org/opposite-of-efficiency/

#DOGE #ElonMusk #CDC #DiseasePrevention #Health #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

The Chinese writer Fang Fang’s first novel was published in 1982 and for the best part of 40 years, she made her living as a writer, including winning national awards for her work. Then came COVID-19. Her public lockdown diary, “fengcheng riji,” published on her Weibo (microblog) account, became a phenomenon, and made her a target for criticism. She’s been called a liar and a traitor, reprints of her backlist of nearly 100 books have been halted, and her new work is effectively banned from publication in China. @nybooks reviews “Soft Burial,” her latest novel (translated by Michael Berry), and finds a story about trauma and survival. “I’ve chosen to forget, while you have chosen to leave a record. But once you record what happened, how will I ever be able to forget?” one character says to another. “Meanwhile the novel itself acts as a site, however small, however incomplete, for remembrance,” writes reviewer Madeleine Thien. [Story may be paywalled]

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/05/15/killing-memories-soft-burial-fang-fang/

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon #Literature #BookReview #Wuhan #COVID19 #China #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

The Trump administration talks about its desire to protect children, but many of its actions are harming them. @ProPublica looks at how: Cuts to programs that keep kids warm, fed, educated and safe. “Everyone’s been talking about what the Trump administration and DOGE have been doing, but no one seems to be talking about how, in a lot of ways, it’s been an assault on kids,” says Bruce Lesley, president of advocacy group First Focus on Children.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-trump-budget-cuts-harm-kids-child-care-education-abuse

#Children #ChildSafety #USGovernment #TrumpAdministration #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Users of Meta’s AI Studio can make bots to chat with — either for themselves or, if they’re influencers, their audiences. @404mediaco’s Samantha Cole was told by multiple bots that they were licensed therapists with multiple credentials and qualifications. She explores the potential harm of getting support from a chatbot.

https://www.404media.co/instagram-ai-studio-therapy-chatbots-lie-about-being-licensed-therapists/

#MentalHealth #Technology #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Tech #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

“Ukrainians know how to find beauty in everything,” write Mariana Lastovyria and Veronika Romanova for @timkmak’s Counteroffensive. They talked to biologist Svitozar Davydenko about his year at the Akademik Vernadsky Station, in Antarctica, about his experiences there, and why Ukraine continues to spend money on hanging out with penguins.

https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/inside-ukraines-antarctic-expedition

#Science #Antarctica #Ukraine #Research #Biology #Ecology #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Almond moms are parents who encourage their kids to follow strict diets. For @thexylom, Ann Nguyen writes about the pressure she experienced to stay thin, the clash between Western standards of skinniness and Asian values of “food is love,” getting help for her eating disorder, and learning to forgive her mom.

https://www.thexylom.com/post/perspective-forgiving-my-almond-mom

#Food #Culture #AAPICulture #Health #EatingDisorders #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

At a meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), the U.S. counselor for economic and social affairs, Edward Heartney, touted President Donald Trump as a protector of Indigenous women. It didn’t go well. @Toastie reports for @HighCountryNew about this, and some of the other speeches at the annual meeting. Heartney slipped out in the silence immediately after he spoke. Had he waited, he would have heard what sounded like a direct rebuff to his statement, though it was written in advance. “The U.S. has opened the coastal plain to oil and gas leasing, threatening our very survival,” said model and land protector Quannah ChasingHorse on behalf of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. “The Gwich’in have never given consent for development, and our right to self-determination is being violated by interests that view our lands as a commodity,” ChasingHorse continued. “I am outraged that decisions about my people’s future are being made without us at the table.”

https://www.hcn.org/articles/pro-trump-statement-at-unpfii-met-with-silence/

#Indigenous #IndigenousRights #USPolitics #TrumpAdministration #NativeAmericans #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

We’ve uploaded more clips from the conversations at the Fediverse House last month at SXSW, including:

@jasonkoebler on the perils of building a business on rented land

@parkerortolani's recommendation to publishers who want to get started in the fediverse

Gina Michnowicz’s advice to brands curious about the space

@jlouderb's call to creators seeking autonomy

That about does it for our roundup from Austin. Hope you enjoyed these videos and felt inspired by these open social words of wisdom.

See them all...

Fediverse House: https://flipboard.video/c/fediverse.house/videos

Dot Social: https://flipboard.video/c/dot_social/videos

#OpenSocial #OpenSocialWeb #FediverseHouse #Fediverse #ActivityPub #Federation #Tech #Technology #Flipboard

We’ve just uploaded a bunch of clips from @davidimel's Fediverse Corner panel at the Fediverse House at SXSW 2025, featuring @evan, @mmasnick and @pcottle

We know the sound is super rough 😅 but many of these snippets deserve to be heard. Thanks for bearing with us.
They talk about:

- Solving the cold start problem
- Taking control back from billionaires
- The deal with Threads’ federation
- Keeping vibes sacred (and whole)

https://flipboard.video/c/fediverse.house/videos

#Flipboard #Fediverse #ActivityPub #Threads #OpenSocial #OpenSocialWeb #ColdStartProblem #FediverseHouse #SXSW

“We’ve worked in autocratic regimes our whole life. Keeping your head down doesn’t work,” says Drew Sullivan, co-founder of @occrp.org, an international nonprofit news outlet and network of investigative journalists. “You have to fight these things when they’re unfair, when they’re illegal, and you have to fight them aggressively."

He talked to Nieman Lab's Hanaa' Tameez about his organization's decision to sue the Trump administration, challenging the legality of Donald Trump's executive order to freeze international aid funding.

https://flip.it/1tzuX4

#Journalism #Media #News #MediaIndustry #USAID #Democracy #USLaw