Internet Archive Blogs – Internet Archive Canada Responds to Canada’s Wide-Ranging Online Harms Proposal

Oct 012021
 

It is an unfortunate truth that libraries have long been called upon to censor or destroy knowledge—a topic we recently explored with Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge. Indeed, Richard Ovenden has argued that, by standing against such attempts, libraries perform an essential function in support of democracy, the rule of law, and an open society. In the circumstances, it should be no surprise that libraries and librarians tend to react with some alarm to legislative proposals to censor or destroy information—no matter how well intentioned they may be. So it was with some alarm that Internet Archive Canada reviewed the Government of Canada’s latest proposals…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://blog.archive.org/2021/10/01/internet-archive-canada-responds-to-canadas-wide-ranging-online-harms-proposal/

 2021-10-01  Comments Off on Internet Archive Blogs – Internet Archive Canada Responds to Canada’s Wide-Ranging Online Harms Proposal

Ars Technica – “Wayforward Machine” provides a glimpse into the future of the web

Oct 012021
 

Enlarge (credit: Sandro Katalina)
What could the future of the Internet look like? With the digital world of the 21st century becoming a pit of unwanted ads, tracking, paywalls, unsafe content, and legal threats, “Wayforward Machine” has a dystopian picture in mind. Behind the clickbaity name, Wayforward Machine is an attempt by the Internet Archive to preview the chaos the world wide web is about to become.
Internet Archive suspects what the Internet of 2046 looks like
The Wayback Machine from the nonprofit Internet Archive remains massively popular among netizens, journalists, and archivists interested in seeing how a webpage looked in the past, even when the page or entire websites are later removed. Users can simply browse to web.archive.org…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1799884

 2021-10-01  Comments Off on Ars Technica – “Wayforward Machine” provides a glimpse into the future of the web

Motherboard – ‘Price-Distorting’ iBuyers Like Zillow Hurt US Homeowners, Rivals Say

Oct 012021
 

High-tech “iBuyers” like Opendoor and Zillow have burst onto the housing scene in hot U.S. markets with a seductive promise: For a fee, they’ll buy your home for cash, let you pick your move-out date, and help you avoid the irritating process of showing your home.  The iBuyers are attempting to scale up rapidly in order to win market share and recognition, throwing their current hopes for a profit out the window in a 2020s reprise of the rideshare wars. The companies have started to gain unwanted attention in the process; earlier this month, one TikTok went viral after pushing conspiracy theories about the iBuyers’ end goals.   The criticism of iBuyers isn’t limited to internet users….

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3aq389/price-distorting-ibuyers-like-zillow-hurt-us-homeowners-rivals-say

 2021-10-01  Comments Off on Motherboard – ‘Price-Distorting’ iBuyers Like Zillow Hurt US Homeowners, Rivals Say