Facebook's Censorship Rules, A Dentist Accused Of Murder And Messages To Aliens
Every week, we highlight the longform articles from recent days that we think you shouldn't miss. Here are this week's picks:
Facebook's Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men From Hate Speech But Not Black Children
The headline of this ProPublica investigation into Facebook's hate speech policies sounds like hyperbole, or a highly charged way of describing some isolated incident. But no, it's a rule explicitly stated in Facebook's internal documents: "Facebook deletes curses, slurs, calls for violence and several other types of attacks only when they are directed at 'protected categories,'" and men are a protected category while children are not. The remainder of this excellent article sheds light on how Facebook cooperates with oppressive governments worldwide and how "hate speech" is very much in the eyes of the beholder.
Psychics Who Hear Voices Could Be On To Something
Auditory and visual hallucinations are often seen as symptoms of psychosis, but for some people — notably self-described psychics — they're a benevolent protective force. This fascinating article demonstrates that traditional psychiatric interventions aren't always helpful for psychotic disorders, and that a person's beliefs about his or her psychiatric symptoms can have an enormous effect on their quality of life.
Is The Staggeringly Profitable Business Of Scientific Publishing Bad For Science?
Scientific publishing is based on an insane, seemingly unsustainable business model: Science journals pay nothing to authors and peer-review boards and then turn around and sell their work to academic institutions for exorbitant amounts. Stephen Buranyi takes a engaging look at the history of these curiously profitable publishing houses and explains how they exert a huge, often unexamined influence on how scientists determine what to research.
My Dentist's Murder Trial
After his dentist was accused of murder, writer James Lasdun became infatuated by the case, and it's no mystery why: The death of Thomas Kolman is enshrouded in a fog of adultery, fraudulent text messages, sexual roleplay and an eyebrow-raising lack of physical evidence. You might emerge from this article with a different conclusion than the one Lasdun draws, but you'll be glad he told the story in such a clear, compelling manner.
Not The Indian That's Expected
Anne Helen Petersen's effusive profile of Sherman Alexie — the award-winning, politically outspoken, totally lovable American-Indian novelist, poet and screenwriter — is the perfect introduction to the life and work of this essential author.
[BuzzFeed]
Greetings, ET. (Please Don't Murder Us.)
Should humans proactively interstellar messages introducing ourselves to intelligent lifeforms that may or may not exist elsewhere in the universe? If that sounds like a dumb hypothetical question with no real consequences, you should read Steven Johnson's funny, moving article about the scientists and philosophers pondering whether and how to communicate with aliens.
