Trying to cope: Guns, mental health and the Internet after Newtown tragedy

• In the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., The Washington Post reported how initial reports mistakenly identified the shooter as Ryan Lanza, 24, not his brother Adam, 20, accusing the dead man's brother of being the one who killed 27 people and then himself. Matt Bors, a Facebook friend of Ryan Lanza, focused on the people, not the technology, that had rushed to accuse his friend:

  "Social Media" didn't get anything wrong or right. Reporters got things wrong - people who made choices about what to post and how to headline it - and they looked like fools for doing so. You might as well credit phones and typewriters for everything reported correctly before 1999. I got out what information I had as accurately as I could and people reported on that. Lanza's ability to post about his innocence, and mine to see it and relay it to people, is only a social media success story if you don't question the necessity of dragging an alleged suspect's possible Facebook profile into the limelight where he'll be called a mass murderer of children. Other than that, yeah, tweeting's fun. Social media is simply a tool, and from what I saw yesterday, not one that's bringing out anything social in us.

• A resident of Newtown issued a frustrated call to the news media on Reddit: "You can comprehend my anger at hearing cameras go off as I watched my best friends father break down. You can relate you wanting some alone time to be able to talk about how to get over this as a community without the intrusion of public opinion, reporters, and all the like. To the reporters hoping to get a Pulitzer prize for their efforts yesterday I ask: Is your soul worth it?"

  More:

  ... I'm glad we can become another Columbine, (to you residents there, I never understood until now, and we are in a morbid club, inexplicably intertwined by violence) another cold useless fact. You can do all of this and be happy, because you wanted it.

  For the record, no one in Newtown was talking about gun control laws, mental health issues, or anything. We were just holding each other, trying to make sense of the senseless. We are ok with you grieving with us, but put down the camera and help us try to piece back together our lives. We need that more than media coverage of this sad day in our history.

• In the wake of Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, the NRA has once again disabled its Facebook page. Buzzfeed reviewed how the NRA's Twitter also goes silent after gun-related violence.

• The Hartford Courant reported that a hard drive had been removed from the killer's computer and "broken in pieces."

• Slain Sandy Hook Elementary Principal Dawn Hochsprung had a Twitter account and was "unusually tech savvy," the New York Times reported. "Ms. Hochsprung believed that many students engaged better with electronic screens than with blackboards, and she made sure her teachers had iPads in the classroom. Then, she organized 'Appy Hour' sessions to discuss the most useful teaching apps."

• Connecticut police warned that people spreading misinformation over social media could be prosecuted.

• Will Oremus explored how machine-learning algorithms could help debunk Twitter rumors such as the ones circulating Friday.

• There was also fake message circulating attributed to Morgan Freeman, while a post by a mother who said she had a young son who reminded her of shooter Adam Lanza generated attention and also backlash from other blogs. The original author was also interviewed by NBC News.

• Buzzfeed noted a Twitter account that appeared to be trying to gain followers with fake messages about RTs and donations to the victims.

• British Prime Minister David Cameron, the Elysee Palace, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were among those who used social media to express their condolences.

• According to Alex Howard, the We the People petition calling for the introduction of gun control legislation is now the most popular We the People petition in U.S history. Other We the People petitions connected with the tragedy called for against the Westboro Baptist Church after news that it planned to protest at victims' memorial services and also asked to award the Medal of Freedom to slain teacher Victoria Soto. Other petitions were launched on SignOn.org, the Avaaz platform, and through Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

• Many people used OpenSecrets to highlight the NRA's advantage in political contributions.

• A Twitter account, @gundeaths, has taken up "Tweeting every gun death in North America regardless of cause and without comment. Help us tell the story behind the statistics."

• Somebody set up dayssincemassshooting.com/.

• Prompted by a Twitter conversation, Josh Stearns highlighted how guncrisis.org took a problem-solving approach to journalism to address gun violence in Philadelphia.

• Ryan Lizza noted that a White House web page focused on a policy to "address gun violence" seemed to have disappeared.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, technophile

• Big Think reviewed Hillary Clinton's innovation legacy at the State Department "beyond 140 characters." The Washington Post recently noted her enthusiasm for low-profile but innovative initiatives:
  

  And after that, Clinton moved to a beige conference room for an event that was decidedly unnecessary to attend, but for which she had traveled more than 6,000 miles. “It’s a pleasure to be with all of you this afternoon to help launch the LEND Network, a new tool that will help countries navigate the transition to sustainable democracy,” she began. Her aides started checking their BlackBerrys. Some reporters took a breather. Yet Clinton, sitting at a table full of officials, seemed more energized than ever. She spoke enthusiastically about the new online forum and how exciting it was to be able to provide “on-demand democracy support” to new leaders in places such as Kyrgyzstan. “And in a minute,” said Clinton, uttering words that would make no headlines, “we’ll get to see the network in action when the foreign minister of Moldova conducts a live video chat with his former counterpart from Slovakia.” Clinton listened and watched a computer screen as the faces of the Slovakian and Moldovan participants were beamed in, the latter from his vacation house. “I’m so happy to be part of this launch,” Clinton told them. And it was clear from her expression that she was, that this was the kind of thing that mattered to Clinton, who considered it a tiny step toward the larger goal of promoting democratic leadership, and thus a tiny step toward global peace and prosperity. Asked about it in an interview later, she lit up. “It’s really one of the big gaps I see around the world,” Clinton said. “I mean, who do these people have to talk to? I mean, one day they’re a political prisoner or they’re in exile or minding their own business in their job or at the university they teach at and the next minute they’re a president or a prime minister or a foreign minister? I mean, imagine!” She continued: “And there’s no real opportunity for them to feel comfortable because they don’t want to show weakness, don’t want to show ignorance — to say, ‘How does this work? What am I supposed to do?’ It’s fascinating to me.”

Around the web

• A new organization called the Freedom of the Press Foundation plans to facilitate donations to groups like Wikileaks faced with political and business pressures.

• Techdirt took a closer look at who signed the ITU's WCIT treaty. Wired, ars technica, Public Knowledge and European Member states also issued their take on the conference's inability to reach consensus, as techPresident reported, and addressed confusion over who actually "won" at the conference in Dubai. The Economist raises the specter of a "digital cold war."

• The International Herald Tribune reported on the reaction to an E.U. plan to encourage more investment in high-speed broadband networks through a rise in rental fees for landline grids.

• The New York Times took a look at political consultant Mark Penn's role working for Microsoft.

• Fight for the Future and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are urging Congress to "fix copyright" in the new congressional session.

• An online campaign aimed at the U.S. Senate, invoking the many women elected to the 113th Congress, urges ratification of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

• For Technology Review, Sasha Issenberg takes another look at how the Obama campaign used big data.

• Via Rootscamp, ePolitics reports that the Obama campaign recommends that persuasion ads not be skippable.

• The Washington Post profiled a U.S. attorney in Virginia who has been leading the prosecution of Megaupload and the investigation of Wikileaks.

• The New York Times took another look at the role social media played for transit agencies responding to Hurricane Sandy.

• Techdirt steps into the debate recently sparked by Paul Krugman on the role of technology in the job market and the economy.

• Ars Technica reported from a recent hackathon focused on issues affecting the meat industry.

• A Kickstarter campaign is raising money to complete Occupy: The Movie documentary.

• Der Spiegel profiled the difficult emotional dilemma faced by an American drone operator working remotely via computer.

• The FBI sees social media as a source for tips in its securities fraud investigations.

• The New York Times recently followed up with the man responsible for the controversial anti-Islam video "Innocence of Muslims," whose son was apparently responsible for uploading the video that became the center of attention during a tense and fatal flare-up of anti-Western sentiment in the Middle East and North Africa:

  On July 2, the trailer was posted on YouTube by someone using the name Sam Bacile. Mr. Nakoula's son said he was the one who did it. "My dad is not tech-savvy at all, and does not know how to work social media," Abanob Nakoula said. "So he asked me to take the initiative to spread the word, and I did my best." He explained that using the name Sam Bacile, he created a Facebook account before production started and then the YouTube account. Abanob Nakoula added, "My dad wanted to show the trailer on TV as a commercial, and I told him that was not going to happen because it costs a lot of money and the networks would not show a 14-minute trailer, especially if they knew the content."

• The University of California has dropped plans for a new logo following online outcry about a redesign.

• NASA is celebrating its Johnson Space Center with a Gangnam style video.

International

• The new Google Maps app for iPhone may violate European data protection laws, according to a German data protecton watchdog.

• Japanese political candidates participated in a Google Hangout with voters.

• Around 90 Tibet scholars around the world have launched an online petition aimed at China’s new Communist Party leader Xi Jinping urging him to reverse Chinese policy towards the protection of Tibetan culture.

• Video bloggers in Egypt were urging their fellow citizens to reject that country's proposed constitution.

• The Guardian reported that China appears to be tightening its Internet restrictions through the use of new technology.

• Russian authorities have opened a new inquiry into activist Alexei Navalny. Navalny also helped organize a new demonstration Saturday without a permit, at which he was detained. Global Voices recently looked at online voting efforts and divisions within the Russian opposition movement.

• The European Commission is considering making it mandatory to report cyber-attacks.

• Computer game Minecraft is coming in handy on U.N. regeneration projects, such as a playground in the Kibera region in Nairobi.

• Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov says Wikileaks cables with allegations about his reported criminal past are a "socialist conspiracy," according to novinite.com.

• Cory Doctorow reports that the British record industry has individually sued the British Pirate Party's executives, seeking to bankrupt them.

• A new report examines the use of social media by police in Britain.

• The BBC recently looked at how Mexican startups were working towards social change.