A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort

 

Thought for the week

“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit.” Founder of Email service provider Lavabit, Ladar Levison, discussing his decision to close the company rather than spy on customers for the U.S. government in a corporate blog.

Weekly High

Germany. This week. The World Wildlife Foundation celebrates 50 years of protecting animals and the environment by letting 1,600 pandas loose in Berlin. Of course they were all made out of styrofoam, but nevertheless the impact is unarguable (with another 21 cities auf Deutsch on the tour itinerary for the black and white furry friends.)

 

Weekly low

On Monday evening Channel 4’s Dispatches series exposes exactly how commonplace it is for social media to be misused by businesses and celebrities, with tweets for gifts and like made in ‘factories’. Of course we already knew this, but what’s alarming is the fact enough people were oblivious to warrant an entire expose.

 
 

Things that might happen in the next week…

Protests will continue in the UK following Barclays decision to shut off cash transfers businesses servicing unstable countries with little-to-no access to the international banking system, such as Somalia, in effect preventing some migrant workers from sending funds back to loved ones. The Edinburgh Festival proper will kick into full swing this weekend after opening August 1st. And the advertising watchdog will begin investigating the home office marketing campaign instructing illegal immigrants to go home.

Just in case you missed it…

Tesco, Virgin Media, and Vodafone ranked top for Twitter customer service in Quarter 2, according to Socially Devoted research by SocialBakers. Read the full story here.
If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!