ML2 @mathlover@qoto.org

I have recently uncovered a user who seems to be opening temporary accounts at QOTO, blocking all the moderators so we dont see their posts and then posting high offensive material (nazi imagery, transphobic and hateful derogatory content, etc) and then proceeding to announce to block list moderators and possibly on the #Fediblock list in general in an attempt to get us banned.

The issue of users being able to block moderators and do **exactly** this is something I have brought up to @Gargron before probably over a year ago but he has never acted on fixing this issue and does not see it as needing fixing from what I could gather (he can interject here if he would like).

It is something we as moderators are powerless to detect or act against unless someone actually reports the content first, that is the only way we will even see it. Thankfully none of the block lists have actually acted on this and no damage to QOTO has been done. But seeing as this may continue I want to make others aware of the problem, press gargron to fix the issue once more, and also encourage **anyone** who sees such content on QOTO to please report it so we can act on it.

I can not personally confirm this but according to the block-list operator they seem to have reason to think it is @snow behind the attacks. This would be in line with the behaviors from snow I have witnessed in the past.

For the attempt by snow to spam and falsely accuse instances see here:

https://likeable.space/notice/A21ux0IbhoDJIkNxzc

For more information see these attempted block requests on QOTO that were made in this fashion:

https://schlomp.space/FediBlock/data/pulls/255/files

https://schlomp.space/FediBlock/data/pulls/248

@arteteco @Sphinx @khird

stop being woke without taking the consequences of it

Tackling the Monopoly Problem

There was a time when people who were exploring computational technology saw it as the path toward decentralization and freedom worldwide. What we have ended up with, instead, is a world that is increasingly centralized, subject to surveillance, and unfree. How did that come to be? In a keynote at the online 2021 linux.conf.au event, Cory Doctorow gave his view of this problem and named its source: monopoly.

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/844102/a23d1543b5a55cae/

HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25960684

Note that this is a shared link created by an LWN subscriber. Please consider subscribing to LWN if you value its content and can afford to do so. The site has served the Linux and Free Software community excellently for decades.

#CoryDoctorow #Pluralistic #Monopoly #Decentralisation #Centralisation #Surveillance #SurveillanceCapitalism #SurveillanceState #LinuxConfAU #LWN

White House Youtube Dislike Manipulation

I’ve seen screenshots of YouTube modifying dislikes of White House videos. I decided I would do a thorough analysis myself. I wrote a script to check video stats every 80 seconds for 24 hours…

https://phzoe.com/2021/01/27/white-house-youtube-dislike-manipulation/comment-page-1/#comments
randomTemp14185469621897103916.…

In the last year Google has banned: the Element app, the LBRY app, and several Fediverse apps. If you get all of your apps from a single corporation, be it Google or Apple, you should make an effort to change that.

If you have an Android phone F-Droid is an alternative app repository, and it’s very easy to install! All of the previously mentioned apps have been available from F-Droid throughout being dropped from the Play Store.

If you have an iPhone, please consider other options for your next device. Apple does not respect you enough as a user to consider you possibly more capable of deciding what you should install on your phone than they are. That is absurd; please stop rewarding this behavior with your money.

The #matrix client #element was removed from the Google Play Store, I read on hn: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25964226

Element Made Easy | Setup Security Phrase and Key

Please help me share.

https://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2021/01/element-made-easy-setup-security-phrase-and-key.html

Thanks: @stereo | Tags: #Tutorial #Element #Matrix #Messengers #FreeSoftware #UbuntuBuzz

#element has just been suspended from the Google PlayStore !
@matrix
See : https://twitter.com/element_hq/status/1355290296947499013?s=20

Google pulled element, the popular app with E2EE off the play store. Unlike most of these chat apps element can's censor what their users see because users can host their own infrastructure (sans push which is required to be run by the organization pushing the app to the app store due to an arbitrary rule.)
Did they pull your app that you believe is immune to censorship and surveillance?

This article from Judd Legum and Tesnim Zakaria lists numerous companies who have been and are donating to the Texas Republican Party who are made up, at this point, of seditionists, white supremacists, and Q-Anon supporters. This is truly unacceptable.

Help contact these companies and tell them that they must drop this support or you won't be buying their products again and encouraging others to do the same. These public pressure campaigns work.

Anheuser-Busch is the worst of them. Contact them here. The rest can be searched. Pitch in.
https://contactus.anheuser-busch.com/contactus/contactusnew/anheuserbusch/contact_us.html

The Texas Republican Party has gone off the rails. Corporate America is along for the ride:
https://popular.info/p/the-texas-republican-party-has-gone?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxOTYwMzcyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjozMTkxMjUwNiwiXyI6Ii9wNTM5IiwiaWF0IjoxNjExNzY5OTY1LCJleHAiOjE2MTE3NzM1NjUsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xNjY0Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.pT8TyxMkF4sGI1BYHxKybjjspfHlfBikhTCbVaL7tD0

@dogs

A shout out to the two animals I rescued the last few years angel (the pupper) and mouse (the kittums). Both passed but they were loved at the end!

#cats #cat #dog #puppers #animalWelfare

I think this meme puts things into a scary perspective, and it is entirely true, no need for exaggeration.

When homosexuals were liberated from concentration camps in WWII those who were there for being gay were put right back into prisons in germany at least.

Basically most of the laws the Nazis enacted that made the jews and other groups "illegal" were repealed. However paragraph 175 which specified that homosexuality was illegal due to "indecency" remained on the books until 1969, and under that law for the homosexual population the holocaust never really ended.

Some perspective I think its good we all have on the issue.

#Homoesexuality #LGBT #Holocaust #HumanRights #CivilRights #CivilLiberties

Bought 100€ worth of Gamestop stocks. I'm ok with losing it - I did it for lulz
Husky_1611857592433_6S7EMWBXXQ.…

I agree with Piglet. I miss the hugs 😢

A friend just messaged me asking if I had any advice on how to read news critically. I told him I didn't really know because I don't read news that much (although now I come to think of it, I end up reading news articles when I check the source of something posted online).

But we are curious, what are some answers to this question that yous can come up with? Looking at different perspectives is one. Others?

Please repeat/boost this message to increase visibility.