Olives @olives@qoto.org

https://nichegamer.com/twitch-is-shutting-down-in-south-korea-due-to-increasing-costs/

"This morning, I shared with our community in Korea that we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down the Twitch business in Korea on February 27, 2024 KST. We understand that this is extremely disappointing news, and we want to explain why we made this decision and how we are planning to support those impacted.

Ultimately, the cost to operate Twitch in Korea is prohibitively expensive and we have spent significant effort working to reduce these costs so that we could find a way for the Twitch business to remain in Korea. First, we experimented with a peer-to-peer model for source quality. Then, we adjusted source quality to a maximum of 720p. While we have lowered costs from these efforts, our network fees in Korea are still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries. Twitch has been operating in Korea at a significant loss, and unfortunately there is no pathway forward for our business to run more sustainably in that country."

https://reason.com/2023/12/07/ohio-republicans-drop-last-minute-effort-to-derail-voter-approved-pot-legalization/

"Ohio, where legislators authorized medical use of marijuana in 2016, became the 24th state to legalize recreational use a month ago, when 57 percent of voters said yes to Issue 2. As of today, that ballot measure makes it legal for adults 21 or older to publicly possess 2.5 ounces or less of marijuana and grow up to six plants at home. Issue 2 also envisions a state-regulated cannabis industry with retail sales taxed at 10 percent."

https://nichegamer.com/prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-for-kyoto-animation-arsonist/

I'm not really keen on the existence of the death penalty, but that is a thing in Japan.

1) People have rights. You know, that is very important.

2) What led to end-to-end encryption proliferating so much, and which likely contributed to this newest decision, is how often the government abuses it's power to spy on people (or to oppress people).

Governments (and their apologists) seem to think they can do whatever crazy thing and people will just take it. That's crazy talk.

Exaggerating the dangerousness of every criminal viewing (real) child porn is not going to make the argument against end-to-end encryption any more compelling.

I've wanted to do one on Marija for a while.

Every now and then, she shows up uninvited, as if she is some sort of royal queen, and starts talking a load of rubbish, as do a lot of the people around her.

Already one bad faith actor is screaming.

Marija might also be very upset. Not because anyone might be in danger, but because she thinks she might miss her SDG quota (she would have failed anyway, her goals are not only unrealistic, they are anything but sustainable).

Also, trying to violate people's rights like this was always very foolhardy...

She should also stop pretending to be some sort of global org when she appears to be... Operating one out of New York.

Her team looks mostly Western. The ones who approve projects appear to be from Britain / America (and mainly from around those governments). Surprise.

According to Facebook, they're rolling out "default end-to-end encryption" for "personal calls and messages" on "messenger".

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/06/even-if-you-hate-both-ai-and-section-230-you-should-be-concerned-about-the-hawley-blumenthal-bill-to-remove-230-protections-from-ai/ A really stupid "AI" censorship bill.

"AI"

This is a detached piece as I'm thinking of how to best word this post. It seems that someone has, again, gotten awind of gossip over a bit of content, and are talking with apocalyptic overtones again about entire platforms. What is with this tendency?

"VR"

A (seemingly retired) British cop was engaging in their own "what if" hypotheticals (and conflating that with something quite different).

Uh, there are plenty of innocent people who engage in those activities, you know, Mr. Cop.

Wow, both the AI and VR (x.x) parts have come up in the past few days.

That someone could look to "harm someone" with "generative AI" is a bad reason for tearing it down for everyone else.

If it pops up when it isn't prompted for, there could be an argument that that isn't the desired behavior from the user, however, acting as if an algorithm generating violent content is inherently abhorrent comes off as silly.

"What if the AI generates violent content?"

Well, I don't see why that is the end of the world, if someone is going out of their way to prompt for that?

Well, they were, and it was really specific too. Rwanda. Of all countries.

https://apnews.com/article/felon-disenfranchisement-legislation-voting-rights-prison-2431448db8be2cc41df7b78c11e30e83 Interesting.

I see "5rights" (a censorship org run by someone from the British Conservative Party who was apparently appointed to her position in the upper house by them after making a documentary about how much she hates porn) is looking to "improve online safety in Rwanda".

Is this to market Rwanda as a safer place for sending migrants to...? I don't think this would address those issues there at all...

https://nichegamer.com/more-people-doxxed-for-talking-about-the-coffin-of-andy-and-leyley/ Worth noting that someone being sent child porn as a form of harassment is not new.