Olives @olives@qoto.org

In light of all that, the end of the ad cartel is good to see.

Also noting that even an "unintentional" act which leads to these outcomes can be troublesome.

One of the tricks in a monopolist's box is to cast themselves as "legitimate" and their competitors as "illegitimate". They make the "standards". They create the boxes to check. They like "associations".

I've seen small to medium sized entrants to the market, who might operate on a more shoestring budget, who were basically wrecked by things like this.

Also, keep in mind that it's primarily the competitors of Big Tech who suffered from the ad cartel arrangement and were blocked from entering the market / were prevented from being able to effectively compete.

Someone who doesn't believe that Google Search is a monopoly thinking that the ad cartel doesn't have anti-trust issues doesn't surprise me.

Part of the U.S. Department of Commerce too acknowledges that someone can legally do whatever they want with "fictional children" although they use evasive language. They also no longer suggest it drives someone to go out and commit a crime.

Someone from the now disbanded "SIO" spoke at a weird far right anti porn conference (NCOSE) on the 5th of August.

Since I noticed a bit of puritanism in #Ireland a while ago, here's a post which I'm experimenting with which debunks porn being spooky with science (among other things).

I think that rather than inter-instance censorship, it might be nice if there were more labels for bits of content. For instance, maybe someone is interested in sexual content, but not gore. "NSFW" is vague.

https://moviebureau.com/wiki/what-anime-movie-was-banned-in-the-bahamas
Apparently, the #DemonSlayer film has been banned in the #Bahamas for religious reasons (it contains "demons", although from a different mythos). #anime #FreeSpeech

I'm not familiar with how this classification system works but it seems that someone can't air the film in cinemas.

Curiously, bad actors seem to like the word "bespoke".

New Zealand could still do better on the freedom of expression though.

Over the past couple of years, New Zealand appears to have reversed several silly video game bans.

Piling on the regulations would only grow that stale vibe which large platforms have.

I like the point someone made that there should be more places which people can talk in, rather than just having a few large companies.

It must be hard being a NPO which has to balance raising funds by dehumanizing people and simultaneously trying to convince their clients that they're people too. Just an observation of an "anti abuse" "initiative".

I remember these being more prominent around 2018, it seems they've dropped off the map.

When you consider how expensive it is to host it, and how someone has to build arenas and such (which are unlikely to get used again), the Olympics getting athletes to eat vegetables is pure virtue signalling.

I've seen preconceptions about what "therapeutic value" should look like, and in this version of this (mainly sex science) post, I explain that even something mundane can have therapeutic value.

No leather couches... Unless, that is the sort you like to buy.

So, some thoughts on the ad cartel.

First off, let's put aside any possible dislike for Musk. Over the years, the ad cartel hasn't just been unpleasant to him, it has also been unpleasant to progressives. Their ideas were unreasonable and harmful. And remember that as with ideas like KOSA, they can be harmful to marginalized groups in how their ideas are applied.

I'm inclined to side with the idea of using competition laws to deal with these sorts of groups. In a way, it's fairly elegant. It maintains editorial discretion (and the benefits of such), while allowing for the market to reorganize somewhere else whenever one of these large tech companies get too unreasonable.