Olives @olives@qoto.org

With anti-misinformation laws like that, I can't help but wonder if you wouldn't get a scenario like: Fined / jailed for parroting something he saw in a major newspaper.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/20/section-230-guru-washington-tread-lightly-misinformation/

"As Kosseff recounted to me, the heated debate over Section 230 inspired his latest project: a new book dissecting the United States’ free speech tradition — and making the case that officials’ efforts to tackle misinformation often could backfire."

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/10/22/opinion/jeff-kosseff-liar-in-a-crowded-theater-interview/

"Legal scholar Jeff Kosseff thinks a government crackdown on misinformation is a very bad idea. In his new book, “Liar in a Crowded Theater: Freedom of Speech in a World of Misinformation,” he makes the case that the courts have improved our country by gradually strengthening legal protections for false speech — a principle that should hold even though new technologies are changing how information looks, is created, and flows."

"For the really bad cases of misinformation, we’re often not dealing with completely rational actors. Even if they intentionally distribute false speech, legal penalties might not deter them. And yet sanctions might silence those with good intentions."

"Also, our understanding of what is true can evolve with more debate — and you don’t allow knowledge to grow if you threaten people with prosecution."

https://reclaimthenet.org/new-york-ag-letitia-james-backtracks-on-censorship-demands-of-rumble

"In the face of determined resistance in defense of free speech, New York Attorney General Letitia James has withdrawn her overreach in demanding that Rumble, the social media platform, censor expression related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war."

"This move arrives in reaction to the advocacy of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), asserting that her initiative blatantly contravened the First Amendment and a federal court order restraining the enforcement of New York’s Online Hate Speech Law."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/23/queensland-climate-protesters-case-adjourned-charges-xr-extinction-rebellion-brisbane-qld

"The group face charges – not laid in more than 30 years – of disturbing the legislature during a protest in which they unfurled banners with anti-fossil fuel slogans from the public gallery and interrupted question time by chanting for about three minutes last November."

"The charges fall under section 56 of Queensland’s criminal code, which sets a three-year maximum jail term. But a Brisbane court heard on Monday that a later section of the same act repeals section 56 as an offence."

"Section 717 of the criminal code explicitly says that a person cannot be charged with, prosecuted, convicted or punished for disturbing the legislature."

Wasn't that "non-profit" created by Reagan and pals? I forgot the story behind it but I think it was like that.

Seeing one of Ylva's pals, who slapped together a very sketchy poll, offer up a weak defence of her is quite something. Once again, I'm not giving them clicks.

First off, they assert things have gone well for a decade with one particular algorithm. Except. It hasn't. The algorithm "PhotoDNA" (which was sort of secret) got leaked in 2021 and we learned the child porn "hashes" could be reversed with a trained AI model to reveal the original photographs (albeit at a much lower quality). This was tested with innocent photographs. I wonder why they wanted to keep this algorithm secret.

Also, who is to say this algorithm hasn't had significant issues? Do third party contractors (maybe in some country like Kenya) moderating content know enough about which and what algorithm (and the technical intricacies and civil rights issues) flagged a particular post to "blow the whistle"? Do they even think of these kinds of issues? There might be many false positives, and instances of state harassment, and you might never know.

They also make a point that there is a "small chance" of being hit by it. At scale though, that would mean that many messages might be disclosed almost constantly to people unknown to them. That someone might archive it as irrelevant doesn't really change that someone's privacy has been violated. Depending on how "clever" (or resource stretched) an official at the E.U. is on any particular day, they might just pass through all of the reports to their buddies in the same building (with staff transferring between the two departments, did you read that part of the proposal?).

They play down the implications of the "grooming algorithm" (this is the only paragraph which covers this, the others refer to the other one), ignoring that the accuracy is notoriously low, one news article put it at around 50%, though there are vendors who put it higher. Being accused of being a child predator looking to abuse kids is not exactly harmless.

While the model with the U.S.-based non-profit, and "voluntary" scanning with this algorithm, is not great, bringing the government into the picture creates a unique risk of things being overtaken by politics. This has always been a point of concern for me. It's not the best but it is also "the devil you know".

Another problem you run into is that using this algorithm seems to involve uploading files to Microsoft's servers for them to check to see if there is any evil in there. Big Tech could run the algorithm for themselves. For a smaller site, that means being surveilled by giants or governments, and it would also be a burden to their operations. Also, Microsoft markets immediately alerting the police as a selling point of this product.

Also, wasn't this one of those groups which got Sweden to pass a brazenly unconstitutional law? It was used to arrest someone who posted art of imaginary "children playing in water by the beach". This was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. It was a brazen disregard of human rights. When people do things like this, we need to hold them personally (and I do mean individual accountability, not simply letting them hide behind an "org", has anyone lost their job because of something this disgusting?) to account.

They also appear to be anti-porn, which is a problematic position imo (https://qoto.org/@olives/111083302650803082) (an affront to due process and freedom of expression).

#chatcontrol

https://reason.com/2023/10/22/the-minesweeper-moral-panic/

"Over-the-top violence in such video games as Mortal Kombat and Doom drew hand-wringing moral outrage from worrywart parents and government scolds throughout the '90s. Minesweeper—in which players click around a rectangular grid of squares trying to avoid hidden mines, using logical rules to interpret numbers—seemed like it should be safe from controversy.

Yet somehow the game was central to a minor moral panic that formed around pre-installed computer games as Windows spread through offices in the '90s. Together, Minesweeper and Solitaire were seen as an unwelcome office distraction at best and a dire threat to worker productivity at worst."

No fun for you.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/19/eu-launches-crackdown-on-cocaine-smuggling

"The European commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, said young people were becoming caught up in an increasingly booming and brutal trade that was one of Europe’s biggest security threats."

I see Ylva is also a drug warrior. A lot of things make a lot more sense now.

"“They are being radicalised and groomed to become killers. They are the drug gang equivalent of child soldiers,” she said."

Even repurposing the same arguments and hoping no one notices.

"The EU wants to strengthen strategies to disrupt the recruitment of children, including the identification of early signs such as children caught involved in shoplifting or dropping out of school."

Pre-crime profiling based on fuzzy (and probably inaccurate) signs.

Even spooky numbers. I've never trusted Ylva numbers though. In any case, I think that tends to come from it being a black market.

I think that an "AI" chatbot is probably a better tool for roleplay than it is for providing information which someone wants to know.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/21/uk-government-keeping-files-on-teaching-assistants-and-librarians-internet-activity

"The government has been monitoring the social media accounts of “dozens” of ordinary teaching staff, including teaching assistants, and is keeping files on posts that criticise education policies, the Observer has learned."

"Two weeks ago, this newspaper revealed how the Department for Education is monitoring the social media activity of some of the country’s leading education experts. Now evidence has emerged that the monitoring is much more widespread, covering even the lowest paid members of staff."

https://thecrimereport.org/2023/10/14/rhode-island-report-recommends-full-decriminalization-of-sex-work/

"A new report by a Rhode Island study commission recommends the full decriminalization of consensual adult sex work in the state. The commission of thirteen individuals, including legislators, sex workers, medical professionals, and police representatives, spent two years reviewing research and evidence, and listening to lived-experience testimonials, before releasing the report, which highlights multiple reforms intended to reduce human trafficking and promote the health and safety of sex workers."

"In fact, one of the Rhode Island study commissions first findings was that human trafficking is distinct and different from consensual sex work and that when indoor prostitution was legal in Rhode Island, from 1980 to 2009, there was a significant decline in sexually transmitted diseases and sexual assaults. When prostitution was again criminalized in 2009, the decline ended."

"In addition, the report found that the widespread criminalization keeps the sex industry underground, removes the ability of workers to exert their rights or redress wrongs or violence committed against them, and places people in a cycle of arrest and incarceration. This legal approach fuels stigma and discrimination against sex workers, which impedes their access to basic necessities, including healthcare, housing, and other social services."

"Other recommendations from the commission’s report include: Considering legislation which provides that police officers cannot claim consent as a defense to having sex with any individual who is formally in their custody."

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/19/met-rammed-boy-13-playing-with-water-pistol-off-bike-and-pointed-guns-at-him

"The Metropolitan police have admitted that a 13-year-old boy playing with a water pistol was rammed off his bike by armed police, knocked to the ground and officers pointed their submachine guns at him."

"The Met said it was called to a report of a gun in the street and was obliged under policy to treat all firearms as dangerous until proven otherwise."

"The boy had been playing near his home with a blue plastic water pistol with his sister, who had a pink one."

"I know – and the police know – that they would not have treated my son in the way they did if he had been a white 13-year-old boy.

I know that they would not have treated me with the contempt shown towards me or described me as ‘aggressive’ if I was not black."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-tech-repair-snooping-1.7000775 Laptop / smartphone repair technicians snooping on user files, and even copying them.

When a site is so ad laden that you click on a random drop-down in a form which has nothing to do with the ads, and it tries to redirect you to an advertiser's site, then they wonder why people block the ads.

https://nichegamer.com/atelier-resleriana-pantsu-covered-with-black-void/ Hmm... Maybe, they could make it an option, though I don't have a problem with it not being censored.

"I don't like the idea of 'paraphilia' as it treats non-vanilla sexuality as pathology"

I don't really like it either, although it can still tell us something useful. I.E. Someone is interested in certain things prior to consuming such content (and there is data to show it).

I don't think *that part* is in and of itself problematic, it is only so when someone is paranoid about that (in a manner that is discriminative against someone's kinks). *That* can be helpful in arguing against censorship or other fundamental rights violations.