Olives @olives@qoto.org

Have you considered the possibility that we're already in Hell?

@ella

https://eupolicy.social/@1br0wn/111611995353395257

What does EDRi think of privacy intrusive "age verification" for porn sites?

Also, there is significant room for over reach here in terms of content removal.

https://qoto.org/@olives/111516011246609826 Also, viewing porn is unrelated to crime.

#DSA

We know that platforms have made inappropriate judgements in this area, particularly in regards to artistic works, and there appears to be implicit conflations here.

Also, in quite a few cases, someone might insinuate one thing, then another might be represented.

For now, SFW / NSFW should suffice, to explain that:

"sexy" doesn't necessarily mean NSFW.

Some degree of "nudity" isn't necessarily that strange to see either, particularly in a cartoon style, unless someone is prudish to a degree I'm not sure exists. At the very least, that is silly to censor.

One that was dropped from that update, for now, was "a few have conflated "sex", "sexy" and "nudity", because it was a more complicated one to explain.

"othering" was compacted, although it's there, because I didn't want it to dominate Part 2.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/victory-utah-supreme-court-upholds-right-refuse-tell-cops-your-passcode

"Last week, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors violated a defendant’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination when they presented testimony about his refusal to give police the passcode to his cell phone. In State v. Valdez, the court found that verbally telling police a passcode is “testimonial” under the Fifth Amendment, and that the so-called foregone conclusion exception does not apply to “ordinary testimony” like this. This closely tracks arguments in the amicus brief EFF and the ACLU filed in the case."

#privacy

https://edri.org/our-work/2023-a-good-year-for-privacy-a-bad-year-for-chat-control/

"Rumours are also swirling that the European Commission is deeply frustrated by the Parliament standing up for our digital rights, and is considering options and strategies to push through broad, untargeted scanning measures despite a lack of political credibility."

Something to watch out for. #chatcontrol

Updated dive into bad faith conflations of reality and fiction, involves #GenAI (imagery and text stories) and VR, although not limited to them.

https://reason.com/2023/12/18/a-tennessee-youth-detention-center-has-been-illegally-throwing-kids-in-solitary-confinement/

"A Tennessee youth detention center has been skirting a state law prohibiting solitary confinement for minors by classifying solitary lockups as "voluntary"—even when youth have said they spent days locked alone in a cell.

An investigation from ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio published last month found that the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center, a youth lockup near Knoxville, was violating a 2021 Tennessee law that banned solitary confinement for minors."

This "voluntary" classification reminds me of #chatcontrol...

https://qoto.org/@olives/110847252096826064 I've written about how solitary is inhumane before.

#CriminalJustice

https://reason.com/2023/12/18/5th-circuit-reluctantly-rules-against-victim-of-a-prosecutor-who-was-also-a-law-clerk/ Apparently, a prosecutor was also a clerk simultaneously working for the judge...

https://nichegamer.com/peter-molyneuxs-godus-and-godus-wars-pulled-from-steam/ Don't worry, you're not missing much, Godus is an awful game.

From what I remember, Godus is basically do a tiny bit and wait 24 hours game, but instead of a free mobile game, it cosplays as a PC game. Also, it had next to no real content.

https://nichegamer.com/sony-prohibits-reselling-physical-games-tracks-activity/

"Sony updated their Software Usage Terms about a year ago and users are just now discovering some troubling rules.

Namely, a rule about reselling games has caught attention; especially since the rule explicitly calls out physical media."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/18/afd-ally-wins-mayoral-election-in-east-germany AfD gets control of another city.

https://simonwillison.net/2023/Dec/14/ai-trust-crisis/ About Dropbox. Even if OpenAI were not training their AI on these files, would you really trust a company which sends your private backed up files off to random third party companies? There's got to be a line somewhere. #privacy

Updated dive into bad faith conflations of reality and fiction, involves #AI and VR, although not limited to them.

The dive into conflating fiction and reality now has a new Part 2, as of December (originally written in November as a casual update).

Alright, updated part 2. Here's the original (from November I think it was the 10th or 11th?):

A month after I made that post, I reviewed the situation once again, and I have the following things to add:

While (11) is mentioned here, the rarity actually seems to be common knowledge in some circles, and those aren't the only possible examples (given the sensitive subject matter, I have avoided entirely going into that as it doesn't add much, we're not having a contest here). I've also seen no compelling evidence to the contrary. It's mainly advocates of censorship with vague "fear points". And once again, what they're typically gunning for is very broad censorship.

As a rule of thumb, people who just focus on apparent "fear points" are muddying the water, poisoning the well of useful discourse, giving bad actors an air of legitimacy, and undermining fundamental rights. Don't be that person.

There are a few people who make vague non-particularized arguments. These can be quite low quality (and are likely dealt with by an already answered point, even if it's not someone's preferred direction to solve that argument). These are more like mantras or slogans than actual arguments and aren't worth wasting a breath on. And at the end of the day, mantras have roots, and therein lies already made points.

One mantra appears to be inspired by QAnon type theories. Yet again, this goes back to the deviancy theory, nuance, and complex matters being over-simplified in a manner which is very discriminative and harmful. That's just not how the world works, and it's not helpful.

One seemed to have a rather rigid mentality (34), though I suspect it was more motivated "nit-picking". Honestly, this one probably falls under deviancy theory, that's why I didn't cover it here. It's the pseudo-scientific deviancy theory which conjures up ideas of "strange deviants I can't possibly understand".

In one case, someone made stronger claims in more public facing areas, and in more obscured areas, offered up far more dubious language, and even seemed to neutralize their own points. Strong claims are also seemingly supported by one-off opinions from randoms with no expertise or reference point. Cherry picking still seems very prevalent.

34 https://qoto.org/@olives/111192296198968801

Part 2 (updated as of December):

It is remarkable how obsessive someone can be about this content, that content, and the maybe, could be, type rhetoric, with arguments put forward thinner than a piece of paper.

In regards to (11), the rarity seems common knowledge in some circles, and those aren't the only possible examples (given sensitivities, I've avoided entirely going into that too much as it doesn't add much, we're not having a contest here). I've also seen no compelling evidence to the contrary. It's mainly advocates of censorship with vague "fear points". And once again, what they're typically gunning for is very broad censorship.

As a rule of thumb, people who just focus on apparent "fear points" are muddying the water, poisoning the well of useful discourse, giving bad actors an air of legitimacy, and undermining fundamental rights. Don't be that person.

There are a few who make vague non-particularized arguments. These can be low quality (and likely dealt with by an already answered point, even if not someone's preferred direction to solve that argument). These are more like mantras or slogans than actual arguments and aren't worth wasting a breath on. And at the end of the day, mantras have roots, and therein lies already made points.

One mantra appears inspired by QAnon type theories. Yet again, this returns to the deviancy theory (and some degree of othering rhetoric), nuance, and complex matters being over-simplified in a manner which is very discriminative and harmful. As well as trying to tap into perceived moral decay (35). That's not really how the world works, and it's not helpful to approach things that way.

One seemed to have a rather rigid mentality (34), though I suspect it is more deliberately motivated "nit-picking". Honestly, this one probably falls under deviancy theory, that's why I didn't cover it here. It's the pseudo-scientific deviancy theory which conjures up the "oohing and aahing" at small mundane things.

In one case, someone seemed absolutely fascinated by a *local troll*, from whom there is really nothing to gather. Would that happen elsewhere?

In one case, someone made stronger claims in more public facing areas, and in more obscured areas, offered up far more dubious language, even seeming to neutralize their own points. Strong claims were seemingly supported by one-off opinions from randoms with no expertise, or a decent reference point. Cherry picking still seemed prevalent.

In one case, someone tried to appeal to this tired trope, simply because they "don't like AI", due to some unrelated pet peeve of theirs with it, even though this is objectively harmful.

There also seemed to be a certain amount of conflation between SFW and NSFW, or even between some degree of "nudity" and it being "sexual" (whatever this means. For instance, quite a few images appear to not be provocative, yet they got censored by a few platforms (and again, this was not an actual person). I've even seen that happen myself on *Twitter* without even trying to look for it.

34 https://qoto.org/@olives/111192296198968801

35 https://qoto.org/@olives/110654739127846798