A KYC scheme for using a cloud hosting service (as the U.S. Department of Commerce is proposing) is ridiculous.
1) In many cases, these "cloud hosting servers" will already take a credit card, or some other thing which can be tracked down to someone.
2) This creates another spot where someone might be breached.
3) It is bad for privacy (and by extension, probably free expression).
4) Even trials are affected, which is actually pretty bizarre, which makes it hard to evaluate a product without giving them your personal info.
5) In many cases, they probably already take someone's personal info. #FreeSpeech
A few tell me that Elon's social network has suspended "WholesomeOrenji". Supposedly for edgy #anime jokes, and for criticizing harassers. Or it could have been a really crappy moderation processes, likely involving algorithms.
When he said he would "err on the side of taking content down" (a using a weaksauce example), he really seems to have let himself go, hasn't he?
In general... No. Erring on the side of taking content down is not appropriate (particularly at scale and especially uncritically). It is far less appropriate than it already wasn't when someone goes absolutely crazy doing so for theatrics.
It is also far worse than even the previous #Twitter ever was, and it is not as if we ever sang praises to their high regard for free expression. So much for being a #FreeSpeech absolutist".
I don't have a particular opinion on how much funding should, or shouldn't go towards any particular function of a social network. Not behaving like a clown site though, should be a absolute bare minimum. Thank you.
https://netzpolitik.org/2024/mastodon-und-peertube-eu-macht-fediverse-dicht-weil-niemand-die-server-betreiben-will/ E.U. Institutions to exit the fediverse in May after pilot because no one wants to run the servers, lol.
Fairly important Australian Government consultation. If you don't like censorship, you might be interested (i.e. of sexual expression, censorship of titles which contain "drugs"). #auspol #anime #FreeSpeech #FreeExpression
https://www.meta.com/experiences/7876543229079988/ Australia appears to have* banned this tag game. As for why, who knows.
* https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship-timelines/game-iarc/
https://reason.com/2024/04/24/tennessee-gov-bill-lee-quietly-kills-clemency-initiative-for-drug-free-school-zone-offenders/
"Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has quietly ended a fast-track clemency process for drug-free school zone offenders who were serving outdated sentences."
"The Tennessee Legislature passed a bill in 2020 reducing the size of these zones to 500 feet and requiring that the mandatory minimums be applied only if a defendant's conduct actually endangered children. But the new law was not retroactive, so hundreds of offenders were left to serve the remainder of their sentences."
#HumanRights
https://reason.com/2024/04/24/she-only-served-10-months-behind-bars-florida-still-slapped-her-with-a-127000-bill/ Among very stupid ideas, there is this one from Florida... which probably makes crime worse. #HumanRights
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.harvestvegetables.fun Australia appears to have banned* this game about fruit. Presumably, that has something to do with it being rated as containing "sexual themes".
* https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship-timelines/game-iarc/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2055410/The_Kindeman_Remedy/ Australia appears to have* banned a (deliberately provocative game) where you play as an evil doctor.
* https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship-timelines/game-iarc/
Europol issues a press release (after a meeting in the U.K. of all places, which is not a member of the E.U.) voicing their opposition to end-to-end encryption.
It's not really anything new though, they've always been big fans of mass surveillance with nothing in the way of safeguards.
As you might expect, they walk their parade of terribles to try to intimidate people, and even manage to betray the fact that their intention is to engage in very dubious accuracy profiling. Take note of that.
https://reclaimthenet.org/australia-albanese-misinformation-censorship-demands-sydney-stabbing There are a lot of bad ideas here.
Whether it’s dressed up as a ban or a forced sale, the bill targeting TikTok is laughably unconstitutional and an egregious assault on free expression and human rights.
The Senate will vote TODAY.
Sound the alarm y'all we can't let this happen quietly
The Canadian *Bill C-26*, which is now with the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (https://u.fsf.org/433), may endanger the viability of small free software projects as they may not be able to pay the costs to comply with the reforms. https://u.fsf.org/432
https://reclaimthenet.org/jp-morgan-chase-cashes-in-on-customer-data
"The largest US bank, and the world’s largest by capitalization, JP Morgan Chase, is going forward with another way to monetize their clients – by giving access to their spending data to be used for targeted ads."
Software Engineer. Psy / Tech / Sex Science Enthusiast. Controversial?
Free Expression. Human rights / Civil Liberties. Anime. Liberal.