Marshall Sutherland

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 17:53:14 -0500

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

#^They Are Scrubbing the Internet Right Now

The Internet was founded to be free and democratic. It will require herculean efforts at this point to restore that vision, because something else is quickly replacing it.

Internet

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 01:16:47 -0500

phani00 (hubzilla)

phani002242@hub.phanisvara.com

that's horrible but i don't find it surprising at all. since i came to know about "the internet" i have been wondering why those who enable it, governments and the companies that provide cables and connectivity, would allow us to use it for whatever we like. most people aren't selfless, much less entities like companies or governments. they provide something that can be used, they'll make sure it works in their interest.

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:00:28 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

archive.org wayback machine seems to be fully operational again.

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 13:59:51 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

#^Why did Brazil ban X? | Glenn Greenwald | Just Asking Questions, Ep. 40

Glenn Greenwald discusses Brazil's ban of X, the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov, and the global crackdown on speech.

Why is the Brazilian government afraid of X?

Judge Alexandre de Moraes has blocked the site formerly known as Twitter in Brazil, where an estimated 40 million people access the site each month. Circumventing the ban on X with a VPN could get you fined about $9,000 a day, around the average per capita income in Brazil. It happened after Musk reinstated accounts that the Brazilian state had accused of being part of "digital militias" undermining Brazil's democracy.

X's owner Elon Musk has accused the judge of "repeatedly and brazenly" betraying Brazil's constitution, called for his impeachment, and described him as "Brazil's Darth Vader."

The judge has accused Musk of "criminal instrumentalization" of the X platform and frozen the assets of Musk's satellite internet company Starlink in the country.

Joining us today from Brazil to talk about all this, and the intensifying global crackdown on online speech, is Glenn Greenwald. His show System Update airs every weeknight at 7 p.m. ET on Rumble. An archive of all his latest work is available on his Substack.

#video #free_speech #free_press #Internet

video free speech free press Internet

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 12:15:52 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

#^the censorship and surveillance state flexes

in no small irony, the pavel durov russian founder of the widely used text messaging system telegram, who fled russia to avoid interference in his business and the privacy of his users has been arrested. in france. because make no mistake, the EU has become the point of the spear on intrusive mandate that all media, social media, and communications must be subject to the state and to the supra-national groups that organize it. the EU has done nothing but push mandates for surveillance and censorship, for hate speech and “misinformation” which increasingly has come to mean “and facts we don’t like.”

he made the (extremely unwise) choice to allow his private jet to land in france for reasons unknown. i suspect there’s a story there as he’s not a fool and must have known what would happen.

the french cops swooped, he’s now jailed, and facing 20 years for the heinous crime of “allowing people to speak privately to one another in a manner the EU cannot readily surveil.”

governments have been pressuring him to allow their police and intelligence groups access for years.

the west has become what we used to vilify china and the soviets for.

#free_speech #Internet #regulation #privacy #surveillance

free speech Internet regulation privacy surveillance

Mon, 27 May 2024 11:26:21 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

#^domestic spying

but the truly scary bits wind up looking a bit more like this:

the US intelligence community basically tried to take over the internet. and it very nearly succeeded.

#Internet #surveillance

Internet surveillance

Mon, 06 May 2024 12:50:54 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

#^Was There A Trojan Horse Hidden In Section 230 All Along That Could Enable Adversarial Interoperability?

There’s a fascinating new lawsuit against Meta that includes a surprisingly novel interpretation of Section 230. If the court buys it, this interpretation could make the open web a lot more open, while chipping away at the centralized control of the biggest tech companies. And, yes, that could mean that the law (Section 230) that is wrongly called “a gift to big tech” might be a tool that undermines the dominance of some of those companies. But the lawsuit could be tripped up for any number of reasons, including a potentially consequential typo in the law that has been ignored for years.

#Internet #law

Internet law

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 18:47:27 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

What Does "Unbiased" Mean in the Digital World? (with Megan McArdle)

Listen as Megan McArdle and EconTalk's Russ Roberts use Google's new AI entrant Gemini as the starting point for a discussion about the future of our culture in the shadow of AI bias. They also discuss the tension between rules and discretion in Western society and why the ultimate answer to AI bias can't be found in technology.

#podcast #internet

Internet podcast

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 19:49:50 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Governor DeSantis Signs Legislation to Protect Children and Uphold Parental Rights

Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 3, which prohibits children under the age of 14 from becoming social media account holders and allows 14- and 15-year-olds to become account holders with parental consent.

Hubzilla and (streams) do not meet the definition of "social media platform" in the bill. One of the criteria is "Employs algorithms that analyze user data or information on users to select content for users"

#Florida #Internet

Internet Florida

show all 4 comments

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 20:46:09 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Actually, I guess for 14 and 15 year olds, they are depending on the parents to be honest. For 16 and above, they probably figure they have a state ID in the form of drivers license or learners permit.

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 21:20:33 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

I saw something about a right to be anonymous. I'm not sure how you can be both anonymous and age-checked. But, since when do laws have to be consistent, right?

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 08:03:21 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

I don't know its background. Apparently, it replaced a similar bill, that the Governor vetoed, that would have disallowed all children under 16 from having accounts. So, while my wife claims the legislature is always boot-licking DeSantis, maybe a lot of what is going on in Florida is originating from them.

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 10:37:32 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

What If the Next Big Social Media App Is ... Nothing?

As Twitter sputters, Threads, Bluesky and many others try to capture an audience that would rather log off.

#Internet

Internet

Sun, 14 May 2023 13:05:42 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century: Thirteen ways of looking at disinformation

Something monstrous is taking shape in America. Formally, it exhibits the synergy of state and corporate power in service of a tribal zeal that is the hallmark of fascism. Yet anyone who spends time in America and is not a brainwashed zealot can tell that it is not a fascist country. What is coming into being is a new form of government and social organization that is as different from mid-twentieth century liberal democracy as the early American republic was from the British monarchism that it grew out of and eventually supplanted. A state organized on the principle that it exists to protect the sovereign rights of individuals, is being replaced by a digital leviathan that wields power through opaque algorithms and the manipulation of digital swarms. It resembles the Chinese system of social credit and one-party state control, and yet that, too, misses the distinctively American and providential character of the control system. In the time we lose trying to name it, the thing itself may disappear back into the bureaucratic shadows, covering up any trace of it with automated deletions from the top-secret data centers of Amazon Web Services, “the trusted cloud for government.”

In a technical or structural sense, the censorship regime’s aim is not to censor or to oppress, but to rule. That’s why the authorities can never be labeled as guilty of disinformation. Not when they lied about Hunter Biden’s laptops, not when they claimed that the lab leak was a racist conspiracy, not when they said that vaccines stopped transmission of the novel coronavirus. Disinformation, now and for all time, is whatever they say it is. That is not a sign that the concept is being misused or corrupted; it is the precise functioning of a totalitarian system.

If the underlying philosophy of the war against disinformation can be expressed in a single claim, it is this: You cannot be trusted with your own mind. What follows is an attempt to see how this philosophy has manifested in reality. It approaches the subject of disinformation from 13 angles—like the “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” Wallace Stevens’ 1917 poem—with the aim that the composite of these partial views will provide a useful impression of disinformation’s true shape and ultimate design.

#free_speech #free_press #Internet #politics #satesploitation #surveillance

free speech free press Internet politics statesploitation surveillance

Mon, 15 May 2023 18:53:07 -0400

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

In some ways, the Twitter Files disclosures are similar to the Snowden disclosures 10 years ago. So many things that had been dismissed as "conspiracy theories" turned out to actually be true.