Last month, in partnership with Engine, we launched our new browser game that puts you in the shoes of a frontline content moderation worker at a growing online platform: Moderator Mayhem. If you haven’t tried it yet, you can play it in your browser on mobile or desktop. The response to the game has been […]
Judging by the number of very angry press releases that landed in my inbox this past Friday, you’d think that YouTube had decided to personally burn down democracy. You see, that day the company announced an update to its approach to moderating election misinformation, effectively saying that it would no longer try to police most […]
Joining a new digital community can be an exhilarating and empowering experience. This has been observed on numerous occasions when people join new platforms such as Nostr, BlueSky, Farcaster, Post.news, Tribel, and many others, as well as older social media platforms such as blogs, Usenet, LiveJournal, Xanga, AOL, Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Initially, these […]
This Solo Stereo Multi Connect Bluetooth Speaker may look small, but it produces as clear and powerful a sound as any other speaker. It comes in various colors that are great for any setting and décor. Connect this speaker to your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth and enjoy your favorite music. It has a built-in […]
On Monday of this week, new CEO Linda Yaccarino officially became CEO of Twitter. Of course, basically no one believes that she’s actually the CEO. Everyone knows that Elon Musk, who in the past has mocked the “CEO” title anyway, is still in charge. He still owns the company and is executive chairman, meaning that […]
We just got done discussing how, as the streaming video space consolidates and grows, it’s starting to behave more and more like the unpopular, consolidated cable and broadcast companies they once disrupted. Cory Doctorow’s theory of enshittification has come to streaming, in a big way. Netflix now thinks password sharing is the devil. Streaming catalogs […]
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have a great track record. In addition to the usual stuff expected from law enforcement agencies (biased policing, zero accountability, civil rights abuses, excessive force deployment), the LASD has been home to deputy gangs pretty much since its inception. Its recent string of elected sheriffs hasn’t done anything to […]
Usually when we’re talking about companies engaging in astroturfing, it takes the form of companies or industry groups inputting comments supposedly from “the public” to support whatever thing they’re trying to accomplish. Utility groups creating a shell advocate organization to stifle reforms. Telecom companies employing astroturfers to smear an FCC nominee. Amazon cosplaying as a […]
First off, let’s just clear one thing up: the headline is a Simpson’s reference, not a dog whistle aimed at unions and/or the Jewish population of Israel. Facts in evidence: Let’s face it: the DEA doesn’t care what anybody thinks of it. It will continue to get funded. It will continue to say incredibly stupid […]
Would you believe it? We’ve got some more good news from the Supreme Court on Section 230. Remember that, before Gonzalez v. Google, a few of the Justices seemed to be begging for cases that would let them destroy Section 230. But then they (surprisingly) took the Gonzalez case, had to deal with many dozens […]
I cannot even begin to understand the unfettered amount of dumbshittery being passed off as legislating in the public’s interest by politicians far more performative than any drag queen I’ve had the pleasure of observing. Full disclosure: I never did live deep in the heart of Texas, which I assume is the cholesterol-clogged artery known […]
Have you been eager to update your IT skills and improve your knowledge of Cisco networking? With these Cisco CCNA 200-301 learning resources, you get instant access to a wealth of knowledge in one of the most in-demand fields of expertise. Completing these Cisco CCNA certification learning resources will equip you with the knowledge of […]
It is amazing the degree to which some people will engage in confirmation bias and believe absolute nonsense, even as the facts show the opposite is true. Over the past few months, we’ve gone through the various “Twitter Files” releases, and pointed out over and over again how the explanations people gave for them simply […]
We’ve noted for years how broadband usage caps are a pointless, unnecessary cash grab by telecom monopolies looking to nickel-and-dime consumers who already pay too much for broadband. The telecom industry’s original claim that the caps were necessary to “manage network congestion” were never true. Companies like Comcast used that claim for years to sell […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is TKnarr with a comment about Meta’s warning that it will remove news from Facebook and Instagram in California in response to the CJPA: I liken these laws to ones requiring newspapers not only to carry advertising but to pay the advertisers for each customer […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2018, the core Vevo product flopped in yet another example of record labels underestimating and misunderstanding technology, while the industry was displaying its hypocrisy in its latest legislative push. EU Parliament members were also playing hardball on their terrible copyright policies, while we looked at how Swedish copyright trolls […]
The brightest light in Flyover Country, USA underwent the growing pains of a coastal megatropolis following Minneapolis PD officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd — something that began as a response to allegedly fake $20 bill being passed at a local shop, but ended nine minutes later with Floyd lying dead under Chauvin’s unmoving […]
As everyone continues to demand that social media companies pay news orgs for the crime of sending them traffic, it’s becoming clear that fewer and fewer people are using social media for news any more, and social media sites simply are not a major driver of traffic to news orgs anyway. The PressGazette has had […]
It’s been a while since we last checked in on the esports industry or discussed any milestones it has reached. For a while there, we were seeing new ground broken on a nearly monthly basis, particularly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite all of that growth, we did mention that it was also […]
Earlier this month, we reported (via Charlie Savage of the New York Times) that the FBI had finally delivered its first reduction in Section 702 abuses in the entirety of its access to this particular NSA collection. The upstream collection touches a tremendous amount of foreign communications. It also captures communications from US persons communicating […]
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