Non-theist Christian and elder in Community of Christ. I have Mormon roots and aspirations to do better with justice and peacemaking—especially in the digital sphere but also in Lexington, Kentucky, the U.S., and the world more broadly.
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🔗 linkblog: Meta Deletes Trans and Nonbinary Messenger Themes'
Meta’s cynicism and groveling is pretty appalling.
🔗 linkblog: Meta’s Moderation Modifications Mean Anti-LGBTQ Speech Is Welcome, While Pro-LGBTQ Speech Is Not'
Some more good writing on a bad situation.
🔗 linkblog: Facebook Is Censoring 404 Media Stories About Facebook's Censorship'
I especially appreciate this article in the wake of Meta’s recent announcements. There are cases in which content moderation is inconsistent or overreaching, and there are cases in which less moderation fixes the problem. However, it’s the arbitrary distinctions and self-serving nature of the changes that make the “free expression” argument so flimsy.
🔗 linkblog: The Jawboning Double Standard: Brendan Carr’s Threats Are Way Worse Than What Biden Was Accused Of'
Yet more to demonstrate that “free speech” often means “right-wing speech.”
🔗 linkblog: Facebook Deletes Internal Employee Criticism of New Board Member Dana White'
Moderating employees but not users seems telling to me.
🔗 linkblog: Meta abandons fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram in favor of Community Notes'
Personally, I’ve come around to the idea that fewer restrictions, “Community Notes”-style responses, and lots of personal control over what one sees could work better as content moderation. It’s interesting to see Bluesky take some of these approaches, for example!
Here, though, this seems like it’s bending the knee to the Trump administration, and I can’t imagine any of this being done in good faith. What a disappointment Meta continues to be.
🔗 linkblog: Instagram blocked teens from searching LGBTQ-related content for months'
See, this is the kind of content moderation we ought to worry about (and why “keep the kids safe” narratives can go horribly wrong).
🔗 linkblog: Corporations as Paperclip Maximizers: AI, Data, and the Future of Learning | Punya Mishra's Web'
There are some helpful thoughts in here. I think most of my concerns about generative AI are less about the technology itself and more about the corporate interest in and control of it.
🔗 linkblog: Elon Musk and the right’s war on Wikipedia'
This is an excellent and detailed overview and I’m better for having read it.
🔗 linkblog: ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Suspends Critics On ExTwitter, Asks People To Be Nicer'
Bookmarking as yet another example of Elon Musk’s free speech reputation being undeserved.
🔗 linkblog: Trump told SCOTUS he plans to make a deal to save TikTok'
What a stupid thing this whole “banning TikTok” thing has proved to be.
🔗 linkblog: I’m Tired of Pretending Physical Media Isn’t Still Better Than Streaming Digital'
I’m not terribly attentive to music or film quality, but the complaints about access to streaming media resonated with me.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility, by James Carse
I bought this book well over a decade ago. Preparing for grad school, where I expected to study games and learning, I was fascinated by the idea of a work of philosophy that used games as its central metaphor. Well, it isn’t the easiest book to get through, so I made some progress and some notes (most of which missed the point) and then let it drop for a long time.
🔗 linkblog: Death Of A Forum: How The UK’s Online Safety Act Is Killing Communities'
I don’t like Big Tech, but I’ve become more wary of regulation in recent years because folks like Masnick have compellingly made this argument over and over: It’s the smaller, better companies and sites that suffer the most from it.
🔗 linkblog: Pregnant Kentucky woman cited for street camping while in labor'
Horrific story; not sure why we’re so eager to punish the unhoused.
🔗 linkblog: Christ in the Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament (2023 Christmas Message by Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac) | Red Letter Christians Podcast'
I’m bookmarking this so I can sit with it and return to it. It is powerful, searing, and condemning.
🔗 linkblog: Pluralistic: Nurses whose shitty boss is a shitty app (17 Dec 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
I don’t think I’ve ever been more angry about the gig economy than when reading this post.
🔗 linkblog: To Log Into WordPress, You Now Have To Agree Pineapple on Pizza Is Good'
Look, I don’t know all the finer points of this debate, but Mullenweg has repeatedly struck me as petty and juvenile, so it’s hard to imagine taking his side on any of the more substantive issues here.
🔗 linkblog: Pluralistic: Social media needs (dumpster) fire exits (14 Dec 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
Some more reflection by Doctorow on Bluesky and Mastodon.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for The Liars' Gospel, by Naomi Alderman
Some of my favorite stories are those that are big and well known enough that they have invited us to retell them over and over in new ways. This is why I will never tire of new takes on Spider-Man even if I agree that cinematic takes on the character have been rebooted too many times recently (also, put classic Marvel characters in the public domain!). It’s also why, after reading The Future, I was drawn in by Naomi Alderman’s take on the four gospels, writing four stories that barely intersect with each other and barely intersect with Jesus, retelling the gospels in a new way.
🔗 linkblog: A Message Of Hope From Global Tetrahedron'
This is the best possible response to a bad situation.