Below are posts associated with the โlinkโ type.
๐ linkblog: Donald Trump Has Mark Zuckerberg By the Balls'
Not the headline I would have chosen, but very interesting argument here.
๐ linkblog: Meta Is Blocking Links to Decentralized Instagram Competitor Pixelfed'
Directly out of Musk’s playbook. All the more reason to ditch Meta for the fediverse.
๐ linkblog: An Amazon Delivery Confirmation Photo Is the Last Time a Palisades Resident Saw Her Burnt Down House'
The headline doesn’t really make the point, but the article is interesting; of course Amazon drivers would be sent into areas evacuated for fire.
๐ linkblog: Meta Deletes Trans and Nonbinary Messenger Themes'
Meta’s cynicism and groveling is pretty appalling.
๐ linkblog: Metaโs Moderation Modifications Mean Anti-LGBTQ Speech Is Welcome, While Pro-LGBTQ Speech Is Not'
Some more good writing on a bad situation.
๐ 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.
๐ linkblog: The Jawboning Double Standard: Brendan Carrโs Threats Are Way Worse Than What Biden Was Accused Of'
Yet more to demonstrate that “free speech” often means “right-wing speech.”
๐ linkblog: Facebook Deletes Internal Employee Criticism of New Board Member Dana White'
Moderating employees but not users seems telling to me.
๐ 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.
๐ 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).
๐ 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.
๐ linkblog: Elon Musk and the rightโs war on Wikipedia'
This is an excellent and detailed overview and I’m better for having read it.
๐ linkblog: Tintin and the fascists'
As someone who once owned Tintin au pays des Soviets (but also sold it more out of distaste of the art than the politics) and who is currently rereading a less-but-still-problematic classic Belgian bande dessinรฉe, I really appreciated these reflections.
I hadn’t realized that Tintin was about to enter the public domain, and that’s exciting! I’m more optimistic that Tintin can be reclaimed from its fascist, racist roots than Werd is. I worry that that’s because I haven’t fully confronted those roots, but I hope it’s because there’s an anarchist Tintin parody/remix out there that’s already demonstrated that the character can be repurposed for other means. I regret not buying the book when I had a chance to a month or two ago, but maybe Tintin in the public domain will allow me to find other subversive takes on the character.
๐ linkblog: โFree Speech Absolutistโ 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.
๐ linkblog: Evolution journal editors resign en masse'
More suckiness in the world of academic publishing.
๐ 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.
๐ linkblog: Iโm Tired of Pretending Physical Media Isnโt 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.
๐ linkblog: Death Of A Forum: How The UKโs 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.
๐ linkblog: Pregnant Kentucky woman cited for street camping while in labor'
Horrific story; not sure why we’re so eager to punish the unhoused.
๐ 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.
๐ linkblog: Pluralistic: Nurses whose shitty boss is a shitty app (17 Dec 2024) โ 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.
๐ linkblog: Flipboardโs Surf app is a big new idea about the future of social'
I don’t see myself pivoting away from Reeder, but this looks interesting, and I want to see more of this kind of app out there.