I care a lot about the future of social media. It’s how many of us learn about the world and connect to each other; putting something so important in the hands of a handful of centralized corporations has repeatedly proven itself to be harmful. That’s why I’m
Media
[Oliver Darcy at Status] I literally had to check to see if this was real: "The Onion has successfully acquired Infowars. The satirical news outlet purchased Alex Jones' right-wing conspiracy empire at a court-ordered auction, the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting announced
Media
[The Guardian] Given the reluctance to leave X among most publishers, the Guardian is taking a big leadership role here by refusing to continue to post to X: "This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform,
AI
[Michael Kennedy and Isobel Cockerell in Coda Story] Just one example of many of AI being used to take agency away from ordinary workers: "The upshot was, it took away our ability to advocate for patients. We couldn’t point to a score and say, ‘This patient is too
Notable Links
[Noah Hurowitz at The Intercept] This should be a five alarm fire: "Up for a potential fast-track vote next week in the House of Representatives, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, also known as H.R. 9495, would grant the secretary of the Treasury Department
Technology
[Sean Goedecke] This is very good. It's advertised as a piece about shipping in big tech companies, but honestly, I think it's true of many smaller companies too. It's not true in the smallest startups or for organizations with certain kinds of engineering cultures
Technology
[Signal] Signal has improved its group call functionality pretty significantly: "If you love group calls on Signal, but don’t want to create a group chat for every combination of your friends or colleagues, you’re in luck. Today we’re launching call links: Share a link with anyone
I’ve noticed a few mistaken assumptions circulating on social media lately, so I thought it was worth clarifying a few things around privacy and surveillance. Much of this depends on the idea of a threat model: a term that refers to the potential risks you face based on who
Media
[Damon Kiesow in Working Systems] Damon Kiesow, who is the Knight Chair in Digital Editing and Producing at the Missouri School of Journalism, writes: "We ourselves have torn down the wall between editorial and business interests if as journalists, our calculation here is not values-based. To wit: “But I
Technology
[Bill Fitzgerald] Bill Fitzgerald has updated his open source guide to personal privacy: "Conversations about privacy and security often focus on technology and give scant attention to the human, non-technological factors that affect personal privacy and security. This post covers a range of concrete steps we can all take
Technology
[Molly White] Unsure what to do now? Molly White has some solid ways to get started helping: ""Many of us have looked back on historic events where people have bravely stood up against powerful adversaries and wondered, “what would I have done?” Now is your chance to find
Technology
[Heather Bryant] Some good advice from Heather: "One practical thing you can do in as much depth as you like, identify a particular area of information that you care about or feel is important and protect it. Whether it's critical public data, old abandoned websites, or niche
