Werd I/O
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

NotableLinks

Meta in Myanmar (full series)

Erin Kissane's full series about Meta's conduct in Myanmar and its involvement in the genocide of the Rohingya. This is required reading for anyone in tech, and good for everyone who touches any of Meta's products to know. "Meta bought and maneuvered its

20 Oct 2023

NotableLinks

Mastodon Is the Good One

"I’ve now been using [Mastodon] for about two months and I am here to tell you that it is, in principle, what we should want the internet to be. If you have been remotely interested in Mastodon but had reservations about joining because you thought it would be

20 Oct 2023

NotableLinks

To Save Democracy, We Must Stand Up for Strong Encryption

Encryption has been perennially under attack since (at least) the establishment of the commercial internet. Lawmakers argue that backdoors will make us safer; in reality they will harm journalists, activists, domestic violence victims, and lots of vulnerable communities, and put real chilling effects on free expression. The bottom line, for

20 Oct 2023

NotableLinks

I'm banned for life from advertising on Meta. Because I teach Python.

Reuven Lerner was banned from advertising on Meta products for life because he offers Python and Pandas training - and the company's automated system thought he was dealing in live snakes and bears. And then he lost the appeal because that, too, was automated. This is almost Douglas

19 Oct 2023

NotableLinks

Everything Looks Like A Nail

Ed Zitron is characteristically on-point and razor sharp on the topic of Marc Andreessen's ludicrous "techno-optimism" manifesto. I agree with him: it's a cynical, disingenuous piece that has nothing to do with optimism. "In 5000 words, Marc’s only real suggestion is that

19 Oct 2023

NotableLinks

The Problem With Jon Stewart ending over AI and China coverage

If tech companies are going to be credible content producers, they need to be able to erect a firewall between business and editorial. Contrast Apple trying to force Jon Stewart’s hand on China and AI here with John Oliver’s obviously free hand on his show over on Max.

19 Oct 2023

Revamping link posts

I’ve been increasingly uncomfortable with how links show up on this site, and their intersection with longer-form blog posts. Last night I made a few adjustments: 1. Blog posts and links on the site now have the same font size, resetting the information architecture to display them as equals.

19 Oct 2023

My setup, October 2023

I thought it would be interesting to detail some of my day-to-day setup, Uses This style. This week I'm completely independent, so I'm only using my own hardware and software, which feels like a good time to take stock. This is my stack - I'

19 Oct 2023

NotableLinks

Hackers Target Company That Vets Police Data Requests for Tech Giants

Anyone that sets themselves up to be a single point of failure like this will be a target. And here we are, with hackers now able to make authentic-looking police requests for data. Something that caught my eye in these screenshots: they include Authy, Twilio's 2-factor authentication app.

19 Oct 2023

NotableLinks

Peter Thiel Was an FBI Informant

This came out of left-field for me: not only Peter Thiel but also Charles Johnson are FBI informants. The former fed information about foreign influence in Silicon Valley; the latter about January 6th and related movements. There seems to be an angle of retribution here from Johnson, who made a

19 Oct 2023

NotableLinks

To obscure the risks of gas stoves, utilities used Big Tobacco tactics

I sometimes wonder what is being concealed from us today that we'll find out has been killing us decades later? Are these sorts of efforts underway for cellphones or food supplements or some other ubiquitous good? I mean, probably. We'll have to wait and see what.

18 Oct 2023

More questions to guide technical adoption

I’ve made a few updates to my technical assessment rubric, which is designed to help guide teams as they assess whether or not to adopt new internet services and software libraries. The response has been pretty great: some folks have described using it in practice, while others have sent

18 Oct 2023
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Werd I/O explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. It's independently published by Ben Werdmuller, reader-supported, and always free to read.