Technology
[Emma Roth at The Verge] I think this was almost inevitable: "On Tuesday, a California District Court judge ordered Automattic to stop blocking WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org resources and interfering with its plugins." Automattic is going to file a counterclaim, pointing out that the ruling
Technology
[Lindsey Lionheart O'Brien at Mozilla Distilled] This is a rebrand and reorientation for Mozilla: "Mozilla isn’t just another tech company — we’re a global crew of activists, technologists and builders, all working to keep the internet free, open and accessible. For over 25 years, we’ve
Technology
[Mathew Ingram] As Mathew Ingram points out, Australia's new social media law is a well-intentioned error. He quotes an Australian human rights commission dissent which points out that: "For children in marginalised, remote, or vulnerable situations, social media offers a lifeline. It connects children with disability to
Technology
[Joseph Cox at 404 Media] This is good to see: "The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced sweeping action against some of the most important companies in the location data industry on Tuesday, including those that power surveillance tools used by a wide spread of U.S. law enforcement agencies
Technology
[Sam Biddle at The Intercept] In the face of Trump's promise to conduct mass deportations, The Intercept set out to find out who in tech would be collaborators: "To see whether corporate America will support Trump’s promised anti-immigrant operation, The Intercept reached out to data and
Technology
[Joel Gascoigne] I always appreciate Joel's updates. "Early on, my dream was just to create a tool that made it easy to Tweet consistently, build it for myself and others, and make enough money to cover my living expenses and go full-time on it. The number for
Technology
[Tyler Fisher] Tyler Fisher has built a Nuzzel-like service for Bluesky: "Sill connects to your Bluesky and Mastodon accounts and aggregates the most popular links in your network. (Yes, a little like Nuzzel.)" It's a personal project for now but there's more to come:
Technology
[Wes Davis at The Verge] Interesting announcement from the European Commission: "The European Union says Twitter alternative Bluesky violates the EU Digital Services Act rules around information disclosure, reports Reuters. But since Bluesky isn’t yet big enough to be considered a “very large online platform” under the DSA,
Technology
[Dan Milmo at The Guardian] The Department of Justice has filed its proposed remedies to Google's illegal monopoly over search services: "The proposals filed to a Washington federal court include the forced sale of the Chrome browser and a five-year ban from entering the browser market; a
Technology
[Khadija Alam and Russell Brandom at Rest of World] Mobile internet subscriber growth is significantly slowing globally: "From 2015 to 2021, the survey consistently found over 200 million coming online through mobile devices around the world each year. But in the last two years, that number has dropped to
Technology
[Joanna Chiu and Viola Zhou at Rest of World] Tech companies like Microsoft and Google have, through their accelerators, supported startups that provide censorship and policing technologies in China. It's perhaps not a surprise that they've supported these endeavors - after all, startups look to find
Technology
[Renee Dudley, with research by Doris Burke, at ProPublica] Security lapses in Microsoft's own products led to hacks that in turn pushed President Biden to ask for help from it and other tech companies to improve White House security. Microsoft saw it as an opportunity to lock the