DecaturNature @DecaturNature@social.cleverlibre.org

A tech company source used to make me turn off my phone before meetings because of concern that his employer would check to see if our phones were near each other. This was not a crazy concern it turns out! TikTok tried something like this to hunt down leakers: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/technology/byte-dance-tik-tok-internal-investigation.html

Donate to support internet privacy & free speech by December 31, and you’ll help EFF unlock seven Year-End Challenge grants.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/2022-year-end-challenge

#eff #privacy #freedom

It is perplexing how so many people are excited for Artificial Intelligence yet seemingly do not care much about the very intelligent beings all around them. Spending just 30min learning about how we treat animals or what the state of biodiversity is, will shock & change anyone.

In Alaska, wood frogs freeze for seven months, thaw and hop away.

https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alaskan-frozen-frogs-20140723-story.html

#naturephotography #nature #frogs #alaska

Those who follow me on The Bad Place have heard me repeat this a thousand times, But once more won't hurt.

Election security is incredibly complex, full of seemingly impossible tradeoffs. But disinformation about supposed "rigged" elections is perhaps the most serious threat to election integrity today,

The best defense is to learn how elections actualy work! Becoming a poll worker is a great way to do that

Also, this National Academies study is a terrific resource:

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25120/securing-the-vote-protecting-american-democracy

Journalist profiles on the Washington Post can now include Mastodon links. Here's what it looks like: https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/drew-harwell/

FYI white people like to talk about racism as ‘offensive’ or that our reactions to it are ‘being offended’ so that it becomes solely subjective and doesn’t calculate the very real harm it causes.

It’s also about framing it as interpersonal rather than systemic.

I'm about to make saying "build a community not an audience" a blockable offense. Some people need an audience to keep a roof over their head and food on the table, and it's the only option for many marginalized people who aren't able to be gainfully employed in society due to bigotry or lack of support. What do you want them to do, just starve because a fascist burned down their only means of generating income?

And why the hell are you letting brands own the word "audience" anyway, and pretending it's some dirty thing now? The arts have used that word respectfully for centuries, long before brands came around

I'm sorry I keep posting about this but as a working slash often starving artist the mastodon interaction purity police is really starting to get to me

NEW, from me: Video evidence appears to show right-wing streamer Tomas Morales illegally entering the Capitol on Jan 6. Finally explains the mysterious 16-hour gap in Morales's Twitter on that day. #Jan6 #January6 https://newsletter.extremism.io/archive/video-appears-to-show-right-wing-streamer-tomas/

Oh. my. god.

Madison Square Garden used facial recognition to identify and stop a mom from attending a Christmas show with her kid because she's an attorney at a firm who is engaged in litigation with them.

This is why it's not enough to just ban government and law enforcement use of #facialrecognition. There are so many ways private companies and even individuals can abuse #biometric #surveillance tech.

#BanFacialRecognition entirely. Yesterday.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/msgs-facial-recognition-stops-mom-from-attending-christmas-show-with-child/4004471/

Y'all do realize that poor people pay more for slower Internet service than those in wealthy neighborhoods

One recent study found that poor, mostly black and brown neighborhoods in LA County pay anywhere from $10 to $40 more per month than mostly white, higher-income neighborhoods for the exact same service

Wrote a story about it. Wanna read it, here it go

https://muninetworks.org/content/study-low-income-la-county-neighborhoods-pay-more-internet-service-wealthier-neighborhoods

Today’s social media status quo isn’t cutting it, so Mozilla is exploring an alternative here on Mastodon. In early 2023, Mozilla will be testing a publicly accessible instance in the Fediverse at Mozilla.Social. We will keep you updated, but for now learn more here: mzl.la/3BNXQMQ

A mom goes to Madison Square Garden with her daughter and a Girl Scout troop. She is nabbed in the lobby and ejected by security after their facial recognition tech identified her as a person who works for a law firm that is suing MSG!

Remember that shit we warned about with facial recognition? It's here.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/face-recognition-tech-gets-girl-scout-mom-booted-from-rockettes-show-due-to-her-employer/4004677/

Jesus everloving christ this chart from @ourworldindata showing life expectancy loss due to covid. The US & Bulgaria lost 3 years (=2 decades of progress), but Mexico, India and South Africa lost 4 years - 3 decades of progress in Mexico's case. The macro-scale human cost is immense.

Another great piece from @pluralistic
https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/better-failure/#let-my-tweeters-go

🛠️ I'm noticing a general problem with #organizing/ #activism on here: finding/hailing folks with interest in a campaign.

Two suggestions:

1, get a *specific* hashtag going *early on* so people can find, follow, boost that specific campaign/issue--and point it out so people know to use it;

2, Consider using a "groups" tool people can subscribe to. If you tag the tool when you post, everyone who subscribes will see the post (see: https://a.gup.pe/).