Joshua Casey 😷 @JoshuaACasey@social.cleverlibre.org

@mmasnick NFT. Not Funding Twitter

'save the children' is going to kill the Internet

Is the de-platforming of journalism a dangerous attack on freedom of expression by a private company such as #Twitter? Yes. Has the same been happening before to sex workers, activists, LGBTQIA+ users etc., without the necessary attention by mainstream media and society? Also yes.

The great irony is that by having a "private" plane all to himself, Elon has bought the OPPOSITE of anonymity. If he flew commercial, or even just chartered planes for each trip, his travel patterns would be much more opaque. But my using an inherently trackable jet linked specifically to him makes his movements effectively public.

It must be tough to be a billionaire. So much money, so many tradeoffs.

A partial list of our reporters you can follow on Masto:

•Caroline Chen @carolinechen

•Annie Waldman @AnnieWaldman

•Perla Trevizo @Perla_Trevizo

•Jeremy Schwartz @JeremySchwartz

•Emily Hopkins @emilyhopkins

•Ken Armstrong @bykenarmstrong

•Mariam Elba @mariamelba

•Jessica Lussenhop @lussenpop

•Ellis Simani @emsimani

•Justin Elliott @elliottjustin

•Max Blau @maxblau

•Andy Kroll @andykroll

•Kartikay Mehrotra @kartikay

•Jeremy Kohler @jeremykohler

•Neil Bedi @neilbedi

Feasible.

There's a very broad bill tucked into the must-pass defense funding bill (the #NDAA) that would allow judges to censor online information about themselves. Here is a good write-up by @cathygellis on Techdirt. @flp publishes some of what's lumped into the bill as "protected information." We are looking at our options. @danielschuman has also been tracking this at @demandprogress.

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/15/congress-is-about-to-make-this-post-telling-you-when-to-celebrate-scotus-justice-birthdays-illegal/

Prediction: Twitter's ban of Fediverse links won't kill the Fediverse.

Turns out banning journalists from your walled-garden, monopolistic, dumpster fire of a bird site doesn’t go down too well - @openrightsgroup “while the Open Rights Group urged journalists to set up accounts on the rival platform Mastodon.” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/16/twitter-elon-musk-suspension-journalists-sets-dangerous-precedent-un-warns #Twitter #infosec

With each new surge of Mastodon users, I feel the need to point out:

1. Welcome!

2. There is a learning curve here, but most people find it short and not very steep. Play around, explore. You'll get it.

3. Lots of people are willing to help.

4. Yes, it's different than Twitter. Sometimes in good ways, sometimes not. But you'll figure it out.

5. With surges especially, things sometimes get slow/glitchy, but they usually get fixed pretty quick.

Be patient.

📣 PLZ READ AND BOOST!

I've been working on #digitalrights and #techpolicy issues since right after the #SOPA blackout.

We spend most of our time trying to STOP bad legislation (think: #EarnItAct, #SESTA FOSTA, #KOSA etc)

It's *so rare* we get a chance to pass ACTUALLY GOOD legislation.

We have one of those once in a lifetime chances right now: the #BigTech #antitrust bills #AICOA and #OAMA

There is a real chance these bills make it into the #omnibus. Do the thing https://www.AntitrustVoteNow.com