Lunatech @Lunatech@social.cleverlibre.org

Concerning the balloon from China...

With a renewed push for police reform, comes renewed scrutiny on the structures that shield police from being held accountable for their actions. #QualifiedImmunity makes it incredibly difficult to hold officials to account. #velshi http://ow.ly/560O50MJLzI

The CNET sleazy "journalism" AI fiasco and Tesla's bogus autopilot have something in common -- and it isn't good. REad this: https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/the-cnet-fake-news-fiasco-autopilot

The New York attorney general's office has announced a $410,000 fine against a stalkerware developer who used 16 companies to promote surveillance tools illegally.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ny-attorney-general-forces-spyware-vendor-to-alert-victims/

Microsoft is beating Google at its own game

Maybe OpenAI’s technology is a game changer. Maybe it’s just a party trick. Either way, Microsoft’s got it, and a lot of people think it’s amazing. That perception is important. Google now finds itself in a similar position that it helped put Microsoft in two decades ago: hoping it can release something better before it gets passed by.

#OpenAI #ChatGPT #microsoft #google #business #technology #tech #innovation

https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/1/26/23571710/microsoft-open-ai-chatgpt-google

It’s long been an open question as to why Donald Trump wasn’t charged in his hush money scandal. It appears the door is now open to a possible indictment.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/grand-jury-reportedly-hear-evidence-trump-hush-money-case-rcna68225

A toast to all those incredibly important #opensource people who unfortunately aren’t privileged enough to be able to afford the trip to #FOSDEM or have a company foot your bill. YOU ARE APPRECIATED!

A look at T2, a Twitter alternative founded by a former employee of Google's Area 120 to offer a "2007 Twitter" vibe that Musk's platform no longer supplies (Steven Levy/Wired)

https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-startup-t2-wants-to-terminate-twitter/
http://www.techmeme.com/230204/p9#a230204p9

@tzimmer_history The media conglomerates like not paying their fair share of taxes

@tzimmer_history Put some scrutiny on Iowa next. Nine anti-LGBTQ bills this legislative session alone. Removing fresh meat from a lost of goods SNAP participants can purchase. They’re reveling in their cruelty, and it’s all spearheaded by a extremist group called The Family Leader, which seems to control the Iowa GOP.

I know “What would you call it if it were happening elsewhere?” has become something of cliché. But ultimately, I am really just grasping at straws here, trying to convey how extreme and drastic these developments are - and how inadequate the response has been so far.

The New York Times, for instance, had no problem describing Orbán’s crusade against “liberal” education as part of an authoritarian, nationalistic project. They’re definitely treating Florida Orbán differently, approaching him through a deliberately normalizing lens.

My question is directed at those who are nominally in the pro-democracy camp, who claim to be standing against the forces of authoritarianism - specifically, it is directed at the institutions tasked with upholding and defending democratic culture.

Several people have rightfully pointed out that if this were to happen in Germany today, much of the American Right could be expected to cheer such authoritarian initiatives - we only have to look at their enthusiastic embrace of Viktor Orbán as a defender of white Christian patriarchy.

We dove deep into the situation in Florida in today’s “Is This Democracy” episode and dissected the authoritarian takeover of education, the escalating reactionary campaign to stifle, censor, and ban any dissent from the white nationalist woldview. This is a proper emergency. It needs to be treated as such. /end https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/13-the-murder-of-tyre-nichols-the/id1652741954?i=1000597862704

What would you say if the nation’s leading newspaper focused on how the illiberal leader of this hypothetical German state who was banning Jewish voices and was ruthlessly pursuing his authoritarian agenda was, in fact, taking on the “establishment” and successfully building “his brand”? 8/

Is the political and institutional response to what is happening here commensurate with the threat to academic freedom, free speech, and the pillars of democratic culture? Is the mainstream media coverage conveying how radical, how drastic, how dangerous this is? 7/

What would you say? Because while this is not a perfect analogy (analogies never are), it comes really close to capturing what is happening in Florida, and in red states around the country. And I believe that if something like this were happening in Germany, the reaction would be - and certainly should be - different. 6/

And what if I also told you that similar initiatives were being pushed in about half the country where these efforts to suppress, ostracize, and purge were viewed as a blueprint and were already being emulated, as evidenced by hundreds of bills outlawing critical thinking around anti-Semitism and systemic discrimination? 5/