Olives @olives@social.cleverlibre.org

https://www.thefire.org/news/fire-fifth-circuit-protect-our-public-libraries FIRE gets involved in lawsuits against the book bans too. They filed a brief with the court.

Last year, they expanded what they did from just academic freedom to also become a principled defender of freedom of expression.

happy pride month

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings The Nazis also burnt books, censored porn, and went after sex researchers.

@kuroi_tengu Sounds like populism. People like this talk a bunch about "freedom", but then, they work to dismantle civil rights / human rights, and people end up with far less freedom.

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/03/1179990709/tennessee-drag-show-law-ruling Tennessee's drag show ban ruled unconstitutional.

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/30/perhaps-gpt-is-not-ready-for-the-supreme-court/ Lawyer sanctioned for using ChatGPT to generate nonsense legal filings with non-existent citations.

I seriously doubt an "AI tool" could replace programmers. It might be able to create a toy, but it will fail very, very badly in the real world. Is the AI bubble finally getting to the point, again, where people are hyping it being able to do anything and everything?

This is not AI related, but there have been a number of failed "allow normies to code" type projects over the years and they have gone over about as well as you'd expect. The problem is more that "normies" cannot fundamentally grasp programming (even concepts like scoping), rather than lacking a "more powerful tool".

Also, ironically, the most powerful allow "normies" to "code" tool ever is Microsoft Excel.

Apparently, one of Elon's kids is trans, he fell out with his wife over that (presumably, Mr. Musk doesn't approve of that), split with her, and he adopted an anti-trans position. Is that accurate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89ZkydX0FPw If you're wondering what happened to Article 13 (renamed to Article 17), it is still slowly being rolled out.

A few countries like Finland outright decided not to implement it at all and the Commission got really mad at them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1efOs0BsE0g I wonder what has come of Julian Assange. Is he still sitting in Belmarsh Prison?

There is an interesting term called "safety by design" which I've seen going around among the usual suspects. It is essentially a very "clever" euphemism for censorship and an excuse for government / company over-reach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kecnSHmznic If you're wondering how it's going in Australia, they're only banning the right to protest.

https://reason.com/2023/05/31/childproofing-the-internet/ They are all awful bills which trample on human rights. They're also clearly unconstitutional and it's very unclear whether they would even meet their goals.

It would, however, expand government power, and that is always a temptation for authorities. You should contact representatives to oppose these kinds of bills.

From what I've seen, the German AfD feels like a mix of the U.S. Republican Party and Marjorie Taylor Greene. A mix of conspiracy, populism, nationalism, anti-Ukraine, and scaremongering about minorities.

For instance, if it was the U.S. and Republicans, a court would very likely intervene with the age verification nonsense that Schmidt was pushing. Or with the anti-LGBT bills they've been pushing.

Or with the obscenity law they tried to abuse in Virginia in 2022, the entire bill was ruled unconstitutional (they tried to ban a LGBT book). These kinds of protections against government over-reach.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/germanys-centrist-parties-alarmed-as-poll-shows-growing-support-for-far-right/ This is why it is important to have a strong constitution which can actually hold the government to account.

"save the children from the evil porns"

Oh no, someone under 18 might see pornography. Whatever will we do. The sky will fall. This is the worst thing ever... This is so stupid.

What's wild about the whole Schmidt saga is how one obscure bureaucrat from one particular region in Germany decided he wanted to save the children from the evil porns (a red flag as ever), so he ran a campaign, filed lawsuits, and twisted the arms of other people to go in and start harassing adult creators.

One. Guy.

I have concerns about Twitter's handling of Germany, in particular, in regards to handing over user information in response to Tobias Schmidt's Nazi harassment campaign against sex workers, and even, a sex researcher.

Did Twitter push back against these governmental requests? Or did they bow like in Turkey to authoritarians?