Big tech is a threat to our country.

[DMC]

But if you want examples to illustrate the concept, just look at musical artists who have been censored yet still have top selling albums. It doesn't mean none of their stuff is allowed. This is why censoring and banning are different things.

[Winehole23]

You shouldn't need examples to understand that entities with top performing comments can still experience censorship. If you understand that and admit it, why are you pretending to show a contradiction?

who got censored? I don't think the various posters claiming it were talking in the abstract, are you?

[DMC]

who got censored?

Another red herring.

Your comment basically says

Person claims censorship
Person has published comments
Censorship claim debunked

[Winehole23]

Another red herring.

Your comment basically says

Person claims censorship
Person has published comments
Censorship claim debunkedwhat person? what claim?

[DMC]

just waving your hands again, got it

So you just want to post random shit and not actually support your statements. When challenged to support your assertion, you challenge them to disprove it.

[Winehole23]

I didn't make any claims.

Does big tech really pick on conservatives, or is that more or less a persecution complex?

[Winehole23]

I was poking fun at conservative persecution fantasies, not saying that censorship doesn't exist, silly man.

You sure wrap yourself up like a pretzel spoiling for an argument, tho.

[DMC]

Keep building your worldview support structure with random confirmation bias posts and ignore any interlopers with their hands raised.

[Winehole23]

Keep building your worldview support structure with random confirmation bias posts and ignore any interlopers with their hands raised.I didn't ignore you. I even replied to the pile of hay you mounded up in the form of an argument.

[ChumpDumper]

:lol DMC falling apart

[DMC]

I didn't ignore you. I even replied to the pile of hay you mounded up in the form of an argument.

:lol now you're just lying flat out and being evasive.

I busted you tippy toeing. Carry on, you're not going to address it without squirming about.

[Winehole23]

:lol now you're just lying flat out and being evasive.

I busted you tippy toeing. Carry on, you're not going to address it without squirming about.You threw some straw and declared victory after some fussing and fuming. Very typical progression, tbh.

[Ef-man]

You threw some straw and declared victory after some fussing and fuming. Very typical progression, tbh.

What did you do to dmc to cause him so much grief or did you send him a blurred dick pic?

For a while, it seemed that SR21 was his main squeeze but dmc has been interviewing you day in and day out.

Would not be surprised if SR21 becomes jealous. :lol

[Winehole23]

What did you do to dmc to cause him so much grief or did you send him a blurred dick pic?

For a while, it seemed that SR21 was his main squeeze but dmc has been interviewing you day in and day out.

Would not be surprised if SR21 becomes jealous. :lolI've been grudge of the week since a little before snowpocolyse thread and the DMC bingo card. I have little doubt sr21 will remain on DMC's carousel of grudges as long as it spins.

[boutons_deux]

Even when ADL researchers report persistent Holocaust denial,

Facebook reluctant to take it down

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/12/1/2067109/-Even-when-ADL-researchers-report-persistent-Holocaust-denial-Facebook-reluctant-to-take-it-down

raised a Jew, and gives to Jewish groups, but keeping FB ad revenue high and maintaining "engagement" overrides ethics, morals

[DMC]

People who point out my lies and spin hold a grudge against me. Now excuse me while I work on the DMC Bingo card.

[ChumpDumper]

lol mad

[Winehole23]

more ventriloquism.

DMC's conversion into a full-time crankypants troll has been amusing.

[DMC]

more ventriloquism.

DMC's conversion into a full-time crankypants troll has been amusing.

It's revealing that you've spent your life doing low wage shit and you want a system of government that will relieve you of the responsibility of doing so.

You're just like everyone else - do what's best for you only you pretend it's in the public interest, maybe to help you sleep better at night. Lord knows you need to.

[ChumpDumper]

:lol DMC goes full class warfare

[Winehole23]

It's revealing that you've spent your life doing low wage shit and you want a system of government that will relieve you of the responsibility of doing so.

You're just like everyone else - do what's best for you only you pretend it's in the public interest, maybe to help you sleep better at night. Lord knows you need to.

You're not familiar with my career path. Me and my wife are in the 58th percentile of household income, with no dependents. We have a pretty nice life. We don't qualify for handouts that I'm aware of -- I've never had to check. We're fortunate.

[Winehole23]

:lol DMC goes full class warfare"U ar a greedy poor" :lol

[DMC]

You're not familiar with my career path. Me and my wife are in the 58th percentile of household income, with no dependents. We have a pretty nice life. We don't qualify for handouts that I'm aware of -- I've never had to check. We're fortunate.


"U ar a greedy poor" :lol

Greedy poor? no, Slightly above average income and want to "level the playing field"? Sure.

I'm not the one who thinks self preservation is a greedy concept, that'd be you, Karl. If you could just lower the bar on handouts though, things would be more "equitable".

I see you. You're not fooling me with your "it's about the community" shtick.

[Ef-man]

"U ar a greedy poor" :lol

:lol

You have him melting down and editing his posts!

[DMC]

:lol

You have him melting down and editing his posts!

You exist here at my pleasure. There's been no other use for you and you've fulfilled your role well. Keep it up.

[Ef-man]

You exist here at my pleasure. There's been no other use for you and you've fulfilled your role well. Keep it up.

“You do not troll me, I troll you.”

Idiot. :lol

[ChumpDumper]

You exist here at my pleasure. There's been no other use for you and you've fulfilled your role well. Keep it up.You reply to my posts at my pleasure. Keep it up.

[DMC]

https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/85926192/turd-twin-powers-activate-form-of-a-couple-faggots.jpg

[Winehole23]

Greedy poor? no, Slightly above average income and want to "level the playing field"? Sure.

I'm not the one who thinks self preservation is a greedy concept, that'd be you, Karl. If you could just lower the bar on handouts though, things would be more "equitable".

I see you. You're not fooling me with your "it's about the community" shtick.you can’t see the community at all, Hans Hermann. :lol

[DMC]

you can’t see the community at all, Hans Herman. :lol

Since you serve them with your essential waiting job, I'm sure you do. :lol

[Winehole23]

Btw, thanks for the promotion from the demimonde to the petit bourgeois, very generous of you, sir!

[Winehole23]

Since you serve them with your essential waiting job, I'm sure you do. :lolI've moved up to the managerial stratum, but totally agree. Hospitality is essential. I feel no shame serving other people, in fact I get a lot of enjoyment from it. I meet awesome people every day and watch them have a good time.

Pay is pretty good, too. Not sure why you cast derision on it, I would guess you get waited on a lot.

[Winehole23]

Do you despise your waiter and the gal who turns your bed?

Sad!

[Winehole23]

the exception is Germany


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FHOEWlcXMAQ8BTE?format=jpg&name=largehttps://www.pnas.org/content/119/1/e2025334119

[Winehole23]

Antitrust lawsuit against FB proceeds


A federal judge on Tuesday allowed the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against Facebook (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/technology/facebook-ftc-antitrust-suit.html) to move forward, rejecting Facebook’s request to dismiss the case and handing the agency a major victory in its quest to curtail the power of the biggest tech companies.


The judge, James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, said last year (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/technology/facebook-ftc-lawsuit.html) that the F.T.C. had not provided sufficient evidence that the company, which has since renamed itself Meta, had a monopoly in social media and abused that power by harming competition. The agency refiled the case in August (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/technology/ftc-facebook-antitrust.html), and on Tuesday Judge Boasberg said that it had provided adequate support.


But he also included some caveats. Judge Boasberg said the agency could proceed with its claims that the company abused its monopoly power through acquisitions, which the agency has described as a “buy-or-bury” strategy. He dismissed, however, the agency’s charge that Facebook violated antitrust laws by cutting off third parties from its platform.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/technology/facebook-antitrust-ftc.html

[Winehole23]

Amazing stuff coming out in the Texas antitrust suit against Google

1482054635485642753

1482055019587424260

[Winehole23]

The original WSJ reporting


The newly unredacted details provide more information about a series of programs that Google ran named Project Bernanke, Reserve Price Optimization and Dynamic Revenue Share. The Bernanke program has been previously reported on, but the newly unredacted complaint reveals that it had three versions between 2010 and 2019.


In the first version, Google misled publishers and advertisers to believe they were participating in a “second-price auction,” where the winner pays the price of the second-highest bid, when using its advertising exchange, AdX, according to allegations from the complaint. However, under Google’s Bernanke program, AdX would at times knock out the second-highest bid, allowing the third-highest bid to win, thus depriving the publisher of revenue, according to the complaint. At the same time, Google would charge advertisers the price of the second-highest bid and pocket the difference, the complaint said.


Google pooled the advertisers’ overpayments and used the money to manipulate auctions on its systems, at times boosting bids from advertisers bidding through its ad-buying tools to ensure it would win an auction it otherwise wouldn’t have, the complaint said.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-misled-publishers-and-advertisers-unredacted-lawsuit-alleges-11642176036

[Winehole23]

Updates from the unredacted lawsuit:


The new complaint also claims that Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook (fine! Meta) CEO Mark Zuckerberg approved the 2018 Jedi Blue pact whereby Facebook agreed not to create its own header bidding product in exchange for Google giving Facebook information as well as speed and other advantages in auctions.


The rise of header bidding around 2015 was a big threat to Google because it gave rival exchanges the ability to compete with Google on a more equal footing.


The previously unredacted suit references an email sent by an unnamed Google executive who wrote that header bidding had the potential to lower Google’s profit margins to around 5% from 20%, thereby threatening Google’s ability to justify its fees.


Google then allegedly hatched a plan to squash header bidding by striking partnerships and developing software to protect its position, including Open Bidding, which allowed publishers to route their inventory to multiple exchanges at the same time.


The purpose of the overall “Jedi” program, so named because Google was playing a “Jedi mind trick” on the industry, was to get publishers to stop using header bidding on their own.
https://www.adexchanger.com/online-advertising/more-details-revealed-on-project-bernanke-and-jedi-blue-in-newly-unsealed-google-suit/

[ElNono]

UK Gov't Plans Publicity Blitz To Undermine Privacy of Your Chats

The UK government is set to launch a multi-pronged publicity attack on end-to-end encryption (https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/revealed-uk-government-publicity-blitz-to-undermine-privacy-encryption-1285453/), Rolling Stone has learned. From the report:One key objective: mobilizing public opinion against Facebook's decision to encrypt its Messenger app. The Home Office has hired the M&C Saatchi advertising agency -- a spin-off of Saatchi and Saatchi, which made the "Labour Isn't Working" election posters, among the most famous in UK political history -- to plan the campaign, using public funds. According to documents reviewed by Rolling Stone, one the activities considered as part of the publicity offensive is a striking stunt -- placing an adult and child (both actors) in a glass box, with the adult looking "knowingly" at the child as the glass fades to black. Multiple sources confirmed the campaign was due to start this month, with privacy groups already planning a counter-campaign.

[Winehole23]

1489403639458418693

[Winehole23]

1489404910445682689

[Winehole23]

Elon Musk has updated his NeuraLink brain implant:

PebCB0IIANII would say Elon has reached cartoonish levels of depravity, but he's hardly done. Human trials are next.

1491857848149561369

[Winehole23]

Judge invites plaintiffs to file for sanctions against FB and their lawyers for delaying discovery.

1491934173522763776

[Winehole23]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/film/The%20Island%20of%20Dr%20Moreau/moreau5-xlarge.jpg



The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed a complaint against the research, saying it caused "extreme suffering" on the monkeys, as they “had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and were left to suffer and die”.

The complaint addresses both Neuralink and the University of California who partnered in this experiment between 2017 and 2020. In the experiment, researchers implanted small devices into the skulls of macaque monkeys.

[/COLOR]
[COLOR=var(--read-col)]The PCRM, through obtaining health records and necropsy reports, said the documents reveal that the monkeys have been suffering "extreme psychological distress" as a result of the crude surgeries.

Neuralink used something called "BioGlue" which destroyed regions of the monkeys' brains, causing devastating psychological effects, including anxiety, vomiting, poor appetite, hair loss and self-mutilating behavior. Some even removed their own fingers.

In response, Neuralink called the complaint "misleading", saying in a blog post that the company [COLOR=var(--grey-dark-two)]“did and continues to meet federally mandated standards."

Addressing the deaths of the monkeys, Neuralink attributed the deaths to "terminal procedures" where the monkeys were euthanized after surgery.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/technology/elon-musks-neuralink-destroyed-monkeys-brains-before-killing

[Winehole23]

"hard-core culture"

1492199510176673795 (https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1492199510176673795?s=20&t=pB3RnUyA5KKNzwamk5SbdQ)

[Adam Lambert]

:lmao :lmao

https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-truth-social-devin-nunes-cow-joke-censored-2022-2


Matt Ortega, a web developer, tried to create an account called "@DevinNunesCow" — but tweeted that his account was banned by Truth Social due to "social community guidelines violations."

[Thread]

"hard-core culture"

1492199510176673795 (https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1492199510176673795?s=20&t=pB3RnUyA5KKNzwamk5SbdQ)

& back sassing MF Biden.

[Winehole23]

market correction


The Nasdaq 100 is currently in its third bear market of the last 5 years.


https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/thuird.jpg (https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/thuird.jpg)

Tech stocks are getting vaporized. Amazon fell 5.6% today, wiping out all the gains going back to July 2020. Netflix and Facebook are trading at the same level they were at in 2018.
The three strongest names in the group, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, are finally losing their bids. All are in correction territory.


The amount of market cap that’s being sucked out of these names is without precedent. The seven biggest stocks in the United States are $3 trillion lower today than they were at their combined peaks.


https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/peak-market-.jpg (https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/peak-market-.jpg)

Facebook has shed more market cap than any other stock in the world. $567 billion wiped out. $510 billion remain.


The somewhat messy chart below is sorted by market cap decline. Fun fact; PayPal is the 20th biggest company in the S&P 500 and has the ignominious honor of losing more market cap than all but 7 companies. A 70% decline in seven months for a mega-cap company is really something else.


https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/tech-wreck-.jpg (https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/tech-wreck-.jpg)

It’s hard to find a lot of positives to say about the current market environment, but I’ll try anyway; These businesses are cheaper today than they were a year ago. Okay, that’s all I got for now.
https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2022/03/08/theres-blood-in-the-streets-2/

[Winehole23]

comparison with energy


Since the inception of the Bloomberg Commodities Index in 1991, it’s up a total of 24%.


https://awealthofcommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/%5EBC_chart-2.png

If you squint hard enough, you can see an annual return of just 0.7%.

That’s not only worse than the 2.5% inflation rate in that time; it’s a lower return than you would have earned parking your money in cash. Three month t-bills have returned 2.3% per year since 1991.
Even if we were to look at the fully collateralized version of this futures-based index1 the returns are still only 3% per year or so.

Commodities over the long-term give you roughly the returns of cash but with much higher volatility.

Volatility is not good or bad per se. It really depends on how you react to or use that volatility.

The volatility in commodities can present both danger and opportunity depending on where we are in the cycle.

You can see the boom-bust nature of this asset class:
https://awealthofcommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screenshot-2022-03-04-191021.png

Sometimes these cycles are short. Other times they can last for an extended period.

Some people think we’re setting up for another commodities supercycle (https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2021/06/talk-your-book-the-commodity-supercycle/).

That’s certainly possible.

The transition to renewable forms of energy is sure to be a bumpy process. Plus we’re dealing with supply chain issues, the pandemic, more than a decade of underinvestment following the 2008 crisis and war with one of the biggest energy suppliers in the world.

Others assume technology is deflationary and bound to make prices cheaper over time despite the current headwinds.

This tug-of-war actually makes for interesting boom-bust cycles in technology and energy stocks as well.

Following the bursting of the dot-com bubble, commodities went into a bull market that saw energy stocks smoke tech stocks:

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/XLE_XLK_chart-1.png

The aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis saw a reversal of this trend in a big way as tech stocks have crushed it while energy stocks got crushed:

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/XLE_XLK_chart-2.png

The highest inflation rates in four decades and strong comeback in oil prices has seen energy stocks take the lead again since the start of 2021:


https://awealthofcommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/XLE_XLK_chart-3.png

This year alone the energy sector is up almost 36% while tech stocks have fallen nearly 14%.

Despite the current run-up in prices, the long bear market in energy stocks caused some major damage to the sector.

In mid-2008, energy stocks made up 17% of the S&P 500. By the spring of 2020, it was down to 2.7% of the index. Even after gaining more than 100% since 2021, energy stocks still make up less than 4% of the S&P.
https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2022/03/the-boom-bust-cycle-in-commodities/

[Winehole23]

People do this out of contempt, but for smart computers it's just logical.

1503491671488704515

[Winehole23]

1503131005389099011

[Winehole23]

spoofing retailers, taking orders and cashing checks, according to a FL lawsuit


Google uses “bait-and-switch” tactics to get customers to place takeout or pickup orders through “new, unauthorized, and deceptively branded webpages,” according to the lawsuit (https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Left-Field-Holdings-v-Google.pdf), filed on behalf of Left Field Holdings, a restaurant company that runs Lime Fresh Mexican Grill franchises. On those pages, customers are prompted with large buttons to order with food delivery companies like GrubHub, DoorDash (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/11/in-n-out-sues-startup-doordash-says-burger-delivery-is-a-trademark-violation/), or Seamless.

“Google never bothered to obtain permission from the restaurants to sell their products online,” the lawsuit says. “Google purposefully designed its websites to appear to the user to be offered, sponsored, and approved by the restaurant, when they are not—a tactic, no doubt, employed by Google to increase orders and clicks.”https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/google-hijacked-millions-of-customers-and-orders-from-restaurants-lawsuit-says/

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPnMy-aXIAMnAQ_?format=jpg&name=small

[Winehole23]

Unwinding all those old gigamergers is a tall order. It took 68 years to break up AT&T, from the first antitrust action until the actual breakup in 1982. IBM spent 12 years in antitrust hell and emerged intact, thanks to its ability to outspend the entire DoJ on antitrust lawyers for every one of those years.https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/17/shareholder-socialism/#asset-manager-capitalism

[boutons_deux]

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/17/shareholder-socialism/#asset-manager-capitalism

the oligarchy's bribes to Congress and the Judiciary create an impregnable barrier

[Winehole23]

1513941542247059458

[Winehole23]

1516065056253005832

[Winehole23]

Maryland AG Katie Curran O'Malley


GB: In terms of collaboration, there’s been remarkable bipartisan overlap among state AGs in taking on monopolies, particularly in investigations and lawsuits against Facebook and Google. Why are you the best candidate to engage in those bipartisan efforts?


KO: Throughout my 30 years—being in the state’s attorney’s office for the first 10 and then a judge for 20 years—I have been able to work as a mediator on so many issues. And even as a prosecutor, it’s not all about just putting somebody in jail. It’s about working out solutions and having an attorney general who’s been in courtrooms, worked across the board to come up with settlements as a judge, and mediate cases. I feel as though I’m the best person for that because of the years of experience I’ve had in courtrooms.


GB: A lot of people think of this as a second Gilded Age, with the potential for it to be a second Progressive Era and take on these companies through antitrust work. How do you see the next five to 10 years shaping up in terms of the opportunity for state AGs?


KO: I think it’s a really, really good opportunity because everyone can get behind this. There’s been so much divisiveness in our politics over the past decade. But when it comes to how harmful the effects of the Big Tech companies have been, I think it’s bipartisan.

The voters are on the side of, “Let’s rein it in. This is too much. We need to get control of this now.” I have a feeling that we’re going to see a lot more changes and a lot more laws from the states, and not waiting for the federal government
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/04/15/were-living-in-an-era-of-extraordinary-corporate-power/

[Winehole23]

"shadowbanned"

1518983294003597315

[DMC]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPnMy-aXIAMnAQ_?format=jpg&name=small
Calling cuck good again

[Winehole23]

Calling cuck good againII posted one humorous meme. By contrast, you've dogged Blake grimly and monotonously for a decade. Hundreds of instances.

[Ef-man]

Big tech wins again. :tu

https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1522708564560822273

[koriwhat]

II posted one humorous meme. By contrast, you've dogged Blake grimly and monotonously for a decade. Hundreds of instances.

You're so full of shit bro.

[Ef-man]

nm

[koriwhat]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPnMy-aXIAMnAQ_?format=jpg&name=small

Wow man you sure did show up Elon... Imagine you thinking your little meme about a delusional dude who pretends to be a woman sleeping with Elon's ex is really going to get under his skin. :lmao

You and the others are such pussies.

[spurraider21]

"shadowbanned"

1518983294003597315
smh big tech censoring free speech

hopefully a multibillionaire hero like george soros can buy it and save the internet

[spurraider21]

Wow man you sure did show up Elon... Imagine you thinking your little meme about a delusional dude who pretends to be a woman sleeping with Elon's ex is really going to get under his skin. :lmao

You and the others are such pussies.
koriwhat: i have trans friends and respect their life choices and treat them with respect

also koriwhat: delusional dude who pretends to be a woman

[koriwhat]

koriwhat: i have trans friends and respect their life choices and treat them with respect

also koriwhat: delusional dude who pretends to be a woman

What's wrong exactly with what I said? There's something wired wrong in their brains but that doesn't mean I hate, dislike, or want to shun them. What's your gripe exactly; is it because I still respect those I know and those I don't just have to earn my respect like any other person?

[koriwhat]

SR21 is big mad I don't respect they delusions. :lol

That's your pronoun(s) right?

[Winehole23]

A three-person panel of federal appeals court judges is (https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1524491114824228865) letting (https://twitter.com/wendyndavis/status/1524492272976412673) a Texas law (https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/texas-viewpoints-social-media?share_id=6670682) aimed at punishing social media companies for alleged anti-conservative bias go into effect for now.


In a ruling late Wednesday, the panel stayed a district court injunction that had paused the law while the judges consider an appeal of the lower court's move.


The decision, which was supported by two unnamed judges and was not immediately published with the court's reasoning, comes after a Monday hearing in which the jurists appeared to struggle (https://www.protocol.com/policy/texas-appeal-confusion) with basic tech concepts, including whether Twitter counts as a website.
https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/texas-bias-law-proceeds

[Winehole23]

https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/872/billtext/html/HB00020S.htm

[Winehole23]

"Watching porn and making death threats are self-care"

1524766692005617666

[Winehole23]

Elon Musk seems to think being free to be a jerk to other people (he is) should be free of social consequences (it isn't).

Just another right wing snowflake.


One of the more frustrating things about the various “debates” regarding “free speech” lately, is how little they are actually about free speech. Quite often, they are actually about people who are quite upset about having to face social consequences (https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/21/the-culture-of-free-speech-includes-criticism-of-others-speech-get-over-it/) for their own free speech. But facing social consequences has always been part of free speech. Indeed, it’s part of the vaunted “marketplace of ideas.” If people think your ideas aren’t worth shit, they may ignore or shun you… or encourage others to do the same.

Over at The Bulwark, Prof. Nicholas Grossman has a really good article exploring Elon Musk’s attempt at reframing the debate over free speech (https://www.thebulwark.com/free-speech-ought-to-mean-more-than-mocking-trans-people/). It is well worth reading. The crux of the argument that Grossman makes (in great detail that you should go read to have it all make sense) is that when you break down what Musk actually seems to be thinking about free speech, his definition hews quite similarly to what a lot of trolls think free speech means: the right to be a total asshole without consequence.

The article highlights what many of us have said before (disclaimer, it does link to some of my writing on the subject), that the real underlying question is not actually about free speech, but where society should draw the line on what is, and what is not, acceptable in public company. And that’s really what this is all about. Free speech, as a concept, has to fall back on whether or not the government suppresses speech. For all the talk about social consequences of free speech, or whether or not there is a “culture of free speech” or “principles of free speech,” everyone has some level of internal voice that notes what kind of speech they feel goes too far for polite company — even if they don’t think such speech should be illegal.
But, then, the question becomes, if there is some speech that I, personally, don’t wish to associate with, should others be forced to do so? And that’s where the debates over content moderation actually live. In that space that says “where should the line be drawn” for what is acceptable and what is not. And when you look closely at the actual debate, it always comes down to “I want to be a disrespectful asshole to people I don’t like, and I don’t want to face any consequences for it.”
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/05/20/if-you-think-free-speech-is-defined-by-your-ability-to-be-an-asshole-without-consequence-you-dont-understand-free-speech-but-you-remain-an-asshole/

[Winehole23]

Google, Meta in the crosshairs of the US Congress


A group of lawmakers led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act (https://www.lee.senate.gov/services/files/5332FC38-76F0-4C8B-8482-3F733CF17167) on Thursday. This bipartisan andbicameral (https://buck.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-buck-owens-jayapal-cicilline-gaetz-introduce-bill-crush-big-tech-s) legislation would forbid any company with more than $20 billion in digital advertising revenue — that’s Google and Meta, basically — from owning multiple parts of the digital advertising chain. Google would have to choose between being a buyer or a seller or running the ad exchange between the two. It currently owns all three parts, and has been dogged by allegations, which it denies, that it uses that power to unfairly manipulate that market to its own advantage.


“This lack of competition in digital advertising means that monopoly rents are being imposed upon every website that is ad-supported and every company — small, medium, or large — that relies on internet advertising to grow its business,” Sen. Lee said in a statement. “It is essentially a tax on thousands of American businesses, and thus a tax on millions of American consumers.”
https://www.vox.com/recode/23132580/google-antitrust-search-android-mobile-ads

[Thread]

Winester!!! GD you, sonny-boy, return to the Texas shooter Thread!
Now!!!
ROTFLMFAO!!!

[Winehole23]

Suprem Court grants the motion to vacate the stay on Texas's media law, Kagan dissents.

1531738700413026310

[Winehole23]

Sandberg facing legal hazard

1532097555781263361

1532098494697177089

[Winehole23]

Meta's ad revenue > your medical privacy

1537400872652754944

[1537400885650903042

[Winehole23]

https://i.imgur.com/sUhXfpP.jpg?fb

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWd1ic7WYAI7drg?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Winehole23]

1549608557586354178

1549613089808695296

[Winehole23]

1549614608188571649

1549617017942167552

[Winehole23]

1512638881367310337

1512639961807441924

1512641313505787904

[Winehole23]

https://c.tenor.com/r6VumYt8wfgAAAAC/blind-robin-hood.gif


Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger tried to strong-arm Congress last week, telling CNBC that the semiconductor industry needs $52 billion in subsidies to remain competitive, or else major microchip companies won’t invest resources in the United States. But at the same time, Gelsinger’s company and its well-connected lobbyists are pushing (https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-trade/2022/07/18/intel-others-seek-weaker-china-rules-in-chips-bill-00046278) Congress to allow it to potentially use the subsidies to put more money into its factories outside of the country.


Plus, there is nothing in the massive subsidy bill, which also includes a major tax break for chip manufacturers and could face a Senate vote (https://www.ft.com/content/2a5c33e9-16bf-4436-a4b9-ea5c1eda18a9) as soon as Tuesday, that would require companies like Intel to actually use the money on domestic research and development. That means the companies could instead give the money to shareholders via dividends and stock buybacks. Just last week, Intel announced a quarterly stock dividend (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/intel-declares-quarterly-cash-dividend-130000264.html) for its investors.



Intel is now holding that factory hostage. Last month, Intel canceled a groundbreaking ceremony for the Ohio plant, saying it was delaying construction (https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/01/ohio-governor-intel-delay-on-20-billion-chip-plant-about-leverage.html) due to Congress’s failure to pass the subsidies.


Gelsinger told The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/12/intel-ceo-discusses-global-shortage-computer-chips-investments-expand-us-manufacturing-capacity/) last week that he "will make a decision to delay our project in Ohio” if Congress doesn’t pass the CHIPS Act.



In the past decade, the four largest chip companies in the U.S., including Intel, spent nearly (https://www.levernews.com/a-chip-off-the-old-bailout/) a quarter trillion dollars — over 70 percent of their combined profits — on manipulating their stock price and delivering cash to shareholders via stock buybacks.


Intel has continued to pay dividends to its shareholders even as Gelsinger has said publicly that the company needs government subsidies to invest in manufacturing.
https://www.levernews.com/intel-begs-for-a-bailout/

[boutons_deux]

Facebook Approved Pro-Genocide Ads in Kenya After Claiming to Foster 'Safe and Secure' Elections

Kenya's national cohesion watchdog has threatened to suspend the social network from the country in a week if it doesn't mitigate hate speech.

Facebook’s approval of ads advocating for ethnic cleansing.

“They have allowed themselves to be a vector of hate speech and incitement, misinformation and disinformation,”

the company approved ads run in both English and Swahili crafted specifically to instigate ethnic violence in Kenya,

Meta approved ads on Facebook in both Swahili and English that included

calls to rape and behead Kenyan citizens along ethnic lines.

https://gizmodo.com/facebook-kenya-pro-genocide-ads-hate-speech-suspension-1849348778

[Winehole23]

https://c.tenor.com/r6VumYt8wfgAAAAC/blind-robin-hood.gif





https://www.levernews.com/intel-begs-for-a-bailout/Spent too much money on stock buybacks and dividends, not enough on engineering and execution. And now Uncle Sam has to pay through the nose to help Intel compete.

[Winehole23]

1553392503604264961

[Winehole23]

Spent too much money on stock buybacks and dividends, not enough on engineering and execution. And now Uncle Sam has to pay through the nose to help Intel compete.Case in point:


The talk of the semiconductor world right now is how Intel’s business has exploded overnight in Q2 of 2022. Intel has reported a net loss of $454,000,000 in Q2 2022. (https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_410150f09425791758e2118350f921dd/intel/news/2022-07-28_Intel_Reports_Second_Quarter_2022_Financial_156 3.pdf) This is Intel’s first GAAP net loss in over 30 years. The Covid work from home and datacenter booms allowed Intel to cover the rot of the core businesses of design and manufacturing semiconductors for 2 years.


In the face of Intel’s first net loss in over 30 years, Intel’s executives have decided their shareholders short term pocketbooks are more important than the company


Finally, we paid dividends of $1.5 billion, a 5% increase year-over-year, and remain committed to growing the dividend over time.David Zinsner, Intel CFO, 7/28/2022 at Intel’s Q2 2022 Earnings Call


We wouldn’t mind the action of continuing to pay dividends and growing them over time if it that didn’t affect their fab buildouts and turnaround plans.


We are also lowering core expenses in calendar year '22Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO, 7/28/2022 at Intel’s Q2 2022 Earnings CallCapEx, we're revising down our forecast to $23 billion, $4 billion less than our previous guidanceDavid Zinsner, Intel CFO, 7/28/2022 at Intel’s Q2 2022 Earnings Call


Intel paid a quarterly dividend of $1.5 billion in Q2, they expect to pay that much or more for Q3 and Q4 of 2022. That is a minimum of $4.5 billion dollars paid in dividends. Compare that to the $4 billion reduction in capital expenditures which are mostly related to building fabs. Intel will try to waffle about gross vs net capex, but their direct spending is being reduced.https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/intel-cuts-fab-buildout-by-4b-to

[Winehole23]

More immigration would be a good thing

1553742943210672128

[Winehole23]

1559917172100669444

1559917186059206656

[Winehole23]

crybully meltdown

1569803721038520322

[Winehole23]

Cory Doctorow on the CA antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

1570389081653235713

1570389119850668033

1570389122237227011

[Winehole23]

1570389124376412160

[Winehole23]

1570389166327824384

[Winehole23]

Amazon, Google and Facebook think they can boss countries around.

1570411848889143296

[koriwhat]

LMFAO WH's own echo chamber of a thread

[Winehole23]

what is a bulletin board?

[ducks]

Voters Approve of Migrant Busing, Want Secure Border

[Winehole23]

Voters Approve of Migrant Busing, Want Secure Bordermisfiled

[Winehole23]

5th Citcuit goes of the rails on Texas HB 20

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/09/16/5th-circuit-rewrites-a-century-of-1st-amendment-law-to-argue-internet-companies-have-no-right-to-moderate/

Long form Mike Masnick on the 5th Circuit's recent Calvinball decision on Texas SB 20



As First Amendment lawyer Ken White noted (https://www.popehat.com/2016/11/14/lawsplainer-about-trump-opening-up-libel-laws/) back in the comparatively innocent days of November 2016, regarding Donald Trump’s call to open up our libel laws, “You can go shopping for judicial candidates whose writings or decisions suggest they will overturn Roe v. Wade, but it would be extremely difficult to find ones who would reliably overturn [key First Amendment precedents.]”


But then Twitter banned former President Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.


And, suddenly, a large part of the conservative world began arguing that the First Amendment might no longer apply to companies.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/judges-are-playing-calvinball-with-the-constitution-because-theyre-mad-trump-was-banned-from-twitter

[Winehole23]

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/008/305/its-a-conspiracy.jpg

1578394391491788800

[Winehole23]

in principle, Amazon could burn through available workers


An investigation from the New York Times found that, among hourly employees, Amazon’s turnover was approximately 150 percent annually, while work from the Wall Street Journal and National Employment Law Project have both found turnover to be around 100 percent in warehouses — double the industry average. The rate at which Amazon has burned through the American working-age populus led to another piece of internal research, obtained this summer by Recode, which cautioned that the company might “deplete the available labor supply in the US” in certain metro regions within a few years.https://www.engadget.com/amazon-attrition-leadership-ctsmd-201800110.html

[Winehole23]

1583825101652647938

[Winehole23]

FB trying to bully countries has had some hilarious and pathetic results.

1586193589356220416

[ElNono]

Facebook's Fact-checkers Will Stop Checking Trump After Announcement of Presidential Bid

CNN reports:
Facebook's fact-checkers will need to stop fact-checking former President Donald Trump (https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/15/politics/facebook-fact-check-donald-trump/index.html) following the announcement that he is running for president, according to a company memo obtained by CNN.

While Trump is currently banned from Facebook (https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/04/tech/facebook-politicians/index.html), the fact-check ban applies to anything Trump says, and false statements made by Trump can be posted to the platform by others. Despite Trump's ban, "Team Trump," a page run by Trump's political group, is still active and has 2.3 million followers.... The carve-out is not exclusive to Trump and applies to all politicians, but given the rate fact-checkers find themselves dealing with claims made by the former president, a manager on Meta's "news integrity partnership" team emailed fact-checkers on Tuesday ahead of Trump's announcement. ...

The company has long had an exception to its fact-checking policy for politicians. "It is not our role to intervene when politicians speak," Meta executive Nick Clegg, a former politician, said in 2019 (https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/01/politics/dnc-facebook-ads-trump/index.html), defending the exemption. The Meta memo sent to fact-checkers made clear that if Trump announced a 2024 presidential bid Tuesday night, he could no longer be fact-checked on the platform. The memo noted that "political speech is ineligible for fact-checking. This includes the words a politician says as well as photo, video, or other content that is clearly labeled as created by the politician or their campaign."

It concluded that "if former President Trump makes a clear, public announcement that he is running for office, he would be considered a politician under our program policies."

Andy Stone, a Meta spokesperson, said the memo was "a reiteration of our long-standing policy" and "should not be news to anyone...."

Meta plans on considering allowing Trump back on the platform as soon as January — two years since his initial ban.

[Winehole23]

It's the only way they can allow DJT so much free coverage, by promising beforehand not to criticize him.

lol grannies and grandpas like me on facebook.

[ElNono]

It's the only way they can allow DJT so much free coverage, by promising beforehand not to criticize him.

lol grannies and grandpas like me on facebook.

Interesting comment on that newsbit:
so if Hitler is posting conspiracies about Jews and following that up by saying all true patriots must defend the Fatherland, rise up and kill the heathens, Facebook has nothing to say about that.

But yeah, all about clickbait...

[Isitjustme?]

Facebook's Fact-checkers Will Stop Checking Trump After Announcement of Presidential Bid

CNN reports:
Facebook's fact-checkers will need to stop fact-checking former President Donald Trump (https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/15/politics/facebook-fact-check-donald-trump/index.html) following the announcement that he is running for president, according to a company memo obtained by CNN.

While Trump is currently banned from Facebook (https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/04/tech/facebook-politicians/index.html), the fact-check ban applies to anything Trump says, and false statements made by Trump can be posted to the platform by others. Despite Trump's ban, "Team Trump," a page run by Trump's political group, is still active and has 2.3 million followers.... The carve-out is not exclusive to Trump and applies to all politicians, but given the rate fact-checkers find themselves dealing with claims made by the former president, a manager on Meta's "news integrity partnership" team emailed fact-checkers on Tuesday ahead of Trump's announcement. ...

The company has long had an exception to its fact-checking policy for politicians. "It is not our role to intervene when politicians speak," Meta executive Nick Clegg, a former politician, said in 2019 (https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/01/politics/dnc-facebook-ads-trump/index.html), defending the exemption. The Meta memo sent to fact-checkers made clear that if Trump announced a 2024 presidential bid Tuesday night, he could no longer be fact-checked on the platform. The memo noted that "political speech is ineligible for fact-checking. This includes the words a politician says as well as photo, video, or other content that is clearly labeled as created by the politician or their campaign."

It concluded that "if former President Trump makes a clear, public announcement that he is running for office, he would be considered a politician under our program policies."

Andy Stone, a Meta spokesperson, said the memo was "a reiteration of our long-standing policy" and "should not be news to anyone...."

Meta plans on considering allowing Trump back on the platform as soon as January — two years since his initial ban.

Wtf? Lol paging daboom1

DarrinS

SnakeBoy

koriwhat to explain this liberal media conspiracy to me

[Winehole23]

criminal liability should extend to principals for shit like this

1598910199430930433

[Winehole23]

FB and Google losing ground in the ad wars


Meta and Alphabet have lost their dominance over the digital advertising market they have ruled for years, as the duopoly is hit by fast-growing competition from rivals Amazon, TikTok, Microsoft and Apple. The share of US ad revenues held by Facebook’s parent Meta and Google owner Alphabet is projected to fall by 2.5 percentage points to 48.4 per cent this year, the first time the two groups will not hold a majority share of the market since 2014, according to research group Insider Intelligence. This will mark the fifth consecutive annual decline for the duopoly, whose share of the market has fallen from a peak of 54.7 per cent in 2017 and is forecast to decline to 43.9 per cent by 2024. Worldwide, Meta and ‘Four years ago, you wouldn’t be talking about either [TikTok or Amazon] in advertising,’ said [Jerry Dischler, head of ads at Google]. ‘So it’s really telling that more and more people are acknowledging that advertising is a great and scalable business modelhttps://www.ft.com/content/4ff64604-a421-422c-9239-0ca8e5133042

[Winehole23]

Digital redlining


EFF’s first ask for the incoming Biden Administration on broadband policy was to ban digital redlining (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/01/fcc-and-states-must-ban-digital-redlining) by regulating broadband as a public good instead of a private luxury. EFF has extensively researched the state of fiber broadband infrastructure in the United States for years. We’ve identified a disturbing trend in low-income access: the systemic underinvestment in their networks. Major broadband providers have been segregating internet users into first-class fiber internet and second-class legacy internet, even in areas where it would be profitable to provide equal access.https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/ending-scourge-redlining-broadband-access-2022-year-review

[Winehole23]

another great Cory Doctorow thread

1616821920644694016

[Adam Lambert]

Oopsy, guessing this isn't what the GOP had in mind when they called for today's saber-rattling hearing.

1623352503571021824

[Winehole23]

because, of course they did

1623399613100093441

[Winehole23]

Mindless cold war atavism plus xenophobia sells.

1632850585409159169

1632852034612240391

1632856249317621760

[Winehole23]

Unsurprising, but newsworthy.

1633562328330371073

[Winehole23]

Square juiced the user count, screwed merchants, turned a blind eye to criminal activity and cashed in on COVID relief fraud.

Insiders like Jack Dorsey cashed out over $1B in stock in 2021.

https://hindenburgresearch.com/block/

[Winehole23]

I would say Elon has reached cartoonish levels of depravity, but he's hardly done. Human trials are next.

1491857848149561369FDA greenlights human trials of NeuraLink. Did they not notice what happened to the monkeys?

1661866037946593282

[Winehole23]

"The monkeys were going to die anyway" isn't the most comforting thought.

Wonder what Musk thinks of the paraplegics.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjp9q/neuralink-monkey-deaths-human-trials

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6gwhyJWUAEaIYf?format=jpg&name=4096x4096https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6gwh2UX0AAHiGY?format=jpg&name=largehttps://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/

[Thread]

"The monkeys were going to die anyway" isn't the most comforting thought.

Wonder what Musk thinks of the paraplegics.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjp9q/neuralink-monkey-deaths-human-trials

Hope & pray it's not what Madonna thinks of the Trumps, or, the Snoop thinks of Trump, or, the Milley thinks of Trump. On & on, Winester.

You've nary room, Winester. Nary.

[Winehole23]

It won't, though

1728958048436412854

[Ef-man]

Elon Musk demands Bob Iger ‘be fired’ after Disney pulled ads from X :lol

[ChumpDumper]

Elon Musk demands Bob Iger ‘be fired’ after Disney pulled ads from X :lol

Let's see how Earth responds.

[Ef-man]

House passes bill that could lead to US ban of TikTok.

Yam Tits opposed passage of the bill it, so did TikTok creators (and Beijing) angrily opposed it, with Chyna’s foreign ministry calling it an “act of bullying.”

Musk and Zuckerberg are happy.

[Thread]

House passes bill that could lead to US ban of TikTok.

Yam Tits opposed passage of the bill it, so did TikTok creators (and Beijing) angrily opposed it, with Chyna’s foreign ministry calling it an “act of bullying.”

Musk and Zuckerberg are happy.


Perhaps, I hope & pray, that this rejection of TT will spur the zipperheads to take off after Taiwan like the last oriental pork chop on the plate. I'm bound to confess: They ain't shown me much to this point.

[Ef-man]

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1783290223146815867

[Thread]

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1783290223146815867

Another U.S.A. boogeyman.

[Winehole23]

1788621558572827045

[Thread]

1788621558572827045

That's because you had your fuckin' fingers crossed it would, Winester. GD ya!!!

[Winehole23]

FB not out of the woods if SCOTUS grants cert

1790253681092251995

[Winehole23]

Google apparently favors a quick settlement in the amount the government previously asked for, over a public trial and more discovery.

1791238464991588691

[Winehole23]

dp

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNvccK2W4AANx11?format=png&name=small

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOYeFLFWkAA28yd?format=png&name=small

(https://x.com/doctorow/status/1794113654910304425)1794113654910304425

1794113658764808596

1794113662212579839

1794113665979085225

1794113669464473865

[Winehole23]

1794114489664864355

1794114494727409715

[Winehole23]

Facebook prostrates itself before Congress, owning its fault and promising to do better in the future.


Microsoft “accepts responsibility for each and every one” of the issues cited in a scathing US government-backed report on the tech giant’s cybersecurity failings, Microsoft President Brad Smith will tell US lawmakers Thursday, according to his prepared testimony

“We acknowledge that we can and must do better, and we apologize and express our deepest regrets to those who have been impacted,” reads Smith’s testimony to the House Homeland Security Committee. He is set to testify before the panel Thursday afternoon in a hearing the committee says will assess the impact of Microsoft’s “cybersecurity shortfalls” on homeland security.

Microsoft has been at the center of two sweeping hacking campaigns in the last year allegedly carried out by Chinese and Russian spies.

A report issued in April by the US Cyber Safety Review Board found that Microsoft committed a “cascade” of “avoidable errors” that allowed Chinese hackers to breach the tech giant’s network and later the email accounts of senior US officials last year, including the secretary of commerce. The board is comprised of government and private cybersecurity experts led by the Department of Homeland Security.

]Smith says Microsoft has for months been overhauling its cybersecurity practices, in part by implementing recommendations from the US government-backed board.Microsoft president to Congress: ‘We accept responsibility’ for cybersecurity failures | CNN Business (https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/tech/microsoft-president-congress-cybersecurity-failures/index.html)

[Thread]

Facebook prostrates itself before Congress, owning its fault and promising to do better in the future.

Microsoft president to Congress: ‘We accept responsibility’ for cybersecurity failures | CNN Business (https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/tech/microsoft-president-congress-cybersecurity-failures/index.html)

...they were never made to make good, nor punished for the (blue screen of death). But, that was when Gates was young and married, and was bullet proof.

Just shows ta go ya.

[Winehole23]

Texas v Google is still kicking, and discovery on the Google/Facebook digital ad market collusion got reopened.

1811242624042287340

https://x.com/jason_kint/status/1811242624042287340

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS-86ZsXUAAI3LP?format=jpg&name=small

[Winehole23]

Trump's contempt for his own supporters has always been striking

1815006419290067035

https://x.com/NGrossman81/status/1815006419290067035

[ChumpDumper]

Life isn't good for Elon or Peter?

You know, I actually believe that -- but not because of big bad government.

[z0sa]

Trump's contempt for his own supporters has always been striking

1815006419290067035

https://x.com/NGrossman81/status/1815006419290067035

They're neo-reactionary monarchists. Never thought I'd deal with these types in MY lifetime, but it just goes to show how close we always are to losing democratic tools for governance.

People have a natural tendency to follow the leader. Our closest evolutionary cousins are big fans of it, and we've barely separated ourselves from them. Education, communication and opportunity (for the masses) are the only things that ever keep strongmen and their entourage from taking control.

[Winehole23]

anyone who has ever ordered online has probably been screwed by dynamic pricing

1815753961410076825https://x.com/TechFTC/status/1815753961410076825

[Ef-man]

Look who is backtracking :lol :lol :lol

Elon Musk backs down from $45 million a month pledge to Yam Tits, says he doesn’t ‘subscribe to cult of personality’

“What’s been reported in the media is simply not true,” Musk said. “I am not donating $45 million a month to Yam Tits.”

[Winehole23]

Google loses antitrust case related to Google Search, judge rules Google violated the Sherman Act:

1820538172809564507https://x.com/matthewstoller/status/1820538172809564507

1820580229246488723


https://x.com/jason_kint/status/1820580229246488723

[Winehole23]

The case depicted Google as a technological bully that methodically has thwarted competition to protect a search engine that has become the centerpiece of a digital advertising machine that generated nearly $240 billion in revenue last year. Justice Department lawyers argued that Google’s monopoly enabled it to charge advertisers artificially high prices while also enjoying the luxury of not having to invest more time and money into improving the quality of its search engine — a lax approach that hurt consumers.Google illegally maintains monopoly over internet search, judge rules | AP News (https://apnews.com/article/google-antitrust-search-engine-verdict-apple-319a61f20fb11510097845a30abaefd8?taid=66b12a2724a1 010001adc29f&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter)

[Winehole23]

with a quickness

1823191207394390407https://x.com/ryan_cropp/status/1823191207394390407

[Winehole23]

tech broligarchy (Google) launches mass journalism arm, what could go wrong

1825667219591995740

https://x.com/ZavalaA/status/1825667219591995740

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWKCcaeWYAAo90Q?format=jpg&name=small

[monosylab1k]

lol i forgot how retarded Nathan89 was. The “big tech is a threat to our country” guy who instantly became a crotch sniffer of noted big tech mogul Elon Musk after a couple of conservative tweets :lmao

[Winehole23]

1828890517876187294

https://x.com/jason_kint/status/1828890517876187294

[Winehole23]

Matt Stoller saying a very Matt Stoller thing.

I'll give him this though, at least he's consistent. Stoller thought it was censorship in 2020 as well.

1846268603181441421

https://x.com/matthewstoller/status/1846268603181441421

[Winehole23]

lol no

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbF7BshXQAAnHb1?format=png&name=small

[Winehole23]

few freedoms are defended as fiercely as the freedom of businesses to screw over Americans


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbUelRtWUAAhivV?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Winehole23]

underrated: a judge has already ruled that Google abused its monopoly, the main thing that remains is the remedy -- up to and possibly including breaking up Google.


The Proposal to Break Up Google Is Finally Here (https://www.bigtechontrial.com/p/the-proposal-to-break-up-google-is)

Three and a half months ago, D.C. district Judge Amit Mehta found (https://www.bigtechontrial.com/p/judge-rules-google-is-a-monopolist) that Google broke antitrust law in monopolizing search and search advertising. In a tightly reasoned 277-page opinion (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.223205/gov.uscourts.dcd.223205.1033.0_3.pdf), Mehta’s conclusion was that Google, by controlling the means of distribution of search engines through its ownership of Android and Chrome, as well as contracts with Apple, Samsung, Verizon, and other distributors, prevented rivals from getting access to search markets.


Monopolization trials have two parts, a finding of whether the company broke the law, and then a fight over what to do to remedy the market. After Mehta’s August finding that Google broke the law, we entered the second phase. Mehta asked (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.223205/gov.uscourts.dcd.223205.1043.0_1.pdf) the government to propose a remedy, and then set up a mini-trial from April 22 to May 2, with the goal of having the case resolved by August at the latest, after which it’ll go to appeal.


On Wednesday, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division published its proposal (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.223205/gov.uscourts.dcd.223205.1062.1_1.pdf) for Google’s unlawful behavior, which includes a provision to force a sale of the Chrome browser, and potentially the Android mobile operating system that powers hundreds of millions of phones. While most of the reporting is focused on the ‘break-up’ aspect, there’s much more to it than that. In this piece, I’m going to explain the proposal, the legal environment, and the politics of a Google break-up in the Trump era.

[Winehole23]

digital redlining/deceptive business practice

Amazon shouldn't charge customers for a service it doesn't provide in their area


The District of Columbia sued Amazon on Wednesday, alleging the company secretly stopped providing its fastest delivery service to residents of two predominantly Black neighborhoods while still charging millions of dollars for a membership that promises the benefit.

The complaint filed in District of Columbia Superior Court revolves around Amazon’s Prime membership, which costs consumers $139 per year or $14.99 per month for fast deliveries — including one-day, two-day and same-day shipments — along with other enhancements.

In mid-2022, the lawsuit alleges, the Seattle-based online retailer imposed what it called a delivery “exclusion” on two low-income ZIP codes in the district — 20019 and 20020 — and began relying exclusively on third-party delivery services such as UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, rather than its own delivery systems.

Amazon says it made the change based on concerns about driver safety.

\“There have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages” in the two ZIP codes and the company made the change to “put the safety of delivery drivers first,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a prepared statement.

“We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers,” Nantel said. “The claims made by the attorney general, that our business practices are somehow discriminatory or deceptive, are categorically false.”

The District of Columbia’s attorney general’s office alleged the company never told Prime members in the two ZIP codes about the change even though they experienced slower deliveries as a result. Amazon also did not tell new customers about the exclusions when they signed up for Prime memberships, the lawsuit says.

“Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working Ward 7 and 8 residents for an expedited delivery service it promises but does not provide,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement, referencing the two areas in the city where Amazon is accused of excluding its speediest deliveries.

“While Amazon has every right to make operational changes, it cannot covertly decide that a dollar in one ZIP code is worth less than a dollar in another,” Schwalb said.

The lawsuit says Amazon has nearly 50,000 Prime members who live in the two ZIP codes, a number that represents nearly half of the population. Prime members in those neighborhoods have ordered more than 4.5 million packages in the past four years, and are more likely to rely on Amazon since they have fewer services and retail stores nearby, the city said. The area is also a notorious food desert.

The district says that in 2021, before Amazon implemented its delivery “exclusion,” more than 72% of Prime packages in the impacted ZIP codes were delivered within two days. But last year, it was only 24%, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, the district’s lawsuit says Prime members who lived in other parts of the city received two-day deliveries 75% of the time. Amazon was also improving its delivery speeds nationwide.
District of Columbia says Amazon secretly stopped fast deliveries to 2 predominantly Black ZIP codes | CNN Business (https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/05/business/amazon-dc-black-delivery/index.html)

[Winehole23]

The NY Amazon teamsters are due to strike any day now


A. Key Findings

1) Amazon manipulates its workplace injury data to portray its warehouses as safer than they actually are. Amazon claims that its warehouses are nearly as safe as the industry average—but it does so by cherry-picking data rather than grappling with its uniquely dangerous warehouses. The Committee’s review of the company’s publicly reported data found that Amazon chooses misleading comparisons in an effort to obscure the fact that the company’s warehouses have significantly higher injury rates than both the industry average and nonAmazon warehouses. An analysis of the company’s data shows that Amazon warehouses recorded over 30 percent more injuries than the warehousing industry average in 2023. The Committee also found that in each of the past seven years, Amazon workers were nearly twice as likely to be injured as workers in warehouses operated by the rest of the warehousing industry. Alarmingly, this problem is common across the company’s facilities: more than two-thirds of Amazon’s warehouses have injury rates that exceed the industry average. (Page 17)

2) Contrary to its public claims, Amazon imposes speed and productivity requirements on workers, commonly called “rates.” These requirements force workers to move at an extremely...

(https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/2024/ar/Amazon-com-Inc-2023-Annual-Report.pdf; see Caleb Silver, The Top 25 Economies in the World, INVESTOPEDIA (Oct. 4, 2024), https://www.investopedia.com/insights/worlds-top-economies. 10 Jeff Bezos: Chairman and Founder, Amazon, FORBES, https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/ (last modified Dec. 12, 2024). 11 The Committee’s calculation is based on information from the “Executive Compensation” section of Amazon’s 2024 Proxy Statement. See Amazon, Notice of 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders & Proxy Statement 92–104 (2024), https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/2024/ar/Amazon-com-Inc-2024-Proxy-Statement.pdf. 12 OSHA, DOL, OSHA Penalties, https://www.osha.gov/penalties (last visited Dec. 14, 2024). 13 Committee review of OSHA citations issued to Amazon between February 2022 and February 2024. Citations available on OSHA’s website. OSHA, DOL, Establishment Search, https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.html (last visited Dec. 14, 2024). 6)

...fast and often dangerous pace. To ensure compliance with the requirements, Amazon closely tracks workers’ movements throughout each shift. When workers cannot keep up, Amazon uses automated systems to initiate disciplinary procedures. These disciplinary procedures progress in severity and eventually result in termination. (Page 24)

3) Amazon forces workers to move in unsafe ways and to repeat the same movements hundreds and thousands of times each shift, resulting in extremely high rates of musculoskeletal disorders. Although Amazon is aware that these repetitive movements—made over 10- to 12-hour shifts—cause musculoskeletal disorders, the company refuses to take action to protect workers. (Page 43)

4) Although Amazon has safety procedures in place, the company’s required rates make those procedures nearly impossible to follow. Workers report having to regularly bypass safety measures, such as properly using ladders or asking a teammate for help to lift a heavy item, to keep up with the company’s productivity requirements. As a result, workers are forced to choose between following safety procedures and risking discipline and potential termination for not moving fast enough. (Page 55)

5) Amazon’s failure to ensure safe working environments—based in large part on its unsustainable rates and productivity quotas—results in debilitating injuries. Workers reported chronic pain, loss of mobility, temporary and permanent disabilities, and diminished quality of life because of the injuries they experienced at Amazon’s warehouses. (Page 54)

6) Amazon has studied the connection between speed requirements and worker injuries for years, but it refuses to implement injury-reducing changes because of concerns those changes might reduce productivity. In 2020, Amazon launched a multi-team initiative, called “Project Soteria,” to identify risk factors for injuries in its warehouses and to propose changes that would lower injury rates. Although Project Soteria found evidence of a connection between speed and injuries, and made recommendations based on this connection, Amazon did not implement policy changes in response. Project Soteria studied two policies that Amazon had put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic: pausing disciplinary measures for workers who failed to meet speed requirements and giving workers more time off. Project Soteria found that both policies resulted in lower injury risks. Although the policies were intended to be temporary, the Project Soteria team requested they be formally adopted. But Amazon denied the request. In explaining their reasoning, the company’s senior leaders expressed concern about “negatively impacting rate/productivity and the ability to deliver on time to customers.” (Page 71) Amazon leadership then directed the Project Soteria team to switch its focus from reducing injuries to finding ways to “maximize rates/productivity” without increasing injuries. Project Soteria referred to this as the “injury-productivity trade-off.” (Page 77) Two years later, the Project Soteria team again found a connection between speed and injuries, and proposed slowing down the pace of work for workers in the roles and facilities studied. Amazon rejected that proposal. (Page 80) That same year, Amazon leadership directed a different team to audit Project Soteria’s findings—specifically its finding of a connection between speed and injuries. That 7 second team hypothesized that worker injuries were actually the result of workers’ “frailty” and “intrinsic likelihood of injury.” (Page 82) During the Committee’s investigation, Amazon repeatedly characterized this team’s analysis as accurate. In 2021, another Amazon team, called “Project Elderwand,” determined the maximum number of times per shift a warehouse worker in a certain role could do the same physical tasks before increasing the risk of harm to themselves, with the goal of reducing the significant risk of back injuries in this role. The Amazon team also developed a method for ensuring workers did not exceed that maximum number. After conducting tests to assess how implementing that change would impact “customer experience,” Amazon decided not to implement the change to limit workers’ movements. Workers in this role continue to far exceed the maximum number that Amazon identified, risking injuries that Amazon could reduce. (Page 90)

7) Amazon actively discourages injured workers from receiving outside medical care, putting injured workers further at risk. Amazon has multiple internal practices that operate to delay workers from receiving needed medical care and force workers who need medical care to return to work too soon, exacerbating their injuries. (Page 97)

8) Workers who need short-term or permanent workplace accommodations for work related injuries and disabilities experience significant challenges obtaining appropriate accommodations. In addition, Amazon’s accommodations processes do not appear to involve an interactive process. (Page 126)

9) Amazon terminates workers injured in the company’s warehouses who are on approved medical leave. These terminations are often the result of failures by the company’s time-tracking systems. As a result, workers are left without access to Human Resources and other resources and are forced to recover from injuries without income or support. (Page 136)

10) Amazon deflates the injury numbers it records for federal regulators. Staff at Amazon’s on-site first aid centers, called “AMCARE,” often delay workers from being referred to outside medical providers. Those same first aid providers regularly treat workers in-house instead of referring them to outside medical providers. These tactics effectively reduce the number of injuries that Amazon must record and disclose to the federal government. The Committee’s review of Amazon’s internal data also raises serious questions about whether the company accurately records injuries. (Page 117)

The Injury-Productivity Trade-off HELP Committee Report (https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/amazon_investigation.pdf)

[Winehole23]

Amazon workers fight back


Thousands of Amazon employees in the United States are set to go on strike during the busy Christmas period after union officials accused the retailer of refusing to enter negotiations for better pay and conditions.

The Teamsters union said on Wednesday that warehouse workers would join the picket line in cities including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco from 6am Eastern Time (11:00 GMT) on Thursday in the largest strike against the company in US history.“

“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” Teamsters General President Sean M O’Brien said in a statement.

“These greedy executives had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they’ve pushed workers to the limit and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them.”

Teamsters, one of the biggest unions in North America, claims to represent about 10,000 Amazon workers among the retail giant’s roughly 800,000-strong US workforce.
Amazon disputes the union’s claim to represent any of its employees and says its conduct is illegal.
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/12/19/amazon-workers-to-strike-in-us-during-busy-christmas-season

[Winehole23]

this is the FCC case against Amazon

the spending freeze and mysteriously cancelled building leases are starting to bite Trumplandia's legal capacity -- DOGE is throttling regulation


On a a call about the government's major lawsuit against Amazon, a federal lawyer began making startling disclosures.

The Federal Trade Commission is in a "dire resource situation," FTC lawyer Jonathan Cohen said earlier this week, asking the federal judge to delay the trial.

Some people on the case team have resigned by accepting the DOGE team's "Fork In the Road" offer (https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5296910/trump-federal-workers-fork-resign-buyout), he said, and hiring is frozen. Agency staff have to vacate FTC offices because "something has happened" to the lease and they might move to the former USAID facilities (https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/03/10/g-s1-52964/rubio-announces-that-83-of-usaid-contracts-will-be-canceled). Their travel card limits were cut to $1. And they have to buy legal transcripts at the cheapest and slowest rate, which can mean weeks of waiting for documents to properly prepare for court deadlines.

"The agency is experiencing extremely severe resource shortfalls in terms of both money and personnel," Cohen told U.S. District Judge John Chun in Seattle on Wednesday, according to a transcript of the call.

The case at stake is one of the FTC's most high-profile lawsuits, against Amazon (https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183470389/ftc-sues-amazon-over-prime). The Biden administration had accused the retail giant of "tricking" people into paying for Prime memberships that were purposefully hard to cancel, which the company denies. The trial had been expected to start in September.
Amazon's lawyer argued against rescheduling, saying he'd seen "no indication" of trouble at the FTC, and that lawyers change up on cases "DOGE or no DOGE." Judge Chun asked the FTC to put the delay request in writing.

But within hours, federal lawyers reversed course.

"I was wrong," Cohen wrote to the judge in a letter. "The Commission does not have resource constraints and we are fully prepared to litigate this case. Please be assured that the FTC will meet whatever schedule and deadlines the court sets."
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5328202/ftc-asks-to-delay-amazon-trial-over-dire-resources-then-quickly-backtracks

[Thread]

this is the FCC case against Amazon

the spending freeze and mysteriously cancelled building leases are starting to bite Trumplandia's legal capacity -- DOGE is throttling regulation

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5328202/ftc-asks-to-delay-amazon-trial-over-dire-resources-then-quickly-backtracks

...kickin' their ass up so high they can use it for a hump.

[Winehole23]

...kickin' their ass up so high they can use it for a hump.on the side of elite oligarchs like Bezos and Musk

[Thread]

on the side of elite oligarchs like Bezos and Musk

...In fervent hopes I get enough left over to see us to the end.

[Winehole23]

"us"?

[Thread]

"us"?

Wife & I.

[Winehole23]

The Justice Department, in a case argued by the Biden antitrust division, defeats Google again, with the judge ruling that Google monopolized key adtech markets.storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508.1410.0.pdf)

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nztbvvo2gl4227zuxjf7gog3/bafkreigmvqxozctuadfytc2dqly7lqh7kclzulirc6okgarq7 ojx2kdvw4@jpeg

[Winehole23]

anyone who has ever ordered online has probably been screwed by dynamic pricing

1815753961410076825https://x.com/TechFTC/status/1815753961410076825and will be again



By the end of the year, Delta plans for 20% of its ticket prices to be individually determined using AI, president Glen Hauenstein told investors last week. Currently, about 3% of the airline’s flight prices are AI-determined, triple the portion from nine months ago.

Over time, the goal is to do away with static pricing altogether, Hauenstein explained during the company’s Investor (https://fortune.com/company/investor/)



“This is a full reengineering of how we price and how we will be pricing in the future,” he said. Eventually, “we will have a price that’s available on that flight, on that time, to you, the individual.”

He compared AI to “a super analyst” who is “working 24 hours a day, seven days a week and trying to simulate… real time, what should the price points be?”
While the rollout would be a “multiyear” process, he said, initial results “show amazingly favorable unit revenues.”

Delta accomplishes this pricing through a partnership with Fetcherr, a six-year-old Israeli company that also counts Azul, WestJet, Virgin Atlantic, and VivaAerobus as clients. And it has its sights set beyond flying. “Once we will be established in the airline industry, we will move to hospitality, car rentals, cruises, whatever,” cofounder Robby Nissan (https://fortune.com/company/nissan-motor/) said at a travel conference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfqRa2VyrF0)
https://fortune.com/2025/07/16/delta-moves-toward-eliminating-set-prices-in-favor-of-ai-that-determines-how-much-you-personally-will-pay-for-a-ticket/

[Winehole23]

Facebook cashes in on scams it hosts


A blockbuster Reuters report by Jeff Horwitz analyzes leaked internal documents that reveal that: 10% of Meta's gross revenue comes from ads for fraudulent goods and scams, and; the company knows it, and; they decided not to do anything about it, because; the fines for facilitating this life-destroying fraud are far less than the expected revenue from helping to destroy its users' lives:
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/

[Winehole23]

some details: first, the company's own figures estimate that they are delivering 15 billion scam ads every single day, which generate $7 billion in revenue every year. Despite its own automatic systems flagging the advertisers behind these scams, Meta does not terminate their account – rather, it charges them more money as a "disincentive." In other words, fraudulent ads are more profitable for Meta than non-scam ads.

Meta's own internal memos also acknowledge that they help scammers automatically target their most vulnerable users: if a user clicks on a scam, the automated ad-targeting system floods that user's feed with more scams. The company knows that the global fraud economy is totally dependent on Meta, with one third of all US scams going through Facebook (in the UK, the figure is 54% of all "payment-related scam losses"). Meta also concludes that it is uniquely hospitable to scammers, with one internal 2025 memo revealing the company's conclusion that "It is easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google."

Internally, Meta has made plans to reduce the fraud on the platform, but the effort is being slow-walked because the company estimates that the most it will ultimately pay in fines worldwide ads up to $1 billion, while it currently books $7 billion/year in revenue from fraud. The memo announcing the anti-fraud effort concludes that scam revenue dwarfs "the cost of any regulatory settlement involving scam ads." Another memo concludes that the company will not take any pro-active measures to fight fraud, and will only fight fraud in response to regulatory action.

Meta's anti-fraud team operates under an internal quota system that limits how many scam ads they are allowed to fight. A Feb 2025 memo states that the anti-fraud team is only allowed to take measures that will reduce ad revenue by 0.15% ($135m) – even though Meta's own estimate is that scam ads generate $7 billion per year for the company. The manager in charge of the program warns their underlings that "We have specific revenue guardrails."

[Winehole23]

even if a fraudster does violate Meta's terms of service, the company will not act. Per Meta's own policies, a "High Value Account" (one that spends a lot on fraudulent ads) has to accrue more than 500 "strikes" (adjudicated violations of Meta policies) before the company will take down the account.


Meta's safety staff grew so frustrated by the company's de facto partnership with the fraudsters that preyed on its users that they created a weekly "Scammiest Scammer" award, given to the advertiser that generated the most complaints that week. But this didn't actually spark action – Reuters found that 40% of Scammiest Scammers were still operating on the platform six months after being flagged as the company's most prolific fraudster.

[Winehole23]

of course, there is one way that Meta could dramatically reduce fraud: eliminate its privacy-invasive ad-targeting system. The top of the Meta ad-funnel starts with the nonconsensual dossiers Meta has assembled on more than 4 billion people around the world. Scammers pay to access these dossiers, targeting their pitches to users who are most vulnerable.


This is an absolutely foreseeable outcome of deeply, repeatedly violating billions of peoples' human rights by spying on them. Gathering and selling access to all this surveillance data is like amassing a mountain of oily rags so large that you can make billions by processing them into low-grade fuel. This is only profitable if you can get someone else to pay for the inevitable fires:
https://locusmag.com/feature/cory-doctorow-zucks-empire-of-oily-rags/

[Winehole23]

The scope of the problem is difficult to overstate. A UK regulator found that, in 2023, Meta products were involved in a jaw-dropped 54% of all payment-related scams (https://www.psr.org.uk/information-for-consumers/unmasking-how-fraudsters-target-uk-consumers-in-the-digital-age/), or more than double all other social platforms combined.https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/p/coinbase-failed-to-screen-30m-transactions

[Winehole23]

DHS wants to combat disinformation (i.e., bad press) and strongarm online platforms to censor stories they don't like

where my Twitter files folks at?


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:64cdy5xn7qtgd2prtqcavb2t/bafkreiabqawmuwukanmarlcswar3lpc56y3d3okoofjhp2fth kdqmh3z4m@jpeghttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/3890483/lies-smears-ai-deepfakes-dhs-tackles-fake-news-about-ice/

[Winehole23]

on a lighter note



https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:oxplkzuausfufk5dthatrd5m/bafkreiaha4nrx7uechifqomggvejrsjp3a2agephewktyomcf kwygg55uy@jpeg

[Winehole23]

old tech, same bullshit

Trump wants to censor it



https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:y4qouseuxn3ubsd3g7xjct66/bafkreig3ujybqicvfak3y5pbdimchmn2yp7udqk7x6xgjxlux ysk7frjpq@jpeg
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:y4qouseuxn3ubsd3g7xjct66/bafkreigxyoboupiratplozhn3an5w2poueiqcpsbeokcq5clq 2llwq6hee@jpeg

[Winehole23]

censorship, coercive speech codes and punitive lawsuits seem to be thematic in Trump 2.0

[Winehole23]

facial recognition tech sucks

ICE uses its version to determine US and foreign identities in the field



Amazon’s face surveillance technology is the target of growing opposition nationwide, and today, there are 28 more causes for concern. In a test the ACLU recently conducted of the facial recognition tool, called “Rekognition,” the software incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress, identifying them as other people who have been arrested for a crime.

The members of Congress who were falsely matched with the mugshot database we used in the test include Republicans and Democrats, men and women, and legislators of all ages, from all across the country.

https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/styles/content_area_full_width/public/wysiwyg/false_matches_graphic_1.png?itok=g5BvmeR6
Our test used Amazon Rekognition to compare images of members of Congress with a database of mugshots. The results included 28 incorrect matches.

The false matches were disproportionately of people of color, including six members of the Congressional Black Caucus, among them civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). These results demonstrate why Congress should join the ACLU in calling for a moratorium on law enforcement use of face surveillance.

To conduct our test, we used the exact same facial recognition system that Amazon offers to the public, which anyone could use to scan for matches between images of faces. And running the entire test cost us $12.33 — less than a large pizza
.
Tell Amazon to get out of the surveillance business (https://action.aclu.org/petition/amazon-stop-selling-surveillance)

Using Rekognition, we built a face database and search tool using 25,000 publicly available arrest photos. Then we searched that database against public photos of every current member of the House and Senate. We used the default match settings that Amazon sets for Rekognition.


https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/styles/content_area_full_width/public/wysiwyg/comparing_input_graphic_2.png?itok=ZeGFbgt7
Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) was falsely identified by Amazon Rekognition as someone who had been arrested for a crime.

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hakzua5btcgcfjye2yujlhos/bafkreihelpndu72b5mqh7drzngoeq47vj554q25tdlzlzswey rclg4m6ya@jpeghttps://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/meta-buried-causal-evidence-of-social-media-harm-us-court-filings-allege/articleshow/125519040.cms

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:hakzua5btcgcfjye2yujlhos/bafkreieucyawktckyeja76tbhq6njbomjc5vchllndwfwke5r wmi7an7fe@jpeg

[Winehole23]

Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, according to unredacted filings in a lawsuit by U.S. school districts against Meta and other social media platforms.

[Winehole23]

foreign troll bots influencing/scamming Americans were exposed too

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pmyqirafcp3jqdhrl7crpq7t/bafkreibzyw65plw57gdn7hlo6wuhpvi364jjrbmvkvqj3t63l w2e2fnqri@jpeg

[Winehole23]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-maga-influencers-accidentally-unmasked-as-foreign-actors/

[Winehole23]

foreign generated US right-wing rage bait on X

extreme free speech, like El0n promised

[Winehole23]

anyone who has ever ordered online has probably been screwed by dynamic pricing

1815753961410076825https://x.com/TechFTC/status/1815753961410076825Amazon is screwing governments and schools with dynamic pricing


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4u3hwe3p7oy3hoy3amlw7rp2/bafkreicefqpxmh4hwmcu6z4n4oeig42vbc7zz6za6t35kif6d fewoi7hzq@jpeg

[Winehole23]

(to be fair, the localities bound themselves contractually to Amazon's depredations, bad on them)

[Winehole23]

the tone is inflammatory, but so is the Trump regime's tyrannical enforcement of immigration


As US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wreak havoc (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/us/minneapolis-protests-ice.html) on American communities, big tech companies have been making themselves indispensable to the increasingly tyrannical state.


Among them is Amazon subsidiary Ring, the company behind those AI doorbell cameras that have exploded in popularity over the last few years. Back in October, Ring announced (https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/flock-safety-and-ring-partner-to-help-neighborhoods-work-together-for-safer-communities) that its devices would soon be looped into a network of Flock AI surveillance cameras. That network, an investigation by 404 Media found (https://www.404media.co/ice-secret-service-navy-all-had-access-to-flocks-nationwide-network-of-cameras/), has been available to local and federal police and enforcement agencies like ICE — leaving many worried that their Ring doorbell cams are now feeding into a government panopticon.
https://futurism.com/future-society/amazon-ring-cameras-ice

[Winehole23]

Wired with recipts

DHS determines immigration status and probable cause with a facial recognition tool that isn't designed to do that.

Reportedly, Americans are recorded for administrative purposes by DHS too.


The face-recognition app Mobile Fortify (https://www.wired.com/story/mobile-fortify-face-recognition-nec-ice-cbp/), now used by United States immigration agents (https://www.wired.com/story/ice-rolls-facial-recognition-tools-out-to-officers-phones/) in towns and cities across the US, is not designed to reliably identify people in the streets and was deployed without the scrutiny that has historically governed the rollout of technologies that impact people’s privacy (https://www.wired.com/tag/privacy/), according to records reviewed by WIRED.https://www.wired.com/story/cbp-ice-dhs-mobile-fortify-face-recognition-verify-identity/

[Winehole23]

it's kind of how police dogs are used to create probable cause with false positives



https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:o4pdps2jkn7uhrdgadni7djk/bafkreib3tfm5u7kmliawmxfcfelvp56k2vvnl2q5brjs32naj zhnamseje@jpeg

[Winehole23]

blast from the past

until training on the use of body cams got regularized, cops filmed themselves planting drugs on people


In Los Angeles, yet another incident happened in April 2017, where a police officer could be seen planting drugs.


CBS 2 in L.A. reported (https://youtu.be/uMz-y4XsccU) that the officer picked up some cocaine and placed it in a suspect’s wallet. The news outlet explained: “After allegedly putting the drugs in the wallet, it appears the LAPD officer activated the recording on his camera. But the previous 30 seconds is automatically saved.”
https://gizmodo.com/cops-planting-drugs-2010s-body-cameras-2000718559

[Winehole23]

Amazon is screwing governments and schools with dynamic pricing

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4u3hwe3p7oy3hoy3amlw7rp2/bafkreicefqpxmh4hwmcu6z4n4oeig42vbc7zz6za6t35kif6d fewoi7hzq@jpeg


Maryland is set to become the first US state to ban surveillance pricing in retail grocery stores, after the legislature last week passed the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act.


Also known as dynamic or personalized pricing, surveillance pricing is when a store charges different shoppers different prices for the same item at the same time, based on something the store “knows” about them as an individual.


Governor Wes Moore said he will sign the bill into law, which stops large retailers from using personal data to change prices in real-time, while still allowing for promotional offers and loyalty program benefits.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/maryland-to-become-first-us-state-to-ban-surveillance-pricing/

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:az4ntj4224lyl7kphcrlocqt/bafkreifpixtictm743r3brtfsqi2o5mnaj5jrf4kh4rdocn52 hwpecg2du

[Winehole23]

Google Search prioritizes AI slop


Google was already attempting to steer users toward stolen content by auto-populating the top of every search with an artificial intelligence overview, followed by sponsored links and sometimes a bunch of other unwanted crap. If you want purely web-based search results from Google, you now have to hunt around for the “Web” filter in one of Google’s submenus. Or you have to manually input code into your search so that the AI demon isn’t the first thing you see. And that’s if you actually care about what you’re searching for. Many people don’t; they’ll get a top-line answer from AI and deem it not worth the trouble to click or scroll any further.

This is why, when Google’s algorithm de-prioritized external links, it killed off traffic to all publishing sites, this one included,by about a quarter or more virtually overnight (https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/google-traffic-down-2025-trends-report-2026/). Sites like SFGATE need traffic to survive, and writers like me need those sites to stay alive if we hope to remain gainfully employed by them. Now Google, which is set as the default search engine in nearly every piece of tech you consume, is poised to cut off their oxygen supply altogether. So if you’ve recently asked yourself, “How can they kill journalism even deader?” — this is how.https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/new-google-ai-22279112.php

[Winehole23]

Changing IPO rules so SpaceX insiders can soak passive investors


The NASDAQ stock exchange used to require a company to have at least 10 percent of its stock publicly traded, and see it traded for at least three months, before being able to join. Those rules are now gone (https://www.forbes.com/sites/garthfriesen/2026/04/25/spacex-ipo-is-forcing-changes-to-index-and-underwriting-rules/); SpaceX will be eligible after just 15 trading days and with less than 5 percent of its stock available to the public. The S&P 500 reform now under discussion (https://www.barrons.com/articles/sp500-spacex-ipo-openai-stocks-anthropic-c9e7699e) is removing the requirement that companies be profitable (as SpaceX is not, as will be seen below)—but only for the largest 100 companies.


“Historically, the function of IPOs has been to allow insiders to cash out,” said economist J.W. Mason, co-author of the recent book Against Money (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo265118979.html) (for which, full disclosure, I provided a blurb). Thanks to these rule changes, a large fraction of the bag holders will be passive investors—which is to say, basically everyone saving for retirement. “It will be impossible to not own them … This will be really helpful for demand,” one adviser to the deal told the Financial Times (https://www.ft.com/content/00382ab9-3dfe-468c-8966-853cd787dd43).
https://prospect.org/2026/05/20/elon-musk-spacex-stock-ipo/

[Winehole23]

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[Winehole23]

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-explodes-during-testing-in-florida/

[Winehole23]

2060164928472854821

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qrllvid7s54k4hnwtqxwetrf/bafkreic3zpse2lc4e3tpfqttdsu62lbw63v5tcero3q4lwjuq p6iusfmvi

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[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:623st67kkthivj4c6icvkqnq/bafkreidgrjakkn25epxhyr2xhtxvy3z4vjj3wu36cgqfujvhk dg4x5se6i

[Winehole23]

tough break for El0n, S&P didn't change the indexing rules for SpaceX's IPO



https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bjfognzmg7ihpdq2x7yty4kp/bafkreidtwkmv5zvobk5ug423kuttwwta3ppu3ytfzrhrapqxm evx7soafa