[Mike Masnick at MSNBC] As Mike Masnick points out here, the hypocrisy from Elon Musk about collusion between tech and government is staggering: "Before, we were told that White House officials’ merely reaching out to social media companies about election misinformation was a dem … | Continue reading
[Christine Lemmer-Webber] Christine Lemmer-Webber has written a superb post that sets out to ask how decentralized Bluesky is but goes far deeper into the different models at play in decentralized social networking. It's required reading for anyone who cares about the space. "Wha … | Continue reading
[Annalee Newitz at The Believer] Boots Riley is a national treasure. I loved this interview with him in The Believer: "BLVR: Do you think that all expression is propaganda? BR: The word propaganda got popularized in different ways at different times. But our generation knows it a … | Continue reading
In the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin discusses my workplace, the journalism it undertakes, and why it's important (gift link). I lead technology, and while I sit on the business side of the operation, it's an absolute privilege to support these journalists. This is on point: “T … | Continue reading
[Oxford Martin School] The Oxford Martin School is a multidisciplinary research institution at the University of Oxford focused on tackling global challenges and shaping a sustainable future through innovation and collaboration. It ran a study on the societal implications of dece … | Continue reading
[Dan Milmo at The Guardian] The Department of Justice has filed its proposed remedies to Google's illegal monopoly over search services: "The proposals filed to a Washington federal court include the forced sale of the Chrome browser and a five-year ban from entering the browser … | Continue reading
[Massachusetts Institute of Technology] Changes to financial aid at MIT: "Undergraduates with family income below $200,000 can expect to attend MIT tuition-free starting next fall, thanks to newly expanded financial aid. Eighty percent of American households meet this income thre … | Continue reading
[Julia Angwin at The New York Times] In an op-ed for The New York Times, Julia Angwin makes a strong argument for the open social web: "If we want a quality information environment, we have to build a new one beyond the walls of the existing Big Tech social media platforms. We ca … | Continue reading
[Lucinda Jordaan at Global Investigative Journalism Network] I'd missed this story from back in July. Rappler is building its own end-to-end encrypted, decentralized communities on the Matrix protocol. "Built on the open source, secure, decentralized Matrix protocol, the app has … | Continue reading
[Khadija Alam and Russell Brandom at Rest of World] Mobile internet subscriber growth is significantly slowing globally: "From 2015 to 2021, the survey consistently found over 200 million coming online through mobile devices around the world each year. But in the last two years, … | Continue reading
[Anil Dash] Anil Dash on Substack's attempt to brand "writing in a newsletter": "We constrain our imaginations when we subordinate our creations to names owned by fascist tycoons. Imagine the author of a book telling people to "read my Amazon". A great director trying to promote … | Continue reading
[Jillian D'Onfro at The San Francisco Standard] On one level, this piece about tech workers leaving the industry behind and doing something more culturally meaningful is quite nice: "Andrew Wasilewski, who managed to live “very frugally” on his layoff package while launching the … | Continue reading
[Annie Waldman at ProPublica] UnitedHealth Group has been using an algorithm to determine whether patients have been receiving "too much" therapy and then cutting them off: "Around 2016, government officials began to pry open United’s black box. They found that the nation’s large … | Continue reading
[Joanna Chiu and Viola Zhou at Rest of World] Tech companies like Microsoft and Google have, through their accelerators, supported startups that provide censorship and policing technologies in China. It's perhaps not a surprise that they've supported these endeavors - after all, … | Continue reading
[Timothy Graham and Mark Andrejevic] Elon Musk didn't just endorse Trump with his words - according to this pre-print research paper, he gave Republicans an algorithmic boost on X, too: "The analysis reveals a structural engagement shift around mid-July 2024, suggesting platform- … | Continue reading
This is a pretty great article about the decentralized social web, which quotes Christine Lemmer-Webber, Blaine Cook, and me. It’s in Polish, but if you don’t speak the language, the “translate” button on your browser works pretty well. Here are the full remarks I sent Michał “ry … | Continue reading
[Renee Dudley, with research by Doris Burke, at ProPublica] Security lapses in Microsoft's own products led to hacks that in turn pushed President Biden to ask for help from it and other tech companies to improve White House security. Microsoft saw it as an opportunity to lock th … | Continue reading
Like many of you, I received a survey today with the title: “What is your dream for Mozilla?” I filled it in, but the potential for Mozilla is so expansive and critical to the future of the internet that I wanted to address my thoughts in greater depth here. Mozilla describes its … | Continue reading
[Sara Fischer at Axios] "Beehiiv, a newsletter startup taking aim at Substack, says it's making a "multi-million dollar investment" to create a new "beehiiv Media Collective" of journalists on its platform." Beehiiv's new fund for independent journalists will give them a monthly … | Continue reading
[Mathew Ingram at The Torment Nexus] Mathew wrestles with where Bluesky sits in the future of social media given its connections to venture capital and blockchain supporters: "I have no doubt that, as Cory says, Graber and the other founders of Bluesky are sincere in their desire … | Continue reading
I care a lot about the future of social media. It’s how many of us learn about the world and connect to each other; putting something so important in the hands of a handful of centralized corporations has repeatedly proven itself to be harmful. That’s why I’m so excited about the … | Continue reading
[Oliver Darcy at Status] I literally had to check to see if this was real: "The Onion has successfully acquired Infowars. The satirical news outlet purchased Alex Jones' right-wing conspiracy empire at a court-ordered auction, the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Element … | Continue reading
[The Guardian] Given the reluctance to leave X among most publishers, the Guardian is taking a big leadership role here by refusing to continue to post to X: "This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platfo … | Continue reading
We’ve got a new takeaway in the neighborhood, occupying a small space that was previously taken up by a pizza joint. Their opening was a bit of a saga — it seemed like they were waiting an age for permits to be approved — so it’s exciting to have them finally open. I was also rea … | Continue reading
[Michael Kennedy and Isobel Cockerell in Coda Story] Just one example of many of AI being used to take agency away from ordinary workers: "The upshot was, it took away our ability to advocate for patients. We couldn’t point to a score and say, ‘This patient is too sick, I need to … | Continue reading
[Noah Hurowitz at The Intercept] This should be a five alarm fire: "Up for a potential fast-track vote next week in the House of Representatives, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, also known as H.R. 9495, would grant the secretary of the Treasu … | Continue reading
[Sean Goedecke] This is very good. It's advertised as a piece about shipping in big tech companies, but honestly, I think it's true of many smaller companies too. It's not true in the smallest startups or for organizations with certain kinds of engineering cultures - but I suspec … | Continue reading
[Signal] Signal has improved its group call functionality pretty significantly: "If you love group calls on Signal, but don’t want to create a group chat for every combination of your friends or colleagues, you’re in luck. Today we’re launching call links: Share a link with anyon … | Continue reading
I’ve noticed a few mistaken assumptions circulating on social media lately, so I thought it was worth clarifying a few things around privacy and surveillance.Much of this depends on the idea of a threat model: a term that refers to the potential risks you face based on who you th … | Continue reading
[Damon Kiesow in Working Systems]Damon Kiesow, who is the Knight Chair in Digital Editing and Producing at the Missouri School of Journalism, writes:"We ourselves have torn down the wall between editorial and business interests if as journalists, our calculation here is not value … | Continue reading
[Bill Fitzgerald]Bill Fitzgerald has updated his open source guide to personal privacy:"Conversations about privacy and security often focus on technology and give scant attention to the human, non-technological factors that affect personal privacy and security. This post covers … | Continue reading
[Molly White]Unsure what to do now? Molly White has some solid ways to get started helping:""Many of us have looked back on historic events where people have bravely stood up against powerful adversaries and wondered, “what would I have done?” Now is your chance to find out. It d … | Continue reading
[Heather Bryant] Some good advice from Heather: "One practical thing you can do in as much depth as you like, identify a particular area of information that you care about or feel is important and protect it. Whether it's critical public data, old abandoned websites, or niche com … | Continue reading
A question many of us are asking: how can we be as effective as possible over the next four years? A few years ago, I made the decision to move out of tech into non-profit news, and I'm glad I'm here. It's a different environment and the learning curve has sometimes been steep, b … | Continue reading
[Taylor Lorenz at User Mag] Gen Z men have lurched to the right, which was one factor behind this month's election result. This is, in part, because they've been inundated with media that speaks to a right-leaning point of view - and there's almost no counterpart on the Left. "Le … | Continue reading
[Mathew Ingram at The Torment Nexus] Mathew Ingram on blaming social media for the stratification of society: "In the end, that is too simple an explanation, just as blaming the New York Times' coverage of the race is too simple, or accusing more than half of the American elector … | Continue reading
If you’re looking for signal, here are some non-profit newsrooms that speak truth to power on a national scale. You can follow all of them for free; all of them could also use your support. ProPublica ProPublica investigates abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by go … | Continue reading
I’d like to share a hypothesis about the Democrats. It’s about money. It might not be true — it truly is a hypothesis — but I’d like to air it out and see what you think. We have a lot of people in America who are suffering greatly. Dick Tofel put it like this: “For more than for … | Continue reading
[Dick Tofel] Dick Tofel on where the press should go next: "We held a free and fair election, and the candidate who hates the press, who makes sport of threatening it physically and with censorship and muzzling, won. The campaign was fought across seven states and he won them all … | Continue reading
What a morning. I know this quote has been shared and reshared ad infinitum, but it gives me hope today, and I hope it will do the same for you: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find peop … | Continue reading
Today I’ve been thinking a lot about my relatives who actively fought against nationalism as part of the resistance. What they and their colleagues did in the name of inclusion and opportunity. That's the name of the game: a world where everyone has the same opportunity to live a … | Continue reading
In case you’re searching for things to take your mind off the immediate horrors of the real world for, you know, some reason, here are ten: 3D Workers Island is a horror story told in the form of late-nineties screenshots from forums, websites, and a mysterious screensaver. Pra … | Continue reading
[Senator Ron Wyden at MSNBC] Senator Wyden has long been a loud voice for surveillance reform and stronger data protections, so this op-ed isn't really a surprise - but it's still nice to see him weighing in here: "Data brokers are selling the ability to track phones that visit a … | Continue reading
[ProPublica] "With just days to go before Election Day, political coverage is everywhere. At ProPublica, we avoid horse race reporting and focus on telling stories about deeper issues and trends affecting the country. Here are some stories from the last year about issues that are … | Continue reading
[Versha Sharma in Teen Vogue] This is a remarkable kind-of-sort-of-endorsement from Teen Vogue. "As the head of this publication, dedicated to young readers, I have been closely following younger generations’ collective disbelief at the Biden administration’s support of the Israe … | Continue reading
[Craig Silverman at ProPublica and Priyanjana Bengani at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism] "The network, which uses the name Patriot Democracy on many of its ad accounts, is one of eight deceptive Meta advertising operations identified by ProPublica and Tow. These networks h … | Continue reading
[John O'Nolan] This is a genuinely inspiring post from John O'Nolan about the foundation behind Ghost and how it operates. It feels like a blueprint for so many open source projects. "The business model was simple: We would make a great open source product that people wanted to u … | Continue reading
I’m aware that a lot of my linkblog posts have been about the state of America this week. That’s because — well, I’m sure you can figure out why. There is nothing bigger to talk about than this election. So much is at stake, and it really, truly matters. Once Election Day is over … | Continue reading