In Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) there’s a chapter about the widely-used “notice and takedown” system, and its many abuses. One indicator of how bad things are, and how they are still getting worse, is the number of requests that Google receives to de-list links from its search results. Last year, Google […]
As you’re hopefully aware, over the last few years, our Copia Institute think tank, in partnership with Randy Lubin’s Leveraged Play, have been using games and game-like tools for exploring complex realities in the present, as well as exploring potential future scenarios. On the latter front, we’ve done things like our Threatcast election disinformation simulator, […]
I’ve mentioned a few times that one of the decentralized social media services I’m following closely is nostr, which is an incredibly lightweight protocol, enabling lots of people to (very simply) create their own relays and clients. Unlike Mastodon or Bluesky, Nostr isn’t federated. You don’t join a server. You just get a key pair… […]
This was probably supposed to be a slam dunk: a legislative proposal mandating client-side scanning to prevent the spread of CSAM (child sexual abuse material). Who would be against that? Surely no one, thought those pushing the bill through. But when criticism and resistance started rearing their heads, those pushing the bill went incoherent. Rather […]
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design are two very different fields that work toward the same goal: create a functional product that’s a breeze for users to use and interact with. The iOS UX & UI Design Course breaks down the differences between both and helps you apply this knowledge to your app-building […]
Oops. As you likely know, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, desperate to show Wall St. that his company can make money, decided to lock away the information on Reddit behind a paywall by turning Reddit’s free API to paid, creating quite a mess. In response, thousands of subreddits went dark on Monday, with a plan for […]
Story after story after story has showcased how the intentionally convoluted adtech and data broker market sloppily traffics in all manner of sensitive consumer data, whether it’s your daily physical movements (say, the last time you visited an abortion clinic), your granular browsing habits, your medical history, your household energy use patterns, or even your mental health data. This massive trove […]
We’ve been covering Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard for months now and it just keeps getting more and more interesting. A very quick primer: Microsoft is seeking to acquire the company for a bonkers amount of money, the EU has already approved the deal, while the UK’s CMA has blocked it, and the FTC […]
In late 2020, Massachusetts lawmakers (with overwhelming public support) passed an expansion of the state’s “right to repair” law. The original law was the first in the nation to be passed in 2013. The update dramatically improved it, requiring that all new vehicles be accessible via a standardized, transparent platform that allows owners and third-party repair shops […]
When talking about content moderation, it’s easy to focus entirely on centralized platforms. But now, with the rise of more federated and decentralized systems like ActivityPub and Bluesky (and many others), it’s becoming more and more important to talk about how content moderation works in a decentralized space. This week we’re joined by Yoel Roth, […]
A few weeks back, we wrote about the Supreme Court’s decision in the case between the Andy Warhol Foundation and Lynn Goldsmith, regarding the copyright on certain images that Warhol painted based on a Goldsmith photograph, and exploring under what conditions it was protected by fair use. We felt that the Court completely ignored the […]
On Monday we wrote about the changes that Reddit was making to their API pricing, causing some services to shut down, and leading thousands of subreddits to choose to blackout (some temporarily, some indefinitely). Apparently, all those sites going private resulted in… Reddit itself falling over. According to Reddit, the blackout was responsible for the […]
JBL Live Free NC+ TWS earbuds deliver JBL Signature Sound with supreme comfort. Stay in the groove all day long without noise or any distractions thanks to Active Noise Canceling, while TalkThru and Ambient Aware keep you in touch with your friends and surroundings. Up to 21 hours of battery life and in-case wireless charging […]
No matter what differences of opinion I might have with Volokh Conspiracy contributors, it must be said the site (now hosted at Reason after a brief run at the Washington Post) manages to surface truly interesting cases on a regular basis. This is one of them. I’ll let Ilya Somin of the Volokh Conspiracy lead […]
Last week, when Elon Musk hosted conspiracy theory nonsense peddler RFK Jr. on a Twitter Spaces, he admitted that, despite firing somewhere around 85% of Twitter staff at the point he took the company over and just no longer paying rent or many other bills, he’s still struggling to get the company to break even. […]
A couple of weeks back, we discussed how Google had delisted the app Downloader from the Play Store after a DMCA notice was issued by a firm representing several Israeli TV networks. The problem with all of this is simple: Downloader doesn’t have anything to do with copyright infringement or piracy. All it does is […]
The Supreme Court’s Riley decision has been the law of the land since 2014. If cops want to search seized cell phones, they need a warrant. Nearly a decade on, cops are still violating it. The inability to follow the rules has seen evidence in this criminal case (brought to us by FourthAmendment.com) tossed twice. […]
Back in November last year, Walled Culture reported on the shocking opinion by a top EU court advisor that copyright was more important than privacy. The case in question was brought by four French associations for the protection of rights and freedoms on the Internet (La Quadrature du Net, the Federation of Associative Internet Access Providers, […]
Every so often, I see somebody, who has no idea what they’re talking about, say some variant of: “well, the internet still works despite all of that freaking out by consumer groups, therefore net neutrality must not have been important.” I’ve noted repeatedly how that statement is the claim of deeply unserious people for a […]
All sorts of interesting things can happen in the process of a lawsuit. What’s going on here may seem complex, but stick with it, as it’s worth following… You may recall that back in April, it was revealed (first in a court filing, and later in an announcement to partners) that Twitter had been merged […]
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