California’s Age Appropriate Design Code Is Radical Anti-Internet Policy

from the well,-there-goes-the-neighborhood dept

Thu, Sep 15th 2022 12:55pm – Mike Masnick

This isn’t a surprise, but it’s still frustrating. Gavin Newsom, who wants to be President some day, and thus couldn’t risk misleading headlines that he didn’t “protect the children,” has now signed AB 2273 into law (this follows on yesterday’s decision to sign the bad, but slightly less destructive, AB 587 into law). At this point there’s not much more I can say about why AB 2273 is so bad. I’ve explained why it’s literally impossible to comply with (and why many sites will just ignore it). I’ve explained how it’s pretty clearly unconstitutional. I’ve explained how the whole idea was pushed for and literally sponsored by a Hollywood director / British baroness who wants to destroy the internet. I’ve explained how it won’t do much, if anything, to protect children, but will likely put them at much greater risk. I’ve explained how the company it will likely benefit most is the world’s largest porn company not to mention COVID disinfo peddlers and privacy lawyers. I’ve explained how the companies supporting the law insist that we shouldn’t worry because websites will just start scanning your face when you visit.

Gavin Newsom Fucks Over The Open Internet, Signs Disastrously Stupid Age Appropriate Design Code

Related:

California’s Age Appropriate Design Code Is Radical Anti-Internet Policy

ACERE Statement Condemning Senator Rubio’s Attempt to Intimidate and Harass Puentes de Amor

As Cuban-Americans and others came out on the streets of Miami on July 31 to oppose the over 60-year United States embargo against Cuba, Senator Marco Rubio decided to revive one of the ugliest and most condemned moments of U.S. history when he chose to engage in McCarthyist tactics and launch a campaign against U.S. citizens demanding diplomacy and engagement with Cuba, instead of continuing a failed policy of isolation and punishment.

ACERE Statement Condemning Senator Rubio’s Attempt to Intimidate and Harass Puentes de Amor

Related:

Bridges of Love ‘spreads Cuba’s communist propaganda.’ FBI must investigate this group | Opinion

White House Releases Performatively Ridiculous ‘Principles’ For ‘Tech Platform Accountability’ That Include Removing Section 230

from the last-minute-homework dept

Fri, Sep 9th 2022 09:50am – Mike Masnick

During the 2020 campaign, there were a few times when candidate Joe Biden insisted he wanted to get rid of Section 230 entirely, though he made it clear he had no idea what Section 230 actually did. When I wrote articles highlighting all of this, I had some Biden supporters (even folks who worked on his campaign) reach out to me to say not to worry about it, that Biden wasn’t fully briefed on 230, and that if he became President, more knowledgeable people would be tasked to work on stuff, and the 230 stuff wouldn’t be an issue. I didn’t believe it at the time, and it turns out I was correct.

White House Releases Performatively Ridiculous ‘Principles’ For ‘Tech Platform Accountability’ That Include Removing Section 230

Doesn’t matter who’s in charge, they both want to cancel each other and censor whatever they determine is disinformation, whether it’s domestic or foreign policy!

Related:

Communications Decency Act – Section 230

UN Report Highlights Ongoing Racism in US

On August 30, 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) released a report examining human rights violations in Azerbaijan, Benin, Nicaragua, Slovakia, Suriname, Zimbabwe, and the United States of America. A 24-member delegation from the United States including the mayor of Atlanta and representatives of federal and state agencies attended hearings held in Geneva, Switzerland. The United States is represented on CERD by Gay Johnson McDougall, a lawyer with expertise international human rights issues and racial discrimination. McDougall is affiliated with the Fordham University Law School.

UN Report Highlights Ongoing Racism in US

Haven’t seen this reported in mainstream media (except to emphasize access to abortion). Guess they’re too busy “reporting” on Xinjiang.

Wisconsin GOP candidate calls for ‘pitchforks and torches’

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin endorsed by Donald Trump is calling for people to take up “pitchforks and torches” in reaction to a story that detailed his giving to anti-abortion groups, churches and others — rhetoric that Democrats say amounts to threatening violence.

Wisconsin GOP candidate calls for ‘pitchforks and torches’

Updated: NASA moon launch postponed after hydrogen leak

The Artemis 1 could now lift off from Cape Canaveral on Friday, after missing its launch window today.

NASA moon launch postponed after hydrogen leak

Originally:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Fuel leaks and a possible crack discovered during final liftoff preparations threatened to postpone the launch of NASA’s mighty new moon rocket Monday morning on its shakedown flight with three test dummies aboard.

Rocket launch: Leaks, possible crack threaten to delay NASA moon launch

US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East

Dozens of social media accounts operating for years in an attempt to influence people in the Middle East and Asia have been shut down. Now a major new study believes the US is likely behind it

US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East

Related:

CONOPs

Evaluating Five Years of Pro-Western Covert Influence Operations

The US government got caught using sock puppets to spread propaganda on social media

The data analyzed came from 146 Twitter accounts (which tweeted 299,566 times), 39 Facebook profiles, and 26 Instagram accounts, along with 16 Facebook pages and two Facebook groups. Some of the accounts were meant to appear like real people and used AI-generated profile pictures. Meta and Twitter didn’t specifically name any organizations or people behind the campaigns but said their analysis led them to believe they originated in the US and Great Britain.

For anyone who’s ever been within 15 feet of a history book, the news that the US is using covert action to push its interests in other countries won’t come as a surprise. It is, however, interesting that these operations were uncovered just as social media companies are gearing up to deal with a wave of foreign interference and misinformation in our own elections.

The report also comes right on the heels of a bombshell whistleblower report from Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former head of security, which accused the company of lax security practices and misrepresenting the number of bots on its platform (something the US government is investigating and that Twitter has strongly denied).