I want this sticker

That’s actually really good to hear. It really sucks that the animal component is almost pointless, and it seems to be more unethical to include them in the testing process, but it’s good to hear that at least the safety guardrails were working in the past.

Seems we just need to rethink how to ethically test on humans from the start, though I worry about letting the current people in charge execute that plan.

A very good question, and one the author doesn’t ask. I suspect via inferring from certain known facts, like unencrypted data provided by LEOs and IP addresses, who was talking to whom and when. Or they had a mole in their group.

Or they have a backdoor, which given how lovey-dovey Zuck has been with Trump, seems just as plausible as the other options.

Gonna be a really rough political cycle.

I’m surprised I haven’t seen an Evangelion version of Loss

Bannon and the rest were still shilling for Trump before the election, though, so even if they’re no longer the inner circle favorites, they’re doing exactly as predicted: screwing up their faces and falling in line for another chance to be in proximity to power. They enjoy being in the in-group more than they care about their agendas. If they had any real conviction towards their personal goals, they would have dumped Trump long ago.

I expect the same from the billionaires he’s keeping in his orbit this time around, and they’ll fall in line like everybody else has done before them, because whatever character and self-respect they had left was sold to Trump for their own mere chance at power and enrichment.

Thanks for sharing more of the article, btw!

For sure. Just trying to get ahead of the cope and remind people that need a reminder what they’re dealing with. We’ll never get the change we need if people keep hoping for a hero to save them or for the villains to monologue at a critical moment.

Personally, I am very concerned that radical elements might attempt to flood that email address. That would be a real shame if that were to happen.

You know, it’s kinda bogus that Trump did a DEI hire to put Elon in a government job, rather than a natural born American citizen. Just saying…

Paywall, so I can’t get far, but if anyone thinks the messaging going forward won’t be “conform or be cast out,” then you don’t understand who Trump and his sycophants are. This is as much a religious cult as it is a political operation.

Yes, they’re quibbling about the details now that their guy is in power. Yes, he’s pulling the rug out from under them, just like everyone said he would. Yes, they’re starting to feel the gravity of electing a billionaire fraud who can be bought more easily than most politicians, but they’ll double down and turn to apologetics before they risk being cast out of the in-group. As an ex-fundigelical, ask me how I know.

So, cling to whatever gives you hope—it’s going to be a long two to four years—but don’t be surprised when the “looming schism that causes MAGA to crumble” never comes.

ETA: And if that makes you frustrated or anxious, I would suggest channeling that energy into constructive endeavors like building a community. Support each other. Get involved in local happenings. Recognize that we are the ones who will have to save each other.

And all it cost to make was 200 people’s livelihoods! A real bargain!

/s

But I think it’s important to understand that Bluesky has, effectively, created a technological poison pill: by building on an open protocol, ATprotocol, the system itself can be rebuilt outside of Bluesky, but in a way where everyone can continue to communicate, and that creates incredible incentives that undermine any evil billionaires, and would actually punish Bluesky (or anyone else!) should they try to enshittify.

Bruh, ActivityPub is right there, and we already have places where people can communicate. And it’s already built in such a way that anyone can make use of it. Currently not so with ATprotocol.

When BlueSky has interoperable servers that anyone can spin up, then this conversation is worth having, but if the protocol at all requires “the next person” to have tons of investment capital to get things running again, it’s still just a billionaire-buyout away.

Normally I’d apply Hanlon’s Razor and give the benefit of the doubt, but Meta lost the right to charitability long ago and deserves no such kindness or respect until they have a long pattern of acting in the public’s interests.

“If these issues are not resolved quickly they risk fuelling conspiracy theories and damaging Meta’s reputation.”

Meta has a reputation? Surely, that thing was mutilated beyond all recognition a decade ago. And conspiracy theories are Meta’s bread and butter.

While users who type “#Democrat” or “#Democrats” see no results, the hashtag “Republican” returns 3.3 million posts on the social media platform.

By manually searching Instagram for “Democrats”, rather than clicking on a hashtag, users are greeted by a screen reading “we’ve hidden these results”.

“Results for the term you searched for may contain sensitive content,” it says.

There are also limited results when people search for “Republicans” as opposed to “Republican”.

And I’m sure the “free-speech absolutists” were up in arms. /s

TBH, if you’re searching Facebook for information, all you’re gonna get is ragebait anyway, even when it works. Also, why are you still on Facebook?

While the author is presenting a kind of clinically neutral tone, the number of times they mention that it’s “addictive” is the point they’re making, wittingly or not. One could almost expect nervous laughter from the author.

TikTok shaped the internet, alright, but not for the better. The short-burst video format is engaging, but it allows no room for nuance, no room for fact checking or deeper breakdowns. We can see the effects in the rise of anti-intellectual, anti-science, and reactionary rhetoric. FFS, the “person nods and points at reposted video” while silently adding nothing is now a meme, because TikTok “creators” still do (did) it unironically, and people still (used to) eat it up.

If anything, TikTok has abused human psychology and left society the worse for it. I hope Trump fails to prevent the ban, because if not, expect the firehose of disinformation to only grow and attention spans to shrink—a deadly combination.