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The Bypass Strategy: Platforms, the Online Safety Act, and Future of Online Speech by @ellenejudson, @beakira & @digitalspeechX | SSRN
Yet another great white paper for your consideration, if a few weeks older (gosh, something must have happened in July to distract me) basically arguing that Ofcom are proposing that the fastest way to satisfy the Online Safety Act is to “chill legal speech”, i.e. to casually block anything that is potentially problematic. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4822405 via
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Seabird Panopticon Breeding Success
With the innovative designs developed by a team of ornithologists, architects, ecologists and engineers, the structures have narrow ledges and vertical sides to mimic the cliffs on which the kittiwakes normally nest. Each ANS comprises an octagonal topside with capacity for around 500 breeding pairs of kittiwake supported above the water on a single monopile.
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The AI-Copyright Trap: Essential Reading by @CraigCarys
I found this via Graham and it’s an awesome read (PDF) providing a much-needed and under-reported balancing voice for the popular (and: policymaker) debate surrounding AI, including the concrete issues which we refuse to acknowledge: …including observations which I foreshadowed:
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The secret inside One Million Checkboxes | eieio.games
This is an AMAZING and easy read, but it is also in a nutshell why all attempts by the state to forcibly constrain adolescent access to internet resources will inevitably fail: http://eieio.games/essays/the-secret-in-one-million-checkboxes/
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Brazil judge orders suspension of Elon Musk’s X | AP News
It will be interesting to see how state censorship really works in a world of VPNs: https://apnews.com/article/brazil-musk-x-suspended-de-moraes-46c9d5c5c895e17d9adfac43e6ac20fd
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One for @bphillipsonMP / @educationgovuk: perhaps our *kids* need to be educated-away from the desire to create non-consensual intimate imagery and deepfakes?
Thorn are a US charity, but the general problem of misuse of a capability demands education around empathy, awareness of other’s feelings, respect, and consent. Quote: While the technology may be new, peer-based bullying, harassment, and abuse are not. It is critical that we speak proactively and directly [ED: TO WHOM?] about the harms caused
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What if L’affaire {Durov, Telegram} is actually hiding a nation state turf war over mass surveillance?
A Friday Fun thought experiment! What if Telegram is (and always has been) a giant nation-state grade “EncroChat”, i.e.: an enormous criminal intelligence honeypot, run first by/for Russia, then semi-autonomously, and now is subject to annexation by the French? As Ian Batten put it: Tell the gullible that it’s a dangerous, criminal, anarchic place for
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On the marzipan dreadnought | Heather Burns
Go read the whole thing. Quote: The Conservatives aggressively promoted the Online Safety Act as the one weird trick to fix everything wrong with social media, often to the point of absurdity. Anyone who has actually read the Act, and Ofcom’s consultations on it, knew all along that all it does is create paper tigers.
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Rand Paul Is Right: Censoring The Internet Doesn’t Protect Kids | Techdirt
Quote: Just last week, I got into a debate with a KOSA supporter on social media. They insisted that they’re not talking about content, but just about design features like “infinite scroll.” When asked about what kind of things they’re trying to solve for, I was told “eating disorders.” I pointed out that “infinite scroll”
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The untimely demise of an image upscaler | @lcamtuf’s thing
When upscaling meets hallucination; watch the videos and consider how your new understanding differs from the popular concept of “pictures never lie” https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/random-finds-ai-image-upscale-collapse
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Signal Is More Than Encrypted Messaging. Under Meredith Whittaker, It’s Out to Prove Surveillance Capitalism Wrong | WIRED
I am still a capitalist, but this is well worth reading: https://www.wired.com/story/meredith-whittaker-signal/