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14 votes
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Reddit faces lawsuit for failing to remove child sexual abuse material
15 votes -
After decades of not using them, the Pentagon has given control of millions of IP addresses to a previously unknown company in an effort to identify possible cyber vulnerabilities and threats
17 votes -
Foxconn and Wisconsin have amended their contract to reflect a $672 million investment, instead of the $10 billion promised in 2017
17 votes -
Let's get Right to Repair passed!
14 votes -
Comcast nightmare: Six months without Internet despite $5,000 payment
12 votes -
Supreme Court of the United States Justice Clarence Thomas argues for regulating large internet platforms as common carriers
21 votes -
7% of Americans don't use the internet
18 votes -
Employees at law enforcement agencies across the US ran thousands of Clearview AI facial recognition searches — often without the knowledge of the public or even their own departments
9 votes -
Supreme Court of the United States sides with Google over Oracle
@SCOTUSblog: BREAKING: In major copyright battle between tech giants, SCOTUS sides w/ Google over Oracle, finding that Google didnt commit copyright infringement when it reused lines of code in its Android operating system. The code came from Oracle's JAVA SE platform. https://t.co/vAK7jMPa8e
46 votes -
Multiple US Navy destroyers were swarmed by mysterious 'drones' off California over numerous nights
11 votes -
Pasco County’s Sheriff must end its targeted child harassment program
11 votes -
In movies, why the dial tone after someone hangs up?
6 votes -
CEO of Sky Global encrypted chat platform indicted by US
4 votes -
Seeking to capitalize on a growing population that is increasingly less poor, American and Chinese tech giants clash in Africa
5 votes -
Reddit hires its first chief financial officer as it prepares for an IPO
31 votes -
At least 30,000 US organizations newly hacked via holes in Microsoft’s email software
19 votes -
Big Tech critic Tim Wu joins Joe Biden administration to work on US competition policy
9 votes -
Google-free /e/ OS is now selling preloaded phones in the US, starting at $380
14 votes -
Arizona advances bill forcing Apple and Google to allow Fortnite-style alternative payment options
7 votes -
3D-printed guns are getting more capable and accessible
15 votes -
Fry’s Electronics is shutting its doors for good
23 votes -
This is what Abraham Lincoln really looked like
20 votes -
Tim Cook expanded Apple in ways Steve Jobs used to resist
10 votes -
Officer plays copyrighted music while being filmed
21 votes -
A twenty-year-old man was fatally shot while filming a YouTube "prank" robbery
16 votes -
Hackers try to contaminate Florida town's water supply through computer breach
15 votes -
Texas Department of Public Safety issues amber alert for victim of horror doll Chucky
5 votes -
Joe Manchin's bid to pierce US tech's shield
4 votes -
Personal data of 1.4 million Washington state unemployment claimants exposed in hack of state auditor
7 votes -
Google union in turmoil following global alliance announcement
7 votes -
Why is Big Tech policing speech? Because the government isn't: Deplatforming President Trump showed that the First Amendment is broken - but not in the way his supporters think.
12 votes -
US President Joe Biden's FCC appointment is a big step toward net neutrality's return
10 votes -
Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
7 votes -
Nearly 1.6 million Illinois Facebook users to get about $350 each in privacy settlement
7 votes -
The Great Deplatforming: An alternate explanation for the Parler, et al, shutdowns
A common current narrative is that tech monopolists are suddenly acting of their own initiative and in concert to deplatform the burgeoning fascist insurgent movement within the US. I approve the...
A common current narrative is that tech monopolists are suddenly acting of their own initiative and in concert to deplatform the burgeoning fascist insurgent movement within the US. I approve the deplatforming strongly, though I suspect an alternative significant motivating and coordfinating factor.
An example of the "tech monopoly abuse" narrative is Glenn Greenwald's more than slightly unhinged "How Silicon Valley, in a Show of Monopolistic Force, Destroyed Parler"
Greenwald's argument hinges on emotion, insinuation, invective, a completely unfounded premise, an absolute absence of evidence, and no consideration of alternative explanations: an overwhelmingly plausible ongoing law enforcement and national security operation, likely under sealed or classified indictments or warrants, in the face of ongoing deadly sedition lead by the President of the United States himself, including against the person of his own vice president and credible threats against the President-Elect and Inauguration.
Such an legal action is, of course, extraordinarily difficult to prove, and I cannot prove it. A critical clue for me, however, is the defection not just of Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Stripe, and other tech firms, but of Parler's legal counsel, who would have to be an exceptionally stealth-mode startup to fit Greenwald's, or other's, "it's the tech monopolists" narrative. I've tempered my degree of assurance and language ("plausible" rather than "probable"). Time will tell. But a keen and critical mind such as Grenwald's should at least be weighing the possibility. He instead seems bent only on piking old sworn enemies, with less evidence or coherence than I offer.
This is the crux of Greenwald's argument. It's all he's got:
On Thursday, Parler was the most popular app in the United States. By Monday, three of the four Silicon Valley monopolies united to destroy it.
I'm no friend of the tech monopolists myself. The power demonstrated here does concern me, greatly. I've long railed against Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple, among other tech monopolists. Largely because as monopolies they are power loci acting through their occupation of a common resource, outside common control, and not serving the common weal. Hell: Facebook, Google (YouTube), Reddit, and Twitter played a massive role in creating the current fascist insurrection in the US, along with even more enthusiastic aid and comfort from traditional media, across the spectrum. Damage that will take decades to repair, if ever.
But, if my hypothesis is correct, the alternative explanation would be the opposite of this: the state asserting power over and through monopolies in the common interest, in support of democratic principles, for the common weal. And that I can support.
I don't know that this is the case. I find it curious that I seem to be the only voice suggesting it. Time should tell.
And after this is over, yes, Silicon Valley, in its metonymic sense standing for the US and global tech industry, has to face its monopoly problem, its free speech problem (in both sincere and insincere senses), its surveillance problem (capitalist, state, criminal, rogue actor), its censorship problem, its propaganda problem (mass and computational), its targeted manipulation adtech problem, its trust problem, its identity problem, its truth and disinformation problems, its tax avoidance problem, its political influence problem.
Virtually all of which are inherent aspects of monopoly: "Propaganda, censorship, and surveillance are all attributes of monopoly" https://joindiaspora.com/posts/7bfcf170eefc013863fa002590d8e506
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24771470But, speaking as a space alien cat myself, Greenwald is so far off base here he's exited the Galaxy.
Update: 2h30m after posting, NPR have mentioned sealed indictments and speculated on whether the President might be charged, in special coverage.
Late edits: 2022-1-23 Typos: s/inconcert/in concert/; s/would bet he/would be the/;
19 votes -
The scary power of the companies that finally shut Trump up
25 votes -
What I learned in two years of moving government forms online
9 votes -
Twitter has removed a post by China’s US embassy claiming that Uighur women have been “emancipated” from extremism and were no longer “baby-making machines”
15 votes -
Twitter should immediately and permanently ban Trump
16 votes -
Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump
50 votes -
Facebook bans Trump "indefinitely" with Mark Zuckerberg explaining that "the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service... are simply too great"
36 votes -
JetBrains' continuous integration server TeamCity may have been compromised as part of the wide-reaching Russian hack of the US federal government
13 votes -
GitHub is fully available in Iran
11 votes -
Open-source developer and manager David Recordon named White House Director of Technology
14 votes -
Google employees form union
42 votes -
Experts lay out the criteria for choosing Biden's CTO, who will be faced with using tech to tackle everything from climate change to vaccine distribution
6 votes -
National Police Association 2020 Year in Review: "Another thing furries are doing is dredging the Internet looking for ways to cancel us"
9 votes -
Trump promises to veto crucial defense-spending bill unless it includes a full repeal of CDA 230, the law that protects online platforms from liability
27 votes -
Sweeping new copyright measures poised to pass in spending bill - The CASE Act and a felony streaming proposal are included
36 votes