Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
Over the last five years, American, British, Canadian and Brazilian governments unleashed unprecedented waves of repression against political opponents using martial law, military occupations of major cities, government censorship of the internet, nationwide manhunts, televised raids and extended detentions without trial. Most of those arrested were guilty of political speech and protests generally far less … Read more
With the restoration of free speech protections on Twitter, panic has grown on the left that its control over social media could come to an end. Now, some of the greatest advocates of censorship in Congress are specifically warning Facebook not to follow Twitter in restoring free speech to its platform. In a chilling letter from Reps. … Read more
A few days ago, 216 employees of Simon and Schuster, along with several thousand people from outside the trade publishing house, sent a petition to top executives of the company demanding that they stop publishing anyone who had anything to do with the Trump administration. Their rationale for making such a demand was that Trump’s … Read more
There is no fear that a modern king will attempt to override the constitution: it is more likely that he will ignore the constitution and work behind its back. He will take no advantage of his kingly power: it is more likely that he will take advantage of his kingly powerlessness — of the fact … Read more
“A major fight over the next 4 years will be over who is and is not allowed to be heard on the internet, and who wields the power to police discourse” Throughout the Obama-Biden reign and especially as it came to a close, Obama administration officials flooded into Silicon Valley, taking top jobs at Google, … Read more
To what extent is the self you inhabit on Facebook actually yours to control—never mind the question of whether it’s actually you. Are your emails your property? Could Google come along like a digital repo man and reclaim possession of documents you created, but turn out to just be on loan to you like a … Read more