2024-11-03
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread). NOTE: I DID NOT BUY A BLUE TICK. IT WAS NONCONSENSUALLY ADDED TO MY ACCOUNT. Inside: Bluesky and enshittification; and more! Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/... #Pluralistic 1/ [image]
Pluralistic
Why Bluesky not adding the federation systems that let users leave the Bluesky server and take their community to other hosts can lead to “enshittification”
- Bluesky and enshittification: No one is the enshittifier of their own story. — Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
2024-06-05
No one was better positioned to tell the tale of the largest sting operation in world history than veteran tech reporter @josephfcox, and tell it he did, in *Dark Wire,* released today: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/ ... 1/ [image]
Wired
An excerpt from the book Dark Wire, which details how the biggest FBI sting operation ran the Anøm encrypted phone network to catch criminals like “Microsoft”
When a drug kingpin named Microsoft tried to seize control of an encrypted phone company for criminals, he was playing right into its real owners' hands.
2024-04-18
Another good paragraph about #AI from @molly0xFFF https://www.citationneeded.news/ ... [image]
Citation Needed
An experiment with LLMs: the tools are helpful in mundane ways but users can't build a hundred-billion-dollar industry around a technology that's kind of useful
AI can be kind of useful, but I'm not sure that a “kind of useful” tool justifies the harm. — /1311.164082 — 1×
2024-04-02
These “hallucinations” are a stubbornly persistent feature of large language models, because these models only give the illusion of understanding. 4/
Lasso Security
To show an attack vector, a researcher made a package with a name hallucinated by ChatGPT that had 30K+ downloads in three months and appeared in many repos
Bar Lanyado / Lasso Security :
Here's a fun AI story: a security researcher noticed that large companies' AI-authored source-code repeatedly referenced a nonexistent library (an AI “hallucination"), so he created a (defanged) malicious library with that name and uploaded it. 1/ [image]
Lasso Security
To show an attack vector, a researcher made a package with a name hallucinated by ChatGPT that had 30K+ downloads in three months and appeared in many repos
Bar Lanyado / Lasso Security :
In reality, they are just sophisticated forms of autocomplete, drawing on huge databases to make shrewd (but reliably fallible) guesses about which word comes next: https://dl.acm.org/... 5/
Lasso Security
To show an attack vector, a researcher made a package with a name hallucinated by ChatGPT that had 30K+ downloads in three months and appeared in many repos
Bar Lanyado / Lasso Security :
2023-11-10
The latest? You can't delete your #OneDrive account until you provide an acceptable explanation for your disloyalty: https://www.theverge.com/... 75/
Neowin
Microsoft says OneDrive users won't be asked for feedback when quitting the app on Windows and that this type of feedback helps teams improve the product
Rate This Software: — 3 (187 votes) — Major Geeks Special Offer: Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority : Microsoft wants answers on why you dare close OneDrive (Update: Changes re...
2023-10-06
This is the Facebook playbook: you lure in publishers by promising them a traffic funnel ("post excerpts and links and we'll show them to people, including people who never asked to see them"), and then the rug-pull: “Post everything here, don't link to your own site”
The Wrap
X starts removing preview headlines from posts with article links, showing only the lead image and domain name; Elon Musk mentioned the change in August 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @rickf@indieweb.social : In other words, “please generate needless clicks so I can boost ‘engagement’ on the platform to get more advertisers ba...
2023-06-15
But they were wrong! Today, the European Commission announced plans to force Google and Meta to sell off their conflict-of-interest ad-tech lines of business, mirroring the provisions of the US AMERICA Act: https://arstechnica.com/... 66/
The Verge
The European Commission issues a preliminary view in its antitrust investigation of Google and suggests the company divest its ad business; Google can now reply
2023-04-22
If you're angry that I gave a giant asshole $8 so I could get an “edit tweet” button, holy shit are you going to be furious when you find out where the fossil fuels that heat my house come from. Shopping your way out of monopoly capitalism is a fool's errand. You are not an... https://twitter.com/...
Mashable
In a campaign called #BlockTheBlue, some Twitter users, including popular ones like @dril, are asking people to block anyone who subscribes to Twitter Blue
After Elon Musk removed legacy verified users' checkmarks, Twitter's biggest users are blocking everyone who pays.
If you're angry that I gave a giant asshole $8 so I could get an “edit tweet” button, holy shit are you going to be furious when you find out where the fossil fuels that heat my house come from. Shopping your way out of monopoly capitalism is a fool's errand. You are not an... https://twitter.com/...
The Verge
Twitter begins removing blue checkmarks from legacy verified accounts, fulfilling one of Elon Musk's long-stated plans; Musk has called the system “corrupt”
Elon already took away the blue check from some publications like the The New York Times … Caroline Giegerich : The Twitter check shakedown has begun. Twitter has officially begun...
2023-04-21
If you're angry that I gave a giant asshole $8 so I could get an “edit tweet” button, holy shit are you going to be furious when you find out where the fossil fuels that heat my house come from. Shopping your way out of monopoly capitalism is a fool's errand. You are not an... https://twitter.com/...
The Verge
Twitter begins removing blue checkmarks from legacy verified accounts, fulfilling one of Elon Musk's long-stated plans; Musk has called the system “corrupt”
The change is apparent on Twitter accounts for several Verge writers and other journalists like LA Times reporter Matt Pearce …
2023-03-26
The court bases this on the existence of a “licensed” ebooks from publishers - ebooks that cost many multiples of the print editions and self-destruct after just a few lend-outs: https://blog.archive.org/... 47/
LJ Infodocket
A US federal judge rules in favor of four publishers in their copyright infringement case against the Internet Archive and its Controlled Digital Lending system
Today's lower court decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is a blow … Paul Hill / Neowin : Court rules against Internet Archive in favour of book publishers on digital lending U...
2023-01-30
In the #enshittification cycle, a #platform lures users with a good deal at first, then it lures business customers (advertisers, sellers, creators) by handing them the #surplus; finally, it takes all the surplus for itself, creating a pile of shit: https://pluralistic.net/... 1/ https://twitter.com/...
Pluralistic
How TikTok, Amazon, and other platforms go through “enshittification”, helping users before abusing them to help business customers, then abusing those as well
Once you understand the enshittification pattern, a lot of the platform mysteries solve themselves. 39/
Pluralistic
How TikTok, Amazon, and other platforms go through “enshittification”, helping users before abusing them to help business customers, then abusing those as well
Podcasts are hearteningly enshittification resistant: Walled gardens considered harmful (to performers and audiences). https://twitter.com/... 2/ https://twitter.com/...
Pluralistic
How TikTok, Amazon, and other platforms go through “enshittification”, helping users before abusing them to help business customers, then abusing those as well
2023-01-29
Podcasts are hearteningly enshittification resistant: Walled gardens considered harmful (to performers and audiences). https://twitter.com/... 2/ https://twitter.com/...
Pluralistic
How the “enshittification” cycle, in which platforms first are good to users and business customers before abusing them, has infected TikTok, Amazon, and others
Today's links — Tiktok's enshittification: The company manually allocates surplus to creators, and they can take it away again, too.
In the #enshittification cycle, a #platform lures users with a good deal at first, then it lures business customers (advertisers, sellers, creators) by handing them the #surplus; finally, it takes all the surplus for itself, creating a pile of shit: https://pluralistic.net/... 1/ https://twitter.com/...
Pluralistic
How the “enshittification” cycle, in which platforms first are good to users and business customers before abusing them, has infected TikTok, Amazon, and others
Today's links — Tiktok's enshittification: The company manually allocates surplus to creators, and they can take it away again, too.
2022-12-26
Indeed, while running a public server does involve some risk, most risk can be contained by engaging in a relatively small, relatively easy set of legal compliance practices, which @EFF's @cmcsherr lays out in this very easy-to-grasp explainer: https://www.eff.org/... 96/
Wired
Mastodon's decentralized nature raises concerns about the legal risks for users hosting instances, which must comply with copyright and privacy laws globally
As the niche, decentralized social networking platform rises in popularity, it faces rising costs, culture shifts—and potential legal risks.
2022-12-25
Indeed, while running a public server does involve some risk, most risk can be contained by engaging in a relatively small, relatively easy set of legal compliance practices, which @EFF's @cmcsherr lays out in this very easy-to-grasp explainer: https://www.eff.org/... 96/
Wired
Mastodon's decentralized nature raises concerns about the legal risks for users hosting instances, which must comply with copyright and privacy laws globally
As the niche, decentralized social networking platform rises in popularity, it faces rising costs, culture shifts—and potential legal risks.