Just gonna leave this here. When we released the Alternative Influence Network report (@beccalew is the author), many were criticial of the humble recommendation that social media companies should review accounts as they gained popularity.

Becca wrote, “In a media environment consisting of networked influencers, YouTube must respond with policies that account for influence and amplification, as well as social networks.” This recommendation was simple, clear, and I told every company of the implications.

I wonder if we would be in this situation today if some of the more prominent disinformation voices had supported this recommendation, instead of saying that deplatforming threatened free speech.

Too busy trying to spot a bot maybe? Too worried about declining data stockpiles?

It’d abhorrent to have been arguing for simple policy fixes for years and only have support for them when hell touches down for the white middle class. BIPOC and women have been organizing for decades to get policies enforced for community safety online.

Instead of learning their work and policy recommendations and doing everything we can as researchers to help get these shared concerns on the table, I see white men rebranding as “disinformation,” “extremism,” and “conspiracy” experts.

It’s bumming me out.

"Hello, IT? My economy has stopped working."

"Have you tried -"

"Yes."

"Okay. Check settings. What does it say under software?"

"Compatible with EU membership."

"Do you have that?"

"I just uninstalled it."

"Er - Why?"

"Honestly, I can't remember. Something about fish?"

"Is your fish industry running okay?"

"No, actually that was the first app to crash."

"You see, that one really needs the EU platform installed."

"Really? But my mate told me fishing would run better without it."

"He sounds confused. Can you reinstall your EU app?"

"What about this app my mate gave me instead? It's called Sovereignty 45."

"Mate, don't touch that. It's malware. It'll reduce your economy down to the levels of 1945."

"But those were the glory years! Weren't they?"

"Mate, when were you born?"

"1960. Why?”

“You have also installed the Hostile Environment firewall which is limiting the capacity of other systems”

"But my mate said those things stop viruses."

"Is your mate's name Nigel by any chance?"

"Yes! How did you -"

"Another wild stab. Those aren't viruses, they are EU workers, and they are vital to the smooth running of your systems."

"But I clicked on a pop-up that said it would get rid of them all for me."

Dronepunk: “Flashback”

[CW: Torture, Violence, Firearms, Waterboarding, Vomit, Enhanced Interrogation, Blood, Implied Drug Use, Military Forces, Hypnosis]
[The DronePunk Collective is a creation of @Foresgard and all work here considered non-canon]
1/

Riot_0204 came to. No, not 0204, the person who she was once before she became who she is now. She was bound to a chair, naked. Cable ties at wrist and ankle, cutting into her bare flesh. A bag over her head was pulled off abruptly.
2/

There were two others in the room. DPM uniforms, no insignia or rank marks. One male, armed with a FN rifle. The other, female, was pulling up an improvised crash cart made from a tool trolley.
3/

Through her dimmed perception, she could see the prefab walls and blackout curtains. A headache bright bulb was illuminating over her head. A uniform in tatters on the floor beside her. One eye was bruised shut, saving her half the light.
4/

The female officer slammed a fist into 0204’s stomach. Questions washed over, barely registering.
The mantra trained in came out. Name, Rank, Number… Dead Name. Dead Rank. Dead Number. Dead Person. They don’t live anymore, new life lives in that body.
5/

It's been 13 months since my craniocervical fusion surgery and 7 months since my tethered cord surgery. My diagnoses were craniocervical instability, tethered cord, ME/CFS, MCAS, POTS, and mold illness (which may or may be fully explained by MCAS). 1/n

Before my first surgery, I couldn't sleep inside a house b/c of mold illness/MCAS. I got paralyzed, unable to speak, and barely able to breathe, sometimes 8 or more times a day. This could result from tilting my head back, speaking too much, a loud sound, a tap on the head. 2/n

Traction (pulling my head away from my body) brought me back from these episodes. I couldn't ever be left alone. I wasn't bedbound, but I could do essentially nothing for myself. 3/n

By that point, my symptoms were extreme even for CCI, and they were quite unusual for ME/CFS. But I started out with classic ME/CFS -- PEM, POTS, unrefreshing sleep, cognitive impairment, low NK-cell function, wacky cytokines, sky-high IGGs for a bunch of viruses. 4/n

The last year has been HARD. These surgeries are brutal and hard to recover from. Needing a second surgery when I hadn't yet fully recovered from the first was emotionally and physically rough. 5/n

Jan 3rd: FBi sends intel to Capitol Hill police of violent plans to storm Capitol Hill. Trump authorizes National Guard. DC mayor issues stand down order. DC police reject NG assistance.

Jan 6th: CIA Syria trained Antifa assets pose as Trump supporters and incite insurrection.

This is what propaganda looks like.

Notice how they all speak the same words at the same time, the cathedral, and how the sheep in your life start repeating them all in chorus.

The dehumanization of groups of people, in the case conservatives, liberals who are *not* social justice Marxists or authoritarians, Christians, Jews, people of color who are conservatives, anyone who voted for Trump, the police & military, etc has already begun.

It began a long time ago actually. Watch some Uri Bezmenov and his discussion of demoralization. But I didn’t notice it until the acceleration in 2016/2017. I had been blind.

We are in the middle of another acceleration of dehumanization and this one is unlike anything we have seen in many many years, though humans have seen it before, many times throughout history.

Dark days ahead. But there is light on the horizon. Things are becoming so dystopian that more are able to see it. Strap in.

Har Har Mahadev 🙏🙏🕉️🕉️ Suprabhat 🙏

Lord Shiva has five faces called Ishana, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamadeva and Sadyojatha. These five faces of Shiva represent the five basic elements viz. akash, air, fire, water and earth.

#MondayMotivation #MondayMorning #MondayVibes

In fact these faces can be called five forms of Shiva.

Any creation has to be made out of these five gross elements. The 1st form or face called Ishana, is the first physical form of Shiva. This form gives us pleasure that is enjoyed by our physical body.

This is represented in the form of organs of hearing and speech in our body and in the form of subtle sound and the celestial sphere or akash. It may be recalled that ancient rishis got the sound of Vedas only from akash.

The second form or face is called Tatpurusha, the second physical form of the Lord. This form is identified with prakrti or the source of objectivity. This is the home of atman. This form is represented by organs of touch, organs of action, and is the subtle form of air.

Third form is Aghora is the physical form of Shiva and is identified with cosmic intellect. This form is represented by eyes, feet and dharma. This is identified with rupa or physical structure and the subtle form of fire.

WHAT IF... Q was designed by bad actors to whip up support for 3 years, for the sole purpose of developing a mass "cult following" of people who loyally follow the themes, catch phrases and direction of Q? Why would they do that?

The CPC, and their enabling press & surrogates, wish us to believe they haven't behaved like Trump's GOP. That they haven't copies Trump tactics, to try to get it to work in Canada as well.

2/
Here's a screenshot I made of a quote-tweet from just after the CPC leadership win, that indicates otherwise

3/
related to screenshot in tweet 2/

4/
during the day of the election, for CPC leader, I made a screenshot of CBC PnP's coverage - when the second ballot count had just been announced. Note that before the third ballot, Leslyn Lewis had the highest percentage of votes. You know who Dr Lewis' followers are? M*GA

5/
The CPC are also connected to the CCFR - NRA North

We sifted through thousands of videos taken by Parler users during the riot at the Capitol.

Then we created an interactive database that lets you sort through the footage.

Here’s how it works 👇

Hello everyone arguing about the #minimumwage! Someday I'll post a thread about the evidence our @UW team compiled in Seattle.

Today let's talk about hours.

Raise the wage on most low-paying jobs & workers still don't have enough to live on. Because they can't get enough hours.

The graph above is based on data from WA: one of only 4 states that collects systematic data on hours worked. It shows information for anyone earning under $11/hr in 2014-15, when the minimum wage was no more than $9.47.

The data have some important limitations:

-No information on gig/contractor employment
-No "informal" employment
-No jobs outside WA

However if a worker is holding 2+ job we can "see" all of them and include them all in calculating how many hours they work.

The median low wage worker works ~800 hours per year.

With a $15 minimum wage, working 800 hours/year, your annual income works out to $12,000.

That's below the poverty line for a single person, and less than half the poverty line for a family of 4.

Whereas if you could get full time hours (2,000/year) your income would be $30k.

The problem with low wage work (aside from low wages): these jobs tend to be unstable, seasonal, or offered by employers that need a large workforce for a limited number of hours per week.

Since the minimum wage is specified in dollars/hour, it can't guarantee a living income.

You wake up in the middle of the night. You look around your room and see two figures standing at your door. They flick on the light and two people appeared. The Tommy twins. Both shirtless and just wearing their sweat pants. they noticed your dick was hard so they walked over...

Dec 12, 1981 NY Times
Republican claims of voter fraud are their excuse for voter suppression.
#VoteFraudLiesSuppressTheVote

1984 Ronald Reagan AG announces investigation into voter fraud
#VoteFraudLiesSuppressTheVote

1986 GOP Memo Released under court order - shows Black vote has been cut (as planned)
#VoteFraudLiesSuppressTheVote

#VoteFraudLiesSuppressTheVote

By the way, the consent decree that came out of this ended in 2020, allowing the RNC to go back to voter caging
#VoteFraudLiesSuppressTheVote

Entrepreneurship culture in America is all messed up and it’s a shame.

TechCrunch. Product Hunt. Shark Tank.

It’s all about new ideas. Changing the world. Innovation. 0 to 1. Blue ocean. Venture capital and exits and scalability.

And ITS ALL A LIE.

You ask the average american who a real entrepreneur is they’ll say Jobs, Musk or Zuck.

We read their books and idolize them and hang on their every word.

So the brightest among us think they need a moat. A new idea. Something revolutionary.

Were setting them up for FAILURE.

I took an entrepreneurship course at Cornell in 2011. 24 kids with new ideas. Big plans. Pitch decks looking for series As.

I was #25 with a regular old-fashioned business.

When professors asked me what my differentiator was I didn’t have an answer.

I saw a company out there doing sweaty, non scalable work. They were terrible at it.

I started by trading my time for money. Bought a $1500 cargo van. Used the things I had in my life to make some profit.

I wasn’t trying to educate a customer base.

I wasn’t following my passion.

I didn’t need funding or a network.

I wasn’t competing against brilliant folks from Stanford.

I want trying to prove a concept.

I wasn’t emotionally attached to anything except adding value.

Today's front page features our story on the loosely connected, QAnon-believing network of 'patriots' that spent weeks organizing and crowd-sourcing money for mass action at the Capitol on Jan. 6: https://t.co/Kc1BL9JqFv w/ @ddknyt @mmcintire

Keith Lee, an Air Force veteran, was one of the far-right, low-budget agitators trying to 'Stop the Steal'. More than an hour before Trump's speech: “If you died today and you went to heaven, can you look George Washington in the face and say that you’ve fought for this country?”

1. Mass Media, Internet to Go Offline, EBS Activated While US Republic Restored on Monday

On Mon. 18 Jan. the US Republic would be restored to the original Constitution and return power to The People. To make that happen, the Mass Media and Internet would go offline while the...

I posted about the Signal messaging application versus Telegram a while ago, and I received a lot of answers about different applications as alternatives. So I'd like to write a thread giving an overview about my perspective on the security of different applications. 1/53

It's very important to remember that this thread is only about messaging applications for mobile phones, and the evaluations are based on my own perspectives and needs. In some cases they will be subjective, and you should investigate before applying the advice to yourself. 2/53

As I've mentioned in previous, when talking about secure messaging applications, it's extremely important to remember that if an application is secure enough, the limitation will not be the security of the application itself, the limitation is the security of the device. 3/53

When talking about security, the weakest link in a chain will be the one an attacker will go after. There are some applications in this thread that are very secure and have great protocols. But if the device is compromised, that will simply not matter. 4/53

So, if you have something very sensitive to discuss, my strong advice is to not trust that information to a mobile device - there are simply too many ways it could be compromised. So, from that perspective, the security of the protocol is not relevant. 5/53

Tanguy Ndombele doing Tanguy Ndombele things.

𝗔 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱:

I'll take that, thank you.

#THFC ⚪️ #COYS

No nonsense.

#THFC ⚪️ #COYS

Megs!

#THFC ⚪️ #COYS

See ya 👋

#THFC ⚪️ #COYS