Fun fact, for at least 5 years at Twitter, this checkbox did in fact do nothing.

I think I can say definitively, New York
has lost its bagel supremacy. Los Angeles and San Francisco now reign.

In all seriousness: the last 2 weeks of TikTok posturing and Zuck grovelling, combined with the X insanity of the last year, should show you that an app with a feed that you don’t control serves *other people’s interests* - not yours.

I’ll donate (an additional) 100 dollars to ProPublica if the ban isn’t reversed, or in effect totally ignored, by Republicans in congress by the end of the 90 day extension.

“I’m glad OxyCotin is coming back on the market. We need to keep it that way. The drug is too important to the lives of millions of addicts”.

Voted for by…

*checks notes*

Huh.

He can promise it because his whole election promise was to be a fascist and that’s what happens when a society elects a government uninterested in the rule of law or human decency.

Exactly this. The entire dance was done specifically to benefit Trump and make sure everyone knows that it's he who "saved" TikTok. It's a very successful PR stunt for Trump.

want to be excruciatingly clear about this: TikTok didn't have to go dark last night and it didn't have to turn back on this morning.

both of those were voluntary moves that the law does not directly touch.

Just like seemingly every major player in tech, Elon, Zuck, Bezos, Gates et al, they know all they need do to avoid any semblance of regulation or ill favor is suck up to the wannabe fascist with no actual beliefs or principles. Just an ego too fragile to take a joke at the correspondents dinner.

And now TikTok is sucking up to Trump in front of the entire country, most of which are addicted to their product thats being threatened. The doing away with the BIPARTISAN law feels so obvious and inevitable at this point it’s a joke.

It’s the same problem with immigration or the economy. As much as we might believe in anti-corruption or basic human rights, we will give it all up for even the possibility of maintaining the gerontocracy and a semblance of power. God forbid we try and convince anyone or make hard choices.

Biden and the Dems, seemingly having given up on this whole democracy thing, fumbled this so massively it just reenforces we have no ability to actually govern. If it’s unpopular, we’re going to give up entirely on even trying to make a case for it, even if we believe it’s the right thing to do.

This doesn’t even get into the privacy implications of a nearly ubiquitous app having access to your location data and an insanely accurate profile of all your likes and desires.

Of course the USA shouldn’t let a foreign power operate like this! We shouldn’t let Meta or X operate like this either!

This was so obvious it was passed with overwhelming bipartisan approval. It was originally proposed in an executive order signed by Trump!

People get addicted to the small doses of dopamine, another pull at the slot machine. The algorithms can then be biased to push opinions in any direction.

Devoid of any sort of fact checking (thanks Zuck and Elon!) you can just lie enough and eventually people will start to think it’s real.

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills with this TikTok thing. Not least of which because banning it is a good idea. We should probably ban all algorithmic based social networks!

Rant incoming…

📌

1. Meta’s policy bans allegations of mental illness *unless* the person is LGBTQ, in which case you can falsely say the person is mentally ill:

(The policy uses the word “transgenderism,” echoing right wing terminology.)

10 corporations that kept their promises after January 6, 2021 After a violent mob stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, hundreds of corporations took action to communicate to the public that democracy itself was more important than maximizing their po...

1. Hundreds of companies who pledged to stop donating to members of Congress who voted to overturn the election on 1/6/21 have broken their promise over the last 4 years

But we've identified 10 promise keepers:

Farmers
Airbnb
Expedia
Nike
Clorox
General Mills
Holland & Hart
Qurate
Whirlpool
Lyft

He looks like every guy I hit up a second time on Grindr after not getting a reply.

Homosexuals on the Luigi trial jury

The internet is not ready for a hot Joker.

I'm fucking blasted and hanging out in the weirdest scene because history happened at a deeply inconvenient hour. so it goes.

😈 yeah it does

Lets goooooooooo

Good for Hunter.

We’re all the new kid in school hoping to be popular but with same questionable personality. I have a car though.

I’d love some realistic coverage of what’s going on with the PA senate race. Right now Casey is down 24k votes according to the NYT. Does he still have a chance with the outstanding ballots?

Fuck Ben but also, this is excellent writing.