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Cory Doctorow

4 Aug, 21 tweets, 18 min read

Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Vaccine refusal and health insurance; Congress has allocated enough money to end the eviction crisis; Utilities governed like empires; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/08/04/eig…

#Pluralistic

1/

@Defcon

I'm giving the keynote for the (free) virtual track at @Defcon 29 (Aug 5-8): "Privacy Without Monopoly: Paternalism Works Well, But Fails Badly."

defcon.org/html/defcon-29…

It's based on the white paper Bennett Cyphers and I co-wrote for EFF:

eff.org/wp/interoperab…

2/

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1422939945405059072

Vaccine refusal and health insurance: Insurers to unvaccinated: "Drop dead."

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1422939945405059072

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1422946392100638722

Congress has allocated enough money to end the eviction crisis: But they asked the states to hand it out.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1422946392100638722

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1422954097649459201

Utilities governed like empires: One bad account disconnection can cost you everything.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1422954097649459201

#20yrsago Collectible AOL CDs web.archive.org/web/2001081614…

#15yrsago Gonzales: Gitmo prisoners can be held indefinitely web.archive.org/web/2006083114…

#10yrsago Getting digital copyright right: pay artists, but don’t break the Internet straight.com/article-415146…

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#10yrsago Google Plus’s “Real Name” policy is abusive; Facebook is not a “Real Name” success story zephoria.org/thoughts/archi…

#5yrsago After repeated budget cuts, Missouri’s underfunded Public Defender drafts the Governor to work for him web.archive.org/web/2016080406…

6/

#5yrsago Copyright Office to FCC: Hollywood should be able to killswitch your TV eff.org/deeplinks/2016…

#5yrago Residents of Silicon Valley homeless camp clear 48,000 Lbs of garbage from creek, ask for housing mercurynews.com/2016/08/03/san…

8/

#5yrsago Spoofing GPS is surprisingly easy detecting it is surprisingly hard spectrum.ieee.org/protecting-gps…

#5yrsago IOC bans GIFs theverge.com/2016/8/4/12379…

#1yrago Jack Dorsey's interop plan pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/att…

#1yrago Google acquires major stake in ADT pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/att…

9/

@washingtonpost

My latest novel is Attack Surface, a sequel to my bestselling Little Brother books. @washingtonpost called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance."

Get signed books from @darkdel: darkdel.com/store/p1840/Av…

10/

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1422600939236585473

Yesterday's threads: Elite debt hits record heights; and more!

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1422600939236585473

11/

My book "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" is a critique of Big Tech connecting conspiratorial thinking to the rise of tech monopolies (proposing a way to deal with both) is now out in paperback:

onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy…

Signed copies here:
darkdel.com/store/p2024/Av…

12/

@torbooks

My ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @mcsweeneys, and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

craphound.com/shop/

13/

@Defcon

Upcoming appearances:

* Privacy Without Monopoly, @Defcon 29, Aug 7
defcon.org/html/defcon-29…

* Keynote speaker, The Quills Conference, Aug 12-15
quillsconference.com

* Launch for @ben_rosenbaum's The Unraveling, Aug 23 (@Booksoup)
booksoup.com/event/benjamin…

14/

@moneyontheleft

Recent appearances:

* Building the Digital Commons (@moneyontheleft)
moneyontheleft.org/2021/08/01/bui…

* Reset the Internet? (Project Syndicate)
project-syndicate.org/podcasts/reset…

* Trustbusting (@NicoleSandler)

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@MCRockefeller

My first picture book is out! It's called Poesy the Monster Slayer and it's an epic tale of bedtime-refusal, toy-hacking and monster-hunting, illustrated by Matt @MCRockefeller. It's the monster book I dreamt of reading to my own daughter.

pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poe…

16/

You can also follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: pluralistic.net/2021/08/04/eig…

17/

@Medium

If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

18/

@Medium

My latest @Medium column is "Managing aggregate demand," part three of a series on themepark design, queing theory, immersive entertainment, and load-balancing.

doctorow.medium.com/managing-aggre…

19/

If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is also ad- and tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🐈". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

Subscribe here: pluralistic.net/plura-list

20/

Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? Follow these threads on the #fediverse at @pluralistic@mamot.fr.

Here's today's edition: mamot.fr/@pluralistic/1…

eof/

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More from @doctorow

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

5 Aug

Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Meet the new generation of pro-abortion activists; Anti-vaxers cool the mark; Drone delivery crashes; Facebook escalates war on accountability; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/08/05/com…

#Pluralistic

1/

I'm giving the keynote for the (free) virtual track at Defcon 29 (Aug 5-8): "Privacy Without Monopoly: Paternalism Works Well, But Fails Badly."

defcon.org/html/defcon-29…

It's based on the white paper Bennett Cyphers and I co-wrote for EFF:

eff.org/wp/interoperab…

2/

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1423324705616842758

Meet the new generation of pro-abortion activists: No more Mx Nice Intersectionalist.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1423324705616842758

Read 23 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

5 Aug

Facebook just escalated its war on NYU's #AdObserver project, a project that monitors and discloses Facebook's failure to live up to its promise to block paid disinformation.

1/

Here's how that works. Facebook users volunteer to download and install Ad Observer, a browser plugin. This plugin scrapes the ads Facebook shows that user. They are cleaned of any personally identifying information and uploaded to the #AdObservatory.

2/

The Observatory is an archive that accountability journalists and researchers can mine to see whether FB is keeping its promises to label political ads and block paid disinformation. It's proof that FB does NOT live up to these promises.

pluralistic.net/2020/11/20/sov…

3/

Read 18 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

5 Aug

When Amazon announced "Prime Air," a forthcoming drone delivery service, in 2016, there was a curious willingness on the part of the press - even the tech press - to take the promise of a sky full of delivery drones at face value.

1/

This despite the obvious problems with such a scheme: the consequences of midair collisions, short battery life, overhead congestion, regulatory hurdles and more. Also despite the fact that delivery drones, like jetpacks, are really only practical as sfx in an sf movie.

2/

@WiredUK

Now, Amazon has laid off more than 100 Prime Air employees. Departing workers told @WiredUK that the division is "collapsing inwards," "dysfunctional," "organised chaos." They called management "detached from reality."

wired.co.uk/article/amazon…

3/

Read 13 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

5 Aug

I often write about the material conditions that make people vulnerable to conspiratorial thinking, especially covid-denial, anti-masking, and vaccine refusal.

pluralistic.net/2021/08/04/eig…

1/

Specifically, I think it's important to go beyond the mystical explanations of "algorithmic radicalization" that assume that ad-tech companies are telling the truth when they claim that big data and machine learning can make people do anything.

onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy…

2/

The fact that regulators let the Sacklers tell obvious lies about opioid safety so that they could make $10+b pushing Oxy, igniting the opioid epidemic that has killed 800,000 Americans is a GOOD reason not to trust "the system."

3/

Read 23 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

5 Aug

With Roe v Wade likely headed to the US Supreme Court and a woman's right to a safe and legal abortion under grave threat, a new generation of pro-abortion activists are rising up.

1/

@ameliajpollard

As @ameliajpollard writes for @TheProspect, this new wave is militant, organized and unapologetic - rather than engaging in petty framing wars about being "pro-choice" or "pro-life," they call themselves "pro-abortion."

prospect.org/justice/the-ne…

2/

They link the right to safe, legal abortion on demand to wider struggles for gender equity, trans inclusion, and, especially, comprehensive sex education and access to contraception as the single most effective way to reduce the number of abortions.

3/

Read 15 tweets