Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Dec 7, 2021 30 tweets 24 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Podcasting "Give Me Slack"; A lexicon of euphemisms for "corporate crime"; IP lawyers weaponize trade secrecy to stall vaccine waivers; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/12/07/sol…

#Pluralistic

1/
I'm going overseas for work on Dec 8, which means time to order signed/personalized copies of my books from @darkdel is running out!

Attack Surface:
darkdel.com/store/p1840/Co…

Little Brother/Homeland:
darkdel.com/store/p1750/Co…

2/
How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism:
darkdel.com/store/p2024/Co…

Poesy the Monster Slayer:
darkdel.com/store/p1562/_P…

3/
Podcasting "Give Me Slack": On the parenting challenges of an era without second chances.



4/
A lexicon of euphemisms for "corporate crime": Compliance, risk, white collar crime...



5/
IP lawyers weaponize trade secrecy to stall vaccine waivers: But Karan Menon has their number.



6/
#20yrsago Busting the WSJ’s FUD on open 802.11 networks web.archive.org/web/2002011122…

#20yrsago The post-PC interface web.archive.org/web/2002011816…

#20yrsago Chris Raettig on KPMG's linking legal threats web.archive.org/web/2002020714…

7/
#15yrsago Canada’s documentaries lost to copyright web.archive.org/web/2006120900…

#10yrsago Business Software Alliance fractures over SOPA support cnet.com/news/kaspersky…

8/
#10yrsago Planesrunner: Ian McDonald’s YA debut is full of action-packed multidimensional cool, airships, electropunk and quantum physics memex.craphound.com/2011/12/06/pla…

#10yrsago Petition to get a pardon for Turing’s “gross indecency” conviction web.archive.org/web/2012011018…

9/
#10yrsago Derek Kirk Kim’s Same Difference: slacker Korean-American kids come of age in the Bay Area memex.craphound.com/2011/12/07/der…

10/
#10yrsago On Jan 1, awesome stuff will enter the public domain: HG Wells, Gertrude Stein, Buster Keaton, Walt Disney, Lenny Bruce (but not in the USA) publicdomainreview.org/collection/cla…

#10yrsago AT&T is the worst carrier in America. Again. ibtimes.com/verizon-wirele…

11/
#5yrsago Mr Robot has driven a stake through the Hollywood hacker, and not a moment too soon technologyreview.com/2016/12/07/155…

#5yrsago Learning about the internal culture of the NSA from 262 leaked articles from its internal employee newsletter theintercept.com/2016/12/07/dro…

12/
#5yrsago The kickstarted Pebble smartwatch is now a division of Fitbit, so they may “reduce functionality” on all the watches they ever sold kickstarter.com/projects/59750…

13/
#5yrsago For two years, criminals stole sensitive information using malware hidden in individual pixels of ad banners welivesecurity.com/2016/12/06/rea…

#5yrsago Italy’s referendum: a vote against neoliberalism and authoritarianism jacobinmag.com/2016/12/italy-…

14/
#5yrsago Quitting Facebook feels GREAT mathbabe.org/2016/12/06/i-q…

#5yrsago Stop calling it “Puppy-Burning” — it’s the “Alt-Warmth Movement” mcsweeneys.net/articles/why-i…

15/
#5yrsago dj BC has your Christmas mashups covered with this year’s amazing Santastic holiday music sampler djbc.net/christmash/

#1yrago China’s war on big data backstabbing pluralistic.net/2020/12/07/bac…

#1yrago The largest strike in human history pluralistic.net/2020/12/06/sur…

16/
#1yrago Ad-tech as a bubble overdue for a bursting pluralistic.net/2020/12/06/sur…
17/
Sunday's threads: When you hear "one size fits all," think "universal"; and more!



18/
My latest book is Attack Surface, a sequel to my bestselling Little Brother books, now in paperback, wherever books are sold.

Signed copies at @darkdel:

darkdel.com/store/p1840/Co…

19/
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…

20/
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/

21/
Upcoming appearances:

* @intgovforum (Warsaw), Dec 10
intgovforum.org/en/schedule/20…

22/
Recent appearances:

* Seize the Means of Computation (@SeaGL)
seagl.org/archive/2021/s…

* Redistribute the Internet (@NGIForward Summit)
vimeo.com/651018259

* NFTs (@UpstreamPodcast)
soundcloud.com/upstreampodcas…

23/
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…
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/2021/12/07/sol…
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.

My latest Medium column is "Pandemic of the Unvaccinated":

medium.com/@doctorow/pand…
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
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…
Today's top sources: @NakedCapitalism (nakedcapitalism.com).

eof/

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More from @doctorow

Oct 11
I am an environmentalist, but I'm not a climate activist. I used to be - I even used to ring strangers' doorbells on behalf of Greenpeace.

1/ A field of utility scale solar. Behind the mountains on the horizon line loom two logos: the original EFF 'clenched fist and lightning bolt' logo and the first Earth Day logo. They are reflected in the solar panels. Behind them roils hellish red-shot smoke.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/10/11/cyb…

2/
But a quarter of a century ago, I fell in with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and became a lifelong digital rights activist, and switched to cheering on environmental activists from the sidelines of their fight:



3/eff.org
Read 53 tweets
Sep 27
Like you, I'm sick to the back teeth of talking about AI. Like you, I keep getting dragged into AI discussions. Unlike you‡, I spent the summer writing a book on why I'm sick of AI⹋, which @fsgbooks will publish in 2026.

‡probably

⹋"The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI"

1/ A Zimbabwean one hundred trillion dollar bill; the bill's iconography have been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' and a stylized, engraving-style portrait of Sam Altman.  Image: TechCrunch https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sam_Altman_-_TechCrunch_Disrupt_SF_2017_(36522988343).jpg  CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en  --  Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/eco…

2/
A week ago, I turned that book into a speech, which I delivered as the annual Nordlander Memorial Lecture at Cornell, where I'm an AD White Professor-at-Large.

3/
Read 52 tweets
Sep 24
Billionaires don't think we're real. How could they? How could you inflict the vast misery that generates billions while still feeling even a twinge of empathy for the sufferer in your extractive enterprise. No wonder Elon Musk calls us "NPCs":



1/ pluralistic.net/2025/08/18/see…  An oil painting of a French king atop a throne, draped in sumptuous robes. His head has been replaced with a screaming, toothless man wearing a top-hat. Over his shoulder looms the hostile red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.'  Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/09/24/rob…

2/
Ever notice how people get palpably stupider as they gain riches and power? Musk went from a cringe doofus to a world-class credulous dolt, and it seems like he loses five IQ points for every $10b that's added to his net worth.

3/
Read 26 tweets
Sep 23
I'm only a few chapters into Bill McKibben's stupendous new book *Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization* and I already know it's going to change my outlook forever:



1/ billmckibben.com/books/here-com…A rooftop solar installation. Behind the roof rages a blazing forest fire. Reflected in the solar panels is the poop emoji from the cover of my book 'Enshittification,' which has angry eyebrows and a black, grawlix-filled bar across its mouth."    Image: Bastique (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_Panels_on_Church_Roof_full.jpg  CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/09/23/our…

2/
McKibben is one of our preeminent climate writers and activists, noteworthy for his informed and brilliant explanations of the technical limits - and possibilities - of various climate interventions, and for his lifelong organizing work.

3/
Read 80 tweets
Sep 22
One of the dumbest, shrewdest tricks corporate America ever pulled was teaching us all to reflexively say, "If a corporation blocks your speech, that doesn't violate the First Amendment and therefore it's not censorship":



1/ pluralistic.net/2022/12/04/yes…Two figures in royal robes seated back to back atop a pile of gold bars. One wears a tophat, the other, a crown in the form of a gilded crown. A forest of angled broadcast towers sits behind them. The sky is overshadowed by thunderheads.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/09/22/one…

2/
Censorship isn't limited to government action: it's the act of preventing a message from a willing speaker from reaching a willing listener. The fact that it's censorship doesn't (necessarily) mean that it's illegitimate or bad.

3/
Read 62 tweets
Sep 17
Conspiratorialism is downstream of the trauma of institutional failures.

Insitutional failures are downstream of regulatory capture.

Regulatory capture is downstream of monopolization.

Monopolization is downstream of the failure to enforce antitrust law.

1/ A four-doll matrioshke, unpacked and arranged 2x2. In order, the dolls' faces have been replaced with: the Qanon logo; an Oxycontin pill, the face of Robert Bork, and Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar.  Image: Vicent Ibáñez (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nina_Rusa._Mu%C3%B1eca_Rusa.JPG  CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en  --  RootOfAllLight (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon.png  CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/09/17/cau…

2/
Start with conspiratorialism and trauma. I am staunchly pro-vaccine. I have had so many covid jabs that I glow in the dark and can get impeccable 5g reception at the bottom of a coal-mine.

Nevertheless.

3/
Read 57 tweets

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