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Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
@doctorow
Jan 30, 2023 • 39 tweets • 40 min read • Read on X
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Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: The real scandal is overclassification; The Australian Chokepoint Capitalism Tour; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/01/30/i-c…

#Pluralistic 1/ Image
The real scandal is overclassification: I'd explain it, but I'd have to kill you.

2/ Image
The Australian Chokepoint Capitalism Tour: Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra (twice!).

3/ Image
Hey look at this

* Exaggerating China’s military spend, Fed breaks all statistical rules with misleading graph geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/23/chi…

* The Cause of Stagflation economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/01/26/the…

* D&D Scraps Plans to Update Its Open Game License gizmodo.com/dungeons-drago… 4/ Image
#20yrsago Feral hippos haunt druglord’s estate web.archive.org/web/2003021020…

#20yrsago McDonald’s can award A-levels in UK news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e…

#20yrsago Category Management: retail trendiness or criminal anti-trust? web.archive.org/web/2003020705… 5/ Image
#20yrsago Finnish recording industry demands royalties for kindergarten singing web.archive.org/web/2003020718…

#15yrsago Tipping-point skeptic says that super-Influencers are overrated fastcompany.com/641124/tipping… 6/ Image
#15yrsago @sfwa European Hall of Fame: a chance to read sf from outside of the Anglo Bubble memex.craphound.com/2008/01/28/sfw…

#15yrsago #Romanian #manga — manga meets Metal Hurlant meets Marvel forbes.com/2008/01/09/rom… 7/ Image
#15yrsago Good As Lily — ass-kicking girl-positive graphic novel for young readers memex.craphound.com/2008/01/30/goo…

#10yrsago Guy makes a game about his crappy job working for Canadian tax authority, loses his crappy job thestar.com/news/gta/2013/… 8/ Image
#10yrsago @jonathancoulton responds to Fox/Glee’s plagiarism of his song by “covering” it and making rival version available for sale web.archive.org/web/2013012203…

#10yrsago @aaronsw’s San Francisco memorial will make you stand up and salute archive.org/details/AaronS… 9/ Image
#10yrsago What the ban on unlocking phones means (worse than you think) eff.org/is-it-illegal-…

#10yrsago #WTO gives #Antigua the right to sell pirated American copyrighted goods torrentfreak.com/antiguas-legal… 10/ Image
#10yrsago American insurers charge reckless rich drivers less than safe poor drivers consumerfed.org/pdfs/PR.AutoIn…

#5yrsago What #KenThompson’s seminal (terrifying!) “#OnTrustingTrust” tells us about the #Spectre and #Meltdown bugs community.cadence.com/cadence_blogs_… 11/ Image
#5yrsago Analysis of North America’s weeds reveal the crops, trade, and cuisine of early indigenous people sciencedirect.com/science/articl… 12/ Image
#5yrsago Fitness app releases data-set that reveals the location of sensitive military bases, patrol routes, aircrew flightpaths, and individual soldiers’ jogging routes theguardian.com/world/2018/jan… 13/ Image
#5yrsago Apple’s long-awaited podcast data-transparency reveals an ad-listening audience with no clear format-preferences wired.com/story/apple-po… 14/ Image
#5yrsago Property developer caught using critic’s photo in promotional materials, demands an end to criticism as a condition of paying for the use spitalfieldslife.com/2018/01/29/a-r… 15/
#5yrsago New York Times profiles a sleazy Twitter follower-farm, the sleazy serial liar who made millions on it, and the celebs, politicians, sports figures and “influencers” who paid him nytimes.com/interactive/20… 16/ Image
#5yrsago One quarter of New Orleans’ catch-basins were clogged to uselessness with 93,000 lbs of plastic #MardiGrasBeads nola.com/news/politics/… 17/ Image
#5yrsago A 1×1 tracking pixel was used as evidence of treason against 30,000 Turks, sent tens of thousands to jail cbc.ca/news/world/ter…

#5yrsago Academic audit of HUD budget finds $351 million in unaccounted-for spending since 1998 msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/msu-… 18/ Image
#5yrsago Majority of Democrats now hold favorable views of mass-murdering simpleton George W Bush news.libertasbella.com/story/libertas… 19/ Image
#5yrsago #ScottWalker is terrified that Democrats will win special elections to fill vacant seats, so he’s leaving thousands of Wisconsinites without state reps web.archive.org/web/2018090100… 20/ Image
#5yrsago Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase announce new health insurer ‘free from profit-making incentives and constraints’ money.cnn.com/2018/01/30/new…

#5yrsago After industry adopts open video standards, #MPEG founder says the end is nigh blog.chiariglione.org/a-crisis-the-c… 21/ Image
#5yrsago Meet Hereditary Congressman #DanLipinski, an anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ Illinois “Machine Democrat” who opposes the $15 minimum wage theintercept.com/2018/01/29/dan… 22/ Image
#5yrsago Convicted criminal Silvio #Berlusconi returns to Italian politics as a kingmaker nytimes.com/2018/01/29/wor…

#5yrsago #Berlin regulates Airbnb and safely deflates its housing bubble while returning 8,000 rentals to the market dw.com/en/berlin-hous… 23/ Image
#5yrsago What #youthquake? Jeremy #Corbyn’s election surge was drawn from all age groups, not a mob of first-time young voters blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpol…

#5yrsago Inside big tech’s last-minute scramble to comply with Europe’s new privacy rules nytimes.com/2018/01/28/tec… 24/ Image
#5yrsago Starlings: razor-sharp stories and poems from @BlueJo memex.craphound.com/2018/01/30/sta…

#5yrsago The in-depth tale of #Bylock, the #Turkish messenger app whose 1×1 tracking GIF was the basis for tens of thousands of treason accusations arrestedlawyers.org/2018/01/21/eve… 25/ Image
#1yrago The battle for Ring Zero: The esoteric argument I have been having with myself since 2002 pluralistic.net/2022/01/30/rin…

#1yrago California's chance for universal health care pluralistic.net/2022/01/28/ame… 26/ Image
#1yrago The #RightToRepair: A stupendous new book on a very urgent subject pluralistic.net/2022/01/29/pla…

#1yrago No, payday lenders aren't nice guys pluralistic.net/2022/01/29/pla… 27/ Image
Friday's threads: Podcasts are hearteningly enshittification resistant; Red Team Blues excerpt; and more!

28/ Image
My latest book is Chokepoint Capitalism (with @rgibli), nonfiction about monopoly and fairness in creative labor markets.

chokepointcapitalism.com

Signed copies available from @BookSoup:

booksoup.com/book/978080700… 29/
My latest novel 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… 30/
My ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @mcsweeneys, @BeaconPressBks et al) 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/ 31/
Upcoming appearances:

* Chokepoint Capitalism: Can It Be Defeated? (@UCLLaws), 2/1
ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/20…

* Avid Reader (#Brisbane), 2/8
avidreader.com.au/pages/6834-Cho…

* Future of Arts/Culture/Tech, @ACMI, (#Melbourne), 2/14
acmi.net.au/whats-on/in-co… 32/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* @statelibrarynsw (#Sydney), 2/15
sl.nsw.gov.au/events/chokepo…

* ANU/@canberratimes Meet The Author (#Canberra), 2/16
anu.edu.au/events/in-conv…

* @Aus_Digital Copyright Forum (#Canberra), 2/17:
digital.org.au/2022/11/08/doc… 33/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* #Antitrust, Regulation & Political Economy (#Brussels), 3/2:
brusselsconference.com/registration 34/ Image
Recent appearances:

* @davidpakmanshow


* TikTok Isn’t For Creators Anymore (@Slate ICMY)
slate.com/podcasts/icymi…

* Lunch on Laotian food (Eating the Fantastic)
scottedelman.com/2023/01/27/cor… 35/
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/2023/01/30/i-c… 36/
If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these essays - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

My latest Medium column is "'Conversational' AI Is Really Bad At Conversations"

doctorow.medium.com/conversational… 37/
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 38/
Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? You can read my work elsewhere, but it is now a #TwitterCrime to tell you how. Please visit my site, pluralistic.net, for links to find me on less-unhinged places (I can only imagine that my days here are numbered). 39/

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More from @doctorow

Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Aug 20
Forget surveillance capitalism - let's talk about *surveillance infantalism*: the drive by the wealthy to spy on you in order to pursue the toddler's goals of getting everything they want from the people around them, without any reciprocal obligations.

1/ Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse avatar's head atop the body of a figure from a earth 20th century editorial cartoon; the figure wears a suit, holds a long fork, and stares into the eyepiece of a microscope. The microscope is attached to a sinister scientific apparatus. The microscope is trained on a tiny human figure, limned in red, who shouts through a megaphone back up into the microscope's lens. The background is a 1980s NASA oil painting of the red, rocky surface of Venus.
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/2025/08/20/bil…

2/
After the Snowden revelations, I started to wonder about something fundamental: why spy at all?



3/theguardian.com/technology/201…
Read 40 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Aug 18
When Elon Musk disagrees with someone, he calls them an "NPC" (non-player character). In video-games, an NPC is a machine-puppeted sprite that engages in predictable movements (e.g. Pac-Man ghosts) and utters some scripted (or AI-generated) dialog:



1/ futurism.com/elon-musk-inte…Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar, perched on a legless nude Ken doll body; its eyes are psychedelic pinwheels. Behind the figure is a group shot of child laborer miners from the 1910s, glitched out, blue tinted, and covered with scan lines. The background is a psychedelic swirl of moody colors. They stand atop a filthy checkerboard floor that stretches off to infinity.
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/2025/08/18/see…

2/
Seeing people as automata is probably a side-effect of sitting in the command-center of a big online service, in which you primarily interact with users as statistical aggregates in an analytics dashboard.

3/
Read 30 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Aug 16
When LLM users describe their experience with their chatbots, the results are so divergent that it can sound like they're describing two completely different products.

1/ A vintage photo of two men in front of a slot machine. The men's heads have been replaced by the heads of hooded figures wearing Guy Fawkes mask. The image is sepia toned: the only color is the pay-line of the slot-machine, which is showing three glaring red eyes of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The slot machine has a sign over the rotor-window that displays the Openai logo and wordmark. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en -- Frank Schwichtenberg (modified...
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/2025/08/16/jac…

2/
Previously, I've hypothesized that this is because there are two distinct groups of *users*: "centaurs" (people who are assisted by a machine - in this case, people who get to decide when, whether and how to integrate an LLM into their work)...

3/
Read 27 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Aug 13
It's not just that Texas DA Gocha Ramirez charged a woman with murder for having an abortion (not t allowed even in Texas). It's that Ramirez paid for his mistress's abortion, after he impregnated her while having an affair with her *and* her sister:



1/ archive.is/20250812192203…A red, angry mushroom cloud. Sitting atop it, surrounded by blue skies and fluffy clouds, is a smirking business-suited man reclining in an armchair. He wears a MAGA hat and reads a magazine turned to a page showing Donald Trump's face.
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/2025/08/13/the…

2/
This is perfect Magaism, as captured by Wilhoit's Law:

> Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.



3/crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/lib…
Read 52 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Jul 30
Delta's announced new surveillance pricing: they're feeding an AI your nonconsensually harvested personal info that data-brokers and credit bureaux hold to predict the maximum you're willing to pay, and then price their tickets accordingly:



1/ fortune.com/2025/07/16/del…Hieronymus Bosch's 'The Conjurer,' which depicts a sleight-of-hand artist doing a cup-and-balls routine for a group of amazed yokels. It has been altered. The head of the conjurer has been replaced with the hostile red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' He wears a Delta Airlines logo over his breast. The table on which the cup-and-balls game is playing out sports a crashed jet in Delta livery, smoke rising from the wreckage. 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/2025/07/30/eff…

2/
Data-brokers sell all kinds of data, from the "legitimate" info about everywhere your car's been, to everywhere place the Bluetooth radios on your phone and headphones has been, to everything you've bought, to every sit you've visited and every search you've performed.

3/
Read 61 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Jul 22
Ever notice how many right wing influencers are on the grift?

1/ A carny barker at a podium, gesticulating with a MAGA cap. He wears a Klan hood, and his podium features products from Nu-skin, Amway and Herbalife. Behind him is an oil-painted scene of a steamship with a Trump Tower logo, at a pier in flames.
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/2025/07/22/all…

2/
Like Alex Jones - that guy is basically Gwyneth Paltrow for conservative bros, selling the same "wellness" crap to a male audience (and not for nothing, Paltrow's victims are reliable boosters for RFK Jr's MAHA movement):



3/theweek.com/speedreads/709…
Read 66 tweets

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