Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Feb 26, 2023 25 tweets 26 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Dow promised to turn sneakers into playground surfaces, then dumped them in Indonesia; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/02/26/car…

#Pluralistic 1/ A woman kneeling to tie her running shoe. She stands on a ba
Next Thu (Mar 2) I'm in #Brussels for #Antitrust, Regulation & Political Economy, with a who's-who of EU and US trustbusters. In-person and virtual attendance are free:

brusselsconference.com/registration

On Fri (Mar 3), I'll be in #Graz for @ElevateFestival:

elevate.at/diskurs/progra… 2/
Dow promised to turn sneakers into playground surfaces, then dumped them in Indonesia: Corporate "recycling" programs are just obfuscated landfills.

3/
Hey look at this

* A Christian Health Nonprofit Saddled Thousands With Debt as It Built a Family Empire Including a Pot Farm, a Bank and an Airline propublica.org/article/libert… 4/
#20yrsago Jailhouse cellphone used to command Brazillian terror campaign web.archive.org/web/2003041515…

#20yrsago Scottish accents incomprehensible to speech-to-text algorithms web.archive.org/web/2003030114… 5/
#20yrsago Google’s trademark counsel sending out dumb lawyer-letters over “to google” web.archive.org/web/2003040122…

#20yrsago Laboring mother liveblogs her daughter's birth ambiguous.org/quinn/birth/

#20yrsago 7.6 billion miles later, #Pioneer10 falls silent seattlepi.com/national/artic… 6/
#20yrsago Suicide hotline operator finds work counselling data-loss victims sfgate.com/business/artic…

#20yrsago ThreeDegress: Microsoft's #DRM for Kids is unbelievably terrible web.archive.org/web/2003030714… 7/
#15yrsago Apple TV DRM makes iTunes rentals incompatible with many TVs tidbits.com/2008/02/20/drm…

#15yrsago Life and times of a #ConsumerReports secret shopper wired.com/2008/02/ps-con…

#15yrsago New typography term: #Keming (improper kerning) ironicsans.com/2008/02/idea_a… 8/
#15yrsago Complaining about companies is part of the market web.archive.org/web/2008021206…

#10yrsago Rage is Back: graffiti crews save NYC from its lurking demons memex.craphound.com/2013/02/25/rag… 9/
#5yrsago #KochBrothers publish letter crowing about all the ways Trump spent the year carrying water for them theintercept.com/2018/02/25/koc…

#5yrsago Stock market gains to the richest 2% of Americans in 2017 could pay for the entire nation’s social programs commondreams.org/views/2018/02/… 10/
#5yrsago Man discovers he has been impersonated on Amazon by a money-launderer selling $555 “books” full of computer-generated word salad krebsonsecurity.com/2018/02/money-… 11/
#5yrsago Lobbyists release push-poll in an effort to tank #RightToRepair bills and control independent security research securityledger.com/2018/02/new-lo…

#5yrsago Why the #VotingAge should be lowered to 16 eclectablog.com/2018/02/theres… 12/
Friday's threads: This is your brain on fraud apologetics; and more!

14/
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… 15/
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… 16/
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/ 17/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Ethics of Emerging Tech Lecture (@umanitobasci), 2/9
eventscalendar.umanitoba.ca/site/science/e…

* @SXSW #ChokepointCapitalism reading (#Austin), 2/10
schedule.sxsw.com/2023/events/PP… 19/
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/2023/02/26/car… 21/
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 "United We Stand: Creation is collective - and so is bargaining"

doctorow.medium.com/united-we-stan… 22/
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 23/
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). 24/
Today's top sources: @Slashdot (slashdot.org). 25/

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More from @doctorow

Apr 18
It's damned hard to prove an antitrust case: so often, the prosecution has to prove that the company *intended* to crush competition, and/or that they raised prices or reduced quality because they knew they didn't have to fear competitors.

1/ A naked, sexless pull-string talking doll with a speaker grille set into its chest. It has the head of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar, and a pull string extending from its back. A hand - again, from a Zuckerberg metaverse avatar - is pulling back the string. The doll towers over a courtroom.
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/2025/04/18/cha…

2/
It's a lot easier to prove *what* a corporation did than it is to prove *why* they did it. What am I, a mind-reader? But imagine for a second that the corporation in the dock is a global multinational.

3/
Read 64 tweets
Apr 15
A lawsuit filed in February accuses Tesla of remotely altering odometer values on failure-prone cars, in a bid to push these lemons beyond the 50,000 mile warranty limit:



1/ thestreet.com/automotive/tes…A scene out of an 11th century tome on demon-summoning called 'Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros. Anno 1057. Noli me tangere.' It depicts a demon tormenting two unlucky would-be demon-summoners who have dug up a grave in a graveyard. One summoner is held aloft by his hair, screaming; the other screams from inside the grave he is digging up. The scene has been altered to remove the demon's prominent, urinating penis, to add in a Tesla supercharger, and a red Tesla Model S nosing into the scene.   Image: Steve Jurvetson (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/2025/04/15/mus…

2/
The suit was filed by a California driver who bought a used Tesla with 36,772 miles on it. The car's suspension kept failing, necessitating multiple servicings.

3/
Read 62 tweets
Apr 12
A jury has ordered Blue Cross of Louisiana to pay $421m to a hospital specializing in a much sought-after type of breast reconstruction, primarily for cancer survivors.

1/ A 19th century medical illustration of a topless woman whose left breast has been consumed by a tumor. She is being menaced by an engraved illustration of a looming skeleton, who raises one hand as if to strike her. Behind them is a faded and distressed Blue Cross logo.
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/2025/04/12/pre…

2/
The insurer "preapproved" surgeries for thousands of patients, but then held back 92% of the payments it owed, with CEO Steven Udvarhelyi insisting that "authorization never says we’re going to pay you":



3/documentcloud.org/documents/2588…
Read 34 tweets
Apr 11
It's been more than a decade in the making, but Facebook - or, if you prefer, Meta - is going on trial for antitrust violations, with the highest possible stakes and the worst possible evidence (for Facebook).

1/ A Gilded Age courtroom scene depicting a judge high atop the bench wagging a disapproving finger at an expensively dressed figure in the foreground. The foreground character has lost his top hat, which sits on the floor, as he roots through a breifcase on the defendant's table. The foreground figure's head has been replaced with the head of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar. The figure's right hand has been replaced with a Facebook 'thumbs up' icon. Hanging from the judge's bench like an unfurled scroll is a sheet of paper; the contents of this sheet have been replaced with the first page ...
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/2025/04/11/it-…

2/
The Big Tech On Trial blog was started to follow the Google antitrust case, the biggest antitrust case of the century, which was barely noticed by most of the press.

3/
Read 80 tweets
Apr 10
It's hard to remember now, but for more than three years under Biden, it was possible to read the headlines and feel your government was taking big, decisive action to tame the corporate behemoths that rip you off, maim you on the job, and undermine our democracy.

1/ A massive Earth Day demonstration in 1970, with a speaker in the foreground, his back to the camera, standing at a podium. The image has been modified: the speaker has been tinted green, the audience has been tinted red. Between the speaker and the audience marches a gleeful skeleton, pounding on a snare drum with drumsticks made of human femur-bones. The skeleton wears a top-hat. It is haloed in flaring light.  Image: umseas (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/snre/34605145761/  CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/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/2025/04/10/sol…

2/
Antitrust surge under Biden was remarkable: a sustained, organized, effective policy to support the interests of the majority of people against the interests of a cohort of ultra-wealthy wreckers and looters. According to political science, that surge is impossible.

3/
Read 66 tweets
Apr 2
It's not that the Republicans and the Democrats are the same...obviously. But for decades - since Clinton - the Dems have sided with neoliberal economics, just like their Republican counterparts.

1/ The ruins of the Temple of Jupiter, taken in the late 18th century, overlooking a stretch Lebanon. It has been emblazoned with the 1970s-era logo for the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Before it stands a figure taken from an early 1900s illustrated bible, depicting a Hebrew priest making an offering to the golden calf at the foot of Mt Sinai. The priest's head has been replaced with the head of Milton Friedman. The calf has been adorned with a golden top-hat and a radiating halo of white light.
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/2025/04/02/me-…

2/
So the major differences between the two related to overt discrimination, to the exclusion of the economic policies that immiserated working people, with the worst effects landing on racial minorities, women, and gender minorities.

3/
Read 78 tweets

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